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Gaza Freedom March less than one month away

Gaza Freedom March | Electronic Intifada

4 December 2009

The Gaza Freedom March that will take place in Gaza on 31 December is an historic initiative to break the siege that has imprisoned the 1.5 million people who live there. Conceived in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and nonviolent resistance to injustice worldwide, the march will gather people from all over the world to march — hand in hand — with the people of Gaza to demand that the Israelis open the borders.

Marking the one-year anniversary of the December 2008 Israeli invasion that left more than 1,400 dead, this is a grassroots global response to the inaction on the part of world leaders and institutions. More than 1,000 international delegates from 42 countries have already signed up and more are signing on every day.

Participants include Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker, leading Syrian comedian Duraid Lahham, French Senator Alima Boumediene-Thiery, author and Filipino Parliament member Walden Bello, former European Parliamentarians Luisa Morgantini from Italy and Eva Quistorp from Germany, President of the US Center for Constitutional Rights Attorney Michael Ratner, Japanese former Ambassador to Lebanon Naoto Amaki, French hip-hop artists Ministere des Affaires Populaires, and 85-year-old Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein.

We also have families of three generations, doctors, lawyers, diplomats, 70 students, an interfaith group that includes rabbis, priests and imams, a women’s delegation, a Jewish contingent, a veterans group and Palestinians born overseas who have never seen their families in Gaza.

The international delegates will enter Gaza via Egypt during the last week of December. In the morning 31 December, they will join Palestinians in a nonviolent march from northern Gaza to the Erez/Israeli border. On the Israeli side of the Erez border will be a gathering of Palestinians and Jews who are also calling on the Israeli government to open the border.

Inside Gaza, excitement is growing. Representatives of all aspects of civil society, including students, professors, refugee groups, unions, women’s organizations, nongovernmental organizations, have been busy organizing and estimate that at least 50,000 Palestinians will participate. People from the different sectors will march in their uniforms — fishermen, doctors, students, farmers, etc. Local Palestinian rappers, hip-hop bands and dabke dancers will perform on mobile stages.

Armageddon is coming to East Jerusalem

Palestine Monitor

5 December 2009

This was the ominous warning issued yesterday by Rabbi Arik Asherman, director of Rabbis for Human Rights who believes that “if nothing changes, Jerusalem will burn.” His remarks come in response to a court decision on Monday permitting Israeli settlers to take possession of another Palestinian home in the East Jerusalem region of Sheikh Jarrah. This is the fifth family to be evicted in a neighbourhood where more and more Israeli flags are appearing atop of freshly occupied Palestinian homes.

Yesterday Rabbis for Human Rights organized a demonstration in Jerusalem protesting the courts decision bringing together 150 Israeli and international activists from organizations such as ICHAD, EAPPI and Anarchists against the Wall. As they marched through the streets in West Jerusalem, they received a mixed reaction from passer bys. Some cheered them on whilst others shouted ‘traitor’, spat at demonstrators and at one point a hose was turned on the crowd from behind the curtain of an upstairs apartment.

The demonstration culminated in the front yard of the Al-Kurd’s family home where the front section is now occupied by Israeli settlers and the family has been moved to the back.

The Al-Kurd house was built in 1956 and an extension added 10 years ago is the current source of contention. On Monday the Magistrates Court ruled it illegal and gave permission for a group of Israeli settlers to take occupation. An immediate appeal issued by the Al-Kurd family was dismissed. On Tuesday a group of Israeli settlers, accompanied by armed private security guards and Israeli police forces, took possession of the extension strewing the Al-Kurd’s belonging across the front yard.

Rising tension

As Shabbat prayers began late yesterday afternoon an influx of Orthodox Israelis gathered at the house, pushing through the crowd and throwing things at demonstrators. As the first and most important prayer began the Orthodox crowd moved from inside the house to clap, dance and sing in front of the on looking Al-Kurd family and demonstrators. An Israeli activist present described the move “as intentionally provocative.” He said “people deliberately gathered at the house for prayers to show solidarity with the settler family and to demonstrate to protestors their strength and ownership of the house.”

