Four campaigners against Israeli apartheid were acquitted yesterday (August 10th) of all charges related to two direct action protests against the Israeli cosmetics retailer Ahava in Covent Garden, London. The campaigners locked themselves onto concrete-filled oil drums inside the shop, closing it down for two days in September and December of 2009.
The campaigners insist that they are legally justified in their actions as the shop’s activities are unlawful. All cosmetics on sale in the shop originate from Mitzpe Shalem, an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, and are deliberately mislabelled “Made in Israel”.
To date, no campaigner has been successfully prosecuted and Ahava has consistently refused to cooperate with the prosecuting authorities.
On the first day of trial, prosecutors dropped aggravated trespass charges. This would have required the prosecution to demonstrate Ahava was engaged in lawful activity. Significantly, the CPS decided that this was not something they would attempt to prove.
The primary witness for the prosecution, Ahava’s store manager, refused to attend court to testify despite courts summons and threats of an arrest warrant leading to the activist’s acquittal on all remaining charges.
Ms Crouch, one of the four acquitted today said: “This is a small victory in the wider campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. We’ll continue to challenge corporate complicity in the occupation and Israel’s impunity on the international stage.”
Mr Matthews, another acquitted campaigner, added: “The message is clear. If your company is involved in apartheid and war crimes and occupying Palestinian land, people will occupy your shop.”
The British government, the European Union, the United Nations and the International Court of Justice all consider Israel’s settlements to be illegal, as they are in breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention are also criminal offences under UK law (International Criminal Court Act 2001).
For more information please contact the defendant’s solicitor Simon Natas on: 0208 522 7707 (UK)
NOTES FOR EDITORS
1. In December 2009, the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) issued guidance to retailers concerning produce grown in the occupied Palestinian territories.
It states that: “The Government considers that traders would be misleading consumers and would therefore almost be certainly committing an offence, if they were to declare produce from the OPT (including from the West Bank) as ‘Produce of Israel’. This would apply irrespective of whether the produce was from a Palestinian producer or from an Israeli settlement in the OPT. This is because the area does not fall within the internationally recognised borders if the state of Israel.”
DEFRA Technical advice: labelling of produce grown in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, 11 December 2009
2. The BDS initiative [7] was born in 2005 through a call by Palestinian civil society groups and organisations seeking a global non-violent means to challenge the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine. It has been taken up by numerous groups and organisations internationally and has become a unifying global movement for those seeking justice for Palestine.
Yesterday, August 10th, between 3:00 and 4:00 in the afternoon, in response to peaceful Palestinian resistance to the military occupation of Hebron – and ongoing settler violence – the Israeli army decided to collectively punish Palestinian shopkeepers in the Old City. They had been threatening for weeks to close certain shops because they are located by the yellow gate that closes off Shuhada street, where a weekly peaceful demo has started each Saturday for the past few months.
At about 3:00 the army announced that three of the five shops would be closed, and that they would weld the doors shut. Three families would lose their entire livelihoods.
Crowds of people then began gathering by the shops. There were members of ISM, CPT and EAPPI. There were also many Palestinians who came out to see what was happening. Some internationals and Palestinians stood in front of the shops.
Some people spoke to the soldiers who at that point were behind the gate. They asked them why they were punishing innocent people. The soldiers told them to leave. They did not listen to people telling them that they should disobey unjust orders. They just stared vacantly.
Some young Palestinian men tried to take off the gates before the soldiers got to them, so they would not be welded shut. One of the shopkeepers, an elderly man, tried to move his products out of the shop.
After about an hour, the gate to Shuhada Street swung open. Armed soldiers walked into the crowd and began ordering people to disperse. They charged towards the people in the first shop and arrested them. Palestinian men were thrown to the ground and were tackled by the soldiers. An older woman from CPT was roughly pushed. In all, six people were arrested, one international – who has since been released – and five Palestinians who are still being held.
The soldiers brutally chased out, dragged out or arrested everyone in the shops. They pushed crowds of people back and then proceeded to weld shut the doors. They declared the area a “closed military zone”. Many of the people in the crowd began remonstrating with the soldiers. Some of the soldiers told people to shut up. Others just stood there, not saying anything. Two officers were yelling at people and the soldiers pushed the crowds back.
