Author: ISM Media Group

Israel issues final visas, splitting families

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

by the Campaign for the Right of Entry

All foreign passports belonging to spouses and children of Palestinian ID-holders who had applied for visa extensions have recently been marked as “last permit” by the Israeli authorities. One hundred and five passport holders are required to leave via Israeli controlled entry/exit points before the end of the year. The Israeli Ministry of Interior (MoI) office at Beit El began returning the passports on November 19 after a six-week strike by Israeli MoI employees. Those who overstay their allotted time will be considered “illegal” and are subject to immediate deportation from the Israeli occupied Palestinian territories (oPt). In an effort to avoid being considered “illegal” and threatened with arrest by the Israelis, some families are opting to relocate abroad. The pattern of refusing visa renewals for family members is part of an overall Israeli effort that denies entry to foreign nationals seeking access to the oPt.

The impact of Israel’s practice includes the forced separation of spouses, parents from their children, educators and students from their schools, health care, NGO and humanitarian workers from access to needy communities, and business owners from their investments. According to the Palestinian MoI, hundreds of applications for Israeli visa extensions following Israeli guidelines were submitted in October and are still pending. Israel is also refusing to process an estimated 120,000 family unification residency applications.

Every denial of entry and visa renewal refusal impacts an estimated 10 people, many of whom subsequently resort to moving to another country. “This is a silent ethnic cleansing,” said Basil Ayish, a spokesperson from the Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re-Entry to the oPt.

Despite official complaints by foreign governments of discrimination against their citizens, Israel continues to disregard its obligations under international law and agreements and persists in its practice of changing the demographics within the oPt. The U.S. State Department, EU, and at least one Latin American country have all submitted demarches to Israeli officials since October. Foreigners wishing to reside in, visit or work in the oPt continue to be banned at Israeli-controlled ports of entry.

Israel refuses to permit non-Jewish foreigners from receiving residency status in the oPt. This means that the only mechanism for foreign passport-holding spouses and children of Palestinian ID-holders to join their families has been to rely on a system of renewable 3-month ‘visitor’ permits.

This practice was widely expected to be a transitory measure until mechanisms were put in place to provide permanent residency status for non-ID holding family members. Some family members have been following this procedure for more than 30 years as the only option open to them.

Contacts:
Basil Ayish Coordinator: +970-(0)59-817-3953
info@righttoenter.ps

Updated November 22

For more background information on this story, see this article on Ma’an News.

American priest and nun join Palestinian non-violent resistance in Gaza

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UPDATE, November 22nd: Father Peter and Sister Mary Ellen have moved on to Beit Lahia, in the north of Gaza, where Palestinians have been gathered for the last three days to protect the home of Wael Rajab, a house that took 20 years to build. This is at least the second location in Gaza in the last four days where this particular nonviolent tactic has been employed to prevent home demolition. Fr. Peter said he has been sitting outside the house with many people from the town, including doctors, teachers, and a civil engineer.

“It is clear that violence will only lead to more violence,” Fr. Peter said, “but perhaps this nonviolent form of resistance will help to end the vicious cycle.” Palestinians have explained that hundreds of villagers have decided to participate in this action because they feel that since the world community has chosen not to help them, they must help themselves. And they are dedicated. Many of the villagers, from young men to elderly women, have told the two Christians, “Even if Israel destroys our homes, we will stay.”

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Father Peter and Sister Mary Ellen from the US have joined the people of Jabalya, Gaza, in their non-violent action to protect the home of Mohammed Wael Baroud, under threat of destruction. On Saturday hundreds of neighbours surrounded his house and climbed onto the roof after he received a call from the Israeli army informing him he had 30 minutes to vacate his home before it was destroyed by missiles.

“I am amazed at the courage and solidarity of these people. This is a living example of brotherhood between people against the injustice of collective punishment”, said Sister Mary Ellen.

Just two weeks after the killing of two non-violent female demonstrators in Gaza, the movement has gathered momentum after Palestinians recently halted two planned Israeli air strikes on activists’ homes. These two recent successes in the Palestinian non-violent resistance movement appear to have thwarted Israeli air strikes for the first time due to the sheer numbers of people mobilized.

The owner of the house Wael Baroud a leader in the Popular Resistance Committees armed faction, said “The whole world and the international community turned a blind eye and failed to protect us from the continuous Israeli attacks. We have to do something… We are ready to be killed and martyred for the sake of God and freedom. We don’t fear the Israelis. We are no better than the children of Beit Hanoun, who were slaughtered while they were sleeping in the latest Israeli massacre in Beit Hanoun.”

