Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

[Biddu] Israeli Soldiers Violently Attack Unarmed Protesters

ism media office | 08.04.2004 10:07 | Anti-militarism | World

April 8th 2004

As this report is being sent out, bulldozers are at work destroying more of Biddu's farmland. Villagers, international and Israeli peace activists attempting to confront these bulldozers are again being violently attacked. Please ask your local media to cover this story of the Israeli military and government's blatant disregard for Palestinian land and livelihood, the violence used to grab the land away from its owners, and the unarmed yet determined civilian force trying to stop it.


Trying to stop the destruction of land in Biddu
Israeli soldiers violently attack unarmed protesters
By: ISM in Biddu
April 7, 2004

We awoke this morning at 5:30 (Palestinian time) to the sights of four bulldozers and many soldiers beginning work, cutting down trees and destroying the land here in Biddu. By 7AM people began to converge at the local council and by 7:30 we had reached the worksite. Due to the level of violence directed at such nonviolent protests in the past, it was decided that it might help if internationals were at the front of the march as we approached the soldiers and the worksite.

Upon reaching the worksite we were confronted by a group of soldiers who within a matter of 10 seconds fired tear gas and concussion grenades at the peaceful march. Demonstrators quickly dispersed and the one who remained, our local coordinator, was immediately arrested, taken by soldiers into the hills and badly beaten with soldiers’ batons. He along with another man who was arrested, were both released in the middle of the day.

The overwhelmingly violent presence of soldiers, somewhere near 100, combined with up to seven heavy machines destroying the land, quickly provoked some of the demonstrators to respond with rock throwing.
As the crowd dispersed around the sides of the hill where the work was occurring, soldiers and border police took up sniper positions on the roofs of six local houses and continued firing tear gas, concussion grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets at the crowd.

Part of the demonstration worked its way to a small house on the hillside that was apparently going to be demolished. The soldiers began to beat those who attempted to enter the house and quickly forced 5 Palestinians inside and locked the door. At this point a group of about 18 internationals and Israeli peace activists along with Palestinians attempted to walk up the hillside, arms extended over their heads, and to the soon to be demolished house. Each of our six attempts to reach the house were met with the firing of rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas, and concussion grenades from the many snipers on the roof tops and the large number of border police standing guard outside the house. Tear gas canisters were fired directly at peoples’ heads. Only 3 days earlier, a 15-year-old boy, Ala’a Kan’an Mahmoud Badwan, suffered a skull fracture after being hit with a tear gas canister in the head.

At around 1PM, soldiers began to fire live ammunition at demonstrators resulting in up to four injuries. They continued using live ammunition until well after 3PM. The military’s attack on people trying to stop the destruction of their land continued for much of the day, occurring in several places at the same time.

By 5:30, when the soldiers began to pull out, in over 14 jeeps, there was tremendous damage done to the landscape, many olive trees destroyed, and up to a half mile scar bulldozed into the hillside and surrounding valley.

The house that was to be demolished, was not, and the people locked inside were released. It is our understanding that a restraining order has been granted against the demolition, and will be ruled on as part of the court’s decision on April 16th. There were over 40 injuries today, 4 from gas inhalation, 4 from live ammunition, and 32 from rubber-coated steel bullets. The youngest person with an injury was 7. He had a rubber-coated steel bullet shot into his lower leg. 4 were taken from the Biddu clinic to the hospital in Ramallah for more intensive treatment. Work will continue tomorrow and the community will be there to resist.

For photos, please see:
 http://www.palsolidarity.org/pictures/PHOTOS_7Apr04_01_19_13JerusalemNewsAgencies.htm

For more information:
Mohammed: +972.67.395.422
Mansour: +972.55.804.830
Neal: +972.66.346.165
ISM Media Office: +972.22.77.46.02

END


INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
www.palsolidarity.org

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

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World 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

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure 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.

IMCs


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