A restoration project in Burin organized by the youth center.
As some of you may know, I have spent the past half-year in and close to the village of Burin in the Nablus area. Those who have visited this beautiful village know that Burin is situated between two settlement. It is also surrounded by three military camps. I originally came to report on a settler attack that burnt down 400 trees in early June, since then it has been hard to stay away from the special village.
One project that has grown particularly close to my heart is the Burin youth center. The center provides projects that need to be kept alive, not only does the center serve the community it also gives the youth of Burin a sanctuary. A place that is theirs, where they can work, learn, plan communal activities and unite. These activities have an overwhelming importance within community. To bring children and adults together, to feel united and most of all to have and create new happy memories to be taken with everyone in the future.
The youths who run the center have not been able to pay the rent for seven months, and are now in a situation where they urgently need the amount of 5000NIS for the period of June 2010 – January2012, or else they will have to leave the premises. The center up to this point has been completely self-sufficient. The founding member even saved for two years previous to the opening to ensure enough to be succesful.
I am so convinced of the work of this center that I can only urge you to please try to help, or to please spread this wide. Between all of us, it is a small sum, I think, and if we could raise it, we would enable a beautiful place in Palestine to continue to exist.
For more information on how to help, visit this website or for live updates check out the All for Burin Facebook group.
Lydia is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
Photo: Rosa Schiano, Civil Peace Service Gaza (CPSGAZA) – Click here for more images
At 10:55 am, an Israeli naval warship attacked the international observers and Palestinian captain of the Civil Peace Service Gaza (CPSGAZA) boat Oliva, injuring its captain in an apparent attempt to capsize it.
“The Israeli navy passed near us and the fishermen, and started to go around us, creating waves,” said Rosa Schiano, one of the international observers. “The fishermen escaped, but we couldn’t because of a problem with our engine. We couldn’t move, and they went around us very quickly. The Israelis saw that we couldn’t move, and that the captain was trying to fix the engine, but they didn’t stop. We told them, ‘Please stop! Please stop!’ But they didn’t.”
When the warship was two meters away from the Oliva, one of the waves it had created nearly capsized the small boat, filling it with water and causing the Palestinian captain to fall out, injuring his left leg.
“Their intentions were to do something very bad,” said international observer Daniela Riva. “Coming so close to us was very dangerous, and they obviously knew that.”
After more than twenty minutes, the warship retreated, and the Oliva was rescued by a small Palestinian fishing boat, or hasaka, which threw it a line and towed it toward the shore.
Photos are available for free use with attribution to Rosa Schiano, Civil Peace Service Gaza (CPSGAZA): http://bit.ly/CPSGAZAphotos. Additional photos and video will be available upon request: email press@cpsgaza.org.
The incident followed similar attacks on the Oliva during previous missions. Video footage is available: http://bit.ly/CPSGAZAvideos.
Background
Restrictions on the fishing zone are of considerable significance to Palestinian livelihood. Initially 20 nautical miles, it is presently often enforced between 1.5 – 2 nautical miles (PCHR: 2010). The marine ‘buffer zone’ restricts Gazan fishermen from accessing 85% of Gaza’s fishing waters agreed to by Oslo.”
During the Oslo Accords, specifically under the Gaza-Jericho Agreement of 1994, representatives of Palestine agreed to 20 nautical miles for fishing access. In 2002 the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan empowered Catherine Bertini to negotiate with Israel on key issues regarding the humanitarian crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and a 12 nautical mile fishing limit was agreed upon. In June 2006, following the capture of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit near the crossing of Kerem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom), the navy imposed a complete sea blockade for several months. When the complete blockade was finally lifted, Palestinian fishermen found that a 6 nautical mile limit was being enforced. When Hamas gained political control of the Gaza Strip, the limit was reduced to 3 nautical miles. During the massive assault on the Strip in 2008-2009, a complete blockade was again declared. After Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli army began imposing a 1.5 – 2 nautical miles (PCHR: 2010).
The fishing community is often similarly targeted as the farmers in the ‘buffer zone’ and the fishing limit is enforced with comparable aggression, with boats shot at or rammed as near as 2nm to the Gazan coast by Israeli gunboats.
The fishermen have been devastated, directly affecting an estimated 65,000 people and reducing the catch by 90%. The coastal areas are now grossly over-fished and 2/3 of fishermen have left the industry since 2000 (PCHR: 2009). Recent statistics of the General Union of Fishing Workers indicate that the direct losses since the second Intifada in September 2000 were estimated at a million dollars and the indirect losses were estimated at 13.25 million dollars during the same period. The 2009 fishing catch amounted to a total of 1,525 metric tones, only 53 percent of the amount during 2008 (2,845 metric tones) and 41 percent of the amount in 1999 (3,650 metric tones), when the fishermen of Gaza could still fish up to ten nautical miles from the coast. Current figures indicate that during 2010 the decline in the fishing catch continues. This has caused an absurd arrangement to become standard practice. The fisherman sail out not to fish, but to buy fish off of Egyptian boats and then sell this fish in Gaza. According to the Fishermen’s Union, a monthly average of 105 tons of fish has been entering Gaza through the tunnels since the beginning of 2010 (PCHR 2009).
27 December 2011 | Palestine’s Youth – Local Initiative – the Popular Resistance Activists, Gaza – Palestine
Click here for more images
Twenty-three consecutive days of horrendous attacks on the Gaza Strip by the IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) left more than 1500 Palestinians dead and many more injured. Most of the victims were women, children and elderly people.
According to the IOF these attacks were intended to deter the Palestinian resistance. These attacks failed completely, we continue to resist.
Three years have passed since what the Israeli entity called “Operation Cast Lead” began on December 27, 2008. The IOF claimed that they were targeting “Hamas”, but this wasn’t true. Most of the targets were civilians in their own homes.
We, as a Palestinian people, assert that Hamas is an integral part of the national Palestinian liberation movement and that they are not terrorists as the Israeli propaganda depicts them. We think that each political or popular party has the right to resist the occupation with all available means.
Operation Cast Lead left more than 1500 Gazan dead; most of these victims were women, children, and elderly. Three years have passed, justice is still absent.
On the third anniversary of the Israeli war on Gaza, or the “Gaza Massacre”, we call on human rights NGOs and The International Court of Justice to break their shameful silence and take some “practical” steps along with the “usual “condemnations and statements”. The Israeli occupation will not be deterred from violating human rights unless you “act” by force or you use practical methods, not only “talk”.
In its aggression on Gaza, the IOF used internationally forbidden weapons against civilians and in heavily populated areas. For example, white phosphorous was used against civilians in Gaza; it burned many people to death in their homes. The IOF also used white phosphorous against an UNRWA school that had many civilians in it; they were trying to escape from the IOF’s shelling of their homes. Further, the UNRWA headquarter building was also targeted. These are war crimes. International justice must be served equally to all human beings. Therefore, we ask you to boycott the Israeli entity in every way. Economic and cultural boycott are good examples.
27 December 2011 | Besieged Gaza, Occupied Palestine
We, Palestinians of Gaza, 3 years on from the 22-day long massacre in Israel’s operation ‘Cast Lead’, are calling on international civil society to make 2012 the year when solidarity with us in Palestine captures the spark of the revolutions around the Arab world and never looks back. On this anniversary we demand an international liberation movement that eventually leads to just that, liberation for us Palestinians from 63 years of brutal military occupation and ethnic cleansing that pours shame on any organisation or government claiming to endorse universal human rights.
We will never forget the hurt of 3 years ago, the criminal onslaught that we lived through, the blood of over 1400 murdered men, women and hundreds of children running through the streets of Gaza, between the rubble, soaking our beds and etched on our minds. We will never forget. For they are still dead, and thousands more are still maimed.[1]
We will never forget the last 63 years during which our land, homes, olive groves, lemon trees and cherished way of life was taken away from us, while Israeli soldiers held our fathers’ faces in the sands, imprisoned them, or shot them in front of us. We will not forget the sickening cowardice of the international community that has allowed and enabled this ethnic cleansing of our people, subjecting us to Israel’s racist Zionist vision that defines us, the indigenous people of Palestine, as the undesired ‘ethnic group’ for the region.
The US continues to ‘reward’ Israel with 6 billion dollars of tax-payers money while the EU increases its trade and diplomatic relations. For the Israeli apartheid regime this translates as the green light to unleash the 4th most powerful military on us to ‘do its worst’ against our civilian population, of which over half in Gaza are children and over 2 thirds are UN registered refugees.
In recent years, civil society and solidarity movements throughout the world have grown in their support for us, especially in 2011. As the world wakes up, the prospect of life without Israeli occupation and its system of race-based subjugation becomes more than a dream. We demand simply, human rights that anyone else would expect. This year, the first taste of liberation in the Western controlled Arab world arrived in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Many of those who took to the streets moved beyond their fear of being killed or tortured, facing up to the despotic, Western-backed regimes in the name of freedom for their families, communities and compatriots.
We will never forget them too, as we have lived much of our lives beyond this fear, our resilience against Israeli apartheid growing as the solidarity movements around the world grow. No longer under the boot of Western governments we urge the Arab street to do what the Israeli Apartheid Regime fears the most, to unite and build against them, the state that has violated more United Nations resolutions than any other. The siege breaking attempts into Gaza must continue, the second Free Gaza Flotilla exposed again the brutal and merciless edge of Israel’s hermetic siege.
In Europe and America the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS)[2] movement is reaching the mainstream. Huge victories have included campaigns against waste and transport infrastructure firm Veolia who build transport routes on Israeli occupied lands.[3] Inspired and supported by Nobel Prize winner and anti apartheid hero Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the University of Johannesburg ended its collaboration with Ben Gurion University in Israel.[4] Other University campuses are pursuing boycott campaigns and major European Trade Unions have broken ties with Israeli Trade Unions. And a growing number of conscientious artists and singers are refusing to perform in Israel.
