Happy 9th Birthday Al-Aqsa Intifada!!!

Maan: Al-Aqsa Intifada turns nine

Published yesterday (updated) 30/09/2009 00:10

Gaza - Ma'an - Palestinians quietly commemorated the ninth anniversary of the Second Intifada, as militant brigades vowed revenge for the Sunday attack on Al-Aqsa by Israeli extremists and soldiers.

The Second Intifadah, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was precipitated by a provocative walk along the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, also the Jewish Western Wall, by then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Nine years minus a day later, on 27 September, Israeli extremists illegally entered the Muslim compound for worship, accompanied by Israeli soldiers. Clashes ensued, and were followed by a wave of arrests throughout Palestinian East Jerusalem.

Hamas’ armed wing the Al-Qassam Brigades threatened to respond to the latest attempt to storm Al-Aqsa, saying "the occupation should wait for our response and they must be certain that the Al-Aqsa mosque can outbreak an Intifada.”

Fatah’s armed wing the Al-Aqsa Brigades called for the restoration of the resistance and for officials to declare the state of alert among the resistance factions in order to confront the Israeli aggression.

While many say the Second Intifada petered out after 2003-4, an end to the uprising was never officially declared, as it was for the First Intifada.

Foward: " Palestinian-Led Movement To Boycott Israel Is Gaining Support"

Source: http://www.forward.com/

'Our South Africa Moment Has Finally Arrived,' Says One Leader

By Gal Beckerman
Published September 16, 2009, issue of September 25, 2009.

Uzbekistan-born diamond mogul Lev Leviev announced late in August that his company, Africa-Israel, was drowning in debt of more than $5.5 billion that it could not repay. Over the next two days, shares in the company's stock plummeted by more than one-third. It was relentless bad news for one of the world's richest men. His holding and investment company had lost $1.4 billion since 2008, mostly due to failed real estate investments in the United States. Watching Leviev's precipitous downfall from the sidelines were pro-Palestinian activists. And they were cheering.

Though certainly not the cause of his financial collapse, for the past two years, these activists have singled out Leviev as one of their high-profile villains for his large contributions to West Bank settlements. And they have been effective gadflies. Several of the company's major shareholders have divested their holdings from Africa-Israel after receiving complaints from clients. And at least two charities have declared publicly they will not accept Leviev's contributions.

The pro-Palestinian activists are affiliated with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, an international coalition with the goal of isolating and discomfiting Israel just as South Africa's apartheid regime was targeted in the 1980s.

Initiated by Palestinian groups in 2005 but strengthened by a network that takes in dozens of leftist organizations in Europe and the United States, the Global BDS Movement claims a number of recent successes. Especially in the wake of the Gaza incursion of last winter, groups associated with the boycott have now felt spurred to expand their efforts into even the sensitive realm of academic and cultural boycotts of Israel.

As Omar Barghouti, one of the Palestinian leaders of the BDS movement, told the Forward, "Our South Africa moment has finally arrived."

Some major Jewish groups acknowledge BDS as a possible threat. "There are clearly a number of episodes building up here that would allow advocates of a boycott to say that slowly, slowly we are achieving what we want, which is the South Africanization of Israel," said American Jewish Committee spokesman Ben Cohen. "I'm not sure that the increase in activity is quite as dramatic as some people would believe, but it's clear to me that this discourse of boycott is being increasingly legitimized, and it would appear that some companies are responsive to it."

The BDS movement is highly decentralized, with each group in the coalition allowed to choose its own targets as it sees fit. It has no articulated political vision. such as a one- or two-state solution to the conflict. The principles that guide the movement - as set out in a call for boycott, divestment and sanctions issued in June 2005 by a wide group of Palestinian civil society organizations - demand instead that Israel adhere to international and human rights law. The amorphous structure and broad goals appear to be responsible for many of the group's appeal. But some who watch this movement closely contend that, in the end, even a "targetted" boycott is ultimately aimed at all of Israel.

The actual monetary impact of the movement is often unclear. But for activists seeking as much to affect Israel's image in the public's mind, money is not always the bottom line.

The campaign against Leviev is a good example. It was initiated by Adalah-NY, one of the handful of American groups in the BDS movement's network. It was Adalah's activists who chose to focus on Leviev's construction projects in the West Bank and on contributions he has made to the Land Redemption Fund, which gives money for settlement development. Adalah-NY protesters first picketed the opening two years ago of Leviev's diamond retail store, yelling at actress Susan Sarandon as she entered the Madison Avenue shop. Since then, the group has taken every opportunity to point out his connections to the West Bank settlements.

