Category: Reports - Page 274 - International Solidarity Movement

Israel bans ISM co-founder from witnessing birth of his first born

7th March 2013| International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine

“ISM Co-Founder and soon to be father, Adam Shapiro prohibited from witnessing the birth of his first child due to an undisclosed travel ban from 2009 and forthcoming deportation”

“Adam and I are expecting our first child, a boy in about 5 weeks. As joyful as this blessing is, we’ve had to make some difficult decisions.”
The words of ISM (International Solidarity Movement) co-founder Huwaida Arraf as she speaks on her husband of 11 years imminent deportation by the state of Israel. Shapiro, a US citizen and Arraf, a Palestinian citizen with an Israeli ID have played a fundamental role in guaranteeing on the ground, international activism since the beginning of the second Intifada. Since 2002, Shapiro’s indefatigable human rights work for Palestinian justice has led him to be a persona non grata. Just like thousands of solidarity activists, Shapiro has found himself on the receiving end of an illegal 10 year ban from Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, alongside millions of Palestinians who have been denied the right of return to their homeland.
On Sunday March 3rd 2013, Shapiro and a 35 week pregnant Arraf defied injustice by attempting to travel through Tel Aviv; however after being held for hours at immigration, it didn’t lead to a happy family rejoicing but a bleak separation of loved ones. As Arraf wrote her story from her village of Mi’ilya and Shapiro was kept in a detention cell. The main dilemma faced by this couple, was that due to Israel’s apartheid policies, denial of Palestinian rights, including the UN resolution 194 right of return, their unborn child’s only chance to breathe the air of his native country and to step foot on the land of his people, as to be with his family, was that the child must be born in Israel. Israeli citizenship cannot be claimed outside of Israeli borders without laborious process, since Arraf is not a Jewish citizen of Israel or of Jewish descent but Palestinian. Arraf justly writes “”I wrote…that I’m always unnecessarily optimistic. However, I’ve never been optimistic about the Israeli Injustice system.” Unfortunately, despite Arraf’s optimistic nature, she had to forcibly accept this inequality, knowing that her husband would most likely be prevented from being present at the birth; either choice is devastating for the family.

Adam Shapiro (Left) and Huwaida Arraf (Right) [Photo via IMEU] — Adam Shapiro (Left) and Huwaida Arraf (Right)
[Photo via IMEU]

Shapiro’s previous 2002 ban came during the time of the second intifada, when enormous Israeli military incursions were taking place in the West Bank. His apparent wrongdoings were that he cross the threshold into President Arafat’s besieged compound as not only an ISM activist but a medical volunteer, assisting two men who had been shot, to safety and a few months after this, he stood in solidarity with the village of Huwwara, near Nablus, as they protested the invasion of the West Bank and attempted to break the military curfew. This latter activity saw him jailed for 5 days and deported swiftly. Later in 2009, both were aboard the Flotilla “Spirit of Humanity” which attempted to breach the illegal and brutal blockade on the Gaza Strip, it was in this time that Adam was surreptitiously handed down another 10 year ban, due to being charged with “illegally entering Israel”, even after the judge in that case agreed with Adam that he wasn’t endeavouring to enter Israel at all.
Better news was not to come on March 5th 2013, as Shapiro’s court hearing only lasted a short, disheartening 30 minutes. In this time Arraf explained that it was clearly explained that neither of them had any previous knowledge about the 2009 ban, as Arraf states “The judge didn’t care that we were never informed about the ban in order to challenge it beforehand”. This perversion of the law would have happened regardless of the unsubstantiated 10 year ban which is just used as a thin “official” veneer, since it was never clearly addressed, for as Arraf bluntly notes ““So, even if Adam didn’t have this ban issued in 2009, the Israeli authorities would have found other reasons to keep him out.” It must be noted that had the US embassy been an advocate of Shapiro’s case, the courtroom judgement may have ended with a compromise. To flip the coin and rub salt into these open wounds, the US congress has undergone introduction of a resolution known as the US-Israel strategic Partnership Act of 2013. This act, if passed, will oversee a new right for Israelis travelling to the US, as they become exempt from having to obtain visas when entering the USA, whilst hundreds of US citizens will be denied entry to occupied Palestine due to their ethnic background, religious and political views.
As Shapiro’s and Arraf’s situation unfolded over the past few days, it showed clear the utter disdain Israel holds for human rights defenders and the racism and inhumanity Palestinians face in regards to immigration, travel and citizenship. Arraf’s closing statements are telling of her dwindling hopefulness as she pronounces:
“I’m not sure that there is more to be done legally. We may try to challenge the ban, but this could take months or longer. Many of you have written to ask what you can do to help. Again, I don’t think that much can be done for us.”

Read more on Arraf and Shapiro here and here.

