Tent of Nations Told to Stop Working its Own Land – Be Ready to Act!

21 February 2012, Shalom Rav http://rabbibrant.com (USA)

A Blog by Rabbi Brant Rosen

Friends of Tent of Nations has just shared this upsetting letter from Daoud Nasser (above left):

Dear Friends,

Today, the 14th of February at 1.30 PM and as we were working on our land, specifically in the tree of life orchard, we found on three different places , papers with maps signed by the civil administration of Judea and Samaria which is the Israeli military government.

The papers say that we have to stop working on the land specified on the map, because they declared it as a state land. According to them, this land doesn’t belong to us but it is a state land and we are cultivating it. The papers also say that if we want to challenge this order, we can appeal against it within 45 days in front of the military representative office.

It is a shock to receive something like that after 21 years of legal battle defending our land and the right to it in front of Israeli courts.
We sent those papers to our attorney in Jerusalem and he is going to appeal against it within the next days.

This is just to inform you about what happened today, please be aware that the situation might get worse, please be prepared in case actions are needed. In the meanwhile, our attorney will appeal against it and we will see what kind of reaction we receive”
We will keep you updated and will inform you about our next steps and how you can help.
Thank you so much for your support and solidarity. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Blessings and Salaam.

Readers of my blog should be well acquainted with my friend and personal hero Daoud Nasser. Last year I wrote about Tent of Nations and my visit, together with twenty JRC congregants, with Daoud on his family farm.

This new development is just the latest in a long history of harassment courtesy of the military administration in the West Bank – an institution that provides the shameful “legal” cover for Israel’s outright theft of Palestinian lands. Please stand by – I will forward any further news from Daoud and let you know how you can act on his behalf.

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7 Responses to Tent of Nations Told to Stop Working its Own Land – Be Ready to Act!

1. Wendy Carson | February 21, 2012 at 10:12 am | Reply
terrible sad.people who fought and won the right to develop a piece of land that they can call their own has been a dream of people in many countries.to take this away is horrific and displace the people who have been living there.Please keep me informed and let them know that many care.

2. Liz | February 21, 2012 at 10:34 am | Reply
It is so important that we support Daoud and his family. We with more access and privilege than others must act on their behalf. Having met with Daoud on the JRC trip and having been a witness to these atrocities makes this even more urgent.
3. Nancy Amacher | February 21, 2012 at 10:56 am | Reply

I, too, have been to the land of Daoud and his family. It is important to make people aware of these actions and protest such land confiscation.
4. Mary Jo | February 21, 2012 at 11:29 am | Reply

I have been in contact with Bshara and will be going to Tent of Nations soon, I will let you know first hand as soon as anything new develops. Thanks for the post.
MJ

5. Elaine | February 21, 2012 at 3:19 pm | Reply
Having planted a tree in the Tree of Life orchard last year and hosted Daoud in my home a few times, I too care very much about what happens to him and his family. All of us must protest these injustices and do what we can to help.

6. Iain | February 21, 2012 at 3:27 pm | Reply
I visited the TofN last summer and was moved by their story but the peace there was over whelming. My thoughts and prayers are with them all.

7. Steve Lewis | February 22, 2012 at 6:48 am | Reply
They can’t be allowed to do this outright theft of land. Somehow make this foul play case known to the world because it showcases Israel’s ethnic cleansing in action. How I wish I could be there to protest this injustice in person.

Despite video evidence, officer who shot Israeli demonstrator won’t be charged

22 February 2012, +972 Magazine http://972mag.com (Israel)

Haggai Matar*

The Israeli human rights NGO B’Tselem received a notification from the military prosecution yesterday, informing it that charges will not be filed against an officer who shot an Israeli activist during a 2008 demonstration in Bil’in. B’Tselem intends to appeal the decision.

The incident took place during the weekly demonstration against the separation fence in Bil’in on March15, 2008. At the time, demonstrations used to reach the old route of the fence – which has since been found illegal by the Israeli High Court of Justice but not yet dismantled – and the army would cross the gate in the fence and chase demonstrators back into the village. A video recording of the shooting shows the soldiers marching back towards the fence, and one of them pushing away a photographer standing nearby. At this point, Israeli activist Eran Cohen, standing less than five meters away from the road, is heard shouting, “What are you doing, soldier?! Don’t touch the journalists.” At this point, one of the soldiers, apparently an officer, slightly raises his gun and shoots Cohen in the leg with a rubber-coated bullet, even though it is clear that Cohen was in no way a threat to the soldiers, and that no fighting is happening elsewhere in the area. The bullet penetrated Cohen’s knee, and was later removed in surgery after Cohen was rushed to the hospital.


At the request of B’Tselem, a military police investigation was launched by the end of that month, and the video was submitted for military inspection. Now, almost four years later, the army says the case is closed and no charges are to be filed. The military prosecution did not elaborate on the reasons for its decision.

A silent approval for unjustified violence
This is in no way a unique case in the history of the popular and joint struggle. According to B’Tselem spokesperson Sarit Michaeli, it is safe to say that on the whole, soldiers and border policemen are not charged with the wounding or even the killing of demonstrators. “While we have countless reports of injuries and more than twenty deaths in demonstrations, and while many incidents are documented with footage, you almost never see investigations ending with indictments,” says Michaeli.

In the past, army regulations required that every death caused by soldiers prompt investigation by the military police. With the start of the Second Intifada in October 2000, the army openly canceled these regulations, which were put back to force last April. This is why most deaths of demonstrators, peaceful and stone-throwing alike, have not led to investigations, except for two very rare ones: the killing of Bassem Abu-Rahme in Bil’in (caused by a tear gas canister shot directly to his chest), and that of 10-year-old Ahmad Musa in Nil’in shot in the head with a rubber bullet by a border policeman after a demonstration). Even here, the former has yet to turn into an indictment (investigation was only launched following a long legal struggle on the family’s part), and in the latter case, the charge is negligent manslaughter. The only demonstration-related conviction activists remember in the many years of the popular struggle was that of the two soldiers who shot the cuffed and blindfolded Ashraf Abu-Rahme in the foot.

While Palestinian and Israeli activists keep documenting attacks on demonstrations, and while NGOs keep filing complaints against the use of force, the army on the whole seems untouched. In December, B’Tselem wrote the army with great concern, reporting what seems to be a constant policy of soldiers and officers on the ground to ignore the army’s own regulations, which forbid shooting tear gas canisters at a direct angle. B’Tselem have backed up this claim with extensive footage of soldiers shooting tear gas canisters in the same illegal fashion that caused the deaths of Bassem Abu-Rahme and Mustafa Tamimi. However, just last Thursday the military authorities replied, saying that “security forces use tear gas canisters only to disperse violent rioters, and only in an arched angle.”

“They are not even willing to admit that soldiers are disobeying their own regulations”, says Michaeli, “what kind of a message do you think that gives the soldiers?”


*Haggai Matar is an Israeli journalist and political activist. After writing for the short-lived Palestine Times and for Ha'ir Tel Aviv he is currently working as the municipal correspondent of Zman Tel Aviv, the local supplement of Ma'ariv, and is a prominent writer at the independent Hebrew website MySay.

In 2002 Matar was part of the Shministim (Seniors') Letter to then PM Ariel Sharon, and was imprisoned for two years for his refusal to enlist to the Israeli army. Since his release he has been active in various groups against the occupation, as well as in several class-based struggles within the Israeli society.

Contact haggai@hotmail.com