Category: Features - Page 186 - International Solidarity Movement

Israeli Army Kills 16 Year Old Demonstrator Near Nablus

20 March 2010

Mohammed Ibrahim Qaddous, 16, was shot dead with live ammunition when a Border Police force raided his village of Iraq Burin near Nablus to quash a demonstration this afternoon. Another 16 year old was shot in the head and critically injured.

Qaddous was shot at 3pm this afternoon in the aftermath of a demonstration in the village of Iraq Burin protesting restrictions on access to their lands beneath the Jewish-only settlement of Har Brakha. He was shot in the back, indicating he could not have been posing any threat to the soldiers who shot him. At the same time, Ussayed Jamal Abd elNasser, 16, was shot in the head with live ammunition and critically injured. They were both evacuated to a hospital in Nablus where Ussayed is currently being operated on.

The demonstrators set out towards the village’s lands after midday prayer, and were immediately confronted by soldiers who shot bursts of live ammunition in the air. They then continued to shoot tear-gas and rubber bullets towards the villagers in an attempt to prevent them from reaching their lands. Following the unprovoked attack on the villagers, who were accompanied by 15 international activists, intermittent clashes ensued.

After about two hours, the Army retreated towards the settlement and demonstrators went back to the village. Shortly after, armored Border Police jeeps invaded the village, arrested three people and raided houses. A few minutes later, live shots were fired at a small group of young men, some of which were throwing stones. The shots resulted in one fatality and one critical injury to the head.

Israeli Military Investigator Admits Failures in the Military Investigation of Rachel Corrie’s Killing

Rachel Corrie Foundation

17 March 2010

For Immediate Release:

Today March 17, 2010 the Haifa District Court saw a fourth day of testimony in the civil lawsuit filed by Rachel Corrie’s family against the State of Israel for her unlawful killing in Rafah, Gaza. Rachel Corrie, an American human rights defender from Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death on March 16, 2003 by a Caterpillar D9R bulldozer. She had been nonviolently demonstrating against Palestinian home demolitions with fellow members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using nonviolent, direct action methods and principles.

An Israeli military police investigator, who was part of the team that investigated Rachel’s killing testified today. In his testimony he stated that:
He never inspected the site where the killing occurred; nor did he ever sit inside the D9 bulldozer to see for himself the view the driver had and what the field of vision was.

He admitted that the Israeli military’s D9 bulldozer regulations state that the D9s should not be operated with civilians in close proximity. He failed to question the bulldozer driver about these regulations or make them part of the military police investigation file.

He received a court order authorizing Rachel’s autopsy under the condition that an official from the U.S. Embassy be present, and at the time informed the court that the condition would be upheld. Subsequently, he made no effort to ensure that this condition was upheld, nor does he know if anyone else did, stating he did not consider the follow-up his responsibility. He also failed to forward the final autopsy report to the court, even though this was required, stating that his commander did not require him to do so and that he simply “did not pay attention” to the court order. Dr. Hiss ultimately performed the autopsy without an American Embassy official present.

To his knowledge, no ISM member was arrested the afternoon of March 16 for interfering with Israeli military activities.

American eyewitness Gregory Schnabel, the fourth and last eye-witness called to testify, also testified today, providing his account of the killing of Ms. Corrie. Gregory testified that he saw Rachel climb to the top of the pile of dirt being pushed by the bulldozer and that she was visible to the driver. He also testified that a bulldozer had come close to himself and another ISM member that afternoon, stopping just short of hitting them, which led him to believe that the demonstrators were visible to the driver.

The trial will resume on Sunday, March 21, 2010, at 9 a.m. at the district court in Haifa.

Tulkarem and Ramallah mark the seventh anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie

16 March 2010

Newly dedicated Rachel Corrie Street in Ramallah.

On March 16th 2003, an Israeli bulldozer killed the American activist Rachel Corrie in Rafah, Gaza. Today, in Kafr Sur, near Tulkarem, and in Ramallah, family, friends and supporters gathered together to commemorate the anniversary of her murder.

Students of Kafr Sur Secondary School, who have been working on a research project about Rachel’s life and death, today marked the anniversary with a march to a memorial stone at the entrance to the village. The students were joined by children from the nearby primary school, as the stone was unveiled and speeches were delivered by the headmaster, one of the students, and an ISM activist.

A boy in Tulkarem smiles and holds photos of Rachel.

Approximately fifty Palestinians, Internationals and media then joined Craig and Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s parents, for the inauguration ceremony of Rachel Corrie Street in Ramallah. Speeches were delivered by both the Mayor and Governor of Ramallah, the Minister of State, National Parties’ Coordinator, an ISM activist and Rachel’s parents.

At both events, speakers talked of the lasting impact left by Rachel, as an inspiration to those involved with the non-violent resistance in Palestine and across the world. Rachel’s mother spoke about how her daughter has become a symbol for the anti-Occupation movement, and of how grateful she and her family are to the Palestinians they have come to know and love over the past seven years for their unfailing support, despite the suffering they themselves continue to experience.

The coming weeks also mark the seventh anniversaries of the shootings of the British activist Thomas Hurndall, who was shot in the head whilst shielding children in Rafah from Israeli sniper fire, and who died in hospital nine months later, and Brian Avery, an American who was shot in the face in Jenin, but who mercifully survived. Last weekend saw the one year anniversary of Tristan Anderson being hit in the head with a high velocity tear gas canister in Nilin. Tristan is still recovering in an Israeli hospital.

