Nabi Saleh
Around 80 Nabi Saleh residents, other Palestinians and international and Israeli supporters participated in this week's demonstration against the strangulating occupation and the Halamish settlement. This time the peaceful march was not attacked at first by the Israeli army. The soldiers though did take control of the main village's junction, shutting traffic and threatening to use violence if approached. Chanting and dancing all the way, protesters did approach slowly towards the nervous army position, breaking any distance the soldiers wished to maintain. A few young people peacefully observing the scene from above was apparently too much for the army to bear, and their pursue after the youngsters signaled the end of the peaceful demonstration. Soon enough tear gas and stun grenades were thrown at the retreating protesters, while stones were thrown back at the army position.
During the long hours of the demo, army soldiers often fired tear gas projectiles aiming directly at body height, instead of firing them arched as their own regulations require. One Palestinian protester was injured by a tear gas projectile shot directly below his eye, and was evacuated to a nearby hospital. About a dozen others suffered from less serious injuries caused by the army aggression.
At a certain point the army launched coordinated multiple incursions into the village from various directions, chasing after protesters to make arrests. Two internationals who were taking pictures were arrested. They were held for 6 hours in a military facility, handcuffed, with their eyes covered. One Palestinian youth who was during the whole demo inside his home was randomly chosen by the army to be arrested for “throwing stones”. After much negotiations, while tens of children and women are filling the street under the eyes of helpless armed-to-the-top soldiers – the youth was released in celebration that marked the end of the demo with the army retreat.
al-Ma'asara
In al-Ma'asara village, around 120 Palestinian, international and Israeli demonstrators participated in a pacifist march promoting the boycott on settlement produce and protesting the prospective construction of the wall, which upon completion will annex 350 hectares of the Palestinian land of the area. The Israeli soldiers blocked the main roadway of the village through which the demonstration advanced and in response the demonstrators decided to sit down on the road. Two young Palestinian men were arrested violently while they were seated on the ground with their hands up in front of the soldiers. The soldiers then began firing sound grenades, tear gas, and rubber bullet at the crowd; one young man was hospitalized with a serious head injury caused by a gas canister.
al-Walaja
About 20 Israelis and internationals joined a few dozen Palestinians for a demonstration in Walaje against the wall that is going to enclose the village and turn it into an enclave/open air prison. After a brief march speeches were held in Hebrew, English and Arabic. The army didn't approach the demo. Then we went to the protest tent set up on the village's lands that are to be confiscated for constructing the wall, where the local elders gave the visitors a first hand account of the history of the village since the 1948 war. The organizers reported that that the legal case against the local section of the wall is to be repoened on July 25, but the authorities are not freezing the construction. The local organizers are therefore trying to bring the legal proceedings forward, and invite activists to join the villagers on Sunday 9:00 to resist the bulldozers.
Bil'in
Bil'in boycotting settlement products
Today’s weekly demonstration in Bil’in was conducted in solidarity with the Israeli settlement boycott movement. Palestinians, Israelis and internationals gathered to protest not only the Wall, but also to promote the boycott of goods produced in West Bank Israeli settlements. Participants were given literature detailing the dozens of products that are produced on Palestinian land and billed as Israeli products for global markets.
Demonstrators marched to the Wall and attached boycott posters on the fence before Israeli soldiers entered the gate and aggressively fired tear gas into the crowd. Two children, including a mentally disabled boy, were injured as a result. Three Israelis were arrested during the Israeli incursion: one journalist and two activists, Tali and Hamtal. Dozens suffered tear gas inhalation.
The demonstration was attended by a group of visiting students from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and students from Al Quds University. Iyad Burnat spoke to the group about the village’s efforts to resist the confiscation and destruction of their land. Haitham al-Khatib’s film, Life on Wheels, was shown, along with a film about the life and death of Bassem Abu Rahme, who was killed by Israeli forces in Bil’in last April during a non-violent demonstration.
Sheikh Jarrah
This past Friday, some 300 demonstrators gathered in Sheikh Jarrah to protest the banishing of Palestinian families from their homes and their replacement by Jewish settlers. Many demonstrators came to fill the places of those activists who were badly beaten or barred from returning to the demonstration following last week's demonstration.
The protest stayed in the park opposite the neighborhood, where the police usually allows it to take place, and no confrontations took place. Several activists who crossed the road and handed out leaflets to the police, explaining why it was wrong to support the Apartheid policies in the neighborhood and to beat and arrest demonstrators, were frowned upon and sent back to join the rest of the demonstration.
Ni'ilin
Tel Aviv - Protest in solidarity with Sheikh Jarrah
Approximately 100 Israeli protestors gathered in the corner of Ben-Zion Boulevard and King George street in Tel-Aviv, among them were about 10 of the regular Sheikh Jarrah protesters who are under restriction from last week. With a small speaker and loud chants, the protestors reminded Tel Avivians that just a 45 minutes drive away, families are thrown out from their homes to the street, while those who speak out for them are thrown into prison. Some of those who stood closer to the road got the pleasure of being cursed occasionally by drivers. A bit later some teenagers started singing "Jerusalem of Gold" from a bus towards the demonstration, and were silenced by the protestors chanting "You have no shame? an occupied city is not holy" (in Hebrew it rhymes). After about an hour the demonstration was over, and a march idea came up, but was turned down in favor of a short meeting to make plans for following weeks.
