Press release
22 January 2010
Six demonstrators, including three Israeli activists, were injured today in the West Bank village of Nabbi Saleh after the army invaded the village earlier today. The soldiers launched an unprovoked attack at the center of the village, even before a scheduled demonstration began. Three women and three men from the village were arrested.
An army officer hitting a Palestinian woman during today's demonstration. Picture credit: Oren ZivActiveStills*
Slightly after 12:30 a large military force invaded the North Ramallah village of Nabbi Saleh and began shooting tear-gas and rubber-coated bullets at people who were gathering to demonstrate against the theft of their lands by the nearby Jewish-only settlement of Halamish. One demonstrator was evacuated to the hospital unconscious, after being hit in the back with a rubber-coated bullet. Five more, including three Israeli activists, suffered less serious injuries.
During the demonstration three women and three man were arrested by the soldiers. An Israeli activist who was detained together with them was released a short time after, despite the fact that they were all arrested at the same time and place, and under similar circumstances.
For more details: media@popularstruggle.org or +972546327736
Approximately six weeks ago, a group of Halamish settlers took over a natural spring located in privately owned Palestinian land in between the village and the settlement. Since then, and despite the fact that ownership of the land undisputed, the army began preventing Palestinians from accessing the area.
Two weeks ago, when villagers amassed hoping to manage and access their lands as a group, the army brutally prevented them from doing so using tear-gas and rubber-coated bullets. In response the villagers – men, women and children – blocked the settlement's access road for over two hours. A few days after, a DCO officer approached the village's municipality, recognizing the villagers' ownership of the land and promised that they will no longer be barred from accessing it. Despite this promise, the army continued violently assaulting residents of Nabbi Saleh in the past two Fridays when they tried accessing their lands.
Demonstrations also took place today in the villages of alMaasara south of Bethlehem – where a demonstrator was arrested and the Palestinian minister of agriculture was among the participants, Bil'in and Ni'ilin – where in the past month the army has been conducting an unprecedented arrest campaign against anti-Wall activists.
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Amnesty International
08 January 2010
The Israeli authorities must immediately release, or bring before a fair trial, three Palestinian human rights activists detained in Israel following their protests against the construction of the West Bank fence/wall, Amnesty International said on Friday. Read more
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Press release
08 January 2010
As part of a recent surge in popular protest in the West Bank, about 300 demonstrators occupied and blocked the main road in near the Halamish settlement for over two hours. The demonstrators, twenty of which were injured by rubber-coated bullets, protested recent land grabs.
About 300 people took to the street today in the West Bank village of Nabbi Saleh, north-west of Ramallah, in protest of recent land grab by the adjacent Jewish-only settlement of Halamish. The protesters occupied and blocked the main street leading to the settlement, and amidst clouds of tear gas and whizzing rubber-coated bullets, managed to hold it for over two hours. A group of demonstrators also managed to reach the area that was recently taken over by settlers.
For more details: Jonathan Pollak 0546327736
Settlers who came down from Halamish threw stones and shot live rounds of demonstrators. Soldiers who were present took no actions to stop them. Following the demonstration the army invaded Nabbi Salleh, where clashes ensued.
Twenty of Nabbi Saleh's residents were struck by rubber-coated bullets, and dozens suffered from tear gas inhalation.
Bassem Tamimi, one organizers of the demonstration said that “For three weeks we have been prevented from reaching our land for because of the settlers who occupied it. In any reasonable place, we would be allowed to just drive them out by force, but they have the army on their side even though the law is on our side. Under the occupation we are not even allowed to merely protest
Demonstrations were also held today in N'ilin, Bil'in – where a journalist and a demonstrator were lightly injured, and in alMaasara where the army invaded the village.
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Press release
23 December 2010
Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a school teacher and coordinator of the Bil'in Popular Committee Against the Wall, was indicted in an Israeli military court yesterday. Abu Rahmah was slapped with an arms possession charge for collecting used tear gas canisters shot at demonstrators in Bil'in by the army and showcasing them in his home.
An indictment was filed in a West Bank military court yesterday for incitement, stone throwing and arms possession charges against Bil'in Popular Committee
An exhibition of spent tear gas grenades and projectiles in the village of Bil'in for which Abu Rahmah was indicted on. Picture credit: Oren ZivActiveStills*
coordinator, Abdallah Abu Rahmah. On receiving the indictment Adv. Gaby Lasky, Abu Rahmah's lawyer said that “the army shoots at unarmed demonstrators, and when they try to show the world the violence used against them by collecting presenting the remnants – they are persecuted and prosecuted. What's next? Charging protesters money for the bullets shot at them?”
For more details: Jonathan Pollak +972546327736
On December 10, exactly one year after receiving the International League for Human Rights' Carl Von Ossietzky Medal – on International Day of Human Rights – Abu Rahmah was arrested during an Israeli military night-time raid for his involvement in organizing unarmed protest against the Wall in the village of Bil'in. The indictment served yesterday also includes charges of incitement and stone throwing.
As part of a recent wave of repression against the Palestinian popular protest movement, Israel has charged numerous grassroots organizers with both stone throwing and incitement. In at least one case, that of Mohammed Khatib from Bil'in, the court found evidence presented on a stone-throwing charge to be falsified.
In the past six month, 31 residents of Bil'in have been detained by the military, and in neighboring Ni'ilin, 91 have been arrested in the past 18 months.
Abdallah Abu Rahmah's arrest and indictment, as well as that of Adeeb Abu Rahmah and the arrest of Jamal Juma' of the Stop the Wall organization are part of a wider attempt to equate grassroots organizing with a hefty of incitement.
This is part of the army's strategy to use legal measures as a means of quashing the popular movement.
See here for an article on the subject from today's Haaretz Newspaper.
Press release* The above picture is for free-of charge single-use in internet publications only. Please include picture credit. For print and higher resolution please contact rnziv@yahoo.com
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