[GushShalom] About the struggle in Bidou, Budrus - and inside Israel

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - www.gush-shalom.org/

International release
Feb. 28, Tel-Aviv

# Racism & the Knesset
# Eyewitness report of killings in Bidou
# Israelis joining anti-wall protest in Budrus - in spite of army blockades
# Against the Wall - in downtown Tel-Aviv


The past week - the week of the International Court of Justice in The 
Hague, which our government was clever enough of avoiding  - hoping to 
have it easier outside the court with the shameful propagandistic use of 
terror victims and the pain of their family members.
It was a week with much bloodshed - on both sides. 
It was also the week of the race theory being applied by an Israeli 
parliament member - a deputy minister of the Sharon government. 
But, it was also a week of intensive non-violent struggle against the Wall, 
about which we have been reporting to you, with some new events to 
follow.


# Racism & the Knesset

Gush Shalom's advertised statement, Feb. 27:

The Race Theory 

Deputy-Minister Boim and Knesset-Member Hazan declared that all 
Muslims are murderers by birth. It is in their genes.

If this had been said by anybody about the Jews on a TV program in 
Europe or 
America, the station chief would have been fired immediately.

If this had been said about the Jews by a parliament member in Europe or America, the 
member would have been forced to resign within hours. Even if he had "apologized".

But in Israel such racist talk passes without much of a reaction. In the State of "the 
Survivors of Racism", racism has become a matter of routine.


Gush Shalom,
Help us with donations to
P.O.Box 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033
			***

# Eyewitness report of killings in Bidou

26/02/04

"It was hell. Soldiers shot without a stop.
I saw a Palestinian demonstrator get killed
In front of my eyes." Said Israeli Peace activists
Who took part in the demonstrations in Bidou.


"It was horror. Hell. The soldiers were shooting incessantly.
I saw a Palestinian demonstrator get hit in the forehead and fall
down, bleeding. He died several minutes later" told Jonathan
Polak, an activist in the Anarchists Against Walls movement, who was amongst the 
activists who arrived today at the village of Bidou, in order

To take part in the protest against the fence that was organized by
the people of Bidou. The fence in Bidou, as in many other places, will cut off a large part 
of the village?s land.

Other activists said: "We have never seen such brutality. In the morning, thousands of 
the people of the village went and sat in the path of the bulldozers, where their olive 
groves are about to be uprooted. Then these huge bulldozers came. Each one was 
accompanied by 50 soldiers. They attacked the villagers and beat them brutally, driving 
them into the streets of the village. Inside the village a real battle started. The 
youngsters of the village threw stones, and the army responded with gas bombs, but 
very soon moved to using live munitions. They occupied a building in the center of the 
village and snipers shot at people from it?s roof.

We ran to the clinic to try and help,. Wounded people kept coming, at least Seventy or 
Eighty people. In addition to the two who were killed by live ammunition, another 
elderly man died from a heart attack caused by a gas bomb that entered his home, and a 
young boy who is severely wounded in the head.

The only sin of these people is that they tried to protect the land which is theirs for 
generations and their olive trees which are their only source of income.

The army brutality, the brute oppression and the shooting ? all these confirm all claims 
brought against the fence in Hague. It is absolutely clear now that the fence, built deep 
in Palestinian territory, is another means of oppression and occupation, and has 
nothing to do with security."

At the time of this release some activists are in the police station in the settlement of 
Givat Ze'ev, trying to release the many activists arrested during the demonstration.
				***

# Israelis joining anti-wall protest in Budrus - in spite of army blockades

Friday, 27/02

"The army's rampage in Bidou was not an accident. They feel threatened. For the first 
time, there is a widespread popular opposition of Palestinian villagers to the building of 
the wall. That is far more diffucult for the army to confront. They know how to use tanks 
and Apache helicopters, how to drop one-ton bombs. In a purely armed struggle they 
have an enormous advantage. Face them with a crowd of unarmed civilians who are 
detemined to resist, and they have a big problem" said Dr. Gadi Elgazi, historian and 
peace activist, at the rendezvous point in Kufr Qasem. 

