Author: Yara

The march from Erez to the iron doors of Al Aqsa

by Nathan Stuckey

30 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Sometimes, the more things change the more they stay the same.  On March 30, 1976 during protests against the confiscation of Palestinian land, Israel killed six protesters, injured over one hundred and arrested hundreds more.  This was the first Land Day.  Every year for the last thirty six years Palestinians have commemorated the heroism of those protesters and reiterated their attachment to their lands.  This year was no different.  This year protests occurred in over eighty countries, thousands of people tried to march to Jerusalem.  Almost everywhere whoever was in power tried to prevent these marches.  Gaza was no different from everywhere else.

The march from south of Beit Hanoun - Click here for more photos

Today’s protest began at a gas station south of Beit Hanoun.  Thousands of people gathered for the protest, many of them made it obvious that they wanted to march to Erez, and, God willing, on to Jerusalem.  Rows of police prevented this.  On a stage speaker after speaker spoke of resistance and return.  Off to the side, tires burned, youth on top of a billboard rhythmically pounded on it, demanding to go to north toward the border.  The police were having none of this, armored, carrying Plexiglas shields and batons; they stopped anyone who attempted to push north.  For three hours thousands of people stood under the sun in honor of Land Day.

At about four o’clock we were told that some people we know had moved past the police lines that were preventing protesters from reaching Erez.  The Israeli army was firing on the demonstrators.  Live bullets from soldiers ensconced in concrete towers embedded in a giant concrete wall shooting at protesters on the narrow road to the border.  That is a constant in Gaza, all protests are met with live bullets.  We set out to Erez to see the situation.

We arrived at Erez at about five o’clock.  There were a couple of hundred young men on the street leading to the border.  They were blocked from coming close to the massive concrete wall in which the soldiers hid by a fence of razor wire.  Israeli soldiers shot at young men burning tires and throwing stones.  None of the stones made it within a hundred meters of the concrete towers, but that did not stop the Israelis from using deadly force, their bullets smashed into body after body.  One young man, Mahmoud Zakot, 20, from Jabalia was killed.  Thirty one others were injured.  There were no ambulances.  Young men would be shot, their friends would carry them to waiting motorcycles, the motorcycles would roar off to take the injured to ambulances waiting by the checkpoint behind us.

The young men were not deterred by the gunfire.  They had come to Erez to protest forty five years of occupation, sixty four years of dispossession, no one had any illusions about how Israel dealt with protests in Gaza with bullets.  Young men would move forward with whatever they could light on fire and leave it in the razor wire which blocked the road.  Other young men would try to pull the razor wire out of the way so that we could advance toward Jerusalem.  Bullets would ring out; young men would fall into the arms of their friends and be put on motorcycles for the trip to the hospital.  While the Israeli’s shot them the young men chanted, “The doors of Al Aqsa are made of iron” and “We are going to Jerusalem, martyrs in the millions”.  Freedom is more valuable than life.

We did not reach Jerusalem today.  We remember though, and we are grateful, that Jerusalem is not Lifta and is not Jarash, Palestinians still live there, it has not been ethnically cleansed.  We will be back on May 15, in commemoration of the Nakba, we will return on June 5th to commemorate the Naksa, we will return to this border until the occupation disappears.

Nathan Stuckey is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

On the eve of Land Day: Al Quds anticipates the Global March

by Johnny

29 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

March 30 is Land Day in Palestine. The events of the day annually commemorate the events of 1976, when Israeli authorities seized massive quantities of land from Palestinian owners, and then killed several and injured dozens to crack down on the general strike called to protest the theft.

This year on Land Day, March 30, people from around Palestine and the world will march towards Al Quds  (Jerusalem) to protest the theft in progress today: the isolation and ethnic cleansing taking place in Al Quds, as well as throughout occupied Palestine through illegal settlement activity. Marches are planned towards Al Quds from multiple points in the West Bank, Gaza, inside the Green Line, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Syria, as well as in Asia, North America, and Europe. The global march aims to highlight the colonization of Al Quds by Zionists and the refusal of access for Palestinians to the holy city.

