The residents of Nabi Saleh – a town of 550 residents, located 20 kilometers north-west of Ramallah – host demonstrations every Friday to protest against the theft of their land by the Halamish settlement, a religious settlement which began stealing land in 1978. A Peace Now report stated in 2006 that one third of the settlement is built on private Palestinian land.

In 2009, in response to the theft of yet more land, the village began holding weekly demonstrations, which have become notorious for the levels of violence and repression exerted against the town by the Israeli Occupation Forces, who regularly invade the town, firing large amounts of teargas into houses.

Killed by tear gas canister

On the 9th December 2011, Mustafa Tamimi was killed after being shot by a tear gas canister fired directly at him, by soldiers standing only metres away.

Many of Nabi Saleh’s demonstrations are directed towards the Ein al-Qaws spring, which was stolen from Bashir Tamimi in 2009. Since the theft of these springs, Israeli soldiers continually prevent Palestinians from collecting water there, and those that do make it to the spring are regularly attacked by settlers.

During one invasion last year, soldiers entered the village at night, taking the name and picture of every child older than ten years old.

12 houses in Nabi Saleh have demolition orders. They are all built before 1967, but in areas defined as area C according to the Oslo Agreement.

Last Friday

The demonstrators gathered at the highest point in the village, close to the mosque, with appeals for the release of prisoners and the return of stolen land. A total of 70-80 people, among them 20 internationals, then started walking down the main street, turning left at the junction at the village entrance.

Soldiers were lined up in the street next to a tank truck filled with so-called skunk water. When the demonstrators reached within 50 meters from the soldiers, the truck started driving towards us, releasing the extremely foul-smelling water.

After a short time, Israeli soldiers began firing tear gas, both at the demonstrators, and into residential areas of the town.

The angle of the gas canister eventually decreased, as they soldiers started firing straight at the demonstrators. One canister was shot towards a groups of Israeli activists who where just sitting on the side walk. Rubber-coated bullets were also fired. Two of us had moved up on a roof, and could hear a soldier receiving the order ‘to shoot to hit’.

A man from Australia was hit in the leg by a bullet ricochet off the ground, while a French photographer received treatment in the ambulance. Close to all the demonstrators inhaled tear gas.

On Friday, December 30th, 2011, several dozen Palestinians in Nabli Saleh, supported by Israeli and international solidarity activists, demonstrated during the villages’ weekly protest. This week the activists released hundreds of black balloons with the names of Palestinian children killed in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. Several Palestinian and international activists were arrested by Israeli Forces, and soldiers shot tear gas into the crowd in addition to spraying them with skunk water.

The following day, two hundred activists in Chicago also released 344 balloons, one for each of the children killed three years ago. The action was organized by the newly formed Chicago Movement for Palestinian Rights, a primarily youth-based organization. Palestinian-American activists gave speeches decrying the continued Israeli siege and sporadic bombardment of the Gaza Strip before the balloons were released in symbolic solidarity to lift the spirits of Palestinians who continue to live under a brutal occupation.

While the protesters were demonstrating peacefully hundreds of yards away from the spring the Israeli military fired dozens of tear gas canisters at them. As demonstrators returned to the village, Israeli military forces illegally shot tear gas canisters directly at them from close range. The demonstrators were blockaded on the road on which Mustafa Tamimi was shot in the face with a tear gas canister and killed a few weeks ago. In addition to tear gas the military used concussion grenades, rubber bullets, a high frequency sound crowd control device (“the scream”) and live 0.22″ caliber ammunition, banned for crowd control purposes.

A member of the press was injured after being struck in the leg with a tear gas canister, as was an international solidarity activist. A Palestinian youth was injured as he fell while fleeing from the tear gas. Another Palestinian youth was shot in the leg with live .22” caliber ammunition and was taken by an ambulance. The demonstration dispersed when the military approached with a water cannon and tanker of “skunk” water. There were no arrests.

