Kate and Mohammed, Jayyous and Biddu, and Elections in Nablus

A) JEWISH AMERICAN CHALLENGES ISRAELI SEGREGATION WALL IN JANUARY 16
HEARING

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 12, 2005

WHERE: Tel Aviv District Court, Weitzmann Street at corner of Shaul
Hamelech (Judge Tal)
WHEN: January 16, 2005 at 2:00 PM

On Sunday January 16 at 2:00 PM, US Jewish lesbian activist Kate
Raphael Bender will go to court after five weeks in an Israeli
immigration prison. Raphael Bender, a resident of San Francisco,
CA, will argue that she should not be deported from Israel because
her activities against the segregation wall defend international law
and the Jewish people. She has no lawyer and will present her own
case with the help of a translator.

Raphael Bender is petitioning against the Israeli authorities'
intention to expel her from Israel for the second time in a year as
a result of her work in opposition to Israel's West Bank segregation
wall. She argues that her activities are consistent with positions
of the world's highest legal body, the International Court of
Justice, which has ruled that the construction of the wall on
Palestinian land violates international law.

In her petition, Raphael Bender quotes Israeli Minister Gideon Ezra
who indicated that rightwing foreigners who want to protest
disengagement are to be given preferential treatment by the
government over left-wing activists who come to support non-violent
resistance in the Occupied Territories. Ezra stated in the Jerusalem
Post: "We will not prevent them (Jews) from entering, even if we
know they are coming to resist the plan. There are people who come
for worse causes such as to break down the security fence and
participate in ISM radical left wing activities."

Raphael Bender, who holds a legal tourist visa stated: "I am here
as a Jew to promote solutions that are best for Jews and non-Jews.
This policy is an undemocratic way of silencing dissent from world
Jewry. Jews who are coming to block disengagement from Gaza are
opposing an effort to move Israel closer to compliance with
international law. In contrast, my activities support Israeli
compliance with international law."

Israeli authorities claim that Raphael Bender was inside a closed
military zone and that she participated in violent demonstrations
there. Raphael Bender argues in her petition that Israeli military
forces never announced to the demonstrators that they were in a
closed military zone in Arabic or in English, as is required by law.
Also, the soldiers used violence and made exaggerated claims about
what happened at the demonstration. She plans to introduce videotape
supporting her account of the events. She also will introduce an
invitation from the Palestinian Authority for her to remain in
Palestinian territory.

Raphael Bender is arguing for a legal preceden t to ensure that no
one should be excluded because they oppose government policy.

Israeli and international supporters of Raphael Bender will hold
brief protests before the hearing at the Tel Aviv District Court.

For More Information Contact:

Kate Raphael Bender: 972 (0)54-7870-198
International Women's Peace Service: 972 (0)9-2516-644 Mobile: 972
(0)54 694 0602/(0)54 691 6841
ISM Media: 972 (0)59-676-782 or 972(0)54-6253451


----------------------------

B) Elections Under Occupation
Nablus Region 9th January

Beita

Today, on the day of the Presidential elections, we visited the
town of Beita, South East of Nablus. We drove around a half-cleared freshly
dug earth mound blocking the road but under occupation this seemed "normal".

Voting appeared to be proceeding smoothly. However, we met with the
town council and mayor, who reported that Beita had been closed and
under curfew for the previous two nights. People of the town told us that the army
had come with a bulldozer, two hummers and a jeep two nights earlier and put the
village under curfew.

Contrary to the Israeli government's assurances of free movement for the elections,
no one was allowed to enter or leave the village and no
one was allowed to leave their homes or be on the streets of the village.
For two nights the army drove through the streets shouting over their
speakers, throwing sound bombs and firing into the air. We were told that
during the curfew and closure, electricity lines were shorted, causing much
damage to televisions, computers and other electrical equipment in the
village. This is believed to be a collective punishment.

