Category: Reports

How else could I buy food and clothes?

By Tom

At Al Quds Open University Campus in Tubas we met Raed and Firas, aged 22 and 21 yrs old. They both work in the fields and packing houses of the Jordan Valley settlements to be able to survive and pay for their education. On the days that they work, they get up at 3.00am, to be bussed through the mountains and checkpoints to the Jordan Velley settlements with about 500 settlement workers from the town. They are able to do this as they have a permit to enter the Jordan Valley supplied by the Israeli settler they are working for. They work from 6.00am – 2.00pm, and for this they receive less than 5 pounds ($9.00) per day.

Raed works in Beit Ariva Settlement near Jericho. Even with a Jordan Valley permit he never knows if he will be allowed through the checkpoint at Humra or not. He is frequently searched and two weeks ago was just turned back for no reason. He picks and packs tomatoes, grapes, chilli peppers and other fruit and vegetables for Carmel Agrexco – the largest Israeli exporter to the UK. All the workers there are Palestinian or Thai – they are told not to talk to each other and have no common language that enables them to do so. The settlers are always armed, and they see them only when they are giving them work instructions.

Faed and Firas were happy for us to film them and report the information they gave us. I checked this with them carefully for fear that they could loose their jobs or face other repercussions. Faed’s response was “What else can they do to us?”

Firas is on the Student Council at the Al Quds Open University in Tubas, which was set up in 2001 to enable students to attend university without having to pass through numerous checkpoints. Students work from home, or come to the campus when they are able to. We met with the student council and they told us that 7 students from the University have been killed by the Israeli Army and 35 arrested – one of which was a girl.

Of 1,500 students, 230 come from the Jordan Valley. They are often stopped of delayed at the checkpoints on their way to the University, and this becomes far worse at exam time.

In 2001, the Army came into the University and caused a lot of damage inside the building, and they often block the gate to the University and stop the students from getting in. This last happened 5 days before our visit.

This Univsity is desperately short of money and has no library. They are looking for another acedemic institution to sponsor a subscription to an online library, as this is the only way many of the students could get access to the books they need.

http://brightonpalestine.org/blog/?p=22

Shofat Camp Non violent Demonstration for Right to Worship Successful

Residents of Shofat refugee camp in Jerusalem, along with international and Israeli supporters, today demonstrated non-violently against the Israeli Border Polices’ often violent suppression of the camps residents’ right to cross the checkpoint at the camp entrance to pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque on Fridays.


Palestinian men women and children marched peacefully alongside Israeli and international activists to the checkpoint carrying banners declaring their right to worship at Al Aqsa Mosque and protesting against construction of the Apartheid Wall next to the Camp.

Upon reaching the checkpoint Border Police and soldiers, including two mounted officers, attempted to physically block the marchers’ progress. The residents’ leaders asked the Border Police commander why they could not pass and complained about the denial of a basic human right. Unprovoked by any aggression on the part of the demonstrators, the Israeli forces resorted to using sound bombs and tear gas.

Scared but undaunted, the Camp residents continued to press their right to worship and accompanied by Israelis and Internationals over 60 people were able to make their way past the checkpoint, despite continued harassment by the Border Police

Local resident Ibrahim said: “I am grateful for the people who joined with us today. It’s a first step and we will continue to demonstrate as long as they treat us this way. Today, they held back because of the presence of press and internationals, normally they are asking 10 yr old boys for documents or will not let them pass [documentation is not issued by Israeli authorities to Palestinian children until age 13] and they always treat worshippers brutally. They refuse to let buses through so the people have to go by foot whether it is hot or raining. It’s real suffering every day”

For further information contact:

Ibrahim on 0547372185
Lee on 0547385754

Bil’in: Un-cage Palestine!

by an ISM Media office volunteer

The non-violent demonstration against the Apartheid Wall on the land of Bil’in village this week was themed around the economic siege of Palestine by western powers. Israeli and international activists with pictures of western leaders taped to their chests carried a barbed-wire cage in which a Palestinian dressed in Palestinian flags was symbolically trapped. This was to signify the fact that Palestine is being made a prison created by the Israeli state and it’s western financiers.

The demonstration reached the fence gate which was closed to prevent the villagers accessing their own land. As has been the case for the last few weeks, the Israeli military enforced the closure of the gate by lining up jeeps and Border Police behind it. The demonstrators with the cage tried to open the gate and pass, but were prevented by the Border Police who beat those who got close to them with clubs. After a short while of trying this, the demonstrators gave up and instead dumped the cage on a jeep.

As was the case last week, the chanting group of demonstrators was broken up when the Border Police threw sound bombs at us. In response, several shebab from the village started throwing stones at the soldiers, who then opened fire on them with rubber-coated metal bullets. Most of the demonstrators moved out of the way of this unequal crossfire, shouting at the soldiers to stop firing at children, or talking to them in Hebrew to the same effect. Some from the village Popular Committee convinced the shebab to stop throwing stones. The demonstration regrouped and some tried to start a noise demo (banging in rhythm on a metal barrier which is part of the barrier), but the soldiers tried to arrest one of them – an international activist. Israeli international and Palestinian demonstrators prevented the arrest, simply by piling on the international. The soldiers gave up after a short while.

After a while, the demonstration was declared over by the Popular Committee. The demonstration left peacefully, making sure that the military jeeps were prevented from following us. Shebab from the village exchanged stones with tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets with the soldiers.

