Update on Internationals Arrested at Jayyous, Palestine
Huwaida Arraf
International Solidarity Movement
November 17, 2002
Photos courtesy of Huwaida Arraf, found at: http://jerusalem.indymedia.org/news/2002/11/89522.php
Yesterday,
the arrestees were taken from the Tsufim military base, to a police station in
the Israeli settlement of Ariel. After questioning: Irish citizen, Michael
McGrath was put on a plane at 5am this morning. Israeli citizen, Jonathan
Pollack was released at approximately 2am this morning.
Four males: Cary Gibbons (UK), Thomas Linner (Canada), Reverend Gordon Hutchins (US) and Ole Martin (Sweden) are being held at the Massyahu prison in Ramle.
The four
women, Esther Serra (Spain), Susan Barney (US), Rodhika Sainath (US) and
Charlotte Carson (Ireland) were released at approximately 2am this morning but
must appear before a judge tomorrow, Sunday. The status of the eight are
“Pending Deportation.”
The Israeli government has long been trying to keep the eyes of the world shut
with regards to its grave violations of international law, its blatant human
rights abuses and its war crimes. This has been done mainly through strong and
well-coordinated propaganda – by labeling the Palestinians “terrorists” and
disguising all of its actions as “fighting
terrorism”. Now that average citizens from all over the world are taking action,
are coming to see for themselves what is being done in the name of “Israeli
security”, the Israeli government is doing whatever it can to keep these people,
that could see and dare speak the truth, out.
The
accusation against these international activists? – Being in a closed military
zone. This “closed military zone” is Palestinian olive groves that the military
has closed off so bulldozers can work on uprooting Palestinian farmers’ olive
trees to make way for an “Apartheid Wall”, stealing Palestinian land to cage
them in their villages. The internationals were there, using no violence, but
rather the power of nonviolence to protect Palestinian villagers from being shot
for daring to protest the confiscation and destruction of their land.
The farmers of Jayyous just want the world to now that the line about this wall
being built to protect Israeli citizens, is a lie. If security and not
expansion, really was the case, why is the wall not being built on the Green
Line – the internationally recognized border between Israel and the West Bank?
Why has the path of the wall been drawn to isolate
Palestine’s most fertile land from its owners? To deprive the Palestinians of
their water wells? To leave farming communities with no land?
Jayyous:
3,000 people / 450 families
Area = 13,000 dunams
600 dunams
will be destoyed (flattened) to make way for the wall
9,000 dunams of farmland will fall on the other side of the wall, including 7
water wells, and over 200 greenhouses.
The
equivalent of approximately 65,000 workdays per year will be lost to the people
of Jayyous as a result of this wall.
Palestinians conduct Friday prayers on their land being
destroyed:
We will continue to
protest this wall, nonviolently, meaning we will be sitting on the land
tomorrow. The media does not take an interest. They tell us to call when there
is blood. We just want you to know.
Meanwhile in Nablus and Tulkarem, the Israeli military continues to engage in
wanton killings and destruction. In the last week alone in Tulkarem, 18 families
were made homeless as a result of Israeli policy. Checkpoints, humiliations,
random and purposeful killing, they all continue as a part of daily life in
Palestine ala the Israeli occupation. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of
yesterday’s protest was the grins and smirks on soldiers’ faces as they were
firing their weapons at unarmed Palestinians.
Methodist Minister, Gordon Hutchins, carries sign expressing sentiment of protesters:
Boston activist, Susan Barney, runs from tear gas:
Swedish activist, Ole Martin, is grabbed by Israeli soldiers:
Soldiers go after Thomas Linner's camera:
Soldiers firing at Palestinians despersing in the hills:
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