Category: Press Releases

MP Mandela calls for charges to be brought by the ICC against Netanyahu

6/5/23

Media Statement by Nkosi ZMD Mandela, MP:

Apartheid Israel must be charged for state terrorism for the killing of 2 year old Muhammad Tamimi.

Mvezo Komkhulu (The Great Place), Monday 5th June 2023: The passing of 2 year old Palestinian infant Muhammad Tamimi as a result of being shot in the head four days ago by Israeli soldiers is another act of brutality that has come to represent the daily atrocities perpetrated by Apartheid Israel against innocent Palestinians.

Those responsible must be charged with his murder and Netanyahu, his regime and those who act in consort with them have the blood of this innocent child on their hands.

Muhammad Tamimi was brutally shot outside his home in Nabi Saleh and has become the latest victim of Apartheid Israel’s state terrorism.

We are appalled by this level of inhumanity and the ongoing crimes against humanity and call for immediate charges to be brought by the International Criminal Court against Netanyahu.

Apartheid Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands and its continued expansion of illegal settlements in violation of international law is the cause of these acts of brutality, ethnic cleansing and systematic genocide.

We call for justice for 2 year old Muhammad Tamimi and all Palestinian children being butchered by Apartheid Israel. His death brings the number of children brutally killed by Apartheid Israel in 2023 alone to almost 40 children and the number of Palestinians killed by Apartheid Israel to nearly 200 this year.

It is inconceivable that the UN Convention on the Rights of Children carries zero weight for the perpetrators of these heinous crimes against humanity.

We will not rest until the perpetrators of these crimes are brought to justice.

We convey our heartfelt condolences to the Tamimi family and the Palestinian people on the occasion of the martyrdom of Muhammad Tamimi. We demand justice for him, for all Palestinian children murdered by Apartheid Israel and condemn in the strongest terms these crimes against humanity.

ENDS

Nkosi Zwelivelile
Royal House of Mandela
Mvezo Komkhulu
P.O. Box 126
Viedgesville 5102
Eastern Cape Province
South Africa

Child dies of his wounds as occupation forces escalate attacks on occupied Nabi Salah

6/5/23 – Update: 2,5 year old Mohammed Tamimi has died of his wounds inflicted by Israeli soldiers who shot him in the head.

6/4/23 Nabi Salah, Occupied Palestine: The Israeli occupation forces have escalated their assaults on the Palestinian village of Nabi Salah targeting civilians including a toddler with live ammunition.

 

Two and half year old Mohammad Tamimi has a bullet lodged in his brain and is currently in critical condition.

 On Thursday, June first, 2023, the occupation forces placed a military checkpoint at the entrance of the village and prevented cars from passing. They forced some young men to get out from their cars and began to attack them physically without any reasons 

At approximately 7:30 pm one of the soldiers stationed near the military tower shot Haitham al-Tamimi, 40, in the shoulder and his son two and a half years old, Mohammed Al Tamim in the head as they were about to get onto their car warning. Haitham was operated on in Ramallah Hospital but his son, Mohammed is in critical condition with a bullet lodged in his brain.

Haitham AlTamimi after being operated on after Israeli troups opened fire on him and his son

At around 8:00 pm, a military jeep stormed the village and started firing live bullets directly at the houses, which led to breaking the windows in some houses. As a result, Wissam Al-Tamimi 17 was injured by a sponge bomb in his head while he was standing on the roof of the house, which fractured his skull.

17 year old Wissam AlTamimi was hit in the head with what is called a ponge bomb while on the roof of his house. He suffers form a fractured skull.

After that, three snipers positioned themselves on the roof of one of the shops opposite the citizens homes and fired live bullets and sponge bombs at anyone who moved, whether inside the houses or on the roof tops. The journalist and volunteer at B’Tselem, Bilal Al-Tamimi, who was wearing a press uniform, helmet, and shield, was wounded after a soldier fired a sponge bomb directly and from a close range which broke his wrist and required surgery for a platinum implant. The house of journalist Bilal Al-Tamimi continued to be targeted with live bullets, gas canisters and sponge bombs, as a result of which his mother, who had kidney failure, suffocated.

Journalist and Human rights defender Bilal Al Tamimi after being operated on due to the occupation forces breaking his wrist with a so called sponge bullet

On Friday, June 2, at approximately 4:30 P.M, Noura Al-Tamimi was hit by a sponge canister in her stomach, which caused severe convulsions, which necessitated taking her to the hospital. Kafa Al-Tamimi, who is seven months pregnant, suffocated from the gas after a tear gas canister broke the glass of her bedroom window.

