Haaretz & Daily Mail: Palestinian Women, Children Stop IOF Soldier Detaining a Minor

by Nabi Saleh Solidarity 28 August 2015

Both Israeli and International media have covered the incident in Nabi Saleh where an Israeli solider attacked and tried to kidnap a young Palestinian boy, only to be over powered by Palestinian women and girls from the village. The women and girls succeeded in freeing the child, who had a broken arm and was being held in a headlock at gun point.

An 18 year old Palestinian youth was also arrested by the IOF on the day.

Palestinian Women, Children Stop IDF Soldier Detaining a Minor

Activists at the protest in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh say the soldier used violence against the 12-year-old boy.

Gili Cohen, Haaretz,  Aug 28, 2015

An Israeli soldier tried to detain a minor during clashes in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh on Friday, but a number of Palestinian women and children managed to stop him.

According to the army, the youth was throwing stones at the troops, who did not realize he was a minor.

Photographs taken by Reuters and AFP show the soldier surrounded by women and children. In one of the images, a young girl is seen biting his hand.

The soldier was lightly wounded as a result of the altercation. The commander in the area decided to release the minor. The army said that one other Palestinian was detained in Friday’s clashes, along with one foreign activist.

Activists who were at Friday’s protest said that the soldier used violence against the 12-year-old boy, whose arm was in a cast at the time of the attempted arrest. Jonathan Pollak, one of the activists present, said that the boy did not throw stones and that the IDF force, which was in an abandoned building before approaching to detain the boy, could see he was a minor. Pollak told Haaretz that the soldier pointed his gun at the boy when he was detaining him.

The Israeli army spokesman responded in a statement that there was “a violent disturbance of the peace in Nabi Saleh, in which Palestinians threw stones at IDF forces that were in the place. The youth who was photographed was identified by the lookout force as a stone-thrower, and because of this it was decided to detain him. At the time of the arrest, a violent provocation by a number of Palestinians developed, including women and children. In light of the violent altercation, the commander decided to not to go ahead with the detention.”

Extraordinary moment that desperate Palestinian women fought and BIT an Israeli soldier after he put boy with a broken arm in a headlock at gunpoint

• Israeli soldier pins boy to the floor with machine gun held up near his cheek in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh
• But the gunman is ambushed by young girl who forces weapon from his hand and two women who claw at his face
• The soldier eventually flees the scene, leaving the young girl to cradle the terrified boy in her arms on the ground
• Clash happened during demonstrastions against Palestinian land confiscation to expand nearby Jewish settlement

By Simon Tomlinson for MailOnline

Published: Daily Mail, 29 August 2015

This is the remarkable moment a young girl and two women overpower an Israeli soldier who grappled a Palestinian boy with a broken arm to the floor at gunpoint.

The soldier placed the boy in a headlock while armed with a machine gun during clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters in the West Bank.

With terror etched on his face, the boy is powerless to move as the gunman towers over him, with the muzzle of his weapon just inches from his cheek.

Palestinians fight to free a Palestinian boy held by an Israeli soldier during clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters

But as he pins the boy to a rock, the soldier suddenly finds himself ambushed by a young girl who forces the weapon from his grasp and bites his hand.

Meanwhile, two women claw at his balaclava-clad face and drag him off the youngster, who has his arm in a sling.

Eventually, the gunman flees the scene, leaving the young girl to cradle the terrified boy in her arms.

It is not clear what the boy had done to provoke the soldier into taking such drastic action, but it is not uncommon for protesters, and sometimes children, to hurl stones at security forces during demonstrations.

Terrified: An Israeli soldier puts a young boy in a headlock at gunpoint during clashes between security forces and Palestinian protesters following a march against Palestinian land confiscation to expand the Jewish Hallamish settlement in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh

With terror etched on his face, the boy is powerless to move as the gunman towers over him, the muzzle of his weapon inches from his cheek

Attacked: As he pins the boy to a rock, the soldier finds himself ambushed by a girl, who forces the weapon from his grasp, and two women

Ambushed: As the girl bites his hand, two women claw at his balaclava-clad face and drag him off the youngster, who has his arm in a sling

The soldier fights back as the girl tries to prevent him from detaining the boy during a protest in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh

In her loving arms: Eventually, the gunman flees the scene, leaving the young girl to cradle the terrified boy on the floor

The clash happened in the village of Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah, during protests against Palestinian land confiscation to expand the nearby Jewish Hallamish settlement.

In another flashpoint, Palestinian protester hurled stones at Israeli army bulldozer during clashes which following a protest against Israeli settlements in Qadomem, Kofr Qadom village, near the the West Bank city of Nablus.

They come a day after the European Union’s outgoing envoy to the Palestinian territories said the 28-nation bloc was moving forward with measures against Jewish West Bank settlements.

