Israel Destroys Home Of Nonviolent Community Leader

) Demonstration in Budrus
2) Israel destroys home of nonviolent community leader_Report
3) 1 hour in Nablus_Report
4) Confronting the construction in Qatanna_Neal
=======================

1) DEMONSTRATION IN BUDRUS

There will be another massive demonstration against the wall on Friday,
April 2, 2004 at 12:30pm on the Budrus land.

The tiny village has attracted international attention for its
courageous
attempts to use non-violent direct action to stop the Apartheid Wall,
which
will confiscate 90% of the village's farmland. Young girls and old
women
alike have thrown themselves in front of bulldozers and have managed to
delay the building of the Apartheid Wall for more than four months.

Their peaceful resistance has cost them dearly - 10 village activists
are in
jail and over 40 have been injured by the Israeli Occupation Forces.

For comment call:

Budrus leaders - 067 924 952 or 066 339862
International Solidarity Movement - 053 471226 or 066 478674
Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall - 066 327736
International Womens Peace Service - 09 2516644

END
===========================

2) ISRAEL DESTROYS HOME OF NONVIOLENT COMMUNITY LEADER


1st April, 2004

ISRAEL DESTROYS HOME OF NONVIOLENT COMMUNITY LEADER
Uses live ammunition against protestors

[Kharbathat Bani Harith, RAMALLAH] On Thursday April 1st, 2004, in the
early
morning, the Israeli military decided to bulldoze the family home of
Aziz
Hassan Ahmed where he and his wife and children have lived for the last
9
years. Bulldozers had shown up 4 months prior this day but Aziz's
lawyer
managed to stop the demolition and get a temporary injunction issued.
However, when Aziz mentioned this court order to the officer, the
latter
refused discussion and gave Aziz the choice to have his house
demolished
"peacefully" or "violently": he could get his family's belonging out or
the
house would be destroyed along with them.

Aziz responded that he would certainly not help the Israeli army
destroy his
family home and showed his determination to oppose the destruction. He
insisted on seeing the demolition order but the Civil Administrator,
Micha,
only provided a 1995 order, claiming that the house was built without
permit. Kharbathat Bani Harith is located deep within the West Bank
where
the Israeli military is an occupying force, in violation of numerous UN
Resolutions. According to Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention
"Any
destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property
belonging
individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to
other public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is
prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely
necessary
by military operations."

Other soldiers on duty argued that the house was being destroyed
because it
belonged to the family of a "terrorist". (One of Aziz's brothers, in
jail
for over 2 ½ years now was given a 36 year sentence on "conspiracy of
involvement in terrorist activities.") Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva
Convention states, "No protected person may be punished for an offence
he or
she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all
measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited."

Aziz believes that his home was destroyed because of his leading role
in
mobilizing nonviolent, popular resistance against the Apartheid Wall in
the
region. On March 21, 2004 over 35 peaceful protestors were injured
during a
violent repression by the Israeli military of a nonviolent action that
Aziz
played a leading role in organizing. For more information on that
action,
please see:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/palsolidarity/message/912
Destroying Aziz's home constitutes a way to deter the villagers from
protesting the destruction of their community via active nonviolent
means.

Aziz was given no warning about the demolition even though the army
officer
claimed that he had warned the family two weeks prior the destruction.

Aziz,s house was only the first step. After it was destroyed, the
soldiers
moved the Caterpillar bulldozers toward his father's unfinished house.
At
this point, 5 Israeli activists managed to make their way onto the
housetop
to protect it from demolition, while a crowd of about 100 Palestinians
stood
by to support their action. The soldiers attempted to remove forcefully
the
Israeli activists who made it extremely difficult and time-consuming.
The
soldiers finally tried to force one of them down the roof by putting
him in
the bulldozer's bucket.

At this point of the confrontation, the soldiers seemed to retreat.
They
temporarily left the scene and so did the media. This first victory was
welcomed by chanting by the crowd.

After approximately 2 hours, the soldiers came back to destroy the
house.
They brought 6 vehicles and cordoned off the whole area. Without
provocation, the soldiers attacked the crowd of peaceful demonstrators
who
were defending the house. The army used excessive violence to clear the
area. They showered the people with tear gas, rubber-coated metal
bullets.
They even shot live ammunition in the air and tried to prevent
activists
from documenting the destruction.

Meanwhile, several Israeli activists, who were still sitting on the
roof of
the house, were forcefully removed one after another by the soldiers.
All
through the destruction process, the Israeli military were consistently
using tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition to
prevent
the people from stopping the illegal destruction of Aziz's father
house.
Three ISM activists along with several Palestinian villagers tried to
move
away from the scene and find a remote place from where they could
document
the arrest of the Israeli activists and the destruction of the house.
However, they were consistently targeted by the soldiers with rubber
bullets. At 5:30pm, the soldiers pulled out of the place, leaving
behind
them a whole family homeless.

For photos, please see:
 http://www.palsolidarity.org/pictures/PHOTOS_1Apr04_19_33_56RamallahJeff.htm
We are trying to get some footage of the demolition on our website.
Please
check back very soon.

(Report compiled from information and photos provided by ISM activist
Jeff,
who was on the scene)

END

=======================


3) 1 HOUR IN NABLUS
Report of Raid on Flats near Abdul Mugheeth Al-Ansari boys school

By ISM Nablus
April 1, 2004

12:00 Heard about eight army jeeps near school reportedly firing live
rounds
and teargas

12:20 Arrived in area saw four jeeps circling entrance to Al-Qariyon
area -
shebab laying/wiring a booby-trap in the road 100 yds from a jeep

12:24 5 shots fired

12:29 Two shots fired - medics said Palestinians returning fire, 20-30
shebab throwing stones at jeeps - medics had tried to talk with
soldiers -
no luck, 700 6-12 yr olds evacuated from area, many schoolchildren and
young
girls trying to reach homes in old city prevented from doing so

12:38 2 shots coming from Israeli military jeep followed by a big
explosion
in road, 2 ambulances went in but were turned back by army

12:43 6 shots fired and returned, jeep drove towards ambulances and
shebab,
crowds of children in area trying to get home

12:50 3 shots while medics trying to escort large crowd of children
past
jeeps (mostly young girls)

12:52 2 shots - children/medics coming back

12:53 4 shots

12:54 2 shots

12:55 3 shots

12:56 2 shots, then 4 jeeps leave

Many windows broken in flats
Generator shot and leaking oil into street
No injuries according to medics
Water pipe leaking

left scene at 13:15

END


==========================

4) CONFRONTING THE CONSTRUCTION IN QATANNA
April 1, 2004
Neal
Qatanna, Ramallah

CONFRONTING THE CONSTRUCTION IN QATANNA


Hello my friends and greeting to you all. Yesterday, which was Tuesday,
March 31, found a small group of internationals heading out to our
neighboring village of Qatana for a demonstration against?...... If you
guessed the wall, you indeed are right and win a self-financed trip to
Palestine to witness firsthand one of many injustices around the world
being
committed in the name of security and positions of power and feelings
of
superiority. Qatana is a village of about 10,000 people, about 95% of
whom
are refugees who used to live somewhere inside of what is now the State
of
Israel, and whom were intimidated into leaving, or voluntary left their
own
villages and homes during the war in either 1948 or 1967.

While Israel claims that this portion of the wall is actually being
built on
the green line and is therefore not in violation of the court order
which
has halted work over the past month or so, sadly this is not true. The
work
is happening close to the green line, but for some reason the israeli
army
couldn't bring itself to not take at least a little land from this part
of
Qatana. The internationally recognized green line is maybe 100 meters
(yes I
am truly an international and not American now that i can measure
distance
in meters) further up this steep hillside terraced with olive trees. In
the
eyes of the court building here is legal because the newer green line
Israel
has drawn unilaterally since 1967 ends up somewhere very close to where
the
work is happening. At some point in the 80's it seems Israel annexed
some of
this hillside for its people without consulting the village of Qatana,
and
hasn't used it for anything nor informed the village that this part of
the
hillside no longer belongs to them, until it was time to build the
wall.
Enough of the history lesson though........

So we all gathered in the center of the old section of town, 4
internationals and 2 israeli peace activists, or israeli left-wingers
and
foreign left-wingers as the israeli media refers to us, as well as
about 150
Palestinians from Qatana and neighboring villages, and several news
crews
including CNN, or at least a fancy SUV with CNN written on a placard
and
resting on the front dashboard facing out for all of us to read. Then
all of
a sudden the chanting of teenagers came reverberating in the distance
and
low and behold, about 300 students came marching from their school
holding
signs and flags, met us in the center and off we went.

As the work site was on a steep hillside, just above a thick olive
grove,
and several houses, we had to climb a narrow rocky street to get there.
Looking up as we walked there were about 10 soldiers, four private wall
construction security guards in bright yellow hats and brandishing
Uzis, and
7 big machines either drilling into the hillside, bulldozing the
hillside,
or digging into the hillside and removing lots of dirt. As I walked up
the
hill, and being far behind, I was shortly passed by a reporter who was
bleeding from a big cut on his head and limping awkwardly. It was a
little
confusing to me until I walked several more feet up the narrow road and
saw
his white TV-labeled hummer lying completely upside down below the
narrow
road. Asking folks who saw it, the truck just drove off the road, and
the
steep hill caused it to roll over and land on its roof before coming to
a
rest near some olive trees.

