By Meredith Lee-Clark

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

QALANDIYA, West Bank – Palestinian and foreign activists broke through the wall separating Israel and the West Bank, harkening back to the fall of the Berlin Wall twenty years ago.

The group used a large truck to pull down a two-meter by six-meter section of the wall near the West Bank town of Qalandiya, near Ramallah. The crowd of fifty cheered as the section toppled, waived a Palestinian flag and burning tires on the Israeli side. Israeli police responded by firing tear gas into the crowd, and some Palestinians threw rocks at the police.

The separation barrier has been a hotly contested issue between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Israelis claim the wall is necessary for national security, arguing it has effectively halted suicide bombers from coming into Israel. Palestinians, however, view the wall as a land grab; claiming that Israeli is effectively undermining any future of a functioning Palestinian state.

Israel began construction of the wall in 2000. The wall’s path does not hold to pre-1967 borders, but rather cuts into areas traditionally within the West Bank. Throughout the newly-formed border, the wall cuts through Palestinian towns and carves through Palestinian farmland to bring vital water resources under Israeli control. In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that the wall was illegal, and that it should be taken down because it crossed into occupied territory.

Aside from the breach in Qalandiya, there were other protests throughout the West Bank leading up to the Berlin Wall anniversary. Protestors in Bethlehem marked four years of their weekly march against the wall, as six villages in the metropolitan area are cut off from reasonable access to the city. The West Bank city of Na’alin also hosts a weekly march, and on November 6, masked protestors used a hydraulic car-jack to hoist another section of the wall out of place. The wall is constructed in the same inverted T-shape as was the Berlin Wall.

“Today we commemorate twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall,” said Abdullah Abu Rahma, the leader of the People’s Campaign to Fight the Wall. “This is the first step in a series of activities we will be holding in the coming days to express our firm attachment to our land and our rejection of this wall.”

For more information, please see:

 

Al Jazeera – Palestinians Break Israel’s Wall – 9 November 2009

 

Ha’aretz – Palestinians Breach Separation Fence for Second Time in a Week – 9 November 2009

 

Huffington Post – Mr. Netanyahu, Tear Down This Wall – 9 November 2009

 

VOA News – W. Bank Palestinians Tear Down Segment of Barrier Wall – 9 November 2009

 

Palestinian News Network – Four Years of Demonstrating Against the Wall in Southern Bethlehem – 24 October 2009

By Ahmad Shihadah

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – Saudi Arabian forces have seized a strategic mountain straddling the border with Yemen and cleared it of Shi’ite rebels after five days of fighting that have left three Saudi soldiers dead, a Saudi defense official said Sunday.

In a dramatic escalation of the five-year conflict, Saudi forces began shelling and bombing rebel positions last week. Saudi Arabia entered the conflict after fears that extremism and instability in Yemen could spill into its country. Assistant Saudi Minister Khaled Bin Sultan said Sunday’s advance was a step toward sealing the Saudi border against the rebels. Saudi officials say their military has fought only in its own territory, focusing on rebel infiltrators, but Yemeni rebels, military officials and Arab diplomats say Saudi airstrikes have hit deep inside northern Yemen.

Rebel spokesman Mohammad Abdel-Salam denied that rebels had crossed the Saudi border, saying those detained were Yemeni migrants hoping to work in the much richer country. He continued saying, that “lies” about rebel infiltrators “reveal the failure of Yemeni government in confronting our forces, and that has pushed Yemeni regime to seek help from the Saudis.” Abdel-Salam also said rebel fighters shot down a Yemeni fighter jet on Sunday, and Yemeni and Saudi jets have carried out continuous strikes in the region, “damaging many villages and killing civilians.”

Yemeni officials claim that the jet crashed due to a technical error. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, said that the military would not cease the offensive against the Huthis “until we bring this tyrannical, traitorous and mercenary group to an end.”

