by Johnny Bravo

4 April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

On March 30, 1976, the Palestinian people declared a general strike and demonstrated against the Israeli confiscation of thousands of acres of land in the Galilee. The Israeli’s responded with violence, killing six unarmed Palestinian demonstrators and injuring hundreds. Every year Land Day is commemorated in Palestine in remembrance of those who rise up to protect their land.

On this Land Day, I was at Erez Crossing. Several hundred youth had managed to find their way around the Hamas policemen blocking the roads leading to Erez. At the crossing, they moved to within two hundred yards of the Israeli gate. There they found their path blocked by rows of concertina wire across the road. The shabab, or young men, set fire to tires in the roadway and threw stones towards the Israeli wall, most falling into the roadway, well short of their target. Intermittently and without warning, the Israeli occupation forces opened fire on the stone throwers. Each volley consists of one to three shots, and with each volley, young men fall. Others immediately retrieved them. Dozens of youth mobbed the wounded. Somehow they managed to carry them through the crowd and loaded them onto motorcycles, where they were ferried to the Palestinian side of the crossing to waiting ambulances.

They shoot the youth don’t they? - Click here for more photos. Courtesy Johnny Bravo, 2012

I wonder about the young Israeli soldiers, picking their targets amongst the crowd and firing, like shooting fish in a barrel. I remember in 2002, the head of the IAF, Dan Hurlitz was asked what it felt like releasing a bomb over Gaza, and he said, “No. That is not a legitimate question and it is not asked.  But if you nevertheless want to know what I feel when I release a bomb, I will tell you: I feel a light bump to the plane as a result of the bomb’s release. A second later it’s gone, and that’s all. That is what I feel.”

I disagree with Hurlitz on this point. In any caring world this is a completely legitimate question. It is the answer that rings of illegitimacy. It is the answer of a sociopath. I wonder if this dehumanization trickles down to the soldiers opposite us. I wonder what they feel.

And I wonder about the young stone throwers, completely exposed to the guns of the Israelis, knowing full well someone is going to be shot.

As the latest injury drives off on the back of a wobbly motorcycle, the shabob turn back to the wall and hurl a barrage of stones. Some grab on to the concertina wire and begin pulling it away from the road. I wait for the crack of the M-16’s and look to the front to see who has fallen. “We are going to Jerusalem, millions of martyrs” the shabob chant, and the shouts ring out “Allahu Akbar!” Some young men, blood covered, reach in and try to help each new casualty, others sit on the sidelines, taunting the newly injured, mimicking their cries as they are carried off.

In the moment, i am overwhelmed with the futility of throwing stones at a concrete barrier as the Israelis methodically pick people from the crowd and shoot them.

 At the mourning tent of the only fatality that day, Mahmoud Zaqout, who would be 20 years old on April 19th, I speak to his father, Mohamed and his cousin, Nizar Zaqout.

 Mohamed said he was proud of his son, the sixth son of seven boys. He says he was a quiet child, a loving child, and though he was soon to be twenty, he was still a child.

Mahmoud’s cousin, Nizar, who was at Mahmoud’s side at Erez, hobbles over to us on crutches, to talk about the moments leading up to Mahmoud’s death. They had traveled to Erez with two friends. They carried a Palestinian flag. Nizar tells us Mahmoud had a premonition of his impending death, and prior to entering the crossing he stopped to pray. They decided to move forward and place the Palestinian flag on the gate. In order to do this they would need to move the razor wire blocking the road and they began pulling on it. Israeli soldiers, crouching behind concrete blocks signaled to them as if to say, “What are you doing, you’ll see what happens.” On seeing the soldiers the two friends retreat. Mahmoud and Nizar continued pulling on the wire, determined to place the flag at the gate. Nizar said the soldiers signaled them with thumbs up. Shots rang out. Nizar and Mahmoud turned and ran. Nizar saw the blood on Mahmoud’s neck, after a few steps, Mahmoud collapsed in Nizar’s arms. Nizar carried his cousin back to the crowd of Palestinian youth. He held his hand over the wound as they were loaded onto a motorcycle. When they reached the ambulance, an attendant pointed to Nizar’s bleeding thigh. He had been shot as well.

I asked Nizar what he felt as he faced the soldiers. He said they were prepared to hang the flag on the gate or be shot. He spoke of his family’s history of resistance, the loss of an uncle during Cast Lead, and his determination to fight. “Even today, I want to pray in Jerusalem. This is our right. Since we were born Mahmoud and I have protested the Israelis.”

