Category: Press Releases

Bedouin family to search for the body of their missing son

14 June 2009

A Bedouin teenager – Ahmed Salama Eid Abu Hashish, 18 – from the border area east of Beit Hanoun has been missing since 21st April, 2009. His family believe that he may have been killed in the “buffer zone” – an area of Gaza next to the border that Israeli soldiers attempt to prohibit access to by shooting at people. On Sunday, 14 June 2009, his family, along with members of the Local Initiative from Beit Hanoun, and volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement – Gaza Strip will attempt to search for his body in this area.
The ISM is aware of 18 people who have been injured by Israeli gunfire or shelling.

Israeli forces arrest three solidarity activists in Safa

For Immediate Release

13 June 2009: Israeli forces have arrested 1 Israeli and 2 international solidarity activists in the West Bank village of Safa.

Around 7am, Palestinian farmers, accompanied by 15 international and 10 Israeli solidarity activists, attempted to access their land in the village of Safa to pick grape leaves. Located in the north Hebron hills, near the illegal Beit Ayn settlement, Safa is Palestinian owned land.

Settlers arrived at the scene and began to throw stones at the Palestinians. Border police were present and witnessed the stone-throwing but did not intervene. After 15 minutes at the site in Safa, the border police declared the area a Closed Military Zone. When the Palestinian, Israeli and international activists began to walk away, the settlers verbally assualted them. Two border police cars arrived and attempted to arrest an Israeli activist. Having failed to arrest the Israeli solidarity activist, the border police tried to arrest a Palestinian farmer.

Four international and two Israeli activists tried to prevent the arrest by surrounding the farmer and linking arms on the ground. The border police began to violently push and kick the activists. The soldiers pulled the hair of several activists, kicked them and yelled at them. Israeli forces also used a club to beat the activists.

Shortly thereafter, the border police arrested a German activist, a Scottish activist and an Israeli activist. The Palestinian farmer was released.

They were taken to the police station in Gush Etzion settlement and then transferred to the police station in Kyriat Arba settlement. They are still being held and accused of assaulting the soldiers.

click here to see a video of the action

Free Gaza Movement launches its “Right to Read” Campaign

Free Gaza Movement

9 June 2009

In partnership with Al-Aqsa University, the Free Gaza Movement (FG) is launching its “Right to Read” campaign which will use the FG fleet to deliver textbooks and other educational supplies to universities throughout the occupied Gaza Strip.

“This is not a charitable endeavor,” notes FG Chair Huwaida Arraf. “Rather it is an act of solidarity and resistance to Israel’s chokehold on Gaza and attempt to deny Palestinians education. Dr. Haidar Eid, a professor at Al-Aqsa University and coordinator in Gaza for the campaign adds, “Education is a right. Yet throughout history, societies have used access to education as a weapon of oppression. We refuse to let Israel blockade our students’ thirst for knowledge. We welcome working with Free Gaza and others to break this siege against our people’s greatest resource.”

According to UNWRA, Israel’s blockade restricts paper, ink, and other learning materials from entering into Gaza. As a result of Israel’s hermetic closure of and repeated military attacks on the Gaza Strip, an entire generation of students in Gaza is growing up stunted intellectually and academically; they are trying to learn in circumstances that no student should have to endure. More than one-third of Gaza’s children and university students started the school year missing necessary textbooks and vital school supplies.

Al Aqsa University serves nearly 14,000 students, both male and female. During the assault, it sustained nearly $1.4-million worth of damage including significant damage to its library. Fourteen students and one professor were killed during the assault. This effort allows individuals as well as institutions around the world to support Palestinians’ rights to education by donating new and used copies of textbooks to be delivered by the FG fleet.

The first “Right to Read” shipment will be sent on FG’s Summer of Hope July voyage to Gaza To learn more about the program and to send books, please visit the FG campaign web page at http://freegaza.org/right-to-read?lang=en.

Royal Ontario Museum proceeds with unlawful exhibit

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East

7 June 2009

Dear Friends,

Later this month, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) will be showcasing artifacts illegally seized by Israel in 1967 after it occupied East Jerusalem. In cooperating with the Israel Antiquities Authority to import and exhibit the Dead Sea Scrolls, the ROM would be in violation of Canada’s obligations under UNESCO legal conventions and protocols, and its own obligations as a member of the Canadian Museums Association (CMA).

Please click here to send an email to officials at the ROM, the CMA as well as provincial and Federal party leaders.

More Info

The Dead Sea Scrolls were largely excavated from Qumran (see map below) in the West Bank between 1947 and 1956 by the Palestine Archaeological Museum with the Department of Antiquities of Jordan and the École Biblique Française. The Scrolls were in East Jerusalem until 1967.

Map of Qumran

As a signatory to the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (1954), as well as the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (1970), Canada cannot import cultural property from an occupied territory, and must, if it can, take the cultural property into custody and return it to the competent authorities of the territory previously occupied at the end of hostilities. The Palestinian Authority objects to the exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls because they were illegally obtained.

The CMA sets out in its Ethical Guidelines that museums “must avoid even the remotest suspicion of compliance in any illegal activity,” and that “museums must guard against any direct or indirect participation in the illicit traffic in cultural and natural objects; this may include natural or cultural objects that are: stolen; illegally imported or exported from another state, including those that are occupied or war-stricken; illegally or unscientifically excavated or collected in the field.”

Considering its legal obligations, the ROM should not under any circumstance import the Dead Sea Scrolls until they have been returned to the competent authorities in the West Bank.

Warmest thanks,

The CJPME Leadership
CJPME Website

Prevent Alstom from building the Haramain Express Railway

Saudi Arabia awarded French company Alstom a multi-million dollar contract for the construction of Haramain Express Railway, to link the holy cities of Makkah and Madina. Alstom is in violation of international law for its part in the construction of the Jerusalem Light Rail, which will link illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory (including East Jerusalem) with the city of Jerusalem. The construction of the light rail is part of a wider Israeli policy to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians from Jerusalem and turn permanent the illegal occupation of the city.

The decision by the Saudi Arabian authorities is in violation of its own international commitments. The Arab League barred member states from dealing with companies involved in the construction of Jerusalem Light Rail project. The Saudi contract sends a signal of approval for Alstom’s actions in Jerusalem and highlights the lack of integrity of the Haramain project: the Saudi Arabian government has chosen to link two of Islam’s holiest cities by sponsoring the colonization of another.

Across the world a divestment campaign is taking pace against Alstom and its partner company Veolia, with victories in Sweden and France. In 2006, Dutch ASN Bank took the responsible decision to divest from the project. Alstom and Veolia are accused by Palestinian civil society, represented by the BDS National Committee, BNC, of complicity in grave violation of international law and Palestinian rights for their role in the JLR project. Despite the pressure, the two companies have refused to end their participation in the project. With construction at an advanced stage, Alstom and Veolia are guilty of actively colluding with Israeli apartheid.

  1. Write to the Saudi Railway Organization and to the Saudi Arabian diplomatic representation in your country demanding immediate cancellation of the contract with Alstom.

    karni@saudirailways.org (Vice President)
    shafqatrabbani@sro.org.sa (Project Manager)
    salim@sro.org.sa (Project Manager)
    sohail@sro.org.sa (Project Engineer)

    Please bcc us on your correspondence: saudialstomdivestment@gmail.com

  2. Sign the petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/BDSaudi/petition.html
  3. Write about this issue in your local media. Discuss it in your local mosque and community centers. Participate in actions for boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel.

Find Out More!

The Case Against Veolia and Alstrom:

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians From Jerusalem: