By BEN HUBBARD, Associated Press – Fri Dec 11, 2009
RAMALLAH, West Bank – A leader of the most persistent Palestinian protest
movement against Israel's West Bank separation barrier was asleep in his
home when troops broke down his door and arrested him.
Supporters of Abdullah Abu Rahmeh, a 38-year-old teacher, say his pre-dawn
arrest on Thursday by dozens of troops is part of a recent, heavy-handed
campaign by Israel to shut down a five-year-old movement that is the last
source of unrest in the West Bank.
Since 2005, demonstrators led by Abu Rahmeh have marched every Friday from
the West Bank village of Bilin to the nearby separation barrier that
slices off 60 percent of the village land. Their acts of protest, which
have also included chaining themselves to trees, have won praise from
Jimmy Carter and Desmond Tutu and support among Israeli peace activists.
About two years ago, villagers in nearby Naalin started similar marches.
Some demonstrators routinely throw stones at Israeli soldiers, who fire
tear gas, stun grenades, rubber-coated bullets and occasionally live
rounds. One Bilin man and five in Naalin have been killed and hundreds
have been wounded over the years. Israeli troops have also suffered some —
though far fewer — injuries, including a soldier who lost an eye.
Israel considers the protests illegal and portrays them as riots, not
nonviolent demonstrations.
Israel says the barrier — a wall in some places, a system of roads,
cameras and fences in places like Bilin — seeks to keep out Palestinian
attackers, including suicide bombers. Palestinians call it a tool to steal
land, since it juts far into the West Bank in some places.
Abu Rahmeh's Israeli lawyer, Gaby Lasky, said Israel is trying to stifle
legitimate protest.
"The Israeli army has decided to crush the demonstrations by putting their
leaders behind bars in complete violation of the right of freedom to
demonstrate and freedom of speech," she said. Israel has declared the area
a closed military zone, banning civilians and making it a violation of
Israeli law to be there.
The weekly protests in Bilin and Naalin are the only remaining pockets of
unrest in the West Bank. The rest of the territory — controlled by Israel,
with Palestinians given limited self-rule in some areas — has been
pacified; many Palestinians are simply too tired to take to the streets
after several years of bloody clashes with Israeli forces.
But the military has failed to end the Bilin and Naalin marches, even
though it has tried different tactics, such as spraying demonstrators with
foul-smelling liquids and imposing curfews.
Since June, troops have arrested 31 Bilin residents involved in the
marches, among them 12 minors, organizers said. The arrests have focused
on members of the village's organizing committee and teens accused of
throwing stones. Thirteen are currently in detention, five of them minors.
Abu Rahmeh's lawyer said this was her client's fourth arrest in five
years, and that Israel has indicted him on charges of breaking curfew,
interfering with police work and disturbing the public order. He was
released pending trial before his new arrest Thursday, she said.
Authorities have not said how long he will be held this time.
Most arrests happen at night, with large numbers of soldiers entering
homes, villagers said. Detainees are often bound and blindfolded and
sometimes beaten before being taken away for questioning, villagers said.
Detention ranges from a few days to several months, and a few are charged
with crimes like incitement or stone-throwing, Bilin residents said.
Abu Rahmeh said in an interview in October that the army tried to arrest
him in September, sending 50 soldiers to his Bilin home. He fled, then hid
out in the nearby city of Ramallah, though he continued to attend the
Friday marches.
Later, troops left a written summons for him to report to Israel's
security service. Abu Rahmeh didn't go. "We practice popular resistance.
We don't do anything illegal, but they try to come up with counterfeit
stories and use those to arrest us," he said in October.
Early Thursday, nine jeeps surrounded Abu Rahmeh's Ramallah apartment,
said his wife, Majida.
"We were sleeping when they knocked, and there was all this noise
downstairs so we knew right away," she said. Four soldiers broke down the
door before the family could open it and took her husband away, she said.
The small village of 1,800 people about seven miles (12 kilometers) west
of Ramallah won a rare victory in 2007, when they Israeli Supreme Court
ruled that the route of the barrier near Bilin had little to do with
security and more to do with giving land to a nearby Jewish settlement.
The ruling would return 25 percent of the village's land, but it has been
tied up in appeals.
So the villagers keep marching.
PDF
No comments:
Post a Comment