Friday, July 28, 2006

Pelestin-Israel, Bil'in, The joint struggle continue in spit the joint sabotage of Israel secret services and village reactionaries. 28 Jul 2006

The Friday demo was on the background of two weeks ago unsigned leaflet distributed in Bil'in after a night "visit of Israeli army car. In the leaflet, the joint struggle defame the joint struggle from the point of view of religious "modesty". In a public meeting after the previous Friday demo the defamation of the intrusion of "non modest" behavior to the village was done by extreme Hamas people of the village, who were present in previous demos but absent this Friday demo.
At noon, about hundred of us started the march to the route of the fence, in a dirt road we seldom use in the Friday demo. One of the reason for choosing it was to try to evade the reactionaries influenced stone throwers provocation that hinder the joint nonviolent demonstrations of the village comity and outside activists.

Palestinians from Bil'in and from other place, ISM internationals, and Israelis organized by the Anarchists Against The Wall initiative, marched towards the route of the separation fence. At the head of the march people carried a coffin with Lebanon symbol on it, and many of us with white tunics stained with red. The theme of this Friday demo was the funeral of the "New middle East order" of the US foreign minister Kundelisa Rice.

When we arrived at the route of the fence, people put the coffin on the spool of barbed wire mounted on the rail bordering the route. In response, the Israeli force showered on the people around the coffin with lot of shock grenade injuring the leg of Abdalla Abu Rahme of the village comity. When the carriers took the coffin and started walking along the fence, the shower of shock grenades ended, and we walked "peacefully" along the route of the fence.

When we reached the usual point of Friday demos - the blocked gate to the route of the fence and beyond it, we continued marching towards the village, to evade the clash with the state forces usually initiated by the stone throwers provocateurs.

At a certain point of the march back to the village we rested in the shade of a huge tree with lot of non formal discussions. Then we returned to the village where we had a formal meeting to sum the demonstration of this Friday.

Friday, July 21, 2006

Palestine-Israel, Bil'in, The joint struggle against the occupation, Friday 21-07-06

The theme of this Friday demonstration, was the protest of the harming of noncombatant people - children and adults in the gaza strip and in Lebanon. Before the demonstration were special meetings with people who came with the Israeli initiative of the anarchists against the wall and with the internationals of the ISM, to explain to the participants the difference between this Friday demo and the previous ones. A placard specially printed distributed to the participants. In it there were three photographs: The first was from the Israeli media in which two young girls write on ammunition of heavy canons various "graphity" like "from the children of Israel". In the second picture there is an Israeli canon firing with a heap of ammunition like the one the girls were righting on. In the third there were two dead children killed by a blast of a canon shell.

At noon, we started the usual march from the center of village on the road to the route of the separation fence. Participated about 150 people - Bil'in villagers, Israelis who came with the activists of the anarchists against the wall initiative, internationals, and Palestinians from out of the village.

In the march - in contradiction to other demos, there were no chanting and no singing or dancing. It was mourning march. The silence was an immitation/protest of the silence of the world about the killing of children and noncombatants by the Israeli forces in the Palestinian Gaza strip and Lebanon. At the head of the march there was a huge black flag of three meters by twenty meters.

When we arrived at the blocked gate to the route of the separation fence we did not have the usual verbal confrontation with the Israeli armed forces. We stood in a minute of silence, then few sentences were read, and then we started to march back to the village.

When we returned to the village we had a big meeting of all the participants of the demo for discussion of the long period of struggle in Bil'in.

This Friday there was absent the usual confrontation between the unruly stone throwing youngsters and state forces....

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Israel-Palestin, A call for Civil disobedience in Izbet Tabib Qalqiliya region. Saturday July 15

Izbet Tabib is a small village of 300 inhabitants near Qalqiliya. It was established in 1920 and in 1948 it received an influx of refugees from Tubsur, which stood where Raánana is now. The residents of the village are all recognized as refugees (by UNRWA) but the village is not recognized as a refugee camp. In fact, it is not recognized at all by the Israeli government which has issued demolition orders for most of the buildings in the village. This small village has been assaulted by the Israeli occupation in ways which would have destroyed much larger communities. Much of its lands were taken by the wall, basic infrastructure such as a connection to the electric grid and permanent roofs for buildings is denied and most recently, the main exit from the village was blocked by an earth mound.

The mere existence of Izbet Tabib is a continuing act of resistance in the form of Tsumud. The village is now calling on Israelis to join it on Saturday July 15 th to demonstrate against the wall and the closure of the road and to continue the construction of the village's kindergarten in defiance of the building restrictions.

Please call Michal 0542369511 for more details or to join the action.

