Israeli occupation forces started Sunday dismantling a section of the Separation Wall near the village of Bil’in in the northwest of Ramallah in accordance to the decision issued by Israeli supreme court about four years ago.
Witnesses told local sources that Israeli soldiers fired tear gases and rubber bullets at hundreds of Palestinian citizens who gathered to celebrate these historical moments-the dismantling of the wall-leaving several suffocation cases.
Residents of Bilin town will regain 1200 dunums out of 2300 seized by Israeli authorities for settlements construction, noting that the total area of Bil’in is 4ooo dunums.
The decision came as a result of the continued popular resistance against the Israeli Wall for more than six years . Villagers used to join weekly rallies toward the Separation Wall, which isolated them from their own lands. Most of them were victims to Israeli gunfire during those peaceful protests .
It’s noteworthy that Israel began building the Separation Wall in the West Bank in June 2002 in an attempt to protect its illegal settlements from military attacks lunched by Palestinian fighters to defend their lands and properities from Israeli ongoing confiscations.
In recent months, there have been repeated attacks by Israeli settlers against mosques across the West Bank. They were carried out with the complicity of Israel’s occupation army and encouraged by the leaders of settler groups and political blocs, as well as the rabbinic guides of extremist gangs; gangs who own weapons and operate under the full knowledge and gaze of the occupation forces.
A few days ago, settlers from one of the oldest colonies established on the territory belonging to the villagers of al-Mughair and Qaryut in the north-east of the governorate of Ramallah in the West Bank, set fire to the great mosque in al-Mughair. A significant amount of the mosque’s contents was destroyed in the blaze. The perpetrators left their trade mark in Hebrew grafitti scrawled on a nearby wall which read; “this is the beginning of revenge”.
About a year ago, on the morning of 4th May 2010, settler gangs set fire to a mosque in the eastern district of al-Labn in the south of Nablus city which represents one in a series of terrorist operations against Palestinians and their sanctuaries undertaken by settler groups.
The burning of the al-Mughair mosque came after the burning of the al-Labn mosque in the east before which there was the burning of the Grand Hassan al-Khader mosque in the district of Yassouf near the city of Nablus in the West Bank. It was targeted by a group of settler gangs who burnt large parts of it after smashing the mosque’s main door and dousing the interior in petrol. The blaze completely gutted the mosque’s library which was full of Qurans, along with parts of the carpet before the village inhabitants arrived to extinguish the flames.
The latest conduct of these Israeli settler gangs clearly highlights the type of society they have established on Palestinian land. The settlers occupying Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank especially exemplify this. The majority of them are associated with the policies of the ideological Zionist right and the right-wing biblical hard-liners mired in mythological narratives.
All in all, these attacks highlight the nature of the policies being implemented by the right-wing coalition government led by Benjamin Netanyahu along with a broad spectrum of hard-line Zionist extremists, and the exponents of theories of ‘transfer’ and ethnic cleansing headed by the Moldovan immigrant, Avigdor Lieberman, who leads the Yisrael Beiteinu party. As the facts confirm, settler terrorism is always dependent on the patronage and support of the highest levels of decision making in Israel. It is seldom far from the cover of the occupation army, especially as there are more than half a million members of the army colonising the land occupied in 1967 and who possess more than half a million pieces of weaponry.
There is abundant evidence which point to the occupation army’s support for, and protection of the settler gangs against the Palestinian people and their sanctuaries across Palestine. One vivid example of this is witnessed in the heart of Hebron city where 400 Jewish settlers have taken up residence in one of the city’s districts tormenting the lives of more than 200,000 Palestinian inhabitants of the city. All of this occurs under auspices, protection and commission of the occupation army. The barbaric conduct of the settlers are derived from official Israeli policies which proclaim settlement expansions, projects and bids to expel Palestinians on a daily basis; which considers Jerusalem the indivisible and eternal capital of Zionist Israel and which demand that more than half of the land in the West Bank should be annexed to Israel under any future settlement.
These current attacks on mosques must be seen in the context of a wider program aimed at fuelling the conflict; it demonstrates the extent of disdain for the religious and human value of others. This, therefore, requires a concerted Arab, Islamic and global effort to put a final end to these practices and to the cover provided by Israel and its occupation army.
At the end of the day, the occupation bears the consequences of such brutal practices and provocations which affect the values and sacred places of Muslims, and similarly of their Christian peers in certain parts of Jerusalem. The daily dangers which afflict the people, the land and the sanctities in Palestine must be combated through coordinated Arab and Islamic policies that differ from the current Arab policy, which is based only on statements of condemnation and rejection. A new policy is required; which enacts effective measures against Israeli settler terrorism in order to protect the sacred houses that are being profaned and burned under the gaze and knowledge of the world.
The timid condemnations emanating from some Arab capitals or those issued by the Arab League and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference are no longer sufficient; they amount to nothing more than throwing dust into the eyes of people to absorb their anger. Likewise, US and European verbal condemnation of the settlers’ attacks on mosques, mean absolutely nothing so long as the United States provides political cover for the practices of the occupying power and supports its continuation and survival in the lands occupied in 1967.
Hence, a practical stance has now become an urgent priority on the agenda of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the Arab League and all other Arab and international organisations and institutions in solidarity and support for the Palestinian people; in the defence of their national sanctities; and to push the international community to intervene to provide international protection for the people and their Islamic and Christian sanctities leading to national independence.
This article first appeared in Arabic in Al Bayan Al Emirati on 17/6/2011. The author is a Palestinian writer.
After a recent burning of its mosque, a group of extremist Israeli settlers torched on Friday Palestinian farmlands planted with wheat in the Al Mogheer village, north of the central west bank city of Ramallah.
The settlers burnt the land in broad daylight and the fires consumed most of the 35 Dunams of land planted with wheat until the villagers managed to control the fire.
Representatives of the Palestinian and Israeli District Coordination offices arrived at the scene after the attack, and the Israeli army claimed it would be investigating it.
Two weeks ago, settlers broke into the village mosque and set it ablaze.
In February this year, settlers uprooted 150 wheat planted Dunams that belong to Al Mogheer residents.
The settlers also uprooted 150 Dunams of farmlands that belong to residents of Tormos-Ayya village, near Ramallah, and sprayed the lands in question with chemicals.
Freedom Flotilla 2 is setting sail to Gaza soon. Despite claims that the flotilla is not needed because “Rafah is now open”, the people of Gaza are still trapped and suffocated by Israel’s cruel blockade. Please watch this short video and share it far & wide to spread awareness about our action and why Gaza and all of Palestine needs us!
A video to inspire the international community and continue the support for the Freedom Flotilla II – Stay Human.
On a warm, sunny afternoon, I met Eman Sourani and Rana Baker in an airy outdoor café several blocks from the port of Gaza. Both are members of the Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI). Sourani, a 22-year-old English literature student at Al-Aqsa University, cofounded the group after Operation Cast Lead in January 2009, while Baker, a 19-year-old blogger and a business administration student at the Islamic University of Gaza, joined it during Israeli Apartheid Week, a global event in March 2011.
PSCABI is the student arm of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), itself part of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee. Since its July 2005 founding by Palestinian organizations from Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories, and the diaspora, BDS has grown into a formidable global movement with an impressive record of victories.
In the last month alone, the University and College Union (UCU) and the University of London Union (ULU), respectively the largest academic labor union in the United Kingdom and the largest student union in Europe, voted to support it and sever their ties with Israeli institutions; UK Prime Minister David Cameron quietly resigned his post as Honorary Chairman of the Jewish National Fund, implicated in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian lands; students at the United States’ DePaul University voted by a nearly 80% margin (although without reaching the necessary quorum) to remove Sabra hummus, linked to the Israeli military, from their campus; the French-Belgian bank Dexia announced the impending sale of its Israeli subsidiary, “even at a loss;” and musicians Andy McKee and Marc Almond cancelled appearances in Israel.
Although not all acknowledged the role of the campaign in their decisions, each was a target of it. Meanwhile, battles rage against the US pension fund TIAA-CREF; Israeli national institutions like the Histadrut and State of Israel Bonds; the Israeli produce exporter Carmel Agrexco; the French construction firms Alstom and Derail Veolia; the beauty suppliers Ahava, Estee Lauder, L’Oréal, and Seacret Dead Sea; and dozens of other institutions complicit in Israeli crimes, as well as performers like Paul Simon and Jello Biafra, who plan to violate the cultural boycott by playing Tel Aviv.
“Even some South Africans like Desmond Tutu have said that what they did in thirty years, the Palestinians did in three,” Sourani told me over tea. “The boycott is a lesson of the success of the South Africans. And why not? Nothing is imposible. When people hear that Palestinians are doing something like this, that we are taking action, they believe in the idea and the issue much more.”
Baker agreed with her about the importance of South Africa. “We like to address apartheid,” she said. “We like to use this word, because it really emphasizes what is happening. Of course we have the apartheid wall. We have the checkpoints like they had in South Africa. What does an apartheid wall represent but apartheid? What else do checkpoints represent?”
“We think that BDS is a very effective way to resist Israel,” Baker continued. “Why? Because the pillars of BDS represents all Palestinians. The core issues of the Palestinian cause are the right to return, the ending of the occupation, and equality between Palestinians and Jews within the Israeli state or borders. So we think that being a real Palestinian-led movement that represents all Palestinians is very important. And this makes it able to grow, makes it able to expand within each and every cause. It represents every Palestinian in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Israel, and in the diáspora. BDS is established on those pillars. And the most important pillar, in my opinion, is the right to return. This movement, the march of return, is also a powerful campaign to make people understand that we have not forgotten our right to return. When Ben-Gurion said that old would die and the young forget, he was totally mistaken! Of course the old will die, but they have children, they have grandchildren, and we will never forget. We are Palestinian.”
