Author: ISM Media Group

J-Post: ‘Israel is dividing Gazan, W. Bank populations’

By Dan Izenberg

To view original article, published in the Jerusalem Post on the 11th September, click here

In the past year, Israel has stepped up its policy of separating the Gaza Strip from the West Bank and forcing Palestinians registered in Gaza or wishing to visit Gaza to forgo their right to live in the West Bank, two human rights organizations charged Wednesday.

The organizations, Hamoked – Center for the Defense of the Individual and B’Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, held a press conference to mark the publication of a position paper entitled “Separated Entities – Israel Divides Palestinian Population of West Bank and Gaza Strip.”

According to the paper, since last year Israel has stepped up its measures, originally introduced after the outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000, “to institutionalize and perpetuate a new factual and legal reality of separation between residents of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, while severing the interdependent social, economic and cultural ties between the two groups, infringing their rights and impeding the possibility that the Palestinian people will realize their right to self-determination.”

In the past year, Israel has introduced a new requirement for Palestinians whose registered address is in the Gaza Strip, demanding that they obtain a permit to be present in the West Bank. Those who do not have such a permit are defined as “illegal aliens,” as though the Gaza Strip and the West Bank were not one entity.

The permit must be obtained from the army and is valid for only three months. In order to be granted one, a Palestinian listed in the population registry as living in Gaza must prove that he has lived in the West Bank continuously for the past eight years, must be married and have children, must have security clearance and must provide humanitarian grounds for requesting the permit.

The policy has been exacerbated by Israel’s refusal for the past eight years to update the Palestinian population registry, which it controls, to record the moves of Palestinians from Gaza to the West Bank. Therefore, by definition, any Palestinian who has moved to the West Bank since then is there illegally, or at best, temporarily.

Israel does not consider marriage between residents of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank sufficient cause for issuing a permit to the Gaza spouse to settle in the West Bank. Gaza brides who want to marry their husbands in the West Bank must deposit a large amount of money as a guarantee that they will return to Gaza after the wedding.

In one case, the state demanded that a woman deposit NIS 20,000.

West Bank residents who want to visit the Gaza Strip may only do so if they sign a commitment to remain there. In one case, a woman living in the West Bank asked for permission to visit her ailing husband in Gaza. The military authorities said they would not approve the request but added that “a single, one way permit to the Gaza Strip may be approved.”

In another case, a Palestinian originally from Hebron but living in Gaza returned to the West Bank when his mother’s leg was amputated. When he asked for a permit to return to Gaza, his request was rejected. At the same time, the army also refused to allow his wife and baby daughter in Gaza to join him in the West Bank. After a year, the army agreed to allow the man to return to Gaza if he signed a promise never to come back to the West Bank.

According to the report, Israel has forcibly removed Palestinians from the West Bank on the grounds that they were registered as living in Gaza and did not have permit to reside in the West Bank.

The organizations charged that recently, the High Court of Justice, in a series of petitions filed by Moked, has consistently upheld the state’s decisions.

An IDF spokesman was unavailable Wednesday night to respond to the claims made in the report.

ISM Rafah: Fishing in Gaza

Saturday 6th September, it was just 09:30 and we were only 4 miles out to sea, having barely left Gaza’s coastline behind, when the gunboat’s heavy machine gun opened up, spraying the wake around our hull with bullets.

There was no surprise. We’d just spent the previous 10 minutes watching as this Israeli gunboat harried another vessel from our fishing fleet. It would accelerate into an attack run, only to veer off at the last moment before collision, battering the fishing boat with its wake. It would pull alongside screeching threats and commands to stop over the megaphone. Throughout, its machine barked menacingly, peppering the air and water around the boat with bullets.

When our turn came, our skipper just stuck steadfast to his course, neither slowing down nor speeding up. The crew continues preparing the nets, only pausing briefly to consider the crack of the machine gun and the trajectory of the bullets that were coming their way. This morning they were going to fish.

They had to fish. How could they stop and turn back now? Why would they stop when they hadn’t even reached the so-called ‘6 mile limit’ (not some agreed perimeter, not some internationally recognized boundary, indeed not even a border which had ever been officially declared or communicated to them, but just an arbitrary and elastic space delineated with the threat of gunfire). And of course this gunboat was probably just toying with them as others like it had done so often before. These shots were most likely simply warning shots. Not like those which hospitalized 2 fishermen 3 days ago. Not like those that killed 14 of their colleagues in the last few years. Probably.

As expected, the gunboat got bored, perhaps even embarrassed with its failure to force some sort of response. It withdrew and began slowly patrolling slowly back and forth, as if nothing had happened. This respite was welcome but brief. In the early afternoon another gunboat appeared on the horizon, heading in our direction at full speed. It tore in and out of our fleet again and again, weaving between our boats as if flags in a slalom ski course. A few bursts from its machine gun and it left just as promptly as it appeared.

Before long and the light began to fade. All in our fleet were heading back to Gaza City, dragging their nets for the last time that day. We waited eagerly in anticipation of Iftar and the time when we could break our fast. Two of the men had already begun preparing the Ramadan supper, frying fish and prawns from that day’s catch. We gazed out across the sea, calculating how long it would be before the low sun finally met the horizon.

Suddenly another gunboat appeared with a definite menace apparent in its speed and course. Its cannon roared twice, the shells narrowly missing one of the leading boats, exploding in the water. Tracer bullets then pierced the dim light streaking across the sky just as the gunboat swerved again and went for another target. Its cannon roared a third time, and we tried to film, but the light was now so dim and the boat far away. But it mattered not. The fishermen insisted we stop, for the Ramadan supper was ready and their course was already set.

