Author: ISM Media Group

Olive Harvest 2006

Your presence is needed for the Olive Harvest 2006 in Palestine!

Palestinian communities are calling for the presence of international activists to support them in the 2006 Olive Harvest. Throughout the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian land continues to be stolen for illegal Israeli colonies and the Apartheid Wall as well as settler roads, checkpoints, and closed military zones.

Since October 2000, hundreds of thousands of olive trees have been bulldozed, uprooted, or burned by the Israeli military and Israeli settler colonists. The olive tree has been a native symbol for Palestinians for hundreds of years. As well as a source of livelihood and a symbol of the people’s bond to their land, the olive tree is also a powerful symbol of cooperation between peoples.

Cooperative actions between internationals and Palestinians have concentrated around the olive tree. Palestinian communities remain steadfast and are strengthened in refusing to give up their olive harvest. The solidarity offered by international activists enables many families to pick their olives and stay in their communities.

ISM will be providing training, media and legal support to international activists in response to the demand from local communities. Activists will use their creativity, determination and courage to support these communities at this important time of year. There is an especially big need for the campaign this year, as a big harvest is expected. Ground work has been done by ISM activists in the Nablus region on making contacts with at least 18 villages in the region who would like to have international accompaniment because of dangers they will face from Israeli colonists, and obstruction and harassment from the Israeli army. Many of these villages have worked with internationals before.

An international presence makes it less likely that Palestinian farmers and landowners will be met with brutal and sometimes lethal violence as they care for their land and harvest their olives.

The Olive Harvest Campaign, part of the people’s non-violent resistance to the occupation, will begin 15th October and last until the middle of December. Some villages have expressed a desire for internationals from mid-October although most villages we have contacted will start picking after the three day religious holiday of Eid il Fitr, which is expected to be from October 25-27. The majority of villages will be picking during November. The first Olive Harvest orientation and training will be held on October 15th and 16th and will continue every Sunday and Monday until the end of the Olive Harvest. During Eid il Fitr there will be no olive picking. Olive harvesting is expected to be finished by the middle of December. Please contact Hisham at hishamjamjoum@yahoo.com for questions about training.

Please register to join us at: palsolidarity.org
For more information, please contact info@palsolidarity.org
or see: palsolidarity.org

Important Notes

  • It is recommended that you stay for at least two weeks, though if this is not possible, your presence anytime throughout the duration of the campaign is appreciated.
  • As a guide, it will cost you approximately $100 per week for food, accommodation and travel in Palestine.
  • The two-day training and orientation is mandatory for activists participating in the non-violent resistance including the Olive Harvest.

Updated 14th September: the paragraph in this call about dates has been updated and clarified.

Ongoing Campaigns

In the meantime, we also invite internationals to join our on-going efforts to support Palestinian non-violent resistance all over the West Bank. In recent months Israeli aggression has increased in the West Bank whilst more international attention has been focused on Israeli atrocities in Lebanon and Gaza.

Palestinians in the Tel Rumeida district of Hebron suffer some of the worst settler violence in the West Bank. There has been an international presence in Tel Rumeida for 1 1/2 years. Activists who have attended ISM training have a permanent presence in the international apartment in Tel Rumeida. The work there involves accompanying Palestinian schoolchildren to school and protecting them from and documenting attacks by settlers. Internationals also maintain a presence on the streets in the settlement to document and intervene in the regular settler attacks on local Palestinian residents.

Israeli settler colonists in other areas in the Hebron region also frequently attack and intimidate Palestinian farmers. This involves physical assaults or the destruction of farmland. As with the Olive Harvest the presence of internationals enables farmers to work their land. This summer, internationals supported farmers in this way around Beit Omar village. Although the Wall has been largely built in the northern West Bank and around Jerusalem, land is currently being destroyed for the route of the Wall in the south of the West Bank, in the Bethlehem and Hebron regions. Internationals have supported weekly demonstrations against the Wall this summer in Al Khadr village west of Bethlehem as well as participating in actions around Karme Zur settlement between Halhoul and Beit Omar. There will be continuous non-violent resistance to land theft and the destruction of olive trees, vines and other agricultural land in the Hebron region.

In Bil’in village west of Ramallah, the illegal Apartheid Wall has stolen over half of the village’s agricultural land. Internationals have supported their 1 1/2 year struggle against the Wall which has focused around weekly Friday demonstrations. Internationals aim to maintain a permanent presence in the village which has been targeted by Israeli forces for its non-violent resistance.

Training Dates

We hold trainings every Sunday and Monday if there are at least 5 people. Please contact Hisham at hishamjamjoum@yahoo.com for questions about training.

Update, 7th October

See this post on our site for a more detailed plan for the Olive Harvest 2006.

