Category: Journals

Volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement are encouraged to write personal reflections about the work they engage in with Palestinian communities, the events they experience, and the people they meet. These journals offer the human context often missing in traditional reports or journalism. These articles represent the author’s thoughts and feelings and not necessarily those of the International Solidarity Movement.

Gaza: There was no calm before the storm

20 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Hamouda Al Najjar

For the last two days Gaza has been under heavy attack by the Israeli military. The calm has been shattered. That is what the international press would have you believe. Perhaps they should meet Hamouda Al Najjar from Khuzzaa. He was shot in the leg on August 15th, 2011, during the time that most people think of as the time of calm in Gaza. Gaza is never really calm, it is just that the dead and the injured are ignored. If an Israeli settler had been shot in the leg while gathering food for his sheep every newspaper in America would carry a story, nobody reported the shooting of Hamouda Al Najjar.

Hamouda Al Najjar is 25 years old. Like most Gazans, he has no job, the siege makes sure that no exports leave Gaza and that a functioning economy is impossible. So Hamouda does what he can to try and help his family survive. At five thirty P.M. he left his house with his neighbor, Khaleel Al Najjar, to gather food for his family’s sheep. They hoped to be finished in time for Iftar. They were working on their land, 300 meters from the border when about seven IDF soldiers suddenly appeared from behind a hill. The soldiers began to fire at them, Hamouda and his neighbor immediately tried to leave the area, about 10 seconds after the first shot Hamouda was hit in the leg, right above the knee. Hamouda fell to the ground, his neighbor ran for help. The soldiers continued to fire at Hamouda. They fired about 10 bullets in total. The soldiers left, Hamouda remained. Friends and neighbors came to take him to the hospital. Now he sits in Europa Hospital recovering from his wounds and hoping that his leg will fully recover.

Sa’d Abdul Rahim Mahmoud al-Majdalwai, 17, from al-Nussairat refugee camp is not in a hospital, he will not recover. He was murdered by the IDF on August 16, 2011. Sa’d was mentally disabled. According to the Israeli army he was observed approaching the border and so he was shot. He was shot ten times, in the head and chest. He was 400 meters from the border when he was killed. His bloody body lay there for an hour and twenty minutes before the IDF allowed ambulance crews to retrieve it.

Gaza strikes: Destroying just to destroy

20 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Israeli attacks on Gaza are not limited to trying to kill people.  Sometimes, they bomb things just to destroy them, pointless destruction.  On the morning of August 19th, 2011 Israeli warplanes bombed Kateeba.  Kateeba is a large unfinished building near Al Azhar University.  It has a giant green lawn, one of the few green spaces in Gaza, and is a popular place for people to hang out at night.  They pass the evening talking, smoking, and enjoying the green grass and the cool air.  Kateeba doesn’t have walls, just five unfinished floors.  You can see through the entire building, it is empty.

The bomb penetrated the top two floors before exploding.  Windows were shattered for hundreds of meters around. The mosque next door had its windows shattered, windows were shattered at Al Azhar University, windows were shattered in all of surrounding apartment buildings.  The green lawn is covered in rubble.  Perhaps Kateeba will remain standing as just another windowless memorial to Israeli attacks on Gaza.

75 year old woman shot in Johr al-Dik

16 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Strip

Selma Al Sawarka, or Um Ahmad, is an active woman, a mother of seven, and a grandmother of 35, who has never quit working.  August 10, 2011 dawned like most days do for her; she went out to graze her family’s goats.  She took her neighbor with her, 15 year old Keefa Al Bahabsa.

They went to the same land they usually go to. At 9:30 that morning they saw an Israeli tank and an Israeli jeep near the border.  Not an uncommon sight.  The tank and jeep left.  About 30 minutes later, the jeep returned, three soldiers got out, and opened fire on Um Ahmed and Keefa.  Um Ahmed was shot in the leg, Keefa fled to get help.  The soldiers also shot ten of the families goats.

Um Ahmed is used to being shot at by the Israelis as her land is only 600 meters from the border. Usually, she says, the soldiers shoot around her, or into the air, trying to drive her from her land; she doesn’t know why today was different, why they shot directly at her, why they shot her in the leg.  Her scarf also has bullet holes in it; only through the grace of God is she still here.

It took half an hour for Keefa to return with help, they loaded Um Ahmed onto a donkey cart, and went to the main road to meet a taxi to take her to the hospital. When I met Um Ahmed she was laying on a mat on the floor, recovering from being shot.  A pale blue scarf covered her head.  Bracelets adorned her wrists.  Her daughter sat next to her.  The room was simple, some mats on the floor, two chairs for the guests, a dresser, and small stand with a TV.

On the wall was a picture of her son Mustapha.  He was killed by the Israeli’s on Dec, 15, 2004.  Sometimes, the soldiers, or even the settlers themselves, would close the road near Netzarim settlement, the only way to go anywhere was to leave the road, and walk on the beach by the sea.  Mustapha was shot and killed as he walked on the beach. The house we are in used to be Mustapha’s house. Beside the TV is another picture, another of her sons, this one has been in prison for the last ten years.  He has eleven years left on his sentence.  Um Ahmed, like all Gazan mothers, is not allowed to visit her son in prison, for four years this has been a blanket Israeli policy.  Instead, she looks at this picture, she thinks about him in prison, while her leg heals.

