Archive for the 'Direct Action' Category
PNN: Jerusalem Sits in Solidarity with Gaza
February 24th, 2008Jerusalem / PNN – Yesterday throngs of people held a sit-in at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in East Jerusalem’s Old City. The occasion was a day of solidarity with the people of Gaza, under intense siege by the Israeli government and its forces.
Bishop Attallah Hanna, the Archbishop of the Roman Orthodox Church, began with a prayer “in support of our people,” and “to lift the siege on our people in the Gaza Strip.”
Jerusalem itself is under heavy siege by the Israeli government and its forces which are creating new facts on the ground in contravention to international law and the United Nations, including settlement building and expansion, Wall construction which is cutting off the city from the rest of the West Bank and its own inhabitants from one another, home demolitions, land confiscation and ethnic cleansing.
Bishop Hanna said, “We in Jerusalem stand by our people in Gaza and call for the lifting of the unjust embargo against our people there in solidarity with Gaza. Today and always Jerusalem and Gaza are together with the blessed holy Jerusalem defended by our sanctities. We feel complete solidarity with Gaza which is suffering from tragic, harsh and difficult circumstances: the ongoing siege of Gaza and the continuous targeting of stone and humans and the trees.”
Activists Block Settler Road With Parts of a Settlement Fence
January 12th, 2008
Friday, January 11, PSP Palestinian and international activists joined by Israeli activists took razor wire from the fence surrounding the Karmi Tsur settlement and used it to block settler traffic on a street connecting the Etzion settlement bloc to Israel, near the Palestinian villages of Surif and Al-Jab’a. The action was to protest the continued presence of an Israeli military roadblock on the Palestinian road between Surif and Al-Jab’a. Israeli settler drivers for a short time were subjected to the same restriction on movement that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians face each and every day.
Activists set up orange cones on the road so that oncoming traffic would have plenty of notice before coming upon the razor wire fencing that was stretched across the street and locked to either side. At least 2 cars and one Israeli settlement bus were stopped by the temporary roadblock. A sign similar to those found on the Annexation Barrier declaring that approaching the fence was forbidden, was placed on the fencing. After closing the road, activists left the area before the Israeli Army arrived.
Al-Qasa Demonstrates Against Expulsions
November 11th, 2007
On Saturday Israeli and international activists joined some residents of the Al-Qasa region, just outside Idhna, in the Hebron District, to demonstrate against their recent expulsion from their homes after over 50 years of residency. 264 refugees from 1948 lived in caves, small homes, and tents in the Al-Qasa area until two weeks ago, when the Israeli military forced them from their homes and destroyed most of them. The reason? Al-Qasa is in “the seam zone”, the ‘no man’s land’ created where the Israeli government refused to build the Annexation Barrier on the Green Line and instead built it further into Palestinian land. Thousands of Palestinians up and down the West Bank are caught between the Green Line, which is considered the ‘border’ with Israel, and the Annexation Barrier, cutting them off from Palestine and Israel.
Activists Open 10 Year-Old Roadblock, Again
November 4th, 2007
The roadblock between Surif and Al-Jab’a has been there for at least 10 years, well before the second intifada broke out in late 2000. It prevents the nearly 1000 residents of Al-Jab’a from accessing essential resources in Surif such as secondary schools, shops, and medical care. The roadblock also forces the over 30,000 Palestinians in Beit Ommar and Surif areas to use the entrance to Beit Ommar, which is controlled by the Israeli Occupation Forces with an enormous watchtower and gate, to access the cities of Hebron or Betlehem, where the only regional hospitals, universities, and major marketplaces are located. Saturday, Israeli and international solidarity activists from the Palestine Solidarity Project joined Palestinians from Beit Ommar, Surif, Al-Jab’a, and Hebron as they moved the massive interlocking cement blocks and boulders, opening a space for Palestinian vehicles to pass through. PSP has organized actions at this roadblock a number of times in the past year, in defiance of the IOF’s attempts to control Palestinian freedom of movement.
When the activists approached the roadblock, the negative impact on the local farmers’ livelihoods was immediately apparent. Farmers from Al-Jab’a were passing their recently-harvested olives over the roadblock from a truck to family members on the other side, where the sacks were piled up as the driver then began the 45 minute drive through the Gush Etzion settlements, around to Beit Ommar, and back through Surif to the other side of the roadblock to pick them up and transport them on to the markets in Hebron and beyond. After helping the farmers move the olives, activists got to work on the roadblock.
Traffic Blocked on Israeli-Only Road
October 25th, 2007This morning just in time for rush hour traffic, Palestinian, international, and Israeli activists, including people from Anarchists Against the Wall and Palestine Solidarity Project marched onto the Jerusalem-bound side of Road 443 in the Occupied West Bank and stopped traffic.
For several years Road 443, which leads through the heart of the West Bank, has been designated “restricted”, meaning Palestinians are forbidden from using it. The demonstration was intended to highlight the illegality and immorality of Israel’s apartheid system of restricting access to roads based on nationality. Over 30 Palestinian, Israeli, and international demonstrators, some of whom were locked to a large metal road gate, marched across the street and sat down, blocking traffic for nearly 15 minutes. Protesters carried signs in English in Hebrew calling for an end to the Occupation of Palestine and reminding drivers that Israel is the only apartheid state in the Middle East. Traffic was backed up for about half a kilometer. Drivers were given letters in Hebrew explaining that the purpose of the demonstration was to bring attention to the Israeli policy of apartheid road systems, including the major road they were traveling on at the moment. It also reminded the drivers that though they faced a small inconvenience this morning, it is incomparable to the devastating effects this apartheid system, which includes Israeli-only roads, roadblocks, and checkpoints, has on the local Palestinian population.