After finishing welding the doors, the soldiers went back to their base. Before leaving, they threw a sound grenade. The loud noise shocked many people.
It was an action targeted at innocent civilians who were being punished for daring to peacefully raise their voices for their human rights.
On Saturday August 7th Palestinians were joined by Israeli and international protesters to demonstrate against the settlements and to demand the opening of Shuhada Street. About 60 people gathered to march to the gate closing off Shuhada Street. There they were met by soldiers and border police, but no arrests or injuries were made. The demonstration lasted for about one hour. After the demonstration 6 soldiers chased three boys around the age of 10, accusing them of throwing stones, but the boys managed to escape.
The demonstration went to the gate that closes off Shuhada Street, and while some people were playing drums and other instruments, others were clapping and shouting slogans. Some were carrying posters, bearing the words of President Obama regarding Palestine, in order to remind the world that he has not backed up words with actions. Hebron is still suffering from settlements, and nothing is being done to restore Palestinian access to streets and areas that belong to them., besides their owb peaceful resistance efforts.
The demonstration continued through the old city, and went on to another blocked entrance to Shuhada Street. One Israeli settler was seen on Shuhada Street, obviously trying to be provocative, and some people turned their backs on him, while showing the peace sign towards the blockade. After a few minutes the Israeli army arrived, rushed through the concrete blocks, and started to push people backwards. The protestors moved down where they came from, and marched together to the starting point of the demonstration.
Protests in Hebron
After most people had dispersed following the protest, six soldiers entered a Palestinian house near where the demonstration started. After about 15 minutes the soldiers then came down the street, and one of them raised his gun, pointing it at three boys around the age of ten standing further up the road. People around warned the boys, and they managed to run away. Then the six soldiers ran after them up the street and some hundred meters further, before returning. One soldier asked a Palestinian to bring the boys to him, and accused them of throwing stones after the demonstration. The Palestinian did not oblige them, and the boys managed to escape from what could have potentially been an attempted arrest or military violence.
Iraq Burin
Protests in Iraq Burin
This Saturday, July 7, around thirty Palestinians and two internationals marched through the hilltop village of Iraq Burin to protest against the illegal confiscation of 100 dunams of land by the nearby settlement of Berakha. The soldiers responded rapidly to the protesters’ presence by shooting aluminum tear gas canisters – illegally – at body height and shooting three live bullets. Some of the Palestinian youth at the demonstration threw stones symbolically but were forced to flee by the overwhelming use of tear gas as a weapon by the Israeli army. Four young men from the village were arrested prior to the demonstration when trying to enter the village through a checkpoint that is imposed every Saturday to prevent media and international access to the protest.
Soldiers at this checkpoint, which was established three months ago, declare the village a “closed military area” each Saturday and subsequently few people from outside the village are able to attend and document the disproportionate and illegal methods of the army, keeping the struggle in Iraq Burin behind closed doors. Residents are frequently arrested and detained for days at a time simply for entering their own village; this week Imad Moussar (age 25), Amid Ibrahim (15), Adham Kamal (12) and Ala Vibhi (22) were arrested and unable to attend the demonstration, we await news of their release. On the 20th of March this year soldiers entered the village after a demonstration, shot two young boys: Mohammed Ibrahim Qaddous, 16, was killed immediately, and Ussayed Jamal Abd elNasser, 17, was critically injured and later died. Israeli soldiers still enter the village occasionally causing a great amount of tension and fear at the prospect of more shootings.
Protests in Iraq Burin
During the demonstration a small group of soldiers reacted to the approach of around thirty demonstrators, some throwing stones. Tens of tear gas canisters were shot along a flat trajectory aiming at individuals, including the international activists who were present. No one was seriously injured although one young man was hit on the arm by a metal tear gas canister. Many children, who were present at what was intended to be a peaceful demonstration, hid behind trees. Border police later arrived and shot 5 or 6 tear gas canisters successively, forcing the protesters to retreat.
Beit Ommar:
Around fifty 50 Palestinian, international and Israeli activists protested in Beit Ummar on Saturday, August 7. They moved towards the Karmei Tsur settlement via land that has recently been confiscated by the Israeli army following a new order from the District Commander. Ten dunams of Palestinian agricultural land, declared ‘off-limits’ to its owners, will presumably be annexed to the settlement.
