Category: In the Media - Page 33 - International Solidarity Movement

UPDATED – Arafat Jaradat: Israeli prisons’ latest casualty

23 February 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Megiddo Prison, Apartheid Israel

Arafat Shalish Shahin Jaradat was just martyred in a special section for the Shin Bet in one of the occupation’s interrogation centres. Arafat was born on 14 January 1983 and had just turned 30 years-old and lived in Sa’eer, a village near Hebron. He was married and father to a four year-old daughter, Yara, and a two year-old son, Muhammad. Arafat and his wife Dalal were expecting their third child in June. Arafat was also in his first year at al-Quds Open University.

Arafat was arrested on 18 February this year for allegedly throwing a stone at an armed Israeli soldier near the illegal Kiryat Arba settlement near al-Khalil during November’s bombing of Gaza and was held in al-Jalameh Prison for four days before being transferred to Megiddo Prison, near Haifa in Israel. When he was arrested, he did not suffer from any diseases or health conditions, according to family members. A lawyer from Addameer, a Palestinian human rights group, also reported that generally he did not complain from any pain except slightly in his back.

Arafat’s widow, Dalal Ayayda, said that an Israeli intelligence officer brought him back to his home minutes after being arrested and told him to bid farewell to his children. “For that reason I was worried. My husband was detained several times before, but this time the intelligence officer talked in a bizarre way”, she said indicating a degree of premeditation to her husband’s murder.

Arafat’s lawyer, Kameel Sabbagh, who works for the Palestinian prisoners ministry, was present at Arafat’s last hearing on Thursday. He said, “When I sat next to him he told me 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… When Jaradat heard that the judge postponed his hearing [for 12 days] he seemed extremely afraid and asked me if he was going to spend the time left in the cell. I replied to him that he was still in the investigation period and this is possible and that as a lawyer I couldn’t do anything about his whereabouts at this time”. Sabbagh, in a media interview, added that Arafat’s psychological state was precarious and that he had informed the judge that his client had been tortured, including by being forced to sit for long hours in stress positions with his hands shackled behind his back. The judge ordered that Arafat should be examined by the prison doctor, but “this didn’t happen” Sabbagh maintains.

In the context of Ashraf Abu Dra’ being subjected to medical negligence during his detention and dying in a coma on 21 January shortly after his release, a rising tide of violently-repressed street protests in solidarity with prisoners and four detainees on high-profile hungerstrike, Palestinian Authority officials on Saturday demanded an international investigation into the death after the Israeli prison authority claimed it was “probably” due to a cardiac arrest. An autopsy performed at the Israeli National Institute of Forensic Medicine, this Sunday, was conducted by the institute’s chief pathologist, Yehuda Hiss, in the presence of Saber Aloul, the PA’s chief pathologist and the head of the Israeli health ministry’s medical administration, Professor Arnon Afek. Shortly afterwards, the Israeli health ministry, stated that no external signs of violence were found on the body, aside from those those that “could be testimony to resuscitation efforts”.

This was in reference to what Issa Qaraqe, PA minister of detainee affairs said at a news conference in Ramallah, was “information [that] so far is shocking and painful. The evidence corroborates our suspicion that Mr. Jaradat died as a result of torture, especially since the autopsy clearly proved that the victim’s heart was healthy, which disproves the initial alleged account presented by occupation authorities that he died of a heart attack”. The minister said Arafat had sustained injuries and severe bruising in the upper right back area and severe bruises of sharp circular shape in the right chest area. That the autopsy revealed evidence of severe torture and on the muscle of the upper left shoulder, parallel to the spine in the lower neck area and evidence of severe torture under the skin and inside the muscle of the right side of the chest. His second and third ribs in the right side of the chest were broken, Qaraqe said, and he also had injuries in the middle of the muscle in the right hand. Qaraqe’s deputy, Ziyad Au Ain, urged any doctors, including Israeli ones, in doubt that Arafat was tortured to death, to view his body themselves. Qaddura Fares, president of the Palestinian Prisoners Society, added that the examination revealed seven injuries to the inside the lower lip, bruises on his face and blood on his nose.

Arafat's father after identifying his son's tortured body (Photo: Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org) — Arafat’s father after identifying his son’s tortured body (Photo: Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

The already on-going protests intensified on this Sunday as news of Arafat’s death quickly spread. Demonstrations against Israeli occupation forces have occurred in Bethlehem, Budrus, Betunia, Jenin, al-Khalil, Kfar Kusra, Nabi Saleh, Kfar Qaddum, al-Ram, Turmusaya and al-Quds, plus Huwara and Jalameh checkpoints as well as the Gaza Strip, today. These were suppressed by the Israeli military and police’s array of sophisticated weaponry, including live rounds with two shot. In addition, Ayshel, Ramoun and Nafha prisons saw at least 800 go on a one day hungerstrike.