Lately, the fruits of this focus on Leviev have been piling up. On Sept. 11 TIAA-CREF, the giant pension fund, announced that it had divested from Africa-Israel last March after 59 of the company's investors accused it of being "a company which violates human rights and international law." UNICEF and OXFAM denied Leviev's public claims to have given them generous contributions and added that they would not accept contributions from him because of his financial support for West Bank settlements. Also, in the past few weeks, a couple of Africa-Israel's largest investors have sold their stock in Leviev's company after receiving pressure from their clients. Most notable was BlackRock, the British subsidiary of the major Wall Street banking firm, which announced that it was divesting following concerns expressed by three client Scandinavian banks.

"Those aren't small things," said Andrew Kadi, a member of Adalah who is involved with the Leviev campaign. "People don't completely grasp how serious it is when two of your top 10 or 12 shareholders divest. We're talking about millions of dollars."

Neither Leviev nor Africa-Israel responded to requests for comment.

Leviev's trouble is just one of many recent signs of the movement's higher profile. There was the protest joined by several celebrities in mid-September at the Toronto International Film Festival of the festival's official cultural partnership with the city of Tel Aviv in celebration of the latter's 100th anniversary. A few days earlier, Neve Gordon, a professor at Ben-Gurion University, wrote a controversial opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times, endorsing the BDS movement as the "only way to counter the apartheid trend in Israel." This past June, the French company Veolia Environnement SA abandoned its multibillion-dollar project to build a light rail train system in Jerusalem after pressure mounted in France from BDS-affiliated groups. The activists counted it as one more victory.

Ironically, Barghouti, who appears to be one of the movement's chief strategists, is currently in a master's degree program in philosophy at Tel Aviv University - even though he is one of the founding members of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. He has been one of the activists strongly pushing the greater BDS movement in the direction of opposing any institution associated with Israel.

Asked about his affiliation with an institution he wants boycotted, Barghouti declined to discuss his personal life.

In an e-mail to the Forward, Barghouti emphasized that the BDS movement "does not adopt a particular political solution to the colonial conflict." The main strategy, he wrote, "is based on the principle that human rights and international law must be upheld and respected no matter what the political solution may be. This was key to securing a near consensus in Palestinian civil society and a wide network of support around the world, including the Western mainstream."

The exclusive focus on rights rather than on a political prescription for the conflict brings together both those who want to target Israel's existence as a whole and those-mostly American activists-who stick to the more narrow issue of the occupation and settlement activity.

As far as Barghouti is concerned, BDS is a "comprehensive boycott of Israel, including all its products, academic and cultural institutions, etc." But he understands "the tactical needs of our partners to carry out a selective boycott of settlement products, say, or military suppliers of the Israeli occupation army as the easiest way to rally support around as a black-and-white violation of international law and basic human rights."

Cohen, the AJC spokesman, views this tactic as a transparent deception. "If you probe these groups a little deeper, you'll find that really this is entirely ideologically motivated. They are just a bunch of radical groups that want to see the state of Israel eliminated," he said. "That is the thread that unites all the disparate groups in the BDS movement, they all see BDS as a means to arrive at the goal of a world without Israel. I think that many people who might be troubled by Israel's presence in the West Bank are going to run a mile when they see what the real agenda of these groups are."

The activist group Code Pink: Women for Peace recently turned its attention to this type of targeted boycott, focusing on the cosmetics company Ahava. Based in the kibbutz Mitzpe Shalem, a settlement in the West Bank, Ahava was a convenient target for the group. After picketing stores that sold Ahava products - mostly mud masks and mineral salts from the Dead Sea - the Code Pink activists looked on with satisfaction as the company's spokeswoman, "Sex and the City" star Kristin Davis, was dropped as an ambassador for OXFAM. The group gave its reasons in a statement, saying that it "remains opposed to settlement trade, in which Ahava is engaged."

Nancy Kricorian, Code Pink's New York City coordinator and the organizer of its Ahava campaign, dubbed Stolen Beauty, said that this push against the cosmetics company was effective precisely because it was tightly focused on a settlement operation. And yet, it also fell squarely within the guidelines of the BDS movement's principles and objectives and was even cited by Barghouti as a successful model because it sullied Ahava's name publicly.

Barghouti, Kricorian and other BDS activists attended the national conference of the U.S. Campaign to the End the Israeli Occupation, which took place on September 12 and 13 in Chicago. The organization is itself an amalgamation of dozens of smaller pro-Palestinian groups from across the country. Up until this conference, its BDS activity had also been narrowly focused on American companies involved in the West Bank. Specifically, they have targeted Caterpillar Inc. for manufacturing the bulldozers involved in settlement construction, and Motorola USA for the surveillance and communications equipment used by the Israeli army.