Ballot boxes were due to be delivered to the town two days ago but
the Israeli military did not allow them to be brought in. The boxes
finally reached the town at 8pm last night but the army did not allow
Palestinian Police or election security in so the boxes were not guarded
overnight. Our hosts then took us to see the four earth mounds that had been
set to close the village. The main road into the village has been blocked
and closed by the Israeli army for four years. The day before yesterday
the army blocked the other four roads into the village with mounds of
earth and rocks. Despite "allowing' the town to be "open" for the elections
this morning, we saw that the army had not removed these blocks,
severely restricting access. At one site we saw that the road had also been
dug up.

The people of the town have not yet attempted to remove the blocks
for fear of reprisals. We spoke with a man who had been out on his land when the
army came to block the road. He told us that he had been detained by them for two
hours and that they had ordered him to remove his sweater and stand there in the
cold. He complied for fear of being shot.

Salem

Yesterday we observed the presence of an army jeep on the road to Salem. A goat was
apparently being detained by the army. As we approached,
the soldiers hastily untied it from their vehicle and allowed it to
leave with two small boys. However, they continued to detain four Palestinian
men by keeping their identity documents. We observed that these four and other men
were held for periods of up to two hours, apparently arbitrarily as no reasons were
given for their detention. When the jeep finally left a truck was parked across the
road, preventing vehicular access between a Palestinian town and a Palestinian
village. This is further evidence that the Israeli authorities are not keeping to
their commitment to free movement for Palestinians in the election period.

Balata Camp

Yesterday we interviewed a mother in Balata Refugee Camp. She reported that the army
had come to her home the previous night at 2am and ordered her entire ousehold and
one neighbouring household into one room while they checked IDs. Israeli gunmen were
positioned on neighbouring rooftops. When the army identified her 17 year old son
Mohammed, they tied his hands, blindfolded him and took him away, giving no reason
for doing so. Mohammed was described as friendly cheerful boy, small and young
looking for his age, who is not known to be wanted or have been in any kind of
trouble previously. This military presence in the camp again runs contrary to
assurances given by the Israeli authorities.

--------------------------------

C) Resistance to the Wall in Biddu
By Asa

The resistance to the Wall I saw in Jayyous was very encouraging and
brave, but what I witnessed in Biddu was nothing less than inspiring. On
the 7th of January an olive tree planting action was planned. Several ISM
activists came to join in the event which was organised by Palestinians
from the area and was also attended by other internationals and Israelis,
including a group called Rabbis for Human Rights. Popular committees are
very actively resisting the Wall in this area, and have had some
successes. Mohammed Mansour (a local Palestinian activist whose court
hearing I covered in my first report) told me that the reason for this was
that they, the Israelis and the internationals had acted together “as
one". He reminded me that “we don’t hate the Israeli people, only the
Israeli government".

Some of us arrived the night before the action and went to a rally for
Tayseer Khalid - the leftist DFLP’s candidate for President. His platform
was more or less what you might expect - social justice, rights for women,
continue the intifada (both peaceful and armed) etc. etc. At the end, he
even mentioned Hugo Chavez as a good example of standing up to foreign
imperialism. It was an extremely interesting experience - very unlike
political rallies in the UK. It was a much freer forum, for a start.
Although somewhat stage-managed, the Q&A session at the end was pretty
open, with Fatah supporters present being highly critical of what they saw
as the contradictions and problems in his platform. Amongst the issues
debated was armed struggle, corruption in the Palestinian Authority (and
Khalid’s failure to address it while he was part of the PA) and the
shortcomings of the Oslo accords. The funniest bit of the night for me was
when the orange drink reappeared.

While they were setting up the speaker’s table, his people had brought out
bottles of an Israeli orange drink, clearly identified by its Hebrew
labels. This was criticised straight away and the bottles were removed -
but they reappeared later with the labels removed! That made me laugh,
especially when Khalid critisised the PA because it does not do enough to
support and encourage local Palestinian goods, importing too much from
other countries. Overall, the event stuck me as much more grassroots than
other political meetings I have been to here. This popular spirit that was
evident at the action the next day.