Someone handed Nizar a blood stained flag. The blood was Mahmoud’s. Nizar held the flag close to his cheek, breathing deeply. Breathing in the blood stained cloth, Mahmoud, his lost uncles, and all the sorrow and loss of Palestine, Nizar paused. He said, “Mahmoud could not place the flag at the gate. I will. Or my children will. We will continue to resist until we win our rights. Mahmoud’s blood will not be wasted. Hundreds will take his place. We will fight for our rights, for our children, we will fight until we get our land back.”

“The occupiers want us to forget about our land, and about Jerusalem, by turning our focus on our troubles- no jobs, no cooking fuel, no power, no gasoline, but we will not forget. My family is a family of resistance. My uncles have been killed, they’ve been to prison. They died for Jerusalem. Everyone around you here may die for Jerusalem. We are proud to do this.” Nizar exclaims. I turn and look at all the young faces surrounding us, listening intently.

As we get up to take our leave, Nizar asks where I am from. When I answer America, he says some in Gaza view America as the enemy. He said he appreciates my presence because it was critical to inform Americans about what is happening in Gaza.

This is what is happening in Gaza. The 36th anniversary of Land Day has come and gone. Israeli soldiers shot two young men, armed only with a flag, from point blank range. Over the course of the day, they shot dozens of young men, all armed with nothing more than stones. While I stood in Erez Crossing, no tear gas or other methods of crowd dispersal was employed. No warning shots were fired. Every shot hit flesh. American media does not find the story newsworthy. Nakba Day, “The Catastrophe”, is next, on May 15^th. The youth will return to Erez. How many will be shot? Will the world take note?

In Gaza, the resistance remains, and is carried by the youth. I realize the struggle is not futile, Palestinians resist with what they have. They are not taught to hate, they are taught to demand their rights and stand for freedom.

Mohamed says, “For these demonstrations all the young men go, we do not stop them, it is their struggle. I am proud that Mahmoud went to the front of the crowd. We resist as our grandfathers did.” He says these words so quietly I can hear his heart breaking.

 Johnny is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

by Rosa Schiano

11 April 2012 | il Blog di Oliva

On Friday 30^th March, during the “Land Day,” Gaza joined the Global March in order to remember the confiscation of Palestinian lands by Israel which were protested against on the 30^th March 1976. 6 Palestinians were killed and hundreds were injured.

In Gaza this event had the color of blood and the sound of Israeli bullets.

We all met in Beit Hanoun to head to the Erez border. Many people could not continue the march because of the blockade created by the Israeli police.

However, while we were there we learned that many people were able to reach the border, and we also knew about the injured. And so, following alternative ways, bypassing the blockade of the police, we joined them.

What we saw next was at the verge of madness.

A group of young people demonstrated by singing, some were there just sitting or standing, others were trying to remove a barbed wire fence, some were throwing stones  of protest, stones that could have never reached the Israeli soldiers and surely not cross the border.

Nonetheless, the Israeli soldiers did not hesitate. They targeted. They fired. Precisely.

The injured were many. It was chaos. Guys riding motorbikes were bringing the injured quickly towards the ambulances and then they were coming back.

The soldiers fired at the arms, at the legs.

I saw grimaces of pain; I heard the screams of pain.

Also Mahmoud Zaqout, 19 years old, was there with us. They also shot Mahmoud, but he was hit straight in the chest.

Mahmoud would have turned 20 on April 19.

After that terrible day we went to visit his family.

He was a calm boy, a lovely boy, his father Mohammed told us, “Mahmoud was 19 and he was still a child. Mahmoud graduated and he worked in his shop near home.

He was very much beloved by the children, and by his brothers and sisters. He always played with them. Mahmoud was the tenth of 12 children.

His parents told us that Mahmoud was preparing himself for this demonstration since two weeks prior. He really wished to do something for the Palestinian cause. Four days earlier he had taken a picture of himself and he asked his family to use that picture in case he was killed.

Mahmoud’s family thought that he was joking, that he said that for fun.

They did not think that this could happen.

Maybe Mahmoud felt that this could happen. Or simply he knew that whoever goes to the border to demonstrate risks his life under the fire of Israeli bullets.

On Friday, after the prayer, Mahmoud went to the demonstration.

His mother told us that before leaving he told her: “If I am late, keep lunch ready for me.”