Update, 16th October

Read about the recent ruling in the Israeli Sureme Court that orders the Israeli military and police to protect Palestinian farmers from settlers. See coverage of the ruling in the Israeli media: in Ha’aretz and the Jerusalem Post. See also this investigative article in Ha’aretz which brings up evidence that suggests the Israeli army will not live up to their promises. Compare also with reports from the early Olive Harvest (i.e. before Eid, which is likely to be either the 22nd or 23rd of October).

Counter Punch: “From Bil’in to Birmingham”

A Missing Link in Support for Palestinian Human Rights
From Bil’in to Birmingham
By DAVE HIMMELSTEIN

One of the latest in the long series of unpublicized Israeli attacks on civilians took place on August 25 in the West Bank village of Bil’in, a longstanding bastion of nonviolent Palestinian resistance. It occurred during the weekly protest against the Israeli de-facto-boundary wall being constructed in their midst. About 100 protestors — Palestinian, Israeli and international activists — were walking to the site of the wall when, without provocation, soldiers in riot gear waded in and began clubbing demonstrators and firing rubber bullets at close range.

An Italian, an Israeli and two Palestinian activists were beaten so badly they had to be taken to hospital. One American suffered a concussion and another sustained hand injuries, in addition to taking a rubber bullet in her back and another one in her hip. Besides being clubbed, a Palestinian coordinator was shot with three rubber bullets in the back and one in the leg.

Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, this mayhem remains an unknown reality for mainstream-media consumers in North America. Despite the long-running nature of such activity and the graphic brutality of Israel’s response, coverage of these actions in Canadian and U.S. media is scant to non-existent. And, of course, the public invisibility of such activity abroad contributes to making it such a tough sell on the ground. The media blackout was dissected by Patrick O’Connor in October 2005, his report pointing out that the New York Times had published only three feature reports on Palestinian nonviolent resistance in the previous three years — “this despite the fact that Palestinians have conducted hundreds of nonviolent protests over the last three years throughout the West Bank against Israel’s construction of the Wall on Palestinian land, and despite the fact that the Israeli army killed nine Palestinian protesters, wounded several thousand protesters, harassed and collectively punished villages that protested, and arrested hundreds of protesters, including nonviolent protest leaders.”

Palestinians have grown used to a prevalent refrain in expressions of support received from international well-wishers: If only you guys acted like Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi, the whole world would jump on your bandwagon. That message, of course, is superfluous–indeed, counter-factual. Organized non-violent Palestinian resistance has been going on for decades and continues to be actively exercised in the struggle against the occupation and the separation wall. Israeli products and services have been boycotted; military orders have been refused; confiscated properties have not been vacated. “Newsworthy” incidents gain sporadic attention, as when Israel was obliged to bring in the bailiffs in 1989 to deal with Palestinians’ refusal to pay taxes in the town of Beit Sahour. Higher profile was Israel’s 2003 siege of the Church of Nativity to crack down on Palestinian priests who were protecting fellow Palestinians.

Yet the exhortations continue. In fact, Palestinians have gotten the Go-Gandhi message from only two generations away from the horse’s mouth. It was delivered in 2004 by Arun Gandhi, 70-year-old grandson of the Mahatma, a naturalized American citizen who directs the Institute for Non-violence in Tennessee. While standing next to Israel’s separation wall in Abu Dis, Gandhi framed the non-violent option in terms of necessity: “I don’t think Palestine has the economic and military capacity to confront a huge state like Israel, which has not only a powerful military arsenal but powerful friends.”

Back in North America, socio-ecumenical rabbi Michael Lerner is explicit about the homegrown icon of nonviolence. “Imagine,” he told Al-Jazeera, “a parallel with Martin Luther King Jr: if blacks had been adopting violent methods at the same time as he was giving speeches in Washington, could he have achieved what he did? Peaceful protest is the only way the Palestinians can ever win.” And Lerner sets the bar high: “It will have to be an all or nothing. It cannot be that some sections of the community resist non-violently while others do not.”

A parallel between Palestinians and African Americans seems to have occurred to at least one American president. In Perceptions of Palestine, Kathleen Christison reports that Jimmy Carter made the explicit comparison in arguing against the view that the Israel-Palestine situation was hopeless. (She offers a contrapuntal reality-check by pointing out that Carter didn’t actually meet a real live Palestinian till a few years after leaving office.)

Among African Americans, since the days when Dr. King took pains to position himself as supportive of Israel, a perceived parallel between their human rights struggles and those of Palestinians has been more widespread at the grass-roots than at the elite level, with certain notable exceptions. Of course, all such perceptions are filtered through the convoluted multi-level interface that exists between African Americans and Jewish Americans. But, in a nutshell, Israel has turned out to be a bridge-burner. Jews were highly active in the early civil rights movement, but many of them felt rudely shaken when Martin was eclipsed by Malcolm. Things have never been the same. Any rekindling of Black-Jewish solidarity will probably take place outside established channels and, psychologically, will entail cornerstone realignment towards Israel on the part of North American Jews. Potential role models are the courageous Israeli Jews who have joined with Palestinians in direct action campaigns for decades–not to mention “righteous gentiles” from abroad like Rachel Corrie, the young activist from Olympia, Washington who was bulldozed to death while trying to prevent a home demolition.

