Category: In the Media - Page 51 - International Solidarity Movement

Casualties of the last attacks on Gaza: Visit to Shifa Hospital

by Rosa Schiano

15 March 2012 | il Blog di Oliva

This morning we went to pay a visit to the wounded at the Shifa Hospital. Most of them have fractures and burns.

Hani Al-Qanoo, 15

His mother, Reda, tells that on Sunday morning around 9am Hani and his brother went to school, but there were no classes. They were coming back home when a drone fired a missile on the same road where they were walking, Al Khorondar street.

Reda lives with her 7 children in difficult living conditions. Her husband died some time ago.

“We were coming back from school along with 6 of our companions when suddenly a drone hit us,” said Hani. “I had the sensation of flying.”

The doctor told us that Hani has a fractured femur in his right leg and several burns caused by the missile.

Moyad Al-Qanoo, 16

Moyad, was injured along with other friends, and one of their comrades, Nayif Qarmout,15, was killed. Moyad, who is Hani’s brother, reports injuries caused by second degree burns on the face and on the legs. He has shrapnel in various parts of his body.

Saleh Qarmout, 15

Saleh Qarmout, 15 | Photo courtesy Rosa Schiano, 2012

Even Saleh Qarmout, 15, came home from school that day along with other classmates. The doctor told us that during the attack, a child had died, Nayif Qarmout, and 9 children were injured. Five children were taken to Shifa Hospital, and four children have been transferred at Kamal Odwan Hospital.

Tamer Azzam, 17

Tamer Azzam, 17, was coming back from school with them. We found him lying on a bed, and on his face showed the grimaces of pain. He has shrapnel to the face and side and burns to both legs. The doctor told us that they were obliged to partially remove his intestine. His recovery may take a long time. Tamer has 9 brothers and 2 sisters. His father is unemployed because he is sick.

Before I left, Tamer constantly set his eyes incessantly on mine. I looked at him, but because of the pain I felt, I looked away for a while. When I turned my look towards him again, I found his eyes still fixed on mine.

He stared at me in silence, aching, just like he was asking me some help through his eyes. I wanted to beat my fists against the wall, I wanted to shout and cry. I will never forget his gaze for the rest of my life.

Alaa Al Looh, 34

Alaa Al-Looh, 34, has a fractured tibia and burns to his face, caused by an Israeli attack that, on the same day killed a father and his daughter inside their factory. Mohammed Mostafa El Husseini was 85 and his daughter only 30.

Alaa was riding his motorcycle when he heard a loud explosion. He bounced on the ground and he woke up at the hospital. Alaa is married and has three children, two males and one female, and works in a fruit and vegetable shop.

When the doctor showed us his fracture, Alaa screamed in pain.

Hussien Omer Abo Aqla, 26

On the same day, Sunday 12 March, around 8am, Hussien was going back home after work. Hussien delivers food to the schools early in the morning. Suddenly a drone hit the road where he was travelling, Salah Addin Street, in the Al-Zeitouni neighborhood of east Gaza city. Hussien was injured in the back and he suffers from pressure to his chest.

Moath Nofal Abo El-Eash, 20

On Monday around 1:30AM two missiles hit Jabalia refugee camp, north of Gaza city. The first attack was carried out by a drone.

The missile hit the Hammad family home. More than 30 people have been injured, including 21 children. The house has been completely destroyed and others have been damaged.

Abo El- Eash’s house was close to the the Hammad’s family. Moath had heard the explosions, and his neighbors asked him to go out to try to save Hammad’s family. As soon when he got out of his home an F-16 launched another missile.

Moath has injuries from burns all over his body, particularly on his face and splinters in several parts of his body.

I asked him if he felt like telling a message to the world after what had happened to him.

Moath replied, “My image is enough to tell the world”.

Dr. Maher Sukkar, vice president of the plastic surgery department at Shifa Hospital, told us that they will ask to analyze the splinters from the weapons used in order to determine if they are carcinogenic.

Before saying goodbye, he told us that the weapons used are American.

“We need some freedom. Tell the world what you have seen in this hospital–why our children cannot have some room to play. Is it because we are Palestinians? My wife and I lived abroad for some time, but then we came back to Gaza despite the difficult living conditions, because our country needs us.”

Rosa Schiano is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

Why did Israel stop me from visiting the West Bank?

by Alistair George

15 March 2012 | The Electronic Intifada

The standard line trotted out by Israeli politicians is that Israel is the only democracy among a sea of repressive Arab autocracies. Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz claimed recently that “Israeli democracy is alive, liberal and breathing; I don’t know many better democracies in the world” (“Government ministers react sharply to Clinton’s criticism of Israeli democracy,” Haaretz, 4 December 2011).

But what kind of liberal democracy bars human rights activists in an attempt to stifle the truth about its behavior?

My friend and I were recently held and interrogated by the Israeli authorities at the Egyptian/Israeli border for over nine hours before being denied access to Israel for unspecified “security reasons.” However, the true reasons appear to be politically motivated.

