Category: Press Releases

Awareness campaign to boycotting the Israeli occupation

23rd February 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza team | Gaza, occupied Palestine

The Boycott campaign-Palestine PCB organized an awareness campaign for some Schools in Gaza City in order to raise awareness of the importance of Boycotting the occupation and supporting local products.

A number of the boycott-campaign-Palestine activists took part in the campaign by entering classes and delivering a short speech in which they urged the students to the importance of the boycott and the seriousness of normalization.

Additionally, the campaign included a distribution of sample of  local products. In their speech with the students, the activists pointed out the benefits of boycotting the occupation: reducing unemployment, supporting Palestinian economy, and raising public awareness of belonging to the homeland and resisting the Israeli occupation.

This activity is one of several others that the Boycott campaign-Palestine intends to  organize during the upcoming period, targeting the Palestinian public to boycott the occupation and resist the normalization.

 

2017 Open Shuhada Street Hebron Schedule

Against Settlements will use culture, creativity, and resistance for its annual Open Shuhada Street campaign February 19-25.

Campaign schedule:

February 19 Start of the open shuhada street campaign in Hebron

18:00 Candle lighting by children from Hebron’s old city.

February 20

16:00 Campaign participants will visit Shuhada Street families living under the most extreme conditions.

February 21

15:00 Raising the Palestinian flag in Tel Rumieda .

February 22

14:00 Tour of Hebron’s old city for diplomats, journalists, and a Veterans For Peace delegation from the US, including former CIA analyst, Ray McGovern.

February 23

12:00 Official visit to Shuhada Street from Israeli parliament member Dove Hanin. Mr. Hanin is a parliament member of Israel’s Arab party.
17:00 Film screening in Cinema Hebron

February 24

11:30 Open Shuhada Street protest in Hebron – Thousands of will gather to protest the closure of Shuhada Street. They will attempt to enter Shuhada Street.

February 25

11:00 Press conference and commemoration of Ibrahimi mosque massacre. After the press conference we will have a memorial candle lighting ceremony for the victims.

2017 marks 50 years of Israeli occupation and 23 year since the Ibrahimi mosque massacre in Hebron. On February 25, 1994 Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein opened fire in the Ibrahimi mosque killing 29 Palestinians in worship. Since then, Shuahda Street, once the main street and marketplace, has remained almost entirely closed to Palestinians. There are 20 checkpoints and front doors to Palestinian shops and homes are sealed shut.

Youth Against Settlements Open Shuhada Street campaign, held annually since 2010, aims to reopen Shuhada street and end the closures and inequality in Hebron and throughout Palestine and Israel. The following events below will be held in Hebron between February 19-25. International solidarity actions and educational events will be held throughout Europe and the US during the week.

Numerous Youth Against Settlements activists will be traveling from Hebron to Europe to participate in activities and give talks on Open Shuhada Street. Activists, Ayat Jaabari and Sondos Azzih will travel to Germany; Nour Abu Aisheh and Sohiab Zahdeh to Italy; Ahmad amro , Mohanned Qafisheh to the Netherland and Brussels; Anas Amro and Izzat Karaki to Sweden, Murad amro to France and Switzerland, Hijazi Ebido to Denmark: and Abed Salaymeh to the UK.

European partners for the campaign include: European partners for the campaign include: AsopashaPalestinia, Friends of Al Aqsa, Friends of Palestine, Internationalt Forum, Kurve Wustrow, London Palestine Action, Netherlands Palestine Committee, Palæstina Aktion, Palæstina Fredsvagter (International Solidarity Movement), Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and the Palestine Solidarity Association of Sweden.

Source: Youth Against Settelments

Non-violent action in al-tuwani

17th of February, 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | South Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestine

 

Saturday 4th a group of villagers from Al Towani, South Hebron Hills, held a non-violent demonstration against settler violence and illegal settlement expansion, which affects their village. This non-violent demonstration was met with harassment from residents of the illegal out-post settlement of Havat Ma’on, and a large presence of Israeli army and Israeli police. Towards the end of the demonstration a large group of settlers, the Israeli police and army invaded the Palestinian village. They were met with non-violent resistance from residents of the village and eventually spread.

