Independent: “Gaza is a jail. Nobody is allowed to leave. We are all starving now”

By Patrick Cockburn in Gaza

Gaza is dying. The Israeli siege of the Palestinian enclave is so tight that its people are on the edge of starvation. Here on the shores of the Mediterranean a great tragedy is taking place that is being ignored because the world’s attention has been diverted by wars in Lebanon and Iraq.

A whole society is being destroyed. There are 1.5 million Palestinians imprisoned in the most heavily populated area in the world. Israel has stopped all trade. It has even forbidden fishermen to go far from the shore so they wade into the surf to try vainly to catch fish with hand-thrown nets.

Many people are being killed by Israeli incursions that occur every day by land and air. A total of 262 people have been killed and 1,200 wounded, of whom 60 had arms or legs amputated, since 25 June, says Dr Juma al-Saqa, the director of the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City which is fast running out of medicine. Of these, 64 were children and 26 women. This bloody conflict in Gaza has so far received only a fraction of the attention given by the international media to the war in Lebanon.

It was on 25 June that the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was taken captive and two other soldiers were killed by Palestinian militants who used a tunnel to get out of the Gaza Strip. In the aftermath of this, writes Gideon Levy in the daily Haaretz, the Israeli army “has been rampaging through Gaza – there’s no other word to describe it – killing and demolishing, bombing and shelling, indiscriminately”. Gaza has essentially been reoccupied since Israeli troops and tanks come and go at will. In the northern district of Shajhayeh they took over several houses last week and stayed five days. By the time they withdrew, 22 Palestinians had been killed, three houses were destroyed and groves of olive, citrus and almond trees had been bulldozed.

Fuad al-Tuba, the 61-year-old farmer who owned a farm here, said: “They even destroyed 22 of my bee-hives and killed four sheep.” He pointed sadly to a field, its brown sandy earth churned up by tracks of bulldozers, where the stumps of trees and broken branches with wilting leaves lay in heaps. Near by a yellow car was standing on its nose in the middle of a heap of concrete blocks that had once been a small house.

His son Baher al-Tuba described how for five days Israeli soldiers confined him and his relatives to one room in his house where they survived by drinking water from a fish pond. “Snipers took up positions in the windows and shot at anybody who came near,” he said. “They killed one of my neighbours called Fathi Abu Gumbuz who was 56 years old and just went out to get water.”

Sometimes the Israeli army gives a warning before a house is destroyed. The sound that Palestinians most dread is an unknown voice on their cell phone saying they have half an hour to leave their home before it is hit by bombs or missiles. There is no appeal.

But it is not the Israeli incursions alone that are destroying Gaza and its people. In the understated prose of a World Bank report published last month, the West Bank and Gaza face “a year of unprecedented economic recession. Real incomes may contract by at least a third in 2006 and poverty to affect close to two thirds of the population.” Poverty in this case means a per capita income of under $2 (£1.06) a day.

There are signs of desperation everywhere. Crime is increasing. People do anything to feed their families. Israeli troops entered the Gaza industrial zone to search for tunnels and kicked out the Palestinian police. When the Israelis withdrew they were replaced not by the police but by looters. On one day this week there were three donkey carts removing twisted scrap metal from the remains of factories that once employed thousands.

“It is the worst year for us since 1948 [when Palestinian refugees first poured into Gaza],” says Dr Maged Abu-Ramadan, a former ophthalmologist who is mayor of Gaza City. “Gaza is a jail. Neither people nor goods are allowed to leave it. People are already starving. They try to live on bread and falafel and a few tomatoes and cucumbers they grow themselves.”

The few ways that Gazans had of making money have disappeared. Dr Abu-Ramadan says the Israelis “have destroyed 70 per cent of our orange groves in order to create security zones.” Carnations and strawberries, two of Gaza’s main exports, were thrown away or left to rot. An Israeli air strike destroyed the electric power station so 55 per cent of power was lost. Electricity supply is now becoming almost as intermittent as in Baghdad.

The Israeli assault over the past two months struck a society already hit by the withdrawal of EU subsidies after the election of Hamas as the Palestinian government in March. Israel is withholding taxes owed on goods entering Gaza. Under US pressure, Arab banks abroad will not transfer funds to the government.

Two thirds of people are unemployed and the remaining third who mostly work for the state are not being paid. Gaza is now by far the poorest region on the Mediterranean. Per capita annual income is $700, compared with $20,000 in Israel. Conditions are much worse than in Lebanon where Hizbollah liberally compensates war victims for loss of their houses. If Gaza did not have enough troubles this week there were protest strikes and marches by unpaid soldiers, police and security men. These were organised by Fatah, the movement of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, which lost the election to Hamas in January. His supporters marched through the streets waving their Kalashnikovs in the air. “Abu Mazen you are brave,” they shouted. “Save us from this disaster.” Sour-looking Hamas gunmen kept a low profile during the demonstration but the two sides are not far from fighting it out in the streets.

The Israeli siege and the European boycott are a collective punishment of everybody in Gaza. The gunmen are unlikely to be deterred. In a bed in Shifa Hospital was a sturdy young man called Ala Hejairi with wounds to his neck, legs, chest and stomach. “I was laying an anti-tank mine last week in Shajhayeh when I was hit by fire from an Israeli drone,” he said. “I will return to the resistance when I am better. Why should I worry? If I die I will die a martyr and go to paradise.”

His father, Adel, said he was proud of what his son had done adding that three of his nephews were already martyrs. He supported the Hamas government: “Arab and Western countries want to destroy this government because it is the government of the resistance.”

As the economy collapses there will be many more young men in Gaza willing to take Ala Hejairi’s place. Untrained and ill-armed most will be killed. But the destruction of Gaza, now under way, will ensure that no peace is possible in the Middle East for generations to come.

The deadly toll

* After the kidnap of Cpl Gilad Shalit by Palestinians on 25 June, Israel launched a massive offensive and blockade of Gaza under the operation name Summer Rains.

* The Gaza Strip’s 1.3 million inhabitants, 33 per cent of whom live in refugee camps, have been under attack for 74 days.

* More than 260 Palestinians, including 64 children and 26 women, have been killed since 25 June. One in five is a child. One Israeli soldier has been killed and 26 have been wounded.

* 1,200 Palestinians have been injured, including up to 60 amputations. A third of victims brought to hospital are children.

* Israeli warplanes have launched more than 250 raids on Gaza, hitting the two power stations and the foreign and Information ministries.

* At least 120 Palestinian structures including houses, workshops and greenhouses have been destroyed and 160 damaged by the Israelis.

* The UN has criticised Israel’s bombing, which has caused an estimated $1.8bn in damage to the electricity grid and leaving more than a million people without regular access to drinking water.

* The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem says 76 Palestinians, including 19 children, were killed by Israeli forces in August alone. Evidence shows at least 53 per cent were not participating in hostilities.

* In the latest outbreak of violence, three Palestinians were killed yesterday when Israeli troops raided a West Bank town in search of a wanted militant. Two of those killed were unarmed, according to witnesses.

Gaza is dying. The Israeli siege of the Palestinian enclave is so tight that its people are on the edge of starvation. Here on the shores of the Mediterranean a great tragedy is taking place that is being ignored because the world’s attention has been diverted by wars in Lebanon and Iraq.

A whole society is being destroyed. There are 1.5 million Palestinians imprisoned in the most heavily populated area in the world. Israel has stopped all trade. It has even forbidden fishermen to go far from the shore so they wade into the surf to try vainly to catch fish with hand-thrown nets.

Many people are being killed by Israeli incursions that occur every day by land and air. A total of 262 people have been killed and 1,200 wounded, of whom 60 had arms or legs amputated, since 25 June, says Dr Juma al-Saqa, the director of the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City which is fast running out of medicine. Of these, 64 were children and 26 women. This bloody conflict in Gaza has so far received only a fraction of the attention given by the international media to the war in Lebanon.

It was on 25 June that the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was taken captive and two other soldiers were killed by Palestinian militants who used a tunnel to get out of the Gaza Strip. In the aftermath of this, writes Gideon Levy in the daily Haaretz, the Israeli army “has been rampaging through Gaza – there’s no other word to describe it – killing and demolishing, bombing and shelling, indiscriminately”. Gaza has essentially been reoccupied since Israeli troops and tanks come and go at will. In the northern district of Shajhayeh they took over several houses last week and stayed five days. By the time they withdrew, 22 Palestinians had been killed, three houses were destroyed and groves of olive, citrus and almond trees had been bulldozed.

Fuad al-Tuba, the 61-year-old farmer who owned a farm here, said: “They even destroyed 22 of my bee-hives and killed four sheep.” He pointed sadly to a field, its brown sandy earth churned up by tracks of bulldozers, where the stumps of trees and broken branches with wilting leaves lay in heaps. Near by a yellow car was standing on its nose in the middle of a heap of concrete blocks that had once been a small house.

His son Baher al-Tuba described how for five days Israeli soldiers confined him and his relatives to one room in his house where they survived by drinking water from a fish pond. “Snipers took up positions in the windows and shot at anybody who came near,” he said. “They killed one of my neighbours called Fathi Abu Gumbuz who was 56 years old and just went out to get water.”

Sometimes the Israeli army gives a warning before a house is destroyed. The sound that Palestinians most dread is an unknown voice on their cell phone saying they have half an hour to leave their home before it is hit by bombs or missiles. There is no appeal.

But it is not the Israeli incursions alone that are destroying Gaza and its people. In the understated prose of a World Bank report published last month, the West Bank and Gaza face “a year of unprecedented economic recession. Real incomes may contract by at least a third in 2006 and poverty to affect close to two thirds of the population.” Poverty in this case means a per capita income of under $2 (£1.06) a day.

There are signs of desperation everywhere. Crime is increasing. People do anything to feed their families. Israeli troops entered the Gaza industrial zone to search for tunnels and kicked out the Palestinian police. When the Israelis withdrew they were replaced not by the police but by looters. On one day this week there were three donkey carts removing twisted scrap metal from the remains of factories that once employed thousands.

“It is the worst year for us since 1948 [when Palestinian refugees first poured into Gaza],” says Dr Maged Abu-Ramadan, a former ophthalmologist who is mayor of Gaza City. “Gaza is a jail. Neither people nor goods are allowed to leave it. People are already starving. They try to live on bread and falafel and a few tomatoes and cucumbers they grow themselves.”

The few ways that Gazans had of making money have disappeared. Dr Abu-Ramadan says the Israelis “have destroyed 70 per cent of our orange groves in order to create security zones.” Carnations and strawberries, two of Gaza’s main exports, were thrown away or left to rot. An Israeli air strike destroyed the electric power station so 55 per cent of power was lost. Electricity supply is now becoming almost as intermittent as in Baghdad.

Published: 08 September 2006

“What did the shops ever do to them?”

1. Home Demolitions in Jabal Shamali a “Mistake”
2. “What did the shops ever do to them?”
3. International Peace Mission receives a frosty reception from Israel
4. IOF Soldiers Kidnap Family
5. Protesters Attacked in Bil’in
6. Freedom Summer 2006
7. Protestors Managed to Remove a Fence in Bethlehem

1. Home Demolitions in Jabal Shamali a “Mistake”

For photos please click here

For Photos from the last incursion into Nablus, please click here

by ISM Nablus

On Saturday the 26th of August, Israeli military invaded the Jabal Shamali area of Nablus and destroyed 22 homes [for a report, pictures and video, see the previous report on the ISM website]. The next day, Israel’s largest newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the home demolition was “a mistake,” and that the Israeli military failed to arrest two to three Fatah activists that were the target of the operation.

At the end of the incursion, five individual houses and one three-storey block of flats were destroyed. One of the six buildings demolished was a community meeting hall, the others homes belonging to the Saedi, G’name, Sa’eah and Lubaddeh families. Eight cars were also totally wrecked, five of which were dumped onto a neighboring house, causing structural damage in the form of broken base-beams in the roof and the bending of walls.