We had intended to travel to the West Bank to work with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a nonviolent, Palestinian-led group of activists who work alongside other international and Israeli groups to provide solidarity, document human rights abuses, undertake direct action and provide an international presence in the hope that it will inhibit the violence of the Israeli military in attacking unarmed demonstrators.

The Israeli authorities deny having a policy of forbidding entry to ISM activists. However, in reality, any person who admits to being a member is immediately denied access by the Israeli border authorities, blacklisted and prevented from entering in the future. The Israeli authorities also routinely deny access to other human rights activists, workers with non-governmental organizations and people stating an intention to help any group perceived by the Israeli authorities as being “pro-Palestinian.”

It would have been our second time working with ISM documenting human rights abuses, having visited the West Bank in late 2011, and regrettably we felt that we could not disclose our true reason for going and were forced to claim that we were going to Israel on holiday.

We arrived at the Taba crossing around 7am and so the stupidity began. My friend had been living in Cairo for the past four months and the authorities were very unhappy that she had studied Arabic while in Egypt. Although she is an atheist from a predominantly Christian country, they asked her when she became a Muslim — an incorrect assumption presumably based on the fact that she has spent time in Egypt — while implying that this was in itself a security concern.

Humiliating searches

We were subjected to rigorous personal searches. When my friend was undergoing her personal search she had strip down to her underwear and at that moment they opened the curtains so the rest of the room full of travellers and border employees could see.

They emptied out our bags, swabbed everything (presumably for traces of explosives) and put each individual item through an x-ray machine several times. This process took nearly three hours. Many items of our luggage provoked seemingly unwarranted suspicion. They demanded to know why my friend had a candle, and why had she wrapped a bottle of perfume in a plastic bag.

They were highly suspicious of one of my middle names (Alistair) and demanded to know the “meaning” — it is my father’s name. They insisted on knowing his nationality (Scottish) and place of birth (Edinburgh). Perhaps because “Alistair” contains “Ali” they were concerned it was an Arabic name.

It could have been worse; our interrogators were often rude and disrespectful but they were not overtly aggressive or intimidating. I have heard accounts of people being forced to strip and then interrogated for hours sitting in their underwear and of Muslim visitors being granted access to Israel on the proviso that they leave their phones, cameras and other belongings at the border crossing as collateral.

Nine-hour wait

But after several hours they directly accused us of belonging to ISM, of travelling to the West Bank and attending protests, and after more than nine hours we were denied entry to Israel.

While I recognize Israel’s right to undertake necessary interrogations, searches and measures to ensure its security, it seems clear that the nature of our interrogations were absurd and discriminatory, and the real reason for denying us access was politically-motivated.

What is a self-proclaimed democracy like Israel worried that human rights activists or journalists will discover? Banning peaceful activists and journalists like us shows that clearly some of the work we are doing is valuable and that to some extent, the Israeli authorities are sensitive to foreign opinion and don’t want people to expose the crimes they are committing.

So our passports are stamped “refused entry” and we are effectively blacklisted and currently unable to visit and report on the crimes of a regime that purports to be a liberal democracy. We are bitterly disappointed that we will not be able to visit our friends in the West Bank.

But we are just international activists and would-be visitors; there are millions of Palestinians who have been denied their right to return to their homeland or even visit it for decades. Our experience has inspired us to redouble our activism from abroad and continue to highlight the injustices of a violent occupation that denies human rights and dignity to the Palestinians. The Israeli authorities can try to cover up their crimes like any other common authoritarian and repressive regime but they should know that the truth will continue to come out.

Alistair George is a former ISM Media Activist (name has been changed).

Official Release: “The New Black” by The Mavrix

13 March 2012 | Palestine Solidarity Alliance and PACBI

In a first ever musical collaboration between South Africa and Palestine, South African band, The Mavrix, and Palestinian Oud player, Mohammed Omar, have released a music video called “The New Black”. The song is taken from The Mavrix’ upcoming album,”Pura Vida”, due for release in June 2012.

Written and composed by Jeremy Karodia and Ayub Mayet, the song was a musical reaction to the horror of the Gaza Massacre of 2008/2009 and then subsequently inspired by the book “Mornings in Jenin”, authored by Susan Abulhawa. Mayet had penned the first lyrics in 2009 after the Massacre and the song went into musical hibernation. Having read the novel, “Mornings in Jenin”, he then re-wrote the lyrics and the song evolved into its current version.

Haidar Eid, a Gaza based BDS activist and friend of the band, heard the song in 2011 and urged the band to do a collaboration with Palestinian Oud player, Mohamed Omar. He also suggested that the band do a video highlighting the collaboration between South African and Palestinian musicians and also the similarities in the two struggles.

The song was recorded by The Mavrix in South Africa whilst Mohamed recorded the Oud in Gaza and, although never having had the opportunity to meet, the musical interplay between the musicians so far apart illustrates the empathy the musicians feel in solidarity with each other.

