Category: In the Media

Solidarity Worldwide: actions, protests and initiatives for Palestine around the globe

As the Israeli army continues its genocidal war on Gaza, and as the Israeli occupation forces and settler militias carry out ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, people around the world are taking to the streets, engaging in direct actions and BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) and pressuring their governments to enforce an immediate permanent ceasefire, an end to the blockade of Gaza and an end to the Israeli occupation and apartheid.

This post will cover the ongoing solidarity with the Palestinian struggle around the world. It will be updated with media and reports of direct actions, demonstrations, vigils and other forms of solidarity currently happening around the world, so that we can inspire each other, learn from each other and connect struggles.

 

Jewish Voices for Peace launches a Week of Action (11-15 December)

Jewish Voices for Peace and partner organisations are launching a week of mobilisations for the week (11th – 15th December). Their toolkit  includes guidelines on how to take action during the week in the US:

#1 – Organize a protest at your elected official’s office

#2 – Organize a protest or creative direct action at a weapons manufacturing and corporate targets.

#3 – Tell Congress: stop arming this genocide and Vote NO on sending more weapons to Israel, and join us every Tuesday and Wednesday to make calls to Congress.

#4 – Host a teach-in or create a zine on the role of U.S. militarism and Palestine in your community.

#5 – Something else! Plan a creative action!

 

Students in Queen’s University Belfast vote for divestment from military and colonial projects, ending all ties to arms firms (December 8th)

An overwhelming majority of students (88.71%) at Queen’s University Belfast student union voted for a position that called for divestment from military and colonial projects and the ending of all ties with to arms firms. The motion also called for the removal of Hillary Clinton as chancellor, and for giving more power to students and staff over senior appointments, partnerships and investments of the University.

 

 

French activists protest in front of manufacturer supplying Israeli army (December 7th)

Activists from the group Stop Arming Israel France blocked the entrance to the offices of Exxelia, a company that manufactures components of Israeli missiles, such as position sensors.


During the 2014 war on Gaza, an Israeli bomb killed three Palestinian children from the Shuheibar family, leaving other two seriously injured. The bombing occured on July 17th, during a five-hour humanitarian ceasefire brokered by the UN, and targeted what was evidently a civilian target — a rooftop where children were playing. Relatives of the three child martyrs found a residue of the bomb read “Eurofarad France“. Experts have since determined that the component is a Hall effect sensor made by Exxelia Technologies.

The family has since brought Exxelia to court for complicity in war crimes.

 

Groups take UK government to court over arms exports to Israel (December 5th)

Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq and the UK-based Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) are taking the British government to court for violating its arms export regulations, which obligate the government to suspend licenses for arms exports if there is a clear risk that the exported weapons might be used in breach of international humanitarian law.

According to the organisation Campaign Against Arms Trade, the UK provide “15 percent of the components of the F35 stealth combat aircraft which Israel has used to bomb Gaza in recent weeks. They also supply missiles, tanks, small arms and ammunition”.

(from Israel-Palestine war: Groups take UK government to court over arms exports to Israel | Middle East Eye)

 

British activists halt operations at LondonMetric, which rents property to arms manufacturer Elbit Systems (December 5th)

Activists from the British group “Palestine Action” have targeted LondonMetric, a British property company that rents lands and buildings to Elbit Systems. Elbit Systems is the primary provider of the Israeli military’s land-based equipment and and unmmaned aerial vehicles.

 

“LondonMetric owns the land and building at Unit F, Meridian Business Park, Meridian E, Leicester LE19 1WZ, from which Elbit operates their UAV Tactical Systems (U-TacS) drone factory. U-TacS exports millions of pounds worth of drone technologies annually to Israel, including parts for armed Hermes drones. These drones have well-documented links to war crimes and are sure to play a significant role in the ongoing genocide in Gaza”. (from: Elbit’s drone factory landlords targeted – Freedom News)

 

Protesters target COP28 summit in Dubai with peaceful direct action (December 4th)

Dozens of protesters gathered in front of the venue of the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai for a peaceful action of solidarity with the Palestinian people. Protesters demanded for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and read the names of the victims of the Israeli attack.

In response to the authority’s ban on raising Palestinian flags, the protesters held banners and flags with watermelons painted on them. The watermelon is a well-known symbol of the Palestinian struggle — since it bears the colours of the Palestinian flag — and it has been widely used to evade restrictions on Palestinian symbols both in Palestine and around the world.

Watch a report of the action here

Find more about the watermelon and other symbols of the Palestinian struggle here

Human rights organisations bring Dutch government to court over complicity in Israeli war crimes (December 4th)

Human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Oxfam, are bringing the Dutch government to court over its export  of reserve parts for fighter jets to Israel, which has continued in the past weeks, despite the figther jets being the backbone of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

 

Palestinian Boycott National Committee publishes statement putting forward grass-root policies to enact Palestine solidarity (December 2nd)

The BNC published a statement putting forward a guide to grass-root policies that activists around the world can push in their local unions, organisations and city councils to put solidarity into action. The policies, which are laid out with practical resources and examples, include: Call for a Permanent Ceasefire, Apartheid Free Pledge, Divestment policies.

 

South Africans march for International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (November 29th)

Some of the thousands of people protest as part of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Johannesburg, South Africa.
March in Johannesburg, South Africa [Kim Ludbrook/EPA]
South Africans marched through Johannesburg on November 29th, crossing Nelson Mandela Bridge and calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Veteran South African anti-apartheid activist Ronnie Kasrils called for the boycott and isolation of Israel over the current war:

“All over the world, millions and millions are coming out and saying no, no, no. We will boycott and isolate Israel until it hurts them, and we stand by the Palestinian people fully, in our total support”

A reel showing the march can be found here

 

 

 

Human Rights Defender Accused of Supporting Terror

Alison Russell, a Scottish-born Belgian citizen and Human Rights Defender, was detained by the Israeli occupation authorities while documenting the demolition of a house in Masafer Yatta, in the South Hebron Hills of the occupied West Bank.

She was deported after very perfunctory proceedings at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court. Israeli police alleged in a public statement that Alison “supported a terrorist organization”. Her attorney pointed out that this claim had no basis. Nevertheless, the presiding judge issued a verdict couched in fiery nationalist rhetoric, claiming that “There are many faces to Hamas terror. There are various kinds of terrorists. Some terrorists wield guns and bombs while others use a computer keyboard”.

The Human Rights Defender was taken to the Ben Gurion Airport, and deported, with a decree issued to bar her re-entry. Itamar Ben Gvir, the Kahane linked Minister of Police in the Netanyahu government, issued a personal statement celebrating “The deportation of the Belgian terrorist supporter who had supported the Hamas Nazis” and “congratulating the Judea and Samaria Police for their good work”.   

In the last month and a half, the charge of being a “supporter of a terrorist organization” has become an excuse for an extensive campaign of political persecution against anyone who dares to post any protest the unfolding genocide in Gaza. This is affected against Palestinians who have Israeli citizenship, and against Israeli Jews such as the teacher Meir Baruchin who was detained for almost a week on completely unfounded charges. In the Gaza Strip, a far more brutal procedure for the same allegations is implemented. A Gazan journalist or political activist accused of “supporting Hamas” may expect to be targeted and/or have their family targeted by a missile from an Israeli warplane. Such was, for example, the fate of Ahmed Abu Artema and countless other Palestinian activists and journalists.

Nowadays in Israel, all it takes to be charged with “supporting terrorism” is to express sorrow and pain over the killing of children in the bombing of the Gaza Strip. State Attorney Amit Isman strongly criticized these detentions, but Israel’s police, controlled by Ben-Gvir, persist in carrying out such detentions. 

