Category: Reports - Page 386 - International Solidarity Movement

Green Palestine marks Nakba day

19 May 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

Palestinians planting a tree to mark one of the villages wiped out in 1948

With the creation of Israel in 1948, four hundred and eighteen Palestinian villages were wiped out and destroyed, displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people from homes they had lived in for generations. This year on May 17, in further commemoration of the Nakba (the Catastrophe), the ISM joined the Palestinian organisation Green Palestine in planting olive trees in the village of Al Tayba, near Jenin in the north of the West Bank. After each tree was planted a laminated tag with the name of each individual village was tied to a branch.

Arwad and Fakreh Adiri, two Palestinian activists for the Green Palestine, put together a schedule of events over the Nakba period, which included 63 horses (standing for 63 years of exile) riding to Jenin, 418 bicyclists wearing the names of the 418 villages cycling for 3 kilometres to the centre of Jenin and an Ambulance alarm sounding during a 63 second silence in which the whole of Jenin observed.

ISM talked with Arwad, one of the organizers of the event.

What has been the aim of today?
To tell the young people that these 418 villages existed. The Palestinian people are patient enough to wait to go back home. We chose Al Tayba as it is next to the 1948 border, the wall has split this village so half of it is in Palestine and the other half is in Israel, leaving families cut off from each other.

This is just the beginning, we are planning to turn this into Haifa’s garden, we will invite other districts in Palestine to come and visit and also put an information board in French, German and English to tell this story so that we raise awareness in the international community.

What is the significance of planting trees?
Olive trees are the strongest trees in Palestine, they last for hundreds of years. This is to indicate that our roots will remain in Palestine, we are going deep in the ground and we will stand tall.

What do you think the future of Palestine will be?
That’s a very hard question but I will be honest… as long as we have internationals coming to Palestine, we see the light coming close. And I don’t mean governments I mean regular people like you. We feel like we have solidarity which is more important to us, it will take longer this way ´[to bring about change] but finally I’m sure we can and we will have change, Inshallah.

I am for having Israel as a state, but living all together. Don’t steal my stuff, let’s share it or leave it alone. Look at this water issue, settlers use 80% of the water available to Palestine and the rest of us have just 20% because they dig their wells deeper. They are stealing. It is not fair.

Free Bassem and Naji Tamimi

18 May 2011 | Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

Recent events have once more proven the potency of civil resistance, and its ability to bring about change and end injustice. From the Arab Spring to the recent demonstrations commemorating the Nakba, ordinary people are affecting change. While Abdallah Abu Rahmah is finally out of Israeli prisons, a new wave of repression is underway in the West Bank, and more protest leaders have been rounded up as Israel once more is set to suppress civil resistance to the Occupation. We need your help to stand by them.

Recently, two leading protest organizers have been put behind bars. Naji and Bassem Tamimi from the village of Nabi Saleh were jailed on equally dubious grounds to Abdallah Abu Rahmah. They were arrested based on confessions from teenagers who were themselves seized in midnight raids, denied legal counsel, and beaten. This is not justice. We must raise our voices again to secure their quick release.

The case against both Naji and Bassem is based on coerced confessions of teenagers taken at gunpoint from their beds in the middle of the night by Israeli soldiers. The main “evidence” against them is the testimony of a 14 year-old who was beaten up on his arrest, denied legal counsel, denied his right to have his parents present during his questioning and instead of being told by his interrogators of his right to remain silent, he was told that “it is better you tell the truth”.

Please consider making a donation towards Bassem and Naji Tamimi’s legal defense and/or use the templates in the following links to send an email to your Minister of Foreign Affairs and ask that your government acts for their release.

Settler attacks with Molotov cocktails on Nakba day in Hebron

17 May 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

The school of the illegal settlement Kiryat Arba and the house which was attacked

A Palestinian house was attacked by settlers from the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba in Western Hebron on May 15, the Nakba day.

