Category: Press Releases

CPT: Israeli military arrests approximately 40 Palestinians and places Beit Ummar under curfew

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

13 February 2008

HEBRON Since 1 am on 13 February, the Israeli military placed the village of Beit Ummar under curfew and arrested approximately forty men between the ages of 18 and 25. Since early morning, Israeli soldiers have been entering homes. The military has closed four different areas inside the village. Soldiers are stationed around the local mosque area and throughout the village, with two bulldozers and DCO jeeps. The military are denying travel to people in cars or on foot, restricting the freedom of movement for goods and medicine. The military denied entry to an ambulance attempting to enter the village.

Israeli police showed members of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in the area an order and a map for Beit Ummar as a closed military zone. Israeli authorities stopped CPTers and informed them they needed to leave immediately.

The Israeli military denied entry to the press and has detained them for an hour and a half.

For more information, contact CPT: 02-222-8485.

Protesters Blockade Israeli State Owned Company

For IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press contact:
07986 764432
07745 817822
thewallmustfall@riseup.net

11 February 2007

From around 3pm today Palestine solidarity demonstrators have been blockading Carmel Agrexco’s U.K headquarters in Swallowfield Way, Hayes, Middlesex to highlight the company’s human rights record in occupied Palestine.

Protesters were met with violent assaults by Agrexco security guards who smashed a video camera.

Two protesters were detained by police and searched under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act before being released.

A group of demonstrators have locked to the gates (used arm tubes and super glue) to prevent lorries from high street companies such as Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s from entering the premises to load up on flowers and vegetables grown in occupied Palestine. Carmel is the largest importer of fruit, vegetables and flowers from the West Bank, Palestine. It is believed that they are in breach of the International Criminal Court Act 2001.

The protest is part of a week of action against Carmel called for by the Boycott Israeli Goods campaign (http://www.bigcampaign.org) against the import of Valentines’ Day flowers from Israel and Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. The run up to Valentines day is one of the busiest periods of the year for the company. Within the last week there has been a blockade of a Carmel depot in Belgium and local actions occurring around Britain to coincide with the week of action.

Today’s blockade aims to draw attention to this company’s complicity, in murder, theft and damage of occupied land, collective punishment, apartheid and ethnic cleansing, and other breaches of International Law.

Notes For Journalists

Carmel is complicit in war crimes under the International Criminal Court Act 2001 (ICC Act). They import fresh produce originating from illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories.

The purpose of the protest is to highlight Agrexco’s illegal activity in court.

The action follows a legal warning letter to Carmel stating clearly why they are in breach of the law.

The action took place at Agrexco UK, Swallowfield Way, Hayes, Middlesex, Israel’s largest importer of agricultural produce into the European Union. It is 50% Israeli State owned.

Before taking part in the blockade, many of the protesters had witnessed first hand the suffering of Palestinians under Israeli military occupation.

This follows from actions of 11th November 2004, when Palestine-Solidarity protesters from London and Brighton were arrested after taking part in non-violent blockades outside the same company and 30 August 2006, When demonstrators blockaded the company for 11 hours and no arrests were made.

In September 2005, a Judge ruled that Agrexco (UK) must prove that their business is lawful. The acquittal of the seven activists before they were able to present their defence meant that the court did not have to rule on the legality of Agrexco-Carmel’s involvement in the supply of produce from illegal settlements in the occupied territories.

In September 2006 protesters blockaded the company again, Carmel refused to have demonstrators arrested because this would have lead to another embarrassing court appearance where their business methods would have been investigated by a British court of law.

Links:

Photos of the last blockade
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/08/349440.html

Text of letter sent to Carmel Agrexco
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2006/08/347361.html

Report on Carmel’s Involvement in the Jordan Valley:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/322537.html

Press release from previous trial (with links):
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/01/331851.html

War on Want’s Report –“Profiting from the Occupation”:
http://www.waronwant.org/?lid=12671

Palestinians who appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court to stop settlers from digging tunnels under their homes were rounded up by the Israel police

For Immediate Release

For months the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA), with funding from the settler organization ELAD, has been digging under the private property of Silwan residents in occupied East Jerusalem. The owners of the land were not informed nor did they give their consent to the digging that has already resulted in damage to the walls of their homes. The damage to buildings and infrastructure has reached a state where the main road caved in recently under the weight of the winter snow. Letters sent by Attorney Sami Ershed on behalf of the residents to the IAA requesting information about the digging taking place on their land have not been answered.

On Friday, February 7th Silwan residents established a protest tent on a privately owned plot adjacent to the ELAD visitors center where digging has been taking place. Yesterday, February the 10th, Silwan residents appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court for a temporary stop work order.

Late last night, police raided the village, and arrested four people. Three of them were land owners who had submitted the appeal to the Supreme Court. They were charged with sabotaging ELAD’s property, didn’t see a judge, and ended up signing conditions, placing them under house arrest for five days. The gross irony is the land they are charged with sabotaging, is their own.

Israeli Human Rights Attorney Gabi Laski stated: “When, in a politically sensitive place like Silwan, the settlers are being allowed to build and dig without permits and the law is not being enforced. And when people who want to complain about this to the police are the ones who are arrested, it indicates that there is something wrong with how the law is being enforced.”