These were his last words to his mother.

Mahmoud was trying to put a flag at the gate when he was shot by an Israeli bullet. He was transported to Kamal Odwan Hospital. But because he was badly injured, the medical staff decided to carry him to the Shifa hospital, but he died before arriving.

One of his brothers showed us the flag still stained with his blood.

We asked Mohammed from whom his son had inherited this sense of struggle and resistance. The father told us that his family is from Askilon. Mahmoud is not the first martyr of the family. One of his uncles was killed during the shelling of Gaza (Cast Lead Operation).

Mohammed told us that they feel they must fight for their own rights, for their freedom and for justice.

All his family believes that one day the Palestinian people will go back to their land.

The family of Mahmoud

One of his brother told us that Mahmoud was anxiously waiting for the following Tuesday, 3^rd April, in order to watch the football match of Barcelona, because Mahmoud was a fan of the team.

They would have watched the football match together.

Mahmoud was aware of the possibility of getting killed.  He was ready for that, for the love of his land. But at the same time Mahmoud was also thinking about his future and, as all the youth of his age, he was also thinking to watch the football match of his football team together with his family and friends.

“The loss of Mahmoud is a disaster for the whole family,” his father told us. “But now Mahmoud is with God and we hope he will be ok.”

“In the West Bank more than 300 people were injured. There Israeli soldiers used rubber coated  bullets. In Gaza there are F-16 and the soldiers use real bullets, in Gaza the Israeli soldiers shoot to kill the Palestinian people”, concluded Mohammed.

Finally, I asked the relatives of Mahmoud if they feel like sending a message to the international community.

Mohammed, the father, said, “I want to know what Mahmoud has done in order to be killed by Israel. We thank you for your solidarity, and we thank the internationals who are here to support the Palestinians.”

Nedal, one of Mahmoud’s brothers said, “If my brother had been a soldier, and if he had killed an Israeli boy, what would have been the response of the entire world? This question is above all for the governments of the other countries. Me too.. I would like to know what Mahmoud has done to be killed.”

I asked Haiaa, Mahmoud’s mother, how she feels. With her eyes still in disbelief she replied, “I feel like a fire is in my heart. Everyday I go to his room, every day I approach his bed, and I start to cry.”

The mother accompanied me into her son’s room. She showed me his computer, she touched the screen. She showed me a small cupboard with some objects. Toothpaste, a toothbrush, a comb, and some hair gel. She took the toothpaste, she handed it to me and she put it back where it was before.

She showed me Mahmoud’s jeans hanging on a hook, she hugged them. His jeans are still there at their place. Mahmoud’s mother keeps his room as he left it, as if he was still alive, as if he will come back.

I felt out of breath in front of her pain.

I hugged her, a hug full of feelings of helplessness, aware that my embrace could never relieve her pain, aware that nothing will ever bring her son back.

On Tuesday Barcelona won. Mahmoud could not sit on the armchair at home watching the match, but maybe from up there he would have smiled. Now he will wait for the greatest victory, to see the rights of the Palestinian people.

Rosa Schiano is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

27th March 2013 | International Solidarity Movement,  Qaryut, Occupied Palestine

By Team Nablus

In commemoration of Land Day, five hundred villagers planted trees on land banned from cultivation for 17 years in the Palestinian village  of Qaryut. The action was met by tear gas by Israeli soldiers and threats from Israeli settlers.

On 27 March, this action took place with a  relatively large group of about 30 Palestinians including all of the owners of the land, near the illegal Israeli settlement of Eli.

The Palestinian tree planters were met at first by verbal harassment from the nearby settlers and death threats if the planters continued their action. Following, Israeli soldiers attempted to disband the group using tear gas on the gathering. The Palestinians tree planters remained to complete their action before leaving the site.

