Author: ISM Media - Page 406 - International Solidarity Movement

ISM activist risks jail, pledges not to answer questions if stopped under Terror laws in the UK

11th March | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine

Tom Woodhead, an ISM activist who is currently being deported by Israeli immigration authorities, has pledged not to answer questions if British authorities attempt to misuse the Terrorism Act 2000 when he arrives at the airport in the UK. The British activist, is currently being deported by Israeli authorities after being arrested on the 1st of March by border police at a demonstration against Israel’s illegal colonial occupation of Palestinian land in Kafr Qaddum, a village in the West Bank.

Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act makes it an imprisonable offense in the UK not to provide information to the police if stopped at a port of entry and there is no right to representation by a lawyer. The act may only be used to ask questions with the aim of establishing whether a person is involved in terrorism or the preparation of acts of terrorism. However, two researchers from London based research organisation Corporate Watch were stopped under the act on their return from Palestine and questioned about their journalistic work, the work of the International Solidarity Movement and the international movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions.

The researchers were also questioned about their involvement with Smash EDO, an anti-arms trade campaign. Woodhead has also been involved in the campaign. He was part of a group of activists who broke into the Brighton factory of EDO-MBM Technology and, after barricading themselves inside, proceeded to damage around £200,000 worth of manufacturing equipment. Following a month-long trial in summer 2010, they were cleared of charges of criminal damage after satisfying the jury that they had lawful excuse to cause the damage because they were acting to prevent war crimes being carried out, as equipment manufactured by the company was then being used in the Israeli’s December 2008 to January 2009 shocking attack on the Gaza Strip.

Woodhead, in a statement given from Givon detention centre in Ramle, said that he would risk imprisonment by refusing to give information to the police if they attempt to misuse the act. He plans to say: “I have reasonable grounds to believe you only want to interrogate me about my involvement in political movements such as the International Solidarity Movement and various campaigns against the arms trade. None of these movements has any credible links to terrorism. I therefore believe the use of Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 is a gross misuse of police powers. I intend now to hold my silence in protest against such abuse of power.”

Call to action : sanctions against Israeli settlements

10th March 2013 | European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine

In the latest EU Heads of Mission Report on Jerusalem 2012 the EU consuls urge sanctions against Israeli settlements. Authored by the EU heads of mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah, the report makes recommendations on settlements that are related to financial translations linked to or supporting Israel’s ongoing construction on occupied Palestinian land.

European Union leaders and international organizations should play their role in ending Israeli occupation of Palestinians, uphold international law and respect Palestinian human rights

Call for action:

Send a letter to your MEP`s and ask for imposing a ban of any financial engagement with illegal Israeli settlements and Israeli companies that are directly involved or materially complicit with Israeli violations of international law pertaining to illegal Israeli settlement construction on Occupied Palestinian Territory

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Honourable Member of the European Parliament,

In the latest Heads of Mission Report 2012 the EU consuls recommend imposing sanctions on Israeli settlements. The European Union recommended that its 27 member states prevent all financial transactions that support Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied West Bank. In a strongly-worded 15-page report, the EU suggested to its member states that they « prevent, discourage and raise awareness about problematic implications of financial transactions, including foreign direct investments, from within the EU, in support of settlement activities, infrastructure and services. »

Authored by the EU heads of mission inJerusalemand Ramallah, the report also calls to « ensure that imports of settlement products do not benefit from preferential tariffs » and make sure that all such products are clearly labelled as originating from Israeli-occupied areas.”

It also warns that EU programmes should not be « used to support settlements and settlement-related activity, including funding for research, education or technological cooperation. » And it proposes that member states raise awareness about « the financial and legal risks involved in purchasing property or providing services in settlements. »

Moreover, in a new letter to the foreign ministries of the 27 member states, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called for the full implementation of existing EU legislation according to which products from West Bank settlements, the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem should not receive the same preferential treatment as products from areas which the EU recognizes as sovereign Israeli territory.

The Members of the European Parliament should be aware that the Lisbon Treaty obliges the EU to ensure consistency, in its external action, between foreign policy and trade policy.

We believe that the continued occupation of the West Bank; the blockade of Gaza; the annexation of East Jerusalem; the establishment and expansion of Israeli settlements in the Occupied State of Palestine, the exploitation of Palestinian natural resources for the benefit of Israeli settlers; the construction of a Wall on Palestinian territory; the illegal detention of Palestinian prisoners, among them children, in Israeli jails; and the systematic discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel, are not consistent with the enhancement of EU trade relationswith Israel.

In that context, we respectfully request you to make efforts to:

Call upon the European Commission and other relevant EU bodies to undertake an urgent review of the participation of Israeli companies involved in violations of international law, in European research projects and ensure that no further funds are allocated to them (with special focus on the recently adopted ACAA trade agreement and Horizon 2020 Programme).
Propose legislation in your respective countries that would ban any financial engagement with illegal Israeli settlements and Israeli companies that are directly involved or materially complicit with Israeli violations of international law pertaining to illegal Israeli settlement construction on Occupied State of Palestine. Such a ban should include Israeli companies operating in illegal settlements from the European marketplace, in accordance with the call released by Palestinian agricultural organisations[1].
Send a strong message to Israel, confirming that there will be no increased cooperation unless there is tangible progress inIsrael’s adherence to international law.
Suspend the EU-Israel Association agreement.

Please find attached :

1) The 2012 Heads of Mission Report

2) The call released by Palestinian agricultural organisations

Sincerely,

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**Find your MEP here.