Additional houses were also damaged during the demolition. The home adjacent to the structure damaged by the demolished cars was severely burn-damaged, and three homes west of the apartment block were 80% destroyed and are now unlivable. In total, 22 homes and apartments were completely demolished, and an additional five homes were made unlivable.

About 100 people were made homeless by the Israeli military’s actions and are now evacuated to friends’ homes in surrounding neighborhoods, or forced to rent apartments around Nablus. With the help of friends and neighbors, they have removed the remains of their homes that were not completely bullet-ridden or shredded by bulldozers and are now planning on rebuilding the homes as they were.

The families have been given $15,000 collectively from the Palestinian government as aid for rebuilding their homes, and friends and neighbors collected an additional $17,000 for the same purpose. This is, however, far from enough money. The cost of rebuilding the Lubaddeh block of flats alone, as estimated by engineers, will amount to about $550,000.

The issue of home demolitions has been discussed at length by the Israeli High Court of Justice in many cases, including Janimat V. IDF Military Commander 1997. In the discussion of this case, published by the Israeli Supreme Court in “Judgments of the Israeli Supreme Court: Fighting Terrorism within in Law”, the Justices argue, “home demolitions are allowed only in light of especially serious terrorist activities, such as involvement in suicide bombings aimed at civilians… The demolitions are subject to legal principals, such as the principle of proportionality. For example, the measure may only be used if it is possible to limit it to the terrorist’s home, without demolishing adjacent dwellings. (60)” In addition, the President of the Court, A. Barak states, “[Demolitions are] implemented in stages and with care in order to prevent damage to the rest of the building. If damage is caused, it will be repaired. (62)” In the case of this incursion, the homes were demolished while searching for suspects, not “in light of especially serious terrorist activities.” In addition, 22 homes were demolished in their attempt to arrest, clearly violating the “principal of proportionality.” According to President Barak, the homes’ of the residents will be repaired, though follow through on this is unlikely.

Nizar Lubbadeh, who gave himself up to be arrested in a desperate bid to stop the demolition of his and his family’s home, was released shortly after questioning. One other man, Mohammad Ayad, was however arrested after the demolition and is still in jail.

According to the Nablus Municipality, 220 buildings have been destroyed in Nablus since the beginning of the current Intifada in September 2000. This number excludes the large number of homes destroyed in Israel’s “Operation Defensive Shield” in 2002.

Following this most recent incursion into Jabal Shamali, the number is now up to 242. This attack marks one of the largest houses to be destroyed. Other big demolitions include a 9-storey building in Rafidya Al-Makhfiyya 3 years ago, belonging to Jafar Maasri who was killed by lethal gas in the Old City, and the Al-Sudder family home in New Askar refugee camp about one and a half years ago.
Amer and Allam Lubbadeh, two brothers made homeless by the demolition, urge anyone who wishes to donate money to the rebuilding of their family home to contact the Palestinian Red Crescent in Nablus, by telephone at 09-2384151, or by fax at 09-2380215.

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2. “What did the shops ever do to them?”

For photos please click here.
by ISM Nablus

This morning between 2 and 4 o’clock Israeli military forces entered Balata Refugee Camp, south-east of Nablus city center. Soldiers traveling in two armoured bulldozers and four military jeeps proceeded to partially destroy of ten shops in the marketplace on the main street of the camp. The bulldozers pulled down whole shop awnings, crushed tiles and cement curbs lining the street, ripped a street sign from the ground, down a wall, cut an electric cable running overhead and destroyed an large arrangement of grape-vines outside a family home.

A local butcher expressed his frustration at the wanton destruction, “They do this because they know that we are all too poor to afford to rebuild our shops. The occupation is strangling our economy”. Pointing at the wrenched-up tiles of the shop porch and the ripped bits of metal sticking out above our heads in place of the bright red and white shop-front that usually greets customers, he continued: “It will take $1,000 just to repair the awning and another $500 for the porch. And I know that many other shop owners have worse damage. But there is no point in repairing any of it because we know that as soon as we fix it, they will come. They will come the next day!”

