APRIL 2006

1. Eleven Children Held Captive by Israeli Army
April 8th, 2006

Nablus, Palestine

Eleven children have been held captive by the Israeli army since 5am
yesterday morning. They are being held in an apartment on the 8th floor
of a building the army has turned into a sniper nest. A young boy, the
only captive medical volunteers have been allowed to contact, reported
that the families are hungry and without food. The army is preventing
any food from being brought into the building.

The army forced Amjad Aodah's family from their apartment on a lower
floor of the building and are holding them and the family of Abu Amare
Al Hajd Hamd hostage. The fourteen people, aged between three and
seventy, are in a single room on the 8th floor. Internationals and
medics have attempted to gain access, but have repeatedly been denied.

update

Forty hours after capture, eleven children remain captives of the
Israeli army. They have been confined and isolated for nearly two days
now. Since 5am yesterday morning they have been held in an 8th floor
room in an apartment the army has turned into a sniper nest.

The families have been forbidden to speak, but four year-old Bashar has
risked running to the door to whisper to international volunteers. He
has been saying since this morning that the families are hungry and
scared. Other children can be heard crying. The soldiers are not
responding to calls from the volunteers, but can be heard laughing.

The army forced Amjad Aodah's family from their apartment on a lower
floor of the building yesterday morning and are holding them and the
family of Abu Amare Al Hajd Hamd together. The fourteen people, aged
between three and seventy, are being held in a single room.
Internationals and medics have attempted to gain access, but have
repeatedly been denied.

update
Dear All, I've just been informed that the family that was being held captive in Nablus has been released.  Thanks to all of you who have helped by phoning and writing.  Best, Dorothy
_______________________

2. Balata invasion journal Part 1
April 8th, 2006
By Jane

On the morning of April 6th I had a call saying the Israeli military
have invaded Nablus, would I join 3 others and go? During military
invasions the role of ISM is to go with medical teams, try to approach
houses the military have occupied to speak with the families held
there, bring them food and medicines.

We were not allowed to pass the checkpoint into Nablus so we walked
over the mountain, a wonderful hour and a half walk thru beautiful
hills. By the time we arrived the military operation was over. It left
12 injured. We went to the hospital to get the details of the injuries.
Crumbling plaster work, half unpacked boxes, people on sat waiting on
the stairwell, sad faces, a young man crying. A 17 year old boy was
critically injured by a rubber bullet which hit his head. Two were
injured running from jeeps. One 45 year old woman had shrapnel in her
leg, one 25 year old was shot by a live bullet in the abdomen. The
others were hit by rubber bullets in the legs and back.

Mohammed A., the ISM Co-ordinator told us that arrests are intensifying
and he thinks another big invasion, such as the one a month and a half
ago is about to happen. Two women were arrested 3 nights ago. The
Neighbors said that they were bought out of their house naked, beaten
in the street and taken to a military base. Listening to Mohammed speak
about Nablus and Balata refugee camp is hard. What can you say to
someone who shows you photos of his friend, head half missing, guts
spewing out, corpse blackened by the explosion?

During the night there were two explosions and gun fire. At 8am in the
morning the mosque load speaker system announced the death of the young
man killed in the previous days violence.

Jane

_______________________

3. Bil'in Demonstration Remembers Twelfth Death Caused by Wall
April 8th, 2006

Friday's Bil'in demonstration was a memorial for the twelfth victim
of the apartheid wall. Eyad Taha Salame Taha, a 28 year-old man from
Beit Annan, was drowned in a flood caused by the wall in Bil'in on
Sunday, April 2, 2006.

Eyad and his brother, Raad, were traveling to work when flood waters
swept their car away. They got out of the car and were washed towards
the barrier by strong currents. Raad was rescued by villagers, but Eyad
was found unconscious, entangled in the razor wire of the apartheid
barrier.

Local Bil'in activists, joined by Israelis and internationals, held
their weekly peaceful demonstration by the wall next to the village.
Two people from the village were arrested, including Mohammed Khatib
from the Bil'in popular committee against the wall. As long as
international activists were filming, the soldiers treated them well,
but when the cameras were gone, the soldiers beat them up. They were
both released after the demonstration.

After demonstrating at the usual site, the activists marched to the
place where Eyad was drowned. The villagers put up a beautiful monument
with posters and lavender to honor Eyad. Speeches were given about this
horrible loss and about the effect the wall had on this atrocity. The
activists charged that the Israeli government should be held completely
responsible for this death.

Eyad's tragic death highlights the reality of the destructive effects
of the wall on the lives of Palestinians in Bil'in and all along the
wall.

