6 November 2009

Activists blockade in solidarity with Palestine

At about 6 o’clock this morning a group of London students and international activists, including members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), blocked the two gates leading to the depot. The activists seek to raise awareness of the UK’s continued role in the purchase of goods produced in Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank as well as Carmel Agrexco’s role in the sustenance of Israel’s illegal expansionist activities in Palestine.

The blockaders have urged companies dependent on Carmel Agrexco’s supplies, and therefore inconvenienced by this and previous blockades, to seek out new suppliers and, in so doing, show that Carmel Agrexco’s continued support for Israel’s aggression in Palestine will not be allowed to continue.

At 12.30 the blockade was still going strong, with both gates completely blocked, preventing vehicles from entering or leaving the premises.

Police have told protestors that they might be ‘obstructing the highway’ or committing trespass. When asked if they meant aggravated trespass, the police said no. This means that the offence would be civil, rather than criminal. At the original Agrexco trial in 2006, evidence established that there was no public highway at the positions where the blockades have been set up.

Campaigners maintain that Agrexco’s trade in settlement produce is not lawful activity. Gaza continues to be subject to an inhumane blockade.

The blockade finally ended having started at 6.15am it went on till 2:30pm for a total of 8 hours.

Part way through the demonstration, Carmel workers managed to find a space through which they could manoeuvre forklift trucks, they managed to load one waiting lorry with goods, despite activists attempting to blockade this by standing in front of them and Carmel workers being very keen to ram those present. Acknowledging this option, the blockaders managed a feat of ingenuity and re-positioned the fencing to blockade the whole of the access gate these preventing any further efforts by the workers to get produce through to waiting vehicles.

In response to the shift in positioning, Carmel closed the external gates trapping both blockaders and supporters inside Carmel property. Supporters were finally let out, however the blockaders were trapped inside. Despite the calmness in those present for all of the morning, Agrexco workers became aggressive both physically and verbally with both those blockading and those supporting. Police present did little to stem the aggression with Agrexco workers attempting to intimidate the blockaders and continued to verbally threaten supporters claiming they were going to “Fuck you over”.

Pressure was mounting in a situation where activists were put at considerable risk of harm whereby those blockading were trapped inside the Agrexco gates and supporters were not able to directly access them.

After some time of tense standoff, blockaders were finally released at 2:30pm.
The blockade was a success with the site being closed for over eight hours. The police made no arrests however made several warnings that all those present would be arrested under Section 14 of the Public Order Act based upon the claim that the police officer believed that those present were intimidating people by preventing Carmel employees from conducting their business.

20 years to the fall of the Berlin wall: Demonstrators toppled 8 meters tall concrete wall in Ni’ilin

Three protest marches were held today in the West Bank to mark the 20th anniversary to the fall of the Berlin wall, which has been declared an international day of action against Israel’s barrier. In Ni’lin, the 300 demonstrators managed to topple a part of the eight meters tall concrete wall that cuts through the village’s land. Following the direct action, the army fired scores of live rounds at the demonstrators.

The concrete wall in Ni’lin – five to eight meters (15 to 25 feet) in height – has only recently been laid on the path of the wall cutting through Ni’lin’s lands, in addition to the already existing electronic barrier and razor-wire.

Since the Wall was built to allow more land to annexed to the nearby settlements rather than in a militarily strategic manner, demonstrators have been able to repeatedly dismantle parts of the electronic fence and razor-wire surrounding it. The section of the Wall in Ni’lin is the only place along the route of the barrier where a concrete wall has been erected in an attempt to deal with the civic, unarmed campaign waged by the village in protest of the massive land theft that will enable the expansion of the illegal settlements of Modi’in Il’it and Hashmonaim.

Since Israel began its construction in the year 2002, This is the first time demonstrators succeed in toppling a part of Israel’s barrier which is a concrete wall. One of the demonstrators, Moheeb Khawaja, said during the protest: “Twenty years ago no one had thought the monster that divided Berlin into two could be brought down, but in only two days in November, it did. Today we have proven that this can also be done here and now. It is our land beyond this wall, and we will not give up on it. We will win for a simple reason – justice is on our side.”

Background

Israel began construction of the Wall on Ni’lin’s land in 2004, but stopped after an injunction order issued by the Israeli Supreme Court (ISC). Despite the previous order and a 2004 ruling from the International Court of Justice declaring the Wall illegal, construction of the Wall began again in May 2008. Following the return of Israeli bulldozers to their lands, residents of Ni’lin have launched a grassroots campaign to protest the massive land theft, including demonstrations and direct actions.

The original route of the Wall, which Israel began constructing in 2004, was ruled illegal by the ISC, as was a second, marginally less obtrusive proposed route. The most recent path, now completed, still cuts deep into Ni’lin’s land. The Wall has been built to include plans, not yet approved by the Army’s planning authority, for a cemetery and an industrial zone for the illegal settlement Modi’in Ilit.

Since the Wall was built to annex more land to the nearby settlements rather than in a militarily strategic manner, demonstrators have been able to repeatedly dismantle parts of the electronic fence and razor-wire surrounding it. Consequently, the army has erected a 15-25 feet tall concrete wall, in addition to the electronic fence. The section of the Wall in Ni’lin is the only part of the route where a concrete wall has been erected in response to civilian, unarmed protest.

As a result of the Wall construction, Ni’lin has lost 3,920 dunams, roughly 30% of its remaining lands. Originally, Ni’lin consisted of 15,898 dunams (3928 acres). Post 1948, Ni’lin was left with 14,794 dunams (3656 acres). After the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, the illegal settlements and infrastructure of Modi’in Ilit, Mattityahu and Hashmonaim were built on village lands, and Ni’lin lost another 1,973 dunams. With the completion of the Wall, Ni’lin has a remaining 8911 dunams (2201 acres), 56% of it’s original size.

Ni’lin is effectively split into 2 parts (upper and lower) by Road 446, which was built directly through the village. According to the publicized plan of the Israeli government, a tunnel will be built under road 446 to connect the upper and lower parts of Ni’lin, allowing Israel to turn Road 446 into a segregated-setter only road. Subsequently, access for Palestinian vehicles to this road and to the main entrances of upper and lower Ni’lin will be closed. Additionally, since the tunnel will be the only entryway to Ni’lin, Israel will have control over the movement of Palestinian residents.

Israel commonly uses tear-gas projectiles, rubber coated steel bullets and live ammunition against demonstrators.

Since May, 2008, five of Ni’lin’s residents were killed and one American solidarity activist was critically injured from Israeli fire during grassroots demonstrations in Ni’lin.

• 5 June 2009: Yousef Akil Srour (36) was shot in the chest with 0.22 caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.

• 13 March 2009: Tristan Anderson (37), an American citizen, was shot in the head with a high velocity tear gas projectile. He is currently at Tel Hashomer hospital near Tel Aviv with uncertain prospects for his recovery.

• 28 December 2008: Mohammed Khawaje (20) was shot in the head with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition. He died in a Ramallah hospital 3 days later on 31 December 2008.

• 28 December 2008: Arafat Rateb Khawaje (22) was shot in the back with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.

• 30 July 2008: Yousef Amira (17) was shot in the head with two rubber coated steel bullets. He died in a Ramallah hospital 5 days later on 4 August 2008.

• 29 July 2008: Ahmed Mousa (10) was shot in the forehead with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.

In total, 19 people have been killed during demonstrations against the Wall.

