15th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nabi Saleh, Occupied Palestine
By Team Khalil
Vittorio Arrigoni
“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.
19th March 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus , Occupied Palestine
Team Nablus
On March 16th 2013, the International Solidarity Movement was joined by the International Women’s Peace Service and the Tanweer Center in commemorating the death of Rachel Corrie – an American peace activist and former member of the ISM. Tree planting with Rachel Corrie posters in Asira al Qibliya
Rachel was killed in 2003 in Rafah in the south Gaza strip, crushed by an Israeli military bulldozer while trying to protect a home from demolition. The group gathered in Duar Squar,e in the heart of Nablus, where powerful speeches were given by Wael, director of Tanweer Center, and Dr. Sa’ed Abu Hijlehm, a professor at An-Najah University, conveying a deep respect for Rachel as well as other internationals who have been killed while working in solidarity with Palestinians to end Israel’s occupation of the West Bank; Tom Hurndall and Vittorio Arrigoini. The group released a mass of balloons with the photos of Vittorio, Tom and Rachel attached into the downtown center of Nablus.
Three days prior, ISM activists joined villagers from Asira to plant olive trees with accompanying pictures of Rachel.
Pertinent to President Obama’s impending visit to the West Bank, Rachel’s death is significant as it relates to the ongoing U.S funding of Israel’s occupation. The bulldozer that crushed Corrie was manufactured by Caterpillar Inc. and purchased through a subsidized US aid to Israel program.
Balloons carrying pictures of Rachel Corrie, Tom Hunrdnall, Vittorio Arrigoni and Arafat Jaradat are released into the sky in Nablus city centre
3rd March 2013 | International Action for Palestine, Gaza, Occupied Palestine
“Our prisoners are dying.” said Gaza student Khaled Shehab from the Islamic University. “We won’t wait till the death of another prisoner to move in solidarity with all the detainees.” Khaled was joining the thousands attending the growing number of demonstrations in the Gaza Strip right now.
Majeda Sabbah, with other students protesting the death of Arafat Jaradat in Israeli custody . Photo by Joe Catron
It is not lost on young people in Palestine acting in support of Palestinian prisoners that many who have spent years in Israeli jails were at the same age when they were originally imprisoned. While there has recently been a spotlight on the 219 Palestinian children currently detained by Israel, it is often forgotten that the majority of detainees arrested are youths or in their early twenties. Some have spent the entire decade of their twenties removed from their parents, their families and communities, a young person’s life defined by Israeli prison walls.
Mohammed Al Adini explained his story late at night in the tent erected outside the Red Cross offices in the Gaza Strip, where some Palestinians were on hunger strike in support of those striking in Israeli prisons. He was arrested aged 20 in June 2003, just short of concluding a two year office management course at a college in Deir El Balah, central Gaza. He was imprisoned for nine years and released in the prisoner swap deal after which he was able to complete his course at the University of Gaza aged 31.
Mohammed Al Adini, hunger striking in solidarity after nine years in Israeli prisons. Photo by Ehab Omar
“There were some classes in prison but we were often prevented from going. So we organized our own “internal education” where any prisoners with an academic background such as languages, history and law would teach the other prisoners. It depended on the cell we were in but classes were generally around ten to twelve students. I taught history and Palestinian issues.”
Mohammed knew many students and academics on long term prison sentences. Yassir Namrouiti visits the solidarity tent in Gaza regularly. He was studying at the University of Al Quds when he was arrested in 1987. He didn’t see freedom again until 24 years later when he was released with Mohammed in the Gilad Shalit swap deal 24 years later. Karim Younis who remains incarcerated after 31 years, was a student when arrested in 1983 and was attending classes at Ben Gurion University on the day the Israeli army raided his house. He is now a prison representative and the author of two books. His personal and historical writings from prison have reached and inspired many who support him and the other 4800 Palestinian detainees.
Mohammed does not appear bitter that his education was taken away and is enthusiastic about the rise in student solidarity. “I am so pleased that students in Gaza have rallied around the cause of the prisoners.” said Mohammed. “They are using different languages to express our cause through facebook and other media, which is something we have never been able to do before.”
Khaled shares Mohammed’s certainty that the youth of Palestine have a crucial role to play in the resistance against occupation, which is why many student leaders have been a target for Israeli arrests and incarceration. “Youth and young people are strongly involved in resistance against occupation. Israel arrests them to stop resistance. They want to destroy the educational life for the students. They are aware that students can expose them and their crimes to the world, especially now that so many are communicating directly to Western audiences.”