We were on the way to Budrus. The people there decided two months ago to resist the 
creation of the Wall on their land. which was to cut them off from much of their land and 
also from the rest of the West Bank. The army used very much violence there: 
demonstrations were broken up, curfews were imposed, the main organizers  picked up 
at night and placed under administrative detention. But some military judges refused to 
confirm these detention orders, and the detainess went home! Now, the people of 
Budrus hold every Friday a protest march, and they asked Israelis to join  this week.
Some two hundred activists traveled in four buses. The Ta'ayush movement chose to 
organize this action in its own name rather than through the anti-Wall Coalition, but as 
usual  members of other groups joined in. As the buses moved towards the nearby 
border with the occupied West Bank, organizers gave last-minute briefings: "Today we 
don't expect extreme violence. But the army will almost certainly try to stop us. As soon 
as we are stopped at a roadblock, get out of the buses and start walking. We will get 
there, by hook or by crook!".

The Rantis Checkpoint, the first point where the convoy might have been stopped, was 
passed with no incident. A bored sentry peered sleepily at the buses from behind a 
massive concrete barrier bearing the regimental slogan: "Empire of Fire". It seems the 
army prefered not to stop the activists on a road which serves several settlements. The 
special barrier appeared several kilomters further ahead -  when the buses turned to the 
right, off the well-maintained settler road. Several jeeps blocked the road completely. 
The buses moved off to the side, and demonstrators piled out and swarmed up the 
hillside - the most direct route to Budrus. From behind, a police loudspeaker blared 
forlornly: "Stop! Come back! You are entering a closed miltary zone! Anyone 
proceeding is liable to arrest and prosecution! Stop!".
Shortly afterwards, a welcome surprise: at the bottom of the hill, a convoy of large 
yellow Palestinian taxis arrived, to offer the Israelis a lift. Activists scrambled back down 
the hill and crowded in, ten to a taxi. 
A few kilimetres ahead, at the outskirts of Shukba Village, a new army roadblock. The 
soldiers demanded the taxi ignition keys and the drivers' ID's. Tight-lipped, the drivers 
handed them over, and then urged the Israelis "Go on, go on, don't worry about us! 
They are waiting for you in Budrus!". Several of the Ta'ayush organisers stayed behind, 
to help the drivers haggle with the soldiers  (keys and IDs being returned after an hour). 
The demonstrators passed through the main streets of Shukba, returning the waves of 
grinning Palestinian children. 
After several kilometres' walking, a new convoy of Palestinian taxis. This time, the taxis 
managed to stop just short of the third checkpoint. By now, we were at Kibiya Village, 
where in 1953 a young major named Ariel Sharon led a commando raid in which 62 
civilians were killed. 
Present-day Kibya seems dominated by the Palestinian left-wing. Most of the graffiti on 
the walls was in red, as were the flags of  the local anti-Wall demonstrators  - from such 
Palestinian factions as the People's Party and the Democratic Front.
A short walk ahead, and we were in Budrus. A sizeable crowd was already waiting in the 
main sqaure. A fence at the side was made into a podium, from which short stirring 
speeches were delivered by Ronen of Ta'ayush ("We have come here to struggle for 
our future and your future, in this bleeding land")  and Eyad of the Budrus branch of 
Fatah ("You are most welcome in Budrus, together we will pull down the Wall"). Both 
speakers alternated between Hebrew and Arabic and ended with the exhortation: "Mix 
up, mix up! Let the army meet a single block of Israelis and Palestinians, marching 
together!" 
The long column stretched through the narrow village streets and out to the open 
fields. There was a medley of signs in Hebrew, Arabic and English, with a smattering of 
other languagues brought along by contingents of internationals - notably the IWPS 
women, based at Khares Village to the north.

"Fence - Annexation"; "Build trust - not walls!"; "Enough of the bloodshed!"; "Destroy 
the Wall, not olive trees"; "U.S. Farmers against the Wall"; "The wall - starvation"; 
"Free Palestine - Now"; "No to enclaves, no to ghettos, no to the occupation"; 
"Detruire le mur raciste" "Destruir el moro racista"; "Sharon - we have not forgotten the 
Kibiya Massacre", "Arab-Jewish Partnership", "Dismantle the Wall, dismantle the 
settlements!". 

