Support Bil’in amidst the ongoing Israeli arrest and intimidation campaign

02/09/2009

“Just as a simple man named Ghandi led the successful non-violent struggle in India and simple people such as Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela led the struggle for civil rights in the United States, simple people here in Bil’in are leading a non-violent struggle that will bring them their freedom. The South Africa experience proves that injustice can be dismantled.”

— Archbishop Desmond Tutu, during a visit to Bil’in on 27 August 2009

photo

Demonstration in Bil’in, 02/2009. Photo by: Anne Paq/Activestills.org

The Israeli military’s most recent attempt to crush Bil’in village’s ongoing popular non-violent resistance campaign against the Apartheid Wall is a wave of night raids and arrests targeting protesters and the leadership of Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements.

The recent raids began concurrently with the opening of a legal trial in Montreal on June 2009. The village of Bil’in has taken two companies registered in Canada (Green Park International & Green Mount International) to court for participating in war crimes by building settlements on Bil’in’s land under the 2000 Canadian Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Statute (which incorporates both the articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute into Canadian federal law).

Since the trail began Israeli forces have arrested 31 people (most of which are under 18). Twenty-one residents of Bil’in remain in Israeli detention.

Through Israel’s interrogation and intimidation tactics, some of arrested youth have falsely "confessed" that the Bil’in Popular Committee urges the demonstrators to throw stones. With such "confessions", Israeli forces then proceed to raid the village at night, invade homes and arrest leaders of the non-violent struggle in the community.

Two of the three popular committee members who traveled to Montreal to represent the villages case, Mohammad Khatib and Mohammad Abu Rahme were arrested and have since been released on bail. (see B’Tselem report).

Another leading Bil’in non-violent activist, Adeeb Abu Rahme, remains in detention since his arrest during a non-violent demonstration on 10 July 2009 (see report & video). Adeeb has been charged with "incitement to damage the security of the area".

On 10 December 2009, Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a school teacher and coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee was arrested during a night raid.

People arrested in Bil'in since the beginning of this intimidation campaign

  1. 24/06/2009 : Mohammed Khalil Abu Rahma (age 23)
  2. 24/06/2009 : Moatassem Faisal Al-Khatib (age 17)
  3. 26/06/2009 : Khalil Ibrahim Yassin (age 16)
    Khalil was released in November and arrested again on December 29, 2009
  4. 26/06/2009 : Kamel Alkhateeb (age 15)
  5. 29/06/2009 : Emad Mahmoud Yassin (age 16)
  6. 29/06/2009 : Hosni Rasim al-Khatib (age 16)
  7. 29/06/2009 : Mohsen Kateb (age 16)
  8. 29/06/2009 : Hamouda Imad Yassin (age 16)
    Hamouda was released in November and arrested again on December 29, 2009
  9. 30/06/2009 : Suleiman Seif (age 17)
  10. 5/07/2009 : Oda Rebhe Abu Rahma (age 20)
  11. 5/07/2009 : Mahmoud Issa Yassein (age 17)
  12. 7/07/2009 : Majdi Abdel Muamer Abu Rahma
  13. 10/07/2009 : Adeeb Abu Rahme
  14. 17/07/2009 : Muhammed abde al fatah Burnat (age 21)
  15. 19/07/2009 : Imad Burnat (age 37)
  16. 3/08/2009 : Khaled Show gut Abd-Alrazic al-Khateeb (age 23)
  17. 3/08/2009 : Mustafa Show gut Abd-Alrazic al-Khateeb (age 18)
  18. 3/08/2009 : Mohammed Show gut Abd-Alrazic al-Khateeb (age 16)
  19. 3/08/2009 : Abdullah Ahmad Yassen (age 18)
  20. 3/08/2009 : Abdullah Mohammed Ali Yassen (age 16)
  21. 3/08/2009 : Issa Mahmoud Issa Abu Rahma (age 40)
  22. 3/08/2009 : Mohammed Khatib (age 35)
    Mohammed was released on 18/08/2009 on the condition that he report to a police station with a monitor every Friday until 5pm for the duration of his trial
  23. 15/08/2009 : Nashmi Mohammed Ibrahim Abu Rahma (age 14)
  24. 20/08/2009 : Mohammad Abu Rahma aka Abu Nizar (age 50)
    Abu Nizar was released on 23/08/2009 on a 5.000 NIS bail
  25. 29/08/2009 : Ashraf Mohammad Jamal Tofik Al-Khatib (age 29)
  26. 29/08/2009 : Hamru Hisham Bornat (age 24)
  27. 1/09/2009 : Abed Baset Mohammed Abu Rahme (age 19)
  28. 25/09/2009 : Haetham Al Khateeb (age 33)
    Haetham was released on 25/09/2009, forced to sign an undertaking to stay away from the fence in his own home, Bil’in, and ordered to show up to a court hearing in six months
  29. 1/10/2009 : Basel Mansour (age 32)
    Basel was released on 8/10/2009 after paying a penalty fine of 1000 shekels
  30. 19/11/2009 : Muhammad Yassin (age 19)
  31. 3/12/2009 : Rani Najar (age 23)
  32. 9/12/2009 : Abdallah Abu Rahma (age 39)
  33. 29/12/2009 : Hamouda Imad Yassin (age 16)
    Hamouda was already arrested on June 29, 2009 and jailed for 5 months
  34. 29/12/2009 : Khalil Ibrahim Yassin (age 16)
    Khalil was already arrested on June 29, 2009 and jailed for 5 months
  35. 12/01/2010 : Yassin Mohammed Yassin (age 21)
  36. 28/01/2010 : Mohammed Khatib (age 35)
    Mohammed Khatib was previously arrested during the ongoing wave of arrests and repression on Augst 3rd, 2009 with charges of incitement and stone throwing. After two weeks of detention, a military judge ruled that evidence against him was falsified and ordered his release, after it was proven that Khatib was abroad at the time the army alleged he was photographed throwing stones during a demonstration. Mohammed was released on 3/02/2010 on a 10,000 NIS bail.
  37. 3/02/2010 : Ibrahim Abed El Fatah Bornat
  38. 3/02/2010 : Hamde Abu Rahmah. When an international journalist, tried to interfere to protect Hamde, she too was arrested.