Israeli armed forces have shot 40 demonstrators with live ammunition in Ni’lin. Of them, 11 were shot with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and 24 were shot with 0.22 caliber live ammunition.

Since May 2008, 87 arrests of Ni’lin residents have been made in relation to anti-Wall demonstrations in the village. The protesters seized by the army constitute around 7% of the village’s males aged between 12 and 55. The arrests are part of a broad Israeli intimidation campaign to suppress all demonstrations against the apartheid infrastructure in the West Bank.

“Just as a simple man named Ghandi led the successful non-violent struggle in India and simple people such as Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela led the struggle for civil rights in the United States, simple people here in Bil’in are leading a non-violent struggle that will bring them their freedom. The South Africa experience proves that injustice can be dismantled.”
– Archbishop Desmond Tutu, during a visit to Bil’in on 27 August 2009

Demonstrators protest against the detention of Adeeb and other Biliners

Adeeb Abu Rahmah, a leading activist and organizer from the West Bank village of Bil’in has been held in detention since his arrest during a demonstration on 10 July 2009 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqaO8lFYuM0). Thousands of Israeli and international solidarity activists who have demonstrated alongside Adeeb against the theft of Bil’in’s lands over the past five years can testify to his unshakable commitment to non-violence and dignified action.

Adeeb who has been detained for over three months, is not suspected of committing any violence, but was indicted with a blanket charge of “incitement to violence”. A judge had initially ruled that Adeeb be released with restrictive conditions, but an appeal filed by the military prosecution had the decision overturned, and he was remanded until the end of legal proceedings. Trials for Palestinians in Israeli military courts often last over a year. Adeeb is the sole provider for his 9 children, wife and mother.

Adeeb’s arrest is part of the Israeli military’s most recent attempt to crush Bil’in village’s ongoing popular non-violent resistance campaign. A wave of night raids and arrests targeting protesters and the leadership of Bil’in’s Popular Committee began concurrently with preliminary hearings in a lawsuit against two Canadian companies responsible for the construction of an Israeli settlement on Bil’in’s land.

On 23 June 2009, the Canadian court heard the preliminary arguments for a suit brought by Bil’in against two companies registered in Canada (Green Park International & Green Mount International). The village is seeking justice against the construction of settlements on its lands under the 2000 Canadian Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Statute.

Israeli forces have arrested 27 residents, 11 of which are under 18. Sixteen Bil’iners remain in Israeli detention, nine of which are minors. Some of the arrestees have reported being questioned about Bi’in’s lawsuit in Canada during their interrogation.

Overwhelming support and outcry from the international community have contributed to what appears to be the end of the night raids (the last raid took place on 30 September 2009). While soldiers have stopped coming to arrest demonstrators in the night, the aftermath of the raids has left Bil’in with large legal fees/bails and 16 remaining residents in Israeli detention. In defiance of the pressure from Israeli authorities, the village continues to hold weekly demonstrations. Bil’iners protested in solidarity with Adeeb Abu Rahme (http://palsolidarity.org/2009/10/9054) and recently filed an appeal in the Canadian court case (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1256037270183&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull). While they continue their struggle, they need your support.

What can you do?

Attempts to criminalize the leadership of non-violent protests where curbed in the past with the help of an outpouring of support from people committed to justice from all over the world.

1. Please protest by contacting your political representatives, as well as your consuls and ambassadors to Israel (http://www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-of/Israel) to demand that Israel stops targeting non-violent popular resistance and release Adeeb Abu Rahmah and all Bil’in prisoners.
2. The Popular Committee of Bil’in is in desperate need for funds in order to pay legal fees both for the trail in Montréal and for representing the arrested protesters in the military courts and bail.Please donate to the Bil’in legal fund through PayPal. If you would like to make a tax deductible donation in the US or Canada contact: bilinlegal@gmail.com.
   

   The Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements

Background

The West Bank village of Bil’in is located 12 kilometers west of Ramallah and 4 km east of the Green Line. It is an agricultural village, around 4,085 dunams (988 acres) in size, and populated by approximately 1,780 residents.

Approximately 55% of Bil’in’s agricultural land has been declared ‘State Land’ by Israel and confiscated for the construction of the settlement bloc, Modi’in Illit. Modi’in Illit holds the largest settler population of any settlement bloc, with over 42,000 residents and plans to achieve a population of 150,000.

Prior to 1948, Bil’in spanned 4,085 dunams. Starting in 1982 and again in 1991, around 1,980 dunams were taken. Another 260 dunams were taken for construction of the Wall in 2005.

In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that the Wall was contrary to international law, particularly International Humanitarian Law. The Court went on to rule that Israel’s settlements are illegal under the same laws, noting that the Wall’s route is intimately connected to the settlements adjacent to the Green Line, further annexing 12% of the West Bank to Israel.

Despite the advisory opinion, early in 2005, Israel began constructing the separation Wall on Bil’in’s land, cutting the village in half in order to place Modi’in Illit and its future growth on the “Israeli side” of the Wall.

In March 2005, Bil’in residents began to organize almost daily direct actions and demonstrations against the theft of their lands. Gaining the attention of the international community with their creativity and perseverance, Bil’in has become a symbol for popular resistance. Almost five years later, Bil’in continues to have weekly Friday protests.

Bil’in has held annual conferences on popular resistance since 2006, providing a forum for activists, intellectuals, and leaders to discuss strategies for the non-violent struggle against the Occupation.

Israeli forces have used sound and shock grenades, water cannons, rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas grenades, tear gas canisters and 0.22 caliber live ammunition against protesters (link to weapons page).

On 17 April 2009, Bassem Abu Rahma was shot with a high-velocity tear gas projectile in the chest by Israeli forces and subsequently died from his wounds at a Ramallah hospital.

Out of the 75 residents who were arrested in connection to demonstrations against the Wall, 27 have been were arrested after the beginning of a night raid campaign on 23 June 2009. Israeli armed forces have been regularly invading homes and forcefully searching for demonstration participants, targeting the leaders of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, as well as teenage boys accused of throwing stones at the Wall. Sixteen currently remain in detention, 9 of which are minors.

In addition to its grassroots movement, Bil’in turned to the courts in the fall of 2005. In September 2007, 2 years after they initiated legal proceedings, the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that due to illegal construction in part of Modi’in Illit, unfinished housing could not be completed and that the route of the Wall be moved several hundred meters west, returning 25% of Bil’in’s lands to the village. To date, the high court ruling has not been implemented and settlement construction continues.

In July 2008, Bil’in commenced legal proceedings before the Superior Court of Quebec against Green Park International Inc and Green Mount International Inc for their involvement in constructing, marketing and selling residential units in the Mattityahu East section of Modi’in Illit.

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FRENCH

Soutenez la lutte de Bil’in

Tout comme un simple individu nommé Gandhi a mené avec succès la lutte non-violente en Inde et de simples individus, comme Rosa Parks et Nelson Mandela ont mené la lutte pour les droits civiques aux États-Unis et en Afrique du Sud, de simples individus ici, à Bil’in mènent une lutte non-violente qui leur apportera la liberté. L’expérience de l’Afrique du Sud prouve que l’injustice peut être démantelée. -Archevêque Desmond Tutu, lors de sa visite à Bil’in le 27 août 2009.

Adeeb Abu Rahmah, organisateur et militant très actif de Bil’in, village de Cisjordanie, est en détention depuis son arrestation lors de la manifestation du 10 juillet 2009 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqaO8lFYuM0). Des milliers d’activistes de la solidarité israéliens et internationaux, qui ont manifesté aux côtés d’Adeeb contre le vol des terres de Bil’in au cours de ces cinq dernières années, peuvent témoigner de son engagement inébranlable pour l’action non violente et digne.

