Author: ISM Media

Burin Youth Center targeted once again: 10 youth arrested in 200 soldier raid

by Lydia

21 April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

In a quick and clean opperation, the Israeli Occupation Military managed to arrest 10 young men in two hours, forever altering  the next few months or even  the next years of their life in one swift swoop.

At 2 AM on 18 April, around 200 soldiers entered the village of Burin, south of Nablus and dispersed into teams of 20-30. Soldiers then proceeded to enter the homes of ten families and took away who they wanted. There were unusually no house raids, no extreme “video game styled” soldiers, just quick and to the point.

All but one of the youth arrested can be seen in this gallery:

The mother of Mohammad Sohier Najjar, who is 19 and part of the latest batch of arrests, described how her son was taken. “They [the soldiers] came at 2:30 AM. Mohammad was sleeping outside due to the weather. My husband was already awake and met them on the stairs to the house. They asked if Mohammad was the boy on the floor. He replied, yes. Mohammad was told to change his clothes and that was it. They took him from us.”

Mohammad is 19 and was due to start his exams the day he was arrested with the intention of applying to An Najjah university to study to be a physical education teacher.

Five of the ten arrested were due to start their exams that day, but instead, they will have to bare what is thrown at them by the Israeli military system. If lucky they will be able to re-take the last year of school again when they are released. Mohammad is now the third boy in the family to have been arrested.

Seven of the ten youth arrested were members of the Burin Community Center, named in honour of the martyr Bilal Najjar. Being members of this center comes with an awful chance of not only arrest by Israelis, but that at least a year of imprisonment is very possible. In 2010 25 members of the center were systematically arrested. Up to this month of April 2012 14 members of the Center have been arrested, and nine remain in Israeli jails until now.

Lydia is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

 

Nabi Saleh: 16 year old shot with tear gas canister

by Rana Hamadeh

19 April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The march for justice in Nabi Saleh – For more photos click here

A nonviolent demonstration in the Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh last Friday, April 13th was met with Israeli army aggression, resulting in at least six injuries, including a sixteen-year old boy shot above the eye with a tear gas canister.

Following the Friday prayer the village’s residents, and several Israeli and international activists in solidarity, marched down their main road chanting slogans. Children lead the way at first, but ran back to their homes when the Israeli army came into view, anticipating the oncoming violence.

For at least five hours, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) fired ample rounds of rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas, and sound bombs at peaceful demonstrators, as well as between houses and at village residents not participating in the protest. They also employed the use of the ‘skunk truck’, which propels torrents of a sewage-like liquid, again not only on protesters, but on the village’s olive groves and homes.

Six people were injured due to rubber-coated bullets and tear gas fire. Sixteen year old Osama Tamimi was hit above the eye with a tear gas canister. The IOF delayed his ambulance for half an hour before letting it continue to hospital.

The village of Nabi Saleh has been holding weekly nonviolent protests demanding an end to Israeli colonialism and occupation. More specifically, the demonstrations are about the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Halamish. Halamish was built on Palestinian owned land and continues to expand. Halamish and the 250 other Israeli colonies and outposts in the Palestinian West Bank, are considered illegal under international law as they violate Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and the illegality has been confirmed by the International Court of Justice, the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, and the United Nations Security Council.

The weekly protests began after Halamish annexed Nabi Saleh’s fresh water springs in December 2009. Israel has since protected this theft with the use of military force.

Since Nabi Saleh began regular nonviolent demonstrations, Israel has brutally sought to repress them. The village faces collective punishments such as night raids and mass arrests. Israel has thus arrested more than 13% of the village, almost half of them under the age of 18 years. All but three were tried for participating in the protests.

Last December in Nabi Saleh, Mustafa Tamimi was shot and killed during the weekly protests. Despite these great risks, the village continues to zealously fight for their rights.

 

Rana Hamadeh is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

 

The siege in the sea: Accompanying Gaza’s fishermen under attack by the Israeli Navy

by Rosa Schiano

 19 April 2012 | il Blog di Oliva

To accompany the fishermen of Gaza on their boats, as human shields to protect them, it provides not only an account of human rights violations by Israel, but also the feeling of what it means to live under siege in the Gaza Strip.

Since January 2009 Israel has unilaterally imposed a travel limit of three miles inside the waters of Gaza, which , according to the Jericho Accords, should extend up to 20 nautical miles from the coast. A 3 miles limit is actually illegal.

Israeli navy seals are stationed along this 3 mile boundary, attacking anyone who attempts to go beyond and often attacking the fishermen’s boats well within this limit.

As international observers of the boat “Oliva CPS Gaza”  monitor the human rights violations by the Israeli army in the waters of Gaza, we have witnessed many attacks which took place also within two miles from the coast.

