Support the Village of Budrus
The Israeli DCO reported that on Monday, December 29 (today) at 10 AM the trees belonging to the village of Budrus (Ramallah District) would be uprooted and the land cleared for construction of the Apartheid Wall. Prior to 10 AM this morning, the people of Budrus marched alongside 15 international and Israeli activists to the site of the proposed land destruction. This act succeeded in turning away the Israeli soldiers and border police officers that were in Budrus to monitor the situation, but the activists were told that curfew would be imposed upon Budrus for one week starting tonight if the construction workers were not allowed to complete their work.
Construction of the wall began approximately 1 1/2 months ago in Budrus with the clearing of larger stones in the proposed path of the Wall. The people of Budrus successfully stopped several attempts of the workers to uproot their trees by using non-violent acts of resistance, including weekly actions against the Wall.
Please take action! The community of Budrus, international activists from the International Women's Peace Service and International Solidarity Movement, and Israeli activists are calling upon all activists to come and join Budrus in its struggle against the Wall.
For further information, please contact:
International Solidarity Movement: http://www.palsolidarity.org
International Women's Peace Service: http://www.womenspeacepalestine.org
UPDATES
Israel to Expel Swedish MP; Violence Flares
Thursday, January 01 2004
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=2004010123541449
Continued Non-violent Resistance to Land Confiscation is Met with Violence Wednesday, December 31, 2003
[Budrus, Ramallah]
Early reports are that villagers from Budrus, and their Israeli and International supporters, made a peaceful march onto Budrus lands that are set to be destroyed for the construction of the Israeli Apartheid Wall. Protesters were met by the Israeli army who physically assaulted the men, women and children present and opened fire on the crowd with over 100 rubber bullets aimed at people's heads. Tear gas was also fired. There are many injuries and
approximately 10 people have been taken to the hospital. At least 4 Israelis and 6 internationals have been detained and have been threatened with arrest. Gustav Fridolin, a Swedish member of parliament is among the group of detained protesters. Israeli protester Nimrod Kerreet has been badly beaten.
Curfew was then imposed on the village, but protesters decided to continue their peace presence on their land and were met with continued violence. If this phase of the Wall construction is allowed to continue, Budrus will be largely surrounded by it and rendered an enclave without the necessary services for survival. The villagers have been peacefully resisting the advance of the wall on their land for over one month and plan to continue their non-violent civil disobedience campaign against it.
Among the protesters were Israelis from the Anarchists Against Walls group that participated in the non-violent demonstration at Masha on December 26. It was during this demonstration that Israeli activist Gil Na'amati (22), was shot with two live bullets in both legs and badly injured. An American member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) was also injured by a bullet. Internationals present today were from the ISM and International Women's Peace Service (IWPS).
Currently, the village of Budrus is under curfew and the Israeli army has occupied at least one home. Gustav Fridolin along with one other Swedish activist and two American activists are being detained at the Bet Arye police station.
For further information, including access to digital video and still
footage, please contact:
International Solidarity Movement: http://www.palsolidarity.org
International Women's Peace Service: http://www.womenspeacepalestine.org
For activists wanting to mobilize support for the village of Budrus and protest the continued confiscation of land for Wall construction, please contact:
International Solidarity Movement: http://www.palsolidarity.org
International Women's Peace Service: http://www.womenspeacepalestine.org
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Beduoin Family Ordered Out of Their Home by the Israeli Army
[Jayyous, Qalqilia]
Today, at 10:30 AM, Zarriffi, the mother and wife of the Abu Amar family reported that the Isreali army ordered them out of their home. The family was told that they must have a permit to live in their home because their home "is now located in Israel." After several hours of work with a human rights organzaition, the family was granted access back to their home.
The family home of Abu Amar is located on the outside of the Israeli Apartheid Wall, opposite the village of Jayyous. They are the only family isolated from daily life there. The family attempts to pass daily through a gate in the Wall controlled by Israeli soldiers, but they are often harassed and denied passage.
This is not the first time the Abu Amar family has faced such circumstances. Beginning on September 1, 2003, after the completion of the Wall, the Israeli army began to sporadically open the gate for the children so that they could attend school in their village. In order to survive, the family has received shipments of food and water sent over the Wall from the people of Jayyous.
The gate the Abu Amar family passes through, the "south gate," intersects what has historically been a road to land for some 25 farmers to access approximately 700 dunams of land on this side of the village. On November 23, 2003, the Israeli army announced this gate closed permanently for anyone except the family of Abu Amar.
