At 3pm yesterday 2 army jeeps carrying 8 soldiers came to the home of the Oudeh family. They demanded that the family take down their tent house and their two animal shelters. The army did not present the family with a demolition order or any other documents requiring the family to leave their land.
The Oudeh family live near Al Hadidya, in the northern Jordan Valley. Al Hadidya is in the shadow of Roi’i settlement, and adjacent to an army training area. While the family is originally from Hebron, they have lived near Al Hadidya since before the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967.
Talib Oudeh, the father of the household, refused to demolish his own home. He and his son Tariq were handcuffed, blindfolded and taken outside. Two of the women from the family were also detained. The soldiers spent over an hour taking down the family’s tent and animal shelters.
Once the soldiers had destroyed the family’s home, which is their only source of shelter from the sun, Talib was taken to the military camp near Hamra checkpoint and was detained for a further 2 hours while Tariq was taken to Tayaseya checkpoint . Both remained blindfolded and handcuffed for the duration of their detention, and neither received food or water.
Tariq was released from the checkpoint to make his own way home, while Talib was driven back to his destroyed home in an army jeep. Waiting at the site where his home used to be were a police car and a military jeep. Talib was questioned and told he had a problem with the Israeli intelligence, something he knew nothing about. The police informed him that he has until Sunday to move out of the area or they will return with the civil administration to remove him, his wife and children by force.
The family has has resurrected their tent despite the threat of eviction, and is waiting to see if the military will return on Sunday. Yesterday’s incident is yet another example of the Israel military’s zealous will to ethnically cleanse the Jordan Valley.
This past weekend in the Montpellier, France, over 100 activists from 9 countries gathered for the first ever European Forum Against Agrexco. Delegates from Italy, UK, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Germany and Palestine joined the French organizers for two full days of workshops aimed at strengthening the boycott campaign against the Israeli agricultural export giant.
Agrexco is Israel’s largest fresh produce exporter and European markets account for the vast majority of their sales under the brand Carmel. The Israeli government’s 50% stake in the company as well as their marketing of 60-70% of the fruit and vegetables grown in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank have made Agrexco a prime strategic target for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.
Rafeef Ziadah, representative of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), recalled that the campaign against Agrexco includes all three components of BDS: boycott of Agrexco products, divestment via suspension of commercial agreements and sanctions through legal procedures. Agrexco’s complicity in a broad range of human rights violations, profiting from crops grown on stolen land, irrigated with stolen water and worked with child labor, also provides the campaign with ample opportunities to reach out beyond the Palestine solidarity networks to find allies in other social justice movements.
The forum centered on two parallel tracks with the objective of ridding European supermarkets of Agrexco products: boycott campaigns and court actions.
During the boycott workshop, activists presented a review of the campaigns and actions taking place in the various countries, including lobbying retail chains and co-op member meetings, actions at supermarkets and trade fairs, airport blockades and Italy’s very first BDS flash mob. In Belgium last May, over 400 people in 22 cities filed a complaint with the police citing Agrexco’s complicity with violations of international law. In France, the new Agrexco terminal at the port of Sète became a catalyst for the movement, with a mass demonstration of over 1500 people, a remarkable number for a BDS action! Campaigns are also under way in Sweden and Norway, who were unable to send delegates to the forum. In Sweden activists presented the national co-op with a dossier on Agrexco’s activities who promised to investigate. In Norway, the campaing instead focuses on the local importer, who is consulting their attorneys on the question.
Michael Deas, European coordinator for the BNC, underlined the importance of boycotting Agrexco as a company and not just the products it exports from the illegal Israeli settlements. Aside from problems of traceability – Agrexco has been caught on numerous occasions mislabeling products or mixing settlement produce with that from the Israeli side of the Green Line – purchasing any Agrexco products means supporting a company profiting from the occupation and apartheid policies of the Israeli government.
The involvement in the French campaign of farmers unions, Confédération paysanne and Via Campesina, keep the issues of sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty at the forefront. Michael Deas also underlined the role Palestinian farmers unions have and can play in the campaign against Agrexco. In fact, Palestinian farmers unions were crucial role in helping to expose a propaganda stunt organized by Agrexco in France, claiming that boycotts of Agrexco products damaged Palestinian farmers in Gaza.
The legal workshop, with the presence of three Palestinian attorneys from the Palestinian Bar Association, concentrated on possible court actions against Agrexco. While several countries – Belgium, UK, Italy – are currently exploring legal action, the French case has already produced an important result. An agent of the court inspected customs documents for the Agrexco ships docking at Sète and found clear cases of fraud. A 2010 decision of the European Court of Justice ruled that products from Israeli settlements are not eligible for preferential trade tariffs under the EU Israel Agreement. Yet here were invoices for dates from the Jordan Valley declared to be “Israel Preferential Origin.” This proof of fraud, from none other than a court official, will be vital to campaigns throughout Europe.
The two-day forum succeeded in bringing together campaigns across Europe with the goal of coordinating our actions and strengthening the movement for an Agrexco-free Europe. The first step of the newly formed European-wide network will be a Global Day of Action Against Agrexco set for November 26, 2011.
With all the extremely useful, though highly technical, talk of legal cases, corporate structures, local affiliates, commercial trade agreements, distribution networks, etc., it’s important to remember that behind the data and numbers, this is about people’s lives.
