The Israeli army is currently invading the village of Saida, in the Tulkarem district of the West Bank.
According to local sources, Israeli special forces were occupying an old, abandoned Palestinian house in the center of the village last night. At least two Israeli checkpoints were setup in the morning between Saida and the neighboring areas. Military jeeps along with bulldozers invaded the village later in the afternoon.
A 32 year old Palestinian farmer was killed (Mohammad Ali Ittwair) and two boys were injured (Mahdi Sahir, 14 years old, injured in the head and Saddam Hassan, 17 years, injured in the stomach). No information has been provided about the boy’s condition yet.
Since the beginning of the current Intifada, 23 Palestinians from the village of Saida have been killed and three homes were demolished.
For more information, contact:
Ashraf (Saida): 0599-437-392
ISM Media Office: 0599-943-157, 054-237-8609
Amnesty International releases report on 40th Anniversary of Israel’s Occupation of the Palestinian Territories
Marking the 40th year of Occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, human rights group Amnesty International released a 45 page report citing gross human rights violations, breaches of International law, and breaches of UN resolutions with respect to the rights of Palestinians.
In addition to highlighting the various repercussions of Israel’s 700 km Apartheid Wall, built on Palestinian land well-within 1967 borders, and the over 500 Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks which hinder Palestinian movement within the West Bank and impact on every aspect of Palestinians’ lives, the Amnesty report documents the expansionist settlement policies within Palestinian territories, the severe food and economic crises resulting from economic and movement restrictions, the continued policy of illegal Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes, and the systematic enforcement of Apartheid policies against Palestinians in their own Territories. Amnesty calls on Israel to immediately end its Occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, and highlights the urgent need for international monitoring mechanisms.
Khaled Daud Faqih was just six months old when he died on 8 March 2007 at an Israeli army checkpoint. His father Daud, a teacher, told Amnesty International:
“My son Khaled was having difficulty breathing. I called a neighbour who has a car and with my wife and the baby we set off immediately for the hospital in Ramallah. Khaled had previously had attacks like this and we took him to hospital and there he was put under the oxygen tent and he always got better.
“We arrived at the Atara checkpoint at 12.45am. From there it was another 10 minutes to the hospital. The soldiers stopped us. I told them that my baby was sick and urgently needed to get to the hospital in Ramallah. I spoke to them in Hebrew. They asked for our IDs. The driver and I gave ours but my wife had left hers at home in the hurry. I told the soldiers and they said we could not pass without her ID. I begged them to let us pass. They looked in the car and saw that there was nothing and that the baby had problems breathing and his limbs were trembling. I told the soldiers that every minute, every second mattered; that the baby needed oxygen urgently. They told us to wait and I kept pleading with them. Then the baby died. It was 1.05am.”
The hundreds of checkpoints and blockades which every day force long detours and delays on Palestinians trying to get to work, school or hospital, have for years limited their access to essential health services and caused medical complications, births at checkpoints and even death.
The Israeli authorities contend that this regime of closures and restrictions is necessary to prevent Palestinians from entering Israel to carry out suicide bombings and other attacks.
However, virtually all the checkpoints, gates, blocked roads and most of the fence/wall are located inside the West Bank – not between Israel and the West Bank. They curtail or prevent movement between Palestinian towns and villages, splitting and isolating Palestinian communities, separating Palestinians from their agricultural land, hampering access to work, schools, health facilities and relatives, and destroying the Palestinian economy.
West Bank, including East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since June 1967:
5,600km2 total area: about 130km north-south and 65km east-west
200+ unlawful Israeli settlements and “outposts”
500+ Israeli military checkpoints and blockades
700km of roads that are banned for Palestinians
700km of fence/wall, 80 per cent of it on Palestinian land
The UN Office for the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) records the number of checkpoints and blockades in the West Bank. In March 2007 there were 549. Of these, 84 were manned checkpoints and 465 were unmanned blockades, such as locked gates, earth mounds or ditches that make roads impassable, cement blocks and other obstacles that block access to roads.
In addition, thousands of temporary checkpoints, known as “flying checkpoints”, are set up every year by Israeli army patrols on roads throughout the West Bank for a limited duration – ranging from half an hour to several hours. OCHA recorded 624 flying checkpoints in February 2007 and 455 the previous month. In 2006 a total of 7,090 was recorded.
