Palestine Solidarity Project » Anarchists Against the Wall

1 Arrested, 3 Injured in Beit Ommar International Court of Justice Demonstration

PSP — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 18:42:57 +0000

On Saturday, July 10, approximately 50 Palestinian, international and Israeli activists marched towards the fence of the Karmei Tsur settlement for their weekly demonstration against the illegal settlements and the continued confiscation of Palestinian land through settlement expansion and the Annexation Barrier. This week, the participants planned to hold their own session of the International Court of Justice, in honor of the 6 year anniversary of the ICJ court decision that declared the Annexation Wall illegal. The group approached the settlement and began reading statements as witnesses and the prosecution, condemning the confiscation of land, demanding reparations for land and lives lost, as well as injuries to internationals during peaceful protest, and an end to the construction of illegal structures of the Occupation. Almost immediately, however, the Israeli soldiers present, who were waiting for the group outside the fence, announced that the area was a closed military zone and the demonstration had two minutes to disperse. Local residents insisted on their right to remain on their privately-owned land undisturbed. When one Israeli activist attempted to argue with the soldiers, he was arrested. He was then blindfolded and held in a jeep on location before being taken to Kiryat Arba settlement and police station; he was released later in the day.
The military then violently attacked the crowd, pushing them back towards the Palestinian homes of Beit Ommar and throwing sound grenades and tear gas canisters. Sound grenades were thrown deliberately so that they would explode very close to participants, resulting in the head injuries of a twelve year-old boy and a journalist as well as another teenage boy. An ambulance and medic team treated all three on the spot.

Palestinians breach wall near Tulkarem

PSP — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:48:37 +0000

From Ma’an News Agency

At least six demonstrators were arrested in the northern West Bank after they breached a section of Israel’s wall on Saturday, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.

The protesters said they intended to march to lands that were left isolated behind the wall in Deir Al-Ghusun, northeast of Tulkarem, and managed to break open one of the barrier’s gates before Israeli soldiers invaded the village.

One demonstrator was lightly injured after being struck with a rubber-coated bullet in the leg, onlookers said.

“Today’s demonstration was the opening salvo for a public campaign by the Deir Al-Ghusun municipality and the affected farmers,” said Anarchists Against the Wall, an Israeli group, in a statement. “As the demonstration was coming to an end, a large group of soldiers surprised a group of the protesters by closing in on them from the direction of the village, and arrested 18 of the village’s youth.”

A spokeswoman for Israel’s army said soldiers and military police units responded to a riot, using non-lethal means, northeast of Tulkarem, and that six were detained for damaging the barrier.

Jonathan Pollak, one of the group’s founders, told Ma’an that 18 demonstrators were originally detained, but added he was looking into the possibility that some were later released.

The wall in the area of the village cuts deep into West Bank land, leaving about 2,500 dunams (620 acres) of the village’s land on its west side, affecting 120 land owners, including dozens who have never received permits to tend to their farmland. Elsewhere, the barrier snakes through the interior of the West Bank, looping around Israeli settlements and fragmenting Palestinian communities.

Marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Palestinian demonstrators breached the wall near Ramallah on Monday. Last Friday, protesters in the village of Ni’lin also managed to tear down a section.

In an advisory opinion issued in July 2004, the International Court of Justice in the Hague declared the path of Israel’s wall in the West Bank illegal in its entirety, and ordered its removal.

Ni’lin Pulls Down Wall for Second Time Near Anniversary of Fall of Berlin Wall

PSP — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:31:15 +0000

On Friday, the residents of Ni’lin once again dismantled a section of the concrete wall constructed on their land by the Israeli military. Though Erroneously reported by some organizations as the first time this has happened, the residents of Ni’lin had also torn down the wall in September.
This week’s demonstration and dismantling held special importance for Palestinians, as it coincided with the 20th anniversary of the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The Annexation Wall in Palestine, which is approximately 70% complete and is being built mostly on privately-owned Palestinian agricultural land throughout the West Bank by the Israeli military is, in some places, made up of the same 3 meter-high concrete blocks that were used to separate Germany for decades.

Sections of the barrier in occupied Palestine, of which over 80% is made up of a series of fences, have been dismantled by Palestinians and solidarity activists since 2003. In 2007, activists including people working with the Palestine Solidarity Project, dismantled large sections of the fence in the Hebron district.

