Report from an Irish activist in Palestine

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Friday August 13, 2004 20:18 by Donal

On Sunday 8th August, three Irish activists (two from Galway Grassroots and one from WSM/DGN) joined the Freedom March along the route of the illegal Apartheid Wall in Palestine. This is a brief account of the actions we have taken part in.

The march began in Zubabar in the Jenin region on Friday July 30th. On August 8th, we joined the march in Izbat Salman.

At around 6:00pm as the Freedom March arrived at a gate in the fence section of the Apartheid Wall, which also serves as a checkpoint, between the village of Azzun Atmah and Beit Amin, we witnessed 15-20 young Palestinian men being detained by the Israeli Army.

We demanded that the young men be released, and were told that we had 5 minutes to leave the area. We moved a few metres up the road, and continued observing the checkpoint. The soldiers followed us and demanded we leave. We sat down and linked arms.

After five minutes the Israeli soldiers attempted to physically drag internationals away. Although we tried to protect each other non-violently, the soldiers managed to detain Karl, a 23 year-old peace activist from New York. He was beaten in police custody, told he should be deported for "holding a megaphone", and released the following day.

Eventually all but one of the young Palestinians were released. The soldiers took the other one away, claiming they were giving him a ride home. Two of the men released told us they had been detained at the checkpoint for over 24 hours.

The following day as we marched through the village of Masha the occupation forces blocked our path. We linked arms and attempted to continue walking, at which point the soldiers started pushing us back, kicking and punching people in the front line. They tried to drag people out of the crowd, but were unsuccessful. Eventually they conceded and allowed us to continue further up the road to an agreed spot. This may not sound like much of a victory, but the local marchers were jubilant seeing the soldiers back down.

The soldiers continued to harass the march for the rest of the day, attempting to block it, pushing us around, trying to arrest people. A young girl was punched in the neck by one them.

On Wednesday we marched to the village of Budrus, which had a massive nonviolent campaign against the Wall. Before marching to Budrus, we had lunch in an olive grove. As we were leaving the field our path was blocked by soldiers. We kept marching and exited the field onto the miltary road which the wall, when completed, will run adjacent to. Soon we were being flanked by numerous army and police vehicles. As we approached Budrus, hundreds of villagers came to join us. We continued marching together. A soldier threw a concussion grenade into the front of the group, and we continued marching until we reached the village.

While we were being welcomed to Budrus, the occupation forces detained a fifteen year old boy. A group of internationals walked from the village to the trucks where he was being held. The boy was sitting in the back of a jeep blindfolded. We told the soldiers they could either release the boy or deal with a few hundred angry protestors. We stood in the road, intending to block the jeep if they tried to take him away. After a few minutes the boy was released.

Yesterday, as we were marching to Deir Qaddis, we crossed a settler road. Two affinity groups blocked traffic while another painted slogans against the wall in six foot high letters.

More reports will follow, however we do not have regular internet access.

For more info see: http://www.palsolidarity.org