Fifteen Palestinian fishermen released

19th November Update: The fifteen Palestinian fishermen who were abducted from Palestinian waters by the Israeli navy on the 18th November have been released. Their boats, however, have yet to be returned.

The three internationals who were also taken by the Israeli navy are still being held in Ben Gurion detention facility. All three face
deportation despite entering Gaza from international waters and not leaving Palestinian waters with the fishermen. At no point, before they were transported by the Israeli navy into Israel, did the internationals enter internationally recognised Israeli waters.

The lawyer representing the international human rights observers has been told that she can have access to them on Wednesday morning.

To view reports from the arrests on the 18th November click here and here

Ynet: UN rights chief calls for end to Gaza blockade

‘Palestinians forcibly deprived of their most basic human rights for months,’ UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says

By Hanan Greenberg and AP

To view original article, published by Ynet on the 18th November, click here

The UN’s top human rights official has called on Israel to end its blockade of the Gaza Strip, saying it breaches humanitarian law.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in Geneva Tuesday that 1.5 million Palestinians “have been forcibly deprived of their most basic human rights for months” by the blockade.

She said that Israel should allow aid goods such as food, medicines and fuel into the Hamas-controlled territory and restore electricity and water supplies.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli mission in Geneva had no immediate comment.

Israel imposed a blockade of Gaza after the Islamic group Hamas violently seized control of the territory in June 2006. Israel tightened the sanctions because of rocket fire at Israeli towns.

On Saturday UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Israel to lift the blockade, saying “food and other life saving assistance is being denied to hundreds of thousands of people, and (emphasized) that measures which increase the hardship and suffering of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip as a whole are unacceptable and should cease immediately.”

A statement released by Ban’s office read: “The Secretary-General is deeply concerned at the deterioration of the humanitarian and security situation in Gaza and southern Israel, and at the potential for further suffering and violence. He calls on all parties to uphold international humanitarian and human rights law.”

Israeli security officials said the IDF will continue allowing 30 trucks carrying supplies to enter Gaza each day, a third of the amount permitted prior to the blockade. They said the matter will be reviewed should the security situation improve.

According to the officials, some 2.2 million liters (581 million gallons) of diesel fuel are being transferred to Gaza through the Nahal Oz terminal each week

This fuel is used solely for the purpose of electricity production at Gaza’s main power plant.

Ynet: NY – Rights groups protest Hebron settlement fundraiser

Adalah-NY, Brooklyn for Peace rally outside Marriott Marquis hotel against fundraiser held there by settlement group, chant ‘Hebron’s settlers, Klu Klux Klan, racist groups go hand in hand’

To view original article, published by Ynet on the 18th November, click here

Thirty-five rights advocates from Adalah-NY and Brooklyn for Peace rallied Monday evening outside the Marriott Marquis hotel in New York’s Times Square to protest a fundraiser held there by the Brooklyn-based Israeli settlement group the Hebron Fund, the right groups said in a statement.

The fundraiser was held while tensions escalated in Hebron, as the Israeli High Court ordered Hebron’s settlers to temporarily evacuate a disputed home in the West Bank city.

Standing on 45th Street near New York’s Broadway theaters, the protesters’ chants included: “Mamma Mia Marriott, you support a racist lot” and “Hebron’s settlers, Klu Klux Klan, racist groups go hand in hand.”

Aaron Levitt, an activist with Jews Against the Occupation-NYC who has spent time in Hebron as a human rights monitor, noted that, “We made a lot of noise, but I don’t know if the settlers heard us at the dinner. Some of them cast agitated looks in our direction as they entered, and I engaged a few in conversation.

“The subtext of what I heard from most when I described the settler attacks on Palestinians that I had witnessed in Hebron was that they see no equivalence in the moral worth of non-Jew and a Jew,” he said.

“This is racist in a deep and meaningful way. And it is a worldview that allows settlers in Hebron to throw stones at Palestinian girls every day as they go to school, and to drive Palestinian families from their homes.”

Palestinian fishermen still being held by Israeli authorities, three internationals fighting deportation with at least one engaging in a hunger-strike

18th November – British politicians, MP Clare Short and Baronness Jenny Tonge, both issue statements regarding the arrests made by Israeli forces today

The fifteen Palestinian fishermen abducted from Palestinian waters this morning (10am 18th November) are still being held by Israeli authorities in Ashdod, while their boats have been confiscated. Legal proceedings were initiated today that petition for their immediate release.

