Aqil Srour , a hero equal to a thousand others, was born on the 24th of April 1972 and raised in the West Bank village of Ni’lin. His mother died when he was only one year old and he and his 3 brothers and 2 sisters were raised by Aqils father. During the first intifada Aqil was taken to Israeli Zionist military jail in 1994 where his father died without Aqil being able to meet him one final time.

The hero Aqil dedicated his entire life to the struggle for freedom from Israeli Occupation for his people and he was arrested on five occasions by the Israeli Occupation Forces. The first time he was arrested was during the first intifada in 1994 and this arrest led to him spending four years in Israeli military prison. His last arrest was during the struggle against the segregation barrier in Ni’lin which began in 2008, this time he had to spend four and a half months in prison and was fined $ 2000, a huge sum to any Palestinian. In his life he spent more than 6 years in Israeli military jails such as Majeddo, Jalbou, Negeve and Ofer where he was subjected to multiple kinds of brutality during interrogations. He was put in the tiny isolation cells below ground in Almasqubya jail near Jerusalem.

After the second intifada he got married and had four children, the youngest of which being his three year old daughter Ramees.

As the segregation wall was being built on his villages land, Aqils house was made subject to many brutal invasions by the Israeli Occupation Forces. His mentally ill older brother was shot with rubber coated steel bullets in his left eye from no more than 15 meters distance on the 30th of October 2008 as Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Ni’lin. The Israeli military commander ordered Aqils brother to be shot at close range as he was shouting at the soldiers, asking them why they were arresting Aqil.

Aqil Srour was consistently targeted by the occupation forces from the beginning of the struggle against the barrier in Ni’lin. He was time and time again shot directly at during peaceful demonstrations. Only two weeks before being assassinated he sustained injuries after having been hit in the face with a tear gas canister.

On the 5th of June 2009, Aqil was shot in the heart with a 0.22 caliber bullet, a kind of ammunition considered illegal under international law, while he was trying to rescue a 16 year old boy named Muhammed Mousa. Muhammed had been shot in the stomach by the same kind of ammunition and when Aqil reached the passed out boy he was shot by a sniper from the Israeli border police. Aqil died before reaching the hospital, not much more than two months after his release from Ofer military jail. His youngest daughter Ramees had yet to enter this world, and she never got to see her.

The martyr Aqil Srour never accepted the humiliation of living under constant occupation, it was not the future he wanted for his children.By killing Aqil the Israeli occupation didn’t only kill an extraordinary man, but also left his children to live without their fathers love.

Aqil was loved by all the people of Ni’lin, and an appreciated part of the community, always willing to help neighbors in need. He lives on in the minds and the hearts of his friends and collective memory of the entire village of Ni’lin. Aqil will never be forgotten and his memory will live on long after the fall of the occupation.

The Israeli occupation will pay for the killing of innocent and peaceful protestors such as Ahmad Mousa, Yousef Amireh, Muhammed Khawaja and Arafat Kawaja who all were brutally killed in the peaceful struggle in Ni’lin during less than a year. These murders will serve to strengthen the resolve of the people in Ni’lin. The struggle will go on until the segregation wall has fallen and the occupation has been brought to an end.

On the fourth anniversary of what became the start of the popular struggle in Ni’lin over 350 protestors, Palestinians, Israelis and internationals gathered to again march towards the wall. As the struggle against Israeli segregation politics enters its fifth year the determination of the struggle remain as strong as ever.

After the Friday prayer protestors gathered in the olive groves to a demonstration named The March of Loyalty in commemoration to the five martyrs who were brutally murdered by Israeli military during peaceful protests against the segregation wall. The martyrs were remembered in the slogans chanted by the demonstration as it proceeded towards the wall with Palestinian flags raised. The demonstration called for the unity of the Palestinian political fractions in the struggle against Israeli occupation. Slogans were also dedicated to the prisoners currently on hunger strike in Israeli prisons, some of which have refused food for almost 80 days.

When the demonstration reached the segregation wall the soldiers were already preparing the skunk water truck to flush the demonstration with foul smelling water. Despite this some of the protestors reached the gate where they burnt car tires to express the sadness of their people and their defiance against the wall in the black color of the soot.

A speech was delivered by one of the protestors against the Israeli occupation and theft of land, condemning the recent settler attack on Ni’lin farmers. Last Wednesday settlers from Hashmonaim (an Israeli colony built on Ni’lin land) started throwing stones at farmers trying to reach their land on the other side of the wall. The settlers drove them away with gun fire while cursing at the farmers.

During the speech the soldiers continued to fire tear gas at the protestors to disperse the demonstration. A 14 year old child was injured and dozens suffered from tear gas inhalation. As so many times before the soldiers were hiding in the fields around the wall in order to arrest protestors but this time they were unsuccessful.