The coalition against the wall- Gush Shalom, Yesh Gvul, Taayush, Women's coalition for peace, Anarchists against the wall.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Palestine-Israel, Bil'in, in spite armed forces and the local youth despising the joint nonviolent struggle the joint continue. 14 Jul 2006

The demonstration of last Friday of 14-7-06 was marked by the wedding of Mantsur - coordinator of ISM international demonstrators. After some wedding rituals in the hours preceding the demonstration, the new couple entered their car that traveled at the head of the demonstration towards the route of the separation fence. Along the march, interwoven with the usual chants, singing, and dancing, components of the Palestinian celebration of wedding. At noon, 150 of us started the march from the center of the village towards the fence among us, in addition to the local villagers, about 40 internationals, 30 Israelis, and 15 Palestinians from out of the village. When we arrived about 20 meters from the blocked gate of the route of fence (with armored cars and lot of border police), the couple exit from their car and the wedding ceremony was resumed. Gradually the people moved towards the blocking forces, and the verbal confrontation with them interwoven with the usual proceedings of the demo and the celebration - chanting, singing, dancing and calls towards the state forces.

Not like in the last previous Fridays, the local activists expected the unruly stone throwers youth, who object to the joint nonviolent struggle, to respect the wedding and refrain from disrupting it, and had not invested efforts to restrain them. These, took advantage of the "free hands" and hiding behind our backs started much earlier than usual to through stones on the state forces blocking the gate of the route. These responded as expected with a shower of shock grenades but this time with much more intensity than usual. The demonstrators dispersed in the adjacent area and the coward stone throwers who could not hide behind our backs fled.

When we tried to reassemble after the inflammation as usual, not as usual, the armed forces continued their attack on us and tried to force all of us to return to the one kilometer away village. They used shock grenades, tear gas, rubbercoated bullets... But the wedded couple and about 50 demonstrators resisted and stayed at the blocked gate another hour till the local activists declared the demonstration as finished.

During the intense confrontation few people were injured - some of them were taken by the ambulances to hospital.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Israel-Palestin, A call for Civil disobedience in Izbet Tabib Qalqiliya region. Saturday July 15 ; 13 Jul 2006

Izbet Tabib is a small village of 300 inhabitants near Qalqiliya. It was established in 1920 and in 1948 it received an influx of refugees from Tubsur, which stood where Raánana is now. The residents of the village are all recognized as refugees (by UNRWA) but the village is not recognized as a refugee camp. In fact, it is not recognized at all by the Israeli government which has issued demolition orders for most of the buildings in the village. This small village has been assaulted by the Israeli occupation in ways which would have destroyed much larger communities. Much of its lands were taken by the wall, basic infrastructure such as a connection to the electric grid and permanent roofs for buildings is denied and most recently, the main exit from the village was blocked by an earth mound.

The mere existence of Izbet Tabib is a continuing act of resistance in the form of Tsumud. The village is now calling on Israelis to join it on Saturday July 15 th to demonstrate against the wall and the closure of the road and to continue the construction of the village's kindergarten in defiance of the building restrictions.

Please call Michal for more details or to join the action.

The coalition against the wall- Gush Shalom, Yesh Gvul, Taayush, Women's coalition for peace, Anarchists against the wall.

Friday, July 7, 2006

Palestine-Israel, Bil'in, the joint struggle against the occupation and the separation fence - Friday 7-7-06

This Friday demonstration was on the background of yesterday short lived "squatting" in a building built in the settler town Modi'in Ilit on a field belonging to a villager of Bil'in. after a short deliberations of 5 hours, the Israeli state forces forced the "squatters" - three families of activists from Bil'in to evacuate - declaring the place a closed military zone, and the Bil'in people in the building as "endangering the security". The background included in addition to the "squatting" (that was all over the Israeli and Palestinian media) the after tomorrow hearing of the Israeli higher court of "justice" of the case of Bil'in lands confiscation for the building of a new sector of the settler town Modi'in Ilit, and the illegal building itself.

At noon, we marched from the center of the village on the road to the separation fence. We were about 200 participants: hundred from the Bil'in villagers, about 40 internationals (plus a 10 strong Baskian troop), 20 Israelis of the anarchists against the wall, 15 Palestinians from other places, and some teams of media workers from the region and from far away.

As usual, the marching was involving chanting, singing and even dancing. Not as usual was the amazing part of the Baskian troop: clad with appropriate clothes, and huge pairs of bells on their backs with a leader who used a horn as a trumpet. They danced in the front of the marching people, till we arrived at the route of the fence. They continue time and again to do their ritual even when we were blocked as usual at the gate to the route by armored cars. The other people confronted verbally the Israeli state forces and few of them even tried to enter the route. The brutal behavior of the blocking state forces was an excuse to the wild teens to through a barrage of stones on the state forces who responded with a barrage of shock grenades.

At first, both the wild teens and the nonviolent demonstrators dispersed, but after a minute or two we reassembled 10 meters from the route while a line of state force tried with partial success to prevent the more bold of us and the dancing baskian troop to enter the "forbidden" tract of land.

In parallel, like in Eastern bazaar, people from the local comity had a discussion with the state forces commander who agreed to soften the three days block on movement from the village to the Bil'in center for joint struggle located west of the separation fence, declared in response to yesterday "squat".

After the baskian troop ended their last ritual, the demonstration was declared as finished. This was a signal for the wild teens to start again their stone throwing, which involved state forces responses that made the return to the village less than comfortable...