THE FENCE/WALL: UNLAWFUL LAND GRAB
More than half of the length of the (700 km) fence/wall has been completed and work is proceeding on the rest. Already, tens of thousands of olive and other trees and areas of fertile agricultural land have been uprooted and destroyed, dozens of homes have been demolished, and tens of thousands of Palestinians have been cut off from their land and means of earning a living.
According to the Israeli authorities, the fence/wall is “a defensive measure, designed to block the passage of terrorists, weapons and explosives into the State of Israel…” Its sole purpose, they say, is “to provide security”.
Some 80 per cent of (the Wall) is located on Palestinian land inside the West Bank, separating Palestinian towns, villages, communities and families from each other; cutting off Palestinian farmers from their land; hindering access to education and health care facilities and other essential services; and separating Palestinian communities from reservoirs and sources of clean water.
It is a complex structure, 50 to 100 metres in width and including barbed wire, ditches, trace paths and tank patrol lanes on each side as well as additional buffer zones and no-go areas of varying depths.
WALL OF DEATH
On 19 December 2006, 14-year-old Dua’a Nasser Abdelkader was shot dead by Israeli soldiers as she was playing near the fence/wall with her 12- year-old friend in Far’un village, south of Tulkarem. There is nothing to indicate that the two schoolgirls could have posed a threat to the Israeli soldiers, who shot at them from a nearby fortified watchtower. Israeli media reports of the Israeli army investigation into the incident stated that a soldier had admitted to shooting at the schoolgirls as they were running away from the fence.
In the areas where the fence/wall has been completed, it has devastated Palestinian farming, the main source of livelihood for the Palestinian communities there, and has had a disastrous impact on the lives of Palestinians.
Farmers are only allowed access on foot and only through the specific gate [open two or three times a day] for which they have a permit. They then have to walk from the gate to their land. Tractors are only allowed in exceptional cases, conditional on farmers obtaining a special and additional permit. These restrictions and conditions make it extremely difficult for farmers. Moreover, the Israeli army has tended to grant permits for passage through the agricultural gates only to older farmers. As a result, most families cannot farm their land efficiently or at all as the working conditions are too difficult and elderly family members cannot manage the workload.
BULLETS GREET ANTI-WALL PROTESTERS
In the village of Bil’in alone, where (non-violent) demonstrations have been taking place every Friday for two years, hundreds of demonstrators have been injured. On 8 December 2006, an Amnesty International delegation witnessed Israeli soldiers, who were on the roof of a civilian house in the village, firing in the direction of nearby children who were throwing stones at them. Inside the house a terrified family, including young children, told Amnesty International that the presence of the soldiers on their roof put them in danger.
Most of those injured in demonstrations against the fence/wall have been struck by plastic-coated metal bullets, often fired at close range. Beatings with rifle butts have also been common. Matan Cohen, a 17-year-old Israeli, was shot in the eye with a plastic-coated metal bullet by Israeli Border Police as he took part in a demonstration against the fence/wall on 24 February 2006 in the West Bank village of Beit Sira.
At times, the Israeli army has used live ammunition against demonstrators near the fence/wall. A 22-year-old Israeli demonstrator, Gil Na’amati, was shot and seriously injured in the leg by several bullets fired by Israeli forces near the fence/wall in the village of Mas’ha on 26 December 2003. He said:
“I was in the military and am familiar with the rules of engagement. What I did was not even close to something that I think would warrant opening fire… It’s unbelievable.”
ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS: THE REASON FOR THE RESTRICTIONS
Some 135 officially recognized Israeli settlements and 100 settlement “outposts” have been established in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in violation of international law and in defiance of UN resolutions, since the beginning of Israel’s occupation in 1967. Israeli settlers number about 450,000, of whom some 200,000 live in settlements in and around East Jerusalem.
Settlements are for Jews only, who are entitled to Israeli nationality and to the protection of Israeli law even if they are migrants from other countries who go to live in settlements in the OPT without ever having resided in the State of Israel.
