Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

TREES NOT WALLS!

Solidarity Pal | 24.01.2004 15:02 | Anti-militarism | Free Spaces | Social Struggles | Cambridge | London

TREES NOT WALLS!
Hundreds March in Israel to Plant Trees

Thursday, January 22, 2004

TREES NOT WALLS!
Hundreds March in Israel to Plant Trees

[Budrus, RAMALLAH] Hundreds of Palestinians - men and women, old and
young, Israelis and Internationals from at least 12 different countries* braved
the pouring rain today and marched to plant olive tree saplings where the
Israeli government has destroyed trees to build what it calls a
"Security Wall."

The aims of today's action were:

- To take back the land illegally and unjustly bulldozed
for the wall (two weeks ago, a beautiful family olive grove) - To call for the International Court of Justice in the Hague to rule against the Wall - To show the Israeli Occupation Forces that the village will not stop their peaceful resistance, despite being shot, beaten and jailed.

Sixty Internationals and Israelis joined over 250 Palestinians and
marched down to stand in front of the machines flattening the village's farmland
for the path of the Wall. Upon sighting the crowd, the earthmovers digging
up the land stopped working and pulled back. The villagers set to work
planting 50 of the 500 olive trees (previously reported as 100) donated
to the village by Rabbis for Human Rights. As the villagers were planting
the trees on their land, the Border Police arrived and announced to the
Israelis in Hebrew that Israelis had 15 minutes to clear the area so the Border
Policemen could then "deal with the Palestinians". If the Israelis did
not leave, they would be arrested. The villagers, not wanting their
supporters and guests to be hurt, asked everyone to retreat for the day.

The villagers, having planted 50 trees today announced that they would
not stop their resistance to the destruction and confiscation of their land
and the attempt to turn their village into a walled-in ghetto. They thanked
everyone standing with them and called on the international community
not to turn a blind eye to this crime against humanity being executed in the
21st Century. "And we say to Sharon, 'you may have the weapons to destroy
our land and lives, but you do not have the weapons to destroy our spirit,
and so we will not stay silent, and our friends will not let you destroy us
silently", said one villager, Fayed Ahmed.**

Budrus and the neighboring villages of Nihilin, Qibbya, and Medea stand
to lose 90% of their land to the Wall. The Wall is being built in a circle
around these villages and there will only be one gate to let villagers
in and out. In other villages where the land has been destroyed and the
Wall completed, gates remain almost permanently closed.

Budrus village has managed to stop the building of the Wall through
peaceful sit-ins on the land and the bulldozers. However, the response from the
Israeli Occupation Forces has been extreme - over 60 villagers have been

injured by rubber coated metal bullets, troops invade Budrus and open
fire with live bullets, 10 activists are imprisoned (including young
children),and women and children alike are beaten and heavily gassed at each
demonstration. The organizers of the village's nonviolent resistance
have been abducted from their homes in the middle of the night by the Israeli
military.

Good News: Tonight, Ayed Morrar was released after 8 days of
interrogation and abuse. Thank you to everyone who called and wrote to the Israeli
authorities on behalf of Ayed, Nai'm and the other villagers of Budrus
imprisoned for their resistance to the Wall. Nai'm and the other
villagers remain in Israeli custody.

Please continue to pressure your members of parliament and government
representatives to speak out and act against Israel's violations of
Palestinian human rights. Please do continue to call and write to the
Israeli authorities about Na'im Ahmed Hussein Morrar and those from
Budrus,imprisoned for their active but peaceful resistance.

Ofer Prison
+972-2 588-4202 or +972-2 588-4348

Israeli Prison Service Spokesman
Tel: +972 8 977 6806

Minister of Justice, Yosef Lapid
Phone: +972-2-646-6527
Fax: 0+972-2-628-5438

Military Attorney General, Brig. General Menahem Finkelstein
Fax: +972-3-569-4370

Meir Sheetrit, Minister of Justice
Ministry of Justice, 29 Saleh al-Din Street
Jerusalem, 91010
Israel
Fax: +972 2 628 8618
E-Mail:  sar@justice.gov.il

Mrs Orit Adato
Commissioner, Israeli Prison Service
Fax: +972 8 921 0649

For pictures from today's demonstration, please see:
www.palsolidarity.org

For more information, please call:
Ahmed (Arabic): +972-66-339-862
Max (English): +972-53-471-226
Huwaida (Arabic & English): +972-67-473-308

* Countries represented: Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland,
France, Iceland, Japan, Scotland, South Africa, Sweden, United States +
Israelis

** Pseudonym used for purpose of protection.

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
www.palsolidarity.org

Solidarity Pal
- Homepage: http://www.palsolidarity.org/

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech