Lawyers Challenge EU and UK over Inaction on Palestine

Lawyers acting for campaigns group War on Want will today send letters to President José Manuel Barroso of the European Commission and UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw challenging them to provide evidence of any action they have taken to curtail human rights abuses against Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation.

One year after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that Israel’s Separation Wall is illegal, the EU and UK have failed to take the action required of them under the Geneva Conventions to ensure Israeli compliance with international humanitarian law. UN Special Rapporteurs have called on the EU to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, under which Israeli exports enjoy preferential access to EU markets, on human rights grounds.

Acting under instruction from War on Want, The Dove & the Dolphin Charity and a number of individuals affected by the Israeli actions, London solicitors Hickman & Rose are formally requesting the European Commission to provide evidence of all written communication with the Israeli authorities (including minutes of meetings and internal memoranda) relating to the Separation Wall since the ICJ ruling of July 2004. A parallel request is being made of the UK government under the Freedom of Information Act.

John Hilary, Director of Campaigns and Policy at War on Want, said: “Israel continues to defy international law with its actions in Palestine, and each new day of the occupation sees more Palestinians condemned to poverty and despair. Yet neither the EU nor the British government have honoured their obligations to the Palestinian people as called for by the International Court of Justice. As it assumes the EU presidency, we call on the British government to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement and bring Israel into line with humanitarian law.”

[International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered its Advisory Opinion that Israel’s Separation Wall is illegal on 9 July 2004; the Opinion is available on the ICJ website: www.icj-cij.org].

[Copies of the letters from Hickman & Rose to the European Commission and UK governments are available by email. Please contact War on Want campaigns officer Nick Dearden at 07932 335464]

[For more details, comment and interviews, contact War on Want press officer John Coventry at 07905 397084. For comment from Hickman & Rose, contact Daniel Machover at 07773 341096].

UN Conference of Civil Society calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions!

Worldwide Activism, The Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign

In their recent session in Paris, July 13, 2005 the UN International Conference of Civil Society for Peace in the Middle East unanimously adopted the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions.

Through the call participating groups recommitted themselves to ending the Occupation of Palestine and to bringing down the Apartheid Wall as a key element in ending Occupation policies of settlements, land grabs and the destruction of farms and houses.

Participants committed to working within a framework that calls for international mobilizations and campaigns to pressure their respective governments to abide by international law and end economic dealings with the Israeli Occupation until the Occupation ends and the Wall is torn down. The ruling of the International Court of Justice was seen as a key tool for these campaigns.

After the reading of the draft Action Plan, Na’eem Jeenah, Spokesman, Palestine Solidarity Committee of South Africa and President of the Johannesburg-based Muslim Youth Movement, said that within the South African context the struggle against apartheid had been based on four pillars. Two concerned internal resistance to apartheid and the international isolation of the Apartheid state. It was those pillars, which were crucial to bringing about an end to the in South Africa.

It had taken 30 years for that call to take root. Palestine and the Palestinian people did not have 30 years. From the Conference onward, it was time to intensify efforts to isolate Apartheid Israel. He highlighted the importance of Palestinian groups to be at the lead of the campaign at the global level.

The resolve of the conference declaration is a yet another step towards the consolidation of the call for the isolation of Apartheid Israel and a clear indication to the UN, governments and international bodies that the people globally are calling the decision makers into their responsibility and are leading the way inside civil society severing ties with Israel on all levels.

Immatin, West Bank under curfew as punishment for non-violent resistance

Military jeeps invaded Immatin early this morning and announced curfew until 6 PM. One of the soldiers told an international volunteer that the area would be opened when work on the wall for today was completed.

However, some of the villagers defied the curfew to perform Friday prayer at the village mosque. Soldiers surrounded the mosque and threw tear gas and sound bombs on its door step. Villagers reported that military jeeps were driving around the village throwing teargas and sound bombs. Residents reported that the army loaded stones into the jeep and threw them toward the houses. These events follow a demonstration against the Wall that took place in the village yesterday in which 300 Palestinians joined by Israeli and international activists non-violently protested the theft of their land for the construction of the Annexation Wall.

Israeli military and border police were scattered throughout the village’s olive groves before the non-violent demonstration left the village and walked toward the location where Israeli bulldozers were uprooting olive trees. Israeli soldiers said the area was a closed military zone (they did not produce a warrant) and immediately began firing sound bombs and tear gas at the non-violent and peaceful demonstration. The tear gas canisters shot from special guns were not shot into the air but were aimed directly at the protestors.

