Author: ISM Media - Page 388 - International Solidarity Movement

Adel Baker, a fisherman from Gaza, now fighting for his life in hospital

13th May 2013 | International Action for Palestine | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

By Rosa Schiano

On May 1st many countries celebrate the achievement of workers on Labor Day weekend. In Gaza too, workers celebrated labour day in a demonstration in the centre of Gaza City. Yet, for the Palestinian fishermen there was nothing to celebrate.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning on May 1st 2013, a Palestinian fisherman was seriously injured when Israeli naval vessels off the coast of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats that were within 3 nautical miles of the Gaza coast.During the attack, a piece of the engine that is used to pull in the nets, smashed into the head of 51 year old Karim Adel Al Baker from Gaza City, leaving him seriously injured.

Adel Najjar Baker was transported to the hospital and then to the European Hospital in Khan Younis. We headed to the hospital to check on his condition.Adel is in the Intensive care unit. A document in the hospital room reads,“Time of admission: 5am”We spoke with Dr. Yasser AlKhaldi, head of the Intensive Care Unit of the European hospital. Dr. AlKhadi told us that Adel has suffered a serious head injury and that he had arrived at the hospital unconscious.The doctor added that Adel has undergone surgery to relieve the pressure from the bone fragments from the skull and that he was now under artificial ventilation.
Adel has suffered a depressed skull fracture (a depressed skull fracture is a break to the bone of the skull with depression caused by the bone going into the brain).Dr. AlKhaldi added that there was an improvement to the condition of Adel and they have started to reduce the sedatives.

During the visit we met Aatef Baker’s brother Adel. “Adel was on a fishing boat together with eleven fishermen. While he was fishing, the Israeli navy opened fire, a bullet hit an object on the boat, it fell on his head, causing the trauma. We were near the border with Egypt, 2 miles from the coast. “, said Aatef.We left the hospital and took the contacts of Dr. Adel AlKhaldi and family in order to be updated on his condition.

I felt a sense of helplessness and anguish, but at the same time I was hoping with all my might that Adel was strong enough to survive, that he would be strong enough this time.

Karim Adel Al Baker, 51, in the hospital's Intensive Care Unit (Photo by Rosa Schiano) — Karim Adel Al Baker, 51, in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (Photo by Rosa Schiano)

The next day we went to visit the family of Adel in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City.
Adel has 7 daughters and 2 sons, one of whom is a fisherman. A cousin of Adel, Mostafa Baker, told us that perhaps they would later evaluate the possibility of a transfer to another hospital.
The house was full of women and children and they occasionally fixed their eyes on us.
“The entire family gathered here because we’re waiting for news. Adel’s brother is coming back from the hospital”, said Mostafa.
“The attacks and arrests affect our lives. With no fish we have no money,” exclaimed a woman of the family Um Eid Baker, adding, “remember when our fathers were able to reach 12 miles from the coast.”
Adel Baker worked for 30 years as a fisherman, and was the only person in the family to have a job, his family has no other sources of income.
“This is the normally the best season for fishermen” said Mostafa, “the major season for sardines.” The family then specified that the fishermen, because of the limit of the 3 nautical miles from the coast, are forced to go to Rafah in order to fish, and even enter Egyptian waters, a move that involves great expense especially for fuel.
During our conversation, Aatef, the brother of Adel, returned from the hospital carrying the hospital report.
The hospital report specified that Baker and Adel was transferred from Al Najjar to the European hospital, having suffered a head injury and damage to the brain. It indicates the need for surgery and treatment. In addition, the report specifies: “Al Aqsa conditions”, an expression which is used to define someone injured or a victim of Israeli aggression.
Then we met Sobeh El-Hessi, a fisherman who was on board the vessel along with Adel Baker, as well as the manager of the vessel.
“We were fishing the waters on the border between Egypt and Palestinian waters. At 2 am the Israeli navy started shooting, we were about 2 nautical miles from the coast,” he began to tell Sobeh. “We tried to hide from the bullets. Then when soldiers stopped shooting, we saw the body of Adel Baker lying on the floor and we thought he’d been hit by a bullet wound to the head. Then we realized that it was not a bullet, but a heavy object that is part of the engine, and Adel had a large wound to the head. I called the Union of the fishermen to communicate that someone was wounded and asked for an ambulance. Adel A Hasaka was carried to the beach and the ambulance was ready to take him to hospital, it was about 3 in the morning, “, Sobeh told us.
The fishermen had entered Egyptian waters and were returning to Palestinian waters when the attack happened.
The next day the fishermen did not go fishing.
Sobeh told us also with concern about the recent Israeli attacks with water cannons. The attacks are happening in fact even at a distance of 10 metres between the fishing vessels and the Israeli military.
Just over a year ago a fisherman was killed by a short circuit as a result of an Israeli attack with a water cannon.
The Israeli army directs their high pressure water cannons directly at the power supply, they shoot at networks, the engine, thus causing accidents. There is also the danger of electric shock or heavy machinery collisions such that with Adel.
“Fishermen can see the fish beyond three miles, but can not pass through them,” said Sobeh as he described the living conditions of the fishermen of Gaza.
“When the Israeli soldiers shoot we escape, but we can not support our families. These last few days have been tough. Prior to the war the Israeli attacks occurred at a greater distance, but after the war the Navy began to get very close and soldiers are shooting more than usual, “says Sobeh.
The eyes of Sobeh el Hessi are sad, frightened, but also angry about what happened to Adel.

