Some two hundred and fifty residents of Kufr Qaddoum, joined by a handful of Israeli and international activists, protested in the village on Friday against the enclosure of the village and an ongoing land grab policy. The protest was launched in a cheerful march from the center of the village towards the main road, which was blocked by the army a few months ago. As protesters came close to the barrier, Israeli forces began shooting large quantities of tear-gas canisters, as well as rubber-coated bullets.

After about half an hour of protest and without any warning, an army bulldozer cleared the road and made way for military jeeps and dozens of soldiers who began storming into the village. The army instantly arrested six Palestinians – among them four journalists – three Israelis and four international activists. Some of the arrestees were severely beaten. One journalist’s leg and another’s arm were broken during their violent arrests. The Israelis, internationals and journalists were released after short investigations. However, two local youth currently remain in custody. Both were taken to the Hawara detention center where they can be kept for eight days before being brought before a judge.

(Video depicts violent arrests of several journalists)

Kufr Qaddoum, a small town of 3,500 inhabitants, is situated in the northern West Bank, between Nablus and Qalqilya. Qaddum’s total land area used to consist of nearly 19,000 dunams, of which 11,000 are now under total Israeli control. Village lands have been repeatedly confiscated to build and expand the settlement of Kedumim. The expansion of one the settlement’s neighborhoods, Mitzpe Yishai, became relatively well-known when even the Israeli Civil Administration described land takeover as theft. Lands that were officially recognized as belonging to private owners in Qaddoum were taken over in an orderly manner, without any official authorization. Furthermore, the village has been effectively besieged since the beginning of the second intifada, when the main and only entrance to the village was blocked by the army.

By The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

Weekly march in Nabi Saleh (photo: Activestills)

ּBi’lin

Residents of Bil’in were joined by Israeli and international activists, and made their way from the center of the village towards the Wall. Demonstrators carried flags and chanted slogans for national unity, for the continued struggle against the occupation and in solidarity with political prisoners. Upon reaching the Abu Lamon grove, an area returned to the village after a long popular and legal battle, protests were met by large army forces that were stationed on the other side of the Wall. The Army shot rubber-coated bullets, tear-gas canisters and shock grenades, and used the “skunk” foul-smelling water cannon, to disperse the unarmed demonstrators.

A 17 year old youth, Mu’awya Al-Khatib was injured by a rubber-coated steel bullet.  The extensive shooting also lit fires in the olive groves. The demonstration ended with some clashes between army and youth, who in response to the assault threw stones at the soldiers. No arrests were reported.

17-year old injured by rubber-coated bullet in Bi'lin weekly demo (photo: Hamde Abu Rahmah)

Kufr Qaddoum

Two-hundred and fifty Palestinian residents, joined by a handful of Israeli and international activists, protested in the village on Friday against the enclosure of the village and ongoing land grab policy. The protest was launched with a musical march from the center of the village towards the main road, which was blocked off by the army a few months ago. As protesters came close to the barrier, Israeli soldiers  began shooting large amounts of tear-gas canisters, as well as rubber coated bullets. Due to the extensive shooting, fires broke out in the village’s fields, causing damage to crops. Palestinian firefighters were called to fight the flames. Village youth replied to the military assault with stones and the event developed into clashes. Before finally retreating, the army arrested 40 year old Majed Jumah, who was taken to Salem detention center.

Kufr Qaddoum, a small town of 3,500 inhabitants, is situated in the northern West Bank, between Nablus and Qalqilya. Qaddoum’s total land area used to consist of nearly 19,000 dunams, of which 11,000 are now under total Israeli control. Village lands have been repeatedly confiscated to build and expand the settlement of Kedumim. The expansion of one the settlement’s neighborhoods, Mitzpe Yishai, became relatively well-known when even the Israeli Civil Administration described land takeover as theft. Lands that were officially recognized as belonging to private owners in Qaddum were taken over in an orderly manner, without any official authorization. Furthermore, the village has been effectively besieged since the beginning of the Second Intifada, when the main and only entrance to the village was blocked by the army.

