Anti-Apartheid Demonstration this Sunday near Beit Ur

On Sunday, at 10 am, November 4th a demonstration against the apartheid road system will take place on the Israeli-only 443 highway. The demonstration will take place at the bridge near Beit Ur that runs above the Palestinian only tunnel that runs beneath the highway.

For seven years now, Highway 443 has been accessible to Israelis only. Palestinians are forbidden to travel on the highway, even on the 9.5 kilometer-long segment which passes through occupied West Bank territory and is built on land that has been confiscated from Palestinians whose olive trees have been cut down “for the benefit of the local population.”

Palestinians are forbidden to travel even along the segment that is nine and a half kilometers long and passes through West Bank territory. The road was widened in the 1990s using land confiscated from the local Palestinians under the pretense that the road would be open to Palestinians as well as Israelis, many ancient olive trees were destroyed during the road expansion.

The policy of prohibiting Palestinian movement on this road is not an isolated case. On 312 kilometers of main roads in the West Bank, vehicles bearing Palestinian license plates are forbidden or restricted access. According to OCHA (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) Of the 539 physical obstacles and check point that restrict Palestinian movement, only fourteen separate the territories occupied in 1967 from Israel proper. Nearly all of the physical obstacles and checkpoints that make up the closure regime are located along the roads for Israeli use. These roads, in addition to the segregation wall, carve up Palestinian areas into isolated enclaves. This fragmentation is at the root of the West Bank’s declining economy.

Thursday October 24th Palestinian Israeli and international protesters blocked the highway for over fifteen minutes by organizing a sit down in the road. Palestinians distributed a message to the drivers in Hebrew (see: http://www.apartheidmasked.org/?p=118) on the highway: “We know what it feels like to be blocked. We experience it daily.”

Journalists can meet at the demonstration itself at 10 am, at the bridge near beit Ur that runs above the Palestinian only tunnel that runs beneath the highway.

From Tel Aviv, meet at the central bus station at 8:30, and contact Ilan Shalif beforehand as early as you can if a ride is needed. Email is best, ilan@shalif.com and include your mobile phone, or call him at 036482749 or 0524655520 but do not send a text message.

From Ramallah, meet at the Manara at 9 am.

For more information:
Yousef Karaje 02-2488113
or Mohammad 0545573285

and visit www.apartheidmasked.org

Reporters Without Borders: Golan Heights journalist Ata Farahat held without trial for past three months

Press release

30 October 2007

Reporters Without Borders is outraged by the prolonged detention of journalist Ata Farahat, who was arrested on 30 July and is being held in Al-Jalama prison (14 km southeast of Haifa). The organisation has been told he could be prosecuted for “collaborating with an enemy nation” but this has never been confirmed by the Israeli authorities.

“Three months have gone by since Farahat’s arrest and we fail to understand the Israeli judicial system’s refusal to release him on bail,” Reporters Without Borders said. “By forbidding the Israeli media to cover this case, the judicial authorities have freed themselves of any responsibility. The only possible explanation for this shocking decision is the existence of questionable aspects to the judicial procedures used in this case.”

Since his arrest, Farahat has been brought several times before an investigation judge in Tel Aviv who has refused to free him provisionally pending trial. Several unofficial sources have said he is to be prosecuted for “collaborating with an enemy nation” as a result of his relations with the Syrian news media. The gag order imposed on the Israeli media and on his lawyers indicates that the charges against him are serious.

A member of Farahat’s family told Reporters Without Borders that his lawyers had also requested a form of provisional release in which he would remain under house arrest, but this was also rejected by the judge in charge of the case on 23 October. The trial has been postponed until 15 November.

Aged 35 and a graduate of the Damascus school of journalism, Farahat was working for several Syrian news media, including the daily newspaper Al-Watan and public televison.

Reporters Without Borders wrote to the Israeli justice minister on 1 October asking for an explanation for Farahat’s prolonged detention. The organisation has not yet got a reply.

Ambulance stopped at checkpoint in Hebron

October 30th, 2007

Today in the old city of Hebron, an ambulance carrying a Palestinian woman to her home was delayed by Israeli soldiers for two hours at the entrance to the Israeli occupied area of Beit Romano.

Traveling from Jerusalem following intensive surgery, the woman, Ms. Abuhaikal from Tel Rumeida, was forced to wait in the ambulance for a further two hours – unable to walk with 39 stitches in her abdomen – as Israeli soldiers denied the ambulance entry to the occupied area. The ambulance was forced to drive through the occupied zone to reach her residence, as Tel Rumeida is blocked to Palestinian cars with concrete road blocks – the only entries being for Israeli settlers through Israeli occupied zones.

The Israeli soldiers refused to allow the ambulance entry to the occupied zone, despite the fact that the transit had been arranged with Israeli authorities many hours before. After waiting an initial hour, the ambulance turned around, to take Ms. Abuhaikal back to hospital, fearing for her health.