Jamal Abu Saifan told the International Solidarity Movement that around 6.30 pm on Sunday, four masked settlers appeared and started to throw Molotov cocktails and glass bottles towards one of the houses of the Abu Saifan family in Western Hebron. 19 people live in the house which was attacked, including several children. The family has five houses, situated just below a religious school of the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba. The attackers were standing in the school yard.

When the settlers appeared the family called The Red Crescent and TIPH, Temporary International Presence in Hebron, also appeared. Jamal Abu Saifan told ISM that the settlers threw bottles and some Molotov cocktails towards the TIPH personnel when they started to take photos to document the attack.

On Monday 16, the same day as ISM spoke to the family, around 14 settlers appeared at the school yard and threw stones towards the houses. Israeli police arrived and gathered stones and bottles from both attacks. The family has made a complaint to the police about the events. No one was injured in the attacks.

The family has been exposed to settler violence many times. In December 2009 two members of the Abu Saifan family were shot by settlers. Jamal Abu Saifan told ISM that most of the 90 members of the family have been exposed to stone throwing by settlers from the illegal settlement Kiryat Arba. Water tanks and satellites on the roofs of the houses have also been destroyed by settlers on several occasions.

‘Silwan is the next Hebron’ : an interview with a resident of Silwan

17 May 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

On 14 May 2011, the ISM went to Silwan, East Jerusalem after hearing about the tragic death of Milad Ayyash, a Palestinian teenager, who was killed during the Friday demonstrations against the Occupation in Batten Al Hawwa. Milad Ayyash was pronounced dead in the early hours of May 14. His death came as tensions rose between Palestinians and the Israeli army due to the Naqbah demonstrations which occurred all throughout the West Bank, Lebanon, Egypt and the Golan Heights, on the 15 May.

We interviewed Nihad Siam, a Palestinian activist for the Wadi Hilweh Information Centre who also arranges sports activities for the youth in the district in the Maada Centre.

Can you please describe what happened at the Friday demonstrations (13/05/2011) in Silwan, East Jerusalem?

The demonstrations usually begin after the Friday prayers which end in the early afternoon. There are usually violent clashes between the Israeli army and Palestinian residents and this occurs every week. On this particular day, the ‘shubab’ (young men) threw Molotov cocktails at Jonathan’s house (Beit Yehonatan*). These settlers are always making problems for Silwan residents, they have guards and are armed. The settlers in the area, it’s like…choking. They have no right to be here, they make life hard – for what reason?

The Molotov was a reaction against the harassment the Palestinians experience here. There is nothing we can do about it as the police arrest us if we complain against the settlers. This has happened to me. The protest tent that we have now, at the bottom of the hill, was in Wadi Hilweh. The settlers attacked it, I told them to leave, that this was private and one of them said to me; ‘no place is private, this is all ours.’ I reported them to the police but the settler said I had attacked them and I was arrested.

So the Molotov cocktails were thrown, and then what happened?

There were many witnesses on the day who can contest that Milad was sitting away from the shubabs, he was watching from a distance. It was after these Molotov cocktails were thrown that the protestors were shot with ‘dum dums’ (rubber coated steel bullets) by the Israeli army. The shubabs closed the road by burning tyres and at some point at around 2pm, Milad was shot from the roof of Jonathan’s house, by a settler or a settler guard we are not sure. The shubabs threw more stones and it got more intense.

We were told afterwards that inside his body, it was…torn, like…’digging,’ it tore his insides and came out the other side. We have never seen this before, it’s new. The hospital tried to give him 16 units of blood but it didn’t work he was continuously bleeding, His BP was 40 when he got to hospital which is pretty much dead. The family probably wanted things to calm down before they announced his death.

Have the police questioned anyone to find out who shot Milad?

No. Nothing has happened.

Can you tell us a little bit about Silwan and why it is so important to Israel?

Silwan is Old Jerusalem, it started here. There are holy places for Muslims, the Jewish and Christians. This was the City of David 3000 years ago and the history of Silwan goes back 5000 years.

