At-Tuwani – On Tuesday 4 December at 6.30 am, two bulldozers together with a Border Police vehicle, four District Coordination Office (DCO) vehicles and five Israeli army vehicles arrived to the Palestinian village of al Mufaqarah, and demolished the mosque.
The mosque was already demolished by the Israeli army one year ago, on November 24, 2011. The inhabitants of the village had just finished to rebuild the mosque last October.
The village of al Mufaqarah belongs to Area C, under the military and administrative control of Israel. Every construction must be approved by the Israeli administration. Israel denies Palestinians the right to build on 70% of Area C, which comes out to about 44% of the West Bank, while within the remaining 30% a series of restrictions are applied which eliminate the possibility to obtain a permit.
While Palestinian villages of Area C are suffering an ongoing policy of demolitions, in the nearby outpost of Avigayil, illegal under the Israeli law itself, settlers are working on new buildings. These illegal constructions are tolerated by the army and police, despite repeated reports from international and Israeli activists.
According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833) and Avigayil, are considered illegal also under Israeli law.
Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani in South Hebron Hills since 2004.
A demonstration in solidarity with Gaza Fishermen is planned for Wednesday, 5 December 2012, to be held at Gaza Port at 10am.
In the period between Wednesday, 28 November, and Saturday, 1 December, at least 29 fishermen have been arrested, at least 9 fishing boats have been impounded (including a larger trawling vessel), and one boat has been destroyed. The fishermen’s reports are generally the same: they are fishing within the new 6 mile limit (or even within the former 3 mile limit) when Israeli gunboats approach and start firing at them, often aiming at the motor. They order fishermen to strip down to their undergarments, jump into the water, and swim towards the gunboat, where they are handcuffed and blindfolded, and sometimes beaten. Some are taken to Ashdod or Erez and interrogated. Most are released the same day, although Amar Bakr is still being held at Ashdod. Most of the confiscated boats have belonged to the Bakr family, while the Hessi family has also been attacked.
An announcement was issued by the Hamas government stating that the maritime boundaries had been extended from three to six nautical miles under the terms of the recent ceasefire. International standards set the limit at 12 miles, while the Oslo Accords granted Gaza fishermen 20 miles in 1995. However, this limit was reduced to three miles in January 2009 after the attacks of Operation Cast Lead.
In late January 2009, when fishermen returned to the sea after Operation Cast Lead, they were viciously attacked. Boats were completely destroyed, and many fishermen were shot, with serious injuries. Some were even shot in the back as they attempted to return to the shore. Now, nearly four years later, immediately following a ceasefire, Gaza fishermen are once again under attack. The Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement should not go unnoticed. Violations have occurred nearly every day since the agreement was brokered, with Israeli forces attacking fishermen at sea and farmers at work in the buffer zones. The question is now: who is holding Israel accountable?
More information can be found at the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR). www.pchrgaza.org.
Gaza portKhadr Bakr, a Gaza fisherman, in front of the Gaza portFirshermen Sabry Mahmoud Bakr and Jamal Bakr in front of the Gaza port
2nd December 2012 | Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) repeats its condemnation of Israel’s violations against Palestinian fishermen in the Gaza Strip. PCHR is concerned over the escalation of Israeli attacks directed against fishermen since the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip that was stopped following the cease-fire agreement reached between Palestinian resistance groups and the Israeli occupation forces, under Egyptian and international auspices. Attacks against fishermen escalated despite the Israeli authorities’ announcement of allowing the fishermen to fish up to 6 nautical miles off the Gaza shore in the context of the cease-fire.[1] Since the cease-fire agreement came about, Israeli occupation forces have arrested 29 fishermen, including 14 who were arrested on Saturday, 01 December 2012. Additionally, 9 fishing boats were confiscated and damaged, including 3 boats that were confiscated on Saturday.
On Saturday morning, 01 December 2012, the Israeli naval forces opened fire at Palestinian fishermen and boats in Gaza’s waters while they were fishing about 3 nautical miles off the Gaza shore. As a result, an engine of a fishing boat was damaged. The Israeli naval forces chased 3 boats and arrested 14 fishermen who were on board of the boats.
In his testimony to a PCHR fieldworker, one of the fishermen, Ramez Izzat Baker, 41, from Gaza City, said:
“At 06:30 on Saturday, 01 December 2012, I went fishing with my brother Rami, 34, and 3 of my cousins: Bayan Khamis Baker, 17; Mohammed Khaled Baker, 17; and Omar Mohammed Baker, 22, off the Gaza shore. We started fishing about 3 nautical miles off the shore. At 10:00, an Israeli gunboat approached and chased us ordering us to stop. The Israeli forces started firing heavily at us. Therefore, we stopped fishing for fear of being harmed or our boats getting damaged. They ordered us to take our clothes off, jump into the water and swim towards the gunboat. We did what they ordered us to do. The Israeli forces arrested us (my brother, three cousins and me) and transported us to Ashdod seaport, where we were questioned. At 21:00, we were released, while our boats remained in custody.”
In another incident, an Israeli gunboat attacked 2 fishing boats belonging to Sabri Mohammed Baker, 52, and Eid Mohsen Baker, 23, who are both fishermen and live in Gaza City. The 2 men were fishing approximately 2 nautical miles[2] off the shore when Israeli naval forces opened fire at the boats, damaging the boat that belongs to Eid Baker. The Israeli naval forces ordered the 9 fishermen who were on board of the 2 boats to stop fishing and then arrested them. They took them to Ashdod seaport and interrogated them. The naval forces kept the two boats. At approximately 21:00, 8 fishermen were released while Emad Mohammed Baker, 33, from Gaza remained in custody.
