Israeli soldiers invaded on Sunday the towns of Dir al-Ghsoun, Bal’a and Shewika, near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, installed several roadblocks and inspected the ID cards of dozens of residents.
Israeli soldiers invaded on Sunday the towns of Dir al-Ghsoun, Bal’a and Shewika, near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, installed several roadblocks and inspected the ID cards of dozens of residents.
Local sources reported that five armored Israeli military vehicles invaded Shewika area and installed a roadblock on its main road before stopping dozens of vehicles, and inspecting the ID cards of the drivers and passengers.
The sources added that four armored military vehicles invaded Bal’a town, east of Tulkarem, and installed a roadblock at its main junction that leads to Nablus and Tulkarem, before stopping vehicles and inspecting the ID cards of the residents.
The army also invaded Dir al-Ghsoun town, and drove around in its streets, before stopping and searching a number of vehicles.
The army is still heavily deployed around the invaded towns, and around several nearby towns, an issue that raises fear among the residents of the possibility of further invasions and attacks.
Israeli soldiers have already started shooting onto the land along the border of the Gaza Strip. Two injured just in the first two days of the harvest.
Renad Salem Qdeeh, 33, was collecting he crop from her land when Israeli soldiers started shooting, at around 7.30am or 8am. The other farmers managed to escape, but Renad started screaming as she was hit in the head while standing about 800 meters from the border. She was rushed to a hospital in Khuza’a and received ten stitches for her wound. We now come to find her lying on the bed.
“First they took away 300 meters of land, and now we can’t even work within 800 meters of the border, they’re trying to throw us off our land”, her mother – who can’t hold back her anger and pain – tells us.
“We need to earn a living for the sake of our families”, continues Renad’s mother, “we wait all year long for the harvest period so that we can earn our living. My daughter has eight children, she has to feed them, we have no other income. They won’t let us live on our land. We are asking for help and protection, so that the Israeli army will stop shooting at us.”
“We are surrounded by soldiers, they shoot in all directions. Yesterday a boy was wounded in Khuza’a. Where are our human rights?”
Renad closes her eyes. She is surrounded by her relatives. We are offered some fruit juice. Everyone tries to talk to us and tell us about their specific circumstances, every one of their voices is a cry for help.
“Tomorrow I’ll go back there to continue the harvest”, Renad’s mother says. “We will keep going back to our fields even if it means that we could get killed. What’s a mother supposed to feel when she sees her daughter bleeding? The soldiers had every intention of wounding her. After they shot her, they just left – they had just wanted to shoot her.”
“We’ve already lost most of our land. Now we risk death even at a distance of 800 meters from the border. They want us to go away. No, we’re going to die here!”
Renad’s relatives believe that the Israeli soldiers have been dumping chemical contaminants onto their land. Sometimes they smell something funny, but they’re not sure what it is.
“Other countries can help us if they choose to,” intervenes Renad’s sister. “Without protection we cannot work our land.”
“They confiscated 300 meters of land all along the border of Gaza, do you realize how much land that is? It used to all be fertile land, now it’s all destroyed.”
The No-Go-Zone imposed by Israel on 300 meters all along the perimeter of Gaza, and which has left some farmers without any land at all, was imposed by Israel unilaterally.
The following day we accompanied some farmers right into that No-Go-Zone. On the first day, the Israeli soldiers watched us without shooting. Jeeps drove past us at high speed, and the soldiers positioned themselves on the small watch towers along the border, while others stood behind a small hill. It’s from behind the hill that the bullets come for the most part.
A couple of days later, however, matters changed. Soldiers positioned on the hill opened fire despite our presence there with the farmers. We shouted into our megaphones and asked them to stop shooting, and reminded them that we were on Palestinian land. At that point I switched on my video camera and filmed what happened next.
On the third day, the soldiers watched us without shooting. There was a constant flurry of armored vehicles and jeeps driving past at very high speed. The farmers are more afraid of the jeeps than of the armored vehicles, and they fear the military hummers most of all, because on top of the hummers you’ve got guns set up and ready to shoot.
Basically it is a case of an army against farmers. Soldiers who don’t hesitate to shoot unarmed men as they go about harvesting their crop and as they carry it away on donkey-pulled carts. All the while as this terror is going on, F-16s hover at low altitude.
The farmers were able to work on the third day and they thanked us for our presence.
The day that Renad was injured, Hassan Waled Shnano, 27, was also injured. Except he wasn’t working in the fields. He was simply walking to work, in Khuza’a, in an area that’s about 2km from the border, not far from his house. We met him in the European Hospital in Khan Younis. “It’s a residential area, a safe area. They started shooting very early in the morning”, Hassan told us. Hassan works on various education-related projects in the NGO Mercy Corps in Khuza’a. A missile hit him right in the joint of his right leg.
