Category: Features - Page 141 - International Solidarity Movement

Madleen Kolab, Gaza’s only fisherwoman

9th February 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Charlie Andreasson | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

I have seen her standing there more then once, at the edge of the port, looking out over the boats in the harbor and then towards the horizon. And for a short second, I have seen myself, when as a child I took my bicycle down to the harbor just to stand at the pier and gaze, for a long, long time, at the boats that disappeared beyond the horizon, and wonder what was beyond that line. And I have briefly asked myself if she does the same. But she is not a child, she is a young, adult woman. A strong woman.

I asked a good friend to arrange a meeting with Madleen Kolab, 19 years old and Gaza’s only fisherwoman, for an interview. Later, she would reveal this was only to tell me face to face tell me that she does not give interviews. For almost two years, she has declined all requests from journalists because they, as she says, only writes for their careers. But she decided to make an exception when she recognized me and knew that I was involved in the rebuilding of Gaza’s Ark, and thus in work for Palestine. Her firm look told me that she was serious and I felt honored, but also a little embarrassed, and was grateful that I could lower my eyes towards my notepad.

When she was six years old, she already accompanied her father when he was fishing, and she knew early what her coming profession would be. She loves her work. It gives her a sense of freedom to be on the sea, and she was careful to point out that nobody forced her to become a fisherman. Her rapt answers to my questions, that she never needed any consideration, unwavering eyes and lack of hesitation left no doubt or room for me to think otherwise. I could not doubt her word when she said that the other fishermen respect her as an equal colleague. It was only after I stressed that women all over the world find it difficult to break into an extremely male-dominated industry like fishing that she confessed she too has been fighting for her rights, and has been treated with prejudice, but that has now changed.

Madleen is the eldest of four siblings. She fishes with the younger of her two brothers on a hasaka, a small open boat, with an outboard motor. Earlier she had a type of boat she needed to paddle. Now she has the opportunity to go to deeper water and get somewhat better catches. Besides, it is safer. But she has been attacked by Israeli patrol boats, and she says it has been common for bullets to whiz around the boat. Once she feared she would be arrested, but when the Israeli soldiers discovered there was a woman on board the boat, they ordered her to instead head back to the harbor, obviously unsure of how they would deal with the unfamiliar situation. Madleen knows that will not save her forever, and she avoids the edge of the group of boats that go out, preferring to fight over the catch with others than try to get a bigger share for herself in more open water. But she also knows that when the Israeli military has decided to take a particular boat, it will also be the one they separate from the others.

I asked her about the escalation of violence. In January, thirteen attacks on fishermen were carried out, one at the six nautical-mile limit and the others three or less than three nautical miles from the coast. She knows from experience that if it is allowed to go out six miles, the Israeli navy keeps them within five miles, and when they were officially allowed to go only three miles, it was in reality only two. But Madleen believes they now attack so close to land because it is a high season and Israel wants to make it difficult for Palestinian fishermen to support themselves. This view is consistent with those of fishermen I have talked to after they were temporarily arrested and had their boats and gear confiscated. And the Israeli military know they can continue their abuses, since the world is not protesting.

But what would she do if there was no blockade? Would she leave Gaza? Madleen did not hesitate. She would stay. Palestine is her home. But she would fish further out, away from the overfished and shallow waters. And she wish that global society could make Israel stop the illegal and inhumane blockade. Fishermen themselves cannot. And as Madleen rightly points out, they have the right to fish in their own water. Right now, everything is like a dark dream, she continues; the future seems bleak. Still she hopes that one day they will be free from the blockade. And to hope is the only thing they can do.

Her phone rang. Someone wondered where she was. Madleen had never meant to be away for any length of time, and she asked me if I had any more questions. I took a few photographs of her and thanked her for her time. Before she left, she offered her help to launch Gaza’s Ark back into water. But I think I will see her again, standing there at the edge of the port. And it strikes me that I never asked that question, what she thinks about when she gazes towards the horizon.

Gaza children with terminal illness spend their final years under the siege

3rd February 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Charlie Andreasson | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

Epidermolysis bullosa is an exotic name for what is, in its most severe form, unusual, painful and fatal disease. It is caused by a deficiency of the protein that binds the two skin layers together, creating friction, blisters and open, slow-healing wounds. These blisters and erosions occur Even on internal mucous membranes. The wounds are similar to third degree burns, and children – victims of its most severe form will rarely be older than that – are also more prone to skin cancer. A cure does not exist.

