BETHLEHEM UPDATES NUMBER 21, APRIL 18, 2009

As the sky goes back and forth between late winter and spring, it has been a busy and tragic week. We cannot understand how this grinding and brutal occupation is allowed to continue.
Please help others learn about the situation here by sharing this update with five of your friends, family, co-workers or others.

In this issue:
- Another senseless murder in Bi’lin,
- Planting olive trees as resistance in Artas
- Over our heads settlers destroy water tanks
- Easter Message from our town of Beit Sahour
- Help end the siege on Gaza, go with CodePink May/June www.codepinkalert.org/gaza.

Another senseless murder in Bi’lin
In January, we attended one of the weekly demonstrations against the Apartheid Wall in the small town of Bi’lin. We witnessed and experienced the brutality of the Israeli military in suppressing what began as a peaceful demonstration against Israel’s occupation and theft of Bi’lin’s land for its settlements and apartheid wall, both of which have been ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Yesterday, April 17, the Israel military fired a high velocity tear gas projectile that hit and killed 29-year old Basem where he stood on a hill with several journalists. This was the same weapon that hit U.S. citizen Tristan Anderson in Ni’lin on March 13; Anderson remains in critical condition. (FMI: http://palsolidarity.org/2009/04/6185)
Under the Geneva protocols, it is the right of the occupied citizens of Bi’lin to resist the Israeli occupation that has already stolen nearly 60% of their land and threatens to take even more. It is the responsibility of U.S. citizens to demand that our government stop funding the Israeli military and occupation. Join Amnesty International in demanding that the U.S. stop sending arms to Israel. Call President Obama and tell him no more U.S. aid or arms to Israel: 202-456-1111.

Planting Olive Trees in Artas
Yesterday, April 17, we went to Artas, a historic village located just south of Bethlehem. It is home to 4000 people, many of whom still make their living from agriculture. We joined local farmers and other internationals in planting olive trees on the village’s hillsides which Israel wants to steal. Since Israel began its military occupation of the West Bank in 1967, the Israelis have stolen thousands of dunams from Artas for their illegal Jewish-only settlements. The Israeli military has issued an order to confiscate all of Artas remaining agricultural lands, a total of 1700 dunams (over 400 acres). The stolen land would be used to expand the illegal settlement of Efrat for which a huge ugly road has already been ripped into the hillside.
Two years ago, Israeli Occupation Forces destroyed a fruit and nut orchard in Artas in order to put a sewage overflow for the illegal settlement (FMI: www.imemc.org/article/49986).
According to residents, when the overflow is used, untreated sewage pours into Artas’s agricultural valley, threatening its crops and water supply. Townspeople, internationals and Israeli activists had camped out in the orchard for several days to prevent its being destroyed. They were forcibly removed by the Israeli soldiers who arrested several, including Awad, one of the primary organizers.
Awad told us about his imprisonment, humiliation and torture by the Israeli soldiers. The soldiers beat him; they put their feet on his neck; they taunted him. They said he was like a dog. He did not reply. They told him to take his clothes off and when he refused, they unzipped his pants and pulled them down. He told a policy woman that he was thirsty and she said when she came back from the bathroom she would give him something to drink (meaning her urine). He was blind folded and walked around, he tripped and fell and they laughed at time. They dragged him by his collar and walked him into a wall.
As Americans have been shocked and repulsed by Guantanamo, so must we be about the Israeli occupation and human rights violations against the Palestinians. Call your Congressperson and tell them you want an end to U.S. aid to Israel: 202-224-3121.

