Author: Yara - Page 32 - International Solidarity Movement

The mourning tent of a martyr

by Nathan Stuckey

14 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Strip

Nayif Qarmout was murdered yesterday; he was also buried yesterday, in a small cemetery in the heart of Jabalia, the refugee camp where he lived. He was only 14 years old. He was murdered by an Israeli missile while playing football with his friends. He was a handsome young man, the photo on his martyr posters make that obvious. It was something that I never would have guessed at his funeral, looking at his bloody bruised face.

Today, Nayif’s family mourned. The reception line of men lining the entrance to the mourning tent was the most shattered group of men I have ever seen. Their faces were blank, dead, as though Nayif was not the only murdered yesterday. Nayif’s photo was on the wall, he looks so young, a child just turning into a man. We sat down and ate dates as a young man brought coffee around. Nayif’s uncle, Abdullah came over to talk to us.

Abdullah tells us that not only was Nayif a handsome child, but he was also a joyful child. He was always laughing, always making jokes, always helping his parents with his younger brothers and sisters. Nayif was the oldest child; he had three younger brothers and two younger sisters. He was not only the oldest child, but also the oldest grandchild; he was named after his grandfather. After school he worked with his father in family’s pharmacy, helping customers and keeping track of the accounts. Nayif hoped to run this pharmacy someday, after university, when he was a man. That is a chance that Nayif will never have.

Monday morning Nayif woke early. He got dressed and went to school, after school he was supposed to come to the shop to help his father. When he arrived at school, he found it closed because of the Israeli attacks. He met some of his friends; they went to play football before they went home for the day. While they were playing football an Israeli drone fired a missile at them, at six children playing football on a day off from school. Nayif’s family received a call that Nayif had been injured and was on the way to the hospital. They all rushed to the hospital, but there was nothing to be done, they did not even have the chance to say goodbye to their son, he was dead when they arrived at the hospital.

Nayif’s family is left with their sadness; nothing will bring back their son. Perhaps, though, as Um Nayif asked us, something can be done to save other children, “stop the killing of children, don’t abandon Palestine. Nayif went to the school, he was a student and Israel killed him. I know that now he’s gone to God. His brothers and sisters cry because they lost their elder brother.”

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

Beit Furik, Nablus: Family unable to attend funeral for son killed in recent Gaza air strikes

by Jonas Weber

13 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

“We called him Nassr, but I think his real name was Mahmoud,” says Ahmed while we were on the bus from the Beit Furik municipality building. Outside the bus window, the walls of the little town just outside of Nablus are plastered with freshly printed martyr posters. The picture shows a middle aged man photoshopped between the Dome of the Rock and the Palestinian flag.

Ali Hannini, the cousin of Mahmoud Hanin who was kiled by Israeli rocket fire.

It has just been a few days since Mahmoud Hanini was killed by an Israeli rocket while in a car in the Gaza Strip.

“He was suspected of being affiliated with a militant group in the West Bank in 2005 and was forced to flee to Jordan and then on to Egypt and Gaza where he worked with the resistance against the occupation,” Ahmed continues.

In the stairwell leading up to the Hanini residence, one of the landings is cluttered up with shoes and a somber song is playing from the apartment. The family is still in mourning. We are shown to the roof where Mahmoud’s cousin, Ali, serves us coffee and dates.

“Things are going to be hard for this family now,” he said.

Mahmoud only had one brother and eleven sisters. It will be economically difficult for them. Mahmoud also had three children in Beit Furik and two daughters in Gaza.

When Mahmoud was killed on Friday, he was in a car with Zuhair al-Qaissi, the leader of the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committee, the group responsible for the kidnapping of the Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.

The body of Mahmoud Hanini will remain in Gaza, and his family will have to face the pain of not being able to visit his grave.

“It would be extremely expensive and difficult for us,” says Ali.

In the midst of military escalation in Gaza and the grief at home, the Hanini family still carry some hope for the future.

“We want to say a message to the people of the outside world: that the only thing we long for is peace. We only resist to win our freedom. This is not an issue of a conflict between religions. The issue is that Israel is occupying our lands in violation of international laws.”

