30 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
Today we joined the Global March to Jerusalem from Gaza. Israeli soldiers shot continuosly, dozens of people injured, one killed.
I made this small video during the march. Some young people show the blood on their hands. Some guys with two motorcycles carried continuously the injured people injured to ambulances. However the Israeli soldiers kept on shooting.
Rosa Schiano is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement. You can visit her blog here.
30 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
Sometimes, the more things change the more they stay the same. On March 30, 1976 during protests against the confiscation of Palestinian land, Israel killed six protesters, injured over one hundred and arrested hundreds more. This was the first Land Day. Every year for the last thirty six years Palestinians have commemorated the heroism of those protesters and reiterated their attachment to their lands. This year was no different. This year protests occurred in over eighty countries, thousands of people tried to march to Jerusalem. Almost everywhere whoever was in power tried to prevent these marches. Gaza was no different from everywhere else.
The march from south of Beit Hanoun - Click here for more photos
Today’s protest began at a gas station south of Beit Hanoun. Thousands of people gathered for the protest, many of them made it obvious that they wanted to march to Erez, and, God willing, on to Jerusalem. Rows of police prevented this. On a stage speaker after speaker spoke of resistance and return. Off to the side, tires burned, youth on top of a billboard rhythmically pounded on it, demanding to go to north toward the border. The police were having none of this, armored, carrying Plexiglas shields and batons; they stopped anyone who attempted to push north. For three hours thousands of people stood under the sun in honor of Land Day.
At about four o’clock we were told that some people we know had moved past the police lines that were preventing protesters from reaching Erez. The Israeli army was firing on the demonstrators. Live bullets from soldiers ensconced in concrete towers embedded in a giant concrete wall shooting at protesters on the narrow road to the border. That is a constant in Gaza, all protests are met with live bullets. We set out to Erez to see the situation.
We arrived at Erez at about five o’clock. There were a couple of hundred young men on the street leading to the border. They were blocked from coming close to the massive concrete wall in which the soldiers hid by a fence of razor wire. Israeli soldiers shot at young men burning tires and throwing stones. None of the stones made it within a hundred meters of the concrete towers, but that did not stop the Israelis from using deadly force, their bullets smashed into body after body. One young man, Mahmoud Zakot, 20, from Jabalia was killed. Thirty one others were injured. There were no ambulances. Young men would be shot, their friends would carry them to waiting motorcycles, the motorcycles would roar off to take the injured to ambulances waiting by the checkpoint behind us.
The young men were not deterred by the gunfire. They had come to Erez to protest forty five years of occupation, sixty four years of dispossession, no one had any illusions about how Israel dealt with protests in Gaza with bullets. Young men would move forward with whatever they could light on fire and leave it in the razor wire which blocked the road. Other young men would try to pull the razor wire out of the way so that we could advance toward Jerusalem. Bullets would ring out; young men would fall into the arms of their friends and be put on motorcycles for the trip to the hospital. While the Israeli’s shot them the young men chanted, “The doors of Al Aqsa are made of iron” and “We are going to Jerusalem, martyrs in the millions”. Freedom is more valuable than life.
We did not reach Jerusalem today. We remember though, and we are grateful, that Jerusalem is not Lifta and is not Jarash, Palestinians still live there, it has not been ethnically cleansed. We will be back on May 15, in commemoration of the Nakba, we will return on June 5th to commemorate the Naksa, we will return to this border until the occupation disappears.
Nathan Stuckey is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.
27 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
Photo courtesy Hussein Amody, 2012
Thirty six years ago on March 30th 1976 demonstrations against the confiscation of Palestinian land by the Israeli government spread throughout Palestine. Six Palestinians were killed, over a hundred wounded, and hundreds more arrested. Land day was one of the first large mobilizations of Palestinians with 1948 Palestine. This year, on Land Day, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from all over the world will march towards Jerusalem. Today, in Beit Hanoun, Land Day came early. The weekly Tuesday demonstration against the occupation and the no go zone was in honor of Land Day and the six martyrs who gave their lives defending their land thirty six years ago.
We gathered on the road in front of the Beit Hanoun Agricultural College in preparation for the march into the no go zone. There were about 50 of us, the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, the International Solidarity Movement, other foreign activists, and Gazan activists from all over Gaza. Palestinian flags flew high, music played over the megaphone, and we unfurled banners in memory of the martyrs of 1976. Young men carried olive trees, hoes, shovels and water. We would plant the trees in the no go zone today. We marched slowly toward the no go zone.
The no go zone has been overgrown with thistles, for some reason the Israeli’s have stopped bulldozing the ground so often. Perhaps they are satisfied that they grounded most signs that people used to live here, that the no go zone used to be a place of thriving orchards, completely to dust under the treads of their tanks of their bulldozers. We made our way through the thistles using paths cut by our previous demonstrations in the no go zone. We made our way to the trench the Israeli’s dug to bisect the no go zone. The trench is lined with flags from our past demonstrations. Today it is also lined with pictures of Rachel Corrie and Hana Shalabi from last week’s demonstration.
Young men set to work with their hoes. They cleared two areas of thistles, dug holes, and planted young olive saplings. While the trees were being planted the crowd chanted, “From Gaza to Sakhnin we are all united with Bil’in.” Usually, the chant is from “from Gaza to Jenin we are all united with Bil’in”, but this week Sakhnin was honored for its role in the first Land Day.
After the trees were planted we set about our second task for the day, erasing the trench which scars the no go zone. Young men set to work with hoes and shovels filling it in with dirt. Israeli soldiers appeared on top the concrete tower from which they usually shoot at us. This time, they did not shoot, they merely watched.