But according to David Hosey, national media coordinator for the campaign, the group resolved at the conference to extend its activities for the first time to the more sensitive cultural and academic boycott. Like many other pro-Palestinian activists, Hosey dated this willingness to increase boycott activity to the Gaza incursion of this past winter.

"It was a big shock to the system, and it caused a big sea change in what people were willing to do," said Rebecca Vilkomerson, the national director of Jewish Voice for Peace, which, though supportive of the BDS movement, has not officially joined it.

Contact Gal Beckerman at beckerman@forward.com

National Campus Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Conference

****PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY****

www.hsjp.org/2009/09/21/CampusBDS / E-mail: hampshiresjp@gmail.com

National Campus Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Conference
endorsed by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).

What & Where: This fall from November 20th through the 22nd, students, faculty, and staff from around the country who are engaged in Palestine solidarity activism will converge for a conference on campus Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS). This conference has three key goals:

1) To co-educate and share resources amongst campus organizers on the process of initiating BDS campaigns on campuses

2) To strategize tactics to address the needs of different campuses in carrying out BDS campaigns

3) To bring together Palestine-solidarity campus groups that have or have not met under a larger network in order to strive towards a coordinated national BDS campaign.

There have been many BDS conferences around the country, but rarely have they focused exclusively on the campus movement. This conference therefore presents an exceptional and important opportunity for this movement.

Why: In July of 2005, “a clear majority of Palestinian civil society called upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel, similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era, until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with international law.”* In addition, BDS is a non-violent means of protest and action that campuses in the United States can directly engage in to effectively stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. A similar strategy was adopted in the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa in the 1970’s and 1980’s, and campus groups played a large role in helping spark and maintain that successful movement.

As campus members in the United States, we are directly complicit in perpetuating the injustices committed against the Palestinian people – our schools’ money is invested in companies that directly profit from Israel’s militarism, annexation of Palestinian land, and apartheid practices. After sixty-years of displacement, over forty-years of occupation, a two-year old siege, and in light of the recent invasion of Gaza and the continuing expansion of settlements in the West Bank, we must act now to cultivate the BDS movement in the United States. As members of academic communities, we can engage BDS as a means of applying economic and public pressure on Israel to abide by international law and we can change the discourse around Palestine/Israel in this country.

How to Participate: Attend the National Campus BDS conference at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA along with other members of your campus group. You will have the opportunity to organize workshops and panels, engage in discussions led by peers, listen to panels and lectures by influential members of the movement, develop skills, share resources, explore strategies, build networks, and more. Workshops at this conference will have a particular focus on: education and campus outreach, movement building strategies, and utilizing publicity and media for BDS. We encourage both Palestine-solidarity and allied groups to attend and contribute to this important conference through general participation, the building of a larger organizing network, and the facilitation of workshops. (In order to facilitate a workshop, please see the “Workshop Proposal Submission Form” attached to this e-mail.)

Prominent public figures and outspoken supporters of the BDS movement will be attending the conference as keynote speakers and panelists, including representatives of the BNC and PACBI.

Dates and Times: Friday, November 20th at 6 PM through Sunday, November 22nd, at 9 PM.

Hosted By: Hampshire College Students for Justice in Palestine and allied groups, and endorsed by various Palestine Solidarity organizations

For more information about the conference, please visit HSJP's website at www.hsjp.org, where we will announce updates, lodging/food information, financial aid, and a place for registration for the conference.

Please forward this to other Palestine solidarity activists and mark the date! See you at Hampshire!

To a free Palestine,
Hampshire College SJP
hampshiresjp@gmail.com

* "What is the Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)? |." Global BDS Movement. 15 June 2009. <http://bdsmovement.net/?q=node/159>.

Haaretz: "How Israel silenced its Gaza war protesters"

06:18 22/09/2009
By Akiva Eldar

A new report from Adalah shows how the courts and police attempted to stamp out opposition to Operation Cast Lead "This is a time of war, and every incident harms the people's morale."

This was not a sentence in a right-wing journal, but rather a statement by an Israel Police representative during Operation Cast Lead seeking to persuade the Tel Aviv District Court to block anti-war protesters from the city.

Around the same time, in a Haifa Magistrate's Court hearing on extending the remand of minors, Judge Moshe Gilad stated: "Anyone who enables remarks denouncing the state and backing its enemies, even as they rain missiles upon its citizens, must obey its laws, and certainly is prohibited from attacking police who come to impose order. It is similar to a person spitting in the well from which he drinks."

Here are some of the pearls in Adalah's new report: "Prohibited protest - how the law enforcement authorities limit the freedom of expression of opponents of the Gaza military attack." The document, being published for the first time here, was written by attorneys Abeer Baker and Rana Asali. They reviewed and analyzed hundreds of rulings and detention requests, interviewed dozens of human rights activists who were arrested and threatened during the Gaza attack, and documented the behavior of Israeli academia during the moments of truth last winter.