It is a contravention of the Geneva Convention for armies to fail to make a distinction between unarmed civilians and armed combatants. Israel practices the strategy of telephoning residents of targeted homes shortly before the homes are to be destroyed, giving them just enough time to quickly escape. This practice has been used in over 60 cases within Gaza, despite the fact that any act of collective punishment is a crime under international law.

Contacts in Jabalya:
Father Peter – 0546259547
Sister Mary Ellen – 0547947159

Free AIC youth worker Ahmad Abu Hannya!

By the Alternative Information Centre

An Israeli military court extended the administration detention of Alternative Information Center (AIC) member Ahmad Abu Hannya until November 30 to allow the Israeli authorities opportunity to interrogate him. Ahmad’s attorney, Sahar Francis of the Palestinian human rights organization Addameer, fears that on November 30 Israel will issue an administrative detention order against Ahmad for an additional six months.

Ahmad, coordinator of the AIC youth group in Bethlehem, was detained at a checkpoint on his way to work on May 18 2005 and placed in administrative detention, which is imprisonment without trial or charges. As all of the approximately 600 Palestinian administrative detainees currently being held by Israel, Ahmad and his attorney are not even permitted to know the evidence against him.

Ahmad’s administrative detention order was subsequently extended twice, and this month the Israeli authorities requested to extend it for an additional six months. During military court review of this request on 20 November, the military prosecution admitted that no new evidence has been gathered against Ahmad during the past 18 months and that the army has not interrogated him.

Ahmad has been adopted as an appeal case by Amnesty International, and is supported by the American National Lawyers Guild.

The continuing detention of Ahmad and so many other Palestinians blatantly violates international law, which permits administrative detention as an exceptional and highly regulated measure. Administrative detention violates the fundamental right to liberty and due process, and is used by Israel as a tool to oppress political activists in Palestine who struggle non-violently against the Israeli occupation and for a just peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

We do not know the secret evidence that Israel claims to have against Ahmad. We do know, however, that Ahmad has worked with progressive Israelis and Palestinians since 1998 on behalf of human rights and fundamental freedoms of all peoples in the area. Ahmad has a demonstrated commitment to a just peace and joint life for Palestinians and Israelis in the region.

We urge you to contact the Israeli authorities and join us in demanding Ahmad’s unconditional release from administrative detention on or before 30 November 2006. The Israeli authorities must release Ahmad or charge him with a recognizable criminal offence and in accordance with internationally accepted standards for a fair trial.

ADDRESSES

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
POB 187
Kiryat Ben Gurion
Jerusalem 91919 Israel
Fax: +972 2 670 5475 or +972 2 566 4838
Email: pm_eng@pmo.gov.il

Menahem Mazuz
Attorney General
Ministry of Justice
29 Salah Adin Street
Jerusalem 91010
Fax: +972 2 628 5438 or +972 2 627 4481

Brigadier General Avihai Mandelblit
Judge Advocate General
6 David Elazar Street
Tel Aviv
Fax: 972 3 569 4370
Email: arbel@mail.idf.il

As Ahmad begins his nineteenth month in prison, we further urge you to write him letters of solidarity:

Ahmad Abu Hannya
ID 917755720
Prisoner number 3186/05
Ktziot Detention Camp 01771
Military Post
Israel

Letters may also be sent by email to: connie@alt-info.org. Please write “For Ahmad Abu Hannya” in the subject line.

Additional information about Ahmad may be found on the website of the Alternative Information Center: www.alternativenews.org.

Large mob of Israeli settlers drive Palestinians from Tuba

by Operation Dove, November 19th

At 8:45am 50 adult, male, Israeli settlers some of whom were carrying guns, walked from the illegal Israeli outpost of Havot Ma’on (Hill 833) toward the small Palestinian village of Tuba. On the way, they encountered the young children from Tuba and Migaer Al-Abeed walking to school in At-Tuwani under Israeli military escort. Most of the children, terrified, ran back towards Tuba. A village elder accompanied them back to their escort and all of the children arrived safely in At-Tuwani, although visibly shaken by their experience.

Two international volunteers from Operation Dove ran from At-Tuwani to Tuba. When they got near the village they met some of the villagers who had fled their houses and taken refuge in the hills. Some of them had taken their flocks of sheep and goats with them. A villager testified that when the settlers first approached the village they said that they were out hiking and would not bother the villagers. The Palestinian said, however, that the settlers entered the village and started throwing stones at the animals and at the village’s generator. They also emptied storage containers of water, a commodity which is in very short supply in the village.

