This post is written by Juliette G. (tune in to BB soon for more from Juliette):

For the past few weeks, Israeli Machinery and bulldozers have been working at the northern entrance of Bethlehem city to construct the Segregation Wall. The path of wall is almost complete in the area, confiscating Palestinian lands and olive groves, and segregating Palestinian houses located in the vicinity.

Today, the residents of Bethlehem city were out peacefully protesting against the Israeli policies and the theft of their land for the on-going construction of the Segregation Wall. The demonstration was part of a national day of action to commemorate Yom Al Ard (Land Day) in Palestine.

Approximately 100 Palestinians together with internationals marched at noon through the town of Bethlehem heading to the checkpoint where wall constructions were taking place. The demonstrators chanted, sang songs and waved Palestinian flags and posters.

As the march neared an Israeli military base and a home occupied by the Israeli army, a line of soldiers met the marchers on the street. The soldiers pushed against the leaders but the rest of the march flooded past as the chants and cheers grew louder. The process was repeated 3 or 4 times as the soldiers, realizing they were soon left at the back of the march, ran forward to try again to head off the demonstration. Each time, the march overwhelmed the army and surged ahead.


occupiers

The march proceeded for several hundred meters in this manner before it was met by a large number of Israeli soldiers who parked military jeeps across the road to block the path. There, in the shadow of the Segregation Wall, the crowd sat in the street and sang songs for Palestine. The soldiers stood in a line and clutched their weapons which were loaded with live ammunition (instead of the rubber coated metal bullets which Israeli soldiers are supposed to use for crowd control).

Palestinians at the demonstration affirmed that their struggle against the Wall and the Israeli policies in the area would continue and condemned any unilateral action taken by Israel to kill the hope of Palestinians to establish their own state and their right to live on their own lands.



songs of freedom

Today's emotional march in Bethlehem was part of the commemoration of Yom al Ard. Yom al Ard (Land Day) is a national day of action in Palestine. The day commemorates the bloody confrontations between Palestinian citizens of Israel and Israeli police in 1976 when Palestinian citizens of Israel marched to protest land confiscations in the Galilee. Six Palestinians were killed and around 100 injured by Israeli police who opened fire on the demonstration. Since then, Yom al Ard has been a time for Palestinians around the world to march for their national rights.


Yom al Ard in Bethlehem

Foremost among the rights that Israel has stripped from Palestinians is land rights. Like many colonized indigenous people, Palestinians have seen the Israeli state appropriate massive quantities of land for Jewish settlements and colonization.

As Marwan Bishara explains:

In 1948 and the subsequent few years, Israel confiscated nearly 85 percent of the territory within the Green Line [what is now Israel] from Palestinians. Most of this land was taken from the 800,000 Palestinian refugees who were thrown out or fled for fear of massacres during the 1948 war. Over the five decades since then, Israel confiscated more than two-thirds of the land owned by its Palestinian citizens and on which they depended for their livelihood. Their share of land has dropped from 9 percent in 1948 to less than 3 percent in 2000.

There are many shared experiences between the Palestinians who have remained in what is now Israel and those who currently live under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip or in exile around the world. Yom al Ard, however, is one of the few national landmarks commemorated by Palestinians everywhere. In the West Bank, the occasion delivered a message against the Apartheid Wall.

The National Campaign to Resist the Apartheid Wall coordinated protest actions that were organized by local groups around the West Bank. The Campaign called for immediate implementation of the ruling of the International Court of Justice that Israel's Wall is illegal and should be immediately dismantled. The Campaign also clearly stated that any attempt to quantify the loss of Palestinian property caused by the Wall, in order to "pay" Palestinians for the Wall with humanitarian services or reparations, was unacceptable. Following is the statement released by the Campaign:

Statement:
The National Campaign to Resist The Apartheid Wall

Through popular resistance we confront the Apartheid Wall and force the implementation of the ICJ decision to dismantle the Wall

To our people, to those confronting Occupation Forces, their bulldozers and the Wall, with their bare hands!

While the implementation of the ICJ decision continues to be negated by the international community, the Occupation Forces continue to build their Apartheid Wall throughout the West Bank, confiscating our land and ruining our lives. In the meantime our people have undertaken their own implementation of the ICJ decision through their own popular resistance.

In Hebron, Yatta, Tulkarem, Qalqiliya, and Beit Surik, In Jerusalem and Bil'in, in Deir Ballut and Zawiya … our struggle against the Wall continues. The people, through its movement, demand a clear international acceptance of this Wall as a political issue, not an issue of charity that can be solved with few dollars of humanitarian assistance! We emphasize that the PA refuse to negotiate on the illegal presence of the Apartheid Wall, and insist on its dismantlement.

