30th November 2015 | International Solidarity Movement | Ramallah, occupied Palestine
Hamzeh’s family has managed to raise 1880 shekels! This is over half of the amount needed so that Hamzeh can come home in seven days! We still need 564.5 dollars to pay his fine to release him.
Hamze Marwan Abdomousa
Hamzeh was taken from his home in Amari refugee camp by Israeli forces on February 5th, 2015. He was forced to accept a plea bargain despite denying the charges leveled against him by Israeli military court. Now his family must pay the fine or he will remain in prison for another four months.
‘This fine goes beyond the financial means of my circle of family and friends,’ Hamze explains. ‘My financial situation is very difficult, and has worsened by the fact that I have been unemployed for the past 2 years. I was forced to leave school at grade 9 to begin working and help my family. My family still depends on me for financial support, and my imprisonment has exerted an enormous burden on them. I ask all people who understand me to support me and my family.’
If 50 people give 11.29 $ each, or if 100 people give 5.65 $, or 200 people give 2.83 $, Hamzeh will go free. If you’re broke, you can be creative: Pass your hat around friends and family, make a soup kitchen tonight and invite everyone to donate a little!
Also, please send us an email to palreports@gmail.com with “Free Hamzeh” in the subject line to let us know your donation is for Hamzeh, or if you want information about other ways to donate.
Hamze Marwan Abdomousa
Any donation is greatly appreciated; If we all put our efforts together we can fulfill Hamzeh’s desire and right to freedom! Please share his story with your friends and family, in your social media and with all the people who care.
31st December 2015| International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Jordan Valley, Occupied Palestine
During the past 6 months, the Jordan Valley Solidarity Campaign has registered further land grabbing in Fasayal village in the Jordan Valley. The land, which originally belonged to a Palestinian owner, was invaded 6 months ago by Israeli authorities accompanied by settlers from nearby illegal Israeli settlements and bulldozers. Locals say that they were seen working on the land in order to level the surface of the soil to prepare it for planting trees. Locals reported that on the 19th of December Israeli authorities with Israeli settlers were digging holes for trees; so far, 400-500 date trees have already been illegally planted on the ground. The land is located between two illegal Israeli settlements, Yafit and Masu’a, and furthermore borders with route 90, which has resulted in the denial of access for many Palestinian land owners to their land because of “security reasons.”
Israeli bulldozers seen preparing the Palestinian-owned land in Fasayal, Jordan Valley. (Photo credit: Jordan Valley Solidarity Campaign)
As 87% of the Jordan Valley is declared area C and an additional 7%, which is formally part of area B, is declared a nature reserve, most of the Jordan Valley is off limits for the Palestinian people. Furthermore, 50% of the area is controlled by the illegal Israeli settlements, and 45% is declared military bases, “closed military zones,” “nature reserves,” and “firing zones,” denying access for Palestinians and facilitating the demolitions of Bedouin tents, houses, wells etc. In area C obtaining permits to build schools, hospitals, water networks, roads or other basic service infrastructure is practically impossible, which violates the basic needs and human rights of the residing Palestinian population. Israeli forces destroy infrastructure and buildings built without a permit.
By oppressing the people in the Jordan Valley in this manner, Israeli occupation forces have succeeded in decreasing the Palestinian population from 320,000 in 1967 to approximately 55,000 people. In the same four decades, 37 illegal Israeli settlements have been established and are now housing 10,00 settlers, who enjoy a 75% discount on their water bills and cheap stolen land. In contrast, Palestinians suffer from extreme lack of access to water by having their water tanks confiscated and their wells demolished. Furthermore, the Israeli authorities prohibit Palestinians from digging new wells or reallocating old wells, forcing Palestinians to have wells only 150 meters deep where the water is either salty or nonexistent due to the construction of Jewish-only wells nearby. Israelis are allowed to dig 400-500 meter wells, sometimes hitting salt beds causing the water in the Palestinian wells to be salty.
30th December, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al Khalil team | Al Khalil, occupied Palestine
On 30th December 2015, Israeli forces showered the Abu Sneineh neighbourhood in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) in tear gas and shot skunk water at family homes and a kindergarten.
When students at the schools in the Abu Sneineh neighbourhood were leaving school after finishing their exams, Israeli forces started throwing stun grenades from the checkpoint the students must cross on their way home from school. They advanced towards the schools firing several rounds of tear gas at the students. One school boy was randomly grabbed off the street by the border police and taken first to the checkpoint and then to the police station. The 13-year old student is accused of throwing stones. Whether he was released or not is unknown at this moment.
13-year old schoolboy arrested by Israeli forces
Israeli forces then fired endless rounds of tear gas towards the group of students still in the street as well as directly into the neighbourhood. Schoolchildren were suffocating on the tear gas, running away trying to hide from the clouds of gas making their eyes and throats burn and making it almost impossible to breathe.