Many of the village residents, including children, women, and the elderly, were detained outside their homes and were not allowed to return until the withdrawal of the occupation forces at dawn. 

On Saturday night, June 3, 2023 the occupying military invaded the village, once again entering homes, The occupying soldiers took one young man from his home, beat him up, and then released him. This morning the children of Nabi Salah went to school to sit their final exams after another sleepless night.

Manal Tamimi of Nabi Saleh stated: “ The incitement for this attack stems from the settlers’ repeated attempts to intimidate the villagers, with the most recent incident occurring just last week. In light of these distressing events, we urgently call upon the international community to ensure the protection of this small village, with a population not exceeding 650 people. It is imperative that international humanitarian law and international treaties are upheld, and immediate action is taken to halt the repeated attacks by both the occupation forces and settlers. Over the past decade alone, these aggressions have tragically resulted in the martyrdom of five young individuals from the village.”

Haitham and Mohammed AlTamimi days before the Israeli occupiying forces shot them.

Announcing the International Solidarity Movement podcast

Welcome to the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) podcast. ISM is a Palestinian-led group which – for more than 20 years – has provided an important platform for international volunteers to join and support the popular resistance against Israel’s colonial occupation of Palestine.

This podcast has been made by ISM volunteers, aiming to amplify voices from the Palestinian struggle – and raise awareness of ISM’s work. Find out more about ISM at www.palsolidarity.org

 

ISM Call to Action: Save Masafer Yatta!

 

The International Solidarity Movement is calling all activists and supporters to take urgent action against Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Masafer Yatta region in the occupied West Bank. 

 

What is Masafer Yatta?:

Masafer Yatta is a rural region to the south of Hebron along the southern border of the occupied West Bank. It is home to 12 Palestinian villages totalling about 2,800 residents. Since 1981, the Israeli army has used the land as a military training area, ‘Firing Zone 918’ which has been used as a pretext for dispossesing, evicting and demolishing Palestinian homes, making every-day life unbearable for residents. 

The current situation: 

On May 4 2022, the Israeli High Court of Justice rejected appeals by residents against a series of eviction orders, giving the green light to Israeli Occupation Forces to wipe out eight villages located within the firing zone. This puts around 1,200 Palestinian residents, including 500 children, at imminent risk of eviction and arbitrary displacement, according to the UN. This process has already begun. The village of Al Mirkez has already been flattened three times and the residents are living in caves next to the rubble that was formerly their community. 

From June 20, Israeli forces will begin training exercises with live ammunition in the Masafer Yatta region. Our partners on the ground view the next 3 months as a critical period, which will determine whether their communities will survive … and we need to act now!

 

How Masafer Yatta communities are resisting: 

ISM’s friends and comrades in the region will never give up and neither should we. Masafer Yatta’s People’s Committee for Protection and Resilience, along with the Youth of Samud (whose headquarters received its own demolition order last week) have come together to use non-violent resistance to stop this ethnic cleansing. Popular resistance groups from all over Palestine and teams of activists from ‘48 [Israel] have been joining them in a united effort to save the villages. They are calling for international support and international activists to come and join the struggle on the ground.

We need volunteers to join them: 

ISM is sending volunteers to Masafer Yatta this summer. We are calling on all committed supporters of Palestine to volunteer with ISM in the West Bank, in response to calls for assistance from our partners in Masafer Yatta. ISM activists would be working in solidarity with the Masafer Yatta community to provide a protective presence in villages under threat of demolition. ISM previously supported efforts to halt the demolition of Palestinian village Khan al-Ahmar in 2018. We hope to replicate the same success in Masafer Yatta. For more information about volunteering with ISM (needed this July and August), please contact: ismtraining@riseup.net. 

 

N.B. There is an ISM training event in London scheduled for the 2nd July. We can prepare you and give you more information about what our grassroots partners need from us on the ground! To find out more and apply please contact training.ismlondon@riseup.net. 

 

Support ISM and our Partners:

If you can’t volunteer on the ground you can still help the cause! 

Donate to ISM to help us sponsor volunteers and keep us running. Alternatively you can contact us for information about grassroots groups from Masafer Yatta, who you can support with donations or in other ways.

