Category: Ramallah - Page 6 - International Solidarity Movement

Hundreds inspired at the launching of the Palestinian Youth Forum

25^th of September 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Ramallah, occupied Palestine

On Saturday 24th of September, over 250 Palestinians from across the West Bank and East Jerusalem gathered in Ramallah for the starting conference of the Palestinian Youth Forum. This launch marks a new moment for this youth-led movement to form a clearer and stronger identity.

The forum was organized by 54 Palestinian representatives from ten different youth committees across the West Bank. One of the distinguishing characteristics of this forum and movement is that it is entirely youth-led. The morning offered a series of inspiring speeches from leaders across the progressive movements. And in the afternoon, attendees broke into smaller groups to target discussions on specific areas of interest and connect with others working on similar issues.

This movement is organized by and for all Palestinian youth, includes those in the West Bank and Gaza, in ’48 and in the diaspora. One of the youth organizers of the forum, Hadil Shatara, states, “We’re Palestinian youth carrying the burden of our national and social challenges. We’re aiming to make changes locally and internationally”. This forum launches a wider movement for youth to impact Palestinian society at large.

They will be working on social and economic levels including unemployment, women’s issues, Palestinian curriculum, political prisoner issues and other efforts to resist the ongoing occupation of Palestine. They intend to impact what is happening internally, as well as collaborate with international efforts, including the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

An initial meeting of youth across Palestine took place in 2009 and they have been building and working on issues since. Among other work, they played a particularly important role in the prisoner strikes in 2012. This forum marks a new moment in collaboration and organization of a Palestinian youth-led movement. It made clear that they are engaged in and energized to work towards an independent and democratic movement focused on social, economic and political justice for the people, by the people.

Attendees listening to opening remarks at the starting conference of the Palestinian Youth Forum

Call to action: Olive Harvest 2016

9th September 2016 | International Solidarity Movement | Ramallah, occupied Palestine

At a time of increasing settler violence in the West Bank, the International Solidarity Movement is issuing an urgent call for volunteers to participate in the 2016 olive-harvest on the invitation of Palestinian communities.

The olive tree, a national symbol for Palestinians, is an affirmation of Palestinians historical connection to their lands. Israeli Forces and settlers have tried in numerous occasions to disrupt this special relationsship between the Palestinians and this thousand-year old crop. Thousands of olive trees have been bulldozed, uprooted and burned by Israeli settlers and the military, but Palestinians farmers refuse to be intimidated – under the Israeli occupation harvesting has become more than a source of livelihood; it has become a form of resistance.

Despite efforts by Israeli settlers and soldiers to prevent them from accessing their land, Palestinian communities have remained steadfast in refusing to give up their olive harvest.

Palestinian farmer and internationals discussing picking permit with Israeli forces.

In solidarity with Palestinians farmers, ISM volunteers help with the olive harvest each year. If you join ISM over the olive harvest you will work with other ISM’ers in Palestinian olive groves especially exposed to violence and harassment from Israeli settlers and military. Our presence can make a big difference. It has been proven in the past to deter the number and severity of attacks as well as harassment, hence supporting the Palestinians universal right to be and work on their lands. International solidarity activists engage in non-violent intervention and documentation and this practical support enables many families to pick their olives. In addition, The olive harvest also provides a wonderful opportunity to spend time with Palestinian families in their olive groves and homes, there is nothing like sipping tea under a olive tree after a long days work.

The harvest will begin in start-October and run until mid-November. We request a minimum 2 week commitment from volunteers but stress that long-termers are needed as well. We kindly ask that volunteers start arriving in the first week of October, so we are prepared when the harvest begins.

Training

The ISM will be holding mandatory two day training sessions which will run weekly on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Please contact palreports@gmail.com for further information.

Ongoing campaigns

In addition to the olive harvest, there will be opportunities to participate in grass-roots, non-violent resistance in Palestine.

