Muhammad Idrees Ahmad

Friends and fellow campaigners Margaret & John Pacetta of the Glasgow Palestinian Human Rights Campaign, currently volunterring with the International Solidarity Movement, were attacked by the Israeli Army along with a Spanish activist while returning from a brief demonstration in Bil’in. According to the ISM press release:

Demonstrators showed peaceful, but defiant, displays of the flags despite the cadre of armed military personnel, now able to hide behind newly constructed reinforcement fences. The occupation forces immediately advanced through the gate to take strategic positions overlooking the activists. At a distance of hundreds of meters, the soldiers began lobbing grenade-launched tear gas canisters, throwing concussion grenades, and firing rubber bullets. In the ensuing attack: Margaret, a 52 year-old participant from Scotland was shot in the back with a rubber bullet; Yasir, a participant from Spain was shot in the back with a rubber bullet; and John, a 53 year-old participant also from Scotland sustained facial injuries from a concussion grenade thrown directly at him.

On the same day Gordon Clubb, a member of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign and a student at Stirling University, also came under attack from the Israeli Occupation Forces. He sent the following report:

Here is a brief description of what happened to me and Oliver on Tuesday in Jerusalem:

Walking back to a peaceful protest from the UN office i saw that the Israelis had started attacking the crowd and my friend. When i asked them to calm down and tell them that we are internationals i was thrown about, punched and Oliver was kicked.

I tried to find out who was in charge to ensure that my american friend, who had been arrested with a Palestinian, would be okay. I was then grabbed from behind and thrown into the back of a van with Oliver. All four of us in the van were punched and kicked repeatedly and made to lie on the floor. They had kicked the American so hard that he was pissing blood later. They started hitting Oliver and i shouted at them to stop and i got hit as a result.

They made us face down. Oliver was saying that he was having an asthma attack and i said that he might die as a result; as a consequence both me and oliver got punched/kicked. The Palestinian in the back was also getting hit and so was the American. We drove away and it seemed to calm down. I had the Israelis hand on my shoulder with his gun digging into my stomach.

The Palestinian was about to be sick because of the pepper spray so they dragged him and the American out, kicking oliver because he was in the way. Whilst he was being sick they were both kicked repeatedly in the street. The American was later hit twice with a thick UN report by the policeman

We were driven to the police station where we were told to strip. We were made to face a wall outside in the sun and then they interrogated us.