Israeli Soldiers tear down the fence in Bili'in

*****************

1. Non Violent Direct Action in Bilin- Israeli Soldiers tear down
the fence

The villager of Bil'in joined by Israeli and International
activists built a mock security fence on the bulldozers path to the
construction site of the annexation barrier on their land.

The villager's fence was constructed on a long metal box that
Palestinian Israeli and international activists locked themselves
into. On the fence hung signs saying "the wall-over our dead
bodies" in Hebrew and Arabic. In order to remove the activists the
Israeli military first had to dismantle the mock fence!

The villagers distributed a letter in Hebrew to the soldiers that
read: "Soldier,
Wait a minute please before you aim your weapon.
You and your friends are on our land.
Had you come here as guests, we would show you the trees that our
grandfathers planted here, the vegetables that we grow, the slabs of
stone that we played on as children.
But you've been sent here as representatives of an army and a
State that has been occupying us since 1967. You have been sent here
to uproot our trees, to dry up our land, to deny our children the
slabs of stone on which they could play.
That is why we are demonstrating here.
Without weapons, facing all your weapons. Only with pain and the
knowledge that in this area there will be security for no one
without the Israeli people respecting our rights to this land;
without ending the Israeli occupation; without us achieving our
freedom.

The Popular Committees for the Struggle Against the Racist
Separation Fence."

Two Palestinians one Israeli and one British activist were detained
and later released. One of the members of the Popular Committee
against the wall, Muhammed Al Khatib was beaten soldiers.

For pictures from the action see indymedia Israel and AP photos at:
https://israel.indymedia.org/newswire/display/3196/index.php
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050531/481/jrl10105310929
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050531/481/jrl10205311145
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050531/481/jrl10505311055
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050531/481/jrl10405311042
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050531/481/jrl10305311041

******************

2. Bil'in- Palestinian protestors released
Written by M
May 30th 2005

Early evening on the 29th of April Riyad Muhammad Yassin Barnat
and 'Alain Ibrahim Ahmad Abu Rahmeh, who were arrested on the 28th
of April while participating in a non- violent protest against the
wall, returned to Bil'in.

The two men were both released on a 15,000 NIS bail.

When they returned to the village, a group of Palestinians, 4
internationals and one Israeli anarchist had gathered by the mosque
to greet them with fireworks and cheering. The men were escorted by
the crowd back to their homes, celebrating their return.

Until late evening the families of the released men received
visitors who came to show their respect and to welcome Riyad and
Alain back home.

*********************

3. Almost peaceful
by Corrie
May 30th 2005

Qawawis, quiet, peaceful, cups of tea, wide horizons, reading into a
slumberous state.

Then the peace is broken, there's some commotion and Mary's out the
door saying, "Quick bring your camera". Right outside this tiny
village of four families are the settlers, with their ever present M-
16's slung nonchalantly over their shoulders.

It's scary, they're right there, walking up to the house, two men in
the typical unofficial white shirt uniform and one woman. They
ignore us and won't reply to Mary. They don't really do anything,
just pointing around.

But it is intimidating, out here in the open stony land with no
people around, no electricity, no one to call for help. Except the
Israeli police who arrive one hour later and try forcefully to take
my video camera from me.

The settlers wander off after a while, casually like they're just
out for a Sunday stroll. It's surreal, I almost feel like, hey -
they were just out for a walk. But I don't forget the fear in the
children, when they first see me and wonder if I'm a settler. I
don't forget the man whose stomach is one big scar, inflating
abnormally as he inhales. Shot by a settler but
surviving to tell.

The calm resumes slowly, once the settlers have left. Once again you
can hear the wind, the occasional bird or sheep, see the stony
rolling hills below the large sky. It is beautiful, serene: almost.
You can never forget the settler outposts, squatting on top of the
two nearby hills, dominating the landscape and looking down with a
hateful vigilance. Even at night they don't turn into twinkling
lights like the nearby town, but take on a brazen,
malevolent glow. Lit up with high intensity searchlights, like the
spotlights of a prison.

