Al-Ma’asara
Later Friday, a small group of activists from Al-Ma’asara marched towards their village lands. In a symbolic protest, one activist set fire to an Israeli flag. He then forcibly attacked and arrested by Israeli soldiers. The remaining demonstrators, Palestinians, Israelis, and Internationals, sat down in the road to protest his arrest, insisting they would not leave until he was released. The soldiers agreed to a release, providing the group would back up 15 meters. While the activists complied, the soldiers did not keep their word (surprisingly), and drove away with the organizer. Israeli soldiers also began pushing the group further back, and eventually dispersed the demonstration.

The proprietors of the land have been identified as Nahalin residents Daoud Mahmood, Jameel Mahmood, A’ali Muhammad Taha and Hasan Muhammad A’ali Salah. Although they possess documents that prove their ownership, the Israeli military has refused to recognize them and claims that the land is owned by the Israeli state.

Members of the Palestine Solidarity Project arrived at 10:30 a.m. to find dozens of uprooted grape, fig and olive trees. The bulldozer was being accompanied and protected by Israeli civilians and military personnel. In addition, military vehicles and border police blocked the main path towards the lands, leaving the horrified residents of Nahalin impotent to do anything but observe from a distance the destructive advance of the machines.

Villagers and internationals eventually approached the soldiers blocking the path to inquire about the destruction of cultivated Palestinian lands, particularly during an alleged Israeli “construction freeze” and “peace negotiations” between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority. As usual, the occupation forces immediately declared the area a “closed military zone” and proceeded to threaten and attack the activists, threatening a man with a video camera while attempting to take his footage, as well as pushing and hitting another international activist attempting to document the destruction.

Despite having to clamber down a precipitous terraced hillside to reach the site, a group of committed activists managed to seat themselves in the path of the leading bulldozer. By clinging determinedly to one another they managed to resist being dragged away into detention for upwards of an hour. They hung on even when the operator of the bulldozer put their lives at risk when he resumed excavating within a metre of them.

The exasperation of the troops at failing to remove the demonstrators found its expression in detonating sound bombs and throwing teargas canisters amongst the assembled journalists and photographers. Nevertheless, the most determined of them managed to hang in and record the event until the last demonstrator had been arrested, handcuffed and carried to the waiting police vehicle.

The six activists- all Israeli nationals- who were arrested were released the same day. The final act of violence by the Israeli Occupation Force was to enter the village and teargas a group of Palestinian children who had taken no part in the demonstration.

Upon reaching the road junction the protest march was met by a heavily armed contingent of Israeli Occupation Force soldiers and border police who immediately, and for no apparent reason, arrested two 16 year-old youths from the village . A day later they remain in detention. The marchers were then urged by the organisers to sit down in the road and maintain a non-violent and peaceful protest.

The commander of the Israeli troops then produced an order declaring the area a closed military zone. Almost immediately, and without warning, troops commenced to throw sound grenades amongst the assembled people, followed by successive volleys of tear gas cannisters which blanketed the area with dense clouds of choking, painful fumes. Two people were injured when hit by the cannisters. The most serious injury was sustained by Hassan Birjiyeh, a march organiser and member of the Al Ma’sara National Committee. He was taken to a hospital in Bethlehem with head and shoulder injuries which were later diagnosed as not life threatening.

Participants in the march were shocked by the level of violence and unprovoked aggression employed by the Israeli military. The French contingent (comprised mostly of middle-aged and elderly men and women) were particularly distressed to see and to experience such a disproportionate use of force. Even seasoned observers were surprised that tear gas had been used at Al Ma’asára, where protests are always peaceful and non-violent. They wonder whether this presages an increased level of repression by Israeli forces.

The peaceful demonstration was disrupted by Israeli Occupation Forces who blocked off the route with military vehicles and without any provocation threw sound bombs into the crowd as it approached. Despite these intimidating tactics the demonstrators approached the soldiers and sat down on the street in front of them while the organisers tried to reason with the IOF soldiers and Border Police. Unlike the protest yesterday in Bait Omar, organised by the National Committee of Bait Omar, press crews and journalists were not assaulted.

After making a peaceful protest for over an hour the demonstration marched back to the town square.

The next day, February 14, 2010, members of Palestine Solidarity Project and The Center for Freedom and Justice of Beit Ommar joined volunteers with the Beit Sahour YMCA to plant 400 trees on the lands of the Bregieth and Abu Ayyesh Families of Beit Ommar, along with the land of Diyah Abdah of Betlehem all near the Israeli settlement of Mijdal Oz, on the eastern side of Route 60. This land has been encroached upon by the expansion of Mijdal Oz and Kfar Etzion in the last two years and has been almost totally inaccessable to the Palestinian land owners because of its location between settlements and its proximity to a large highway, route 60. Dozens of international volunteers came out to help with the planting, which is the first to be done in this area.

