Israeli occupation forces beat and arrest Palestinians and internationals during a peaceful rally against the Qana massacre in Lebanon and daily atrocities in the occupied Palestinian territories

Jerusalem - August 1, 2006

This afternoon, Israeli occupation forces beat and arrested Palestinian, Israeli and foreign demonstrators during a peaceful rally against the Israeli massacres in Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories. The rally was organized by Jerusalem civil society organizations and held across from the United States Consulate in East Jerusalem to protest the US policies, role and responsibility in the daily atrocities against the Palestinian and Lebanese populations.

Approximately 50 people gathered across the street from the American Consulate headquarters in East Jerusalem and raised slogans condemning the Israeli massacres in Lebanon and Palestine and the international and Arab silence and complicity to the maiming and killing of the two peoples.

During the rally, the demonstrators were attacked by tens of Israeli polices and intelligence, who circled around them and began to severely beat them with truncheons and used sound bombs and tear gas at close range, injuring the overwhelming majority of them. Police arrested protestors, and used pepper spay directly in the eyes of some, even after they were ’restrained’.

Protesters stated that they witnessed the assault and beating of those detained as they were in police vehicles and driven to the Russian Compound in West Jerusalem.

Civil society organizations in Jerusalem consider this assault on peaceful demonstrators as but yet another sign of Israel’s disgraceful politics which it exercises on a daily basis against Palestinians in Jerusalem within the framework of politics of repression, Judaization and ethnic cleansing. It is of no surprise that the Israeli occupation forces would prevent a peaceful demonstration in Jerusalem where it refuses to allow any activity or event reflecting Palestinian presence in the city.

Civil society organizations in Jerusalem strongly condemn the massacres carried out on a daily basis against Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories and Lebanon. Organizations also express their strong condemnation against the position of the international community, including the Arab regimes - a position of silence and complicity to war crimes and crimes against humanity