Author: ISM Media Group

Egyptian activists in Ismailia : “Police is still stopping us and we attend to stay there till tomorrow”

Egyptian Committee Against the Gaza Siege: At 8am this morning (10th September), a first group from the Egyptian Committee Against the Gaza Siege, mainly Labor Party’s members, left Cairo in 4 micro-buses with food and medicine to go and try to break the criminal siege of Gaza.

Photos from www.newspalestina.blogspot.com

When they arrived at Ismailia, located at 100 km from Cairo and 30 km from the Suez Canal, the Sinai entrance, the Egyptian police stopped the convoy and took away the driving licences of the drivers, preventing them to go forward

More than 150 people got outside the buses with Palestinian and Egyptian flags and chanting slogans in support of the Palestinians.

A second convoy of 5 buses with around 200 activists left Cairo at 1 pm and has been also stopped at Ismailia.

Many people coming from Alexandria and many other towns have been stopped before reaching Cairo and some of them have been arrested

Police tightened up procedures all along the main road to the border town of Rafah, checking the identity of travelers and asking them the reason for their journey, but many of them driving individual cars managed to reach Al Arish were they are waiting their friends.

Now, the activists who were traveling in the buses are still in Ismailia and demonstrating in front of the checkpoint.

They are chanting slogans asking the lift of the Gaza blockade;

They said they will stay there till Egyptian authorities will allow them to go to Gaza, even if this will happen only tomorrow.

According witnesses, the police seized one of the buses full of food.

Dr Abed Elglil, the Kefaia leader, said in a phone call: “Police is still stopping us and we intend to stay there till tomorrow. Egyptian authorities are worse than Israelis authorities because Israel let get through the 2 Free Gaza Movement’s boats”

Indeed, the Egyptian government contributes to the blockade of Gaza by refusing to open the Rafah crossing point without Israeli approval, as it agreed in a 2005 deal with the Israelis.

Several national forces are participating in this action, including the Committee Against the Gaza Siege, Engineers against Detention, al-Karamah party, Labour Party, Nasserist party, Kifâya, independent lawyers, March 9 Movement, April 6 Movement and Muslim Brotherhood’s members.

B’Tselem Report: Israel increased area of dozens of settlements east of the Separation Barrier by tens of thousands of dunams

To view original press release published by B’Tselem click here

Today (11 September), Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem is publishing a report on Israel’s blocking of Palestinian access to land around settlements lying east of the Separation Barrier. The report reveals that state authorities and settlers have de-facto annexed rings of land amounting to tens of thousands of dunams to these settlements.

Control of these lands is seized by a variety of means, but two modus operandi stand out: 1) settlers, and sometimes members of Israel’s security forces, violently attack and harass Palestinians who venture near settlements; and 2) erecting fences and other physical and electronic devices around the lands, blocking Palestinian access to them. In many cases, the authorities turn a blind eye to unlicensed closure of lands, systemically avoiding their duty to enforce the law on criminal settlers.

The total amount of lands thus attached to settlements can only be roughly estimated, as most of the takeovers were not documented or officially sanctioned in orders. In recent years, however, Israel began to formalize the closing of lands by issuing military orders in the framework of the “Special Security Area” (SSA) plan. As part of this plan, Israel has fenced off 12 settlements east of the Separation Barrier, unofficially annexing 4,558 dunams (4 dunums = 1 acre) and thus increasing the overall area of these settlements by a factor of 2.4. Half of the closed off lands are privately owned by Palestinians.

The closing of lands around settlements primarily harms Palestinian farmers, who face almost impassable bureaucratic obstacles when attempting to access their lands. As a result, many are forced to stop cultivating their land.

Israeli officials seek to justify the closing by citing the security need for a warning space around the settlements, to help protect settlers. Indeed, in 2002-2004, Palestinians killed 31 Israeli civilians in settlements in the West Bank, and wounded many others. However, B’Tselem’s research has demonstrated that the authorities permit settlers to access these purported “warning areas”. B’Tselem has documented settlers living on, and tending to, closed off Palestinian lands. This contradicts the security logic cited by the army and defies the closure orders issued by the military commander.