The villagers pointed out the direction in which the settlers had gone. The Doves were walking in that direction when, at 9:45am, the Israeli police and army arrived on the scene. This was more than an hour after they had been called. The Doves saw the police jeep stop and the army jeep continue further on. The police and soldiers ordered the Doves to stop following the settlers. A villager later reported that the soldiers then shouted to the settlers to leave because the police were coming. The villager also reported that he saw the settlers go into a nearby valley and hide.

The Doves videotaped their discussion with the police. Audible on the recording are the police’s radio conversations with their colleagues. These colleagues can be heard to say that they encountered some of the settlers, including four of whom the villager had given a description.

However, the police did not detain the settlers, claiming that there was no evidence against them.

This is the latest example in this area of settler violence towards Palestinians, which again has evoked no response from the Israeli authorities.

Videos of the settlers marching to Tuba and the testimony of a villager is available on request.

For more details contact:
operationdove@gmail.com
ISM media office: 02 2971824 or 0599943157

Maariv: “The settlers’ welcome: a bottle in the head”

Translation from original Hebrew by Rann Bar-on.

Tove Liljeholm, a 19-year old woman from Sweden, was attacked by settlers in Hebron, who threw a bottle at her while she was assisting Palestinian children. “Afterwards, they laughed”

by Itamar Inbari, November 20th.

“I felt a powerful blow to my head, fell to the ground and noticed that my head was covered in blood” – said Tove Liljeholm, a 19-year old Swedish activist in the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), who was injured two days ago by a bottle thrown at her by settlers in Tel Rumeida in Hebron. According to her, the settlers shouted to her and her friends “we killed Jesus, we’ll kill you too” and clapped after she was injured.

Liljeholm and four of her friends, all international solidarity activists, arrived two days ago at the checkpoint at the entrance to the Tel Rumeida neighborhood in Hebron, in order to accompany Palestinian children to their homes. When they passed from the Palestinian side to the Israeli side, they encountered a group of settlers who ‘welcomed’ them with shouts, curses and spitting. Among other things, the settlers shouted “we killed Jesus, we’ll kill you too.”

Liljeholm says that at a certain stage the settlers moved from verbal to physical violence. “One of them kicked at us and suddenly I felt a powerful blow to my head,” she said. “I fell down and noticed that my head was covered with blood. Only later was I told that it was a bottle that hit my head.”

According to her, after she was hit in the head, the settlers started to laugh, clap and whooped with joy. One of the settlers, a doctor by profession, even refused to help her. In the end, she was evacuated to the Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem, where a doctor diagnosed a broken cheekbone and an additional fracture near her eye.

“Hoping to Return to Hebron Soon”

The international activists said after the incident that while it was going on, policemen and soldiers did nothing to stop the settlers, and that only after Liljeholm fell to the ground did they stop the attackers. According to [the activists], they did not detain any of the settlers for questioning and moreover, they threatened the international activists with arrest if they did not leave the area immediately.

Despite the difficult experience, Liljeholm promises to continue to work with ISM or in other capacities to help the Palestinian people. “Of course I’m afraid and angry at the settlers, but I think that those living in terrible conditions need to be helped, especially after seeing how violent the settlers can be,” she said. “I hope to return to Hebron, but I don’t think it’ll happen soon.”

The Judea and Samaria police responded that they reject the charges left-wing groups have put forward regarding the treatment of Liljeholm’s assault. The police stated that during this past sabbath, a large contingent of police were present in Hebron, who patrolled the areas of friction and prevented conflict between Palestinians and settlers. The police requested that left-wing activists do not stay in the area, in order to prevent conflicts.

After receiving the complaint regarding the assault, the police said that their investigators gathered testimonies in the area, and that a police force searched for suspects in the assault. Likewise, they detained a number of suspects, but that during investigation they were not identified by the witnesses and were not connected to the event. At the same time, testimony was taken from a tourist. The police say that after her recovery, Liljeholm is welcome to contact the Hebron police, who will present her with pictures of suspects, so that they can be identified and tried.

“End the Barbaric Behavior”

Following the assault on Liljeholm, the chairman of Balad [one of the Arab parties in the Knesset], Azmi Bishara, wrote a letter to the Minister of Defence, Amir Peretz, requesting him to put an end to the settlers’ behavior. “I want to emphasize that this is not the first time such a thing has happened,” wrote Bishara to Peretz.

“The aggressive behavior of the settlers against the residents and foreign volunteers occurs repeatedly with intolerable frequency, all this without any law enforcement or any form of punishment. The fact is that the behavior of the settlers resembles that of outlaws in the Wild West,” added Bishara. The chairman of Balad also called on the minister to intervene immediately and put an end to “the barbaric and unacceptable behavior of the settlers, to enforce the law and to ensure the security of local Palestinian residents, to investigate this incident and to bring those responsible to justice.”