Palestinians, who are subject to military law rather than Israeli civilian law, are not allowed to enter or approach Israeli settlements or to use settlers’ roads, and are thus restricted in their movement. Settlers also receive substantial financial and other benefits, and are allowed to exploit land and natural resources that belong to the Palestinian population.
IMPUNITY FOR SETTLERS
Palestinians accused of attacks against Israeli settlers are tried by Israeli military courts and receive harsh punishments. In some cases they are assassinated by Israeli forces. By contrast, Israeli settlers who have assaulted Palestinians and destroyed their property are almost never prosecuted, and on the rare occasions when they have been, have not received punishments commensurate with the gravity of the offence.
Muhammad Shehadah ‘Atiya Salah, his brother Salah and young children were attacked by Israeli settlers near the settlement “outpost” Neve Daniel North, near the village of al-Khader in the Bethlehem area on 9 February 2007. Muhammad Salah told the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem that the settlers uprooted the plants which he and his brother had just planted, repeatedly threw stones at them and punched him in the face. There is no indication that the Israeli settlers responsible for the attack have been brought to justice.
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS UNDER ATTACK
Human rights defenders have also been present in the town of Hebron, where Palestinians have been repeatedly attacked in their homes by Israeli settlers. In response, Israeli settlers have stepped up their violent campaign against international and, in some cases, Israeli human rights activists in a bid to discourage their presence and deprive local Palestinians of even this limited form of protection and solidarity. The settlers have focused their attacks and threats on people filming or photographing their attacks, and have stolen their cameras and video recorders.
In September and October 2004 Israeli settlers, wearing hoods and armed with stones, wooden clubs and metal chains, assaulted two US members of the CPT, an Italian member of the peace organization Operation Dove and Amnesty International delegates as they escorted Palestinian children to their primary school near Tuwani village in the South Hebron Hills.
ECONOMY DESTROYED, GROWING POVERTY
“Since February 2006 new population groups have become food insecure (or more food insecure) in addition to the pre-existing food insecure groups…Several factors account for this deterioration in economic conditions, which has led, among other aspects, to the rise in the sense of food insecurity on the part of the population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The most significant factor is the system of movement restrictions imposed by Israel on the free movement of Palestinian goods and labour.”
–World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), February 2007
Other factors have negatively affected the Palestinian economy since the victory of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in January 2006 elections. As a result, some 150,000 public sector employees received no salaries or partial salaries for several months. However, the stringent movement restrictions remain the main obstacle to economic activity. Poverty and food insecurity are affecting a growing number of Palestinians. Malnutrition, anaemia, stunted growth, vitamin deficiency and other health problems have increased.
In the Gaza Strip, from where Israeli settlements were removed in 2005, closures imposed by
Israeli forces continue to keep the 1.5 million inhabitants cut off from other parts of the OPT and from the rest of the world for much of the time. Despite the redeployment of its troops in
2005, the Israeli army retains effective control over the Gaza Strip. All access points for people and goods into and out of the Gaza Strip, as well as Gaza’s airspace and territorial waters, remain under the control of Israeli forces.
In the past year the Israeli army has kept the Rafah pedestrian crossing to Egypt – the only passage for the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip to the outside world – closed most of the time. This stranglehold on the Gaza Strip has resulted in increased economic paralysis and poverty.
Forced evictions and house demolitions
Forced evictions have been recognized by the UN Commission on Human Rights as a violation of a range of human rights, including the right to adequate housing. Hundreds of Palestinian homes and properties have been destroyed by Israeli forces in the West Bank on the grounds that they were built without authorization. The Israeli authorities used old Ottoman and Jordanian laws pre-dating the Israeli occupation of the West Bank to declare that land not officially registered or cultivated was state land – some 60 per cent of the West Bank. The authorities then used a discriminatory administrative process to prohibit Palestinians from building while allowing Israeli settlers to build and expand houses and commercial buildings in the West Bank, in violation of international law.
RECOMMENDATIONS
To the Israeli government:
• End the regime of closures in its current form, as well as other forms of restrictions on freedom of movement of people and goods, that result in collective punishment.
• Stop the construction of the fence/wall inside the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Sections of the fence/wall already constructed that violate these rights should be removed. Israel only has the right to build a barrier between Israel and the West Bank.