More evictions to come

A UN official at yesterday’s demonstration warned of further misery to come for Palestinian families in East Jerusalem. A letter from lawyers representing Nahalat Shimon International, the settler organization forcing through the evictions in East Jerusalem, has ordered two more Palestinian families to hand over the keys to their house to the legal firm by December 15th. According to the UN representative there are now 8 families under eviction orders and 5 families who have already been evicted from their homes.

Too little too late?

The eviction of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem is illegal under international law which forbids an occupying power from transferring its own people into an occupied area. Despite this the international community has done little to abate the appropriation of houses here. There is growing concern that Zionists are attempting to create a new Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem which will strengthen Israeli claims to complete autonomy of the capital. In reaction to this there is speculation that the European Union will issue a statement this week supporting the establishment of East Jerusalem as a future capital of a Palestinian state but many fear this is too little too late. As more and more settlement houses become ‘facts on the ground’ the balance of power and ownership is East Jerusalem is shifting perhaps irrevocably.

The tension in East Jerusalem is intensifying daily and many including Rabbi Asherman fear that without swift and decisive international intervention the situation will soon approach “breaking point.”

Palestinian moderately hurt in Naalin

YNet News

4 December 2009

Evacuating the injured Palestinians Friday (Photo: Activestills)

A 20-year-old Palestinian protestor was moderately injured from a bullet fired by the security forces during a rally against the separation fence in the West Bank village of Naalin, Palestinian sources reported Friday.

An Israel Defense Forces official said the man was lightly wounded after being hit in the lower part of his body by a bullet fired from a Ruger rifle, which is used as a crowd dispersal mean. One of the protesters, Yonatan Polk, said he was standing next to the demonstrator that was shot.

“The guy was standing between 50 and 70 meters away from the soldiers, with two barbed-wire fences between them,” he said.

“Both he and the soldiers were standing behind cement blocks, meaning any arguments of their lives being in danger are far from reality. He was hit by a live bullet near his crotch. It’s a policy of using these means in order to create tension and nothing more,” he added.

Dozens of Palestinians, left-wing activists and foreigners took part in the weekly anti-fence demonstrations in the villages of Bilin and Naalin. Some 150 people protested in Naalin and about 80 in Bilin.

According to the IDF, the protestors rioted and hurled stones at the security forces, who responded with tear gas and crowd dispersal means.

Later Friday, the IDF reported that two Molotov cocktails were hurled at Border Guard vehicles in Naalin. There were no reports of damage or injury.

Efrat Weiss, Roee Nahmias and Anat Shalev contributed to this report

Shock follows footage of settler running over Palestinian

Ma’an News

3 December 2009

An amateur video shocked Palestinians on Tuesday, catching what appeared to be an Israeli settler repeatedly running over a wounded Palestinian at a gas station in Hebron last week.

The Palestinian, an unidentified man shot several times following an alleged knife attack at the station, appeared to be staggering when a silver Mercedes ran him down, stopped, reversed, and ran him over again.

The video was reportedly taken on Thursday, although at the time, Israeli representatives made no mention of the settler’s alleged attack, telling reporters only that a Palestinian man had been shot after he stabbed and lightly injured two settlers.

A military spokesman told Ma’an that after the two Israelis were hurt, a soldier shot and injured the Palestinian, who was taken to the Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem. The settler, on the other hand, was released under house arrest.

That evening, a hospital spokeswoman told Ma’an the Palestinian was undergoing surgery for serious wounds, but did not mention he had been run over and trapped under a car. He was transported by an Israeli ambulance, she noted.

What follows is a partial clip from Al-Jazeera. Click here for an uncut version of the same film.

Warning: contains graphic images.

The full video captures several soldiers standing by as the incident unfolds. Those who run up to the vehicle and appear to take the keys out of the ignition are armed settlers. The Palestinian is left underneath the car screaming as settlers extract the driver. Several seconds later, medics approach the injured man.

According to The Jerusalem Post, police believe the driver was David Mizrachi, an Israeli from the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba and the husband of one of the alleged stabbing victims. He may stand trial for attempted murder, the newspaper reported.

Both incidents come as tensions in settlements rise, with settlers vowing to defy recent orders to slow down certain West Bank construction. Soldiers have also shown an increasing aversion to cracking down on settler behavior, with some announcing their refusal to take part in missions that involve removing settlers from what Israeli courts determine are illegally occupied Palestinian homes or outposts.