In the report’s conclusion, B’Tselem provides a number of alternative measures that Israel can take to protect settlers while reducing infringement of Palestinians’ rights. However, the organization emphasizes that, given the illegality of the entire settlement enterprise, Israel is obligated to evacuate all settlements and must not work to perpetuate them. Therefore, the only lawful way to protect the settlers is by evacuating them and returning them to Israel.

ISM Rafah: Israeli navy vessels again open fire on Gazan fishermen

On Monday 8th September at least ten fishing vessels left Gaza City port and traveled out into the Mediterranean Sea up to 10 miles offshore.

ISM volunteers were onboard three of the boats. They were equipped with video cameras to record and document the aggressive actions of the Israeli naval gunboats towards the fishing vessels. As per the volunteers’ experiences on all previous outings, many of the boats were harassed and shot at by the Israeli gunboats. The soldiers on these gunboats are committing war crimes by shooting at unarmed fishermen who are just trying to earn a living and feed their families.

In the afternoon, between 2:30pm and 3:00pm, one gunboat approached three fishing vessels, which were about ten miles offshore, and began to circle one of them multiple times. Using VHF radio, the Israeli gunboat ordered the Gazan fishermen to alter course, saying that their boats were heading into a dangerous area. An ISM volunteer contacted the gunboat asking about the nature of the danger, but did not receive any answer. The gunboat then fired at the fishing vessels in the area with a machine gun and some kind of shells shot from the cannon. The volunteers immediately contacted the gunboat and requested that it stop shooting, stating that unarmed civilian fishermen and international volunteers were aboard the boats. The heavy shooting and shelling continued and one of the fishing boats was obliged to make an emergency call on VHF channel 16. The gunboat continued firing upon the fishing vessels for some time, despite the emergency call.

Most of the vessels were still at sea come sundown. This means that the fishermen were still at sea during Iftar – the time when observant Muslims break the Ramadan fast for the day. Israeli gunboats again attacked some of the vessels at this time.

Despite all the harassment and attacks by the Israeli navy, most of the fishing boats had a remarkably successful day, landing a large quantity of fish.

Israeli army invade Nablus, murdering one Palestinian

At approximately 18:00 on Wednesday 10 September Israeli special forces entered the Mount Gezzim area of Nablus to arrest a Palestinian they accused of owning a weapon. Following the arrest and detention of two Palestinians, Israeli soldiers then shot multiple times and killed an unarmed man nearby.

The Israeli army had been in neighbouring homes the previous night watching the area and on the evening of the 18 August, approximately 100 soldiers and several jeeps surrounded the area shooting live ammunition and using sound bombs and tear gas in the neighbourhood. They entered the home of Jaffar Hamede Tiser Gera (22 years old) shooting open the door where his mother, father, himself and his friend Abu Jaba (22 years old) were sat ready to eat Ifta. The soldiers demanded to know where ‘Jaffar’ was and he immediately made himself known and raised his hands in the air. The soldiers then restrained and beat both Jaffar and Abu Jaba. The army then proceeded to search and ransack the home for 1 hour and no weapon was ever found.

Following their restraint and the shooting in the area, 20 year old Waled Fareed Fretekh, walked out of the steps of his home to investigate the noise. Eye witnesses then stated that without warning the soldiers shot Waled in the legs several times and when he had fallen to the ground. A friend and neighbour in a nearby house then proceeded to try to get to Waled to give him assistance but was detained by the army who threatened to shot him and beat him. Waled’s mother phoned for an ambulance and pleaded with the soldiers repeatedly to help him. This was ignored and witnesses state a soldier told her “I want your son to die here”. The friend and neighbour then managed to get to Waled a second time after the soldiers moved back around the corner. They carried him through their home and up the steps towards the pavement and awaiting ambulances. Before reaching the pavement the soldiers grabbed him and pulled him away from Waled. Waled was then left bleeding profusely from the legs on the steps.