Roadblock Removed in Al-Walaja
September 22nd, 2007
This Friday, September 21, Palestinians from the village of AL-Walaja were accompanied by international and Israeli activists as they stepped up their campaign against the confiscation of their land and the construction of the Annexation Fence, which will surround their entire village. Once again, the Israeli Occupation Forces tried to prevent international and Israeli activists from participating in the demonstration, and once again they were unsuccessful. People gathered under the trees near the site where Israeli-owned Caterpillar bulldozers have been uprooting fruit and pine trees to clear the way for the Annexation Fence. After a short speech by a sheikh and leader from the women’s organization, the group marched along the path of the recently bulldozed trees and then down to the road where the Israeli Occupation Forces had blocked the road with boulders, preventing the people of AL-Walaja from moving freely around their village. With their bare hands, demonstrators moved massive boulders and cleared the road, which was immediately put into use. After the successful removal of the roadblock, demonstrators peacefully dispersed, vowing to return next week.
Activists Fence-in Karmei Tsur Settlement
September 4th, 2007Sunday, September 2, Palestinian, international, and Israeli activists, including people from PSP and Anarchists Against the Wall blocked the entrance to the Karmi Tsur settlement. Karmi Tsur is an illegal Israeli settlement built on the land of Beit Ommar and Halhul, two Palestinian villages in the Hebron district. One year ago the settlement built a new fence around it, annexing more Palestinian land. In April, 2007 activists cut open this illegal fence and this Sunday part of their own dismantled fence was used to block the entrance to the settlement.
Activists chained the section of the fence across the entrance of the settlement. A sign from the Annexation Fence nearby that read “Mortal Danger-Military Zone. Any person who passes or damages the fence endangers his life” was left on the razor wire and letters addressed to the settlers were also left around the blocked entrance. The letters were to remind the settlers that as they faced the small inconvenience of not being able to drive into or out of their village temporarily their presence as settlers on Palestinian land was forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to live behind fences, checkpoints, roadblocks, and Walls their entire lives.
Activists Return to Dhahariya to Open Road
August 20th, 2007
This Saturday, August 18, international activists joined residents of Dhahariya as they attempted to open a roadblock for a 4th time. The last time the roadblock was opened in may, 3 internationals and 2 Israelis were arrested. This time, Palestinians and internationals marched from Dhahariya to the roadblock, which cuts off 90,000 people from directly accessing Hebron, the district’s main city. When they arrived at the roadblock, demonstrators wrapped the rope around one of the blocks and started pulling together, shouting, ‘wahad, thneen, theleth’ (’one, two, three!’). Soon after they began, an Israeli Occupation Forces jeep arrived with four soldiers. One soldier began videotaping the activists and stood on the block the activists were attempting to move. Not wanting to cause any injury to the soldier, the demonstrators moved on to another boulder and attempted to move it. Several more jeeps with many more soldiers arrived who tried to stop the demonstrators by putting their feet between the rope and the boulder, knowing the demonstrators were taking care to not injure the soldiers. In a final attempt to move one of the boulders, international activists stood in a semi-circle around one of the boulders while others heaved on the rope so that the Israeli army could not interfere. Activists also began removing smaller boulders by hand, not willing to give up.
At It Again: Activists Destroy Section of Illegal Annexation Fence
August 11th, 2007Today, Palestinian, international, and Israeli activists joined together in Beit Mirsim, Hebron District, and destroyed part of the Apartheid Fence.
Beit Mirsim is a small village near the Green Line in the southern West Bank. It is the site of beautiful archaeological sites and ancient homes, and recently, it has become yet another village caged in by the illegal Annexation Barrier. 
Throughout Palestine people reject the presence of this Annexation Barrier which separates Palestinian from Palestinian, farmer from his land, student from her school, people from their families. Israeli and international activists also reject this barrier; it is not a tool for security or peace, but for land-theft, ghettoisation, and, eventually, ethnic cleansing as Palestinian people are forced to leave their homes when staying becomes economically impossible. Yet the people of Beit Mirsim and other Palestinians throughout the West Bank remain steadfast and continue to resist their imprisonment.
Activists Cut Despised Annexation Fence
July 27th, 2007Yesterday, Palestinian, international and Israeli activists, including people from PSP and Anarchists Against the Wall, cut a section out of the Annexation Fence near the village of Surif in the Hebron District.
When completed in this area, the Annexation Fence will cut the nearby Palestinian village Al-Jab’a off from Surif and the rest of the West Bank, leaving it in a ‘no man’s land’ between the Annexation Fence and the ‘Green Line’, and surrounded by settlements.
Activists, wearing reflective vests so that the IOF would have no excuse to believe we were threatening, approached the fence and sought to do as much damage to it as possible before soldiers arrived. With bolt cutters, clippers and a sledge hammer activists were able to cut a significant hole in the fence; coming and leaving without being detected. This action was a demonstration of both the illegitimacy of the Annexation Wall/Fence and the determination of the Palestinian people to not be ghettoized in their own land.