Well the peaceful march continued to move towards the work site and
then
stopped about 400 feet from the bulldozers, who seemed much farther
away as
they were hillside was so steep. The crowd mingled for about a minute
before
the first canister of tear gas was fired at us causing a mass stampede
down
the hillside and a frantic search for clean air.

After folks had spit out and sneezed out their mucous (sorry about the
details), we made our way back up the hill to reconvene, and then were
gassed more heavily. I found myself trapped up against a rock cliff
with a
man in his 60's and inhaling a lot of gas as my usually safe bandana
soaked
in vinegar was helping not at all. The gas seemed stronger than usual
but I
don't know why. I wanted to try and help the man, but I could barely
help
myself. I tried to hold my breath, but of course when I couldn't any
longer
then I had to take a big gulp of air, which turned out to be a big gulp
of
gas. My eyes began to burn a lot and tear, and so I walked away from
the
scene and into a crowd of mostly young boys with pieces of onion stuck
up
their nostrils (which helps a little and provides much needed comic
relief).

After the gassing experiences, some of the boys decided to throw stones
at
the soldiers which resulted in more gas being fired. Some village
leaders
and other members of the community went to try and negotiate with the
soldiers. One of the leaders of the village was pushed down by the
soldiers
causing him to land awkwardly on some rocks and he broke his leg. The
soldiers continued to rough him up until other local folks carried him
away
from the scene, down the hill on a plastic chair turned stretcher, and
off
to the hospital. The other negotiators were arrested by the soldiers,
and
the one I watched through my binoculars get slowly led up the hillside
to
other awaiting soldiers was then hit and kicked before disappearing
from my
sight behind a truck.

As things deteriorated further, the soldiers came down from their perch
on
the worksite and began to fan out along it into sniper positions. For
the
next several hours soldiers fired tear gas, rubber-coated steel
bullets, and
concussion grenades at both folks standing peacefully and people who
were
throwing stones under the cover of the olive groves.

The three internationals who remained at the scene decided to make our
presence known by standing further down the hillside in an open area
without
anyone else within a 100 foot radius. Well, our presence was certainly
known, as shortly after moving there I found myself jumping out of the
way
of a tear gas canister flying in a line drive down the hillside
directly at
me as I made my way out of sight of the soldiers using a house as
protection
to call some media. Of course in literally jumping out of the way, I
landed
on my bumb knee from the futbol match, the one place I have been trying
not
to land on. Within the next 45 seconds or so, another canister came
flying
over the roof of the house, and then three more fired at the three of
us as
we reconvened in the open space. All of us felt we were being directly
shot
at as we were the only ones in the area.

The demo started at 10:15 and by 1200 there were already 5 arrested
Palestinians and 20 injured, 4 from rubber-coated steel bullets, the
man
with the broken leg, one man who was shot in the face by a tear gas
canister, and the rest from inhaling the poisonous gas they use to
disperse
crowds and make their noses run. From 12:00 on there were at least
another 3
injured from rubber-coated steel bullets as the soldiers continued a
steady
volley of tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and concussion grenades
basically every minute until well after 3 o'clock.

Around 12:30 the internationals moved further down the hill to stand in
front of a group of women who were sitting on their porch---it was our
hope
they wouldn't be shot at or gassed if we stood in front of them.
Shortly
after moving there, rubber-coated steel bullets came bouncing off the
tree
near us and then off the hillside just in front of us at which point
they
would either roll down to our feet or bounce up past our bodies. Again
we
felt as if we were being targeted and decided to move.

We moved back up the original road to where the soldiers had resorted
to
tossing rocks down from their sniper positions at the people standing
there
in between shooting gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. The demo
continued
in this fashion for several more hours until the crowd slowly dwindled
to
about 50. Soldiers fired gas directly at a grave stone several young
boys
were hiding behind--mind you the grave stone was at least 700 feet from
the
soldiers, the canister just knocked up against the grave stone and
consumed
the boys a little as the wind at that point was blowing it back up the
hill.
Gas was also fired into the sides of, and onto the roofs of several of
the
houses on the hillside.

Before we arrived, one of the construction machines had also managed to
dislodge a rather big boulder which came crashing down the hillside
past
several houses, knocking over everything in its path including olive
trees,
and finally coming to rest on the side of someone's grave.

And so ends the story of Qatana, or at least this chapter. The
villagers
will regroup and re-strategize, this I am sure of. Although at times I
feel
completely powerless to stop this construction, I do find power and
hope in
the fact that unarmed villages spanning many generations are willing to
non-violently confront this construction fully knowing the military has
most
of the power and will harm many people. The fact that people continue
to
come out and at least make the attempt, whether simply symbolic or not,
is a
powerful message I will not soon forget.

May this email find you all smiling and doing well. You are missed and
heavily loved, love neal

====================

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
www.palsolidarity.org