This Friday, January 22, demonstrations were again held against land confiscation, the Annexation Barrier, and the expulsion of Palestinians from East Jerusalem for the settlement of right-wing Jewish settlers.

In Al-Ma’asara, Bethlehem District, approximately 70 Palestinians, Internationals and Israelis marched from the center of town towards the barrier set up by the Israeli military. Tensions were high as a larger-than-usual presence of Israeli soldiers and border police lined the route of the march on the roofs of buildings. The demonstration included the imposed Palestinian government’s minister of agriculture who participated in a symbolic tree-planting near the entrance of the village. Speeches were made in Arabic and Hebrew and the demonstration left peacefully. Not satisfied with the lack of confrontation, the Israeli soldiers followed demonstrators into the village. One man was followed into a shop where he was arrested by the soldiers as he bought chicken. He was released later in the evening.

In Nabi Saleh, Ramallah District, Israeli soldiers invaded the village before the demonstration officially began, arresting 6 Palestinian residents, 3 men and 3 women. The demonstration was held as planned, protesting the recent attempted confiscation of agricultural land by the nearby Halamish settlement.

In Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem, a group of 350 Israelis and Palestinians gathered in a park near the street where several houses have been taken over by a right-wing Jewish settler organization beginning last summer. For the past several weeks, dozens of Jewish Israeli activists have been arrested during the demonstrations, which were beginning with a permitted march from the center of West Jerusalem to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. This week, the Israeli police refused to issue a permit for the march so organizers decided to begin closer to the occupied street, which, as usual, was cut off by Israeli police. During the demonstration, as participants marched towards the occupied street, Israeli police began arresting participants. 22 people were arrested in all. During the protest, the Israeli police were allowing settlers to gather inside their barricades on the occupied street, where they began attacking Palestinian residents. 2 Palestinians were reportedly hospitalized after assaults by Jewish Israeli settlers. Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah who participated in the demonstration were also arrested after they arrived at their homes. Recent updates from Israeli organizers suggest that at least some of the 22 demonstrators are being charged, and that the Israeli prosecution has requested that 6 be held for the duration of the legal proceedings, a process that is often used against Palestinians during legal procedures but is exceedingly rare against Jewish Israelis.

Israeli Soldiers Stop Demonstrators in Al-Ma'asara

The demonstration continued as planned on Friday, though it was smaller than usual. The group marched towards the entrance of the village, where the Israeli military had, as usual, blocked the road and had additionally set up soldiers on the roofs of nearby buildings, surrounding the demonstration and creating a heightened sense of tension. With all of that, the demonstration continued as usual and ended peacefully.

In Ni’lin, 4 more people, including two members of the organizing committee were arrested over night. A hearing for the 2 members arrested last week will be held later this week. They are reportedly being charged with “incitement”, a charge with potentially heavy consequences being used against many leaders of demonstrations against the Wall.

In Bil’in, live ammunition was reportedly used to disperse the demonstrations. Though most of the activists arrested in Bil’in have been released, 2 still remain in jail, facing trial.

On Friday the Israeli military rang in the New Year in Al-Ma’asara by using more force than it has in the past two years of demonstrations to disperse a larger-than-usual crowd of demonstrators. After warning members of the Popular Committee of Al-Ma’asara that they would be arrested if the demonstrations continued in 2010, the soldiers at this week’s demonstration appeared more tense. The march, which contained more than 100 people from the Betlehem District, was dedicated to the 45th year anniversary of the Fateh movement.

Accompanied by a mobile sound system playing songs referring to the Palestinian liberation struggle, the demonstrators marched towards the line of Israeli soldiers who had, as usual, placed fencing across the main road, preventing the marchers from accessing the site of the Wall or their agricultural land.
A small contingent of women, all mothers of imprisoned residents of the Betlehem District, led the crowd in chants for Palestinian freedom. Local children began pulling on the fencing, but were pushed back by a small group of soldiers who actually walked over the fence and into the crowd, but were soon turned back to “their side” by the jeers of the crowd. Not satisfied with the usual peaceful ending of the demonstrations, this Friday, for the first time in literally years of demonstrations in Al-Ma’asara, the soldiers began loading tear gas into the guns. As the demonstrators ran back into the village, the soldiers fired the gas into the village. They then returned to their jeeps, and 4-5 jeeps rushed into the village. Soldiers emerged from the jeeps and continued to fire tear gas at the demonstrators as they retreated into the village.