Category: Gaza

Israeli occupation forces murder journalist Wafa Al Udaini and her family

ISM mourns Wafa Al Udaini, a Palestinian activist and journalist we were honored to have worked with. Israeli forces bombed her home in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, in the early hours of Monday morning, September 30, murdering Wafa, her husband Munir Atiyeh Al-Udaini, 5-year-old daughter Balsam, and 7-month-old son Tamim. She is survived by her two young sons.

Wafa was a dedicated and passionate Gaza-based activist and coordinator. She majored in English in Al Aqsa University, with the intention of becoming a teacher and translator. However, anger and frustration with how mainstream media ‘distorts our image in Palestine’, led her towards a career in journalism. She reported from Gaza during the invasions of 2008, 2014-2015 (during which her home was destroyed), and the current genocide, during which her and her family were displaced three times.

Wafa was committed to teaching Palestinian youth and giving them the skills to tell their stories to the world. Her work ranged from leading a women’s youth group that worked on changing the stereotypes about Palestinians, to founding the Gaza-based 16th October Group, a group of English-language young journalists and activists.

‘Being a journalist in Gaza is not an easy task, because every single day, you are subjected to (the possibility) of being killed, injured, or arrested by the Israeli occupation forces. In fact hundreds of journalists get killed by Israeli fire. Everyone is a target.’ – Wafa Al Udaini

She is the 174th journalist killed by Israel since 7 October 2023. Her killing was condemned by the government media office in Gaza and the Palestinian Media Forum.

The last article Wafa wrote was, “There is no such thing as protective attire for journalists in Gaza.” In it, she described the total lack of protection for journalists in Gaza, and her colleagues Israeli forces had killed. Journalists in Gaza work “on empty stomachs and often without electricity to cover the genocide of their people”, amidst the constant threat of abduction, torture, or murder from Israeli forces, she wrote.

E., who volunteered with ISM and worked with Wafa, said: ‘I first got to know Wafa when she was writing about the Great March of Return and life in Gaza under Israeli seige. One thing that impressed me while collaborating with her was her conviction and determination to stay true to what she felt was right, even at great personal cost.’

‘As the genocide became worse and it was clear that Israeli forces would kill anyone who dared to report on it, Wafa continued faithfully documenting the atrocities happening around her, and how Palestinians tried to help each other survive. Even after being targeted by Israeli tank fire, she continued sharing the stories of Gazans until the end, telling me she wanted to “help in spreading the truth.”‘

‘To me, Wafa was a hero, and one of the bravest people I ever knew. Rest in power Wafa, and may you live on in our memories and the truths you told.’

Neta Golan, ISM co-founder, said: ‘Wafa and her family were murdered and dismembered because she was committed to delivering a message from Gaza to the world, about the reality of Israeli colonialism, in English. She believed in us. She believed that if we knew, we would do all we can to end the genocide and support Palestine’s liberation. She risked her life to tell us about the reality of the unfolding genocide, and The Israeli occupation murdered her and her family members for it. But the truth can not be silenced. We are committed to Wafa’s mission of amplifying Palestinian voices, and we are committed to heeding their call.’

Suffer the Children

*Palestinian children in Wadi Tiran in Masafer Yatta, threatened with murder by extremist settlers if they don’t leave their village*

I am still perpetually on the verge of crying or crying most of the time. Throughout my travels in Palestine, I have learned from the wisdom of children. Children everywhere know when they are very young that their tears are not something to repress, but rather their crying out helps bring about what they are needing.

Where my Arabic and their English are inadequate to be able to communicate, playing together is a way to speak a deeper language of companionship and encounter. Our smiles and laughter together is a defiant blossoming of life surrounded by the threat of life’s extinction.

Last week a young child kissed my hand and put it to their head. I didn’t know the most appropriate way to respond.

But forty miles away, a new acronym has had to be created for children just like her, WCNSF, wounded child, no surviving family. Everything I do, even if I stay up through the night to keep watch so a family can sleep more soundly, still feels so inadequate in the midst of such catastrophe.