Adeeb, qui est détenu depuis plus de trois mois, n’est pas soupçonné d’avoir commis un acte violent, mais a été inculpé sous une accusation de couverture d’”incitation à la violence”. Un juge avait d’abord décidé de le libérer sous conditions restrictives, mais un appel interjeté par le procureur militaire a fait renverser la décision, et Adeeb sera maintenu en prison jusqu’à la fin de la procédure judiciaire. Les procès des Palestiniens devant les tribunaux militaires durent souvent plus d’un an. Adeeb subvient seul aux besoins de ses 9 enfants, de sa femme et de sa mère.

L’arrestation d’Adeeb fait partie de la plus récente tentative de l’armée israélienne d’écraser la campagne de résistance non violente en cours dans le village de Bil’in. Une vague de raids nocturnes et d’arrestations visant les protestataires et la direction du Comité Populaire de Bil’in a commencé en même temps que les premières audiences d’une action en justice intentée contre deux compagnies canadiennes pour la construction d’une colonie israélienne sur la terre de Bi’lin.

En effet, le 23 juin 2009, le tribunal canadien a entendu en première audience les arguments d’une action intentée par Bi’lin contre deux compagnies enregistrées au Canada (Green Park International & Green Mount International). Le village appelle en justice contre la construction de colonies sur ses terres, conformément à la Loi canadienne sur les crimes contre l’humanité et les crimes de guerre ratifiée en 2000.

Les forces israéliennes ont arrêté 27 habitants de Bil’in, dont 11 ont moins de 18 ans. 16 d’entre eux sont toujours en détention israélienne, dont 9 sont mineurs. Certains d’entre eux ont rapporté qu’ils avaient été interrogés sur le procès de Bil’in au Canada pendant leur interrogatoire.

Un énorme soutien et un tollé général de la communauté internationale ont contribué à ce qui semble être la fin des raids nocturnes (le dernier a eu lieu le 30 septembre 2009). Alors que les soldats ont cessé de venir arrêter les manifestants la nuit, les répercussions des raids laissent Bil’in avec des honoraires et des cautions importants et 16 résidents toujours en détention israélienne.

Défiant la pression des autorités israéliennes, le village continue d’organiser des manifestations hebdomadaires. Les habitants de Bil’in ont manifesté leur solidarité avec Adeeb Abu Rahme (http://palsolidarity.org/2009/10/9054) et ont récemment fait appel dans l’affaire canadienne (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1256037270183&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull).

Alors qu’ils poursuivent leur lutte, ils ont besoin de votre soutien.

Que pouvez-vous faire ?

Les tentatives de criminalisation de la direction des protestations non violentes ont été freinées par le passé grâce à un déluge d’actions de soutien de la part des gens du monde entier pour qui le mot justice a un sens.

1. Prenez contact avec vos représentants politiques, ainsi qu’avec vos ambassades et consulats en Israël (http://www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-of/Israel) pour demander qu’Israël cesse de viser la résistance populaire non violente et libère Adeeb Abu Rahmah et tous les prisonniers de Bil’in.
2. Le Comité Populaire de Bil’lin a besoin de fonds pour régler les frais juridiques tant pour le procès à Montréal que pour la représentation des militants arrêtés devant les tribunaux militaires. Merci de faire parvenir vos dons au fonds juridique de Bi’lin par PayPal. Si vous souhaitez faire un don déductible des impôts aux USA et au Canada, contactez bilinlegal@gmail.com.

Le Comité populaire de Bil’in contre le Mur et les Colonies.

Contexte

Le village de Bil’in est situé en Cisjordanie, à 12 km à l’ouest de Ramallah et à 4 km à l’est de la Ligne Verte. C’est un village agricole, d’environ 4.085 dunams (1 dunam = 0,1 ha), et d’environ 1.780 habitants.

Près de 55% de la terre agricole de Bil’in ont été déclarés “Terre d’Etat” par Israël et confisqués pour la construction du bloc de colonie de Modi’in Illit. Modi’in Illit détient la plus importante population coloniale de tous les blocs de colonie avec plus de 42.000 habitants, et son projet est de parvenir à une population de 150.000 colons.

Avant 1948, Bil’in couvrait 4.085 dunams. En 1982 et à nouveau en 1991, près de 1.980 dunams ont été réquisitionnés. 260 autres dunams l’ont été pour la construction du Mur en 2005.

En 2004, la Cour Internationale de Justice a statué que le Mur contrevenait au droit international, en particulier au droit humanitaire international. La Cour a statué de plus que les colonies d’Israël étaient illégales selon ce même droit, précisant que le tracé du Mur était intimement lié aux colonies adjacentes à la Ligne Verte, annexant 12% de plus de la Cisjordanie à Israël.

En dépit de la décision consultative, début 2005, Israël a poursuivi la construction du Mur de séparation sur la terre de Bil’in, coupant le village en deux de manière à placer Modi’in Illit et sa croissance future “du côté israélien” du Mur.

En mars 2005, les habitants de Bil’in ont commencé à organiser des actions directes quasi quotidiennes et des manifestations contre le vol de leurs terres. Gagnant l’attention de la communauté internationale par sa créativité et sa persévérance, Bil’in est devenu un symbole de la résistance populaire. Près de cinq ans plus tard, Bil’in continue de manifester chaque vendredi.

Depuis 2006, Bi’lin organise des conférences annuelles sur la résistance populaire, offrant aux activistes, aux intellectuels et aux dirigeants un forum de discussion sur les stratégies de la lutte non violente contre l’occupation.

Les forces israéliennes ont fait usage de grenades soniques et de choc, des canons à eaux, des balles caoutchouc-acier, des grenades et des bombes lacrymogènes, des balles de calibre 0.22 contre les manifestants.

Le 17 avril 2009, Bassem Abu Rahma a reçu une grenade lacrymogène à grande vitesse dans la poitrine, tirée par les forces israéliennes, et il est mort des suites de ses blessures à l’hôpital de Ramallah.

75 habitants ont été arrêtés en lien avec les manifestations contre le Mur, 27 ont été arrêtées dans la campagne de raids nocturnes qui a débuté le 23 juin 2009.

En plus de son mouvement populaire, Bil’in est allé devant les tribunaux à l’automne 2005. En septembre 2007, deux ans après avoir lancé les procédures en justice, la Haute Cour israélienne de Justice a statué qu’à cause de la construction illégale dans certaines parties de Mod’in Illit, les maisons en construction ne devaient pas être terminées et que la route du Mur devait être déplacée de plusieurs centaines de mètres à l’ouest, restituant 25% de ses terres au village. A ce jour, la décision de la Haute Cour n’a pas été appliquée et la construction dans la colonie continue.
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ITALIAN

Supporta la lotta di Bil’in

“Un uomo semplice di nome Gandhi guidó con successo la lotta nonviolenta in India e persone semplici come Rosa Parks e Nelson Mandela guidarono la lotta per i diritti Civili negli Stati Uniti, persone semplici qui a Bilin stanno conducendo una lotta nonviolenta che li porterá alla libertá. L’esempio del Sud Africa dimostra che l’ingiustizia puo essere vinta”. – Arcibishop Desmond Tutu, durante una visita a Bil’in, 27 Agosto 2009

Adeeb Abu Rahmah, un leader del movimento nonviolento proveniente dal villaggio della West Bank Bil’in, ė stato arrestato in data 10 Luglio 2009 durante una dimostrazione ed ė tuttora detenuto (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqaO8lFYuM0). Migliaia di attivisti Israeliani e internazionali che hanno dimostrato a fianco di Adeeb contro il furto delle terre di Bilin durante gli ultimi cinque anni, sono testimoni della sua costante impegno verso l’azione nonviolenta.