Colonial Israeli Settlers from nearby settlement, enter the Palestinian village.

At 10:00 a demonstration consisting of about 15 Palestinian villagers, supported by international and Israeli activists, left the village of Al Towani to go through the lands stolen by the illegal settlers out-posts Havat Ma’on. This is an area where local children experience violence and threats on a near daily from settlers while going about their daily lives. The demonstration was mostly women and children from the local village, protesting against the violence they experience and the continued expansion of the settlement.

“Banner made by protesters, reading: Women for Freedom of Movement”

Upon arriving in a piece of land that is currently threatened by the illegal extension of this out-posts demonstrators stopped to sing songs, sang, and plant some olive trees. At this point, a settler from the illegal out-posts came down, openly wearing a gun and started to harass people demonstrate, filming all and calls for the Israeli army and police.

Israeli Forces are ordering Palestinian protesters to move.

Shortly after a large group of Israeli forces arrived and the demonstration moved to another piece of land, again chanting, singing songs, and plant more olive trees. At this time came around 8 Israeli army vehicles with two Israeli police vehicles. The soldiers and police stood talking to the settlers before they came to the demonstration to declare the country a “closed military zone”. They used this excuse to disperse protesters while the non-military settlers to remain where they were. This order was non-violently resisted as did the military threaten a Palestinian man with arrest – strongly to take him away from the demonstration. At this time began to move, and the man was released.

While this was going on a group of about 20 settlers from the illegal out-posts invaded local Palestinian village Al Towani. They were met with strong nonviolent resistance from the community and some of the people at the demonstration who rushed back to confront this illegal intrusion into their country. The Israeli army and police came to protect the settlers – refuses to demand they leave. It was only through the strength of the local community, as the settlers finally left the Palestinian village.

 

Al Tuwani is a village in the South Hebron Hills, which has experienced many problems from extremist illegal settlements and out-posts built on their land. Children of the village and the nearest face violence and intimidation by settlers and the Israeli army while walking to school which makes shepherds while we are trying to get access to land. The village has for many years been using non-violent resistance to resist the occupation.

 

ISM Honors Kayla Mueller

10th Febreury 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, occupied Palestine

Kayla, sitting under a poster of Ashraf Abu Rahma from Bil'in.
Kayla, sitting under a poster of Ashraf Abu Rahma from Bil’in.

Two years ago, on February 10, 2015, it was confirmed by her family, that former ISMer Kayla Mueller had been killed in Syria, while being held captive by Da’esh (ISIS). Today therefore, ISM honors her memory.

Kayla Mueller, originally from Prescott, Arizona, volunteered with the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine from August 2010 till September 2010. “Kayla came to Palestine to stand in solidarity with us” says Abdullah Abu Rahma, coordinator of the popular committee in the village of Bil’in. “She marched with us and faced the military that occupies our land side by side with us”.

As an ISMer, Kayla supported the Palestinian people in nonviolently resisting the confiscation and demolition of Palestinian houses and lands; she stayed with the Al Kurd family in Sheikh Jarrah to prevent Israeli illegal settlers from taking over their home; she participated in weekly demonstrations against the consequences of the apartheid wall, and she accompanied school children on their way to school in the neighborhood of Tel Ruimeda in Al-Khalil (Hebron), where children are often exposed to attacks by Israeli Forces.

I could tell a few stories about sleeping in front of half demolished buildings waiting for the one night when the bulldozers come to finish them off; fearing sleep because you don’t know what could wake you. … I could tell a few stories about walking children home from school because settlers next door are keen to throw stones, threaten and curse at them. Seeing the honest fear in young boys eyes when heavily armed settlers arise from the outpost; pure fear, frozen from further steps, lip trembling.” Excerpt from a post written by Kayla on October 29, 2010.