The murder of Mahmoud Hanini, Zuhair al-Qaissi, and their driver set ablaze the region as groups throughout the Gaza strip responded by firing nearly a hundred rockets into Israeli territory. Most of these were intercepted by Israeli air defence, but one Israeli was killed by the rockets. Israel in turn responded with attacks against Gaza that since Friday have taken the lives of dozens of Palestinians.

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

Mapping a pattern of Israeli violence in Burin

13 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
The pattern of settler and military invasion of Burin, a village near Nablus, is what locals and internationals are mapping to brace themselves for more property damage, violence, and threats by nearby illegal settlements and hardcore adherents to the volatile “Price Tag Campaign.”

If the pattern continues, the next attack will be settlers, according to local ISM coordinator, Lydia. “Within a few days after that, Burin should be due a visit from the soldiers.”

According to notes and statistics prepared by Lydia, a British volunteer stationed in Burin, it is predicted that soldiers will enter the village with approximately 8 to 12 jeeps, which has been the range of jeeps the military bring to raid the village in a three week span. This comes following today’s settler attack and military incursion into the village, which resulted in the confirmed arrest of two 16-year-old boys. Lydia has been barred from entering the village at times when ISM has been notified of these attacks through the use of a makeshift checkpoint, and she notes that the same did happen today at the entrance of Burin. Typically military remains present for around 4 hours, which has been a consistent amount of time stayed during each of these invasions.

The time of an Israeli attack cannot be predicted since they have been so random, adding to the psychological games that the Israeli military enjoys playing to keep the villagers vulnerable. The residents of Burin know it is always coming, but when is the mystery.

Ghassan Najjar, Director of the Bilal Najjar Youth Center, named after the martyr, stated that despite the patterns, “We know in the village that from 9 PM until the early morning that the village is no longer ours, it is the military playground.”

The military uses tear gas and sound bombs frequently, using these during both attacks and when the military uses Burin as a venue for military training. Ghassan Najjar, awoken by these activities notes that soldiers have stated, “Don’t worry, we are only training, go back to sleep.” They are on roofs, shooting gas at no one, and throwing sound bombs near peoples houses and even raiding houses during these drills.

When the settlers and soldiers are together and enter Burin, the illegal settlers remain in the village fields and hills, never entering the heart of the village. Yet the Israeli military will advance to protect these settlers, with the weapons they train with and even live ammunition to disperse peaceful protesters.

The settlers have all come from the same direction, from the stolen land now referred to as a settlement named Bracha. They have come in numbers between 10 and 25 and they come armed, weapons ranging from handguns to M-16s.

These three attacks have been focused on the Sofan household. They are not new to the suffering, having had their house set on fire twice. The second arson attack resulted in the death of Atallah Sofan, husband of Hanan Sofan who currently lives in their home. Her husband died after he had a heart attack due to the sight of his home in flames. They have had their chickens, sheep, horse and donkey killed and their house stoned and paint bombed.

“Our house is the only thing stopping the settlers from taking this area,” said Sofan.

The nearby settlement of Yitzhar is home to some of the most violent Price Tag Campaign settlers

This is what happened on the latest occasions; bottles and stones were thrown at their home and their sheep were also under attack. As usual, the youth of Burin came down to protect their land by throwing stones. On March 9th this was soon met by Israeli soldiers who protected the settlers, contrary to what they claimed about wanting to provide security for the Palestinian residents. There were clashes between all three parties, which is typical for Burin, each time lasting between 30 to 90 minutes.

While patterns in the behavior of illegal and violent settlers are being mapped, and the relationship between the occupying forces and these rogue bands of settler gangs becomes clearer, the pattern itself does not change the inability of Palestinians to prepare for Israeli violence.

“Although patterns are made, the [Israelis] also can come whenever they like and do whatever they like,” said Lydia. “For me all I can do is document. Even if clearer patterns are made, what can the Palestinians do, leave their houses for those hours? If they do begin to leave, the soldiers win as people change the way they live to avoid the army.”

