Category: Journals - Page 45 - International Solidarity Movement

Call from Gaza to the citizens of the world: STOP THE ONGOING MASSACRE

18.11.2012 – Besieged Gaza, Occupied Palestine

Four years after the Israeli Occupation Forces perpetrated a massacre upon the population of Gaza, Apartheid Israel commits another crime. The latest round of Israeli war crimes has resulted in a new massacre ; at the time of writing more than 40 innocent civilians, including 15 children, have been murdered brutally as they slept in their own houses. More than 400 have been critically injured.

We request that the citizens of the world oppose this deadly crime. We no longer rely on governments. The failure of the United Nations and its numerous organizations to condemn such crimes proves their complicity. Only civil society is able to mobilize to demand the application of international law and put an end to Israel’s impunity. The intervention of civil society was effective in the late 1980s against the apartheid regime of South Africa. Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have not only described Israel’s oppressive and violent control of Palestinians as Apartheid, they have also joined this call for the world’s civil society to intervene again.

We, therefore, ask people of conscience and civil society organizations to put pressure on their governments until Israel is forced to abide by international law and international humanitarian
law. Without the intervention of the international community which was effective against apartheid in South Africa, Israel will continue its war crimes and crimes against humanity, as articulated by the Goldstone report.

We call on civil society organizations worldwide to intensify the anti-Israel sanctions campaign to compel Israel to end to its aggression.

The international conspiracy of silence towards the genocidal war taking place against the 1.5 million civilians in Gaza indicates complicity in these war crimes.

We call upon the international community to demand that the rouge State of Israel end its siege and compensate for the destruction of life and infrastructure that it has visited upon the Palestinian people. We alse call upon all Palestine solidarity groups and all international civil society organisations to demand:

– An end to occupation, Apartheid and other war crimes committed by Israel
– An end to the siege that has been imposed on the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip since 2006.
– The protection of civilian lives and property, as stipulated in International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law such as The Fourth Geneva Convention.
– That Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip be provided with material support to cope with the immense hardship that they are experiencing..
– Immediate reparations and compensation for all destruction carried out by the Israeli Occupation Forces in the Gaza Strip.
– Holding Israeli generals and leaders accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against the civilians of Gaza.

Signatory Organizations:
Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions
The One Democratic State Group
University Teachers’ Association
Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel

Letter from ISM activist in Gaza

14th November 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Strip

Dear All. I am calling on all your support for the besieged people of the Gaza Strip.

Here in Gaza, more than 10 people have been killed so far in the Israeli operation named “Pillar of Defence” within the last 7 hours, including countless children such as 7-year-old child Ranan Arafat and an 11 month old baby. We’ve seen charred bodies of dead and injured children pouring in to Al Shifa hospital of Gaza City and the other depleted hospitals around the Gaza Strip. 50 airstrikes all over the Gaza Strip so far. Deafening explosions shook us all as bombs landed close to us in the streets near the Universities. Huge explosions are landing all around us in Gaza City now as I write, some entire families have been injured. We can also hear the shelling of Israeli Gunships. Announcement of possible Israeli land invasion very soon.

More than 330 children were killed in the last bloody operation like this in operation Cast Lead, killing over 1400 in total: the vast majority civilians. We are reporting from hospitals, streets and bombed areas. How many, terrified in there homes will have their lives shortened by tomorrow, or after the days of airstrikes, tank shellings and Gunship missiles Israel has announced. YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. MOVE. ACT NOW TO STOP ANOTHER GAZA BLOODBATH. INACTION AROUND THE WORLD HAS LEAD US TO THIS POINT. ACT NOW.

Adie

For more information on how to contact International activists in Gaza now please email: palreports@gmail.com

Picking olives in a cage

Journal by Ellie Marton

25 October 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

I spent Tuesday inside a cage. Not my usual way to spend a sunny Tuesday – but for the Palestinian farmers I was with, this is routine.

This is because their land happens to be near the illegal Israeli settlement of Ariel – in fact, it is in the Israeli imposed ‘buffer zone’ between the largest settlement in the West Bank and the surrounding Palestinian villages – of course, the buffer zone is created out of land outside of the settlement, effectively grabbing yet more land from the Palestinians.

Many olive trees are trapped in this ‘buffer zone’ between a fence on one side and Ariel on the other. So, during the Palestinian olive harvest, the villagers who own the land must ask for Israeli permission to access their own trees – as is typical across the West Bank. However, they have a second hurdle to cross, as their trees are behind this fence, the soldiers need to let them in and out every morning and evening.