Adeeb, che ė in stato di detenzione da piu di tre mesi, non ė sospettato di aver commesso alcun tipo di violenza, ma ė stato accusato con una verdetto di copertura come quello “dell’incitamento alla violenza”. Un giudice aveva stabilito che Adeeb avrebbe potuto essere rilasciato con alcune condizioni restrittive, ma un appello presentato dal tribunale militare rovesció la decisione rimandando il suo rilascio alla fine del processo. I processi nei tribunali militari israeliani per i Palestinesi durano anche più di un anno. Adeeb ė il solo mezzo di sostentamento per i suoi 9 figli, la moglie e la madre.

L’arresto di Adeeb si inquadra nella strategia dell’esercito israeliano che ha come obiettivo la soppressione della lotta popolare e nonviolenta del villaggio di Bil’in anche attraverso un’ondata di raids notturni e arresti di attivisti. Nello stesso tempo, la leadership del Comitato Popolare di Bil’in comincia le udienze preliminari per un processo contro le due compagnie Canadesi responsabili della costruzione di un insediamento israeliano sulla terra appartenente al villaggio di Bil’in.

Il 23 Giugno 2009, la corte Canadese ha ascoltato gli argomenti durante le udienze preliminari per per una accusa portata dal villaggio di Bilin contro le due compagnie registrate in Canada (Green Park International & Green Mount International). Il villaggio cerca giustizia per la costruzione dei settlements sulla sua terra conformemente alla legge Canadese sui crimini contro l’umanitá e contro i crimini di guerra ratificata nel 2000.

L’esercito Israeliano ha arrestato 27 residenti di Bilin, 11 dei quail sotto i 18 anni. Sedici tra loro rimangono in stato di arresto e nove sono minori. Alcuni degli arrestati sono stati interrogati anche riguardo alla causa rivolta dal Villaggio contro le organizzazioni canadesi sopraccitate.

Il forte supporto e le proteste da parte della comunita internazionale hanno contribuito a quella che sembra essere la fine delle incursioni notturne dell’esercito israeliano a Bil’in (l’ultima incursione ė avvenuta il 30 Settembre 2009). Se i soldati hanno smesso di penetrare nel villaggio ed arrestare attivisti durante la notte, le consequenze delle incursioni hanno lasciato Bilin con delle enormi spese legali da sostenere e con 16 tra i suoi residenti ancora detenuti nelle prigioni israeliane.

Sfidando le pressioni da parte del Governo Israeliano, gli abitanti di Bil’in continuano a manifestare regolarmente. Proteste in solidarietá con Adeeb Abu Rahme (http://palsolidarity.org/2009/10/9054) e di recente il caso portato all’attenzione della corte Canadese (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1256037270183&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull). Nonostante gli abitanti di Bil’in continuino la loro protesta, hanno bisogno del tuo supporto.

Cosa puoi fare?

Tentativi di criminalizzare la leadeship della protesta nonviolenta sono culminate nel passato con uno straordinario supporto da parte di persone motivate al raggiungimento della giustizia in tutto il mondo.

1. Per favore protestate contattando i vostri rappresentanti politici cosi come consoli ed ambasiatori in Israele (http://www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-of/Israel) chiedendo che Israele la smetta di reprimere la resistenza popolare e nonviolenta e liberi Adeeb Abu Rahman e tutti i prigionieri di Bil’in.
2. Il Comitato Popolare di Bilin necessita urgentemente fondi per pagare le spese legali sia per il processo di Montreal sia per poter rappresentare gli attivisti arrestati presso le corti militari.

Per favore donate al fondo legale di Bilin attraverso PayPal. Se volete fare una donazione esentasse negli Stati Uniti o in Canada contattate: bilinlegal@gmail.com.

Il Comitato Popolare contro il Muro e gli insediamenti israeliani

Il contesto

Il villaggio di Bil’in e situato nella West Bank, 12 chilometri ad Ovest di Ramallah e quattro a est della Linea Verde. Il villaggio agricolo ha una grandezza di 988 acri ed conta 1,780 residenti.

Circa il 55% della terra coltivata e coltivabile di Bil’in ė stata dichiarata “Terra di Stato” da Israele e confiscata per la costruzione dell’insediamento israeliano Modi’in Illit. Questo ė l’insediamento piu popolato e conta oltre 42,000 residenti e i piani israeliani sono di raggiungere una popolazione di 150,000.

Prima del 1948 Bilin contava su un estensione di 4,085 dunams. Nel 1982 e nuovamente nel 1980, circa 1,980 dinams sono stati confiscati. Altri 260 dunams sono stati confiscati per la costruzione del muro nel 2005.

Nel 2004, la Corte Internazionale di Giustizia decise che il muro ė contrario al diritto internazionale e, in particolare, al diritto internazionale umanitario. La corte stabilí inoltre che anche gli insediamenti israeliani sono da considerare illegali, sottolineando che il percorso del muro ė strettamente connesso con la posizione degli insediamenti nelle vicinanze della Linea Verde, annettendo in questo modo un’altro 12% della West Bank a Israele.

Nonostante l’opinione della Corte Internazionale di Giustizia, Israele inizió i lavori per la costruzione del muro sulla terra di Bil’in, tagliando il villaggio in due cosí da poter sistemare Modi’in Illit e la sua futura espansione sul lato “israeliano” del muro.

Nel Marzo 2005, i residenti di Bil’in cominciarono ad organizzare quotidianamente azioni dirette e dimostrazioni contro il furto delle loro terre. Conquistando l’attenzione della comunitá internazionale grazie alla loro creativitá e persistenza, Bil’in ė diventato il simbolo della resistenza popolare. Circa cinque anni dopo, Bil’in continua a organizzare proteste settimanalmente, ogni Venerdi.

Bil’in ha ospitato conferenze annuali sul tema della resistenza popolare dal 2006, mettendo a dispozione un forum di discussione per attivisti, intellettuali e personaggi influenti, per discutere le strategie della lotta nonviolenta contro l’occupazione.

Le forze di sicurezza Israeliane hanno usato sound granades (granate che stordiscono a causa del rumore) e schock granades, cannoni ad acqua, proiettili di gomma, gas lacrimogeni e proiettili di calibro 0,22 contro i contestatori.

Il 17 Aprile 2009, Bassem Abu Rahma ė stato colpito in pieno petto da un gas lacrimogeno lanciato ad alta velocitá dall’esrcito Israeliano ed ė morto a causa delle ferite nell’ospedale di Ramallah.

Tra i 75 residenti di Bil’in arrestati in relazione alle dimostrazioni contro il muro, 27 sono stati arrestati durante una incursione notturna dell’esercito in data 23 Giugno 2009.

Nonostante le sue radici popolari, Bil’in si rivolse ai Giudici alla fine del 2005. Nel Settembre del 2007, due anni dopo aver iniziato i procedimenti legali, l’alta Corte Israeliana di Giustizia stabilí che a causa della costruzione illegale dell’insediamento Modi’in Illit, la costruzione delle abitazioni non avrebbe potuto essere completata e il percorso del muro avrebbe dovuto essere deviato alcune centinaia di metri ad Ovest, restituendo cosi il 25% delle terre al villaggio di Bilin. Ad oggi, la decisione dell’Alta Corte non ha ancora trovato applicazione e la costruzione dell’insediamento continua.