The Adalah report was completed a few days before the Goldstone report was released. It harshly criticizes the damage to freedom of expression and the lack of tolerance for protests, primarily by Arab Israelis, against the attack on Gaza's civilian population. The report shows that enforcements officials did not learn from the October 2000 riots, and did not internalize the Or Commission recommendations.

The authors wrote that while they worked on their report, President Shimon Peres accepted the recommendation by former justice minister Daniel Friedmann to pardon 59 citizens who committed criminal offenses during protests against the disengagement in August 2005. The president stated that the pardons were being granted out of an understanding for the young people's protests, and awareness that this was an unusual, historic event.

The Arabs (and a handful of Jews) protesting against the bloody incidents that took hundreds of lives did not receive a fraction of that understanding.

"In all court decisions we reviewed, the authorities did not mention the reason for the anger of war opponents," they stated. "The hundreds of dead, the injured, the destruction, the tragedy and the damage the Israeli army brought upon Gaza's residents are not mentioned anywhere in any remand decision. The detainees were presented as lawbreakers and criminals who should be treated harshly due to 'the situation,' unconnected from the political climate of their protest."

The war mobilization went up to the Supreme Court. Of seven appeals submitted regarding the detainment of suspects until the completion of proceedings, the court sided with the state in every case. Supreme Court Judge Asher Gronis stated in ruling in favor of the detention of a minor until the end of the proceedings: "Of course, when times change, the matter of detentions will be reconsidered." He added, "When I say 'change in times,' this refers to the end of the military operation in the Gaza Strip and fewer violations in the Northern District."

The researchers note that the "change in times" clause disconnects the detention from the circumstances of the suspect, and makes this a matter of a community's behavior. They note that the detention law was intended to provide uniform tools regarding the revocation of freedom and does not differentiate between war time and peace.

Detentions as a goal

The Adalah researchers found that detentions during fighting became a goal in and of themselves. The police and the State Prosecutor's office vehemently refused to consider releasing even minors from detention or restrictive conditions.

The state's representatives in effect confirmed the detentions were designed "to send a deterrent message to the public as a whole and to the rioters in particular." During another remand extension hearing, they acknowledged this effort was aimed at 'deterring the protesters with force and detaining them until the end of the proceedings in order to convey a message to the public that such behavior is unforgiveable."

These comments were made in a detention motion that the court found was not supported by any factual, evidentiary basis. Somewhat ironically, the police again defined the protests against the war as "a disruption of the peace."

The prevailing trend around the world, including in Israel, is to try minors under proceedings that take into account their needs, welfare and well-being. Despite this, during the operation, hundreds of minors spent weeks behind bars awaiting trial. A review of several decisions regarding "daily detention" indicates how the police inflated the suspicions against the detainees, in order to lengthen their detention.

For example, on December 29, 2008 the Hadera Magistrate's Court received a police motion to hold for another seven days two people suspected of rioting and interfering with a policeman carrying out his duties. The police representative argued that the suspects burned tires, threw stones at policemen and called for Jews to be killed. The court ordered them freed, stating, "The request to extend the detention is baseless and inflated, and it would have been better if some of the remarks in the motion had never been written."

Under its obligation to uphold freedom of speech, specifically in times of conflict, the police used force to try to silence protest. Adalah found numerous testimonies indicating a widespread phenomenon of people being arrested merely because they were present at an incident. Average individuals were accused of serious violations, spent a night in detention and were brought to court handcuffed. At many protest vigils, large numbers of police showed up and dispersed the gathering with force, under the pretense that the gathering was illegal. The testimonies clearly indicate that not all the protests required a police permit.

In some cases, the police conditioned the release of protesters on their not taking part in more protests. Police used harsher threats to disperse legal anti-war protest vigils when there were also right-wing protesters there voicing support for the operation. In these cases, the police officials claimed that as few as three people is enough to justify crowd dispersal, declare the protest illegal and deem all the participants rioters. Protests were dispersed violently, and protesters sometimes suffered serious bruises. Buses en route to protests were commandeered and forced to turn around.

The Shin Bet General Security Service also took part in silencing protest; the police summoned activists, but when they arrived at the police station, they were questioned by Shin Bet investigators. Some activists said their interrogators asked political questions and threatened to persecute them and make them responsible for every violation that occurred during the demonstrations. The attorney general supported the Shin Bet's questioning and threatening methods, saying that it was meant to calm the atmosphere.

