18th March 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Yesterday evening, on March 17th, 16-year old Murad Yusif Abu Ghazi died after being shot by Israeli forces in Al Arrub refugee camp outside Hebron in the occupied West Bank. A second Palestinian identified as 17-year old Saif Salim Rushdie is in a critical condition after being shot in the chest by the Israeli forces in the same incident.
The funeral for Abu Ghazi was held in Al Arrub camp today, and hundreds of mourners came to pay their respects. After the funeral, clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli forces and according to Ma’an News Agency, 8 young men were injured with rubber-coated steel bullets, receiving treatment on the scene. In addition, dozens of other Palestinians, among these women and children, were treated for severe tear gas inhalation.
Hundreds of mourners paid their respects at the funeral.
Murad Yusif Abu Ghazi is be the thirteenth Palestinian to be killed by the Israeli army since the beginning of 2017. His death marks the second killing of a minor this year and once again highlights the excessive use of lethal force against civilians.
According to an Israeli army spokesperson, the killing happened after firebombs were hurled at passing vehicles on a road near Al Arrub camp and “in response to the immediate threat, forces fired towards suspects”. The spokesperson added that investigations are still underway. Statistics provided by Yesh Din, an Israeli organisation of volunteers for human rights, however demonstrate that criminal investigations into alleged offences committed by Israeli forces against Palestinians have a poor chance of being effectively investigated. According to Yesh Din, only 4 cases out of 186 criminal investigations in 2015 resulted in indictments.
17th March 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Last week we reported on two of the training sessions run by Human Rights Defenders (HRD) here in Hebron for young people to use video as an activist tool against the occupation. Today we wanted to find out more about what the students themselves think and I talked to Yasmin, a pupil at Qurtuba school in the heart of Tel Rumeida. Yasmin looks quiet and shy as she sits next to me on the sofa, but as she talks it is clear she knows what she wants to say and what she wants to do: “I want to show what the Israelis do against my people here, how the soldiers and the settlers humiliate the students and the teachers.”
Qurtuba school sits above Shuhada street and the students have to approach it via a staircase controlled by soldiers, yards from one of the tiniest and most extreme settlements in the heart of H2. Students and teachers are so frequently harassed that fear and anxiety is a constant element of school life. Yasmin told me that only that same day soldiers had entered the school and made sexually harassing remarks to the young women there. Soldiers also regularly block their way to school, although they know perfectly well that the children are students.
Settlers regularly insult, bully and assault children on their way to school and some of this has been already caught on camera. The most notorious settlers are well known to the students who will run to avoid them. A fortnight ago one girl broke her leg trying to get away from the settler Anat Cohen, whose history of assault and harassment of Palestinians and internationals is among the worst.
When internationals like ISM are there, then we report these events: we reported when Yasmin’s friend broke her leg, when soldiers forced Qurtuba children to leave school early so that settlers could celebrate Purim without the presence of their neighbours, or when settlers invaded the kindergarten. But we are not there all the time and Yasmin feels Palestinians should report events themselves: ‘when this happens I can have proof against the soldier – otherwise people will not believe – then they will have trust’.
In the middle of the interview settlers invade the garden of the house we are in. Emad Abu Shamsiya and Badee Dwaik, activists with HRD, come out with their cameras and the settlers scatter: it is a neat illustration of the power of the camera.
And for the future? “I will work to finish my education – Israelis do not like us to have a good education – I will study to become a journalist and expose the occupation. This project has given me extra motivation.” I am sure Yasmin will make a formidable witness both now and in the future.
17th March 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Ni’lin, occupied Palestine
Today on 17/03/2017 the residents of Ni’lin alongside internationals and Israeli activists held a demonstration in memory of Rachel Corrie and Tristan Anderson, against the apartheid wall and against the occupation of Palestine.
A parade of around fifty demonstrators, including Israeli and ISM activists, marched from the olive groves outside the town towards the apartheid wall. Palestinian demonstrators carried flags and placards depicting ISM activists Tristan Anderson, critically injured after being shot in the head with a long range tear gas missile by Israeli forces at the same demonstration eight years ago; and Rachel Corrie, who was murdered by the Israeli forces fourteen years ago yesterday.