• Immediately stop construction or expansion of Israeli settlements and related infrastructure in the OPT as a first step to removing Israeli civilians living in such settlements in the OPT.
• Stop immediately the destruction of houses, land, and other properties without absolute military necessity as prescribed by international humanitarian law.
• Cancel all demolition orders of unlicensed houses in the OPT. Israel should ensure reparation to those whose houses were unlawfully destroyed.
• Ensure that Israeli forces protect Palestinian civilians and their property against violence by Israeli settlers.
• Ensure proper investigation of alleged violations by Israeli forces, and bring to justice anyone found responsible in fair trials.
To the international community:
• Deploy an effective international human rights monitoring mechanism across Israel and the OPT.
• Ensure accountability of both parties, in compliance with their obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law.
• Ensure that any peace process includes concrete provisions that address fundamental human rights issues at the heart of the conflict.
• Ensure that Israel as the occupying power fulfils its obligation to provide for the protection and welfare of the Palestinian population, and refrain from imposing sanctions that negatively affect the provision of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population. The international community and donor states providing humanitarian assistance to the PA, notably the USA and EU countries, must take immediate steps to minimize the adverse impact on human rights of their suspension of funding.
Today, Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at 8:00am hundreds of police people, accompanied by a chopper and two bulldozers, came the village of Tarabin al-Sanaa, located by the affluent Jewish town of Omer in the Israeli Negev. They demolished two homes. 16 children are homeless today, one two months old, another nine months. When I asked their father where they will stay tonight, he said – “I will build a tent, what can I do?”
When they entered the home, the 17-year-old son was still asleep. Thirty policemen pounced on him. He responded with fright and fought back. So they arrested him. Three other youngsters were arrested today.
Tarabin al-Sana is not new to these police invasions. Omer, their neighbor, has wanted them relocated so that they would not have to deal with poor neighbors, and because the real estate value of the land, if cleaned of Bedouins and added to Omer would be very high. Badash, the mayor of the town has been trying to make this happen for many years now. He has managed to enlarge the municipality’s area to include the village, of course with no intention of giving them the municipal services of trash removal, school, and the use of Omer’s medical facility. Then he convinced the authorities to allocate a new area for the village. The government did this, but still continued with their warped way of dealing with the Bedouin community. They choose a leader of sorts, “bought” him, and he had to convince the rest of the community to relocate. It worked only so far. Half he managed to convince to sign and relocate. The other half requested to see the contract he signed with the government. Until today the government is refusing to allow the people of the village to see this contract. The government is also refusing to negotiate with the elected leader of the village (in open democratic elections the village people initiated, and requested human rights lawyers to oversee).
Now the government is doing what the government seems to do all to often when they find themselves in a bind: demolish Bedouin homes.
For more information, contact:
The Regional Council for the Unrecognized Villages in the Negev
08-6283043
A “March of Return” to the Destroyed Villages of Latroun by the ISM Media Crew
On Saturday, June 16, Palestinians from the destroyed villages of Latroun will once again return to their land. They will be joined by Israeli and International solidarity activists to commemorate the destruction of their homes and confiscation of their land 40 years ago by the Israeli government, and the murder of nearly 40 Palestinians by Israeli occupation forces.
Immediately after the breakout of the Arab-Israeli war of June 1967, and the by the Israeli army of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai, and Golan Heights, the occupying Israeli soldiers forcible evacuated the villagers of these three villages to Ramallah city, forbidding them from returning home. Following the mass expulsion, Israeli forces commenced work on demolishing every house. Twenty Palestinians, too sick or old to evacuate were killed in this process. Days later, when Palestinians attempted to return to their villages, almost 20 more Palestinians were murdered.
“I was 6 years old when they came to destroy my village,” said Ishmael, a leader of the Yallo Committee. “My family and I slept under the trees in Beitunya. We didn’t have time to bring anything from our houses, not even shoes. We lost everything!”
Members of the Yallo Committee explained that over the ruins of the three destroyed villages of Latroun, Israel has established cow fields over Yallo, a Canada-sponsored park (Canada Park) over Immwas, and the Israeli settlement of Mevo Horon over Beit Nuba. Mevo Haron is now diverting all of the natural spring water to the illegal settlement. In addition, Road 1, connecting Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, cuts Immwas into two pieces.