In Gaza, going fishing now means going to face an army.
As reported consistently by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, the Israeli attacks against Palestinian fishermen constitute a violation of international humanitarian law. Notably this is covered in article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: that everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Not to mention the right to work and the right to a life with dignity.
Indiscriminate attacks against civilians constitute war crimes.
Israel has progressively imposed restrictions on Palestinian fishermen’s access to the sea. The 20 nautical miles established under the agreements of Jericho in 1994 between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), were reduced to 12 miles under the Bertini Agreement in 2002. In 2006, the area permitted for Palestinian fishing was reduced to 6 nautical miles from the coast. Following the Israeli military offensive “Cast Lead” (2008-2009) Israel imposed a limit of 3 nautical miles from the coast, preventing the Palestinians access to 85% of the water to which they are entitled according to the agreements of Jericho 1994.
The agreements reached between Israel and the Palestinian resistance after the Israeli military offensive in November 2012, “Pillar of Defense,” allowed Gazan fishermen back out to 6 nautical miles from the coast. Despite these agreements, the Israeli navy has not stopped attacks on Gaza fishermen, even within this limit. In March 2013, Israel imposed once again the 3 nautical mile limit, saying that the decision had been taken following the sending of some Palestinian rockets towards Israel.
In Gaza, there are currently about 4,000 registered fishermen, while in 2000 there were about 10,000. In the last ten years, the numbers have declined since Israel began to impose restrictions on access to the sea and used violence to enforce them, arrests and more attacks, forcing fishermen to abandon their work and deny them the only source of livelihood for their families. Many fishermen, with courage and determination, continue to risk their life in order to support their families.

At the time of writing, the conditions of Adel Baker have slightly improved, but he is still unconscious in the ICU. While Adel Baker fights on in the hospital, many fishermen are at sea facing the daily risk of new attacks. It is inevitable, given this barbarity that another one of them will soon be facing a similar fight just like Adel is right now.
While the international community remains in horrible silence, our thoughts and our hearts are on the side of these brave men.

Military presence at Hebron schools – regular updates

7th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

By Team Khalil

Regular updates on harassment of Palestinian schoolchildren by Israeli military in Hebron.

Soldiers pictured shortly after having charged at schoolchildren, yelling and throwing a soundbomb

UPDATE 12th May 2013: On the 12th May, once again, 2 Israeli military jeeps were stationed at the checkpoint at 7am as children passed through to get to their respective schools. At first, 3 heavily armed soldiers proceeded to walk through the checkpoint, they stopped in an alley opposite the elementary school, intimidating school children as they walked past. When questioned on their purpose for this action, they had no response. As the school children (some as young as 5) began to gather outside their school gates, the 3 soldiers with their helmets on, weapons in hand and completely unprovoked, charged at the children, dropping a sound bomb and yelling aggressively in Hebrew. After this intimidation tactic occured, 3 more soldiers came through the checkpoint and watched all the children from a distance with binoculars. Many children stayed at the bottom of the street, resisting the soldier’s scare tactics with chants.
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Children walking past soldiers on their way to school - 7th May. — Children walking past soldiers on their way to school – 7th May.

On the 20^th March, 27 children aged 7 to 16 were arrested on their way to school in Hebron’s old city. For the past three days the Israeli military have had a large, heavily armed and threatening presence outside the four schools on this street, where the children were grabbed at random by Israeli soldiers just five weeks ago.

Children have to walk through a checkpoint manned by several Israeli border police each morning in order to reach their schools, often receiving hassle from the soldiers as they do so.
On the morning of the 5^th of May, some children threw stones at the checkpoint – in response the border police radioed for army back up and two jeeps arrived on the scene. One jeep then proceeded through the checkpoint driving down towards the school parking outside whilst children were still arriving. After it left the other jeep drove down outside the schools and four army officers exited the vehicle and patrolled outside the schools for another half an hour.

On the 6^th May at around 7.00am as children were walking towards their classes, three military jeeps arrived without provocation and ten soldiers patrolled in front of the school, maintaining a presence for over an hour.