Three years later, on the 4th of August 2013, Kayla Mueller was abducted by the terrorist group Da’esh in Aleppo, Syria, where she was helping Syrian refugees escape the horrors of their country. According to fellow western hostages sharing a cell with Mueller in Syria, she had told them that on the day before her abduction, she had helped a friend – a Doctors Without Border contractor – install satellite internet at one of the Doctors Without Border hospitals in Aleppo. After having spent the night at the facility, she and two staff members had been abducted on the next day from a Doctors Without Borders vehicle.

Unfortunately though, Doctors without Borders refused to take responsibility for Kayla, and ransom negotiations where therefore ignored by the organization until their other staff members had been released.

Kayla therefore, was a captive of Da’esh for 18 month, during which she was exposed to severe torture and abuse by Da’esh members. On her final days, she was held as a sex slave by the oil and gas emir for ISIS, Abu Sayyaf. And she is believed to have been killed in an alleged Jordanian airstrike targeting ISIS.

Our hearts are with Kayla, and all others who have lost their liberty, lives or loved ones in the global struggle for freedom and human rights for all.

#DismantleTheGhetto: start of campaign in al-Khalil

10th February 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Israeli forces and colonial settlers on Thursday, 9th February 2017, disrupted a peaceful protest near Qurtuba school on Shuhada Street in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). Settlers attacked and injured one female student, and prevented Palestinian teachers and students from leaving the area. The event was organized by the National Campaign to Lift the Closure of Hebron as part of the ‘#DismantleTheGhetto: Take the Settlers out of Hebron’ campaign.

The day started with a celebration at Qurtuba school, which is located just above Shuhada Street, where most of the houses and businesses have been ethnically cleansed of Palestinians by the Israeli forces in the aftermath of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre. Students performed a play, sang songs, and the best students from each class were honoured, along with teachers.

Afterwards, the group walked towards the Qurtuba school stairs, which used to be blocked for access for Palestinians by the Israeli forces since the area was declared a closed military zone 31st October 2015. Now, depending on the whim of the soldiers, most days teachers and students are again allowed to go up and down the stairs to school.

As the Palestinians were chanting slogans against the occupation and for freedom for Palestinians in al-Khalil and for an end to the closed military zone and the ghettoization of this part of al-Khalil, soldiers at the bottom of the stairs immediately called for reinforcements and settlers started gathering.

Settlers gathering on Shuhada Street, insulting and threatening Palestinians.

The settler Anat Cohen, who is infamous for violently attacking Palestinians and internationals with complete impunity (search YouTube ‘Anat Cohen Hebron’ for several filmed examples, ran up the slope that separated the children from the soldiers on Shuhada Street and began violently to attack the schoolchildren. She was joined by another settler with a violent and aggressive history. This had been an entirely peaceful demonstration where children demanded their own freedom of movement and an end to the occupation of Palestine, according to their human rights. There was no provocation.

Infamous settler Anat Cohen harassing studnets and teachers

At the same time, students who were trying to go down the stairs to get home were detained by Israeli forces, while colonial settlers gathered on the street and at the illegal Beit Hadassah settlement opposite, ridiculing and threatening the Palestinians as seen in this video. As children were eventually allowed down the stairs they faced aggressive settlers, some armed with assault rifles, and Israeli soldiers chasing them down the street and yelling at them.

Palestinian student support down the stairs while settlers harass them

One female student was injured and unable to walk, and had to be supported by two teachers down the Qurtuba stairs, as Anat Cohen stood by filming them. Once she was down on Shuhada Street, the girl had to be carried in a chair by teachers towards Shuhada checkpoint so that she could get an ambulance on the other side. Palestinian vehicles, including ambulances, are not allowed on this tiny strip of Shuhada Street. Palestinians are only allowed to walk, not drive, and then only if they are registered as residents (for which they are checked by number not name).

Palestinians carrying the girl on a chair to the checkpoint

Israeli military forces and Israeli police officers were present and did nothing to protect this girl or any of the Palestinians and internationals present.