On Land Day we declare our will and insistence to protect our land. We do so in the knowledge that the Apartheid Wall is a project to steal Palestinian land. The Wall is the bulldozer and catalyst of the colonial Zionist project in Palestine. It is the bulldozer of Judaization and our expulsion. It is the bulldozer that creates the facts on the ground, making the ghettos which they deem will be a "viable state" for us.

Our people will not be misled! Our experience with the Occupation has been long and bloody enough. We know how the so-called "ceasefire" has always been used by the Occupation Forces for the further colonization of our lands, and construction of illegal settlements. Ghettos cannot substitute for a state, our liberation and our land!

Ghettos are being created on 54% of the West bank, turning our people into prisoners in their own country, locked behind a Wall and gates where the keys are held by the Occupation soldiers. Ghettos are turning our people into slaves in the joint industrial zones being built on our land . Stripped of land and resources the Occupation wants to control and regiment us into their industrial zone slavery systems.

Without the dismantlement of the Wall, without the liberation of our land, without the destruction of settlements, there will be no real independence, no viable state and no dignity. Neither the humanitarian aid missionaries in the UN, nor the funds offered by the World Bank and United States for the industrial zones and hi-tech gates of the Apartheid Wall, can alter our resistance to the imposition of Israeli Apartheid on our lives.

On Land Day, we will make our voice heard:

• Land is the essence of our struggle, without liberating the land there is no solution for the liberation cause!
• No sovereignty and no independence can be achieved with settlements on Palestinian land!
• The United Nations has to respect and implement the ICJ decision to dismantle the Apartheid Wall!
• No modifications to the Wall's path, no charity assistance - only the dismantlement of the Apartheid wall!
• We will never accept that our cause be transformed into a humanitarian one!
• No real settlement can be achieved without all of our rights. Right to Return! Right to Jerusalem. Dismantlement of all settlements!
• All respect to the people resisting the Apartheid Wall's confiscation and the illegal settlements!
  

Through popular resistance we confront the Wall, and force the implementation of the ICJ decision to dismantle the Wall.

Following are photographs from Nahaleen taken after the discovery of Evacuation Warning notices, placed by Israeli soldiers on parcels of land adjacent to the village. Nahaleen (Nahalin) is not the only Palestinian village facing Israeli soldier and settler violence. Last night, the neighboring village of Husan (see map) was raided by soldiers and put under curfew. Village residents were not allowed to leave their homes on threat of being shot.


One of the Evacuation Warning notices left on Palestinian land adjacent to Nahaleen.


The Evacuation Warnings are part of a systematic campaign of harassment orchestrated by Israeli occupying forces and settlers in the area. The settlement of Betar (or Betar Illit) near Nahaleen is an extremely large, wholly religious Jewish settlement. Many religious settlers believe the entire land was granted to them by god and that the indigenous Palestinian inhabitants must be driven out, as the ancient Canaanites and Philistines supposedly were in Biblical myths.


The illegal Israeli settlement of Betar looms over the Palestinian village of Nahaleen.

In keeping with these fundamentalist beliefs, Israeli settlers often attack Palestinian civilians. Settlers from Betar throw stones at Palestinian villagers on the road to Nahaleen. Last week, in Tuwani and Qawamis villages, south of Hebron, settlers from the settlement of Ma’on and its outpost settlements poisoned a piece of grazing land used by Palestinian shepherds. The settlers have also uprooted olive trees, attacked Palestinian villagers, and assaulted international volunteers accompanying the villagers- in one instance two volunteers from the Christian Peacemakers Team ended up in the hospital after they were beaten by settlers.

In fact, settler attacks seam to be on the rise lately. The village of Asira al-Kabaliya, near Nablus, was attacked by settlers on Friday and a settler woman attacked a nine year old Palestinian child in Hebron on Thursday. Such violence is often condoned by soldiers, police and politicians. According to the Israeli Human Rights organization, B’'Tselem, “"when Israeli civilians attack Palestinians, the Israeli authorities employ an undeclared policy of leniency and compromise toward the perpetrators"” (go here for more from B’'Tselem on settler violence).

Settler violence has always been a feature of the Israeli colonization project, as it has been in colonization efforts around the world - from South Africa to the United States. Part of a settler movement's methodology in taking control of the land, is forcing the other, usually the indigenous inhabitants, to leave under threat of destruction. As WJT Mitchell points out, “"the false but efficacious etymology of '“territory”' is “'terror”', the enforcing of boundaries with violence and fear."”