The envoy, John Gatt-Rutter, did not provide a timeframe. But his remarks to reporters underline European discontent with Israel’s continued expansion of settlements in territory that Palestinians want for a future state.

Israeli solider attempts to kidnap 12 year old boy in Nabi Saleh and is overpowered by Palestinian women and girls

by Nabi Saleh Solidarity, 28 August 2015

Israeli Occupation Forces invaded Nabi Saleh today and attempted to kidnap a 12 year old boy.  However, Palestinian women and girls managed to overpower the soldier and free the boy before he was taken away. Israeli Occupation Forces also arrested an 18 year old Palestinian youth.

Video by Bilal Tamimi

Photo by Shadi Hatem

**

Photos by Bilal Tamimi

Israeli Occupation Forces arrest & beat 3 women during Friday demonstration – 13 March 2015

On Friday, 13 March 2015 – Israeli Occupation Forces once again attacked the regular Friday demonstration against Israel’s occupation in Nabi Saleh. One person was injured due to IOF fire and 3 women were arrested and beaten during the demonstration by the IOF: Boshra Tamimi, Shireen and Tali Shapiro.

Tali Shapiro reports that she was released after some hours (due to the fact that she is an Israeli Jewish citizen) however, the IOF continue to detain the Palestinian arrestees, Boshra Tamimi for 4 days and Shireen for 24 hours.

Photos by Bilal Tamimi/Tamimi Press

Boshra Tamimi

Tali Shapiro being arrested

Child confronting Israeli soldiers after arrest of women

Mohammed Tamimi after the arrest of his mother Boshra is comforted by his father, Naji Tamimi

Injury for IOF fire

 

 

Women of Nabi Saleh vs the Israeli Occupation Forces – 6 Feb 2015

By Nabi Saleh Solidarity.
Photos by PSCC, Tali Shapiro and Manal Tamimi

Friday’s demonstration in Nabi Saleh against Israel’s occupation called for freedom for all Palestinian political prisoners in Israel’s jails. In particular, the demonstration sought to highlight Israel’s imprisonment of Palestinian children and the violation of their human rights.

Israeli Occupation Forces sealed the village, closing the metal gates at the front of the village which are part of the Occupation infrastucture and then fired barrages of teargas at the non-violent demonstration, resulting in tens of people suffering from teargas inhalation and suffocation.

Joined by international and Israeli activists, the people of Nabi Saleh  attempted to march to the front of the village, chanting slogans clalling for an end to Israel’s occuaption and for the protection of Palestinian and the implementation of international law.  The Israeli military open fired on the peaceful demonstrators with steel coated rubber bullets and teargas.

Women from the village in an attempt to prevent Israeli snipers firing on Palestinian residents attempted to block them by standing in front of them.

Video by David Reeb

Photos:

Nabi Saleh residents march against Israel’s occupation.Photo by Popular Struggle Coordination Committee (PSCC)

  Israeli Occupation Forces enter Nabi Saleh. Photo by PSCC

Israeli occupation snipers firing on unarmed villagers in Nabi Saleh. Photo by PSCC

Palestinian women protesting in Nabi Saleh – Photo by Tali Shapiro

Palestinian woman standing in front of Israeli snipers to prevent them firing. Photo by PSCC

  Palestinian woman attempting to stop Israeli snipers firing on protesters in Nabi Saleh.
Photo by Tali Shapiro

Palestinian women standing in front of Israeli snipers to prevent them firing on unarmed protesters. Photo by PSCC

Photo of Israeli sniper. Photo by Manal Tamim

Israeli snipers after they were forced to stop firing by Palestinian women. Photo by Manal Tamimi

Photos: Nabi Saleh protest reaches village spring located on land stolen by the illegal Israeli colony of Halamish

Photos by Bilal Tamimi – 14 November 2014

 

Nabi Saleh protest reaches spring as women and girls sing songs of freedom – 14 November 2014

At today’s protest the girls & women of NabiSaleh sing of freedom in the face of Israel occupation forces. Activists on the ground in Nabi Saleh also report Israeli Occupation forces firing both steel coated rubber bullets and live ammunition at unarmed protesters.

Video by Bilal Tamimi

Video by David Reeb

Palestinian women changing the resistance

 by Eleonora Gatto: Middle East Monitor: 7 February 2014

On January 31 2014, the Popular Struggle Committees participants united as part of the “Melh Al-Ard” (salt of the Earth) campaign with the objective of revitalising the abandoned village of Ein Hiljeh in the Jordan Valley.

