23 July 2011 | Civil Peace Service Gaza
Footage of the second water-cannon attack by the Israeli navy against the Civil Peace Service Gaza boat “Oliva” on Thursday, July 14, 2011. The camera used was lost in the sea when the crew evacuated the “Oliva,” recovered in a fishing net, and returned on Wednesday, July 20.
19 July 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
The Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, happened sixty three years ago. The theft of Palestinian land continues even today. Every Tuesday, for the last three years, the people of Beit Hanoun have protested both the occupation and Israel’s three hundred meter “buffer zone” which Israel has declared on Palestinian land near the border of Gaza. We gathered today, like we do every Tuesday near the agricultural college in Beit Hanoun. Local farmers warned us that for the last couple of days Israeli forces had been camped out in the abandoned houses near the border. Just as their grandfathers were driven from their homes by Zionist violence, so these farmers were driven out of their homes by Zionist violence. Sometimes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Over the weekend six were injured in Beit Hanoun when Israel bombed a well in the middle of a residential district.
At eleven A.M. we set off toward the wall, toward the land that their grandfathers were expelled from. A drone buzzes overhead. We can see the clouds of dust raised by the movement of Israeli tanks on the other side of the wall. The farmland in the “buffer zone” has been newly desecrated, bulldozed again, an area that used to be fields and orchards that had been reduced to a few hardy weeds, now devoid of even weeds. The Palestinian flags that we had planted there during previous demonstrations buried under the earth. Given the warnings of Israeli soldiers in the abandoned houses and the bombing over the weekend, we were all more nervous than usual. Bella Ciao boomed out over the megaphone, but few sang along, most of us thinking our own thoughts, worrying alone.
We walked past the last tree still standing, a beautiful tree covered in fragrant pink flowers. We entered the newly destroyed “buffer zone”, stopped, planted new flags, dreamed of planting new trees, of seeing a dead zone brought back to life. People looked into the distance, dreaming of their grandfathers trees, trees that many of them have never been allowed to see, their fruit stolen by the grandchildren of the same people who drove their grandfathers from their land. We chanted for a free Palestine. Dust rose from the movement of an Israeli tank. We returned to Beit Hanoun, but at least we had left a flag behind to commemorate that we were there, that the grandchildren of the cleansed still live.
13 July 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
On July 13th villagers in the small town of Izbat Tabib wanted to protest against the illegal Israeli construction of barbed wire fences outside the village, preventing farmers from tending their lands and olive trees.
In the beginning of the afternoon, villagers and international activists gathered at the mayor’s house before the demonstration. Afterwards, the demonstration started and participants headed towards the barbed wire fences, not far from the village entrance. Here the villagers and activists from ISM helped each other tear down the fences, this continued for around half an hour, until the arrival of Israely military jeeps with about 20 soldiers. The cutting of the fences halted, and together the villagers and activists, prevented the entry of the soldiers into the village by means of peaceful singing and demands for Palestinian rights to their rightful
land.
14 July 2011 | International Solidarity Movement
A 21 year-old student was killed by the Israeli army on July 13th in Al Faraa refugee camp, whilst on his way to prayer.
Around 3:30 am the Israeli military entered the refugee camp with several heavily armed vehicles. Ibrahim Omar Serhan, a student at Al Najah University, was on his way to the mosque when he came across a group of soldiers standing approximately twenty meters away.
The soldiers ordered Ibrahim to stop; frightened, he turned around and tried to run away. As he was fleeing, soldiers shot Ibrahim twice from behind – once in each leg – rupturing an artery. Ibrahim managed to get to a house nearby where a local person gave him some basic first aid. Fearing for his safety, people from the camp moved him to a second house away from the soldiers.
He stayed in this house for around twenty minutes waiting for the ambulance, which was delayed due to the army presence in the camp. Soldiers followed the trail of blood that Ibrahim had left on the ground, and forcibly entered the house to arrest him. The family of the house unsuccessfully tried to prevent the soldiers to take him, pleading with them to wait for the ambulance. When the ambulance eventually reached the house, they were unable to assist as no one knew where Ibrahim had been taken. Ibrahim bled to death whilst in the custody of the army. Soldiers only handed Ibrahim over to the Palestinian medics once he was dead.
Ibrahim’s funeral took place at 1.30pm on the same day in the camp cemetery.
During the invasion, the Israeli army arrested fifteen people from the camp, three of whom are still in custody.
Background
Army incursion and arbitrary arrests in the camp have been frequent in the last few years. In 2008, Fadi Subuh and Mustafa Zalat, 21 and 25 years-old, were killed by the army whilst sitting with friends in the olive trees near the camp.
Al Faraa refugee camp is located in the Jordan Valley, seventeen kilometers North East of Nablus. The camp was established right after the Nakba in 1949 and comprises 8000 refugees from 80 different villages in Palestine 1948. The support of UNRWA, which has been working in the camp since 1950, has declined drastically in the last few years: food relief is now only being distributed to 50 families. Unemployment in the camp now exceeds 70%.
11 July 2011 | Jordan Valley Solidarity
Yesterday, July 10th, was launched the third edition of the Jordan Valley football tournament in Al Awja.
Yousef Lafi, from the Palestinian Football Federation, along with Al Awja club manager, Fathy Khderat and Ibrahim Sawafta, from the JVS campaign, opened the football tournament.
Every speaker emphasized the importance of this tournament as a way of putting light on the Jordan Valley and its specific situation.
They also complimented this initiative as a way of gathering people from the Jordan Valley that should be repeated.
Fathy Khderat, the coordinator of the Jordan Valley Solidarity campaign, restated that JVS will focus its work in Fasayel Wasta and Foqa in the coming months.
The result of the game Fasayel VS Al Awja was 3-1.
Next game will be Zbedat VS Anata, today at 7pm at Al Awja playground.
