by Nabi Saleh Solidarity: 11 July 2014
On Friday, at the weekly demonstration, Nabi Saleh marched in solidarity with Gaza, opposing Israel’s war crimes. The demonstration called on Israel to stop its aggression and war crimes in Gaza. The protest attempted to march to land confiscated illegally by Israeli settlers but were attacked by Israeli Occupation Forces who fired teargas and rubber coated steel bullets.
Video by Bilal Tamimi
Israeli Occupation Forces locked down Nabi Saleh from the early hours of the morning , preventing vehicles from entering the village. During the weekly demonstration the IOF arrested one young man and assaulted others when they attacked the village. Israeli Occupation Forces targeted the peaceful march, which included women and children, with teargas, rubber coated steel bullets injuring many. Walid Daifallah Tamimi, 18 was arrested from inside a shop.
The demonstration protested against the torture and murder of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir, who was kidnapped from Occupied East Jerusalem by illegal Israeli settlers.
Video by Israel Puterman
Video by David Reeb
Video by Bilal Tamimi
Video by Yisrael Puterman
Nabi Saleh residents reported that on the 8/9th May, Israeli settlers attempted to sneak into the village to attack the houses. However, village youth confronted the settlers in an attempting to stop them.
Nabi Saleh residents begin Friday demonstrations – photo by Haim Schwarczenberg
Israeli Occupation Forces invade Nabi Saleh – photo by Haim Schwarczenberg
Israeli Occupation Forces open fire on unarmed demonstrators in Nabi Saleh – photo by Haim Schwarczenberg
Israeli Occupation Forces fire teargas at protestors – photo by Haim Schwarczenberg
Palestinian woman carrying flowers in front of Israeli Occupation Forces soliders – photo by Tamimi Press
Skunk being sprayed at protesters – photo by Tamimi Press
Israeli Occupation Forces harass journalists and press in Nabi Saleh – photo by Tamimi Press
Illegal Israeli settlers occupy spring located on stolen Palestinian land owned by Nabi Saleh residents – photo by Tamimi Press
During the weekly demonstration in the village of Nabi Saleh, yesterday, Friday, dedicated to support the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, some of the villagers of Nabi Saleh, along with other activists managed to get to the entrance of village’s spring “Alqaws” which was taken over by the settlers three years ago. Soldiers forcibly prevented them to approach the spring at the same time settlers were swimming in.
video by Bilal Tamimi
Soldiers detained three Palestinian women, one Israeli activist and one American journalist. Among the detainees was Nariman Tamimi (36), a resident of the village and a Popular Resistance activist. Her Daughter, A’hd Tamimi (11) and two nephews, Marah (11) and Wiaam (11), were attacked brutally by soldiers preventing them from reaching the spring, and separating them from Nariman during her detention. [CORRECTION to PSCC report – Marah is the neice of Nariman].
After the arrests, the army raided the village, sprayed “skunk” water and threw stun grenades and tear gas at houses, and used live ammunition through the clashes with the residents. During the raids on the houses, several residents were injured, including: Azmi Tamimi (70), injured in his finger from a rubber bullet shot from point blank range, Martyr Mustafa Tamimi’s grandmother (90), injured in her leg from two rubber bullets, as she sat at her house door, Halla Tamimi (48), injured from a stun grenade thrown into her house and Ahmed Shaker (11), injured in his chin from rubber-coated steel bullet, in addition to several injuries from rubber-coated steel bullets.
During the raid, the army arrested another Israeli activist from one of the houses. The six detainees were held for more than eight hours, in violation of the law, which only permits holding detainees for a maximum of three hours (or six hours in extreme cases), before they are arrested. At 9pm, soldiers put detainees on an army vehicle and drove them for an hour though different settlements roads then drove back to Nabi Saleh entrance where they were dropped off and released.
video by Bilal Tamimi
video by David Reeb
A-Nabi Saleh is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, north of Ramallah. For for more than eighteen months now, every Friday, its residents have demonstrated against settlers seizing nearby land that belongs to Palestinians. The Friday processions held in the village have become one of the main sites of weekly protest in the West Bank in recent years.
