Video from last night’s raid (Video: PSCC)
At 1:30 past midnight last night, large forces of Israeli army raided many of the houses in the village of Nabi Saleh including of Bassem, Naji, Bilal Tamimi, without having any warrant.
Soldiers also attacked Bilal Tamimi, the local photojournalist, took his camera and deleted its memory and handcuffed him for a while. In addition soldiers attempted to arrest Bassem Tamimi’s wife, Nariman, who documented the night raid to their house with her camera.
Accompanied by dogs, soldiers have searched several houses, while making a record of the residents and their houses and photographing them.
Nighttime raids on Nabi Saleh targeting protesters take place on a regular basis, terrifying families and children. The raids, in addition to arbitrary arrests of the residents, are part of Israeli army campaign to deter villagers from organizing the weekly demonstration.
Background
Late in 2009, settlers began gradually taking over Ein al-Qaws (the Bow Spring), which rests on lands belonging to Bashir Tamimi, the head of the Nabi Saleh village council. The settlers, abetted by the army, erected a shed over the spring, renamed it Maayan Meir, after a late settler, and began driving away Palestinians who came to use the spring by force – at times throwing stones or even pointing guns at them, threatening to shoot.
While residents of Nabi Saleh have already endured decades of continuous land grab and expulsion to allow for the ever continuing expansion of the Halamish settlement, the takeover of the spring served as the last straw that lead to the beginning of the village’s grassroots protest campaign of weekly demonstrations in demand for the return of their lands.
Protest in the tiny village enjoys the regular support of Palestinians from surrounding areas, as well as that of Israeli and international activists.
Demonstrations in Nabi Saleh are also unique in the level of women participation in them, and the role they hold in all their aspects, including organizing. Such participation, which often also includes the participation of children reflects the village’s commitment to a truly popular grassroots mobilization, encompassing all segments of the community.
The response of the Israeli military to the protests has been especially brutal and includes regularly laying complete siege on village every Friday, accompanied by the declaration of the entire village, including the built up area, as a closed military zone. Prior and during the demonstrations themselves, the army often completely occupies the village, in effect enforcing an undeclared curfew. Military nighttime raids and arrest operations are also a common tactic in the army’s strategy of intimidation, often targeting minors.
In order to prevent the villagers and their supporters from exercising their fundamental right to demonstrate and march to their lands, soldiers regularly use disproportional force against the unarmed protesters. The means utilized by the army to hinder demonstrations include, but are not limited to, the use of tear-gas projectiles, banned high-velocity tear-gas projectiles, rubber-coated bullets and, at times, even live ammunition. The use of banned 0.22″ munitions by snipers has also been recorded in Nabi Saleh.
The use of such practices have already brought about the death of Mustafa Tamimi and caused countless injuries, several of them serious, including those of children – the most serious of which is that of 14 year-old Ehab Barghouthi, who was shot in the head with a rubber-coated bullet from short range on March 5th, 2010 and laid comatose in the hospital for three weeks. Due to the wide-spread nature of the disproportionate use of force, the phenomenon cannot be attributed to the behavior of individual soldiers, and should be viewed as the execution of policy.
Tear-gas, as well as a foul liquid called “The Skunk”, which is shot from a water cannon, is often used inside the built up area of the village, or even directly pointed into houses, in a way that allows no refuge for the uninvolved residents of the village, including children and the elderly. The interior of at least one house caught fire and was severely damaged after soldiers shot a tear-gas projectile through its windows.
Since December 2009, when protest in the village was sparked, hundreds of demonstration-related injuries caused by disproportionate military violence have been recorded in Nabi Saleh.
Between January 2010 and June 2012, the Israeli Army has carried 98 arrests of people detained for 24 hours or more on suspicions related to protest in the village of Nabi Saleh, including those of women and of children as young as 11 years old. Of the 98, 31 were minors. Dozens more were detained for shorter periods. Two of the village’s protest leaders – Bassem and Naji Tamimi – arrested on protest-organizing related charges, were recognized by the European Union as human rights defenders. Bassem Tamimi was also declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, recently denounced his conviction by an Israeli military court and Human Rights Watch warned that he did not receive a fair trial.
Horseman one of the Zionist apocalypse has appeared on the horizon
http://www.haaretz.com/business/all-that-glitters-headed-for-recession-it-depends-who-s-asking-1.451601
Along with the rest of the world, it is clear that the Israeli economy is slowing down. Exports are not increasing or even falling, and the deficits in trade and in the balance of payments are rapidly growing. The budgetary shortfall will also end up at no less than 4% of the GDP. There is already a drop in demand in many areas. Accountants in the larger firms, who are familiar with their clients’ running balance sheets, are willing to admit off the record that the second quarterly reports for this year will reflect the weakening economic situation. The second quarterly reports for companies that trade on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange are due in the next few weeks, and will show losses and many delistings.
The sooner the Arabs understand that they need to share the land with the Jews, because it is also the land of the Jewish people, the better of everyone will be.
Could not help noticing how many rooms in the house.
Those photographs are going to prove useful during interrogation/torture sessions when the military and the Shabak will attempt to extract false confessions from individuals.
Let the good times roll.
for relocation