Category: Action Alerts - Page 4 - International Solidarity Movement

Olive Harvest 2022: Call for Volunteers

September 15 | International Solidarity Movement | Occupied Palestine

ISM is issuing an urgent call out for volunteers to join the 2022 Olive Harvest at the invitation of Palestinian communities, starting next month.

Olive trees are a national symbol in Palestine. As hundreds of thousands of trees have been uprooted by the Israeli military and illegal settlers – more than 11,700 olive trees were destroyed in 2021 alone – harvesting has become more than a source of income, but a form of resistance.

Recent years have also seen an explosion in settler violence against Palestinian communities, and a series of illegal settler outposts set up across the West Bank.

The new outposts – primarily located in the northern regions of the West Bank close to the cities and towns of Salfit, Hares and Nablus – puts Palestinian farmers in these areas at an increased risk of violence and attacks this Olive Harvest.

ISM is calling for volunteers to join Palestinian farmers on the ground to support them to assert their right to earn a living and be present on their lands.

International activists joining the harvest engage in non-violent direct action, practical support and document human rights abuses against Palestinians, which enables many families to pick their olives. ISM activists work alongside other international organisations to support farmers during the Olive Harvest.

The harvest will begin on October 1 and run until mid-November 2022. We request a minimum 2 week commitment but we ask that if possible, volunteers could stay as long as they can. Our work is dependent on relationships with the Palestinian communities in which we work, and a long-term presence is a massive help towards that end. We kindly ask volunteers to start arriving in the first week of October if possible, so we are prepared when the harvest begins. ISM activists will receive training upon arrival with information on what to expect and how to act in what can be tense situations.

To register your interest in joining the Olive Harvest this year contact ismtraining@riseup.net

When: October 1 – mid-November

Where: the occupied West Bank, Palestine

How to sign up: email us at ismtraining@riseup.net

More information on the Olive Harvest:

https://www.btselem.org/settler_violence/2021_olive_harvest

Join ISM: Online training August 22 & 23, 2022

ISM UK is offering a two-part online pre-training for prospective volunteers who are interested in joining the International Solidarity Movement on the ground in Palestine.

Attending the two sessions together will give you a chance to get a first impression of ISM and the kind of work we do, receive training, connect with former volunteers and have your questions answered. You will also be filled in on how Palestinians are resisting the occupation and how we as internationals can work in solidarity with them using non-violent, direct action methods.

There is no obligation to join ISM after the training.

Where: Online
Date: August 22 and 23, 2022
Time: 18:00-20:30 (UK time/ BST)

To sign up for the training, please contact training.ismlondon@riseup.net (the training is also open to prospective volunteers outside the UK)

This is a two-part training with two sessions covering different content spread over two evenings on following days.

Join ISM: Training in Bristol & Belfast, July 24, 2022

ISM UK & ISM Ireland are offering pre-training sessions in Bristol and Belfast this month for prospective volunteers who are interested in joining the International Solidarity Movement on the ground in Palestine.

Attending the training session will give you a chance to get a first impression of ISM and the kind of work we do, receive training, connect with former volunteers and have your questions answered. You will also be filled in on how Palestinians are resisting the occupation and how we as internationals can work in solidarity with them using non-violent, direct action methods.

There is no obligation to join ISM after the training.

We ask participants to donate £5 to cover training costs.

Bristol

Date: July 24, 2022

Time: 10:30-16:00

Location: Bristol, UK

To sign up for the training, please contact training.ismlondon@riseup.net

Belfast

Date: July 24, 2022

Time: 10.30 – 4.30

Location: Belfast

To sign up for the training, click attending on Facebook here.

ISM Call to Action: Save Masafer Yatta!

The International Solidarity Movement is calling all activists and supporters to take urgent action against Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Masafer Yatta region in the occupied West Bank.

