Category: In the Media - Page 32 - International Solidarity Movement

Statement from Samer Issawi who has spent over 240 days on hunger strike

19th March 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine

The following statement by Samer Issawi was posted on his Facebook page by his lawyer Fawwaz Shloudy. It was translated from Arabic to English by Shahd Abusalama.

“Regarding the Israeli Occupation offer to deport me to Gaza, I affirm that Gaza is undeniable part of my homeland and its people are my people. However, I will visit Gaza whenever I want or I feel like it as it is within my homeland Palestine which I have the right to wander whenever I like from the very north to the very south. I strongly refuse to be deported to Gaza as this practice will just bring back bitter flashbacks from the expulsion process which our Palestinian people were subjected to during 1948 and 1967.

We are fighting for the sake of freedom of our land and return of our refugees in Palestine and exile, not to add more deportees to them. This systematic practice which Israel aims to empty Palestine from Palestinians through and bring strangers in their place is but a crime. Therefore, I refuse being deported and I will only agree to be released to Jerusalem as I know that the Israeli Occupation is aiming to empty Jerusalem of its people and turn Arabs to become a minority group of its population. The issue of deportation is no longer a personal decision. It is rather a national principle. If every detainee agrees to be deported outside Jerusalem under pressure, Jerusalem will eventually be emptied of its people.

I would prefer to die on my hospital bed to being deported from Jerusalem. Jerusalem is my soul and my life. If I was uprooted from there, my soul would be uprooted from my body. My life is meaningless away from Jerusalem. No land on earth will be able to embrace me other than Jerusalem. Therefore, my return will be only to Jerusalem but nowhere else. I advise all Palestinians to embrace their land and their villages and never succumb to the Israeli Occupation’s wishes. I don’t see this issue as a personal cause that is related to Samer Issawi. It is a national issue, a conviction and a principle that every Palestinian who loves his homeland’s sacred soil should hold. Finally, I reaffirm for the thousands time that I continue my hunger strike until either freedom and return to Jerusalem or martyrdom!”

South African educationist denied entry into Palestine

12 March 2013| Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Occupied Palestine

Well-known South African educationist and human rights activist, Dr Salim Vally, was today detained, interrogated and denied entry into Palestine by Israeli security forces when he attempted to enter the country from Jordan.

Dr Vally, director of the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation at the University of Johannesburg, was invited by the German foundation, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), to deliver a series of lectures in the West Bank focusing on the right to education and curriculum development.

He left Amman, Jordan, this morning on his way to Palestine but was stopped at the border and detained for five hours by Israeli border security. During this period he was interrogated, body-searched and humiliated before being ejected back to Jordan.

Dr.Salim Vally speaking at University of Virginia Law School in 2012 (Photo via Electronic Intifada)

‘The most painful thing about the whole episode,’ said Vally, ‘was to witness the manner in which Palestinians returning to their homes – many older than my parents – were mistreated, harassed and humiliated by teenagers young enough to be their grandchildren. Even if I had wanted to, I could not prevent memories of the apartheid days overwhelming me with a vengeance.’

Salim said arrangements were being for him to deliver his lectures via video-conferencing from Amman over the next few days. ‘The Israelis do not realise that the spirit of Palestinian solidarity cannot be broken, just as the spirit of Palestinian resistance cannot be broken. Whether they deport us or imprison us, we will persevere. Palestinians call it sumud or steadfastness. It has sustained Palestinian resistance for six decades and it will see Palestinians being liberated from occupation, colonialism, apartheid and Zionist racist brutality. As we in South Africa know very well, no matter what obstacles the oppressors place in the way of the oppressed, they will make us more resolute and strengthen our commitment to make Israel a pariah state like apartheid South Africa was, through a campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS).’ Instead of demoralising him, Salim said, the experience only reminded him of infinitely worse plight that many Palestinians have to endure on a daily basis.

Salim is due to remain in Jordan for the period of his lecture tour, addressing Palestinian audiences from his Jordanian hotel room, and will return home to South Africa next week.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign condemns the deportation of Salim Vally but recognises that this simply reminds us of how Israel continually denies Palestinians freedom of movement, the right to education, the right to dignity and the right to return to their homes.

ISM activist risks jail, pledges not to answer questions if stopped under Terror laws in the UK

11th March | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine

Tom Woodhead, an ISM activist who is currently being deported by Israeli immigration authorities, has pledged not to answer questions if British authorities attempt to misuse the Terrorism Act 2000 when he arrives at the airport in the UK. The British activist, is currently being deported by Israeli authorities after being arrested on the 1st of March by border police at a demonstration against Israel’s illegal colonial occupation of Palestinian land in Kafr Qaddum, a village in the West Bank.

Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act makes it an imprisonable offense in the UK not to provide information to the police if stopped at a port of entry and there is no right to representation by a lawyer. The act may only be used to ask questions with the aim of establishing whether a person is involved in terrorism or the preparation of acts of terrorism. However, two researchers from London based research organisation Corporate Watch were stopped under the act on their return from Palestine and questioned about their journalistic work, the work of the International Solidarity Movement and the international movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions.