According to multiple treaties and UN resolutions, Al Quds is recognized as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Israel seized control of the city in 1967. Al Quds has long been the center of religious, cultural, health, and commercial life for Palestinians, and an estimated 270,000 Palestinians reside in the eastern parts of the city (OCHA 2011).

The Palestinian population and presence in Al Quds is currently under extreme pressure from Israeli authorities and illegal settlers as the Zionist state seeks to take complete control of the city, drive out the Palestinian inhabitants, and eliminate any hope of its future as a Palestinian capital. This pressure is manifested in various ways:

Isolation

Fadwa Khader, an Al Quds resident and organizer of the Global March on Jerusalem remembers a time when Al Quds was “the most important place in Palestine.” Now, the apartheid wall and associated military closures prevent the majority of Palestinians from traveling to Al Quds for any reason. The city’s status as a center of Palestinian life is fading, due to its isolation from the rest of the West Bank. But material realities will not erase Al Quds’s place in the hearts of the Palestinian people. One needs only to view the multitude of images of Al Aqsa mosque in Palestinian homes, businesses, and streets to understand this.

Removal and Denial of Residency

In a systematic effort aimed at reducing the number of Palestinian residents of Al Quds, Israeli authorities seize any opportunity to rescind the residency permits of individuals, even those who are born and have lived their entire lives in the city. If Palestinian residents are known to have lived in the West Bank or abroad, even temporarily, they risk the withdrawal of their residency rights and may never be allowed into Al Quds again, even to visit family.

Fadi, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, is a Palestinian who resided in Jordan for example, has retained his Jerusalem IDs. Yet his children who were born in Jordan and whose mother is a Palestinian refugee, have been unable to attain their Jerusalem IDs. “My family’s history is in this city,” said Faid. “The lack of jobs, and the bleak future of Palestinians here forced me to seek these elsewhere. Now that I have returned and have brought my children with me, my children are unable to maneuver throughout the city as they are undocumented in their own father’s hometown. Israel refuses to recognize them as the children of a Jerusalemite, but we will remain here, even if that means that my children and wife live without an ID or any rights.” Fadi continued after a long silence and the evident hurt in his eyes. “This is our resistance to Zionism.”

This policy has the effect over time of reducing the Palestinian population in Al Quds and preventing residents from traveling or living elsewhere for fear of losing residency.

Pressure on existing residents

Fadwa Khader noted another component of Israel’s campaign for the complete colonization and ethnic cleansing of Al Quds: the application of pressure to Palestinian residents in order to drive them out of the city. One way this is manifested is in the denial of municipal services in the eastern parts of the city inhabited by Palestinians.

The residents here pay the same taxes as the Jewish residents of West Al Quds.  Despite this, the municipality of Jerusalem does not provide adequate services to the Palestinian neighborhoods of the city. Ninety percent of the municipality’s sewer lines and paved roads and sidewalks are in West Al Quds (B’tselem). In some neighborhoods, cleaning services come only once every three days as opposed to three times a day in West Al Quds. n February the Wadi Hilweh Information Center  reported the Jerusalem Municipality created a dump at the door of Palestinian neighborhoods.

Khader notes the dual nature of this denial of services: First, to make life in Al Quds miserable and untenable in an effort to convince existing residents to leave. Second, to demonstrate to the internationals that visit Al Quds that the Palestinian residents “don’t care about their neighborhoods” and live in filth.

Pressure is also applied to Palestinian resident through settlement of East Al Quds neighborhoods by extremist Israelis, evictions of Palestinian families, and demolitions of Palestinian homes. The neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan have been particularly affected by this strategy. The goal of the Israeli authorities and Zionist activists is to forcibly settle Jews in East Al Quds through the seizure of land and homes and settlement of Israelis in these areas. In addition, home demolitions make life increasingly untenable for affected residents.

The Global March this Land Day will seek to highlight these issues and call for an end to Israeli Zionist settlement policy, access restrictions, occupation, and ethnic cleansing in Al Quds and throughout occupied Palestine.

