Category: Reports - Page 391 - International Solidarity Movement

Call for action: April 17th Palestinian Prisoners Day

International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) Gaza calls for a global day of action to draw attention to Palestinian political prisoners who are illegally detained in Israel. April 17th marks the Palestinian Prisoners Day, a day in commemoration of the 5834 Palestinians who are currently (as of February 1st, 2011) held in Israeli prisons. No less than 221 of them are children and 798 of them are serving life sentences.

We call upon you to organize events on April 17th or during that week in your countries to oppose Israel’s numerous violations of human rights and international law concerning Palestinian prisoners.

Increase awareness, empower the public, pressure your local and national representatives to hold Israel to account, and demand the following:

* Stop child imprisonment!
* No more administrative detentions in the West Bank!
(These are detentions used to arrest human rights defenders and others requiring no official justification, holding them for 6 months without charge and which are frequently prolonged by a further 6 months)
* Halt the physical and psychological torture of prisoners!
* Grant the right to Gazan prisoners to receive family visits!

Gazans in Israeli jails have not been allowed to receive visitors since June 2007.

Israel receives huge global publicity for Gilad Shalit, the sole Israeli prisoner that is currently held in Palestine, while the world remains largely silent about the 5834 Palestinians that are incarcerated in Israel. They and their families remain anonymous and lifeless in the Western media and political circles despite the huge number of people effected. While torture is common practice in Israeli prisons, Israeli governmental authorities instantly threaten that the “sky will fall” if Shalit is harmed.

“Of course, there is torture in prison. But it is not the worst, physical wounds heal. The psychological torment is much more severe. The guards would wake us up in the middle of the night and get us out of our cells, while they trample the Holy Koran and steal our most personal possessions like letters and pictures”, says a man who was recently released.

As ISM Gaza we especially want to draw attention to the case of Gazan prisoners. Since June 2007, Israel has banned all Gazans from visiting their relatives incarcerated in Israel. The 676 Gazans that are currently imprisoned in Israel have therefore not received a single visitor for nearly four years. Gaza detainees, many of whom are held indefinitely without trial, have since been in virtual isolation, as they are generally not allowed to communicate through phone or over the internet, and are only occasionally allowed to send out a letter to their families.

Because Gazan prisoners are denied family visits, they also have restricted access to basic necessities in prison – such as clothing and money – as visits are often the prisoners’ sole means of accessing these items. Lawyers are prohibited from transferring money to a prisoner and the Israeli Prisoners’ Service insist that only relatives may transfer money, which is obviously impossible.

We are in touch with local organizations and have family members and ex-prisoners that are willing to talk to you through a skype conference that we would be happy to set up with you.

Please contact ISM Gaza by emailing gazaism@gmail.com for more detailed information.

Please ACT in the week of 17th April in the name of Palestinian men, women and children in Israeli prisons who have no voice and like all Palestinians, still have no justice.

Bombing of Khuza’a facilities

26 March 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Khuza’a is a village located in the southern Gaza Strip, in the Khan Younis governorate, near the border with Israel. It is a quiet place inhabited mainly by farmers. On the night of March 21st a warehouse used by the local authority to maintain vehicles and materials needed to provide essential services to citizens was bombed and destroyed.

Near the entrance of the village in an area of about one durum the municipality had set up a garage for some vehicles serving the community and a storehouse of material. The roof was composed of simple steel plates and inside there were tractors, metal mesh, trucks that served the municipality, plastic tanks to store water (water is not always available, and therefore it is necessary to keep tanks) and metal tanks with wheels for transportation. The most important vehicle was the one for the transportation of black water. Khuza’a does not have a system for the centralized recycling of sewage, and every family has its own septic tank. When the septic tank fills up, the tank truck for black water arrives and takes away the sewage. In the basement of the warehouse there was a 94 meter deep well that provided water for irrigation. Around midnight between 21st and 22nd March the site was bombed by F16s, making much of the material useless and destroying the well.

“I do not understand – said the mayor – why the occupation army attacks this building: this place does not pose any danger to Israel, it is a place where equipment is maintained to provide services to citizens of the village. The material destroyed was necessary to safeguard the health of my fellow citizens, now without the black water tank truck, if sewage backs up, in the long run we risk the spread of disease.”

Adjacent to the bombed area there is the water tower, and the mosque. Only through luck they have not been damaged. Among the ruins it is possible to recognize games for children, particularly a yellow plastic slide and a small bike which no child will be able to ride any more. The walls are torn, the roof completely smashed, the vehicles rendered unfit for use, the stored material buried under the rubble. A pump for water and part of the roof have been hurled about twenty feet away. Losses are estimated by the municipality at a total of three hundred thousand dollars.

When the mayor was made aware of the declaration of the occupation forces that the place was considered to be a terrorist base, he replied: “No, really! This place is open all day and vehicles entering and leaving at all hours are visible to everyone. It is also clear to anyone observing the remains that the statements of Israel are false. The occupation forces are crazy: they do not know what to hit and then they hit this place to claim to have hit a goal and scored a victory. This place has nothing to do with what they call terrorism, and there are only civilians working here.”

The house of the family of Samir an-Najjar is adjacent to the bombed site. The bomb destroyed the shack where they kept four sheep killing them all, it also created cracks in some of the columns and supporting walls, and destroyed the septic tank. Half a day after being destroyed by the bomb the septic tank was filled with earth to create a passage in the midst of the debris to one of six children, shot in the head by a bullet during the Israeli attack Operation Cast Lead and confined to a wheelchair. During the night of the bombing the family needed to go to hospital where sedatives were administered to the daughter in shock. The night after the bombing the children were crying in their sleep and waking up with horrible nightmares. “The trauma caused to my children is unforgivable. Here there is only one well and a municipal warehouse for use by all people. Vehicles and equipment stored here are needed to provide services to all citizens.”

The barn of Shawqi An Najjar is also located adjacent to the bombed site, it housed four sheep who are now dead under the rubble, a herd of a hundred chickens and 25 other birds. The agricultural tools it housed are now unusable, even the water tank. The bike mentioned previously belonged to his son. “The occupation forces claim this was a base of Hamas, but it’s just a well and a warehouse, it is helpful to everyone, not just Hamas”

The same night, a drone missile was fired over the house of Mahmud Abu Hussein An Najjar, a few dozen meters away from the warehouse. Five minutes previously the occupation forces had phoned his son and ordered him to evacuate the house. Fortunately, no one was hurt. The same night, another site was bombed in the same governorate, in the municipality of Khan Younis, and two sites near Gaza, resulting in 18 hospitalizations.

Previously, on March 1st in a raid on the area just north of Khuza’a, Israeli bulldozers destroyed tens of dunums of land, and soldiers damaged homes with gunfire. Other smaller raids by occupation forces took place on Friday 19th and Saturday 20th, and since then shots are fired daily at this area of the border. There has also been shelling by the tanks that make incursions into the Palestinian territory.

Khuza’a suffered the worst atrocities during the terrorist attack of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, during which most of the population were forced to leave the village to go to safer places. During this time it was deliberately bombed and civilians were killed during the ceasefire. The area suffered from white phosphorus attacks and women were killed after being trapped in their houses for days when they tried to exit under the white flag.

Israeli army destroy home in Jordan Valley

26 March 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

Settlers erect tent 10 metres from family

Yesterday afternoon the Israeli army destroyed the home of the Nabel Daraghmeh family who have been living in the Ein Al Hilwe region of the Jordan Valley for over 15 years. Three days previously, a group of armed illegal settlers descended in the middle of the night on the area where the family had their tent, setting up their own tent only metres away. In the following days the settlers intimidated and threatened the family of six, ordering them to move their home and leave the area. According to Jordan Valley Solidarity, the settlers threw rocks towards the family’s cattle pen, urinated outside their tent and water-tank, and made as much noise as possible, preventing the family from sleeping. They also put up a fence around the family’s tent and cattle pen preventing them from being able to bring their cattle in at night. The Daraghmeh family legally rent the land from the Lutheran Church, however the Israeli army ordered the family to dimantle and remove their home from the land, eventually destroying it themselves by force.

Settlers erect fence around family's home

Ein Al Hilwe is located just below the illegal settlement of Maskiot which houses 28 familes. In the past years the villagers of Ein Al Hilwe have suffered from ongoing attacks from the settlers. Five days ago settlers tied a rope around the neck of a young horse belonging to villagers and attached the rope to the back of their truck, lynching the horse in front of a group of children. Two weeks previously a woman from the village was also attacked whist attempting to take water from the well

Israeli forces arrest activists in Nabi Saleh

25 March 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

This afternoon nine people were arrested at a demonstration in the Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh. Among the arrested were two ISM activists along with one Danish, one Palestinian and five Israeli protesters. Both ISM activists report being beaten by the Israeli military whilst non-violently demonstrating. The Swedish activist was pepper-sprayed in the face before having his hands tied behind his back and being dragged around a corner and hit in the face several times causing his glasses to break. The other ISM activist, a woman from the United States was hit in her chest whilst being arrested. The third international from Denmark also had his hands tied before being dragged two metres by his hood and then beaten. Both men were left with their hands tied for over two hours.