Israeli colonialism, like other colonialisms before, pairs the unhinged, zealous violence of the settlers with the calculated bureaucratic violence of the modern Israeli state. The result is a combined effort to take control of ever larger portions of Palestinian land and expand illegal settlements.

Last night, Israeli occupying forces served Evacuation Warning notices to residents of the village of Nahaleen, or Nahalin, west of Bethlehem (see the map at the bottom of the page). The notices were left on a parcel of agricultural land adjacent to the village. The targeted land is uninhabited but is planted with olives, grapes and other crops and is owned by Palestinian residents of Nahaleen.

The orders cite Israel’s Absentee Property Law (#59 of 1967) which has been used repeatedly to expropriate Palestinian land in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Palestinian residents have been given 45 days to leave their land. If it is not evacuated in that that period, the land will be cleared at the owners’ expense. The notices were on a form with Hebrew and Arabic but the details were written in Hebrew only. This is a rough translation:

The Israeli Defense Forces
Civil Administration for Judea and Samaria
Office of Government Properties - Central Investigations Unit

- Evacuation Warning -

To whom it may concern:

1. Under authorization of the Law of Government Properties in Judea and Samaria #59 of 1967 and according to Section (2) of that Law and relative to the Law of Land Protection and Government Properties in Judea and Samaria #1006 of 1982, I hereby certify that you illegally hold the following lands:

[The lands in Nahaleen are here listed according to their coordinates on an Israeli military map of the area. No area measurement is specified]

2. According to this order, you are required to withdraw from the land cited and and return it in its original status within 45 days from receiving this order.

If you do not conform to this requirement, the relevant authorities will enforce your evacuation and you will be obliged to pay any expenses accrued in the process.

3. You are entitled to appeal this decision to the Military Appeals Committee based in Ofer [settlement] within 45 days of receiving this order.

Signed: Captain Kahane
The Israeli Defense Forces

The Evacuation Warning notices are the latest in a systematic campaign of intimidation orchestrated by Israeli soldiers and settlers targeting Nahaleen’s 7,000 Palestinian residents. The village is pinched between several illegal Israeli settlements, all of which are currently undergoing expansion. The large settlement of Betar sits directly west of the village. Every Saturday (the Jewish Sabbath), Israeli settlers from Betar gather on the hill above the only road to Nahaleen and throw stones at Palestinian cars as they pass to and from the village. But these settler attacks are little compared to the constant incitement of Israeli soldiers who enter Nahaleen nightly.

This morning, I interviewed a friend who lives in Nahaleen. He told me that Israeli soldiers and settlers light small brushfires along the fence between the town and the settlement every evening. The soldiers blame the Palestinians for lighting the fires and use them as a pretext to raid the village.

Every night seven to ten soldiers enter the village firing flares and concussion grenades (sound bombs). They patrol the streets of the village taunting and teasing the Palestinian children until the children start to throw stones. When the children come with the stones, the soldiers respond with more grenades and live ammunition. It is a symbolic game, but one that can end tragically for the residents of Nahaleen.

These constant Israeli attacks must be seen in the proper context. According to Israel’s published plan for the Apartheid Wall, the village will be one of four Palestinian communities isolated in a small, mini-ghetto outside the main Bethlehem ghetto. The villages are surrounded by Israeli settlements in the Gush Etzion Block, one of the largest illegal settlement blocks in the West Bank. Israel is currently expanding almost all the settlements west of the wall, and the Gush Etzion settlements are certainly no exception.

There is one access road to Nahaleen, which according to village residents, may soon be controlled by an Israeli military checkpoint. My friend is not optimistic for the future. He fears that Palestinians will soon need a special permit to enter the village. Meanwhile, Israeli occupying forces will continue to appropriate Palestinian lands (like those targeted by yesterday's Evacuation Warning) for settlement expansion. Nahaleen’s lands will shrink and the people will be unable to sustain themselves by farming, as they have for generations. The sum result may be to force the residents of Nahaleen to leave their village in order to feed their families.

Ethnic cleansing is a strong word, but readers can draw their own conclusions.

Israel began to wall in the Bethlehem ghetto in 2002, constructing sections of electrified fence around the city of Beit Jala and on lands belonging to Bethlehem and Beit Sahour sprawling below the massive illegal Israeli settlement of Har Homa.

In 2003, more of the Wall was hastily erected further around Beit Jala, Bethlehem and Beit Sahour.

