The War on What?

"If I non-violently and creatively act for peace,

          I am black-listed; a terrorist.

If I blow myself up and kill innocent civilians,

          I am black-listed; a terrorist.

*laughing...*

So what? What do they want from me??"

 - a Palestinian alternative tour-guide working to help inform people travelling the region.

...the biggest threat to war: peace.


A "Defensive" war:
Really?

 "The War on What?"

Terror,

     A war on terror.

Terror caused by "security."

Terror caused by zionism =

Terror in the name of Yahweh - 

Terror in the name of Allah - 

Terror in the name of God - 

Terror in the name of me over you...

Terror inflicted by capitalism;

Terror stirred by individualism;

the Terror of normalization.

Fight terror -

not with terror -

but with...

...?

with what?

"Fight the War with what?"

?!

Resourceful! And Beautiful..? :s

Though many of these tactics (which governments all over the world are learning from Israel, which is funded mostly (and then bought back) by the States) are not life threatening in of themselves (although tear gas canisters have killed, caused permanent and temp injury, and alternate affects from the poison of gas over years) - the constant gas, noise, stench several times a week, in addition to night raids and arrests, and abuse, all amount to civilians being oppressed day-in-day out - not just threatened with death, but with living itself becoming hard to move on normally...

Sun Rising on village of Nabi Saleh

Nabi Saleh

Population: 550ish

Location details: 

 - The village of Nabi Saleh is bordered by the illegal settlement of Halamish (Neve Tzuf) to the south.

 - 25% of Village's total area under Area B (military control with Palestinian civil admin)

 - 75% of Village's total area declared under Area C (military control) 

(side note: only 18% of Palestine is under Palestinian security and civil admin - and even that is still under military occupation... Israel has almost all of the land: 

"The division of the West Bank into areas A, B and C was agreed upon in order to facilitate a gradual transfer of contra over the West Bank and Gaza strip to the Palestinian Authority.  However, on the ground, it was in actuality used to strengthen Israeli control over strategic areas.  Since the signing of the Oslo Accords, land classified as Area C has seen increasing Israeli control through land confiscation, settlement expansion, house demolitions and other methods... building permits in Area C are issued by Israel, and are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain."[1])

Information provided by: Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

Israeli Defence Force... Defence?? Interesting choice of words as they invade, attack and oppress children, women, men of a variety of ages, races and religions, in a civilian village that is trying to walk to their water source on their own land, just across the road, where illegal homes are perched on the stolen land... 

Settlement of Halamish (pictured left, view from NS town as we walk down the road) occupies nearly half of the lands belonging to Nabi Saleh...

"Since the establishment of Halamish in 1977, its land confiscation strategy follows a distinct pattern.  First the land is made unavailable for the Palestinians through the declaration of 'closed military zones' by the army or through barriers set up by the settlers themselves.  Then the land is either officially announced as 'state land' and made available for settlement expansion or unofficially taken by the settlers themselves."

Also, some of the land that is still accessible to Nabi Saleh farmers, is frequented by settler harassment of those who are trying to work what little land remains.

Waiting for us to get close...

"In addition to the settlement, Nabi Saleh's lands are also occupied by the Neve Tzuf military base and a pre-military yeshiva.  The settlement is located on a hilltop, positioned in a way that cuts off villagers' access to their land even if it is not directly occupied by the settlement."

Regular creative, non-violent popular resistance has resulted in success stories (to be celebrated with while keeping in mind the price of arrests, and settler and military harassment over the years):

 - partially successful shutting down of Israeli leather treatment factory that polluted the area in addition to being built on Nabi Saleh land (partial success because the factory was replaced by an Israeli stone cutting factory)

 - movement of a fence built unnecessarily far away from the border of the settlement (which is already unnecessarily built!) just to take even more land

Today Nabi Saleh represents a beacon in the expansion of nonviolent popular resistance model in Palestine. Many women in the village participate and organize the regular weekly demonstrations. the popular grassroots mobilization comprises all segments of their community, and is collectively led.


We in Canada have much to learn from villages like this - in addition to those already moving creatively and powerfully within Canada :).

"The Israeli military's response to these protests has been particularly brutal.  It includes regularly blockading the entire village, accompanied by the declaration of all of Nabi Saleh, including the built up area, as a closed military zone.  Prior and during the demonstrations themselves, the army often completely occupies the village, enforcing an unofficial curfew or martial law.  Military nighttime raids and arrest operations are also a common tactic in the army's strategy of intimidation, and they often target minors."

"In order to prevent the villagers and their supporters from exercising their fundamental right to demonstrate and march tot heir lands, soldiers regularly use disproportional force against the unarmed protestors.  The means utilized by the army to hinder demonstrations include, but are not limited to, the use of tear-gas projectiles, banned high-velocity tear-gas projectiles, rubber-coated bullets and at times, even live ammunition."

"In complete disregard to the army's own open fire regulations, soldiers often shoot tear-gas projectiles and rubber bullets indiscriminately at groups and individual protestors from short distances.  The army has also resumed using high velocity tear-gas projectiles in Nabi Saleh, despite the fact that they have banned after causing the death of Bassem Abu Rahmah in Bil'in in April 2009, and the critical injury of American protestor Tristan Anderson in Ni'ilin in March of the same year."

"Tear-gas, as well as foul smelling liquid shot from a water cannot called 'The Skunk,' is often used near the homes of the village and even directly pointed into houses.  This allows no refuge for the uninvolved residents of the village, including children and the elderly.  The interior of at least one house caught fire and was severely damaged after soldiers shot a tear-gas projectile through its windows."