ISM maintains a constant presence in Hebron, where settler harassment and violence is a regular occurrence. Lately, Israeli army violence has escalated for Palestinians living in proximity to the illegal inner-city settlement. Israeli forces have used the Palestinian neighborhoods for military training. Harassment, humiliations and violence is an almost daily occurrence. A valuable part of the ISM’s work in Hebron is to monitor checkpoints near Palestinian schools. In the morning and afternoon schoolchildren have to pass through the checkpoints, which often lead to violent situations. From time to time young Palestinian boys throw stones on the occupying forces, which leads to collective punishment by the Israeli Forces as they lob dozens of teargas canisters and stun grenades, onto the schoolchildren. ISM is present at these checkpoints to document these extremely violent responses to boys throwing pepples, and to serve as an protective presence.

ISM also has an apartment in Nablus from where we work on a number of projects including resisting demolitions in various villages, and supporting Palestinians resisting settler theft of their lands. In addition to these activities, we participate in the weekly demonstration in Kafr Qaddum, where protesters face excessive force by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).

Come! Bear witness to the suffering, courage and generosity of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation.

Experiencing the situation for yourself is vital to adequately convey the reality of life in Palestine to your home communities and to re-frame the debate in a way that will expose Israel’s apartheid policies; creeping ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem as well as collective punishment and genocidal practices in Gaza.

In Solidarity,

ISM Palestine

“They destroyed the houses, they destroyed our dreams”

27 July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Qalandia village, occupied Palestine

Late Monday evening, Israeli forces entered the village of Qalandia with 15 bulldozers and around 150 soldiers. In the village the Israeli military destroyed 11 new built houses, attacking the residents of the village with stun grenades, tear gas, rubber coated steel bullets and sponge bullets. 7 persons had to seek medical care for their injuries after the assaults from the military.

In 7 of the demolished houses, families had already moved in according to Yosef Awdalla, mayor of Qalandia. The demolition notices, claiming the houses had no permits, were left outside the houses on the ground only 24 hours before the army entered the village.

One of the homeowners, Fadi Awadallah describes how his friend was walking around the house the day before the demolitions, and found a piece of paper written in Hebrew on the ground. One hour after they had figured out what the document said and talked to their lawyer, the army was already entering the village to demolish their home. Fadi, who had applied and paid for an Israeli issued licence to build in area C, did not expect the demolition order since the Israeli authorities had accepted the money and the application. When he tried to explain this to the soldiers they answered him that “they were not there to talk, they were there to demolish the houses.”

The soldiers then pointed their guns to his head and told him that if he didn’t move away from the house they would shoot him.

“They didn’t deal with us as humans, they pushed us back with violence and force” says Fadi whose family had planned to move into their dream house the following week.

“Three years ago we started to build the houses. Why didn’t they come three years ago before we spent all our money on these houses? They destroyed the houses, they destroyed our dreams” says Fadi, explaining that most of the families not only spent all their savings on the buildings but now they are also left with loans that will take them years to pay.

“We came up with the idea about building a house here because we are not allowed to use our house on the other side of the wall.” says Fadi, whose father lives in a house on the other side of the apartheid wall surrounding the village. Without obtaining a permit every month from the Israeli occupation authorities, the family are not allowed to cross the wall that separates the West Bank from Jerusalem.

Since the signing of the Oslo agreement in 1995 most of Qalandia village was classified as Area C, where israel has full control over security and civil administration. Only 2% of Qalandia is constituted as area B, where construction is permitted. Palestinian building in area C has to be permitted by the Israeli Civil Administration and since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank 1967, Israeli authorities regularly demolishe houses in area C, thus breaking international humanitarian law. According to a report released this Wednesday from Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, Israeli authorities have demolished more Palestinian homes in the West Bank in the first six months of 2016 than they did in any year over the past decade .

The Israeli demolition policies systematically implemented by the government and the lack of possibilities to build legally in the area constitutes the ethnic cleansing and forcible transfer of Palestinians.

As Fadi Awadallah points out, “Where are we supposed to be? In the sky? In the space? No, we are staying here.”

Sameeh Huseen holding a picture of his home that was ruined by the Israeli army.