Members of the Yallo Committee also explained that for there to be any political solution, the main demand of the Committee is to return to their villages. Ahmad, from the Committee, said,”I was 8 years old, fleeing with my father at 6 in the morning to Beitunya. When we returned to our homes in Beit Nuba, they were destroyed. So we had to return to Beitunya, where we are still waiting, suffering, until we can return home. International law says that we have a right to return.”
Ishmale agreed, saying, “The road to peace passes through our three villages!”
June 16th will mark the Committee’s 5th march to the destroyed villages of Latroun. On June 5, 1995, the Yallo Committee organized the “March of Return” in Beitunya. Their intention was to draw attention to the case of 10,000 villagers expelled from Immwas, Yallo and Beit Nuba. The march was halted by the Israeli army after the protesters had walked 200 metres.
The march is being organized with the Israeli group Zehorot who has joined the Yallo Committee in previous marches. The Committee has also invited Palestinian groups from Ramallah, al Bireh, Jerusalem, and other Israeli and International peace groups. Palestinians will be joined by solidarity activists at 1:30pm at the Beitunya Secondary Boy’s School. At 2:00pm, buses and cars will transport the demonstrators to Beit Liqya. At 3:00, the demonstration will make its way to the Wall, where Palestinians, accompanied by Israeli and International solidarity representatives, will make speeches about the 40th anniversary of their destroyed villages.
For more info, contact:
ISM Media Office, 0599-943-157, 0542-103-657
BACKGROUND
The Latroun Villages include those of Immwas, Yallo, and Beit Nuba.
The region is considered an important historical and administrative center throughout the course of history since the Roman, Byzantine, Rushed, Ommiad, Abbesite, Crusaders, Ayyoubi, Mamlouki, and Turkish periods. These villages acquired special significance during these ages and at the time of the Arab-Israeli conflict, for a variety of reasons, including:
* Its strategic position in the central parts of the country linking the coastal and mountainous regions with each other
* Constituting the first defense line against Jerusalem and thus considering these villages the gate of western Jerusalem
* Overlooking the coastal region while its hills form the beginning of Jerusalem’s mountainous slopes
* The abundance of springs and ground water resources in the region, having attracted all invaders to conquer the region
* All the occupying powers who have invaded Palestine during the course of history have left their imprints on these villages consequently effecting a religious, archaeological, and constructive pattern
Location
The Latroun villages of Immwas, Yallo, and Beit Nuba are located some 28 kilometers south east of Jaffa City, about 25 km northwest of Jerusalem and 30 km south of Ramallah. They occupy an important strategic position overlooking the highways of Jerusalem, Jaffa, Ramallah, and Gaza.
In the wake of demolishing these villages by Israel after the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the Jewish state initiated the construction of a highway linking Jerusalem with Tel Aviv, and passing through the midst of Immwas Land.
The total area of the Latroun villages is estimated at over 50,000 dunums.
According to pre-1967 census, the population of the three villages at the time of their destruction combined at 10,000 persons. Nowadays, the last figures released exceeded 30,000 persons spread out over Jordan, Ramallah, Beitunya, and Jerusalem.
Legal Status
The Israeli occupation authority issued a military order (serial no. 97) on September 9, 1967, stating the Latroun villages were considered a “closed military zone.”
However, these villages were withing the conquered territories by Israel in the 1967 war and should therefore be covered by UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, calling upon Israel to withdraw from all Occupied Territories.
Greta Berlin, 66 years old, is a businesswoman from Los Angeles, CA. She is the mother of two Palestinian-American children and has been to the occupied territories twice in the past four years with the International Solidarity Movement. She is also a member of Women in Black Los Angeles.
She is one of many other people, who have organized an unusual project, sailing a boat to Gaza. They intend to challenge Israel’s claim that they no longer occupy Gaza. Talking to her, she explains why she and the other courageous people are going.
Silvia: Your mission states,” We tried to enter Palestine by ground. We tried to enter by air. Now we are going to go by sea.”1 This is an exceptional attempt. Why Gaza in particular? And why go by boat in one of the most patrolled places in the world?
