Posted on Saturday, 13 February, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
an effective message at a fraction of Dave Cameron's budget.
Residents of the West Bank village of Bil’in have proven that innovative resistance can move walls. For a second time the village has won a ruling against annexation attempts by a nearby settlement via a wall that that is under construction well outside of Israel’s internationally recognized borders. People there continue to draw from whatever western Pop culture dishes out to keep the issue in the media. Last Friday, Palestinian demonstrators splashed on some blue paint and offered their own 3D rendition of Avatar as they marched against armed Israeli soldiers. Brilliant.
Posted on Tuesday, 11 August, 2009 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
I’m donating this post for an urgent call of action in solidarity with Mohammad Khatib, and all Palestinian political prisoners, issued for Friday, August 14 at noon at the Indigo Bookstore on the corner of St. Catherine & McGill college in Montreal, Canada. Actions like this should be happening all over.
For more information on Mohammad Khatib’s case, as well as the issues which face his West Bank village of Bil’in, visit www.bilin-village.org. Mo Khatib is a friend of mine and several other friends of mine. He is an individual whose drive, creativity, self-reliance and relentless campaign work — not just to save his own village from settlement expansion and loss of territory to the apartheid barrier, but for all of occupied Palestine — are constanly awe inspiring.
His enginuity for continous direct, disruptive nonviolent action has kept media attention on Bil’in far longer than is usually the norm in areas where land is being co-opted by annexation policies, and has even led to legal rulings in Israel against the military and pro-occupation policies. It is no wonder that he is considered such a threat. He now joins the ranks of political prisoners around the world, kidnapped and detained for exercising their rights under international law.
Bassem Abu Rahme was killed, according to several witnesses, by this guy during Friday’s weekly anti-separation fence demonstration in Bil’in. Abu-Rakhma was shot in the chest with a tear-gas grenade, launched from a distance of some 30 meters from him by an IDF soldier.
The soldier in the picture had murdered Bassem Abu Rahme by direct shooting of a gas canister in Bilin on April 17.
The Israeli army allows him to avoid responsibility.
Do you know his name or any other details? know anyone else that had commited a crime in Palestine?
Posted on Sunday, 17 September, 2006 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
“The blockade imposed on the Palestinian Authority by Europe and America, by order of President Bush (…) is an unprecedented attempt to literally starve a whole people into removing its democratically elected government.”
Meanwhile, in Bil’in…Soldier A: “People are walking away, why are you so anxious?”
Soldier B:“I‘ll break their arms and legs.”
— Members of the Israeli military during a demonstration against the wall in Bil’in, Palestine, on Sept. 8, 2006.
Afterwhich, one of the soldiers broke a demonstrator’s arm. Close, but he’s not yet border police material. For full report and video from the incident, please click here.
Posted on Saturday, 8 July, 2006 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
Government tries to wiggle around ruling on illegal wall and settlement constructioon now under way deep inside occupied Palestinian territory
By ISM Media Group
On the 2nd anniversary of the ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Sunday July 9th, 2006, the Israeli Supreme court in Jerusalem will hear two petitions from the West Bank village of Bil’in. This ruling, from 2004 declared that the Israeli Annexation Wall is illegal under international law.
The petitions that will be discussed in the Israeli Supreme Court tomorrow concern the illegal construction of the Matityahu East colonial settlement on the lands of Bil’in, west of the Annexation Wall (HCJ 143/06); the second petition demands an annulment of the declaration which claims that the lands of Bil’in, in Matityahu East, are government property (HCJ 3998/06).
The route of the wall in Bil’in was designed to accommodate an unapproved plan for the expansion of the Matityahu East colonial settlement. The building of the settlement, according to the above-mentioned plan, was carried out illegally. The Bil’in petition challenges the legality of the settlement due to a suspicious transfer of land ownership from the Palestinian village to the Israeli realtors; a sale which involved the Israeli state declaring the territory state land only to later transfer it to private developers.
During the hearing of the petition challenging the route of the wall through Bil’in (HCJ 8414/05), the Israeli state revealed its involvement. An Israeli lawyer signed the sale papers instead of the head of Bil’in village. This was done without the village’s knowledge, and based on the false claim that any Israeli who entered Bil’in would be killed. In addition, it was falsely argued that it was illegal for Israelis to enter Bil’in. The Israeli state alleges that they declared in 1991 that the land, upon which the settlement is built, was to be state property in order to protect the Palestinian man who allegedly sold the land to the contractors.
Despite these claims by the Israeli state, through the process of the petition, the main reasons for these action have been exposed. Through the illegal cooperation with the state, the realtors managed to avoid the lengthy and expensive procedures associated with registering the land as their property. These procedures, which were circumvented, involve careful examinations of land transfer between the buyer and seller. These procedures are done publicly, so that each person from Bil’in who claims to have ownership on the lands, in whole or in part, has the right to object. These procedures often lead to the conclusion that the purchase deal was false, and to the result that the realtors are left without the lands which allegedly it has bought. Despite the history of transferring land in this way, in the case of this sale, the process was avoided.
The Bil’in petitions will be heard at the Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem at 10:00am. Supporters and journalists are being encouraged to attend the court session.