“How are we going to explain this to the next generation? How can we teach our kids about peace when this is what they see?” says Fadi Awadallah.

“We are still here. We will never leave.” Ajaleen Salah Mousa has worked as a teacher for 20 years and has spent all his savings on the house, his dream. “They try to make it hard for us to live here but we will never leave.” — “We are still here. We will never leave.”
Ajaleen Salah Mousa has worked as a teacher for 20 years and has spent all his savings on the house, his dream.
“They try to make it hard for us to live here but we will never leave.”

Additional sources and information:

http://www.btselem.org/planning_and_building/20160727_razed_to_the_ground

http://www.btselem.org/area_c/what_is_area_c

http://www.btselem.org/area_c/state_lands

http://vprofile.arij.org/jerusalem/pdfs/vprofile/Qalandiya_EN.pdf

https://www.ochaopt.org/documents/jerusalem-30july2007.pdf

Occupation forces issue notice for Palestinian, dead for 22 years, to report for interrogation

12th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Quds team | Kufr Malik, occupied Palestine

On July 9th at 4:00 in the morning, the Be’rat family awoke to find Israeli soldiers pounding on the door of their home in Kufr Malik, demanding that Jihad, the son of Mohammed Tawfik and Nadia Mustafa, report for interrogation. Jihad, however, passed away twenty two years ago, before reaching the age of fifteen days.

Israeli forces demanded that everyone in the house show some form of identification, including the children, and continued to ask for Jihad. After explaining the situation to the soldiers, Jihad’s mother was asked to present her son’s death certificate as proof. “They pulled open my heart and made me remember my son,” Nadia said of the experience. The soldiers did not return the death certificate. The children, though quite used to Israeli incursions into the village, were also traumatized by the event.

This particular event serves as an example of the Israeli military’s arbitrary and indiscriminate methods in their selection and targeting of “suspects.” The case also highlights the absolute lack of legal rights those living under Occupation have, as Palestinians are always considered guilty until proven innocent, and accusations are filed regardless of whether or not one is already dead or imprisoned.

According to the Palestinian prisoners rights group Adameer, there are currently at least seven thousand political prisoners in Israeli jails. Over 400 of these prisoners are children. Of those arrested, few are immediately notified of the crime they are being accused of committing, and many are never informed of the specific allegations. Israel’s policy of administrative detention allows Occupation forces to arrest Palestinians without charge and hold them for an infinitely renewable period of six months. Over seven hundred Palestinians are currently being held without charge in administrative detention.

Delivered at 4:00 in the morning, the Israeli document demands that the deceased member of the Be'rat family report for interrogation — Delivered at 4:00 in the morning, the Israeli document demands that the deceased member of the Be’rat family report for interrogation

New stun grenades used at Ofer military prison demonstration

26th March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Ofer, occupied West Bank

On 25^th March 2016, Israeli forces at Ofer military prison injured 8 Palestinians with various kinds of weapons, and later on attacked the nearby village of Beitunia, injuring even more.

A demonstration against the Israeli military occupation and for the freedom of the prisoners held in Ofer military prison – often in so called ‘administrative detention’ where the accused can not even expect to be charged or have a trial – was violently attacked by Israeli forces. They shot endless rounds of tear gas at protestors, as well as rubber coated metal bullets which injured 8 Palestinians. Additionally, Israeli forces used a new kind of stun grenade and fired live ammunition, including 0.22 caliber bullets, directly at protestors. 5 Palestinian protestors were arrested by the army and taken to an unknown destination.

Later the same day, Israeli forces attacked the nearby village of Beitunia, where the army again used an excessive amount of stun grenades, rubber-coated metal bullets, live ammunition and showered the village in tear gas. During this assault, 5 more people sustained injuries from rubber-coated metal bullets. In total 13 Palestinians were injured, including one in the head and one in the chest with rubber-coated metal bullets.
Israeli forces regularly use excessive force and injure protestors in demonstrations against the illegal settlements and Israeli occupation throughout the West Bank.