Greta Berlin: Israel says that Gaza is no longer occupied. Well, if that’s true, then we have every right to visit. The truth is that Israel controls every entrance into Gaza, and the population is completely isolated from the rest of the world. Internationals can no longer go through the border with Egypt, and, of course, the Eretz border with Israel is closed to almost everyone.
So, 50 to 80 of us, men and women, will begin our journey in Cyprus toward the end of this summer. Many of us are over 50, and we come from all over the world Palestinians, Israelis, Australians, Greeks, Americans, English, Spanish, Italians, just to name a few we will embark on a boat called FREE GAZA. One of the passengers, Hedy Epstein, is a holocaust survivor, and two or three Palestinians are Nakba survivors.
Many of us have also been stopped from entering the occupied territories, because we have gone before to non-violently bear witness to what Israel does to the Palestinians.
Silvia Cattori: This departure coincides with the time The Exodus left Marseille for Palestine sixty years ago on July 27, 1947. It had 4500 Jewish refugees on board. Is your trip meant to coincide with that departure in l947?
Greta Berlin: It’s merely a coincidence. The reason we’re leaving in the summer of 2007 is because it’s the second anniversary of Israel’s ‘alleged withdrawal’ from Gaza. Since then, Gaza is ever more besieged, and the people are living in much worse conditions. We intend to draw the attention of the world to the terrible lack of human and civil rights for the Palestinians.
Silvia Cattori: To enter the waters of Gaza is not going to be so simple. Do you really believe the Israeli navy will let you in?
Greta Berlin: Israel has no right to prevent us from going. So we’re going. International law says that we have the right to visit Gaza. Remember, in July 2005, when Israel told the entire world that Gaza was no longer occupied? If it’s no longer occupied, why shouldn’t we go?
Let the Israeli authorities prove that it’s no longer occupied by allowing us to enter. This voyage is an attempt to challenge Israel’s own words. We’ve been invited by many NGO’s to come and visit their facilities and clinics. Why should Israel have the right to deny us those visits?
Let me repeat. We must do everything we can to bring to the world’s attention to the fact that Israel’s military blockade is causing the death of the people of Gaza. We clearly know this trip will be difficult, but we’re determined. We can either complain about the inertia of the international community, or we can do something to make them sit up and pay attention. If those of us who have already seen the gravity of the situation do nothing about it, then what kind of credibility will we have with the occupied Palestinians?
We’ve planned this trip for a long time, carefully thinking out the best way to show our support. We discussed the possibility of going to support of the right of return for the Palestinians of 1948. Should our journey be a statement about the 60 years of occupation? But we decided it’s of utmost importance that we challenge Israel’s claim that Gaza is no longer occupied, that its people are free.
According to international law, the waters of Gaza for all 40 kilometers of its coast belong to the Palestinians, and Israel has no right to control those waters. Even the Oslo agreements state that the coast of Gaza belongs to the people who live there.
Silvia Cattori: What do you want to prove?
Greta Berlin: We want to prove that Israel and the United States are starving the people of Gaza for democratically electing Hamas. We’re hoping to call on the conscience of the world, “Wake up. You can’t turn away from the crimes of Israel. You can’t close your eyes any longer to the slow-motion genocide of the Palestinians
It’s important to show that Israel has lied; Gaza has never been free. Israeli warships still fire on the fishermen, killing many of them over the past two years. What did these men ever do except fish for their families? What kind of evil would make Israel fire on men who had the right to fish in their own waters?
Silvia Cattori: Do you seriously believe that you can face the military might of Israel?
Greta Berlin: We’re going to try. Our mission is to go to Gaza. Of course, we assume that we’ll be stopped. However, we’re going to insist that we have the legal and moral right to go. And, we have enough media on board to tell the story of what will happen; so let them try to stop us. They’ll report that Israel’s ‘freedom for Gaza’ is a complete hoax, The territory is still occupied and its people terrorized every day.
Silvia Cattori: Is your mission more for political reasons then?
Greta Berlin: Yes. Gaza has the right to be free. Our objective is not to take food or medicine, although we are going to have both on board. Like any people, the people of Gaza want to be able to travel, to trade, to work in peace, and to have the right to control their own destinies. They should have the right to fly out of their airport that Israel destroyed five years ago, and they should have the right to fish in their sea.
