Occupation and Colonization in the West Bank, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msU0YKZtpek

People, Not Politicians, Working To End The Israeli Occupation

People, Not Politicians, Working To End The Israeli Occupation, http://es-es.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=80228131938&topic=11580&ref=mf, http://newsfeedresearcher.com/data/articles_w34/israel-palestinian-israelis.html,

Three Groups Working to Liberate Palestine from the Israeli Occupation

When the world looks at the future of Palestine these days, the principal question is unfortunately “What will Obama do?”  How far will he go in putting pressure on the new right-wing Israeli government, and how will they react?  Yet, our “messiah complex” which credits politicians with being able to solve everything single-handedly allows the world to forget about the action that is going on on the ground inside Israel/Palestine by both Israelis and Palestinians against the occupation, and the struggles they encounter.
The Palestinian town of Anata is part of Jerusalem, yet is literally a world away.  A wall and checkpoint separate it from the rest of the city to which most residents of Anata never have access; and unlike the Western part of Jerusalem, there is no mail, trash collection, or sidewalks.  Grime piles up on the side of the road or burns on the hills as residents are unsure what to do with their daily waste.   This is where the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) recently hosted their annual two-week home reconstruction camp in which they rebuilt two Palestinian homes destroyed by the Israeli government against international law.  This year the project is being funded by the Spanish government – who consequently was accused of funding anti-Israeli NGOs and meddling in Israel’s internal affairs – in which 60 volunteers from all over the world took part.  One of the reconstructed homes is being rebuilt by ICAHD for the third time and the other for the first time; ironically, both houses are adjacent to a section of the wall splitting up Palestinian East Jerusalem that was completed just last week.  As a group organizing Israeli-Palestinian solidarity activities since its foundation five years ago, to say that ICAHD has developed a bad reputation in Israeli society is to put it lightly.  Having rebuilt over 165 houses for Arabs left homeless by house demolitions in the West Bank, ICAHD has been characterized by the Netanyahu government and the mainstream Israeli press as a radical left-wing organization that supports terrorists by illegally rebuilding houses that were destroyed for security purposes.  However, ICAHD maintains that “Israel’s policy of demolishing Palestinian homes [24,000 since 1967] has nothing whatsoever to do with security [but is] purely political: to confine the 3.8 million residents of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza to small enclaves, thus effectively foreclosing any viable Palestinian state and ensuring Israeli control.”
On the ride from posh West Jerusalem down to Anata with Jeff Halper, the head of ICAHD, the evidence of the injustice and contradiction passes visibly by through the car window.  We pick up a young American reporter writing about the camp for the Jerusalem Post who made Aliyah just two years ago.  After a few questions it becomes clear that agreement on the conflict will not be easy, as he is initially unsure of the differences between Area A, B, and C, and is interested in “the similarity between illegal settlement construction by Israeli settlers and ICAHD’s reconstruction of demolished homes.”  “They are both equally illegal and putting ‘facts on the ground’ on land that is disputed,” he says.  The end of the car ride was relatively quiet.
Arriving at the camp, Israelis, internationals, and Palestinians are working on a house with an incredible view of the wall winding its way through Palestinian neighborhoods, separating them from one another.  Both sides are technically Jerusalem, yet most Palestinians on the Anata side, like all West Bankers, are prohibited from ever visiting Palestinians on the other side.  “How can this wall be about security when there are Palestinians on both sides?” Halper asks.  The journalist readies his equipment and presses record on his camera; he notifies Halper, “You have thirty seconds to answer this question: Why do you support terrorism?”

Another Israeli group working to end the occupation is Ta’ayush, Arabic for “life in common.”  A self-proclaimed grassroots movement of Arab and Jewish Israelis, Ta’ayush strives to break down the walls of extreme racism and segregation in the state of Israel and the occupied territories by constructing an Arab-Jewish partnership.  While Ta’ayush is involved in many different activities and is open to a diversity of tactics in ending the occupation, on the particular day I worked with Ta’ayush they accompanied shepherds in the desert near the Karmel settlement in south Hebron, not far from the Dead Sea.  This part of the southern West Bank is a difficult zone where settlers have created illegal outposts that divide Palestinian towns from one another and introduce a permanent army presence.  Even when Palestinian children walk to school in the morning to a neighboring town, international volunteers from Christian Peacemakers Team must accompany them as protection from rock-throwing settlers.
Ahmed, Hussein and Tarek are brothers and young shepherds between the ages of 11 and 16 who live between two settler beef farms not far from Karmel settlement.  Though they maintain a modest herd of roughly 250 sheep and goats in a very arid zone of the West Bank, settlers do not allow their animals to graze on the hills surrounding the settlement built just a few years ago.  Ahmed said that they occasionally come out shooting and screaming “go away!” and “forbidden!”  More often the police or the army come to tell them to leave the area, this being the case at least once a week Ahmed tells me.  Even with the presence of a dozen or so Israelis with a few international activists, the army arrives to tell the shepherds that they cannot let their animals graze on the hilltops as it is a security threat.  The soldiers tell Ta’ayush the animals are only allowed to graze in the valley.  Yet, the problem is that there are no plants in the valley for animals to eat.  No other solutions for the shepherds are offered, and it appears the vicious cycle will continue in the future.