The Israeli soldiers gave no reason for the family needing to leave other than to say that this was Israel and they did not have permission to live there because they never had a permit to build their home ten years ago.
This family is in grave danger of losing their home and everything in it. While there have been no orders for demolition, it is clear that the intent of the Israeli army is to push the family out of their home.
Please take action and demand that the family be allowed to stay in their home without daily harassment from Israeli soldiers! Please support the Abu Amar family and all the people of Jayyous in their struggle to access their land and live freely!
For activists wanting to mobilize support for the village of Jayyous and protest the continued harassment of the Abu Amar family and all the villagers, please contact:
International Solidarity Movement: http://www.palsolidarity.org
International Women's Peace Service: http://www.womenspeacepalestine.org
Please also see:
Israel To Double Settler Numbers In Golan
http://www.rense.com/general47/golan.html
The price of ignorance
By the same token, few Israelis heard about the killing of the suicide bomber's relative, Fadi Hanani, 10 days ago in Nablus, just as they hadn't heard about all the killings of Palestinians in the past few months.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/376717.html
117 PALESTINIANS KILLED, HUNDREDS INJURED DURING MEDIA'S "RELATIVE CALM"
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 26 December 2003
Many leading media sources were quick to declare that an Israeli assassination in Gaza, followed by a Palestinian bombing in Tel Aviv on 25 December marked the end of a period of "relative calm" or "lull" in Israeli-Palestinian
violence, that had supposedly lasted since the last Palestinian suicide attack in Haifa on 4 October. In fact, the period since 4 October has been one of intense Israeli violence, in which 117 Palestinians were killed, including
23 children. At the same time, Israel destroyed almost five hundred Palestinian homes throughout the Occupied Territories. EI's Ali Abunimah examines the systematic media misrepresentation of the latest events.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2301.shtml
REDUCING THE PALESTINIANS
Joseph Massad, The Electronic Intifada, 27 December 2003
One of the most important changes that the Oslo process brought about was the de facto transformation, indeed the ultimate corruption, of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, from a liberation movement representing the entire Palestinian people, into a vassal regime called the Palestinian Authority (PA), representing only one third of the Palestinian people, writes EI contributor, Joseph Massad. This has had an immensely deleterious effect on refugees and exiles, and Palestinians living inside Israel's racial "democracy."
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2306.shtml
Shooting of Israeli protester sparks furore
David Grossman, the leftwing Israeli novelist, told the daily Yediot Aharonot: "For a number of years now, the fingers of IDF troops have been light, too light, on the trigger when dealing with Palestinians. "It was only a matter of time until it would begin to trickle inward and produce a similar pattern of action against Israeli demonstrators as well."
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1071251790883&p=1012571727172
PALESTINE'S NEGLECTED TREASURE TROVE
Laila El-Haddad, Al Jazeera, 27 December 2003
As home to the earliest known human settlements and the world's holiest cities, historical Palestine is literally a treasure chest of antiquities. Remnants of Canaanite temples and towns, Byzantine mosaics and monasteries and Mamluk and Ottoman mosques all stand witness to the region's long and colourful past. Many of the most important archaeological and historical sites are located in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. But years of conflict have left Palestinian antiquities in a sad state and in many cases out of Palestinian control. Al Jazeera reports how archaeology in the occupied territories has
become a political matter.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3401C882-651F-493B-AC23-A81AF6D0775C.htm
Looking for Someplace to Call Home
In Said's essay "On Lost Causes," he wrote that "a lost cause is associated in the mind and in practice with a hopeless cause: that is, something you support or believe in that can no longer be believed in except as something without hope of achievement." But unlike some of us, (Edward) Said never believed that Palestine was "a lost cause."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/28/magazine/28SAID.html?ex=1073192400&en=b0d69b676d4fdac5&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
The Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign Prepares for World Social Forum
The annual event, which is being held for the first time in India and was held for its first three years in Brazil, will witness once again an outcry for an end to the Occupation of Palestine as part of the essential demand of the WSF to end all oppression and colonization.
http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/235.shtml
1,400 small businesses in Jerusalem closed during 2003
1,400 small businesses, which comprised 12 percent of all businesses operating in Jerusalem at the beginning of 2003, were closed during the course of the year...
