Bil'in
40 Israelis and 15 internationals joined the local celebration for the Fatah's 45th anniversary (in the presence of Nabil Sha'ath) and demonstration against the land theft wall. Armed with a huge Palestinian flag and a banner protesting Obama's and Mubarak's Gaza "wall of death", they marched to the gate in the wall. There they were greeted with a sea of gas that was carried among the demonstrators by the unfavorable wind, and that made it impossible to hold a steady protest. Quickly enough the demonstration gave way to scuffs between local youth armed with stones and soldiers armed with guns and grenades. Then, in a rare escalation of the local violence status quo, the soldiers entered the village. Some flanked the demonstrators under cover, while others entered shooting live ammunition and rubber coated metal bullets through the gate. A group of three soldiers tried to arrest demonstrators, but other demonstrators managed to make a successful de-arrest. After a string of confrontations between soldiers and demonstrators, the soldiers retreated back behind the fence. Several people were lightly injured from an array of projectiles, including one person who was evacuated to hospital.

Bil'in 15-1-10

Ma'asara
In spite of the violent oppression, phone threats and nightly invasion of the village – the village of Ma'asara demonstrated again this Friday.
Recently the village had been suffering from increasing military violence, declared by the army as a tool to stop demonstrations as of 2010. After having invaded the village after recent demonstrations and patrolling it at night on weekdays, soldiers raided the houses of several prominent activists in the dead of night between Thursday and Friday, causing damage to property and threatening activists that if demonstrations continue – a boy might get killed in the village. Soldiers said that they believe it is what the villagers want as it would "portray" the soldiers as killers. Soldiers also threatened the villagers with arrests if demonstrations continue, and encouraged the husband of one of the main female activists to divorce her if she continues "making trouble".
But in spite of all this, a demonstration did take place in the village, thought somewhat smaller than usual. 50 Palestinians, Israelis and internationals marched from the village centre towards its agricultural lands and the route of the wall. On their way they learnt that the army has sent jeeps to roam the village, and that armed soldiers were standing on the rooftops around the demonstration area.
Demonstrators still proceeded and reached the line of soldiers blocking the main road with razor wire. Demonstrators beat their drums, chanted slogans, and in their Arabic, English and Hebrew speeches pronounced their commitment to the popular and non-violent struggle against the wall, the settlements and the occupation in spite of oppression, and called upon the soldiers to cross over to the side of joint struggle, in stead of supporting the war crimes and land and water theft.
The demonstration ended peacefully.
The struggle of the people of Ma'asara has recently gained special attention as it stood in the focus of Joel Beinin's account of the popular struggle against the wall published in The Nation .

Ma'asara demonstration

Ni'ilin
As part of the escalation against the popular struggle, the Israeli Military arrested two members of the Ni'ilin popular committee against the wall over the last week – Ibrahin Ameera and Hassan Mousa. Ni'ilin has paid a dreadful price during the year and a half of demonstrations against the wall: five demonstrators murdered (among them 2 kids), hundreds wounded, dozens arrested and trialed and many more "wanted", military night incursions, denied work permits, roadblocks & curfews – an orchestrated campaign of brutal oppression.
Nonetheless, some 150 demonstrators gathered this Friday for the weekly demonstration against the wall, and were joined by international and Israeli activists who found their way to the village through fields after all the entrances were sealed by the military. Following the prayer, the demonstrators marched to the route of the wall. On arrival, the soldiers started shooting tear gas at the demonstrators, and some of the village youth retaliated with stone throwing. Confrontations with the soldiers continued for two hours from both sides of the wall before the soldiers invaded the village fields. On entrance, they shot many rubber bullets injuring one demonstrator in his leg. In the fields too, the resistance didn't decline and for two more hours the courageous youth maintained their standing. Only late in the afternoon did the demonstrators decide to end the weekly demonstration.