A large group of Israeli soldiers blocked the protesters’ way in the fields, before they reached the perimeter fence. The army attacked with sound bombs and tear gas, including directly at protesters and apparently once again targeting members of the press. One journalist collapsed, unable to breathe after inhaling a lot of tear gas. An international activist was also wounded when a sound grenade exploded on her ankle. In Beit Ommar, the army seems determined to use sound grenades as projectile weapons, throwing them directly at anyone and everyone present – but this tactic has not prevented protests or media coverage.
International Solidarity Movement, August 6th, 2010
An Nabi Salih: This Friday, August 6th, around 100 Palestinians, Israelis and internationals took part in An Nabi Salih’s weekly nonviolent demonstration against the illegal Halamish settlement’s theft of the village’s land and water supply. Regardless of the illegality of firing tear gas projectiles at body height, a practice which has caused many casualties in the village and last week injured an international female protestor, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continue to use this method in an attempt to quash the peaceful protests.
In response to the children symbolically throwing stones at IOF armored jeeps, tear gas projectiles were fired both directly at the children and also into the village, setting fire to one family’s garden. Despite the military’s refusal to use the fire extinguishers they carried with them whilst inspecting the blaze, international, Israeli and Palestinian demonstrators collaborated in attempting to extinguish the fire with bottles and buckets of water filled in neighbouring houses.
During this period, Israeli soldiers forcefully entered one of the aforementioned houses, in which women and children were collecting water to put the fire out. Several internationals and Palestinians entered the house in order to protect its inhabitants from the soldiers’ aggression. At this point a soldier attacked a Danish protestor, bashing his head against the wall.
One fire engine was later allowed on the scene, and the fire was extinguished after over two hours. The military continued to fire tear gas canisters at children throughout this period, and later began using both sound grenades and rubber coated steel bullets in addition.
Despite the IOF’s grossly disproportionate use of violence in order to repress the demonstration, the protest continued for several hours, with the majority of its participants – including more than twenty children – standing directly in front of the soldiers, chanting, singing and making peace signs.
In answer to these peaceful actions, two demonstrators (one Italian and one Israeli) were violently seized by soldiers and detained for over 5 hours in Halamish settlement’s military base without reason. The two protestors were standing in solidarity with villagers as soldiers attempted to arrest a Palestinian, again without cause.
The protest at An Nabi Saleh has taken place since January 2010, because of repeated attempts at land theft by nearby Israeli settlements – despite an Israeli court decision in December 2009 that awarded the property rights of the land to An Nabi Saleh residents. Stolen village land now lies on the other side of Highway 465 and is controlled by the illegal Hallamish settlement which has been expanding and colonizing Palestinian land since 1977.
A protester at Ni'lin symbolically smashing the wall
Shot in this way at the age of 17, Amireh had been demonstrating against the murder of another child from Ni’lin – 10-year-old Ahmed Mousa – killed by the Israeli army the day before Amireh, and whose death was commemorated in last week’s Ni’lin protest.
The demonstration to mark this painful anniversary, which followed 6 hours of mourning in the village, was attended by international and Israeli activists as well as Palestinians. Protestors marched towards the Apartheid Wall, holding pictures of the two boys while chanting slogans in remembrance of the two innocent children murdered by soldiers. They held a banner which read: “We will never forget you Yousef, you will stay in our hearts” and called for the illegal wall to be brought down, with one protestor bearing a hammer to smash a part of the wall symbolically. The Israeli soldiers started shooting a lot of tear gas into the crowd and 5 protesters suffered breathing difficulties after the inhalation of toxic tear gas. Luckily, no serious injuries were incurred by any of the demonstrators and no arrests were made, despite Israeli soldiers moving towards the village, firing tear gas at the group and chasing protesters hoping to arrest them.
The construction of the wall in Ni’lin was delayed by a court injunction from the Israeli Supreme Court and by massive daily protests, as well as the wall in its entirety being declared illegal by the International Court of Justice. It serves to annex many thousands of dunams of Palestinian land to nearby illegal Israeli settlements such as Modi’in Ilit. Since the killings of Mousa and Amireh, three other Ni’lin residents have been killed by the Israeli army, and American solidarity activist Tristan Anderson was shot in the head with an illegal high-velocity tear gas canister on 13th March 2009.