No one was arrested this week. One Israeli demonstrator was mildly bruised (we think by a ricocheting rubber-bullet).

Learning under occupation in Jordan Valley

by Tom

Al Jifflik is a small village in the northern Jordan Valley. The villagers live largely in houses built of plastic and tin, as they are barred in Israeli law from building or repairing their houses.

There is an UNWRA school for children up to 13 years old. Since 1967, the inhabitants have been asking for a school for the older children, but to no avail. So last year some people in the area decided to stop asking, and set up a school. They took an existing two-room house in the area, with a couple of outhouses that are used as a sleeping room and shower room for the teachers.

They concreted the ground and erected 6 large tents to use as classrooms, equipped with just desks, chairs and a blackboard. The school has electricity (which is unusual in this area), but no phone line and no address – post for the head teacher has to be sent to her sister in Jericho which is about 50km away.

This school is essential for the pupils. Without it, their education would end at 13 years. Their families have very little money and depend on them to work in the fields. To go to school further away there would be transport problems as there is no public transport. They would have to go through checkpoints. This not only makes their journey very long, but the girls were particularly upset about being searched and having their photographs taken. If the checkpoints are closed, they would have to find somewhere to sleep for the night. Then, they would not be able to go to school and help with the family farm.

The conditions are apalling. The tents flood when it rains, as they are at the bottom of a mountain, and the heat is unbearable in the summer. Yet the girls we spoke to said they would rather endure this than not be able to go to school. They say this even though the chance of getting work is close to zero, and most of the boys will end up working for the settlements for 40-50 shekels per day.

The teachers at the school all come from other areas in the West Bank and have to travel long distances and go through checkpoints to get here. They have to stay at the school, all sharing one very small room, and return home about once a month. They are now paid by the Palestinian Authority (PA), but with the US and EU withholding aid, and Israel withholding taxes due, they got paid nearly a month late last month, and don’t know if they’ll be paid at all this month. At last, the school has permission to build classrooms after going through a lengthy process, but there is no money available to build.

The head teacher of the school has a fighting spirit beyond belief. But the difficulties of life here showed themselves as we left. She got a lift from us to go down to the village, so she could pick up some medicine for her mother that somebody had brought from Jericho for her. She is very keen to set up links with schools in other countries and asked us if we might be able to facilitate this.

http://brightonpalestine.org/blog/?p=20

BBC’s Coverage of Palestine/Israel unbalanced

  • Study finds failures in news balance and depth
  • Reports said to show little to suggest deliberate bias

Owen Gibson, media correspondent, Wednesday May 3, 2006

The BBC’s coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “incomplete” and “misleading”, including failing to adequately report the hardships of Palestinians living under occupation, an independent review commissioned by the corporation’s board of governors has found.

The report urges the BBC to be bolder in setting a policy for using the word “terrorism” to describe acts of violence perpetrated against either side and suggests a senior editorial figure should be appointed to “give more secure planning, grip and oversight”.

The latest of several reports into contentious areas of the BBC’s news provision, it praised the quality of much of its coverage and found “little to suggest deliberate or systematic bias” but listed a series of “identifiable shortcomings”.

Chaired by the British Board of Film Classification president, Sir Quentin Thomas, the review said output failed to consistently “constitute a full and fair account of the conflict but rather, in important respects, presents an incomplete and in that sense misleading picture”.

The panel, which also included former ITN chief executive Professor Stewart Purvis, said the BBC should not let its own requirements of balance and impartiality become a “straitjacket” that prevented it from properly relaying the “dual narrative” of both sides.

In particular, it highlighted a “failure to convey adequately the disparity in the Israeli and Palestinian experience, reflecting the fact that one side is in control and the other lives under occupation”.

On the emotive issue of whether acts of violence perpetrated against either side should be called “terrorism”, the review said the BBC should use the term because it is “clear and well understood” and that once it had decided on a policy for the correct use of language it should be more consistent in applying it.

Like other major media organisations, the BBC regularly deals with a flood of complaints from both sides.

An internal BBC News review, led by senior editorial adviser Malcolm Balen, led to greater resources being allocated to the Middle East and the appointment of a specific editor, veteran foreign correspondent Jeremy Bowen. But the review said more should be done to provide a stronger editorial “guiding hand”.

The BBC should do more to put the conflict in context for viewers, it said. This could include doing more to direct viewers to resources offering more depth and background. Too often, it suggested, news stories were chosen on the basis of the pictures available to accompany them.

The recommendations met with some disquiet among BBC News managers, who felt the appointment of a senior editorial figure to oversee all output on the topic would contradict the findings of a review following the Hutton inquiry.

“We are confident we have the right editorial structures and processes in place to provide high quality, impartial journalism and to ensure we continue to make progress in developing the authority and comprehensiveness of our output,” said BBC News management in a statement.

The Council for Arab-British Understanding said “the panel quite correctly highlighted that there was little reporting of the difficulties faced by Palestinians in their daily lives”.

Daniel Shek, of the British Israel Communications & Research Centre, said: “The report argues that the Israelis and Palestinians are not on equal terms, since the Israelis possess a fully functioning state and the Palestinians do not. It then implies that an imbalance in BBC coverage could be acceptable. If such an argument absolves the BBC from offering balanced reporting then it is a slippery slope towards biased coverage.”