”We have Palestinian identity, and Palestinian identity is a great responsibility,” Sourani added. “So we have to act. We have to fight Zionism. We have to be aware of what is going on, because being aware means that we are alive. It gives meaning to our lives. I myself give the definition that life is politics here in Gaza. It is all of what we live.”
How does PSCABI fight Zionism, I asked? “We as youth and students address youth and students about the academic boycott, and connect it with the cultural boycott,” Sourani answered. “We make videos to send to universities and have video conferences with them. We just tell people that we are here. You should know about Gaza, and you should know about Israel and the reality of its apartheid. Some of our biggest successes are the University of Johannesburg boycotting Ben Gurion University, or the biggest student union in London refusing to deal with Israel.”
“We also write letters to celebrities who are going to perform in Israel, asking them not to entertain apartheid, and we are actually succeeding in this,” said Baker. “Many, many of them have been stopped from performing in Israel, and some actually became BDS advocates.”
How do they work with BDS activists elsewhere? “I think is important that we talk with them, that we have a discussion about BDS here and BDS there,” said Baker.” We want to see what they do there and learn from them, and they might also see what we do and learn from us. So we can share our experiences in BDS, our stories, and they can use our stories and spread them out to gain more support for BDS.”
“The young Palestinians nowadays are very creative, in writing, blogging, video making; many, many things,” said Sourani. “I am very proud of my generation. They are so creative, really. I meet and talk to anyone who does anything: maybe blogging, a site, a Facebook account, a Twitter. Youth everywhere are doing fantastic things. They just need to be linked with Palestinians ourselves.”
“We want more links with people outside,” said Baker. “We want more actions and more communication. The more you communicate with people, the more the idea becomes big and it grows. And BDS is growing. Citizens, and students, and young, and old, are engaging themselves in BDS, outside and inside and everywhere. It is actually, in its core, a popular struggle, and it is civil resistance.”
What do they ask of outsiders? “The important thing is that they take action,” Sourani replied. “This is what we are looking for. We don’t look for passion, we don’t look for tears, we don’t look for romantic speech. We just look for actions. Whatever small action you can take is something beautiful. This is the basis of BDS, that we don’t wait for talk.”
“Let’s mention here the the recent action taken by people in the United States diring the AIPAC speech,” said Baker. “I think this was really effective, when young students stood up and spoke out for Palestine, students who had no relation to Palestinian identity, except that they understood the issue, they understood what is right and what is wrong, and they took action. Even if they knew that they might be harmed, or might get fired from somewhere. We think that this is really important, and this is a success for BDS.”
“An important thing we do at the end of every video conference is to give them a request: Come to Gaza,” said Sourani. “People will not act before understanding. You can come, live with us, and see how students can’t get get books, how students can’t get scholarships abroad, how students would die to go, but have nightmares about Rafah Border before going to London, for example. We can’t go to places in our own country! We can’t study, for example, in Bethlehem, in Ramallah, in Najah University. I actually was planning for that, but of course it is imposible.
“This is about human rights and international law, how the world Works,” she added. “As you live there peacefully, Palestinians have the right to live. The rights your students have to move, to learn, to travel everywhere, to get scholarships, we also need. So we need people to understand, to study the issue, and to act. This is what we are doing.”
And other Palestinians? “I want all Palestinians, not only us in BDS, to engage in boycotting Israel,” Baker replied. “I want all of them to become politically aware. And this is also something we work on in BDS. We don’t just discuss BDS in the meetings of our core group. We talk about it in our universities. We invite people to our events. In the future, we really hope that each and every Palestinian becomes aware of BDS, and implements BDS so that it becomes a part of his or her life.
“We also like to participate in events that are held worldwide, like Israeli Apartheid Week,” she said. “We had one here this year, and it was really successful. We try talk to many academics and important activists, like Ilan Pappé and Ramzy Baroud. It’s really good how many people here want to know about BDS. They really want to listen.”
“The amazing thing about PSCABI is that all the political blocs here support it and agree on the academic boycott,” added Sourani.
What else, I asked in closing? “We want people to know that we’re not dying of hunger,” said Baker. “We’re not begging. We’re not shedding tears. We’re taking action on our own behalf. We’re trying to raise awareness, to link people, to make them understand and make them more involved in independent political groups that are peacefully resisting Israel and the occupation.”
“BDS is a Palestinian voice,” said Sourani. “This is what people need to hear, to listen to everywhere. We refuse occupation. I’m proud of doing this work. I’m a Palestinian; I’m not silent. That is the idea.
“I don’t want peace before justice. I’m looking for justice. And justice means the end of apartheid, the end of racism, and the end of occupation. So I need justice first, and then, when we are all equal people, we will look for peace.”
Joe Catron is a resident of Brooklyn, New York and a current member of the International Solidarity Movement – Gaza Strip. He writes in a personal capacity. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.