MK Yossi Beilin (Meretz) also came to see the dig yesterday; he asked the IAA to allow him to have a look into the archaeological site, but was told that ELAD would not allow him to enter.

On Sunday workers arrived at the land to continued digging, but left after the owner of the land told them to leave his land. Later an Israeli settler from ELAD came with a worker. The owner of the land again attempted to tell the workers to stop, but this time the settler began cursing and pushing him, forcing him to call the police.

The police arrived and told the villagers to come with them to the police station to file a complaint. The owner of the land left with another Silwan witness and an Israeli activist from Tayush to file the complaint. But when they arrived at the station they found themselves under arrest for assault. The three were held overnight and brought today to court where they were released without restrictions, on NIS 2500 bail. The settler was not arrested.

After the three where arrested the workers returned and resumed the digging, only this time with police protection. Attorney Sami Ershed explained, “Under Israeli law the landlord of a property can prevent anyone from entering his own land by using reasonable force, the police were obliged to help them in doing that, but instead the police breached property rights by protecting the trespassers while they broke the law.”

On Monday afternoon, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled against a temporary stop work order, to keep settlers from digging on other peoples’ property. Instead they gave the settlers 14 days to respond to the complaints.

Fakhri Abu Diab said, “We, as Silwan residents, will not be silenced by this attempt to intimidate us from protesting the settlers attempt to take over our land. The settlers are building on our land without permits, and we are arrested when we complain about their activities. We will continue our vigil at the protest tent until our rights are restored.”

For more information contact:
Fakhri Abu Diab 0522.206.227 (Silwan Resident)
Attorney Gabi Laski 0544.418.988
Attorney Sami Ershed 0524.204.350

THE SIEGE HAS BEEN BROKEN: MEPs IN GAZA STRIP IN SOLIDARITY WITH CIVIL POPULATION

For Immediate Release

Jerusalem, 7th February 2008

A delegation composed of 10 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from different political groups (see the list of participants below) and led by Luisa Morgantini, Vice-President of the European Parliament, broke the Israeli siege and travelled to the Gaza Strip on 5th February 2008.

During a press conference, MEPs reaffirmed the need and the urgency to lift the blockade that represents “an illegal collective punishment on the civil population”.

Visiting the Al-Shifa Hospital, the delegation expressed its deep concern and worry about the extreme difficulties under which the main hospital in the Gaza Strip is obliged to operate, where patients with cancer, but not only with cancer, do not avail of the necessary medical drugs or treatments and at least 30 premature babies, still alive thanks to incubators, risk dying if generators stop because of the lack of fuel due to cuts in refuelling supplies and to the closure decided by the Israeli Government.

In its mission to Gaza, the delegation also met many Palestinian businessmen who reaffirmed the impossibility for them to carry out their commercial activities because of the Israeli blockade, with disastrous consequences for the economy and the daily life of civilians: 80% of workers are currently unemployed without any compensation.

Refusing the idea of resorting to smuggling, currently the only channel open to access and trade goods in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian businessmen have on the contrary reiterated to MEPs their will and their right to free and honest trade. Palestinian businessmen also repeated that the siege does not affect Hamas’ political and religious movement but that, on the contrary, the heaviest price is being paid by the civil population, as many Palestinian intellectuals and activists have been claiming for a long time and as they also claimed in a meeting with the MEPs in the offices of the “End the Siege” campaign (www.end-gaza-siege.ps; end.gaza.siege@gmail.com), with the participation, among others, of the doctor and human rights activist, Eyad Sarraj, one of the promoters of the demonstration for the International Day for the End of Gaza siege, on 26th January, held simultaneously in the Gaza Strip, at the Eretz Crossing, by Israeli peace activists, and all around the world.

The different organizations supporting the Campaign, but also many women from Gaza, meeting the delegation, reaffirmed the need for independence, freedom and peace for Palestinians, appealed for the lifting of the blockade and also for the right to security for all civilians, both Israelis and Palestinians. They restated at the same time that “Qassam rockets are fired not by the people of Gaza, but only by some groups of extremist Palestinians, and this must be condemned as well as all the bloodshed of civilians due to Israeli raids perpetuated by the army of occupation”.

In the press conference, broadcast by major Arab television channels, the MEPs, expressing their solidarity, declared they were “deeply impressed by the dignity and the resistance of the Palestinian people and wished that Palestinian political parties could find unity so that the Gaza Strip and the West Bank would not be separated.”

MEPs also urged an intervention to put a stop to the ecological disaster in Beitlaya area; that the Rafah border and all Gaza crossings be opened thereby allowing free movement of people and goods; that the violent spiral of action-reaction be immediately stopped. They also called for concrete deeds for the resumption of peace negotiations based on the freezing of all illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, the end to the military occupation and for the establishment of a free and sovereign Palestinian State based on the ‘67 borders in coexistence with the Israeli State.