What is Masafer Yatta?:

Masafer Yatta is a rural region to the south of Hebron along the southern border of the occupied West Bank. It is home to 12 Palestinian villages totalling about 2,800 residents. Since 1981, the Israeli army has used the land as a military training area, ‘Firing Zone 918’ which has been used as a pretext for dispossesing, evicting and demolishing Palestinian homes, making every-day life unbearable for residents.

The current situation:

On May 4 2022, the Israeli High Court of Justice rejected appeals by residents against a series of eviction orders, giving the green light to Israeli Occupation Forces to wipe out eight villages located within the firing zone. This puts around 1,200 Palestinian residents, including 500 children, at imminent risk of eviction and arbitrary displacement, according to the UN. This process has already begun. The village of Al Mirkez has already been flattened three times and the residents are living in caves next to the rubble that was formerly their community.

From June 20, Israeli forces will begin training exercises with live ammunition in the Masafer Yatta region. Our partners on the ground view the next 3 months as a critical period, which will determine whether their communities will survive … and we need to act now!

How Masafer Yatta communities are resisting:

ISM’s friends and comrades in the region will never give up and neither should we. Masafer Yatta’s People’s Committee for Protection and Resilience, along with the Youth of Samud (whose headquarters received its own demolition order last week) have come together to use non-violent resistance to stop this ethnic cleansing. Popular resistance groups from all over Palestine and teams of activists from ‘48 [Israel] have been joining them in a united effort to save the villages. They are calling for international support and international activists to come and join the struggle on the ground.

We need volunteers to join them:

ISM is sending volunteers to Masafer Yatta this summer. We are calling on all committed supporters of Palestine to volunteer with ISM in the West Bank, in response to calls for assistance from our partners in Masafer Yatta. ISM activists would be working in solidarity with the Masafer Yatta community to provide a protective presence in villages under threat of demolition. ISM previously supported efforts to halt the demolition of Palestinian village Khan al-Ahmar in 2018. We hope to replicate the same success in Masafer Yatta. For more information about volunteering with ISM (needed this July and August), please contact: ismtraining@riseup.net.

N.B. There is an ISM training event in London scheduled for the 2nd July. We can prepare you and give you more information about what our grassroots partners need from us on the ground! To find out more and apply please contact training.ismlondon@riseup.net.

Support ISM and our Partners:

If you can’t volunteer on the ground you can still help the cause!

Donate to ISM to help us sponsor volunteers and keep us running. Alternatively you can contact us for information about grassroots groups from Masafer Yatta, who you can support with donations or in other ways.

Learn More:

Save Masafer Yatta – Save Masafer Yatta

Israel to begin live fire training in Palestinian community facing forced expulsion | Middle East Eye

Firing Zone 918 – An Exercise in War Crimes (btselem.org)

Webinar: International Solidarity & Resisting Colonization

WEBINAR: Palestine On The Ground: International Solidarity & Resisting Colonization

Saturday, December 19
11 AM PST – 2 PM EST – 7 PM UTC – 9 PM Palestine (EEST)
Register online to join the event: https://bit.ly/palestinewebinar

Join ISM Northern California for a webinar next Saturday, December 19, 2020 to learn about the current situation on the ground in Palestine, grassroots resistance and the work of the International Solidarity Movement. Hear from Palestinian rights defenders and international volunteers on the front lines of popular struggle in Palestine and learn more about how you can get involved.

Speakers will include:

Abdel Karim Dalbah – Palestinian journalist, field researcher and human rights defender. An ISM coordinator for almost two decades and an educator in nonviolent resistance, Abdel has been campaigning for human rights and Palestinian emancipation since the 70’s.

Edmond Sichrovsky – Edmond is an ISM activist of Jewish origin, currently based in northern Europe. In the summer and fall of 2019 he volunteered with ISM in Palestine, taking part in solidarity actions in East Jerusalem, Hebron, and the Jordan Valley. Banned by the Israeli government from returning, he now works to advocate for Palestine locally and in media.

Sophie – International Solidarity Movement volunteer from Spain.

Organized by the International Solidarity Movement – Northern California
https://ism-norcal.org/
solidarity@ism-norcal.org