Category: Press Releases - Page 50 - International Solidarity Movement

Israeli army demolish tent; leave Palestinian schoolchildren at risk of settler attack

16th March 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, South Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestine

By Team Khalil

Palestinians raised a tent to shelter schoolchildren from settler attacks on the morning of the 16th of March, on the outskirts of the village of At-Tuwani in the South Hebron hills. Shortly afterwards, the Israeli military arrived and declared the area to be a Closed Military Zone, chasing away demonstrators and demolishing the tent. They also tried to make several arrests but only managed to arrest one international activist who was released later the same day.

Palestinian children from surrounding villages each day make their way on foot to the school in At-Tuwani, but regularly face attacks from settlers on their journey. An Israeli military accompaniment has been organised for the schoolchildren, but the army are unreliable in their presence and the children are often forced to wait for them to arrive, as it would be unsafe them to walk to and from school without an accompanyiment. The tent was therefore intended by the villagers of At-Tuwani to be a place for the schoolchildren to wait in saftey.

Since the military demolished the tent, the children will continue to be forced to wait in exposed areas, where they are open to attack from the settlers. The international activist who was arrested was transported to Givat Ha’avot settlement in Hebron and was interrogated by police, but was released later that day.

This act of Palestinian resistance follows a recent trend of similar tent actions on Palestinian land in danger of being seized by the Israeli authorities for use in settlement expansion. Bab al Shams was one such protest village – a tent community in East Jerusalem set up by protesters in January and destroyed by the military shortly afterwards.

Tent being assembled by activists on the oustkirts of At-Tuwani

Multiple clashes lead to numerous arrests including school teacher in Hebron City

16th March 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine

By Team Khalil

Oden Nassar, 23, Iyab Abu Alhalawiiu, 16, and Mohamad Alzoghayer, 16, were amoung many arrested these past two days in Hebron city, including Nahil Abi Eishah, a 38 year old teacher working at Qurtaba school, who was arrested after her home was invaded.

School teacher Nahil Abi Eishah is arrested

Eishahs whereabouts and the reason for her arrest are still unknown. Though it is believed she has been targeted because of her activism in solidarity with the hunger strikers which includes her own hunger strike.

Nassar, Alhalawiiu and Alzoghayer were the first to be arrested and new information suggests that at the time of their illegal detainment and transportation for processing, Nassar sustained injuries under military arrest.

Last night, five more young men were arrested in the Bab al-Zawiye area, totalling nine people in Hebron city since the death of university student Mahmoud Tete in the al-Fawwar Camp on Tuesday night.

Video by Youth Against Settlements :

UPDATE – VIDEO – Army arrest two children, one adult during Hebron clashes

15th March 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine

by Team Khalil

Clashes in Hebron continued on Friday 15th March, following the death of 25 year old Mahmoud Adel Tete in the nearby Al Fawar refugee camp three days previously. At around 3pm, one adult male and two boys were detained by soldiers in the Palestinian controlled H1 area, and were forced into the small terminal comprising Checkpoint 56.

The boys are aged around 9 and 11. They were held inside the sealed cabin with several soldiers for half an hour, with observers being denied access, despite repeated attempts made to ensure that the detainees were not being mistreated. All three had their hands zip-tied and the adult was blindfolded.

One of the detained children being taken to the army jeep.

The detainees were eventually removed from the checkpoint into a waiting army jeep. Soldiers stated that they would be taken to the police station. This brings the total number of Hebron citizens arrested in the last three days to eleven, none of whom have yet been released.

During the demonstration today, Israeli forces shot large amounts of teargas and rubber bullets at crowds of Palestinians protesting at the killing of Mahmoud Adel Tete, making repeated invasions into Palestinian controlled H1 area – which under the Oslo accords the Israeli army are not permitted to enter. They also invaded homes to use for further attacks on the resisting Palestinians. Several were wounded, including an international activist shot with a plastic coated steel bullet.

South African educationist denied entry into Palestine

14th March 2013 Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Occupied Palestine

Well-known South African educationist and human rights activist, Dr Salim Vally, was today detained, interrogated and denied entry into Palestine by Israeli security forces when he attempted to enter the country from Jordan.