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/376915.html
Israelis, Palestinians Launch Expedition
The group of four Arabs and four Jews will climb an unnamed and unexplored mountain near the Bruce Plateau in Antarctica, after sailing 600 miles across treacherous seas from southern Chile. Their expedition is being called "Breaking the Ice."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3559338,00.html
The Israeli DCO reported that on Monday, December 29 (today) at 10 AM the trees belonging to the village of Budrus (Ramallah District) would be uprooted and the land cleared for construction of the Apartheid Wall. Prior to 10 AM this morning, the people of Budrus marched alongside 15 international and Israeli activists to the site of the proposed land destruction. This act succeeded in turning away the Israeli soldiers and border police officers that were in Budrus to monitor the situation, but the activists were told that curfew would be imposed upon Budrus for one week starting tonight if the construction workers were not allowed to complete their work.
Construction of the wall began approximately 1 1/2 months ago in Budrus with the clearing of larger stones in the proposed path of the Wall. The people of Budrus successfully stopped several attempts of the workers to uproot their trees by using non-violent acts of resistance, including weekly actions against the Wall.
Please take action! The community of Budrus, international activists from the International Women's Peace Service and International Solidarity Movement, and Israeli activists are calling upon all activists to come and join Budrus in its struggle against the Wall.
For further information, please contact:
International Solidarity Movement: http://www.palsolidarity.org
International Women's Peace Service: http://www.womenspeacepalestine.org
UPDATES
Israel to Expel Swedish MP; Violence Flares
Thursday, January 01 2004
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=2004010123541449
Continued Non-violent Resistance to Land Confiscation is Met with Violence Wednesday, December 31, 2003
[Budrus, Ramallah]
Early reports are that villagers from Budrus, and their Israeli and International supporters, made a peaceful march onto Budrus lands that are set to be destroyed for the construction of the Israeli Apartheid Wall. Protesters were met by the Israeli army who physically assaulted the men, women and children present and opened fire on the crowd with over 100 rubber bullets aimed at people's heads. Tear gas was also fired. There are many injuries and
approximately 10 people have been taken to the hospital. At least 4 Israelis and 6 internationals have been detained and have been threatened with arrest. Gustav Fridolin, a Swedish member of parliament is among the group of detained protesters. Israeli protester Nimrod Kerreet has been badly beaten.
Curfew was then imposed on the village, but protesters decided to continue their peace presence on their land and were met with continued violence. If this phase of the Wall construction is allowed to continue, Budrus will be largely surrounded by it and rendered an enclave without the necessary services for survival. The villagers have been peacefully resisting the advance of the wall on their land for over one month and plan to continue their non-violent civil disobedience campaign against it.
Among the protesters were Israelis from the Anarchists Against Walls group that participated in the non-violent demonstration at Masha on December 26. It was during this demonstration that Israeli activist Gil Na'amati (22), was shot with two live bullets in both legs and badly injured. An American member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) was also injured by a bullet. Internationals present today were from the ISM and International Women's Peace Service (IWPS).
Currently, the village of Budrus is under curfew and the Israeli army has occupied at least one home. Gustav Fridolin along with one other Swedish activist and two American activists are being detained at the Bet Arye police station.
For further information, including access to digital video and still
footage, please contact:
International Solidarity Movement: http://www.palsolidarity.org
International Women's Peace Service: http://www.womenspeacepalestine.org
For activists wanting to mobilize support for the village of Budrus and protest the continued confiscation of land for Wall construction, please contact:
International Solidarity Movement: http://www.palsolidarity.org
International Women's Peace Service: http://www.womenspeacepalestine.org
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Beduoin Family Ordered Out of Their Home by the Israeli Army
[Jayyous, Qalqilia]
Today, at 10:30 AM, Zarriffi, the mother and wife of the Abu Amar family reported that the Isreali army ordered them out of their home. The family was told that they must have a permit to live in their home because their home "is now located in Israel." After several hours of work with a human rights organzaition, the family was granted access back to their home.
The family home of Abu Amar is located on the outside of the Israeli Apartheid Wall, opposite the village of Jayyous. They are the only family isolated from daily life there. The family attempts to pass daily through a gate in the Wall controlled by Israeli soldiers, but they are often harassed and denied passage.
This is not the first time the Abu Amar family has faced such circumstances. Beginning on September 1, 2003, after the completion of the Wall, the Israeli army began to sporadically open the gate for the children so that they could attend school in their village. In order to survive, the family has received shipments of food and water sent over the Wall from the people of Jayyous.
The gate the Abu Amar family passes through, the "south gate," intersects what has historically been a road to land for some 25 farmers to access approximately 700 dunams of land on this side of the village. On November 23, 2003, the Israeli army announced this gate closed permanently for anyone except the family of Abu Amar.