Official Release: “The New Black” by The Mavrix

13 March 2012 | Palestine Solidarity Alliance and PACBI

In a first ever musical collaboration between South Africa and Palestine, South African band, The Mavrix, and Palestinian Oud player, Mohammed Omar, have released a music video called “The New Black”. The song is taken from The Mavrix’ upcoming album,”Pura Vida”, due for release in June 2012.

Written and composed by Jeremy Karodia and Ayub Mayet, the song was a musical reaction to the horror of the Gaza Massacre of 2008/2009 and then subsequently inspired by the book “Mornings in Jenin”, authored by Susan Abulhawa. Mayet had penned the first lyrics in 2009 after the Massacre and the song went into musical hibernation. Having read the novel, “Mornings in Jenin”, he then re-wrote the lyrics and the song evolved into its current version.

Haidar Eid, a Gaza based BDS activist and friend of the band, heard the song in 2011 and urged the band to do a collaboration with Palestinian Oud player, Mohamed Omar. He also suggested that the band do a video highlighting the collaboration between South African and Palestinian musicians and also the similarities in the two struggles.

The song was recorded by The Mavrix in South Africa whilst Mohamed recorded the Oud in Gaza and, although never having had the opportunity to meet, the musical interplay between the musicians so far apart illustrates the empathy the musicians feel in solidarity with each other.

Produced by The Palestinian Solidarity Alliance (South Africa) and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) along with written endorsements from Haidar Eid of PACBI, Omar Barghouti of the BDS Movement, Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada and Susan Abulhawa, author of “Mornings in Jenin”, the song represents a message of support from South Africans, who having transgressed and crossed over their own oppression under apartheid, stand in solidarity with Palestinians who are currently experiencing their own oppression under Israeli apartheid.

The video will be launched on the 12 March 2012 at 2.30pm SA time from Gaza at the start of Israeli Apartheid Week Palestine and will be on youtube following the official launch.

In addition to the digital upload, the PSA will be handing out hardcopies of the DVD as well.

Burying Nayif Qarmout

13 March 2012 | Nathan Stuckey, International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Nayif Qarmout was killed by an Israeli missile today at 9:30 A.M. He was 14 years old. Five other teenagers with him were injured, Tamer Azzam, 16, Mu’ayyad al-Qanou’, 18, Hani al-Qanou’, 16, Salih Qarmout, 14; and Sa’eed al-Attar, 14. The boys were reportedly playing football in a playground when the missile struck. Nayif was buried today in Jabalia.

The same mosque that yesterday hosted the funeral of twelve year old Ayoub Useila today was the site of the funeral of Nayif. Hundreds of people gathered for noon prayers before the funeral. The street outside of the mosque was full of people. After prayers Nayif’s body was brought out, born on the shoulders of his friends and relatives. His face was the only thing visible, it was bloody and swollen. His body was wrapped in white cloth. Around him rose the green flags of Hamas.

This time, we did not set out toward the cemetery near the border. We went through the heart of Jabalia. The streets were narrow and crowded. Cries of “God is great” and “there is no God but God” rang out. The men raised one arm in the air, one finger extended, there is one God it said. From the windows of second and third stories people looked down onto the procession, onto the shattered body of Nayif Qarmout. Nayif Qarmout, who this morning had been playing football with his friends, who had still been alive, was now, a bloody body on a stretcher.

The procession moved quickly, with the energy that the processions of martyrs seem to have. Until we passed by Nayif’s house, the procession slowed, and stopped, women crowded the alley crying. This would be the last time they would see the body of their son, their cousin, their nephew, Nayif. Then, the procession moved onward to the cemetery.

The cemetery was Nayif was buried is an old cemetery. It is already crowded with graves. The procession slowed as the men picked their way among the grave, until they found the place where Nayif was to be buried. The grave was dug. Nayif was lowered into it and men began to shovel earth over him. When they were finished there was a human shaped mound of earth. Even if you did not know what had happened, you would know what this was, the grave of a child. A young red haired man sat by the grave, he did not cry but the grief was obvious. Nayif was someone that meant a lot to him. Nayif was stolen from him by an Israeli missile.

Nathan Stuckey and Rosa Schiano are volunteers with International Solidarity Movement.