The raw material for a North American shock of recognition exists. If the Bil’in confrontation were played out on TV screens in the United States and Canada, memories of historic King-related TV newscasts would undoubtedly be evoked. These would certainly include unforgettable images from spring 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama, when a “Bull” named Connor turned police dogs, fire hoses, stun guns and tear gas on civil rights protestors. Advocates for Israel would respond by brandishing a handful of quotes where MLK praises Israel for its democracy and supports its right to protect itself. But those guarded remarks would likely be overshadowed by the visual flashback, supplemented perhaps by a rereading of King’s celebrated “Letter from a Birmingham jail.” That missive lays out the operational dynamic of passive resistance (“nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue”) and confronts the law-and-order crowd (“everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was ‘illegal'”).
The King legacy is certainly a homegrown influence on the many brave Americans and Canadians who have asserted their own spiritual “birthright” by going to Palestine and joining in nonviolent direct action against the Israeli occupation. Rachel Corrie’s unacknowledged but ongoing presence hovers over the U.S. State Department, which is doing its best to discourage Americans from joining such actions. According to a recent advisory: “Those taking part in demonstrations, nonviolent resistance, and ‘direct action’ are advised to cease such activity for their own safety.”

While Bil’in has become emblematic of non-violent resistance, it is far from alone, as pointed out by Mohammed Khatib, secretary of the Bil’in village council and resistance committee member. During an interview in France last fall, he mentioned Budrus as another “notable” example of resistance, attributing Bil’in’s visibility to operational originality and media coverage. Khatib sees the presence of supporters from abroad as natural and inherent in the situation: “It is the international community which created the state of Israel, and, through its tribunals, has also condemned the construction of the wall, settlement activity and the Occupation. Together we must make Israel comply with international law.”

A mighty thread connects Birmingham with Bil’in. The organic outrage which was channeled into, and given form by, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, is the same passion that sustains the International Solidarity Movement, Ta’ayush, Gush Shalom, Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement, Holy Land Trust, and others. It animates a trans-national community of purpose for which, as is the case with Zionism, overall outlook is more important than organizational structure. However unlike Zionism, it bears the mark of a defining restraint and self-discipline that gives it unique built-in credibility.

Dave Himmelstein is a writer and editor in Montreal. Reachable at chebrexy@hotmail.com

Independent: “Gaza is a jail. Nobody is allowed to leave. We are all starving now”

By Patrick Cockburn in Gaza

Gaza is dying. The Israeli siege of the Palestinian enclave is so tight that its people are on the edge of starvation. Here on the shores of the Mediterranean a great tragedy is taking place that is being ignored because the world’s attention has been diverted by wars in Lebanon and Iraq.

A whole society is being destroyed. There are 1.5 million Palestinians imprisoned in the most heavily populated area in the world. Israel has stopped all trade. It has even forbidden fishermen to go far from the shore so they wade into the surf to try vainly to catch fish with hand-thrown nets.

Many people are being killed by Israeli incursions that occur every day by land and air. A total of 262 people have been killed and 1,200 wounded, of whom 60 had arms or legs amputated, since 25 June, says Dr Juma al-Saqa, the director of the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City which is fast running out of medicine. Of these, 64 were children and 26 women. This bloody conflict in Gaza has so far received only a fraction of the attention given by the international media to the war in Lebanon.

It was on 25 June that the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was taken captive and two other soldiers were killed by Palestinian militants who used a tunnel to get out of the Gaza Strip. In the aftermath of this, writes Gideon Levy in the daily Haaretz, the Israeli army “has been rampaging through Gaza – there’s no other word to describe it – killing and demolishing, bombing and shelling, indiscriminately”. Gaza has essentially been reoccupied since Israeli troops and tanks come and go at will. In the northern district of Shajhayeh they took over several houses last week and stayed five days. By the time they withdrew, 22 Palestinians had been killed, three houses were destroyed and groves of olive, citrus and almond trees had been bulldozed.

Fuad al-Tuba, the 61-year-old farmer who owned a farm here, said: “They even destroyed 22 of my bee-hives and killed four sheep.” He pointed sadly to a field, its brown sandy earth churned up by tracks of bulldozers, where the stumps of trees and broken branches with wilting leaves lay in heaps. Near by a yellow car was standing on its nose in the middle of a heap of concrete blocks that had once been a small house.

His son Baher al-Tuba described how for five days Israeli soldiers confined him and his relatives to one room in his house where they survived by drinking water from a fish pond. “Snipers took up positions in the windows and shot at anybody who came near,” he said. “They killed one of my neighbours called Fathi Abu Gumbuz who was 56 years old and just went out to get water.”

Sometimes the Israeli army gives a warning before a house is destroyed. The sound that Palestinians most dread is an unknown voice on their cell phone saying they have half an hour to leave their home before it is hit by bombs or missiles. There is no appeal.

