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Global Day of Action – June 9-10, 2007
The World Says NO to Israeli Occupation!
June 2007 marks the 40-year anniversary of Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan Heights. On June 9-10, 2007, the people of Palestine and people of the world will join together to say NO! to Israeli occupation.
For 40 years Israel has constructed illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land. For 40 years Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians, demolished 12,000 Palestinian homes, arrested 650,000 Palestinians, destroyed more than a million Palestinian olive trees.
Since 2002 the Apartheid Wall built on occupied Palestinian territory aims to encircle the Palestinian population, squeezing Palestinians into truncated Bantustans and cementing Israeli expansionism. The Wall divides farmers from their land, students from their schools, workers from their jobs, and people from their communities. Despite the International Court of Justice ruling it illegal, the Wall now encircles Palestinian towns and cities in the most massive land-grab in 40 years. In its recent war against Lebanon, Israel’s unilateralism and militarism have been exposed to the world. Israel continues to establish “facts on the ground” to maintain strategic control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and to annex land and get rid of the non-Jewish population.
For 40 years of occupation Israel has continued to deny Palestinians in the occupied territories their internationally guaranteed human rights to food, water, education, livelihood, and health care; imposes a system of checkpoints, closures, military fences, sieges and curfews that deny Palestinians freedom of movement within and between their own communities; and, again in violation of the Geneva Conventions, Israel imposes collective punishments on the entire Palestinian population. Mass arrests have included dozens of democratically elected Palestinian parliamentarians and government ministers. Since the year 2000, Israel’s “targeted” killings, often carried out by U.S.-provided F-16 bombers or Hellfire missiles have resulted in more than 337 dead Palestinians; 129 of them were not the “target” at all, and many of those killed were children.
In Jerusalem and inside Israel, Palestinians since 1948 face institutionalized discrimination and are denied equality and their full rights as citizens. And Israel continues to deny Palestinian refugees, who were forcibly exiled from their homeland in the 1947-48 war, their internationally guaranteed right of return.
Thirty years ago, the United Nations recognized, condemned and committed itself to oppose the international crime of apartheid wherever it appeared. Today, 12 years after the end of apartheid in South Africa, Israel continues to practice a system of apartheid. We call on the United Nations once again to join with us to identify, condemn and commit ourselves to opposing these heinous crimes. As we were in the past, we are again determined that the perpetrators of that crime be brought to justice.
Throughout its years of occupation, Israel continues to stand in violation of dozens of international laws and scores of UN resolutions. And the international community bears much of the responsibility for those violations. Led by the United States, many governments around the world have actively collaborated in providing support for Israel’s occupation and its denial of Palestinian rights. Others have stood mute, or spoken too quietly, failing to mobilize a serious global challenge to Israel’s global violations.
We are building nonviolent global campaigns of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions, and we will work on a wide range of educational and cultural campaigns, all culminating in a: Global Day of Action on June 9-10, 2007,
held under the banner, “The World Says No to Israeli Occupation.”
People across the globe will come together on those days to demand an end to occupation and the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination and the right to establish an independent, sovereign Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem. We will insist that our own governments stop providing military, economic, diplomatic and corporate support for Israel’s illegal occupation, and instead create new foreign policies that will support an end to occupation, equal rights for all, and a comprehensive, just and lasting peace
Join with us as THE WORLD SAYS ‘NO’ TO ISRAELI OCCUPATION!
Endorse the call with a mail to ICNPcall@gmail.com
1.If you plan actions, please send the following details to ICNPcall@gmail.com:
Country:
City and Location:
Time:
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Organizers:
Supporters:
Contact details (to be published):
2. If you have prepared any activist and info material (posters, stickers, leaflets etc.) that want to share with others so that they can adjust them to their local circumstances, please send them to ICNPcall@gmail.com. We will prepare a selection of material that we will publish and disseminate.
Setting Sail to Break the Siege of Gaza from Free Gaza, 6 May 2007
This summer – forty years after the Israeli seizure and occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip – international, Palestinian and Israeli civilians will sail to Gaza to challenge Israeli control and isolation of the 1.4 million Palestinians who live there. The project is intended to awaken the conscience of the nations of the world, who have turned their backs on a people whose human rights, welfare and very existence are being sacrificed to political expediency.
Israel says Gaza is no longer occupied, yet it denies Palestinians access to jobs, travel, visitors, commerce, education, health and medical care. Its military has turned the Gaza Strip into an open-air prison controlled by land, sea and air. As a result of draconian restrictions on access to the outside world, Palestinians live on the brink of humanitarian catastrophe. After 40 years of brutal Israeli occupation, it is time for Gaza to be free.
We choose to no longer wait for the United Nations to enforce its resolutions, for the world to do its humanitarian duty, or for Israel to respect human rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Fourth Geneva Convention. We choose to act upon those rights as free people, and declare our solidarity with the Palestinian people.
• We will not stand by while Israel besieges Gaza and denies Palestinians control over their own borders.
• We will not accept that the 1.4 million people of Gaza are trapped and starved, surrounded by 27-foot walls.
• We will not stand by as these civilians are daily terrorized by bombings, incursions, and abductions by Israeli armed forces.
We will not wait for Israel to allow Gaza to be free. We therefore choose to sail to this beleaguered territory and challenge Israel for imprisoning Palestinians, while pretending to the world that they are free. We choose nonviolent civil resistance against the unjust policies of occupation in order to show that everyone can participate in resisting injustice.
We therefore ask for your support and participation in this expression of caring and solidarity by joining us or by donating to this trip.
For online donations, or to send checks or wire transfers, click HERE And click on the SPONSOR A CHILD page
Write BREAKTHESIEGE on your donation. It will be held for the boat action: The Free Gaza Movement
Military inspector to residents in Al Hadidiya: “The bulldozers are coming!” by the ISM Media Crew, 6 May 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Photo: IWPS
This afternoon, Sunday May 6, Palestinians in Al Hadidiya received three threats. First, an officer from the nearby settlement of Ro’i entered the village. According to Fathy, a resident of the area, the settler threatened the Palestinians and said they must leave. Shortly after this, the army arrived. “Why have you not left yet? It is time for you to go,” one officer said, according to Fathy. “These are our homes. We are not going anywhere,” the Palestinians replied. Then, at around 7pm, the military housing inspector entered the village. Fathy said that after the visit it was clear that the bulldozers would come in the next day or two.
“We need internationals to come with their cameras to document this!” Fathy exclaimed.
At least four international solidarity activists have heeded the call and will be present to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian residents of Al Hadidiya to resist and document the home demolitions.
The residents of Al Hadidya have been awaiting army action since April 21st when a court ruling came into effect ordering them to leave and for the demolition of their homes. Al Hadidya is a collection of Bedouin Camps in an isolated area of countryside, deemed a military area by Israeli occupying forces, close to the illegal Israeli colony of Ro’i. Palestinians, Israelis, and international solidarity activists were maintaining a presence in the area to resist the demolitions.
When internationals arrived in Al Hadidya two weeks ago, many of the villagers were in the process of moving their tents to an area three kilometres away. The new camp is situated next to a fenced off settler water pumping station but Palestinians are forced to travel to Ein al Shibli by tractor to fetch water. The new camp is a further 3km away across rough terrain from this water supply, meaning an addional hours journey by tractor a day for some families.
Those families who have been forced to move are afraid that the army will issue them with another demolition order. Residents say that there is now nowhere else to go and that they will be forced out of the area if this happens.
Several families have chosen to stay in their homes despite the danger of demolition. One local farmer has said that he will not move and that even if they demolish his home he will rebuild again on the same spot. Most farmers in the area have had their homes demolished two or three times since in the last five years.
One resident, describing the previous time the Israeli military had come to demolish his house said ‘they came with ten vehicles, fifty soldiers and bulldozers to demolish my tent. During the demolition several of my sheep were run over by military vehicles, when my wife tried to protect them she was assaulted.’
Despite the threat of violence villagers will not give up their land, where many have lived since before 1967, and will stay to resist the demolitions and to rebuild again.
The Israeli policy of house demolitions in the Jordan Valley is intended to ethnically cleanse the region by marginalizing Palestinian access to land and pushing Palestinians out of areas where they can retain Jordan Valley IDs. The number of Jordan Valley permits, only given to permanent residents of the area, has significantly decreased since the Intifada while settler domination of the area has increased. 97% of the valley is either militarised, closed to civilians, or controlled by the settlements.
Video of Al Hadidiya and her residents
For more info, please contact:
Fathy0599-352-266
Omar, 0522-368-311
Angelika (IWPS), 0545-843-952, 0598-105-795
ISM Media Office, 0599-943-157, 0542-103-657
May 2007, Joint report of B’tselem and Hamoked – Center for the Defence of the Individual, Summary
In recent years, Israel has openly admitted that ISA (formerly the General Security Service) interrogators employ “exceptional” interrogation methods and “physical pressure” against Palestinian detainees in situations labeled “ticking bombs”. B’Tselem and HaMoked – Center for the Defence of the Individual have examined these interrogation methods and the frequency with which they are used, as well as other harmful practices. The report’s findings are based on the testimonies of 73 Palestinian residents of the West Bank who were arrested between July 2005 and January 2006 and interrogated by the ISA. Although it is not a representative sample, it does provide a valid indication of the frequency of the reported phenomena.
The Legal Framework
International law absolutely prohibits torture and ill-treatment. States may not derogate from this prohibition even in the harsh circumstances of fighting terrorism. The responsibility, in case of violation, rests not just with the state, but also with the individual abusers who may face prosecution in other countries.
In its ruling from September 1999, the HCJ determined that the ISA did not have legal authority to use “physical means” against interrogees. Pressure and a measure of discomfort are legitimate, according to this judgment, only as a side-effect of the necessities of the interrogation and not as a means for breaking the interrogees’ spirit. However, it was established that ISA agents who abused interrogees in “ticking bomb” situations may avoid prosecution. This ruling implicitly legitimized these severe acts, contrary to international law, which does not acknowledge any exceptions to the prohibition on torture and ill-treatment.
The “Softening Up” of Detainees Prior to Interrogation
The witnesses reported being subjected to beating, painful binding, swearing and humiliation and denial of basic needs at the hands of security forces personnel from the moment of arrest until being transferred to the ISA. About two thirds of the witnesses (49 of 73) reported that they had undergone at least one of these forms of abuse, which are defined by international law as ill-treatment and may reach the level of torture. This research did not examine the question whether this ill-treatment was intended to “soften up” the detainees for the ISA interrogations. It is, however, its practical outcome.
The ISA Interrogation System: Routine Ill-treatment
The ISA interrogation system includes seven key aspects which harm, to varying degrees, the dignity and bodily integrity of the detainees. This injury is intensified considering the combined exercise of these aspects during the interrogation period which, for the witnesses in the sample, lasted an average of 35 days:
1. Isolation from the outside world – prohibition on meetings between detainees and their attorneys or ICRC representatives;
2. The use of the conditions of imprisonment as a means of psychological pressure – holding in solitary confinement and in putrid, stifling cells;
3. The use of conditions of imprisonment as a means for weakening the body – preventing physical activity, sleep disturbance, inadequate food supply;
4. Shackling in the ” shabah ” position – painful binding of the detainee’s hands and feet to a chair;
6. Threats and intimidation – including the threat of physical torture, arrest of family members, etc.;
7. The use of informants, ” ‘asafir ” to extract information – this method is not harmful, as such, but its efficacy largely depends on the ill-treatment of detainees immediately preceding its implementation.
These methods were employed against the vast majority of witnesses included in the sample. These measures are not inevitable side-effects of the necessities of detention and interrogation, but are rather intended to break the spirit of the interrogees. As such, they deviate from the HCJ ruling and constitute, under international law, prohibited ill-treatment. Moreover, under certain circumstances, these measures may amount to torture.
“Special” Interrogation Methods
In addition to routine measures, in some cases, probably those considered “ticking bombs”, ISA interrogators also use “special” methods which mostly involve direct physical violence. The sample witnesses described seven such methods:
1. Sleep deprivation for over 24 hours (15 cases);
2. “Dry” beatings (17 cases);
3. Painful tightening of handcuffs, sometimes while cutting off blood flow (5 cases);
4. Sudden pulling of the body while causing pain in the hand joints which are cuffed to the chair (6 cases);
5. Sudden tilting of the head sideways or backwards (8 cases);
6. The “frog” crouch (forcing the detainees to crouch on tiptoes) accompanied by shoving (3 cases);
7. The “banana” position – bending the back of the interrogee in an arch while he is seated on a backless chair (5 cases).
These measures are defined as torture under international law. Their use is not negligible, even if not routine. The HCJ did rule that ISA interrogators who abused interrogees in “ticking bomb” situations may be exempted from criminal liability, but this only when the ill-treatment was used as a spontaneous response by an individual interrogator to an unexpected occurrence. In practice, all evidence points to the fact that “special” methods are preauthorized and are used according a preset regulations.
Cover up and Whitewashing Mechanisms
The ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian detainees by soldiers and ISA interrogators do not take place in a void, but rather under the auspices of the Israeli law enforcement system.