That night we were guests in the house of the local ISM coordinator, who
made us feel very welcome. In the morning we were provided with the best
breakfast I have eaten for years. Other ISMers visiting from Nablus joined
us, and we left together for the local office of the PPP (another leftist
political party). It was more like a community centre than a party
political office - there is a genuine spirit of cooperation between
members and supporters of all the political parties in Biddu. While we
were waiting for the bus of people to come from Jerusalem, the local PPP
representative told us about efforts to encourage farmers of the region
and local produce. The Village Development Society for North-West
Jerusalem helps farmers sell their own produce at a loss to the Society.
They subsidise land, tree and equipment purchases. This is all funded by
international donors, such as the MPA in Norway. The Society distributes
trees to farmers according to how much land they cultivate. It also seems
that there is some sort of communal ownership of land in the region.
Whether this is traditional for the area or a more modern political
development, I’m not sure.

The PPP man, the ISM coordinator and other Palestinians there filled us in
on the problems there. In that area the problems caused by the wall are
not yet as severe as Jayyous because of the successful non-violent
resistance there. However, there are still grave problems, with the threat
of increased oppression and land confiscation. The Wall is planned there
because it is a key strategic area for the Israeli state to grab. Two to
two-and-a-half thousand olive trees have been destroyed in that region in
order to clear the ground for the Wall. Houses have been demolished,
rebuilt and destroyed again. One was rebuilt two times. Almost all of the
six or seven thousand villagers here are farmers who depend on the olive
trees for income and so have the same dire threat to their very existence
hanging over their heads as in Jayyous.

This much has become clear to me: the gradual annexation of land to Israel
via the mechanism of the Wall is very much a State project. Extremist
Zionist settlers do exist and are a very real threat, but ultimately they
are manipulated by the government. Also, they are not the mainstream of
settlers. Settlements in the Occupied Territories are a government
project. Housing subsidies and lots of other very real government
incentives for the poorer classes of Israeli society encourage movement to
settlements. A few of the settlers near Biddu have actually supported the
people of Biddu in one of their court cases against the wall, saying that
they have had no problems from them.

The Wall has nothing to do with security and everything to do with
expanding Israel. In Biddu, the site currently being cleared of olive
trees and homes is 6 KM away from the nearest settlement. The PPP man
himself made the point that if the Wall is really supposed to provide
security to settlers, why is it not being built near the settlements? The
answer is obvious. The people of the area know from the past experiences
of other Palestinians that these plans mean that new settlements will soon
be built in the confiscated land. This is not even addressing the issue
that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are an illegal act of
colonialism (international law forbids an occupying power from moving
civilians into the occupied regions).

We went up to the olive grove and saw the destruction there - it had been
turned into a construction site. A huge swathe of land had been cleared
and plenty of trees removed to make way for the planned Wall. Caterpillar
machines were parked in a sort of building site adorned with the Israeli
flag and guarded by private security -mercenaries- who I assume later
called the Border Police. A funny moment came when their truck got stuck
in the mud and they jokingly tried to convince us to come and help them
move it!

The most moving part of the day was when we came across a poor woman who
lived right next to the olive groves. Her family had started to build a
garden to grow food in the small patch of land near to her daughter’s
grave. Israeli soldiers told them that they would have to dismantle it
themselves or be charged for the cost of the bulldozer to destroy it.
Hearing such a story made me feel pretty helpless in the face of such
oppression, so it was good to move on to action right after that.

Palestinians had brought up olive tree saplings from the town and we
started to plant them on the land which will become effectively annexed to
Israeli should the Wall be built there, which was a very strong statement
that the people will not allow their land and livelihood to be
aggressively ceased by the state. Eventually we moved onto the path actual
cleared on which the Wall will be built and started planting them there
too. At this point, the Border Police finally tuned up. They did not start
trouble, but restricted the planting from coming too close to the
Caterpillar site. We had been doing this for about 2 hours by then anyway,
so we after we had planted a few trees in the wake of the destruction, had
some short speeches from Palestinians and ISMers and a short prayer from a
Rabbi we headed back.