Despite this, the marketplace was this morning full of men clambering up ladders to tear down the old wrecked shop-fronts and take measurements for new ones. A team of electricians were busy replacing the cut cable and the rubble from the wreckage was neatly piled up at the sides of the street. “What did the shops ever do to them?” one of the workers exclaimed. “They are terrorists? No, this is the terror of the Israeli army.”

This sort of incursion is a regular occurrence in the refugee camps around Nablus, especially Balata. Occupation soldiers invade the camps nightly, though the use of armoured bulldozers is less common. On a ‘normal’ night, soldiers enter the camp around 2am and shoot at residents, occasionally arresting young men or invading and occupying homes. Last night’s incursion and destruction is yet another attack by the Israeli military on the impoverished residents of Palestine’s refugee camps.

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3. International Peace Mission receives a frosty reception from Israel

For photos, please click here.
After a full month of gruelling cycling, the Peace Cycle finally arrived in the West Bank tonight, September 6th. The cyclists left Damascus 3 days ago and toured the Palestinian refugee camps in the south of Syria before entering Jordan. In both Middle East countries, as in Europe, the group enjoyed courteous treatment and a warm welcome.

The climate changed dramatically, however, once they reached the border between Jordan and the Occupied Palestinian West Bank.
The cyclists arrived at the Jordanian side of the “Allenby Bridge” crossing point at 11.30 this morning local time. On the Palestinian side of the border, their coach and tour guide waited for them…and waited. The cyclists, 21 of them British, two Austrian and one Palestinian, were held at the border by the Israeli authorities and were given no information or explanation, although they were eventually given a sandwich.

Some of the Peace Cycle team as they set off from London
The Palestinian man among the group was taken away and questioned for almost 3 hours before he was allowed to enter the West Bank, where he lives with his family in a village near Ramallah. He had taken part in the Peace Cycle so that he could “tell the world about life under occupation” in his country.

At 6pm the border crossing officially closed for the night, with the remaining group of cyclists still being held in no man’s land between Jordan and Palestine, by a frustrated Israeli border staff who admitted they “just wanted to go home”. Eventually, eight hours later, and after frantic ‘phone calls between the Peace Cycle’s London office and the British Consulate in Jerusalem, the cyclists were allowed through to the Palestinian side of the border. Tired and hungry, they were relieved to finally board their coach and look forward to a meal in El Fa’raa in the north of the West Bank, where the villagers had planned a welcome dinner for them.

However, their relief was to be short lived when they encountered first hand experience of military occupation, just outside the village of El Fa’raa. As their hosts awaited them, the cyclists’ coach was stopped at an illegal Israeli checkpoint just minutes away and the group was told it could not proceed. Spurious explanations were given by the soldiers on duty, and despite ‘phone calls to the Israeli authorities from the British Consulate and an Israeli Knesset (Parliament) member, the peace group was held for 3 hours and then told they would not be permitted to cross the checkpoint, indefinitely.

The group had no choice but to divert to Jerusalem where they will spend the night before attempting to restart their tour of the West Bank tomorrow morning.

Whatever the reason behind today’s appalling treatment of the men and women of the Peace Cycle mission, they are more determined than ever to work for an end to the occupation of Palestine as being the only way to a lasting peace for all people of the Middle East.
For more information, contact Laura Abraham, founder of the Peace Cycle, on +44-(0)-794-1056616.

If you would like to arrange phone interviews with the cyclists at any point please contact TPC Press Officer Claire Ranyard (07801 263322) or Laura Abraham the founder of the Peace Cycle (07941056616) .

For more information visit their website or the following Indymedia UK stories:
http://www.thepeacecycle.org
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/08/347165.html
http://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/09/350167.html

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4. IOF Soldiers Kidnap Family

by Shlomo Bloom

Somehow I doubt the names and faces of the father and his three teenage boys who were kidnapped by Israeli Occupation Force soldiers tonight in Ramallah will be plastered all over news tomorrow like the face of Gilad Shalit, the kidnapped Israeli soldier.

