[Dryerase] [Fwd: Nablus Protest Photos (January 5, 2003)]

[ckln NEWS 88.1fm]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Nablus Protest Photos (January 5, 2003)
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2003 11:47:54 -0500 (EST)
From: Jaggi Singh <jaggi at tao.ca>
To: jaggisingh2003 at yahoo.ca


Photos from the roadblock direct action in Nablus yesterday are now
available online at:
http://palestine.indymedia.org/news/2003/01/99769.php

The original article is also linked at:
http://palestine.indymedia.org/news/2003/01/99760.php

-- J


---------- Forwarded message ----------

Palestinians defy Israeli Occupation Forces to clear roadblocks

Actions part of anti-Apartheid Wall campaign

-- reported by Jaggi Singh


NABLUS, OCCUPIED PALESTINE (January 5, 2003) -- Over 200 residents of
the
West Bank city of Nablus cleared a path through a large earth-and-rubble
Israeli road blockade today, using shovels, picks, bare hands, as well
as
a bulldozer. The action was supported by more than 30 activists with the
International Solidarity Movement (ISM), as well as other international
observers.

The blockade on Jerusalem Road -- which is actually two separate wide
and
high mounds of packed earth, rubble, bricks and debris -- inhibits
travel
for residents of the Balata and Askar refugee camps into the city center
of Nablus. The earth barriers were constructed by Israeli Occupation
Forces' (IOF) soldiers three months ago, part of the low-intensity siege
of Nablus and its surrounding areas.

Today's direct action was supported by all the main political groups of
Nablus, as well as local medical and education committees, and the
Palestinian municipal authorities. Starting in the late morning,
residents
arrived at the blockade, known as Al Moqata, located right beside
Palestinian Authority buildings destroyed by Israeli bombs last spring.

Men, women and children all began to move away the earth and rubble,
sometimes needing up to 20 people to push away large boulders. They were
cheered on by singing and chanting onlookers. IOF forces, who
strategically occupy the high ground around Nablus, stayed discreetly
away
from the action, although they were sighted watching the scene from atop
the hills.

The mood of today's action was exuberant, especially when an
earth-moving
vehicle arrived to help clear the blockade. Later, a bulldozer finished
the task, allowing space for cars to move through a portion of the
blockade, as well as helping residents to more easily access their own
city. As of this evening, the new access point is being widely used by
taxis and cars in Nablus.

In the words of Saif Salem, a Palestinian member of the ISM in Nablus,
"This action is helping to bring the city to life."

Today's action is the second time within the last month that city
residents have removed some of the symbolic tools of IOF occupation.
Less
than three weeks ago, Nablus-area residents removed a one-tonne iron
gate
that divided the city of Nablus into two on Amman Road (parallel to
Jerusalem Road). The gate was torn from its hinges, and thrown over a
cliff into a nearby ravine. It has yet to be replaced.

The roadblock removals are important collective actions, but Nablus
still
remains a city very much under siege. There are checkpoints controlling
access to and from the city, with no vehicles allowed to leave or enter
without special permission. At the Huwarra checkpoint just outside
Nablus,
there are consistently long lineups of Palestinians waiting to enter or
leave the city. Many people often wait the entire day in the open air.

Within Nablus, a curfew is imposed each night at 6pm, while unannounced
checkpoints are set up at various locations in the city. Ambulances
often
have difficultly crossing these arbitrary blockades. According to
Ha'aretz
newspaper, a ten-day old baby died in an ambulance after not being able
to
cross a checkpoint to the local hospital in the early morning hours of
January 2, 2003.

Meanwhile, as part of their almost nightly operations, IOF soldiers
engage
in home invasions and occupations as they attept to arrest or kill the
hundreds of Palestinians on their wanted lists from Nablus. IOF tanks,
APCs and jeeps roam freely at night, and home demolitions are a frequent
occurence.


THE APARTHEID WALL


The blockade removals in Nablus are part of a larger ISM campaign
called:
"Imprisoned in our own land: Israeli Walls of Apartheid". The campaign
focusses on the walls, barriers and restrictions to daily life under
illegal Israeli military occupation.

Most tangibly, the campaign targets the Israeli security and separation
fence -- better known as the Apartheid Wall -- which is intended to
physically separate the residents of West Bank and Gaza from Israel.
Importantly, significant portions of the Apartheid Wall are being built
inside the Palestinian side of the 1967 Green-line border, which will
effectively annex and confiscate 10% of land within the West Bank.

The first-stage of the wall is currently being built in the northern
West
Bank, in the Tulkarem/Qalqilya area. This first phase will be 115km
long,
and an average of 8 metres high. It will include electric fences, guard
towers, trenches, cameras, sensors and security patrols. The wall just
in
this area effectively confiscates 2% of West Bank land in one of the
most
fertile areas of Palestine. In other areas, farmers will be cut off from
their fields, while the city of Qalqilya will almost be encircled by the
wall.

Palestinian residents of the Qalqilya-area have already organized
actions
against the wall, most recently on December 29, 2002 in the village of
Jayyous, where they were met by the tear gas, batons and live bullets of
IOF soldiers and private security.

The wall is also taking shape, brutally, in Rafah (Gaza), near the
Egyptian border. Dozens of homes have been demolished -- often shelled
with tank fire, or dynamited after forcibly removing residents -- so
that
the Apartheid Wall can eventually go up. In some cases, homes are
demolished without warning.

In Rafah, one of the basic acts of resistance has been for families,
sometimes supported by internationals, to remain in their homes, in
defiance of IOF orders to leave.

Just south of Jerusalem, near Bethlehem, the Israeli government is
completing a security fence in the area, part of the Apartheid Wall
network. The fence is being constructed beyond the Jewish-only
settlements
of Gilo and Har Homa, that have already been illegally annexed as
"neighborhoods" of Jerusalem.

On New Year's Eve, about 1000 Palestinian residents of the towns of
Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour, south of the fence, marched to the
Jerusalem-Bethlehem checkpoint to oppose the Apartheid Wall, as well as
to
demand open access to Jerusalem and an end to the occupation.

The anti-Apartheid Wall campaign continues in the upcoming months. There
is a major demonstration and march planned in the Tulkarem area for this
coming Thursday. For updates, consult: http://www.palsolidarity.org.


[Written and reported by Jaggi Singh from Nablus. Jaggi is a volunteer
with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and is a writer and
social justice activist based in Montreal. Digital photos from the
action
today in Nablus will be available soon. To get copies sent by e-mail
attachment, please contact jaggisingh2003 at yahoo.ca.]