Last fall in Hebron, dozens of soldiers were sent to evacuate the Ar-Rajabi home in Hebron, following which a rampaging settler from Kiryat Arba shot a Palestinian at almost point-blank range. The settler was briefly arrested and later released without charge.

Trying to fill the hole our father has left

Jody McIntyre | Ctrl.Alt.Shift

3 December 2009

As we move into the cold months, many of you in the UK will be looking forward to Christmas. In the Palestinian village of Bi’lin, last weekend marked the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, a time to see family and friends and for people to eat together. But for many Palestinians, the Eid was not so festive. Rajaa Abu Rahmah, aged 19, only has one wish this festive season, to see her father freed from prison.

On 10 July 2009, Adeeb Abu Rahmah, a leading activist and organiser from the occupied West Bank village of Bi’lin, was arrested during the weekly demonstration at the Wall. A man committed to non-violent direct action, Adeeb was charged with incitement to violence, a blanket charge often used to indict leading members of Palestinian communities resisting against the confiscation of their land. A judge initially ruled that Adeeb should be released with restrictive conditions, forbidding him from attending demonstrations, but an appeal filed by the military prosecution was upheld, meaning that Adeeb would be held until the end of legal proceedings. Trials for Palestinians in Israeli military courts often last for over a year, leaving Adeebs family fatherless for the holidays.

Jody McIntyre spoke to Rajaa, Adeebs eldest daughter of eight children who is currenlty studying medicine at the All Quds University, to see how the family were coping during Eid al-Adha:

Jody McIntyre: Why do you think your father was arrested?
RA: Because he struggled against the Wall and the settlements, and to defend our land. They said in the judgement against him that they would serve a high punishment to make an example for others participating in the non-violent resistance here, so I suppose they are using my father as a symbol to dissuade others from continuing with the struggle.

JM: The Israeli authorities are trying to present Adeeb as a violent man who incites riots, but what is your father really like as a person?
RA: All the people who struggled with him every week will tell you that he is not a violent man. But more to the point, we have a right to be on our land, so you cant stop this person from resisting against an Occupying Force that has come and illegally confiscated that land. My father was fighting for his right in his own way, by going to the Wall to demonstrate, and shouting to make his voice heard. You cannot say that it is wrong for a man to defend his rights.

JM: How has your family life changed since your father went to prison?
RA: I am the eldest child, so there are no brothers to take care of the family. Most of my brothers and sisters are small children. Since my father went to jail, we have lost our main source of income, so our financial support is depleting. But it has also affected our feelings, we have no sense of security or safety now our father has been imprisoned.
My youngest sister is always crying when she thinks of our father, and all the kids are very frightened when they see the Israeli Occupation Forces. I think seeing the soldiers reminds them of why they cannot be with their father.
It has been especially difficult during the holidays, first Eid al-Fitr (the Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan) and now Eid al-Adha this is the second holiday we have been forced to spend without our father. The Eid is supposed to be a time to meet all the family and be happy together, but without our father here with us there is no joy. It is even more upsetting for us to think that he is not somewhere comfortable, but suffering in the cold of an Israeli military prison.
My sister Duaa is 18 years old; she was due to get married this summer, but now that our father has been imprisoned we have had to postpone the marriage until he is released.

JM: Do you know when your father will be released?
RA: The court said that it could be another 14 months, but they can renew the sentence indefinitely, so none of us know when we will see our father again.

JM: How has your fathers arrest affected your studies?
RA: This semester I am facing many problems with paying my university fees, and I keep missing the deadlines to pay. It also affects my feelings, as it is difficult to concentrate on my studies whilst I know my father is in prison. However, the experience has also made me feel stronger. As the eldest child, I know that I am responsible for my younger brothers and sisters, and I want to try to fill the hole that our father has left.

JM: What is your message to the authorities responsible for keeping your father in prison?
RA: My father hasnt done anything to you, and he has a right to defend the land you have stolen, so you must release him.

JM: When your father is released, what will be the first thing you say to him?
RA: That I missed him.

Words – Jody McIntyre
Photos – Hamde Abu Rahme [of Adeeb during demonstrations at the Wall)