Volunteers from PSP today joined residents of Ni’lin in their weekly demonstration against the apartheid wall. Around twenty protesters marched from the village to the illegal wall, and a short speech was given, denouncing the theft of Ni’lin’s land.

The Israeli military stationed in a guardtower behind the wall responded with several dozen volleys of teargas, which left some protesters suffering from teargas inhalation. One of the cannisters also set light to an area of the olive grove. Thankfully, protesters managed to extinguish the blaze.

This week’s demonstration is part of Ni’lin’s ongoing stuggle against the apartheid wall, which confiscated much of the village’s olive groves. Since 2008,the Israeli military have killed five residents of Ni’lin during unarmed demonstrations against the wall. Despite this, the village’s protests were successful in diverting the wall’s route, saving substantial areas of their land. Their struggle against the illegal apartheid wall continues to this day.

Protesters turned out in Ni’lin for the weekly protest against the Apartheid Wall. Around ten Palestinians, accompanied by 2 Israelis and 7 international activists, marked the 3rd anniversary of the death of 17 year old Ni’lin resident Yousef Amira. Yousef was fatally injured after he was shot twice in the head by Israeli soldiers following the funeral of a 10 year old Palestinian child who had died from similar injuries.

During the protest, a speech was delivered in Arabic and English. Afterwards, some of the protesters set fire to tires and burned them at the gate of the Apartheid Wall. Stones were also thrown at and over the fence. This was followed by a bombardment of teargas from Israeli soldiers. Two protesters were treated for teargas inhalation by the Red Crescent.

Ni’lin has seen many martyrs in the past three years during its resistance to the Occupation and construction of the Apartheid Wall. Besides Yousef, 10 year old Ahmed Ussam Yousef Mousa died from from his injuries after he was left braindead by plastic-coated steel bullets shot at him by Israeli soldiers. 20 year-old Popular Committee member Mohammed Khawaje and 22 year-old Arafat Khawaje were killed at the same protest in January of 2009. Later that year, 36 year-old Akeel Srour was killed by the Israeli military at a protest. Ni’lin is also where International Solidarity Movement activist Tristan Anderson was shot in the face by the Israeli military using a high-speed teargas canister, seriously injuring him and leaving him physically and mentally handicapped.

Large crowds listened to speakers and attended workshops in the villages of Beit Ommar, Ni’lin, and Budrus. Palestinians debated the merits of the resistance and asked questions of political leaders in open forums. Workshops were given on topics ranging from the growing movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel to the growth of the occupation through settlements and the Annexation Barrier.

Noteable speakers included Maher Ghneim, the Palestinian Authority Minister of the Wall and Settlements; Aziz Dweik, the head of Hamas in the West Bank; Abed Alrahim Malouh, the head of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine; Qais Abu Layla, Vice Chairman of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine; and Sultan Abu ‘Ayneyn, leader of the Fatah Movement in Lebanon. Also featured was a phone call from Nash’at Alwahaidy in Gaza City, a leader from the Gaza popular committees.

A large number of cities, villages and towns were represented at the conference. These areas included Beit Ommar, Sourif, Arroub, Tuwani, Yatta, Jerusalem, Nablus, Hebron, Ramallah, Dura, Ni’lin, Budrus, Nabi Saleh, Ma’asara, Jabel Abu Ihlal, Beit Sahour, Sheikh Jarrah, Beit Ula, Bethlehem, Dhahriya, Deir Qaddis, Qujbya, Shuqba, Bil’in, Al Mydia, and Iraq Burin.

Created by a coalition of popular committees, the conference accomplished its intended goal of creating a program for building popular resistance to the occupation. More details will be provided with notes on all three days, all of which will be posted on this site this week.

The third day of the conference, which ended in Budrus, concluded with a demonstration against the Annexation Barrier on the village’s land. Approximately 150 people, including Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists came together in a large protest in front of the barrier. The demonstration had barely begun when the Israeli military began firing excessive amounts of tear gas at the demonstrators. The demonstrators retreated into the village. The army proceeded to fire tear gas into the village, including into a boys elementary school. At least two protesters were injured after being hit by tear gas canisters.

Budrus is known for its successful campaign against the construction of the Annexation Barrier in 2004. The barrier was originally set to divide the village and destroy thousands of olive trees. As a result of a strong and well coordinated popular resistance movement by village residents, the wall was re-routed to run along the Green Line in all but a small section, essentially saving the village over 80% of its land. It was the only village to successfully re-route the Wall solely through popular resistance, without resorting to the Israeli court system.
More details on the design and mission of the conference can be found on the following page: http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/popular-resistance-conference/

The conference begins on Saturday at 10 am in Beit Ommar, and will last until Monday afternoon.

