11 Years

11 years ago, in the 29 of September, AlQuds newspaper head line was "Ariel Sharon visit AlAqsa mosque", 2 lines below the newspaper quoted him "I came here with a message of peace, I believe we can liver together with the Palestinian." and peace is the only thing we didn't see since then.

yaa, it's all his fault 

In  29/9/2000 the Palestinian worshipers clashed with the Israeli police in Al Harram Al Shareef, after the Friday prayer, 7 people were killed, in less than a week another 66 Palestinian were shot dead in protests and clashes all over Palestine, in the west bank, Gaza, and the48. The Palestinian second Intifada has started!

Remember him?

The situation, regardless all effort to save the peace talk, the situation on ground escalated, the number of  Palestinian causalities raises every day, no day would pass without a Palestinian being killed by the Israeli, by the IDF in most cases and Settlers during the hunting seasons, 7000+ Palestinian and 1000+ Israeli were killed until now, and still counting.

Until 2002, most of the clashes between Palestinians and Israelis took place outside the major cities, either on villages, cities entrances or sometimes refugee camps(usually located on the outskirt of the cities).
In April 2002 the Israeli launched Operation Defensive Shield on the Palestinian cities, they started in Ramallah and Baitlahem and continues in Nablus, Jenin...etc. by the end of April hundreds of Palestinian were killed in both Jenin and Nablus, hundred of houses and business were either partially or completely destroyed, and the fight was brought to the Palestinian houses.

In the years followed, the Israeli continue to invade the Palestinian cities, with a different name each time,- must admit, some of those names were cool- all of them brought nothing but more death and more damaged houses, all of those attacks continued until, well, I want to say now, but I am not sure, but lets say until the end of 2008.

On personal level, the second Intifada brought the worse of me, as a 14 years old, it was what brought to reality, for the first time I realized how brutal my enemy is, and how hard is it to fight against his war machine. The books I used to read about the Russian, Vietnamese, Cuban revolutions didn't prepare me to what I witnessed.
But, as many Palestinian, I distanced myself from reality, started to look to everything going around me, as something happening in far away land, I shut my eyes close, and prayed the next bullets wont hit me. Unfortunately this tactic was adopted by many Palestinians, living in the main cities, and mainly belong to middle class and upper middle class. "that's why their is a good chance you will hear a Palestinian from Nablus, saying (Nablus has suffered a lot, don't want that to happen again) as if it's in his/her hand!"

This survivel tactic, -distancing from reality-, made the least damaged (on personal level) yet it was disastrous on collective level, the people started to care less and less about the suffering of their fellow Palestinian, after the fight between Fatah and Hamas in 2006 took place the problem deepen even more. The micro-protests that took place(if any) in the west bank during Gaza war are my prove on that.

The problem extend to even more dangerous level, the level where Palestinian "who live under occupation", don't see the occupation anymore, (I am serious, this is not B.S, this is real).
The people I have met over the last years(average locals and even internationals sometimes), made me feel that the occupation doesn't exist anymore, as if its only exist when soldiers invade Nablus or Ramallah, and what happen in the villages, towns, and Jordan valley is...nothing!.
They pass through Huawra, and Attarah every day, yet they don't see the soldiers standing at the checkpoint or even the big concrete tours.
Lets say they do see them, but hey, this is not that bad. at least their is no curfew in Nablus..

At last, I must admit, I have no idea whats going on those days, are we in peace? Are we resisting? Are we free? Are we independent? Are we occupied? Are we a life? Are we dead?
But i know one thing, Stop crying the dead and start crying yourself, as a nation, we are all DEAD

Good luck
A

Another Hunger Strike Behind Bars

The minister of detainees in the Palestinian government (yes, we have a ministry for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails) announced earlier today: “Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons will start a hunger strike and practice civil disobedience against the Israeli prison administrations laws”.

The Palestinian prisoners’ protest comes in response to the continued punitive measures Israel adopts to humiliate and dehumanize the Palestinian prisoners in attempt to influence their families, friends or even their political factions.Which is a certain consequence of these measures, since in fact every Palestinian has either been in Jail, or knows someone who has been or is in jail.