In the case of human rights defender Alison Russell, the far-fetched charges of “supporting terrorism” or “keyboard terrorism” cover up the real reason for her detention and deportation. In court, the state asserted that “she had many times disrupted the activities of the IDF troops, whenever she came in contact with them”. Indeed, it is highly disturbing for the troops to have outside observers and witnesses present where acts of oppression take place, which often constitute blatant violations of International Law. 

Not in vain do the soldiers regularly confiscate the mobile phones of activists and even the footage of international TV crews. Alison, like the other human rights defenders who come from all over the world to express solidarity with the Palestinian people in their difficult time, together with Israeli people of conscience, are struggling to stem the wave of ethnic cleansing which is going on all over the West Bank, under cover of the war in Gaza.

The shepherd communities, the most vulnerable part of Palestinian society, have become the target of a brutal attack by the fanatic settler militias, and already sixteen such communities have been forced to leave their land under violent attacks and explicit threats of murder.

The tiny villages at Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills are attacked by settlers on one side and the army on the other: The settlers attack the villages, destroy whatever is at hand and threaten entire communities with murder, and in these criminal acts they enjoy complete immunity from the police and army. For its part, the army arrives to destroy the houses of the villagers, houses which were declared to be “illegal” by the Supreme Court. Alison was detained and deported when she tried to document the destruction of one of these houses..

The police had stated “a deportation order from Israel” was issued to Alison, as well as a decree  to “prevent her from entering Israel” in the future. We would like to emphasize that Alison never wanted to “enter Israel”. She wanted to come to the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel, by the express invitation of Palestinian residents to document and intervene in human rights abuses and stop an ongoing nakba.

In the words of Alison herself, “The UN, created when the world was saying ‘nie wieder faschismus,’ has given up on Palestine. But right now, right here, in a tiny little corner of Palestine, there are a dozen villages that are under direct and immediate threat. When the handful of determined people that are here manage to organize a group to sleep in the hamlets, we delay their expulsion…I’m here ‘cos I really think our action is effective. Please make it more effective by getting involved too.”

Alison points to a sign that says, “Humanitarian support to Palestinians at risk of forcible transfer in the West Bank.”

The escalation of Israeli crimes in the West Bank

Balata Refugee Camp
By. Diana Khwaelid
Israel is escalating and expanding its crimes in the West Bank, as well as in Gaza.
On the evening of Friday, November 17th, the Israeli occupation forces, in cooperation and partnership
with the Israeli Shin Bet, carried out an aerial bombardment on the Fatah headquarters in the
Balata refugee camp, targeting 4 Palestinian men wanted by the Israeli occupation forces.
The youngest of them was the martyr Mohammed Massimi, age 16.
An Israeli warplane fired an air missile at the Fatah headquarters in the Balata refugee camp
when it received information that the wanted men were inside. Israel has not
fired such kind of missiles through the Airplane since the AlAqsa agreement during the Second Intifada.
According to sources from the Red Crescent Society and eyewitnesses who were in the camp,
the four young men were found in horrible circumstances.
They are the martyr Mohammed Abbas, 20 years old, Mahmoud Zahed zoufi , 39 years old, Mohammed Hashash 18 years old and Mohammed Massimi, 16 years old.

The camp woke up to the sound of an explosion, around 11 o’clock at midnight, to be surprised
by the shelling of the Fatah movement headquarters in the camp, and they found 4 bodies
belonging to the four young men, and dismbeberd body limbs because of the intensity of the explosion.
The Red Crescent crews, with the presence of members of the Palestinian civil defense,
removed the four young men and the remaining body parts, and they were transferred to
Rafidia government hospital in Nablus.


