Author: ISM Media Group

Tel Rumeida: Another Meaningless Trip to the Police Station

July 19th, 2007. This afternoon, on Shuhada Street, a young Palestinian boy was detained.

Two settler children were coming up the street, drawing on the doors and walls of Palestinian houses with chalk. Two ISM members were posted on the street and one of them informed the police of the settlers actions, to which he was told that it was just a kid’s game. Shortly after, a police car passed in front of the children, stopped, and said something to them. The car then stopped in front of the ISM members and informed them that he had already advised the children to cease drawing.

The settler children passed along the street and some minutes later, returned followed by two Palestinian teenagers, walking about four meters behind them. The ISM members could see one of the Palestinian teenagers saying something to one of the settler children and were later informed by Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) who had spoken to the second Palestinian teenager that his friend was responding to a remark made by the settler children.

Immediately after, the children went to the police and spoke with them. The police then stopped the Palestinian teenager who had spoken to the settler children at 15.35. Five minutes later, one of the ISM members asked the police what the problem was, but was told that it wasn’t her business but an issue for the police. He refused to give any further explanation and asked the ISM member to wait away from the area in which he was detaining the Palestinian teenager.

At approximately 13.50, another two ISM’ers joined the international group observing the situation. At 14.05, the Palestinian teenager was put into the police car and one female ISM’er approached the police man again, asking for a reason as to why he was being taken to the police station. She was told that he didn’t have any identification on him and the police man refused to let her speak to the teenager.

The teenager was then driven to the local police station where he gave a declaration of the facts and was released approximately one hour later.

This shows, once again, the different approaches used by the police in Hebron, especially in Tel Rumeida, depending on each person. The settler children can throw stones, intimidate and terrorize the Palestinians and yet, they are never detained. Meanwhile Palestinian children must go to the police station simply for verbally responding to the provocation, intimidation and harassment they experience on a daily basis.

Jerusalem: ICAHD Continues to Rebuild!

July 17th, 2007. The below report was written by Summer Camp participant: P.R.

The decision was made. We as the summer camp now officially have two houses to reconstruct. We all woke up this morning with a day of brick setting and cement pouring ahead of us. Some of us woke to the sound of mosquitoes in our ears, others to the splash of cold dew dripping down from the tent tarp between their noses. We moved on to the building site after breakfast and did exactly what we were meant to; Setting bricks into walls. But before we could pour the cement Meir received a phone call and asked if we’d like to accompany him to see a demolition in Jerusalem. Many of us went with him and as we watched the green army jeeps leave the Israeli base we realized that they were headed toward Anata. It was quite a scare. I myself was in the van where people feared that the demolition team was coming to destroy our in-progress home.

Back at camp however, the family panicked and some tears were shed in the thought of once again losing their house. The workers had already abandoned the site by the time we had arrived. Meir clarified that our house was not in danger of demolition but the house just down the hill was about to be torn down. He warned us not to approach the demolition site as to avoid attracting attention to our project.

We all climbed to the upper floors of a large apartment building and watched as the bulldozer inched toward the little house. Soldiers surrounded the entire house and even went as far as placing soldiers amongst the crowds of Palestinians and internationals watching on the hillsides. Watching the demolition really made me question my own opinions. I don’t consider myself an optimist, but I know that there is a considerable amount of Israeli’s who do oppose this government and its policies. I believe in the good of men. It is moments and atrocities like the one that I witnessed today that make me doubt my own beliefs. We all stood on the balcony, some of us filming, some of us taking pictures and a lot of us discussing. But all of us had the same feeling of disbelief and hopelessness. For a single moment I thought that many of us in this camp lost our sense of hope.

When I finally went down and closer to the house and the soldiers, I continued to watch. Some of the Palestinian kids were staring at the soldiers. One of the soldiers asked in Hebrew “What are you looking at?” and approached the child. The kid’s older brother took to his defense and the soldier told him to shut up. I guess it never escalated because of our presence as foreigners. But it was appalling for me to see people just a year or two older than me seem so heartless. I never was keen on the draft, and this reminded me why. The soldiers left and we saw the children throw their stones and down came the tear gas canisters. We left to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.