In other news about the hungerstrikers: Ayman Ismail Sharawna (38) from the village of Deir Samet, has now been transferred to an isolation block in Be’er Sheva Prison having refused food since 1 July 2012 to protest his illegal re-arrest, but as Addameer reported, “He suspended his hunger strike several times, because Israel promised they would review his case.” The Palestinian Prisoner Club reports that Ayman has completely lost his right kidney, half of his left kidney and sight in his left eye. In addition, he also lost a great deal of weight and his health is rapidly deteriorating. He has been transferred from one prison to another and put in solitary confinement several times to break his steadfastness.

By Addameer’s count, more than 202 detainees died or were killed in Israeli prisons since 1967; dozens of detainees also died after they were released due to diseases they encountered in prison or due to complications resulting from extreme torture and bad conditions in prisons. Today, the Israeli prison system holds close to 4,600 Palestinians on a range of charges, of which 159 are being held without charges or having a trial in so-called administrative detention.

Call to action: A new protest village on Saturday, 9 February

Update on 9 Feb by ISM: At 6.30 am a protest tent was built nearby the road to the Karmel settlement near Yatta, South Hebron Hills. Two other tents were ready to be built when army destroyed the standing tent and confiscated the two other. Activists made a circle of stones as a symbol of the new village, two banners displayed “This is our land” and “Settlements are not welcome”. Finished at 8 am and activists moved to another place, south of Yatta to the newly built village of Canaan. Army used a lot of skunk water and violently arrested many people. Follow tweets on #Canaan; @ismpalestine.

8 February 2013 | South West Bank Committee Against Settlements and Apartheid Wall

Call for participation in a direct action

We the sons and daughters of Canaanites will establish Canaan Village (Canaan) on endangered Canaanite Palestinian land. We declare that it is our natural right to develop, reclaim, improve, use, and live on all our lands free and without threats from occupiers/colonizers. Beginning Saturday 9 February, we will have several days of direct work to help farmers in the South West Bank reclaim and improve their agricultural lands.

We call on people of conscience and media to join us as we work our lands and thus defend it against attempts by foreign colonizers to usurp it.

If interested to help, meet us at Bab Zqaq in Bethlehem at 7 am on Saturday when we will move to the location/s of the work. Alternatively meet us at the village of Khallet Al-Mayyah on Saturday at the same time.

Day of action in Zeitoun, Gaza City and Madama, Nablus – A call from Palestinian farmers and fishermen

8 February 2013 | BDS Movement

Gaza City Action: Meet 11 am in Zeitoun Neighbourhood, next to the Car Market “Souq Sayarat” and Al Handasya Company. The march will then begin from Malaka Cross towards the farmland near the Israeli frontier.

West Bank Action: Meet 10 am in Madama village, next to the mosque the farmers will then walk to the village land near Izthar settlement.

40 people held a rally at Gaza Port on Wednesday 6 February. Photo: Desde Palestine — 40 people held a rally at Gaza Port on Wednesday 6 February. Photo: Desde Palestina

On Saturday 9th of February at 11 am in the Buffer zone of Zeitoun neighbourhood Gaza City, Gaza farmers, fishermen, the Union of Agricultural Workers Committees and International activists from International Action for Palestine will join the International Day of Action for Palestinian farmers and fishermen. They will demonstrate at the Gaza Buffer Zone near the Eastern Israeli frontier, planting olive trees in previously bulldozed farmland and affirm the call by Palestinian agricultural organisations and the Palestinian BDS National Committee for worldwide boycott campaigns of Israeli agricultural products and Israeli agricultural export corporations. These companies are deeply complicit in Israel’s ongoing violations of international law and Palestinian human rights.

On this day at 10 am in the West Bank the villagers of Madama, the centre for the Martyr Billal Najar from Burin and International Solidarity Movement activists will plant Olive trees on the land of Madama village where illegal settlers cut down hundreds of olive trees. The village of Madama faces frequent collaborated attacks between Israeli settlers and soldiers. Settlers from Yitzhar are notoriously violent, regularly attacking Palestinian farmers and shepherds from Madama and surrounding villages whose land they want to take. When Palestinians try to defend themselves from these attacks Israeli occupation forces take over, attack the Palestinians and kill, injure or arrest them to keep them off their land.

Mustapha Arafat farmer from Zeitoun, Gaza City:

“The daily aggression suffered by us the Palestinian farmers every day must be highlighted to the world, so people can understand the reality of the attacks and the suffering that has continued throughout the recent ‘ceasefire’. The boycotts of Israeli companies in agriculture are so important as the Israeli occupation has destroyed our farming production and denied us the possibility of exporting our own products. International pressure on Israel is the only way our own economy will be allowed to develop and for us to live normal lives.”