The report accuses intellectuals and academics of standing by during the violence in Gaza and overlooking the collective arrests of peace activists. Only a few lecturers mustered the courage to publicly protest the military operation. Academics who protested the collective arrest of settler teens did not speak out against the suspected IDF war crimes and the collective detainment of protesting minors. Academic institutions hung banners and took out newspaper ads voicing support for the war. They stood by while the Shin Bet and the police charged at Jewish and Arab students protesting the operation.

For instance, at the height of the operation, the University of Haifa released the following announcement despite its many Arab students: "As a show of solidarity with IDF soldiers fighting in Gaza and residents of the south, the University of Haifa has made its central tower into a national flag ... the university is not an ivory tower and is inseparably connected to the community. With this symbolic act, it expresses its great appreciation for the residents of the south and its support for the IDF's soldiers."

The ministry responds

The Ministry of Justice spokesman responded: "During Operation Cast Lead there were serious nationalistically motivated gatherings and rioting, occasionally accompanied by real disturbances including stone throwing and road blockades, and in some cases there was risk to human life and public welfare, similar to the events of October 2000 (albeit not on the same scale and not at the same intensity).

"Alongside police efforts to enforce the law and restore order, the prosecution needed to increase steps to enforce the law and prevent the spread of the phenomenon. This was done via increased enforcement, insisting on detention until the conclusion of proceedings, based on the reasons for the detention (primarily endangerment) and carrying out the law to the fullest regarding criminals, subject to the specific circumstances of each case.

"Court rulings, through the October 2000 events, called for detaining rioters - including minors - who were involved in nationalistically motivated disturbances that posed a threat to passersby and security forces, based on the specific danger posed by each detainee. The Supreme Court on more than one occasion determined that a person who throws stones at government agents seeking to restore order or at innocent bystanders may continue to endanger public safety and even human life.

"That the actions stem from ideological fervor, and take place in large and heated gatherings, make them more dangerous. This is a phenomenon that builds on itself. Once it became part of the agenda of those rioters, the court ruled that the threat to human life cannot be ignored.

"In cases involving the detention of minors, the prosecutors were instructed to ask courts to begin proceedings as soon as possible and to handle the cases quickly."

Maan: "The Israeli’s of Bil’in: joining Palestinians against the wall"

Published today (updated) 18/09/2009 14:41

Bil'in - Ma'an - For over four years the international media has reported on the weekly protests in the small West Bank village of Bil’in. They report that Israel has moved the separation wall so it annexes over 60% of the village, that the residents of Bil’in once worked the confiscated land as a source of livelihood and that after every Friday prayer there is a non-violent protest that gets dispersed by tear gas. What is left out from such accounts is that many who attend these West Bank protests are Israelis Jews.

So what are these Israelis doing? They are breaking Israeli law by entering the West Bank, not to mention the newly relabeled “closed military zone” of Bil’in.” And perhaps even more daring, these Jewish protesters are breaking from the Zionist glue that professes that Israel can do-no-wrong—especially when it comes to the treatment of Palestinians.

A wall within

“You first have to cross a wall within yourself,” says Inbar, a 22 year-old student at Tel Aviv University referring metaphorically to the separation wall Israel has constructed around half of the West Bank.

“I lost friends the first time I came... I was an outcast. And when the solders saw me they pushed me and called me a whore. I only tell a few people [Israelis] what I do on my Fridays now. Not everyone is, how shall we say, open?”

Many Israelis who to attend the anti-wall protests in Bil’in, or those in the villages of Ni’lin or Al-Ma’asara, say they come on a regular basis. Some say they have been attending these rallies for over four years.

Inbar continues, “Just because I was born Jewish does not make me different. I consider us all people who work this land… as our ancestors did together for so many years before. You cannot change history.”

“But you also can’t push facts on people if they don’t want to hear it. They will reject it outright. Still, I am willing to have that argument.”
Inbar studies agriculture and says that despite her unpopular views, she still has an active social life in Israel.

“The Israeli government has a lot invested in this wall. I think eventually it will move. Not come down, but move… which is a still bad because nothing has done more to separate Israelis from Palestinians… than this,” she said pointing at the wall.

“I come to show my solidarity. If protesting this wall is something we can do together, then so be it.”

Some in regular attendance of these West Bank protests estimate that up to half of the international participates are Israelis Jews. Many come with an organization, or car-pool from hubs like Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.

The refuseniks

“We are not the left-wing,” says Dany, a 29-year-old artist and activist from Netanya. “They hate us because people confuse us with them. I refused to serve in the army.

“I come out [to Bil’in] for many reasons—land-theft, basic human rights and injustice in my own name. For 18-months I have been getting tear gassed by my own people.”

“That speaks loudly to Palestinians. They know our history. And I will be back next Friday.”

All Israelis must serve in the Israeli army; postings include everything from checkpoint duty to organizing social events for troops on their off days. While most assignments do not require combat, they do require being part of an occupational force. That is unacceptable for some Israelis. Such are called refuseniks.

