Category: Press Releases

Join the 2011 Olive Harvest Campaign

11 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

At a time of increasing settler violence in the West Bank, the International Solidarity Movement is issuing an urgent call for volunteers to participate in the 2011 Olive Harvest Campaign at the invitation of Palestinian communities.

The olive harvest started across the West Bank last week. ISM is working with villages that are close to Israeli settlements to monitor and prevent attacks by settlers, which have been commonplace in previous harvests.

We are currently working in Burin and Qaryut villages. The villages of Qusra will start to pick olives this Friday. So far there have been few settler attacks, although some olive trees were burnt in Qusra this week. However, it is expected that attacks by settlers will escalate over the next few weeks as more villages begin to harvest olives. In previous years settlers have physically attacked Palestinian villagers during the harvest and have burnt and uprooted trees. The army is often reluctant to intervene to protect Palestinians from attacks and has also prevented access and denied permits to farmers to pick olives on their own land.

Olives are a vital part of the Palestinian economy and culture. Farmers should be free to pick olives on their own land without fear of attack by settlers or hindrance from the Israeli government.

International volunteers are needed to help monitor and document any problems in villages that are harvesting olives and are vulnerable to settler attacks. The harvest will continue in some villages until mid November.

Join the 2011 Olive Harvest Campaign
Join the 2011 Olive Harvest Campaign

The olive tree is a national symbol for Palestinians. As thousands of olive trees have been bulldozed, uprooted and burned by Israeli settlers and the military – (over half a million olive and fruit trees have been destroyed since September 2000) – harvesting has become more than a source of livelihood; it has become a form of resistance.

The olive harvest is an annual affirmation of Palestinians’ historical, spiritual and economic connection to their land, and a rejection of Israeli efforts to seize it. Despite efforts by Israeli settlers and soldiers to prevent them from accessing their land, Palestinian communities remain steadfast in refusing to give up their olive harvest

International and Israeli volunteers join Palestinians each year to harvest olives, and this makes a big difference. It has proven in the past to help limit and decrease the number and severity of attacks and harassment. The presence of activists can reduce the risk of extreme violence from Israeli settlers and the Israeli army and supports Palestinians’ assertion of their right to earn their livelihood. International solidarity activists engage in non-violent intervention and documentation and this practical support enables many families to pick their olives. In addition The Olive Harvest Campaign also provides a wonderful opportunity to spend time with Palestinian families in their olive groves and homes.

The campaign will begin early October and run for approximately 6-8 weeks, depending on the size of the harvest. We request a minimum 2 week commitment from volunteers.

Training

The ISM will be holding mandatory two day training sessions which will be run every week. Please contact palreports@gmail.com for further information.

Ongoing campaigns

In addition to the olive harvest, there will also be other opportunities to participate in grass-roots, non-violent resistance in Palestine.

Experiencing the situation for yourself is vital to adequately convey the reality of life in Palestine to your home communities and to re-frame the debate in a way that will expose Israel’s apartheid policies; creeping ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem as well as collective punishment and genocidal practices in Gaza.

Corrie family appeals decision allowing soldiers to testify behind screen

10 October 2010 | Rachel Corrie Foundation

For Immediate Release

Lawyers for the family of Rachel Corrie filed an appeal with the Israeli Supreme Court on Sunday, challenging a decision to allow soldiers to testify behind a screen in the lawsuit filed against the State of Israel for the unlawful killing of the American peace activist in Rafah, Gaza.

State attorneys made the highly unusual request in court on Thursday, October 7 arguing that they were necessary to protect the soldiers’ safety and prevent their images from being circulated. Haifa District Court Judge Oded Gershon granted the request, ruling that all but two soldiers, who were both already known to the public, would be permitted to provide their testimony hidden from public view.

Corrie attorneys opposed the motion, arguing that allowing the soldiers to testify behind a screen infringes upon the fundamental right to an open, fair and transparent trial. They argued that the government request was based on an overbroad security certificate issued by Defense Minister Ehud Barak in 2008, was not supported by concrete evidence to substantiate their concerns for the soldiers’ safety or security. The lawyers will also ask the Supreme Court to review Judge Gershon’s decision not to allow the family to see the witnesses even if the public could not.

Attorney Hussein Abu Hussein, who represents the Corrie family, stated:

“An open and transparent judicial process is the only way to guarantee a fair trial. There is no reason why these soldiers should testify behind a screen. The government’s request is a shameless attempt to add a cloud of secrecy to civil trial and shield the soldiers from the discomfort of telling the truth in an open court.”