More than 10,000 children have been killed in Gaza in these last 100 days. Surrounding Gaza there is a fence, and armed guards ready to shoot anybody who comes near it, keeping them from coming to me and me from going to them. UNICEF warns “All children under five in the Gaza Strip—335,000—are at high risk of severe malnutrition and preventable death as the risk of famine conditions continues to increase. UNICEF estimates that in the coming weeks, at least 10,000 children under five years will suffer the most life-threatening form of malnutrition, known as severe wasting, and will need therapeutic foods.”

In Florida, where I am from, when a hurricane hit and I knew of children suffering from dehydration, I could empty every pharmacy in my vicinity of pedialyte and drive it to them in a matter of hours. But there is an army, supported and financed by my government and tax dollars, keeping me from doing the same for these children.

I learned a new Arabic phrase since I’ve been here and have used it often. People in Palestine are so heartbreakingly welcoming. There is rarely a “hello (marhaba)” in Arabic, just “welcome and welcome again” (ahlan wa sahlan). The implied longer meaning, that ahlan wa sahlan is a shortened version of, communicates: “You left your own people, but you are among family, and you are safe here.” But when a Palestinian asks me where I am from, I always tell the truth. “I am from America (Ana min Amrika).” I have seen people shake with the deepest hurt and speak about what the United States of America has done to their family. And saying “I am sorry (assif)” in Arabic is much too little. To me, it implies that I am expecting Palestinians’ understanding, forgiveness, or ablution. I am not. So I have learned to say “I seek forgiveness from God (astaghfirullah)” as the second part of responding about where I am from.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was put in a concentration camp during the holocaust and later hanged by the Nazis, warned, “Silence in the face of evil is evil itself: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

Amid such horrors and one’s inability to stop them, I think I understand how to be imprisoned, to be beaten, to be killed even, would be a balm for one’s soul, knowing that others weren’t suffering alone, and when people were thrown into a furnace, there was another in the fire.

I have 109 prayer beads on my wrist. This about matches the amount of children killed each day in Gaza. What I have done and am doing has not been enough for 10,000 children. And 10,000 more. I don’t know what will be enough. But I will seek it.

The Language of Genocide: Israel’s Extermination Rhetoric

02 January 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | Gaza

To whatever extent extermination rhetoric is a common tool of war, Israeli politicians and public figures have prolifically furnished the relentless and ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip with the language of genocide and ethnic cleansing. Those drums are being hammered with an ever accelerating pace as the Israeli government fights to control the narrative that the force of millions across the planet have wrested free. The global conscience has centered the lens squarely on the systemic mechanisms of Palestinian displacement, occupation and siege that uphold the state of Israel.

That frantic grappling for the incautious ear of the world has led to a stunning display of genocidal sentiment and the normalization of language blatantly expressive of the end game ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian population, by prominent Israeli political and social figures. It is a self-fueling phenomenon which has spawned colossal quantities of disturbing social media fare including occupation army troops in Gaza using her devastated wreckage as background props to dances, marriage proposals and choreographed skits mocking the destruction of homes and holy sites alike.

Websites educating on the process of genocide such as Genocide Watch feature the haunting map of organized mass killing, The Ten Stages of Genocide. The 2016 document precedes the listed steps by stating that “Genocide is a process that develops in ten stages that are predictable but not inexorable. At each stage, preventive measures can stop it.” By every account with regards to the massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, Israel is in the extermination phase. One step away from completion.

Ten Stages of Genocide. Source: www.genocidewatch.net

Below is a truncated display of the predominant rhetorical drumbeat to genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza from the lips of occupation forces, Israeli politicians and public figures.

Invoking an old testament verse in a statement on the onslaught in Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu urged the public, “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible – we do remember.” The verse, as has been noted, is “among the most violent.” In full it states, “I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”

Calling for the “annihilation” of Gaza, Moshe Zalman Feiglin, the leader of the libertarian zionist party Zehut has stated publicly that “Gaza should be razed and Israel’s rule should be restored to the place. This is our country.”

Israeli journalist David Mizrahy Verthaim made this admission on X, formerly Twitter, “We need a disproportionate response. If all the captives are not returned immediately, turn the strip into a slaughterhouse. If a hair falls from their head – execute security prisoners. Violate any norm, on the way to victory.”

