Palestine Solidarity Project » settlement expansion

Israeli Forces Continue Assaults with Sound Grenades in Beit Ommar

PSP — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 05:33:21 +0000

Last week, July 17, an Associated Press photographer was seriously injured in Beit Ommar during the weekly demonstration against the settlement when a sound grenade exploded near his head, blowing out his eardrum. A strong statement by the Foreign Press Association was made and Israeli and international media reported on the incident. Yet all of this attention to the misuse of these dangerous weapons did not deter the large group of soldiers present at this week’s demonstration from again launching sound grenades, as well as tear gas, directly at demonstrators, particularly aiming at their heads.
As the group of approximately 50 demonstrators, including several women from the village for the third week in a row, were met by the Israeli soldiers who demanded they leave the privately-owned Palestinian land or risk arrest, the soldiers again injured a journalist, this time from Reuters, who was knocked unconscious after having two sound grenades explode on his head and back while the soldiers were attempting to push the group out of the area. The journalist was assisted at the scene and no arrests were made.

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.

Several Injured, Arrested in Weekend Demonstrations, Including 11 Year-Old Boy

PSP — Mon, 10 May 2010 14:54:57 +0000

In Al-Walaja Thursday, May 6, a small group of Palestinians, internationals and Israelis surprised the bulldozer operators destroying agricultural land for construction of the Annexation Barrier and managed to avoid Israeli forces and block the bulldozer’s progression for nearly half an hour before being violently pulled out of the way. 3 Palestinians were seriously injured, with 2 reported broken limbs.

In Ni’lin on Friday, May 7, residents, also joined by Israeli and international activists, marched towards the now-completed barrier that cuts through their agricultural land. The copious amount of tear gas shot as usual was less effective, mostly blowing harmlessly out of the area. The demonstration lasted for a few hours with no arrests or injuries.

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.

Demonstration at Karmei Tsur Settlement Violently Disrupted

PSP — Sat, 01 May 2010 18:58:39 +0000

video below

In an action organised by the National Committee of Beit Ommar and the Palestine Solidarity Project, a group of Beit Ommar farmers and their families gathered Saturday afternoon, May 1, at the gates of Karmei Tsur settlement demanding access to their land inside the fence to inspect the 20 almond trees cut down by settlers this week.Two army jeeps arrived within minutes and the Israeli soldiers gave the farmers 5 minutes to leave however immediately fired tear gas into the crowd causing panic amongst the children present. Six soldiers with automatic weapons at the ready then rushed through the gates whilst their colleagues fired more gas at the retreating villagers.
Mohammed Awad, member of the National Committee, was thrown to the ground and beaten by 2 soldiers for filming their aggressive action. He was carried from the scene by ambulance suffering also from severe tear gas inhalation.

Several army jeeps have invaded the village firing tear gas, stun grenades and rubber coated steel bullets apparently indiscriminately. An international solidarity activist was briefly detained by the Israeli army but managed to escape through vineyards. A number of foreign press crews were present to record the violent response to this peaceful rally and one was physically attacked.

Beit Ommar Students Protest Settlements

PSP — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 02:07:17 +0000

Wednesday, April 14, the student committee of the Palestine Solidarity Project held a 2 hour demonstration at the fence of Karmei Tsur settlement before being dispersed by Israeli soldiers and settler security using live ammunition.

At 3 o’clock a group of 25 young men and women from Beit Ommar approached the razor wire fence of the nearest Israeli settlement to the town carrying hand-written placards and chanting slogans calling for the end to the illegal settlements. The students posed no threat to the 4 jeeps full of heavily armed soldiers and 2 trucks of armed settler security who arrived on the scene however the peaceful demonstration against land theft was broken up initially by tear gas grenades. The retreating students were then fired upon using plastic coated bullets; luckily no-one was seriously injured although several people were treated for inhalation of the gas.

Beit Ommar farmers have lost over 8,000 dunums of fertile farmland to the illegal settlements and are suffering increasing economic hardship through the enforcement of Apartheid laws by the Israeli occupation forces. A further 10,000 dunums is under threat of arbitrary confiscation.