Of course, the humanitarian catastrophe is important, but it’s vitally important for the people to be free. The international community must step up and help them reestablish the internal structures to build their society. But out mission is to put Israel, the United States, the EU on notice that they bear responsibility for the welfare of 1.4 million people.
Silvia Cattori: This is a great project that you are all launching.
Greta Berlin: The Palestinians have never received anything with all these ‘so-called’ peace plans. Every international effort has failed. Part of our desire is to counter the misinformation that has been out there for almost 60 years in favor of Israel instead of the true story of the Palestinian’s dispossession.
The world can’t wait any longer for Israel to decide when to come to the peace table.
Even the NGO’s aren’t able to tell the true story for fear of losing international support. More than 65 UN resolutions have tried to bring Israel to account; yet the US has vetoed these resolutions every time. For 60 years the Palestinians have waited for justice. How much longer must they pay the price for what Europe did to the Jews? How much longer will the international community turn away and say, “We didn’t see, we didn’t know.”
Silvia Cattori: Do you hope that other boats and other captains will join you?
Greta Berlin: Any person who has a boat, anyone who wants to join our breaking the siege is welcome. The more boats that join us, the better our chances are that we will be heard.
Silvia Cattori: Don’t you all need a certain amount of courage to launch such a project?
Greta Berlin: I think that if Hedy Epstein at 82 and Mary Hughes at 73 and so many others in their 70s and 80s can make this trip, so can I. I don’t think any of us think we are brave; I think we are determined to have the voices of the Palestinians heard, and if we can help, we have to. We can’t turn away as Israel bombs women and children every day.
Silvia Cattori: Why do you care so much for the plight of the Palestinians?
Greta Berlin: When I lived in Chicago, Illinois I married a Palestinian refugee from l948. That’s when I began to learn the truth about Israel’s ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians in order to establish a Jewish state. As I became more involved in the 60s and 70s, a group called the Jewish Defence League threatened by two small children, saying they would kill them if we continued to work for justice for the Palestinians
For almost 20 years I left the struggle, raising the children and working on my career. I wasn’t going to jeopardize their safety for a cause I supported.
In 1997, with my children grown and gone, I started to write letters and advocate again. I couldn’t believe that almost 20 years had passed, and the situation for the Palestinians was worse by the day. On September 29, 2000, Mohammed Al Dura, a little 12-year-old boy in Gaza was murdered by an Israeli sniper. Someone just happened to catch the killing on video. I was appalled and returned.
When Rachel Corrie was crushed to death in March, 2003 and Tom Hurndall was shot through the head several days later; both human rights workers with the International Solidarity Movement in Gaza, I made a commitment to go to the occupied territories to see for myself what Israel was doing to a people it occupies.
Silvia Cattori: Isn’t the ISM considered to be a terrorist organization by Israel?
Greta Berlin: Actually, no. Those of us who have volunteered for the ISM are peaceful and believe in nonviolently demonstrating against the occupation. The only terrorism that I witnessed in the five months I was there in 2003 and 2005 was the Israeli military violence against us and the illegal settler violence against the Palestinians and those of us who were trying to protect them. I was shot in the leg by a rubber-coated steel bullet while protesting against that dreadful wall Israel is building. And I, like hundreds of peace activists, have had tear gas and sound bombs thrown at me in Bil’in. While escorting Palestinian children to school in Hebron, settler children threw rocks at us, wounding me in the hand and the thigh.
Almost everyone on board this boat has been beaten, shot, or tear-gassed by the Israeli military. Many of us have been arrested for protecting women and children. Israeli authorities know that we aren’t connected in any way to any terrorist organization.
But Israel is terrified that we come back to our countries and tell the truth of what happens to an occupied people. That’s what they really fearthe truth.
We are all committed to going to Gaza. And we are eagerly awaiting the support of all progressive people to join with us2. Even if we don’t land, we will have tried, and we will have told the world the situation. I believe that all of the people on the boat feel the same way. We know what the obstacles are. And this is not the only voyage. We will continue to return as part of a strategy of bringing the truth of Israel’s occupation to the world.
Silvia Cattori: What do you hope to do once you reach Gaza?
Greta Berlin: We’re going fishing. Come, join us, bring your fishing poles.
