Recent Activities

Soldiers running away from teargas Photo By Tess Scheflan\Activestills 

After a relatively calm demonstration on Friday since no construction was taking place, a general strike was declared in the village today as the bulldozers resumed destroying the olive orchards. At around eleven am, over 300 people set out to the lands to stop the bulldozers. The demonstrators were met by a massive contingent of soldiers who rained volleys of teargas, concussion grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets on them. Nevertheless, in the nearly four hours of clashes, protesters have managed to intermittently get to the bulldozers and disrupt the construction three times.

Video by David Reeb and Israel Poterman

For the past two weeks, a nearly daily mobilization has been taking place in the village of Ni'ilin, where construction of the wall has begun. The video depicts today's demonstration, in which villagers and supporters tried blocking the bulldozers and were met by harsh military violence, which included concussion grenades, teargas and rubber bullets, as well as kicks and punches. Twelve were injured during the demonstration and two, one Palestinian and one Israeli, were arrested.

The wall in the area is planned to leave about 2,500 dunams (approx. 620 acres, 250 hectares), practically annexing them to the nearby settlement. The route of the wall on village's lands was planned in order to allow, amongst other things, the construction of a graveyard for the adjacent settlements.

Demonstrations and the attempt to block the construction is expected to resume Sunday.

This week's demonstration marked Bil'in's 3rd Anniversary of the village's struggle against the wall and the occupation. More than 2000 people joined this event which was also marked by the 39th anniversary of the Democratic

In a similar tactic to the one used by settlers to establish new outposts, a house was built today by Palestinian, Israeli and international activists in the controversial E-1 area between the Ma’ale Adumim settlement and Jerusalem.
11 activists were arrested as the house was evicted shortly after.
The house was built in protest of the plans to use the E-1 area in order to expand Ma’ale Adumim, in a way that will connect the large settlement to Jerusalem, and split the West Bank in two.

Click here to read reports about the action in Ynet and Haaretz Daily

On the morning of the 25/10/07 an anti-apartheid protest blocked the busy Highway 443, one of many highways that run on occupied Palestinian land that are reserved for Israelis only. Israeli Security forces used force to move the demonstrators. Three of the protesters were arrested and released with conditions limiting their movement.

A group of 15 Palestinian, Israeli and international activists have blocked the entrance to Karmei Zur Settlement today.

The entrance to the Karmei Tzur settlement, which is built on the lands of the Palestinian villages Halhul and Beit Umar, was blocked by a group of about 15 Palestinian, Israeli and international activists. To block the road activists chose to symbolically use razor wire that was taken from the fence that circles the settlement, and prevents Palestinians from accessing their land.