The gate is meant to be opened at six every morning, during the 20 days that villagers have permission to pick olives inside the cage – some farmers have to set off from home before 5am to get there on time to be allowed in. Five soldiers deigned to grace us with their presence at around 6.15, zooming down their patrol road in a military jeep. They opened the first gate onto the road, then past the rolls and rolls of barbed wire separating this from the next gate, eventually coming down to permit access to the sixty Palestinians, who were waiting patiently outside, as the sun rose over the hill.

The soldiers took the ID card of every person who passed, impatiently gesturing at people to hurry up with their guns. When we had all crossed the patrol road and into the third gate into the cage-proper, the door slammed shut behind us. We were locked inside until 4pm, when the soldiers would come and release us.

This length of time has severe implications for the farmers picking inside the cage – if anyone is ill or gets injured over the course of the day, there is no guarantee that medical help would be able to reach them. Children can’t join their families picking olives after school. If families don’t pick their olives within the permission time, they will lose them. Multiple trips can’t be made during the day – any olives that need to be removed have to be taken in one go at the end of the day – and this can be a lot. More than anything, the loss of autonomy and control over your own life and livelihood is devastating.

The family that I was picking with didn’t actually own the land – they rented it from another family who live in a village very near to the land. However, because of the cage, it would take them around three hours to reach their trees. So although the majority of Palestinian families have a deep connection to their trees and their land, this family needed to sacrifice this for the practicality of allowing someone who lives closer to farm their land.

Actually picking the olives was trouble free. We saw one settler, jogging past on the other side of the fence – apparently there are sports fields there. At the end of the day, we walked the forty minutes back to the gate and waited for the soldiers to let us back out. This time, they called people one by one, handing them back their ID cards. This took rather a long time. At the end, there was one woman left – for several tense minutes, the soldiers couldn’t find her ID card and held her back. Her relief was tangible when it was found, and she was allowed to follow the rest of her family out of the cage. Palestinians need their ID cards for all aspects of their daily life, to have it go missing would be a big problem.

Israel aims to humiliate and control the Palestinian farmers – with great dignity, patience and steadfastness, the Palestinians gather their olives year after year, waiting until the moment when they will break free from the cages.

Ellie Marton is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed)

New Israeli Air Raids on the Gaza Strip

16 October 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

The Israeli air force has conducted several air raids at night starting on the 12^th of October, and ending on the morning of the 13th.

“I felt a huge explosion at midnight while in a cafè with some friends. The first attack hit a Hamas military base north of Gaza City (in Nafaq street). Later, empty spaces in the refugee camps of Al Bureij and Nuseirat were hit, in the central Gaza Strip. Military aircraft continued to fly sporadically that night.
At 3:20pm on the 13th I heard another huge explosion caused by an Israeli strike on a site belonging to the resistance, north of Gaza City.
F-16 fighters flew for at least half an hour longer. An attack was also reported in an uninhabited area in the Bedouin village Um Al Nasser in Beit Lahia, which is located in the northern Gaza Strip. Later I learned that in this area the shelling had damaged a kindergarten.
Israeli forces have subsequently claimed to have struck, “a site of terrorist activity in the northern Gaza Strip and two others in the central area”. Given that they are centers for the Palestinian resistance and that terrorism is daily implemented by the Israeli army with attacks by sea, air and/or by land, this statement is false. The objectives that were hit are sites of the resistance, north of Gaza City, but are also vacant spaces in the central area. In addition to these attacks took place in Beit Lahia. These statements, which have been copied by the Italian media are patently incorrect and are useful to specifically justify the attacks.

With the idea to show what happened during that evening, there was a consultation with centers for human rights and other local contacts. Today I went in the village of Um Al Nasser to photograph the damaged kindergarten.
I discovered that the ‘Um Al-Nasser kindergarten was built through the project “Education for Peace and Architecture in the Gaza Strip” that had been promoted by the Italian NGO Vento di Terra, and financed by Italian Government Cooperation.
I went there with a Palestinian activist, we were accompanied by local people to visit the inside of the kindergarten. The walls have cracks and some pieces have fallen.

Then the village men met with us outside to see the cavity in the ground caused by the bomb dropped from an F-16. The bomb was dropped near the nursery, where there is also an agricultural land and a chicken farm.
I must admit that I risked a lot to be in that place at such a late hour, it was about 6:00 to 6:30 in the evening. Drones flew over us while we were in the agricultural land about 700 meters from the border with Israel.