It wasn’t until 2004 that Israeli occupying forces brought in the massive cement panels that have come to characterize Israel’s Apartheid project and the Palestinian ghettos it is creating. In June of 2004 Israel built sections of cement wall around the northern entrance to Bethlehem, the historic road linking the city to Jerusalem, and up against the neighboring Aida Refugee Camp. They left open the section between the Bethlehem checkpoint and the Israeli fortress at the holy site of Rachel’s Tomb.

This map details the wall construction around Bethlehem's northern entrance. The yellow section was built in 2003, the blue in 2004, and the red and purple sections are currently under construction:

Map courtesy of the Applied Research Institute- Jerusalem (July 2004).

One month ago, however, Israeli bulldozers were back at work, closing the gaps in the wall around Bethlehem. The path of the wall in this area is typical. The wall presses up against Palestinian homes and a large olive grove is cut off and de-facto annexed to Israel. The wall will also cut inside a Palestinian residential area to allow Jewish worshipers access to Rachel’s Tomb. The Tomb is holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians, but Israeli occupying forces only allow Jews to visit the site which is surrounded by cement walls, sniper towers, video cameras and razor-wire.

A group of Palestinian homes, inhabited by 3 families, and a goldsmith shop will soon be surrounded by the wall and cut-off from the rest of Bethlehem. Below is a series of photos of the wall growing around Bethlehem’s northern entrance over the last month:

More Information:
Updated map of the wall in the entire West Bank (from NAD/NSU)
The Electroni Intifada's Apartheid Wall Focus Page
The Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign

February 19, 2005 

February 28, 2005 

March 19, 2005

“Ahlan Wa-Sahlan” (Welcome)!

So; Who are we? And what is the point of a Bethlehem Blog?

This site is a portal for us to communicate to the outside world and tell the stories of our lives in Bethlehem, occupied Palestine. It is also a window for you to look in; to see past the walls, barbed wire fences, and the media distortions; to hear from the people in Bethlehem themselves.

We are Palestinians and internationals who are living in the Bethlehem region (see Map), and who want to tell the world what it is like to be living in occupied territory, under an economic siege, encircled by a wall and military checkpoints: what it is like to live in a Palestinian Ghetto.

We invite you to come to see Bethlehem—to meet the people who live here and witness the occupied land of Palestine for yourselves. For those who cannot come, we provide you with this “weblog” so you can at least hear our stories: voices from the Bethlehem Ghetto.

Though some of us are working with organizations in the area, the Bethlehem Blog is not affiliated with any party, NGO or organization in any way (the links bar is purely for information sharing). We are simply like-minded individuals who share a need to show the world the effects of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and in particular, Bethlehem.

We welcome comments and suggestions, but we have a strict policy for our comments. Any form of racism, discrimination of any kind or abuse in general will not be tolerated.

Contact us at: bethlehembloggers@gmail.com

For Immediate Release

March 20, 2005

New Website Features Voices from the Bethlehem Ghetto

OCCUPIED BETHLEHEM: The shaheed (martyr) Tupac Shakur once wondered if heaven has a ghetto. None of us can answer that question. Israeli policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, however, are turning large parts of the Holy Land into just that - walled ghettos. A new web portal launched today features voices from one of the most famous of these ghettos - Bethlehem.

The Bethlehem Bloggers website is dedicated to bringing first hand insight into life and politics inside Israeli-occupied Bethlehem. The site is managed by a diverse group of activists and professionals living and working in the area. An introductory statement posted to the website explains:

"We are Palestinians and internationals who are living in the Bethlehem region, and who want to tell the world what it is like to be living in occupied territory, under an economic siege, encircled by a wall and military checkpoints: what it is like to live in a Palestinian Ghetto."

As Israel tightens its control throughout occupied Palestine, indigenous Palestinian communities continue to suffer. Israeli occupying forces completely dominate the Bethlehem region with a network of illegal Israeli settlements, checkpoints and by-pass roads. The Apartheid Wall now pushes in close on Bethlehem and the neighboring towns and villages, segregating villages and appropriating large portions of Palestinian land.

There are seven permanent Israeli military checkpoints in the Bethlehem District which control access to the ghetto. Israeli troops also often set up an additional three temporary checkpoints to monitor movement within the area and more than 35 roadblocks make it difficult for Palestinians to move between their towns and cities. In addition, there are more than 11 illegal Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian land in the Bethlehem District. Most of these settlements are currently undergoing expansion, despite Israel's stated adherence to the Roadmap peace plan which demands a "settlement freeze" as part of its first phase of implementation.

Bethlehem Bloggers shows the effect of the Israeli occupation on life in Bethlehem. It is also a window for people around the world to look in; to see past the walls, barbed wire fences, and the media distortions; to hear from the people in Bethlehem themselves.