But it is not the Israeli incursions alone that are destroying Gaza and its people. In the understated prose of a World Bank report published last month, the West Bank and Gaza face “a year of unprecedented economic recession. Real incomes may contract by at least a third in 2006 and poverty to affect close to two thirds of the population.” Poverty in this case means a per capita income of under $2 (£1.06) a day.

There are signs of desperation everywhere. Crime is increasing. People do anything to feed their families. Israeli troops entered the Gaza industrial zone to search for tunnels and kicked out the Palestinian police. When the Israelis withdrew they were replaced not by the police but by looters. On one day this week there were three donkey carts removing twisted scrap metal from the remains of factories that once employed thousands.

“It is the worst year for us since 1948 [when Palestinian refugees first poured into Gaza],” says Dr Maged Abu-Ramadan, a former ophthalmologist who is mayor of Gaza City. “Gaza is a jail. Neither people nor goods are allowed to leave it. People are already starving. They try to live on bread and falafel and a few tomatoes and cucumbers they grow themselves.”

The few ways that Gazans had of making money have disappeared. Dr Abu-Ramadan says the Israelis “have destroyed 70 per cent of our orange groves in order to create security zones.” Carnations and strawberries, two of Gaza’s main exports, were thrown away or left to rot. An Israeli air strike destroyed the electric power station so 55 per cent of power was lost. Electricity supply is now becoming almost as intermittent as in Baghdad.

The Israeli assault over the past two months struck a society already hit by the withdrawal of EU subsidies after the election of Hamas as the Palestinian government in March. Israel is withholding taxes owed on goods entering Gaza. Under US pressure, Arab banks abroad will not transfer funds to the government.

Two thirds of people are unemployed and the remaining third who mostly work for the state are not being paid. Gaza is now by far the poorest region on the Mediterranean. Per capita annual income is $700, compared with $20,000 in Israel. Conditions are much worse than in Lebanon where Hizbollah liberally compensates war victims for loss of their houses. If Gaza did not have enough troubles this week there were protest strikes and marches by unpaid soldiers, police and security men. These were organised by Fatah, the movement of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, which lost the election to Hamas in January. His supporters marched through the streets waving their Kalashnikovs in the air. “Abu Mazen you are brave,” they shouted. “Save us from this disaster.” Sour-looking Hamas gunmen kept a low profile during the demonstration but the two sides are not far from fighting it out in the streets.

The Israeli siege and the European boycott are a collective punishment of everybody in Gaza. The gunmen are unlikely to be deterred. In a bed in Shifa Hospital was a sturdy young man called Ala Hejairi with wounds to his neck, legs, chest and stomach. “I was laying an anti-tank mine last week in Shajhayeh when I was hit by fire from an Israeli drone,” he said. “I will return to the resistance when I am better. Why should I worry? If I die I will die a martyr and go to paradise.”

His father, Adel, said he was proud of what his son had done adding that three of his nephews were already martyrs. He supported the Hamas government: “Arab and Western countries want to destroy this government because it is the government of the resistance.”

As the economy collapses there will be many more young men in Gaza willing to take Ala Hejairi’s place. Untrained and ill-armed most will be killed. But the destruction of Gaza, now under way, will ensure that no peace is possible in the Middle East for generations to come.

The deadly toll

* After the kidnap of Cpl Gilad Shalit by Palestinians on 25 June, Israel launched a massive offensive and blockade of Gaza under the operation name Summer Rains.

* The Gaza Strip’s 1.3 million inhabitants, 33 per cent of whom live in refugee camps, have been under attack for 74 days.

* More than 260 Palestinians, including 64 children and 26 women, have been killed since 25 June. One in five is a child. One Israeli soldier has been killed and 26 have been wounded.

* 1,200 Palestinians have been injured, including up to 60 amputations. A third of victims brought to hospital are children.

* Israeli warplanes have launched more than 250 raids on Gaza, hitting the two power stations and the foreign and Information ministries.

* At least 120 Palestinian structures including houses, workshops and greenhouses have been destroyed and 160 damaged by the Israelis.

* The UN has criticised Israel’s bombing, which has caused an estimated $1.8bn in damage to the electricity grid and leaving more than a million people without regular access to drinking water.

* The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem says 76 Palestinians, including 19 children, were killed by Israeli forces in August alone. Evidence shows at least 53 per cent were not participating in hostilities.

* In the latest outbreak of violence, three Palestinians were killed yesterday when Israeli troops raided a West Bank town in search of a wanted militant. Two of those killed were unarmed, according to witnesses.

Gaza is dying. The Israeli siege of the Palestinian enclave is so tight that its people are on the edge of starvation. Here on the shores of the Mediterranean a great tragedy is taking place that is being ignored because the world’s attention has been diverted by wars in Lebanon and Iraq.