“Get away from us, if they hit, they will hit the entire group,” said the Palestinian activist.
At such times it is difficult to remain focused-

It was completely dark, the only light was on a cell phone. I did not want to be separated from other people and at the same time I contemplated my own personal survival. I began to imagine our bodies suddenly reduced to pieces. Nausea and dizziness encroached upon me, as drones continued to be there… right on top of us.
I took pictures quickly on the spot where the bomb exploded and on the outside walls of the asylum. I just had to do this work, then I would go. I would do this in spite of my fingers trembling on the camera.
-Luckily everything went well this time.

We also found pieces of the bomb. Once we left the kindergarten we visited a house nearby damaged by the attack. Abu Idrees Sharikh, age 52, told us that the attack occurred around 1:45 at night. He invited us to come in and began to point out the cracks on the walls of his home caused by the explosion. She told me that her daughter, Sabrin, age 16, is shocked and unable to speak. Their family is originally from Ashkelon. The families of this Bedouin village are extremely poor and live under constant threat of air strikes. They are refugees yet they do not receive any services from UNRWA because it does not consider the area included among those to receive aid. The village of Um Al Nasser is definitely one of the worst areas of the Gaza Strip concerning living conditions.

I left and went back to Gaza City.
I went to an outdoor cafè for a moment of calm. I hoped I could connect my computer and start working, but suddenly I heard an explosion at about 20:15.
There is no peace.
An Israeli raid killed two men on a motorcycle in Massoud street in Jabalia, north of Gaza City.

The first man died on the spot, Fayeq Abu Jazar, he arrived at the hospital without a head. The second man, in critical condition, died later in the hospital. Hesham Ali Su’eidani, age 43, was the leader of the Salafist group. Hesham Ali Su’eidani was also the leader of the Salafist whose release had been asked by the killers of Vittorio Arrigoni.
A second attack at about 8:30 am hit the Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City where there is a site of Al Qassam Brigades, which is the armed wing of Hamas. No injuries were reported.”

For more, see:

http://ilblogdioliva.blogspot.co.il/2012/10/nuovi-raids-israeliani-sulla-striscia.html

al-Mufaqarah Resists

09 October 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

At one in the afternoon on Monday, the 8^th of October, we received a call in Arabic:

“We have big problems. Can you come?”

Two calls later and we were on our way. We reached al-Tawani in a service taxi. Along with two volunteers from Operation Dove, we walked up the hill to al-Mufaqarah.

Al-Mufaqarah is a beautiful village with about a dozen families, some brick houses, some tents, and some prefabricated dwellings provided by the United Nations. On the hill in front of us we saw a series of entrances to caves with stone walls that complement the houses. They were once inhabited, but it seems that since the evacuation of the village in 1999 they have not been used.

As soon as it got dark, we realized that there is no electricity. We heard a generator supplying power for the evening, and we remember that just a year ago they were putting poles up with the purpose to bring electricity here from the grid. The army demolished these poles however, and now this village is again a target. This time, the occupation forces are setting their sites on the construction of a mosque and a school.

On Monday morning, a jeep from the Israeli occupation forces arrived with an order to stop any construction work. “We will check if you continue,” they said. “And we will proceed to arrest those responsible.”

When we arrived, we found a group assembled in a tent. The decisions about what actions to take had already been made, and now they explained their plan of action to the internationals that had been called to help.

The villagers explained that the Israeli laws are unjust. How is it possible that in the illegal settlements there are all facilities available: running water, light, schools, but the Palestinians are not permitted these services? How can they not even have their own place of worship?

“We do not accept Israeli law,” they said. “So tonight we will continue the work on the mosque.”

They would continue laying the concrete slabs on the construction site.

Meanwhile, they organized their efforts. Officially, when the army was there, all the equipment was removed from the construction site: the pile of rubble and cement was covered and hidden. But they also prepared two tractors with attached trailers that would move into the town from two different directions: one with a hoist and planks to walk on the slabs, the other with sand and a mixer. The tractors would converge at the construction site later.

We received information that there was a checkpoint at the exit of Yatta, but fortunately the tractors laden with the building materials were already on their way. The hoist was assembled and put into place, and we all took a quick pause for dinner. As we ate, a cold wind rose up and cleared the clouds of the day from the sky, giving way to a great starry sky. When it was dark, we started our work.

The sand and the mixer arrived, along with the building team from Yatta. Four people were there to load sand and gravel into the mixer. Another added water and put in the bags of cement. Another worker maneuvered the mixer and elevator, and four more worked to level the concrete.

Anytime we saw lights of a car passing on the road, the work slowed down and our lights for work were extinguished. Finally, the work was done without intervention from the army. By half past ten in the evening, everybody was enjoying tea.

Perhaps in the future, Israeli occupation forces will demolish the mosque; it has happened before in this village. But for now, al-Mufaraqah has a victory. The village shows great determination and will not give up!

Team Khalil