Dr Vally, director of the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation at the University of Johannesburg, was invited by the German foundation, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), to deliver a series of lectures in the West Bank focusing on the right to education and curriculum development.

He left Amman, Jordan, this morning on his way to Palestine but was stopped at the border and detained for five hours by Israeli border security. During this period he was interrogated, body-searched and humiliated before being ejected back to Jordan.

‘The most painful thing about the whole episode,’ said Vally, ‘was to witness the manner in which Palestinians returning to their homes – many older than my parents – were mistreated, harassed and humiliated by teenagers young enough to be their grandchildren. Even if I had wanted to, I could not prevent memories of the apartheid days overwhelming me with a vengeance.’

Salim said arrangements were being for him to deliver his lectures via video-conferencing from Amman over the next few days. ‘The Israelis do not realise that the spirit of Palestinian solidarity cannot be broken, just as the spirit of Palestinian resistance cannot be broken. Whether they deport us or imprison us, we will persevere. Palestinians call it sumud or steadfastness. It has sustained Palestinian resistance for six decades and it will see Palestinians being liberated from occupation, colonialism, apartheid and Zionist racist brutality. As we in South Africa know very well, no matter what obstacles the oppressors place in the way of the oppressed, they will make us more resolute and strengthen our commitment to make Israel a pariah state like apartheid South Africa was, through a campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS).’ Instead of demoralising him, Salim said, the experience only reminded him of infinitely worse plight that many Palestinians have to endure on a daily basis.

Salim is due to remain in Jordan for the period of his lecture tour, addressing Palestinian audiences from his Jordanian hotel room, and will return home to South Africa next week.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign condemns the deportation of Salim Vally but recognises that this simply reminds us of how Israel continually denies Palestinians freedom of movement, the right to education, the right to dignity and the right to return to their homes.

For more information, contact:
Dr Salim Vally – salimvally1@gmail.com
Tania Kassis Saadeh – +972 2 2982013 / 2982959
Mercia Andrews – 082 368 3429

ISM activist risks jail, pledges not to answer questions if stopped under Terror laws in the UK

11th March | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine

Tom Woodhead, an ISM activist who is currently being deported by Israeli immigration authorities, has pledged not to answer questions if British authorities attempt to misuse the Terrorism Act 2000 when he arrives at the airport in the UK. The British activist, is currently being deported by Israeli authorities after being arrested on the 1st of March by border police at a demonstration against Israel’s illegal colonial occupation of Palestinian land in Kafr Qaddum, a village in the West Bank.

Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act makes it an imprisonable offense in the UK not to provide information to the police if stopped at a port of entry and there is no right to representation by a lawyer. The act may only be used to ask questions with the aim of establishing whether a person is involved in terrorism or the preparation of acts of terrorism. However, two researchers from London based research organisation Corporate Watch were stopped under the act on their return from Palestine and questioned about their journalistic work, the work of the International Solidarity Movement and the international movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions.

The researchers were also questioned about their involvement with Smash EDO, an anti-arms trade campaign. Woodhead has also been involved in the campaign. He was part of a group of activists who broke into the Brighton factory of EDO-MBM Technology and, after barricading themselves inside, proceeded to damage around £200,000 worth of manufacturing equipment. Following a month-long trial in summer 2010, they were cleared of charges of criminal damage after satisfying the jury that they had lawful excuse to cause the damage because they were acting to prevent war crimes being carried out, as equipment manufactured by the company was then being used in the Israeli’s December 2008 to January 2009 shocking attack on the Gaza Strip.

Woodhead, in a statement given from Givon detention centre in Ramle, said that he would risk imprisonment by refusing to give information to the police if they attempt to misuse the act. He plans to say: “I have reasonable grounds to believe you only want to interrogate me about my involvement in political movements such as the International Solidarity Movement and various campaigns against the arms trade. None of these movements has any credible links to terrorism. I therefore believe the use of Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 is a gross misuse of police powers. I intend now to hold my silence in protest against such abuse of power.”