Despite the fact that since 2001 the State Attorney’s Office received over 500 complaints regarding ill-treatment by ISA interrogators, it has not found cause to order the instigation of a single criminal investigation. The State Attorney’s decisions on this issue are based on the findings of an examination conducted by the “Inspector of Complaints by ISA Interrogees,” who is an ISA agent, answerable to the head of the organization. Even when the findings have shown that ISA interrogators did indeed abuse an interrogee, the State Attorney’s Office has closed the file based on a biased interpretation of the ruling regarding the applicability of the “necessity defense” in the HCJ 1999 judgment.
Most cases of ill-treatment of Palestinians by soldiers are not investigated at all, and few of those that do, culminate in an indictment. In many cases, this is due to various institutional failings such as delays in instigation investigations. Additionally, it may be assumed that without concerted and proactive efforts on the part of the authorities, the chances of detainees submitting complaints regarding injuries they have suffered during their arrest are quite low.
The ISA interrogation system is significantly aided by the HCJ, which serves as a rubber stamp on orders which regulate the isolation of the interogees from the outside world. The HCJ did not accept even one of the hundreds of petitions brought before it against such orders. The HCJ also routinely allows the ISA to conceal from the detainees the very fact that an order against them has been issued as well as the legal proceedings taking place in their case. All this with the purpose of increasing the psychological pressure employed against them.
Recommendations
1. To instruct the ISA to halt immediately and completely the use of all interrogation methods that injure the dignity or physical integrity of interrogees;
2. To initiate legislation strictly prohibiting torture and ill-treatment and preventing the possibility of the “necessity defense” being enjoyed by public employees suspected of such actions;
3. To determine that any complaint filed against ISA interrogators on account of ill-treatment during interrogations will be investigated by an independent body, and prosecute those responsible where the complaint has been sustained;
4. To document ISA interrogations by means of video filming and to open ISA interrogation facilities to objective external review, including review by the UN Special Rapporteur on torture;
5. To ensure, in legislation and in practice, that every detainee receives minimum humane conditions of incarceration, and to abolish the provisions discriminating against “security” detainees in terms of such conditions;
6. To abolish the military order permitting the ISA to prevent meetings between detainees and their attorneys, and to apply the same standards to Palestinian detainees as are established in the Israeli Detentions Law;
7. To bring security forces personnel who abused Palestinian detainees to justice.
These measures are defined as torture under international law. Their use is not negligible, even if not routine. The HCJ did rule that ISA interrogators who abused interrogees in “ticking bomb” situations may be exempted from criminal liability, but this only when the ill-treatment was used as a spontaneous response by an individual interrogator to an unexpected occurrence. In practice, all evidence points to the fact that “special” methods are preauthorized and are used according a preset regulations.
JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel’s Shin Bet security service uses torture in its interrogation of Palestinian prisoners, violating a 1999 court ruling outlawing such practices, two Israeli human rights groups charged in a report Sunday.
The physical abuse includes “beating, painful binding, back bending, body stretching and prolonged sleep deprivation,” according to the report. These methods constitute torture under international law, according to the report by B’Tselem and The Center for the Defense of the Individual.
Israel’s Supreme Court in 1999 outlawed what the Shin Bet called “moderate physical pressure,” such as sleep deprivation, exposure to extreme temperatures and tying up detainees in painful positions.
Despite the ruling, prisoners are shackled to chairs in painful positions for protracted periods of time and subjected to humiliation, swearing and threats by the interrogators, the report said.
“Their purpose is to break the interrogees’ spirit and as such, they contradict the Supreme Court ruling and constitute prohibited ill-treatment under international law,” the report said.
Routinely the prisoners are held in appalling conditions, which include isolation and sensory deprivation.
No criminal investigations have been opened against the Shin Bet even though 500 complaints have been filed since 2001, the groups said.
Israel’s Justice Ministry, which oversees investigations of security services, said in response to the report that the Shin Bet investigations are “performed in accordance with the law.” The report is “fraught with mistakes, groundless claims and inaccuracies,” the ministry said.
If, during detention by the army, prisoners complain that they have been beaten or signs of violence are found on their bodies, the details are transferred to the military police for investigation, the ministry said.
Shin Bet interrogations can provide valuable information about militant activities that prevent further attacks, the ministry said.
The J’abri family- struggling to survive from Sons of Abraham, 27 April 2007
HEBRON– On Friday April 27 2007 around 16:30 a settler in a white jeep was driving on the security road near “Giv’at Ha’avot” not far from Kiryat Arba (Where the police station of the Hebron district is located). The settler was driving on the security road upon which there was a high court decision 10602/02 stating that in routine days the road should be barred to settlers. The mentioned land plot is well known for many years to be owned by the J’abri family. Into this land plot settlers from Hebron invaded several years ago and constructed a staircase passageway ascending to “Giv’at Ha’avot” and also an illegal settlement (one of the unauthorized settlements in the Sasson report) called “Chazon David”.