Unfortunately, his is not the first life lost as a result of the wall.
Eleven others lost their lives in demonstrations against the illegal
annexation barrier, including five children under the age of 16.

Mohammad Fadel Hashem Rayan, age 25, from Beit Duko was killed in Beit
Ijza on February 26, 2004 by live ammunition shot at him by border
police during a demonstration against the wall.

Zakaria MaHmud Salem, age 28, from Beit Ijza was killed in Beit Ijza on
February 26, 2004 by live ammunition shot at him by border police
during a demonstration against the wall.

Abdal Rahman Abu Eid, age 62, from Bidu was killed in Bidu on February
26, 2004 from a heart attack after his house was tear gassed.

Mohammad Daud Badwan, age 21, from Bidu was shot by border police
snipers during a demonstration in Biddu on March 26, 2004 and died
April 3, 2004.

Diaa Abdel Karim Abu Eid, age 24, from Bidu was killed in Bidu by live
ammunition shot at him during a demonstration against the wall on April
4, 2004.

Hussain mahmud Awwad Aliyan, age 17, from Budrus, was killed in
Beitunia on April 16, 2004 at a demonstration against the wall, after
live ammunition was shot at demonstrators.

Islam Hashem Rizik Zhahran, age 14, from Deir Abu Mashal was shot with
a rubber coated metal bullet in Deir Anu Mashal on April 18, 2004 and
died April 28, 2004.

Alaa Mohammad Abdel Rahman Khalil, age 14, from Betunia was killed in
Betunia February 15, 2005 by live ammunition shot by a security guard
while throwing stones at a wall security jeep.

Jamal Jaber Ibrahim Assi, age 15, from Beit Likya was killed in Beit
Likya on May 4, 2005 by live ammunition shot in his pelvis while
throwing stones in a demonstration against the wall.

Odai Mofeed Mahmud Assi, age 14, from Beit Likya was killed in Beit
Likya on May 4, 2005 by live ammunition shot in his chest while
throwing stones in a demonstration against the wall.

Mahayub Nimer Assi, age 15, from Beit Likya was killed in Beit Likya on
June 8, 2005 by live ammunition shot by a security guard while he was
at his family's orchards, about 200 meters from the bulldozers
parking lot.

It is the hope of activists, as we continue our protests and
demonstrations, that these lives will not have been lost in vain. It is
in their memory that we protest tomorrow and every day thereafter.


5. Everyday resistance
April 5th, 2006
by: Alys a member of IWPS (The International Womens Peace Service)

Epilogue By ISM media

Hebron, a city in the southern part of the West Bank, is unique in that
the settlements, inhabited by fanatical Zionists, are located right
within Palestinian neighborhoods. The proximity of the settlements and
the often violent and abusive behavior of the settlers, makes life
extremely difficult for the Palestinians whose homes now fall into H2,
the Israeli-controlled area.

The population of Tel Rumeida settlement, along with the three other
settlements located in the Old City (Beit Hadassa, Avraham Avinu and
Beit Romano), totals around 500, yet results in approximately 4,000
soldiers being stationed there. The daily lives of Palestinians are
severely disrupted by both the settlers and the military.

Tel Rumeida settlement, which began in 1984 with six mobile
homes/caravans occupying Palestinian land, has continued to expand,
with the settlers using any means necessary in their attempts to drive
the Palestinians away from their homes and land. In 1998 the Israeli
government officially approved the settlement and in 2001 the Israeli
Defence Ministry gave a permit to build 16 housing units. Without the
support - financial and military - of the Israeli government, it
would be hard, if not impossible, for the settlement to continue.

The settlers are extremely hostile, on many occasions violent and
abusive. The forms of violence include throwing stones and rocks,
spitting and physically attacking Palestinians, sometimes resulting in
broken bones. The settlers are free to wander the streets with guns
slung over their backs. Their armed presence and near impunity before
the law means they wield great power.

For the Palestinian families whose homes are now spitting distance -
literally - from the settlements, their refusal to move, to be driven
out, is a daily form of resistance. It is a resistance which takes
courage,determination, and strength.

Shabbat. A beautiful spring day. Two teenage boys walking casually down
the deserted main street. In another place, in another life, maybe a
different story. But here they are armed settlers. Teenage boys,
indoctrinated with fanatical religious beliefs, guns slung over their
backs. A street that had formally been a thriving, bustling market. Now
not a single shop remains open and only a handful of Palestinian
families remain living there.

And for the Palestinians there is much to negotiate. For the families
who now have the settlers living right next to them, on their land,
even leaving the house is an ordeal. Not only risking being attacked,
spat at, verbally abused, but also some are no longer free to walk down
the street to reach their house.