Eye witness testifies: Israeli military investigator tried to influence my statement

Rachel Corrie Foundation

15 March 2010

For Immediate Release:

Today, March 15, 2010, the Haifa District Court saw the third day of testimony in the civil lawsuit filed by Rachel Corrie’s family against the State of Israel for her unlawful killing in Rafah, Gaza. Rachel was crushed to death on March 16, 2003 by a Caterpillar D9R bulldozer. She had been nonviolently demonstrating against Palestinian home demolitions with fellow members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using nonviolent, direct action methods and principles. Today’s only testimony came from British citizen Alice Coy, a nurse, who was an eyewitness to the killing. The state spent most of the day trying to establish that contrary to all eyewitness accounts and human rights reports, the Israeli Military had no intention of demolishing homes in the area on the day Rachel was killed.

Ms. Coy testified that:
– She first visited Israel in order visit Israeli family members.

– When the Israeli Military interviewed her on April 1st about Rachel’s killing, the soldier who documented her testimony refused to record her statement that she believed the bulldozers were going to destroy civilian homes.

– She believed the Israeli Military was planning to demolish homes on the day Rachel was killed because the Israeli Military had been demolishing homes on the Philadelphi Corridor in the days and weeks prior, and because they had already begun to demolish a house earlier that day by damaging its porch.

– She had spoken with many Palestinian families in the area where Rachel was killed whose homes had been demolished by the Israeli Military.

– She believed the bulldozer driver who killed Rachel could see her.

– She described her view of her work with ISM as promoting peace for the whole region.

———————-

The home Rachel Corrie was protecting, that of Dr. Samir Nasrallah, was in fact demolished by the Israeli Military later that year.

According to an October, 2004 Human Rights Watch report, Razing Rafah: Mass Home Demolitions in the Gaza Strip (http://www.hrw.org/en/node/11963/section/11), between 2000 and 2004, the Israeli Military demolished over 2,500 Palestinian houses in Gaza, nearly two thirds of which were located in Rafah, resulting in more than 16,000 people – over 10% of Rafah’s population – losing their homes. The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, in its 2004 report Through No Fault of their Own, found that contrary to Israel’s claim that prior warning is given before a home is demolished, occupants were given prior notification in a mere 3% of the cases.

The Human Rights’ Watch report further documented that most of the destruction in Rafah occurred along the Israeli-controlled border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt known as the Philadelphi Corridor, the area where Rachel was killed. During regular nighttime raids and with little or no warning, Israeli forces used armored Caterpillar D9 bulldozers to raze blocks of homes, incrementally expanding a “buffer zone” that is currently up to three hundred meters wide.The pattern of destruction strongly suggests that Israeli forces demolished homes wholesale, regardless of whether they posed a specific threat, in stark violation of international law.

The trial will resume on Wednesday, March 17, 2010, at 9 a.m. at the district court in Haifa.

Family Appeals Decision to Close Investigation on Shooting of US Citizen Tristan Anderson

12 March 2010

This week the parents of Tristan Anderson filed an appeal on the decision to close the investigation concerning their son’s injury.– The 38 year-old American was critically injured by a high velocity tear gas projectile shot by Israeli Border Police in the West Bank village of Nili’in on March 13, 2009. The basic grounds for the appeal include undeniable negligence in the investigation. This negligence particularly involves two critical errors in the investigation conducted by the Investigative unit of the SJ District (West Bank) Israeli Police Force:

Mistaken identity: There were several Border Police squads in Nili’in at the time of Tristan’s injury, but only one of them was interviewed by investigators. A thorough examination of the facts shows that the squad interviewed was the wrong one.

No field visit: The investigation team did not visit the scene of the incident or nearby viewpoints from which it would have been possible to understand distances and positions described by eyewitnesses to the incident.

On the day of Tristan’s injury, there were several police squads in Nili’in – one stationed at a position known as “Antenna Hill” and another positioned closer to the village center. Since the squad stationed at Antenna Hill reported injuring a person, this squad was questioned regarding Tristan Anderson. However, it is now clear that there was more than one injury on March 13, 2009 – with one such injury having been reported by the squad stationed on Antenna Hill. These police officers report having hit a person in a completely different location and with an entirely different description than that of Tristan. For example, the police officers reported hitting a stone thrower whose face was covered, whereas several eyewitnesses attest to the fact that Tristan’s face was not covered at all on that day and that he did not throw stones. Furthermore, eyewitnesses to Tristan’s injury report that the tear gas canister came from a different direction than Antenna Hill, the same area in which the second squad was stationed. It is clear that these mistakes stem from the fact that investigators never visited the scene of the incident.

Attorney Michael Sfard: The astonishing negligence of this investigation and of the prosecutorial team that monitored its outcome is unacceptable, but it epitomizes Israel’s culture of impunity. Tristan’s case is actually not rare; it represents hundreds of other cases of Palestinian victims whose investigations have also failed.

One year after his shooting, Anderson is still hospitalized in Tel Hashomer hospital, with severe permanent brain damage of a yet uncertain degree. The severity of his condition still does not allow his transfer back home to the US.

To view a summary of the appeal in English, click here