Friday Demonstrations Gather Steam Under Increased Pressure to Shut Down

PSP — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 19:53:39 +0000

In Sheikh Jarrah, the weekly jovial march of Jewish Israelis and Palestinians met at Damascus Gate of the Old City and marched to Sheikh Jarrah, protesting the eviction of the Hanoun, Ghawi and Al-Kurd families, all Palestinians who had lived in the neighborhood of East Jerusalem since the 1950s who were forcibly removed by the Israeli government (one home of the Al-Jurd familiy in July, 2008, the Hanoun and Ghawi households in August, 2009) to allow Jewish families to move in. The families have been living in tents in protest outside of their homes since the eviction. More recently, a group of settlers moved into an annex of another home of the Al-Kurd family, creating even more friction with the Palestinian residents who still live in the main section of the house and are forced to share an entry-way with the right-wing extremist settlers.

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.

Teen Seriously Injured in Friday Protests

PSP — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:27:43 +0000

On Friday March 5, 14 year old Ehab Barghouthi was critically injured during a demonstration in Nabi Saleh against the theft of agricultural land by the Israeli settlement Halamish. Witnesses say he was shot from less than 30 meters away in the forehead with a rubber-coated steel bullet, which entered his skull just above the right eye. He underwent surgery in a hospital in Ramallah, his prognosis is still unknown. Several youth have been killed with these so-called “non-lethal” weapons, when shot from short range by the regular-issue M-16s the Israeli military uses to fire both live ammunition and rubber-coated bullets.

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.

Reclaiming Land, One Tree at a Time

PSP — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:23:06 +0000

On Saturday, February 13, 2010, a group of farmers from Beit Ommar and Saffa were accompanied by members of the Beit Ommar popular committee, Palestine Solidarity Project under the new Center for Freedom and Justice of Beit Ommar, and international and Israeli solidarity activists to march into the valley below Saffa, which has been under threat of confiscation through settler violence and the Israeli military declaring the entire area a closed military zone in perpetuity.
PSP had organized a series of tree-plantings along with Israeli anti-occupation activists last month. The Israeli military attempted to prevent the tree-plantings and went so far as to announce they would uproot hundreds of the trees planted in the area (this is currently being challenged in the Israeli courts).
This Saturday, the group demanded their right to free and unfettered access to their agricultural land. Carrying signs and Palestinian flags, they were met by several jeeps of Israeli soldiers at the edge of town who began checking the ID’s of all of the Palestinians, stating they would allow Palestinians into the area but not their Israeli and international supporters. The landowners countered that they had every right to bring whoever they choose to their own land, and that the need for Israeli and international accompaniment was due to the lack of the Israeli military to stop Jewish settler attacks.
In the end, though the Palestinians were allowed to get slightly closer to their goal, the Israeli military quickly decided to disperse the group, throwing tear gas and sound grenades. 5 people were severely affected by tear-gas inhalation.

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.

Friday Demonstrations Round-up

PSP — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 04:54:48 +0000

This Friday, February 12, 2010 once again saw demonstrations against the Annexation Barrier in Ni’lin, Al-Ma’asara, and Bil’in, and against settlement expansion and dispossession in Nabi Saleh and Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem.

In Al-Ma’asara, approximately 30 Palestinians were accompanied by 10 international and Israeli solidarity activists as they marched down the main past Al-Ma’asara village, connecting villages east of Betlehem with the main throughway, Route 60. They were quickly stopped by Israeli soldiers at the edge of Al-Ma’asara, where they declared the area a closed military zone. The demonstrators insisted they were trying to reach the site of the Annexation Barrier, which was partially constructed on Palestinian land in 2007-2008 but has not been completed or worked on for over a year.

Al-Ma'asara 02_12_10

In a rare escalation of violence, soldiers used sound grenades and tear gas to disperse the group, a rarity in these demonstrations in the southern Betlehem District.