In Daniela Riva’s apartment in Gaza City is a party, with cakes and cordiality. Some of the affected children are there, along with some siblings and their mothers. It is a merry atmosphere. They are playing, and there is some strife about whose turn it is to bowl with a Wii video game. One of the girls after a long, fascinated look at my red beard and blue eyes, borrows my notebook and draws a big heart. It takes her some time to fill it in.

They are unusually short, and have red sores on their faces. Their bodies have to put much effort into heal the wounds, as much as possible, and keeping the symptoms of the disease in check. Those at the party look six or seven years old. In fact, they are about ten years old. And they move stiffly, mainly as a consequence of all the bandages they wear – bandage that keep a special kind of layer in place to prevent their clothes from sticking in their wounds and allow them to live reasonably normal lives without the pain that any contact otherwise will cause – but their movements would be strained even without these bandages. Their stiff skin makes them turn their bodies simultaneously with their heads, and their fingers are becoming more and more hunched and rigid.

R – let us call her that – is the most active during the party. She is ten years with a catching smile, although it reveals her effected teeth and gums, and with a small hand, most similar to a human claw, she tries to get her hair in order.Her eyes reflect a curiosity. She is everywhere in the room and can’t sit still. But her breathing is strained, her voice is mostly a hiss and it’s hard for her to make herself heard. The disease also attacks her windpipe and throat. It is likely that her death will be caused by suffocation.

R know she will die. She knows she lives in constant proximity to death. That’s why she refuses to sleep with white sheets – it’s white sheets in which dead bodies are buried – and on a few occasions, when she had a cold and was barely able to breathe at all, asked to call a few friends to say goodbye. One of those she dialed was Daniela.

Daniela came to Gaza for the first time in 2008 to work in water and sanitation for an Italian NGO. She did not return to Italy until 2011. However, she did not spend all her time in Gaza, but traveled back and forth to Israel and the West Bank via the crossing at Erez. During the “Operation Cast Lead” military offensive, she was in Jerusalem. And it was when she returned after the war that she first saw a child, a boy about ten years old, with what appeared to be third degree burns.

She contacted Dr. Majdy Naim, at the al-Shifa hospital, who introduced her to other affected families. Together they advertised in newspapers and radio stations, and thus registered all in the Gaza Strip with the rare disease. Many of the parents had been unaware that there were more victims, but with Daniela’s help, they have now formed an association where they can get support and advice from each other, and through the association they seek assistance worldwide.

Her involvement with these children led her to stop working for the NGO that brought her to Gaza. Instead she got in touch with another, Debra Italy. They were so interested in what Daniela had to say that they made contact with a hospital in Rome, and in December 2012, she was back in Gaza with specialized surgeons who dilated the childrens’ esophaguses so they can eat normally, a procedure that needs to be done more than once during their lives. They also brought the special fabric that allows the children to live more functional lives, a product that cannot be found in the area.

The last time Daniela returned to Gaza, she brought a bag of this fabric. But it was not without difficulty. She was stopped by customs at the Cairo airport, where they requesteded a certificate from the Egyptian ministry of health allowing her to bring in medical materials. Without it, she had to pay ten percent of the value, which was $ 600, money she was promised to get back when she crossed the border to Gaza with the unopened bag. Of course she did not receive any money back in Rafah. But she got the material in, and it is needed. The bandages need to be changed every two to three days, a procedure that takes more than two hours, and between ten and fifteen layers are needed to cover the wounds, costing $75 to $125. The stock she brought will last 5-6 months. After that, the families can only hope that Daniela or someone else will enter with more.

R has one year left to live. Daniela has a dream to take her to Italy to let surgeons there assess if it is feasible to perform one last surgery in her throat, and to give her a nice final trip. I ask no more about it, suspecting that what she calls a dream is what most of us call a will, and I have seen what her will can achieve. Instead, I ask how come she is so self-sacrificing and continues year after year. She is now 36 years old, an age when most people are focused on their families and careers. It was a coincidence that made her start to work with children who have this disease, and as she explains, it just feels right to do it. She does not need any more reason than that.