Via Israeli parliamentary member Ariel Kallner, “Nakba to the enemy now! This day is our Pearl Harbour. We will still learn the lessons. Right now, one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 48. A Nakba in Gaza and a Nakba for anyone who dares to join!” He is joined by other public figures in casual use of a nuclear option in Gaza.

In the Knesset, member Galit Distal Atbaryan posted on social media in support of “erasing all of Gaza from the face of the Earth. Gaza needs to be wiped out.”

Likud member in parliament Amit Halevi publicly stated his “goals for this victory. One, there is no more Muslim land in the land of Israel. After we make it the land of Israel, Gaza should be left as a monument, like Sodom.”

A disturbing and now viral tiktok video features a member of occupation forces declaring that, “All people in Gaza need to die,” before admitting to killing two Palestinians followed with a celebratory dance. “I want to kill more, more.” Nothing about this video is stand-alone as across all social media platforms, recorded statements normalizing the murder of Palestinians are in shocking abundance.

Ten Stages of Genocide. Source: www.eachother.org

The brazen use of extermination rhetoric points to Israel’s long understood exemption from consequence for horrific international law and human rights violations as Israeli anti-zionist Neta Golan points out, “Usually people who commit genocide don’t say that they’re going to commit genocide but Israelis have experienced impunity for so long that they think they can announce their intent to commit genocide, commit genocide and get away with it.” She concludes with a sentiment that may have a growing wind behind the actualization of it, “We hope they’re wrong about that.”

Enter South Africa.

Themselves victorious in overthrowing the brutal white-ruled system of racial apartheid in the 1990’s, South Africa’s government has filed charges against Israel for committing genocide in Gaza with the International Court of Justice, both for their brutal bombardment as well as for collective punishment of water, food, fuel and medical siege in the Gaza Strip. Israel will appear before the ICJ in the Hague to answer to these charges. Given the trove of genocidal rhetoric confidently streaming out of Israel, coupled with the real-time documentation by Palestinian journalists and civilians on the ground, it is difficult to imagine the anatomy of a defense to these charges.

These words, and many like them, alongside the actions carrying them out (including the indiscriminate bombing and murder of 22,000 people, three quarters of them women and children) act as proven intent on the part of the perpetrators to carry out genocide.

There is an understanding that is born out of all of these horrors. For the far right, extremist Israeli government, the destruction, cleansing and ultimate plan for the erasure of Gaza has nothing to do with liberating hostages. Hostage negotiators in real time communication with hostage takers act carefully, they walk lightly, they speak softly. They do not incite as their language can ignite the wick of an incendiary escalation of hostility which can lead to the death of those whose release they are working to secure.

Yet occupation authorities have inflamed tensions, antagonized Palestinians across the Gaza Strip and incited violence every step of the way. They have acted with pure provocation and blatant endangering of hostages lives along with the Palestinian civilians and children who they have mass murdered in the indiscriminate bombardment. They have bombed and flooded likely hostage positions on the ground. If hostages were liberated, it would remove the performative pretense behind this wholesale slaughter.

This onslaught is about the intentional extermination of a people and the theft of their ancestral land and resources. It is the mass-killing and replacement of the indigenous Palestinian population and the smothering of their culture.

It is an erasure, an ethnic cleansing.

It is genocide.

A Song from Gaza: Alone (لوحدك)

Alone/ لوحدك is a poem by Egyptian poet Ehab Lotayef performed by Haidar Eid on the music by Reziq JuJu.

Haidar Eid is a professor at al-Quds University in Gaza City now trying to stay alive in the midst of the genocidal attack by apartheid Israel on Gaza.

Haidar wants to express the feelings of the people in Gaza, that the world has left them alone.

