8th September 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Duma, Occupied Palestine
Yesterday, Monday 7th September, at approximately 1pm, thousands of people where waiting for martyr, Reham Dawabshe, to arrive to Duma to attend her funeral.
After struggling for five weeks from severe burns all over her body, Reham Dawabshe died in the hospital. Reham’s home was attacked by illegal Israeli settlers on July 31st, by smashing the windows in the middle of the night, throwing in flammable liquids and molotov bombs and setting the whole house on fire. Her 18-month-old baby, Ali, died in the flames trapped in the house and her husband, Saed, died one week later in the hospital.
Saed, Reham and Ali Dawabshe, now all gone. Photo credit: Rex Features
Until this day, only 4-year-old, Ahmad, has survived but is still struggling from severe wounds in the hospital.
4 year old Ahmad Dawabshe is still in the hospital.
Thousands of people mourned the mother’s death in Duma, including hundreds of teachers and dozens of students from the Jurish School for Girls, where Reham worked as a math teacher. Many government representatives were present, including the Governor of Nablus, Akram al-Rujoub, and the Minister of Education, Sabri Seidam.
Thousands march in funeral procession in Duma. Photo credit ISM
Message from Directorate of Education of South Nablus. ‘Gardens of Eternity, Martyrs go to Paradise, Oh, martyr, Reham Dawabshe’ Photo credit ISM
Funeral procession where people demanded for justice and political unity. Photo credit ISM
Reham’s funeral march. Photo credit ISM
Palestinians marched towards the family grave. Photo credit ISM
Reham was buried next to her husband and son. Photo credit ISM
Soon after the funeral procession was finished, clashes broke out in the entrance of the village of Duma, where Israeli soldiers fired tear gas canisters and sound grenades towards Palestinian youth.
Clashes broke out in the entrance of Duma after the funeral. Photo credit ISM
To this day, the perpetrators of the arson attack that killed Ali, Reham and Saed Dawabshe have not been arrested. Israeli authorities only arrested a few random settlers right after the event occurred in order to show in the news media that they were working to make justice, but soon after most of these suspects were released.
It is important to note that the great majority of attacks perpetuated by illegal Israeli settlers towards Palestinian villagers are always ignored by the Israeli authorities, whereas Palestinians are harassed, imprisoned and beaten by Israeli soldiers on a daily basis for no reason.
Vittorio Fera is released on bail after an extremely violent and terrifying time in Israeli prisons. He is falsely accused of throwing stones and attacking Israeli soldiers. His case will be in court again Tuesday the 8th of September in Jerusalem.
Here is Fera’s own testimony on the arrest, imprisonment and the international media attention:
1st September | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil Team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Friday the 28th of August Vittorio Fera was violently arrested by Israeli forces. He was beaten up during the arrest and treated badly in prison. His case was in court Monday 31st of August and is now postponed till the 8th of September. The story has been covered in the media, and we are proud of the international media for bringing the case to the surface and showing the world how people are treated in occupied Palestine.
Vittorio Fera violently arrested.
Especially Italian media have taken this particular case very seriously, and even the city council of Napoli has taken a stand in the case. Here is a message by the mayor of Napoli on the violent arrest of Vittorio Fera from the 31st of August:
“The presence of committed and sensitive people engaged in non-violent actions of testimony in the occupied territories of Palestine are a necessary resource for the entire international community. This activity documents and discourages abuses against the civilian population. The International Solidarity Movement activist Vittorio Fera was engaged in this valuable work near the Palestinian village Nabi Saleh in the West Bank when he was arrested by the Israeli authorities. From Naples, a city that has always worked for peace and coexistence of all the peoples of the Mediterranean, we are asking the Foreign Ministry to work for the immediate release of Vittorio Fera and to guarantee all the necessary practicability for the international and pacifist organizations working commendably in the land of Palestine. “
– Mayor Luigi de Magistris, Napoli
Vittorio Fera was released on bail with conditions yesterday evening. Shortly after the release, the Italian TV station RAI news made an interview with Vittorio Fera. Other Italian media has been interviewing other activists, who took part in the non-violent demonstration and were present at the court in Jerusalem yesterday morning.
