From October 14 – November 15, 2005, Palestinian Ayed Morrar and Israeli Jonathan Pollak will be touring the United States speaking about Nonviolent Resistance in Palestine. The tour will visit New York, North Carolina, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and Olympia Washington, Michigan, Minnesota, Florida and Philadelphia. Click here for a complete tour schedule.
Ayed and Jonathan are friends and among the major figures in the Palestinian-led nonviolent struggle against Israel’s military occupation. Ayed, a community leader from the West Bank village of Budrus, and Jonathan, an activist from Tel Aviv, stand for a new vision of Palestinian/Israeli partnership based in human rights for all, regardless of race or religion.
While world leaders praise Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza as a step toward peace, and demand that the Palestinian Authority harshly suppress armed resistance to Israel’s military occupation, activists on the ground like Ayed and Jonathan report that Israel has stepped up its brutal repression of Palestinian and Israeli activists who are struggling nonviolently against the escalating occupation in the West Bank.
Largely unreported by the media, thousands of Palestinians and hundreds of Israelis are waging a major grassroots nonviolent campaign of resistance to the construction of Israel’s Wall. Palestinian farmers, workers, mothers, and students, together with Israeli and international volunteers, are braving teargas, beatings, bullets, arrest, and even death to block the construction of the Wall with their bodies. In 2004 the International Court of Justice ruled that the Wall is a violation of international law because it cuts through the West Bank appropriating Palestinan land and destroying Palestinian villages to make way for further Israeli settlement.
Ayed led his village of Budrus in a victory for nonviolence over the Israeli military in 2003-2004. Through a campaign of 50 protests, the village of Budrus pushed the Wall’s path off village land and to the Green Line. Day after day, Budrus’ men, women and children blocked the destruction of their land and construction of the Wall by marching to the land, despite soldiers’ attempts to stop them, and placing their bodies in front of the bulldozers.
Hundreds of residents were injured during the campaign by clubs, tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. Ayed was jailed for eight days by Israeli authorities, but was eventually released due to international outcry and because his only offense was organizing nonviolent protests. Two of Ayed’s brothers were also arrested for organizing protests, but eventually released.
Budrus’ resistance was supported by activists from ISM and from Israeli groups like the Anarchists Against the Wall. Budrus’ strategy and achievements have served as a model for other Palestinian communities attempting to nonviolently resist Israel’s military occupation and the confiscation of Palestinian land. Ayed continues to work with other communities and organizations to support the development of a broader strategy for Palestinian nonviolent resistance.
Jonathan was one of the first Israelis to begin protesting regularly in the West Bank with Palestinians and internationals against the construction of the Wall in 2002. He is one of the founders of the Israeli group Anarchists Against the Wall which has played a vital role in supporting Palestinians in nonviolent protest over the last two years.
Since 2002 Jonathan has participated in over 200 West Bank protests, and mobilized hundreds of Israelis to join Palestinians in resisting the Wall and the Occupation. As a result, Jonathan has been jailed repeatedly by Israeli authorities. In April 2005 during a quiet protest in the village of Bil’in he was shot in the head from 40 meters by an Israeli soldier with a tear gas canister fired from an M16 rifle. He had internal hemorrhaging and wounds requiring 23 stitches. Jonathan appears frequently in the Israeli media commenting on West Bank protests and nonviolent resistance.
Despite Israeli government efforts to stop them, Ayed, Jonathan and their Palestinian, Israeli and international colleagues remain determined to continue their joint, nonviolent campaign against Israeli occupation and the denial of rights of the Palestinian people.
The national Nonviolent Resistance Speaking Tour is organized by ISM-USA, the US network of support groups of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in Palestine. ISM is a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using nonviolent direct action.
On September 30th the people of the West Bank village of Bil’in attempt to harvest their olives. Their lands are now on the other side of the Apartheid Wall construction site.
Mohamed, 13, runs with the Palestinian flag on a beach near the former Israeli settlement of Neve Dekalim, 12 September 2005. Mohamed said this was the first time he had been to the beach since he was born. Thousands of residents of the Southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis came to the coast which is just some 3 km (2 miles) away. (Photo: Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images)
Request for letter campaign Repression of Human Rights and Land Grab at the Village of Bil’in
The State of Israel is erecting the Separation Wall on Palestinian land out of “security considerations,” while the true objective is to annex land west of the Wall into Israel.