Attorneys for the family requested urgent review of the appeal and decision made, prior to October 17, when testimony of the next soldier in the case is anticipated to resume.

Subsequent hearings are scheduled for October 17,18 and 21 between the hours of 9:00-16:00 before Judge Oded Gershon at the Haifa, District Court, 12 Palyam St., Haifa, Israel.

Weekly demonstrations: Israeli soldiers retreat when the sheep arrive in Al-Ma`sara

8 and 9 October 2010 | ISM Media

Friday demonstrations

Al-Ma`sara


On Friday afternoon, around 50 protesters, including many international and Israeli activists, gathered in the village of Al-Ma’sara, near Bethlehem, to demonstrate against the theft of village land by the Gush Etzion settlement block. Soldiers were waiting the demonstrators at the exit of the village, to prevent them from getting too close to settlement. After they showed a map indicating that it was a closed military zone, soldiers started to throw sound grenades.

Many Israeli activists talked to the soldiers, trying to explain the reasons on the Palestinians.
The soldiers left the area just after a herd of sheep passed by.
The village of Al Ma’asara has been holding weekly non-violent demonstrations since November 2006.

Bil`in

On the first Friday demonstration of the olive harvest, two journalists were injured and dozens suffered from tear gas and rubber bullets in Bil’in.

The Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements organized the weekly demonstration against the illegal apartheid wall under a banner saying “We stay here like the roots of the olive trees”. Their main focus was to assert the farmers’ right to reach their own lands and pick up their olives.

Many international solidarity groups, Israeli peace activists and Palestinians from other towns participated. The demonstration began after midday prayer and lasted two hours. Demonstrators held the Palestinian flag as well as posters demanding the release of Bil’in political prisoners. They chanted slogans against the wall and the settlements in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan.

Someone was carrying a ladder and a bucket hoping to use them once they would get to their land. Unfortunately the access to their legally owned lands was once again denied: as soon as the demonstrators reached the gate in the apartheid wall, the soldiers shot rubber coated steel bullets and tear gas.

The soldiers subsequently passed through the gate and unsuccessfully attempted to arrest the demonstrators. Two journalists were injured. Abas Al Momani was injured in the back by a tear gas canister. Haron Amaira suffered from extreme tear gas inhalation. Dozens of other demonstrators suffered from breathing tear gas poison.

An-Nabi Saleh

An-Nabi Saleh got creative last Friday for their weekly demonstration; the children of the village were armed with paint in squirt guns and water balloons before the protesters marched down the main road to meet the army. The soldiers blocked the group from walking down the road that runs through the village, and were then met with chanting and paint on both the soldiers themselves and their jeep windshields. Around 70 demonstrators attended, accompanied by nearly 20 Israeli and international activists.

The demonstration was then driven back up the road into the village with tear gas and sound bombs, after which, the Israeli forces left the area. Once the young people of an-Nabi Saleh had built roadblocks to keep army jeeps from passing, the protest continued over the hills toward the village’s well, stolen by the neighboring settlement, Halamish. The theft of this spring and much of the agricultural land of an-Nabi Saleh is the main reason for the weekly demonstrations there.

After a while of soldiers firing tear gas directly at protestors on the exposed hill, Israeli forces drove the group back into the village again, amidst a volley of rubber-coated bullets and several rounds of live ammunition. The youth regrouped and began throwing stones at the soldiers on the main road in a symbolic act of resistance to the occupation, and the army responded with more shooting. The firing of rubber-coated bullets and tear gas continued throughout the village for some time, ending as the sun was setting.

None were arrested this week, but around ten were shot with rubber-coated bullets, including one young teen who was shot in the ear. No less than two of those shot were immediately hospitalized, with the ambulances delayed by their struggle to pass the army roadblocks. At least one older man was hit with a tear gas canister, and many suffered from extreme and debilitating tear gas inhalation.

Saturday demonstrations

Hebron

The weekly protest in Hebron against the illegal settlements and the closure of Shuhada street began at 3 p.m. not too far from the military gate in the Old City.

While the demonstrators were gathering, a military jeep and many soldiers arrived, scaring the kids that were playing football in the street. Palestinians together with Israeli and international peace activists, marched around the small streets of the Old City chanting slogans against the illegal occupation.

Not only the locals witnessed the march, but also a group of international tourists that for a while had to face the hard reality of a city where Palestinians live under occupation.

Before that the demonstrators left, the soldiers took pictures of as many people as they could. When they were asked for what reason they answered they would put them on Facebook!

