Year: 2013 - Page 80 - International Solidarity Movement

Statement from Samer Issawi who has spent over 240 days on hunger strike

19th March 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine

The following statement by Samer Issawi was posted on his Facebook page by his lawyer Fawwaz Shloudy. It was translated from Arabic to English by Shahd Abusalama.

“Regarding the Israeli Occupation offer to deport me to Gaza, I affirm that Gaza is undeniable part of my homeland and its people are my people. However, I will visit Gaza whenever I want or I feel like it as it is within my homeland Palestine which I have the right to wander whenever I like from the very north to the very south. I strongly refuse to be deported to Gaza as this practice will just bring back bitter flashbacks from the expulsion process which our Palestinian people were subjected to during 1948 and 1967.

We are fighting for the sake of freedom of our land and return of our refugees in Palestine and exile, not to add more deportees to them. This systematic practice which Israel aims to empty Palestine from Palestinians through and bring strangers in their place is but a crime. Therefore, I refuse being deported and I will only agree to be released to Jerusalem as I know that the Israeli Occupation is aiming to empty Jerusalem of its people and turn Arabs to become a minority group of its population. The issue of deportation is no longer a personal decision. It is rather a national principle. If every detainee agrees to be deported outside Jerusalem under pressure, Jerusalem will eventually be emptied of its people.

I would prefer to die on my hospital bed to being deported from Jerusalem. Jerusalem is my soul and my life. If I was uprooted from there, my soul would be uprooted from my body. My life is meaningless away from Jerusalem. No land on earth will be able to embrace me other than Jerusalem. Therefore, my return will be only to Jerusalem but nowhere else. I advise all Palestinians to embrace their land and their villages and never succumb to the Israeli Occupation’s wishes. I don’t see this issue as a personal cause that is related to Samer Issawi. It is a national issue, a conviction and a principle that every Palestinian who loves his homeland’s sacred soil should hold. Finally, I reaffirm for the thousands time that I continue my hunger strike until either freedom and return to Jerusalem or martyrdom!”

Israeli army demolish tent; leave Palestinian schoolchildren at risk of settler attack

16th March 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, South Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestine

By Team Khalil

Palestinians raised a tent to shelter schoolchildren from settler attacks on the morning of the 16th of March, on the outskirts of the village of At-Tuwani in the South Hebron hills. Shortly afterwards, the Israeli military arrived and declared the area to be a Closed Military Zone, chasing away demonstrators and demolishing the tent. They also tried to make several arrests but only managed to arrest one international activist who was released later the same day.

Palestinian children from surrounding villages each day make their way on foot to the school in At-Tuwani, but regularly face attacks from settlers on their journey. An Israeli military accompaniment has been organised for the schoolchildren, but the army are unreliable in their presence and the children are often forced to wait for them to arrive, as it would be unsafe them to walk to and from school without an accompanyiment. The tent was therefore intended by the villagers of At-Tuwani to be a place for the schoolchildren to wait in saftey.

Since the military demolished the tent, the children will continue to be forced to wait in exposed areas, where they are open to attack from the settlers. The international activist who was arrested was transported to Givat Ha’avot settlement in Hebron and was interrogated by police, but was released later that day.

This act of Palestinian resistance follows a recent trend of similar tent actions on Palestinian land in danger of being seized by the Israeli authorities for use in settlement expansion. Bab al Shams was one such protest village – a tent community in East Jerusalem set up by protesters in January and destroyed by the military shortly afterwards.

Tent being assembled by activists on the oustkirts of At-Tuwani

Multiple clashes lead to numerous arrests including school teacher in Hebron City

16th March 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine

By Team Khalil

Oden Nassar, 23, Iyab Abu Alhalawiiu, 16, and Mohamad Alzoghayer, 16, were amoung many arrested these past two days in Hebron city, including Nahil Abi Eishah, a 38 year old teacher working at Qurtaba school, who was arrested after her home was invaded.

School teacher Nahil Abi Eishah is arrested

Eishahs whereabouts and the reason for her arrest are still unknown. Though it is believed she has been targeted because of her activism in solidarity with the hunger strikers which includes her own hunger strike.

Nassar, Alhalawiiu and Alzoghayer were the first to be arrested and new information suggests that at the time of their illegal detainment and transportation for processing, Nassar sustained injuries under military arrest.

Last night, five more young men were arrested in the Bab al-Zawiye area, totalling nine people in Hebron city since the death of university student Mahmoud Tete in the al-Fawwar Camp on Tuesday night.

Video by Youth Against Settlements :

Remembering Rachel Corrie – 10 years on

16th March 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine

American activist Rachel Corrie was killed in Gaza ten years ago today.

The International Solidarity Movement write this message in her memory.

Rachel, a 23 year old woman from Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer on the 16^th March 2003, whilst protesting non-violently against the demolition of a Palestinian house by Israeli forces. As an activist she spoke out about the injustices that she saw in Gaza.

“I feel like I’m witnessing the systematic destruction of a people’s ability to survive. It’s horrifying… Sometimes I sit down to dinner with people and I realize there is a massive military machine surrounding us, trying to kill the people I’m having dinner with.”

She is remembered with love still by Palestinians and new generations of ISM volunteers – for many of whom, Rachel’s untimely death was an inspiration to become more involved in the struggle for freedom for Palestine. We honour her memory and what she was standing for, whilst she stood in front of that bulldozer ten years ago today.

The International Solidarity Movement continues to work for justice, peace and freedom for Palestine – where the occupation still strongly resembles Rachel’s words in the video below.

Our thoughts today are with Rachel’s family, and as we’re sure Rachel would have wanted, also with all the Palestinian families who have lost a loved one to the Israeli occupation.

A 21 year-old man arrested in Burin. Repression intensifies

16th March 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied palestine

On the night of the 12^th March, Israeli forces invaded the village of Burin and arrested a 21 year-old man in his house.

This arrest is part of a wave of arrests and repression of the village by Israeli forces since al-Manatir neighbourhood was established on a village’s hilltop in early February.

Al-Manatir neighbourhood was attacked by settlers and evicted by Israeli forces (Photo by ISM)

The hilltop, threatened of confiscation by Israeli settlers and military, has been inaccessible to Palestinians since 2007. Last February, dozens of Palestinians activists established Al-Manatir neighbouhood but the protest camp was soon attack by settlers from Yitzhar and Bracha settlements and evicted by Israeli forces. Seven people were violently arrested, three of them remaining in prison for twelve days. In addition, a young Palestinian boy was shot with live ammunition in the leg by a settler.

Since then, six people from the village have been arrested; two of them are still in prison. Muntasser Mahmoud Eid was taken blindfolded from his house at 2pm and is currently being held in Jalama prison.

The arrest was made after confrontations between Palestinian youth and Israeli forces erupted on the hilltop. Israeli army prevented Palestinians from accesing the hilltop by shooting tear gas canisters at them. Afterwards, at night, at around 2pm, several military jeeps inavaded the village and entered Muntasser’s house; tearing him in hi sleep.

It is expected that more arrests will be made in the following weeks as Israeli authorities clearly want to crush the village’s popular struggle against the occupation.

The Village of Burin, situated in between two of the most violent and fundamentalist settlements in the occupied West Bank, Yizhar and Bracha, has been facing constant harassment, intimidation and violence by both the settlers and the Israeli army for years.