Produced by The Palestinian Solidarity Alliance (South Africa) and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) along with written endorsements from Haidar Eid of PACBI, Omar Barghouti of the BDS Movement, Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada and Susan Abulhawa, author of “Mornings in Jenin”, the song represents a message of support from South Africans, who having transgressed and crossed over their own oppression under apartheid, stand in solidarity with Palestinians who are currently experiencing their own oppression under Israeli apartheid.

The video will be launched on the 12 March 2012 at 2.30pm SA time from Gaza at the start of Israeli Apartheid Week Palestine and will be on youtube following the official launch.

In addition to the digital upload, the PSA will be handing out hardcopies of the DVD as well.

New military gate limits access to Beit Iksa land

12 March 2012 | WAFA News Agency

A new military-controlled road gate the Israeli army had set up on Monday in the village of Beit Iksa, northwest of Jerusalem, raised concern of possible takeover of almost 2000 dunums of land as it limits access to agricultural land, according to residents.

The soldiers also took over a house in the area and turned it into a military outpost, said residents.

They said soldiers manning the new gate prevented village residents from reaching their homes for hours under the pretext of security reasons.

Villagers said they expect that the army will not allow them to reach their homes and land behind the new gate without an army-issued permit.

They expressed concern that this Israeli measure aims to eventually seize their land for the benefit of expanding the nearby settlement of Ramot, built illegally on village land.

T.R./M.S.

International Women’s Day Marks Hana Shalabi’s 22nd Day of Hunger Strike

8 March 2012 | Palestinian Council of Human Rights Organizations

We, the Palestinian Council of Human Rights Organisations (PCHRO), would like to mark International Women’s Day by expressing our solidarity with administrative detainee Hana Shalabi. Hana is today beginning her 22^nd successive day of hunger strike in protest at her internment without charge or trial and her ongoing ill-treatment at the hands of the Israeli authorities.

Hana, 29 years old, previously spent more than two years in administrative detention before she was released in October 2011 as part of the prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas. Less than four months later she was arrested once more by Israeli authorities at her home near Jenin, when she was beaten with the butt of a rifle by an Israeli soldier. Following her arrest, she was beaten, blindfolded and later forcibly strip-searched and assaulted by an Israeli male soldier. Hana was given a six-month administrative detention order and spent the first three days of her internment in solitary confinement. She was later sentenced to solitary confinement for a further seven days as punishment for her continuing hunger strike.

Internment, also known as administrative detention, is a procedure under which Palestinian detainees are held without charge or trial for periods of up to six months. Detention orders are usually renewed before they expire, and detainees can be held for indefinite periods of time, with several detainees spending up to eight consecutive years in internment. Administrative detainees are held on the basis of “secret material” that is not made available to them or their lawyers, therefore undermining their ability to effectively challenge the detention order.

Israel’s widespread practice of administrative detention, of which Hana Shalabi is yet another victim, constitutes a serious breach of international humanitarian and human rights law. While administrative detention is allowed under international humanitarian law, it must be used only in exceptional circumstances and must uphold fair trial standards, which Israel does not comply with. Israel is currently detaining some 310 Palestinians without charge in administrative detention.

Although no Palestinian is left untouched by the occupation, it is true that women are, in many cases, doubly affected by Israel’s illegal practices. However, internment also affects a large number of Palestinian women indirectly; those wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of detainees who endeavour to maintain community and family structures while they wait indefinitely for their family members to be freed. For example, the wife and daughter of Ahmad Qatamesh, who has been declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, recently saw his detention order renewed for the third consecutive time. Administrative detention, characterised by renewable detention orders and abusive conditions of imprisonment, constitutes a merciless cycle that attempts to suppress the spirit of both the detainees and their families.

While Hana Shalabi’s internment by way of an inhumane system is representative of the utter disregard in which Israel holds the lives and rights of Palestinians, administrative detention is only one of a wide range of violations perpetrated against Palestinian women in the OPT. Palestinian women and girls are, along with the rest of the Palestinian population, regularly subjected to harassment, intimidation and ill-treatment by Israeli military authorities and as a consequence they are denied the enjoyment of basic human rights such as education, health and freedom of movement. Such treatment amounts to an assault on their dignity and security of person in violation of international law.

The international community of States cannot continue to avert its gaze while Israel refuses to apply international human rights law, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), in the OPT. Israel is not only in violation of the positive duty to implement its obligations under CEDAW, but also, through the imposition of illegal policies such as restrictions on the freedom of movement, is in breach of its negative duty not to interfere in the enjoyment of the rights under the Convention.

PCHRO urges the international community to stand in solidarity with Hana, today of all days, as a first step towards ending its longstanding inaction in the face of Israel’s disregard for international law. Hana should not be forced to wait 66 days before the world sits up and takes notice. Given that Israel does not grant due process and humane treatment to Palestinians, she must be released immediately. By failing to do so, the international community will only contribute to the perpetuation of such violations and add to the climate of impunity that currently prevails in the OPT.