On the second anniversary of her son’s death, Yousef’s mother said that the village would remain steadfast and continue to protest against the Apartheid Wall. Yousef’s brothers said that they will never surrender and will always honor what Yousef died for: a free and peaceful Ni’lin. Saeed Amireh from Ni’lin said: “For every one of us who gets killed, thousands will stand up and refuse to surrender to the inhuman forces that insult life and try to deny us a peaceful and dignified existence. No person on this planet should be denied freedom and peace and dignity. For this, we will always stand up and struggle.”
Bil’in: This Friday over 200 Palestinian, Israeli and international protesters gathered in the village Bil’in to call for an end to the building of the illegal wall separating the villagers from their land. The Israeli army responded the peaceful protest with a large amount of teargas.
The demonstrators first gathered as usual by the community center in the village after noon prayers, and included a large group from a political Palestinian summer camp who had come to the village to join in solidarity with the local protesters. The march started with spirited chanting and went from the village towards the fence. Soldiers came out from the gate and faced the protesters in the olive fields – stopping them from reaching the fence. Protesters argued with the soldiers and continued chanting for about ten minutes before the Israeli army started to fire teargas towards the crowd. Most of the protesters ran back towards the village, while a smaller group remained in the olive fields continuing the protest for another half hour. No one is reported to have been hurt or arrested during the protest.
The protest against the illegal Apartheid Wall which cuts off the villagers from their farmland, causing severe economic damage to the village, has happened every week since. March 2005, and over the years has become an international symbol of the popular struggle for freedom and justice in Palestine, Bil’in itself has lost around half of its agricultural land – to illegal settlements and the illegal Apartheid Wall. Despite being ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004, Israel continues to build the wall, and completed a route which steals Bil’in farmland even though is own Supreme Court also deemed it illegal. Prominent leaders of the popular struggle – including Abdallah and Adeeb Abu Rahmah – have been imprisoned, in an attempt to quash the resistance. Mohammed Khatib was this week prevented from travelling abroad, against the orders of a court. On 17th April 2009 Israeli soldiers shot and killed Bil’in resident and regular protest attendee Bassem Abu Rahma with a high-velocity tear gas canister.
Al Ma’sara: Around 60 people demonstrated in Al Ma’sara on Friday August 6th, about half of them internationals, joining the locals in solidarity with their struggle. Members of the Popular Committee welcomed the internationals, and made special mention of Japanese participants, expressing solidarity with their nation on the anniversary of the destruction and death wrought by the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some parallels were drawn with the suffering of Palestinians today.
Two peace and justice delegations from Canada and France also participated in the demonstration which as always aimed to reach village lands stolen by the military occupation forces for the nearby illegal settlements. Palestinian demonstrators and their international supporters were presented with a written military order by four soldiers, in an attempt to deter the protest by declaring it a closed military zone .But chanting slogans of ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘The Wall Must Fall’ demonstrators continued their march past the soldiers regardless and only stopped when they were physically prevented from going further because of three army jeeps blocking the road.
Israeli occupation forces in An Nabi Salih
The demonstrators instead sat down en masse in front of the occupying forces. Speeches by members of the Popular Committee were followed by united chants from the crowd demanding peace, justice, access to land and the end of Israeli Apartheid. Members of both the Canadian and French delegations also sang resistance songs from their home countries. The demonstration reached its conclusion peacefully with no assaults by the Israeli Occupation Forces.
Renowned for their creativity, protests in Al Ma’sara have been organized since November 2006, when Israel started constructing the wall in the region. Roughly 3,500 dunams of land are stolen by the wall and annexed to the illegal settlements which surround the cluster of nine Palestinian villages of which Al Ma’sara is one. The path of the wall in the area also cuts through the main road to Bethlehem, 13 kilometers to the north, which villagers depend on for access to basic needs such as medical services and education. Israeli soldiers have used unnecessary violence and weapons to suppress the peaceful protests in the village – including the use of sound bombs, and tear gas grenades.