Like Americans working against the war in Iraq from within the empire, Israelis must stand up to the incredible injustices imposed by their government on the occupied Palestinian people.  However, in the wake of anti-colonial struggles throughout the 20th century, Palestinians, like Iraqis, understand that the struggle for liberation is ultimately their own.  Mousa Abu Maria founded the Palestine Solidarity Project (PSP) in the summer of 2006 in the village of Beit Ommar as a movement dedicated to opposing the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land through non-violent direct action.  PSP is not only dedicated to supporting Palestinian communities resisting the occupation, but is interested in Palestinian unity by working with all people and building a movement for all of Palestine.  “Our goal is not for Beit Ommar, but for all of Palestine,” Abu Maria says.  By demonstrating against the continuing construction of the Apartheid Wall, Israeli-only roads, Israeli settlements, removing illegal roadblocks and other structures which intentionally separate Palestinian communities, and working with people most affected by settler and army violence in the area, PSP attempts to address the most pressing aspects of the occupation for Palestinian society.  “It is very important for activists to be non-violent in Palestine because we want people from all over the world to come here and understand the checkpoints, the wall, the settlements, and problems related to imprisonment and refugees,” Abu Maria stresses.  Yet, like in past colonial and Apartheid states, heavy burdens are placed on resisters from the oppressed group by the colonizers.  Like 40% of Palestinian men, Abu Maria has experienced imprisonment and torture, spending a total of 5.5 years in prison on three different occasions since 1999.  His last release was just this past month.
During the month I’ve spent at PSP the emphasis has been placed on keeping Palestinians on their land.  PSP activists have worked with farmers attacked and threatened by settlers, and attempted to raise awareness around issues concerning land, water, and settlement expansion threatening the village on three sides.  While Abu Maria understands the hopes placed on newly elected leaders in reaching a regional peace deal, the most important thing for him is continuing to engage Palestinians in the struggle for their land which is being stolen from them at an ever-increasing pace.  “People here must work for justice and security for Israelis and Palestinians because right now it only exists for Israelis,” he adds.  For PSP, “peace and security are rights not just for some of us, but for all the people of the world. Controlling another person’s life, possessions, future, and thoughts is a crime and a humiliation. We have dreams and hopes of freedom, so we are inviting all the people of the world to stand with us and share in our struggle for freedom.”

The Worst of the Occupation: Collective Punishment and Humiliation

Checkpoints

Imprisonment and Torture

Water

Olive Trees

Land Confiscation and Poverty

Friday Demonstration in Ni’lin

On Friday, August 7th at 1pm, approximately 30 international activists joined roughly 120 residents of Ni’lin on their weekly demonstration against the illegal Apartheid wall which Israel constructed on Ni’lin land.  The protesters walked through the olive grove on the southern side of the village towards the wall and settlements surrounding Ni’lin on three sides, reaching the fence around 1:30pm, many brandishing Palestinian flags.  Soldiers immediately began to shoot tear gas, sound grenades, and smelly chemical water known in Arabic as “khara” or “shit”.  Fortunately for activists, the wind blew the gas and chemicals away from them.  Many protesters threw rocks on the security road preventing army jeeps from easily accessing the demonstrators.  When security vehicles passed, they were pummeled with stones by the shebab, the soldiers jumping quickly in and out of their jeeps to shoot tear gas and rubber bullets.  After the second soldier invasion on the Palestinian side of the fence, protesters dispersed and returned to the village shortly after 3pm.  One member of the press was injured on the leg by a tear gas canister.
In 1948, the village of Ni’lin had 58,000 dunnums of land; today there remain only 7,300 dunnums.  In the latest round of land confiscation by the separation barrier, nearly 3,000 dunnums were taken including 200 for a tunnel to be built under the segregated settler-only road 446, closing the current entrance to the village.  The tunnel will close the road to Palestinian vehicles, and is designed to give Israeli occupation forces control over the movement of Palestinian residents by allowing the village to be blocked with a single military vehicle.  Ni’lin will be split into two parts, upper and lower, as the road runs through the village.