Student activist Khaled Shehab calling for the release of Samer Issawi . Photo by Jomanah Hadad
He cites other Palestinian students from Gaza such as Malaka Mohammed and Shahd Abusalama whose blogs and reporting on the prisoners in the English language have amassed many followers globally, with frequent updates on the individual stories of prisoners and the ordeals and injustices facing them.
The day after 30 year old Arafat Jaradat was killed after six days of Israeli detention last Monday, Majeda Sabbah, Khaled and other students immediately organized a demonstration, calling for united support for all Palestinian prisoners.
“Arafat didn’t just die” said Majeda. “He was killed under the systematic torture that takes place in Israeli Jails.”
We are here to show our support for all the hunger strikers and all the political prisoners. The sons of Palestine sacrificed their freedom and belief for others, like Samer Issawi who is now in a critical condition after a hunger strike of over six months. We young people in Gaza support them, which is why we mobilized quickly as soon as we heard about Arafat. We can’t wait for the parties to move. If we didn’t act for a united struggle then no one would.”
Most Palestinian families contain someone who has been detained in Israeli Jails or is currently incarcerated. “My uncle was a prisoner.” said Khaled. “He spent 25 years in Israeli prisons and was recently freed in the swap deal. He joked that over time they changed the prison door three times while he remained in the same room.”
For relatives of current detainees in Israel the struggle can never go away. It is a double agony – for those on the inside and those on the outside. The last hunger striker who won his freedom was Akram Rikhawi, who in his ninth year of incarceration refused food for 104 days. “When I was released I could not recognize Samah, my eleven year old daughter” Akram told us. Samah was just two years old when he had last laid eyes on her. “My wife was allowed to visit me once in that time and my mother also once. I learned of my mother’s passing on prison radio a month after she had died.”
Mohammed Al Adiny said that it was being away from his family and friends that hurt most in prison. “I would send letters to my mother. I would tell her that if she wants me to be okay, just smile. Your smile is what gives me strength is what I would tell her.”
The fight of the hunger strikers goes on. Samer Issawi, now weighing just 44 kg was recently moved to Haifa hospital after a serious deterioration in his health. Ayman Sharawna was moved to the Soroka Israel hospital in Beersheba last month, briefly falling into a coma after which for a period he was unable to move, suffering severe pain to several parts of his body.
Hana Shalabi, a female detainee released after a 43-day hunger strike in March 2012 was in attendance at Sunday’s demonstration and she described to some of the students what Samer and Ayman were going through. “I’m sorry for the death of Jaradet, sorry for his family in the West Bank. Sadly I’m not surprised, this is not a new thing with over 210 prisoners who have been killed in Israeli prisons since 1967. By my experience on hunger strike I feel what they feel. You can’t sleep because of the pain, you can’t speak, you can’t move, there’s hair loss, pains in the stomach and joints, you can’t see well, there are heart irregularities, palpitations and migraines. Soon your body, like mine, can’t accept water.”
Hana Shalabi, released after a 43-day hunger strike, remains an inspiration. Photo Eva Barlett
At the time of writing Samer Issawi and Ayman Sharawna are among 178 prisoners who are being held under what Israel defines as “Administrative Detention” . This open ended imprisonment without a formal charge has been condemned by major international human rights groups. This self-sacrifice of Samer, Ayman and the other detainees has struck a chord with young people across Palestine who are absorbed in the struggle for life and dignity of the hunger strikers. They want immediate action.
“When students and young people become more aware and start writing about israel’s crimes it’s like a disaster for Israel. We want to deliver our message all over the world. Palestinian prisoners don’t have basic human rights or dignity. They’re not treated as human beings. We demand the Israeli government release the hunger strikers.”
Adie Mormech is a Gaza-based activist with International Action for Palestine and a teacher at Al Aqsa University in Gaza City.
19 February 2013 | Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Besieged Gaza, Palestine
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the Israeli Navy’s escalation of attacks against Palestinian fishermen in the Gaza Strip and expresses its deep concern for such escalation, which resulted in arresting two fishermen and confiscating their boat today.