Sheikh Jarrah arrests

Sheikh Jarrah
Once again hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of sheikh Jarrah this Friday afternoon, protesting against the evictions of Palestinian families from their homes by the State for the benefit of Jewish settlers.
Demonstrators convened in a small park in the area and started chanting slogans against the racist policies of ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem. After three week of relative calm on the side of city police, brutality and oppression returned this week; within minutes the demonstration was declared "an illegal gathering", and attacked by police. Haggai Elad, chairman of the Israeli Association of Civil Rights, tried explaining to the police that there was nothing illegal in the gathering, but was quickly arrested.
All in all 17 demonstrators were taken in to custody, and spent the night in prison, only to be released on Saturday night, once courts opened.

Saturday anti-arrests demonstration

On Saturday night, 150 activists gathered in front of the district court in Jerusalem to express solidarity with the 17 demonstrators who were arrested in the Friday demonstration in Sheikh Jarrah, and to protest against the illegal arrests.
The protestors stood for 8.5 hours, chanting slogans, drumming and singing songs that were written on the spot to cheer the prisoners, who at times answered with their own slogans from inside.
At some point during the demonstration, the police officers violently arrested one of the protestors, for no apparent reason. He was released later on.
Around 4am all prisoners were released with no conditions, after the judge decreed the arrest unjustified and illegal. They were welcomed with hugs, food and more chanting. 

On Thursday hundreds of people came to a fund raising concert in Shiekh Jarrah in solidarity with the evicted families, under the slogan "Yes to music! No to the occuparion!" Amongst the performing artists were Palestinian rap band DAM, and the joint Jewish-Palestinian group System Ali.

Solidarity concerts at Sheikh Jarrah

An Nabi Saleh
Israeli forces must have anticipated the large response to the An Nabi Salih Popular Struggle’s callout for international solidarity in their 4th consecutive Friday demonstration on January 15th. Three International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activists were turned away from the seldom-staffed partial checkpoint of ‘Atara, between Ramallah and An Nabi Salih. Fortunately, a back route was established and the group made it to the village, joining 10 other internationals, a dozen journalists and over 100 Palestinians.  
The hilltop village of An Nabi Salih has a population of approximately 500 residents and is located 30 kilometers northeast of Ramallah along highway 465. The demonstration protested the illegal seizure of valuable agricultural land and the January 9th 2010 uprooting of hundreds of the village resident’s olive trees by the Hallamish (Neve Zuf) settlement located on highway 465, opposite An Nabi Salih. Conflict between the settlement and villagers reawakened in the past month due to the settler’s attempt to re-annex An Nabi Salih land despite the December 2009 Israeli court case that ruled the property rights of the land to the An Nabi Salih residents. The confiscated land of An Nabi Salih is located on the Hallamish side of highway 465 and is just unfortunately one of many expansions of the settlement since it’s establishment in 1977.

The plan for the demonstration was to march from the hilltop village and down to the seized fields in an attempt to reach the land. Less than one kilometer into the march, demonstrators met military jeeps, Israeli soldiers and unsparing amounts of tear gas blocking the road. Occupation resisters successfully forced the military to retreat a few hundred meters and an avenue to continue the march towards the fields through a valley between the road an the An Nabi Salih village was created. Military forces defended the settler-confiscated lands from multiple points including the road leading up to the village, highway 465 and a hilltop in An Nabi Salih using tear gas, sound bombs, rubber coated bullets and live ammunition.
Major struggles to reach the land occurred in the valley and on the lower portion of the access road to An Nabi Salih with sporadic outbreaks of force throughout the area. By 4pm, soldiers were forced into retreat to the base of the road (tear gas canisters rained intermittently until dusk) and a deal was made between the Popular Committee and the military for the release of the seven Palestinians arrested during the demonstration, three of which were woman arrested at the demonstration’s inception. Accounts of military violence during their detention at the Hallamish settlement were reported by multiple arrestees. One Palestinian resister was severely wounded by a tear gas canister resulting in a large gash in his head requiring emergency evacuation and medical attention by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
Seven International Solidarity Movement volunteers participated in the demonstration by shooting video, taking photos, offering medical aid and witnessing frontline violence and arrests.
[Taken from Indymedia ]

An Nabi Saleh demonstrator attacked