Year: 2012

Join our campaign: Help stop the construction of a national park on Palestinian land in East Jerusalem!

12 January 2012 | Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity

The planned national park, located adjacent to the E1 area, on the slopes of Mt. Scopus, would constitute an insurmountable obstacle to any possible future peace agreement involving Jerusalem.  Most immediately, it would “choke off” a number of Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, and deny residents access to their private lands.  For detailed information on the plan for the national park, click here.

Solidarity’s campaign agaist the park-construction has already recorded some success. Following an investigative report in Ha’aretz, and an appeal by Solidarity to the Municipality of Jerusalem, construction work on the park has been temporarily stopped.  This construction work, which was illegally started by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, is taking place on private lands of the East Jerusalem residents of Issawiya.

Overseas
We need your help now!

Get the word out to your community and public officials Help us raise awareness of this issue with Jewish community representatives, elected officials, members of Knesset, and local Israeli embassies. Click here for a letter and call to action.

In Israel
Take action this week:
Join our demonstration, study tour, and clean-up efforts!

In the coming week, the Solidarity movement, together with residents of A-Tur and Issawiya, is organizing a series of protests, a study tour, and a call to action in order to prevent the continued construction of this park.  We need your help! Here’s what you can do:

Help residents of Issawiya
On Friday, January 13, join Solidarity activists and the residents of Issawiya in repairing the damage already caused by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Meet at 11:15 next to the Aroma Cafe on Mount Scopus (by Hebrew University). Contact: Daniel 054-6236609

Protest in Safra square
On Tuesday, January 17, we will demonstrate together with hundreds of residents of East Jerusalem in front of City Hall to protest the city’s support of the National Park plan. Meet at Safra Square at 4:00 PM. Details about transportation are forthcoming.  For the Facebook event, click here.

Join the Study Tour
The tour, which is scheduled on a weekly basis, will be led by “Solidarity” activists and residents of Issawiya and A-Tur. This week the tour will take place on Wednesday, January 18, and begin at 4:00 PM.  Meet next to the Aroma Cafe on Mount Scopus (by Hebrew University).  For information and registration: Roi 054-5858625

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For more information, we recommend reading the following:

A call for action: Stop the Slopes of Mount Scopus “National Park”

A New Plan to Establish a National Park Threatens to Choke Issawiya and A-Tur

“New Jerusalem park a ‘ruse’ to set up new settlement, activists say”, Ha’aretz

“National park in east Jerusalem stirs controversy”, Jerusalem Post

 

12 January 2009 – The Ayad family

12 January 2012 | Palestinian Centre for Human Rights

“If there is another war I won’t be moving, even if we die there, I don’t want to go through that again”

Mustafa, Abdel Kareem and Rezeq Ayad (Photo: Palestinian Centre for Human Rights)

On 12 January 2009, the Ayad family home in the Zaytoon area of Gaza City was bulldozed by Israeli forces. Rezeq Ayad, 60, his wife Yusra, 58, and their four sons Mustafa, 16, Muhammed, 20, Abdel Kareem 26, and Khalil, 29, and Khalil’s two daughters were left homeless as a result of the attack. The family had left the area a few days prior to the destruction of their home, as a result of the intense Israeli bombardment of the area.

Speaking to Rezeq Ayad and his son, Abdel Kareem, the relief they feel having put their displacement behind them is clear. Now back in the family home – which they started rebuilding in May 2010 and moved into in October 2010 – the two are glad and thankful that the family are now safe and relatively secure once again. “I remember that time and I just thank God we are all still alive,” says Rezeq.

“We had left the house with nothing but the clothes we were wearing and a few blankets and mattresses,” explains Abdel Kareem, “we lost everything with the house when it was bulldozed.” In the aftermath of the attack the whole family were forced to find alternative shelter. “I and my wife moved to relatives in Asqoula in Gaza City,” says Rezeq, “my son Abdel Kareem was forced to move to the al Samouni neighbourhood and my son Khalil had no choice but to spend two years in a tent camp with his wife and young daughters.”

Rezeq’s son, Muhammed Ayad, who was 17 at the time, built a small structure among the ruins of the family home and stayed there so he could watch over the house and his donkeys, which he kept in the area.

Abdel Kareem and his wife Shaheera, 22, spent a little over a year in a makeshift hut that he built from corrugated iron and plastic. “My wife is from the al Samouni family; after the massacre of the al Samouni’s in that area during the war she didn’t want to move there out of fear of another attack taking place. But we had nowhere else to go.” Abdel Kareem describes the conditions the couple endured over that year as “intolerable.” “During the summer it was unbearably hot, during the winter, unbearably cold.”

Shaheera was pregnant with the young couple’s first child at the time the couple were homeless. “There was no running water or electricity in the hut. Shaheera would have to wait for me to come home from work to bring her water. Her pregnancy was very difficult. I was working selling vegetables and transporting goods to save money to build my house,” says Abdul Kareem, “the day we moved in my wife gave birth to my little girl Ru’al.” Reflecting on the incident Abdul stresses that he would be unwilling to put himself and his family through the same experience once more. “If there is another war I won’t be moving, even if we die there, I don’t want to go through that again.”