International organizations, dignitaries and others in solidarity with the Palestinian people are invited to join us for a new kind of conferences, one where women and men, farmers, students, shop owners, laborers and professionals from across the West Bank join with veteran Palestinian activists and academics to educate and inspire each other, working towards a unified, popular non-violent strategy to resist the occupation.

This conference, unlike others held across the West Bank, is designed explicitly as a Palestinian organizing conference. Parallel workshops and activities will be organized for international participants and translation provided for key speeches but the bulk of the panels, workshops and activities will be led by Palestinians, for Palestinians, to develop a unified strategy for moving forward that is inclusive of all communities throughout Palestine: creating One Path.

Panel discussions will be held on topics critical to the future of the Palestinian people: settlements and The Wall, the Judaization of Jerusalem, and refugees as well as discussions on national positions, the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign, international solidarity, and the development of a truly national strategy of non-violent resistance.

We hope that by spreading this conference throughout the Ramallah, Hebron and Nablus Districts, and by engaging communities already participating in non-violent resistance, we will develop a concrete work program for creating a non-violent movement throughout the Palestinian communities, leading to our collective liberation.

To view the full schedule, please click here.

Contact Details:

Conference Coordinator: Younes Arar , Mobile: 0097259965272
E mail: younes.arar@center4freedom.org

www.palestinesolidarityproject.org
www.center4freedom.org

On Friday July 8, residents from the village of Ni’lin demonstrated against the Apartheid Wall. The group included around 15 Palestinians, 2 Israelis and 10 internationals. Holding signs and chanting, the group marched to the Wall and demonstrated for around an hour against the theft of their land. The protest was met by teargas and stun grenades fired by Israeli soldiers from the guard tower that overlooks the village. At one point a large fire broke out as a result of the tear gas canisters, which threatened nearby olive trees. The fire was successfully put out by residents and internationals.

The same afternoon in the neighboring village of Shuqba, around 30 demonstrators and 5 internationals marched to a rock quarry built by settlers on their land.For an hour and a half, participants, including many children, waved flags and informed guards at the quarry that they were on stolen land and that the Palestinians would not stop resisting the occuapation. The guards at the quarry responded by threatening the demonstration with their guns. Villagers also removed a long roll of barbed wire separating the village from the quarry.

The demonstration in Shuqba was the fifth in recent weeks. The quarry has occupied village land for five years, and settlers destoyed many olive trees to constuct it. In Ni’lin, the Apartheid Wall has been met with numerous demonstrations since its construction. The Israeli military has conducted many raids into the village, injuring some villagers and forcing many to serve long prison sentences.

Deir Qaddis was once part of a wide range of villages protesting the construction of the Annexation Barrier and settlement expansion in 2004.

This week, while the festive march of hundreds gathered at the entrance to Sheikh Jarrah, where they were met by dozens of police and military border police, a smaller group of the Palestinian home owners and a group of international solidarity activists protested outside the homes, within the area blocked off to the main demonstration by the police. Throughout the demonstration, settlers were free to cross the line of police, while Jewish demonstrators were arrested for stepping off the sidewalk.

In front of the evicted houses, just over a dozen settlers attempted a counter-demonstration, leading to heated confrontations that the police refused to separate, but were quickly out-numbered and out-shouted by the evicted families and their supporters, and dispersed on their own. Afterward, 5 Palestine solidarity activists were arrested.

In Nabi Saleh, the demonstration against the attempted expansion of the Halamish settlement was attended by over 100 men, women and children, as well as international and Israeli activists. A week after Ehab Barghouthi, 14, was put into a coma after he was shot in the forehead from close range with a rubber-coated steel bullet, the demonstration was as determined as ever to reach the land, which contains a spring essential to the agricultural livelihood of the village. They were again met with a barrage of tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets, and the “skunk”, a chemical spray with an overwhelming nasty smell.

In Ni’lin, Al-Ma’asara and Bil’in, the demonstrations against the construction of the Annexation Barrier on their agricultural land continued, with large contingents of Israeli and international solidarity activists. In Ni’lin, over 100 demonstrators marched towards the Barrier, which is a combination of fence and concrete wall unique to Ni’lin of all rural areas, where they were met by Israeli forces who used tear gas, and a horrible-smelling spray called “the skunk” to disperse the group.

