February 29th, 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil team | al-Khalil, occupied Palestine
It has now been four months since the Israeli military declared part of Hebron a “closed military zone” in which Palestinian residents are no longer free to move, even to reach their homes. For the last four months, Palestinians and internationals have been acting and protesting this arbitrary decision. Seeing no response from the Israeli authorities, we decided to declare the 1st of March a day of action to keep pressuring the Israeli authorities to put an end to the closed military zone in Hebron. Tomorrow is a day in which everyone, around the world, will be able to do something to act for the city of Hebron. Tomorrow, use social media to spread the word and share what you know about the situation there. Take five minutes or more to tweet, post on Facebook or on your blog, write to media outlets in your country, write to your representatives and demand that the international community pressure Israeli authorities to .
Join our social media event on Facebook to get all the information you will need, and invite your friends and contacts! Here are more directions to follow to get involved in the social media storm:
- You can use some of these sample tweets, or be creative and use some of your own (feel free to translate into your own language)
In #Hebron since November Palestinian residents have to register with the army or risk being barred from their homes #EndHebronMilitaryZone
Palestinians have to register with army or risk being barred from their homes #EndHebronMilitaryZone
Since the beginning of October over 200 Palestinians have been shot and left to bleed to death without medical aid #EndHebronMilitaryZone
Since the start of October 180+ Palestinians were shot & left to bleed to death without medical aid #EndHebronMilitaryZone
4 months of life under severe restrictions for Palestinian families in Tel Rumeida #EndHebronMilitaryZone
Palestinian families in Tel Rumeida have lived under severe restrictions for 4 months #EndHebronMilitaryZone
4 months under unjustified regime of collective punishment for Palestinian families #EndHebronMilitaryZone
#IsraeliForces in #Hebron are targeting activists to silence the truth and stop it from reaching the whole world #EndHebronMilitaryZone
#Hebron activists targeted to stop the truth from reaching the world #EndHebronMilitaryZone
Amnesty International referred to killings in #Hebron since October as “unlawful,” “extrajudicial executions” #EndHebronMilitaryZone
#IsraeliForces & settlers are making life for Palestinians intolerable to try and force them to leave their homes #EndHebronMilitaryZone
#EndHebronMilitaryZone which targets human rights defenders while leaving illegal Israeli settlements unrestricted
#IsraeliForces are targeting activists to stop the truth from reaching the whole world #EndHebronMilitaryZone
4 months too long of illegal collective punishment; demand that #Israel #EndHebronMilitaryZone & respect human rights
Palestinians continue to face unjustified and arbitrary restrictions #EndHebronMilitaryZone
- Please link your tweets to:
Our Action Alert, to encourage organisations acting for Palestine to sign it: bit.ly/1QD8p8e
Our call for action to encourage everyone in your social media circle to take five minutes to take an action that will help this campaign reach its goal: bit.ly/1QD8wR4
The petition to #OpenShuhadaSt : http://bit.ly/21wltTi
Or to any of these articles that will help people understand the situation in Hebron:
‘Children living in closed military zone enjoy day of fun’: http://bit.ly/1LqoM7n
‘Peaceful painting activity met with violence by Israeli army’: http://bit.ly/1TMIfl7
‘Ongoing sit-in protest on Shuhaha Street checkpoint’: http://bit.ly/1WSbVLH
’22 years after the Ibrahimi mosque massacre, people still suffer consequences’: http://bit.ly/1nbQObg
‘Demonstrators protest closed military zone under threat of Israeli violence’: http://bit.ly/1LPUlSM
We will also be posting more photos and graphics on Facebook that you can add to tweets
- You can also use links to the following videos, or use some that you find yourself
Israeli military use stun grenades on young Palestinian school kids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsV9i3Lt7fo
Israeli forces threaten Palestinians at gunpoint: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP5VZGH8lk4
Palestinian woman gunned down in occupied Hebron: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhLBYENRrKA
Israeli forces harass Palestinians after Friday prayer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYfgBd2as6c
Willful killing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JypHkx4KHmM
- You can write to your representatives using this sample text
Since the 1st of November 2015, the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron, Palestine, has been declared a “closed military zone.” The zone was specifically designed to include Palestinian neighborhoods while excluding adjacent illegal Israeli settlements. Palestinian residents were forced to register with the Israeli military or else risk being barred from their own homes, while Israeli settlers are free to roam the streets without being stopped. Any Palestinians not registered as residents, international human rights defenders and media are all barred from the area. These restrictions of movement constitute collective punishment, considered illegal under international law.
In the city of Hebron, Palestinian and international human rights defenders are constantly targeted by Israeli forces and settlers from the illegal settlements inside the city for their efforts to document the situation. Meanwhile since the beginning of October over 160 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers, many in incidents Amnesty International has said may amount to unlawful, extrajudicial executions.
As Abed Salaymeh, a Tel Rumeida resident directly impacted by the closed military zone explained, “soldiers and settlers are making life for the Palestinians intolerable to force them to leave their houses voluntarily. This is a crime under international law. They are targeting activists to silence the truth and stop the truth from reaching the whole world.”
We [or I] call on you to act now for the immediate ending of the closed military zone and the restriction of movements imposed on Palestinians in Hebron. It is time for the international community to take action and call on the Israeli government to comply with international law and especially with the Geneva Conventions in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.
- If you live in the EU, you can write to your representatives
Using this website (and the text above): http://freepalestine.eu/, write to your EU representatives to urge them to put an end to Human Rights violations in Hebron and more generally in Palestine until Israel complies with International law.
- If you are tweeting, you can choose to address your tweets to several accounts. Here are some examples:
@EuropeUnion European Union
@FedericaMog Vice President of the EU Commission
@enricopetro Member of the Cabinet of EU HR/VP Federica Mogherini
@eu_eeas European External Action Service (EEAS), the EU’s Foreign & Security Policy Service
@StylianidesEU Christos Stylianides, European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management
@Urmaspaet Urmas Paet, Member of European Parliament
@EP_ForeignAff AFET Committee Press European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs.
@EU_Commission European Commission
@monicafrassoni Monica Frassoni, Co-Chair of the European Green Party
@LaurentFabius Laurent Fabius, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development
@JHahnEU Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations
@EU_Commission European Commission
@UNRWA United Nations Relief and Works Agency, responsible for the welfare of Palestinian refugees
@UNHumanRights Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights
@UN
@UNOCHA
@JohnKerry US Secretary of State John Kerry
@StateDept US Department of State
If you live in the US, you can tweet your representatives/senators. This site lists them by postal code, and once you click on someone it provides a direct link to their twitter account
@hrw Human Rights Watch
@USCGJerusalem US Consulate in Jerusalem
@usembassyta US Embassy in Tel Aviv
@CanEmbIsrael Canadian Embassy to Israel
@AusAmbIsrael Australian Embassy Israel
@indemtel Indian Embassy Israel
@ukinisrael British Embassy Israel
@AmbTelAviv Italian Embassy
@martinoweiss Austrian Ambassador to in Israel
@MID_RF Russian Embassy
@SwedeninIL Swedish Embassy in Israel
@NLinIsrael Dutch Embassy in Tel Aviv
@MAECgob Spanish ministry of the exterior and international cooperation
@Minrel_Chile Chilean foreign ministry