Category: Features - Page 135 - International Solidarity Movement

Marianne heads for Gaza today!

10th May 2015 | Ship to Gaza | Gothenburg, Sweden

Marianne of Gothenburg will leave her home port at 7 pm on the 10 of May. The trawler, which has been acquired by Ship to Gaza Sweden and Ship to Gaza Norway jointly, departs for a voyage of almost 5000 nautical miles to eastern Mediterranean and the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Marianne will join other ships and together they will form the “Freedom Flotilla III” in order to perform a peaceful, nonviolent action to break the illegal and inhumane blockade of the Gaza Strip.

In passing Marianne will call at European ports for manifestations against the blockade. The First three ports will be Helsingborg, Malmö and Copenhagen. The subsequent ports will be announced in press releases.

Cargo
Marianne is not a cargo-ship, but she will bring a limited cargo of, among other things, solar cell panels and medical equipment.

The solar cell panels are a gift from ETC-El. In the blockaded Gaza Strip, where the infrastructure has been demolished, solar cells will thus provide an opportunity to independent local production of clean energy. The sun can not be blockaded.

Delegates
In addition to a crew of five people, Marianne will have up to eight delegates as passengers in each section of the route. The names of these individuals will be announced as time progress. In the first section are among others:

Maria Svensson, pro. tem. spokesperson, Feministiskt initiativ
Mikael M Karlsson, Chairperson, Ship to Gaza Sweden
Henry Ascher, professor of Public Health, paediatrician
Lennart Berggren, filmmaker
Dror Feiler, musician, spokesperson of Ship to Gaza

Update on urgent call – help Mohammed Abu Rahmah

09th May 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Ramallah, Occupied Palestine

UPDATED – On the 20th April, Israeli forces arrested Mohammed Adeeb Abu Rahmah while he was on his way to Mecca.

Mohammed is the 19 year old son of prominent Bil’in activists Adeeb Abu Rahmah. Father of nine, Adeeb was sentenced for 18 months in military prison for his role in the popular struggle to free his village’s land from the occupation forces. (Read our previous article on his arrest here)

Now Mohammed, his eldest son, has just been arrested and held in the Ofer military prison. His court case is not due to happen until at least the end of May.

Mohammed Abu Rahmah was arrested crossing the bridge into Jordan while trying to travel to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage. According to his lawyer Neri Ramati, the case Mohammad was arrested for was closed a year ago and involved the weekly protests of Bil’in against the construction of the apartheid wall.

His family thanks everyone who has donated money toward his release. Mohammed is now out of prison. However, only two thirds of the needed sum has been collected and they are still needing $750 that have been borrowed.
If you are able to help financially, please follow this Paypal link: https://palsolidarity.org/donate/

Any amount will help. Together we can support the Abu Rahmah family with Mohammed’s freedom! If you are unable to help financially, please spread the word.

Please send an email to palreports@gmail.com and lumalayan@gmail.com with Mohammed Abu Rahmah in the subject line to let us know about your donation. If any additional money is raised, ISM will use it to obtain the release of other Palestinian activists imprisoned by the occupation forces for resisting the theft of their lands.

Thank you.

Nine Palestinian fishermen kidnapped by the Egyptian army

06th March | Miguel Hernández | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

On the 3rd of May, the trial of nine Palestinian fishermen kidnapped by the Egyptian army while fishing in waters of the border city of Rafah, took place in the Egyptian city of Al Arish. Three of the fishermen are brothers, Ali Abu Hamada, 36 years old, with eight children, Mahmoud Abu Hamada, 22 years old, and Mohamed Abu Hamada, 32 years old with three children. Among the hostages there’s also a 13 years old boy.

Mohamed’s wife with their three children.

Since the end of the last massacre in Gaza the situation of the fishermen has been worse than ever. They don’t even dare to reach the four mile limit.

Despite the fact that, officially, the sea blockade imposed by the Israeli state starts at six miles, the attacks on the fishermen are continuous even as close as two miles out.

