Friday, September 09, 2005

You can’t break our spirit, You can’t stop our dreams

by Palestinian and ISM volunteers

It was a chaotic day for villagers in Bil’in. It began just before dawn with the rude awakening of a military siege, and ended with odors of tear gas, burning tires and the arrest of a community leader of nonviolent anit-occupation demonstrations.

Bil’in has become a flashpoint in the battle between heavily armed Israeli soldiers and the spreading movement among Palestinians to employ nonviolent tactics against the occupation. Each Friday at 1 p.m. villagers have employed dramatic props, costumes and theatrics into their protests of the theft of Palestinian land with the construction of Israel’s illegal annexation barrier. The portion of the barrier being built in Bil’in will cut off more than half the village’s agricultural land, setting it aside for likely settlement expansion.

Last Friday, the military was humiliated by the amount of news coverage that showed the brutality soldiers inflict on villagers. Video footage, photos and live coverage resulted in complaints from Israeli Knesset members and an editorial excoriating the military for the use of excessive force. What the army learned form that lesson: Continue attacking unarmed people, but start earlier in the day.

Military vehicles sped into Bil’in at 5 a.m. as soldiers announced through loudspeakers that the area was “a closed military zone” and that a curfew would be enforced. The army had by 6 a.m. surrounded the home of Abdullah Abu Rahme, a coordinator Bili’n’s Popular Committee Against the Wall. A section of his house is reserved for the International Solidarity Movement’s apartment. Through bullhorns soldiers announced that all Israelis and international activists must leave the premises.

Abdullah responded by closing all the doors and locking them. Then the army commander told Abdullah he had 15 minutes to tell the internationals and Israelis to leave. Hours later, the military commander was saying, “OK, you have 15 more minutes.”

The demonstration wasn’t set to start until 1 p.m., and at 7 a.m., it became obvious that we had to come up with something delay the inevitable use of violence by the Israeli military while some of us prepared for the day’s action. The plan for this demonstration was to take olive tree seedlings and attempt to plant them along the path of the annexation barrier.

As some people prepared the plants and made signs and posters, a number of international and Israeli activists went to the rooftops of homes around the village and made percussion instruments out on heaters and water tanks. An old woman stood with a baby in one hand banging the heater on her apartment roof with an iron pipe as hard as she could.

In what was somewhat of a mood spoiler, the military responded to the rhythm by lobbing tear gas and sound bombs at Palestinians who had started to defy the curfew order to protest the treatment of visitors to the area. Within a few minutes, a Palestinian man was shot in the leg.

Soldiers also infringed on religious freedom in the village, telling
people at the mosque that afternoon prayer would not be allowed.

Shortly before 10 am, we unfurled two huge banners and a Palestinian flag and attached them to the top of the apartment. The Israeli border police had shown up with a huge prison wagon in tow, and we 20+ activists were still on the rooftops directly chants and singing.

Around 10 a.m. the press began to arrive. As journalists streamed into Abdullah’s house and up the stairs to the roof to take in the spectacle, Israeli border police made their move to arrest a Palestinian. Villagers had taken to the streets in large numbers to protest the morning incursion. Chanting and marching up various streets in the neighborhood, they set up roadblocks of burning tires to slow down the arrival of still more army vehicles. Black plumes of smoke went up around the village.

We tore down the steps to try to stop the arrest of the Palestinian man. Within ten minutes the police carted off five Israeli peace activists and three internationals ( all were released by late afternoon). “They’re trying to arrest everybody,” said ISM volunteer Greta Berlin. “Everybody’s in a pile. They’ve got everybody, they’re throwing them all in the paddy wagon now.”

Mohammed Al Khateb, a coordinator with the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall, was beaten by soldiers and has suffered some injuries.

“One of the soldiers who hadn’t been here for a while because of the Gaza disengagement found me,” Al Khateb said. “He said ‘I haven’t seen you in quite a while’ and ’some day I’m going to bash your head in.’”

Meanwhile, for the third time, Abdullah Abu Rahme was arrested in Bil’in on Friday. During the rounding up of activists, Abdullah was being interviewed in front of his home by Egypt TV. In the midst of the interview, soldiers grabbed Abdullah and hauled him away. He was charged with breaking curfew. He maintains he had permission to be in front of his own house for the interview. A tear gas canister would strike the Egypt TV van later. One of their cameramen was injured and taken to a hospital in Ramallah.

Abdullah was reportedly transported to Ofer Military Prison, where he had served time previously for participating in nonviolent protests of the wall. Upon his release in July, Abdullah had signed conditions not to join in rallies. At the time of this arrest, he was not taking part in events going on around him.

The detained activists were carted up to a hill near the wall construction site. It’s interesting that soldiers work so hard to stop demonstrators from reaching the area of land confiscation each week, but will give them rides directly to the site upon arrest.

Meanwhile, amid the protests and chaos, those planning to go ahead with afternoon prayers made their way to the mosque.

Shortly before 1 p.m., those of us who hadn’t been detained decided to join the Palestinians and hold the demonstration. We met in the front of the mosque, facing soldiers, police, sound bombs, tear gas, and rubber bullets. Many were injured, with scrapes, cuts, bruises, and tear gas inhalation and were treated by the Palestinian Red Crescent.

It was with tremendous relief that we looked up to see 50 Israeli activists coming through the olive trees just after 1 p.m. They had walked for miles to get there, and they immediately stood in front of the soldiers began yelling at them.

By 3 p.m., over 150 Israelis had made it through the checkpoints, and had joined the demonstration in front of the mosque. Reportedly, another 200 were detained trying to get into Bil’in. 20 members of the Holy Land Trust had also come from Beit Sahour.

They were joined by several members of the Palestinian Authority parliament and Israeli Knesset who had been invited by the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall. Many of them (Listed at the bottom of this post) spent a great deal of time yelling at the soldiers, demanding to know why they were preventing nonviolent resistance in the village.

With the arrival of a wave of Israelis and a number of political officials, the soldiers began many soldiers got in their jeeps and roared away as those on foot backed away while throwing everything in their arsenal. One woman from Spain was hit in the ankle with a rubber bullet. Most of us avoided serious injury as we inhaled large amounts tear gas. Streaming from canisters flying all around us.

One 80-year-old Palestinian woman stepped out of her house and threw a peach at a group of retreating Israeli soldiers. They actually came to arrest her, and, as they stood in front of her gate, she hit them again with a water bottle. Those of us standing with her shamed the soldiers into leaving.

Palestinians won this time. They broke the military ordered curfew, they went to the mosque, and they held the demonstration in spite of being told not to move. Members of Palestinian and Israeli governments were on hand to witness what life is like for people in Bil’in.

This occupation will end some day, and the people of Bil’in will go in the history books of Palestine as examples of the power of nonviolent resistance against terrible violence from the fourth largest military in the world.