A collaboration of Israeli activists, International Red Cross and international Human Rights Observers worked together to call the ambulance back, convinced they could arrange for it to pass through. After being forced to wait a further 45 minutes, the ambulance was finally allowed to pass through the occupied zone, bringing Ms. Abuhaikal to her home.

Throughout this travesty, there were other accidents in the area of Hebron where ambulances were needed, but none of the ten Hebron ambulances were available to attend.

Red Crescent ambulance drivers noted that this was an extremely common occurrence, and that they are often forced to wait for 90 minutes to get through checkpoints, both fixed and those known as “flying checkpoints” – where Israeli soldiers can randomly decide to stop vehicles for “security reasons”. One ambulance driver explained that whilst driving an ambulance in the Hebron area he was once detained for 3 hours for a security check, actions that clearly endanger Palestinian lives. As the driver commented, “Palestinian lives are cheap”.

Action Alert! Jamaeen Non-Violent Demonstration to Protest Settler Arson

For Immediate Release

October 30, 2007

Last week, settlers from Kfah Tappuah settlement near the West Bank village of Jamaeen trespassed on the Palestinian villagers’ land 2km from Jamaeen village, burning approximately 30 dunums of vital agricultural land hosting olive trees.

The village of Jamaeen lies just south of Nablus and, like the many other villages in the Nablus and Salfit region, depends on olive production. Thus, the loss of trees was a substantial blow to the local villagers.

Palestinians and international supporters will gather Wednesday, October 31st at 8 am to visit villagers’ land and document the arson attack. The peaceful demonstration, led by Jamaeen villagers, will welcome internationals and Palestinians to partake in a show of solidarity and steadfastness, to proclaim that the villagers do want, need, and use this land and are not willing to be harassed away from it by settlers.

Villagers and supporters will meet at Jamaeen municipality at 8 am Wednesday morning.

For more information, contact:

ISM Media Office, 0599-943-157, 02 2971824

Bedouin Village facing demolition near Bir Nabala


*A villager looks toward the Apartheid Wall that has separated the village members. 18 members of the village are behind the Wall, which now takes 2 hours driving to reach.*

In September this year, a village north of Jerusalem was divided in two when the Israeli government completed another section of the Apartheid Wall. The Israeli government intends to destroy the greater part of the village, which lies to the east of the wall in territory officially recognized by Israel as part of the Jerusalem municipality, to build housing, industry and transport facilities. The Apartheid Wall has separated the village members, leaving 45 people on land claimed by Israel and 18 on the other side in Palestinian territory near the village of Bir Nabala.

The villagers to the east of the Wall no longer have direct access to water and electricity. Their only source of water is a plastic hose that runs under the Wall, and they must call family members on the other side of the wall to turn the water supply on and off. Villagers have also lost access to grazing land for their livestock and pay 300 shekels for transport to retrieve feed from the land they once farmed. The completion of the wall has also prevented villagers from taking livestock to markets in the West Bank and the Ministry of Agriculture consistently denies permits allowing villagers’ access to the West Bank.

The 14 children in the village who used to walk to school must now travel approximately two hours each day to and from school. The children pass through Qalandyia checkpoint to Ramallah and then take another bus to Bir Nabala. This journey is expensive, costing 15 shekels per child, which the villagers struggle to pay. Due to the expense, ten children from east of the wall are living with members of the village on the other side near Bir Nabala.

As the final sections of the wall were being put in place in September, the movement of villagers was restricted by army for ten days. During this period children were unable to attend school and villagers had limited access to food and other necessities. On the 16th of September, members of the village separated by the wall attempted to bring livestock feed to fellow villagers east of the wall via the remaining small gap. The soldiers guarding this opening prevented the animal feed from being brought across and called four army jeeps to the scene to punish villagers.

Twenty soldiers entered the houses of the village members east of the wall, who were to receive the livestock feed, and attacked the villagers. A nineteen year old man and his uncle were taken to hospital once villagers had negotiated for an hour with authorities to allow an ambulance to arrive.

On the 25th of November a lawyer will defend the villagers before a civil court in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, they struggle both to maintain their daily routine as well as to prepare themselves for the legal battle ahead. Members of the village make daily phone calls to NGO’s such as B’Tselem to help them deal with issues such as soldiers at Qalandia checkpoint. They have also made numerous calls to the Palestinian Authority for assistance, but their requests can’t be fulfilled due to the PA’s inability to operate on land claimed by the Israeli authorities.

When asked what the Israeli government intended to do with the villagers after demolition of their homes, the villagers’ spokesman did not have a clear idea. “If we go now, I do not know where we will go,” he told us. “In ’48 we lived in Beir Sheba. As a result of the Nakbah we were forced to move. In 1962 we came to this area and have lived here ever since. I was a 1 year old boy then and have lived on this land ever since. This land belongs to East Jerusalem, we are on Arab land” he added.