Original article with pictures and links here:

http://www.winstanleys.org/archive/resistance-in-biddu/

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D) Law and Order in Jerusalem

Mohammed Mansour is a Palestinian peace activist and community organizer who was
beaten by undercover police while taking part in a non-violent demonstration against
the wall at Al Ram last june. as so often happens in the US when one's body connects
with cop weaponry, Mohammed was charged with assault, resisting arrest and
stone-throwing. he had a hearing last sunday at
the courthouse in Jerusalem, and 10-15 ISM-ers came along to demonstrate their
support for him.

a few people were able to enter the courtroom; the rest of us stood outside with
signs saying "free Mohammed Mansour" and "Mohammed is innocent" in english and
arabic. also demonstrating at the courthouse that day was a
delegation of about 50 settlers from Hebron. they were there for unrelated reasons
but once they saw us there they were more than happy to channel their
aggression our way. this was my very first face-to-face encounter with settlers, and
i have to say that everything i had heard about them is true: they are INSANE.

they started out by literally re-enacting the colonization of space-- steadily and
deliberately crowding us sideways, taking up more and more room, taking positions
directly in front of us so we couldn't be seen, placing their signs on top of our
signs, until they basically dominated the whole area. they also dominated the
atmosphere with their loud and continous chanting-- impressive, really: for 2 hours
i don't think they rested or breathed.

there were 3 generations present, and they seemed to get crazier and more aggressive
with each succeeding generation, which doesn't bode well for the future!

some of the older ones engaged in conversation with us. while i think their ideas
are just plain wrong, at least they seemed to be thinking human beings.
sample converation:

settler grandma: what is this about?
me: we're here supporting Mohammed Mansour.
settler grandma: who's he?
me: he's a Palestinian peace activist who--
sg: [bristling, incredulous]Palestinian? PEACE activist?
me: yes, he was beaten while protesting the wall.
sg: what do you expect? we need that wall. there can be no peace with people who
shoot us.
me: [skipping over the whos-doing-what-to-who issue for the present] if you'd really
wanted a wall for security reasons, then it would have been built along the green
line and not inside Palestinian land, where it destroys their farms and villages.
sg: why shouldn't we take their land? they have many Muslim countries they could go
to. we have only Israel. the rest, all Christian. [so, basically, a demand for a
world of mutually exclusive, separatist theocratic states?!] anyway, this land is
ours. the British Mandate gave it to us. [what!? not God?!]

the ones in their 30s-40s mainly just ignored us, keeping busy with their own
sign-holding and chanting. but the ones in their teens and 20s...these were the
scary ones. a little clique of teenage girls was the worst: shoving, getting right
up in our faces, snarling things like "die, Mohamed, die!" and "i want them all
dead!" and blasting deafening whistles directly into our ears. in fact, twice the
police intervened to pull them away from us-- actually helping us out for once!

as for the toddlers, they were encouraged to stand in front of us and hold signs
above their heads to cover ours, while proud parents clicked cute photographs of
them. i learned by recognizing some faces in the next day's Haaretz that some of
them were on trial for endangering their children by bringing them to volatile
demonstrations; which explained the signs that said
"Jewish mothers against the state." at least one of the mothers had an assault rifle
slung over her shoulder as she pushed along a stroller. many were wearing the
controversial orange stars of david adopted by some groups of the most far-right
settlers, who have pledged no-holds-barred resistance to the proposed pullout of
settlements from Gaza.

when Mohammed emerged from the courthouse, we greeted him with cheers; the settlers
greeted him with boos. his hearing had been postponed for 3 more months on a
technicality. we accompanied him quietly away as the settlers shouted after us,
"die, nazi Mohammed!" i have never before seen children being systematically taught
such mindless hate.