At the front, there were Palestinian national flags on which was superimposed the 
Islamic credo "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His Prophet". The bearers 
smiled broadly at the Israelis and Americans marching at their side, as did the group of 
young women with Islamic headscarves further back.     
"Sharon, Sharon, the Hague is waiting for you!"  a veteran slogan gained additional this 
week. From it the Hebrew and Arabic chanting shifted to "Peace - Yes! Occupation - 
No! Peace -Yes! Fences - No!" and then "From Budrus  to Beit Surik - the people are 
steadfast!", "Sharon, Sharon - we defend our olive trees!" "Budrus is strong, Budrus is 
free!", "Neither Sharon nor Bush - down with the occupation!"; "Sharon Sharon, we are 
not afraid of your tanks!"

Half an hour's march - and we were at the spot. The ugly long gash cutting through the 
countryside, where fields and olive groves had been,  has become all too familiar. Here 
is stopped just before a terrace, bearing the signs of long and painstaking care of an 
arid soil; any further extension of the work on the Wall would necessitate its utter 
demolition. 
"This is how far they got during the last big confrontation, a month ago. Since then 
they did not try to go on. We don't know how long the respite will last - some say until 
the court in the Hague is over. But we keep ready" a villager told the Israelis.

Opposite us,  a clump of some twenty soldiers and grey-clad riot police. Behind them, a 
single silent bulldozer. With the very clear mountain air it was possible to see on a 
ridge, a few kilometres away,  the demonstrators from another village confronting 
another clump of army and police. 
An hour of stand-off, chanting of slogans, waving of placards, some talking between 
Israelis and Palestinians. Then, the distant cramp of teargas grenades. Some of the 
distant figures on the ridge were stooping down, apparently picking and throwing 
stones. Then the distant soldiers were scambling up the ridge. 

Many of the Israelis were for rushing over and interevening in that struggle. "It's too 
far, you won't get there in time" a Palestinian organiser cautioned. "Anyway, don't 
worry about them. The soldiers will never catch them among the crags". 
Our sector remained quiet until the very end of the hours-long vigil. Only when the 
column turned back to the village center did the soldiers suddenly launch a parting 
salvo of tear gas grenades. The Palestinians were unperturbed, quickly handing to the 
Israelis slices of onion - the traditional antidote to tear gas. 
On the way back, again in the yellow Palestinian taxis - but, again, the army had its 
roadblocks, and the weary Israelis had to walk some four kilometres back through the 
hilly countryside. Then, upon arriving at the buses at last, the police suddenly pounced 
and arrested two randomly chosen activists "on susupicion of entering a closed military 
zone". One  bus followed them to the Giv'at Ze'ev Polic Station, activists keeping vigil 
outside until they were released at 9pm. 

What remained of this long day: the memory of the final scene at Budrus - hundreds 
upon hundreds of smiling villagers lining the street, waving at the departing Israelis, 
calling out in Hebrew "Goodby, and see you!" [AK].        
						***

# Against the Wall - in downtown Tel-Aviv

Also Friday, at noon some forty colorful young people stood at the entrance of the 
Carmel Market in Tel-Aviv holding improvised signs and chanting: "Mom, your son is 
cannon fodder!" / "Let's have peace - and the generals be unemployed!" /  Occupation 
is terrorism - no wall is to change that!" 

Having been beaten-up  by police a week earlier at the end of a similar vigil had not 
prevented the Anarchists Against the Wall from returning to the same spot, only 
brought them the support of others. This time, after half an hour the group started 
marching, chanting, whistling - leaving the three policemen posted nearby puzzled-
faced. The unusual sidewalk parade passed all along the down-town street of King 
George, halting a minute at every crossroads - receiving comments of the people busily 
shopping for the weekend: "Go home! Haven't you got something  else to do?" but also 
"Good for you, and don't give up!" 

At 1pm, they reached the corner of BenTzion Boulevard, where the Women in Black's 
weekly anti-occupation vigil was just starting, with among them still some grey-haired 
who made it their habit for the past 18 years. For some ten minutes the two groups 
stood together, and then the young anarchists continued their walk, leaving behind 
some, among them  your reporter. [BZ]
				***

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