Palestinians construct new protest village in south Hebron

(MaanImages/Stringer) 

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=563453

HEBRON (Ma’an) -- Palestinians and foreign solidarity activists on Saturday set up a new protest village in the south Hebron hills, and vowed to remain there despite Israeli forces moving to dismantle the structures.

Early Saturday, activists set up steel-framed tents near the Palestinian village of al-Tuwani, calling the encampment "Canaan".

Younis Arar, coordinator of the popular committees in the southern West Bank, told Ma'an that soldiers assaulted the 30 activists who had gathered in the area.

"We began building the tents and were surprised when a large force of the Israeli army began attacking us and destroying tents and hitting us ... We will try and build Canaan village again," Arar said.

A military spokeswoman said soldiers evacuated illegal structures, and responded with riot dispersal means when around 100 Palestinians "rioted" in the area.

A Ma'an reporter said three journalists were detained, and the military spokeswoman said five Palestinians and five Israelis were arrested for entering the area after it was declared a closed military zone.

Yatta popular committee spokesman Ibrahim Rabee told Ma'an the protest camp was a stand against Israeli policies in the region.

"We are establishing Canaan on our land after our homes and water wells were demolished, and our people displaced," he said.

The south Hebron hills lies in an area of the West Bank under full Israeli military control, and its residents say Israel does not allow any building permits and demolishes homes and infrastructure, while supporting Israeli settlements in the area.

Just south of al-Tuwani, Israel has established a closed military zone where the state wants to evict eight Palestinian villages to make way for a army training ground.

The Canaan protest camp is the fifth such initiative in recent weeks.

In January, the Bab al-Shams village was set up in an area where Israel plans to build the "E1" settlement, severing the West Bank from Jerusalem.

Then, locals established the al-Karamah (Dignity) village in Beit Iksa, northwest of Jerusalem, which is set to be tightly encircled by Israel's separation wall.

A week later, activists set up the Al-Asra, or prisoners, protest village in the village of Anin, northwest of Jenin.

Last Saturday, Palestinians established the "Al-Manatir neighborhood" encampment in an area of Burin village that activists say is slated for confiscation by a neighboring settlement.

Israeli forces have moved to evacuate each of the camps and dismantle their structures.

Palestine's Burin is squeezed between Israel's Bracha and Yitzhar settlements, and is the target of regular Israeli settler violence.

A Palestinian activist runs from teargas after Israeli forces evacuate a
protest camp in the West Bank village of Burin, south of Nablus,
Feb. 2, 2013. (Reuters/Mohamad Torokman)

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=561454

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces evacuated a protest tent set up earlier on Saturday by Palestinian activists in Nablus, leading to clashes which injured at least 20 people.

Earlier, around 200 people from across the West Bank set up the "Al-Manatir neighborhood" encampment in an area of Burin village that activists say is slated for confiscation by a neighboring settlement.

Burin is squeezed between the Bracha and Yitzhar settlements, and is the target of regular settler violence.

Israeli forces raided the area and forcibly removed all activists from the site. Soldiers fired multiple tear gas canisters at the protest village, injuring at least 20 Palestinians, witnesses said.

Palestinian Authority official Ghassan Daghlas told Ma'an that during the clashes, settlers attacked Burin with fire-bombs and rocks, damaging homes, cars and setting fire to olive trees.

Earlier on Saturday, 16-year-old Zakariya Al-Najjar was hit in his thigh by a bullet fired by settlers in Burin, a Ma'an reporter said.

Groups of settlers also gathered near Yizhar settlement and threw stones at passing Palestinian cars.

Palestinians Diyaa Bani Audah, Ashraf Abu Rahmah from Bilin, Wahib Qadus, Barakat al-Najjar, Bakir al-Najjar, Ibrahim al-Najjar and Udayy Ahmad from Burin were detained by Israel's military during the clashes.

An Israeli army spokesman confirmed that seven people were arrested.

Fatah official Mahmoud al-Aloul told Ma'an that Palestinians will continue to confront settlers and illegal settlement expansion.

"If they demolish a protest village, we will erect a new one, and we will continue until the Palestinian people retrieve all their rights," he said.

Burin protesters said they had been buoyed by a report issued on Thursday by United Nations human rights investigators who called on Israel to halt settlement expansion and withdraw all settlers, adding that the practice could be subject to prosecution as a possible war crime.

The "Al-Manatir neighborhood" is the fourth such initiative in recent weeks.

The Bab al-Shams village was set up in an area where Israel plans to build the "E1" settlement, severing the West Bank from Jerusalem.

Then, locals established the al-Karamah (Dignity) village in Beit Iksa, northwest of Jerusalem, which is set to be tightly encircled by Israel's separation wall.