This provocative act is being conducted against the ruling of the International Court of Justice in the Hague, as well as the resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations which accepted the ruling of the Court. This act is being carried out with all the oppressive and violent means at the disposal of the occupying forces – through shooting and killing, serious injury, beating and threats, closures and curfews, and fear and intimidation tactics.
This aggression is currently faced by a growing non-violent opposition to this land grab and denial of Palestinians’ human rights to exist and live freely on their native land.
Israeli and international activists for peace and human rights are expressing their opposition to this act through joint demonstrations and protest campaigns.
Up until now the State of Israel has built 180 Km of the planned 620 km of the Separation Wall, appropriating tens of thousands of acres of private land, uprooting tens of thousands of olive and fruit trees, and destroying the entire fabric of life of hundreds of thousands of people in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The village of Bil’in is a small and peaceful village near Ramallah, whose 1,700 residents gain their livelihood through agriculture and occasional external employment. The Separation Wall is appropriating 50% of the village lands and about 70% of its cultivated area.
The real objective of the Wall’s route in this area, as in others, is the expansion of the massive settlement of Upper Modi’in illit. This settlement has already 35,000 residents, and according to the plans of the Ministry of Housing, will number, in 2020 150,000 people. The expansion of Modi’in Illit is being done at the expense of the seized lands of Bil’in and neighboring villages.
Now, with the world congratulating the Israeli Government on its implementation of the Disengagement Plan and the withdrawal of 7,000 settlers from the Gaza Strip, thousands of housing units continue to be built for new settlers in the West Bank, 3,000 of which are on Bil’in’s lands.
While the army now uses force to prevent the right to demonstrate, we invite everyone to protest against this oppression and against the denial of life and basic human rights of the Palestinian people in general, and of the village of Bil’in in particular.
Please pass on this call for action from the hearts of all freedom-lovers to all your friends, to the Government of Israel,to the Israeli Representatives in your country, to your own governments, to your Members of Congress and Members of Parliament, resound the cry of those who are being silenced. Help us put halt the repression of non-violent popular protest in this struggle to stop the building of the Separation Wall of Hate in Bil’in.
With your help Bil’in will not fall!
Sample letter:
Dear Sir,
Re: The Separation Barrier in the West Bank
More than a year ago, the International Court at The Hague ruled that the construction of the separation barrier on Palestinian lands is in violation of International Law. Later, this ruling was adopted by the UN general assembly. Despite all this, Israel continues to build the separation barrier on Palestinian lands. Reports in the media indicate that under the guise of security, the barrier’s route is annexing about ten percent of the West Bank into Israel, thus frustrating any prospects for a viable Palestinian state and for the end of the conflict in the region.
Undeniably, Israel has the right to defend its citizens against terror. However, this does not allow it to grab Palestinian land and to destroy the basic fabric of life in many villages and towns in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The route of the barrier invades deep into the West Bank in an attempt to encircle almost every settlement possible. Palestinian villages and towns are caught in small enclaves.
Recently, the small village Bil’in has reached the headlines when essentially non-violent demonstrations there were brutally suppressed by Israeli security forces. Palestinians, Israelis and protestors from other countries faced the same reaction from the army: tear gas, rubber-coated bullets and physical violence.
In Bil’in, the barrier confiscates half of the lands of the village, depriving its residents of their livelihood and future. At the same time, the nearby settlement Modi’in Illit continues to expand eastward, on the lands left west of the route.
Ironically, the same barrier devised to bring security is already the cause of clashes, disquiet and violence. If the construction of the barrier continues, the long-term consequences are likely to be more violence and bloodshed.
There are compelling legal, humanitarian and security reasons to challenge the barrier’s current route. There is clear international interest in securing stability and peace in the Middle East. The barrier will clearly achieve the opposite.
I therefore call upon you do whatever you can to stop the construction of the barrier in its present route and to bring about the dismantling of the parts of the barrier already built on Palestinian lands.
Send protest letters to:
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
Fax: 02-6513955
e.mail: pm_eng@it.gov.il
Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres
fax: 03-6954156
e.mail: s_peres@netvision.net.il
Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom
fax: 02-5303704
e.mail: sar@mofa.gov.il
Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz
fax: 03-6976218
e.mail: sar@mod.gov.il
Minister of Justice Tzipi Livni
fax: 02-6287757
e.mail: sar@justice.gov.il
Minister of Internal Security Gideon Ezra
fax: 02-5811551
e.mail: sar@mops.gov.il
Minister of Construction and Housing, Isaac Herzog
fax: 02-5847688
e.mail: sar@moch.gov.il
Israeli war criminals are finding more challenges as they attempt to travel abroad. The International Solidarity Movement encourages all those concerned about human rights to continue pressuring the United Nations against inviting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to to address the U.N. General Assembly’s sixtieth regular session on Thursday.