Some Palestinian youth responded by throwing stones at the soldiers. Palestinian medical personnel reported over 31 demonstrators were injured by teargas canisters, rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas. Mahfouz Abu Turk, a Reuters photographer was hit in the head with a rubber bullet and was treated on location by Palestinian medical personnel. Neta Golan, an Israeli activist with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was taken to the Qalqilia Hospital after Israeli soldiers fired a tear gas canister at her from 6 meters away. She was treated for burn wounds and a ruptured muscle in her right thigh and was released.

Three Israeli activists, Jonothan Pollak, Eli Fabrakant and Karil Kiatkovski from `Anarchists against the Wall’ were arrested and taken to the illegal Israeli settlement of Qedumim where they were charged with illegal assembly and entering a closed military zone. They faced a judge today and were released on conditions.

After the demonstration retreated to the village, Israeli soldiers and border police entered the village and surrounded the clinic where injured people were being treated, detaining twenty of them. Women from the village grabbed the detained men away from the army as other residents and activists surrounded them. As more people congregated near the clinic, the military and border police began firing tear gas and rubber bullets inside the village. The military commander also assaulted a non- violent Palestinian protester.

Salfit District Week of Non-violent Resistance

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Where: Salfit District, West Bank
When: Saturday, July 16 – Thursday, July 21, 2005

Residents of the Salfit District join with international and Israeli peace activists to hold a week of non-violent resistance actions from Saturday, July 16 through Thursday, July 21. These actions are organized by the Popular Committee Against the Wall and supported by the International Solidarity Movement and International Womens Peace Service.

Activists will march along the route of the Apartheid Wall to see first-hand the ongoing construction of the Wall and meet with residents who have been severely impacted by the confiscation of land for the Wall. They will also learn about the growing non-violent movement in the region, which has held more than 50 non-violent protests against the Wall during the last year.

The section of the Wall around the illegal Ariel settlement is located approximately 20 km inside the Green Line. It’s slated to confiscate approximately 6,243 acres (24,972 dunums) from the villages of Hares, Kifl Hares, Marda, Iskaka and Salfit Many other villages in the Salfit district, including Mas-ha, Az-Zawiya, Rafat, and Deir Ballut have also lost land due to the construction of the Wall.

  • Sat, July 16 Marchers will gather at Marda at 9:00 a.m. to meet with village residents, then march from Iskaka to Salfit along the route of the Wall
  • Sun, July 17 March from Salfit to Kifl Haris, Deir Istia, Wadi Qana, and Haris
  • Mon, July 18 Visits to villages of Sarta, Biddya, and Mas-ha
  • Tues, July 19 Visit Hani Aamer’s home which has been enclosed by the Wall in Mas’ha, visits to Az Zawiya and Rafat, meet with families who have land confiscated due to Wall construction
  • Wed, July 20 Meeting with the village council, participants in the summer camp, and Women for Life in Az Zawiya, 10-2 p.m.
  • Thurs, July 21 Deir Ballut, march to nearly completed school where construction has been frozen by the Israeli army; visits to Kafr ad Dik and Bruqin.

46 killed, 462 injured, 1249 arrested in three months

Saed Bannoura, IMEMC & Agencies

The Palestinian Ministry of Interior issued a new report on the continuous military violations carried out by the Israeli army in the occupied territories between March 1 and June 30, 2005. In dozens of military invasions and operations carried out by the army in the Palestinian territories, 46 Palestinian residents were killed and 462 were injured. Additionally, the report said, 1,249 Palestinians were arrested during army raids on Palestinian cities, towns, villages and refugee camps.

Israel has also released 900 prisoners after the Sharm Al-Sheikh cease-fire agreement.

Israeli military orders annexed around 33,803 Dumans (approximately 10,000 acres) of farmlands for the Wall, settlements, settlement roads, and military usage. The Israeli army repeatedly invaded Palestinian areas and carried out military operations, especially in the West Bank cities of Hebron, Nablus, Tulkarem and Jenin. Military roadblocks and checkpoints remained closed in most cases, barring the residents from leaving their areas. Dozens of residents, including children, were injured in separate attacks carried out by
extremist settlers in the West Bank.

The most recent attack was carried out by an extremist settler group of the Ramat Yeshai illegal outpost in Hebron. One child and two residents were injured. Also on July 13, settlers attacked and burned a home in Aseera al-Qibliyya village near the West Bank city of Nablus.

The Interior Ministry report also noted that Palestinian resistance fighters fired 434 homemade shells since the Sharm al-Sheikh understanding was reached on March 8, 2005. 197 of the shells landed and exploded in Palestinian areas. Eight residents were killed, 71 injured and 5 homes were damaged.