In light of the above, PCHR:
1. Condemns the continued Israeli violations against Palestinian fishermen in the Gaza sea, and calls upon Israel to immediately stop its policy of chasing and arresting Palestinian fishermen, and to allow them to sail and fish freely;
2. Believes that the violations committed against the Palestinian fishermen within the 6 nautical miles limit proves false the Israeli claims of permitting the fishermen to fish freely up to 6 nautical miles from the shore;
3. Calls upon the international community, including the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 on the protection of civilians in times of war, to intervene to immediately stop the Israeli violations against the Palestinian fishermen, and to allow them to sail and fish freely in the Gaza sea.
Communities in the Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills are in grave risk of being entirely expelled from their traditional homelands. They are therefore calling on people of conscience to join them in solidarity with their struggle to remain. The March Freedom Ride will provide people from all over Palestine and abroad with this opportunity.
Please help publicize the ride by circulating the text below through your various networks. Please also invite your friends via the Facebook event notice: http://www.facebook.com/events/529394713738231
Many thanks,
Freedom Bus Team
March Freedom Ride, Occupied Palestine 17 – 27 March 2013
Resisting Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing Campaign in “Area C”
The people of the Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills invite you to join them in their struggle against the colonial conquest of traditional lands.
Over a period of 11 days, students, artists and activists from across Palestine and abroad will join Palestinian farmers and shepherds at risk of forced expulsion from a homeland they have inhabited for generations. In particular the March Freedom Ride will include building and reconstruction work, protective presence activity, guided walks, home-stays, interactive workshops, educational talks and cultural events. Through Playback Theatre, residents of the Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills will also share personal accounts about the realities of life and struggle under settler colonialism, military occupation and state-sanctioned apartheid.
The ride is organized by The Freedom Theatre’s Freedom Bus initiative in partnership with Jordan Valley Solidarity and the South Hebron Hills Popular Committee.
The Freedom Bus, an initiative of The Freedom Theatre, uses interactive theatre and cultural activism to bear witness, raise awareness and build alliances throughout occupied Palestine and beyond. Endorsers of the Freedom Bus include Alice Walker, Angela Davis, John Berger, Judith Butler, Maya Angelou, Mairead Maguire, Mazin Qumsiyeh, Noam Chomsky, Omar Barghouti, Peter Brook and Ramy Essam. Endorsers also include the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), Students for Justice in Palestine, Highlander Research and Education Centre, Janasanskriti and Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed (PTO). A range of other Palestinian and International artists, activists, academics and organizations have endorsed the Freedom Bus.
Audience members share autobiographical accounts and watch as a team of actors and musicians instantly transform these accounts into improvised theatre pieces. Playback Theatre provides opportunity for education, advocacy and community building.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON AREA C, THE JORDAN VALLEY AND SOUTH HEBRON HILLS
Under the Oslo II Accord of 1995, the West Bank was divided into 3 administrative regions know as Area A, B and C. Area C includes 61% of the West Bank and falls under complete Israeli civil and military control.
International law prohibits land appropriation, resource exploitation and population transfer by an occupying power. However since the 1970’s, Israel has confiscated the vast majority of Palestinian land in the Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills (both of which are currently located in Area C). In the Jordan Valley for example, 50% of land has been illegally taken for the exclusive use of 36 settlements and their agriculture. A further 45% of land has been taken for military bases, ‘closed military zones’, and so-called ‘nature reserves.’ In addition, life for Palestinian residents of the South Hebron Hills and Jordan Valley is characterized by home demolitions, confiscation of livestock, restricted access to farming land and daily harassment from settlers and the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). Most communities lack basic services including schools, clinics, electricity, telephone lines, running-water, or a sewage system and infrastructure built to meet these needs is frequently demolished under orders issued by the Israeli Civil Administration. Despite these egregious human rights violations, Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills have exerted their right to exist and survive on their traditional lands. For more information about the Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills, please see:
27 November 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Strip
Photo by Rosa Schiano
Fishermen in Gaza are able to fish six miles from the shore for the first time since 2006 after the ceasefire between Israel and Gaza. Fishermen hope the fishing industry will recover after its almost complete destruction by the siege but say that 6 miles is not deep enough.
Abu Alaa El Amoudi, (A fisherman in the Gaza strip): “Since October 2000 when the Second Intifada began until now the Israeli military do not allow us to enter the sea 3 miles past Gaza beach. Our work was at 3% of our usual capacity and even that was very dangerous. Thank god, the situation now is better than before the war, now we can move to 6 miles but if we go deeper the Israeli military shoots at us. We wish as fishermen in Gaza Strip to work freely.”
Raed Abu Odai (A fisherman in the Gaza strip) : ‘’Six miles is a big improvement but there are still not enough fish. To catch more fish we need to go deeper. Yesterday I went in seven miles and was shot at by the occupation’s navy with live ammunition and a water cannon but thank god no one was hurt.’’
The Israeli forces illegally reduced the area of fishing gradually from 20 nautical miles, which was established under the Oslo Accords, to 10 nautical miles in 2005. In June 2006, IOF imposed a total siege for months, and opened it later permitting fishermen to fish within a 6-nautical-mile limit, which was then reduced to 3 nautical miles in 2007. Israeli forces continue to attack Palestinian fishermen even within the 3 nautical miles since 2009. Fishermen are subjected to shootings, resulting in deaths and injuries, they are often chased, arrested, unnecessarily inspected, humiliated, and their boats and fishing equipment are confiscated, and sometimes drowned or destroyed by the Israeli military