“Our prisoners are dying.” Students mobilise in Gaza

3rd March 2013 | International Action for Palestine, Gaza, Occupied Palestine

“Our prisoners are dying.” said Gaza student Khaled Shehab from the Islamic University. “We won’t wait till the death of another prisoner to move in solidarity with all the detainees.” Khaled was joining the thousands attending the growing number of demonstrations in the Gaza Strip right now.

Majeda Sabbah, with other students protesting the death of Arafat Jaradat in Israeli custody . Photo by Joe Catron

It is not lost on young people in Palestine acting in support of Palestinian prisoners that many who have spent years in Israeli jails were at the same age when they were originally imprisoned. While there has recently been a spotlight on the 219 Palestinian children currently detained by Israel, it is often forgotten that the majority of detainees arrested are youths or in their early twenties. Some have spent the entire decade of their twenties removed from their parents, their families and communities, a young person’s life defined by Israeli prison walls.

Mohammed Al Adini explained his story late at night in the tent erected outside the Red Cross offices in the Gaza Strip, where some Palestinians were on hunger strike in support of those striking in Israeli prisons. He was arrested aged 20 in June 2003, just short of concluding a two year office management course at a college in Deir El Balah, central Gaza. He was imprisoned for nine years and released in the prisoner swap deal after which he was able to complete his course at the University of Gaza aged 31.

Mohammed Al Adini, hunger striking in solidarity after nine years in Israeli prisons. Photo by Eva Barlett — Mohammed Al Adini, hunger striking in solidarity after nine years in Israeli prisons. Photo by Ehab Omar

“There were some classes in prison but we were often prevented from going. So we organized our own “internal education” where any prisoners with an academic background such as languages, history and law would teach the other prisoners. It depended on the cell we were in but classes were generally around ten to twelve students. I taught history and Palestinian issues.”

Mohammed knew many students and academics on long term prison sentences. Yassir Namrouiti visits the solidarity tent in Gaza regularly. He was studying at the University of Al Quds when he was arrested in 1987. He didn’t see freedom again until 24 years later when he was released with Mohammed in the Gilad Shalit swap deal 24 years later. Karim Younis who remains incarcerated after 31 years, was a student when arrested in 1983 and was attending classes at Ben Gurion University on the day the Israeli army raided his house. He is now a prison representative and the author of two books. His personal and historical writings from prison have reached and inspired many who support him and the other 4800 Palestinian detainees.

Mohammed does not appear bitter that his education was taken away and is enthusiastic about the rise in student solidarity. “I am so pleased that students in Gaza have rallied around the cause of the prisoners.” said Mohammed. “They are using different languages to express our cause through facebook and other media, which is something we have never been able to do before.”

Khaled shares Mohammed’s certainty that the youth of Palestine have a crucial role to play in the resistance against occupation, which is why many student leaders have been a target for Israeli arrests and incarceration. “Youth and young people are strongly involved in resistance against occupation. Israel arrests them to stop resistance. They want to destroy the educational life for the students. They are aware that students can expose them and their crimes to the world, especially now that so many are communicating directly to Western audiences.”

Student activist Khaled Shehab calling for the release of Samer Issawi . Photo by Joe Caled — Student activist Khaled Shehab calling for the release of Samer Issawi . Photo by Jomanah Hadad

He cites other Palestinian students from Gaza such as Malaka Mohammed and Shahd Abusalama whose blogs and reporting on the prisoners in the English language have amassed many followers globally, with frequent updates on the individual stories of prisoners and the ordeals and injustices facing them.
The day after 30 year old Arafat Jaradat was killed after six days of Israeli detention last Monday, Majeda Sabbah, Khaled and other students immediately organized a demonstration, calling for united support for all Palestinian prisoners.

“Arafat didn’t just die” said Majeda. “He was killed under the systematic torture that takes place in Israeli Jails.”

We are here to show our support for all the hunger strikers and all the political prisoners. The sons of Palestine sacrificed their freedom and belief for others, like Samer Issawi who is now in a critical condition after a hunger strike of over six months. We young people in Gaza support them, which is why we mobilized quickly as soon as we heard about Arafat. We can’t wait for the parties to move. If we didn’t act for a united struggle then no one would.”

Most Palestinian families contain someone who has been detained in Israeli Jails or is currently incarcerated. “My uncle was a prisoner.” said Khaled. “He spent 25 years in Israeli prisons and was recently freed in the swap deal. He joked that over time they changed the prison door three times while he remained in the same room.”

For relatives of current detainees in Israel the struggle can never go away. It is a double agony – for those on the inside and those on the outside. The last hunger striker who won his freedom was Akram Rikhawi, who in his ninth year of incarceration refused food for 104 days. “When I was released I could not recognize Samah, my eleven year old daughter” Akram told us. Samah was just two years old when he had last laid eyes on her. “My wife was allowed to visit me once in that time and my mother also once. I learned of my mother’s passing on prison radio a month after she had died.”

