Israeli troops attack peace activist in Bil'in - file 2008– Photo by IMEMC's Hitham Al Khateb
Friday June 20, 2008 16:55 by Abedallah Abu Rahma - Bil'in - IMEMC News
On Friday, villagers from Bilin, located near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, along with their international and Israeli supporters marched in their weekly nonviolent protest against the illegal Israeli wall built on the village's land.
Protesters carried banners demanding the removal of the Israeli wall and settlements and calling upon the international community to help Palestinians retain Jerusalem. Protestors also carried photos of Ibrahim Burnat who was injured during last week's protest by three live bullets fired by an Israeli soldier at a close range. Burnat He is still receiving treatment in the hospital.
The protests started after the mid-day Friday prayers were finished in the mosque, participants marched towards the separation Wall which separates the village from its land.
Immediately after the protest reached the gate of the Wall, soldiers showered the protestors with tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. Scores of protesters were treated for gas canisters. Israeli troops used a new tear gas launcher which fires thirty canisters in one barrage. They also used a high pitched ‘scream’ device in an attempt to disorientate demonstrators. Two people were injured as a result of the rubber-coated steel bullets; Muheeb Albarghutee a journalist from Al Hayyat Al Jadeedah newspaper and Ranny Burnat a local activist.
In addition tear gas canisters started several fires in the olive orchards burning many of the old trees. The fields belonged Rashid Muhammed Abu Rahma and Muhammed Ali Yasin, local sources reported.
Last night Israeli occupation forces forcibly removed Palestinians inside an outpost built to monitor attempts to seize more land from the village. At midnight Abdullah Abo Rahma, Ahmad Ibrahim Abo Rahma and Farhat Ibrahim Burnat were beaten and detained before being forced back to the other side of the fence. Israeli soldiers also attacked the house of Muhammed Tawfiq Al Khatib and arrested his son Tariq.
In related newes After a joint request by residents of Bilin and Jayyos villages supported by the Adalah-NY coalition UNICEF confirmed this week that it would no longer accept financial or other support from Liv Leviev or his corporate entities.
Leviev is a financial supporter of the illegal settlements of Modin Eilat and Zofim. Modin Eilat is built on land from Bilin village and Zofim settlement is built on land from Jayyos village and Abu Ghnaim Mountain. Representatives from Dubai have also been successfully petitioned to deny Leviev permission to open two stores there.
Shocking footage out of Cedar Rapids Iowa shows cops and government employee "strike teams" breaking into houses of flood victims and threatening anyone who questions their actions in complete violation of the 4th amendment right that protects against unlawful search and seizure.
No warrant, no knock home invasions are being carried out on the flimsy pretext of "checking for structural damage" as cops harass and threaten with arrest people who refuse to have their homes ransacked by thugs in uniforms.
Cedar Rapids police chief Greg Graham promised residents over the weekend that "Law enforcement officers are not entering homes," and that firefighters would only enter homes through unlocked doors and windows yet the video clearly shows locked houses being broken in to.
"Each strike team consisted of six or seven people, including police, firefighters, utilities workers, andcity employees," reports the Iowa Gazette.
Angela Tague, a member of the STAR 1 search and rescue team from Ames, ran into any angry homeowner on E Avenue NW.
"He was saying ‘Where do you live?’ and ‘How would you like it if someone busted your door open?," Tague said.
Police Officer Josh Bell later had a heated exchange with the man, and told him that if he didn’t go back inside his house and stop harassing the strike team, he would be escorted out of the area.
The man was visibly agitated about his broken door and pointed at Bell.
"It’s wrong," the man said, over and over.
So people who are uncomfortable with jackbooted thugs breaking down their door without even knocking and express their distaste for it are to blame for "harassing the strike team"?
Respondents to the You Tube clip and the newspaper article expressed their outrage at the behavior of those in the video tasked with "helping" flood-stricken people yet doing nothing more than intimidating and invading their homes.
"You break down the door of my private residence and when I object you threaten to escort me off my own property. Fine example of police work. Did anyone think to knock first? Thomas Jefferson said that the main reason for citizens to be armed was to protect themselves from tyrannical government. If this isn’t tyranny then I don’t know what is. A man’s home is his castle," states Steve Delaloye.
"A sad day for America when government thugs abuse the trust of the citizenry like this," writes one.
"So these cops and fire fighters are part time structural engineers, or what?? What are they inspecting for in the structures? Gas and electric could be shut off at the source, and any spills are so diluted they wont catch fire. The police chief said no police would enter any homes, and what do you know, mr fat ass cop goes piling through the window thinking he’s T.J Hooker. Damn, this is just sad, sad , sad," adds another.
One Iowa resident expresses her anger that authorities will not let her re-enter her home.
"I sit here with tears streaming down my face. I have been trying to be patient and await to enter my home. Now today, I am told there will be no re-entry’s until further notice. I cannot express how ****ing mad I am. I understand the houses can be unsafe. Just let me at least see my house, so that I can assess if it hit my top floor. I have pictures and memories on my top floor of my deceased mother, all I want to do is rescue those," she writes.
As we reported in 2005, Hurricane Katrina was exploited by the federal government and used as a martial law drill while victims were abused and treated like rats in a laboratory.
Door to door gun confiscations were ordered and cops ransacked homes and took weapons from multi-million dollar homes which were in the high and dry areas and completely unaffected by the hurricane. In some cases, residents were kicked out of their own homes for no reason.
Outrageous footage showed cops seizing handguns from the home of a grief-stricken old women as they assaulted and punched her in the face.
Where does the government think it derives the authority from to break into people’s homes whose lives have already been devastated by massive floods on the flimsiest of pretexts?
The 4th amendment states, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Even if there was a legitimate reason to inspect homes, why on earth do they not even bother to knock on the door?
Cops immediately attempt to break in or climb through windows uninvited because this procedure is all about sending a message - when a crisis unfolds we are the bosses and you - the peasants - will yield to our tyranny.
Lawsuits need to be filed immediately by people in Iowa and elsewhere who have had cops invade their homes in complete violation of the 4th amendment and a pretext needs to be set that will put a stop to the government’s routine exploitation of natural disasters as an opportunity to impose martial law measures on needy victims that have already had their lives devastated.
With reports indicating that the Mississippi river is in danger of bursting its banks, the precedent that was set with Hurricane Katrina could be set to advance as government minions and jackbooted thugs across the country lick their lips at the prospect of kicking down more doors and harassing innocent people.
Contact the Iowa ACLU and demand they pressure the authorities to stop these illegal home invasions immediately.
Israeli troops attack peace activist in Bil'in - file 2008– Photo by IMEMC's Hitham Al Khateb
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