His father, who had inhaled white phosphorous during Operation Cast Lead, died of cancer. Hassan has five brothers and one sister. He is married with two daughters. One of his brothers was also injured in 2006 at the age of 15, as he was walking home from school.
This morning soldiers opened fire again at the farmers were trying to work in the fields of Khuza’a. We accompanied the farmers into a new field close to the one where we had been going up to now. Despite the sound of bullets in the air, the farmers just went on working, comforted by our presence with them.
Bullets were also flying in the adjacent field – the one where Renad’s family farm. I shuddered as I watched the soldiers shoot. My hear trembled with every damned shot, I wanted to cry as I thought that maybe someone had been hit by those bullets. In the other field the soldiers did not stop shooting at all until after all the farmers had gone home – after having been prevented from collecting the crop under a shower of bullets. I took the following film this morning as soon as the soldiers first opened fire.
Every morning we will come back to Khuza’a to accompany the farmers, until the harvest has been completed. The farmers keep thanking us continuously. I respond by thanking them – I feel like I should be thanking them. They have no idea how lucky I feel to shake their hands, to look into their eyes which go on smiling despite everything. They have no idea how fortunate I feel to be able to defend their right to basic life.
Rosa is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.
To accompany the fishermen of Gaza on their boats, as human shields to protect them, it provides not only an account of human rights violations by Israel, but also the feeling of what it means to live under siege in the Gaza Strip.
Since January 2009 Israel has unilaterally imposed a travel limit of three miles inside the waters of Gaza, which , according to the Jericho Accords, should extend up to 20 nautical miles from the coast. A 3 miles limit is actually illegal.
Israeli navy seals are stationed along this 3 mile boundary, attacking anyone who attempts to go beyond and often attacking the fishermen’s boats well within this limit.
As international observers of the boat “Oliva CPS Gaza” monitor the human rights violations by the Israeli army in the waters of Gaza, we have witnessed many attacks which took place also within two miles from the coast.
Within three miles the fish are not enough, and the waters are often contaminated.
The fishermen, especially all those who sail with the “hasakas,” or local small boats, come back often with nearly empty coffers.
Just over two weeks ago, we left during the night with a fishing boat which headed south from Gaza to Rafah, making a couple of stops to pull the nets (and two stops on the way back) and keeping within two nautical miles from the coast. After hours and hours spent at sea consuming gasoline, we brought home a few small boxes with small fishes and some shrimp. The fishermen can hardly survive on what they earn from a night at sea, also considering the cost of gasoline.
Other fishermen prefer to stop at 2-2.5 miles from the coast and to fish remaining stationary. In this case they can fish more sardines, often of very small size. In order to fish more in quantity and quality, the fishermen should be able to reach at least 4-6 miles from the coast.
While I was accompanying the fishermen on their boats, the Israeli navy attacked us generating waves and shooting.
I recorded a video during one of the latest attacks:
In this case our vessel was around 100/150 meters away from the three miles limit.
On Monday we went out at sea again with the same vessel. We stopped to pull the nets before reaching the three mile limit. Given the scarcity of fish and because the waters were visibly polluted, we decided to move forward going to 3.5 nautical miles from the coast.
The Israeli navy started to turn around us. The soldiers kept switching on and off the headlight of the ship. With the headlight off, the Israeli navy ship was invisible in the darkness.
We could no longer see its movements, we could not know if it was close and if so, by how much.
But we could feel the waves generated by the navy ship.
Bravely enough, the fishermen kept on pulling up the nets in a hurry. I and 3 other internationals placed ourselves in a visible position wearing yellow jackets. The Israeli navy suddenly appeared pointing the headlight towards us then vanished without lights.
At a certain stage the Israeli navy ship approached shooting in our direction. A soldier yelled into the microphone, “Bring up the anchor or I will bring you to Ashdod” (the Israeli Navy often arrests the fishermen of Gaza within or beyond the three miles, taking them to Ashdod, in Israel, and confiscating their boats. The fishermen are usually released after one day, but without their boats).
The soldiers kept firing in our direction. The other internationals and I raised our arms shouting and requesting to stop the shooting.
The captain of our boat decided to go back. We stopped at 3 nautical miles from the coast before returning to the port of Gaza City around 6.30 AM.
This time the boxes were fuller of fish and the fishermen were visibly happy. I smiled. I was pleased, and at the same time I was worried of potential retaliations and targeted attacks towards the fishermen when we were not on their boats.
At sea to be able to fish only 100 meters further can make a big difference.
Some fishermen try to go beyond the boundary of this prison, to be able to earn something more to support their families. To go beyond the three nautical miles means to face Israeli army. The Israeli army against a few fishermen.