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SPANISH

Apoya la lucha de Bil’in

“Igual que un hombre sencillo llamado Gandhi lideró la exitosa lucha noviolenta en la India y gente sencilla como Rosa Parks y Nelson Mandela lideraron la lucha por los derechos civiles en los Estados Unidos y Sudáfrica, gente sencilla aquí en Bil’in están llevando a cabo una lucha noviolenta que les llevará a la libertad. La experiencia de Sudáfrica demuestra que la injusticia puede ser desmantelada.” – Arzobispo Desmond Tutu, durante una visita a Bil’in el 27 de Agosto de 2009

Adeeb Abu Rahmah, un activista principal y organizador del pueblo de Bil’in en Cisjordania, está detenido desde su arresto durante una manifestación el 10 de Julio de 2009 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqaO8lFYuM0). Miles de activistas de solidaridad Israelíes e internacionales que se han manifestado junto con Adeeb contra el robo de las tierras de Bil’in durante los pasados cinco años pueden testificar su inquebrantable compromiso con la noviolencia y la acción digna.

Adeeb que ha estado detenido durante más de tres meses, no es sospechoso de cometer ningún tipo de violencia, sino que fue acusado por un cargo genérico de “incitación a la violencia”. Un juez había decidido inicialmente que Adeeb fuera liberado bajo condiciones restrictivas, pero una apelación presentada por el fiscal militar consiguió que la decisión fuera revocada y que permaneciera en prisión hasta el final del procedimiento legal. Los juicios a palestinos en tribunales militares israelíes a menudo tardan un año. Adeeb es el único sustento para sus 9 hijos, su esposa y su madre.

El arresto de Adeeb es parte del más reciente intento de los militares israelíes de aplastar la campaña en curso de resistencia popular noviolenta en Bil’in. Una oleada de incursiones nocturnas y arrestos de manifestantes y líderes del Comité Popular de Bil’in empezaron al mismo tiempo que la vista preliminar en un proceso contra dos compañías Canadienses responsables de la construcción de un asentamiento Israelí sobre tierra de Bil’in

El 23 de Junio de 2009, el Tribunal Canadiense escuchó las alegaciones preliminares de la querella presenta por Bil’in contra dos compañías registradas en Canadá (Green Park International & Green Mount International). El pueblo busca justicia contra la construcción de asentamientos en su tierra bajo la legislación canadiense del año 2000 de Crímenes contra la Humanidad y el Estatuto de Crímenes de Guerra.

Las fuerzas israelíes han arrestado a 27 habitantes, 11 de los cuales, tienen menos de 18 años. Dieciséis habitantes de Bil’in permanecen detenidos por Israel, nueve de los cuales son menores. Se ha informado que a algunos de los arrestados se les ha preguntado durante los interrogatorios, sobre la querella presentada en Canadá.

El abrumador apoyo y enérgicas protestas de la comunidad internacional han contribuido a lo que parece ser el fin de las incursiones nocturnas (la última tuvo lugar el 30 de Septiembre de 2009). A pesar de que los soldados han dejado de venir a arrestar a manifestantes durante la noche, las secuelas de las incursiones han dejado a Bil’in con grandes honorarios/fianzas legales y 16 habitantes todavía detenidos por los israelíes.

A pesar de la presión de las autoridades israelíes, el pueblo sigue manteniendo sus manifestaciones semanales. Los habitantes de Bil’in se manifestaron en solidaridad con Adeeb Abu Rahme (http://palsolidarity.org/2009/10/9054) y recientemente presentaron una apelación en el caso judicial canadiense. (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1256037270183&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull). Mientras ellos siguen con su lucha, necesitan tu apoyo.

¿Qué puedes hacer?

Los intentos de criminalizar a los líderes de las protestas no violentas fueron frenados anteriormente con la ayuda de un apoyo masivo por parte de gente comprometida con la justicia en todo el mundo.

1. Por favor protesta contactando con tus representantes políticos así como con tus cónsules y embajadores en Israel (http://www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-of/Israel) para pedir enérgicamente que Israel deje de tener como objetivo la resistencia popular noviolenta y que liberen a Adeeb Abu Rahmah y a todos los prisioneros de Bil’in.
2. El Comité Popular de Bil’in necesita fondos para pagar los honorarios legales tanto del juicio en Montreal como para representar a los manifestantes arrestados ante los tribunales militares. Por favor haz tu aportación al fondo legal de Bil’in a través de PayPal. Si quieres hacer una donación deducible de impuestos en EEUU o Canadá, contacta con bilinlegal@gmail.com.

El Comité Popular de Bil’in contra el Muro y los Asentamientos

Antecedentes

El pueblo de Bil’in en Cisjordania está localizado a 12 Km. al oeste de Ramallah y 4 Km. al Este de la Línea Verde. Es un pueblo agrícola de unos 4.085 dunams (988 acres) de extensión y con unos 1.780 habitantes.

Aproximadamente el 55% de la tierra agrícola de Bil’in ha sido declarada ‘Tierra del Estado’ por Israel y confiscada para la construcción del bloque de asentamientos Modi’in Illit. Modi’in Illit tiene mayor población que cualquier otro bloque de asentamientos, con más de 42.000 habitantes con el plan de alcanzar una población de 150.000.

Antes de 1948, Bil’in tenía una extensión de 4.085 dunams. A principios de 1982 y de nuevo en 1991, les fueron quitados 1.980 dunams. 260dunams más les fueron quitados para construcción del Muro en 2005.

En 2004, la Corte Internacional de Justicia dictaminó que el Muro era contrario a la ley internacional, en particular, la Ley Humanitaria Internacional. El Tribunal declaró además que los asentamientos de Israel son ilegales bajo las mismas leyes, teniendo en cuenta que el trazado del Muro está íntimamente conectado a los asentamientos adyacentes a la Línea Verde, y además anexionaba el 12% de Cisjordania a Israel.

A pesar del dictamen, a principios de 2005, Israel empezó a construir el Muro de separación en tierra de Bil’in, cortando el pueblo por la mitad para situar allí Modi’in Illit y su futuro crecimiento en el “lado Israelí” del Muro.

En Marzo de 2005, los residentes de Bil’in empezaron a organizar acciones directas casi diarias y manifestaciones contra el robo de sus tierras. Ganándose la atención de la comunidad internacional con su creatividad y perseverancia, Bil’in se ha convertido en un símbolo de resistencia popular. Casi cinco años más tarde, Bil’in sigue manteniendo sus protestas semanales cada Viernes.

Bil’in ha celebrado conferencias anuales sobre Resistencia popular desde 2006, proporcionando un foro para activistas, intelectuales y líderes para debatir estrategias para la lucha noviolenta contra la Ocupación.

Las fuerzas israelíes han utilizado granadas de sonido y de impacto, cañones de agua, balas de acero forradas de goma, granadas de gases lacrimógenos, botes de humo, y balas letales de calibre 0.22 contra los manifestantes.

El 17 de Abril de 2009, a Bassem Abu Rahma, las fuerzas Israelíes le dispararon en el pecho con un proyectil de gas lacrimógeno de alta velocidad, a consecuencia de lo cual murió de sus heridas en un hospital de Ramallah.