“I used to dream about my future” – Israeli forces tear-gas school children in Ni’lin

“I used to dream about my future. About going to university, getting married and having a family. I stopped doing that. I have to face that tomorrow I might be dead.” – Quote by a 16-year-old boy from Ni’lin when talking the military violence in the village of Ni’lin

On Tuesday September 9th, the pupils of the boys school in the West Bank village of Ni’lin started a protest against the building of the apartheid wall and the violent occupation they are put under by the Israeli army.

The army ambushed the protesting children while they were still inside the village, heavily tear-gassing the girls school and the gardens around. The army shot live ammunition at the young protesters as well as huge amounts of rubber coated steel bullets and tear gas.

50 girls needed medical assistance after their school had been heavily tear gassed. Three boys were hit by rubber coated steel bullets, one by a tear gas canister shot directly at his leg. Eye witnesses also report a young man was grazed by a live bullet on his hand.

At approximately 9am the boys of Ni’lin started the protest against the apartheid wall. The army answered back on the protest with an ambush, they shot tear gas inside the village around the girl school which resulted in panic among the girls and a pregnant woman being heavily gassed. Gardens were attacked on purpose with tear gas so little children had to run into their houses in fear, in an attempt to avoid the heavy clouds of gas surrounding them.

Live ammunition, rubber coated steel bullets and huge amounts of tear gas were used towards the protesters.

Ni’lin serves at the moment as the centre of education, health and economy for the surrounding villages. The secondary school of Ni’lin is the top school of the area and students from the surrounding villages attend it as well as the villagers themselves. Factories producing soft drinks and rubber are placed in Ni’lin. With the building of the illegal apartheid wall and the planned tunnel as the only possible entrance to the village the pupils from the surrounding villages face trouble getting to the school. Some because their way to school gets much longer since they stop being able to go directly and for all is the fact that the tunnel will close at 7 pm and is possible to shut down with only one military jeep worrying since it will make the pupils education relying on the occupation power that, so far, has shown no humanity to the Palestinians in the area.

The factories will with the cut of from the rest of the West Bank, that the wall and the tunnel creates, have to either move to another place or shut down hence people will loose their jobs.

In 1948 the villagers of Ni’lin owned 58,000 dunums, already in 1948 40,000 dunums of Ni’lin land was stolen by the new state of Israel, building of settlements and apartheid roads have caused continued annexation. The construction of the wall and the tunnel steals 2500 dunums of land from the villagers of Ni’lin leaving them with only 2300 dunums of their farming land.

This is what the pupils of Ni’lin protest against, the destruction of their present possibility of getting an education and their future possibility of getting a job. Their ability to even dream about tomorrow.

Ni’lin continue their struggle against the apartheid wall

On Monday September 8th 2008 approximately 100 Palestinians, Israelis and international solidarity activists marched in protest towards the construction site of the illegal apartheid wall in Ni’lin.


Video By Israel Putermam


Photos courtesy of Activestills

The protest started at 1pm and ended at approximately 4pm. Rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas and sound bombs were shot at the non-violent protesters. In the end of the protest the Israeli army used verbal violence and yelled “Inte Shamuta” (you are a prostitute) to the shocked protesters.

The Israeli army stopped the non violent protesters in the fields before they reached the focus point for the protest, the construction site of the illegal apartheid wall. Israeli forces threatened one of the members of the popular committee with arrest if the protesters did not go back. When the non-violent protesters turned their back to the soldiers in an attempt to avoid an escalation of the violence the unprovoked soldiers started shooting rubber coated steel bullets, tear gas and sound bombs at them.

A group of the protesters managed to reach the construction site in the end of the protest and started building security road blocks out of rocks to prevent the army from coming into the village and tear gas the women and children in their houses. The soldiers shouted “inte shamuta” in their loud speaker to the working protesters in addition to the heavily shooting of tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets.

The annexation of Ni’lin villagers farming land for the illegal apartheid wall and the illegal settlements around Ni’lin leave the villagers with only 10 percent of the land they owned before 1948. In addition to the apartheid wall the plan is to build a tunnel that closes at 7pm and will be able to be closed down extremely easily, leaving the village isolated. Students and villagers who work outside of Ni’lin risk their jobs and education if they stay in Ni’lin and farmers who have lost almost all their land will have to find new ways to earn money for themselves and their families.

ISM re-establish presence in the Gaza Strip

The International Solidarity Movement would like to announce the re-establishment of a presence in the Gaza Strip. International solidarity activists will be based in Rafah in efforts to show support for non-violent direct action against the Israeli occupation.

As activists from the Free Gaza Movement broke the siege on Gaza in their historic and hugely successful attempt to sail to Gaza from Cyprus, the re-establishment of ISM Rafah was made possible. A number of international solidarity activists aboard the boats made the decision to stay on in Gaza and re-activate an international presence in the area. Since 2003 and the Israeli murders of international activists Tom Hurndall and Rachel Corrie, the ability of internationals to travel into Gaza has been severely restricted, representing just one aspect of the open-air prison that the Israeli state has created in Gaza.

While working in Gaza, the ISM will be supporting non-violent direct action aimed at breaking the Israeli siege on the Strip. Planned actions include:

– Accompanying the fishermen at sea as they assert their right to fish beyond the Israeli imposed limits while documenting Israeli aggression towards these boats.

– Supporting farmers’ direct action to reclaim their lands within the buffer-zone along the green line.

– Supporting non-violent demonstrations at border crossings against the denial of freedom of movement.

– Reporting from the Gaza Strip, bringing human stories from people living under Israeli occupation and siege.