The nearest illegal Israeli settlements to Qaryut, which impose on Qaryut land as well as some surrounding Palestinian villages, include Eli, Shiloh and Shivot Rahil. Settlements surrounding Qaryut have made Palestinian olive tree burning common vandalism by settlers during summer months.
In addition, Israeli army soldiers enforce  key roads closures on roads leading to Nablus and Ramallah.
A local municipality representative and UNICEF coordinator for youth events, said that Qaryut villagers filed an appeal to the Israeli government regarding these closures, but are awaiting response. In the meantime, Qaryut villagers hold regular peaceful demonstrations to open the roads, succeeding in this effort sometimes, the representative said, only for the road to be closed after the Palestinian demonstrators leave.
Nearby Israeli settlers also hold demonstrations claiming Qaryut as their land. Israeli school children arrive for field trips to Qaryut as part of the Israeli attempt to claim the land illegally and some ruins that exist on Qaryut land.
Qaryut is a village of 14000 dunum of which 78% has been illegally taken as Israeli land for settlements and agriculture. However, even the 9800 dunum left for the ownership of the native Palestinians is threatened often by bans on cultivation of land, olive tree damage by settlers , and further difficulty provided by key road closures enforced by the Israeli army.

27th March 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Marco Varasio | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

On Land Day, 2014, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees in Beit Hanoun, Gaza marched toward the separation barrier in the “no-go zone.” Israeli occupation forces fired tear gas canisters to break up the peaceful demonstration. Two people were overcome by the tear gas.

30th March 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Nabi Saleh, Occupied Palestine

On the 28th of March 2015, close to 200 protesters from all over the West Bank gathered in Nabi Saleh to protest the occupation in commemoration of Land Day. The protest was met with extreme violence as the Army and Border Police fired large amounts of tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets as well as several rounds of M16 live ammunition at the protesters.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv7OnrZNnEw&feature=youtu.be

Video by Anarchists Against the Wall

On March 30th 1976 a general strike and marches were arranged all over Palestinian cities within present-day Israel from the Naqab to the Galilee. The actions were a response to the Israeli Government’s expropriation of thousands of dunums of Palestinian land. During the actions six unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed, 100 wounded and hundreds more arrested. It was the first time since 1948 that the Palestinians within the borders Israel declared 1948 organised as a Palestinian national collective and the date is commemorated yearly with a series of protest all over Palestine. This year the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh marked Land Day on Saturday, the 28th of March.

Around 12 pm on Saturday, protesters from all over the West Bank, from Hebron to Kafr Qaddum, gathered in the village of Nabi Saleh. The demonstration was a local protest in commemoration of Land Day and of the two villagers Mustafa Tamimi and Rushdi Tamimi, who were murdered by the Israeli occupation soldiers.

Poster displayed at the rally before the march, showing the two residents of Nabi Saleh who have been killed by Israeli forces since protests in the village began – photo by Tamimi Press https://www.facebook.com/Tamimipresspage

After midday prayer protesters made their way down a main road of Nabi Saleh chanting and singing. On the outskirts of the village nine army and border police jeeps was gathered and as the demonstrators approached the road the about 60 soldiers and police rained tear gas on the unarmed protesters. Several people suffered from severe tear gas inhalation as the military pushed them back into the village.

Protesters chanting slogans against the occupation and marching down the road in Nabi Saleh, before the Israeli military opened fire with tear gas – photo by Tamimi Press

Undeterred by the initial choking barrage of tear gas, protesters marched towards the military once again, this time cutting across the farmland and fields outside the village. Many youths remaining on the hillside and threw stones and tear gas back towards the military.

Palestinian youth standing behind a wall of tear gas in Nabi Saleh. The illegal Israeli settlement of Hallamish is visible beyond the tear gas – photo by ISM

Israeli forces overpowered and arrested one unarmed Palestinian activist, as they continued to shoot tear gas up the into the hills. Israeli forces also threw stun grenades at unarmed Palestinians, international and Israeli activists. “They attacked me twice with stun grenades for no reason,” recalled one Palestinian photographer at the scene.

As the protest continued in the hills around Nabi Saleh protesters gathered again and threw back a large number of the tear gas canisters still being rained down on them by the army and border police. By resisting the tear gas and throwing the canisters back towards the military themselves the protesters managed to push the soldiers and police back down the hills towards the village gate. Here they took cover behind their jeeps, unable to disperse the demonstration.

Photo by Tamimi Press

As the protest continued the soldiers began firing rubber coated metal bullets at the protesters who took cover behind stones and trees as the bullets jumped off the road between them. The bullets came repeatedly and several protesters were hit and carried from the scene.

As demonstrators ducked from the rubber coated steel bullets the sound of M16’s began to fill the air as soldiers fired towards Palestinian protesters, children, internationals and journalists on the hill with live ammunition. However, the protest continued for about half an our longer until the military got back in their jeeps and moved back towards the checkpoint at the outskirts of the village.