Apartheid wall
Local demonstrators set fire to tyres along the wall, waving flags and chanting at the illegal Israeli settlement located on their lands beyond, whilst Israeli activists called across using a megaphone. The Israeli Forces arrived shortly after, firing teargas over the apartheid wall and setting off sound grenades. Obscured by the smoke from the burning tyres, soldiers took photographs and fired some rubber-coated metal bullets at the protesters whilst the volleys of teargas continued. Young local men sent stones and teargas canisters back over the apartheid wall with their slingshots. The demonstrators ended by moving up the hill and back towards the town, having suffered no injuries.
The non-violent demonstrations against the apartheid wall and the occupation in Ni’lin have been going on weekly since 2008, as attempt to get back the farm land which was stolen from the villagers. Despite deaths, critical injuries and much repression the resistance continues.
17th March 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Kafr Qaddum, Occupied Palestine
Israeli forces on a rooftop in Kafr Qaddum. Photo: ISM/Yusuf Zidan
On Friday 17th of March the people of Kafr Qaddum gathered for another weekly demonstration which was repressed by Israeli forces, who shot teargas, stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets at demonstrators. Israeli forces were seen on at least one rooftop in Kafr Qaddum, as well as a nearby hill, which they used as vantage point to shoot at protesters.
Before the demonstration had started the Israeli forces were strategically stationed within the village of Kafr Qaddum, some even on the rooftop of a Palestinian home. Around 12:30, just a few minutes before the demonstration would have begun, teargas was fired. Some youth from the village began throwing stones at the Israeli forces in an attempt to drive them out. The clashes continued until around 14:30, when Israeli forces withdrew after having fired teargas, rubber-coated steel bullets and stun grenades at protesters.
Protestors throw back teargas canisters. Photo: ISM/Yusuf Zidan
Before the end of the demonstration rubber-coated steel bullets were shot at protesters causing light injuries to two pro-Palestinian Israeli activists. Both the rubber-coated metal bullets bounced before impact limiting the damage inflicted.
The people of Kafr Qaddum have been protesting actively for over five years against the closure of their main road to Nablus and the expansion of the illegal Israeli settlement of Kedumim. This road closure translates into a longer commute for the villagers when travelling to Nablus, as such it also has an important social and economical impact on Palestinian communities. These demonstrations continue despite encountering heavy repression with the Israeli forces regularly using live ammunition against the local activists.
Palestinian youth faces Israeli Army. Photo: ISM/Yusuf Zidan
16th March 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, occupied Palestine
Rachel Corrie, April 10, 1979 – March 16, 2003 (Courtesy Rachel Corrie Foundation)
Today, March 16th, 2017, marks 14 years since the day that Rachel Corrie had her life taken. And though her life ended early, her courageous heart and defiant spirit will be carried onward, and continue to inspire many activists now and into the future.
Holding a megaphone, and wearing bright colors, Rachel Corrie stood in between a Palestinian house awaiting its demolition and the bulldozer about to demolish the house, in the town of Rafah in Gaza. For several days, ISM activists had been serving as protective presence in the homes that were on their way to being destroyed. Just hours before, a group of activists entered a Palestinian house about to be demolished, shouting at the military that they were inside, and they backed out.
The definition of a bulldozer: 1) a powerful track-laying tractor with caterpillar tracks and a broad curved upright blade at the front for clearing ground. 2) a person or group exercising irresistible force, especially in disposing of opposition.
A solidarity activist with ISM, Rachel Corrie used her body, her voice, her heart, and her will to try to stop one of many house demolitions plaguing the Palestinian people by the Israeli occupation forces. The driver of the bulldozer, a Russian immigrant, claimed that he did not see her. And, as the driver began to drive towards the house, he scooped up the dirt and took this beautiful human with him. Not once, but two times, as other activists shouted to stop through the loudspeakers. Rachel’s skull was fractured, and though she was still alive after the incident, not long after she was rushed to the hospital, she passed away. Rachel was twenty-three years old.