For more information please see:

AP – Saudis Take Mountain from Yemen Rebels – 8 November 2009

BBC – Saudis ‘Push Back Yemen Rebels’ – 8 November 2009

Al-Jazeera – Saudis ‘Retake Captured Territory’ – 8 November 2009

By Brandon Kaufman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

By Bobby Rajabi
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

In addition to beatings from police, protesters suffered tear gas attacks. Mir Hossein Mousavi, the challenger in June’s controversial election, mentioned on his website that a protest on Wednesday was likely. Several hundred protesters entered Haft-e-Ti square in Tehran in order to protest the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.

At the same time as the anti-Ahmedinejad protest, there were anti-United States protests taking place as well. Commemorating the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in 1979, demonstrators chanted “Death to America,” “Death to England” and “Death to Israel” outside the former embassy. This was in contrast to the anti-government protesters who chanted “Death to the dictator.” Many anti-government protesters wore green wristbands or scarves that have come to symbolize the campaign against Ahmedinjead by Mousavi.

In addition to the chants against Ahmedinejad, there were anti-Russian slogans used by protesters as well. Baqer Moon, an Iranian journalist and author, commented that there was a perception growing in Iran that what happened with the election and President Ahmedinejad was somehow helped by China and Russia. He explained that chants against Russia are used at rallies at which government officials are encouraging and taking part in anti-US chants.

Among those attacked at the protests was an opposition leader named Mahdi Karroubi. Karroubi fell to the ground because of the tear gas shot into the crowds. His supporters carried him to a vehicle, which was attacked by government supporters as it drove away. According to his son, Karroubi did not require medical attention.

The taking of the U.S. embassy on November 4, 1979 was an action by Iranian students taken in response to the U.S.’s refusal to handover Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah overthrown by the Islamic Revolution. Fifty two American hostages were held for four hundred forty four days before being released in 1981.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Unrest As Iran Marks Embassy Siege –  4 November 2009

Associated Press – Iran Police, Protesters Clash At US Embassy Rally – 4 November 2009

BBC – Iran Police Clash With Protesters – 4 November 2009

New York Times – Dissidents Mass In Tehran To Subvert An Anti-U.S. Rally – 4 November 2009

 

By Meredith Lee-Clark

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator, has said that Israel’s continued expansion of settlements in the West Bank could force the Palestinians to reject any proposed two-state solution in future peace negotiations.

 

Erekat’s statement came during a press conference on November 4, in response to allegations that the United States was becoming lax in insisting that Israel halt all settlement construction or expansion, as required by international treaties.

 

Erekat added that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was simply encouraging more settlements when she praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer to temporarily limit settlement construction in the West Bank. Netanyahu’s plan would stop development of new settlements, though would not place any restrictions on any of the three thousand buildings already under construction in Israeli settlements. There was considerable international outcry in response to Clinton’s remarks on October 31, as Palestinians have stated that a complete freeze on settlement construction would be a precondition to any peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians. On November 4, Clinton reiterated the U.S. support for a complete settlement freeze after she met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

 

Even as political leaders continue to debate conditions for peace negotiations, confrontations between Palestinians and Jewish settlers continued in East Jerusalem. Several Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem have been issued evacuation orders, presumably to make room for incoming Jewish settlers. The Salah family, whose home is under one of the evacuation orders, has lived in the Beit Safafa neighborhood of East Jerusalem for several generations, and has remained in their home. The Salah family was attacked on October 30, reportedly by twelve settlers who were armed with weapons. Five members of the family were injured. The Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights has subsequently accused the Israeli police of not adequately responding to the assault.

 

Erekat said that the alternative for the Palestinians was to re-focus on the one-state solution, “where Muslims, Christians and Jews can live as equals…It is very serious. This is the moment of truth for us.”

 

For more information, please see:

 

Al Jazeera – Settlements “End Two-State Hopes” – 5 November 2009

 

Ma’an News Agency – Erekat: Two-State Solution May Have to Be Abandoned – 5 November 2009

 

Ha’aretz – Clinton: Settlements Are Illegitimate, Should Be Halted Forever – 4 November 2009

 

New York Times – Clinton Backs Peace Talks Before Israeli Settlement Freeze – 4 November 2009

 

Palestinian News Network – Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights Condemns Attack on Beit Safafa Family – 31 October 2009