Commonly, there are two categories of Israeli who refuse army service. The first kind is an already enlisted reserve solder that signs a letter refusing to serve in the occupied territories. The second is an Israeli that simply does not want to be part of the occupation force and refuses to serve in any post mandated by the army.

Refusing the Israeli army is punishable by imprisonment.

Two sides to every wall

Meet Assaf. He is a 24-year-old Israeli, a self-proclaimed “lover of peace” and a former medic for the Israeli army who served in the West Bank. “I have seen violence and I hate it,” he says. “I hate it more than anything. It is a disease of humanity.

“When I was a medic in the IDF [Israeli army forces] I was on the other side of these protests. The other side of this wall.”

Assaf went on to suggest that the Palestinians should get giant posters of Gandhi and read Marin Luther King speeches over a loud speaker at the next Friday protest. “They [the protests] are in the right direction, but they need more organization. More structure.

“I didn’t like it [throwing rocks at the solders] when I was in the IDF and I don’t like it now. It encourages the solders to react.” Violence breeds more violence, he said.

“As [Israeli] solders we are told by our commanders that ‘the world hates us’ and that ‘if it was up to these people the holocaust would be nothing.’ Our IDF commanders used the Jewish narrative to put fear in us.

“It is just crazy to think that beyond the gas, beyond the wall and beyond the armor, they [the Israeli soldiers] are actually terrified of the 50 unarmed people here. Simply crazy.”

The gassing at Bil’in

When Bil’in’s Imam concludes the weekly Friday prayer, a group forms outside the main mosque. They begin to beat their chests and chant anti-occupation slogans. “One, two, three, four, occupation no more,” is a normal cry. And the protest comes to life.

Palestinians, internationals (Israelis included) and a small army of press cross the sunken wadi, or valley in Arabic, and approach the wall that has annexed over half of the land of the village. Israeli soldiers pour out of their armored barracks in anticipation. The protesters continue to shout and take pictures; a daring few opt to abuse the barbwire fence. Many of the Israeli civilians look through the crowd to their nation’s solders, with Bil’in’s occupied land as a painful background.

Out of nowhere, rocks start to fly from the hands of teenage Palestinians who crouch behind ancient boulders and olive trees. The Israeli soldiers on the other side of the fence watch, occasionally flinching in their expensive armor.

And then, like a monsoon, tear gas comes raining from the sky. The crowd falls back through the wadi and back into the village of Bil’in.
On the pavement is a young Israeli protester. He is faint from the gas and red in the face. His tear ducts are in overdrive, tying to rid his eyes from his own country’s gas. The Israeli is alone.

An elder from the village calmly approaches him. Recognizing the situation, the elder says in an Arabic-accented Hebrew, “shalom aleichem,” or peace be upon you, and he extends his hand.

The young Israeli is slow, but he gets up. The Palestinian elder waits. And the Jew and the Arab walk back to the village. Together.

And so is the Friday drama in the West Bank village of Bil’in.

Come to Palestine: ISM's Olive Harvest 2009

Join the 2009 Olive Harvest Campaign

With rapidly escalating levels of settler violence in the West Bank, the International Solidarity Movement is issuing an urgent call for volunteers to participate in the 2009 Olive Harvest Campaign.

The olive tree is a national symbol for Palestinians. As thousands of olive trees have been bulldozed, uprooted and burned by the Israeli military and settlers, harvesting has become more than a source of livelihood; it has become a form of resistance. The olive harvest is an annual affirmation of Palestinians' historical, spiritual and economic connection to their land, and a rejection of Israeli efforts to seize it.

Palestinian communities are inviting internationals to support and show solidarity with this resistance by working in the olive groves with them. By doing so, activists can reduce the risk of extreme violence from Israeli settlers or army through non-violent intervention and documentation.

The campaign will begin on the 3rd of October and run for approximately 6-8 weeks, depending on the size of the harvest. We ask that volunteers commit at least 2 weeks of their time.

Training:

The ISM will be holding mandatory two day training sessions held every Saturday and Sunday.
(see: http://palsolidarity.org/join). Please contact palreports@gmail.com for further information.)

Ongoing campaigns:

In addition to the olive harvest, there will also be other opportunities to participate in grass-roots, non-violent resistance in Palestine.

In occupied East Jerusalem, ISM activists have been staying with the Hanoun and Ghawe families, prior and post their evictions. We will continue to support the initiatives of the families who face evictions or demolitions in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan and other Palestinian neighborhoods in resisting the ethnic cleansing of occupied East Jerusalem
(see: http://palsolidarity.org/tag/east-jerusalem).