In Jerusalem on Friday, approximately 3,000 Jews and Palestinians gathered in a soccer field near the entrance to the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah after the Israeli High Court heard a petition from the protesters who were demanding the right to gather on the street where right-wing Jewish settlers have moved into homes from which Palestinian owners have been forcefully evicted in the last year. The compromise solution from the court was to allow a smaller procession of no more than 300 demonstrators to march from the field to the entrance of Sheikh Jarrah a few hundred meters away.

Regular demonstrations were also held in Ni’lin, Bil’in and Al-Ma’asara, both against the construction of the Annexation Barrier on their agricultural land.

In Nabi Saleh, which has been demonstrating for several weeks against a move by settlers from the nearby Halamish settlement to take over a a spring and other privately-owned Palestinian agricultural land, several dozen residents, along with Israeli and international solidarity activists, again marched from the village towards the land being annexed by the right-wing settlers. They were confronted by Israeli forces, who used tear gas, sound grenades, and rubber-coated steel bullets to deter the crowd. The army then invaded the village, using a jeep-mounted tear-gas launcher that shoots 30 canisters of gas at a time, into the built-up area of the village, affecting everyone in their homes. A young man was taken to the hospital with a moderate injury when he was shot in the head with a rubber-coated bullet.

In Ni’lin, several dozen residents continued their weekly protest against the construction of the Annexation Barrier through their agricultural lands. Participants marched from the edge of the village into the olive groves, approaching the combined fence-wall. They were forced back by the Israeli military, who used large amounts of tear gas, including firing the tear gas at houses, affecting people not participating in the demonstration.

Hundreds of residents in Asira Al-Qyblia marched against land confiscation towards Ytzhar settlement, home to some of the most violent settlers in the entire Occupied Territories who have repeatedly destroyed trees belonging to Asira Al-Qyblia residents, and attacked the village and others in the surrounding Nablus District. The march was fired on by the Israeli military with tear gas and sound grenades, though no one was seriously injured.

In Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, 80 Jewish demonstrators, many dressed in costumes for the coming Purim holiday, joined over 100 Palestinians near the entrance to Sheikh Jarrah to protest the eviction of Palestinian families from their homes and the implantation of right-wing Jewish settlers. A festive demonstration, with chants, drumming, and songs, was held for over an hour as Israeli police and military border police sealed off the street to demonstrators.

Though this demonstration ended without confrontation or violence, it came in the wake of a riot Wednesday night, when dozens of settlers entered the partially occupied Al-Kurd family home to begin preparation for the celebration of Purim, a Jewish holiday held Sunday, February 28, which traditionally includes drinking large amounts of alcohol, making it one of the most dreaded Jewish holidays for Palestinians, who often come under attack by intoxicated settlers on this day.
Sure enough, the settlers in Sheikh Jarrah began attacking the Palestinian residents of the same home. Israeli soldiers arrived and attempted to restrain the crowd but were unsuccessful and soon turned on the growing Palestinian, international, and anti-occupation Jews in the crowd, clubbing and pepper spraying them. Several were injured before the Israeli police escorted the settlers out of the area. One Palestinian man was arrested early in the evening; none of the settlers were detained.

In Ni’lin this week, over 100 people joined the weekly demonstration. The village’s main entrance was closed by the Israeli military so most media did not get in, while international and Israeli activists arrived through the fields. As the Israeli forces chased the demonstration back into the village, one man from Yabroud village, was detained. No other arrests or injuries were reported.

In Al-Ma’asara, Bethelem District, over 50 residents, joined by Israeli and international activists, marched from the center of the village. One military jeep was parked further into the village, nut the demonstrators just marched around, chanting on their way to the main road and the Annexation Barrier, which is to be routed between Palestinian villages and the Gush Etzion settlement of Efrat.
The demonstration was halted at the entrance to the village, as usual, by a line of razorwire and Israeli military where speeches were then made in several languages before the demonstration peacefully returned to the village.

In Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem, after a series of weeks with multiple arrests of mostly Israeli citizens, most of which were released by the courts who admonished the Israeli police for disrupting the peaceful demonstrations, there were no arrests. Demonstrators were “allowed” to gather near the entrance to the neighborhood, while residents of Sheikh Jarrah joined them and gathered on the other side of the police barricade, which was set up to prevent supporters of the Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah from entering, while at the same time allowed “visiting” extremist right-wing settlers to enter freely.