Non Violent Protest: Brutal reaction by Israeli Armed Forces:

Last december an israeli activist was fired in both legs. On the 7th of april the army reacted with teargas and rubber bullets and targetted upperparts of the bodies. On the 16 aprilth of april a 17 year old when he was hit by a bullet in the chest. On the 19th of april a 22 yr old Palestinian died of his injuries after being shot by Israeli occupationforces, 9 villagers were injured (6)

Villages Suffer

Before the building of the wall it were the cities on the westbank that sufferd the most from the Israeli occupation. It is here where the tanks drive through the streets, asassinations are being carried out in which often bystanders are being hit, the curfews and demolition of houses. The villages where more or less better off; there was the daily hazzle of the roadblocks. With the building of the wall this has changed. The villages are being cutt of from their surroundings which has many short- and longterm negative effects (f.e. reaching schools/ hospital, foodsupplies, economic activity). Positive aspect is that villages rise up in a civic demonstration style that is initiated from the villages/ cities themselves but that also internationals participate. Thusfar the actions against the wall and occupation have been of a less violent nature than in Gaza. Political organisations like the Fatah and the Palestinian Authority (PA) are not really involved in these protests (1) An important goal of the non violent actions is to fight the wall and to draw (western) media to the effects that this has on thePalestinan population living on the Westbank. The wall is built for Israeli safety reasons but the question is whether the marginalisation/ isolation of the Palestinians will not only cause more suffering and cause people to turn to more extremist groups out of pure despair.
Without ngo-foodassistance the current situation could lead to foodshortage on a broad scale.

Uprising Gaza: different picture

The uprising in Gaza gives a different picture. Gaza is more populated/ urban than the Westbank. The assasinations of Rantisi and Yassin have had a strengthening effect on Palestinian armed resistance. Haaretz Daily: The attacks are aimed at Israeli forces and settlements in the Gaza strip, and not at targets wthin Israel because the fence around Gaza makes infriltration in Israel more difficult. The armed resistance against occupation in Gaza i might serve as an example for the organizations in the West Bank, which have until now prefered attacks inside Israel.(2)

Today ( 20/5) a 13 yr old was killed in Gaza by the Israeli ocuppation forces. Troops opened fire after a Palestinian threw a firebomb at Israeli forces. This morning, Palestinians fired two Qassam rockets at the Sderot area in the south of the country, Army Radio reported. The rockets landed in open fields and no injuries were reported. In the past days more than 30 palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded by attacks by Israeli Armed forces. Yesterday 8 Palestinian were killed during a missle attack in Rafah. Earlier that day already 5 Palestinians had been killed. Tuesday 20 Palestinians were killed including 14 armed men (3/7) At the same time hundreds demonstrated against the incidents at Rafah in the Israeli big cities (4)

Stop Occupation Peace Now!!

On the 16th of may a crowd of 150.000 took part last night in a mass demonstration in Tel Aviv, and called on the government to pull out of Gaza and start peace talks. "This is not a left-wing rally, this is a rally of the majority," said Peres to applause. "There are four times more people here than all the voters of the radical right." (5).



(1)interview anarchist against the wall
(2)  http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/426334.html
(3) http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/429428.html
(4) http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=429644&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
(5)  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/427755.html
(6)  http://www.womenspeacepalestine.org/mashashooting.htm
(7) http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=429951&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Film: Temporary Inconconvenience.

Soundrecording of the film “Temporary Inconveniense” made during a documentary evening at the CIA infocafe in Amsterdam with comments by people of the group Anarchists against the Wall including the maker of the film. The documentary was shot near Biddu in the weswtbank and shows the effects of the wall and actions against it. The actions are being carried out by Palestinians/ Internationals and Israeli’s. The film shows how a security guard shoots down a Palestinian with life ammunition.
The video:  http://www.claudiusproductions.com/inconvinienceindex.html

Interview Anarchists Against the Wall (14s52m) (eng)


We just want people to know what is going on inside the occupied terroties and also in Israel about the situation. Cause actually the media in and outside of Israel is really based on lies. Noone really knows about the the situation and the conditions of the Palestinians. People are certain that the wall is going to be build on the green line, which is supposed to be the border of Palestina. Which is decided in 1967 by the UN. It is not about security but landgrab. It is really important what is going on there.