Khalil Ayad, his wife Nabila and their daughters Islam, 5, and Gadeer, 4, were also forced into haphazard makeshift accommodation after the attack. “Khalil went to a tent camp in the Zaytoon area of Gaza. There were a lot of families displaced during the war that moved there temporarily. But Khalil’s was the last family to leave. They spent two years there in total” says Rezeq. “They would collect firewood to cook and boil water and they shared a common well with the rest of the camp residents for water.” During this experience, Nabila gave birth to, Rezeq, now 1. Like Shaheera, Nabila’s pregnancy occurred under very difficult circumstances.

Talking of the future, Abdel Kareem’s hopes are simple. “I hope to be strong enough to continue my life and to be a good man” he says. As regards the families complaint with the Israeli government Rezeq and Abdel Kareem are dismissive of any potential for redress; “We don’t expect anything from the case. The house was a small home in a quiet residential neighbourhood. It was clearly not a military target. The soldiers knew what they were doing; they just wanted to destroy it. They will not investigate.”

Discussing how he was able to rebuild the family home following its destruction Rezeq explains that he had savings from his time as a school teacher in a local UNRWA school. Talking about what he had planned to do with the money he had saved over a lifetime, prior to spending it all on repairing the damage caused by the Israeli military, Rezeq says that he had hoped to help his sons with their marriage and their education. “I spent everything I had saved,” says Rezeq with a smile and a shrug of his shoulders, “so now I start again.”

PCHR submitted a criminal complaint to the Israeli authorities on behalf of the Ayad family on 2 August 2009. To-date, no response has been received.

The series of narratives:

11 January 2009: The Hamouda family
10 January 2009: Wafa al-Radea
9 January 2009 – The Abu Oda family
8 January 2009: The Al-Rahel family
7 January 2009 – The Mattar family
6 January 2009: Al-Dayah family
5 January 2009: Amal al-Samouni
4 January 2009: The Abdel Dayem family
3 January 2009: Motee’ and Isma’il as-Selawy
2 January 2009: Eyad al-Astal
1 January 2009: The Nasla family
31 December 2008: The Abu Areeda family
30 December 2008: The Hamdan family
29 December 2008: Balousha family
28 December 2008: The Abu Taima family
27 December 2008: The Al Ashi family

Call for urgent financial support for youth center in Burin near Nablus

by Lydia

12 January 2012 | Burin: Land of Love and Resistance

A restoration project in Burin organized by the youth center.

As some of you may know, I have spent the past half-year in and close to the village of Burin in the Nablus area. Those who have visited this beautiful village know that Burin is situated between two settlement. It is also surrounded by three military camps. I originally came to report on a settler attack that burnt down 400 trees in early June, since then it has been hard to stay away from the special village.

One project that has grown particularly close to my heart is the Burin youth center. The center provides projects that need to be kept alive, not only does the center serve the community it also gives the youth of Burin a sanctuary. A place that is theirs, where they can work, learn, plan communal activities and unite. These activities have an overwhelming importance within community. To bring children and adults together, to feel united and most of all to have and create new happy memories to be taken with everyone in the future.

The youths who run the center have not been able to pay the rent for seven months, and are now in a situation where they urgently need the amount of 5000NIS for the period of June 2010 – January2012, or else they will have to leave the premises. The center up to this point has been completely self-sufficient. The founding member even saved for two years previous to the opening to ensure enough to be succesful.

I am so convinced of the work of this center that I can only urge you to please try to help, or to please spread this wide. Between all of us, it is a small sum, I think, and if we could raise it, we would enable a beautiful place in Palestine to continue to exist.

For more information on how to help, visit this website or for live updates check out the All for Burin Facebook group.

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

11 January 2009: The Hamouda family

11 January 2012 | Palestinian Centre for Human Rights

“I cannot even pick up another child in my arms, I had a new grandchild, he is six months old, but I have yet to take him in my arms, I feel that place belongs to Fares”

Talat and Intissar Hamouda (Photo: Palestinian Centre for Human Rights)

In the early morning of 11 January 2009, the home of Intissar Hamouda, 41, in Tal Al-Hawa. Gaza City, came under attack from Israeli forces. Israeli tank fire resulted in the death of her son, Fares Hamouda, who was two years old at the time of the attack, and her step son Muhammed who she cared for with her husband Talat, 54, Muhammed’s father. Fares died immediately in Intissar’s arms, while Muhammed bled to death as medical crews were unable to reach them.

“Muhammed and Fares had a lot in common. After I had Fares I could not breastfeed so we had to give him manufactured milk. Muhammed lost his mother at ten months and so was also fed manufactured baby milk. As a result, both had similar illnesses with similar symptoms,” says Intissar. Throughout their brief time together the brothers remained close. “Fares would refuse to go to sleep until Muhammed came home from school. On the day of the attack Fares was sick, but he refused to take medicine from me, he wanted it from Muhammed,” says Intissar.

Following the attack Intissar was severely debilitated. “I could not walk on my legs even six months after the incident due to injuries in my legs and pelvis; I needed help from my step daughters and sisters to move around the house.” Intissar has since undergone three surgeries to remove shrapnel from her abdomen as well as reconstructive plastic surgery.