The delegation also urged effective action by the International Community to secure the freedom of all political prisoners and Palestinian Parliamentarians who have been arrested, to improve living conditions in all the Occupied Palestinian Territory and, in particular, in the Gaza Strip, to encourage Israel to show a concrete will for peace, that has not existed up until now and that is denied every day through the raids, check points, roadblocks, the wall and closures not only in Gaza but in the entire West Bank, such as in Hebron – which the MEPs visited on 4th February – a ghost town, occupied by hundreds of Israeli soldiers defending 400 fanatic settlers.

During the fact-finding mission, from 2nd – 7th February, the Members of the European Parliament with 8 officials, assistants and some journalists also visited the town of Sderot, in Israel, under daily attack by Qassam rockets, as a sign of solidarity with the civil population, where they met, among others, Zvi Shuldiner, director of a Department of Safir College and peace activist.

The delegation also met the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, the Minister in charge of Prisoners’ Affairs, Ashraf al- Ajami, Members of the Palestinian Legislative Council of different political parties – Fatah, Al Mubadarah, Third Way, Peoples’ Party, Popular Front, Independents and Change and Reform List (Hamas), some Members of the Knesset- Kadima Party and Labour Party, General Pietro Pistoiese, Head of the EUBAM mission in Rafah, EU and UNRWA Representatives, but also peace and human rights organizations from Israeli and Palestinian civil societies.

For all information, a statement or report please contact:

Luisa Morgantini: +972 547271742 (Palestinian mobile)
or 0039 348 39 21 465 (Italian mobile)
or 0039 06 69 95 02 17 (Rome Office)

luisa.morgantini@europarl.europa.eu; www.luisamorgantini.net

List of MEPs participants:

EVANS Jill, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, UK

FALBR Richard, Socialist Group in the European Parliament, Czech Republic

HEGYI Gyula, Socialist Group in the European Parliament, Hungary

HOWITT Richard, Socialist Group in the European Parliament, UK

KOTEREC Miloš, Socialist Group in the European Parliament, Slovakia

LAMBERT Jean, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, UK

MADEIRA E MADEIRA Jamila Barbara, Socialist Group in the European Parliament, Portugal

MALDEIKIS Eugenijus, Union for Europe of the Nations Group, Lithuania

MORGANTINI Luisa, Group of the European United Left – Nordic Green Left, Italy

MORILLON Philippe, Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, France

NOGUEIRA ROMÁN Camilo, Former MEP GREENS, Spain

ZELEZNY Vladimir, Independence/Democracy Group, Czech Republic

Starting Today: Escalation in Collective Punishment of Gaza – With High Court Approval

Further Electricity Cuts Planned

Human Rights Groups: “Israel is Depriving Civilians in Gaza of Basic Needs – in Violation of International Law”.

Wed., February 6, 2008: Beginning tomorrow (Thursday, Feb. 7), Israel will reduce supplies of electricity it sells to Gaza, as part of punitive measures taken against Gaza’s civilian population, with the approval of Israel’s Supreme Court. The cuts to electricity were permitted after Israel’s Supreme Court last week rejected a petition by ten Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations challenging Israel’s planned reductions to supplies of electricity and fuel it allows Gaza residents to purchase. The groups claimed that the cuts violate international law, because they deliberately harm civilians, depriving them of the energy they need to run vital services in Gaza. Israel controls Gaza’s borders and does not permit supplies to enter Gaza except via Israeli controlled crossings.

The human rights groups: “This new electricity cut will worsen the punitive measures taken against civilians in Gaza, in violation of international law. The fuel and electricity cuts are already disrupting the ability of Gaza residents to receive medical care, access clean water, pump sewage, and heat and light their homes – with no valid security rationale.”

Regarding the court decision, the rights groups noted: “The Israeli Supreme Court’s decision approving collective punishment sets a dangerous precedent. The decision ignores the clear international law prohibition against deliberately harming civilians – and fails to stop the military’s punitive measures.”

According to a plan submitted to the court, Israel’s military will reduce supply by 5% on three of ten lines supplying electricity to Gaza from Israel’s Electric Company. Tomorrow, 5% will be cut on the first line, and over the next two weeks an additional 5% cut will be added to the other two lines, for a total cut of 1.5 MW.

Even as they condemned tomorrow’s planned cuts to the electricity sold to Gaza by Israel, the rights groups noted that Israel is already making much more severe cuts to Gaza’s electricity supply – 25 megawatts – by preventing Gaza’s power plant from purchasing the amount of industrial diesel needed to operate at capacity. Today, Gaza’s power plant is producing just 55 megawatts electricity, instead of the 80 megawatts it could produce, if it were permitted to obtain more industrial diesel. The industrial diesel cuts have contributed to a 20% electricity deficit in Gaza, which has forced rolling blackouts that have disrupted the functioning of hospitals, sewage treatment plants, water pumps, and other vital services. Gaza residents are still experiencing power outages of more than 8 hours per day on average. Cuts in petrol and regular diesel have disrupted transportation throughout Gaza and caused shortages in the fuel needed to run back-up generators.

Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel * Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement * HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual * Physicians for Human Rights-Israel * The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights * The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel * Gaza Community Mental Health Programme * B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories * Al –Haq * Mezan Center for Human Rights