Zakaria Bakr, a fisherman from Gaza City who took part in a rally at Gaza Port on Wednesday:

“As some of the remaining Palestinian fishermen still able to fish, we urge all those around the world to launch campaigns to boycott Israeli Agricultural products and companies. Negotiations have for years only been a cover for making our lives worse. Boycotts are a peaceful activity and something that everyone can participate in. We have called for the boycotts because while our fishing industry, our communities and livelihoods have been destroyed by Israeli aggression, all of their industries have benefited from destroying and confiscating our land and violently denying our access to the sea.”

Mamun Nassar, Farmer from Madama:

“I have been attacked injured and beaten by settlers many times while tending my flock. I was just imprisoned for six weeks because I was attacked by settlers on our land. The Settlers hit my face so hard they broke most of my teeth. My brother was shot and then arrested for trying to help me. All we want is to tend to our sheep.”

We ask the thousands demonstrating in over 30 countries and other people of conscience to grow the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction campaigns against the Israeli apartheid regime.

Spread the word via facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/106728616164534/?fref=ts

Announcing 4th annual Open Shuhada Street campaign (22-25 February 2013)

2 February 2013 | Youth Against Settlements

We are very excited to announce the upcoming 4th annual Open Shuhada Street Campaign from 22-25 February 2013.

The Open Shuhada Street Campaign (OSC) is a Palestinian initiative, aiming to organize an International day of solidarity with the Palestinian residents of Hebron. It was started in 2010 in Hebron and international solidarity actions took place in numerous cities around the world. In 2012 more than 35 different activities were organized.

The Israeli state has imposed on the Palestinian residents of the city a regime of forced evictions, curfews, market closures, street closures, military checkpoints, subjection to military law including frequent random searches and detention without charge, and lack of protection from rampant settler violence, which has pressured approximately 15,000 Palestinian civilians to flee their homes in the Hebron city center, turning it into a virtual ghost town.

The Israeli occupation forces closed Shuhada Street to Palestinian vehicles in 1994, after the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre, and then Prevented Palestinian residents to walk there in 2000, in order to provide security for the 600 Israeli settlers occupying the center of Hebron.

More than 500 stores were closed by military order in the center of Hebron, and more than a thousand store owners were forced to close their shops due to checkpoints and closures. At the same time, illegal settlers enjoy freedom of movement in the closed streets and are protected by occupation forces.

The activities of the occupation and its settlers in the city of Hebron have turned the lives of 200,000 Palestinians in Hebron into a living hell and expelled thousands from their homes.

On 25 February 2013 activists and organizations from around the world will join together in solidarity with the Palestinian residents of Hebron/ al Khaleel, through local protests and actions that demand for the opening of Shuhada Street to Palestinians and an End to the Israeli Occupation!

Shuhada Street used to be the principal street for Palestinians residents, businesses and a very active market place in the Palestinian city of Hebron/ al Khaleel. Today, because Shuhada Street runs through the Jewish settlement of Hebron, the street is closed to Palestinian movement and looks like a virtual ghost street which only Israelis and tourists are allowed to access. Hate graffiti has been sprayed across the closed Palestinian shops and Palestinians living on the street have to enter and exit their houses through their back doors or, even sometimes by climbing over neighbor’s roofs.

In 1994, following the massacre of 29 Muslims at prayer by America-Israeli settler Dr. Baruch Goldstein, shops on Shuhada Street were closed and vehicular traffic prohibited on the street. Despite a court case and an admission by the Israeli government that it is illegal, the street is still closed to Palestinians 16 years later. We are focusing on Shuhada Street as a symbol of the settlement issue, the policy of separation in Hebron/al Khaleel and the entire West Bank, the lack of freedom of movement, and the occupation at large.

If you would like to organize and be part of OPEN SHUHADA STREET CAMPAIGN 2013 in your city or your University campus please get in touch with us at media.yas@gmail.com. Also find us on Facebook and Twitter.

HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED

OSC offers ordinary people around the world an opportunity to partake in something truly global. If you would like to get involved and organize your own OSC event or action let us know so that we can share with you the OSC Basis of Unity and organizing principles. Here are some ways that you can actively get involved:

Demonstrations, Marches, Vigils, Flashmobs
Organize a film screening about Hebron
Arrange a lecture, workshop,Presentation
Organize a BDS action
Join us online
Photo Exhibitions concerning Apartheid in Hebron
Twitter: Use this hashtag #OpenShuhadaSt to spread the word and educate the masses about Hebron
Video Message: Create and send video messages to community forums, media, and social media outlets urging the international community to use diplomatic pressure to re-open Shuhada Street
Letter-writing and Petitions to the Israeli Ambassador and elected officials in your country asking them to intervene
Write letters to the Palestinian Families in Hebron to show solidarity
Close roads to show the public the effects of closing the main road in Hebron.
Visit Hebron to gain an understanding of the situation and the daily suffering of the people living there.
Any other non-violent activity you feel supports the cause, be as creative as possible!!