Although the acknowledgment by the State, the Civil Administration and also the Legal Consultant Office of the Judea and Samaria, in the illegal status of those invasions, and the existing promise to demolish those structures, no action had been taken so far. In addition, in a letter from the Legal Consultant Office of the Judea and Samaria from the 2/07/03, it was determined that the J’abri family, the owners of that property, are entitled to full freedom of movement on their land and in addition the settlers shall be forbidden to use the emergency road during routine times.
At the afore mentioned day a settler came along and halted on the emergency road near the home of the detained Abdul Karim J’abri. The settler, armed with an M-16 rifle, stepped out of his car and began to walk towards Udai J’abri (son of Abdul Karim J’abri) who was collecting grass at that time. The settler assaulted Udai and pushed him to the ground. Udai’s brother Alla, approached the settler and shoved him away in order to distance him from his assaulted brother. The father who was watching all this from a distance of several tens of meters began to walk towards his son and also Sleiman J’abri arrived in order to support Udai and Alla. Sleiman took Udai and Alla J’abri into his home in order to distance them from the settler. At this stage the settler began to shoot at Abdul Karim J’abri. Next the settler shot at Sleiman, all this while several children were standing near the entrance to the house. It should be noted that while this entire shooting event took place none of the Palestinians was armed neither with hot nor cold arms, and neither even as much as raise a stone against the settler. Both father and son did not even approach the settler.
The army forces that heard the shooting arrived at the scene within several minutes followed by the police force. The soldiers tried to force their way into the J’abri’s family house in order to pull out all the inhabitants. During the entry Sleiman pleaded them not to enter lest they frighten the little children. One of the soldiers hit Sleiman and ultimately the soldiers entered the house and pulled Alla out. The same soldier that bit Sleiman was seen later to pass a loaded cartridge to the settler instead of the one he emptied before. The policemen told the father Abdul Karim he had to come along with them, and later on he was told that he was detained at the police station along with his son Alla, in order to file a complaint against the settler. But when already at the police station they were announced that in fact they are both actually arrested. Abdul Karim was next taken for investigation: during it he recognized in there one of the soldiers that arrived towards the end of the event in order to detain Alla. He certainly saw none of the events sequence. It became clear by then that the police had no intention whatsoever to seriously investigate the shooting by the settler, and, in fact, he was not at all detained, and also direct evidence such as the cartridges from the shooting were not collected by the policemen. Later on, Sleiman found and collected two of the cartridges from the shooting of the settler. The detention of the father in fact prevented from him from filing a complaint against the settler. The father and his son had been in arrest since Friday.
It is important to note that this event did not come by surprise: For years the family had suffered from violence and bullying by the Hebron and “Giv’at Ha’avot” settlers. Invasions to their property and causing serious damages are quite familiar to them. The family had previously filed several complaints at the police station however so far those did not result in anything. The family also tells that the settlers had trespassed into their property time upon time and drove on the emergency road with their vehicles, although the High Court ruling and a memorandum from the Legal Consultant Office of the Judea and Samaria. The family had been routinely threatened and assaulted.
Details of the detainees:
Abdul Karim IbrahimAbduk Hak J’abri
I.D. 904613148
Abdul Karim, the family’s father, has 7 sons and 6 daughter His eldest is 24 and the smallest is an year and the half. The family is ill fated: Four of his sons, including the eldest, carry a severe genetic disease and are dwarfs. Therefore, even his eldest son, Annan, cannot share in the support of the family. The father is unemployed and is dependent for several years on the relief provided by humanitarian organizations. The only asset owned by the family is a modest herd and the plot adjacent to their home.
Health Status: A decade ago the father underwent an operation in the spinal column and is limited in exerting physical effort.
Alla Abdul Karim brahim J’abri
I,D. 851900985
Alia is 19 and one of Abdul-Karim’s sons. The family maintains that Alla is somewhat retarded and cannot read nor write and not even count properly. Therefore Alla cannot help with the family and shepherds together with Alla in the pasture. No other clinical problems aside the mental retardation are known.
The family intends to file a complaint at the police by the 30/4/07 on those recent events and to present to the police the cartridges they had found. So far they refrained from file a complaint after seeing what had happened with Abdul Karrim
