Israel Bans International Activists from West Bank Village

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Monday March 15, 2010 16:59

by Kev and Freda H - IPSC

WEST BANK, PALESTINE: Bil'in village, the internationally renowned centre of Palestinian non-violent resistance to Israel's Apartheid Wall, was this morning - 15th March 2010 - declared a 'Closed Military Zone' by Israeli Authorities, meaning that access for International and Israeli anti-Wall activists is outlawed for six months. Furthermore, the head of the Popular Committee in Bil'in, Iyad Burnat, received a phone call from the Shin Bet - Israel's 'internal security service' - ordering him to report to Ofer Military Prison for questioning.

IDF Soldier points his gun at Bil'in based journalist

Following a 2am invasion of the village by the Israeli military, an order was posted around the village declaring Bil'in to be a 'Closed Military Zone' until August 17th. It goes on to state that Israeli and international peace activists are strictly prohibited from entering Bil'in between the hours of 8am and 8pm every Friday, the day on which the weekly non-violent demonstration against the Wall takes place. Any activists breaching this order will face arrest and/or deportation by the Israeli military.

Speaking from Bil'in, the head of the Popular Committee Iyad Burnat, who has been a regular visitor to Ireland as a guest of a wide range of human rights NGOs, today said: "This is a crude attempt to stop Israeli and International activists from supporting the popular struggle in Bil'in, and is therefore just another action to repress and destroy the village's resistance to the occupation and also against the annexation of it's land. We are aware that even before this order was posted, over the last two weeks a number of international activists have been refused entry to the village by Israeli forces".

Mr. Burnat continued: "I myself have been asked to report to the Shin Bet office in Ofer Military Prison for questioning tomorrow, and this is an order I refuse to comply with. I have done nothing illegal. In Bil'in we are determined to continue our weekly non-violent protests and will not bow to this, the latest, in a long line of intimidation tactics carried out by the IDF. We plan to hold a mass demonstration here this coming Friday 19th March".

IPSC spokesperson Freda Hughes, who has visited Bil'in and taken part in the protests, said: "The non-violent struggle in Bil'in has been going on for over five years. In that time over 200 Irish people have attended the demonstrations and stood side by side with Palestinians, Israelis and other internationals seeking justice for Bil'in. It has been my experience that every Friday the Israeli army responds with violence, both physical and psychological. Protestors are regularly tear-gassed, sprayed with foul water, subject to the firing of concussion grenades, and shot at by the Israeli military. Many protesters, both Palestinian and international, have been severely wounded and one resident Bassem Abu Rahmah was killed after being hit full force in the chest with a tear gas canister in April 2009."

Ms. Hughes continued: "While this news is deeply shocking, people should recognise this order for what it is, merely the latest attempt by the Israeli state to crack down on internationals entering the West Bank. Over the past number of months there has been a spate of denials of entry and deportations of international activists and NGO workers, including several Irish people. This, coupled with the withholding of NGO employees' and visiting lecturers' work permits and a surge in arrests of non-violent activists, is extremely worrying and is leading many to fear that Israel may be preparing the ground to impose much harsher military measures on Palestinians in the West Bank."

Notes For Editors

Bil’in, a small village situated west of Ramallah in the Occupied West Bank, has become an international symbol of the Palestinian non-violent popular struggle. For almost five years, its residents have been continuously struggling against the de facto annexation of close to 60% of their farmlands. Their land is being confiscated for the construction of the Apartheid Wall and for the construction of illegal Israeli settlement-colonies. The people of Bil’in live in what amounts to an open air prison. Bil’in has been the scene of gross human rights violations on behalf of the Israeli state – not just against Palestinians, but also Israeli and international activists, journalists and even politicians.
This heroic struggle has been internationally recognised and in 2008 earned the Popular Committee (along with the Israeli group Anarchists Against the Wall) the Carl von Ossietzky Medal for their work in trying to bring about a “realization of the ideals of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”. Bil'in has also been visited, and its struggle endorsed, by many high profile international figures such as former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, Irish Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Former US President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and hip hop superstar Saul Williams.

More info: http://www.bilin-village.org/english/ and http://www.bilin-ffj.org/

Soldier posts "Closed Military Zone" order

The document declaring Bil'in a "Closed Military Zone"

Peaceful Friday demonstration in Bil'in

Caption: Video Id: 4J9LdZykj38 Type: Youtube Video
Video of night raid on Bil

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Comments (4 of 4)

"Look in the Mirror"

by TD - Free Palestine Campaign

Mon Mar 15, 2010 19:54

Besides Bil'in, at least another West Bank village, Nil'in, was put on notice that international activists and Israelis would be sanitized from the weekly Friday demonstrations directed at the nearby Apartheid-Annexation Wall. Maan News Agency is reporting that the Closed Military Area orders were signed by Commander of the Israeli Central Command, Avi Mizrahi, who along with Israeli president Shimon Peres earned international disgust for his criticism of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a televised debate over Israel's barbarous Dec 2008-Jan 2009 attack on the relatively defenceless people of Gaza: "look in the mirror" ... (words to the effect) "Turkey had no right to criticize Israel's action when it stationed troops in Northern Cyprus, Oppressed its Kurdish minority, and massacred Armenians during World War I".