Since 1967 the village of Ni’lin has lost most of its land (only 7000 dunums remain of the 58000 that originally made up the land of the village. On the confiscated land five illegal colonies have been built, surrounding Ni’lin on all sides but to the west. The apartheid road 446 also serves to cut the village in half. From 2004 to 2008 the village held up the construction of the apartheid wall being built all across the West Bank. Over 1500 dunums that otherwise would have been confiscated was saved.

The construction of the wall marked the beginning of an intense struggle in Ni’lin where military brutality, curfews and internationally declared illegal weapons have been implemented to suppress the peaceful demonstrations. 153 villagers have been seriously injured by live bullets fired at critical points in their bodies and more than 650 have been seriously injured by rubber coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters. Thousands of others have been mildly injured and two people also lost their eye sight after being shot with rubber coated steel bullets. American activist Tristan Anderson was shot in the head with a high velocity tear gas canisters and spent more than one and a half years in hospital. Five people have been killed, among them a ten year old boy called Ahmad Mousa, who was shot in the head.

Despite the harsh repression the people of Ni’lin have continues their peaceful struggle with strengthened determination and have even managed to tear down segments of the wall. The wall presently consists of three barriers in Ni’lin: an electric fence, a concrete wall and a barb wire barrier but the struggle of this small and unknown village is still going strong.

The segregation wall will fall, just like all others, and the illegal Zionist occupation will end.

Despite the calls for BDS (Boycott Deinvestment and Sanctions), Madonna has decided to go ahead with her concert at Ramat Gan stadium in Israel. To face the criticism aimed at the concert Madonna invited peace activists from several NGOs to come see her show for free. However there are still millions of people who are permanently barred from events in Israel.

Saeed and Muhammad Amireh from the village of Ni’lin had bought ticket for the concert but as always when they tried to exit their village they were stopped by the apartheid wall that has been separating their village from its agrarian lands. As all days the gate in the wall was closed and was not opened when the brothers explained that they wanted to go to the concert at Ramat Gan. The roadblock at another exit from the village would not let them through either and they were forced to turn back. They contacted the DCO (District Coordination Officer) to apply for permit to pass through the roadblocks on the way to the concert but they were not granted entrance to Israel.

Like most Palestinians, Saeed and Muhammad hold so called green ID-cards which means that they are not granted entry into the areas on the other side of the green line. They are not recognized as citizens of any state and even though they live under Israeli rule, they are denied basic rights such as freedom of movement.

By doing a concert in this kind of apartheid state Madonna is effectively whitewashing the Israeli occupation and agreeing to the terms that only some people are welcome to come see her. Evidently people from Ni’lin and other Palestinians are not amongst those who are welcome to Madonnas concerts.

Last Tuesday,in an event named “Historical return demonstration to Al Ramleh city” dozens of young Palestinians successfully broke through the Ni’lin military checkpoint on the morning of Nakba Day. The unannounced event gathered 50 activists that together marched towards the checkpoint separating the village from Palestinian lands occupied in 1948 and 1967.

As the demonstration was passing the checkpoint it was attacked by Israeli military and three of the activists were arrested. One of them was Naji Al Tamimi, coordinator of the popular committee in the village of Nabi Saleh. Many activists however made it across the checkpoint and pushed on into the Palestinian lands of 1948, carrying the flags of their nation as well as banners and sign saying”Our right is to return, and definitely we will.”

Later in the evening a second protest was held in Ni’lin as the villagers marched towards the apartheid wall separating the village from its olive groves. The demonstration was attacked by Israeli soldiers hiding under camouflage covers in the fields. The soldiers chased the protestors towards the village but did not manage to make any arrests. Two people were however injured by rubber coated steel bullets.

Palestinian protesters marking Nakba Day again clashed with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank,  injuring at least 70. All attempts by Palestinian leaders to avoid clashes and violence were again thwarted by the Israeli army. This, of course, follows a recent deal with Israel to end a prison hunger strike.Thousands of Palestinians took to streets in West Bank and Gaza to mark the anniversary, and to hail the end of hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners. Nakba or “catastrophe,” marks the day the state of Israel was created and resulted in the exile of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Any hope for calm as a result of last night’s deal, in which most of the 2,000 Palestinians on hunger strike in Israeli jails, ended their fasts, in exchange for assurances from the Israeli prison service to improve jail conditions. The deal however, did not include an end to holding Palestinians without charge.

Hundreds also gathered at the nearby Ofer military prison, and at the Qalandiya crossing. Crowds of young people launched rocks from slingshots at Israelis soldiers who responded with tear gas and sprayed the crowd with skunk cannon, which soaked the crowd with foul smelling liquid

The biggest protest was outside Israel’s Ofer Military prison, where there had been a large scale hunger strike. One wonders had this hunger strike been anywhere else, would the world media have made more of it? They made very little of this hunger strike.