The choice of the location wasn’t random; it’s strongly connected to the political requests of the action: stop the on-going effects of the Occupation’s plan and reconfirm the Palestinian sovereignty over those territories in the Jordan Valley (Area C) that Israel want to annex with the assent of the negotiations carried out by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

More than 300 Palestinians from different villages of the West Bank gathered on the first day. An increased participation compared to that of 2013 in Bab Al-Shams, the Palestinian encampment erected on the outskirts of Jerusalem, where Israel wanted to build 35,000 housing units creating a corridor of settlements with the intent of fragmentising and isolating the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The transformation and appropriation of Palestinian land, implemented by Israel, doesn’t only aim to the establishment of the Zionist idea of “Greater Israel”, it also has a less visible agenda: the control of the Palestinian population and resources.

The Palestinians counteract by refusing the occupant’s authority, reclaiming the Palestinian sovereignty, denouncing the occupation in all its elements and looking for new forms of nonviolent popular struggle.

The aim is to create an alternative grassroots movement able to escape from corrupt government policies but with a national impact. Direct nonviolent actions as Ein Hijleh have a powerful resonance: they raise consciousness and use creative tension as a mean of bringing down an unjust system, replaced by a just and human one.

“Melh Al-Ard” (Salt of the Earth) refers to a phrase from the bible, Matthew 13:5: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”

As the communication of the campaign states: “The sons and daughters of Ein Hijleh call upon our people to join the struggle to revive the village and protect our rights, history, culture and land. Daughters and sons of Palestine be the salt of this earth and stay steadfast on it.”

To this invitation, residents of Nabi Saleh responded by leaving their village, still involved in the weekly Friday demonstrations against the Israeli Occupation Forces, to head towards Ein Hijleh. Nabi Saleh is a small village of 500 inhabitants located near Ramallah and belonging to the Tamimi family.

An essential member of the Popular Struggle Committee, it’s one of the most active resistant villages in the West Bank. Positioned in area C, their struggle is against the illegal expansion of the Halamish settlement. In 2008 Ein Al-Qaws was taken over by the settlers, since then Nabi Saleh has been fighting against the Occupation system.

On Friday, Nabi Saleh’s inhabitants challenged the mobile checkpoints that were blocking the main roads to Ein Hijleh. After taking a secondary road and deceiving the Israeli police, they arrived triumphantly singing their way through the palms that surround the ruins of the old Canaanite village.

In the village of Nabi Saleh, the role of women is fundamental to the popular struggle. The commitment of women is recognised and supported because “they are the educators of the new generations. If women aren’t free nor will the new generations be”, Bassem Tamimi, recognised as Human Rights Defender by the EU, said.

Women are the driving force of the nonviolent movement in Nabi Saleh. Every Friday, while chanting slogans and proudly holding Palestinian flags, they daringly lead the march towards the tower at the entrance of the village or towards Ein Al-Qaws.

“Palestinian women are planting the seeds of resistance,” Manal Tamimi says. She explained that the women raise their children in a culture of resistance and they are teaching them not to be victims themselves but to react.

For this reason, despite the uncertainty and danger, the women of Nabi Saleh brought their children to Ein Hijleh. “We want them to learn the spirit of volunteering. It’s important for children to participate to these actions in order to grow aware of their role in the resistance,” Manal said.

Women and children of Nabi Saleh are well aware of how to act in case of raids from the army, they were born and raised under occupation and they’ve had to deal with it daily.

“Let them come. The army comes everyday to my house stepping on my land,” Rouan Tamimi said. Women also join these events to help deter the use of excessive violence towards the activists.

It is pivotal to involve children and women in the construction of the foundations of society in order to assure an inclusive community. The strength of the nonviolent movement is the equality of responsibility, regardless of affiliation, gender or social class. Anyone can give their contribution to the struggle.

The author is a Servizio Civile Internazionale Italia (SCI) volunteer with a Master’s degree in International Cooperation. She is currently living in Nabi Saleh and reporting about the Popular Struggle.

On the arrests of Nariman Tamimi and Rana (Nazzal) Hamadah in Nabi Saleh

by Nabi Saleh Solidarity: 10 July 2013

Nariman Tamimi (37) and Rana Hamadah (21) were arrested on 28 June 2013 in the village of Nabi Saleh in the occupied West Bank, when non-violently protesting Israel’s ongoing occupation. Nariman is a resident of Nabi Saleh and has been arrested 5 times for the leading role she has played in her village’s non-violent resistance to Israel’s occupation and the illegal annexing of village land by the illegal Israeli colony of Halamish. Nariman and Rana have been charged with violating “a closed military zone”, a military order which deemed Nariman’s village and land a military zone.

Amnesty International and the Israeli human rights organisation, B’Tselem have noted that the arrest, charges and trial of both women are an attempt to prevent even non-violent protests against Israel’s occupation.