Fares was not only close to his half brother Muhammed, but also to Intissar’s step daughter Kariman and step grandchild Rania, who were 13 and 2 respectively at the time of the incident. Both have been traumatised as a result. “Kariman became extremely aggressive in school and at the advice of teachers Talat decided to withdraw her from it,” says Imtissar. “Three months following the incident I came back to the house with Rania to get her toys and other things, but she begged me not to enter the house and wouldn’t take anything from it.” Similarly, Intissar said that “ten days ago we were in the Old City shopping and Rania saw a funeral of someone killed in a recent Israeli attack, it reminded Rania of Fares and Muhammed and she started to cry, when I explained they had gone to heaven, she replied, “just like Muhammed and Fares”.”

Intissar and Talat have both been emotionally affected by the loss of their sons. “I cannot even pick up another child in my arms, I had a new grandchild, he is six months old, but I have yet to take him in my arms, I feel that place belongs to Fares,” says Talat. The anniversary is particularly hard on Intissar, who still suffers chronic pain from nerve damage as a result of the attack. “As the day approaches they show interviews taken of me after the incident or start to talk about the attack,” says Intissar, “I can’t even watch stories of other women with similar experiences, so I don’t turn on the television.”

As regards the future the couple feel they have nothing left to be taken from them. “We lost the nearest things to us, we have nothing else left to lose,” says Intissar. “I am no longer even afraid of the bombings.” However Intissar clings to some hope that she can have another child following the death of Fares, who she tried to conceive for 21 years. “I have tried through artificial insemination already, but it didn’t work. I’m hoping to try again.” Similarly Talat has hopes that there will be political reconciliation among the Palestinian political factions. Regarding the prospects of their complaint in Israeli courts, Intissar is unimpressed; “the Israeli’s committed war crimes against us, they destroy the houses over the heads of civilians, I expect no justice from them.”

PCHR submitted a criminal complaint to the Israeli authorities on behalf of the Hamouda Family on 21 July 2009. To-date, no response has been received.

The series of narratives:

10 January 2009: Wafa al-Radea
9 January 2009 – The Abu Oda family
8 January 2009: The Al-Rahel family
7 January 2009 – The Mattar family
6 January 2009: Al-Dayah family
5 January 2009: Amal al-Samouni
4 January 2009: The Abdel Dayem family
3 January 2009: Motee’ and Isma’il as-Selawy
2 January 2009: Eyad al-Astal
1 January 2009: The Nasla family
31 December 2008: The Abu Areeda family
30 December 2008: The Hamdan family
29 December 2008: Balousha family
28 December 2008: The Abu Taima family
27 December 2008: The Al Ashi family

Resistance continues, demonstration in the No Go Zone

by Nathan Stuckey

11 January 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

The No Go Zone – Click here for more images

Every Tuesday we gather in front of the Beit Hanoun Agricultural College, members of the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, the International Solidarity Movement and other activists from all over Gaza.  We gather, and we march into the no go zone.  Sometimes we are shot at, sometimes there is no response.  We accept both of these.  We cannot control when the Israeli’s will shoot at us, at unarmed civilian demonstrators on their own land.  We are not discouraged by the appearance that nothing changes, you never know when change will happen, but you can be sure that if you do nothing, nothing will change.  So every Tuesday, we march into the no go zone, the rest of the week, everyone struggles against the occupation in their own way.  Teachers teach, farmers farm, fisherman fish, but under occupation all of these things can become revolutionary things, life itself can become a revolutionary act.

The megaphone announces the start of the demonstration; Bella Ciao is our marching song.  We set off down the road into the no go zone.  There about thirty of us, men, women and children, somehow, it feels like more this week.  We do not take the usual path into the no go zone, once inside the no zone we turn to the left.  We walk toward the road that leads to Erez, one of the few gates into and out of the prison that is Gaza, few Gazans are permitted to use it, it is mostly for NGO workers.  We stop about twenty meters from it; we plant a flag in the ground.  This flag joins the others we have planted in the no go zone, unlike wheat which requires months to go grow and is inevitably destroyed by the periodic assaults of Israeli bulldozers in the no go zone flags can be planted fully grown.  Eventually Israeli bulldozers will come and grind them beneath their wheels and we will have to plant new flags to replace them, but until then you can see our flags wave over the no zone.  The wall that surrounds Gaza is studded with Israeli flags, in case anyone should forget who it is that imprisons Gaza.

We planted our flag, then, Sabur Zaaneen from the Local Initiative spoke, he denounced “encounters with the leaders of the occupation and negotiations with the occupation, instead we must work toward the prosecution of the leaders of the occupation in international forums.”  He also said that “resistance to the occupation must continue, it will continue until the end of the occupation, the resistance must unite to confront the occupation.”  As we walked back to Beit Hanoun it was impossible not to admire our flags floating in the wind, three of them lining the no go zone, and the wheat that we had planted last month, growing.  Israel can destroy, but things will always grow again.  Oppression inevitably breeds resistance, a resistance that will continue to grow until the oppression is removed.