At about 2am last night we heard there were soldiers in Al Manarra square shooting and arresting people so we went to check it out. By the time we got there the soldiers had left with their four kidnap victims whose names we were unable to find out.

I’m sure once Gilad Shalit is released, there will be a movie made about him. He’ll be the boy-next-door turned national hero who spent two months holed-up in the Gaza tunnels with savage Palestinian militants. No disrespect towards his ordeal, but why are only white people the ones who are made famous and who garner the sympathy of the whole world when they are kidnapped in this region?
After the movie is made, still no one will be able to tell me the names of the dad and his three kids who were kidnapped in Ramallah tonight.

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5. Protesters Attacked in Bil’in

for photos, please click here.
To see a video of the demonstration, please click here.

by an ISM Media office volunteer

At the weekly demo in Bil’in today Occupation forces once again lashed out at peaceful protesters. As the 100-strong march from the mosque reached the edge of the village the IOF blocked the road and, after announcing the area was a closed military zone on a megaphone, proceeded to beat those who didn’t withdraw with batons. It is the habitual practice of the Israeli military to declare as “closed military zones” areas that Palestinian non-violent demonstrations are taking place.
Undeterred by such violence the villagers tried to continue on their way to the illegal Wall but the IOF brought up reinforcements who chased and beat protesters on the arms and legs. They also fired large amounts of tear gas today. Several people were injured with some needing treatment from the ambulance for arm and leg injuries:

Abdullah Abu Rahme, Popular Committee Member from Bil’in – hand and wrist, needed bandage.
Abid Abu Rahme
Yusef Karaje
Eyal Birnat
Abdul Fateh
Mansour Mansour
Israeli activist injuries – Koby, Neil, Jonathan, Aaron, Sahar, Joval and Nir Shalev whose arm was broken.
Chris – UK
Lina – Germany
Sean – Austria
Iman – US

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6. Freedom Summer 2006

Freedom Summer 2006 in Palestine was a success! We had just under 100 internationals join Palestinians in solidarity to resist the occupation in places all over the West Bank.
The ISM continued its support for Bil’in village in its weekly
demonstrations against the wall and settlements as well as having a continued presence in the village and “outpost”, which is a structure on Palestinian farmland that is separated from the village by the Apartheid Wall.
In Beit Ummar village, south of Bethlehem, internationals joined farmers and villagers in their demonstrations against the expansion of settlement outposts near the village and in documenting human rights violations and accompanying farmers to their land near settlements in Beit Ummar and nearby villages.
Internationals also continued their support in Tel Rumeida, Hebron,
consistently documenting and intervening in attacks against Palestinians by settlers and military.
ISM has formed a permanent presence in Nablus, in order to continue working at checkpoints: monitoring and intervening in aggression against Palestinians by the Israeli military. Internationals have also meet with victims of Israeli violence to document and voice their support for the Palestinian people.
ISM volunteers stayed in the village of Ezbat al-Tabib, outside of
Qalqilia, providing support for the community and assisting in removing a roadblock that isolates the village.
Internationals visited and stayed in villages of South Hebron, such as
Suseya and Qawawis to participate show support for their struggles
against the settlements and document attacks by settlers on Palestinians.
Internationals participated in building a house that was demolished by the Israeli army in Anata, outside of Jerusalem, and also worked with people Farkha village near Salfeet in a summer festival.
In Ramallah internationals attended many demonstrations against Israeli aggression in Lebanon and Palestine and against US interference in the Middle East, and also documented Israeli military invasions in the city.
Finally volunteers traveled to: Al Khader, Bethlehem for demonstrations against the wall surrounding Bethlehem, Jericho to meet with farmers in the Jordan valley, and Tulkarem to show solidarity with their continued resistance to the occupation.

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7. Protestors Managed to Remove a Fence in Bethlehem

For photos, please click here.