 

Learn More:

Save Masafer Yatta – Save Masafer Yatta

Israel to begin live fire training in Palestinian community facing forced expulsion | Middle East Eye

Firing Zone 918 – An Exercise in War Crimes (btselem.org)

“Ridiculous, spurious, and easily disproved” – Huwaida Arraf responds to recent right-wing attacks on the International Solidarity Movement

Once again right-wing media, politicians, and even supposed academics are attacking the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) with spurious allegations that are easily disproved. This time it comes in their ongoing effort to undermine Representative Ilhan Omar, the Congresswoman from the 5th district of Minnesota.

On June 8, Rep. Omar retweeted a post by Marwa Fatafta, a well known and highly respected policy analyst and digital rights activist, that included a video watermarked with “International Solidarity Movement.” The video showed a young Palestinian boy wearing a backpack “snatched and detained by Israeli forces.” There is no timestamp on the video so we do not know when it was recorded, but we do know that this sort of violence directed at Palestinian children by the Israeli military is commonplace.

This tweet, and Omar’s sharing of it, were in response to Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s June 7 testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. During that hearing, Omar asked Blinken pointed questions about where Palestinians should turn in search of justice for the abuses they suffer at the hands of Israeli forces, settlers, and the government. Blinken’s response was that they should turn to the Israeli court system. This response is ridiculous on its face, and Marwa Fatafta used this video to highlight that.

Let’s clear up some of the misleading claims made by those attacking the International Solidarity Movement, such as in this article by Fox News.

  1. The video was not “produced” by ISM; rather it was one of countless egregious abuses committed by Israeli soldiers that was captured on video by an ISM volunteer. Unfortunately, volunteers witness far more Israeli abuses than they’re able to capture on video.
  2. ISM is not anti-Israel; it is, however, anti-racist, anti-occupation, anti-colonization, anti-apartheid, anti-oppression. The Anti-Defamation League and Fox News translate this to being anti-Israel.
  3. That the ISM was “investigated by the FBI” is yet another blight on the agency, which spent years and scarce resources on a fishing expedition that revealed nothing but First Amendment-protected activity campaigning for Palestinian human rights and freedom. The ISM’s statement on this “investigation” can be read here. The investigation lasted for years and targeted ISM activists in 11 U.S. cities, myself included. No evidence of wrongdoing was ever found, according to the FBI.
  4. As for being identified by the ADL as one of the top 10 anti-Israel organizations, see #2 as to why the ADL labels the ISM as “anti-Israel.”
  5. ISM is proud to be listed amongst incredible human rights defending allies like Jewish Voice for Peace, the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Friends of Sabeel – North America, Students for Justice in Palestine and others.
  6. The ADL itself is a deeply problematic organization. It describes itself as a “leading anti-hate organization,” but has a history of supporting racist-policing, surveillance, colonialism & apartheid, as detailed in a letter signed by over 100 human rights organizations.
  7. In May 2021, five progressive civil society leaders resigned from the Civil Society Fellowship (CSF) over the group’s connection to the ADL. Read their statement here.
  8. Most recently, long time national director of the ADL (1987-2015) Abe Foxman went on a tirade against the New York Times for printing names and faces of more than 65 Palestinian children slain in Israel’s May 2021 onslaught on Gaza. According to Foxman, humanizing Palestinians is “blood libel”.
  9. The ADL, like the entire Zionist project, is built on the propagation of Jewish supremacy, the vilification and erasure of Palestinians, and the defamation of anyone advocating for Palestinian freedom.
  10. The second half of the Fox News article is devoted to quoting Prof. David Bernstein, whose relationship with facts & truth is tenuous, at best. I responded to a libelous 2015 Washington Post piece by Bernstein that can be read here.
  11. Bernstein told Fox News that he “doesn’t believe ISM has ‘been very active lately.’” This is simply wrong. ISM activists are currently on-the-ground in occupied Palestine continuing to report, document rights abuses, and support popular resistance to colonialism & apartheid.
  12. ISM activists also continue to be active around the world, organizing with allies against the forces that oppress Black, Brown, indigenous & poor peoples. We’re marching, engaging in BDS, #BlockTheBoat, #ShutElbitDown, all towards a #FreePalestine and a more just world for all our children.

The one and only thing Bernstein was correct about is that the video in question is a few years old. Sadly, however, there are many more recent videos of Palestinian children being abused, arrested and terrorized by Israeli soldiers. The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem hosts an entire video library of them here. Learn more about human rights violations against Palestinian children here.

Lastly, the Fox News article states at the end: “Neither Omar’s office nor ISM immediately responded to Fox News’ requests for comment.” For the record, ISM received no request for comment from Fox News.