A whole society is being destroyed. There are 1.5 million Palestinians imprisoned in the most heavily populated area in the world. Israel has stopped all trade. It has even forbidden fishermen to go far from the shore so they wade into the surf to try vainly to catch fish with hand-thrown nets.

Many people are being killed by Israeli incursions that occur every day by land and air. A total of 262 people have been killed and 1,200 wounded, of whom 60 had arms or legs amputated, since 25 June, says Dr Juma al-Saqa, the director of the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City which is fast running out of medicine. Of these, 64 were children and 26 women. This bloody conflict in Gaza has so far received only a fraction of the attention given by the international media to the war in Lebanon.

It was on 25 June that the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was taken captive and two other soldiers were killed by Palestinian militants who used a tunnel to get out of the Gaza Strip. In the aftermath of this, writes Gideon Levy in the daily Haaretz, the Israeli army “has been rampaging through Gaza – there’s no other word to describe it – killing and demolishing, bombing and shelling, indiscriminately”. Gaza has essentially been reoccupied since Israeli troops and tanks come and go at will. In the northern district of Shajhayeh they took over several houses last week and stayed five days. By the time they withdrew, 22 Palestinians had been killed, three houses were destroyed and groves of olive, citrus and almond trees had been bulldozed.

Fuad al-Tuba, the 61-year-old farmer who owned a farm here, said: “They even destroyed 22 of my bee-hives and killed four sheep.” He pointed sadly to a field, its brown sandy earth churned up by tracks of bulldozers, where the stumps of trees and broken branches with wilting leaves lay in heaps. Near by a yellow car was standing on its nose in the middle of a heap of concrete blocks that had once been a small house.

His son Baher al-Tuba described how for five days Israeli soldiers confined him and his relatives to one room in his house where they survived by drinking water from a fish pond. “Snipers took up positions in the windows and shot at anybody who came near,” he said. “They killed one of my neighbours called Fathi Abu Gumbuz who was 56 years old and just went out to get water.”

Sometimes the Israeli army gives a warning before a house is destroyed. The sound that Palestinians most dread is an unknown voice on their cell phone saying they have half an hour to leave their home before it is hit by bombs or missiles. There is no appeal.

But it is not the Israeli incursions alone that are destroying Gaza and its people. In the understated prose of a World Bank report published last month, the West Bank and Gaza face “a year of unprecedented economic recession. Real incomes may contract by at least a third in 2006 and poverty to affect close to two thirds of the population.” Poverty in this case means a per capita income of under $2 (£1.06) a day.

There are signs of desperation everywhere. Crime is increasing. People do anything to feed their families. Israeli troops entered the Gaza industrial zone to search for tunnels and kicked out the Palestinian police. When the Israelis withdrew they were replaced not by the police but by looters. On one day this week there were three donkey carts removing twisted scrap metal from the remains of factories that once employed thousands.

“It is the worst year for us since 1948 [when Palestinian refugees first poured into Gaza],” says Dr Maged Abu-Ramadan, a former ophthalmologist who is mayor of Gaza City. “Gaza is a jail. Neither people nor goods are allowed to leave it. People are already starving. They try to live on bread and falafel and a few tomatoes and cucumbers they grow themselves.”

The few ways that Gazans had of making money have disappeared. Dr Abu-Ramadan says the Israelis “have destroyed 70 per cent of our orange groves in order to create security zones.” Carnations and strawberries, two of Gaza’s main exports, were thrown away or left to rot. An Israeli air strike destroyed the electric power station so 55 per cent of power was lost. Electricity supply is now becoming almost as intermittent as in Baghdad.

Published: 08 September 2006

“What did the shops ever do to them?”

1. Home Demolitions in Jabal Shamali a “Mistake”
2. “What did the shops ever do to them?”
3. International Peace Mission receives a frosty reception from Israel
4. IOF Soldiers Kidnap Family
5. Protesters Attacked in Bil’in
6. Freedom Summer 2006
7. Protestors Managed to Remove a Fence in Bethlehem

1. Home Demolitions in Jabal Shamali a “Mistake”

For photos please click here

For Photos from the last incursion into Nablus, please click here

by ISM Nablus

On Saturday the 26th of August, Israeli military invaded the Jabal Shamali area of Nablus and destroyed 22 homes [for a report, pictures and video, see the previous report on the ISM website]. The next day, Israel’s largest newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the home demolition was “a mistake,” and that the Israeli military failed to arrest two to three Fatah activists that were the target of the operation.

At the end of the incursion, five individual houses and one three-storey block of flats were destroyed. One of the six buildings demolished was a community meeting hall, the others homes belonging to the Saedi, G’name, Sa’eah and Lubaddeh families. Eight cars were also totally wrecked, five of which were dumped onto a neighboring house, causing structural damage in the form of broken base-beams in the roof and the bending of walls.

Additional houses were also damaged during the demolition. The home adjacent to the structure damaged by the demolished cars was severely burn-damaged, and three homes west of the apartment block were 80% destroyed and are now unlivable. In total, 22 homes and apartments were completely demolished, and an additional five homes were made unlivable.