"Since December 2009, when protest in the village started, hundreds of demonstration-related injuries caused by disproportionate military violence have been recorded in Nabi Saleh."

"The Israeli strategy of quelling grassroots resistance also consists of judicial persecution of activists.  Such persecution is in clear violation of the fundamental rights to freedom of opinion, expression, assembly and association.  The recent augmentation in the use of the military judicial processes as a form repression against demonstrators coupled with the rise of other methods of repression should not only be examined on a case-by-case basis, but rather must be acknowledged as a systematic implementation of an illegitimate policy of political repression against civil society."

"Between January 2012 and April 2011, the Israeli Army has carried out 73 arrests lasting more than 24 hours on protest-related suspicions in the village of Nabi Saleh, including those of women and of children as young as 11 years old.  Of the 73, 18 were minors.

 - Nabi Saleh's population is little over 550 residents, meaning the number of arrests constitutes more than 10% of the population."

"Manal Tamimi, a mother of four from Nabi Saleh was arrested 22 January 2010, during one of the first demonstrations in the village.  At the time of the arrest she was inside her home with her husband tending to her four children when soldiers threw a tear gas grenade into their home.


Manal rushed to get everybody out of th house, and when they were all out on the street the soldiers ordered her to take her family back into the house.  She refused to do so since the house was still full of tear gas.  Other people from the village gather, and in the middle of the discussion Manal, her sister Maha and her cousin Nariman Tamimi were arrested by the soldiers and taken away.  Two other men were also detained.


Manal describes the arrest as humiliating.  The soldiers were grabbing them and trying to removed their headscarves.  She was not told where she would be taken, and she was afraid of being alone with the soldiers as she was taken in a separate jeep.  They were all taken to the settlement of Shar'ar Benyamin where they were interrogated.  While waiting for seven hours inside a jeep, Maha (Manal's sister) was in serious pain and in need of medical attention.  As she laid down on the floor to ease her pain the soldiers ordered her up and beat her.  They screamed that if she didn't get up they would 'beat them both until the floor was covered with their blood.' ...upon arrival [to Hasharon prison], more than 30 hours from when they were arrested, the women were still not allowed water, food or sleep.  When they were transferred back to Hasaron prison that night, they were held with the general Israeli' prisoners instead of taken to the section for Palestinian political prisoners." 


Manal was accused for grabbing a female soldiers M-16 which was only far from the truth, but that particular soldier wasn't even there at the demonstration... "During their trial, the charges against the women changed four times.  In the end, Manal and Nariman were offered a plea bargain, under which they were sentenced to six months probation...on the condition that they would not enter a closed military zone or participate in any demonstrations for the duration of their trial, which is an undetermined length of time due tot he suspended sentences..."

View from little girl's bedroom window...

That same little girl... apparently she's
sick of the view... (watch, half way through the film, posted above, is Jana yelling boldly and beautifully before the soldiers...)

Arrests of Minors


"18 of the arrests in NS have been minors, two of them under the age of 12...


According to Israeli law, people under the age of 18 are considered minors and in the context of a police interrogation are entitled to special rights.  Amendment 14 to the Israeli Youth Law specifically asserts and reiterates such rights, such as the right to have a parent present, and the need to uphold minors' rights in the questioning process, such as the right to remain silent.


Under military law - in clear discrimination compared to Israeli law and in breach of international conventions for the protection of children - Palestinian children are considered to be adults at the age of 16.


Minors are often arrested at gunpoint in the middle of the night, taken from their parents, beaten up and denied their legal rights during questioning.  They then often give statements incriminating many people in very broad terms during police or Shin Bet interrogations that could be considered nothing else but coerced confessions... [let me know if you want some of these accounts].

Demonstration reaching a lull, coffee and cigarette break.. for a few hours...

And so it begins again, on till sundown...

Night Raids


"Another tactic often employed by the army in dealing with the demonstrations is the use of military night raids on the village.  Such night raids are used as a form of collective punishment, during which military jeeps drive through the village randomly throwing concussion and tear-gas grenades in the streets.  In other cases the night raids are staged to carry out unwarranted searches to arrest villagers, including minors, for their involvement in demonstrations.  This is a clear case of using military tactics to deal with a strictly civilian situation.


One example of such events, which happen regularly, took place January 12 and 17 2011, when soldiers systematically raided dozens of houses in the village, in what seemed to be a 'mapping' operation - taking pictures and ID numbers of all the male residents - especially minors.


The night before some of these pictures were taken a village raid and house arrest happened during the wee hours of the morning, leaving many of the villagers with little or no sleep, the night before the weekly protests...

A sound bomb was thrown right inside this little courtyard, in front of several women.  One of the women, crying, cleaned away the canister and shattered pieces of shattered pieces of metal and whatever else these canisters are made of.  Right after, a soldier marched up the road and stood in front of them, and dropped the sound bomb right in front of the crying woman who had just finished cleaning the first one.  

Soldiers staring down a house that had just been resprayed with Skunk water while the family was desperately tried to scrub off what would wreak for days.  At this point there was no resistance in the village, but the soldiers continued to set off their "defensive" weapons while the village tried to carry on after putting up with soldiers in their village for 7 hours...

This kid was driving and a soldier shot a canister close range in his car, the canister filling up the hot car with gas and shattered glass.

Sun Setting through the gas after a long day, on Nabi Saleh...