The researchers were also questioned about their involvement with Smash EDO, an anti-arms trade campaign. Woodhead has also been involved in the campaign. He was part of a group of activists who broke into the Brighton factory of EDO-MBM Technology and, after barricading themselves inside, proceeded to damage around £200,000 worth of manufacturing equipment. Following a month-long trial in summer 2010, they were cleared of charges of criminal damage after satisfying the jury that they had lawful excuse to cause the damage because they were acting to prevent war crimes being carried out, as equipment manufactured by the company was then being used in the Israeli’s December 2008 to January 2009 shocking attack on the Gaza Strip.

Woodhead, in a statement given from Givon detention centre in Ramle, said that he would risk imprisonment by refusing to give information to the police if they attempt to misuse the act. He plans to say: “I have reasonable grounds to believe you only want to interrogate me about my involvement in political movements such as the International Solidarity Movement and various campaigns against the arms trade. None of these movements has any credible links to terrorism. I therefore believe the use of Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 is a gross misuse of police powers. I intend now to hold my silence in protest against such abuse of power.”

Funeral of 23 year old Mohammed Asfour leads to Israeli army invasion of village

9th March 2013| Lisa Marchant, Occupied Palestine

23 year old Mohammed Asfour died on the 7th of March, from injuries sustained during a demonstration in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strikers in Israeli jails. He was shot in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet at the demonstration on the 22nd of February and was treated in the Israeli Echilov hospital, but finally succumbed to his injuries on Thursday.

The funeral was held on the following day, Friday the 8th of March, with a procession of cars adorned with Palestinian flags following Mohammed’s body from Ramallah to his home village of Aboud. There was already a strong Israeli army, police and border police presence at the entrance of the village as around 2000 people from surrounding villages and across the West Bank arrived to pay their respects. Mohammed’s body was transported to his home and to the mosque, where prayers were held. He was then taken to the village cemetery and buried.

March 8th 2013 (Photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

During the burial, it was already possible to hear tear gas being fired by the soldiers surrounding the entrance of the village. Clashes broke out between the army and mourners, who moved to protect their village and express the anger and outrage felt at the death of one of their loved ones. Stones thrown at the invading army vehicles by Palestinian youth were met with volleys of teargas and rubber bullets.

Blocks placed by Palestinians on the road to the village were cleared by an army bulldozer, allowing foul-smelling army ‘skunk water’ to be sprayed into residential areas. Several people were injured by rubber coated steel bullets and by tear gas canisters, requiring treatment from Red Crescent paramedics. Many protesters also suffered from the effects of tear-gas inhalation. Clashes continued late into the afternoon.

Mohammed’s is the sixth death in 2013 resulting from shooting by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza. There is a lack of accountability for Israeli soldiers who have caused these deaths. Investigations tend to be fruitless if they even occur, and there is rarely any punishment, let alone conviction for those responsible. Of the 240 complaints against the IDF that were registered in 2012, only one resulted in an indictment.

The demonstration that led to Mohammed’s death was in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, many of whom are on hunger strike, as well as for prisoner Arafat Jaradat who was tortured to death in an Israeli jail.

Fierce clashes in Hebron rage after death of Arafat Jaradat in Israeli detention

24 February 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine

Palestinians protesting last night’s death of Arafat Jaradat while in Israeli administrative detention clashed with Israeli Occupation Forces throughout today in Hebron. Israeli officials claim that Jaradat died in an interrogation centre of a heart attack despite having no health conditions prior to his detention. In a recent court appearance, Jaradat told his lawyer, that “he had serious pains in his back and other parts of his body because he was being beaten up and hanged for many long hours while he was being investigated”. Jaradat was father to a 4 year-old daughter and 2 year-old son and worked as a petrol station attendant; his widow, Dalal, is currently pregnant.

Teenager shot in thigh with live ammunition now in critical condition — Teenager shot in the thigh with live ammunition and now in critical condition

Centered around the Bab al-Zawiyeh area of central Hebron, soldiers primarily fired rubber-coated steel bullets and stun grenades at around 1500 demonstrators. Skunk water and teargas was also used excessively at times. An alarm to disperse crowds was played at high volume followed by a warning from the ‘American Technology Corporation’. Dozens were injured (including journalists and one ISM volunteer) with ambulances driving back and forth amongst the crowds.
At least three were injured by live ammunition, including one teenager who was shot in the thigh with a live bullet, which were fired at demonstrators throughout the day. He was taken to Ramallah hospital, but was swiftly moved elsewhere as his condition became critical.

Around an hour ago the soldiers announced that they were about to fire live ammunition into the crowds.
The army was clearly expecting a backlash for the death of Jaradat, with soldiers stationed on the rooftops throughout the old city since the early hours of the morning. Less than 500 meters away on Shuhada Street, around two hundred settlers wore fancy dress, drank alcohol and danced on the street in celebration of the Jewish holiday Purim .

Soldiers fire teargas and steel coated rubber bullets at demonstrators — Soldiers fired teargas and rubber-coated steel bullets at demonstrators

Journalist treated for teargas inhalation — A journalist being treated for teargas inhalation

Skunk water is sprayed to disperse demonstrators — Skunk water was sprayed to disperse demonstrators

Team Khalil