For more information please visit our website WWW.HYAS.PS

Al-Manatir: the protest village in occupied territory that was destroyed before it was built

4 February 2013 | Mondoweiss

Settler with a slingshot at Al-Manatir (Photo: ISM)

Saturday morning moments after Palestinians planted metal huts and canvas tents on a rocky hilltop in the northern West Bank village of Burin, Israeli settlers were pelting them with rocks. Armed with slingshots and at least one gun the settlers stormed the Palestinians who were setting up a protest encampment similar to Bab al-Shams in the E-1 corridor, the fourth such encampment in the past month.

But the confrontation escalated and the encampment, which was to be named al-Manatir, was never established.

Burin is located in the Nablus governorate, which sees the highest rate of settler violence [PDF] in the West Bank. Attacks are almost daily. There are 12 settlements and 36 outposts in the district, and the outposts are often home to the gun wielding “hilltop youth,” a violent gang of settlers known for “price tag” attacks on both Palestinians and the Israeli military. The volatile atmosphere runs through all of the small villages near Burin. Just a few days ago the International Solidarity Movement highlighted Urif, a village a few kilometers from Burin, noting after two months of habitual settler attacks in December 2012 that 17 women had miscarriages, which they speculated was caused by the harassment.

At 9:30 am Saturday morning around 50 Palestinians went to work erecting tents. By 10 am, many supporters had joined them, bumping the number of protesters to 200. The settlers who live on the next hilltop over were irate; one activist described them as being like enraged mothers flinging their bodies across an army of brutes in order to save their young. She said it was like a movie. But the settlers who were dressed in white with their faces covered, were not striving to keep anything they already owned. Palestinians from Burin have a deed for the land where the protest camp was supposed to extend. And according to villagers, the ownership is not contested by the state of Israel.

Army trying to keep the settlers at bay in the beginning. (Photo Katie W., ISM)

Initially the Israeli military kept the settlers at bay. Such harassment is common in Burin, but it is atypical for the army to intercede on behalf of Palestinians. However, the reprieve only lasted a half an hour and by noon the settlers snatched two of the Palestinian’s metallic huts and carted them back up the hilltops.

Fadi Quran, a Ramallah based activist, showed me a video of the settlers stealing the shelters while the military watched without reaction. “It’s apartheid, it’s plain to everyone’s eyes,” said Quran, explaining the military’s crackdown on the Palestinians and relative blind-eye to the settlers. ”Here are the soldiers firing at us and here are the settlers carrying the tent up the hill.”

Reflecting the sunlight, the huts looked like miniature Frank Gehry designs bobbing– as far from subversion as the settlers could walk.

Shortly after the shelters were stolen, a group of about 30 settlers ran off towards the outskirts of the Palestinians village and indiscriminately attacked houses. They threw stones and were soon met by Palestinians who tried to protect their neighbors’ homes by throwing rocks at the settlers.

Back at the protest site the military fired tear gas and live bullets. Unlike other direct actions where the Israeli military positions itself at a distance from the protesters and incrementally advances to meet their opposition, in Burin the army fired while swarmed by Palestinians and settlers. With nowhere left to go the Palestinians took cover inside of Burin’s windy streets.

Tear gas choked the entire village by the time I arrived in the late afternoon. One infant had been rushed to a hospital and later a woman in her twenties was driven out after inhaling too much gas. My first interaction with Palestinians inside of Burin was a mother with three young children who jumped in our car for a ride to cleaner air. I dropped them off and then headed towards the chorus of live fire in the center of town, where the organizers were resting.

By nightfall the Palestinians had lost steam. Most people held small cloths to their faces, soaked rubbing alcohol and distributed by the Red Crescent Society; and one activist gripped a halved onion. For some, the entire day had been spent running from the military. In the evening it was unclear what they were still doing in the village. The protest encampment was cleared hours ago and the huts that were salvaged were now abandoned in Burin’s alleyways. The village was also sealed off by a checkpoint, and 18 were arrested and three injured, according to Tweets that same day from activists. The settlers had shot one Palestinian in the leg and destroyed around 100 olive trees. The injured youth, Zakharia Yaser Nijar, 17, a high school student from Burin, was taken to a hospital in Nablus.

Arrest of Ashraf Abu Rahmah from Bil’in (Photo: ISM)

Before leaving, Amar Eid, 19, from Burin, pointed out to me to three different hilltops that have settlers. I asked him the name of the settlements and he laughed and said, “We can’t know all the names. There’s too many.” The settlements of Adei Ad, Bracha, Yitzhar, and Mitzpe encircle the stone and concrete houses of Burin.

Editor’s note: See a related article by ISM here. For more photos click here.