Racist attacks are daily reality in Hebron, even for children

10th March 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine

by Team Khalil

Today a group of young settlers assault three Palestinian boys, Sharef (15), Ibrahim (14) and Walid Hamad (12), at the entrance of their home.

The Abu Aesheh family lives in a house surrounded by settlements and an army base. In addition to the harassment from their neighbours they also suffer various restrictions on transportion, building and with curfews among many others. All of these control tactics and random hate crimes are used with the purpose of forcing them to leave a home which they have lived in for 50 years, all so the settlers, with the help of the army, can occupy their home and their land.

The attack occurred in Tel Rumeida, Hebron. For many years the Hebron area has suffered from army harassment and settler violence, forcing some families to place iron bars around their windows and balconies in fear of attacks.

Non Violent Demonstration in South Hebron ends with violent military response

10th March 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine

By Team Khalil

On Friday afternoon near the illegal Beit Hagai settlement, a non violent demonstration over the closing of the vital road between Al Fawar Camp and Al Hareaq (South of Hebron) ended with military violence.

Within minutes of the demonstration beginning, the military responded by firing tear gas indiscriminately into the crowd. After retreating to a safer distance the crowd attempted to walk back to the road block, with one of the protesters calling out “We don’t want to fight, we come in peace,” which was ignored as the soldiers ushered in a skunk water truck, which showered the demonstrators and nearby Palestinian land.

Re-opening the road block has been a continuous struggle over the last 12 years (amongst the many struggles Palestinians are facing during the occupation), it serves as a symbol of the constant harassment and military control over how the Palestinian people move through their land.

Demonstrators attempt to shield themselves behind wooden board

Is there Hope of Justice for a Palestinian family in Israel’s Courts?

Update on the 13th March 2013: The Supreme court will review the case of Ziad Jilani

After hearing an appeal presented on behalf of Moira Jilani, the widow of Ziad and their three daughters the Israeli Supreme Court Judges have decided that they wished to review all evidence in the case.

Ziad Jilani was killed by Israeli border policeman Maxim Vinogradov in 2010. According to eyewitnesses Maxim VInagrodov shot Ziad at point blank range in the head while Zaid had laying on the ground wounded after being shot in the back. Ziad was unarmed.

Family and friends holding posters in support of Ziad Jilani (Photo by ISM)

The State Prosecutor, who had previously not charged those who shot and killed Ziad, is now obliged to hand over all evidence to the Supreme Court by the 24^th of March. The Jilani family, was more optimistic after the hearing than they had been before.

Bilal Ziad’s brother stated said, “If the Israeli Supreme Court really looks at the evidence of this case, and if they still say there are no grounds to press charges against the officers who murdered Ziad, then it means Israel has no credibility at all. They rule by the law of the jungle.”

9th March 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine

By ISM Media Office

On Wednesday (13 March) Moira Jilani and her three daughters will come face to face with their husband and father’s killer. Ziad Jilani’s widow and daughters seek justice for his killing by Israeli border policeman Maxim Vinogradov, for the third time.

“I am dreading facing them for my daughters”, says Moira, “I think I could face them myself but I’m afraid that when I see the pain in my daughters eyes it will kill me”. Her husband, Ziad, was killed three years ago by Maxim Vinogradov, an Israeli Magav (border police) officer who put his rifle to Ziad’s head and pulled the trigger three consecutive times while Ziad lay helplessly on the ground, having already been shot twice fleeing police shooting at him after he was involved in a car accident after a stone hit his truck.

Now, for the third time, the family is appealing to Israeli authorities to press charges against Ziad’s killer. On the 16th of January 2011 the case was closed by police internal investigations (Machash) for the first time, for “lack of evidence”.

In the following month, 15th of February 2011, the family submitted an appeal to then Israel Attorney General, Menachem Mazuz. Despite a confession by Vinogradov that he had shot Ziad at zero range when he was lying on the ground because of the initial gunshot wound, an autopsy report pointing to an a close range shooting, dozens of eyewitnesses who were also injured that day as a result of the incident and very clear changes in Vinogradov’s testimonies before and after the autopsy, Mazuz did not see fit to change. Machash’s decision to close the case.

With the help of the al-Mazaan Center for Human Rights, on January 4th 2012, the family submitted a second appeal. This time to the Israeli Supreme Court, demanding that the new state prosecutor, Yehuda Weinstein, bring criminal charges against Ziad’s murderers.

“After Weinstein [Israel’s current Attorney General] had all the evidence we had hope that he would press charges against the killers,” Moira recalls, “but after he decided not to do so for the third time, it is hard to have hope that the court will do justice.”

According to Yesh Din in 2012 the MPCID received 240 complaints and various reports of suspected crimes allegedly committed by Israeli soldiers against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Out of these registered complaints, only 103- not even half- have yielded investigations. Not one single indictment has been served to date.

The organization commented on the findings: “The numerous defects in MPCID investigations of offenses against Palestinians and in the Military Advocate General Corps’ supervision of the investigations, result in the closure of the vast majority of the files and a minimal number of indictments being served. This creates a feeling of lawlessness on the ground, which may be a central contributing factor in the rise in the number of killings over recent weeks”.

Moira describes this sense of lawlessness, “I still have hope, but its hard when we see everything that’s happening around us,” she says, “my husband’s case is one of what seems to be a systematic sweeping under the rug of violent incidences of Israeli soldiers against the Palestinian population under their authority. We are not just going to court for Ziad Jilani. We are going to court for all the Palestinians killed before Ziad and those that will be killed thereafter.”