Palestinian Youth Arrested in Nonviolent Demonstration against the Wall in Beit Surik

ACTION ALERT!

Palestinian Youth Arrested in Nonviolent Demonstration against the
Wall in Beit Surik

Thursday March 3, 2005

Today in the village of Beit Surik in northwest Jerusalem, Israeli
undercover agents beat and arrested five Palestinian youth during a
nonviolent demonstration against the Wall. The youth were taken from
Beit Surik to Givat Zeev early Thursday afternoon. One of the five
youth was released. The other four are being held in Kfar Etzion
juvenile prison and have a trial scheduled for Sunday at Ofer military
court.

Ahmad Suleiman Sheikh 14 years old
Muntaser Najib Al Jamal 12 years old
Mustafa Mohammed Khaled 13years old
Amjad Ghazi Ahmad Sheikh 14years old

This is the fourth consecutive day that Israeli `special forces'
disguised as Palestinians have infiltrated the demonstrations against
the Wall in Beit Surik. Yesterday two Palestinians were arrested and
later released. On Monday, Israeli undercover agents arrested six
Palestinians including the mayor of Beit Surik, Mohammed Kandil, while
he and other Palestinians from the village tried to prevent the
destruction of their lands.

Mohammed Kandil has been held in Israeli police custody since his
arrest. He had a hearing in Ofer military court today to determine the
conditions for his release until his hearing which will begin on
Sunday. Mohammed has been accused of assaulting a police officer. The
judge agreed to release Kandil to house arrest on 12,000NIS cash bail
until his hearing. The prosecution has 24 hours to appeal the judge's
decision. Kandil's son Mustafa Mohammed Khaled is one of the youth
being held in Kfar Etzion.

PLEASE CALL KFAR ETZION AND THE DISTRICT COORDINATION OFFICE (DCO) AND
DEMAND THAT THE FOUR YOUTH ARRESTED FROM BEIT SURIK TODAY BE RELEASED!
Speak out against the criminalization of nonviolent resistance and the
violence used against unarmed civilians!

Kfar Etzion Juvenile Prison: +972.2.993.4010
DCO Humanitarian Center +972.2.997.7733
DCO (Moti) +972.546.234.169

Read Mansour's report of today's demonstration...
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Why do they do it?
by Mansour

Today was the fourth day of continued Wall resistance in the village
of Beit Surik. Between 200-250 men, women and children walked to the
village lands to prevent the bulldozers from destroying their land and
uprooting the olive and almond trees planted in this area.

The bulldozers have been working in a few different locations in Beit
Surik, some near the Green Line, some inside lands of Beit Surik near
to some farms. More than 1,500 dunum of Beit Surik lands will be
located behind the Wall after it is completed.

The peaceful demonstration was met with nearly twenty Israeli soldiers
who began shooting tear gas, sound bombs, and rubber bullets at the
Palestinians. From the western side of the village three soldiers were
preventing villagers who were trying to reach their land.

Eleven Israeli undercover agents dressed in plain clothes came from
between some trees from the eastern side into the valley where many of
the Palestinians were gathered. They left after a brief time and left
into the nearby Israeli town of Mevaseret Zion.

The Israeli army was located on the hilltop above the valley where the
Palestinians were located and continued throwing tear gas and firing
rubber bullets at the demonstration. Five people were injured by
rubber bullets. Because the ambulance couldn't reach the injured
people, groups of people in the demonstration had to carry them out of
the valley toward the ambulances.

After an hour and a half, we decided to be one group. The eleven
plain-clothes undercover agents came from inside the village following
the same path that we used to walk to the valley. Three of the agents
walked passed us and my friend asked "What are you doing here?" and
they said "It's none of your business." They then took pistols out of
their pockets and one man began to shoot in the direction of the
people and the other two were firing shots into the air.

They attempted to arrest one man, and they beat him in the head with
the pistol after which the man lost consciousness. During this time,
the Palestinians lay on the ground to avoid the shots being fired by
the Israeli agents.

People started moving out of the area. After more than 20 bullets were
fired, the undercover Israeli agents arrested five Palestinian youth
who were trapped in the valley between the soldiers and the Israeli
agents. After they left, a group of us tended to the man who was
beaten and carried him to the clinic.


A lot of farmers have been sitting in their homes, just sitting, and
knowing that bulldozers are destroying their lands, uprooting their
trees, killing their lives. To go and watch the bulldozers, you feel
that you are paralyzed, unable to affect the situation. Seeing the
olive trees that have been in this land for centuries, and knowing
that we continue to struggle and that the Israeli military will
continue to arrest you and shoot you because they do not want you to
fight, to sit in front of a bulldozer - not because you are threat to
them, but because they do not want you to be there at all.

In fact it means that you are not completely unable to do anything.
Even when we protest peacefully without violence, they do not respond
to us any differently. Rubber bullets, tear gas, arrests…

We cannot give up hope, even if they will arrest us, like Mohammed
Kandil and uproot us like olive trees. In a time where there are
closures, curfews, checkpoints, closed military zones, more and more
soldiers are being trained how to act against the Palestinians, how to
uproot the "terrorist networks." In this way, we are like olive trees.
Because they uproot the olive trees, so they are like terrorists. I
don't know how the international community can be silent when the
symbol of peace is being destroyed. Allowing these trees to be
destroyed in this way and for this "peace," in reality this means that
there is no peace.