Last week, activists set up the Al-Asra, or prisoners, protest village in the village of Anin, northwest of Jenin.

Israeli forces have moved to evacuate the camps and dismantle their structures.

Reuters contributed to this report

Diplomacy in action- for peace & Palestine

letter I just sent my elected leaders via congress.org

Dear President Obama,

As your second term is to begin soon, people are hoping your second inaugural address will help steer this nation in more positive and productive directions.

Personally I hope that you will clearly and firmly voice support for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, for I am quite convinced that ending the Israel-Palestine conflict will have positive ramifications world wide. 

While your wife is shopping for an enchanting inauguration ball gown to wear to help visually convey the dignity of your office as well as reflect her own personal beauty, Palestinians are also using fabric to reflect the dignity of Palestine's struggle for peace and justice.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces tore down the tented village Bab al-Shams (Gate of the Sun), set up to protest Israel's plans to build the "E1" settlement on Palestinian land.

But the story continues- as it has for over sixty years- as another tent village for Palestine has appeared, northwest of Jerusalem, a tent village named al-Karamah (Dignity).

A fully secular two state solution to once and for ALL end the Israel-Palestine conflict must be based on full respect for international law and basic human rights, including but not limited to the Palestinian refugees right to return to original homes and lands as promised by the international community in 1948 when Israel achieved statehood.

DIPLOMACY IN ACTION The United States Office of International Religious Freedom has the mission of promoting religious freedom as a core objective of U.S. foreign policy:"Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries" http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/

I think it is obvious that people should not have their homes destroyed and their land usurped and their freedom curbed and their ability to work sabotaged and their basic human rights denied because they have  been deemed the "wrong religion" by Israel....  American tax payers should not be forced to help fund Israel's investments in Jewish 'housing', in both Israel proper as well as in the illegally occupied territories.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
American homemaker & poet

UN Chief Urges Israel to Rescind E1 Settlement

Israeli border policemen guard the Bab al-Shams (Gate of the Sun) 'outpost' after evicting Palestinian protesters from the site on January 13, 2013 in the controversial West Bank area known as E1 situated between Jerusalem and the Israeli West Bank settlement of of Maaleh Adumim. (Uriel Sinai, Getty Images)

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is reiterating his call for Israel to rescind its settlement plans in the strategic E1 area of the West Bank.

U.N. deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey says the U.N. chief is following "with concern" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's pledge Sunday to move ahead with construction of a new Jewish settlement in the E1 area.

The new settlement would deepen East Jerusalem's separation from the West Bank, areas won by Israel in war that the Palestinians want for their state.

Ban noted that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, del Buey said Monday.

Ban said Palestinian demonstrations, which Israel broke up on Sunday, were largely nonviolent, and he stressed the right to peaceful protest should be fully respected, del Buey said.

Keeping symbolism in perspective by Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

January 14, 2013
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=25675&CategoryId=3

Last week President Mahmoud Abbas ordered all official documents to be signed and sealed with the emblem of the State of Palestine, replacing that of the Palestinian Authority. The move, of course, comes after the Palestinians scored the upgraded status of non-member state at the United Nations in November with the backing of 138 countries. This was a major morale boost for Palestinians, who have long struggled to gain international recognition of their right to statehood, freedom and independence. The UN upgrade is a small step towards that goal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, obviously irked by the UN upgrade of Palestine to a ‘state’, also chimed in on the president’s decree, claiming it was a ‘serious violation of signed agreements.’ Netanyahu added that Abbas’ decision was "devoid of any political meaning and creates no practical impact on the ground", saying that, "A Palestinian state will only be created as part of a peace agreement with Israel".

While Netanyahu may be right in terms of “practical impact on the ground” there is also a reason why he made the effort to respond. He understands that symbols of sovereignty begin as symbols but eventually turn into reality with the right will power and determination. That is also the reason why he so quickly and so viciously evicted the determined residents of the Bab Al Shams village, erected in the so-called E1 area, slated for massive Israeli settlement construction. Even Israel’s High Court said the tents could remain for a few days until a ‘solution’ was found. But Netanyahu is well aware of the danger of allowing Palestinian activists to remain and multiply on land that is rightfully their people’s, gaining momentum and solidarity with each hour that passes by. And so, he cracked his whip, calling on his thuggish army and police to drag them out.

The official documents and passports to soon be emblazoned with the ‘State of Palestine’ may be a sight for sore eyes for Palestinians who yearn for an independent homeland, but both Netanyahu and the Palestinians know it does not mean the actual state of Palestine is anywhere closer. While Netanyahu said a state could only be realized “through an agreement with Israel”, Palestinians are beginning to believe this will never happen, and thus have begun to devise more creative ways of reaching their dream. Moves such as the UN resolution – the price for which the Palestinians continue to pay – and popular resistance activities such as the Bab Al Shams initiative, are all alternative means the Palestinians have found to make their presence and their national rights known.