“Price tag” campaign a pattern more than a phenomenon

15 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The so called “price tag” campaign is regarded to be a product of the illegal Israeli settlement of Yitzhar, yet the price tag to Israeli occupation and fanatical land grabbing is much more a general concept, aligned with the policy and practice of Israel let alone its illegal settlements. The “price tag” campaign, after all, is the settler pursuit to claim as much indigenous land while terrorizing Palestinians with arson, gunfire, vandalizing, and other forms of harassment resulting in even death. While Israelis may domestically see a difference between illegal settlers and the State, the Palestinian who loses self-autonomy and land ownership by military or by fanatical settlers never was able to tell the difference between what seems to be a mutual sharing of a national agenda.

The term “price tag campaign” is a so called phenomenon that comes as a reaction to the demolition of settler construction by Israel, with illegal settlers seeking revenge for such destruction on innocent, Palestinians of nearby villages. If Israel is destroying small structures within settlements, one might think it is taking a step towards stopping the settlement projects. Yet despite the illegal status of settlements, Israel continues to include them in official “national priority maps” with soldiers at hand to protect illegal pursuits at the cost of Palestinian rights and peace. Thus the price tag campaign is nothing more than a pattern in illegal Israeli occupation.

In mid-2010 illegal structures in the illegal settlement of Bay Ayen near the Palestinian village of Beit Ommar were destroyed by Israeli military. Settlers attacked the Safaa neighborhood of Beit Ommar in what became to be a systematic and regular pursuit to destroy groves with arson, damage buildings, and threaten the overall security of locals. When the Israeli military showed up during one particular instance, it arrived just as residents of the Palestinian village began to leave their homes to see what was going on.

The Israeli military fired tear gas and stun grenades at the Palestinians, injuring a number of residents while the assailants left protected and not apprehended

The Palestinian village of Burin can also attest to the relationship between Israeli military and Israeli settlers. In 2009 for example, a group of international observers saw about 50 settlers descend from their illegal settlement carrying rifles and assaulting the 13 members of Ghalib Najjar’s household. When the Israeli military showed up and allowed the settlers to leave without consequence, the military threatened the international observers from reporting or photographing the event. Snipers were positioned at the top of the family home, and international observers were threatened to be detained.

Islam Fakhuri  currently living in the H1 area of Hebron, also reveals the collaboration between settlers and Israeli military forces.

“My father had two shops – souvenior shops—on Shuhada Street In 2000 under the intifada, the army came into our house one day and they said they want to buy our house. I said, ‘this house is not for sale. We don’t want to sell our house to you, not to settlers.’

Fakhuri continued to describe what formulated to be settler and military collaboration.

“That night around 2am, they came back and set our house on fire. Two children of my family sleeping in one room died from the fire. And then the army came back and forced us to move out. You see, my house is empty now. Everyone has the same story like mine. You can speak to Abd Sadr. The children from his family died from that, too.”

He pointed to a building nearby to illustrate his experiences.

“You see the building up there, it was the office for lawyers and doctors, and now settlers live there. Beit Haddasah and Abram Avinu used to be a hospital for Palestinians. No more.”

These violent actions occur  almost weekly, outlining various villages throughout the West Bank with some Israelis even calling on the Israeli military to act more responsibly. But how can one ask a military to act responsibly when its State continues to violate international law and disregard Palestinian rights?

Whether one is looking at Nabi Saleh,  the Jordan Valley, Hebron, Sheikh Jarrah,  and the places erased of names and labeled in the language of imperialists—it is clear.

The colonial state has merely birthed violent colonialists who take it upon themselves to do what the Israeli military traditionally does. And thus, to the Palestinian both are the same.

One wears fatigues, but the two carry guns.

They try to steal our history, not just our land

9 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The demonstrations in Nabi Saleh started the 21 of November 2009, after the illegal settlement of Halamish expanded, costing locals in land and their source of water for home and agricultural use, a spring declared holy by the settlers.

Since the beginning of the demonstrations the village faced outstanding repression from the army and the Israeli government, who declared 10 house demolition orders. The Israeli army tried to negotiate  with or blackmail members of the village, promising to withhold the demolition orders if they stop the demonstrations.

More then 220 people have been injured since the beginning of their peaceful resistance to illegal Israeli occupation of their land. Some of the injured include an 11 year old boy who was shot with a rubber coated steel bullet in his head and is still paralyzed. Another example is man who was hit by a high velocity tear gas canister, illegal because unlike usual tear-gas canisters, it is made to be capable of breaking through walls, can fly long distances without sound, does not emit a smoke tail, and has a propeller to accelerate the weapon mid-air.

At the moment there are around 90 Nabi Saleh locals still held in Israeli jails.

We met Manal Tamimi, one of the most active women in the village, who made the point that their resistance is not just for her children in Nabi Saleh, but it is a resistance that involves all Palestine.

In this featured interview with ISM, Tamimi stated, “You can plan things for maximum 10 minutes, I’m not able to decide in which school to send my kids, you can’t decide anything about the future. Children shouldn’t live in fear, they shouldn’t pay this price.”