*********************

4. Prisons and parties
Written BY H.
May 29, 2005

On May 18, after four weeks in prison, Jaber Dalany (the Palestinian
man with meningitis who was arrested at Huwara checkpoint), was
finally presented with charges. As expected, the charges are
preposterous, not to mention the fact that they all refer to
incidents that supposedly happened more than 2 years ago. The first
two relate to membership in Hamas (which he and his family deny) and
providing food, shelter, and cell phones to "wanted" men (his
brother stayed at his house shortly before being arrested
a couple years ago). The third charge is both the most serious and
the most ridiculous, stating that Jaber and two others had
"planned to introduce an explosive vehicle into the settlement of
Ariel, near its movie theater. The plan, however, was not carried
out when the defendant and his comrades discovered that Ariel had no
movie theater." It would be laughable if we weren't talking about
someone's life here. I mean really, if I had planned to blow up
Ariel's movie theater and then found out it didn't exist,
I'd probably blow up their hotel. Or their mall. Or their college.
Or the mayor's office. Or the police station. Or the army
headquarters. No cinema, no bomb? Doesn't make much sense. The
charges don't even state that there was a bomb, just that they
had "planned" something, meaning at most that someone could
have thought about an action. As an Israeli friend said to me last
night, "I can't even count how many times I've thought
about blowing up things in Ariel." We talked about trying to
organize 1,000 people to walk to the police station in Ariel to
confess our thoughts about the place, but decided against it.

So Jaber is still in prison, with a trial date scheduled for June
27. His wife is due to give birth around that time, and his three
children (a 4-year-old son and 1 1/2-year-old twin girls) continue
to wake up every morning and say good morning to the picture of
their father. I went to visit the family on Monday, and as
Jaber's brother pulled up to the house with me in the car, 4-year-
old Kassam came running out, laughing and clapping his hands and
chanting, "Ajaat Hannah, ajaat Hannah!" (Hannah's here).
I decided he's my new best friend. He sat on my lap for much of the
time I was there, and then took me around the yard on a tour of all
the plants and trees. I marvelled over his knowledge of the land.
After only 4 years of life, he can point out to me olives, figs,
apples, sage, thyme, cauliflower, tomatoes, cabbage, parsley,
almonds and more. Khulud, Jaber's wife, called us in for dinner:
maklube, my favorite Palestinian dish, with extra cauliflower, my
favorite fried vegetable. I was touched, and again amazed. I
hadn't even remembered telling her my food preferences, but she
knew. And she didn't even try to get me to eat chicken (although
her mother-in-law did, insisting it's not really meat).


On Saturday I stopped by an international friend's house in
Ramallah for a going away party. There were probably 10
internationals there, but what I noticed more were the number of
Palestinians and Israelis, and their obviously close relationships
with each other. Usually when I'm with Palestinians and Israelis
together, we're at a demonstration, so it was nice to see folks
interacting with each other socially.

We left Ramallah around 8:30 pm to try to make it back to Jerusalem
by 10, which under normal circumstances is no problem. When we got
to Kalandia checkpoint, however, we saw a man being held with his
hands cuffed behind his back. I quickly went around to a group of
people watching him through a fence, and asked, "Do you know
him?" A man who appeared to have been in tears (either that or
extremely exhausted) responded, "He's my son." They had been
coming from Ramallah on their way to a wedding in Al Ram about an
hour before. Soldiers had glanced at everyone else's IDs and waved
them forward, but when they came to this young man (28 years old),
they pulled him aside and told him to wait while they checked his
ID. Fifteen minutes later they put him in cuffs. He had just gone
through that checkpoint yesterday with no problem, his father told
me, completely perplexed as to why the soldiers would want his son.
The father began talking to the soldiers in English, saying he works
for the UN and this is his son and they're on their way to a
wedding, etc.
Finally they asked me to talk to the soldiers and I stepped forward
with a few futile attempts at, "Excuse me, what's the problem?"
Finally the commander came out to our side of the fence and told
everyone to go home. The father protested, and the commander said
fine, you can stay, but the rest of the group should leave.
"What are you doing with him?" asked the father. The commander
replied, "We're waiting for the police car to get here so we
can take him away." "Where are you taking him?" I asked.
"We don't know yet," the commander responded. "Why are you arresting
him?" I asked. "Because he needs to be arrested." Trying to get
information from soldiers can be one of the most frustrating and
useless tasks. We gave the family the phone number for Hamoked, an
Israeli organization that can sometimes help in these situations,
and they called. Hamoked promised to make a few calls to the army.
There wasn't much else we could do. The soldiers were not being
particularly violent and it didn't seem they would start being
violent in our absence, so we gave the father our card and continued
to Jerusalem. About a half hour later, the father called to tell us
his son had been released, and the whole family was told to go
home. So they weren't able to go to the wedding, but things
could have been much worse. We were relieved. In the grand scheme
of occupation here, this major injustice is a relatively minor
hassle.

This week, like every other week in Palestine, has been full of
stories of prisons and parties. I find myself not wanting to write
these days, not being surprised by anything and not really seeing
any changes on the ground. But I know the danger of forgetting.
Just because injustice is systemized and commonplace does not mean
we should ignore it. So here it is. And in that vein, below is a
partial list of incidents this week, incidents you probably have not
read about in the mainstream media.

