Category: Press Releases

Internationals in Gaza join hunger strike for Palestinian prisoner rights

11 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

For Immediate Release:

Three foreign nationals residing in Gaza have entered their fifth day of an open-ended hunger strike and protest encampment in front of the ICRC.

The internationals are available for interview.

Vera Macht, Germany, stated: “The situation of Palestinian prisoners is truly heartbreaking. Parents are separated from their children, and wives from their husbands, for years, without so much as a letter or video.” [I removed the “said Vera Macht” part, since you didn’t use it for the others and it’s really unnecessary]

Silvia Todeschini, Italy, stated: “They have been on strike for over two weeks with very basic demands. We will strike with them, and hope that this will help to stop the world’s silence about their situation.”

Joe Catron, United States, stated: “Palestinian prisoners are bravely resisting a system that seeks to crush them, their families, their communities, and their national life. Their struggle deserves our full support.”

An open-ended hunger strike was announced by Palestinian prisoners on 27 September. The prisoners are demanding better conditions, an end to isolation and degradation by Israeli prison guards, and for a change in the policy that denies many prisoners the right to have visitors. Additionally, many prisoners are calling for the release of Ahmad Sa’adat, a political prisoner and former General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Palestinian officials estimate that 2,000 prisoners have joined the hunger strike.

In Gaza, hundreds have been gathering in front of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on a daily basis to demonstrate for prisoner rights. Protesters have maintained a permanent encampment in and around the ICRC courtyard since Sunday, 2 October.

Additionally, Palestinian activists in Gaza have called for international supporters to join the hunger strike for 24 hours on Wednesday, 12 October, and use Twitter to publicize their participation and solidarity (See: Electronic Intifada).

All hunger strikers are asked to tweet “My name is ( ) and I will go on a hunger strike on Wednesday in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners. #TweepStrike #HS4Palestine.”

Please act now! Pro-Israel groups censor Palestinian children’s art

13 September 2011 | Middle East Children’s Alliance

On Thursday, September 8, 2011, the Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA) in Oakland decided to cancel an exhibit of art by Palestinian children in Gaza, titled “A Child’s View From Gaza.” The Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) had established a partnership with MOCHA and spent several months planning the exhibit, which was slated to open on September 24.

Board President Hilmon Sorey cited vague museum guidelines on appropriate content as reasons for canceling the exhibit, but both board members and pro-Israel groups later admitted that the latter placed pressure on the museum to censor the artwork of Palestinian children.

It is likely that the censorship here was yet another example of a $6 million dollar nationwide campaign by the Jewish Federation of North America, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and its local proxies, to silence the Palestinian perspective, even in “cultural institutions.”

It is very sad and disturbing that MOCHA, which has in the past courageously displayed artwork by Iraqi children featuring U.S. tanks and weaponry, has now chosen to censor artwork of similar content by Palestinian children, and succumb to financial pressure. But it is an outrage that these pro-Israel groups are using their considerable political and financial power to intimidate a local non-profit organization into silencing Palestinian children and censoring their art.

Tell MOCHA to Show “A Child’s View From Gaza”!

Israeli settlers set fire to a house-tent in the Palestinian village of Susiya

10 September 2011 | Operation Dove and Christian Peacemaker Teams

[Note: 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), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]

At-Tuwani – During the night between the 8th and the 9th of September settlers from the Israeli settlement of Suseya set fire to a house-tent in the Palestinian village of Susiya.

Around 1:00 AM the settlers took a tire that was inserted in a nearby wall, set fire to it, and threw it against the outside wall of the house. The plastic tent covering the house took fire immediately. The owner, awakened by the smoke, was able to move out a of the tent. A gas cylinder that was near the fire. Once out of the burning tent the man saw some torch lights in the valley below the village heading toward the settlement of Suseya.

When Israeli army and police arrived, called by the villagers, the lights were still in sight but neither the soldiers nor the policemen followed or stopped the people carrying them.

The fire was extinguished with the water of a nearby villagers’ tank. The house owner was taken to the hospital for breathing diseases caused by the smoke.

According to Palestinians, the Israeli army did not let Palestinian firemen, coming from the nearby city of Yatta,  reach the fire  by threatening them.

The house owner told us the next morning: “They (the Israelis, ed) never help Palestinian people. Despite it all there were human  beings in danger, someone had to stop the fire, someone had to help us. But this is the occupation.”

Situated in the South Hebron Hills, the Palestinian village of Susiya is exactly between the old, archeological site of Suseya and the outpost of the Israeli settlement Suseya. This is the last of several acts of violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers against the village. On December 28th 2010 took place a similar incident: settlers set fire to another house-tent. The settlers’ goal is to push Palestinians out of their own land in order to enlarge the settlement.

Operation Dove and Christian Peacemaker Teams have maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.

Pictures of the incident: http://goo.gl/Z3yXn ;  http://goo.gl/w7yPW  (EAPPI)
Video of the incident: http://goo.gl/iOWUv

For further information:
Operation Dove, 054 99 25 773
EAPPI  SHH, 022 27 42 94

National Building Museum cancels Caterpillar Inc. award ceremony!

7 September 2011 | Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice

ACT NOW: Stop Rewarding Complicity in Human Rights Abuses Altogether!

Due to help and pressure from individuals and social justice groups across the country, the National Building Museum has informed us that it has canceled the public award ceremony to present Caterpillar Inc. with the 2011 Henry C. Turner Prize!

Thank you to all of you who contributed to this victory!  We are not stopping here!  We will continue this campaign to tell the museum to rescind the award.  Next week Craig and Cindy Corrie will hand deliver our petition to the National Building Museum urging them to rescind designation of the Henry C. Turner Prize until Caterpillar Inc. ends their complicity in human rights violations. We have already gathered over 5,300 signatures and 55 organizational endorsements, and we have one week left to build momentum!   

Help us turn this partial victory into a complete success by signing the petition, forwarding the call to action below to your contacts, encouraging your organization to endorse, and writing your personal letter to the Museum.   Thank you!

Statement for USS Liberty memorial service

7 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

This statement was submitted for tonight’s memorial service off the coast of the Gaza Strip.

We join Larry Toenjes, Joe and Sherrie Wagner, Rusty Glenn, and all supporters of the s/v Liberty in remembering the deaths of 34 USS Liberty servicemen killed by the State of Israel on June 8, 1967, and the wounding of 174 more.

As crew members of the Oliva, a civilian craft monitoring Israeli naval crimes against fishermen off the coast of Gaza, and as observers on board Palestinian fishing trawlers, we have observed, and at times endured, Israel’s unprovoked use of live gunfire, water cannons, and other military aggression against peaceful vessels. These violent attacks often produce lethal results.

We also remember the nine Turkish citizens, including one Turkish-American, killed on the MV Mavi Marmara by Israeli naval commandos during their May 30, 2010 aerial assault on the first Freedom Flotilla, and the brutality endured by survivors of this attack on a humanitarian mission.

As we mourn the casualties of this aggression, we call on the governments of the world to join the Republic of Turkey and the State of Qatar in imposing meaningful sanctions for Israel’s ongoing crimes against humanity, and for global civil society to organize boycotts and divestments demanding Israel’s compliance with international law and respect for human rights.