The case after her death proved to be controversial and contentious. Rachel’s parents sued the state of Israel, and many organizations criticized Israel for their one-sided investigation of the case. As of 2015, the court has rejected the appeal.
Rachel’s parents continue to do her work through the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice and launched projects in memory of their daughter. They have also advanced investigation into the incident and asked the U.S. Congress and various courts for redress. Rachel’s story has inspired a play entitled “My Name is Rachel Corrie”, followed by a book “Let Me Stand Alone” that includes journal entries and emails from her experience in Gaza.
This is a poem written by Rachel Corrie only a couple of months before her tragic death.
Leaving Olympia
January 2003
We are all born and someday we’ll all die. Most likely to some degree alone. What if our aloneness isn’t a tragedy? What if our aloneness is what allows us to speak the truth without being afraid? What if our aloneness is what allows us to adventure – to experience the world as a dynamic presence – as a changeable, interactive thing?
If I lived in Bosnia or Rwanda or who knows where else, needless death wouldn’t be a distant symbol to me, it wouldn’t be a metaphor, it would be a reality.
And I have no right to this metaphor. But I use it to console myself. To give a fraction of meaning to something enormous and needless.
This realization. This realization that I will live my life in this world where I have privileges.
I can’t cool boiling waters in Russia. I can’t be Picasso. I can’t be Jesus. I can’t save the planet single-handedly.
I can wash dishes.
Here is Rachel’s last email.
Hi papa,
Thank you for your email. I feel like sometimes I spend all my time propogandizing mom, and assuming she’ll pass stuff on to you, so you get neglected. Don’t worry about me too much, right now I am most concerned that we are not being effective. I still don’t feel particularly at risk. Rafah has seemed calmer lately, maybe because the military is preoccupied with incursions in the north – still shooting and house demolitions – one death this week that I know of, but not any larger incursions. Still can’t say how this will change if and when war with Iraq comes.
Thanks also for stepping up your anti-war work. I know it is not easy to do, and probably much more difficult where you are than where I am. I am really interested in talking to the journalist in Charlotte – let me know what I can do to speed the process along. I am trying to figure out what I’m going to do when I leave here, and when I’m going to leave. Right now I think I could stay until June, financially. I really don’t want to move back to Olympia, but do need to go back there to clean my stuff out of the garage and talk about my experiences here. On the other hand, now that I’ve crossed the ocean I’m feeling a strong desire to try to stay across the ocean for some time. Considering trying to get English teaching jobs – would like to really buckle down and learn Arabic.
Also got an invitation to visit Sweden on my way back – which I think I could do very cheaply. I would like to leave Rafah with a viable plan to return, too. One of the core members of our group has to leave tomorrow – and watching her say goodbye to people is making me realize how difficult it will be. People here can’t leave, so that complicates things. They also are pretty matter-of-fact about the fact that they don’t know if they will be alive when we come back here.
I really don’t want to live with a lot of guilt about this place – being able to come and go so easily – and not going back. I think it is valuable to make commitments to places – so I would like to be able to plan on coming back here within a year or so. Of all of these possibilities I think it’s most likely that I will at least go to Sweden for a few weeks on my way back – I can change tickets and get a plane to from Paris to Sweden and back for a total of around 150 bucks or so. I know I should really try to link up with the family in France – but I really think that I’m not going to do that. I think I would just be angry the whole time and not much fun to be around. It also seems like a transition into too much opulence right now – I would feel a lot of class guilt the whole time as well.
Let me know if you have any ideas about what I should do with the rest of my life. I love you very much. If you want you can write to me as if I was on vacation at a camp on the big island of Hawaii learning to weave. One thing I do to make things easier here is to utterly retreat into fantasies that I am in a Hollywood movie or a sitcom starring Michael J Fox. So feel free to make something up and I’ll be happy to play along. Much love Poppy.
