Bethlehem's Holy Land Trust gets busted

Subtitled: Israel gets prisoner number 10,001 or whatever it is. Photos are shown in consecutive order.

Sami Awad from the Holy Land Trust in Bethlehem posted this article on July 15th, 2007, about another nonviolent protest of Israel’s Apartheid Wall. It was called,

Friday the 13th or April 1st, which is the one you lie in?

The consequences was another Palestinian prisoner of the war against the Occupation.

Like every Friday, we gathered early in the morning in Holy Land Trust and traveled with many international and Palestinian volunteers to join the villagers, other internationals and Israeli nonviolent activists in the weekly nonviolent protest against the building of the Wall. This week’s action coincided with the International Court of Justice ruling that regarded the Wall as violating international law and UN resolutions.

Like every week, the Israeli army came with full arms to prevent a peaceful and nonviolent procession on the path where the wall will be build in the village of Um sallamona. A new Israeli army captain was there this time… (My guess is that they have to change them every once in a while as I am sure even the captains start doubting their own military and government policy). Even with the threats to arrest us, the group committed to walking the path of the wall. The Israeli army created a human wall to prevent us from walking and we tried several times to peacefully break through this wall.

This action itself created several opportunities for international participants to engage in … well, I wanted to say dialogue, but the soldiers were continuously given orders (sometimes in harsh language) by their leaders not to talk with the activists, but I am sure they listened.

In one surprise attack the Israeli army burst into the demonstrators and arrested Muhamad Brejieh, one of the leaders of the Popular Committee to Resist the Wall in South Bethlehem, a dedicated nonviolent activist and a good friend. He was snatched forcefully as several of us tried to protect him. We were physically assaulted and he was handcuffed and taken away by the Israeli soldiers. After a long time of protesting his arrest and refusing to yield to the Israeli army threats, that same “new” captain came back to us with a guarantee and a promise that if we ended the protest they will release him within the hour…

While the Palestinians have lost trust in any promise or word given by such figures, the captain put himself in a position where he can show (at least to our visitors and the international press) that maybe there is some human dignity deep inside him and he can make a promise and keep it or has he lost even that little sense of humanity? While I truly wish the later was not the case, Muhamad in still in prison and today is the third day… I wonder if this same captain will be in next week’s demonstration and I wonder what promise he will make then or maybe today he thought it was April 1st not Friday the 13th!