The Israeli soldiers gave no reason for the family needing to leave other than to say that this was Israel and they did not have permission to live there because they never had a permit to build their home ten years ago.
This family is in grave danger of losing their home and everything in it. While there have been no orders for demolition, it is clear that the intent of the Israeli army is to push the family out of their home.
Please take action and demand that the family be allowed to stay in their home without daily harassment from Israeli soldiers! Please support the Abu Amar family and all the people of Jayyous in their struggle to access their land and live freely!
For activists wanting to mobilize support for the village of Jayyous and protest the continued harassment of the Abu Amar family and all the villagers, please contact:
International Solidarity Movement: http://www.palsolidarity.org
International Women's Peace Service: http://www.womenspeacepalestine.org
Please also see:
Israel To Double Settler Numbers In Golan
http://www.rense.com/general47/golan.html
The price of ignorance
By the same token, few Israelis heard about the killing of the suicide bomber's relative, Fadi Hanani, 10 days ago in Nablus, just as they hadn't heard about all the killings of Palestinians in the past few months.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/376717.html
117 PALESTINIANS KILLED, HUNDREDS INJURED DURING MEDIA'S "RELATIVE CALM"
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 26 December 2003
Many leading media sources were quick to declare that an Israeli assassination in Gaza, followed by a Palestinian bombing in Tel Aviv on 25 December marked the end of a period of "relative calm" or "lull" in Israeli-Palestinian
violence, that had supposedly lasted since the last Palestinian suicide attack in Haifa on 4 October. In fact, the period since 4 October has been one of intense Israeli violence, in which 117 Palestinians were killed, including
23 children. At the same time, Israel destroyed almost five hundred Palestinian homes throughout the Occupied Territories. EI's Ali Abunimah examines the systematic media misrepresentation of the latest events.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2301.shtml
REDUCING THE PALESTINIANS
Joseph Massad, The Electronic Intifada, 27 December 2003
One of the most important changes that the Oslo process brought about was the de facto transformation, indeed the ultimate corruption, of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, from a liberation movement representing the entire Palestinian people, into a vassal regime called the Palestinian Authority (PA), representing only one third of the Palestinian people, writes EI contributor, Joseph Massad. This has had an immensely deleterious effect on refugees and exiles, and Palestinians living inside Israel's racial "democracy."
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2306.shtml
Shooting of Israeli protester sparks furore
David Grossman, the leftwing Israeli novelist, told the daily Yediot Aharonot: "For a number of years now, the fingers of IDF troops have been light, too light, on the trigger when dealing with Palestinians. "It was only a matter of time until it would begin to trickle inward and produce a similar pattern of action against Israeli demonstrators as well."
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1071251790883&p=1012571727172
PALESTINE'S NEGLECTED TREASURE TROVE
Laila El-Haddad, Al Jazeera, 27 December 2003
As home to the earliest known human settlements and the world's holiest cities, historical Palestine is literally a treasure chest of antiquities. Remnants of Canaanite temples and towns, Byzantine mosaics and monasteries and Mamluk and Ottoman mosques all stand witness to the region's long and colourful past. Many of the most important archaeological and historical sites are located in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. But years of conflict have left Palestinian antiquities in a sad state and in many cases out of Palestinian control. Al Jazeera reports how archaeology in the occupied territories has
become a political matter.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3401C882-651F-493B-AC23-A81AF6D0775C.htm
Looking for Someplace to Call Home
In Said's essay "On Lost Causes," he wrote that "a lost cause is associated in the mind and in practice with a hopeless cause: that is, something you support or believe in that can no longer be believed in except as something without hope of achievement." But unlike some of us, (Edward) Said never believed that Palestine was "a lost cause."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/28/magazine/28SAID.html?ex=1073192400&en=b0d69b676d4fdac5&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
The Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign Prepares for World Social Forum
The annual event, which is being held for the first time in India and was held for its first three years in Brazil, will witness once again an outcry for an end to the Occupation of Palestine as part of the essential demand of the WSF to end all oppression and colonization.
http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/235.shtml
1,400 small businesses in Jerusalem closed during 2003
1,400 small businesses, which comprised 12 percent of all businesses operating in Jerusalem at the beginning of 2003, were closed during the course of the year...
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/376915.html
Israelis, Palestinians Launch Expedition
The group of four Arabs and four Jews will climb an unnamed and unexplored mountain near the Bruce Plateau in Antarctica, after sailing 600 miles across treacherous seas from southern Chile. Their expedition is being called "Breaking the Ice."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3559338,00.html