Palestinians locked in Gaza tell us how much the position of the Eyptian government and its total coordination with the Israeli state regarding the policies towards the Palestinian people surprises and saddens them.

To the destruction of the tunnels that supplied the fishermen with fiberglass, necessary to fix the bullet holes in their boats, and the spare parts for engines, has, in recent months, been added the abduction of Palestinian fishermen and vessels that fish near Egyptian waters.

The mother of the three brothers, Nasmiya, native of Yibna, a Palestinian village wiped out by Israeli colonialism during the Nakba, described the umpteenth misfortune that the creation of the State of Israel in Paletine has brought to her life.

On the 16th March 2015, her sons, along with six other fishermen from Al Shati refugee camp, located in the Northern part of the Gaza Strip, headed south to the city of Rafah, trying to escape from the continuous attacks of the Israeli occupation forces and looking for less polluted and exploited waters.

The day after, the family received a phone call from the Egyptian army telling her that the nine fishermen were dead and that their bodies were in Egypt, ready to be returned the next time Rafah border opened.

It wasn’t until two weeks later when one of her sons managed to take a picture of the nine men and sent it to his mother, that she knew they were still alive.

Despite the bad quality of the picture, the signs of torture on their bodies was clear; cigarette burns, black eyes, wounds and bruises. For security reasons Nasmiya asks us not to publish the picture.

The family still doesn’t know the outcome of the trial, and no one dares to make predictions.

Join The Resistance! Join the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine

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Harvesting While Harassed- Jabari family face military and settlers to gather their crops

3rd May 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

The Jabari family owns land sandwiched in between the illegal settlements of Kiryat Arba and Givat Ha’vot. In 2001, settlers illegally took over part of the land to erect a synagogue-tent on the Jaabari-family land. All settlements are illegal under international law, unlike most settlements however, this synagogue has also been deemed illegal under Israeli law. In February 2015 an Israeli court finally ordered the demolition of the tent-synagogue. Even though the demolition was carried out in April, the debris until now still remains on the land and settlers keep on partly rebuilding under the protection of the Israeli forces.

When settlers from the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba first constructed the tent-synagogue on the Jabari family land , they also erected a path connecting Kiryat Arba with the illegal settlement of Givat Hav’ot. It took the family until 2003 to get a demolition order issued by the Israeli Civil Administration. Nothing happened afterwards until the synagogue-tent was destroyed by heavy snow in 2013, only to be rebuild again by settlers.

The demolished Synagogue-Tent on the Jabari land

Finally, on the 18th February 2015 an Israeli court issued a demolition order for the structure and the synagogue-tent was demolished early in the morning on 14th April 2014. Even though the tent was demolished, the Israeli military did not clean up the rubble, that until now is still on the family land. Since the demolition settlers have been partly rebuilding the synagogue-tent with the materials still on the land. “Price Tag” violence from the settlers, both adults and children, has rapidly increased since the demolition, with Palestinians walking past on the main road attacked by settlers, and the Jabari family has been attacked verbally and physically, with stones thrown by settlers. Israeli police and soldiers present at the sight- they watch but do not stop the settlers.

Watch this video taken by the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) on settler children attacking Palestinians and human rights observers.

The Jaabari family asked for support with harvesting their fodder crops. As all of their land is either bordering the demolished synagogue-tent or the illegal settlement of Givat Ha’vot, Youth against Settlements (YAS) arranged to help with the harvest on 1st May 2015. Together with YAS, volunteers from a range of human rights organisations, both local and international, joined the family to harvest the area directly next to the demolished synagogue tent, the area most threatened by settlers. Israeli occupation forces are prohibiting the Jabaris and all volunteers from using any kind of harvesting tools under threat of arrest. Shortly after harvesting began, settlers, police and the army arrived. At first they only watched the harvest, but after two hours the Israeli forces declared the field a closed military zone and everyone was ordered to leave.

On Saturday, another small field at the top of the Jabari’s land, close to the police station and the illegal settlement of Givat Ha’vot was harvested without interruption by settlers or Israeli forces. The majority of the Jabari family’s crops still remain to be brought in.