But the Israeli occupation not only killed and targeted the 4 of them; Israeli snipers targeted
the young martyr Ali Faraj shoothing him on the neck. The number of martyrs of the Balata refugee camp increased to 5 martyrs in less than 4 hours.
The bodies of the martyrs were given to their families for a final farewell. A state of fear, horror and sadness prevailed in the Balata camp, until the day after the funeral of the 5 martyrs took place. Hundreds of Palestinians participated in the funerals, chanting words of anger and resistance, condemning the crimes of the Israeli occupation against Palestinians in the West Bank, especially in Gaza. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the percentage of martyrs in the West Bank has
reached more than 120 martyrs since October 7th.

We will not be intimidated: Statement and call to action about the attacks on our group in the Israeli media

This week the International Solidarity Movement has been targeted in the Israeli media. Articles have appeared naming and showing pictures and videos of ISM Volunteers and Israeli activists accusing them of spreading ‘a false campaign against settler violence’ and of being Hamas supporters and ‘Nazi helpers’. In the current atmosphere of violence against dissent this puts the individuals accused at considerable risk.

The right-wing attack on the ISM began after we called on supporters to contact international embassies over the situation in Masafer Yatta. Our callout must have touched a nerve, and we would like our supporters to renew efforts to pressure representative offices and embassies in the coming week.

The attack on ISM and other Human Rights Defenders is an attempt to ensure that there are no witnesses to report the attacks of Israeli colonial settlers on Palestinians, so that the settlers and military can continue committing ethnic cleansing across the West Bank with the support of the occupation. They claim that we are falsely posing as Human Rights defenders along with another 22 organizations who have called to stop the ethnic cleansing in the South Hebron Hills.

They are also accusing us of “fueling the false settler violence” campaign in order to cause significant damage to Israel in the international arena. In fact, our statements and documentation of  the reality of the situation on the ground have only covered a fraction of the atrocities being committed by settlers. In September, the UN reported that settler-driven  displacements had already been increasing in number throughout 2022, and that those Palestinians remaining in isolated communities were at “elevated risk.” Of the nearly 2,000 Palestinians displaced amid settler violence since 2022, 43% of these displacements by persistent settler attrition have occurred – in just over one month – since October 7th 2023.

We will not be intimidated, we will continue to provide protective presence to communities that ask for it, and we will continue to call-out and nonviolently resist the ethnic cleansing that is going on. Now is a critical moment in the Palestinian struggle, and in the global struggle for justice. Solidarity is needed now more than ever.

Since the beginning of the attack on Gaza our volunteers have reported on and witnessed uniformed settlers terrorizing small Palestinian hamlets, making threats to kill and opening fire at civilians with live ammunition. ISM’s role in Masafer Yatta – along with our Israeli comrades – is to maintain a protective presence to deter further violence, and to report on the colonial settlers’ attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians from the area.

Some of the articles in the Israeli right wing  media have focused on an American former ISM volunteer who they claim is a founder and ‘the leader of ISM’. The person in question, although they were in the past an ISM volunteer, they were not a founder and nor  were they a leader of ISM. In fact, one of ISM’s four guiding principles is that we are a non-hierarchical movement and do not have individual leaders. This individual is no longer a part of ISM following an internal process addressing ethical disagreements that ended with the individual in question leaving the group in 2017. ISM is not responsible for the actions of this – or any other – individual who do not operate within our principles aND are no longer connected to our support groups

The articles also say that ISM is “an operational arm of Hamas”, when in fact the ISM is independent. We are not proponents of any political parties. We use only nonviolent tactics, and believe that nonviolent actions are a powerful tool in fighting oppression, occupation and apartheid.

Attacks of this kind have recently escalated, but they are not new. Last November Bezalel Smotrich stated that human rights organizations are “an existential threat to Israel” and that their real purpose is “to undermine the legitimacy of the State of Israel.”

As well as the ISM, the attack targets 22 other Left-wing organizations that recently issued a call to the international community to stop the ethnic cleansing and forcible displacements in the West Bank. The letter sent by the organizations reads: “The international community is called upon to act urgently to stop the wave of settler violence, which is carried out with the support of the state, and which leads and will lead to the expulsion of Palestinian communities in the West Bank. We believe that the only way to stop the deportation in the West Bank is through direct, strong and unequivocal intervention by the international community.”