The weekly demonstration had been going only a matter of minutes when the army began firing teargas and sound grenades into the crowd, and later entered Palestinian houses to look for activist to arrest. Nabi Saleh has a population of approximately 500 residents and is located 30 kilometers northeast of Ramallah along highway 465. Every Friday around 100 un-armed demonstrators leave the village center in an attempt to reach a spring which borders land confiscated by Israeli settlers. The District Coordination Office has confirmed the spring is on Palestinian land, but nearly a kilometer before reaching the spring, the demonstration is routinely met with dozens of soldiers armed with M16 assault rifles, tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and percussion grenades.

The demonstrations protest Israel’s apartheid, which has manifested itself in Nabi Saleh through land confiscation. The illegal Halamish (Neve Zuf) settlement, located opposite Nabi Saleh, has illegally seized nearly of half of the village’s valuable agricultural land. In January 2010, hundreds of the village residents’ olive trees were uprooted by settlers. Conflict between the settlement and villagers reawakened due to the settlers’ attempt to re-annex Nabi Saleh land despite an Israeli court decision in December 2009 that awarded the property rights of the land to Nabi Saleh residents. The confiscated land of Nabi Saleh is located on the Hallamish side of Highway 465 and is just one of many expansions of the illegal settlement since its establishment in 1977.

Tell me, who is the terrorist?!

24 March 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Two days ago, on March 22nd 2011, the Israeli army attacked a populated area in the Al-Shejaija neighborhood, east of Gaza City. Four days after the murder of two children in Johr Al-Dik, the Israeli army once again killed civilians, amongst them two more children. The latest victims of Israel’s war crimes are Yasser A’ahid Al-Helo (15), Mohamed Jalal Al-Helo (10), Mohammed Shaber Harara (18) and Yasser Hamid Al-Helo (55).

At approximately 3 pm, Israeli tanks, positioned along the border, hit Al-Nazzaz street, 2 km from the border with four consecutive artillery shells. The first one hit Samer Walid Mushtaha’s house, destroying the upper floor. His wife, who was preparing dinner, had just gone downstairs and missed the attack by chance. The second shell hit vacant land nearby belonging to the Al-Helo family. The third one hit a group of children and older boys who were playing football near their houses, as they do every single day. 10 year old Mohamed Jalal Al-Helo and 19 year old Mohamed Saber Harara were immediately killed and their bodies brutally dismembered. Ten more children and an adult were also injured by shrapnel. Three year old Yasser A’amer Al-Helo and six year old Ahmad Talal Al-Helo are currently in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital with severe injuries.Yasser Hamed Al-Helo and his 15 year old grandson Yaser Ahed Al-Helo were opening the garage door to take out the car and rescue the wounded when they were hit by the fourth shell. They were killed on the spot.

This was the third attack on Al-Shejaija that day. At 10 am artillery fire injured one person and later in the morning another was reported to have been critically wounded by a drone strike.

Yesterday morning, Israeli military sources were quoted on Israeli radio as stating that one of the shells veered off and caused casualties. However, these four shells targeted a civilian area therefore civilian casualties were to be expected. According to witnesses, not one, but two different shells caused the deaths of these four civilians.

On Tuesday afternoon, the bodies of the four killed were brought to Shifa hospital in Gaza City in horrific conditions from the attacks. Ten year old Mohammed had been struck in the head by shrapnel, causing his skull to crack. Yesterday morning, an outraged and grief stricken crowd of people gathered at the morgue to carry the bodies to the mosque.

Today, the families set up mourning tents to allow friends and relatives to give their condolences. The outside of the houses are tattered with holes from the attack, while emotions boil over on the inside.

“Tell me, who’s the terrorist!? Who is killing innocent children? Who!? My little nephew’s head exploded! And many others are injured! Are you telling the world who the real terrorist is, are you?!” Um Tarreq yells at me, infuriated by grief, anger, fear and sadness. Her cries blow me away and I answer her rage with tears that are rolling down her cheeks also. She was the first one to lay eyes on the horrible scene of dead and injured children and is the mother of one of the nine children that has been injured. Her son is still hospitalized awaiting surgery on his arm. “They play football there every single afternoon, from 3 to 5, after school! What are they who kill children!?”

Next to her sits another family member, she yells and then cries when she starts talking about what is happening. “I have all young girls at home and they are so afraid. They already killed children, in broad daylight! Yesterday during the day and at night drones and Apaches were out. And now there is this big drone hoovering over the neighborhood, you saw it? How can I protect my daughters?”

Since the 2nd Intifada, seven people of the Al-Helo family have been killed by Israeli attacks. During Operation Cast Lead, tanks shelled a house, killing Foa’ad (55), his son Mohammed (25) and Mohammed’s two year old daughter Farrah. The bodies could only be evacuated after three days.

“I just wish you would tell the world we’re not terrorists. We’re just unlucky that we don’t have oil, otherwise the US would support the Palestinian cause for sure”, says Ra’aid Al-Helo, one of the family members.