Red Crescent ambulance volunteers were prevented from reaching Waled as the Israeli army opened fire on them with live ammunition and tear gas. Waled who lay on the steps for 90 minutes and during this time witnesses say soldiers attempted to remove the bullets from Waled’s legs with knives and witnesses state Waled was conscious and screaming from the pain. The soldiers then checked his pulse over time and after 90 minutes the army retreated with Jaffar and Abu Jaba in custody leaving Waled on the steps. The ambulance crew were then able to reach Waled who had already died due to acute loss of blood and he was taken to Rifidiya hospital in West Nablus.

Ynet: Blair sister-in-law – “Gaza world’s largest concentration camp”

British left-wing activist Lauren Booth remains stuck in Strip after journey to ‘break’ Israeli naval blockade, equates situation to Holocaust, Darfur

By Noa Raz

To view original article, published by Ynet on the 11th September, click here

To view the Free Gaza Movement website click here

Unlike her brother-in-law, Quartet envoy to the Middle East Tony Blair, who frequently travels from Israel to the Palestinian territories and back, Lauren Booth has found herself stuck in the Gaza Strip.

The British left-wing activist arrived in the Hamas-controlled coastal enclave as part of the dozens of ‘Free Gaza’ activists who set out on two boats from Cyprus last month with the intent of “breaking” the Israeli naval blockade imposed on the Strip. Booth is one of the 10 activists who chose to remain in Gaza while her companions set sail back to Cyprus.

Since then she has been stuck in Gaza, unable to exit through Israel or Egypt.

In a telephone interview with Ynet on Wednesday, Booth slammed Israel’s policies and called Gaza “the largest concentration camp in the world today. I was startled the Israelis agreed to this.”

Despite her current predicament, Booth said she has no regrets. “My children are the ones who are suffering, because I’m being prevented from leaving and they can’t see me. I don’t regret it, because I wanted to come here and help these children who are suffering on a daily basis,” she said.

Booth asserted that the current siege is not the result of the policies of the Hamas government. “There’s been a siege for 20 years already. Palestinians’ freedom of movement has been restricted since the 80s. This is an inexcusable outrage on an international level.”

She spoke of the situation in Gaza and said, “Yesterday, I visited mothers of children under the age of five. Nutrition here has deteriorated threefold over the last two years because it is impossible to bring food through the crossings. Unemployment has risen, so people can’t even afford to buy what food there is left.”

‘It’s as bad as Darfur’

When asked about Israel’s right to respond to incessant attacks emanating from Gaza, Booth evoked Holocaust-related rhetoric. “There is no right to punish people this way. There is no justification for this kind of collective punishment. You were in the concentration camps, and I can’t believe that you are allowing the creation of such a camp yourselves.”

“The Palestinians’ suffering is physical, mental and emotional,” she went on, “there is not a family here in which someone is not in desperate need of work, shelter or food. This is a humanitarian crisis on the scale of Darfur.

Booth said that while the media does focus on Gaza, its journalistic criterion remains deeply flawed.

“One Western person is stuck in Gaza and the media turns it into a huge story. A million and a half people are stuck in Gaza, and it’s a non-story. I am telling you, what is going on here is a tragedy. Whatever is being done, it’s not enough.”

One person Booth doesn’t think is doing enough, is her brother in law Blair. “I don’t think he has a real idea of what’s going on here. I think that the Israeli government is working very hard to keep him in the dark.”

Winter fuel shortage

Despite the morale boost from the sea-faring activists, Gaza residents are concerned of the impact the Israeli siege may have as winter nears, and are preparing for long months with limited amounts of fuel. Director of the Palestinian Energy Authority in Gaza warned of an exacerbation of the fuel siege during the cold season. The director said the amount of fuel currently being brought in to the Strip through Israel serves a mere 35% of the Palestinians’ needs.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, Egyptian security forces prevented a convoy of local operatives from reaching the Rafah crossing and from there to Gaza.

Hamas slammed Egypt’s decision, and said that the security forces’ actions hurt the Egyptian nation’s feelings and those of the Palestinians.

Ali Waked contributed to the report