They are on the right track, for sure. All great ideas start with a single thought and people like Benjamin Netanyahu are more than privy to the fact that as thoughts hatch and grow, they snowball into action and determination after which nothing can stop them.

The trick is for the Palestinians to keep this act of symbolism -- the State of Palestine seal – in perspective. We Palestinians fell into the trap of believing more than what was real many years ago when the Oslo Accords were signed. This is not the space to point fingers at the parties to blame for this delusion (and they are more than a few), but rather to learn from our mistakes. The ‘State of Palestine’ emblem just may be the spark that ignites a much bigger process towards independence just like the Bab Al Shams village may have sparked the beginning of a wide-scale popular resistance movement. That is the hope at least. And obviously, from the way he and his government reacted, it is the Israeli Prime Minister’s biggest fear.

Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.

My letter to CSM RE Israel overrides court, removes Palestinians

RE  Israel overrides court, removes Palestinian protest settlement, Palestinians set up the Bab Al-Shams village two days ago in the sensitive E1 area, pointedly mirroring a tactic used by some Israeli settlers to establish facts on the ground. 
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2013/0113/Israel-overrides-court-removes-Palestinian-protest-settlement

Dear Editor,

World War II with all it many horrors inspired world leaders to carefully think about and endorse a carefully worded Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If newly founded Israel had used respect for basic human rights as its guidepost things would be very very different in the Middle East today, with positive ramifications for everyone- regardless of supposed race or religion. 

The very real plight and suffering of the persecuted, impoverished and displaced native non-Jewish Palestinians is a crisis that has been growing worse not for merely months or years, but for decades. And yet the besieged and oppressed Palestinians persist in believing in peace and justice....  Bravo to all the valiant and noble Palestinians who dreamed up the Bab Al-Shams village, and then set about creating a real village of tents on Palestinian land in hopes of stopping Israel from investing in and building yet another Jews-only housing project.

& Bravo to the American newspapers, including the CSM, who noticed and published some news of this telling incident. Even if the tents and Palestinian flags are torn down by Israeli forces the world has a plethora of photos and stories- just as the world has a plethora of photos as well as many facts and stories about the hundreds of Palestinian villages destroyed by Israel through out the years. 

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
Israelis Evict Palestinians

"We know the [Israeli] army follow us on Twitter and Facebook, so we made out we were holding a protest somewhere else."

State of Palestine

Financial Crisis in the West Bank

Bab al-Shams Village... We, the sons and daughters of Palestine

Palestinians Set Up Tents Where Israel Plans Homes

Israel continues to demolish Palestinian homes- and peace

Israel uses the crisis in Syria to try to coerce Abbas into relinquishing Palestinian refugee rights

Snow covers the Dome of the Rock in the Old City

Walls and winter rains afflict Palestinian towns

Excellent letter in the Guardian by Keith Lichman RE Israel's drift

********

The Office of International Religious Freedom ( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/)   Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to:

Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries

Palestinian Refugees(1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

The Balfour Declaration of 1917

".... it being clearly understood that nothing
          shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious
          rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine..."

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world." Eleanor Roosevelt

Empowering Peace & Palestine

"The only way to honor our tragic histories is to create a future for our children free of man-made tragedy. This means making peace fully, completely and without reservation, between Israel and Palestine."

 

The Arab Peace Initiative

Refugees and the Right of Return

Palestinian refugees must be given the option to exercise their right of return (as well as receive compensation for their losses arising from their dispossession and displacement) though refugees may prefer other options such as: (i) resettlement in third countries, (ii) resettlement in a newly independent Palestine (even though they originate from that part of Palestine which became Israel) or (iii) normalization of their legal status in the host country where they currently reside.  What is important is that individual refugees decide for themselves which option they prefer – a decision must not be imposed upon them.

ELIAS KHOURY'S LETTER TO THE ACTIVISTS OF BAB AL SHAMS

I won't say I wish I were with you, I am with you. I see you, and I see how the dream through your hands has turned into reality rooted in the earth. "On this earth is what makes life worth living", just as Mahmoud Darwish wrote, for when you built your wonderful village you gave back meaning to meaning. You became the sons of this land and its masters.

This is the Palestine that Younis dreamt of in the novel Bab Al Shams/Gate of the Sun.  Younis had a dream made of words, and the words became wounds bleeding over the land. You became, people of Bab Al Shams, the words that carry the dream of freedom and return Palestine to Palestine.