ISM has been active in the village of Ni'lin, supporting its non-violent resistance to construction of the Apartheid Wall that annexes much of its land. Since May 2008, Ni’lin has been demonstrating and the Israeli military suppression of their unarmed protests has led to the death of 5 Palestinians and critical injury of an ISM activist
(see: http://palsolidarity.org/tag/nilin).

In Bil’in, ISM has once again taken an apartment to participate in prevention of arrests and the ongoing night raids. Since the beginning of the summer, Israeli forces have been invading and arresting in the village of Bil’in, known for its creative resistance to the Apartheid Wall and construction of settlements on village lands
(see: http://palsolidarity.org/tag/bilin).

Additionally, ISM maintains a presence in Hebron and Susiya. Work in these areas includes solidarity visits, farmer accompaniment and response to settler violence
(see: http://palsolidarity.org/tag/hebron and http://palsolidarity.org/tag/susiya).

Come! Bear witness to the suffering, courage and generosity of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. Experiencing the situation for yourself is vital to adequately convey the reality of life in Palestine to your home communities and to re-frame the debate in a way that will expose Israel's apartheid policies; creeping ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem as well as collective punishment and genocidal practices in Gaza.

BBC: " Israel 'understated' Gaza deaths"

An Israeli human rights group says many more Palestinian civilians were killed in the Israeli military's campaign in Gaza than the army admits.

B'Tselem said detailed research with careful cross-checking showed 1,387 Palestinians died, over half of them civilians and 252 of them children.

This contradicts an Israeli army report stating fewer than 300 civilians died in fighting in December and January.

Israel launched the assault to halt rocket attacks from Hamas-run Gaza.

The overall B'Tselem total broadly tallies with the official Palestinian death toll and the findings of other non-governmental organisations, although the proportion of civilians it identifies is lower.


The group says the extent of civilian deaths does not prove, in itself, that Israel violated the laws of war.

However, it says it raises grave concerns about the military's behaviour when taken in the context of "numerous testimonies" from troops and Palestinians.

Amnesty International has already accused Israel of committing war crimes during its offensive.

The Israeli army has admitted "rare mishaps" during the campaign but denies troops violated international humanitarian law.

'Serious introspection'

B'Tselem said the findings had been compiled during months of research, including visits to the families of those killed.

It said it was unable to compare its figures with the official Israeli ones because the military refused to provide its list of fatalities.

The group said the results should compel the Israeli government to launch an independent investigation into its three-week offensive.

Earlier this year the Israeli army said that 1,166 Gazans were killed in the conflict, a quarter of whom were civilians.

Its figures indicated that the toll included 709 militants from Hamas and other groups, and 295 non-combatants.

According to B'Tselem, 1,387 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military, including 773 civilians, 330 combatants and 248 civilian police - whom Israeli officials classify as militants.

B'Tselem has counted 252 children under the age of 16 who were killed - the military puts that figure at 89 - and 109 women over 18.

"The extremely heavy civilian casualties and the massive damage to civilian property require serious introspection on the part of Israeli society," B'Tselem said, adding that it considered the army's internal probe insufficient.

The group acknowledged the challenges of combat in the densely crowded Gaza Strip, and criticised the "illegal and immoral actions" by Palestinian militants accused of hiding among the civilian population.

But this "cannot legitimise such extensive harm to civilians by a state committed to the rule of law", B'Tselem added.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the report, but has previously rejected such criticism.

It has said the aim of the campaign "was target the Hamas terror organisation and not citizens of the Gaza Strip".

More Information:
B'tselem Report: http://www.btselem.org/English/Press_Releases/20090909.asp

IDF filmed aiming tear gas at Al-Jazeera reporter in West Bank

Video footage that aired Friday shows an Al-Jazeera reporter covering an anti-separation fence rally in the West Bank dodging a tear gas grenade fired by Israel Defense Forces troops.



Jacky Rowland was reporting Friday from the West Bank village of Bil'in, explaining to viewers about the separation fence and the weekly protests that take place there, when Israeli troops began firing tear gas at the protesters and then directly at her.

The footage shows Rowland, wearing a helmet, exclaiming "We're under attack!" as a tear gas grenade flies past her.

She continues reporting, telling viewers that the Israeli soldiers are "obviously trying to take us off the air."

4 Palestinians Killed in One Week

Weekly Report:
On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

No. 35/2009 27
Aug. 02 Sep. 2009

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue Systematic Attacks against Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and Continue to Impose a Total Closure on the Gaza Strip

• Two Palestinian civilians, including a child, were killed by IOF in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
  
• Two Palestinian resistance activists were killed in the east of the Gaza Strip.

• Rescue teams found the body of a Palestinian who was missing after IOF had attacked the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

• 10 Palestinian civilians were wounded by IOF gunfire, 9 in the Gaza Strip.