Mohammed Al Adiny said that it was being away from his family and friends that hurt most in prison. “I would send letters to my mother. I would tell her that if she wants me to be okay, just smile. Your smile is what gives me strength is what I would tell her.”

The fight of the hunger strikers goes on. Samer Issawi, now weighing just 44 kg was recently moved to Haifa hospital after a serious deterioration in his health. Ayman Sharawna was moved to the Soroka Israel hospital in Beersheba last month, briefly falling into a coma after which for a period he was unable to move, suffering severe pain to several parts of his body.

Hana Shalabi, a female detainee released after a 43-day hunger strike in March 2012 was in attendance at Sunday’s demonstration and she described to some of the students what Samer and Ayman were going through. “I’m sorry for the death of Jaradet, sorry for his family in the West Bank. Sadly I’m not surprised, this is not a new thing with over 210 prisoners who have been killed in Israeli prisons since 1967. By my experience on hunger strike I feel what they feel. You can’t sleep because of the pain, you can’t speak, you can’t move, there’s hair loss, pains in the stomach and joints, you can’t see well, there are heart irregularities, palpitations and migraines. Soon your body, like mine, can’t accept water.”

Hana Shalabi, released after a 43-day hunger strike, remains an inspiration. Photo Eva Barlett

At the time of writing Samer Issawi and Ayman Sharawna are among 178 prisoners who are being held under what Israel defines as “Administrative Detention” . This open ended imprisonment without a formal charge has been condemned by major international human rights groups. This self-sacrifice of Samer, Ayman and the other detainees has struck a chord with young people across Palestine who are absorbed in the struggle for life and dignity of the hunger strikers. They want immediate action.

“When students and young people become more aware and start writing about israel’s crimes it’s like a disaster for Israel. We want to deliver our message all over the world. Palestinian prisoners don’t have basic human rights or dignity. They’re not treated as human beings. We demand the Israeli government release the hunger strikers.”

Adie Mormech is a Gaza-based activist with International Action for Palestine and a teacher at Al Aqsa University in Gaza City.

British activists being detained in UK airports under anti-terrorism legislation on return home from Palestine

28 February 2013 | International Solidarity Movement and Corporate Watch, London, Complicit Britain

Two British peace activists have been detained in recent weeks after arriving home from the West Bank, occupied Palestine. They have been detained and taken in for questioning, over suspected links with the International Solidarity Movement.

“We are concerned about the British police using anti-terrorist legislation to target non-violent pro-Palestinian activists. We are a transparent group, trying to uphold the principles of international law; even inside Israel the International Solidarity Movement is not considered illegal. We would encourage the British Police to ask any questions they wish to do so, directly, and not by detaining affiliated activists at the airport”

Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which the two activists have been held on, allows the police, under certain specified circumstances, to arrest individuals without a warrant who are reasonably suspected of being terrorists. These laws are draconian measures which give the British police powers to detain suspects for up to 28 days without charge.

Schedule 7 is clearly being used as a tool to find out more about activists involved in a wide variety of types of political dissent and to provide profiles of activists for the police to use in trying to undermine political movements. None of the questions about movements in the UK were designed to root out terrorism or uncover the preparation for terrorism. In fact, the movements concerned have never even been accused of terrorism (with the exception of completely false accusations made against the ISM, see here).

Britain abstained at the last vote at the United Nations deciding whether Palestine should be accepted as a non-member observer state. But in the last two weeks the double standards of the British government in relation to Palestine and Israel have again been laid bare; Saeed Amireh, has been refused a visa to visit the UK. Amireh is a peaceful campaigner against Israel’s occupation and the theft of Nilin’s land. He was told he hadn’t provided “enough supporting documents”, even though he had supplied everything that was asked for, including a letter of invitation and guarantee from the UK Palestine Solidarity Campaign of his costs being paid.

The use of these powers as a way to clamp down on non violent activists from Palestine and Britain is not acceptable, what is the British government afraid of? Maybe the fact the activists, returning home from Palestine, work with Corporate Watch and have helped reveal the continued supply of weaponry from Britain to the Israeli army has made them a target. This is despite the current British arms export policy stating it won’t deliver weapons to any countries breaking UN treaties. British companies are still complicit in Israeli war crimes in Gaza, as was proved in the EDO Decommisioners case of 2010.

Read more about the misuse of these powers and much more at corporateoccupation.org

Two residents from Burin arrested overnight: confrontations ongoing throughout today

UPDATE: Baha Adnan Imran 14 years old, who was arrested yesterday on his way home from school, is now being accused of throwing stones and carrying a knuckle duster. He will appear before Salem Military courts tommorow on the northern edge of Jenin.