What you can do

Attempts to criminalize the leadership of non-violent protests where curbed in the past with the help of an outpouring of support from people committed to justice from all over the world.

  1. Please protest by contacting your political representatives, as well as your consuls and ambassadors to Israel to demand that Israel stops targeting non-violent popular resistance and release all Bil’in prisoners.

  2. Organise demonstrations outside of Israeli embassies in your countries in condemnation of Israel’s ongoing arrest campaign against non-violent activists and in solidarity with those who remain in Israel’s prisons (All demonstrations can be coordinated through palreports@gmail.com for media support work).

  3. The Popular Committee of Bil’in is in desperate need for funds in order to pay legal fees both for the trial in Montreal and for representing the arrested protesters in the military courts and bail.

Please donate to the Bil’in legal fund through paypal. If you would like to make a tax deductible donation in the US or Canada contact: bilinlegal@gmail.com.

Note : Tax deductible donations in Canada can also be made online or by check through Medical Aid for Palestine in order to pay legal fees for the trial in Canada, see here for more information.

Donate Now Through CanadaHelps.org!

— The Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements

Background

Following initial construction of Israel’s wall on Bil’in’s lands in March 2005, residents organized almost daily direct actions and demonstrations against the theft of their lands. Garnering the attention of the international community with their creativity and perseverance, Bil’in has become a symbol for Palestinian popular resistance. Almost five years later, Bil’in continues to have weekly Friday protests.

Located 12 kilometers west of Ramallah and 4 km east of the Green Line, Bil’in is an agricultural village spanning 4,000 dunams (988 acres) with approximately 1,800 residents.

While construction of and opposition to the Wall and began in 2005, the majority of land had been expropriated from Bil’in earlier.

Starting in the early 1980’s, and more significantly in 1991, approximately 56% of Bil’in’s agricultural land was declared "State Land" for the construction of the settlement bloc, Modi’in Illit. Modi’in Illit currently holds the largest settler population of any settlement bloc, with over 42,000 residents and plans to achieve a population of 150,000.

In addition to grassroots organizing, Bil’in has held annual conferences on popular resistance since 2006; providing a forum for activists, academics, and leaders to discuss strategies for the unarmed struggle against the Occupation.

Bil’in embraced legal measures against Israel as part of its multi-lateral resistance to the theft of their livelihoods. The village first turned to the courts in the fall of 2005. Two years after they initiated legal proceedings, the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that due to illegal construction in part of Modi’in Illit, unfinished housing could not be completed and that the route of the Wall be moved several hundred meters west, returning 25% of Bil’in’s lands to the village. To date, the high court ruling has not been implemented and construction continues.

In July 2008, Bil’in commenced legal proceedings before the Superior Court of Quebec against Green Park International Inc and Green Mount International Inc for their involvement in constructing, marketing and selling residential units in the Mattityahu East section of Modi’in Illit.

In an effort to stop the popular resistance in Bil’in, Israeli authorities intimidate demonstrators with physical violence and arrests.

Israeli armed forces have used sound and shock grenades, water cannons, rubber-coated steel bullets, tear-gas grenades, tear-gas canisters, high velocity tear-gas projectiles, 0.22 caliber live ammunition and live ammunition against protesters.

On 17 April 2009, Bassem Abu Rahma was shot with a high-velocity tear gas projectile in the chest by Israeli forces and subsequently died from his wounds at a Ramallah hospital.

Out of the 78 residents who have been arrested in connection to demonstrations against the Wall, 31 were arrested after the beginning of a night raid campaign on 23 June 2009. Israeli armed forces have been regularly invading homes and forcefully searching for demonstration participants, targeting the leaders of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, as well as teenage boys accused of throwing stones at the Wall.