Jeff Halper had returned from the United States and when we got back to Beit Arabiya he, Salim and Meir debriefed us about the whole event. Why the house was demolished and the events that led up to it. The family was not even home, but they have to come back to a pile of rubble. We decided as a whole to continue both our current project and give hope to the newly distressed by also reconstructing their home. And so the decision was made that this year, we will have two homes to dedicate, two hopes to restore, and two families to rebuild.

To view the photo of the day, please click on the below link:

http://www.icahd.org/eng/news.asp?menu=5&submenu=1&item=464

Press Release: Activists Invade Agrexco Carmel

15 July 2007

This afternoon a group of Palestine solidarity protesters entered the main UK warehouse of Israeli company Carmel Agrexco in Uxbridge, Middlesex. Their action is part of the growing movement to boycott Israeli apartheid, which aims to end Israel’s breach of International law and abuse of human rights in the occupied territories of Palestine.

Carmel Action

Nine protesters went inside the warehouse, handed leaflets to the workers to explain the reasons for their actions. Two have locked themselves to equipment with D locks. They asked to speak to workers about Carmel Agrexco’s support for ethnic cleansing and war crimes in Palestine, but were met with violence and aggression.

Another group hoisted a Palestinian flag up the pole at the front of the depot to symbolically establish a Palestinian solidarity settlement on Carmel Agrexco’s land. Their aim was to highlight the illegality of Israeli settlements that have been established throughout the West Bank on land stolen from Palestinians. This was particularly fitting, given that much of Carmel Agrexco’s fruit, vegetables, flowers, herbs and other produce is grown and packed on these illegal Israeli settlements. Carmel Agrexco is thus complicit in war crimes under the International Criminal Court Act 2001 (ICC Act).

Carmel Agrexco is Israel’s largest importer of agricultural produce into the European Union and is 50% Israeli state owned. The warehouse is in Swallowfield Way, Hayes, Middlesex, at their main depot in the UK.

Many of the protesters have visited Palestine and witnessed at first hand the suffering of Palestinians under Israeli military occupation. They have seen land that has been claimed by illegal Israeli settlements, but was stolen from Palestinian families. They have visited villages where the whole community have been issued with demolition orders by the Israeli Army to make way for more illegal settlements.

The action today is part of three years of action against the company. Palestine solidarity protesters have taken part in five blockades of the premises, the first in November 2004.

Before the protest a legal warning letter was sent to Carmel Agrexco stating clearly why they are in breach of the law.

Today’s action aims to draw attention to this company’s complicity, in murder, theft and damage of occupied land, collective punishment, apartheid and ethnic cleansing, and other breaches of International Law.

Contact thewallmustfall@riseup.net/tel.07726 923 075 for interviews/pictures

Links:

Photos of the last blockade of Carmel Agrexco
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/11/357149.html?c=on

Photos of the second blockade
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/08/349440.html

Text of letter sent to Carmel Agrexco by Palestine Solidarity Campaign
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2006/08/347361.html

Report on Carmel’s Involvement in the Jordan Valley:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/322537.html

Press release from previous trial (with links):
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/01/331851.html

War on Want’s Report -“Profiting from the Occupation”:
http://www.waronwant.org/?lid=12671

Notes to Editors:

1. For comments please call

2. On 9th June 2005 a coalition of Palestinian Civil Society Organisations issued a ‘Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel until it complies with International Law’. See http://www.stopthewall.org/downloads/pdf/BDSEnglish.pdf for the full statement and signatories.

3. Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights in 1967 in contravention of international law.

Since then Israel has moved over 380,000 settlers into these occupied territories in contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention (article 49), the Hague Regulations and United Nations Security Council Resolutions.

Israel continues to build an illegal apartheid wall inside the West Bank despite the Advisory Ruling of the International Court of Justice in 2005 that the wall is illegal. Fifty five illegal Israeli settlements will be on the Israeli side of the wall separated from the West Bank.

Since 2000 Israel ha demolished 664 Palestinian houses, in acts of collective punishment. These demolitions constitute a war crime. They have demolished a further 12,953 palestinian homes for ‘miliary reasons’ (oftens to expand Israeli settlements) and 1,214 because they were built ‘without
a permit’

4,058 Palestinians have been killed as a direct result of Israeli military actions during the current uprising which began in September 2000.