Gaza Olive harvest begins in the Beit Hanoun buffer zone while strawberry picker in Beit Lahiya is shot by Israeli Snipers

“This tree is blessed for us and our grandfathers and ancestors have taken care of this tree for generations.  I grew up with an olive tree in our back yard and it represents the peaceful life we had always lived on these lands. Now our olive groves are bulldozed and farm workers are shot at so we are here in solidarity with farmers whose lives are made impossible by the Israeli siege and occupation.”

This is how much it meant to Mohammed el Massry, a 20 year old student in Al Azhar University to enter a high risk area to help farmers begin the olive harvest and help maintain land that used to be the breadbasket of the Palestinian economy. In what turned out to be a beautiful day’s climbing, picking and bagging of black and green olives, Mohammed joined other members of the Beit Hanoun ‘Local Initiative’ group accompanied by 4 International Solidarity Movement activists to help farmer Abzel Al Baseony begin the Olive harvest 300 metres from the Erez border wall with Israel.

Beginning early on Tuesday morning, farm workers, Palestinian and international activists marched with flags, buckets, step ladders and hessian bags ready for a morning’s work picking olives, accompanied by the cameras of Arabic and international media. Around the unilaterally imposed Israeli buffer zone – a 300 metre wide belt of land along the Israeli border, farm workers have been picked off by snipers and shelling as a matter of course, often over a kilometer beyond the designated area. A month ago near to where we were picking the olives Grandfather Ibrahim Abu Sayed, his 17 year-old grandson and friend were mutilated and killed by Israeli tank shelling despite being twice as far from the border as we were.

Khalil Nasir, coordinator of the Local Initiative group sees farmers as the first line of resistance:  “We’re here today to offer some support for the farmers who have continued the resistance to the occupation everyday of their lives, not letting go of these lands so near to the Israeli wall. Last month three farm-workers were directly shelled, when all they were doing were tending to their sheep and animals. We thank them for the life they left behind and we want to give farmers along the border whatever support we can.”

Shootings of farmers and destruction of their land are not exceptions – the dangers of farming in the bufferzone were comprehensively documented in the recent United Nations and World Food Programme report: “Between the Fence and a Hard Place”. It concluded that the violence used to restrict Palestinians from accessing their land covers areas up to 1500m from the border fence, meaning that over 35% of Gaza’s most agricultural land is in a high risk area causing severe losses of food production and livelihoods.

This does not stop farmers and their families from continuing to plant and harvest there, their livelihoods and resistance far too important to prevent them from working their own land.  Nor are the regular demonstrations ceasing despite being confronted by frequent live gunfire and many of the demonstrators were pleased to show direct solidarity by picking the olives.

“We have been shot at near here before on peaceful demonstrations”, said 22 year old student Anwar Alaaneen. “I’m here in solidarity with the farmers in Beit Hanoun who are always under threat from shooting and shelling when their land is so close to the Israeli fence. The international community should allow us the right to farm our own land, instead of allowing Israel to continue to commit these crimes.” she added.

Unbeknown to the olive pickers, nearby in the North of Gaza in Beit Lahiya a farm worker in the Siafa area 27 year old Zeyad Mohammed Tambora now and then worked for a farmer in Siafa area, had just finished picking strawberries when suddenly with no warning his right foot was hit by a bullet. He was carried back by his 2 cousins from the farmland at about 300 meter from the fence and they escorted him to a waiting car on a donkey cart. Arriving at hospital Tuesday at about 10.00 AM Zeyad then underwent surgery to stop the bleeding. The bones in his foot are smashed and according to doctors he might have problems to walk for the rest of his life and he is not expected to be walking for a few months.
Whether its for strawberry picking, olive picking or wheat gathering, incidents like this happen on a daily basis in this region. Two days before and last week, two more workers were slightly injured by firing from the border.

The farmer whose olives we were picking laments the history behind the continuous attacks on their land and the destruction of their life before. “There used to be many trees in this area, they bulldozed them and although we have lost so much we have continued to farm it”, said Abzel Al Baseony the farmer whose olives we were picking. “Everyone is afraid coming here to farm. They take photos of us from the control towers so they know who we are yet they still just shoot whenever they want at whatever they want. I’ve been here since 1984 and my father farmed this land before me. We will keep farming.”

Israeli soldiers to testify behind screen in Corrie Case

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

5 October 2010 | Rachel Corrie Foundation

Extraordinary state secrecy motion is granted

Haifa, Israel – The Haifa District Court on Thursday granted a government request to allow soldiers to testify behind a screen in the lawsuit filed by Rachel Corrie’s family against the State of Israel for her unlawful killing in Rafah, Gaza.