I see in your village all the faces of the loved ones who departed on the way to the land of our Palestinian promise. Palestine is the promise of the strangers who were expelled from their land and continue to be expelled everyday from their homes.

Strangers and yet you are the sons of the land, its olives and oil!

You are the olives of Palestine that shine under the sun of justice, and as you build your village the light of freedom flares up with you.

"Light upon light"

I see in your eyes a nation born from the rubble of the nakba that has gone on for sixty-four years.

I see you and in my heart the words grow, I see the words and you grow in my heart, rise high and burst into the sky.

Finally,  I only have the wish that you accept me as a citizen of your village, that I may learn from you the meanings of freedom and justice.

Elias Khoury

(Beirut January 12, 2013.  Translated by Sonja Mejcher -Atassi)

Israelis Evict Palestinians

Israeli border police remove a Palestinian activist from an outpost of tents in a disputed area known as E1. Ammar Awad/Reuters

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/world/middleeast/israeli-police-evict-palestinian-protesters-from-e-1.html?ref=middleeast&_r=0

The encampment, which the protesters called the village of Bab al-Shams (Arabic for “Gate of the Sun”), represented a new kind of action by Palestinian grass-roots activists involved in what they describe as the nonviolent popular struggle against the Israeli occupation. 

Employing a tactic more commonly used by Jewish settlers who establish wildcat outposts in the West Bank, the protesters had pitched their tents on Friday on what they said was privately owned land, and with the permission of the Palestinian landowners. They were immediately served eviction notices by the Israeli military authorities, but their lawyers had obtained a temporary injunction against their removal from the High Court of Justice until the state detailed the grounds for such a move. 

But on Saturday evening, with the end of the Sabbath, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement saying he had ordered security forces to evacuate “forthwith” the Palestinians...READ MORE

"We know the [Israeli] army follow us on Twitter and Facebook, so we made out we were holding a protest somewhere else."

The tent village in the area known as E1, near Jerusalem. Photograph: Baz Ratner/Reuters

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/12/israel-palestinian-activists-e1-eviction
  Harriet Sherwood in Bab al-Shams 
   guardian.co.uk, Saturday 12 January 2013
   
  Israeli security forces prevented Palestinian officials Hanan Ashrawi and Saeb Erekat from visiting the site on Saturday. Earlier Ashrawi welcomed the establishment of Bab al-Shams, saying: "This initiative is a highly creative and legitimate non-violent tool to protect our land from Israeli colonial plans. We have the right to live anywhere in our state, and we call upon the international community to support such initiatives, as well as to protect those who are being threatened by Israeli occupation forces for exercising their right to peaceful resistance against the illegal Israeli occupation."

State of Palestine

Babalshams باب الشمس

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Bab al-Shams Village... We, the sons and daughters of Palestine

Bab al-Shams Village

We, the sons and daughters of Palestine from all throughout the land, announce the establishment of Bab al-Shams Village (Gate of the Sun). We the people, without permits from the occupation, without permission from anyone, sit here today because this is our land and it is our right to inhabit it.

A few months ago the Israeli government announced its intention to build about 4000 settlement housing units in the area Israel refers to as E1. E1 block is an area of about 13 square km that falls on confiscated Palestinian land East of Jerusalem between Ma'ale Adumim settlement, which lies on occupied West Bank Palestinian land, and Jerusalem. We will not remain silent as settlement expansion and confiscation of our land continues. Therefore we hereby establish the village of Bab al-Shams to proclaim our faith in direct action and popular resistance. We declare that the village will stand steadfast until the owners of this land will get their right to build on their land.

The village's name is taken from the novel, 'Bab al-Shams,' by Lebanese writer Elias Khoury. The book depicts the history of Palestine through a love story between a Palestinian man, Younis, and his wife Nahila. Younis leaves his wife to join the Palestinian resistance in Lebanon while Nahila remains steadfast in what remains of their village in the Galilee. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Younis smuggles through Lebanon and back to the Galilee to meet his wife in the 'Bab Alshams' cave, where she gives birth to their children. Younis returns to the resistance in Lebanon as his wife remains in Bab Al Shams.

Bab al-Shams is the gate to our freedom and steadfastness. Bab al-Shams is our gate to Jerusalem. Bab al-Shams is the gate to our to our return.

For decades, Israel has established facts on the ground as the International community remained silent in response to these violations. The time has come now to change the rules of the game, for us to establish facts on the ground - our own land. This action involving women and men from the north to the south is a form of popular resistance. In the coming days we will hold various discussion groups, educational and artistic presentations, as well as film screenings on the lands of this village. The residents of Bab al-Shams invite all the sons and daughters of our people to participate and join the village in supporting our resilience.