• IOF used force against peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to the construction of the Annexation Wall in the West Bank.

• IOF conducted 22 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and one into the Gaza Strip.

• IOF arrested 39 Palestinian civilians, including 4 children and a woman, in the West Bank.

• Israeli naval troops continued to attack Palestinian fishers and fishing boats in the Gaza Strip.

• A fishing boat was totally burnt and another one was damaged when Israeli gunboats opened fire at them.

• IOF have continued to impose a total closure on the OPT and have isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world.
  
  
• IOF have continued settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.

Israeli Violations Documented during the Reporting Period (27 August – 02 September 2009)

The full report is available online at:

html format:

http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/W_report/English/2008/03-09-2009.htm

pdf format:

http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/W_report/English/2008/pdf/weekly%20report%2035-09.pdf

Support the Struggle in Bil'in

“Just as a simple man named Ghandi led the successful non-violent struggle in India and simple people such as Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela led the struggle for civil rights in the United States, simple people here in Bil’in are leading a non-violent struggle that will bring them their freedom. The South Africa experience proves that injustice can be dismantled.”

-- Archbishop Desmond Tutu, during a visit to Bil’in on 27 August 2009

The Israeli military’s most recent attempt to crush Bil’in village’s ongoing popular non-violent resistance campaign against the Apartheid Wall is a wave of night raids and arrests targeting protesters and the leadership of Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements.

The recent raids began concurrently with the opening of a legal trial in Montreal. The village of Bil’in has taken two companies registered in Canada (Green Park International & Green Mount International) to court for participating in war crimes by building settlements on Bil’in’s land under the2000 Canadian Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Statute (which incorporates both the articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute into Canadian federal law).

According to Bil'in's attorney Emily Schaeffer, the judge Justice Louis-Paul Cullen is meant to give a decision very soon about whether the Canadian court has jurisdiction to hear Bil'in's claims.

Since the trail began Israeli forces have arrested 30 people (most of which are under 18). Twenty-one residents of Bil'in remain in Israeli detention.

Through Israel’s interrogation and intimidation tactics, some of arrested youth have falsely ‘confessed’ that the Bil’in Popular Committee urges the demonstrators to throw stones. With such ‘confessions’, Israeli forces then proceed to raid the village at night , invade homes and arrest leaders of the non-violent struggle in the community.

Two of the three popular committee members who traveled to Montreal to represent the villages case , Mohammad Khatib and Mohammad Abu Rahme were arrested and have since been released on bail.

B'Tselem report:
http://www.btselem.org/english/separation_barrier/20090818_night_arrests_in_bilin.asp

Another leading Bil’in non-violent activist, Adeeb Abu Rahme, remains in detention since his arrest during a non-violent demonstration on 10 July 2009 (see report & video: http://palsolidarity.org/2009/07/7652 ). Adib has been charged with “incitement to damage the security of the area.”

On 29 August 2009, two additional Bil'in houses were simultaneously raided by at least 40 soldiers, arresting Ashraf Al-Khatib (age 29) and Hamru Bornat (age 24). A local cameraman, Haitham Al-Khatib, brother of the arrested Hamru, was repeatedly forcibly moved and hit, and threatened with arrest unless he stopped filming. Soldiers declared his home a "closed military zone" but could not produce any military order.

What can you do?

Attempts to criminalize the leadership of non-violent protests where curbed in the past with the help of an outpouring of support from people committed to justice from all over the world.

1. Please protest by contacting your political representatives, as well as your consuls and ambassadors to Israel to demand that Israel stops targeting non-violent popular resistance and release Adib Abu Rahme and all Bil’in prisoners.

2. The Popular Committee of Bil’in is in desperate need for funds in order to pay legal fees both for the trail in Montréal and for representing the arrested protesters in the military courts and bail.

Please donate to the Bil’in legal fund through paypal. If you would like to make a tax deductible donation in the US or Canada contact: bilinlegal@gmail.com.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=54WNW9PN7UUDJ&lc=IL&item_name=Bil%27in%20Legal&currency_code=EUR&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF%3abtn_donateCC_LG%2egif%3aNonHosted

Background: The Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements

The Palestinian village of Bil’in has become an international symbol of the Palestinian popular struggle. For almost 5 years, its residents have been continuously struggling against the de facto annexation of more than 50% of their farmlands, confiscated for the construction of the Apartheid Wall.

In a celebrated decision, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled on the 4 September 2007 that the current route of the wall in Bil’in was illegal and needs to be dismantled; the ruling however has not been implemented. The struggle of the village to liberate its lands and stop the illegal settlements has been internationally recognized and has earned the popular committee in Bil’in the Carl von Ossietzky Meda award.