After most of the demonstrators had returned to the village, some gathered and continued the protest on a hillside in Nabi Saleh, above the valley where several soldiers had stood watching the protest. The Israeli forces once again opened fire with live ammunition. Fifteen M16 bullets ricocheted of the stones on the ground very close to the protesters, landing near children, women and a photographer but fortunately not hitting anyone.

The Land Day protests continue all over the West Bank throughout the week.

31th March 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al Khalil Team | Wadi Fukin, Occupied Palestine

On Monday March 30th about two hundred people commemorated Land Day in the village of Wadi Fukin. The protest, which involved planting olive trees was a response to Israeli theft of village land.

Land Day protest marching in the streets of Wadi Fukin.

After midday prayer around two hundred Palestinians and internationals gathered in the village of Wadi Fukin to commemorate Land Day and support the villagers struggle against the illegal Israeli expropriation of their lands. People from Wadi Fukin, neighbouring villages and internationals started their march towards the green line carrying Palestinian flags, digging tools, playing music and singing, to where the settlement of Beitar Illit is forcibly taking over Palestinian land in order to expand. The protest continued peacefully through the small streets of Wadi Fukin and just before going to the hill above the village every protester was given an olive tree to carry. Spirits were high as protesters climbed the village hill overshadowed by the settlement expansion site and began to take back Palestinian land by planting the trees.

A village caught between settlements and under extreme pressure
Wadi Fukin is in a valley sandwiched between the Green Line to the north-west and the fastest-growing illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank, Beitar Illit. With around 80.000 inhabitants (as of 2014), Beitar Illit is part of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc surrounding and cornering Wadi Fukin. In order to expand these settlements and steal even more land, the apartheid wall is being built on Palestinian land far inside the Green Line around this settlement bloc. Regular Friday demonstrations are held in Wadi Fukin protesting against this continuous illegal land grab.

200 people at Land Day protest in Wadi Fukin, Beitar Illit settlement block in the background.

Military attacking unarmed Palestinians on their own land.
As Land Day protesters reached the Israeli construction site they managed to plant both olive trees and Palestinian flags directly on the site. While Palestinian flags and olive trees popped up on the ground, young Palestinian men and women also managed to take over and plant flags on the unmanned bulldozers and tractors parked there.

After about ten minutes on the site 4 military jeeps arrived with more than 40 soldiers and border police. The military attacked the protesters with tear gas and stun grenades and a police helicopter began circling the area and filming the protesters from the sky. As tear gas clouds drove the protesters from their lands and down the hill, soldiers began kicking down and destroying the newly planted olive trees and flags.

Soldiers and border police gassing protesters on their own land.

Spirits kept high in spite of tear gassing
Though several people suffered from tear gas poisoning the protest continued on the hill between Wadi Fukin village and the settlement expansion on the Green Line. Alternately running from tear gas and planting trees, protesters managed to stay on the hill for an hour continuing to plant and protest.

As everyone returned to the village spirits remained high and the succesful event was celebrated with music, speeches and freshly made bread.

Olive tree and flag planting at Land Day protes, Wadi Fukin.

Land Day – a historic day for fighting occupation and expropriation
Land Day marks the day of a general stike on March 30th in 1976. The strike was a response to the Israeli Government’s expropriation of thousands of dunums of Palestinian land. There were marches in Palestinian cities within present-day Israel from the Naqab to Galilee. Six unarmed Palestinians were killed, 100 wounded and hundreds more arrested. The Land Day was a turning point in the struggle against the occupation as it was the first mass mobilization by Palestinians within the borders of 1948 Israel.

Protests have been and will be continue to be going on all through the West Bank in the weeks surrounding Land Day.

31st March 2017  |  International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team  |  Hebron, occupied Palestine

A Palestinian demonstrator is arrested dragged down the hill by an Israeli soldier.

On Thursday the 30th March, four prominent Palestinian activists were violently arrested by Israeli forces following an olive tree planting action marking the 41st Land Day demonstrations in al-Khalil.

ISM activists joined demonstrators who had gathered near the Palestinian house now occupied by the army in the Jabari area of al-Khalil.  The demonstrators were already surrounded by dozens of Israeli soldiers, border police, and civilian Israeli police. Over fifty Palestinian demonstrators then made their way down the steep hill into the olive groves where, accompanied by international activists, as well as the international press, they planted a number of olive trees in defiance of the continuing dispossession and destruction of their olive groves by Israeli settlers.