Within three miles the fish are not enough, and the waters are often contaminated.

The fishermen, especially all those who sail with the “hasakas,” or local small boats, come back often with nearly empty coffers.

Just over two weeks ago, we left during the night with a fishing boat which headed south from Gaza to Rafah, making a couple of stops to pull the nets (and two stops on the way back) and keeping within two nautical miles from the coast. After hours and hours spent at sea consuming gasoline, we brought home a few small boxes with small fishes and some shrimp. The fishermen can hardly survive on what they earn from a night at sea, also considering the cost of gasoline.

Other fishermen prefer to stop at 2-2.5 miles from the coast and to fish remaining stationary. In this case they can fish more sardines, often of very small size. In order to fish more in quantity and quality, the fishermen should be able to reach at least 4-6 miles from the coast.

While I was accompanying the fishermen on their boats, the Israeli navy attacked us generating waves and shooting.

I recorded a video during one of the latest attacks:

In this case our vessel was around 100/150 meters away from the three miles limit.

On Monday we went out at sea again with the same vessel. We stopped to pull the nets before reaching the three mile limit. Given the scarcity of fish and because the waters were visibly polluted, we decided to move forward going to 3.5 nautical miles from the coast.

The Israeli navy started to turn around us. The soldiers kept switching on and off the headlight of the ship. With the headlight off, the Israeli navy ship was invisible in the darkness.

We could no longer see its movements, we could not know if it was close and if so, by how much.

But we could feel the waves generated by the navy ship.

Bravely enough, the fishermen kept on pulling up the nets in a hurry. I and 3 other  internationals placed ourselves in a visible position wearing yellow jackets. The Israeli navy suddenly appeared pointing the headlight towards us then vanished without lights.

At a certain stage the Israeli navy ship approached shooting in our direction. A soldier yelled into the microphone, “Bring up the anchor or I will bring you to Ashdod” (the Israeli Navy often arrests the fishermen of Gaza within or beyond the three miles, taking them to Ashdod, in Israel, and confiscating their boats. The fishermen are usually released after one day, but without their boats).

The soldiers kept firing in our direction. The other internationals and I raised our arms shouting and requesting to stop the shooting.

The captain of our boat decided to go back. We stopped at 3 nautical miles from the coast before returning to the port of Gaza City around 6.30 AM.

This time the boxes were fuller of fish and the fishermen were visibly happy. I smiled. I was pleased, and at the same time I was worried of potential retaliations and targeted attacks towards the fishermen when we were not on their boats.

At sea to be able to fish only 100 meters further can make a big difference.

Some fishermen try to go beyond the boundary of this prison, to be able to earn something more to support their families. To go beyond the three nautical miles means to face Israeli army. The Israeli army against a few fishermen.

Soldiers who do not hesitate to shoot against barefoot unarmed men intended to pull the nets in the waters where they are entitled to fish. This is the siege of Gaza.

I am honored to accompany these fishermen so brave and dignified.

Their eyes speak of their suffering, but at the same time express all their strength, and they pass it on to me.

Tomorrow we expect another night at sea, and many others, sharing with them the cold and the food, the fear and the courage, and the hope to bring back home a little piece of freedom.

Rosa Schiano is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Gaza: The march for prisoners within a prison

by Nathan Stuckey

18 April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

April 17th is Palestinain Prisoners Day.  All over Palestine demonstrations were held in solidarity with the approximately 5,000 prisoners still held in the occupations jails.  Bait Hanoun was no exception, this week the weekly demonstration against the occupation and the no go zones were in support of the prisoners.  The residents of the prison that is Gaza demonstrated in solidarity with the residents of the other Israeli prisons.

We gathered on the road in front of the half destroyed Bait Hanoun Agricultural College.  There were about 50 of us, members of the Bait Hanoun Local Initiative, the International Solidarity Movement, other international activists, and a small group of local high school students who had just got out of school.  We could hear the drone of jets overhead.  We raised our banners and flags, began to play music over the megaphone and started to walk down the road into the no go zone.  At the edge of the no go zone we paused, a bucket of paint was produced and we all marked a banner comparing the Gaza Ghetto to the Warsaw Ghetto with our finger prints.  As we did this a giant white observation balloon began to rise over the wall in front of us.

The balloon completed the picture of Gaza as a prison, surrounded by no go zones where Israel routinely kills anyone who enters them, its air filled with drones which routinely murder people, its sea patrolled by Israeli warships which fire daily at fisherman trying to feed their families, even a giant underground metal wall under the border with Egypt.  Israel is proud that it does not have the death penalty, but it would be unnecessary in any case: trials are not considered necessary precursors to the murder of Palestinians.

