Month: October 2011

Ashraf Abu Rahmah, brother of two Bil’in casualties, arrested during protest

22 October 2011 | Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

Ashraf Abu Rahma, brother of Bassem and Jawaher Abu Rahma who were killed by the Israeli army in Bil’in is falsely accused of stone-throwing and was sent to Ofer Prison.  Ashraf himself was shot in the leg by the army while cuffed and blindfolded in a scandalous incident in 2008.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRsgnegNY5M&version=3&hl=en_US

The weekly demonstration in Bil’in this week started as usual, as some several dozen residents were joined by Israeli and international activists for a march against the Wall. The protesters, led by the new Libyan flag, marched to the new route of the wall, where the soldiers met them with tear-gas. Since the spot was hard to hit, the soldiers retaliated by shooting canisters into the oak grove downwind behind the protesters, setting fire to some rare and ancient oaks. The demonstrators moved upwind, eastward along the wall, where clashed between local youth and the army persisted for about an hour.

When the demonstrators were heading back, the soldiers decided to cross the gate into the village and attacked the unarmed demonstrators. During their incursion, soldiers jumped and arrested Ashraf Abu Rahmah, brother of Bassem and Jawaher, the two unarmed demonstrators killed by the Israeli army in Bil’in. Ashraf himself shot in the foot by soldiers while bound and blindfolded in the neighboring village of Ni’ilin in 2008.

The soldiers promised to release him if the demonstration was dispersed, which was already the case at the time, but did not fulfil their promise. Two army jeeps then drove through the village and eventually left with Ashraf. He is falsely accused of stone-throwing & sent to Ofer Prison on a 96 hours warrant, in complete disregard of his medical condition.

 

Palestinian youth welcome former detainees to Gaza in “Prisoners Uprising”

22 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Fifty Palestinian youth marched from Gaza’s International Committee of the Red Cross compound to the Commodore Gaza and Al-Quds International Hotels, celebrating the release of 477 political prisoners Tuesday and welcoming those exiled to Gaza, who are currently housed in the hotels.

The demonstration ended in the Al-Nour Cultural Center, where four exiled prisoners, as well as the son of a current prisoner from Gaza, addressed the crowd.

“We are trying to awaken youth about the situation of the prisoners through ongoing activities,” said Majed Abusalama, one of the organizers of the event.

“This is peaceful cultural resistance,” he said. “We want to pressure the international community to take action for the rights of Palestinian prisoners.”

Abusalama added that the group hoped to hold weekly events calling attention to Palestinian political prisoners detained by Israel.

On Monday, the human rights organizations ADDAMEER and Al-Haq warned that Israel’s exile of Palestinian prisoners “violate[s] Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits forcible transfers and deportations of protected persons, a proscription that is part of customary international humanitarian law.

“Unlawful deportation or transfer also constitutes a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention (GC IV) and qualifies as one of the most serious war crimes,” the groups said in a joint statement.

Struggling for water in Gaza

22 October 2011 | Mondoweiss, Leila Al-Najar and Ishraq Othman

The Beach camp “Al-shate” is located to the west of Gaza City. Small houses are crowded together with an unbearable smell springing from the wastewater running through the alleys. As volunteers in Youth for the Right of Water and Sanitation project (YRWS) we occasionally visit homes there randomly for our case study on water problems. Residents suffer enormously from serious water problems caused by the Israeli occupation which for years has undertaken exploiting and withdrawing all our pure water resources; groundwater, the Jordan River, the Gaza valley and Lake Tiberius. Thus, all aquifers start to run out and the problem of salty water is increasingly appearing in most houses in Gaza.

We visited the home of Haider Saed Abu-Jazya, a 51 year old carpenter and a father of 14 children whose family has a long miserable history with water. “We have been suffering from water shortage and unfair distribution for 10 years. It’s only available for two days a week beginning at midnight only to run out again in the morning. Along with the problem of polluted insufficient supply another problem has emerged, salty water” said Haider who looks older than his age.

The tone of Haider’s voice tells us he is extremely worried about his family’s life. He is likely to pass on the misery he inherited from his refugee parents to his children. “Can you drink a cup of tea melted with three spoons of salt? Absolutely you cannot” he stresses. He describes how salty and polluted water negatively affects his family. For this, he is obliged to buy a 500-liter gallon supply of water which costs 15 NIS 4 US dollars a day. Sometimes he borrows from a neighbor or friend to pay for it, ‏ other times his friends have no money to offer.

Not only is pure water used for drinking but also for ordinary daily use. Haider has a big family, yet he earns a low income to cover the simplest and most important needs of life like water ‏which must be affordable to all people as a matter of human rights.

“A house without water as quiet as a desert”, he concludes.

Once, he ran out of water for two weeks in a row, so his wife couldn’t do the house chores like cooking, washing and laundering. Thus, they had to throw their dirty clothes away, which were not laundered for days and could not be used again.

How can a human being survive in such conditions?! How can not one be infected by diseases of salty water?

“The low quality of water causes allergies and red pimples arising on my children’s skin” his wife whispers.

WHAT TO DO?!

“All dwellers of the neighborhood gathered and headed to the municipality to complain about the water problems we all face, there were promises made but never fulfilled” he said.

Haider speaks on behalf of the Palestinian nation, hoping this voice will be heard all over the planet.

To those who read this article, imagine that you cannot get a drop of pure water while your baby is strongly crying because his milk is his only food.

Palestine suffers from severe lack of water and Gaza’s water in particular is going to run out by 2020. As long as the world commits absolute silence, Gaza will turn into a wasteland. Gaza needs your help, don’t hesitate to help our people.

