Palestinians marched from Arafat square in Ramallah at 11am this morning 15th May to the DCO checkpoint near the illegal settlement of Beit El to confront Israeli forces. At around 12PM there were over 1000 protestors. Israeli forces fired excessive amounts of rubber coated steel bullets, tear gas, sponge tipped batons and reportedly also used live ammunition. Palestinian medics rushed with stretchers to the injured as so many were injured. At one point a Palestinian was shot with a rubber coated steel bullet in the leg, a medic ran to treat him but was also targeted by Israeli forces with a rubber coated steel bullet. Israeli forces deployed a drone several times to drop tear gas on the demonstrators. The sounds of ambulances and scenes of them rushing up and down the road never stopped throughout today’s demonstration in solidarity with Gaza and in remembrance of Al Nakba.
Medics gather at Beit El protest to treat the wounded. Medics were also wounded by Israeli weapons.Protesters march towards Beit El.
18th March 2018 | International Solidarity Movement, al Khalil team | Occupied Palestine
Two years ago Dima al-Wawi woke up for school feeling sick. Her throat hurt and her lymph nodes were swollen. Her parents were already out of the house, on their land that is split in two by the illegal settlement Karmi Zur in Halhul outside of al Khalil / Hebron.
Dima al-Wawi, present day, in her room in Halhul
Dima’s parents have faced many problems with settlers from this illegal settlement who tried ceaselessly to prevent them from entering their land through the main checkpoint. They took their case to Israeli court and miraculously won access through the checkpoint to both sides of their land sandwiched between the illegal settlement on the East and West side of the Al Wawi’s land. The family remained cautious due to settler harassment and thought that only the adults of the family should enter through the checkpoint as violence is always inevitable.
Dima, 12-years-old at the time, didn’t think so cautiously that morning innocently wanting her mother to take her to the doctor. This day would be the first time she attempted going through the checkpoint onto her own family’s land.
Immediately Israeli soldiers and border police accosted her, blindfolding and handcuffing her behind the back (an action deemed illegal under international law). At 8 a.m., the soldiers shoved her to the ground and commenced beating her and kicked her in the back. Dima was then taken to the police station in Kiryat Arba, another illegal settlement in al Khalil/Hebron.
12-year-old Dima on the day of her arrest
Scared, confused and traumatized, Dima remained calm thinking she would be released that evening since she had done nothing criminal. Through several hours of questioning, her interrogators never asked her if she would like to phone a lawyer. Since the subject of a lawyer never came up, she didn’t know to ask for one unaware of her rights. In the end, she was given a four-month sentence and carted off to notorious Hasharone Prison in between Haifa & Tel Aviv on the charges of carrying a knife. It is worth noting that this act is also illegal under international law to transfer an occupied person from the West Bank into Israel.
Dima with her sisters and mother in their home in Halhul
The al-Wawi family is cheerful and welcoming beyond belief. Meeting the whole clan two years later, one would not think such intense trauma existed within their home. Dima’s disappearance and arrest caused the family many sleepless nights. All of them applied for permits to visit her in prison and only her mother was granted access and only twice.
Dima with her parents on the day of her release 24 April, 2016
Two and a half months passed and Dima was released early with an 8000 NIS bail. Her memories of prison are brief, recalling her many mother figures, the cold iron cells and falling out of the top bunk bed once. She still wakes from nightmares of prison guards counting her endlessly. The media attention surrounding her case was vast, as the Israeli occupation forces falsely claimed Dima carried a knife to the checkpoint with violent intentions. The family resents this cover-up story as well as the amount of media attention, claiming it makes their family vulnerable to settler harassment in the future.
Dima’s personality is fiery, friendly and cunning. It seems she has room for one emotion at a time; she catches everyone’s attention in any given room. Now Dima is 14-years-old, a grounded young woman despite the knowledge that she could be sentenced to five years in prison if she has another incident with occupation forces.
The Karmei Tzur checkpoint is a constant source of violence against Palestinians, not only to 12-year-old girls but also to many teenage boys. Just last month, a 19-year-old was martyred there leaving his family in complete disarray. After leaving Dima’s, we visited the Zamara family just three weeks after their son entered the illegal settlement with a knife and was fatally shot and beaten as a result.
Hamza Yousef Zamara served two sentences in Israeli prisons before his fateful and early end. First in 2014, 16-years-old he spent one week in prison, released on a 3000 NIS bail. Second time, also 2014, this time for 14 months. 45 days of this sentence was spent in intensive torture, Hamza came out a different person, a changed man.
His weeping mother, dressed in black, described his personality after incarceration as withdrawn and psychologically damaged. Hamza’s health was in steady decline and he was severely underweight. His experience and trauma brought him to seek revenge against the Israeli occupation by way of bringing a knife to the checkpoint. According to Israeli sources, Hamza “very lightly wounded the guard in a stabbing attack in Karmie Tzur.” His attempt at violence was met with severe beating, stabbing and four shots fired fatally killing him.
It is custom in the Islamic religion to bury a body within 24 hours of death. However, Hamza’s body was held by Israel out of spite for 10 days in the freezer. When finally released, Israeli soldiers invaded the family’s home interrogating his family, detaining his father, Yousef Zamara, and deeming Hamza a terrorist directly to his family. Israeli forces also threatened the family “that they would pay for [Hamza’s] actions.”
Sadness cannot begin to describe the collective emotion of his family and friends. All dressed in mourning, Hamza’s photograph was quietly passed around and tightly clutched by his loved ones. His mother, Arwa Zamara, remembers identifying Hamza’s frozen body as “the most difficult moment.” Arwa and Yousef have two other sons imprisoned by Israel.