On the 7^th May two jeeps arrived at the checkpoint and seven soldiers walked through it, towards the schools. When asked what their purpose in the school area was, the commander answered “we’re protecting our people”. They had no further response when it was suggested that their actions seemed absurd, considering the disparity of power between the heavily armed Israeli military occupiers and a few young children throwing stones in resistance.

This daily military presence must be a continual reminder for the children who were arrested and their classmates of the military brutality of the 20^th March. One bystander stated “this could inhibit the right to education – children might be too scared to come to school.”

In a city which has seen at least 66 child detentions and arrests since mid-February (these are just those witnessed by international observers), this continued initimidation and persecution of children is evidence of Israel’s disregard for international law for the protection of children – a finding backed up by Unicef’s recent report criticising Israeli military treatment of Palestinian children.

“The Israeli system has a contempt for justice” – Swedish activist being deported despite false charges and legal appeal

13th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

By Team Khalil

UPDATE 14th May 2013: Gustav is currently being put onto a plane against his will. His lawyer tried a last minute stay on the deportation to allow to the legal process of his appeal to continue, but this was ignored by the Israeli courts. He will arrive into Stockholm later today.
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Swedish activist Gustav Karlsson is today, 13th May, being transferred to Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv in preparation to be flown back to Sweden against his will. He is currently appealing his deportation legally.

Gustav was arrested on the 28th April in the West Bank city of Hebron, as he objected to the violent arrests by Israeli military of two 11- and 12-year old children, who were released later the same day. Soldiers violently grabbed Gustav, arresting him solely for his non-violent protest. He was accused of assaulting a soldier, and some news sources have stated that he grabbed a soldier’s weapon. Video evidence clearly debunks all of these false charges.

Gustav was shoved with guns and soldiers pretended to shoot him as he was blindfolded after he was arrested. He has been held in Givon immigration detention centre since the 29th April – the Israeli authorities declined to allow him a court hearing to prove false the charges against him. Instead they transferred him directly to the Ministry of Interior for deportation, a practise more and more commonly used against peaceful activists documenting Israel’s human rights abuses. Gustav is currently appealing the decision to deport him with a lawyer but the Israeli Ministry of Interior proves today by transferring Gustav that they are ignoring this process of law. He has given no consent to be deported and has not signed any agreement, as he denies that he should be deported.

Gustav Karlsson being arrested in Hebron

Gustav said today “I am very indignant about the contempt for justice in the Israeli system – not only did the soldiers first wrongfully arrest two young children, now they are deporting me without giving me a chance to defend myself in court, even though the charges against me are clearly false. Time and time again, the Israeli system denies justice to the Palestinians and those who come here in solidarity with them.” See the original article about Gustav’s arrest here.

The Israeli justice system operates on separate levels for people of different ethnic origins – Israeli civilians are tried in civil courts, as are international activists (when they are not transferred immediately to immigration detention), whereas Palestinians are tried in military courts.

Brother and sister arrested without charge in Kufr Qalil

12th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement | Nablus, Occupied Palestine

Team Nablus

Mother of arrested siblings Tahrir and Saddam

At 1:30 am on May 12, Israeli soldiers arrested a brother and sister from Kufr Qalil without charge and ransacked their home, terrorizing their family and leaving them with no information about the siblings’ imprisonment.

Israeli soldiers arrived at the residence of Abu Mahyoub Mansour in Kufr Qalil in south Nablus as at least five army jeeps surrounded the family home and eighteen soldiers entered looking for his daughter Tahrir, 29 and son Saddam, 27. All thirteen occupants in the house, including two small children, were woken and made to walk downstairs into one room, among them the youngest daughter, 19, who is severely disabled with cerebral palsy. She cannot walk and had to be woken up and carried down, crying in fear.

The children were scared and crying when soldiers put eye covers on them with slots for the eyes and then repeatedly screamed at them to be quiet. The noise of the raid woke up all the neighbours though no one dared to look out as more soldiers remained outside pointing their guns at windows.

Tahrir, who works as a seamstress during the day, was at home and taken into a separate room where she was searched and interrogated. After interrogation, her eyes were covered as she was taken into the other room where her sister asked her what they had said to her. Tahrir had laughed as they attempted to scare her and the commander said, “Don’t laugh because we we will give your family reason to be sad and cry about you and you will never see your family again.”

Saddam, married and father of two small children, was not at home as he works night shifts. His father was ordered to call him and ask Saddam to wait near a specific spot in Kufr Qalil. Abu Mahyoub and Tahrir were then driven by the army to locate Saddam. Saddam’s hawwiya (Palestinian ID) was taken and he was interrogated before being arrested and taken to the the house, eyes covered and hands bound.