PAL Red Crescent services said that 216 were treated for gas inhalation and 64 had rubber bullet injuries. While 19 more were hospitalised.

One youth was caught and the soldiers attempted to arrest him. He was beaten brutally and was freed by several other Palestinian youths who were throwing stones. He was injured to the head and taken to hospital. The clashes continued until 6.30.

A group of young settlers started the construction of a new outpost on privately owned land in Ni’lin on the 10th of April. The outpost will be called “Or Hadash” meaning A New Light in Hebrew, a biblical reference. Israeli soldiers came to the site and confiscated some contruction tools but did not stop the approximately 100 settlers from laying down the foundations of the outpost. The construction of settlements on privately owned Palestinian land has been deemed illegal according to international as well as Israeli law.

“We proclaim that the land of Israel is for the people of Israel” said the settler leader Daniella Weiss, former mayor of Kedumim settlement, who spoke at the land grabbing event. Weiss also spoke about the support the settler enterprise recieves from the trustee fund Nachala, an international organization dedicated to settlement expansion in the West Bank.

A core of young men and women had prepared to stay at the site. “We reclaim our patrimony, which has been waiting for us for 2,000 years” one of the young settlers said to comment on their land theft obviously not giving much thought to the people that have tended to the land for the two last millenia.

The Palestinian owners of the land have been unable to reach the area for many years due to the construction of the annexation wall, that was built for “security reasons” in 2008. Since the occupation of the West Bank started in 1967 the village of Ni’lin has lost 50.000 out of it’s original 58.000 dunums. 43.000 dunums of this land has been lost due to the illegal expansion of the five settlements surrounding the village to the east, west and north. Because of this theft of land some 7000 villagers have left, seeking a better life as their lands have been stolen. The people of Ni’lin are farmers and have no means of supporting themselves finacially without access to their lands.

Ni’lin is a clear example of how the settler enterpise effectively will drive away the Palestinian population if it is allowed to continue unhindered. These recent events also show how the annexation wall and the Israeli military fit into this equation by physically seperating Palestinians from their lands and by procting settlers as they break the law.

To commemorate Land Day on the 30th of March villagers from Ni’lin prayed under the olive trees in the threatened fields next to the annexation wall. After the prayer a demonstration with more than 250 participants from all over the world was held, chanting slogans in demand for freedom of access to their own lands and an end to the suppression of farmers in Ni’lin.

When the demonstration reached the gate in the wall the protestors were surprised to see two new military towers that had been recently constructed to make a outlook point for snipers. More barbed wire had also been brought in meaning that there now are three kinds of barriers in Ni’lin: concrete, barbed wire and the electrical fence.

Before the protest reached the gate the Israeli soldiers began shooting massive amounts of tear gas straight towards the demonstration. A female journalist was hit by a tear gas canister but received treatment on site in the ambulance.

After a while the soldiers switched to using rubber coated steel bullets fired by snipers from the newly installed towers along with foul smelling chemical water sprayed at the crowd from an army truck. As a response to this some protestors started throwing stones. A group of soldiers who were hiding in the fields tried to flank the stone throwers in order to arrest them. However the soldiers were discovered before any arrest could be made and instead the soldiers surrounded and pushed the protestors back towards the village. During this phase dozens of protestors suffered from tear gas inhalation and the soldiers displayed a high degree of violence.

“Ni’lin will not stop its protests due to the increase in violence from the army” was the message sent out from the Popular Committee of Ni’lin to the soldiers after this Friday’s demonstration. The Popular Committee also demanded the immediate release of Hana Shalabi, who as a part of her deal with her captors to end her hunger strike now risks deportation to Gaza, and sent their blessings to all other demonstrations this day in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza.

In last September, replant Palestine campaign has started to buy olive trees and replant it as a response and challenge to the Israeli occupation who uprooted and burned more than 1100 olive tree in the west bank village of Ni’lin in the past 3 years until now.

The Israeli occupation has burned and uprooted and cut more than 1100 olive tree in Ni’lin as a punishment to the farmers and the people of Ni’lin because of their unarmed struggle against the apartheid wall that confiscated their lands.
Ni’lin was famous with the olive oil industry but now it is suffering from the less of the olive oil.

On 24.03.2012, the first olive trees replanting event began in Ni’lin next to the apartheid wall as a support to Ni’lin farmers and as a respond to the abuse of the occupation against this village and its people. Dozens of internationals and Israeli peace activists alongside with the farmers of Ni’lin joined in the replanting day.

As the Ni’lin popular committee welcomed all the internationals and the Israeli activists who joined them and all the freedom and loving peace people all over the world who participated in buying the trees event.

