Palestinian outpost to protect Palestinian property removed by Israeli occupation
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) violently evacuated legal Palestinian outpost established in the West Bank village of Bil'in to protest the construction of the seperation wall on their land and arrested a number of citizens and peace activists, the International Solidarity Movement said.
The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles. Founded by a small group of activists in August, 2001, ISM aims to support and strengthen the Palestinian popular resistance by providing the Palestinian people with two resources, international protection and a voice with which to nonviolently resist an overwhelming military occupation force.
In a press release issued Friday, International Solidarity Movement (ISM) said: Just after 7:15 PM on Thursday evening, 150 Israeli soldiers violently evacuated the Palestinian "outpost" established Wednesday by the village of Bil'in on the village's land isolated west of Israel's Annexation Wall, and detained a number of Palestinian and Israeli protesters. In marked contrast, only 100 meters away, the Israeli government has failed to take any action against large-scale, illegal Israeli settlement construction. In that location in the settlement of Matityahu East, Ha'aretz Daily has reported that Israeli settlers have built 750 new housing units illegally, with no permits whatsoever. Commenting on this situation, Israeli human rights attorney Michael Sfard said: "This is called apartheid."
Israeli soldiers used sledge hammers, chains, teargas and sound bombs to break into Bil'in's container or "outpost," to evacuate the Palestinian, Israeli and international activists inside and to disperse hundreds of nearby protesters. The Israeli military removed the container using a crane, and detained nonviolent organizer Mohammed Khatib from Bil'in and seven Israeli protesters. Mohammed Khatib was released after a few hours, while the seven Israelis are still being held.
The village of Bil'in established its "outpost" yesterday by placing a container on village land to the west of the Wall. The Wall is cutting off approximately half of Bil'in's land, and Bil'in has been waging a year long nonviolent struggle against the construction of the Wall on village land.
Mohammed Khatib from Bil'in's Popular Committee Against the Wall said that the land where the container was placed belongs to a village resident, and that Bil'in's village council had issued a permit for the new construction. Khatib said that the village had planned to establish a Center for the Joint Struggle for Peace at the location.
The Palestinian "outpost" in Bil'in is the first widely publicized Palestinian effort to create an outpost to counter large-scale Israeli efforts to establish settlements and outposts on Palestinian land throughout the West Bank. Israeli settlers regularly place containers on Palestinian land to create what are referred to as "outposts" that are eventually expanded into larger Israeli settlements. All Israeli outposts and settements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are widely recognized as illegal under international law, though the Israeli government attempts to claim that some are legal and others illegal. Israel pledged to remove tens of outposts under "the Roadmap to Peace," but has failed to do so.
Ha'aretz Daily's Akiva Eldar and Meron Rapoport have reported that the Israeli Civil Administration's admits "that 750 housing units had been built illegally with no permits whatsoever" in the West Bank next to Bil'in. Ha'aretz quoted Michael Sfard, who is representing Bil'in, saying, "Private Palestinian land is in question here, not state land. The village council approved setting up a caravan and thus this is a legal structure... This will be blatant proof of the fact that there is selective law enforcement if they deal with the poor caravan before the hundreds of housing units built illegally in Upper Modi'in" [the nearby settlement]... "Now the truth is out, and the truth is that Jews are allowed to break the law and Palestinians are not...This is called apartheid."