About 100 people were made homeless by the Israeli military’s actions and are now evacuated to friends’ homes in surrounding neighborhoods, or forced to rent apartments around Nablus. With the help of friends and neighbors, they have removed the remains of their homes that were not completely bullet-ridden or shredded by bulldozers and are now planning on rebuilding the homes as they were.

The families have been given $15,000 collectively from the Palestinian government as aid for rebuilding their homes, and friends and neighbors collected an additional $17,000 for the same purpose. This is, however, far from enough money. The cost of rebuilding the Lubaddeh block of flats alone, as estimated by engineers, will amount to about $550,000.

The issue of home demolitions has been discussed at length by the Israeli High Court of Justice in many cases, including Janimat V. IDF Military Commander 1997. In the discussion of this case, published by the Israeli Supreme Court in “Judgments of the Israeli Supreme Court: Fighting Terrorism within in Law”, the Justices argue, “home demolitions are allowed only in light of especially serious terrorist activities, such as involvement in suicide bombings aimed at civilians… The demolitions are subject to legal principals, such as the principle of proportionality. For example, the measure may only be used if it is possible to limit it to the terrorist’s home, without demolishing adjacent dwellings. (60)” In addition, the President of the Court, A. Barak states, “[Demolitions are] implemented in stages and with care in order to prevent damage to the rest of the building. If damage is caused, it will be repaired. (62)” In the case of this incursion, the homes were demolished while searching for suspects, not “in light of especially serious terrorist activities.” In addition, 22 homes were demolished in their attempt to arrest, clearly violating the “principal of proportionality.” According to President Barak, the homes’ of the residents will be repaired, though follow through on this is unlikely.

Nizar Lubbadeh, who gave himself up to be arrested in a desperate bid to stop the demolition of his and his family’s home, was released shortly after questioning. One other man, Mohammad Ayad, was however arrested after the demolition and is still in jail.

According to the Nablus Municipality, 220 buildings have been destroyed in Nablus since the beginning of the current Intifada in September 2000. This number excludes the large number of homes destroyed in Israel’s “Operation Defensive Shield” in 2002.

Following this most recent incursion into Jabal Shamali, the number is now up to 242. This attack marks one of the largest houses to be destroyed. Other big demolitions include a 9-storey building in Rafidya Al-Makhfiyya 3 years ago, belonging to Jafar Maasri who was killed by lethal gas in the Old City, and the Al-Sudder family home in New Askar refugee camp about one and a half years ago.
Amer and Allam Lubbadeh, two brothers made homeless by the demolition, urge anyone who wishes to donate money to the rebuilding of their family home to contact the Palestinian Red Crescent in Nablus, by telephone at 09-2384151, or by fax at 09-2380215.

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2. “What did the shops ever do to them?”

For photos please click here.
by ISM Nablus

This morning between 2 and 4 o’clock Israeli military forces entered Balata Refugee Camp, south-east of Nablus city center. Soldiers traveling in two armoured bulldozers and four military jeeps proceeded to partially destroy of ten shops in the marketplace on the main street of the camp. The bulldozers pulled down whole shop awnings, crushed tiles and cement curbs lining the street, ripped a street sign from the ground, down a wall, cut an electric cable running overhead and destroyed an large arrangement of grape-vines outside a family home.

A local butcher expressed his frustration at the wanton destruction, “They do this because they know that we are all too poor to afford to rebuild our shops. The occupation is strangling our economy”. Pointing at the wrenched-up tiles of the shop porch and the ripped bits of metal sticking out above our heads in place of the bright red and white shop-front that usually greets customers, he continued: “It will take $1,000 just to repair the awning and another $500 for the porch. And I know that many other shop owners have worse damage. But there is no point in repairing any of it because we know that as soon as we fix it, they will come. They will come the next day!”

Despite this, the marketplace was this morning full of men clambering up ladders to tear down the old wrecked shop-fronts and take measurements for new ones. A team of electricians were busy replacing the cut cable and the rubble from the wreckage was neatly piled up at the sides of the street. “What did the shops ever do to them?” one of the workers exclaimed. “They are terrorists? No, this is the terror of the Israeli army.”

This sort of incursion is a regular occurrence in the refugee camps around Nablus, especially Balata. Occupation soldiers invade the camps nightly, though the use of armoured bulldozers is less common. On a ‘normal’ night, soldiers enter the camp around 2am and shoot at residents, occasionally arresting young men or invading and occupying homes. Last night’s incursion and destruction is yet another attack by the Israeli military on the impoverished residents of Palestine’s refugee camps.

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3. International Peace Mission receives a frosty reception from Israel

For photos, please click here.
After a full month of gruelling cycling, the Peace Cycle finally arrived in the West Bank tonight, September 6th. The cyclists left Damascus 3 days ago and toured the Palestinian refugee camps in the south of Syria before entering Jordan. In both Middle East countries, as in Europe, the group enjoyed courteous treatment and a warm welcome.