When asked how she has the strength to go on after losing her child, Arwa mentions the overwhelming support from her neighbors and community. Her daughter chimes in, “we are one body;” no one is alone in the brutality of the Israeli occupation.
Dima, a child, and Hamza, a young man, did not deserve the brutality and injustice they experienced by the Israeli legal system and occupation forces. The worst part is they are not alone, and their stories are not uncommon. All Palestinian civilians are tried in military court, even children, with a conviction rate of 99.7% while Israeli civilians are tried in civil court.
Palestine is home to countless administrative detainees, political prisoners and martyrs. Internationals and Palestinians wonder when this will stop. When will the international community take responsibility and halt their support of Israel’s unjust legal system and illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
We wish the al-Wawi and Zamara families well in recovering from their trauma and hope their families have peace within their homes.
Are you ready to take your activism for Palestine to the next level?
In 2002, the International Solidarity Movement grabbed world attention by bringing volunteers from around the world to defend Palestine through nonviolent resistance. They stayed with resistance fighters in the Nativity Church in Bethlehem. They brought medical supplies to the besieged Palestinians in the ancient Nablus Casbah. They documented and filmed the destruction and mass killing of Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp. In 2002 and 2003, thousands participated at their own expense.
One was Rachel Corrie, who was killed trying to prevent demolition of a home in Gaza. Another was Tom Hurndall, killed by a shot to the head. ISM has operated continuously since then, serving at the request of the Palestinian community through participation in Palestinian nonviolent resistance. In 2009, 2012 and 2014, ISM volunteers were with the Palestinian people in Gaza, reporting the Israeli invasion and helping in the hospitals, clinics and schools that were attacked even as they served the refugees.
But ISM is today unable to fill the demand from the Palestinian popular movement. We need to recruit more volunteers, so we have brought the ISM to North America to talk to interested groups. The speaking team consists of one of our Palestinian coordinators and an experienced international volunteer.
The presentation includes a screening of an abridged version of Radiance of Resistance, a film produced by three ISM volunteers serving in Nabi Salih and featuring Ahed Tamimi and her cousin, Janna Jihad.
The first of two Palestinian ISM coordinators to join the tour, Rana Nazzal has trained and provided orientation to ISM volunteers in Palestine. In 2013, she and the Nariman Tamimi, the mother of Ahed were arrested in Nabi Saleh. We have chosen to withhold the identity of the second Palestinian ISM coordinator until later, so as not to prejudice that person’s ability to come. Both are heroes with compelling stories that they would like to share with you.
The ISM volunteer for part of the tour will be Katie Miranda , who served as an ISM activist, coordinator and trainer in the West Bank. Katie Miranda is a jewelry and apparel designer, calligrapher, and contributing cartoonist to Mondoweiss and Middle East Eye. She is the founder of Palbox, a quarterly subscription box featuring products from Palestine and Arabic calligraphy.
As an ISM volunteer, Joe Catron reported from Gaza during several major Israeli attacks, especially from al-Shifa Hospital, as the Israelis threatened to bombard it. He is now an independent reporter on Palestine and the Middle East, and an organizer of many public actions in New York, as well as a widely followed commentator on social media.
The total length of the presentation, including the film and the two speakers, is 50-60 minutes not including Q&A. In order to make the tour affordable to student groups, we are asking only for $250 per event plus local meals, lodging and transportation. Homestays with local families in the community are an inexpensive and welcome way to meet the lodging and meal requirements. The actual cost to ISM is around $1000 per event, including international and domestic airfares as well as speaker compensation for otherwise lost income. A small group of donors has already pledged to match your donations in order to raise the estimated $25,000 to cover the rest of the costs. Please be as generous as you can.
Schedule of events (subject to change):
Mar 1-4 Attending conference & Al-Awda rally & march in DC
12th February 2018 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Occupied Palestine
This Sunday, 6 Israeli military jeeps with soldiers entered the village of Hares, southwest of Nablus, in order to raid three schools filled with kids of all ages. Around 10 AM about 20 Israeli soldiers tried to enter the school yards of the two high schools. The pupils were in between classes and all out in the school yard. The teachers managed to lock the gate, so the soldiers stopped and interrogated all the cars and the people passing in the street outside.
Being unable to enter, they then moved on the elementary school. Many of the children were scared and tried to go home, but the stressed out teachers managed to collect them in the classrooms, locking the gate to keep the soldiers out. The new Shabak officer of the region was leading the incursion.
That night, Ibrahim, a six-year old boy from the school came to sleep in his father Issa’s bed for the first time. “He always sleeps in his own bed”, Issa says to the ISMers meeting them. “He asked me if he won’t be able to go to school again tomorrow and when I asked him why he would think not he said ‘Cause the soldiers might come again’.” Issa then tried to convince his son that the soldiers wouldn’t come “But he then asked me ‘Who can guarantee that?’ and all I could do was to persuade him to go to school. He does not seem relaxed and still sleeps in my bed.”
Issa also emphasises how many kids in Hares and all around Palestine suffer from similar traumas. “For sure my son is not the only one reacting like this. There are many children having nightmares and wetting their beds every night as a reaction to the soldiers raiding their schools.”
A few years ago Israeli soldiers entered the schools daily. Around 1000 girls and boys met the soldiers every day, but after the village managed to bring up a case towards the Israeli military, the raids stopped. Now many villagers fear the children will once again get more traumatised.
The first of two Palestinian ISM coordinators to join the tour, 
The ISM volunteer for part of the tour will be 
As an ISM volunteer, 
