Author: swing

Moving the Goalposts: Delaying Palestinian Football Justice

Originally published by Visualizing Palestine

For many years, the Israeli football association has given membership status to six teams that play in illegal settlements built on Palestinian land in the West Bank. This is in direct violation of FIFA’s rules, which state that permission is needed to play matches on another member’s territory. Instead of enforcing these rules, FIFA has repeatedly delayed action. FIFA President Gianni Infantino says that a decision on Israeli settlement clubs is coming in October 2017. [Sources: http://bit.ly/vp-fifa]

Moving the Goalposts - Visualizing Palestine

Help Josefin get her visa to stay with her husband in Hebron

5th March 2016 | Hebron, occupied Hebron

25-year old Social Work student Josefin Herbach from Germany and 23-year old Abd Elrahman met doing human rights work in occupied Hebron. They were married on the 11th of November, and as Josefin planned to stay in Hebron to live with her husband, she applied for a “spouse visa” through the Palestinian Ministry of Interior in occupied Hebron.

The Palestinian Ministry can only pass the request to the Israeli authorities, who are the ones who decide who is allowed to reside in the occupied Palestinian territories and for how long, including spouses of Palestinians. On January 6th, Josefin Herbach received notice from the Israeli Ministry of the denial of her spouse visa, and that she had until the 10th of January to leave the country. Being left with no alternative, she decided to hire a lawyer to appeal this decision. Since then, the Israeli State has repeatedly asked for extensions of the court’s deadline to present their opinion on the case, and on the 4th of March has asked for yet another month to ‘prepare an offer’.

Abd Elrahman explains: “Every aspect of our lives is controlled by the Israeli occupation and they are constantly trying to make us leave. Israeli soldiers enter our homes and threaten to arrest and even kill us. But we still stay on our land. Now they want to deny my right to live with my wife.”
“I consider Al-Khalil as my home. I have a life here, all my friends and my husband. I can’t leave now. I have nothing to go back to in Germany,” Josefin says about her visa denial.

Josefin is legally able to remain in the West Bank while the court proceeding drags on, but she cannot leave the country with her husband to visit Josefin’s family in Germany, who she has not seen since the marriage. Abd has not had the chance to meet his wife’s family yet, for fear that if they left the country, she would never be allowed to re-enter.

“It’s an impossible choice – if I go visit my family in Germany, I would not be able to come back and live with my husband; and if I stay with my husband here I can not see my family”, explains Josefin.

Josefin and other human rights defenders monitor the checkpoints and provide protective presence for Palestinian children on their way to and from school in Israeli-controlled parts of occupied Hebron. Palestinian children routinely face harassment and violence from tear gas to arbitrary arrests and threats from settlers living in adjacent illegal Israeli settlements. In some areas of Hebron parents fear sending their young children to school without international presence.

Josefin and her husband needed 15.800 shekels to challenge this unjust ruling in the Israeli High Court which is the only legal route available to them. They have raised 1.800 shekels so far, which leaves them with 14.000 shekels (about 3.300€ or 3.900$) to pay for the lawyer.
Support them here.

To stay updated on Josefin’s case, support and share the facebook-event.

For more information: josefin.herbach@arcor.de, 00972-597570178

On the 1st of March, join our day of action to #EndHebronMilitaryZone

February 29th, 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil team | al-Khalil, occupied Palestine

It has now been four months since the Israeli military declared part of Hebron a “closed military zone” in which Palestinian residents are no longer free to move, even to reach their homes. For the last four months, Palestinians and internationals have been acting and protesting this arbitrary decision. Seeing no response from the Israeli authorities, we decided to declare the 1st of March a day of action to keep pressuring the Israeli authorities to put an end to the closed military zone in Hebron. Tomorrow is a day in which everyone, around the world, will be able to do something to act for the city of Hebron. Tomorrow, use social media to spread the word and share what you know about the situation there. Take five minutes or more to tweet, post on Facebook or on your blog, write to media outlets in your country, write to your representatives and demand that the international community pressure Israeli authorities to .

