Tear Down This Wall!

Getting aware of the event was more by chance this evening. A woman handed out the flyers at the solidarity rally for the anti-austerity protests in Southern Europe. Among a handfull of newspapers and event references the A5 sheet announced a lecture about a West Jordan village strangled by the Israeli forces and the harsh settlement policy given by a native young non-violent resistance activist from the Palestine Youth For Peace And Justice.

I decided to join the event - not only because I began to freeze standing around for approximately an hour. Mainly older people were present when Saeed Amireh started to refer on the special kind of territorial policy the Israeli government was applying in his home Ni‘lin: from originally 5.800ha floor space only 800ha are left to the Palestinians to cultivate or build their houses. In the North East the town of the Israeli settlers growned until today up to 43.000 inhabitants while the population of Ni‘lin decreased from formerly 12.000 to 5.500. Numbers which underline the  systematically crowding out of the Palestinian residents in an area rather granted in the Gaza-Jericho Agreement of 1994.

Rather. Exceptions regarded existing or already begun to build settlements of the Israelis. But instead of working on a policy of negotiations and compromises the Israel government still pushes roughly the Palestinians aside to claim more and more Westbank territory their own. In the case of Ni‘lin all that led to the building of a concrete wall to connect the settlement with the territory of Israel cutting of the Palestinian village completely from the Eastern areas. This wall is also known as the apartheid wall.

When the first Israeli bulldozers arrived - accompanied by a lot of Israeli soldiers - in summer 2008 to build the wall ,out of security reasons‘ the inhabitants of Ni‘lin started their unarmed peaceful protests against that project. Immediately the defence forces violently cracked down the rally.

But the courageous villagers, among them the at that time 17 years old Saeed, decided to continue their peaceful protests. Daily. From nine ,o clock in the morning until sunset.

The reaction of the Israelis was to impose a curfew up to five consecutive days. The inhabitants of Ni‘lin were called up every morning at 3 am by shootings in the air and declarations via loudspeaker. As a determent measure to weaken and humiliate them their water tanks were shot. Regarding the average summer temperatures a drastic proof of strength.

The will to continue the protests against the apartheid wall was unbroken. By end of July the Israeli forces cracked down one of those protests by using rubber-coated bullets. Those bullets have a steel ball core and cause more than serious injuries fired at the people. Ten years old Ahmad Mousa was hit that day by such a bullet in the head. Sadly he had no chance to survive. Shivers flowed through my whole body when Saeed described his desperate attempts to save the boy‘s life. The in my opinion pervert fact is that the Israeli government calls this sort of ammunition as rubber bullets although the steel ball core makes it to a lethal projectile. Another young man who got two of those bullets in the head died four days later in the hospital. He became only 17 years old.

The Israeli forces used also rocket tear gas canisters to disperse the protesting crowd. With a weight of 3 kg the iron body of those canisters was able to break even through light walls. A person directly hit from a short to medium ranged distance could be easily killed.

Not to forget to mention that 0.22 caliber live ammo -international outlawed and therefore illegal - came into operation as tool to prevent protests. According to Saeed‘s report this ammunition which explodes on contact with the target was shot at 55 villagers.

All that in combination with street blockades as a strategy to suppress the protests of te Ni‘lin people and to secure the construction of the land dividing concrete wall. The defence forces also placed snipers on the rooftops of the Ni‘lin houses. The inhabitants tried all to prevent them from that, including Saeed‘s father. Random arrests followed by house raids, later directly on the village‘s streets. Since end of 2008 until now more than 360 people were arrested. The oldest one 55 years old. The youngest one 9 years old. According to Israeli law Palestinian children become juridically regarded of full age at 12. When they arrested Saeed and put him into prison for two months he was in his last school year to earn his necessary degree.

All of that couldn‘t stop him becoming an engaged activist for the cause of justice not only coaching but living the fundamental principles of non-violent resistance. One of its‘ basics is education and clarification through information. Being officially invited by Sweden he became the chance to travel to Europe to give speeches about the actual ongoings in Ni‘lin, a place never mentioned in our official media. Another side effect of the Israeli forces' street blockades to prevent journalists‘ or foreign activists‘ appearance. Fortunately even this blockade wall is poriferous and we here in Europe get the chance to meet a truly admirable young man trying to bring out the truth about his home and how the Israeli forces treat them.

At the end of Saeed‘s speech he showed us video footage material from the protests against the wall and the disgraceful, speechless leaving reactions of the Israeli forces. Some of the attendees have seen such images the first time.

Me neither.

The shocking element for me was that those images reminded me on Syria and the rude behavior of Assad‘s forces against the civil population (before the militia had gone completely berserk).

Cynically grining defence forces' soldiers raiding through the village, firing rocket tear gas ammo into buildings, arresting randomly, even shooting a blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinian out of immediate distance one of the infamous rubber bullets into the body - even ignoring the fact being filmed during their crimes.

Saeed Amireh from Ni'lin

For more and deeper going information about the whole story I recommend to visit the homepage www.nilin-village.org.

Several times the people of Ni‘lin successfully tore down parts of the apartheid wall. And their struggle against that project will continue.

With the engagement of guys like Saeed this struggle has the chance not to end as a lost battle.

Personal note: As a native German facing the younger history I‘m aware of the crimes against humanity committed against the Jewish population during the Third Reich. Critizising the policy of the Israeli government towards the Palestinians has absolutely nothing to do with Anti-Zionism or Anti-Semitism. These critics refer to the violations of human rights by the Israeli armed forces questioning the proceeding in general. Please note that before stereotyping me as a usual suspect. Thank you.