The young men continued to work at filling in the ditch. Perhaps the soldiers were afraid of shooting, afraid of inspiring even demonstrations on the 30th. Perhaps they realized that to these demonstrators, freedom is more important than life. The young men worked steadily. Soon a good part of the trench was filled in. They shouldered their shovels and hoes and we began to walk back towards Beit Hanoun. We paused at the edge of the no go zone by some giant concrete blocks painted with Palestinian flags, we ate cookies and drank orange juice. Today, we went to the no go zone and planted olive trees, God willing, on Land Day we will plant olive trees in Al Quds.
Nathan Stuckey is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement
29 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
Celebrating the land and life in Beit Hanoun - Click here for more photos
Today, Beit Hanoun celebrated Land Day. It is true that Land Day isn’t really until tomorrow, but tomorrow is the Global March to Jerusalem, tomorrow, God willing, Land Day can be celebrated on the land from which the refugees were expelled 64 years ago. Today, Land Day was celebrated on the land that Palestinians have managed to hold onto in Palestine. Land Day commemorates the protests against the expropriation of Palestinian land which rocked Palestine in 1976. Six people were killed, over a hundred injured and hundreds more arrested. In Beit Hanoun we marched under the slogan, “A united land and a united people.”
About 50 people gathered in Beit Hanoun to commemorate Land Day with us. People from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, the International Solidarity Movement, other foreign activists and people from all over Gaza marched with us. We marched north out of Beit Hanoun toward the no go zone. We were going to plant olive trees, bake bread, and dance debka. The women wore traditional Palestinian dresses; some of the men wore traditional clothing as well. We carried flags, posters, hoes, water and olive trees, these were our weapons today. We didn’t actually enter the no go zone, we were working on land near the Palestinian police post near Erez crossing. When we arrived people immediately set to work, planting olive trees, setting up a tent, preparing ovens to bake bread on. The mood was festive, people sang in circles, children threw rocks into the water of a nearby ditch; bread was eaten the moment it was taken off of the oven. While all of this was going on others worked the land, they planted olive trees and cleared weeds away from olive trees already growing on the land. When we finished planting the trees young men gathered to dance debka and sing.
One of the organizers received a phone call. Apparently the Israeli’s had called the Palestinian police in the nearby police station, they were threatening to shoot us if we did not leave the land. They didn’t claim that we were in the no go zone, such a claim isn’t necessary in the eyes of Israel, shooting Palestinians doesn’t really need an excuse. We had no weapons, there were women and children with us, yet soldiers 500 meters away in concrete towers embedded in a giant concrete wall were threatening to shoot us. It wouldn’t be either the first time the Israeli’s have shot at us, nor the first time they Palestinians simply for being in the range of their guns. Many people have been shot on their land in the north of Beit Hanoun. Israeli threats did not force us to leave the area, as one of the young men said, “This is our land, let them shoot if they want to, this is our land and it is our right to be here.” We left when we were finished singing and dancing. On the way back to Beit Hanoun we shared juice and cookies, the rewards of a day of being on the land.
Nathan Stuckey is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.
A Palestinian fisherman, Khamis Baker, was injured on Sunday morning when the Israeli navy opened fire on a group of Palestinian fishing boats in the waters of Gaza.
The Khamis family’s home, in Al-Shati camp (“Beach” camp), is poorly lit , the ceiling falls into pieces, and there is no glass on the windows.
Khamis Baker, Gazan fisherman - Photo courtesy of Rosa Schiano, 2012
Khamis has a bandage on his forehead. The doctors sewed his wound with three stitches. A group of children crowded the room during our visit.
“Every day we face difficulties” Khamis began to tell us. ” Every day we face the fire of the Israeli navy which wants to prevent us from fishing. ”
Khamis was on the boat with his 16 year old son and three cousins.
“The previous day I sent my son to the gasoline station, we decided to go fishing on Sunday morning. While we were at sea, the Israeli Navy started to shoot using water cannons. Suddenly my son told me that there was blood on my face, I was wounded.”
“It was a waste of time and gasoline, -Khamis continues, – hours and hours spent at the gasoline station in order to get the fuel.
The Israeli navy ship fired continuously since the morning and it turned quickly around our boats in order to create waves.”
Khamis and the other fishermen were in the “permitted” area, designated by Israel within three nautical miles from the coast. Nonetheless, the soldiers were shouting to them, “Go to the south, go away.”
There were more than twenty fishing boats at sea. But because they could not fish anymore, they all went back to the port.
Khamis has worked for thirty years as a fisherman and has nine children. In the same home live also the families of his relatives, totaling about one hundred people. They all depend on fishing.
I ask Khamis how much they can gain from fishing. “150 shekels,” he answers me which is the equivalent of $40, “but half of it goes to pay the gasoline only. The rest is divided by five, so we gain a maximum of 20 shekels each.”
Khamis tells us that there is no way to fish beyond three miles. The Israeli navy ships arrive quickly. Once their boat overturned and they felt in the sea.
I finally ask Khamis if he feels like sending a message to the international community.
“We demand at least a guarantee for our future, we need to live in safety, we ask at least a guarantee for the security of our children.We do not ask anything, just to end the siege, because the Palestinian people suffer and die because of it. Every fisherman suffers from this situation.”
Khamis is just one of the many fishermen injured by the Israeli navy in the waters of Gaza.Israel regularly attacks the Palestinian fishermen within the limit of three nautical miles and prevents them from fishing by using firearms and water cannons.The restrictions on the fishing area have a significant impact on the subsistence of the fishermen of Gaza. This area should extend for 20 nautical miles according to the Jericho Agreements of 1994 (under the Oslo agreements), but was then reduced to 12 miles, then 6 and finally at 3 miles in January 2009. The “buffer zone” of water imposed by Israel prevents the Gaza fishermen from accessing the 85% of the marine area that the Oslo agreement entitles them to use.
Rosa Schiano is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.