How does this effect the daily lives of people living in the occupied terroties?

Well, the way the wall is effecting the Palestinians is:

-First we can talk about the Palestinians that live near the villages where the wall is being constructed cause on one level for a lot of villages it is that they are cut of from land from where they usually make their living from.

- Some villages are completely isolated from other villages and then they have problems of movement. If families are cut of from hospitals and schools.

- There is the situation where villages have tried to grow built more houses but this can’t because of the effects of the wall. The impact depends (on location) : like of the first fase of the wall- 145km has been built already- there are like 50 villages which are caught between the wall and the green line (i mean the green line which is supposed to be the Israeli border with Palestine). Even if they are left out of the wall they are not Israeli citizens so they have problems of labour, having any rights what so ever even getting inside Palestine because you have to have a special permit even if you want to get into Israel you have to have a special permit. Usually you get screwed from both sides so they basically maybe have to move inside the wall so they can have a norm livelyhood and build schools, hospitals etc.

-Then you have the effect of all of the water recources and the agricultural land that is being taken away from them so they have a problem of sustaining lifelyhood in bigger cities.

-Also the effect that you have migration from villages into the bigger cities. Lets say big markets/ towns (where you had a lot of commercial activity of the transfer of goods with israelis who were friendly with them and palestinians around the area) are being shut down.

-And the effect that the way it is progressing.....(?) ... to completely isolate Palestine from both sides by Israel so they wont have contact with any other country

But a positive aspect is that it is actualy creating a situation where Palestinians are actualy organizing for themselves..because the Palestinian Authority(P.A.) and political organisations like Hamas and Fatah showed little concern what soever for these villages they decided to organisize their resistance by themselves and also using new methods where it enables them to have a a higher level of democracy. It is not some political official it is the village deciding together with who they want ( whether an israeli/ palestinian) to work together against the wall.

This partly enables them to have a more direct political process happening. Where they feel more empowered and the fact that they are getting some results even though they might be minor and small..they are getting more results then they got with with P.A. / Hamas or political organisations that showed little concern for the villages. In that aspect it is actually changing the way...(?)..also the fact that they do non violent resistance and actually achieving something with is giving them more force to do this kind of actions than actually using guns.

So we get the picture of villages that are cut of from the rest of the world. So in the future things will get worse you think?

Yes, things are getting worse. But even sometimes the effects in some of the places take time. When the wall is built you dont feel sometimes the impact immediately you feel it - lets say- during the harvest of olive trees which is next year, and then you see that you can not always harvest them, it is really important to have a certain time to harvest them before it rots down or when it starts raining to much so they are hard to harvest.

So on that aspect they are not even sure how it its going to be sometimes, and in some places it slowly has created a situation where villages slowly get more and more frustated. Actually in that areas it has created a new hostility in places that before even where not political. Sometimes the occupation in the foreign news always seems as happening everywhere and everyone is aware of it. And to a certain agree everybody is aware of it; but to different degrees:

In the cities they are much more aware of it you have tanks, curfews.. So a lot of villages where more or less left to them selves they couldnt get out of the city easily; but they did not feel the whole impact of the occupation.

Then there is also the difference between the village and city: people say this about the city people, village people talk about that about the village people. But here it is actually creating..the big impact of the occupation is here in the villages. It is creating a whole new assocation between the city and the village, where cities are also getting more involved what is happening in villages and trying to create demonstrations in support of the villages that are uprising. Esp. at Nablus and Ramallah where they are getting more active about it.

Is this something that is initiated from the palestinian side or is this a coorporation beween the left in Israel and the Palestinian action groups that want to use non violent measures against this wall?

Well, It is a combination of a bit of all. I mean it starts from Palestinians:

They are the ones that are the most concerned and the ones who invite the Israeli’s that the shift in this policy where we can do demonstrations together for a broader audience and a bigger spectrum and maintaining a more civil demonstration style.

It always comes from the Palestinian villages: you never have a situation where internationals and Israeli’s will come to the village and say: OK we want a demonstration here because of the wall. So it is the Palestinian village, because they have to suffer the consequences. It is there where they have their land consequated, having more problems with army/ police, maybe in the future having to cross the wall or going to other area’s.