The climate changed dramatically, however, once they reached the border between Jordan and the Occupied Palestinian West Bank.
The cyclists arrived at the Jordanian side of the “Allenby Bridge” crossing point at 11.30 this morning local time. On the Palestinian side of the border, their coach and tour guide waited for them…and waited. The cyclists, 21 of them British, two Austrian and one Palestinian, were held at the border by the Israeli authorities and were given no information or explanation, although they were eventually given a sandwich.

Some of the Peace Cycle team as they set off from London
The Palestinian man among the group was taken away and questioned for almost 3 hours before he was allowed to enter the West Bank, where he lives with his family in a village near Ramallah. He had taken part in the Peace Cycle so that he could “tell the world about life under occupation” in his country.

At 6pm the border crossing officially closed for the night, with the remaining group of cyclists still being held in no man’s land between Jordan and Palestine, by a frustrated Israeli border staff who admitted they “just wanted to go home”. Eventually, eight hours later, and after frantic ‘phone calls between the Peace Cycle’s London office and the British Consulate in Jerusalem, the cyclists were allowed through to the Palestinian side of the border. Tired and hungry, they were relieved to finally board their coach and look forward to a meal in El Fa’raa in the north of the West Bank, where the villagers had planned a welcome dinner for them.

However, their relief was to be short lived when they encountered first hand experience of military occupation, just outside the village of El Fa’raa. As their hosts awaited them, the cyclists’ coach was stopped at an illegal Israeli checkpoint just minutes away and the group was told it could not proceed. Spurious explanations were given by the soldiers on duty, and despite ‘phone calls to the Israeli authorities from the British Consulate and an Israeli Knesset (Parliament) member, the peace group was held for 3 hours and then told they would not be permitted to cross the checkpoint, indefinitely.

The group had no choice but to divert to Jerusalem where they will spend the night before attempting to restart their tour of the West Bank tomorrow morning.

Whatever the reason behind today’s appalling treatment of the men and women of the Peace Cycle mission, they are more determined than ever to work for an end to the occupation of Palestine as being the only way to a lasting peace for all people of the Middle East.
For more information, contact Laura Abraham, founder of the Peace Cycle, on +44-(0)-794-1056616.

If you would like to arrange phone interviews with the cyclists at any point please contact TPC Press Officer Claire Ranyard (07801 263322) or Laura Abraham the founder of the Peace Cycle (07941056616) .

For more information visit their website or the following Indymedia UK stories:
http://www.thepeacecycle.org
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/08/347165.html
http://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/09/350167.html

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4. IOF Soldiers Kidnap Family

by Shlomo Bloom

Somehow I doubt the names and faces of the father and his three teenage boys who were kidnapped by Israeli Occupation Force soldiers tonight in Ramallah will be plastered all over news tomorrow like the face of Gilad Shalit, the kidnapped Israeli soldier.

At about 2am last night we heard there were soldiers in Al Manarra square shooting and arresting people so we went to check it out. By the time we got there the soldiers had left with their four kidnap victims whose names we were unable to find out.

I’m sure once Gilad Shalit is released, there will be a movie made about him. He’ll be the boy-next-door turned national hero who spent two months holed-up in the Gaza tunnels with savage Palestinian militants. No disrespect towards his ordeal, but why are only white people the ones who are made famous and who garner the sympathy of the whole world when they are kidnapped in this region?
After the movie is made, still no one will be able to tell me the names of the dad and his three kids who were kidnapped in Ramallah tonight.

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5. Protesters Attacked in Bil’in

for photos, please click here.
To see a video of the demonstration, please click here.

by an ISM Media office volunteer

At the weekly demo in Bil’in today Occupation forces once again lashed out at peaceful protesters. As the 100-strong march from the mosque reached the edge of the village the IOF blocked the road and, after announcing the area was a closed military zone on a megaphone, proceeded to beat those who didn’t withdraw with batons. It is the habitual practice of the Israeli military to declare as “closed military zones” areas that Palestinian non-violent demonstrations are taking place.
Undeterred by such violence the villagers tried to continue on their way to the illegal Wall but the IOF brought up reinforcements who chased and beat protesters on the arms and legs. They also fired large amounts of tear gas today. Several people were injured with some needing treatment from the ambulance for arm and leg injuries:

Abdullah Abu Rahme, Popular Committee Member from Bil’in – hand and wrist, needed bandage.
Abid Abu Rahme
Yusef Karaje
Eyal Birnat
Abdul Fateh
Mansour Mansour
Israeli activist injuries – Koby, Neil, Jonathan, Aaron, Sahar, Joval and Nir Shalev whose arm was broken.
Chris – UK
Lina – Germany
Sean – Austria
Iman – US