On Friday, December 9, 2011, Mustafa Tamimi, a 28-year-old Palestinian activist from the village of Nabi Saleh, was critically injured by Israeli Forces after he was struck in the face by a tear gas projectile. Mustafa was injured during Nabi Saleh’s weekly unarmed demonstrations against the Israeli settlements on village land. These weekly demonstrations are aften met with severe repression by Israeli Forces, who use exessive force resulting in the injuries of dozens, as well as mass arrests.

For video, watch below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ5DipqScyE&sns=em

According to witnesses, Mustafa was critically injured with nearly half his face gone after being hit with the tear gas canister from a close range. As medics attempted to evacuate him to a hospital, Israeli Forces initially prevented the ambulance from letting them leave the area.

A female demonstrator also had her arm broken during the demonstration, and a Palestinian youth sustained a fractured leg after being shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet.

9th September: PSP joined residents of al-Nabi Saleh for their weekly demonstration. Around sixty protesters – comprising local residents, Israelis, and international activists – marched towards the area of several local springs which have been stolen by the nearby illegal settlement of Halamish.

The march left from the village, centering around a small group carrying a ‘coffin’ for “the soul of the Oslo accords”. The demonstration was a symbolic funeral for the Oslo accords on the seventeenth anniversary of its signing. The route of the march took the protesters to the edge of the village, planning to descend the hill into a valley close to the fence surrounding Halamish, where one of the springs was located. The intent was to symbolically reclaim the spring for the village, if only for a short while.
As the demonstrators descended into the valley in front of the Hismalash settlement, the peaceful march was met with volleys of tear gas from the Israeli military.

The approach of a second group of soldiers from behind the protesters caused the group to move back into the village and, after re-organising, proceed down the main road towards a military watchtower and the main checkpoint in the village. At this point the violence from the Israeli army escalated, and large quantities of tear gas was fired at the demonstrators, in an attempt to drive the peaceful protest back into the centre of the village. Groups of soldiers then chased several of the demonstrators in an unsuccessful attempt to arrest Palestinian protesters.

On reaching the edge of the village the soldiers then proceeded to invade the village, firing tear gas canisters horizontally down the streets, forcing the demonstrators to shelter in alleyways. The soldiers then occupied at least one house on the far side of the main square, firing tear gas from the roof at clusters of demonstrators. The soldiers remained on the roof for over 30 minutes, before leaving the village. No arrests were made.

Around 5:00 pm later that evening, a special unit of armed soldiers in civilian clothes entered the village in a white van with Palestinian license plates, and began firing tear gas and rubber-coated ammunition. They were followed by seven IDF vehicles (jeeps and armored personnel carriers) that entered the village from the west. A few minutes later, a similar detachment of seven soldiers entered the village from the east. The two forces approached the center of town, where they arrested two men, Sohil Brigheth, age 27, and Nabil Hamad Humeidan Abu Maria, age 28. Sohil Brigheth had been injured by IDF soldiers at the main road, and was arrested by the special unit of soldiers as he tried to return to his house. When the arrests were completed, all the military forces left the village.

Volunteers with the Palestine Solidarity Project moved to observe the group of military and police force still gathered near Route 60. One international volunteer was detained and taken to the police station at Karmei Tsur settlement. He was released after to hours. At around 8:30 pm, Israeli Forces opened the main gate to the village, closing it again two hours later. Israeli Police and military stayed at the entrance throughout the night.

The next morning on, Thursday March 24, Israeli police and military forces closed the major entrances to Beit Ommar. Village residents in vehicles were still capable of passing through an alternate way in a gap in a cement roadblock near the cemetery. However, Israeli Forces closed this street by mid-afternoon. By evening, only one road to the village remained open; a forty-five minute detour through the neighboring village of Surif.

Israeli Forces remained at at the main gate near Route 60, checking IDs and vehicles in the rain. One group of women from Beit Ommar were forced to wait in the rain for two hours until soldiers returned their IDs.