It is also creating a stronger point for non violent resistance. Which has always existed in Palestine but in the last few years esp from the beginning of the 2nd intifada was very minor. Because all the political organisations said the only way to confront the occupation is by violent means, militias, suicide-bombers etc..now they said we can also do it differently.

Can you tell us for how long this is going on: these non-violent protests against the wall?

I think it is about for just over a year; it started very small, and then through different actions just grew and grew. And now it is a situation where almost every village decides to do this demonstration and to do it on their own agreement and sometimes a neighbouring village comes in for support. Each village tries to be non-violent and usually it is the new kind of way of dealing withit with different results.

The support in Israel for these kind of actions how is this for instance in the national media?

Not so long time ago in the Israeli national newspaper they said that 75% of the Israeli population support actions against the wall but in legal not violent ways. People who are more aware of the situation. (..) but they support us as long we dont do it in legal ways.

Are there are also many people that want to join?

This is complicated because there are a lot of left wing groups in Israel that are against the occupation but dont want to join this kind of actions. The support it in more passive ways outside Palestine – in Israel in Tel Aviv the big cities- Peace Now Demos with holding signs/ singing and talking about it. But most of the people don’t want to take part in this kind of action (in Palestina against the wall). Yes you know it is scary and dangerous.

What sort of actions are there now in Israel against now the occupation?

-Radical actions inside the terroties; but it always attracks a small groups of people because you hear it usually 24hrs in advance(?) , it is complicated to get in (the occupied terroties) and it is always hard to call around everybody and ask.
-Organisations that create a demonstration and plan it one month in advance or so with a certain village and do a peaceful demonstration /graffiti against the wall.
-Organisations that spread lists about what products to boycot that are built in Jewish settlements inside Palestine.
-Comittee Against House Demolitions; which is an organisation that is based in Jeruzalem which fights the demolition of houses; It is hard for Palestinians to get permits because of absurd laws so everytime they try to built lets say another room, because they cannot have another house because of the legislation/ plans, then the army comes in and destroys the house and also trying to work together with villages inside the wall which are certain to have houses demolished or schools.
-Demonstrations inside major cities like Tel Aviv, who do like peaceful noise demo’s
-Small alternetive demonstrations.
-Showing movies info movies/ petitions; trying to bring the message across out.
-Organisations that work on a bigger level in sustaining solidarity with the Palestinians.

So a lot of things going on. We also saw on your video that there are a lot of people from outside Israel/ Palestina joining in. Does this help and in what way?

Well, it works on a few aspects:
-First of all it shows that we are not isolated that there are also other people that are concerned about what is happening; on a moral level this is still important.
-On a practical level internationals can go to places where Israeli’s can’t go. Area A in Palestine are forbidden for Israeli’s to go to esp in the bigger Palestinian cities.
-In some villages it is still difficult for the villagers to work with Israeli’s. International/ internatgional groupcan prepare the ground for working together with other groups. They can have their base network in Palestine which is hard for Israeli’s to maintain.
-Spreading out the message, coming over, documenting, trying to help, going back to their countries and trying to create support/ pressure from outside which is also very positive.

It is also really fimportant for Israeli’s to be there.

- First of all for the Palestinians it is really important that Israeli’s support them because:

-They (The Israeli’s)are the one that put them in this situation, they are the ones that conquered them.
-It is important for Palestinians to see that also Israeli’s support them, care for them and want to help them, it creates a whole new image for them. Now it shows them that not every Israeli is the enemy and that we can manage to do postive things together. So it is really important that there are Israeli’s there.
-When Israeli’s are there it changes the situation with the soldiers a bit: now they cannot do what they want do. When Israeli’s are involved it also means that the media gets involved more easily. Now they cannot just shoot life ammunition; they have to be a little bit more calm.

Links.

I.S.M  http://www.palsolidarity.org
I.W.P.S  http://www.womenspeacepalestine.org
“Temporary Inconvenience”.  http://www.claudiusproductions.com/inconvinienceindex.html

The recordings have been broadcasted on internet and in the ether on Free Radio Tonka in The Hague- Holland. Recently police raided our studio so we are working on getting new equipment and to broadcast locally on the ether again, broadcast on the internet goes on.

 http://www.radiotonka.nl