Khader has a message for the international Palestine solidarity movement:

“We want to live in peace and liberty  and to feel free. Can you imagine how we suffer and sacrifice for this dream?”

She noted that there can never be a real Palestinian state as long as the Israelis continue to steal land and water, to control borders, and to separate cities and villages of Palestine from each other.

Still, she is hopeful.

“We won’t give up hope. We believe in you (international solidarity activists). You are our voice outside of Palestine, calling for dignity, liberation, and an end to the occupation.”

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

Land Day: From Gaza to Sakhnin we are all united with Bil’in

by Nathan Stuckey

27 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Photo courtesy Hussein Amody, 2012

Thirty six years ago on March 30th 1976 demonstrations against the confiscation of Palestinian land by the Israeli government spread throughout Palestine.  Six Palestinians were killed, over a hundred wounded, and hundreds more arrested.  Land day was one of the first large mobilizations of Palestinians with 1948 Palestine.  This year, on Land Day, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from all over the world will march towards Jerusalem.  Today, in Beit Hanoun, Land Day came early.  The weekly Tuesday demonstration against the occupation and the no go zone was in honor of Land Day and the six martyrs who gave their lives defending their land thirty six years ago.

We gathered on the road in front of the Beit Hanoun Agricultural College in preparation for the march into the no go zone.  There were about 50 of us, the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, the International Solidarity Movement, other foreign activists, and Gazan activists from all over Gaza.  Palestinian flags flew high, music played over the megaphone, and we unfurled banners in memory of the martyrs of 1976.  Young men carried olive trees, hoes, shovels and water.  We would plant the trees in the no go zone today.  We marched slowly toward the no go zone.

The no go zone has been overgrown with thistles, for some reason the Israeli’s have stopped bulldozing the ground so often.  Perhaps they are satisfied that they grounded most signs that people used to live here, that the no go zone used to be a place of thriving orchards, completely to dust under the treads of their tanks of their bulldozers.  We made our way through the thistles using paths cut by our previous demonstrations in the no go zone.  We made our way to the trench the Israeli’s dug to bisect the no go zone.  The trench is lined with flags from our past demonstrations. Today it is also lined with pictures of Rachel Corrie and Hana Shalabi from last week’s demonstration.

Young men set to work with their hoes. They cleared two areas of thistles, dug holes, and planted young olive saplings.  While the trees were being planted the crowd chanted, “From Gaza to Sakhnin we are all united with Bil’in.” Usually, the chant is from “from Gaza to Jenin we are all united with Bil’in”, but this week Sakhnin was honored for its role in the first Land Day.

After the trees were planted we set about our second task for the day, erasing the trench which scars the no go zone.  Young men set to work with hoes and shovels filling it in with dirt.  Israeli soldiers appeared on top the concrete tower from which they usually shoot at us.  This time, they did not shoot, they merely watched.

The young men continued to work at filling in the ditch.  Perhaps the soldiers were afraid of shooting, afraid of inspiring even demonstrations on the 30th. Perhaps they realized that to these demonstrators, freedom is more important than life.  The young men worked steadily. Soon a good part of the trench was filled in.  They shouldered their shovels and hoes and we began to walk back towards Beit Hanoun.  We paused at the edge of the no go zone by some giant concrete blocks painted with Palestinian flags, we ate cookies and drank orange juice.  Today, we went to the no go zone and planted olive trees, God willing, on Land Day we will plant olive trees in Al Quds.

Nathan Stuckey is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement

Beit Hanoun: Celebrating the land and culture of Palestine

by Nathan Stuckey

29 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Celebrating the land and life in Beit Hanoun - Click here for more photos

Today, Beit Hanoun celebrated Land Day.  It is true that Land Day isn’t really until tomorrow, but tomorrow is the Global March to Jerusalem, tomorrow, God willing, Land Day can be celebrated on the land from which the refugees were expelled 64 years ago.  Today, Land Day was celebrated on the land that Palestinians have managed to hold onto in Palestine.  Land Day commemorates the protests against the expropriation of Palestinian land which rocked Palestine in 1976.  Six people were killed, over a hundred injured and hundreds more arrested.  In Beit Hanoun we marched under the slogan, “A united land and a united people.”