The land confiscations, the stolen water, the house demolitions, the checkpoints, make it impossible for Palestinians to develop their own economy. A reasonable person can draw but one conclusion, these policies serve to drive the Palestinians from their land. And companies such as Agrexco not only turn a profit, but also provide a direct economic incentive to maintain the occupation and continue the apartheid policies.
Rafeef talked about the first time she saw a Jaffa orange in a UK supermarket. She could smell the sweet aroma, but she couldn’t buy it. She thought of her grandfather, evicted from his land, but who returned to work for the new owner because he just couldn’t give up his land. And how Palestinian produce figures in the minds of refugees, denied their right of return.
Rafeef concluded the forum with an open invitation to all to her house in Haifa, once Palestine is free. Once she can return home.
And the campaign to boycott the products of Carmel Agrexco is a step along the way.
19-year-old Mohammed Kafarna was hit in the neck by bullet shrapnel during a weekly non-violent demonstration in Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip.
According to the doctor treating him, there were three pieces of metal lodged in his neck, thigh and abdomen. Mohammed is in a stable condition, which will be monitored over the next 24 hours while doctors decide whether or not to operate.
Mohammed was attending a weekly demonstration that has been going for three years. Tamer Zaleen, a member of the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative which organises the event, was also at the demonstration. “We were about 150 metres from the border, standing on a mound. A warning shot was fired and then another shot, which was much closer. Shrapnel from the second shot hit Mohammed in the neck.”
Eba’a Razeq, a blogger from Gaza, also attended the protest. She explained, “Mohammed shouted, ‘I’ve been injured!’ but we didn’t really get what was happening. Then he started running towards the car. When he arrived, he fainted.”
The demonstration protests against the Israeli-imposed “buffer zone” which prevents any person from accessing Palestinian land within 300 metres of the border with Israel. Those who enter this zone, even if they hold deeds to the land, are likely to face gunfire.
Zaleen explained, “This is the first time anyone has been injured in this peaceful demonstration since it began in 2008, but it will not stop us. This is just farming land! It is our land and we are not afraid.”
According to the most recent reports 22 civilians were killed and 360 injured yesterday when Israeli soldiers opened fire at protesters marking Naksa day across the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and the Syrian border. The 5th June this year marked the 44th anniversary of the Naksa, or “setback” – Israel’s 1967 occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and its accompanying expulsion of 300,000 refugees from their homeland.
In the West Bank the International Solidarity Movement joined with hundreds of Palestinians as well as other internationals and Israelis in demonstrating at Qalandia checkpoint in Ramallah. The protest lasted for approximately seven hours and was met with a violent and disproportionate response by the Israeli military who shot teargas and rubber-coated steel bullets at the protesters throughout. The military who were positioned in front of the checkpoint as well as down the street and on occupied rooftops, began shooting at protesters as soon as they neared the checkpoint forcing them back down the road. No consideration was given to safety as tear gas was fired directly at protesters and at moving traffic resulting in approximately 90 injuries. Elsewhere in the West Bank demonstrations were also held in Hebron and Al Wallaje, however no injuries have been reported from these events. In Gaza hundreds of Palestinian refugees demonstrated outside the Erez Crossing in Beit Hanoun.
Golan Heights – Aljazeera
Golan Heights – Aljazeera
Golan Heights – Aljazeera
On the Syrian border the Israeli army used live ammunition on protesters as they advanced towards the occupied Golan Heights. 22 unarmed protesters were killed and 270 have been reported injured. This follows the widely condemned excessive use of force displayed by Israeli troops last month at the 15th May Nakba demonstrations which left five protesters dead on the Syrian border.
Hundreds of Palestinian refugees rallied outside the Erez Crossing in Beit Hanoun today to demand the right to return to the homes from which they and their families were ethnically cleansed by Zionist militias and Israeli military forces beginning in 1947. They were joined by other Palestinians and foreign supporters, including the International Solidarity Movement – Gaza Strip.
The demonstration, organized by the Preparatory Commission for the Right to Return, marked the 44th anniversary of the Naksa, or “setback,” Israel’s 1967 occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and its accompanying expulsion of 300,000 refugees from their homeland. Many of them had already been forced from their original homes during the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” the displacement of 711,000 Palestinians by Zionist militias in 1947-1948.
The rally was addressed by representatives of a broad range of political parties and civil society organizations.
Another nearby gathering, organized by the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, celebrated Palestinian culture with an exhibition of traditional food, clothing, and lifestyles.
Simultaneous demonstrations by Palestinians elsewhere faced violent repression, including lethal force, from the Israeli military. The Syrian Arab News Agency reported that live gunfire by Israeli forces had killed 23 protesters, including a child, a woman, and a journalist, and injured over 350, outside the occupied Golan Heights. At the Qalandia checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem, Israeli troops targeted hundreds of demonstrators with tear gas, concussion grenades, and rubber-coated bullets, injuring dozens.
At 3pm yesterday 2 army jeeps carrying 8 soldiers came to the home of the Oudeh family. They demanded that the family take down their tent house and their two animal shelters. The army did not present the family with a demolition order or any other documents requiring the family to leave their land.