Soldiers who do not hesitate to shoot against barefoot unarmed men intended to pull the nets in the waters where they are entitled to fish. This is the siege of Gaza.
I am honored to accompany these fishermen so brave and dignified.
Their eyes speak of their suffering, but at the same time express all their strength, and they pass it on to me.
Tomorrow we expect another night at sea, and many others, sharing with them the cold and the food, the fear and the courage, and the hope to bring back home a little piece of freedom.
Rosa Schiano is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
As an organisation dedicated to the promotion and protection of Palestinian human rights, Al-Haq would like to take the opportunity of Palestinian Prisoners’ Day to highlight the ongoing violation of the rights of Palestinians incarcerated in Israeli prisons, many of whom are interned without charge or trial. The continuing ill-treatment of some 4,600 political prisoners, which includes internment, the denial of family and lawyer visits, prolonged periods of isolation, and the lack of fair trial, has largely been overlooked ed by a wider international community that has grown more and more desensitized to such violations of international law. Click here to read more.
Israel will not stand idly by as thousands of activists prepare to arrive on Sunday; it will not miss an opportunity to look ridiculous in the eyes of the world.
And with what shall we frighten the Israeli public in advance of the seventh day of Passover? How will we provide the dose of fear to which it has long since become addicted? After a week of a quiet and safe vacation, we have to find something, after all. The Iranian threat has entered a negotiations freeze, terror is quiet, even the Grad missiles have diminished in number, there is no mass plague on the horizon and even the circumstances of the attack against the Jew in Kiev have not become sufficiently clear.
But Israel has not been abandoned, and the Israeli mind finally hit on something: the pro-Palestinian fly-in “provocation,” as it has already been called. The minister of public security is convening feverish consultations, the airlines have received the “blacklist” prepared in advance by the omniscient security networks, the crime reporter – of course this is about crime, what else? – has already been sent to Ben-Gurion International Airport to greet the looming danger.
Israel is prepared for D-Day this coming Sunday. They say 2,500 activists will land in Israel and sow great fear. Although the crime reporter explained to the nation that the activists do not plan to bear arms or resort to violence, still, when it comes to danger, to terror, to scare-mongering, the forces are already prepared for the big day. The last time, about a year ago, it ended with 127 detainees who were immediately expelled, as they deserved, and the danger was nipped in the bud.
The intentions of the organizers – a visit to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian people, a trip directly from Ben-Gurion to Bethlehem without any violent intent – were immediately blurred and replaced with the usual Israeli accusation: terror and delegitimization. As we accuse any peace lover or human rights activist.
Had Israel not inflated the story to such terrifying dimensions, few people would have paid attention to this innocent protest. Had Israel also welcomed them warmly and sent them on their way to Bethlehem, that would have embarrassed them and even undermined their objective. But the State of Israel will not stand by idly. It certainly won’t miss an opportunity to look ridiculous and even more contemptible in the eyes of the world. It will immediately turn them into personae non grata, as it did to Gunter Grass, as well as an airborne threat.
Entry into Israel is permitted only to its declared friends. Not a Spanish clown and not a German writer, certainly not human rights activists. An ignorant, extremist, Christian American right-winger is welcome; an intellectual, conscientious European left-winger is sent to the expulsion cell. Israel 2012.
In the case of flotillas as well as fly-ins, these are activists, most of whom mean well. The Swedish writer Henning Mankell turned to us before the most recent flotilla to Gaza: “For once report the truth. Don’t you see that there is no declaration of war here, but a declaration of peace?” And of course his words fell on deaf ears. Mankell participated in two flotillas to Gaza, was expelled twice from Israel in disgrace, and published his harsh impressions in the world’s leading newspapers.
Had Israel not confiscated his computer and his property and treated him like a terrorist, his impressions would have been different. Had Israel invited him to present its viewpoint, perhaps his criticism would have been less harsh. Mankell and his friends will not give up. Now another flotilla is being organized in Sweden, this time on a sailboat carrying flowers, which we will probably also treat as though it were an aircraft carrier about to attack Israel.
The roots of this paranoia are deep and thought-provoking. Were Israel convinced of the justice of its path, it wouldn’t behave this way. If Israel really thought the occupation is just and legal, it wouldn’t be frightened by every conscientious activist who opposes it. If it had nothing to hide, it would respectfully invite them to visit.
But when the ground is burning beneath our feet, and the fire of doubt and insecurity is consuming everything, the only response is a violent and unrestrained attack. On Sunday, when the farce of arrests and the grotesque expulsion take place once again, the activists will register another significant victory: Once again they will prove that Israel does have something to hide, that in spite of all its propaganda, Israel is well aware that there are skeletons in its closet and anyone who dares come near them will suffer the same fate – expulsion.
For more on the Welcome to Palestine 2012 campaign click here.