A young boy plants an olive tree as part of the Land Day action.

Once the trees were planted, demonstrators made their way back up to the road where they were met by an increased number of Israeli forces claiming that the area had been declared a closed military zone. The demonstration continued on an embankment beside the road. However, it wasn’t long before Israeli forces began pursuing and violently arresting Palestinian demonstrators, whilst colonial settlers – including the notorious Ofer Yohana – harrassed and filmed them.

Israeli forces push demonstrators to the ground before arresting them

A Palestinian man is pulled away by border police, who are believed to have broken one of his hands.

As the demonstrators made their way up the hill they continued to be harassed by Ofer Yohana and other colonial settlers and Israeli forces, who took photos and videos of them using their mobile phones. One Israeli settler attempted to block ISM activists from filming by holding up an Israeli flag, and telling the activists to ‘Go [back] to Europe!’. Despite one Palestinian man telling Israeli forces that one of his cuffed hands had been broken in the arrest, the detainees were pushed into military vehicles and taken away.

The Israeli colonial settler who demanded international activists ‘Go to Europe!’

The four Palestinian activists are currently still detained, and will be charged on Sunday at the military court in Ofer. They are charged with participating in an illegal demonstration and being present in a closed military zone.

All four Palestinians who were arrested had long commitmented to non-violent public protest in their home city of Khalil.  Shortly before being arrested one of them had heard soldiers tell him that it was ‘his turn’ soon.  These arrests are part of ongoing Israeli efforts to close down all public protest in the city. Despite the many injustices faced by non-violent activists across Palestine, the resistance continues.

Demonstrators gather along the roadside, chanting and waving banners.

31st March 2017  |  International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team  |  Madama, occupied Palestine

Palestinians gathered in Madama village to plant olive trees during Land Day

Thursday the 30th of March was Land Day, a day in which Palestinians and their supporters commemorate the loss of huge amounts of land, stolen by the Zionist colonisers in 1976. In Madama village, in the Nablus area, around 300 Palestinian activists with some internationals marched to the outskirts of their village to plant olive trees on village land which has been stolen by the extremist illegal settlement Yitzhar. This non-violent action came under heavy attack by the Israeli Forces with more than 45 people shot with rubber-coated metal bullets and many more suffering from tear gas inhalation.

At around 12pm the march set off from the centre of Madama with many people carrying flags and singing songs, including women, children and men. After climbing a steep street up onto the fields at the edge of the village people began to plant olive trees. There were Israeli Army vehicles and around 20 heavily armed soldiers waiting for the demonstration on the hillside. As people began to plant olive trees the soldiers started to shoot tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets without any warning. Despite this repression, people continued to plant trees and a small group of people responded to the tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets with stones.

Israeli settlers stood next to the Israeli Forces while tear gas was being shot

Over the next two hours or so, the Israeli forces became more and more aggressive firing rubber-coated metal bullets at anyone who was there, often at head height. If someone was injured and on the floor they would fire upon them again and at the people coming to rescue them, even if they were clearly marked as medics. According to the Red Crescent at least 45 people were injured by rubber-coated metal bullets throughout the demonstration. An activist from ISM was also shot with both a rubber-coated metal bullet and hit with a tear gas canister upon their lower legs whilst providing medical support to the injured.

Extremist settlers from the illegal settlement of Yitzhar also came to attack the demonstration with stones. They were held off by the people of the demonstration and after talking to the army sat and watched the Israeli forces fire upon unarmed demonstrators.

More than 45 people suffered injuries and needed assistance

Despite this extreme repression of a group of unarmed demonstrators, people did not leave until all the trees were planted, demonstrating that this is their land and they will not be threatened into not using it.

The villages around the illegal Yitzhar settlement have suffered a huge amount since it was set up in 1983. The extremist inhabitants of this settlement regularly attack Palestinians with impunity, sometimes even killing them. They regularly intimidate Palestinians off their farm lands, attack buildings and lands in the local villages, throw stones at Palestinian cars, and, block roads, these attacks are done with the protection of the Israeli Army. Yitzhar is just one example of the over 196 illegal settlements built throughout the West Bank, supported by Israel, but deemed illegal by the international community.

1st April 2017  |  International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team  |  Hebron, occupied Palestine 

The four human rights activists arrested three days ago on Thursday 30th March on a peaceful Land Day protest action now face the Israeli military court at Ofer tomorrow, 2nd April.  They are charged with participating in an illegal demonstration and being in a closed military zone.  They were in fact exercising their human rights of freedom of expression and assembly.