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6. Freedom Summer 2006

Freedom Summer 2006 in Palestine was a success! We had just under 100 internationals join Palestinians in solidarity to resist the occupation in places all over the West Bank.
The ISM continued its support for Bil’in village in its weekly
demonstrations against the wall and settlements as well as having a continued presence in the village and “outpost”, which is a structure on Palestinian farmland that is separated from the village by the Apartheid Wall.
In Beit Ummar village, south of Bethlehem, internationals joined farmers and villagers in their demonstrations against the expansion of settlement outposts near the village and in documenting human rights violations and accompanying farmers to their land near settlements in Beit Ummar and nearby villages.
Internationals also continued their support in Tel Rumeida, Hebron,
consistently documenting and intervening in attacks against Palestinians by settlers and military.
ISM has formed a permanent presence in Nablus, in order to continue working at checkpoints: monitoring and intervening in aggression against Palestinians by the Israeli military. Internationals have also meet with victims of Israeli violence to document and voice their support for the Palestinian people.
ISM volunteers stayed in the village of Ezbat al-Tabib, outside of
Qalqilia, providing support for the community and assisting in removing a roadblock that isolates the village.
Internationals visited and stayed in villages of South Hebron, such as
Suseya and Qawawis to participate show support for their struggles
against the settlements and document attacks by settlers on Palestinians.
Internationals participated in building a house that was demolished by the Israeli army in Anata, outside of Jerusalem, and also worked with people Farkha village near Salfeet in a summer festival.
In Ramallah internationals attended many demonstrations against Israeli aggression in Lebanon and Palestine and against US interference in the Middle East, and also documented Israeli military invasions in the city.
Finally volunteers traveled to: Al Khader, Bethlehem for demonstrations against the wall surrounding Bethlehem, Jericho to meet with farmers in the Jordan valley, and Tulkarem to show solidarity with their continued resistance to the occupation.

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7. Protestors Managed to Remove a Fence in Bethlehem

For photos, please click here.

Today, September 1, 2006, in the village of al-Khadr, in the Bethlehem region, Palestinian and international solidarity workers removed a razor wire barrier serving as a preliminary basis for the Apartheid Wall. During the action, approximately 100 Palestinian and international demonstrators led a non-violent march and were stopped by Israeli Occupation soldiers on their way towards the Apartheid Wall.
The residents of the village left Friday prayers at the mosque and joined with international solidarity activists in a march through the village. The demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and carried a banner reading, “This Wall Imprisons Palestinians in a Ghetto,” written in Arabic and English. After approximately fifteen minutes of marching, the demonstrators were stopped by a large force of Israeli Occupation soldiers. The soldiers took up positions on an earth mound road block and prevented the Palestinians and internationals from reaching the Apartheid Wall. At this site, armed Occupation forces assembled with armored military jeeps as well as border police jeeps.
While the Palestinians and internationals were demonstrating in front of the soldiers, five international activists and two Palestinian activists separated from the group and traveled to the site of a razor wire barrier. Once the activists reached the fence, they removed many metal stakes which secured the barrier, and rolled a section of the barrier, approximately 150 meters in length, down a hill towards route 60. The activists were able to complete this task as Israeli Occupation forces arrived, and were able to avoid confrontation or arrest.
The razor wire is used in conjunction with a series of road blocks and checkpoints to separate the Palestinian communities from neighboring Israeli settler-colonies. The barriers and road blocks bisect Palestinian communities and create a “buffer” zone for the future construction of the Israeli Apartheid Wall. In contrast to the northern area of the West Bank where the Apartheid Wall is nearly completed, there is ongoing construction in the south that had been continually met with Palestinian non-violent resistance. The demonstration in al-Khadr today is but one example of this resistance, as are weekly demonstrations in Bil’in and other communities in the north, central and southern West Bank.

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For more reports, journals and action alerts visit the ISM website at www.palsolidarity.org

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Non-Violence on Trial

Mohammad Mansour being tortured durring his arrest June 2004

Mohammad Mansour, a non violent organizer against the illegal Apartheid Wall from Biddu, who works with the International Solidarity Movement, will stand trial, tomorrow. Sunday the tenth of September at 10:30 in the “Peace Court” in Jerusalem. He was initially arrested in June 2004 at a non-violent demonstration against the illegal apartheid wall in Al Ram. A father of five, he was falsely charged with assaulting a police officer, throwing stones and presiding illegally in an “Israeli area.”

The prosecution had offered earlier to close the case if Mohammed would agree to stop participating in demonstrations for the next two years and pay a 3,500 shekel fine. “I would rather go to jail than pay one shekel to the Occupation. It is not I, but those that build the wall that are the criminals” said Mohammed.

Please come and show your support!

The International Solidarity Movement condemns the Israeli legal system’s defence of war crimes committed by Israeli soldiers and settlers and its criminalization of non violent protest against the Occupation and the Apartheid wall.

For more information call:
The ISM Media Office 02-2971824
Mohammed Mansour 054-5851893
Attorney Leah Tsemel 0522-601-602