Lyrics:

لوحدك

Alone (On your own)

لو الدنيا ضاقت وجار الزمان

ومات الضيا واستبد الظلام

When your world collapses, when times are most difficult

When light suffocates, when darkness reins

(x2)

وهانوا الكرام وسادوا اللئام

وتهنا ما بين الحلال والحرام

When the righteous are oppressed, when the wicked rule

when the world can’t distinguish right from wrong

وحده صوتك ينور ليالي الأسية

بكلمة جريئة تناجي النهار

Only your voice will illuminate these harsh nights

with a brave word, that summons daylight

(x2)

لو ناسك خنوعة وصاحبك جبان

يحب المراوغة، يخاف م الكلام

When your people submit. When your friend is a coward

afraid to rise up, afraid to speak

(x2)

في وسط المظالم وتحت الحصار

يا واقف لوحدك مفيش لك خيار

In the midst of injustices and under siege

You, who stands alone, have no recourse

غير صوتك: تنور ليالي الأسية

بكلمة جريئة تناجي النهار

But your voice: illuminate the harshest of nights

with a courageous word, usher daylight

(x2)

42 Days Transgressed: Legal Restraints on Life Support from Jenin to Gaza City

Medical workers being marched out of Jenin Hospital. Credit: Al Jazeera.

17 November 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Jenin, Gaza

Through the war riddled lens of Palestinian journalists’ reports and social media posts, we have watched the crossing of an invisible line.

As an American nurse doing human rights monitoring work in the occupied West Bank, I woke today to see the lens focused on a team of outfitted medical workers being marched out of Jenin Hospital in the night, arms in the air, as occupation bulldozers, drones and operatives draped the community in a spark-lit flash of raining bullets and blasts. Those who died bled in the streets where they have lived, likely discussing ‘the war’ on a daily basis.

The question of where and what good is International Humanitarian Law has been posed by people and organizational bodies stretching back over decades. But it has been screamed into a void for 42 days of brutal bombardment in Gaza and through soaring instances of settler rampages and incursions against Palestinians in the occupied territory.

For a foreign medical worker, it is hard to intimate this occurrence unfolding in the West. The same law limping through the fog of bomb blasts in Gaza would forbid it.

The law is plain. Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, not only demands that the wounded and sick be cared for but it is made wholly clear that medical units must be respected and protected at all times, and must not be the object of attack as announced in Additional Protocol II.

From Shifa to Al Ahli to Indonesian to Al Quds Hospitals, the occupation army has stomped roughshod over what has been enshrined in these charters, an entitlement they have been granted through the arms and funding pipeline flowing from the United States.

The law goes on to state that “under the Statute of the International Criminal Court, intentionally directing attacks against hospitals and places where the sick and the wounded are collected… in conformity with international law constitutes a war crime.”

An investigation into violations of these laws of armed conflict by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza was birthed amid the aftermath of ‘Operation Protective Edge’ during which countless instances of proportionality and discernment violations were committed. Israeli authorities refused participation and forbade an official Gazan body to take part, blunting the teeth of the query.

But to date through the courageous reporting of Palestinians on the ground, the grinding documentation of daily atrocities must continue to be spotlit in both humanitarian and legal contexts and given the breath that millions worldwide have thus far provided through ceaseless acts of resistance and blockade actions.

An outcry to adopt universal jurisdiction through domestic courts may be another avenue to introduce justice into an area justice-deprived.

According to the International Rescue Committee, “Prosecutions can also take place in some domestic courts that have adopted “universal jurisdiction.” That refers to courts deciding to prosecute a crime committed outside its country by people who are not its nationals–but where the crime is serious enough to warrant prosecution anywhere.”

If we are committed to action, not only to halt the atrocities animated for the world through a stop-motion flood of images, videos and audio from on the ground in Gaza City to Jenin and Masafer Yatta to Khan Younis, let us also relentlessly pursue the avenues where barriers can be torn down to allow the long delayed, long deprived justice that Palestinians running from occupation bombs and bullets at this moment deserve.

The U.S. is a refuser of International Criminal Court participation but many other nations are members who can seek legal action against those recorded committing atrocities against the bodies of murdered Palestinians, likewise those seen marching medical workers at gunpoint out of Jenin Hospital last night. Those air striking hospitals. Those bombing schools and refugee camps.

The Hague awaits the ‘moral army’ flying flags over Shifa Hospital in their brave defeat of an illegally targeted medical facility where injured children and civilians were robbed of the last bastion of security in the warzone that has been made of their home.