Today, September 1, 2006, in the village of al-Khadr, in the Bethlehem region, Palestinian and international solidarity workers removed a razor wire barrier serving as a preliminary basis for the Apartheid Wall. During the action, approximately 100 Palestinian and international demonstrators led a non-violent march and were stopped by Israeli Occupation soldiers on their way towards the Apartheid Wall.
The residents of the village left Friday prayers at the mosque and joined with international solidarity activists in a march through the village. The demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and carried a banner reading, “This Wall Imprisons Palestinians in a Ghetto,” written in Arabic and English. After approximately fifteen minutes of marching, the demonstrators were stopped by a large force of Israeli Occupation soldiers. The soldiers took up positions on an earth mound road block and prevented the Palestinians and internationals from reaching the Apartheid Wall. At this site, armed Occupation forces assembled with armored military jeeps as well as border police jeeps.
While the Palestinians and internationals were demonstrating in front of the soldiers, five international activists and two Palestinian activists separated from the group and traveled to the site of a razor wire barrier. Once the activists reached the fence, they removed many metal stakes which secured the barrier, and rolled a section of the barrier, approximately 150 meters in length, down a hill towards route 60. The activists were able to complete this task as Israeli Occupation forces arrived, and were able to avoid confrontation or arrest.
The razor wire is used in conjunction with a series of road blocks and checkpoints to separate the Palestinian communities from neighboring Israeli settler-colonies. The barriers and road blocks bisect Palestinian communities and create a “buffer” zone for the future construction of the Israeli Apartheid Wall. In contrast to the northern area of the West Bank where the Apartheid Wall is nearly completed, there is ongoing construction in the south that had been continually met with Palestinian non-violent resistance. The demonstration in al-Khadr today is but one example of this resistance, as are weekly demonstrations in Bil’in and other communities in the north, central and southern West Bank.

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For more reports, journals and action alerts visit the ISM website at www.palsolidarity.org

Please consider supporting the International Solidarity Movement’s work with a financial contribution. You may donate securely through our website at www.palsolidarity.org/main/donations/

Non-Violence on Trial

Mohammad Mansour being tortured durring his arrest June 2004

Mohammad Mansour, a non violent organizer against the illegal Apartheid Wall from Biddu, who works with the International Solidarity Movement, will stand trial, tomorrow. Sunday the tenth of September at 10:30 in the “Peace Court” in Jerusalem. He was initially arrested in June 2004 at a non-violent demonstration against the illegal apartheid wall in Al Ram. A father of five, he was falsely charged with assaulting a police officer, throwing stones and presiding illegally in an “Israeli area.”

The prosecution had offered earlier to close the case if Mohammed would agree to stop participating in demonstrations for the next two years and pay a 3,500 shekel fine. “I would rather go to jail than pay one shekel to the Occupation. It is not I, but those that build the wall that are the criminals” said Mohammed.

Please come and show your support!

The International Solidarity Movement condemns the Israeli legal system’s defence of war crimes committed by Israeli soldiers and settlers and its criminalization of non violent protest against the Occupation and the Apartheid wall.

For more information call:
The ISM Media Office 02-2971824
Mohammed Mansour 054-5851893
Attorney Leah Tsemel 0522-601-602

Beit Furik Demonstrate Against Closures

by ISM Nablus

This morning a group of university students and other residents of Beit Furik joined in a non-violent demonstration against the early closure of the checkpoint separating them from Nablus city center. About 50 Palestinian and international protestors marched across a settler road toward the checkpoint holding placards, demanding an end to the Palestinian people’s misery and asking to speak to the highest commanding officer at the site.

A couple of students tried to explain to the soldiers that it is impossible for them to seriously pursue their studies when they are constantly having to fit their schedule around the random regulations of the checkpoint. Beit Furik checkpoint currently closes at 6:30 in the evening, and the protestors’ primary demand was therefore that the checkpoint should be kept open until later in the evening, providing time for students and workers to return home from Nablus.