In their handling of the protests in a-Nabi Saleh, Israel’s security forces have infringed the rights of the Palestinian demonstrators in three fundamental ways, as follows:
Security forces disperse a demonstration in a-Nabi Saleh, 21 May 2010. Photo: Oren Ziv, activestills.org
B’Tselem’s documentation indicates that Israel does not recognize the right of a-Nabi Saleh’s residents to demonstrate. Israeli security forces prohibit the demonstrators from reaching the site that is the subject of the demonstration – al-Qawas Spring and the land around it – and prevent the procession from exiting the village towards the spring. Also, the army declares the demonstration illegal at the outset, sometimes even before the procession begins. The army also issues an order declaring the entire village a closed military area every Friday, and blocks the roads leading to it. As a result, persons from outside the village are unable to exercise their right to join in the demonstration.
Video by B’Tselem
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The security forces’ use of means to disperse the demonstrations is excessive and occurs even when the demonstrators are nonviolent and pose no threat. The forces fire enormous quantities of tear gas inside the built-up area of the village, which is home to hundreds of persons. In one demonstration, at least 150 tear-gas canisters were fired. In another demonstration, security forces hurled tear gas canisters at a procession of children in costumes who were flying kites. At times, the tear gas canisters are fired directly at the demonstrators, endangering their lives. Also, security forces throw stun grenades almost without limitation at children and adults alike, to disperse them, even when they pose no threat whatsoever.
Video by B’Tselem
The army and the Border Police invest a great amount of resources in dispersing these regular demonstrations, in which several dozen people participate. These resources include the deployment of forces at the main intersection of the village, and the vast quantities of means to disperse demonstrations. Handling of the demonstrations in this manner is disproportionate. It intimidates hundreds of villagers and forces them to remain in their houses for many hours, making it impossible for them to lead a normal life. The massive amounts of tear gas fired penetrate the houses close to the main intersection in the village, and the occupants are unable to escape.
Also, the restrictions on movement in the area every Friday create difficulties for residents of all the nearby villages.
In advance of the expected declaration of a Palestinian state on 20 September 2011, Israel’s defense establishment is preparing to cope with wide-scale demonstrations in the West Bank. As part of the preparations, the security forces must recognize Palestinians’ right to demonstrate, and must allow them to protest against infringement of their rights. The decision to disperse a demonstration must be made only after the relevant authorities have properly balanced the right to demonstrate against other relevant interests, as is done in the case of demonstrations held inside Israel. In any event, means for dispersing demonstrations must not be used in a way that injures persons or punishes all residents of the village.
Might some stay? It is conceivable that some Jewish settlers could remain in a Palestinian state
This EVERY Friday and often after school on other days, Israeli soldiers fire tear-gas and sonic bombs at the Palestinian children as they approach a spring. It sits in a valley that separates Nabi Saleh, an Arab village of 500 people half an hour’s drive north of Jerusalem, from Halamish, a religious Jewish settlement. On most nights jeeps roll through the village; over the past 18 months the Israeli army has detained 32 of its children, some as young as eleven. Many have been taken from their beds, kept in pre-trial detention for months, and brought to court in shackles, there to be convicted of stone-throwing.
For some of Halamish’s settlers, irritated by the tear-gas that wafts into their living rooms from across the hill, this is not harsh enough. “The soldiers don’t maim enough Palestinians,” complains Iran Segal. A year-and-a-half ago he put up a sign naming the spring after his father, sparking anger among Palestinians who saw the move as a land-grab. Jewish settlers and Palestinians who used to share a nargila (a water-pipe) at the water’s edge now bicker over ownership of the spring’s goldfish. “When we see Arabs heading towards us we start shouting to get the army to shoo them away,” says a 12-year-old settler.
Continue reading “Halamish settler: “The soldiers don’t maim enough Palestinians””
Nabi Saleh Solidarity 