(Above statistics confirmed by Israeli Information Centre Btselem see www.btselem.org )

Contact thewallmustfall@riseup.net/tel. 07726 923 075 for interviews/pictures

Gaza: Ceaseless Misery at Rafah Border Crossing

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights

Date: 18 July 2007

Time: 11:00 GMT

Further Deterioration to Humanitarian Conditions of Palestinians Struck at Rafah International Crossing Point:

Woman’s Death Raise the Number of Deaths at the Crossing Point to 16

On Tuesday, 17 July 2007, Sanaa’ Ahmed ‘Ali Shanan, 29, from the northern Gaza Strip town of Jablaya, married to Jamal Saleem Shalha and a mother of 3 children the youngest of whom is 6-month-old, died at an Egyptian hospital. She had been stuck in Egypt for at least 35 days. According to her brother, she was transferred by the Palestinian Ministry of Health to Nasser Institute Hospital in Cairo nearly 2 months ago to undergo medical checking for her chest. The medical checking concluded that she was suffering from pulmonary fibrosis. She had remained in the hospital from 10 days, before she traveled towards Rafah International Crossing Point to go back to the Gaza Strip. As the crossing point was closed, she was forced to go to al-‘Areesh town, waiting for the crossing point to be opened. She went more than once to the crossing point, and she had to spend more than one night near it. She then stayed in the Egyptian town of Rafah, where she stayed with her uncle. During her stay in Rafah, on Monday, 16 July 2007, her health condition deteriorated. She was evacuated to the hospital, but she died at approximately 11:00 on Tuesday. Her body has been kept at the hospital pending the approval of Israeli authorities to be allowed into the Gaza Strip.

Thus, the number of Palestinians stuck in Egypt who died has increased to 16, most of them are patients who had received medical treatment at Egyptian hospitals and their health conditions deteriorated due to long waiting under inhuman conditions at the crossing point. Two other Palestinians also died in a car accident while they were on their way to the crossing point. IOF have refused to allow the entry of the bodies of the deceased through Rafah International Crossing Point, and have allowed their delayed entry through Karm Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing.

The continued closure of Rafah International Crossing Point, the sole outlet of the Gaza Strip to the outside world, has created a humanitarian crisis for at least 6,000 Palestinians, who have been stuck in Egypt, especially in al-Areesh and Rafah towns, waiting to be allowed in the Gaza Strip. This figure includes at least 1,200 patients who had traveled to Egypt to receive medical treatment at its hospitals, hundreds of families who live abroad and

arrived in Egypt to travel to the Gaza Strip to visit their relatives, and hundreds of university students who wish to spend their summer vacation with their families in the Gaza Strip. Many of these Palestinians have run out of money due to their unexpected long stay in Egypt, and they are threatened by diseases due to the lack of basic sanitation services. Additionally, the Egyptian Authorities have continued to hold hundreds of Palestinians at al-‘Areesh Airport, nearly 50 kilometers away from the crossing point, worried of their possible long stay in Egypt due to the closure of the crossing point.

PCHR is deeply concerned over the deteriorating humanitarian conditions of Palestinians stuck at Rafah International Crossing Point and neighboring Egyptian towns. PCHR is shocked by the failure of the international community and United Nations agencies to act to end the suffering of these Palestinians through pressurizing towards the opening of the crossing point. The closure of border crossings of the Gaza Strip, especially Rafah International Crossing Point, and the restrictions imposed by IOF on the freedom of movement of the Palestinian civilian population constitute a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, especially the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.

In light of the above:

1) PCHR calls upon the international community, particularly the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, to immediately intervene and exert pressure to ensure the reopening of Rafah International Crossing Point in order to end the suffering of thousands of Palestinian who have been stuck at the crossing point.

2) PCHR calls upon the international community to take necessary stop to compel Israel to stop the policy of collective punishment practiced against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip, manifested in the closure of all border crossing and the restricted movement of persons and goods.

Public Document

**************************************

For more information please call PCHR office in Gaza, Gaza Strip, on +972 8 2824776 – 2825893

PCHR, 29 Omer El Mukhtar St., El Remal, PO Box 1328 Gaza, Gaza Strip. E-mail: pchr@pchrgaza.org, Webpage http://www.pchrgaza.org