Year: 2012 - Page 22 - International Solidarity Movement

Families of Palestinian detainees call for urgent actions to support hunger strikers

September 11, 2012 | Ministry of Detainees’ and Ex-detainees’ Affairs

For immediate release

For more information:

Doaa Abu Amer

0792599765048

doa.ah1985@gmail.com

GAZA, PALESTINE, September 11 – The families of Palestinians detained by Israel called for a week of urgent actions to support a mass hunger strike on 13 September, as well as ongoing hunger strikes by individual detainees.

Thousands of detainees will participate in a mass one-day hunger strike on Thursday, 13 September, beginning a “Saving the Strike” campaign to demand that Israel fully implement the agreement that ended the “Dignity” hunger strike on 14 May, 2012.

“The agreement was to allow all prisoners from Gaza to receive visits from family members,” said Sadeya Saftawi, the wife of detainee Emad El Deen Saftawi. “But four months later, I still haven’t been able to see my husband.”

Israel also continues to hold detainees in isolation, despite agreeing to release them into its prisons’ general population, and to renew administrative detention orders in violation of the 14 May deal. Two administrative detainees with extended orders, Samer Al-Barq and Hassan Safadi, remain on their 113^th and 83^rd days of extended hunger strikes.

“We ask supporters around the world to undertake more activities to pressure Israel to stop its daily violations against our sons, brothers, and husbands, and to help them get back their rights that are violated daily by Israel,” said Mona Abu Salah, the mother of two detainees, Fahmi and Salah Abu Salah.

The families asked supporters to demonstrate outside Israeli embassies, consulates, and missions, international organizations, Israeli prison contractors like G4S, and in other public places from Thursday, 13 September through Wednesday, 19 September.

Ni’ilin struggles on

By Anna

September 12, 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Friday 7th September myself and four other international activists attended the weekly demonstration against the apartheid wall in the village of Ni’lin. Since 2004 the villagers of Ni’lin have been non violently protesting against the annexation of their lands. So far the village has lost over 50,000 dunum (1 dunum = .1 hectare) of land, in part to surrounding illegal settlements and in part annexed from the village in the construction of the apartheid wall. Saeed Amireh, member of the Ni’lin popular committee explains that the confiscation of the land and colonization of the West Bank with illegal Israeli settlements are calculated methods designed to expel the Palestinians from the land. Many of the inhabitants in Ni’lin rely on the farm land and in particular the ancient olive trees for their livelihood.

Protestor stands with Palestinian flag as tear gas moves across the land.

This Friday was the first demonstration with an international presence for three weeks. Saeed says that the presence of internationals is vital to the resistance in Ni’lin and is glad to give us a talk after the demonstration, explaining the history of Ni’lin. The demonstration began after the midday prayers which waft from the mosque and through the fields lined with olive and carob trees, under which we wait. We walk through the fields alongside the villagers and children who carry Palestinian flags and a megaphone. Along the way the shabab (young people) pick up tires and stuff them with straw and dry grass. The wall which cuts through the rocky valley is made of concrete blocks, barbed wire and electric fence. There, the soldiers are waiting expectantly in the midday sun, their helmets and guns glinting like the backs of well armored insects. Even before we reach the wall the soldiers of the Israeli Army begin to fire rounds of tear gas and spray the land with skunk water. The shabab are not deterred, they set the tires alight at the base of the wall and the flames further blacken the already charred concrete blocks. Fire weakens the wall and makes it easier to remove, Saeed explains. This was how, in November 2009 – on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall – Ni’lin became the first village to succeed in removing a piece of the apartheid wall. The demonstration lasts for an hour, and as we leave the Israeli Army continue firing tear gas canisters into the field.

Tear gas falls on Ni’ilin during weekly demonstration against the annexation wall.

This week’s demonstration has been smaller than most weeks as strikes against the PA have been a distraction for many of the usual attendees. However the people of Ni’lin remain positive that their non violent resistance to the occupation will succeed, that the wall will fall, piece by piece and that they will be able to access their land again.

Saeed Amireh, of the Ni’lin popular committee, has been working to raise international awareness of Ni’lin’s struggle against the occupation. www.nilin-village.org

Anna is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Help bring Jalaal home

September 11, 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

What would you do if 30 men armed with sticks and guns stormed into your home beat your little brothers and began beating your mother and ripping her clothes?

On August 28 this happened to sixteen year old Jalaal Daraghmah. He did his best to protect his family. He grabbed a pick used for gardening, and stood at the door of his house and told the settlers he would not let anyone in. When one of them tried to enter by force Jalaal hit him with the pick. The Israeli police arrived on the scene, and they ignored the two little boys that were beaten so badly they needed to be hospitalized, the mothers bruises and torn dress, and the family’s car that had been completely destroyed by the settlers. They instead arrested Jalaal and his father Khalid. No settlers were sought for questioning or detained. The Israeli press treated what happened as a “terror attack” and dubbed It a“Axe Attack”. Jalaal has been in Israeli custody since.