The soldiers would not listen to the demands and kept ordering the demonstration to back away from the checkpoint. The protestors then hung their placards from the tin roof of the pen where men and women are usually made to wait for their turn to have their IDs and persons inspected before being allowed to go about their day. These messages were ripped down, torn and crumpled up by the annoyed soldiers as the demonstration dispersed.

The village of Beit Furik is strangled by checkpoints, settler-only roads and settlements. In order for the villagers to cross into Salem village, the neighboring town, they have to cross through a checkpoint. When this checkpoint is closed, and the local roads blocked, the residents of Beit Furik are forced to travel in a wide arch in the opposite direction to their destination. Travelling through nine villages on a rocky dirt-track that is nearly impossible to navigate by car in the winter months, it might take up to five hours for villagers to reach Nablus. There is also a high risk of being stopped by soldiers and arrested or turned back.

These restrictions of movement are devastating for Beit Furik’s social, economical and political situation. Yet the residents of Beit Furik are defiant and view today’s demonstration as the first of many similar acts of protest. They welcome all expressions of support and solidarity for their struggle for freedom of movement.

Even the Garbage is Occupied

by ISM Nablus

In between the Israeli military checkpoints of Beit Iba and Shave Shomeron settlement, is the Palestinian village of Deir Sharaf. The village has 3,500 residents and is dismembered by a settler-only road, an Occupation settlement and two checkpoints. This village has been fighting a four year battle to dispose of its garbage, after Occupation forces began preventing the village from dumping their garbage on their own land.

Since 2002, the village of Deir Sharaf has had problems from Occupation forces concerning the issue of garbage disposal. Prior to 2002, the village disposed of their trash locally, though soon after the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada, Occupation forces decided that this disposal program could not continue. Currently, the village is forced to drive the trash almost 40km to a dump in Jaba’, due west of Tubas, and south of Jenin.

The small village is having a great deal of difficulty with this restriction. In order to purchase diesel fuel for the daily commute to Jaba’, the village council has to pay more than 200 NIS a day. During their northern trek, the truck must pass through two permanent military checkpoints, and on most days, a number of temporary ‘flying’ checkpoints. Because of the settler-only roads, and the checkpoints, the journey sometimes is too long to be completed in one day, while on the best of days, it takes no less than 5 hours. Sometimes, the garbage truck driver is made to return to the village with his truck still full because Occupation soldiers based at checkpoints along the way decide to not allow the passage of the haul.

The garbage truck used in Deir Sharaf is collectively owned by their village and the village of Beit Iba. Each village is meant to use the truck on alternating days but because often times one load takes more than one day to deliver, the villages are both unable to effectively dispose of their waste. Beit Iba is located on the opposite side of a permanent checkpoint from Deir Sharaf so the collective arrangement is subject to the closures of the military. In addition, every 10-14 days the soldiers staffing Beit Iba checkpoint rotate. When this occurs, the new soldiers always stop the truck from passing, and detain the driver. This means that every two weeks, the President of the Deir Sharaf Council must travel to the checkpoint and renegotiate the passage of the truck with the current crew of soldiers.

The truck has also been seized by Occupation forces four times in four years, when after being unable to make the journey to Jaba’, the truck attempted to dump in the village. During these incidents, the driver was detained and once again, the President of the Council had to go to the detention center to explain the situation and negotiate the release of the driver and the truck. Last time the truck was seized, it was held for 15 days, and upon its release, the Council President was made to sign a paper promising that if the village was seen attempting to dump the garbage in their village again, their truck would be seized and the village fined 20,000 NIS.

The situation with Deir Sharaf highlights the everyday interactions between the Palestinian people and the Occupation. Here, even the seemingly simple task of garbage disposal is subject to the whims of checkpoint soldiers and closures. The Palestinian people of this West Bank village are denied the right to use their land as they like. For some reason, in the village of Deir Sharaf, the Occupation feels the need to regulate the disposal of garbage, while it simultaneously destroys the land in the same village by razing olive groves for an eight meter high concrete wall encircling the settlement. This interaction shows that for the Occupation, their concern is not ‘security’ as they claim, but rather oppression and harassment.