Category: Journals - Page 130 - International Solidarity Movement

Harassment in the village of Qawawis

The sheperds living in the hamlet of Qawawis, south of Hebron, live in constant fear of the settlers living in the nearby illegal settlement outpost. All settlements are illegal under international law, but the settlement outpost near Qawawis is illegal, even by Israeli standards, a fact that doesn’t seem to have any effect on the Israeli authorities. The illegal outpost is hooked up to electricity, water and a road that is paved to to the outpost’s entrance. The nearby native Palestinian village has no access to these services.

The outpost — though illegal — is protected by the Israeli military and police, but that protection is not extended to Palestinians in Qawawis. Adding to the problem, the Israeli government has forbidden Qawawis villagers from building structures, even to replace those that have been destroyed by settlers.

The Israeli government has been trying to root Palestinians out of their homes in the Southern hebron Hills for years, but has, as of yet, failed to do so. According to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, nearly 1,000 Paelstinians in the area, including those in Qawawis, are choosing to live as their ancestors have for generations, “living in caves and earning a living from farming and livestock.”People in the area point out this way of life serves a purpose aside from ideas about nostalgia: The Israeli military has forbidden villagers from construction on their own land, even to replace those building destroyed by settlers. The caves also provide added security during settler or military incursions.

Israeli officials use the caves to argue that expulsion of the residents is justified because they are not permanent residents, and that the expulsion is an imperative military need.”

I stayed In Qawawis for three days. On the first day, a group of settlers appeared on a hill that is part of the village. The Palestinian family living on this hill had just returned home from a nearby town, where they fled to two years ago to escape settler violence. Shortly after the appearance of the settlers, who carried machine-guns, an army jeep arrived and waited for the settlers to leave for 40 minutes. On the third day a settler car stopped on the settlement road and two settlers came out and walk towards a Shepard and his flock, hurling verbal abuse for about 10 minutes before continuing on their way.

These two incidents ended without violence but this is not always the case. The community lives under constant threat. The families of Qawawis are defenseless. They urgently ask for your help.

B’Tselem is urging the government of Israel to revoke the order declaring the caves area in South Mt. Hebron a closed military area and cancel the eviction orders currently pending against the cave residents. The organization is also calling on the the army and police to protect the cave residents; enforce the laws in protecting villagers from violent settlers; recognize the right of the cave residents to live in their villages; and to compensate Palestinians whose land and personal property were damaged by settlers, the army, or the Civil Administration.

Letters from Rafah

Written by K and M

Special greetings again from Rafah. There is just no way to describe life here at the southern end of the Gaza Strip. We are the only International people in all of Rafah and the news has traveled fast and everyone knows we are here.

This afternoon all of us, along with our two interpreters went over to the Block O neighborhood which is just a short distance from the building where our apartments are located. M, the young man who is serving as translator for the men, lived in Block O before it was destroyed by the Israelis in 2004.

We had visited Block O the first week we were in Rafah and were shocked by the level of destruction. M showed us the mosque where he and his friends would go to pray mosque that was all but demolished. He told us they used to play football in the square in front of the mosque. Now they call it the “Square of Death”. We could not venture close to the wall for fear of being shot without warning. I worry about the children who are not allowed to be children.

While we were climbing among the ruins of Block O, some of M’s friends from the university walked by and invited us to visit his home. We walked along a street strewn with rubble (I didn’t think anyone could possibly be living on this street) and entered a courtyard. It too was a mass of rubble. I noticed a piece of tile that may well have been someone’s living room or kitchen.) From this courtyard of destruction we entered a small yard that was like another world. Roses and other flowers were blooming in a small garden. Several large pieces of cloth created a shady tent-like structure.

Before long, S brought out the usual assortment of lawn chairs and we were joined by his parents, a brother, several young nieces and a number of young boys from the area. We have not gone anywhere in Rafah without attracting a cadre of preadolescent boys.

This family lives at the very edge of the pile of rubble that is now Block O. The mother of the family was a very animated woman who spoke her mind. She told us that she lives in fear of her family’s home being destroyed just as most of the other Block O homes were. The family home is not too far from one of the Israeli “security” towers and we did hear shooting from the tower while we were with the family.