25 February 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Burin, Occupied Palestine

Mahmoud Nasser Asaus (17) and Magdi Loai Najjar (24) were arrested last night by Israeli forces in the village of Burin and are now being held in Kishon Interrogation Centre in Haifa. Residents of Burin suspect this is the start of a wave of arrest following the Al-Manatir protest that took place In Burin at the beginning of February.

Several jeeps entered Burin at around 2.30am to raid Mahmoud and Magdi’s houses, taking them, handcuffed and blindfolded, to Huwwara military base. At 7am this morning they were transferred to Kishon Interrogation Centre where they are still being held.

These arrests come after the neighbourhood of Al-Manatir was established on a village’s hilltop threatened with confiscation by Israeli settlers. The protest camp was aimed at denouncing Israel’s grab of Burin’s land and to recover the hilltop which has been inaccessible for residents of Burin since 2007.

However, the neighbourhood of Al-Manatir, made up of metal huts and tents, was violently evicted by Israeli soldiers and border police on the same day it was established. Israeli forces protected and accompanied settlers from the nearby settlements of Bracha and Yitzhar; while they were stealing metal huts and throwing stones at Palestinian activists. Simultaneously, around twenty settlers attacked several Palestinian homes on the outskirts of Burin and chopped down one hundred olive trees. When Palestinians ran to the area to defend their homes, stone throwing between settlers and Palestinians ensued. Zakaria Najjar (17), was shot in the right leg with live ammunition by a settler.

During the eviction, eight people were arrested and three of them remained in Israeli prison for twelve days, finally being released without charges. Further reprisals took place in Burin the days following Al-Manatir. Ghassan (23) and Mohammed (19) Najjar were arrested for several hours and interrogated about the protest camp. In addition, the village was sealed off by military checkpoints. The hilltop continues to be inaccessible for residents of Burin.

Following last night’s arrests there have been further incursions into the centre of Burin today. The Israeli army again tried to raid the village resulting in confrontations that began at around midday. Tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets were fired directly into the gathering crowd; as yet no serious injuries have been reported. A further arrest was made by the Israeli authorities, Bahar Adnan Imran who is just 14 years old.

“You got what you deserved”

23 February 2013| International Solidarity Movement, Qusra, Occupied Palestine

UPDATE : After being unconscious for 9 days, Helme who was recently shot close to his heart by an ISraeli settler , awoke on the tenth day to find a Shabak agent in his ICU unit who proceeded to interrogate him and accuse him of throwing stones. He then told Helme that he had “got what he deserved.” Helme needed to have 66% of his liver removed and still has 13 pieces of shrapnel in his body rendering him partly handicapped. On the 23rd of February Helme came out of work to find between 15 and 20 settlers around him armed with metal bars, pistols and M-16 assault rifles. A settler who was hiding behind a rock shot Helme on sight. On the orders of Netanyahu , Helme was transferred from Rafida hospital to Hadassa hospital in Israel.

Following a violent incursion by Israeli fundamentalist settlers into Qusra, two people have been hospitalized with serious injuries. Around 15 settlers from Esh Kodesh (Holy Fire) and Shilo entered Qusra, the clashes that ensued left many people injured, including a sixteen year-old boy who is currently in surgery and may lose his left eye as well as a 26 year-old man fighting for his life after being shot in the chest, by an Israeli settler. Another, 14 year-old Mustafa Hilal was shot in the foot.

At around 11am this morning settlers began attacking the village of Qusra. Armed with rifles, they attacked homes on the outskirts of Qusra, throwing stones they broke windows. The youths of the village attempted to defend their homes. In the clashes that ensued Helmi Abdul Azeez Hassan was shot by a settler, the bullet narrowly missed his heart.

Soldiers arrived on the scene and, as usual, protected the invading settlers. Clashes then continued for the remainder of the day with the Israeli military firing rubber coated steel bullets and tear gas directly at local residents. A sixteen year old boy, Osama Rami Hassan, was shot with a rubber coated steel bullet in the forehead that narrowly missed his eye. He is currently undergoing surgery at Rafidia hospital in the attempt to save it, however the prognosis is not good.

Helmi’s situation is critical; he is currently at Rafidia Hospital in Nablus fighting for his life. Doctors hope he will stabilize through the night so he can be transferred to an Israeli hospital where he can receive a higher quality of care.

A local resident explained to ISM volunteers that he cannot remember a week in which Qusra had not been attacked over the last two years. He went on to say that recently things have been getting progressively worse. Today’s assault is the culmination of events which have been evolving all week. There have been incursions in three out of the last four days. The village expects more in the week to come.