The story has not just reached Italy, but is also getting attention in the rest of the world. The hashtag #VittorioFera has been used on twitter 960 times on twitter and have reached approximately 2000000 people. In Denmark, a member of the parliament, will take up the case of Vittorio Fera and other cases of military violence against internationals in Palestine in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Vittorio is doing fine under the circumstances, and is really happy to be out of the Israeli prison, where he was not treated well. We, in ISM, are really grateful for all the attention on the case of Vittorio Fera, and hope this will make more people see what is going on. This case does not stand alone. Palestinians and internationals get arrested every single day without reason or on false accusations. We need the world to recognize this problem and support Palestinians and internationals in the fight against the injustice, that we see in Palestine every single day.
Picture showing a Palestinian flag fluttering in front of buildings in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan. (AFP/File Ahmad Gharabli)
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli municipality officials delivered a demolition order Friday to the al-Qaaqaa Mosque, a house, and a studio apartment in the Silwan neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, local sources told Ma’an.
Majdi al-Abbasi, from the Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan, said that Israeli municipality members delivered a demolition order to the al-Qaaqaa mosque in the Ein al-Luza area of Silwan.
The mosque, built three years ago, is a 110 square meter space that serves 5,000 worshipers.
Al-Abbasi added that the Israeli municipality also delivered a demolition order to a studio apartment and its facilities. The studio belongs to Iyad al-Abbasi and was built 12 years ago.
A demolition order was also delivered to a home housing six people.
Earlier this week an Israeli court ruled to demolish a football field and its facilities in Silwan, a local committee said.
The ruling includes the demolition of a 1.5 dunam (.4 acre) sports field as well as a neighboring warehouse and animal shed.
Silwan is one of many Palestinian neighborhoods in occupied East Jerusalem that is seeing an influx of Israeli settlers at the cost of the demolition of Palestinian homes and eviction of Palestinian families.
Israeli authorities have carried out around 370 demolitions of Palestinian property in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank since the start of 2015, displacing an estimated 432 residents, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Thousands of Palestinian residents are at risk of losing their homes, as members of the current right-wing Israeli government continue to champion longstanding policies to obtain a Jewish majority in East Jerusalem.
East Jerusalem was occupied by Israel in 1967 in a move never recognized by the international community, and four decades of Israeli policy in the area have neglected the Palestinian community while fostering the growth of Jewish settlement.
Over 1,000 Black activists, artists, scholars, students, and organizations have launched a statement expressing their solidarity and commitment to ensuring justice for Palestinians. Signatories to the statement span a wide cross-section of Black activists and scholars, including Angela Davis, Boots Riley, Cornel West, dream hampton, Emory Douglas, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Pam Africa, Patrisse Cullors, Phil Hutchings, Ramona Africa, Robin DG Kelley, Rosa Clemente, Talib Kweli, and Tef Poe. 38 organizations signed on, including The Dream Defenders, Hands Up United, Institute of the Black World 21st Century, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and Organization for Black Struggle.