In recovery: Hit and run victim’s will is stronger than ever

22 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Sajah Bilal Abd el Raouf Jum’a, 19, who was seriously injured in a hit and run attack by an Israeli settler is still in need of treatment for her injuries. After ten days in the hospital she is now back in her home in Kufr Qaddoum. She will need to stay two more weeks in bed before she is able to walk. This Sunday her 20 days off from university will expire, and she will continue her studies from her home.

Her father will take her to school once a week in a wheelchair. Sajah’s sister, Ahlam, 18, who was also injured in the accident, stayed one night in the hospital following the incident and is now doing well.

The incident took place the morning of October 4th when the sisters were on their way to university. Eliyaho Miller, a settler from one of the nearby illegal settlements, was driving his car at  a very high speed on the main road in Huwarra when he hit the girls. He tried to escape from the scene but was stopped by locals from the village of Huwarra until israeli police and military reached the location.

Visit Al Haq's interactive map of settler violence - Click here

Locals called an ambulance that helped the girls to the Rafidya Hospital in Nablus where they received treatment. Sajah got her shoulder treated with laser technology, which showed up to be problematic.

“The doctors are really bad. I am worried for her future. I will try take her to Jerusalem to find her a better doctor.” says the girls’ father, Bilal Jum’a. Access to medical treatment is most times obstructed by Israeli military between villages, especially since Kufr Qaddoum’s main road is blocked by the Israeli military, forcing villagers to take a longer route that weaves around illegal settlements. Because of the implications of the illegal Israeli occupation of the West Bank, and its monopoly of borders, checkpoints, and entry points, medical equipment and skills are limited.

Attaining access to Jerusalem for medical care is also a tedious process, with Palestinians often waiting for permission by military run District Coordination Offices that determine access to such services.

The family still has to pay more than 1,000 dollars for treatment in the hospital, which they have not paid because they want to hold the driver responsible for medical costs as legal costs mount.

Israeli authorities have labeled the event an “accident” without trying the case and that they will  not charge the driver. This comes following similar hit and run attack the previous day, which injured 20 year old Nasser Abu Al-Kabbash.  And just over a week before these two incidents in the Nablus region, an 8 year old boy was hit by an illegal settler in Al Buqaa. As the Israeli-plated car fled the scene near, Taleb Jaber was left to bleed.

The Jum’a family will keep defending the case of Sajah until they find justice in the mangled laws of Israeli occupation. Sajah confidently stated that she will win the case.

“He admitted that he hit me. It is clear. There were a lot of witnesses.”

 

An open letter from Palestinian students to their peers in Europe

21 October 2011 | Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel, Gaza

We Palestinian students of the Gaza Strip wish to send a message to all European student groups in solidarity with the Palestinians to do all they can to increase Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israel this academic year.

We also reiterate our support for the recent call by Palestinian Civil Society, of which we are a signatory, to end all collaborative research between European Universities and Israeli universities.[1] Research centers in Israeli academic institutions are actively involved in fuelling Israel’s huge weapons industry and tools of its military occupation and siege. It is this apparatus of violence that makes studying in Gaza so difficult, not to mention the daily toils and tragedy of Israeli apartheid policies. We, therefore,  call for an end to this compliance on all campuses with those directly complicit in the war crimes and colonial subjugation of us the Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank,‘48 Palestine and throughout the Diaspora.

These are crucial times as we youth in Gaza are seeing glimpses of the kinds of mass international movement that we are certain will one day bring us the liberation, justice and equality expected by others but denied to us for so long. Each university that boycotts, divests and sanctions from Israel’s apartheid regime is standing on the right side of history, just as students played a huge role in boycotting South Africa’s ugly and similarly racist apartheid regime until it fell in 1994.

Yet apartheid against Palestinians since then has only become more entrenched. In response, our call for boycott from over 170 organisations from Palestinian civil society in 2005[2] has been a lightning rod for others who can relate to our plight. When endorsing the successful boycott and ending of ties between the University of Johannesburg and Ben Gurion University (BGU) this year, the first of its kind, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said:

“While Palestinians are not able to access universities and schools, Israeli universities produce the research, technology, arguments and leaders for maintaining the occupation. BGU is no exception. By maintaining links to both the Israeli Defence Forces and the arms industry, BGU structurally supports and facilitates the Israeli occupation.” [3]

There was no negotiating with such oppression based on race – there was only one word: BOYCOTT. Just as students around the world were banning Barclays bank from campuses for their investment in South African Apartheid in the 1980s, this year we call on you to take similar steps to end Israel’s systematic brutality. To say, “We will no longer be complicit!”, in the decades of ethnic  cleansing, military occupation, medieval blockade that has lead to so much tragedy and broken dreams for our youth and students.

Our spirits have been raised by the BDS efforts so far in European Universities, exemplified by Kings College where students and academics have begun a campaign against the research collaboration between their university and Ahava, the cosmetics company based in an illegal settlement. Such long term campaigns are what is required, the cutting edge of international resistance. We ask you to do whatever it takes to isolate and hold Israel to account until it abides by international law and accepts basic premises of human rights and equality for all, including us Palestinians.

This year it is in your hands to see that the tide finally turns across the campuses in Western countries that most enable the Israeli regime’s crimes against us to continue. We hope you put BDS at the forefront of your campaigns and join together for the Israeli Apartheid Week[4],, the pinnacle of action across universities worldwide. And while the walls around us stop us from meeting in person, we have many students and youth happy to participate in skype conferences and other collaborations. We give you all our solidarity and send you our dearest wishes to do us proud this year.

[1] http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/dont-collaborate-with-apartheid-8202#.Tp-H9Vv9oY1

[2] http://www.bdsmovement.net/bdsintro#.Tp-L81v9oY0

[3] http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/articles/africa/1556-israeli-ties-a-chance-to-do-the-right-thing

[4] http://apartheidweek.org/