Join our social media event on Facebook to get all the information you will need, and invite your friends and contacts! Here are more directions to follow to get involved in the social media storm:

  • You can use some of these sample tweets, or be creative and use some of your own (feel free to translate into your own language)

In #Hebron since November Palestinian residents have to register with the army or risk being barred from their homes #EndHebronMilitaryZone

Palestinians have to register with army or risk being barred from their homes #EndHebronMilitaryZone

Since the beginning of October over 200 Palestinians have been shot and left to bleed to death without medical aid #EndHebronMilitaryZone

Since the start of October 180+ Palestinians were shot & left to bleed to death without medical aid #EndHebronMilitaryZone

4 months of life under severe restrictions for Palestinian families in Tel Rumeida #EndHebronMilitaryZone

Palestinian families in Tel Rumeida have lived under severe restrictions for 4 months #EndHebronMilitaryZone

4 months under unjustified regime of collective punishment for Palestinian families #EndHebronMilitaryZone

#IsraeliForces in #Hebron are targeting activists to silence the truth and stop it from reaching the whole world #EndHebronMilitaryZone

#Hebron activists targeted to stop the truth from reaching the world #EndHebronMilitaryZone

Amnesty International referred to killings in #Hebron since October as “unlawful,” “extrajudicial executions” #EndHebronMilitaryZone

#IsraeliForces & settlers are making life for Palestinians intolerable to try and force them to leave their homes #EndHebronMilitaryZone

#EndHebronMilitaryZone which targets human rights defenders while leaving illegal Israeli settlements unrestricted

#IsraeliForces are targeting activists to stop the truth from reaching the whole world #EndHebronMilitaryZone

4 months too long of illegal collective punishment; demand that #Israel #EndHebronMilitaryZone & respect human rights

Palestinians continue to face unjustified and arbitrary restrictions #EndHebronMilitaryZone

  • Please link your tweets to:

Our Action Alert, to encourage organisations acting for Palestine to sign it: bit.ly/1QD8p8e

Our call for action to encourage everyone in your social media circle to take five minutes to take an action that will help this campaign reach its goal: bit.ly/1QD8wR4

The petition to #OpenShuhadaSt : http://bit.ly/21wltTi

Or to any of these articles that will help people understand the situation in Hebron:

‘Children living in closed military zone enjoy day of fun’: http://bit.ly/1LqoM7n

‘Peaceful painting activity met with violence by Israeli army’: http://bit.ly/1TMIfl7

‘Ongoing sit-in protest on Shuhaha Street checkpoint’: http://bit.ly/1WSbVLH

’22 years after the Ibrahimi mosque massacre, people still suffer consequences’: http://bit.ly/1nbQObg

‘Demonstrators protest closed military zone under threat of Israeli violence’: http://bit.ly/1LPUlSM

We will also be posting more photos and graphics on Facebook that you can add to tweets

  • You can also use links to the following videos, or use some that you find yourself

Israeli military use stun grenades on young Palestinian school kids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsV9i3Lt7fo

Israeli forces threaten Palestinians at gunpoint: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP5VZGH8lk4

Palestinian woman gunned down in occupied Hebron: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhLBYENRrKA

Israeli forces harass Palestinians after Friday prayer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYfgBd2as6c

Willful killing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JypHkx4KHmM

 

  • You can write to your representatives using this sample text

Since the 1st of November 2015, the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron, Palestine, has been declared a “closed military zone.” The zone was specifically designed to include Palestinian neighborhoods while excluding adjacent illegal Israeli settlements. Palestinian residents were forced to register with the Israeli military or else risk being barred from their own homes, while Israeli settlers are free to roam the streets without being stopped. Any Palestinians not registered as residents, international human rights defenders and media are all barred from the area. These restrictions of movement constitute collective punishment, considered illegal under international law.

In the city of Hebron, Palestinian and international human rights defenders are constantly targeted by Israeli forces and settlers from the illegal settlements inside the city for their efforts to document the situation. Meanwhile since the beginning of October over 160 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers, many in incidents Amnesty International has said may amount to unlawful, extrajudicial executions.

As Abed Salaymeh, a Tel Rumeida resident directly impacted by the closed military zone explained, “soldiers and settlers are making life for the Palestinians intolerable to force them to leave their houses voluntarily. This is a crime under international law. They are targeting activists to silence the truth and stop the truth from reaching the whole world.”

We [or I] call on you to act now for the immediate ending of the closed military zone and the restriction of movements imposed on Palestinians in Hebron. It is time for the international community to take action and call on the Israeli government to comply with international law and especially with the Geneva Conventions in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.

  • If you live in the EU, you can write to your representatives

Using this website (and the text above): http://freepalestine.eu/, write to your EU representatives to urge them to put an end to Human Rights violations in Hebron and more generally in Palestine until Israel complies with International law.