All four belong to the Dismantle the Ghetto Coalition and the ISM team here in al-Khalil has been working with and supporting their actions.

Please act immediately in Hebrew, English or your own language:

• Call the Israeli embassy consulate and demand the immediate release of the four activists.
• Call the Israeli embassy consulate and demand the Israeli authorities immediately drop all charges against the four activists.
• Demand an immediate end to the continued harassment of the four activists and other human rights defenders in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

For more information:

URGENT ACTION: Four Palestinian Human Rights Defenders arrested-facing military trial

15th April 2017  |  International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team  |  Hebron, occupied Palestine

ISM activists spoke to Badee Dwaik the day following his release from Ofer military court.

Last week, amidst a slew of arrests by Israeli forces and subsequent court hearings, ISM activists had the opportunity to meet with Badee Dwaik; one of the four men arrested during the Land Day demonstrations in occupied al-Khalil. Badee, a seasoned activist of many decades and committee member of the Dismantle the Ghetto campaign, believes his arrest was targeted and spoke of how conditions inside the jails were “worse than they’ve ever been before” during his four nights of detention.

Badee Dwaik being detained by Israeli soldiers during a peaceful demonstration for Land Day in al-Khalil.

The peaceful Land Day actions began with the planting of olive trees near Kiryat Arba – an illegal settlement of roughly 8,000 people in occupied al-Khalil. The decision to plant olive trees was made because, as Badee put it, “we fear this land will be confiscated in the near future.” Throughout the action, many settlers attempted to provoke the demonstrators with violence, but nobody gave in: “They try to break us or block us but we ignore it and the army does nothing,” Badee says. He’s only a day out of jail, but seems calm and eager to tell his story. Every so often he takes breaks from talking to put a hand on his ribs, where he says they beat him.

“After we planted the trees, we marched up to the hill where we continued to protest,” where one of the soldiers held a sheet of paper which – as revealed during military court hearing –  declared the area a “closed military zone.” Out of nowhere, Israeli forces began pursuing individual demonstrators and Badee found himself on the ground beneath a group of soldiers who beat and arrested him. Those detained by Israeli soldiers were taken down the hill, where Israeli police and Border Police were waiting: “They took us to the police. I was surprised to see Annan there.” It had appeared that the soldiers knew exactly who they wanted to arrest, and picked them from the crowd. They arrested three active members of the Dismantle the Ghetto campaign in what Badee believes to be part of a wider effort by the Israeli occupiers to silence the campaign and put an end to their non-violent demonstrations.

An Israeli soldier films demonstrators whilst holding a piece of paper declaring the area a Closed Military Zone during the Land Day action in al-Khalil. This image was taken an hour after the arrests made that day.

During their time in jail, Badee spoke of how the Israeli guards sometimes would not give the detainees their meals and did not administer Badee’s diabetes medication. When he told the guards that he suffers from diabetes, they told him “it’s not our business to bring your medication to you.” Only after being moved to another prison later that week was he taken the the medical doctor who told him he was at serious risk and he was injected with insulin on the premises. Badee was then moved to a third jail, where he said he was subject to conditions he had never experienced before. “The conditions were bad. When we arrived to this jail they made us throw our belongings away.” Here, Israeli guards made the men remove their clothing and do humilating acts while naked. When Badee refused, he was punished for it later: “We had no mattresses. We slept on the metal. They didn’t feed us a few meals and only gave cigarettes to those who cooperated with him.”

Afte four nights of detention, Badee was sat before Ofer military court, near Ramallah, on spurious charges largely based on a “secret file.” “I’ve never seen this [secret file],” he said, and was alarmed at the allegations they presented. Badee is convinced that there’s an initiative to break their coalition. The judge claimed Badee and the others were “dangerous, holding an illegal demonstration” and that the Israeli state should be “harder on these men,” however his lawyer managed to negotiate their release late that night on the condition that they paid 3,500 shekels per person. When Badee and the others were finally freed, many of their belongings had been stolen.

Whilst Israeli settlers living in the West Bank are subject to Israeli civil law, the Palestinian population lives under Israeli military law. Under this law, Palestinians like Badee can be held indefinitely in ‘administrative detention‘: detained without trail and often based on secret information. There are currently 500 administrative detainees in occupied Palestine.