Nil'in: three kidnapped, eight injured at the weekly protest

Friday September 25, 2009 17:33 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News

Three protesters were kidnapped and eight other injured on Friday, as Israeli occupation soldiers attacked the weekly protest against the Wall in the central West bank village of Nil'in.

International and Israeli peace activists joined the villagers after the midday prayers and headed towards the villagers lands where Israel is building the Wall. Israeli Soldiers showered the protesters with water mixed with chemicals and teargas.

As a result eight protesters were lightly wounded scores of cases of teargas inhalation and nausea. In addition troops kidnapped two Israeli and one international supporter. The demonstration ended as local youth hurled stones at attacking soldiers who fired rubber coated steel bullets at them.

Israeli occupation soldiers kidnap a Palestinian journalist and two Israeli activists at Bil'in protest

Friday September 25, 2009 15:17 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News

 Israeli occupation soldiers kidnapped on Friday two Israeli peace activists and a Palestinian journalist during the weekly protest against the illegal Israeli Land-Grab, Apartheid Wall in the village of Bil'in central West Bank. 

Villagers along with their international and Israeli supporters started the protest after the midday prayers.

As soon as people arrived at the gate of the wall that saparte the village from its lands Israeli troops fire tear gas and rubber coated steal bullets.

 Dozens were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation. Local sources identified those kidnapped as Asaf 25 years, Ben Robein 26 years, and local cameraman Hytham Al Khateeb. 

 The Israeli occupation soldiers told protesters that the three kidnapped were moved to an Israeli occupation government police station in the nearby illegal Israeli4 settlement. 

Israelis arrested at Bil'in anti-wall rally

Published yesterday (updated) 25/09/2009 21:43

 Bethlehem - Ma'an -

A Palestinian photographer and two Israeli protesters were detained by Israeli occupation forces seeking to stifle a  demonstration protesting against the illegal Israeli Land-Grab, Apartheid Wall in the West Bank village of Bil'in on Friday, a local organization said.

The Bil'in village chapter of the Popular Committee Against the Wall said in a statement that soldiers opened fire on the Palestinian, Israeli and international activists protesting the confiscation of land by Israel's separation barrier.

The organization identified the Palestinian photographer as Haitham Al-Khateeb, and said he was also injured. The two Israeli activists were identified as Asaf, 25, and Ben Robein, 26.

The Israeli occupation soldiers hurt dozens by spraying CS gas "excessively," the organization said, in an effort to suppress the generally nonviolent weekly march to the still under-construction wall that separates villagers from more than 50 percent of their land.

This Friday's march saw crowds waving Palestinian flags, condemning the ongoing Israeli occupation and demanding an end to constant "daily arrests, raids and incursions," the statement said, adding that demonstrators also marked the ninth anniversary of the Intifada.

A famous Israeli lawyer, Adv. Tamar Pelleg-Sryck, 83, was in attendance, and called on Israeli human rights organizations to back Bil'in's cause. "I strongly oppose the building of the apartheid wall; the people of Bil'in have the right to defend the land and they shouldn't be arrested for practicing their right."

The lawyer was referring to a recent upsurge in nightly arrest campaigns against participants of the weekly demonstrations. Israeli forces stormed Bil'in at dawn last Monday before searching the homes of a number of residents there, the committee said, arriving in four military vehicles at the house of Abdullah Abu Rahma, one of the its organizers, but were unable to locate him there.

Soldiers unsuccessfully raided and searched Abu Rahma's home late last Wednesday night, as well.

The same night, two military vehicles raided the homes of Muhammad Ahmad Yassin and Yassin Muhammad Yassin, but they were unable to find those men, either, according to Popular Committee. However soldiers delivered military orders to the men's parents demanding that their sons meet the head of Israeli intelligence at Ofer prison in the West Bank, the committee said.

International activists also intervened in the operation and Israeli soldiers fired tear gas toward them and live bullets into the air near Abu Rahma's house, according to the statement, "causing an atmosphere of terror."

The Popular Committee appealed to human rights organizations to intervene and stop the regular incursions.

During the Israeli raid on Wednesday night, Abu Rahma's neighbor was beaten by soldiers so severely that he required emergency treatment from paramedics, and was later transferred to the Government Hospital in Ramallah, the committee said. A filmmaker present at the time of the raid was pushed to the ground while attempting to film, while several Palestinian journalists and internationals were threatened with arrest if they continued taking photographs of the operation, it added.

At his house, Abu Rahma's wife and children were herded into one room of the home and questioned by Israeli soldiers as others went through the rooms, he said, according to the same statement. Soldiers also searched the homes of two of Abu Rahma's brothers, he added. In each location soldiers searched the homes, destroyed furniture, intimidated residents and frightened young children, he said.