Nabi Saleh 02.12.10

In Nabi Saleh, dozens of residents were also accompanied with a large contingency of International and Israeli activists to an area of land settlers from the nearby Halamish settlement are attempting to annex by preventing the residents from accessing it and destroying crops in the area. Though many demonstrators sat down in the road when confronted by the Israeli military, they were still attacked with copious amounts of tear gas. A small group of the participants then managed to reach the land threatened by the settlers and began building support walls for agricultural terraces, reclaiming their land by working it.

In Ni’lin, demonstrators, with the usual foreign contingent, marched after the noon call to prayer to the site of the Annexation Barrier, which has been completed in several areas surrounding the village and cutting off access to large amounts of agricultural land. 2 people, Palestinian resident of Ni’lin Arafat Amira and Israeli anarchist Yonatan Pollak were arrested during the demonstration.

In Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood in Palestinian Jerusalem that has been the site of several evictions to allow for Jewish settlers to takeover homes belonging to Palestinians for over half a century, a lively group of Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Jerusalemites gathered at the entrance to the neighborhood, near the homes of Ghawi and Hanoun families, both of whom were kicked out of their homes in August, 2009 and have been living in protest tents on the street since then. Israeli police prevented the group from entering the street, which is still largely Palestinian with 3 homes occupied by Jewish Israeli settlers, but did not resort to the mass-arrests and violence they had used in previous weeks against the peaceful demonstrations.

All of these demonstrations were overshadowed in media coverage and attention by a group of people in Bil’in who painted themselves blue, dressing up as characters from Hollywood’s $300 million film Avatar for their weekly march to the Annexation Barrier built on their agricultural land. This comes as the Israeli military begins to finally comply with an Israeli court order to re-route the fence in the Bil’in area, which will return access to some of the village’s land to the residents, which has been cut off since the completion of the fence in this area over 2 years ago.

400 Trees Planted Near Karmei Tsur Settlement, Israeli Military Retaliates

PSP — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:23:23 +0000

On Wednesday, February 10, more than 50 international volunteers with the YMCA along with a group of Israeli activists joined 20 Palestinians in a coordinated tree-planting for 4 farmers who own land near the Karmei Tsur settlement. The action was organized by PSP, the Beit Ommar Center for Freedom and Justice, and the newly re-formed Beit Ommar Popular Committee and was designed to plant 400 trees on land that is threatened with confiscation as the Karmei Tsur settlement continues its plans to extend its “security perimeter” further onto privately-owned Palestinian land.

In 2006, these four farmers, Hamad Soleiby, Hossam Bahar, Mousa Abu Maria and Mohammed Awwad all lost access to significant portions of their land when the Israeli military, on behalf of the settlement, built a secondary perimeter fence well onto Palestinian agricultural land. Though technically the Palestinian farmers still have legal rights to the land behind the fence, none of these farmers have been allowed to access it since the completion of the fence in the fall of 2006.

Recently, settlers and the Israeli military have been trying to prevent farmers from accessing their land still on the “Palestinian side” of the fence, by attacking or threatening the landowners if they come anywhere near the fence. It was for this reason that the large contingency of internationals, Israelis, and Palestinians planted 400 trees in this area. While planting on the land of Mousa Abu Maria, co-founder of the Palestine Solidarity Project, the Israeli military approached the group from the opposite side of the fence and attempted to disperse the planters with sound and smoke grenades. The group was not deterred, finished the planting and then returned to a farmer’s house at the edge of the village for a group lunch.

But as so often happens in Beit Ommar, when even the most non-threatening of actions take place which nonetheless challenge Israeli control of the land, the Israeli military felt it necessary to demonstrate a show of force. 3 jeeps entered Beit Ommar from the settlement and parked near the house that the international and Israeli activists had just left after lunch. When landowner and PSP spokesperson Mohammed Awwad went into the street to film the invasion, soldiers fired one rubber-coated steel bullet directly at Mohammed, hitting him in the foot from short range, breaking his foot.

Mohammed Awwad, with Popular Committee members. An Israeli soldier shot him in the foot with a rubber-coated steel bullet, breaking it