The three international Human Rights Observers who were arrested while accompanying the fishermen have been taken to Ben Gurion detention facility as Israeli authorities starting deportation proceedings. Andrew Muncie, a British citizen who was one of the three internationals arrested has made it clear that he will non-violently resist any attempt to deport him and that he is engaging a hunger-strike until all fifteen of the Palestinian fishermen are released.

The status and plans of the other two international Human Rights Observers arrested, American citizen Darlene Wallach and Italian citizen Vittorio Arrigoni, are not yet known.

This action comes after international journalists have been denied access into Gaza due to the current siege.

British MP Clare Short has made this statement in regards to today:

” If there is to be any hope of peace in the Middle East, international law must be upheld. This means that the siege of Gaza must be lifted and the constant attacks by the Israeli navy on Gazan fishermen halted. Those who have been arrested must be released and the UK must insist that these illegal attacks on Gazans, fishing peacefully within their own water must cease”

Baroness Jenny Tonge said:

“The time has come for the international community, and especially the European Union to take action against Israel’s consistent breaking of international law. The EU-Israel Association Agreement should be suspended until Israel complies with this law.

It was only last week that I personally met with the fishermen whose boats are illegally water-cannoned and fired upon by Israeli gunboats as they peacefully fish in Gaza waters. The fishermen and human rights observers who were today taken unlawfully by Israel should be released immediately.”

To view original press release from the abductions today by the Israeli navy click here

Fifteen Palestinian fishermen and three internationals abducted from Palestinian waters off the coast of Gaza

Gaza City, 10 a.m.- Fifteen Palestinian fishermen and 3 international Human Rights Observers (HRO’s) were surrounded by the Israeli Navy and taken from their boats 7 miles off the coast of Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip.

The fishermen and the HRO’s were transferred from 3 separate boats to the Israeli warships. Other Palestinian fishermen reported that the 3 boats were seen being taken north by the Israeli Navy.

The Human Rights Observers are Andrew Muncie, a Scottish British citizen, Vittorio Arrigoni, an Italian citizen, and Darlene Wallach, an American citizen. They have been volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) since they entered Gaza on ships with the first Free Gaza Movement voyage on the 23rd August 2008. All internationals have previous experience working with the ISM in the West Bank.

Fellow activists have been unable to establish contact with the HRO’s or with the fishermen since they were abducted.

Since their arrival, the ISM volunteers have been regularly accompanying Palestinian fishermen who are regularly attacked by Israeli navy vessels from as little as 3km from shore. They have regularly filmed Israeli forces using live ammunition, shells and water cannons against unarmed fishermen.

When confronted by the Israeli Navy, the boats were 7 nautical miles from the shore of Deir al Balah, well within the fishing limit detailed in the Oslo Accords of 1994.

With regular claims that from the Israeli government that it has ‘disengaged’ from Gaza, these patrols and attacks from the Israeli navy, regularly occuring from as little as 3 miles from shore, represent a clear signal of the continuation of occupation of Gazan territory as well as regular breaches of the current cease-fire.

Over 40,000 people in Gaza make a living from the fishing industry, yet this community has been decimated by Israeli restrictions on fishing rights and the prevention of fuel from reaching the Gaza Strip.

According to the Fishing Syndicate in Gaza, fishermen need 40,000 litres of fuel and 40,000 litres of natural gas each day to operate throughout the high fishing season.

Starting in April each year, there is a migration of fish from the Nile Delta to Turkish waters which Palestinian fishermen have traditionally relied upon. Yet Israel limits fishing 6 miles from the Gaza shore and regularly attacks those who venture further than 3 miles – over 70 fishermen were arrested last year by the Israeli forces. The large schools that form the migration are usually found 10 miles from shore. The average catch of fish was over 3000 tons a year in the 1990’s, now it is around 500 tons directly due to the Israeli siege of Gaza.

Also, the water in which the fishermen of Gaza sail in is now receiving 50 million litres of sewage per day because the people of Gaza have no alternative due to the lack of power supplies to sewage treatment facilities.