Picture of a Palestine2Ferguson sign at the main march during Ferguson October. (Photo by Christopher Hazou)
The statement is printed in full below:
“The past year has been one of high-profile growth for Black-Palestinian solidarity. Out of the terror directed against us—from numerous attacks on Black life to Israel’s brutal war on Gaza and chokehold on the West Bank—strengthened resilience and joint-struggle have emerged between our movements. Palestinians on Twitter were among the first to provide international support for protesters in Ferguson, where St. Louis-based Palestinians gave support on the ground. Last November, a delegation of Palestinian students visited Black organizers in St. Louis, Atlanta, Detroit and more, just months before the Dream Defenders took representatives of Black Lives Matter, Ferguson, and other racial justice groups to Palestine. Throughout the year, Palestinians sent multiple letters of solidarity to us throughout protests in Ferguson, New York, and Baltimore. We offer this statement to continue the conversation between our movements:
On the anniversary of last summer’s Gaza massacre, in the 48th year of Israeli occupation, the 67th year of Palestinians’ ongoing Nakba (the Arabic word for Israel’s ethnic cleansing)—and in the fourth century of Black oppression in the present-day United States—we, the undersigned Black activists, artists, scholars, writers, and political prisoners offer this letter of reaffirmed solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and commitment to the liberation of Palestine’s land and people.
We can neither forgive nor forget last summer’s violence. We remain outraged at the brutality Israel unleashed on Gaza through its siege by land, sea and air, and three military offensives in six years. We remain sickened by Israel’s targeting of homes, schools, UN shelters, mosques, ambulances, and hospitals. We remain heartbroken and repulsed by the number of children Israel killed in an operation it called “defensive.” We reject Israel’s framing of itself as a victim. Anyone who takes an honest look at the destruction to life and property in Gaza can see Israel committed a one-sided slaughter. With 100,000 people still homeless in Gaza, the massacre’s effects continue to devastate Gaza today and will for years to come.
Our support extends to those living under occupation and siege, Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the 7 million Palestinian refugees exiled in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. The refugees’ right to return to their homeland in present-day Israel is the most important aspect of justice for Palestinians.
Palestinian liberation represents an inherent threat to Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid, an apparatus built and sustained on ethnic cleansing, land theft, and the denial of Palestinian humanity and sovereignty. While we acknowledge that the apartheid configuration in Israel/Palestine is unique from the United States (and South Africa), we continue to see connections between the situation of Palestinians and Black people.
Israel’s widespread use of detention and imprisonment against Palestinians evokes the mass incarceration of Black people in the US, including the political imprisonment of our own revolutionaries. Soldiers, police, and courts justify lethal force against us and our children who pose no imminent threat. And while the US and Israel would continue to oppress us without collaborating with each other, we have witnessed police and soldiers from the two countries train side-by-side.
US and Israeli officials and media criminalize our existence, portray violence against us as “isolated incidents,” and call our resistance “illegitimate” or “terrorism.” These narratives ignore decades and centuries of anti-Palestinian and anti-Black violence that have always been at the core of Israel and the US. We recognize the racism that characterizes Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is also directed against others in the region, including intolerance, police brutality, and violence against Israel’s African population. Israeli officials call asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea “infiltrators” and detain them in the desert, while the state has sterilized Ethiopian Israelis without their knowledge or consent. These issues call for unified action against anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and Zionism.
We know Israel’s violence toward Palestinians would be impossible without the US defending Israel on the world stage and funding its violence with over $3 billion annually. We call on the US government to end economic and diplomatic aid to Israel. We wholeheartedly endorse Palestinian civil society’s 2005 call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and call on Black and US institutions and organizations to do the same. We urge people of conscience to recognize the struggle for Palestinian liberation as a key matter of our time.
We offer this statement first and foremost to Palestinians, whose suffering does not go unnoticed and whose resistance and resilience under racism and colonialism inspires us. It is to Palestinians, as well as the Israeli and US governments, that we declare our commitment to working through cultural, economic, and political means to ensure Palestinian liberation at the same time as we work towards our own. We encourage activists to use this statement to advance solidarity with Palestine and we also pressure our own Black political figures to finally take action on this issue. As we continue these transnational conversations and interactions, we aim to sharpen our practice of joint struggle against capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, and the various racisms embedded in and around our societies.”
Visit www.blackforpalestine.com for the full list of signatories and more information. You can also follow the statement on Facebook and Twitter. Kristian Bailey is a co-author of the statement along with Khury Petersen-Smith.