In total, 38 people have been shot by Israeli forces with live ammunition in Ni’lin: nine were shot with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and 29 were shot with 0.22 caliber live ammunition.  To date, Israeli occupation forces have killed five Palestinians and critically injured one international activist during the unarmed demonstrations.  The last use of live ammunition against Ni’lin protesters was on June 5th, 2009 in which five Palestinians were shot, including one fatality – www.palestinesolidarityproject.org

Farmers Harvest Remaining Crops after Earlier Destruction by Bat Ayin Settlers

On Tuesday, August 4th at 8am, eight international activists and members of the Palestine Solidarity Project committee accompanied Abu Jabber Soleiby and his family to his land in Saffa near the Bat Ayin settlement. While the farmers had enough time to harvest a small amount of the year’s first grapes, the international activists were forced to make a detour around a small group of Israeli soldiers at the edge of the built-up area in Saffa before they joined the Palestinians in the valley. After the farmers had been in the valley for more than an hour, one Israeli military jeep arrived between the settlement and the Palestinian agricultural land. The farmers, satisfied with their small collection of grapes, decided to head back to the village.

After returning to near the edge of the Palestinian village, well away from the right-wing Israeli settlement that has been the source of violence in the area, the group of Palestinians and internationals were stopped by approximately 15 Israeli soldiers who blocked their return to into Saffa. Soldiers asked what the internationals were doing with the farmers in the valley, insisting that soldiers were always there to protect the farmers when the Bat Ayin settlers came to harrass them in the past. Abu Jabber Soleiby showed his bruises and scars from settler attacks in rebuttal and insisted that when settlers and soldiers were both present during past attacks, soldiers protected the settlers. The soldiers let the farmers and their supporters past, after threatening two activists with arrest and 20 minutes of negotiation.

Just over three weeks ago, settlers set fire to roughly 160 dunnums of land, including hundreds of valuable fruit and olive trees. Combined with the cutting of over 125 trees in June, and an earlier fire, in the last 2 months settlers from Bat Ayin settlement have destroyed nearly all of the land that provides income for 125 extended family members of Abu Jabber, Hamad, and Abdullah Soleiby. Dozens of Israeli and international solidarity activists have been arrested since May while attempting to accompany the farmers in Saffa against brutal settler attacks. Two weeks ago, 3 teen-agers were reportedly arrested by Israeli police for ’disturbing the peace’ though police said only 1 settler was arrested after threatening a police officer.

Posted at http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/2009/08/05/soleiby-family-begin-grape-harvest-in-saffa/

Fanatic Settlers in Hebron

Hebron is simultaneously the largest and the scariest Palestinian city in the West Bank.  While other cities have their own problems – the wall in Bethlehem and Ramallah, night invasions and checkpoints in and around Nablus, and threats of home demolitions and expulsions toward the Palestinian majority in East Jerusalem – Hebron’s mix of hard-line ideological settlers that live in and control the majority of the old city give it the most tense atmosphere.

Weekly Protest in Bil’in

Over the last few weeks, the residents of Bilin have been subjected to constant night raids by the Israeli military, in retaliation to their weekly nonviolent demonstrations, now in their fifth year, against the Apartheid Wall, which has stolen over half of their land.  So far, 17 youths have been arrested, some as young as 16 years of age, usually for their participation in the demonstrations.  Many of the boys will not see their family again for months.

- from electronicintifada.net

Israeli Settlement Continues To Steal Palestinian Land With Intimidation And Fences By Michael Galvin

Israeli Settlement Continues To Steal Palestinian Land With Intimidation And Fences By Michael Galvin, http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.jewish/browse_thread/thread/7b37b895d8a14a96, http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/west-bank/1655-despite-protests-israeli-settlements-still-stealing-palestinian-land, http://current.com/items/90578149_despite-protests-israeli-settlements-still-stealing-palestinian-land.htm, http://www.slashlegal.com/showthread.php?t=172619, http://al-darb.blogspot.com/2009/08/israeli-settlement-continues-to-steal.html, http://uruknet.net/?p=m56516&hd=&size=1&l=e, http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/recentcomments, http://jnoubiyeh.blogspot.com/2009/07/israeli-settlement-continues-to-steal.html