Over our heads settlers destroy water tanks
Last Tuesday, April 14, in our effort to finally see the tourist sights, we went to Hebron to see visit the Ibrahimi Mosque. The Ibrahimi Mosque was first built in 1206 on a cave believed to hold the tombs of Abraham and his family. Inside it is very beautiful, full of mosaics and colorful marble floors and walls. Outside it is marred by presence of Israeli soldiers manning metal turnstiles.
On February 24, 1994, illegal Israeli settler Barach Goldstein entered the Mosque in his military uniform and opened fire on those praying, killing 52 Palestinians. A physician with a history of refusing to provide medical treatment to Arabs, Goldstein lived in the nearby illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba.
To get to the Mosque, one has to go through the old market of Hebron which has been vandalized and partially destroyed by illegal Jewish-Israeli settlers who have kicked out Palestinian families. The halls of the market are strung with mesh to catch the garbage and cement blocks the Israeli settlers have thrown down on the Palestinians below.
After we visited the Mosque, we returned through the market and visited with two women at a shop. Suddenly we heard a loud crash, we rushed out of the store and were told that settlers were turning over water tanks on the roof of a Palestinian home. Two chairs had been thrown from the roof into the market below.
We were directed up nearby steps to the home. As we rushed up to the roof, we stepped over broken flower pots, spilled dirt and broken glass; water was beginning to come down the stairs. We came out on the roof and water was streaming out of holes that had been punctured in six metal tanks on the roof (see photo at: www.flickr.com/photos/ismpalestine/3443049306)
(More photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ismpalestine).
We talked to the mother of the family who had been standing on an outside walkway when she saw several masked settler youth come onto her roof. She was scared and went into the house. The roof is in plain view of a manned Israeli military tower, located about 30 feet away. When we got up to the roof, there were three soldiers in this tower and one young man.
After awhile two armed soldiers came onto the roof from the adjacent building (just as the settlers had done) and questioned the father of the family.
This family is under constant attack by the settlers. We had visited this same home in early December, days after rampaging settlers had set fire to their livingroom.
The Israeli government is responsible for the actions of the settlers who carry out their pogroms against the Palestinians with the protection of the Israeli army. You can take your own personal stand against this racist violence by not buying Israeli goods and asking business that you patronize not to carry products from Israel. Products that have 729 as the first three numbers in the bar code are made in Israel or in illegal Israeli settlements. FMI: www.endtheoccupation.org; www.bdsmovement.org.

Easter Message from our town of Beit Sahour
(Note that in Beit Sahour, Easter includes the Roman Catholic celebration, this year on April 12 and the Greek Orthodox Celebration, this year on April 19.)

Easter Address 2009

On behalf of the Municipality of Beit Sahour, I would like to wish the community of Beit Sahour, the International community, and all Palestinians an enjoyable Easter Holiday.
On this occasion of the Easter Season, I am honored and privileged to address all our community, business leaders, international friends and government officials.
This past year, like the others preceding it, has been filled with hardships, grief and setbacks. Many are unemployed and are having difficulty providing essentials for their families. Our communities, especially our children, are suffering. The lack of: economic and political stability; adequate medical treatment; sufficient infrastructure, such as roads and sewage systems; and resources, such as water have debilitated the fabric of our society and culture.
We have endured the confiscation of our lands, the destruction of our homes, the imprisonment of our people, and the horrendous war against our fellow Palestinians in Gaza. Additionally, the new coalition government of Israel does not bode well for the Palestinian or the Israeli people. I will not lie to you; we have lost much and gained little.
Yes, we are still here, much to the chagrin of the Israeli government. And we will continue to be here; our steadfast presence is our daily act of peaceful resistance to the Occupation and a thorn in Israel’s side. In this steadfast presence we must stand together united, as Palestinians, regardless of faith. We must reach out to one another to heal divisions that separate us for these divisions only serve the Occupier. Divided we are rendered weak, united we are strong,
I am humbled by your strength and perseverance. I am awed by your love of life, family and persistence in pursuing your happiness despite the sad situation in which you find yourselves.
I would like to thank all our international friends, here and abroad, who understand and support our plight. We appreciate the tens of thousands of volunteers around the world are actively working to end the occupation. We are indebted to our donors whose support is critical to the survival of the Palestinian people. We also recognize the sacrifices made by individual internationals along side their Palestinian brothers and sisters. Specifically, I would like to mention Tristan Anderson, an American activist who while peacefully protesting against the Apartheid Wall in Ni’lin was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier with a teargas canister. Tristan is still unconscious in Tal Hashomer Hospital near Tel Aviv. Our prayers and wishes for a speedy recovery to go out to him and his family.
In this Season of Hope and Resurrection, I implore you to sustain hope within your hearts and to believe in the resurrection of an independent State of Palestine.
Lubnah Shomali
Officer of International Relations
Municipality of Beit Sahour, Palestine

Join CODEPINK on Upcoming Trips to Gaza.
CodePink has scheduled two delegations to Gaza: May 28-June 5, 2009 through Egypt and June 5-14, through Israel. In Gaza, we will be hosted by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). We will visit schools, hospitals and areas most affected by the Israeli invasion, as well as build an International Friendship Park. If the Egyptian/Israeli governments won’t let us enter Gaza, we will set up camps on the borders with workshops, seminars and actions calling for an end to the siege. Cost for international participants: $600, not including airfare. Some scholarships are available. Can’t go? Please consider a donation to our Lift the Siege Campaign. For more information, e-mail gaza.codepink@gmail.com, call 415-558-5700, or check out www.codepinkalert.org/gaza.