All over Israeli internet sites and in government policy are attempts to deter the growing BDS movement,[5] an international strategy that succeeded against a similarly well-armed, Western affiliated apartheid regime in South Africa.
The effect worldwide of the Gaza massacres 3 years ago was a catalyst for a huge rise in worldwide solidarity and action in support of Palestine, just as the South African Sharpeville massacre was for South African blacks in 1960.
Our call this year will accept no compromise. We call upon all Palestine solidarity groups and all international civil society organizations to demand:
An end to the siege that has been imposed on the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a result of their exercise of democratic choice.
The protection of civilian lives and property, as stipulated in International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law such as The Fourth Geneva Convention.
The immediate release of all political prisoners.
That Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip be immediately provided with financial and material support to cope with the immense hardship that they are experiencing
An end to occupation, Apartheid and other war crimes with immediate reparations and compensation for all destruction carried out by the Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza.
For us, the sacrifices for resisting have often meant imprisonment, torture, collective punishment and death. Outside, the risks are lower, but with great possibility. We call on you to Boycott Divest and Sanction, join the many International Trade Unions, Universities, Supermarkets and artists and writers who refuse to entertain Apartheid Israel. Speak out for Palestine, for Gaza, and crucially ACT. There has never been a time when mobilizations are gaining such support. 1994 was the year of South Africa when Apartheid was thrown into the dustbin of history; with your support we can make 2012 the year of free Palestine!
THE TIME IS NOW!
List of signatories:
General Union for Public Services Workers
General Union for Health Services Workers
University Teachers’ Association
Palestinian Congregation for Lawyers
General Union for Petrochemical and Gas Workers
General Union for Agricultural Workers
Union of Women’s Work Committees
Union of Synergies—Women Unit
The One Democratic State Group
Arab Cultural Forum
Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel
Association of Al-Quds Bank for Culture and Info
Palestine Sailing Federation
Palestinian Association for Fishing and Maritime
Palestinian Women Committees
Progressive Students’ Union
Medical Relief Society
The General Society for Rehabilitation
General Union of Palestinian Women
Afaq Jadeeda Cultural Centre for Women and Children
Deir Al-Balah Cultural Centre for Women and Children
Maghazi Cultural Centre for Children
Al-Sahel Centre for Women and Youth
Ghassan Kanfani Kindergartens
Rachel Corrie Centre, Rafah
Rafah Olympia City Sisters
Al Awda Centre, Rafah
Al Awda Hospital, Jabaliya Camp
Ajyal Association, Gaza
General Union of Palestinian Syndicates
Al Karmel Centre, Nuseirat
Local Initiative, Beit Hanoun
Union of Health Work Committees
Red Crescent Society Gaza Strip
Beit Lahiya Cultural Centre
Al Awda Centre, Rafah
19 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
As we creep up to Christmas and are seeing more and more trees appear in houses and high street windows, while we debate when to put up our own, if at all this year, I ask you all to give consideration to a much more special tree (in my opinion): the Palestinian olive trees.
International volunteers assisted in planting the olive trees
This year has been a rough one for farmers in Palestine. In one village alone, Burin (Nablus) over 4000 olive trees have been destroyed by Israeli settlers. Qusra bid its martyr farewell, Essam Aoudhi who was murdered by Israeli soldiers while trying to defend his olive trees and land. Attacks leading up to the olive harvest were coming thick and fast, with the Israeli settlers ensuring the most amount of damage before the harvest, causing unbelievable loss to farmers’ revenue.
In January volunteers in Palestine will join the farmers to show solidarity in projects such as land repair, ploughing for the new season and replanting olive trees. It is the latter project that we ask for help with.
Olive trees are the Palestinian Christmas tree. We ask from the most sincere of places for you to make a donation of whatever you may be able to afford. We are looking to raise as much as possible to buy olive trees and donate them to the villages.
Olive trees cost about $3 at the moment plus inexpensive transport. Buy an olive tree along with your Christmas tree this year, or if your Jewish why not buy eight for the eight evenings of Hanukkah.
Please feel free to donate through our PayPal account using the email zatoun.nablus@gmail.com, where you can also contact us if you have anu additional questions. For more information please visit our Facebook Event.
Thank you so much!
We, Palestinians of Gaza, 3 years on from the 22-day long massacre in Israel’s operation ‘Cast Lead’, are calling on international civil society to make 2012 the year when solidarity with us in Palestine captures the spark of the revolutions around the Arab world and never looks back. On this anniversary we demand an international liberation movement that eventually leads to just that, liberation for us Palestinians from 63 years of brutal military occupation and ethnic cleansing that pours shame on any organisation or government claiming to endorse universal human rights.