Karmei Tzur Settlement Steals Beit Ommar Land with Intimidation and Fences

Representing just a tiny piece in the enormous puzzle of settlements that litter the West Bank, the settlement of Karmei Tzur is striving to expand.  Founded just 25 years ago by students from the Zionist Har Etzion Yeshiva, 120 families, or 700 settlers – out of a total settler population of roughly 500,000 – currently inhabit Karmei Tzur.  However, the settlement has several obstacles in the way of its desire to increase in size, notably its distance of only 100 meters from the large agricultural village of Beit Ommar with almost 15,000 Palestinian inhabitants.
Surrounded by rich agricultural land Palestinian farmers have been using for centuries, Karmei Tzur is gradually expropriating this land through the insidious use of “security fences” guarded 24/7 by the Israeli Occupation Forces – the IDF in the occupied territories – and armed settlers.  When the fence was expanded in early 2007, incorporating the land of many Palestinians, the Israelis promised that the farmers weren’t losing their right to use their land and that they could continue to access it.  Majdi Za’aqiq is a Palestinian who owns land on the settlement side of the fence: “They say you can go Saturday or Sunday, ‘Just tell us and we will let you go,’ they say… but I don’t need permission to go to my land.  If I want to go in the morning, in the evening, whenever, it’s up to me.”
The army ordered that for one person to work one day – with limited hours – on the land, the Palestinian owners would need to give two weeks notice.  Knowing full well that the majority of Palestinians would refuse to collaborate with the occupying forces, thus giving up their land to be legally taken by Israelis three years later, most of the land lies fallow.  “All farmers with land on the other side of the fence refuse to cooperate with the settlement security,” Za’aqiq said.  Even in cases where Palestinians have tried to access their land in the way proposed by the Israeli military, they were consistently denied access or harassed by the army and armed settlers.  Anti-occupation international and Israeli groups like Anarchists Against the Wall used direct action tactics to destroy parts of this fence in several instances throughout 2007.
Most of the remaining Palestinian agricultural land on the southwest side of Beit Ommar, which includes olive trees, plum trees, fig trees, and grapevines, still lines the valley along the “security fence” surrounding the settlement in a zone between Jala, an area where Bedouins live which only recently got running water for the first time, the project paid for by a foreign government, and the settlement.  Yet, as Palestinian farmers naturally continue to cultivate the land on their side of the separation fence, intimidation tactics continue as settlers and soldiers occasionally shoot live ammunition at farmers working in the area.
Ahmed Khalil Abu Hashem is a 42 year old farmer with eight children who has six dunnums – or roughly two acres – of farmland, four of which are destroyed by settlement bulldozers, without warning, every year.  The last incident of destruction took place in April 2008 in which soldiers and settlers cut 260 trees including 200 old grape vines and 60 young olive trees.  Like most Palestinians, he recounts these unbelievable events calmly as he sips his coffee on the veranda of his house with a view of the red-roofed villas in Karmei Tzur.  Besides the two dunnums of remaining plum trees, Ahmed has only three or four olive saplings left.
We accompany Ahmed on his daily trek down a dirt road to the land.  The route is bumpy, rough, and covered with large rocks that could easily pop a tire.  An open air landfill sits on the side of the road just waiting to be set alight.  Stopping just 20 meters from the fence, Ahmed leads us down to the damaged crops, only slightly recovering from last year’s attack, which end at the razor-wire fence with two rows of barbed wire in front of it.  On two occasions since last year’s destruction of the trees and vines, soldiers and settlers have shot at him with M-16s, he claims.  The most recent event was in April when six settlers arrived with their rifles and started shooting, forcing him to run and flee the field.
“The army protects the settlers all the time, no matter what they do,” he says.  When I ask Ahmed if he’s scared to come down into the fields, referring to the threat of attack and constant Israel army presence on the road just on the other side of the fence, he responds “No!” before I can even finish constructing the question in Arabic.
After just fifteen minutes on the land, an armed settler sees us and calls the army on his phone, notifying them of our presence.  Not wanting trouble for Ahmed, we leave.
Fifty meters further east along the security road which follows the fence, tractors are hard at work constructing a new street leading from the road to the settlement’s villas perched on a hilltop.  Just yesterday bulldozers were seen entering the Palestinian farmland there, though no damage was caused.  Rumors circulate in Beit Ommar that the settlement is planning to build a second security fence closer to Beit Ommar, potentially expropriating dozens of acres of some of the village’s best farmland.  Mousa Abu Maria owns land stolen by the existing settlement fence: “The Israelis lie.  They say we can apply to go to our land inside the settlement fence but this is a lie.  They say they build a new fence for security but then they build new houses.  That is Israel.”