and i really think that so long as both "sides" are identified primarily with their
most extreme and fanatical elements-- ie, as long as Palestinians' picture of Israel
is the Hebron settlers, and Israelis' picture of Palestinians is Islamic Jihad--
there is zero hope for rapprochement. BUT: as each "side" is really a collection
of many elements, then there MUST be maximum attention, volume and space given to
those elements ON BOTH SIDES who stand radically for social justice. and there ARE
those elements on both sides; i had the privilege to meet and talk to some of them.
supporting and faciliting their work and words: THAT is the task of solidarity.

till next time, M

-------------------------

E) Resisting the Wall in Jayyous

Dear Stella,

I'm sorry that I haven't written in over a week. Part of my problem is that
I don't even know where to begin. I'll start, therefore, from the middle and work
backwards and forwards to try to explain what I'm seeing. Occupation is a slow
strangling of communities. It is a hummer crawling deliberately over the rugged
terrain of farmers' fields and city streets. It is only sometimes dramatic. Most of
the time though, it is merely a strategy of debasement, whose ultimate goal is to
give the Palestinian population two options, humiliation and poverty if they stay
where they are, or success if they move far away from home and never return.
Sometimes, when I talk to educated Israelis, I think they believe that they are
doing a favor to the Palestinians because the Israeli government wants Palestinians
to leave more
than they want them to die. It's never said out loud, but the general feeling is
that an educated Palestinian would have a better life in the West. He could excel
in the US or in France. Why would he choose to stay in the backward Arab world?

I wish you could see the illegal settlement houses I saw, all with red tile
rooves dotting the hilltops, and the Palestinian villages they surround. From where
I sit, settlements look tacked on, as though someone cheated badly at a game of
Monopoly. When the Israelis threatened to build the separation wall through the
farmland belonging to the village of Jayyous, the people there, with support from
ISM, began a campaign of non-violent resistence to the wall's construction. Their
campaign was covered by journalists around the world; and one of the farmers, Abu
Azzam, even went to the Hague to testify before the International Court of Justice,
which subsequently ordered the Israelis to halt the wall's construction. After two
years of resistance, involving all the means that westerners have lectured
Palestinians to use, the Israeli government has completed construction on this part
of the separation wall. ISM activist Sam lived in Jayyous for much of the time that

non-violent resistance blossomed there and saw the hope of the people there
sag as it became clear that despite the efforts of the Palestinians and
their international and Israeli supporters, that construction of the wall would go
on unabated. Roughly 75% of Jayyous's farmland, their only means of income, have
been appropriated onto the "Israeli" side of the wall.

The Israelis continue to allow, with the most stifling of restrictions, for
the farmers of Jayyous to access their crops. There is a gate, at which two
jeeps sit. It is occasionally opened by the 18 year old soldier guarding it at his
or her benevolence. The Israelis implemented a permit system, by which the farmers
could apply and obtain government permission to access their land. The farmers
chose for several months not to comply with the permit system at their own expense
and at the expense of their families. When they finally decided to comply, at the
suggestion of several Palestinian officials, the Israelis granted permits to
deceased people, to small children (but not their parents), the elderly, the
disabled and a few farmers who were not involved in protests. Those who were not
given permits were those who
participated in demonstrating against the theft of their farms. At present,
many farmers still do not have permits. The Israeli government claims that they do
not grant permits to those who present a security threat. Since many many
Palestinians have been arrested or imprisoned, often for illegitimate reasons, this
has resulted in many people not being able to obtain a permit. Of course, the permit
system created quite a bit of tension among the people of Jayyous themselves,
between those who had permits and those who didn't, those who had the option of
self-support and those who have had to live on the kindness of others.

Now, the Israelis are targetting Jayyous again. They are trying to claim a
chunk of the farmland caught on the wrong side of the wall for the expansion of the
settlement Zofim. The Israelis claim that the land they want to settle is land that
was purchased by an Israeli broker in 1982. Jayyous confirms that 19 dunams (about
5 acres) in one area and 55 dunams (about 14 acres) were sold to that broker by one
individual farmer. These areas are seperated by three kilometers. The Israelis now
want to scoop up this purchased land along with even more land in order to build.