De los 75 habitantes de Bil’in arrestados en relación con manifestaciones contra el Muro, 27 lo han sido a partir de la campaña de incursiones nocturnas que comenzó el ejército israelí el 23 de junio de 2009.

Además de este movimiento de base, Bil’in se dirigió a los Tribunales en otoño de 2005. En Septiembre de 2007, dos años después de haberse iniciado el procedimiento legal, el Tribunal Supremo Israelí de Justicia falló que debido a la construcción ilegal en parte de Modi’in Illit, no se podía terminar la construcción de casas y que el trazado del Muro debía ser movido varios cientos de metros al oeste, devolviendo el 25% de la tierra de Bil’in al pueblo. A día de hoy, la sentencia del Tribunal Supremo no ha sido ejecutada y la construcción del asentamiento sigue.

6 November 2009

The 20th anniversary to the fall of the Berlin Wall will be marked this Friday in mass demonstrations across the West Bank calling for an immediate dismantling of Israel’s wall and settlements

Exactly twenty years ago, On 9 November 1989, the Berlin Wall came crumbling down in two days that inspired hope for a world in which walls could no longer keep people apart. Today, a wall twice as high and five times as long is being built by
Israel in the West Bank, in blunt contempt of international law, to separate Palestinians from their lands.

Despite the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion from 2004, which had pronounced Israel’s wall illegal, and called for its removal, no significant changes on the ground were made.

The demonstrators raised a model of the Wall at the Wall itself, which stated that, as the Berlin Wall fell twenty years ago, the Bil’in Wall must fall today.

The anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall has been declared an international day of action against Israel’s barrier. Today the protesters called for its removal, and attempt to implement the ICJ’s decision.

Several demonstrators suffered from tear gas inhalation from canisters thrown at them by the Israeli occupation soldiers in their attempt to suppress the weekly protest of Bil’in citizens and solidarity groups.

The demonstration was called by the Popular Committee Against the Wall and started directly after the Friday prayers. Bil’in citizens were joined by a group of international and Israeli peace activists and together they raised Palestinian flags and banners condemning the occupation, racist policy of building the Wall and settlements, land confiscation, road closures and detention and killing of innocent people.

The Brecht-Eislerchoir of Brussels Belgium sung several songs of solidarity and resistance to support the struggle in Bilin. The choir has presented in Belgium a choral piece ,The Shouting Fence, on the Palestinian situation with text by Mahmoud Darwich. After the concerts we wanted to see with our own eyes what the effects are in the daily life of Palestininans. Our attendance in the demonstration in Bilin strengthens our commitment to the Palestinian struggle for freedom In this way we try to raise awareness in Belgium about the occupation and the apartheid wall. In addition to that we have anther group from Ireland from IPSC .

Two days before, a large group of European diplomats made a visit to Bil’in, and went to the Wall to see how it has stolen the villagers land. They then held a meeting with the Popular Committee where they heard about the affects of the IOF’s night raids into the village. Diplomats visited from Romania, France, Slovenia, Sweden, UK, Portugal, Denmark, Netherlands, Malta, Austria, Finland, Czech Republic, Poland, EU, Ireland and Belgium.

Imprisoned American citizen and Michigan resident Ahlam Mohsen to be deported to the US after being arrested in a Palestinian home taken over by Israeli settlers in Occupied East Jerusalem.

Ahlam was a guest of the al-Kurd family when on the morning of 3 November 2009 Israeli settlers burst in and seized part of the building. Contrary to eyewitness accounts, the police claim the 21-year-old attacked them.

From the Givon prison in Ramle where Ms. Mohsen is currently awaiting deportation she reported that:
“The Israeli police were violently pushing an elderly Palestinian woman. So I stepped in front of them. They told me to move and when I refused they started forcefully pushing me. Then they grabbed me and carried me into a police van. While I was waiting at the Israeli Ministry of Interior, the police officers kept telling each other that I was a ‘dirty Arab’ and introducing me as ‘Osama Bin Laden’s sister’. One of them, threatened to ‘break my head’. None of the other non-violent demonstrators were targeted; the way they treated me, it’s obvious that I was arrested because I’m of Arab descent.”

The 40 settlers, accompanied by private armed security and Israeli police forces, entered a section of the home, threw out the family’s belongings and locked themselves in.

The takeover came after an appeal submitted by the family’s lawyer was rejected by the District Court. In their appeal, the Palestinian family was challenging an earlier court decision that deemed a section of the house illegal and ordered that the keys be given to settlers. The settlers proceeded to enter the house, while the court did not grant them the right to enter the property.

The al-Kurd home was built in 1956. An addition to the house was built 10 years ago, but the family was not allowed to inhabit the section because the municipality refused to grant them a building permit. Visibly unequal laws are used to make it possible for settlers to move into a home where it was declared illegal for Palestinian residents to inhabit. The Israeli authorities exercise their abilities to demolish and evict Palestinian residents, while ignoring building violations from the Israeli population in East Jerusalem.

The al-Kurds have become the fourth Sheikh Jarrah family whose house has been occupied by settlers in the last year. So far, 60 people have been left homeless. In total, 28 families living in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located directly north of the Old City, face imminent eviction from their homes.

In today’s demonstration against the illegal construction of the Apartheid Wall that is designed to steal the agricultural lands of the villages of Southern Bethlehem, the people of al-Ma’sara celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany. In chants and speeches, the demonstrators insisted on the illegality of the Wall and of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, while international and Israeli activists showed support using percussion instruments.

Evoking the removal of the Wall, the children of the village succeeded in removing the barb wire and cross the arbitrary barrier which the Israeli army puts up every Friday to prevent the demonstrators from reaching the actual construction site of the Wall. Several children sustained cuts on their hands while stepping over the barb wire. The soldiers threatened the demonstrators with arrests and violently pushed the children back across the fence.

Meanwhile, one military vehicle entered the village from the back and parked on the main road, thus encircling the demonstrators from both sides. On their way back to the village, the demonstrators stopped at the vehicle and crowded in on the soldiers, singing, clapping, and playing drums. A female protestor from the village asked the soldiers why they insisted on penetrating deep into Palestine, always as aliens to this land.

The LA Times has published a great article (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-nonviolence4-2009nov04,0,226753.story?page=1&track=rss) about Bil’in and the popular struggle in today’s edition (November 4th).

As past experience teach us, an assault by Israel’s supporter is sure to follow immediately, and be directed at both the paper itself, its editors and the reporter.

These attacks are beyond mere nuisance – they apply real pressure on those targeted, and often dissuade major media from covering Palestinian issues in an objective and truthful manner.

Media coverage generally and articles such as this are of great importance for us here on the ground, and we would like to do everything within our power to counter the attacks that threaten them.

I urge you to dedicate just a few minutes of your time and send a supportive letter to the LA Times and to the reporter, Richard Boudreaux.

The emails to send letters to are, respectively:
letters@latimes.com and boudreaux@latimes.com

Original letters are of course better, but also feel free to use or model yours after the sample letter attached below.

Please bear in mind that letters to the editor in the LA Times have a word limit of 150, and must include your full name, mailing address, daytime phone number, and e-mail address. This information is seen only by the letters editors and is not used for any commercial purpose.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear LA Times,

I was very pleased to see Richard Boudreaux’s article “Palestinians who see nonviolence as their weapon” in your November 4th edition.

As readers, we have gotten so used to seeing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict solely through the perspective of the barrel of a gun, that any civic engagement in it erroneously appears marginal and unimportant to most audiences.