Silwan is made up of 10 to 11 neighbourhoods. There are about 55 000 Palestinian residents living there. The first settlers to move into Silwan were a family made up of approximately 7 or 8 people in 1991. There are now 350 settlers living in the area. They are required to carry arms by law and are also provided with armed security guards. They are a state within a state. They arrest people like they are policemen. They take the Green Line where they want. Israel is the only country in the world without declared borders.

What do you think the future is for Silwan?

‘Dundura’ [Arabic for ‘revolution’] as the shubabs would say! Palestinian people can’t handle the situation anymore, I know someone who told me he feels he cannot breathe. We don’t need new technology or anything they promise, we want to live like the farmers, simple, quiet, restful. We don’t need all these things they want to give us. We are Palestinian people. We are from the beginning of history. Leave us.

*Standing at least 4 stories above the surrounding Palestinian homes. Jonathan’s House, or Beit Yehonatan, has been home to eight settler families since 2004 where it was built without license by an extremist settler organisation, Ateret Cohanim. Ateret Cohanim was founded in 1978 and is dedicated to encouraging Israeli Jews to move to live in East Jerusalem. Analysts say, illegal settlements together with outposts, such as Jonathan’s house, which in total are home to approximately 200 000 Jews, is to jeopardise any peace agreement that might offer Palestinians a state, with Jerusalem as its capital.

Demonstrations mark Nakba Day in Hebron

16 May 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

Approximately one thousand people demonstrated in Hebron during the weekend to commemorate the Nakba day. Several protesters were injured after violent responses from the Israeli army.

On Sunday the 15th May around a thousand Palestinians joined in a demonstration to commemorate the Nakba, (in English literally “the catastrophe”) which occurred in 1948 when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from their homes as the Israeli state was created. The demonstration, in which the International Solidarity Movement as well as all major political parties and the Mayor of Hebron took part, started at the Hebron Municipality building in the H1 area (the area of the city controlled by the Palestinian authority) and stopped at the UNRWA (The UN Agency for Palestine Refugees) office, where speeches were held. The chants of the demonstrators and the speeches highlighted the right of the 1948 refugees to return and the unity of the Palestinian people.

Protesters also marched towards the Old City of Hebron. Here the Israeli military advanced into the H1 area and attacked protesters with tear gas, sound bombs and rubber coated steel bullets. Other protesters were prevented from entering the Old City by Palestinian police forces. A group of young women in the front line of the demonstration managed to break through the police line and for a while managed to continue the protest behind the police forces. Protesters responded to the violence of the Israeli military by throwing stones. At 4pm a member of an ambulance crew told the ISM that 20 people so far had been injured by the Israeli military, four were injured by rubber coated steel bullets and the remaining by inhaling tear gas. According to Ma’an News Agency, an additional five demonstrators were later treated for wounds caused by rubber coated steel bullets, four for tear gas inhalation and one for fractures caused by being beaten by the Israeli military.

On Saturday the 14th of May during the evening a march took place involving around 300 Palestinians, they carried fire torches and marched from the Municipality to the nearby square where speeches were made. They also carried keys which represent the loss of their homes in the Nakba. The march took place within the Palestinian controlled part of Hebron and there were no difficulties with the Israeli military although a sizable Palestinian police force was on call to watch the protest.

On Sunday the 15th during the evening after the main protests marking the Nakba, the ISM were asked to attend a protest by Youth Against Settlements, a Palestinian activist group. The demonstration was held in Wadi al Hadya. Though all of the street lights had been inexplicably turned off, the ISM members reported 30 youths gathered at the base of the hill and were blocking the road with a large skip, which was set on fire. This was to stop the advance of Israeli soldiers who had gathered at the top of the hill. The soldiers were using their laser sights which could be clearly seen moving over the young men gathered at the protest. The soldiers then fired tear gas and sound bombs in order to disperse the gathered youths. As far as the ISM members were able to tell nobody was injured by this unprovoked fire but this is as yet unconfirmed.