Maan is further reporting that: Lawyer Gaby Lasky, who represents residents of the villages, told the Popular Committee, that "this is yet another illegal measure taken by the Army, which makes ill use of its authority in order to suppress dissent and infringe on the already volatile freedom of speech in the Territories. Closed military zone orders are not meant to deal with demonstrations, which are clearly in the civic rather than the military realm."

This overt suppression of Ni'lin's and Bil'in's solidarity activists follows hard on the heels of the Israeli Occupation Forces and the Israeli immigration “Oz” police unit targeting and illegally arresting International Solidarity Movement activists: Ariadna Jove Marti, Bridgette Chappell, Ryan Olander and Eva Nováková: Eva, a Czech national and former ISM media coordinator, was arrested in Ramallah on January 11th, 2010, and deported the next day, before the deportation could be appealed. Ryan was twice arrested illegally by the “Oz” Immigration unit, but his deportation was prevented after a judge ruled his detention illegal. Ariadna Jove Marti and Bridgette Chappell were successful in their appeal, the judge ruling that the Oz Unit had no powers of arrest, detention and deportation in the occupied West Bank.

General Avi Mizrahi: Head of GOC Army Headquarters

Videos: IOF & Israeli OZ Immigration Unit target Bil'in's internationals

by TD - FPC

Mon Mar 15, 2010 22:28

Last night's proposed banishment by the IOF from Bil'in's and Ni'lin's Friday demonstrations of Israeli and international solidarity activists is not a new departure, it is the deepening and racheting up of the same alarming suppression: that the Israeli Occupation Forces target internationals for terrorising, intimidation and deportation is clearly evidenced in these four videos (three and four will shortly follow): The first IOF/OZ raid specifically targeted Bil'in's international house - no other IOF business was done in the village that night. YouTube videos two, three and four show the brutalization, attempted arrests and violence visited on all of Bil'in's internationals at the time - the IOF accompanied by the OZ Unit invaded the village, ostensibly to arrest a member of Bil'in's Popular Committee, Mohammad Khatib and that effected turned their attentions on the internationals, I was there that night and it was the obdurate, unrelenting and courageous nonviolent resistance - spread out over an agonisingly long 50 minutes - of Bil'in villager Ashraf Abu Rahma and all the internationals that in the end brunted the violence and forced the IOF to back off, that said, some of the IOF were clearly uncomfortable with their instructions and to what was transpiring and were ordered again and again to arrest us but some still hung back and that in my estimation is a factor in Gen. Avi Mizrahi's thinking in attempting to ban us - without the presence of internationals and the fiercely committed Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall in peaceful protests, the unwilling or half unwilling conscripted soldiers can be more easily dehumanised and made malleable for near future, murderous, suppression of Palestinian nonviolent resistance.?

Caption: Video Id: A2Tdap7t8rA Type: Youtube Video
IOF Terror Raid on Bilin

Caption: Video Id: L4B6X9qjIVI Type: Youtube Video
Part 1 Bil

Videos : Parts ...

Mon Mar 15, 2010 22:33

3 & 4

Caption: Video Id: iGglC6erqFA Type: Youtube Video
Part 2 Bil

Caption: Video Id: eIiN8KS0o8Q Type: Youtube Video
Part 3 Bil

ISM volunteer shot, hospitalized; ISM co-founder arrested

by HB

Sat Mar 20, 2010 20:17

Israel - still searching frantically for that 'Palestinian Ghandi' . . . . . .

ISM volunteer shot, hospitalized; ISM co-founder arrested

"Friday’s demonstration in An Nabi Saleh saw an increase in violence and collective punishment from the Israeli military, as twenty-five demonstrators were injured, windows of cars and homes were intentionally shattered, and three were arrested.

ISM volunteer Ellen Stark was shot at point blank range (4 meters) with a rubber bullet as she stood with medics, Popular Committee members and other internationals.

ISM co-founder Huwaida Arraf was arrested while negotiating with the IOF to allow Ellen through the military line to get to the hospital.

According to Ellen, “we were standing on Palestinian land, in support of the village who’s land has been confiscated but we weren’t even demonstrating yet. We were standing with medics who were also shot with tear gas.”

http://palsolidarity.org/2010/03/11832

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Israel Bans International Activists from West Bank Village

Comments (4 of 4)