Posted on Friday, 12 May, 2006 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
Report from ISM Media Group Photos from ISM and AP
“I saw blood gushing out of his head, and helped bandage it. As we were getting him into the ambulance an Israeli soldier grabbed his long hair and they all tried to stop him from leaving in the ambulance even though they knew he was injured”, said American eyewitness Zadie Susser who saw Phil from Austraila sitting in shock immediately after he was hit.
At today’s Bil’in demonstration, Israeli soldiers shot seven Palestinians with rubber bullets. One Australian and one Danish demonstrator were hospitalised after being shot in the head with rubber bullets at close range.
AFP Cameraman Jamal Al Aruri was shot in the hand with a rubber bullet while he was filming two of his fingers were broken. Adeba Yasin (65) was hit by a rubber coated bullet under her eye while she was sitting on the balcony of her home.
Phil Reess from Australia was shot as he was running away – he had been filming the demonstration. BJ Lund from Denmark was also shot as he was standing near army jeeps.
Both Phil and BJ are currently in Tel Hashomer hospital in Tel-Aviv. The bullet caused a hemorrhage to Phil’s brain, though he is now conscious. BJ required stitches to the head.
The video footage that Phil was filming when he was shot is available from the ISM Media office on request. In it you can see how close they were to the soldiers when they opened fire – the sound of the shots fired is clearly audible.
Abed Al Karim Khatib(60) was hit by a rubber coated bullet in his private parts, Abed Albased Abu Rahme (15) was hit on his thigh by a rubber coated bullet and Waleed Mahmoud Abu Rahme (20) was hit in his abdomen by a rubber coated bullet. Mohammad Ahmad Issa was hit in the leg with a rubber bullet. Wajdi shokut (18) was hit by a rubber coated bullet in the hand
Ashraf Muhammed Jamal (24)was hit by a tear gas canister aimed at his head.
Abdullah Abu-Rahme (35 and the Co-ordinatior of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall), Muhammad Al Katib (32, also from the Popular Committee) and Akram Al Katib (34) were beaten.
The demonstration of about 300 people had marched, singing, chanting and waving flags to the gate in the apartheid barrier.
This week, the gate had been locked open, so the Israeli soldiers relied on their jeeps and barbed wire to stop the people of Bil’in from walking into their land. After a while, some of the demonstrators started to open the barbed wire. The Israeli soldiers started hitting people with clubs. A few rocks were thrown from a small group of youth who were away from the main demonstration in front of the jeeps. The soldiers then started firing on the peaceful demonstrators at near point-blank range as they were running away – they were a maximum distance of 10 meters away when shot.
The Israeli security forces’ arsenal of means to disperse demonstrations in the Occupied Territories includes the use of “rubber” bullets. These bullets are a steel bullet with a thin rubber coat. Their use to disperse demonstrations is based on security officials’ belief that “rubber” bullets are less lethal than live ammunition, and are, therefore, an appropriate means where security forces or other persons are not in life-threatening situations.
However, the drafters of the Open-Fire Regulations were aware of the danger inherent in the use of “rubber bullets.” The Regulations emphasize that “The means for dispersing the riot may cause bodily injury and in certain circumstances also death.” Because rubber-coated steel bullets are intended for use where soldiers or other persons are not in life-threatening situations, the Regulations stipulate several restrictions concerning their use. According to the defense establishment, these provisions prevent the bullet from causing serious or fatal injury.
According to these rules, the minimum range for firing “rubber” bullets is forty meters, and use is limited to specially trained personnel. The Regulations emphasize that the bullets must be fired only at the individual’s legs, and are not to be fired at children or from a moving vehicle.
The permission to fire potentially lethal rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinians to disperse “violent riots” or demonstrations has led to the deaths of dozens of Palestinians. Viewing rubber-coated steel bullets as “less lethal” than live ammunition leads to a light trigger-finger. This phenomenon is only supported by the State Attorney’s Office’s view that these deaths are “unavoidable mistakes.”
The Israeli military usually uses rubber bullets during demonstrations when Israeli and international activists are present. When Palestinians demonstrate on their own the military uses live ammunition or rubber coated steel bullets.
Two of the demonstrators that were shot from close range were filming the demonstartion. British attorney general, Lord Goldsmith confirmed on the 6th of May he was considering whether to seek the extradition and prosecution of an Israeli soldier who shot dead British cameraman James Miller in Gaza, after a jury in a British inquest unanimously agreed that “Mr Miller was indeed murdered.”
“The thoughts of worldly men are for ever regulated by a moral law of gravitation which, like the physical one, holds them down to earth. There are no signs in the sun, or in the moon, or in the stars, for their reading. They are like some wise men, who learning to know each planet by its Latin name, have quite forgotten such small heavenly constellations as Charity…and who, looking upward to the spangled sky, see nothing there but the reflection of their own great wisdom and book-learning.” — Charles Dickens
Please Disseminate widely (mail, lists, facebook etc.)
“The thoughts of worldly men are for ever regulated by a moral law of gravitation which, like the physical one, holds them down to earth. There are no signs in the sun, or in the moon, or in the stars, for their reading. They are like some wise men, who learning to know each planet by its Latin name, have quite forgotten such small heavenly constellations as Charity…and who, looking upward to the spangled sky, see nothing there but the reflection of their own great wisdom and book-learning.”