This misguided view of the Palestinian struggle is too often the one that dominates the media’s discourse. Most Palestinians, like most people everywhere else, are not gun-toting fanatics hell bent on violence, but rather are ordinary people determined to attain freedom and justice from under an unbearable military occupation. Articles like Boudreax’s, which depicts Palestinian resistance, as it is – multifaceted and diverse – are as important as they are rare.

I hope the LA Times will continue to defy the governing notions in the media about Israel-Palestine, and publish articles true to the reality on the ground.

Yours,

4 November 2009

Eleven organizations from the US, Palestine and Israel have called on baseball’s New York Mets to cancel a November 21st dinner at the Caesars Club at Citi Field for the Brooklyn-based Hebron Fund. The dinner is a fundraiser for Israeli settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank City of Hebron. In a letter sent to the Mets on November 3rd, the groups said, “The New York Mets will be facilitating activities that directly violate international law and the Obama administration’s call for a freeze in settlement construction, and that actively promote racial discrimination, and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homes in Hebron.” Seven hundred Israeli settlers, living amidst 150,000 Palestinians in Hebron, are expanding their hold on the historic old city by driving out the Palestinian residents.

The groups added that “It would be a tragic irony for an event funding Israeli settlers’ violent actions and discriminatory policies against Palestinians to be held at Caesars Club which, according to the Mets, “sits directly on top of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda,” which was named “in honor of Jackie Robinson, the… great American who broke baseball’s color barrier.” The Mets and Major League Baseball promote Robinson’s legacy, including Robinson’s value of “Justice: Treating all people fairly, no matter who they are.” Mets owner Fred Wilpon has explained in the past that, as a 16 year-old, meeting Jackie Robinson was an experience that never left him. “As a kid, a nothing, he treated me with all of that dignity that he treated everyone else in his life.”

On the Hebron Fund webpage, clicking on the symbol which says “Give to Hebron” leads to a donations page on the website for the Jewish Community of Hebron which says, among other things, “keep Hebron Jewish for the Jewish people.” In a report on Hebron, the Israeli human rights organizations B’Tselem and ACRI have labeled the demands of Hebron’s settlers as “racist.” Hebron settlement leader Moshe Levinger, praised in a Hebron Fund dinner video, has been quoted saying,“The Arabs know to behave like good boys around us.” Hebron Fund Executive Director Yossi Baumol also made very derogatory comments about Arabs in a 2007 interview.

The signers of the letter include Adalah-NY, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Brooklyn For Peace, Coalition of Women for Peace (Israel), CODEPINK Women for Peace, Gush Shalom (Israel), Jews Against the Occupation-NYC, Jewish Voice for Peace, Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (Palestine), US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, and WESPAC Foundation. The letter was cced and sent to Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Middle East Envoy George Mitchell, who has a history of involvement with Major League Baseball, and Rachel Robinson, Jackie Robinson’s wife.

The letter explains that reviewing last year’s and this year’s Hebron Fund dinner shows that some dinner honorees support violence and terrorizing Palestinians. In 1990, Noam Arnon, who is to be honored at the dinner, called three Israelis who were convicted of killing three Arabs and maiming two Palestinian mayors in car bombings “heroes.” In a video on the Hebron Fund website, 2008 dinner honoree Myrna Zisman pays tribute to Hebron settler Yifat Alkoby. Alkoby became famous worldwide in 2006 when she was videotaped in Hebron terrorizing and calling a Palestinian woman and girl “whores” who were caged inside their own home as protection from settler attacks. In another video featuring 2008 dinner honorees, three children who appear to be the honorees’ children are briefly shown holding guns and smiling.

All Israeli settlements violate international law, according to a broad international consensus. The Hebron Fund’s dinner invitation says, “Join us in support of Hebron and in protest of today’s building freeze in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank].” In a September, 2008 radio interview, the Hebron Fund’s Yossi Baumol explained, “There are real facts on the ground that are created by people helping the Hebron Fund and coming to our dinners.”

Washington Post columnist David Ignatius recently highlighted the Hebron Fund and noted that, “critics of Israeli settlements question why American taxpayers are supporting indirectly, through the exempt contributions, a process that the government condemns. A search of IRS records identified 28 U.S. charitable groups that made a total of $33.4 million in tax-exempt contributions to settlements and related organizations between 2004 and 2007.” The Hebron Fund has been the subject of complaints to the I.R.S. regarding its tax-exempt status. The complaints request investigations of allegations that it raises funds for the development of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli organization Gush Shalom recently urged the National Lawyers Guild, an American organization, to encourage American tax authorities to strip US non-profits that support Israeli settlements of their tax-exempt status.

4 November 2009

Maysaa Al-Kurd has lived all her life in the home her family moved into in 1956. The pomegranate tree standing in the garden was planted by her father when she was still an infant nearly half a century ago. But that hardly reassured her yesterday when she heard the Jewish settlers break into the next-door extension building her brother Nabil built to house his family in 2001.

“I heard the door opened by force,” she said. “And then I heard one of them say: ‘This furniture belongs to whom?’” Later she saw “with my own eyes” a settler breaking a television set. Outside, a refrigerator, cushions and household furniture, apparently removed by the intruders, stood for several hours in the pouring rain. Inside, broken glass could be seen above a stove.

What Ms Kurd, of the inner-city East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, was hearing at about 10.30am yesterday was the latest in an accelerating series of highly charged and organised moves by settlers into the city’s Arab sector. Armed with a court order saying they own the property, the settlers – about 40, according to Ms Kurd – decided to break in just four days after Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, dismayed Palestinian and other Arab leaders by praising the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “unprecedented” promise of “a restraint” in illegal settlement activity.

Mrs Clinton sought on Monday to “clarify” her remarks by acknowledging that Mr Netanyahu’s proposals fell well short of the settlement freeze the US had earlier called for. And, while Mr Netanyahu has offered temporarily to halt authorisations of new settlement building in the West Bank, he has resolutely set his face against any slowdown in East Jerusalem. The UN says that 194 people were forcibly displaced from their homes in East Jerusalem by evictions and demolitions between January and July of this year. Israel insists it annexed the Arab sector of Jerusalem after the Six-Day War in 1967, but this is rejected by most of the international community who endorse Palestinian aspirations for it to be the capital of a future state. In Amman, the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband expressed “concern” over events at the Kurd house and added: “The current situation is obviously particularly tense in respect of Jerusalem.”

Since a 2001 court order the rooms invaded by the settlers have been closed and used only to store furniture. But for Ms Kurd, whose property is one of at least 24 that settlers are hoping to acquire in this sensitive neighbourhood, their sudden arrival only intensified her fear of losing her home. “We are all worried for the future,” she said, “not just in Sheikh Jarrah but in all East Jerusalem.”

Only last week about a hundred Israeli security personnel arrived to remove a nearby protest tent that the Palestinian Ghawi family had been sleeping in since being evicted in August. That move came 24 hours after bulldozers levelled the homes of six families across East Jerusalem on the grounds they did not have the proper permit. Human rights activists say it is exponentially harder for Palestinians than Israelis to obtain permits.

Another elderly member of Ms Kurd’s extended family, Mohammed al- Kurd, died after being evicted last August from his home and moving into a similar tent to the Ghawi family’s. Like other of his relatives, he had refused to pay rent to the post-1967 Jewish owners, partly, some diplomats say, because they still dispute the historic right of ownership.