Over six thousand Palestinian prisoner face these new punitive measures, inflicted on them from the Israel prison administration, these measures include:

1- A stop of the University education for the prisoners.
2- Expanding the Solitary Confinement.
3- Collective punishment, by stopping family visits.
4- Collective punishment, by banning the prisoners from buying from the prison canteen
5- Freezing the Canteen account for some prisoners
6- Transform the Rooms and Sections of the Detainees into isolates sections.
7- Separating  siblings from each other.
8- Stop selling food from the prison canteen.
9- Collective punishment, by paying fines.
10- Stop to the provision ofnewspapers in the prisons.
11- Stop the transmission of 5 satellite channels inside the prisons.
12- Continuous search and raids of prisoners’ rooms and sections.
13- Banning doctors and medicine from reaching the prisoners
14- Chain the prisoners’ hands and legs during visits and  meeting with a lawyer.
15- The prisoners won’t be allowed to hug or touch their children.

Finally, the Palestinian prisoners decided to take matters into their own hands and stand up against their fascist oppressors. The hunger strike is expected to start tomorrow in the 28th of September, Palestinian activists call for a sit-in, in front of the international red cross, in the west bank city of Ramallah.

For more info, read the Palestinian ministry of detainees press release at maan here and here (Arabic)
and here (English).

Best
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Israeli Military Commander Admits Violently Dispersing Nabi Saleh Protests Also When Peaceful

The trial of Nabi Saleh protest organizer, Bassem Tamimi, opened today with the testimony of Major Michelle Dahan who alleged that Tamimi ordered youth to throw stones based on the fact that he saw him on rooftops during demonstrations.

After more than half a year behind lock and key, the trial of Palestinian protest organizer, Bassem Tamimi, opened today with the testimony of the first prosecution witness, Major Michelle Dahan. Dahan served as a deputy battalion commander in Nabi Saleh between January and May this year, and was to testify on behalf of the prosecution in order to substantiate allegations of incitement to violence against Tamimi.


Dahan, who was commander of the military forces in the area and in charge of the Nabi Saleh demonstrations throughout said period, made it clear that the protests were dispersed before any violence ensued . He said, "[...] after midday prayer, at around noon, some 40 to 70 people would set out from the mosque's courtyard [...] and march down with flags [...]. As soon as the procession arrived at the [village's] main junction, we would declare it illegal and order people to disperse [...]. When the march would not disperse, we would start using crowd control measures [...]".


Referring to the protesters Dahan said, "We recognized the same activists, the same children and adults, with the adults mostly occupied with directing the forces [...]". Throughout his testimony, Dahan reputedly  to referred to the stone throwing children as "forces", alternating the two words.


 He went on to say that "The defendant would appear at the beginning of every demonstration, and as soon as it would turn violent, the defendant would disappear. During the stone-throwing, when we would enter inside the  village to arrest the stone throwers, we'd recognize him on rooftops".


The indictment against Tamimi alleges that he architected an elaborate system of violence against soldiers during Nabi Saleh demonstrations. Dahan indeed testified that Tamimi directed the village youth from rooftops, but could not back his statement by more that hearsay and speculation. The only concrete incident Dahan was able to tie Tamimi to took place at an unknown date in January wherein he claimed to have seen the defendant standing on a roof top in the village, shouting  and waving his arms during clashes in the village. Dahan, however, admitted to not having heard what the older men were shouting and to the fact that he does not at all understand the Arabic language.


When asked why he did not order Tamimi's arrest based on what he saw, Dahan admitted that his commanding officers ordered him not to do so, saying "My certainty [that Tamimi incited the youth] was apparently not sufficient [to justify arrest]".


Source: the popular struggle 

37 year old Essam Aoudhi is martyred whilst protecting his village against ruthless settler and military violence.