 

  • If you are tweeting, you can choose to address your tweets to several accounts. Here are some examples:

@EuropeUnion European Union

@FedericaMog Vice President of the EU Commission

@enricopetro Member of the Cabinet of EU HR/VP Federica Mogherini

@eu_eeas European External Action Service (EEAS), the EU’s Foreign & Security Policy Service

@StylianidesEU Christos Stylianides, European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management

@Urmaspaet Urmas Paet, Member of European Parliament

@EP_ForeignAff  AFET Committee Press  European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs.

@EU_Commission European Commission

@monicafrassoni Monica Frassoni, Co-Chair of the European Green Party

@LaurentFabius Laurent Fabius, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development

@JHahnEU Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations

@EU_Commission European Commission

@UNRWA  United Nations Relief and Works Agency, responsible for the welfare of Palestinian refugees

@UNHumanRights  Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights

@UN

@UNOCHA

@JohnKerry US Secretary of State John Kerry

@StateDept US Department of State

If you live in the US, you can tweet your representatives/senators. This site lists them by postal code, and once you click on someone it provides a direct link to their twitter account

@hrw Human Rights Watch

@USCGJerusalem US Consulate in Jerusalem

@usembassyta US Embassy in Tel Aviv

@CanEmbIsrael Canadian Embassy to Israel

@AusAmbIsrael Australian Embassy Israel

@indemtel Indian Embassy Israel

@ukinisrael British Embassy Israel

@AmbTelAviv  Italian Embassy

@martinoweiss Austrian Ambassador to in Israel

@MID_RF  Russian Embassy

@SwedeninIL  Swedish Embassy in Israel

@NLinIsrael  Dutch Embassy in Tel Aviv

@MAECgob Spanish ministry of the exterior and international cooperation

@Minrel_Chile Chilean foreign ministry

Join us! For a day of action to #EndHebronMilitaryZone and #OpenShuhadaSt on March 1st

25th February, 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, occupied Palestine

Our thunderclap campaign, calling on the international community to pressure the Israeli military to put an end to the closed military zone in al-Khalil (Hebron) will come to an end on the 1st of March, 2016. Join us for a day of action!

In 1994, the shops on formerly vibrant Shuhada street (martyrs’ street) were forced to close by the Israeli military, and soon Palestinians were not allowed in the area anymore. Within a few years the street became a ‘ghost street,’ with shops and houses boarded up and no Palestinians permitted to walk on most of what was once a main thoroughfare for the city. This arbitrary closure occurred after the Ibrahimi mosque massacre and was said to be a short-term measure. Short-term became long-term; the street has now been closed to Palestinians for 22 years.

4 months ago, the Israeli military restricted movements of Palestinian residents of al-Khalil even more by declaring the last part of Shuhada street, as well as much of the adjacent neighborhood of Tel Rumeida, a closed military zone. Palestinians had to register with the Israeli military in order to access their homes in these zones. This measure resulted in the tiny last bit of Shuhada Street that so far is still accessible for Palestinians – at least in theory – being barred for most Palestinians now – clearly yet another step in the Israeli attempts to force out Palestinians of the Old City in al-Khalil to connect the illegal settlements. This supposed ‘short-term’ measure keeps being renewed by military orders, making life for Palestinians in the area harder than ever.

Let’s not let the Israeli military once again take over more of the city of al-Khalil.  It’s time show support to Palestinians struggling every day, living in an apartheid city. It’s time to show the world, once again, what is happening in al-Khalil.

What you can do to act:

  • On the 1st of March, our Thunderclap campaign will come to an end, and our message to #EndHebronMilitaryZone will be published on each one of our supporters’ twitter or facebook accounts. The goal is to reach as many people as we can around the world. Support our thunderclap campaign today, join the social media thunder and raise awareness.
  • Tweet on the 1st of march with the hashtag #EndHebronMilitaryZone, using sample tweets, photos and videos here provided.
  • Join our Facebook event page for updates and more information.
  • If you are in Hebron, attend the events for #OpenShuhadaSt, or share the call in the media.
  • Call on organizations you work with or are affiliated with to add their names to the Action Alert, and to issue brief statements detailing why the organization is supporting this campaign and why you find it important. Please send all requests to sign and statements to palreports@gmail.com for publication. Please also contact us for versions of the Action Alert in languages other than English and Arabic – we currently have translations available in German, French, and Dutch, and will update this page as more become available.
  • Organize an event, such as a demonstration, presentation or other campaign to raise awareness on the situation in Hebron and mobilize support in your area
  • Contact media outlets in your country and call on them to report on the situation of the closed military zone, in Hebron and Palestine in general
  • Write a message to your elected representatives (MEPs, members of congress or whichever position is the equivalent in your country) using the sample text included in this article, and encourage your friends and contacts to the same
  • If you are based in Europe, call on your EU representatives to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement until Israel complies with international law
  • Organize a delegation to visit Hebron, see the situation for yourselves and talk to Palestinians about the restrictions imposed by the Israeli occupation. Seeing the conditions in Hebron with your own eyes offers an understanding of the occupation that one cannot get from reading about it. If you want to organize a delegation you can contact the ISM in Hebron at palreportskhalil2012@gmail.com and we will help you and answer any questions you might have.