After Harassment on Tuesday, Farmers, Activists Successfully Harvest in Saffa

PSP — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:18:04 +0000

On Tuesday, October 20, a small group of Israeli and international activists from Anarchists Against the Wall, Rabbis for Human Rights, and PSP, joined Abu Jabber Soleiby and his family to again harvest his few olive trees. The Abu Jabber and Hamad Soleiby families have not been allowed to work freely on their land without either Israeli settler attacks and/or Israeli military intervention, since March of this year. PSP, along with Israeli activists, have had an on-going campaign that has lasted over 5 months, accompanying the farmers to their land which lies in a valley in the Saffa area of Beit Ommar, just below the extreme right-wing Israeli settlement, Bat ‘Ayn. With the beginning of the national olive harvest, the Soleiby brothers have asked for support from solidarity activists in accessing their land freely and without fear of settler attack. On Tuesday, after the group had managed to pick olives for about half an hour, Israeli civilian police stationed in the nearby settlement Kfar Etzion, arrived and told the group that the Israelis and internationals would have to leave. They also attempted to intimidate the group by demanding to see all of the participants’ ID cards (including the farmers and Palestinian activists), copying down their identification information. After a short deliberation, the entire group decided to leave; the Palestinian farmers fearing that, like other times in the recent past, once the solidarity activists were out of sight the police would leave and settlers would be allowed to attack them.

On Thursday, October 22, a larger group of approximately 25 international and Israeli solidarity activists, including volunteers from the YMCA, and a large representation of local media, accompanied the farmers again to their land. Though Israeli soldiers confronted the group early in the day, they were allowed to pick for over 2 hours without incident, demonstrating the effectiveness of the accompaniment program, when combined with pressure from local farmers to access their land freely as they choose. The organizations involved, particularly PSP, will continue the program in Saffa throughout the fall and winter, when they will replant the hundreds of trees destroyed by settlers over the last 6 months.

Farmers Denied Access to Land in Saffa, Yet Again

PSP — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 15:51:20 +0000

This Saturday, October 3, international and Israeli activists, along with PSP committee members, attempted to accompany Abu Jabber Soleiby and his family to his land in the Wad Arish valley, in the Saffa district of Beit Ommar. Since the completion of Ramadan and the Muslim holidays, the farmers wished to again tend to their land, in preparation for some repair work that they intend to begin, with the support of PSP and Israeli solidarity activists, this month. Instead, the Israeli military, with an unusual show of force even for the often-brutalized Beit Ommar, prevented farmers and activists alike from accessing the valley. The soldiers, who were even more aggressive and tense this week, supposedly in anticipation for unrest throughout the Palestinian Territories in response to the violent repression of demonstrations over right-wing Israeli access to Muslim sites in Jerusalem, blocked both the entrance to Beit Ommar and the entrance to the Saffa section of town. One carload of activists managed to evade the soldiers and get into Saffa, but were stopped by yet another group of Israeli military personnel at the entrance to the valley. They were informed that the area was a closed military zone, a quasi-legal maneuver that has been used in the Wad Arish valley for 6 months to deny Palestinian land-owners access to their fields, while at the same time doing nothing to prevent massive property destruction by the right-wing Israeli settlers living in the nearby illegal colony Bat Ain.
For more than 3 hours on Saturday, activists attempted to negotiate with the military, and were then detained while their ID’s were ‘checked’. A vehicle carrying international and Israeli activists was then escorted throughout the entire village to the main highway, ensuring that it left Beit Ommar.

PSP Supports Kobi Snitz, an Israeli Activist Beginning Short Prison Term for Anti-Occupation Activity

PSP — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:30:01 +0000

Kobi Snitz, a long-time activist with the Israeli group Anarchists Against the Wall, and a personal friend of PSP, begins a 20 day prison term for an arrest in 2004 in which he tried to prevent a home demolition in the Palestinian village of Kharbatha, in the Ramallah District. He is the first Israeli activist to be tried, convicted, and forced to serve time for demonstrating in the Occupied Territories. His statement (from yesterday) is below:

‘Tomorrow I will start a 20 day prison term. It is a result of an attempt to prevent a house demolition in kharbatha. As you probably know 20 days is nothing compared to the time many Palestinian teenagers have to do. Unlike them, I did not have to do this. I refused to pay a fine and was therefore sent to jail.

throughout the long trial I had other opportunities to avoid prison but could not bring myself to admit guilt in any way or accept the sentence given me. I and the others who were arrested with me are guilty of nothing except not doing more to oppose the truly criminal policies of the state. To be forced to say otherwise is as demeaning as it is untrue. Compared to it 20 days in jail are a small price to pay.

The legal team headed by Gaby [Lasky] has been excellent as always and thanks also to Nir and Alon from Bimkom who supplied information about planning policies and regulations.’

no pasaran!