In September 23, Essam Kamal Abed Aoudhi, a 37 year old father of 8 children, from the village of Qusra was murdered by the Israeli army as they fired live ammunition indiscriminately into a crowd of villagers gathered in their village.

Essam Kamal

A large group of settlers from the nearby outpost of Esh Kodesh, meaning ‘Holy Head’, built entirely on stolen Qusra land, left the settlement and entered the village just after 1pm and began attacking the people and burning the olive groves. As the villagers gathered to protect themselves and their land the soldiers arrived and stood between the settlers and villagers, protecting the settlers as they retreated.

Soldiers instantly began to fire tear gas canisters, rubber bullets and live ammunition directly at villagers, making no attempt to disperse but intending solely to injure.

Rami Hassan

Mohammad Abdul Odeh, age 16, shot in the stomach with a high velocity tear gas canister as he stood on his land.

Remi Yusef Faiz Hassan, age 35, was shot with 4 rubber bullets and one dum dum from 2 meters as he peacefully walked to soldiers to ask why they allow the settlers to enter his village and burn his trees.

Sameeh Hassan, age 24, was shot in the crotch with rubber bullets as he attempted to reach his olive trees and extinguish the fire destroying them.

Essam Aoudhi was shot with live ammunition as he joined his fellow villagers protesting the army’s incursion into his village. According to Dr Sameh Abu Zaroh, a doctor at Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, the wound on Essam’s body shows that the bullet was shot from just a few meters away and from below in such a way to insure maximum injury. The bullet entered the right side of Essam’s chest and exited through the top of his back, fracturing his vertebrae in multiple places.

After Essam was carried to an ambulance, the soldiers left immediately, clearly understanding what had just happened. The people of Qusra returned to the centre of the village where children had gathered, shouting slogans expressing their anger over Essam’s martyrdom.

As the sun set in Qusra, the punishment continued, as two teenagers stumbled into the village before collapsing to the ground in pain. Both Amar Masameer, age 19, and Fathi Hassan, age 16, were arrested earlier in the day as they made their way towards Qusra’s burning olive trees. They did not resist arrest yet returned to the village dripping with blood and faces so swollen they were barely recognisable. Once arrested, Fathi Hassan explained, settlers from the outpost had asked the soldiers detaining them for permission to beat the two boys. The soldiers did not interfere and so the settlers began stoning the boys whilst their hands where cuffed behind their backs. Amar Masameer was hit directly in the eye with a stone thrown from just a few meters and is now in Rafidia hospital awaiting treatment. 

Source: Popular Struggle 

popularstruggle.org

The UN bid day, what you didn't see on TV

I barely knew Abu Haneen , I had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times.I was even detained with him by the Israeli army at Attara checkpoint at one point. After that, I met Abu Haneen a couple of times, either at a protest at Qalandia or in Nabi Saleh. The last time I saw him was at last Friday’s protest in Nabi Saleh. We barely talked then, I remember how I was showing him some of the pictures I took earlier that day, how we shared a couple of laughs before we went our separate ways at the end of the day. 

Yesterday, while the PA was manipulating the Palestinian masses at AlMannara, some activist took matters into their own hands and marched towards the Israeli wall and checkpoint at Qalandia, announcing it loud and clear "We don't want to see you anymore". The Israeli army responded in the only ways it knows: violence. While they were attacking the crowds with gas, Rubber bullets, beating and undercover police; the Palestinian youth responded with the oldest weapons on earth, stones. 

Note the beating of an unarmed man in the first few seconds  

As a result of the clashes some young kids were injured including 13-15 years old Ahed Wahdan who lost his eye, other young men were arrested by the undercover Israeli Police including AbuHaneen.

Ahed carried away by a foreign Journalist 

Although we are aware of the consequences ofgoing into protests and confronting the colonialist army; many will be thrown to jail, and many others will be taking to Hospitals either dead or with serious injuries. Yet, it still hurts every time we hear the news about a fallen or a captured fellow activist

 

The path is long and hard, but we have no choice. Its either this, or living on our knees; we can’t do that,our knees hurt.

Best 

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