Since approximately 2000, the Israeli Military and nearby settlers have set in place an iron gate across the road leading to Al Bweireh. They have also positioned a huge several-ton rock perhaps 25 meters from the barrier gate on the same road and another gigantic heap of rock and earth 100 meters up from the second blockade. Three roadblocks and a huge settlement, plus Outpost Hill 86 have all but destroyed the “heaven” these villagers once enjoyed on their beautiful land.
Fifty six families representing 560 people no longer have the “luxury” of carrying their groceries to their home by car, of driving their children from school in rain and storm to their homes, or of shipping grain and grapes to market without passing a settlement and military tower. Now, if these Palestinians are going to use a car, they need to go an extra six or seven kilometers on a very bumpy detour road to get to their destination..
In Nov. 2009 CPT was invited to accompany the children of the village on their way home from their schools. The children had experienced stone throwing, cursing, and chasing by the settlers. At times they also had their bicycles stolen. Some of the villagers therefore invited CPT to accompany their children from the eight schools they now attend, past the settlement and outpost to their homes.
Within the last six months, the settlers from the Outpost and Harsina Settlement have begun to “heat up the air” in Al Bweireh with their violent provocative activities toward the Palestinians. Every Friday the settlers enter the village to reach a lone tree on the hill opposite from Outpost Hill 86. They say their leader, Neti, was killed some years ago on this hill. According to the Palestinian residents, as the settlers walk through the Al Bweireh village, they try to pick a fight with some of the Palestinians.
During the week of July 11 the settlers broke two Palestinian car windows and started a fire in a Palestinian neighbor’s lawn. They also threw stones at the farmers and cut the water pipes in one of the grape fields. Prior to these activities, at the beginning of planting season, settlers stole a horse from one of the families. This put the farmer behind in his plowing and also forced him to borrow money to buy a new horse to use until the settlers returned his former horse one month later for the ransom price of 1200 shekels.
During the week of July 18 “about 200 settlers” gathered on the Palestinian road leading through the village. A local Palestinian called CPT to come, to see, to document what was happening. Two CPTers responded, but when they saw the settlers on Outpost Hill 86, they feared something was happening to one of the Palestinians. They approached the settlers at the Outpost and were told to leave. When they began to leave the Outpost, the settlers kicked the CPTers and attempted to steal one of their cameras.
In response to all these provocations, members of CPT or ISM (International Solidarity Movement) are present for some hours in the village every possible day of the week. Also, every Sunday CPT plus their translator Hani Abuhaekel visit the families, build relationships, ask for a review of the past week, and check any further growth of the Outpost. On one Sunday the former Sheik spoke so poignantly: “Why do they (the settlers) come here and do this to us? We all – Jews and Muslims – lived as one family before 1928.”
CPTer Paul Rehm presented a proposal to the “U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation” to help the village of Al Bweireh remove the road blockades to their village. The organization accepted his proposal unanimously and will send it to all 300+ organizations of the Campaign in hopes that each sub group will work creatively in their context on this proposal for the next year.
Though it is not clear what will result from this action, soldiers and police arrived in Al Bweireh at 3:00am Thursday Aug. 5 to dismantle the Outpost. A neighbor said the soldiers found the settlers asleep and had to forcibly carry some of the settlers out of the Outpost. By the time CPT was alerted and was able to arrive in Bweireh, there was evidence of settler reaction to their removal: huge rocks and glass on the Palestinian road and a part of a grape field burned. The military had built a huge earthen mound on the road to the Outpost, making it inaccessible to the settlers. Typically, the settlers begin rebuilding almost immediately. Time will tell.
The campaigners insist that they are legally justified in their actions as the shop’s activities are unlawful. All cosmetics on sale in the shop originate from Mitzpe Shalem, an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, and are deliberately mislabelled “Made in Israel”.
11 August 2010 | ISM
After about an hour, the gate to Shuhada Street swung open. Armed soldiers walked into the crowd and began ordering people to disperse. They charged towards the people in the first shop and arrested them. Palestinian men were thrown to the ground and were tackled by the soldiers. An older woman from CPT was roughly pushed. In all, six people were arrested, one international – who has since been released – and five Palestinians who are still being held.