22 years after the Ibrahimi mosque massacre, Palestinians still suffer consequences

25th February 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On the 25th of February 1994, a US citizen residing in the illegal Kiryat Arba settlement entered the Ibrahimi mosque in the early morning during the month of Ramadan. Baruch Goldstein, dressed in his army uniform, opened fire on the Palestinians that were crammed inside for the prayer. He killed 29 men and boys and injured dozens before people overpowered him and beat him to death.

That day, many more Palestinians were killed in Hebron during riots protesting the massacre that had occurred, in front of the mosque and the hospital where the injured were treated, as well as in the cemetery were the dead were being buried. In the next few days, protests and marches happened all over the West Bank and across historic Palestine. It is believed that in total, in these few days, 50 to 70 Palestinians were killed, and over 250 were injured.

Immediately after the attack, the Israeli government released a statement condemning this act and affirming that Goldstein was acting on his own behalf. The Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin called Goldstein a “degenerate murderer, a shame on Zionism and an embarrassment to Judaism.” Rabin always affirmed that Goldstein acted on his own behalf and that the Israeli military had no knowledge of his plans. Though his act was condemned, it resulted in many measures that mostly impacted on Palestinians. Instead of evacuating the settlements of Hebron, only a few of the most extreme settlers were temporarily disarmed.

A round-the-clock curfew was imposed. Shops in Shuhada Street were forced shut by the Israeli army, on the pretext of keeping settlers safe on this commercial artery. Many other shops also had to close due to lack of supplies and customers. New checkpoints were installed. Palestinians were first banned from driving and then simply from accessing most of Shuhada Street. Much of these measures resulted in the displacement of many Palestinian families.

In 1997, a protocol was signed between Israel and the PLO, dividing Hebron into two areas: “H1”, controlled by Israeli forces, and “H2”, under Palestinian control. It called for the withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from the H1, which represented 80% of the city. To this day, even though H1 is officially controlled by the Palestinian Authority, it remains under overall Israeli control, while H2 is now the home to many violent and extremist settlers. Some of them still go every year to the tomb of Baruch Goldstein to celebrate his treacherous act of murder.

22 years later, all measures that were declared in Hebron on the 25th of February, 1994 are still enforced, except for the curfew. And settlers are more than ever taking over the city, with the compliance of the Israeli government.

The last tiny bit of Shuhada Street, that was not (yet) declared a ‘sterile zone’ and thus been completely barred for Palestinians, has been under repeated ‘closed military zone’ orders since 1st November 2015. Whereas the majority of Shuhada Street has been completely unaccessible for Palestinians, the tiny strip leading from the recently ‘renovated’ Shuhada checkpoint up to the illegal Beit Hadassah settlement, is slowly resembling a ‘ghost street’ more and more, as only Palestinians registered with the Israeli army are allowed to go there.

The closed military zone order is an illegal collective punishment on the whole Palestinian population of this area, that was forced to register in order to be allowed to live in their own houses whereas settlers in the adjacent illegall settlements can walk the roads freely and completely undisturbed. This clearly is just another step in the Israeli policy of making life for Palestinians as hard and humiliating as possible in an attempt to make them leave the area and eventually drive all of them out and connect the settlements.

Every year, Palestinians in occupied al-Khalil commemorate the Ibrahimi mosque massacre and protest against the closure of Shuhada Street and the illegal Israeli occupation. The week, leading up to the 22nd anniversary of the massacre, has seen and will continue to see creative activities and demonstrations. This past week there were also many commemorations of Palestinians, most of whom have been gunned down by Israeli forces and left to bleed to death without any medical help.