Nabi Saleh

Palestinian woman being sprayed by "skunk" water in Nabi Saleh (photo: Activestills)

Several dozen Nabi Saleh residents joined by supporters from Israel and abroad, joined the weekly protest against settlement expansion and the ongoing occupation this week. Protesters aimed to repeat last week’s historical victory of reaching the fresh water spring that was confiscated by settlers, with the support of the army, more than two years ago. They marched down the hill overseeing the spring, only to be met with extensive use of tear-gas canisters and rubber coated bullets. After reassembling, protesters tried to make their way through the main road of the village. There, the army resorted to using the “skunk” – a water cannon used to spray foul-smelling liquid on protesters. Targeting in particular two women leaders of the protests, the army sprayed massive torrents of liquid directly at them. After some hours of clashes, the army finally retreated.

According to Tamimi Press, Abu Hussam al-Tamimi of the local popular committee was arrested, along with two international activists and one Israeli. No severe injuries were reported.

Our brave gunmen deployed yesterday (Friday) an unusual weapon in their battle against the Palestinian popular resistance: an attack dog. The IDF canine unit – apparently there is one – sicced a dog on the protesters in Kufr Qaddoum, and it was caught on camera. When Morad Shtawi came to the aid of the wounded protester, he was thrown to the ground, pepper-sprayed and handcuffed.

There is something particularly horrible about the use of an animal against another human being. In the worst case, it reminds you of the arenas in ancient Roman cities; in less worse ones, of Bull Connor and the Alabama police attacking Martin Luther King’s marchers. This won’t surprise many, but judging by the comments in Haaretz (Hebrew), in one of which the commenter is worried lest the dog become “Arabified”, the public stands almost unanimously behind the gunmen. The IDF Spokesman’s comment (“during a violent and iillegal disturbance of order…”) was exceptionally ludicrous, particularly when you remember what “the law in these parts” means in the West Bank.

The gunmen have a large anti-demonstrator arsenal. One of these weapons is the so-called rubber bullet, which is in fact a metal bullet encased in thin rubber. An Israeli demonstrator was shot in the head by one of these in Nabi Saleh yesterday. The ordinary Israeli would claim there is a direct connection between violence by the gunmen and violence by the protesters. They fail to supply the evidence in the case of the dog attack – they need to prove that it attacked the right person, not a random demonstrator. In the Nabi Saleh case, the attack is certainly not accidental. Headshots very rarely are. They are premeditated. The problem is, the IDF has no incentive to prove its innocence. It couldn’t care less about its international image and its home crowd couldn’t care less, and hasn’t in a decade or more.

That wasn’t always the case. During the First Intifada, there was a major scandal when the IDF gunmen were videoed burying some protesters alive. The gunmen of the Givati brigade who beat handcuffed protesters to death went on one trial after another. Colonel Yehuda Meir, who could justly claim to have carried out the unwritten orders of the saint-to-be Yizhak Rabin, “to break the bones” of the protesters (Anti-Rabin cultists greatly resent being reminded of this), was demoted to private and kicked out of the IDF for ordering such torture. The majority preferred to turn a blind eye even then, but a significant part of the public still demanded an end to the brutalization.

Can it be done? Can you actually maintain an “enlightened occupation,” as we used to call it? Metaphorically, it was handcuffing a person – but making sure the handcuffs didn’t chafe his skin, and that they were in front of him, and not behind, and telling yourself this is the best which can be done. It was a lie: the torture chambers of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Beth) were occupied around the clock even before 1987. One of the reasons the “Shin Beth affair,” in which ISA officers murdered two captive Palestinians, ended with a pre-trial pardon was that some of the persons involved threatened to “open their mouths” and tell all they knew about how the ISA actually acted. They were certainly not the last to use this threat. In those days, the concept of an “enlightened occupation” was much derided by the radical left of the time as hypocritical, collaboration with the occupation.

It certainly was. But now we learn that the thin shell of hypocrisy is essential to civilization, and once it breaks, all we are left with is naked violence, always justified by its own existence. We have unleashed the beast, and that is basically all we are left with: Spartans who adamantly defend the actions of their secret police against the Helots, and who keep declaring war on them every year, to keep the atrocities nice and legal. We are left with people who fight endlessly and who justify every abomination – believing they are speaking on behalf of the comradeship of soldiers, and in fact fighting for the privileges of a small elite.