According to PCHR’s investigations, at approximately 10:15 on Monday, 19 February 2013, an Israeli gunboat attacked a Palestinian fishing boat, boarding 2 fishermen, sailing 1 nautical miles off al-Sundaniya shore in the northern Gaza Strip. The Israeli soldiers fired directly at the boat, cordoned it and ordered the fishermen on board to take their clothes off, jump into the water and swim towards the gunboat. Two fishermen were arrested: Mohammed Shihda Khalil Sa’d Allah (60) and his son, Mahmoud (23), from Jabalya town in the north of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli forces confiscated their fishing boat as well. Immediately after capturing them, the Israeli forces handcuffed the fishermen, blindfolded them and transported them to Ashdod seaport. Both fishermen are still under arrest.
It should be noted that this incident occurred at approximately 1 nautical mile, which is within the 6-nautical-mile limit allowed by the Israeli forces for the Palestinian fishermen to sail and fish at, under the terms of the truce deal signed between Israel and the Palestinian armed groups under Egyptian and international auspices on 22 November 2012.
PCHR condemns the continuous Israeli attacks against Palestinian fishermen in the Gaza Strip, and:
1. Calls for immediately stopping the policy of chasing and arresting Palestinian fishermen, and allowing them to sail and fish freely;
2. Demands compensation for the fishermen for the physical and material damage caused to them and their property as a result of these violations;
3.Calls upon the international community, including the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of war, to intervene immediately to stop the Israeli violations against the Palestinian fishermen, and to allow them to sail and fish freely in the Gaza sea.
Gaza City Action: Meet 11 am in Zeitoun Neighbourhood, next to the Car Market “Souq Sayarat” and Al Handasya Company. The march will then begin from Malaka Cross towards the farmland near the Israeli frontier.
West Bank Action: Meet 10 am in Madama village, next to the mosque the farmers will then walk to the village land near Izthar settlement.
40 people held a rally at Gaza Port on Wednesday 6 February. Photo: Desde Palestina
On Saturday 9th of February at 11 am in the Buffer zone of Zeitoun neighbourhood Gaza City, Gaza farmers, fishermen, the Union of Agricultural Workers Committees and International activists from International Action for Palestine will join the International Day of Action for Palestinian farmers and fishermen. They will demonstrate at the Gaza Buffer Zone near the Eastern Israeli frontier, planting olive trees in previously bulldozed farmland and affirm the call by Palestinian agricultural organisations and the Palestinian BDS National Committee for worldwide boycott campaigns of Israeli agricultural products and Israeli agricultural export corporations. These companies are deeply complicit in Israel’s ongoing violations of international law and Palestinian human rights.
On this day at 10 am in the West Bank the villagers of Madama, the centre for the Martyr Billal Najar from Burin and International Solidarity Movement activists will plant Olive trees on the land of Madama village where illegal settlers cut down hundreds of olive trees. The village of Madama faces frequent collaborated attacks between Israeli settlers and soldiers. Settlers from Yitzhar are notoriously violent, regularly attacking Palestinian farmers and shepherds from Madama and surrounding villages whose land they want to take. When Palestinians try to defend themselves from these attacks Israeli occupation forces take over, attack the Palestinians and kill, injure or arrest them to keep them off their land.
Mustapha Arafat farmer from Zeitoun, Gaza City:
“The daily aggression suffered by us the Palestinian farmers every day must be highlighted to the world, so people can understand the reality of the attacks and the suffering that has continued throughout the recent ‘ceasefire’. The boycotts of Israeli companies in agriculture are so important as the Israeli occupation has destroyed our farming production and denied us the possibility of exporting our own products. International pressure on Israel is the only way our own economy will be allowed to develop and for us to live normal lives.”
Zakaria Bakr, a fisherman from Gaza City who took part in a rally at Gaza Port on Wednesday:
“As some of the remaining Palestinian fishermen still able to fish, we urge all those around the world to launch campaigns to boycott Israeli Agricultural products and companies. Negotiations have for years only been a cover for making our lives worse. Boycotts are a peaceful activity and something that everyone can participate in. We have called for the boycotts because while our fishing industry, our communities and livelihoods have been destroyed by Israeli aggression, all of their industries have benefited from destroying and confiscating our land and violently denying our access to the sea.”
Mamun Nassar, Farmer from Madama:
“I have been attacked injured and beaten by settlers many times while tending my flock. I was just imprisoned for six weeks because I was attacked by settlers on our land. The Settlers hit my face so hard they broke most of my teeth. My brother was shot and then arrested for trying to help me. All we want is to tend to our sheep.”
We ask the thousands demonstrating in over 30 countries and other people of conscience to grow the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction campaigns against the Israeli apartheid regime.
