Category: Reports

Media activists needed in Palestine

Reporting the voice of Palestinian struggle from the root        

Download for more information: ISM Call for Media Activists

About ISM: The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli occupation in Palestine by using nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles. Founded by a small group of primarily Palestinian and Israeli activists in August 2001, ISM aims to support and strengthen the Palestinian popular resistance by providing the Palestinian people with two resources, international solidarity and an international voice.
For detailed information on ISM please visit palsolidarity.org.

Interning / volunteering with ISM: You will be based in the West Bank, experienced and interested activists may be placed in Gaza. Apart from gaining reporting and photography experience, you will also be networking with existing media outlets and develop skills during media meetings on reporting the occupation of Palestine. ISM is seeking a minimum 3 month commitment, and will provide accommodation during your stay.

ISM is a non-hierarchical solidarity movement. Consequently, you will not be treated as a classical intern but rather as a fellow voluntary member of the activist group.

Fields of work:

  • Learn to humanize the voice of the struggle by reporting on events ranging from anti-occupation demonstrations to house raising demolitions.
  • Establish contacts with local Palestinian and international media
  • Help refining the ISM media strategy by developing and incorporating own ideas on information spreading techniques

Application documents: Please send in any relevant information about yourself and experience or background you may have in reporting and journalism. Express why you are applying for this voluntary internship and what you hope to gain from it. Send an example of your written work and an optional photo sample of your work.

Applications are accepted year round and should be sent to: palreports@gmail.com

        The voice is the movement. Let it be heard.

                      We wish you the best of luck and hope to see you reporting in Palestine.

38 Military Orders on homes in Tel Rumeida, Hebron

4 December 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

There are 38 military orders issued on homes in Tel Rumeida and Hebron. On Sunday 3rd December the District Coordination Office (D.C.O.) and the lawyers representing the families who have military orders put on their homes were supposed to be visiting the sites that the orders refer to. The purpose of the tour of these sites was to ascertain exactly what the meaning of these military orders are. The tour of the sites has been delayed. This delay leaves the families concerned still wondering what will happen to their homes and lands.

The D.C.O. and the lawyers from the Hebron Rehabilitation Center (H.R.C.) representing the families will take the tour around the sites within the next twenty days. After the tour is taken the families will again have five days in which to make their legal objections to the military orders.

This delay will add to the anxiety suffered by the families involved. Many of these families already have military watchtowers on the roofs of their houses and have faced having military orders put on them before. The scale of the 38 military orders goes beyond simple harassment. The Israeli Occupation forces obviously have some kind of large plan for the area, to increase the already intolerable oppression on the residents of Tel Rumeida. All the families however have organized a collective response to this threat. The Palestinian community of Tel Rumeida will face this in solidarity with each other.

By Team Khalil

Tent demolition in Susiya, South Hebron Hills

by Wyatt Black
1 December 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On the morning of November 28th, numerous soldiers came to the village of Susiya in the South Hebron Hills, unannounced from the nearby settlement, which is also called Susiya. The army jeeps and construction equipment came rolling in around eight o’clock and quickly went to work without giving any information as to why they were invading someone’s private land, and proceeded to demolish a tent in the village.
Esha Ishboal erected a tent two years ago so that his workers could have some shade while picking olives on one of his families’ properties in Susiya, which is south of the city of Al Khalil (Hebron). It was a simple structure, not dirty or old. It had a metal frame and was almost always open on all sides but one, just enough to block some wind. Here Esha would invite his friends to have tea, or as in my case he’d ask a stranger if they would like some hospitality. That was the situation on his farm a couple weeks ago at least.
The table and chairs were spared but the tent itself was leveled. This was an especially lazy demolition since it wouldn’t have taken a bulldozer to bring the tent to the ground. A couple of soldiers could have done it in less than half an hour.

Esha Ishboal looks at the remains of his tent after the demolition

Wyatt Black is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed)

New state, same occupation: violence in Qaryut as villagers attempt to remove illegal roadblock

30 November 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank, Occupied Palestine

Many injured as Israeli Forces fire rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters directly into a crowd from close range during a peaceful attempt to remove an illegal road block.

On approaching the turn of the road in close vicinity to the settlement that is currently blocked the demonstration was halted and crushed by twenty or so Israeli soldiers simultaneously firing rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters directly into the crowd. A number of protesters required medical attention following the tear gas attack, including a young child who was unconscious for a short time and another protester who had to be rushed to hospital after the tear gas triggered a serious asthma attack. Two international human rights activists were hit by rubber-coated steel bullets, and one activist’s arm will be incapacitated for some time.

Only hours after the successful Palestinian UN non-member state bid, today’s action started well spirited, with large groups of people in the centre of the village listening to speeches, enjoying music, and breaking into chants. By the time the protest was ready to leave, similar to previous actions to unblock the road, more than 200 people from Qaryut had gathered. The speakers briefed the crowd that the protest would be a strictly non-violent action and set off towards the road carrying olive branches, placards bearing slogans, and tools for dismantling the road block.

The village of Qaryut, located in Area C in the West Bank is being squeezed out by the Israeli settlements of Shilo and Eli. As a result, Palestinian farm land has and continues to be confiscated, access is restricted, property damaged, and members of the community are regularly harassed violently. Since the first Intifada, the village’s once-main road towards Highway 60 has been blocked, heavily infringing on the daily lives of commuting workers and students attending schools and universities in either of those cities. Blocking off the direct access to Route 60 means that travel times have been increased by at least 30 minutes going to or from Ramallah or Nablus. Continue reading New state, same occupation: violence in Qaryut as villagers attempt to remove illegal roadblock

Settlers hit activists at peaceful roadblock protests in the West Bank

by Davey Brandi and Ellie

3 December 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On two different occasions while Palestinians, accompanied by international activists, peacefully blocked roads leading to illegal settlements to demonstrate against the occupation and settlements, settlers purposefully injured activists in hit and run incidents.

On November 14 while a group of protesters blocked a road leading to an illegal settlement, a settler tried to drive through the crowd, then accelerated, deliberately hitting an international activist, as the activist was trying to get out of the way. The activist hit the front of the car, then bounced off the windshield and hit the ground. The settler then drove away, careless about what he had just done. An ambulance was called, and the activist was treated for injuries to his head and arm.

A similar incident occurred on November 19, as a roadblock protest was held on another settler road. As a settler car approached the crowd, he accelerated into Palestinian popular struggle coordinator Abdallah Abu Rahmah, hitting him with his car, before fleeing the scene. Abdallah was treated in hospital but was released later that day. Israeli army soldiers were present at the scene, but didn’t do anything to prevent the settlers from acting in violent ways, and allowed them to flee the scene.

The settlers seem to be above the law. They continually get away with violence, destruction of property, and constant harassment against the Palestinians, while the soldiers usually protect them, because they have Israeli citizenship. Incidents similar to these happen constantly all throughout the West Bank, while soldiers and authorities turn a blind eye.

Abdallah Abu Rahmah lies injured on the ground after a car driven by Israeli settlers ran over him at a roadblock protest against Israel's military action in the Gaza Strip, November 19, 2012 Photo by: Guest photographer Hamde Abu Rahma / Activestills.org
Abdallah Abu Rahmah lies injured on the ground after a car driven by Israeli settlers ran over him at a roadblock protest. Photo by: Guest photographer Hamde Abu Rahma / Activestills.org

 

Davey Brandi and Ellie are volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement (names have been changed)