by Nathan Stuckey
8 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
Thaer Abed Al Hameed Mahdi died on Saturday, March 3rd, 2012. He was 23 years old. A rope snapped and he plunged down a shaft to his death. He died instantly. His coworkers Jamal Kamel Mahdi and Raed Jaber Mahdi survived, they are still in the hospital. Jamal is in the European Hospital with two broken legs and a broken arm. Raed is in Shifa Hospital. His back is broken. Three years ago Israel slaughtered almost 1,500 Gazans, and nobody was held accountable … Continue reading
Thaer Abed Al Hameed Mahdi, murdered by the Siege
The seen and unseen in the No Go Zone
by Nathan Stuckey
7 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
Today, like ever Tuesday, we marched into the no go zone north of Beit Hanoun. We gathered by the half destroyed Beit Hanoun Agricultural College and marched north, towards Jerusalem. A Jerusalem that few of the protesters have ever seen, they have never been allowed to go to Jerusalem, it is forbidden to them, just as the land in the no go zone is forbidden to them. Jerusalem and Al Aqsa are unseen. We demonstrated for Al Aqsa and the prisoners. The prisoners too are … Continue reading
Introducing Bil’in: The ritual of resistance and oppression
by Sophie Van Dijk
2 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Today we went to Bil’in, a small village 17 km from Ramallah. For decades it has been harassed by the Israeli army. When the Apartheid Wall was constructed, it separated the farmers from their land.
Seven years ago, the villagers succeeded in moving the wall a bit towards the settlements again and gained back a few meters of the land where their great grandparents already lived.
Every Friday after that, there where demonstrations organized. For my friend and I, this was our first demonstration in the West Bank.
Luckily we had a bit of an … Continue reading
We Are With Hana Shalabi and Al Aqsa: Demonstration in the No Go Zone in Beit Hanoun
by Nathan Stuckey
29 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
Israeli riot police have entered the Al Aqsa Mosque Compound, Palestinians have struggling to protect it for days. After 66 days Khader Adnan has ended his hunger strike, hopefully, soon, he will be home with his family. Even before his hunger strike ended the newest one had begun. Hana Shalabi, a young woman from the West Bank, was put into “administrative detention” on February 16, 2012. Like Khader Adnan she has been … Continue reading
Settler Violence: Broken Glass on Shuhada Street
by Silvia
21 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Five years ago Abed Seder’s wife, Kefah, was shot five times in the chest by Israeli soldiers as she went onto her roof to check her water tank. She was 23 years old and left three sons motherless. He tells me his sons are afraid to go on the roof, which overlooks the illegal Zionist settlement of Beit Hadassah. To an international community, Abed’s struggle is one of trauma and loss, but he tells it with shockingly familiar regularity.
The massacre of 1929 and the War of Narratives
by Aaron
21 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
If you ask an Israeli settler in or around Al-Khalil (Hebron) what calls them to live on contested land, most will speak to a religious connection to the city and the Cave of the Machpelach (“patriarchs”), where Jews, Muslims, and Christians come to revere the biblical figures believed to be buried there. A series of signs posted nearby along Shuhada Street, the once-main road and market district now closed to Palestinians, tell a story of Hebronite Jewish habitation dating from biblical times, brought to a sharp and bloody end … Continue reading
Women Studies Center of Nablus: Women’s rights are Palestinian rights
by Jonas Weber
18 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
“We rented this house since a year back,” says Randa Bashir as she looked around in the brightly lit meeting room at the Women Studies Centre in Nablus. Like most Palestinian houses it is designed to keep cool during the warmer time of the year rather than keeping warm during the winter and we keep our jackets on throughout the meeting.
Bashir, with a background as social worker and speech therapist, is the director of the Nablus branch of the Women Studies Centre. She has been active in the Palestinian womens movement … Continue reading
Solidarity with Khader Adnan in the No Go Zone
by Nathan Stuckey
14 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Two months ago, few of us knew the name Khader Adnan. Today, he is an inspiration to all of us. Two months ago he was kidnapped from his home by Israel. He was charged with no crime. He was abused by his captors and interrogators from the moment he was arrested. None of this is unusual in Palestine, every day people are kidnapped from their homes, abused, and held without charge. Torture is a routine matter for prisoners of the occupation. None of the abuse that Israel inflicted … Continue reading
Turtles in Aqraba
by Jonas Weber
10 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
“Hurry up you turtles!” Wael yelled in the distance. He had suddenly turned this walk into some kind of contest. We skipped across the rocky landscape of Palestine, dirty and with the sun in our eyes.
We were planting trees in the small village of Aqraba, putting up pictures of our missed friends Rachel Corrie and Vittario Arrigoni. Men and women, young and old were helping out with the planting, and we were treated to tea sweet as syrup. … Continue reading
International thoughts: Coping with the reality of Israeli occupation
by Iman
5 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
I am … well, it is not easy to explain.
I am overwhelmed, I am shocked, grateful yet disappointed, filled with love and anger, incomprehension filled my heart and an inability to truly understand what is going on.
On the one side I think I have seen it all and on the other hand it feels like I haven’t seen a thing. All this information regarding the illegal and destructive Israeli occupation are filling my head. I thought I was prepared before I arrived but I wasn’t. I came here to be an … Continue reading
Recent Photos
