Sunday, November 8, 2009

Palestine-Israel, Joint struggle in the period of the nearing storm

The political storm collect momentum. It is expressed in processes initiated by Goldston report, by the escalation of international boycott and with threats of war crime courts for Israeli top officers... The activists of the Anarchists Against the Wall initiative are involved mainly in the local struggles both in Israel and the occupied Palestinian areas. The focus is still in the Friday demonstrations in Bil'in and the international aspects of it - visitors and media, and in Ni'ilin, and so is the struggle against eviction/transfer in the occupied East Jerusalem Sheikh Jarah neighborhood. Less attention got the struggles against road blocks, involving the high school graduates refusnics, the threats of expulsion of refugees and guest workers children, and the eviction of Bedouins.


BIL'IN

Some 40 internationals and 30 Israelis joined the weekly demo of several dozen Palestinians against the wall in Bil'in, this time commemorating 20 years to the collapse of the Berlin wall. While marching, the demonstrators carried posters demanding the release of Adeeb, the member of the village's popular committee still in the Israeli jail. Also was carried a large Styrofoam model of the wall, to the gate to the route of the separation fence, when we passed near the route located parallel to the road we encountered Shabab who were busily cutting through the fence. Covered by the smoke of a burning tire, two of them made impressive progress for quite a few minutes before the army noticed them.

When we arrived at the gate, the carriers of the model succeeded to enter it into the space between the main gate and the electronic fence. It took the soldiers a while before succeeding to removed it. A Belgian choir gave the demo a wonderfully surreal character, as they sang in harmony songs of resistance and struggle in various languages, while the army was throwing gas and shock grenades, and the shabab, enjoying the support of a very favorable wind, was returning to the soldiers many unexploded canisters of tear gas accompanied by stones forcing them to run away again and again.

Israel - Bil'in 6-1-09 - video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOjcUR2cqUw

JERUSALEM

Urgent Support Vigil This Evening Tuesday 3-11-09 at Sheikh Jarrah. This morning, following a court dismissal, the Al-Kurd family of Sheikh Jarrah was forced out to the streets. 30 settlers accompanied by large numbers of police and border-police forcefully evicted the 30-people family out of their home. This is the 3rd eviction taking place in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood during the past 4 months.

Mote:

"With all the happening in Jerusalem: demolition of houses [of Palestinians], continuation of transfer from occupied Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, the expansion of colonial settlements and building of new ones... we are organizing a meeting to plan for future actions."

KARYUT

On Friday, November the 6, hundreds of members of the village of Karyut came together to protest the Israelis occupation and settlements and to move a roadblock put up by the Israeli Occupation Forces. Defying the Israeli military (who declared illegally the area a “close military zone”) and the local PA municipality and mayor (who did not support in any way this action) the protesters represented a new wave of resistance in Karyut that does not obey the Palestinian or the Israeli bureaucracy.
The road block is located on the only way to get to freeway 60. Palestinians from the Karyut area have to use side roads are forced to drive for hours longer to get to work or to visit family. This is one way that the Israeli military creates Jewish only roads and a system of apartheid.

Although the exact location and details of the this demo were only discussed on privet phones, the Israeli military is waiting for us. They present to us a closed military zone order. They are so used to copying and issuing that order every day that they forget to attach a map that shows the area that suppose to be closed. We notice that and inform them that their order is illegal. The military at first does not allow the residence of the village walk to the roadblock. Demonstrators yell at the soldiers and tell them that its their right to dismantle that roadblock. The military moves back eventually, and dismantling the roadblock begins - takes us a couple of hours.

Picture:
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2009/11/06/640_karyut_331.jpg
the roadblock is dismantled and the first car of an Israeli activists drives through.

Pictures and links to video at:

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/11/06/18628013.php
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/11/06/18628023.php

MA'ASARAH

About 20 Israelis and internationals joined about 30 Palestinians in this Friday action.

The army prevented the demonstrators from protesting at the path of the wall.
The demonstrators marched from the center of the village chanting against the separation fence and occupation accompanied by a drummers troupe. As usual, in was blocked by a road block of spool of barbed wire and held back by soldiers. Demonstrators gave speeches in English and Arabic about the illegality of the Wall and Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories. The children of the village succeeded in temporarily removing the barbwire and attempted to walk forward, the soldiers threatened the demonstrators with arrests and violently pushed the children back across the fence. As the demonstrators began marching back to the village, they were blocked by a military jeep that entered the village from the back and parked on the main road. Trapped between the soldiers by the barbwire on one side and the jeep on another, the demonstrators crowded around the military vehicle with singing, clapping, accompanied by an Israeli group of percussionists. The soldiers in the jeep made threats of arrests and eventually left the village, the protesters headed back to the village and the percussions group gave a drumming workshop to the children and youths of the village.

NA'ALIN

In Ni'ilin, demonstrators brought down a section of the eight meters tall concrete wall that cuts through the village's land. The soldiers, positioned at the other side of the wall, fired scores of live rounds at the demonstrators as well as tear gas, and sprayed them with the "skunk-bomb" (a foul-smelling liquid). This is the first time since Israel began the construction of the wall in 2002 that demonstrators succeeded in toppling down a part of the 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."

MEDIA: Protesters breach West Bank separation barrier - Na'alin protest

The weekly demonstrations against the West Bank separation barrier in the towns of Bil'in and Na'alin, which take place every Friday, reached new heights this week when activists, seeking to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the falling of the Berlin Wall, knocked a part of the barrier over.

Masked Palestinian youths breached the 8-meter high section of Israel's security wall that runs through Na'alin, while Israeli border guards fired tear gas and a foul-smelling spray from behind the high concrete barrier.

Protesters levered open a space under one the pre-cast panels and used a hydraulic car-jack to topple it out of position.

"No matter how tall, all walls fall," read one banner pasted onto the structure by Palestinian youths assisted by Israeli activists, who say the wall on Palestinian land and through Palestinian communities is simply a land grab by Israel.

The panel, cast in the same inverted T-shape as those erected by communist East German through Berlin in 1961, was tilted back close to tipping point onto the Israeli side, but did not fall completely.

The youths scattered when the Israeli guards behind the wall rushed to close the breach.

Thick black smoke from a stack of tires set alight by the youths mingled with white trails of tear gas against the blue sky. Clouds of Israeli "skunk" spray - smelling of corpses and feces - drenched the protesters' side of the skirmish.

Israel began building its barrier of fences and walls at the height of the Palestinian uprising that began in 2000, and it now runs along most of the West Bank border, encroaching at many points onto West Bank territory.

In a non-binding decision in 2004, the International Court of Justice said the barrier was illegal and should be taken down because it crossed occupied territory.


Active Stills - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xh4ouc8Lac
David - Friday 6.11.09 Ni'ilin video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syDriOhplOo

REFUSNICS

Demonstration in support of conscientious objector Or Ben David. On Saturday (7/11), at 15:00 we will meet in front of military prison No. 400 and protest against the imprisonment of CO Or Ben David, and in support of her actions.

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