This family also asked us questions as United States citizens. They asked us if we thought Muslims were terrorists and what we thought about U.S. efforts to “export” its brand of democracy around the world. They also expressed their dismay that George Bush was elected president. A number of people have asked us about the election. They can’t understand how a democratic nation would choose someone like Bush. The father of this family had the saddest face I have seen, and in Rafah, we have seen many very sad faces. The image that stays with me from our afternoon is Block O is the roses blooming in this
most unlikely of places. Maybe peace will come to this troubled land in some unlikely way.

Qawawis

written by V.

The psychological and physical harassment in the village of Qawawis continues.

The sheperds living in the hamlet of Qawawis, South of Hebron live in constant fear of the settlers living in the nearby illegal settlement outpost. All settlements are illegal under International law but the settlement outpost near Qawawis is illegal even by Israeli standards, a fact that doesn’t seem to have any effect on the Israeli authorities. The illegal outpost is hooked up to electricity, water and a road that is paved to it’s entrance, while the native Palestinians have no access to any of these services. The illegal outpost structures and residents are protected by the Israeli military and police, while the native Palestinians are forced to live in caves. If the natives of Qawawis build any structure, It is immediately threatened with demolition and will be torn down.

I stayed In Qawawis for three days. On the first day a group of settlers appeared on a hill that is part of the village. The Palestinian family living on this hill have recently returned there after they escaped from settler violence to a nearby town, two years ago. Shortly after the appearance of the settlers, who each carried a machine-gun, an army jeep arrived and waited for the settlers to leave for 40 minutes. On the third day a settler car stopped on the settlement road and two settlers came out and walk towards a Shepard and his flock hurling verbal abuse for about 10 minutes before continuing on their way.

These two incidents ended without violence but this is not always the case. The community lives under constant threat. The families of Qawawis are defenseless. They urgently ask for your help.

Get off our Land

Protest Against the Toxic Chemical Factory on the edge of Tulkarem

Today’s Freedom Summer action was focused on the presence of a toxic chemical factory at the edge of Tulkarem. The Israeli-owned factory was originally located near residences in Israel, but was deemed to be polluting beyond acceptable legal levels and following a court case in Israel it was moved to the West Bank city of Tulkarem in the mid-eighties. The complex of factories has been expanding ever since, spreading like the cancer that the output from the factory induces. It represents a particularly dangerous dimension of the occupation for the Palestinian people. As I stood looking up at the chimney and IOF watchtower inside the factory compound it occurred to me that this was a large, ugly weapon, slowly but surely attacking the people around it.

Tulkarem has the highest cancer rates in Palestine, and people living near the factory also suffer disproportionately from respiratory tract diseases and other health problems. The land around the factories has been labeled unsuitable for agricultural production and farmers have faced extreme difficulties getting to it. One farmer has been shot at a number of times by the owner of the chemical factory. He has decided to convert his farm to organic production a decision which reflects the strength and resilience of the Palestinian people. No attempt is made to clean the surrounding environment or dispose of the chemical waste safely – it has been repeatedly dumped on nearby Palestinian land.

The protest began with a march from the centre of Tulkarem towards the factory. We wore blue surgical masks to highlight the danger of inhaling the factory fumes, but as we approached the factory and began to smell the foul stench in the air I was genuinely glad that I was wearing it.

As our group of Palestinians, Israeli, and ISM activists proceeded from the center of Tulkarem to the factory, located at the city’s edge, we carried signs in Arabic and English shaped like gravestones and proclaiming the death of the environment, justice, freedom, and human rights, as well as organisations like the World Health Organisation and the International Court of Justice.

Arriving at the factory, which is extremely close to the Apartheid Wall around Tulkarem, the demonstrators placed the gravestones outside the main gate and began to chant. Messages were sprayed on the wall and we banged on the gate with stones, but nobody responded and the military did not turn up.

I only hope that they do not punish the farmers involved in the protest later, when we have left the city.

