CO Ajuad Zidan, 18, from the town of Beit Jann, a Palestinian member of the Druze religious community, was sentenced to 20 days of imprisonment on 14 Dec for his refusal to enlist in the Israeli military. This is his second term in prison (he was earlier sentenced to 10 days in prison on 30 Nov., although he was released a few days early following the evacuation of Military Prison no. 6 during the fire on Mt. Carmel earlier this month). He is currently held in Military Prison no. 4.

http://www.bilin-ffj.org/?option=com_content&task=view&id=336&Itemid=1

To mark the International Week of Solidarity with the Palestinian people and
the Christmas holiday the people of Bil'in remember their martyrs, prisoners
and wounded and vow to continue their struggle against the occupation with
the aim of establishing an independent state with Jerusalem as capital.

At today's demonstration, a number of Bil'in's citizens as well as a local
journalist were wounded, in addition to the dozens of people who suffered
choking from inhaling poison gas.

Settlers and the IDF continue to attack Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills region.

On Monday, 13th December, 2010, seventeen settlers from the settlement Sussya attacked the Nawaj'a family from the Palestinian village Sussya. The act was probably retaliation after a herd of goats had been stolen from the settlement.  The settlers beat a Palestinian man with a pick-axe and injured his back.  A neighbour was also injured. The attack took 45 minutes, and the police only came a long time after the attack had finished.  No one was arrested, although some of the attackers’ identities are known.  This is the third time settlers have attacked the Nawaj'a family.

On Monday, the IDF demolished 13 cisterns in Umm Daraj in the Judean Desert .  A week earlier, the IDF demolished an irrigation pool in the Tekoa region.

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On Monday, 13th December, 2010, State representatives arrived, accompanied by police, and demolished seven homes of Palestinian Israeli citizens, at Helen Keller Street in Lod.  Fifty people were made homeless.

 Questions & queries: amosg@shefayim.org.il

All 432 pages of Breaking the Silence's new landmark book of IDF soldier testimonies 2000-2010 now browseable, downloadable and embeddable in English here.

Before diving into the testimonies, make sure you read the first 2 pages of the introduction for a simple and honest analysis of how the IDF degenerated into a tool of dispossession:

The testimonies leave no room for doubt: while it is true that the Israeli security apparatus has had to deal with concrete threats in the past decade, including terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens, Israeli operations are not solely defensive. Rather, they systematically lead to the de facto annexation of large sections of the West Bank to Israel through the dispossession of Palestinian residents. The widespread notion in Israeli society that the control of the Territories is intended exclusively to protect the security of Israeli citizens is incompatible with the information conveyed by hundreds of IDF soldiers.

http://www.bilin-ffj.org/?option=com_content&task=view&id=335&Itemid=1

*17/12/2010*

Bil'in- Ramallah: Today dozens of people were injured from asphyxia as a
result of inhaling the tear gas due to the clashes that took place in the
village of Bil'in. Along with the peace activist and foreigners who camed to
give solidariety to Bil'in people especialy after the decision of the
Israeli Defence Force to suppress the weekly march against the wall and the
settlements.

The march is called by the Popular Committee Against the Wall in Bil'in, and
did partecipate and join this march many people form Bil'in village and many
peace activists,Israelis all of them here to bring and show their
solidariety to Bil'in people and case.

All the partecipant in the march raised the Palestinian flags and pictures
of the prisoner activist Abdullah Abo Rahme, one of the coordinator of the
Popular Committee Against the Wall and settlements. They shouted slogans
condemning the policies of settlements occupation, they also shouted against
the policies of repession against the Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli
jails, and other condemning the daily attacks on the Palestinians houses in
Jerusalem. The claimed also the stop to the policy of deportation and
exclusion, as recently happened to the Palestinian deputy Abu Tir who was
moved from Jerusalem. Also the slogans demand the stop of the continuos
arrests and to releas of all the detainees and prisoners and in particular
the prisoners from the popular resistance and last but not least to lift the
siege on the Gaza Strip.

The demonstrators marched in the village street singing the national songs
and slogans, calling for unity and rejecting all kind of disunite and
differences. They underlined and confirmed the need for a resounding
Palestinian resistance against the occupation and the release of all the
prisoners and the freedom for Palestine.
The march headed toward the wall, where the military force of the israeli
occupation army were waiting for them behind cubes and block of cements and
all along the wall, and when the protesters tried to cross the wall to reach
the lands owned by the people of the town the army started to fire sound
bombs and rubber bullet and tear gas in all the directions, result of the 

 fire many people where injured from asphyxia.

 US State Department spokesman continues to avoid giving a clear US position on the case of imprisoned non-violent leader Abdallah Abu Rahmah. Asked three times on different occasions by Associated Press reporters, spokesman PJ Crowley failed to show clear US support of Abdallah Abu Rahmah.

WATCH VIDEO 

 The IDF is continuously trying to evict the Palestinian residents of the village Khirbet Tana, east of Beit Furiq in the Nablus sub-district.

On Tuesday, 7th December, 2010, the IDF demolished homes in the village for the third time (Don't say... #195).  On this occasion, 10 homes, 17 animal sheds and a school were demolished.  One hundred and one (101) people were made homeless.  In addition, 15 water tanks were destroyed.

Questions & queries: amosg@shefayim.org.il