The ni’lin popular committee has also declared and confirmed on the importance of the supporting of the Palestinian farmers in Ni’lin and all over the occupied Palestine inorder to be able to face and steadfast in the face of the military occupation and the brutality of the settlers in everyday life.
Also the committee stated that ‘as the olive trees considered to be as a symbol of peace,we will protect it and will never let the occupation kill it or destroy the hope of peace on earth, and if they uproot one olive tree then we will replant 10 instead of each one .
The farmers of Ni’lin expressed about their deep happiness about the event and confirmed that they will continue their struggle against the occupation until it end, come what may.

After the event was finished, a presentation was given in the center of Ni’lin committee discussing about the situation of Ni’lin village and the future challenges of its just struggle against the occupation,and the ongoing on situation in everyday life.

In Kufur Qaddoum, clashes between Israeli Border Police officers who shot tear-gas projectiles and rubber-coated bullets and local youth who threw stones at the forces developed. Roughly 15 minutes later – in a scene that seemed as if it was taking place in the American South of the 1960s – Border Police officers decided to sic an army dog at a group of the demonstrators, standing several dozens of meters away. The dog chased after the protesters, biting and locking his jaws into the arm of one of them – Ahmad Shtawi.

For long minutes, the dog would not release its hold of the bleeding arm, even as its handler arrived at the scene and tried to order it to do so. The Border Police officers then arrested Shtawi, despite the fact he was in obvious need of medical attention. Morad Shtawi, a member of the village’s popular committee, tried to reason with the commanding officer into releasing young man. He was then pepper-sprayed and arrested as well.

Two other residents of the village were injured during the demonstration, after being hit by tear-gas projectiles shot directly at them. One was hit in the leg and another in the shoulder.
The weekly protest in Kufer Qaddoum, west of Nablus, was dedicated to the memory of Rachel Corrie – an American protester who was killed after an Israeli D9 bulldozer drove over her in Rafah exactly nine years ago, on March 16, 2003.

In Nabi Saleh, at least three protesters were injured during the demonstration, including an Israeli woman who was hit in the head by a rubber-coated bullet. The two others were hit lightly injured, one by a rubber-coated bullet and the other by a tear-gas projectile. The woman was evacuated to the Ramallah hospital.
Earlier today, large forces entered the village and sprayed a foul-smelling liquid known as the Skunk from a water cannon.
During the night, the army staged yet another raid on the village, the fifth in a week’s time.

In Ni’lin,, demonstration was held despite the rainy weather, the demonstration was dedicated to the American activist Tristan Anderson who was shot by high velocity tear gas projectile in his head by the Israeli soldiers in 13.03.2009 in the middle of Ni’lin village. also commemorating the anniversary to the killing of Rachel Corrie in gaza strip by an israeli military bulldozer.
Israeli soldiers fired massive tear gas canister at protester,rubber coated bullets and skunk water,one demonstrator was hit with a rubber bullet in his hand and was treated directly.

This week’s demonstration, around 100 demonstrator marched toward the apartheid Israeli wall marking the international women day and calling for the immediate release of political prisoner Hanaa Shalabi, one activist was injured with rubber coated bullet and other dozens suffered from tear gas inhalation.

once demonstrators arrived to the gate of the apartheid wall, army started shooting massive amounts of tear gas canisters, followed by volleys of sound grenades and rubber coated bullets and skunk water. one activist was injured with rubber coated bullet and other dozens suffered from tear gas inhalation.

The demonstrators kept on and managed to make a hole in the concrete wall by putting water on the warm concrete after it was burned, then following with striking on the concrete with an ironic machine to make the concrete fall.
However, the people of Ni’lin sent a message to the Israeli occupation saying that’’ this wall will never break us and we will continue our struggle until we dismantle this unlawful wall from our lands, as we dismantled it before ,your walls will never work because it’s not for security reasons as you pretend, it is meant to steal our lands. All walls didn’t work all over the world, even Berlin wall has fallen and this wall will fall, we have no doubts’’.

The army chased the protesters toward the village after the appeared from a new gate was made recently by the occupation, continuing shooting tear gas canisters and rubber coated bullets at protesters. Luckily no one was arrested.

Background
Hana Yahya Shalabi (30) from the Burqin village near Jenin was released as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal, after being held in administrative detention for over two years (Sep. 2009 to Oct. 2011). During her arrest she was sexually harassed, put in solitary confinement and was denied trial. No allegations were brought against her by the Israeli security forces. On February 16th 2012 she was re-arrested and put under administrative detention for six month along with several other Palestinian prisoners released in the Gilad Shalit deal. Hana began a hunger strike, inspired by the hunger strike of Khader Adnan, to protest administrative detentions and abuse during interrogations and arrests. Hana Shalabi and over three hundred Palestinians are imprisoned for long periods without any charges and are never brought to trial. As a woman, Hana Shalabi faces a great risk of humiliation and sexual abuse, and has already been harassed in the past. Her strike calls attention to the physical and mental violence suffered by Palestinian women and men in Israeli jails.