From the extrajudicial executions carried out by drones in Gaza to the murder of Palestinians in Israeli custody, such as the Bus 300 affair, to the “confirming the kill” murder of an already injured 10 year old Imam Darweesh Al Hams, to dumping sick prisoners by sides of the roads in the to die like Omar Abu Aruban, Israel kills Palestinians without the need of courts, not even the need of courts like the apartheid courts of Israel with 99.7% conviction rates for Palestinians.

We raised our banner again and continued to walk into the no go zone into land where Israel has already declared we need no trial, where the death penalty has already been approved for us.  We walked through the shoulder high thistles that have grown up in place of the orchards that used to grow here, that obscure whatever stones might mark the houses that used to be here before Israel ethnically cleansed the area.  We walked on paths that we had worn on our previous demonstrations.  We walked until we reached the ditch that bisects the no go zone.

Saber Zaneen from the Local Initiative of Bait Hanoun said “We would like to welcome Hanna Shalabi to Gaza.  We will contine to struggle until all of our prisoners are released.  We will never forget our prisoners, Khaddar Adman, Mustafa Bargouthi, Aziz Dweik, Ahmed Saadat, and many others.  They will never be forgotten.”

A Polish activist spoke when Saber was finished. “We are here today in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners, their sacrifices for freedom inspire us all.”

As we made our way back to Bait Hanoun we paused by the edge of the no go zone.  We sat down by some giant concrete blocks which we had painted with Palestinian flags in an earlier demonstration.  Abu Isa began to sing.  He was singing songs for the prisoners.  A cameraman kneeled in front of him, filming while Abu Isa  sang.  While everyone in the circle clapped in time, Abu Isa leaned forward and began to play the drums on the metal helmet of the cameraman.  Everyone began to laugh, even the cameraman had a big smile on his face when he got up.  We were all alive, still trapped in the prison that is Gaza, still living under the occupation, but still human, still able to laugh.  Israeli prisons have failed just as surely as the “Break Their Bones” strategy did at crushing the Palestinian struggle for freedom.  Israeli prisons are brutal places of torture, bad food, and denial of family visits. But prisons also serve universities for the struggle, a place for people to learn more about how and what they are fighting for.  Hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have gone through Israeli prisons. They were marching with us today.

Nathan Stuckey is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

Israeli army demolish houses and wells in Kufr ad Dik

by Aura and Robin 

17 April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Early Monday morning the IOF came to Kufr ad-Dik and demolished three houses and three water wells, along with several tents belonging to Bedouin families nearby. Settlements Bruchin, Alei Zahav, and Pedu’el are expanding quickly, claiming more and more Palestinian land and making life for the people of Kufr ad-Dik impossible.

The soldiers came to the olive groves of Kufr ad-Dik at 7am, armed with ten military jeeps and a bulldozer. After surrounding the area, they began destroying the three houses and water wells which had served as a home and work sheds to several families. Appallingly, the Palestinians present were held at gunpoint during the whole operation.

In four months the Israeli authorities have demolished fifteen houses and Bedouin tents in the area of Kufr Ad-Dik. The houses are used by farmers for agricultural purposes. The farmers use them for storing their equipment and to escape the heat in the summer months. They were particularly important during the harvest, when farmers would live in them for weeks at a time. The destruction of Bedouin tents has left families with no home at all, and no cover in the changing weather.

The Bedouin families had all of their five tents demolished at the same time. They asked the soldiers to spare one tent so that the children at least had somewhere to shelter, but the soldiers showed no mercy, adding that they would be back in one week and if the families had not left the land they would be arrested.

“I have over 600 sheep, there’s no place except here where I can live and support myself and my family” Mohammad, one of the shepherds explain.

Kufr Ad-Dik is surrounded by three hilltop settlements: Bruchin, Alei Zahav and Pedu’el. A forth settlement is currently under construction, further strangling and prohibiting life inside the village. From the ruins of the demolished houses you can see the distant sky scrapers of Tel Aviv and in the good weather you can also see the Mediterranean Sea. Though a large highway cuts its way through their land, Palestinians are prohibited from using it. Instead they have to make a long detour to access villages nearby, insuring the safety of this “settler road”.

Most of the farm land is now area C, meaning that the area is under total Israeli control. Palestinians are unable to acquire any sort of building permit, yet still their livelihood depends on this land. The Israeli authorities claim that they are demolishing houses for security reasons. One of the farmers responds; “ I don’t have any guns or tanks, just my trees. Staying in area A is like living in a small prison.”

Aura and Robin are volunteers with International Solidarity Movement (names have been changed).