Walaje arrest
On Thursday about 25 activists, Palestinian, Israeli and international, came to protest against the construction of a huge prison, the Israeli separation wall, around the village of Al-Walaje. Protestors sat in front of the bulldozer and were violently removed by border police forces. Three Palestinian protestors were injured from beatings and pepper spray, one of them bleeding seriously following blows on his head from police clubs. The path of the fence which is built at the moment is for pure real-estate considerations, nothing about security - the construction of Giv'at Yael settlement near Gilo.
During the demonstration one of the protestors explained to the officer in charge why what he was doing is a war crime. The response at best was "this is what the government tells us to do" or "these are my orders". Police repeatedly tried to prevent the media and photographers from documenting events, but the latter stood on their right to do so, sometimes with help from protestors.
Over 20 Israelis and a similar number of internationals joined the Palestinian residents of Bil'in for the weekly Friday demonstration against the fence, land theft, and apartheid. The demonstration was opened with an enactment of a burial procession to remind us of the situation of Palestinian refugees. When demonstrators reached the fence the heat had already taken its toll, and the demonstration wasn't very energetic. But then the local youth tried to disperse the soldiers with stones, and the gas came a-pouring.
Since the demonstration was smaller than those of the last couple of weeks (May Day and the Bil'in conference), a larger number of soldiers invaded the village trying to arrest demonstrators, and reached deeper into the village. As usual, those arrested were the ones who didn't run: a couple of photographers, a medic, a non violent demonstrator with special needs who was brutally knocked down, a farmer living near the site of the arrests, and a guy who tried to help put out a bush fire caused by the army's grenades. Three of detainees (two Israelis and an international) were released tonight. The three Palestinians, as befitting an apartheid regime, were transferred to Ofer prison without as much as a police interrogation.
Bil'in demonstration
Meanwhile in Ma'asara, a rare achievement was for the popular struggle was recorded: for the first time in two years demonstrators have succeeded reaching the agricultural lands on the route of the wall.
The weekly demonstration, numbering but 35 Palestinians, Israelis and internationals, proceeded from the heart of the village, arriving at the regular location where soldiers and barbed wire stopped the march. Stating, as usual, that they want to reach the village lands, demonstrators were surprised to see officers actually considering the notion, then allowing the march and asking activists to avoid blocking the road.
And so the march proceeded, going round the wire and on to the lands. Once there, demonstrators carried speeches and sang the International, and after another half hour returned peacefully to the village.
Ma'asara march
The weekly Friday protest against the wall in Ni'ilin left after lunchtime prayers and reached the route of the barrier, with Palestinians, Israelis and internationals voicing their objection to this land grab. Some of the village youth waved a huge Palestinian flag and chanted slogans, while a small number threw stones at the soldiers on the other side of the wall. The soldiers fired tear gas at the demonstration, but brisk winds blew most of it away. After a couple of hours the protesters returned to the village. No injuries were recorded and the only unusual event was the sight of the soldiers accidentally setting fire to a section of land near their own position.
A clip from the Ni'ilin demonstration can be found here.
Nabi-Saleh
After the demonstration, the Israelis in the group then set off to join the end of the protest in Nabi Salah. On their way, some activists were detained by a military jeep with the flimsy excuse that they were in area A, which Israelis are barred from. They were taken to a military base located inside the Halamish settlement and held unlawfully for more than six hours until the police had to release them with no charge.
In Nabi Salah, the youth clashed with border police and soldiers. By evening the clashes subsided, that is until an army jeep returned to the village, repeatedly driving up the access road and drawing the village youths toward it. Suddenly the shout that soldiers have entered the village was heard, and the protesters began to run away. Seconds later it transpired that around seven undercover police were present amongst the villagers. The plain clothed police fired their guns in the air, threw stun grenades and gas grenades, and charged into the crowd, arresting whoever they could get their hands on. Their catch included a petrified Palestinian boy aged 11, one youth of 19, and two Israeli activists. All were taken away by the police with the backup of around twenty soldiers from a special force. Women from the village, upon hearing that a boy was arrested, ran over to where the soldiers were loading the arrestees on to a jeep, and pleaded to see the arrested boy. Border police officers threw tear gas and the women and threatened them with violence. Following urgent intervention by protesters, the boy was released soon after being taken with the others to the Halamish settlement. He testified that one of the undercover police beat him at the settlement, and was experiencing pain in his arm.
The other arrestees were taken, bound and blindfolded, to the Binyamin police station, where the two Israelis were interrogated for allegedly being in a closed military zone. The Palestinian was transferred to Ofer prison.
Meanwhile in Sheikh Jarrah, three hundred people converged to the joint Friday demonstration against the transfer of Palestinians from the neighborhood. A small group of demonstrators, including the drummers' circle, was staged closer to the confiscated houses and then forced by police to regroup and return to the central demonstration.
Among the demonstrators (mostly from west Jerusalem) were also Palestinians from the neighborhood, activists from Tel Aviv, and few dozens who already participated in the Friday noon demos in Ma'asara, and Bil'in.
Sheikh Jarrah demonstration
In Hebron on Saturday a 40 people strong demonstration included some chanting of slogans in front of barred-up Palestinian shops in a settler controlled street closed to Palestinians, as settlers and soldiers were looking on. It followed by a march through the old city, and at a certain point settlers threw water buckets from rooftops at the chanting protesters, who in turn told the settlers what they think of their choice of residence. The demonstration ended quietly after an hour.
In Beit Jala on Sunday a minister visit shortened the demo into 10 minutes of speeches and some burning of settlement products' empty packages on a barbed wire in front of the soldiers that guarded the way to the wall's construction. The burning of the packages was done in honor of the Palestinian campaign for a boycott of settlement goods. Some minor clashes between the army and stone throwers followed the demo, but the stone throwers were soon pushed away by Palestinian police.