The situation in the West Bank has rapidly deteriorated since the most recent war on Gaza began on October 7th. Since the start of the war on Gaza, more than 169 Palestinians – including 46 children – have been killed in the West Bank, and more than 3,000 have been arrested. As Gaza suffers from ceaseless and criminal bombing, settlers have expanded their attacks on herding and isolated rural communities in the West Bank to force Palestinians to leave by making their lives unbearable. In herding communities in the South Hebron hills, armed settlers close off access roads, attacking those who try to leave. Villagers are regularly injured by settlers opening fire with live ammunition. No food or fodder can get into  communities, children cannot access their schools, and the community members are in a persistent state of anxiety and dread.

The ISM has maintained a continuous presence in the West Bank since the beginning of the Second Intifada. Our role is to support the Palestinian struggle for freedom, and provide an internationalist platform for volunteers to stand side-by-side with Palestinians, enhance Palestinian voices and bring the truth of ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing to the international community.

ISM Volunteers, side-by-side with Israeli human rights defenders, provide a protective presence in these West Bank communities. We are hosted by members of the community. Our presence is intended to deter settlers and the Israeli Occupation Forces carrying out acts of violence in these communities. Volunteers document human rights violations and act as night guards in the communities staying awake overnight so that the families can get some sleep.

As the world’s eyes are rightly upon the Israeli genocide taking place in Gaza, many horrific episodes of ethnic cleansing of Palestinian communities are taking place in the dark in the West Bank, unnoticed by the majority of the international community.

We ask people around the world to pressure their governments to take immediate action to stop the attacks happening in the West Bank

Script for communication to Embassies and Representatives:

I am writing to demand rapid action be taken by this body to defend human rights in the West Bank. As violations of International Humanitarian Law continue to be committed against occupied Palestinians, world leaders who do not take every action to defend human life and dignity are complicit in the denial of them.

Daily incidents of violence committed by Israeli settlers against isolated and vulnerable Palestinian families in the South Hebron Hills are being documented and transmitted to the world. Daily transgressions of the rights of Palestinians to live their lives without being harassed, searched, arbitrarily arrested and held without charge, raided, shot at and humiliated by the army and settlers -who are being emboldened by the silence of the international community. These violations are being reported by human rights organizations across the globe.  With the whole world watching, what side of history will you be on?

 

.

Prisoners’ Solidarity Demo

Weekly demo in front of the International Red Cross, Ramallah, to demand the release of prisoners from the Occupation’s jails

24 October 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Ramallah

The ISM attended the weekly demonstration held in front of the International Red Cross, in Ramallah, to demand the release of prisoners from the Occupation’s jails. When we arrived at the demonstration, a lady called out to me in French – “You’re French? Macron shouldn’t come here, he should go home. It’s a disgrace!”

Macron is currently visiting Ramallah after he held talks with Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

This Palestinian lady was brought up by the nuns in Bethlehem, went to their school and speaks excellent French. She still takes great pleasure in reading in French. Like everyone else here, she is scandalised and horrified by the images we see over and over again on all the screens. She took me as a witness to express her revulsion and incomprehension. How can France approve of these massacres of women and children?

She demonstrated in front of the International Red Cross to support the families of the prisoners. Her own son spent 15 years in prison, and many of his friends were caught up in the round-ups that have been taking place every night since 7 October.

The number of prisoners in Israeli jails has doubled in the last 15 days. Many of these captives are being held in administrative detention. Their families no longer have the right to visit them.

On average, one Palestinian in five will spend time behind bars in Israel.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231024-palestinian-prisoners-dies-in-israels-jails-2-weeks-into-his-detention

https://www.btselem.org/administrative_detention