About 50 people gathered in Beit Hanoun to commemorate Land Day with us.  People from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, the International Solidarity Movement, other foreign activists and people from all over Gaza marched with us.  We marched north out of Beit Hanoun toward the no go zone.  We were going to plant olive trees, bake bread, and dance debka.  The women wore traditional Palestinian dresses; some of the men wore traditional clothing as well.  We carried flags, posters, hoes, water and olive trees, these were our weapons today.  We didn’t actually enter the no go zone, we were working on land near the Palestinian police post near Erez crossing.  When we arrived people immediately set to work, planting olive trees, setting up a tent, preparing ovens to bake bread on.  The mood was festive, people sang in circles, children threw rocks into the water of a nearby ditch; bread was eaten the moment it was taken off of the oven.  While all of this was going on others worked the land, they planted olive trees and cleared weeds away from olive trees already growing on the land.  When we finished planting the trees young men gathered to dance debka and sing.

One of the organizers received a phone call.  Apparently the Israeli’s had called the Palestinian police in the nearby police station, they were threatening to shoot us if we did not leave the land.  They didn’t claim that we were in the no go zone, such a claim isn’t necessary in the eyes of Israel, shooting Palestinians doesn’t really need an excuse.  We had no weapons, there were women and children with us, yet soldiers 500 meters away in concrete towers embedded in a giant concrete wall were threatening to shoot us.  It wouldn’t be either the first time the Israeli’s have shot at us, nor the first time they Palestinians simply for being in the range of their guns.  Many people have been shot on their land in the north of Beit Hanoun.  Israeli threats did not force us to leave the area, as one of the young men said, “This is our land, let them shoot if they want to, this is our land and it is our right to be here.”  We left when we were finished singing and dancing.  On the way back to Beit Hanoun we shared juice and cookies, the rewards of a day of being on the land.

 Nathan Stuckey is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

Settlers attack internationals accompanying school children on Shuhada Street

by Paige

28 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Today at around 1 PM  extremist settler Anat Cohen attacked a Canadian woman accompanying school children, and a few minutes later sent two teenage settlers to throw rocks at the Canadian woman and a Finnish man.  The attack occurred at the bottom of the stairs connecting the Qordaba Girls School with the section of Shuhada street where Palestinians are allowed to walk.

Cohen passed the internationals in her car and stopped to talk to soldiers at the nearby checkpoint.  She then reversed her car, parked next to the internationals and proceeded to shove, kick and scream at the Canadian women while soldiers looked on.  Eventually a soldier came to force the internationals up the stairs, but did nothing to stop Cohen from harassing them.

In a transcript of the video provided by Uri Horesh, an ISM activist asks the soldier why he refuses to act despite Cohen’s intrusion and attack on the activist. As the soldier mumbles a response as to whether soldiers take orders from Cohen, Cohen declares vigorously, “I live here! Don’t say I should be taken away! I live here!!”

A few minutes later two settler children who Cohen had just spoken with ran up a parallel staircase and threw rocks at the  internationals from less than a foot away, hitting the Finnish man in the ear.  Two soldiers watched the second attack, then turned in the opposite direction and refused to intervene.  Cohen then called the police, who demanded the passports of all the internationals present, who detained them for several minutes, and then told them they were not allowed to stand at the bottom or top of the stairs.  When asked why the police were doing nothing about the attacks, a soldier responded that Anat Cohen is “well known to the police” and there was “nothing to be done.”

The staircase that connects Palestinian schools and houses with Shuhada street has been a site of frequent settler attacks, particularly on girls from the nearby Qordaba school who have been stoned by settlers many times on the stairs and the area leading to it.

Internationals have been accompanying children in this area to try and prevent attacks by settlers and harassment from soldiers.

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