The Thursday before last, the Israeli military uprooted 600 olive trees in
order to make way for the new illegal settlement homes. It was at this point that
the farmers of Jayyous called a meeting between themselves and their international
and Israeli supporters. We decided, collectively, to demonstrate. 15 internationals
would sleep on the farmland caught on the wrong side of the wall, as would several
of the farmers. The Israelis would enter through the '48 town of Tzuregal and we
would march together towards the site of the uprooted trees and plant seedlings.
The people of Jayyous would gather at the opposite side of the gate, along with
more internationals and Israelis.

The night before the demo, we met Abu Azzam at his shed. Abu Azzam is one of
the most enthusiastic and optimistic organizers I've met in a long time. After
having resisted occupation for all these years, he greets everyone with a hearty
"you are welcome." And any international who sticks around the village long enough
gets adopted. "My daughter" is how I was greeted by Abu Azzam the other night. He
welcomes the support of anyone willing to defend the rights of the people of
Jayyous, even and especially Israelis.

The women slept inside the shed and the men enjoyed what Abu Azzam calls
"the thousand star hotel." He says "In the United States the best hotel you can
stay at is five stars, well here, I have a thousand stars!" All of us saw the
soldiers hanging out, looking over us from the reservoir tower, but we went to
sleep anyway.

The action the next day was peaceful. The Israelis were allowed to plant the
seedlings and we all marched towards the gate. The Swedes I'm travelling
with and I chanted several of JATO's radical cheers which amused everyone,
especially the Palestinians. The soldiers decided that they wanted to shove us and
started shouting "move move!" in Hebrew. There was no indication that the
demonstration was out of hand. Everyone was marching and cheering, that was it.
Despite this, the soldiers, in full riot gear, shoved demonstrators around with no
provocation, even old men and women. They were also trying to snap pictures of
internationals they hadn't seen before. Iquickly turned my head from my big
photo-op. After about half and hour, Abu Azzam and two activists from the Israeli
group Taayush crossed onto the other side of the Apatheid wall and were permitted
to plant a seedling there. As they crossed
back, the action dispersed without incident. While we walked back to the fields to
get our stuff, the soldiers approached us and insisted on accompanying us to get
our things. I couldn't help but wonder to myself--what does Israel have to fear
from a bunch of farmers and a bunch of twentysomethings? And then I realized that
Israel has much to fear. These
are no ordinary farmers. They stand up for themselves, for their rights and for
their homes. They don't cower at the barrel of a gun. They know that their homes
are their homes, no matter the United Nations, the Bible or Israel's 'natural'
expansion. And we who march alongside these farmers learn from them. We are
unimpressed with the perfect English of Netanyahu or the swagger of Ari Ben Canaan.
Our eyes are wide open and we see the real picture.

When I talk to Israelis about my experiences, they consistently leap to the
defence of the soldiers in the territories--"they're so young" they say "and
they're probably scared shitless." After being in Jayyous I wonder what these
Israeli soldiers fear so much. Is it the piles of fresh clementines that can't be
sold because of the closures? These "men" flanked in body armor, with tanks and
hummers and M16's strapped across their shoulders like a women's pocket book have
nothing to fear from farmers who want to feed their families. This is clear to
anyone who can see. They have more to fear from their own government which mongers
fear to Israelis about the Palestinian people and then sends their 18 and 19 year
old sons into an unfamiliar place trigger happy and alone. Perhaps these soldiers
don't want to be there, but they surely have heard by now what a refusnik is. There
is a point at
which people must take responsibility and raise their voices within their
society, or their society will speak for them as a result of their silence.
Israelis often tell me "you don't understand." They are right, I don't understand.
I hope never to understand.

With Love and Solidarity,

Molly