The ransacked home of arrested siblings Tahrir and Saddam

This is the second arrest for Saddam, who was arrested previously with his sister Samoud in 2005 when they went up near the illegal Bracha settlement to look for their brother Mahyoub on the day he was killed by Israeli forces. Subsequently Saddam spent two years in prison and Samoud spent four and half years.

On return to the house, Abu Mahyoub saw all the soldiers were outside and that inside the house had been taken apart, searched and ransacked. Wardrobes were emptied onto the floor, cupboards broken and a toilet seat had been ripped off. A computer hard drive, laptop, camera memory sticks, mobile phones and municipality gifts for prisoners’ families were taken.

The army was there until the first call to morning prayer at about 4 am. The officers did not state a reason for the two arrests and gave no information on where the young brother and sister were being taken. The family still has no information about their whereabouts; meanwhile, Mawahib, Saddam’s 4-year-old daughter, believes her father is away at work.

Residents say that army jeeps often enter Kufr Qalil, making arrests randomly and whenever they want. Relatives of the two arrested in Kufr Qalil have a 42-year-old son who has been imprisoned for six years, a father of two sons, one 12 years old and the other 6 years old, who was still unborn when his father was arrested. The six-year-old met his father for the first time yesterday, May 12. The father, Shahir Mansour, is also said to need some medical attention which he is lacking in prison.

Askar: a new arrest in the midst of old issues

12th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement | Nablus, Occupied Palestine

By Team Nablus

On Tuesday 7th May, at 2am, Ahmad as-Sars was arrested whilst in his home with family and well wishers gathered to mourn the death of his grandmother the previous day. New Askar refugee camp faces many problems in its right to exist, economy and the support it receives. Despite their daily struggles, hope for the future remains strong in the next generation, of which the independently run Keffiyeh Community Center, located in the camp, is an impressive example.

P1010235 — Mahmoud Sars with his son Ahmad’s picture

New Askar camp is situated north-east of Nablus in the Askar area. It was created in 1965 to accommodate the increased number of refugees who were living in (old) Askar Camp that was established in 1950 after hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from their homes in the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of 1948 that was part of the creation of Israel.

Ahmad as-Sars, 23 years-old, was arrested during the early morning. His grieving father pleaded with the soldiers not to take him until the next day. He was told, however, by the soldiers that they were ‘just’ taking him to Huwwara military base and would return him at 4am. During the arrest they searched the house, bringing dogs into the home and took all the mobile phones. They herded 40 family members into one room, the large number due to the death in the family.

Currently Ahmad is still in prison and the family have no news of his whereabouts. Ahmad was previously arrested at the age of 16, when he had just received his ID. His father commented that this signified the Israeli occupation forces seeing him as a ‘young person and man, although he was a child. Just because he received ID, they considered him a threat’.

Ahmad was imprisoned for 5 years, during his late teens until his early twenties. His education whilst incarcerated was partially restricted, although he was granted equivalent high school education and exams. Ahmad’s physical and mental health deteriorated in prison, where he became anxious and felt ill in his stomach; he did not get better until he was released.

Ahmad works in the family hardware shop and is the youngest brother of 6, all of whom, except one, have been in prison. One of Ahmad’s brothers has been in prison for ten years.

Two residents walk down a street in New Askar camp — Two residents walk down a street in New Askar

Arrests and incursions by Israeli troops are common in New Askar camp and they have suffered much in the ongoing occupation. New Askar is not officially recognised as a refugee camp by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) and as such there are no UNWRA installations in the camp. Although, in 2008, an UNWRA school was opened in the camp, but the 6000 residents are still expected to use the services in the old Askar Camp. An internationally funded sports centre was converted into a medical clinic to support the population, but the camp struggles to provide all the necessary services due to its unofficial status and by its position in Area B that is supposed to be under joint Israeli and Palestinian Authority control.

Children participate in a dakbah class in the Keffiyeh Communtiy Centre — Children participate in a dabkah class in the Keffiyeh Communtiy Centre

One community organiser in New Askar told international activists that the camp has many problems and that the youth have nothing to do, ‘no entertainment’. Very high unemployment is a factor in the camp, which combined with the lack of entertainment, leaves the youth of the camp disillusioned and without hope. The Keffiyeh Communtiy Center was set up independently by residents of the camp, to offer sports, activities and education to young people. The centre, although small, is a great success where children learn the traditional Palestinian dabkah dance, various sports and take part in field trips. The centre promotes international links and looks forward to one of its students traveling to France to take part in a boxing tournament.

A mural painted outside one of the schools in the camp

Ahmad’s story shows the harsh reality of young people living under occupation and the attempt by the army to deny children a childhood. Community centres set up all over the Occupied Territories successfully give some children a chance to be children and, in so doing, continue the resilience of the Palestinian people.