A clip from the movie ‘Life On Wheels’ By Haitham al Katib
The guy this film is about is my new hero.
The guy this film is about is my new hero.
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.
— Bil’in weekly demonstration reenacts the Avatar film (ISM)

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.
Please Disseminate widely (mail, lists, facebook etc.)
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?
palcrimes (at) yahoo.com
Links
Bil’in demonstration commemorates Basem Abu Rahme
Bassem Abu Rahme killed in Bil’in weekly protest
Memorial ceremony marking 40 days for the murder of Bassem Abu Rahme
Bil’in: Struggling for land and liberty
The killing and funeral of Bassem Ibrahim abu-Rakhma, April 17 and 18
“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.”
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.
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.