Gaza fishermen suffer 85 percent income loss as Israeli siege, attacks continue

4th January 2014 | The Electronic Intifada, Joe Catron | Gaza City, Occupied Palestine

Small fishing boats, or hasakas, moored in the Gaza seaport. (Photo by Charlie Andreasson) — Small fishing boats, or *hasakat*, moored in the Gaza seaport. (Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

On 17 December, Palestinian fishermen and their supporters erected a tent — a traditional venue for protest, as well as celebration and mourning — inside the Gaza seaport.

“It was to highlight the situation, the crimes of the Israelis against fishermen here,” said Amjad al-Shrafi, treasurer of the General Union of Fishermen. “We wanted to send a message about the blockade against the fishermen and how we cannot fish freely.”

The protest, organized under the title Free the Holy Land Sea, ended two days later with the delivery of a letter to the nearby office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, demanding international protection for fishermen.

Over three days, hundreds of well-wishers visited a crowded tent decorated with banners and posters supporting fishermen. The organizations represented on its walls ranged from human rights centers to prisoner support groups.

Under fire

“One of our main goals was to push governments around the world to force Israel to give fishermen free lives and let us sail without any limits,” al-Shrafi said. “It’s our right to sail freely in our waters.”

“Another was to pressure the Israeli forces to release the boats and fishermen they have captured.”

Palestinian fishermen in coastal waters off the Gaza Strip frequently come under fire byIsraeli naval forces, which target their boats on both sides of a boundary imposed by Israel.

Israel deploys its gunships into Palestinian waters using an information technology infrastructure administered by Hewlett-Packard (“Technologies of control: The case of Hewlett-Packard,” Who Profits, December 2011).

Through its subsidiary, HP Israel, the US corporation won a contract to run the Israeli navy’s computer and communications network in August 2006 (“HP Israel wins navy IT outsourcing contract,” Globes, 14 August 2006).

The fishing area permitted by Israel, which doubled in size as part of the ceasefire agreement ending eight days of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and retaliatory fire by Palestinian resistance groups in November 2012, now officially reaches six nautical miles from the shore.

But fishermen say the Israeli navy often shoots at them and sometimes captures them and their boats well within the zone it ostensibly allows them.

Captured

“We were far from the prohibited zone, 500 meters away,” said Saddam Abu Warda, a 23-year-old fisherman whom the Israeli navy captured along with his 18-year-old brother Mahmoud around 9am on 10 November.

“They were shouting, ‘You must get out of here in five minutes.’ We had to cut the net to pull it out of the water. Then they started to fire bullets close to our hasaka [small boat]. As they came close to us, their boat looked like a big building with lights.”

The Abu Wardas’ small boat had no engine. “We tried to escape by paddling quickly,” Saddam Abu Warda said. “They forced us to take off our clothes and raise our hands. They were firing bullets in the air and in front of our hasaka. One soldier was shouting, ‘You have to leave your hasaka and get in the water.’ I was shocked. I couldn’t move. I didn’t know why.”

Finally, gunfire forced the brothers into the cold water. “They didn’t stop firing bullets over our heads,” Abu Warda said. “I was far from my brother. He started shouting, saying, ‘I am injured.’ He wasn’t able to keep swimming. I swam back to my brother to try and save him. His blood was [spilling] in the water. Then two small boats came close to us. They pulled my brother from the water. They didn’t take me.”

When Abu Warda reached the Israeli gunship, he lost consciousness after soldiers bound, hooded and kicked him. He awoke in a detention facility in Ashdod, a port in present-day Israel beside his brother Mahmoud, whose right abdomen was stitched by military physicians. The brothers said that Israeli bullets caused the wound.

During an interrogation after he awoke, an Israeli soldier tried to convince him otherwise. “I told him, ‘Three of your gunboats were around us. They were firing bullets. My brother’s blood was everywhere in the water. He was injured by your soldiers.’”

After a lengthy interrogation that continued both in Ashdod port and after their transfer to a detention center by the Erez crossing between Gaza and present-day Israel, Israeli forces released the Abu Wardas into the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun around 10pm — 13 hours after their capture. Their boat and its equipment remained behind.

