This past Monday over 200 masked and camouflaged Israeli soldiers swarmed into the West Bank village of Bil’in at 3 a.m. and raided five homes. Eight people were arrested, including Mohammad Khatib a leader of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements (pictured right).
These arrests were part of on ongoing effort by the Israeli military to end the nonviolent resistance in Bil’in by carrying out now routine late night raids. According to the International Solidarity Movement, since the beginning of June Israel has arrested 25 people in the village (most are under 18). The ISM also says that "Israeli forces have been using interrogation techniques to pressure the arrested youth to give statements against Bil’in community leaders."
There are several ways you can help. From the ISM:
1. Many of you have met Mohammad Khatib and perhaps one of the others mentioned above. We need you now to personally testify about your knowledge of them and their commitment to non-violence. Write a letter to the Israeli military judge and please send to bilinlegal@gmail.com.
2. Please Protest by contacting your political representatives, as well as you consuls and ambassadors to Israel to demand the release of Mohammad Khatib, Adib Abu Rahme and all Bil’in prisoners.
3. The Popular committee of Bil’in is in desperate need for legal funds in order to pay legal fees and Bail. Please donate to the Bil’in legal fund by paypal click http://tinyurl.com/lcr6rg . If you would like to make a tax deductible donation in the US or Canada contact: bilinlegal@gmail.com.
The only lawbreaker here is Israel, ignoring the ruling of its own courts that this wall must come down.
It is interesting how Israel’s apologists will argue that they it is legal to know down a houe or evict a Palestinian family becasue the court has decided so, but just as easily, dismiss court rulings that are inconvenient?
In any case, this event proves that non violent protest and resistance is not tolerted or effective, which leaves vilence as the only other option.
State Sponsored Intimidation……this is as ugly as it gets.
A refrain keeps echoing in my mind – “If you just were into non-violent protest everything would be rosy, and you would not have to worry about violent and abusive Israeli response.” Where are the Gandhi-ites now? Now that there are these nightly raids, arrests, and some deaths during peaceful protest?
The Palestinian Gandhis are evidently now all in jail.
Is the Israeli government taking lessons from Iran, or did Iran take lessons from Israel?
Both involve state enforcers invading the sanctity of private property to arrest innocent people under cover of darkness.
Israel has a long history of seeking out and politically or literally neutralizing the Palestinians’ most capable leaders, including their nonviolent activists. This is obviously what’s occurring here — Mohammad Khatib is getting the Mustafa Barghouti treatment. It’s more comfortable for people on the outside to accept that Palestinians are incapable of implementing a mass campaign of nonviolent resistance than it is for them to accept that there have indeed been many homegrown Palestinian nonviolent movements for a long time, and that they’ve actively been not allowed to flourish by the political entity that would benefit least from the movements’ success — Israel.
Is the email address (the gmail one) legit? I want to make a contribution. Anyone have any experience with it?
Many of us have urged the Palestinians to adopt non-violent resistance for some time. It is obvious that Israel could not withstand that kind of pressure. Of course, Israel knows this as well as we do so therefore it is in their interest to crush such movements. I am sure they prefer suicide bombers — maybe a few dead Israelis but the publicity in the US is worth it for them. That is why they initially supported Hamas when it was first forming.
In any case we predicted that this would be the Israeli response to the Bi’lin movement. The only way this can be countered is through publicity. MLK would have achieved very little if the northern press had not picked up on his movement. Where is the NY Times today?
Seems the Israelis studied the 3rd Reich’s tactics very well.
as was mentioned in a post yesterday …”" has once again laid bare the rule of law’s true state in Israel: racist and applying a double-standard, with separate legal systems for Jews and Arabs.…”" those israeli courts just can’t help themselves can they??
The crème de la crème of Palestinian leadership, intellectuals and people of influence are behind bars. It is one way of controlling the population. This indicates to me that Bi’lin is becoming uncomfortably familiar to the more enlightened section of western opinion. Is Ni’lin leadership similarly attacked?
RE:” donate to the Bil’in legal fund by paypal click link to tinyurl.com
MY COMMENT: I made a modest contribution. To save you a little effort, when you get to this PayPal page, your contribution will be in Israeli Shekels. PayPal Conversion Rate as of Aug. 7, 2009: 1 U.S. Dollar = 3.81897 Israeli New Shekels
Consequently, a contribution of 200 Shekels is a little over $50. ($52.37 to be exact)
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AM (and others)- the contact information provided comes directly from the Bil’in activists.
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