Meanwhile, folks in Canada are pressing for legal action to be taken against retired Israeli Colonel Zeev Raz when he arrives to speak in Vancouver to speak at Temple Shalom on Saturday, and General Almog, former head of the Israeli army’s Southern Command, was unable to get off his plane at London’s Heathrow airport Monday as a warrent for his arrest over alleged war crimes was issued by an English court the previous day. There’s much that you can do to bring these men to justice for the crimes they’ve committed against Palestinians.
Here’s background on the three cases:
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s speech to the U.N. General Assemble on Sept. 15
This comes from Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition:
On Thursday, September 15, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the man responsible for the massacres of thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese, will speak before the United Nations General Assembly as part of the “World Summit.” On the twenty-third anniversary of the killing of thousands of Palestinian refugees at Sabra and Shatila camps in Lebanon under Sharon’s watch, the war criminal Ariel Sharon will speak as an honored guest at the United Nations in New York City. JOIN US to express our outrage at Sharon’s presence in New York City before the United Nations, a body whose resolutions he has repeatedly flouted and ignored!
UN Resolution 194 guarantees the right to return to all Palestinian refugees. While Sharon speaks before the UN, he refuses to honor and implement UN Resolution 194 or countless additional resolutions denouncing Zionist occupation of Palestine and requiring the recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people. On the contrary, he has continued his decades-long campaign of brutality against the Palestinian Arab people, dedicated to eradicating their very existence. From Qibya in 1952 to Sabra and Shatila in 1982 to Jenin in 2002, Ariel Sharon is a butcher and a war criminal who should be on trial at the Hague, not speaking before the General Assembly of the United Nations.
Join Al-Awda New York on THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM to declare that SHARON IS NOT WELCOME HERE and to demand the UN immediately act to implement Resolution 194, the RIGHT TO RETURN OF ALL PALESTINIAN REFUGEES TO THEIR ORIGINAL HOMES AND PROPERTIES!
Organizational endorsements and involvement are welcome! Please email protestsharon@al-awdany.org to endorse or for more information!
Partial list of endorsers (list in formation): NY Committee to Defend Palestine, NJ Solidarity – Activists for the Liberation of Palestine, NYC Jericho Movement, Troops Out Now Coalition, New York City Labor Against the War, Coalition to Free the Angola 3, ANSWER NY, NYC Free Mumia Coalition, Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago
Please email your endorsements to: opposesharon@yahoo.com
It has came to our attention that Retired Israeli Colonel Zeev Raz, who led the illegal Israeli aggression against Iraq in 1981 and destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor, will be in Vancouver to speak at Temple Shalom on September 17, 2005.
Canada and the UN condemned this terrorist raid that endangered the lives of the Iraqi civilian population and encroached on the sovereignty of a UN member state.
We demand that you immediately ask the Canadian courts to issue an arrest warrant against this war criminal, who is being brought to Vancouver to publicly brag about his illegal exploits.
If Canada truly upholds international law and behaves in an even-handed manner, Colonel Raz should be held accountable for his and his government’s illegal actions.
If Canada does not take action immediately, it will show the world that Canada practices hypocrisy and the worst kind of double standards. It will also clearly demonstrate the total pro-Israel bias of your government and its disregard for the human rights and the sanctity of human life in the Arab world.
Canadians intersted in holding this human rights criminal accountable are encouraged to contact Minister of Justice and Attorney General Irwin Cotler; Prime Minister Paul Martin; and Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan.
Minister of Justice and Attorney General Irwin Cotler
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
284 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H8
email: webadmin@justice.gc.ca
Paul Martin Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON Canada K1A 0A2
Phone: (613) 992-4211
Fax: (613) 941-6900
email: pm@pm.gc.ca
Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6, Canada
Telephone: (613) 992-4524
Fax: (613) 943-0044
McLellan.A@parl.gc.ca
Israeli army General Doron Almog escapes arrest in London on Sept. 11
Amnesty International today deplored the failure of the United Kingdom (UK) authorities to arrest Israeli army General Doron Almog when he arrived at London’s Heathrow airport yesterday, describing this as a clear violation of the UK’s obligations under both national and international law. A warrant for the general’s arrest for alleged war crimes had been issued by an English court the previous day.