The order includes the driver of the bulldozer that killed Rachel, who is slated to testify later this month. However, Judge Oded Gershon ruled that both the commander of the unit and the second soldier in the bulldozer that hit Rachel would testify in plain view, because their faces were already publicly known.

Rachel Corrie, an American human rights defender from Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death on March 16, 2003, by a Caterpillar D9R bulldozer while nonviolently protesting the demolition of Palestinian homes.

In asking for the highly unusual protective measures, state attorneys argued that they were necessary to protect the soldiers’ safety and prevent their images from being circulated. They based the request on an overbroad security certificate issued by Defense Minister Ehud Barak in 2008, but did not provide concrete evidence to substantiate their concerns for the soldiers’ safety or security.

Corrie attorneys opposed the motion, arguing that allowing the soldiers to testify behind a screen infringes upon the right to an open, fair and transparent trial. They asked to dismiss the request, filed just 48 hours before the first soldier’s testimony. Alternatively, the lawyers asked the court to allow the family to see the witnesses even if the public could not, but their request was denied. Lawyers for the Corrie family plan to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Israel.

“While Rachel stood in front of a wall to protect the two families huddled behind it, the state is now making the soldiers hide behind a wall that denies us the opportunity to see them,” said Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s mother. “The State of Israel has been hiding for over seven years. Where is the justice?”

Rachel Corrie / Courtesy Rachel Corrie Foundation

The first soldier to testify under the extraordinary new measures was the commander of the second bulldozer. Known to the court only as A.S., with voice muffled behind the screen, he told the court he did not see the other bulldozer strike Rachel and did not remember much about that day.

Contrary to the detailed affidavit he signed less than eight weeks ago, A.S. said he did not know how Rachel had been hurt; did not know the distance from which the bulldozer had approached Rachel; and did not know the height and width of the mound of earth the bulldozer was pushing.

Also testifying on Thursday was the head of the Military Police Special Investigative Unit, Shalom Michaeli, who oversaw the investigation into Rachel’s killing. He told the court that he stood by his 2003 investigation and saw no reason that anyone should have been prosecuted.

Michaeli was also in charge of the investigation into the killing of Iman al Hams, a 13-year-old Gaza school girl who was shot and killed by an Israeli soldier in Rafah as she lay injured on the ground in October 2004. A military police internal investigation subsequently found major failures in Michaeli’s investigation, saying it was conducted unprofessionally and with negligence. The solider who killed al Hams was court-martialed but subsequently acquitted – in part because of this flawed investigation.

Michaeli’s cross-examination revealed similar flaws in the Corrie investigation. These flaws support the family’s claim of government negligence, for allowing soldiers and their commanders to act recklessly using armored military bulldozers without due regard for the presence of civilians.

* Michaeli said that he ordered only a partial transcript of radio transmissions because he did not think it important to transcribe the full audio.

* He said he did not go to the site of Rachel’s killing because it was dangerous, the terrain had already been altered, and the vehicles removed by the Israeli military. He acknowledged that he could have gone to the scene in an armored vehicle, but chose not to.

* Michaeli testified in his written affidavit that when he inspected the bulldozer he did not find any signs of blood or other evidence that the vehicle had injured anyone. However, in court testimony he said the bulldozer could have been washed “or even painted” before he inspected it.

* Michaeli said he knew, prior to opening the investigation, there was a video camera recording the area around the clock. But he failed to obtain the tape until March 23, a week after the incident, because it had been previously taken by senior commanders. When questioned about his failure to interrogate the camera operator, who panned away from the scene only minutes before Rachel was killed, he said he did not think it was relevant.

* When asked whether he questioned the bulldozer crews about an Israeli military manual for low intensity conflict that states bulldozers should not be operated near people, Michaeli said the manuals were not relevant. He added that bulldozer operators could not be expected to follow such procedures in this zone. He went on to say that he believed the Israeli army was “at war” with everyone in the area, including the ISM peace activists.

Michaeli still heads the Military Police Special Investigative Unit, but has since been promoted from Sergeant Major to Warrant Officer.

“Today I was struck by the lead investigator’s failures – his failure to look for evidence, to secure evidence, to resolve conflicting evidence, and to turn evidence over to this court,” said Craig Corrie, Rachel’s father. “This is not what we and the U.S. government were promised by the government of Israel when Rachel was killed and it is not what we will accept now.”

The proceedings on Thursday were attended by representatives of the US Embassy, who have closely followed the hearings throughout the trial.

Subsequent hearings are scheduled for October 17,18 and 21 between the hours of 9:00-16:00 before Judge Oded Gershon at the Haifa, District Court, 12 Palyam St., Haifa, Israel.