Maysaa al-Khurd said that her “life and blood” was in the house. Asked about the settlers’ argument that they have a right to the land because Yemenite Jews lived there before 1948, she added that her own family were 1948 refugees from what was now Israel. “My family are all from Haifa. Can I go there and say I own the house and I have the key? Can I tell the people there that is my house? They will kill me.”

Police stood guard outside the Sheikh Jarrah house while settlers occupied the adjacent building but eventually left on police advice. However two security guards employed by them were still there at the end of the day.

Although the house and its land was allotted to the Palestinian family in 1956 by the UN Relief and Works Agency and Jordan – then in control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem – the Israeli authorities expropriated numbers of properties in the area as state land after 1967. In some cases – apparently including this one – the land was later transferred or sold to companies or organisations representing settlers. None of the departing settlers would speak to reporters, but Adnan Husseini, the Palestinian Authority governor of Jerusalem, said: “The changing position of the American administration led to this.”

Nabil al-Kurd, a father of four children, was summoned from work by his family when the settlers arrived. He was later told by police the settlers would be ordered to stay away pending 10 days in which Mr Kurd could lodge an appeal.

4 November 2009

Every Friday, Mohammed Khatib’s forces assemble for battle with the Israeli army and gather their weapons: a bullhorn, banners — and a fierce belief that peaceful protest can bring about a Palestinian state.

A few hundred strong, they march to the Israeli barrier that separates the tiny farming community of Bilin from much of its land. They chant and shout. A few teenagers throw stones.

Khatib helped launch the weekly ritual five years ago in an attempt to “re-brand” a Palestinian struggle often associated with rocket attacks and suicide bombers.

“Nonviolence is our most powerful weapon,” says the media-savvy secretary of the Bilin village council. “If they cannot accuse us of terrorism, they cannot stop us. The world will support us.”

The problem is, he doesn’t get muchsupport from other Palestinians. After two uprisings in two decades, they seem largely indifferent to his quixotic call for a third.

His message is a hard sell: Khatib, 35, is a modern-day Gandhi in a culture that enshrines the language of the gun, even if most Palestinians have never used one. And the risks of his activism are enormous.

The Israeli army has targeted him. He was arrested, severely beaten and threatened with death during a series of midnight raids on the village this summer. He was freed on condition that he report to an Israeli police station each Friday at the hour of the weekly protest.

Although the village has persisted with its marches and become a widely acclaimed symbol of civil disobedience, his vision of the “Bilin model” being replicated on a large scale across the West Bank has not materialized.

A few thousand Palestinian activists have been taught nonviolent principles and tactics in the last five years, according to the independent Bethlehem-based Holy Land Trust, which conducts training. Their scattered initiatives have won limited relief from Israel’s security restrictions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

But those efforts have not gelled into a mass movement, much less compelled Israel to move toward agreement on a Palestinian state.

Activists say they are hindered by Israeli crackdowns, resignation among ordinary Palestinians and a deep split in the political leadership between Hamas’ advocacy of armed struggle and the Palestinian Authority’s hope for a revival of U.S.-brokered peace talks with Israel.

Relative calm prevails in the Palestinian territories, but Khatib says it cannot last long under the diplomatic impasse.

A trim, articulate man with closely cropped hair, he radiates a brooding intensity. In a long conversation, he spoke in rapid-fire sentences about his role models — Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela — while taking cellphone calls about the next move in a legal challenge to the barrier.

He believes Israel is trying to crush nonviolent activists because it would rather take on an armed insurgency.

“This doesn’t make it any easier for us to convince people that our path of resistance is the right one,” Khatib said. “It’s going to be a slow process. There aren’t many visible successes so far.”

Khatib got his first taste of militancy as a teenager during the first intifada, the uprising that began in 1987. He blocked roads to try to keep the army out of his village, painted slogans on walls and flew the Palestinian flag, then an illegal act, at demonstrations.

The mass participation and relatively peaceful course of that uprising, when few Palestinians were armed with more than rocks, won sympathy abroad and a major concession: In the early 1990s, Israel recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization and began to consider the creation of a Palestinian state.

Today’s nonviolence initiatives tap into nostalgia for the first intifada, in what Khatib calls a sober reaction to the armed uprising that bloodied the first half of this decade after peace talks broke down. More than 4,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis died.

Khatib, who dropped out when things turned violent, remembers the killings that changed him.

It was 2001. Khatib watched in horror as Israeli soldiers shot an unarmed friend at a checkpoint. Two weeks later, the militant Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade made a revenge attack on the checkpoint, killing seven soldiers.

“My first reaction was ‘Good for Al Aqsa!’ ” Khatib said. Then he realized the dead soldiers belonged to a different unit, not the one on duty when his friend was shot.

“It made me wonder: This cycle of death, of violent action and reaction, how we can break it?”

His answer was to help organize a movement against the intifada’s legacy: the barrier Israel built to protect against militant attacks but that also cut deep into parts of the West Bank, isolating Palestinians from 8% of the territory. The string of concrete walls, fences and patrol roads extends more than 280 miles.

He recruited Israeli and international activists to march every Friday with Bilin residents up to the fence, which is 14 feet high here. It protects a part of the sprawling Jewish settlement of Modiin Illit that was built on the village’s land.

He made sure protesters carried video cameras to document the army’s use of tear gas and rubber-coated bullets to keep them away. And he worked to enforce zero-tolerance of violence by the activists, failing to stop only the few teenagers who sling rocks and occasionally strike soldiers.

Michael Sfard, an Israeli lawyer retained by the village, credits Khatib with the “brilliant idea” that turned the tide in a landmark legal victory two years ago.

Under cover of darkness, Khatib led a clandestine construction crew across the barrier and built a makeshift hut on village land that had been usurped for a new neighborhood of the Jewish settlement. (The stealth maneuver mimicked Israel’s expansionist strategy of creating “facts on the ground.”)

When the army threatened to demolish the hut, the village went to Israel’s Supreme Court and challenged the new neighborhood, which lacked formal government authorization. The court ordered Israel to stop building in the neighborhood, move the fence and restore about half the 575 acres of olive groves Bilin’s farmers had lost.

Khatib then set up an alliance of 11 West Bank villages to share his strategies, and some have borne fruit. Six communities have successfully challenged the barrier’s route across their land. Activists have linked up with outside supporters to sneak water trucks into parched communities cut off by the army and to protect olive harvesters from harassment by settlers.

But in Bilin, the legal victory gave way to setbacks.

The army has yet to comply with the ruling and move the barrier; the precise new route has been tied up in litigation. Meanwhile, soldiers began reacting with greater force to the protests, and most Israelis, who value the barrier as a shield against violence, remained indifferent.

In April, Khatib was standing a few feet away when a companion, Bassem Abu Rahma, was killed by a high-velocity tear gas grenade fired into a crowd of marchers.

Abu Rahma’s death still haunts him. Twice, he says, soldiers have warned him that he’ll “end up like Bassem” if he keeps resisting their presence in the West Bank.

Khatib and 27 other protest leaders and participants were arrested in their homes during the midnight raids that began in June. Seventeen are still being held. Khatib faces charges of inciting violence.

Asked to explain the crackdown, a battalion commander said protesters causing damage to the fence had been photographed and singled out for arrest. But after a week of requests, the army did not detail any damage claims.

On a recent Friday, the villagers had one visible impact on the fence, a Palestinian flag left hanging from barbed wire. After the marchers had gone home, a soldier tore it down, wiped his hands with it and stuffed it into a pocket.