The organization is now calling on the UK authorities to urge Interpol to circulate the arrest warrant and on other states party to the Geneva Conventions to cooperate with the UK in carrying out the arrest and handing over General Almog to the UK’s court.
General Almog, former head of the Israeli army’s Southern Command, landed at London Heathrow airport on 11 September 2005 on a flight from Tel Aviv. However, he declined to disembark from the aircraft apparently after being informed that he could be arrested. Meanwhile, London’s Metropolitan Police reportedly refused to enter the plane to effect the general’s arrest and then allowed him to depart from the UK for Israel on the same El Al aircraft on which he had arrived.
“The refusal to arrest a person suspected of war crimes is a clear violation both of the UK’s unconditional obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention and under national law,” said Amnesty International, calling for the refusal to execute the arrest warrant to be investigated.
It is difficult to believe that the police would have refused to arrest a person who had arrived in the UK on board an airliner if that person was wanted for drug-trafficking or security offences, simply because they had not passed through UK border controls, if that meant they would otherwise evade arrest.
It is not known whether the information which alerted General Almog that he would be arrested was leaked by the UK authorities or by other sources.
“The leak, whether deliberate or accidental, is a matter of serious concern and should be investigated, as it perverted the course of justice and undermined an investigation into war crimes,” said the organization.
The arrest warrant against General Almog was issued by the Chief London Magistrate on 10 September under the Geneva Conventions Act 1957, on the basis of suspicion of the suspect’s involvement in the destruction by the Israeli army of 59 Palestinian homes in a refugee camp in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on 10 January 2002.
General Almog headed the Israeli army’s Southern Command, an area that includes the Gaza Strip, between December 2000 and July 2003.
The “extensive destruction…of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly” is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention (Article 147) and, as such, a war crime.
The UK is “under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed, such grave breaches, and shall bring such persons, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts” (Article 146). If it does not do so, it must hand such persons over for trial to another state party to the convention that is able and willing to do so. The Fourth Geneva Convention expressly forbids the UK from entering into any agreement with another state absolving itself of this obligation (Article 148).
During the past five years, since the outbreak of the intifada (Palestinian uprising) in September 2000, the Israeli army has destroyed some 4,000 Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories, about half of them in the Gaza Strip, as well as vast areas of cultivated land, commercial properties and public buildings, water and electricity networks, and other public infrastructure. In the vast majority of cases the destruction was not justified by military necessity and was carried out unlawfully and wantonly.
The Israeli authorities have systematically failed to comply with Israel’s obligations under international law to investigate these and other human rights abuses and to bring to justice those responsible.
The UK’s obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention have been given effect in domestic law via the Geneva Conventions Act 1957, which applies to: “Any person, whatever his nationality, who, whether in or outside the United Kingdom, commits, or aids, abets or procures the commission by any other person of, a grave breach of any of the scheduled conventions or the first protocol…”” [Article 1.-(1)].
Each state party to the Fourth Geneva Convention is obliged under Article 1 to “respect and ensure respect for” the Convention and should call upon Israel to open an immediate, thorough, prompt, independent and impartial investigation of the alleged grave breaches and, if there is sufficient admissible evidence, to prosecute. If Israel does not do so, each state party has the power to issue an arrest warrant under Article 146 and, if the suspect enters their territory, has the obligation to execute that arrest warrant.
Background
Since the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada (uprising) in September 2000, the Israeli army has killed more than 3,200 Palestinians, most of them unlawfully and including more than 600 children. In the same period, armed Palestinian groups have killed some 1,000 Israeli, most of them were civilians, including some 120 children, and were deliberately and unlawfully targeted. In addition, the Israeli army has carried out extensive destruction of Palestinian homes, land and other properties throughout the Occupied Territories and has continued to build and expand Israeli settlements (illegal under international law) in the West Bank and to construct a 600km fence/wall through the West Bank, cutting off Palestinian farmers from their land and further restricting the movement of Palestinians between villages.
Amnesty International has investigated a wide range of human rights abuses committed by both the Israeli and the Palestinian sides and has continued to call for all those responsible for human rights abuses, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, to be brought to justice and held accountable for their crimes.