Once the streets were empty, Israeli forces drove the ‘skunk’ truck into the neighbourhood, spraying the foul-smelling liquid aimed from large trucks all over the streets. At the time they sprayed the skunk water, the neighbourhood was already deserted, as clouds of tear gas were still lingering in the streets. Right after, the skunk truck directly targeted a kindergarten and several windows of family homes. This is clearly a collective punishment on the whole neighbourhood, as the foul-smelling skunk water – intended for ‘riot control’ purposes – was arbitrarily used on residents living in the area. Incidents like this, in the Abu Sneineh neighbourhood, are not a rare occurrence, with Israeli forces often firing tear gas directly at or even into family homes and soaking the streets in skunk water.
Watch a video of the skunk truck targeting residents of the Abu Sneineh neighbourhood.
30th December 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza strip, occupied Palestine
Last Friday, 25th of December another youth, 22-year-old Hani Wahdan, was killed in Shijaia in Gaza. One week before, 20-year-old Mohamed El Agha was killed in El Faraheen in Gaza.
Demonstration in Gaza
Since the beginning of October Israeli snipers have killed unarmed demonstrators along Gaza’s fence almost every week, and injured hundreds with live fire.
Mohamed Abu Taima, 22 years old, is one of those injured by the Israeli snipers. He was shot in the leg minutes before the killing of Mohamed El Agha took place in the same area.
Demonstration in Gaza
In the European Hospital of Khan Younees, 19-year-old Abdel Kareem Kalwaji lies in a bed beside Mohamed’s. He was shot a week before Mohamed; unfortunately the explosive dum-dum bullets used by the occupation completely destroyed both bones in one of his legs and one bone in the other leg. He has already undergone two surgeries and doctors say that he’ll need a lot of rehabilitation in order to move around by himself again.
Mohamed Abu Taima in hospital.
When questioned regarding their reasons to demonstrate despite the high risk of getting shot, both answered that they do it for the liberation of Al Quds and Al Aqsa Mosque and in support of their brothers and sisters in the West Bank.
December 24th 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, occupied Palestine
During recent months the subsidence of the land along the Egyptian border have become a great danger for the population of Rafah.
Land subsidence next to the city of Rafah
Land subsidence next to the city of Rafah
This is due to the Egyptian project that has been pumping seawater all along its border with the Gaza Strip. The goal of this project is to flood the tunnels that provided access for the Palestinian people who have been locked in Gaza since the implementation of the blockade imposed by the Israeli occupation.
Flooded tunnel
Abdel Aziz El Atar, Head of the Civil Defence Office in Rafah, explains how they are receiving daily calls alerting about the appearance of new holes in the land, the flooding of more agricultural areas by seawater or the flooding of more homes.
Abdel Aziz el Atar, Head of the Civil Defence Office
All of this continues to happen despite the fact that most of the homes near the Egyptian border have been evacuated due to the flooding and the high risk of land subsidence.
The staff of the Civil Defence Office regrets not having the technology and the equipment required to cope with this situation, “we fear that with the winter and the heavy rains it will just get worse…” “Besides the flooding, we are suffering from the contamination of the aquifers with sea water, the salinization of the croplands… And moreover, this project broke several pipelines that supplied drinking water and destroyed as well the sewage system in some areas near the border”.
Road destroyed by land subsidence
All these dangers and consequences had been warned by a great number of international NGO’s that saw that project as “a new threat for the food security and the access to drinking water for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip”. In addition, this poses a serious threat for the environment, both for Egypt and Palestine.
For this reason, the Palestinian Government in Gaza demands that international agencies, such as the UN, take the required measures in order to stop and cancel this project, that represents a clear violation of the international and humanitarian law and of the international conventions and principles regarding common cross-border water resources.
ISM also met the Head of Security at the border, who said that actually their biggest concern is that “the wall that separates Egypt from Gaza has been sinking in several points… we are afraid that during the next months it will collapse completely, making it almost impossible for us to keep the security of the border… several security posts have been already displaced due to land subsidence”.
Egyptian soldiers fixing parts of the wall that had been destroyed by land subsidence.
He continues, “However, that’s not the only aggression we suffer from the Egyptian authorities; everyday, the Egyptian soldiers insult and open fire both against the Palestinian civilian population from Rafah and against our security forces. Two weeks ago for example, they shot three workers that were fixing a subsidence near the border. After that, the soldiers entered Palestinian territory and kidnapped the three injured workers. Until now, the government from Gaza doesn’t have any news about them.” He also adds, “Just another example happened a few days ago, when the Egyptian soldiers shot a drinking water deposit”.
Both interviewees demand the international community to put pressure on the Egyptian Authorities. “That’s the only way of stopping this humanitarian and environmental crime, as locally, the Egyptian government enjoys the support of both Israel and Ramallah’s governments on that project”.
Egyptian workers working on the pipes that pump seawater along the border
