A-Infos (en) Israel-Palestine, Tel Aviv, Alt. media, against the apartheid wall/fence, "Killing of children, moral bankruptcy". 5 Arrestrd at the end of a march after a rally

[a-infos-en@ainfos.ca]

"Shortly before midnight last night the news spread fast by phone,
even before the media published it. The Anarchists Against Fences
who are in close daily contact with the villagers of this region got
the news and immediately spread it to the other groups and
suggested an emergency joint protest at the Ministry of Defence.
The others - ourselves of Gush Shalom, Courage to Refuse, Yesh
Gvul, Ta'ayush, Women for Peace - immediately accepted and
hardly drawing breath started to spread the alarm by phone and
email".

Holocaust Day is not normally chosen as a day for protest
demonstrations by the Israeli peace movement, though sensivity is
eroding by the crude instrumentalization of the memorial events.
But the timing of today's protest was none of our choosing.

In the bus on the way to the Defence Ministry, the voice
 of Prime Minister Sharon, radio broadcast from Poland:
"From the Auschwitz Extermination Camp, I tell you: now
we Jews can defend ourselves!". Maybe, the shooting down
of two unarmed Palestinian boys at the village of Beit
Likia last night was also part of "Jews defending themselves"?

As it gradually came out, in the late afternoon yesterday Beit Likia
boys had been playing soccer at an empty field a bit outside their
village. They suddenly got the urge to stage a protest at another
field nearby, where the army habitually parks the bulldozers for the
night - the fearsome machines which daily tear up the village fields,
much of which stand to be forever alienated once the fence is set
tup. The boys went to the bulldozer park, with no Israelis or
internationals or even adult Palestinians present. Two of them,
aged 14 and 15, did not survive the encounter with the bulldozers'
guardian soldiers. (To those not familiar with the geography: Beit
Likia is a few kilometres south of Bil'in, where last week's clash
with the army took place).

Shortly before midnight last night the news spread fast by phone,
even before the media published it. The Anarchists Against Fences
who are in close daily contact with the villagers of this region got
the news and immediately spread it to the other groups and
suggested an emergency joint protest at the Ministry of Defence.
The others - ourselves of Gush Shalom, Courage to Refuse, Yesh
Gvul, Ta'ayush, Women for Peace - immediately accepted and
hardly drawing breath started to spread the alarm by phone and
email.

And so, there were between three and four hundred streaming to
the Defence Ministry gates. The small parking lot where we often
used to rally on this location has now been obliterated by urban
renovators and building contractors, leaving only a very narrow strip
of pavement in along which a long long picket line could spread and
face the traffic with their upraised placards and banners:"Who is
breaking the cease-fire?" "Who has blood on his hands?" "Sharon
is no partner!" "The Occupation is killing us all". Some exchanges
with passing motorists: "But they were throwing stones!" "Does
that carry a capital punishment?" "Yes, if they are not settlers"...

After an hour, a shift. A large part of the crowd takes to the street,
banners waving, with the repeated chant: "Mofaz, hey hey, how
many kids did you kill today?" They walk over street after street,
across the town, encountering not unfriendly crowds on the
bustling Ibn Gvirol Street and on until the Likud Party
Headquarters on King George Street. There, the seemingly
inevitable conclusion: riot police charging, breaking up the lines,
dragging six protesters into the waiting patrol cars to the din of
"Police State!" and "Down with the occupation!" from dozens of
young throats.

On TV, minor politicians still mouth clinches about the Holocaust.
The dozens of protesters who intend to spend this night in solidarity
outside the Harakevet Street Police Station might have learned
some more essential lessons.

=========== MEDIA REPORT ON THE DEMO ===========

Hundreds rally in TA against IDF killing of 2 Palestinian teens
By Tamar Traubman, Yoav Stern and Arnon Regular, Haaretz
Correspondents, Haaretz Service

Hundreds of left-wing protesters demonstrated in Tel Aviv on
Thursday evening against the Israel Defense Forces' killing
Wednesday of two Palestinian youths in the West Bank.

The two teenagers were shot dead near the village of Beit Likia,
west of Ramallah, during a protest against the construction of the
separation fence in the area.

Thursday's protest started opposite the Defense Ministry's Kirya
compound in Tel Aviv and from there demonstrators walked to
Likud Party headquarters on King George Street. Some 200-300
people attended the rally.

Once the protest left the Kirya compound, the police announced
that it was illegal and begin arresting protesters. At least six people
were taken in by police. Police said they were arrested for blocking
roads.

MK Mohammed Barakeh addressed the rally and told them that
"on the day of [remembrance for] the big Holocaust, we must make
sure that there is no 'little holocaust' of Palestinians." He also said
that the relatively large number of participants, given the short
notice of the rally, proves that the "radical left is waking up."

Earliers Thursday, IDF Central Command chief Yair Naveh
suspended a senior Combat Engineering Corps officer who
commanded the force that shot dead the two Palestinians.

Naveh said the conduct of the deputy company commander was
defined as "unreasonable."

Oudai A'asi, 14, and his 15-year-old cousin Kamal A'asi, both from
the West Bank village of Beit Lakia, were shot dead while throwing
stones together with dozens of other protestors at a separation fence
work site next to a village north of Highway 443.

Around 6 P.M., some 200 youths arrived on the scene and began
throwing rocks at bulldozers and at the five soldiers who arrived on
the scene in a jeep.

Palestinians on the scene said the soldiers initially opened fire with
rubber bullets and tear gas grenades and at a certain point began
firing live ammunition in the air.

Palestinian sources said the cousins were hit by live ammunition.

Ramallah hospital officials said Uday was hit in the hip and thighs
and Kamel was hit in the chest.

One IDF soldier was lightly wounded by Palestinian
stone-throwers.

Nineteen-year-old Karem Yusuf, who was near the two casualties,
described the scene.

"I saw two soldiers but it is possible there were more," he said.
"Near the soldiers was a group of 10 youths and around them were
some 200 more. The distance from the first group to the soldiers
was about 20 meters. Kamel and Uday were next to me when they
were shot. A soldier fired several shots and I saw that Kamel was
wounded in his chest."

============================== And another demo==========
This Friday, 6.5, there will be another demonstration in
the village of Bilin, against the fence and the settlements
that are being built on the villages lands. Today, wendsday,
the bulldozers started the uprooting of more than 100 olive
trees in order to make way for a new section of the
apartheid wall.

We will also protest the arrest of the two Palestinians -
Riad Mohamad Yassin and Alian Ibrahim Ahmad Abu Rachme,
that were attacked and arrested by 'mistaarvim' in the big
demonstration last week, and are still being held in ofer
detention camp.

You are all welcome to join the struggle of bilin against
it's daily oppression.

The demonstaration will start at 13:00. We will go there by
public transportation from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem at about 10:30


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