Jalaal’s little brother, Nour al-Deen being treated in an ambulance after the attack. (Photo courtesy of Wafia – International Communities Against Israel).

Starting today until Thursday Jalaal can be released on a five thousand shekel bail ($1300) Jalal’s family can not afford to free him. With your help they can bring him home before the long holidays that will force him to remain in Israeli custody.

Please send what you can through the ISM donate link make sure to send an email to palreports@gmail.com to say how much you have donated for Jalaal’s release.

For the past four years the Daraghmah family have faced regular attacks by Israeli settlers at their home in Khan al-Lubban, simply for attempting to remain on their land. Help Bring Jalaal home to his family.

For more information on the attacks click here.

Update: Thanks to you we raised all the money necessary for Jalaal’s bail and he was released yesterday!

Kufr Qaddoum: Five arrested in early morning raid

By Leila

10 September 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Palestinian children from the village Kufr Qadoum, whose fathers were detained by Israeli soldiers, carry on the protest: “You Arrested Our Fathers, So We Lead the Demonstration Today”

Five men were arrested in an early morning raid on the town of Kufr Qaddoum Tuesday by Israeli occupation forces.

At 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday, 100 soldiers stormed the village, apprehending 5 men: Moyyad, 57, Aws, 24, Mohammad, 24, Wassin, 23, and Ahmad, 23. The men were arrested for taking part in demonstrations.

According to an eyewitness named Morad, soldiers fired tear-gas bombs as the left the village with the men.

“I saw from my balcony on the third floor,” said Morad on Saturday! “I was with my three year old child. The gas came in my house where my wife and children were.”

Morad said that soldiers have arrested at least 100 people and have damaged at least 5 homes in the last year. It was at that time that residents began a weekly demonstration to protest the 12-year closure by Israeli occupation forces of the most direct road from the town to nearby Nablus city.

The road was closed during the Second Intifada and has remained closed to Palestinians. It runs by 3 illegal Israeli settlements, Mitspe Kedumim, Eshkubiyot, and Kdumim South and is open for settlers to use.

Because of the road closure, the 5,000 residents of Kufr Qaddoum must travel 15 kilometers south and east to reach Nablus, a journey that once took one and a half kilometers to complete.

The Palestinians for Kufr Qaddoum have faced on-going harassment by occupation forces. They have also lost 4,000 dunams or about 1,000 acres of land to the illegal settlements near the village. They face restricted access to their agricultural lands by Israeli soldiers and cameras.

Leila is a volunteer at the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed)

Settlers destroy 18 olive trees Burin

By Alex Marley

11 September 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Eighteen Palestinian-owned olive trees were destroyed by Israeli settlers in the village of Burin, near Nablus, when the illegal settlers attacked the Palestinian land on Tuesday 4 September 2012. Burin, located in the northern West Bank, comes under frequent attack from the illegal settlements of Yitzhar and Bracha that encircle the village.

One of Nasser Qadous’ olive trees lays destroyed after settlers from Yitzhar attacked

Under the cover of dark, settlers from Yitzhar entered the olive grove of the Nasser Qadous family and began cutting the branches from his trees. This is not the first attack on his land. Two years ago, the settlers burned his land, which consists of 5 dunums. The following morning Nasser Qadous arrived in the olive grove and found all his olive trees destroyed. After one hour the Israeli army, police, and The District Coordination Office (DCO) arrived at his land. They spoke with Nasser but he says that they have taken no action to find those responsible.g

Olive Tree sits destroyed on Nasser Qadous’ list

Background:

Located 7 kilometers southwest of Nablus, Burin is home to 3000 residents. From every position within the village you can see evidence of the Zionist occupation. Three of the most volatile Israeli settlements within the West Bank, Yitzhar, Bracha and Givat Arous reside on the hilltops of Burin. Yitzhar is the largest of the three settlements and was founded in 1984. Yitzhar consists of 1233 dunams and according to Peace Now, 35 per cent of the land is privately owned Palestinian land. The villagers in Burin are predominantly farmers and the fields that surround the village full of olives trees are testament to this. However, the land has been under threat since the start if the occupation in 1967.

Yitzhar settlement is notorious for its fanatically ideological residents, the violence they inflict on neighboring Palestinian communities, and the extremist doctrines they espouse. Settlers have frequently launched attacks with rocks, knives, guns and arson on Palestinian families and property in the area. In one of the most extreme act of terrorism students of the Yitzhar Od Yosef Hai yeshiva fired homemade rockets on Burin in 2008.

Despite West Banks settlements’ status as illegal under international law, Yitzhar was included in the Israeli governments’ recent “national priority map” as one of the settlements earmarked for financial support. Construction has continued unabated in both Yitzhar and Bracha. Yitzhar and Bracha also receives significant funding from American donations, tax-deductible under U.S. government tax breaks for ‘charitable’ institutions.

Alex Marley is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).