“We have three hasakas in the Ashdod port,” Abu Warda said of his family’s prior losses to the Israeli navy.

Severe damage

The Abu Wardas’ experiences echo many more documented in a new report by thePalestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR). The PCHR, which supported the Free the Holy Land Sea campaign, is translating the document — already published in Arabic — into English.

Over four years, from 1 September 2009 through 31 August 2013, the Israeli navy killed two fishermen, wounded 24, and captured 147, according to the report. The navy also seized 45 boats and destroyed or damaged 113 more.

The report also records the losses incurred by about thirty bombings of four fishing ports during Israel’s November 2012 attacks on the Gaza Strip, including damages to an additional 80 boats and destruction of a health clinic and a youth center used by fishermen.

“There was severe damage to different fishing facilities during the military offensive,” said Khalil Shaheen, director of PCHR’s economic and social rights unit.” At the ports in Gaza City, Middle Area, Khan Younis and Rafah, different facilities were targeted and destroyed.”

“The report also documents the impact of the total damage to fishermen and the fishing sector,” Shaheen added. “One of the main impacts was the loss of 85 percent of income in the fishing sector, as the result of access restrictions and the naval blockade.”

Casualties have continued to mount in the four months since the period covered by the report ended. The PCHR publishes regular reports on human rights abuses in Gaza. These reports indicate that Israel has shot at fishermen at least 37 times since September, as well as seizing six boats.

“I would like to thank all the solidarity campaigns who were involved in this action and show solidarity with Palestinian fishermen,” al-Shrafi said.

“We ask that the international community continue to pressure their governments, to ask for dignity and a free life for us.”

Joe Catron is a US activist in Gaza, Palestine. He co-edited The Prisoners’ Diaries: Palestinian Voices from the Israeli Gulag, an anthology of accounts by detainees freed in the 2011 prisoner exchange. He blogs at joecatron.wordpress.com and tweets @jncatron.

85-year-old Saeed Ali Gasser from Kafr Qaddum, killed by suffocation from tear gas

02nd January 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Kafr Qaddum, Occupied Palestine

Yesterday, Wednesday 1st January, Israeli forces raided the village of Kafr Qaddum during an anniversary march to commemorate the start of the Fatah movement, 49 years ago. Israeli soldiers and border police shot many tear gas canisters towards the villagers and into several houses.

One tear gas canister landed directly in the house of 85-year-old Saeed Ali Gasser. He was taken directly to the Nablus Speciality Hospital, where he suffocated as a result of gas inhalation. He died at 11 pm.

The funeral will be held this afternoon in the village of KAfr Qaddum.

In recent weeks there has been a steady escalation of night raids, increasingly violent repression of Friday demonstrations, flying checkpoints and seemingly arbitrary arrests. In the past month alone there have been more than twenty night raids on houses in the village.

Photos: Palestinians rally for prisoners in Gaza as Samer Issawi freed in Jerusalem

27th December 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Marco Varasio | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

On 23rd December, like every Monday morning, relatives and friends of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails gathered at the International Committee of the Red Cross’ Gaza office for the weekly rally.

But people at the rally had another reason to gather: the impending release of the Palestinian hero Samer Tariq Issawi, who spent more than 270 day on hunger strike before signing an agreement with the Israeli authorities on 22nd April .

Mothers and wives holding banners of their imprisoned relatives chanted slogans paying tribute to Issawi and all the Palestinian prisoners.

“Today Samer Issawi will be released,” the rally’s opening speech began. “We are so happy for him. We will distribute flowers to all the people here to celebrate his freedom. We need freedom of all the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.”

“We, as Activists for Palestinian Prisoners, celebrate his release to Jerusalem after a 270 days hunger strike,” said Samoah Ahmeed, a Palestinian activist and journalist. “We are close to his family. We want freedom for all the Palestinian prisoners in the future.”

Sweets and flowers were distributed to the people attending the rally to honor Issawi’s release.

What made the release of Issawi’s freedom so special was also that he was not deported to the Gaza Strip, but was instead released in his hometown Issawiya, northeast of Jerusalem.

The Israeli authorities will release another five Palestinian prisoners in the Gaza Strip through the Erez checkpoint next week as part of the current round of negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government.

(Photo by Silvia Todeschini)