Photos can be viewed at freckle.blogs.com/photos/no_more_poison/

The factories in Tulkarem are one of many sites throughout the West Bank where Israeli industrial complexes are situated. The companies are free to operate outside of Israeli laws regarding health and safety, the environment and the treatment of workers. The Palestinian
workers come from a pool of very cheap labour; they have no rights and, following the economic strangulation of Palestine over the last five years, are desperate to work, even if this means going to a settlement and working in unhealthy or dangerous conditions. The factories are built on stolen land and disfigure the beauty of the West Bank, causing environmental problems and flattening agricultural land with concrete.

These are some of the things I wish everyone knew

A speech by Kate Raphael at San Francisco Pride.

These are some of the things I wish everyone knew:

I wish everyone knew what an olive tree looks like when its branches are lopped off, heavy full ones they call ‘hamel’, which means pregnant.

I wish everyone knew how Caterpillar bulldozers uproot the trees to make room for a Wall that is twice as high and three times as long as the Berlin Wall.

I wish everyone knew that the Wall will not stop terrorism and that’s not what it’s for, but it does separate tens of thousands of people from their land and put 3 million people in prison which will increase the hate.

I wish everyone knew that the number of checkpoints in the Palestinian lands doubled during a time when there were no attacks against Israelis, and

I wish everyone knew that the number of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, which is another name for land theft, doubled during the last peace process.

I wish everyone knew that 4100 Palestinians and 1100 Israelis have been killed in the last four years, and

I wish everyone knew that 8000 Palestinians are in Israeli jails, and

I wish everyone knew that 2 million Americans are in American jails, and

I wish everyone knew that since 9/11 the US has disappeared people and secret prisons and 2000 immigrant detainees are held indefinitely without charges and is that how you spell PATRIOT?

I wish everyone knew that in 1970, the Iraqi constitution, under Saddam Hussein, declared all women and men equal before the law, and

I wish everyone knew that until 1991 women in Iraq were 38% of teachers and 31% of doctors.

I wish everyone knew that the Bush administration wants a quota of 25% women in the Iraqi legislature and women make up 15% of the US Congress and we have no quota.

I wish everyone knew that women in Palestine hold 18% of seats in local government and women in Israel hold 12%.

I wish everyone knew that the US state department says it has built 11 women’s centers in Baghdad and when was the last time they built a women’s center in Bayview? And

I wish everyone knew that Muslim women don’t need us to free them, but they do need us to stop oppressing them, and

I wish everyone knew that half of older lesbians depend on Social Security for most of their income, and

I wish everyone knew that under Bush’s social security plan the average retired worker would get less than half what they get now, and

I wish everyone knew that 12 million people are now held as slaves around the world, including some right here in San Francisco, and 80% of them are female and 50% of them are children, and

I wish everyone knew that Black women in the US are 20 times as likely to get AIDS as white women and AIDS is the third leading cause of death for Black women and

I wish everyone knew that marriage won’t help us get health care when 39% of people in this country don’t have health coverage from their job.

Most Americans think foreign aid is 24% of our budget but it’s actually less than 1%, and

I wish everyone knew that 22% of US children live under the poverty level.

I wish everyone knew that we’ve killed 25,000 Iraqi civilians since March 2003 and the US has 37,000 troops in South Korea and 16,000 in Afghanistan, and

I wish everyone knew that US women earn 76 cents to a man’s dollar but if they are Black they earn 66 cents and if they are Latina they earn 55 cents, and

I wish everyone knew that 25% of US women who become pregnant have abortions and 87% of US counties have no abortion provider, and

I wish everyone knew how it feels to watch gay people cross the picket line at Badlands to go drink half-price beer at a racist bar, and

I wish everyone knew that queers are a community and not a market sector, and

I wish everyone knew that the parade didn’t used to have barricades and used to be for everyone

I wish everyone knew about Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism and LAGAI Queer Insurrection, and

I wish everyone knew that Stop AIDS Now Or Else was the first group ever to block the Golden Gate Bridge, and

I wish everyone knew that the Bolivian people are rising up to throw out the gas companies and winning, and

I wish everyone knew about the Gay Liberation Front, and

I wish everyone knew that Stonewall was a riot, and

I wish everyone knew that revolution is possible.