As of Friday, March 25, the gate to the village remain closed and all entrance to Beit Ommar blocked. Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli Forces arrested Bassem Tamimi, organizer for the Popular Committee in the village of Nabi Saleh. Bassem was placed under arrest prior to a visit with the French Consular General.

Protests also continued in Nabi Saleh, where around 60 activists gathered to protest the annexation of the villages land by the illegal Halamish settlement. Tensions have been particularly high following the settler take over of a fresh spring well which has belonged to the village for over a century. Demonstrators began marching away from the village, but were stopped by a line of soldiers who threatened to arrest the demonstrators. When the march retreated back into the village it was followed by the soldiers, who fired tear gas, sound grenades and rubber coated steal bullets into the crowd. Military incursions into the village continued for five hours, and many of the village’s youth responded by throwing stones at the soldiers. One Israeli activist was arrest, and no injuries were reported.

Demonstrations against the Annexation Barrier were also held in Bil’in, where one protester was shot in the knee with a rubber bullet. Seven activists, including medics and a journalist, were also arrested in Nil’in’s weekly demonstration.

In An Nabi Saleh 50 Palestinian, international and Israeli demonstrators attempted to march to the land taken over by settlers from the nearby Halamish settlement. They were met with large amounts of tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and attack dogs. After being chased back into the village, 2 Israeli activists were detained and one was beaten in the military jeep before both were released without charge.

Demonstrations also occured in Ni’lin, Biddu, Bil’in and Wadi Rahal against the Annexation Barrier. In Wadi Rahal, in the southern Betlehem District, demonstrators gathered for the first time in over 3 years to protest the resumption of the construction of the Annexation Barrier, which will come within 30 meters of the village school.

In Nabi Saleh the demonstration Friday proceeded as usual and was winding down when soldiers and undercover intelligence officers invaded the village and began grabbing people. An 11 year-old boy, another Palestinian teen, and 2 Israeli activists were arrested and taken to the nearby settlement. Local women attempted to prevent the soldiers from taking the young boy, but were threatened and attacked. He was released later in the evening, and reported being beaten by the military at the police station. The Israeli activists, were also released, as were 4 Israelis and 1 international who were arrested on the road to Nabi Saleh, all without charge.

Several were also reportedly arrested in Bil’in, a lively demonstration against Palestinian expulsion from Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem was also held on Friday, and demonstrators in Al Ma’asara reportedly reached their agricultural land during the demonstration, a rare accomplishment in this village which has been demonstrating against the construction of the Annexation Barrier since 2007.
The weekly demonstration in Beit Ommar was canceled for a community event.

Both Ni’lin and Bil’in held demonstrations with international and Israeli supporters despite a declaration earlier in the week that both villages would be closed military zones for internationals and Israelis on every Friday for the next 6 months, in an attempt by the Israeli military to end the demonstrations.

In Al-Ma’asara, the demonstration proceeded as usual, with demonstrators marching towards the barbed wire fencing put in place at the entrance of the village by the Israeli military. This week, however, an unusual breach of the barrier was achieved. An eyewitness described it thus:

“Yesterday was a historic day in Palestine. The Israeli Occupation Forces stood aside powerless as they witnessed a mass Palestinian non-violent action that breached the razor wire, military vehicles and M-16s that had stopped the villagers of al Ma asara from working their fields for years.

In a peaceful commemoration of the seventh anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie under the tracks of an Israeli bulldozer, PSP, internationals and Israeli activists accompanied local farmers in a demonstration along the main street through the quiet village. As usual there was a strong military presence gathered behind a roll of razor wire that cut off access to the farmland.

Suddenly a flock of Palestinian sheep made a non-violent dash for the razor wire to cheers and whoops from the protesters. In a slickly co-ordinated move, protesters lifted the roll of razor wire and the IOF soldiers watched powerless as the Palestinian sheep rushed past them chanting Baa. It is hoped that other sheep in the international community will now follow this brave lead.”