Until next time,
H

******************************

5. This week's update from IMEMC (International Middle East Media
Center)
Published on Friday, 27 May 2005

A report prepared and published by the Information Center revealed
that 347 violations to the truce were reported, including 57
shooting incidents against civilians, causing four deaths and 25
injuries. 27 invasions were conducted, and 57 arrests were made.

Soldiers closed roads and Separation Wall gates 113 times, and
installed 52 portable checkpoints.

Israeli soldiers and settlers bulldozed and uprooted family
orchards, especially lands planted with olive trees, 7 times over
the last week, causing considerable losses.

19 attacks were conducted by the settlers against Palestinian homes
and residents.

Soldiers annexed farmlands from the village in order to widen
settlements and construct sections of the Separation Wall.

Soldiers broke into dozens of homes, detained residents and
interrogated them after forcing them out of their homes.

Soldiers stopped a school bus near the northern West Bank city of
Qalqilia on Thursday, forced the children out of the bus, punched
and clubbed several students; at least five children were injured.

Checkpoints and crossings were repeatedly closed and border
crossings were blocked, barring the residents from leaving or
entering the country.

Video footage broadcast on the Israeli TV Channel 10 showed soldiers
breaking into a Palestinian home in Hebron area and taking over the
TV room in order to watch a soccer match. The footage showed damage
in the home - broken windows and furniture - after the soldiers
seized the TV room. The family reported that five soldiers broke
into their home to view the Champions' League final between AC Milan
and Liverpool. Anan al-Zrayer, a teenager from Hebron, said that he
was walking down the street when the soldiers stopped him and asked
him if his family has a TV set and a satellite dish. "I said yes,
but we don't have Israeli channels, and after they entered our home,
I gave them the remote control, and they carried out a search after
kicking us out into another room", Anan said. A Hebron resident
told Channel 10 that this is not the first time that soldiers had
taken over Palestinian homes in Hebron to watch TV. The resident
added that about two weeks ago, eleven soldiers broke into his home
and stayed for the whole night while watching TV.

Friday morning, Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Beit Liqya,
south of Ramallah, and arrested eight residents. Two weeks ago,
Israeli soldiers invaded the village and fired at children; two were
killed.

**************

6. ISM Press Release
Beit Surik Continues its Struggle against the Wall

Wednesday June 1st in the morning villagers from Beit Surik will be
joined by Israeli and International activists to protest the
construction of the Annexation Wall on their land.

At 8:00AM Beit Surik residents will gather on the land where the
Wall construction is planned to take place. Village residents have
appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court that has yet to give a ruling
on the case.

Construction of the Wall in this area will result in the annexation
of almost 1000 dunam of land belonging to Beit Surik.

For the past two days villagers have been staying on their land
prepared to face the Israeli bulldozers. So far the military has
chosen to work around them. At previous demonstrations a number of
villagers were arrested, including the mayor of Beit Surik, who was
held in Israeli detention for nearly one month.

**************

7. Weekend of Nonviolent Action Against the Wall in Salfit and
Bil'in

This weekend there will be three demonstrations protesting the
Annexation Barrier being built on West Bank land. The Barrier is the
latest stage in Israel's annexation policy turning Palestinian
communities into open air prisons and cutting them off from each
other and from their agricultural lands. The demonstrations will be
supported by international and Israeli activists.

Salfit - Thursday, June 2nd: A march to the construction site of the
Annexation Barrier organized by the Salfit Popular Committee Against
the Wall. On May 16th, the Israeli High Court revoked its decision
to suspend work on the Wall in this area. On June 21st the High
Court is due to hold a final hearing on the route of the Wall in
this area. If the Wall is completed as planned, the town of Salfit
will lose 6,500 dunums, more than 25% of their land. The march will
leave at 11am from the Salfit municipality. Recently, the Israeli
High Court revoked its decision to suspend work on the Wall in this
area.

Bil'in – Friday, June 3rd: The people of Bil'in, together with
students from Bir Zeit, Al Quds and Tel Aviv will mark the Naksa
day - the expulsion of Palestinians from the West bank, eastern
Jerusalem and Gaza during the 1967 war. It also marks the beginning
of Israel's illegal military occupation of these territories. The
demonstration will begin at 11am.

Salfit – Saturday, June 4th: Palestinians from all over the West
Bank will join the villagers from the Salfit region in a march from
Marda to Kifl Hares along the settler road. The villagers will
protest the building of the annexation wall around the "Ariel loop"
thus defacto annexing the settlements along with Palestinian
farmland to Israel. The march will begin in the center of Marda at
10am and will proceed to Kifl Hares, where there will be a public
meeting about the situation in the area.