B’Tselem in a recent statement on the women’s arrest noted: “The military prosecution’s handling of the matter, and particularly its unprecedented request to remand non-violent demonstrators for the duration of the legal proceedings, raises the suspicion that the military might be exploiting these proceedings to keep Nariman a-Tamimi from carrying on her joint activity with her husband, Bassem, in a-Nabi Saleh’s struggle against the village being dispossessed of its land.” http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/2013007_military_tries_noneviolent_demonstarators

In 2012, Amnesty International recognised Nariman’s husband, Bassem, as a prisoner of conscience. Bassem was jailed for 1 year for his role in leading Nabi Saleh’s non-violent resistance to the occupation. Three months after his release, he was once again jailed for four months for participating in a non-violent BDS action in an illegal Israeli colony. http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/israel-stop-judicial-bullying-palestinian-activists-2013-07-04

Amnesty International accused the Israeli military of carrying out a campaign of harassment against Nariman saying: “This is an unrelenting campaign of harassment, the latest in a litany of human rights violations against Nariman Tamimi, her family, and her fellow villagers”. http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/israel-stop-judicial-bullying-palestinian-activists-2013-07-04

Rana recounted her and Nariman’s arrest to Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network highlighting the plight of other Palestinian women political prisoners currently incarcerated in Israel’s prisons http://samidoun.ca/2013/07/rana-nazzal-recounts-arrest-experience-lives-of-women-political-prisoners-in-israeli-jails/

Photo: Palestinian activist Nariman Tamimi (left) and Rana Hamadah waiting the verdict in Ramallah on July 9. Photo by Ahmad Gharabili via Maan News.

Rana Nazzal recounts arrest experience, lives of women political prisoners in Israeli jails

by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network:  2 July 2014

Rana Nazzal, Palestinian activist, was arrested alongside Nariman Tamimi on Friday, June 28 at Nabi Saleh village’s weekly protests against illegal settlements on Palestinian land. Both were accused of entering a “closed military zone”, and were held for four days until their release prior to trial on Monday, July 1. Rana Nazzal is a Palestinian Canadian who organizes with SAIA (Students Against Israeli Apartheid) at Carleton University in Ottawa. She blogs at http://zaytouni.wordpress.com/ and tweets at @zaytouni_rana, from which she shared her experiences of arrest, imprisonment, and connection with the 16 Palestinian women prisoners held in occupation prisons:

The following quotes are from Nazzal’s Twitter account on July 2 of her arrest and imprisonment at the hands of the Israeli Occupation Forces: “Was arrested Friday at the #NabiSaleh protest without any provocation. When I asked the soldier why, she replied ‘because I feel like it’.  Nariman, myself, & a Spanish man were blindfolded, transported, & isolated from one another for some 8-9 hours before being brought to police.”

Nazzal reported that “Nariman and I were then kept handcuffed in a car with two male soldiers for 7 hours before finally being admitted to Hasharon prison [where all 16 Palestinian women prisoners are currently held]. . .Hasharon prison put us in a cell with cameras the first night. Only after we threatened to hunger strike they moved us to a regular cell.” She had been arrested previously by occupation soldiers while protesting, and comparing the experiences, wrote “Last year was worse. I was alone, confused, recovering from a beating, & arrest was a bit longer. Neither time was the spirit broken though, especially when you are faced with the ferocious spirits of the women prisoners.”

She related that “We met the 16 other Palestinian women political prisoners who welcomed us warmly. On Sunday they cooked mloukhieh & sent it to our cell. Lina Jarbouni and Alaa Joudeh I met when I was imprisoned last year. Lina has 6 years left on a 17 year sentence & Alaa was arrested at 17.

Sireen Khudiri, who was arrested for ‘Internet activism’ is teaching the 16 women prisoners English. Lina Jarbouni is teaching Hebrew. Tahrir Mansour told us soldiers broke everything in her house-fridge, washer- cut open sofas, even stole money, when they arrested her.”

Nazzal said that her case, and Tamimi’s, is not over. “At our trial Monday we were released on bail but the case isn’t over. We just had a trial now. Today at a follow up trial prosecutor pushed for jail time, but judge decided bail & house arrest. Tomorrow we’re appealing that decision!” noting that the “prosecutor said as part of his case for worse punishment on us, that Nariman and I aren’t afraid of the soldiers. Thanks for the compliment.”

“Lots of soldiers try to ease their consciences on us, perhaps by offering us water (wow) or telling us they don’t even like their job. It is much worse to me when a soldier knows what they’re doing is wrong but are too weak to stop doing it. I’m tired of weakness,” she wrote.

Free all Palestinian Political Prisoners

On Palestinian Prisoner Day in 2013, there are 5,000 Palestinian political prisoner incarcerated in 27 Israeli prisons, jails, detention centers and interrogation centers. 106 prisoners have been in jail since before the signing of the Oslo accords between Israel and PLO in 1993. 14 prisoners are women, with Lina Jarbouni being the longest serving prisoner, so far held for 11 years out of her 20-year sentence. There are 235 child prisoners in Israeli jails and 200 administrative detainees, 14 of whom are members of the Palestinian Legislative Council

For more information: http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=22151