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.

[Biddu, Palestine] People's Resistance Pushes Israeli Military Out Of Village

ism media office | 05.04.2004 19:25 | Anti-militarism | World

April 4, 2004

BIDDU PEOPLE'S RESISTANCE PUSHES ISRAELI MILITARY OUT OF VILLAGE
Boy suffers skull fracture

(See below for links to pictures)


[Biddu, NW Jerusalem] Today was the first day that the bulldozers were allowed to return to work on the apartheid wall in this area after nearly 5 weeks when no work was allowed because of the pending court case in the Israeli High Court. At approximately 3:30pm 2 bulldozers accompanied by at least 7 jeeps, approximately 90 soldiers (mostly border police) as well as members of an anti-terrorism task force and a truck with a water canon attached to the top, arrived in Biddu and began bulldozing their land. Immediately a call for a demonstration was made in the mosques and people began to arrive at the work site. About 150 Palestinians, as well as 7 internationals, and 4 Israelis came and peacefully confronted the soldiers. The soldiers cut off the road leading out of Biddu as well as occupied a partially-constructed home overlooking the worksite and surrounded the demonstration. Demonstrators attempted to negotiate with the soldiers at which time the soldiers showed a piece of paper declaring the area a closed military zone and threatened arrests.

One activist, assigned the spokesperson for the village action, standing with his 12-year-old son, in face-to-face discussion with one heavily-armed soldier appealed to the soldier to refuse service in the Israeli Army, an army, through its actions creating divisions and hate. “I raise my son not to hate - to love and respect all people; how do you feel standing here, forcing my son and all of our children to hate you by your actions?” In the end, the soldier responded, “I know what you are saying is true, and you won’t see me here again.”

While the demonstrators slowly and peacefully moved towards the bulldozers with arms raised, the soldiers, equipped with full-body shields and in some cases plastic body armor over their arms and legs, refused to allow the Palestinians and their supporters to sit peacefully on their own land. Instead, the Israeli military fired an immense amount of tear gas and sound grenades, as well as rubber-coated steel bullets. The Palestinians and their supporters scattered and then regrouped and again attempted to approach the bulldozers, but they were again attacked with tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. At one point, the soldiers began firing tear gas at the entrance to a nearby home where there were over a dozen small children inside. A man attempted to exit the building with a small baby but found he could not get through the tear gas. Internationals approached the soldiers and informed them that there were small children inside. They stopped firing gas near the home for a short time but then began again.

Another man who had been attempting to negotiate with the soldiers for some time was shot in the thigh with a tear gas canister while sitting with a group of approximately 10 men on the land from less than 15 meters away. Alaa Kan’an Mahmoud Badwan, 15 years old, a relative of Mohammed Badwan who was killed by the Israeli military during demonstrations in Biddu a month ago, was shot in the head by a tear gas canister (fired out of a gun) and is currently in the hospital in Ramallah with a fractured skull. Tomorrow he will be moved to a hospital in Jerusalem. Three people were injured by rubber-coated steel bullets, one in the leg and one in the stomach, as well as one international, Peter from Sweden, shot twice with rubber bullets in the back. An Israeli was hit in the wrist with a tear gas canister and there were at least 8 other injuries caused by tear gas canisters being shot into crowds at close range and inhalation of that gas.

After 2 hours the bulldozers and soldiers left as the Palestinians and their supporters refused to be dispersed by the use of violence on the part of the Israeli military. As the dozens of soldiers and jeeps pulled out of the village, whistling, cheering, singing and dancing ensured, with Israeli peace activists being hoisted atop of shoulders…”NO to the Wall, YES to peace!” and “Sharon, you murderer you will see, the Intifada will set us free! (will prevail)”

For more information:
Biddu Village Council: +972-2-247-1220
Mohammed Ayyash: +972-67-395-422
Mansour Mansour: +972-55-804-830
ISM Media Office: +972-2-277-4602

END

See photos:
 http://www.palsolidarity.org/pictures/PHOTOS_4Apr04_19_21_30JerusalemWarrickPage,AssociatedPress,ISM.htm
 http://www.palsolidarity.org/pictures/PHOTOS_4Apr04_13_22_02JerusalemHuwaida&Jeff(ISM).htm


INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT

ism media office
- e-mail: info@palsolidarity.org
- Homepage: http://www.palsolidarity.org

Comments

Display the following 6 comments

  1. 2nd photo link working here — *
  2. forget I said that — *
  3. No..it doesnt work — *
  4. Fake Link — Tatty
  5. Not a fake link — IMC bloke
  6. Hey Tatty — Indymedia Veteran
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