Three small girls on their way home from school help each other climb
over razor wire which blocks their way home. No longer able to walk
down the street, the only route left to them - a narrow, rough track
cut into the hills - is now blocked by razor wire.

I was shocked walking through the deserted Old City, once a thriving
Palestinian market area, now a ghost of its former self. Wire meshing
above my head. A net strung across the alleyway to catch the rubbish
thrown by the settlers - toilet paper, rotting vegetables, lumps of
concrete.

The journey to school not only involves negotiating the checkpoints,
but also the settlers. Internationals are involved in the 'school
patrols,' strategically positioned along the route to school (and
indeed some remaining in the school itself) intervening when necessary.
Getting between the settlers and the Palestinian children they are
throwing stones at. Hopefully helping the journey to school be less of
an ordeal. And throughout the afternoon being a visible presence on the
streets, complete with video cameras. The camera not only documenting,
but also acting as a deterrent.

H2, the Israeli-controlled part of Hebron, is an intense, crazy place.
Resistance takes many forms. Refusing to be driven from your home is an
act of resistance. Playing football in the street, laughing, having
even a fraction of trust in strangers - all these are forms of
resistance. I was touched by the strength of the Palestinians as they
sought to maintain their day to day lives
and humanity in the face of such hostility and insanity.

Epilogue:
On Saturday the 1st of April, Silvana Hogg a Swiss human rights worker
with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel
(EAPPI) was assaulted by an Israeli settler in the Tel Rumeida area of
Hebron. This follows on from the previous Saturday when Brian Morgan,
an America human rights worker with the Tel Rumeida Project, was
attacked by a mob of 20 Jewish settlers while a nearby Israeli soldier
ignored repeated pleas for help. Bith required stiches to the head.

Silvana was accompanying Palestinian school children on their way home
when the attack happened about 5 meters from a small Israeli army
outpost. Three eyewitnesses to the assault went into the Israeli police
station wwith a photograph of the settler ofeender and made statements.
Silvana herself went to make a statement the next day. The Police are
yet to get back to Silvana about the attack.

Both Silvana and Brian regularly work in the Tel Rumeida area
accompanying Palestinian school children on the their way to and from
classes so that there is less chance that the children will be attacked
by the settlers. Attacks on Palestinians and internationals increase on
the Sabbath and on holidays when settler youths are not in school and
when religious settlers can not use their cars and have to walk home,
often harassing Palestinians as they go.

_______________________

6. The hope for a peaceful solution?
April 6th, 2006

Joel Beinin has written a thought provoking review of Shlomo
Ben-Ami's Scars of War, Wounds of Peace in the April 17th issue of
The Nation. It's well worth reading in full, and Beinin finishes on
an optimistic note:

Where, then, is the hope for a peaceful solution to the conflict? I
believe that it lies in the young Palestinians, Jewish Israelis and
internationals who have been fighting shoulder to shoulder in weekly
battles against the Israeli security forces since late 2003 to halt the
construction of the separation wall. This struggle has been led by
Palestinian villagers in unheralded places like Budrus and Bil'in,
organized in the Popular Committee Against the Wall. Although their
successes have so far been minor, these actions have demonstrated that
trust is built through joint political action and that whether there
will eventually be two states or one, coexistence, not separation, is
the foundation for peace.

_______________________

7. Palestinian civilians pay with their lives for IDF's refusal to
publish open-fire regulations
April 6th, 2006

>From B'Tselem:

B'Tselem today urged IDF Chief-of-Staff Dan Halutz and Judge Advocate
General Avihai Mandelblit to make public immediately the open-fire
regulations that have been given to soldiers in the Occupied
Territories. The request follows publication of an IDF report that
verifies human rights organizations' repeated claims that the
regulations are unclear and can be understood in different ways.

B'Tselem contends that the secrecy enables the senior IDF staff to
avoid responsibility for the killing of innocent persons, and to divert
the criticism to the soldiers in the field. Since the beginning of the
intifada, the IDF has related to the open-fire regulations applying in
the Occupied Territories as "confidential information," which are
provided to soldiers verbally, and not in writing, as was previously
the case.

The IDF's internal report, which was published on the Ynet Website,
states: "There are units in which the Open-Fire Regulations have been
condensed and summarized into a number of sentences, such that 'the
soldiers fail to understand the regulation's nuances.'" The
report also reveals that there are battalion commanders who added their
own regulations: "In places in which the unit added 'a verbal
instruction" to the regulations, it was found that the soldiers
become confused from the large amount of information." These findings
are consistent with the claims that B'Tselem and other human rights
organizations have raised for a number of years.

Secrecy of the Open-Fire Regulations encourages a quick trigger finger.
The soldiers are given the regulations in oral briefings, which easily
result in distortions, misunderstandings, and hidden messages. The
policy has led to the killing of civilians in unprecedented proportion.
According to B'Tselem's figures, from September 2000 to the end of
March 2006, IDF soldiers have killed at least 1,816 Palestinians, 593
of whom were minors, who were not participating in the fighting.

B'Tselem's new research illustrates why the regulations must be
published immediately. Investigation of the circumstances in which nine
unarmed Palestinians were killed near the Gaza perimeter fence raise a
suspicion that Israel classified the land next to the fence "killing
zones," that is, areas in which the soldiers are ordered to open fire
at any person who enters the area, regardless of the reason of entry.
IDF officials, among them Judge Advocate General, Brigadier General
Avihai Mandelblit, vigorously denied the existence of any such
regulation. However, the nine cases, which occurred following the
disengagement from Gaza, strengthen the suspicion. Publication of the
regulations will eliminate the ambiguity and enable judicial and public
review of this important issue.

_______________________

8. Activist's Journal
April 4th, 2006

Wednesday was a quiet day in which I caught up with sleep lost to
jetlag and fixed my email setup. On Thursday there was a demo in Beit
Sira that we went to. It was Land Day, which commemorates a 1976
uprising of Palestinian citizens of Israel. The idea was to plant trees
in the land of the village. This was unsuccessful because of the fully
tooled up riot squad of Israeli soldiers that blocked our path. The
most mild of pushing on their huge plexi-glass shields led to a full-on
battering session.

Friday, of course, was the regular Bil'in demonstration. It was great
to be back! Spirits were high and there was a good attendance. The
Israeli anarchists were there in force as always. Also there were a lot
of folk from Gush Shalom this week. The village committee's plan was
to use a large metal frame as a ramp to be able to get over the gate in
the fence. A good attempt was made at this, but the soldiers were
particularly nasty this week and lashed out almost immediately to stop
this bridge building attempt. Can't let the Palestinians into their
own land now can we? The usual beatings and usage of "less lethal"
weaponry on unarmed demonstrators ensued.

That night, myself along with two others from ISM stayed overnight in
the Bil'in outpost, which was fun. It was a nice camping trip -
it's good to be outdoors in the fresh air! We sat around the fire
with guys from the village, learned some Arabic and drank loads of
sweet tea. About 7 in the morning we were woken up by the sound of an
off-road vehicle pulling away. M. had seen them and said that it was
soldiers who peeked in the door of the outpost to watch us sleeping.
Furthermore they had apparently done the same thing three times that
night!

Raining outside, though weather was warm yesterday. Training for new
ISM folk tomorrow.

Must sleep. Bed soon.

***
The ISM training was yesterday and today. We had about eight new
recruits, so it was a pretty good weekend session. At the end of today,
we were planning how to spread ourselves around the regions that ISM
covers and there was a really good vibe. We have some good activists
here now and I am feeling more confident. The majority of us here now
are British, I think. Mansour jokes that it is a British occupation of
ISM (like there used to be a Swedish occupation).

This morning we went to a legal training session organised by the
Public Committee Against Torture in Israeli (PCATI). It was a very
useful and interesting session, and folk from ISM (including the new
trainees), IWPS, the Tel Rumeida Project and CPT were there amongst
others. Two Israeli lawyers gave us briefings on how Israeli military
law applies to Palestinians in the occupied territories (the first
session) and the rights of us as internationals in the occupied
territories (the second session). The two lawyers are brilliant,
committed people and they do loads of work for Palestinians and
international activists like us supporting them. The main point that
came across was that although Israel claims to uphold a fair, equal
rule of law that governs the Palestinians in the occupied territories,
in reality the military is the law and what they say goes. The
Palestinians are subject to a whole slew of military orders, which are
only written in Hebrew and are hard for the public to access. It's a
really nightmarish system. And it is an apartheid system too, because
the Jewish settlers who live in the occupied territories are not
subject to these military orders, rather they are governed by regular
Israeli law which is far more lenient and accountable. Just one example
of this - Israelis (and internationals) arrested in the occupied
territories have to be brought before a judge for the initial hearing
within 24 hours, but Palestinians will not see a judge for eight days.
Furthermore, since this judge is a uniformed military officer, this
hearing is simply a formality in which one part of the military asks
another part of the military to extend the arrest. There are lots of
examples of things like this, but the whole thing amounts to a system
of apartheid, whose main aim is to ultimately to make the Palestinians
leave their homes.

I might go to Hebron at some point this week to help the Tel Rumeida
Project, as the folk there are very tired by the sound of it.

Must do laundry now.


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