Category: Features - Page 147 - International Solidarity Movement

Child arrests continue in Hebron

20th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine

UPDATE: Child arrests in Hebron continue today as a 15 year old Palestinian boy, Az Dweik, was arrested in the morning. He was allegedly carrying a knife around the Ibrahimi mosque and taken to the Kiryat Arba police station. The Israeli authorities regularly falsely accuse children and adults in Hebron of carrying weapons as a pretext to arrest or detain them (including tragically in the case of Mohammed Salayme who was killed in 2012). 5 eyewitnesses say they saw Az`s face and wrists covered in blood whilst in custody of the soldiers. He is currently being detained at Ofer prison near Ramallah. In the afternoon Muhammad Almayele, 9 years old, was thrown to the ground near Shuhada street by three soldiers before being held in an an army base for one hour. A soldier told us that “The reason we scare them is so that they don’t come here again.”

Muhammad Almayele , 9 , being arrested by soldiers

By Team Khalil

Ahmed Ibn Bilal Abu Rumeileh, a 12-year-old boy from Hebron, was today arrested in the Old City and detained for over an hour before being released. Ahmed was riding his bike through Bab Al-Baladia when six Israeli soldiers stopped him and arrested him, seemingly completely at random. Ahmed was blindfolded and taken to Beit Romano army base on Shuhada Street, where he was detained for around 45 minutes.

He was then driven in a military jeep to checkpoint 56 where he was eventually released into the custody of the Palestinian police, who registered Ahmed’s details and completed some paperwork before taking him home to his family. Upon questioning by international activists, Israeli soldiers claimed that Ahmed had been arrested due to throwing stones at the Israeli military in the morning, however Ahmed denies this. The Israeli occupation forces regularly accuse children and young men of stone-throwing and use this as an excuse for arrests, which often happen at random.

Ahmed’s arrest comes as part of a series of increasing arrests and detentions of minors in the Old City of Hebron in recent months. “Occupied Childhoods”, a report on child-arrests compiled by the Hebron Christian Peacemaker Team is available here.

In March 2013, UNICEF released a damning report in which it harshly critized the “ill-treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system [which] appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized”. You can read this here.

You can also see recent testimonies from Palestinian children imprisoned by the Israeli military.

Twelve-year-old arrested and blindfolded in Hebron

20th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine

By Team Khalil

You can also see recent testimonies from Palestinian children imprisoned by the Israeli military.

This Palestinian Prisoners Day we remember Bassem Abu Rahma who was murdered four years ago today

17th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine

By Team Khalil

Today is Palestinian Prisoners Day which also marks the 4th anniversary of the death of Bassam Abu Rahma and the 270th day of Samer Issawi’s hunger strike. These two events perfectly illustrate the ongoing perseverance of the Palestinian peoples relentless struggle for peace, justice , freedom and dignity. They also illustrate the Israeli army’s excessive and often lethal use of force against peaceful and unarmed demonstrators throughout the West Bank and Gaza.

In 2009 Bassam Abu Rahma was shot at close range in the chest with a high velocity tear gas canister , which are designed to penetrate concrete walls and gas those inside. He was shot as he walked towards Israeli soldiers whilst holding his hands up the air. He was marching for his Palestinian comrades being held in various Israeli prisons and detention centers without charge or trial and the expansion of settlements around his village of Bil`in.

Samer Issawi has been on hunger strike in an Israeli detention center for 270 days, one of the longest hunger strikes in history. He has refused Israeli offers to be exiled to Gaza and other UN countries , firmly asserting that he will either be released to his home in Jerusalem or starve to death.

Palestinian Prisoner Day was founded to remind the world of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners imprisoned in Israeli prisons or detention centers without charge or trial for extensive periods of time. The International Solidarity Movement, in solidarity with the Palestinian people and political prisoners everywhere call for the immediate release of such prisoners and for international pressure to be put on Israel for its numerous breaches of international law.

Humanity has no nationality: 2nd anniversary of the murder of Vittorio Arrigoni

15th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nabi Saleh, Occupied Palestine

By Team Khalil

“We must remain human, even in the most difficult times …
Because, despite everything, there must always be humanity within us. We have to bring it to others.” -Vittorio Arirgoni

Today marks the second anniversary of the murder of ISM activist and comrade Vittorio Arrigoni in the Gaza Strip. Vittorio arrived in Gaza on the 23rd of August 2009, breaking the Israeli siege on Gaza with around 40 other international activists which he described as one of the happiest moments of his life: “It became clear, not only to the world, but Palestinians also that there are people who are willing to spend their lives to come and hug their brothers here in Gaza.”

From his arrival until his murder on the 15th of April 2011 , Vittorio stayed in Gaza to work with the International Solidarity Movement there where he attended regular demonstrations, helped both farmers and fishermen and documented the countless Israeli crimes against humanity that he witnessed. Vittorio also stayed in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead which massacred hundreds of unarmed Palestinian civilians.

In an interview he said: “I am from a partisan family, my grandfathers fought and died struggling against occupation, a fascist Nazi one. For that reason presumably in my DNA, my blood, there are particles that push me to struggle for freedom and human rights.”

As the children of Gaza continue to be born under siege and the Palestinian people suffer the brutality of the occupation every single day, the best way to honour the memory of Vittorio Arrigoni is to continue his work and never cease to resist. Vittorio continues to be an inspiration to people all over the world resisting injustice and inhumanity. To echo one of his favourite quotes, “A victor is merely a dreamer who never stops dreaming.” Vittorio, we will never forget you.

In memory of Tom Hurndall, shot in the head by Israeli sniper 10 years ago today

11th April 2013 | Occupied Palestine

The International Solidarity Movement today remember Tom Hurndall, ISM volunteer who 10 years ago on 11th April 2003 was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper.

The Israeli army were invading the city of Rafah, in the Gaza Strip when Tom and other ISM volunteers saw a group of children in a street where snipers were firing. Witnesses say that bullets were shot around the children, who were paralysed by fear and unable to move – Tom pulled one child to safety, but as he was returning for a second, he was shot in the head by a sniper.

He went into a coma and died nine months later on 13th January 2004. He was 22 years old. Today, on the day he was shot, we pay tribute to Tom’s bravery. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. We continue to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, as we think Tom would have wished.

“What do I want from this life? What makes you happy is not enough. All the things that satisfy our instincts only satisfy the animal in us. I want to be proud of myself. I want more. I want to look up to myself and when I die, I want to smile because of the things I have done, not cry for the things I haven’t done.” – Tom Hurndall