Do Occupied Peoples Have the Right to Protest?

Israeli stun grenades during a demonstration
in the West Bank village of Beit Jala (photo: AP).

While Israeli analysts and government officials for years referred to the threat of terrorism as a justification for imposing a security regime on the Palestinian people, recent events show this line of thinking was not intended to encourage non-violent resistance.

Israel has been hitting unarmed Palestinian protesters with excessive force, arresting them, and is now closing down Palestinian villages that have been sites for weekly demonstrations.

Just after the fifth year anniversary of the commencement of weekly protests in the Palestinian West Bank villages of Bil'in and Na'alin against the apartheid wall and occupation, the Israeli military is declaring the villages "closed military zones on Fridays for the next six months."

This video was made to celebrate the 4th anniversary in 2009. It shows the nature of the protests and the repressive response:



The decision comes after the growing prominence of these weekly protests, which have attracted international figures and media. In December, The Elders members Desmond Tutu, Ela Bhatt, Gro Brundtland, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Jimmy Carter and Mary Robinson visited Bil’in.

Evidence of Israel's use of harsh force against protesters is in the numbers. In the two villages, Israeli forces killed 23 demonstrators, half of them minors; no Israeli soldiers have been killed. Several had been severely injured and killed by high velocity tear gas canisters.

Not all Israelis agree with the measures against the West Bank villages. Haaretz opined today that these measures are "a serious anti-democratic move. The order issued by the GOC Central Command implementing this restriction is an act against the freedom to demonstrate."

Riots have flared in Jerusalem's protests over Israel's colonization efforts and anti-Palestinian dispossession there. While arrests are made on the pretense of rioting, the protesters report that state forces, as with Bil'in and Na'alin, initiate the use of violence.

On Tuesday's "day of rage" in east Jerusalem, more than 100 people were injured and 70 others were arrested. One Israeli officer was injured after being shot in the hand. Palestinians in Jaffa also protested in solidarity.

Now there are unconfirmed reports from Jerusalem that a Police Special Patrol Unit began rounding up the organizers of the protests in Jerusalem last night at 3:30 AM. According to one account,

masked Israeli forces entered the neighborhood of Ras Al-Amud and kidnapped 3 residents. The forces then told the families that 'they (the forces) will take all the men involved in the protests.'

If more information follows, we will update this post.

Given the inability of the powers of the world to bring any sense to Israeli policy, it can only be hoped that people power have such effects.

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