This Friday, July 21st at 1pm, the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements along with Israeli and international supporters will carry a massive 20-meter black flag in a silent protest to the site of the Apartheid Wall. They will demand an answer from Israel and its military for the question “Is this the world we want for our children?”. The mourner’s march will proceed to the wall where the demonstrators will hold a minute of silence and read prayers in memory of the dead in Lebanon and Gaza.
The procession will be followed by an open meeting of Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals to discuss the ongoing bloodshed.
The event also signifies the launch of a world-wide poster campaign against the ongoing violence. “Signed, sealed, and delivered – from Israeli children to Lebanese & Gazan children” read the posters that supporters will unveil alongside photos of Israeli children signing artillery shells and the destruction they rain upon innocent civilians.
July 24th, 1pm at Bil’in Village.
For more information please call:
Abdullah Abu Rahme: 054 725 8210
Mohammad Khatib: 054 5573285
Iyad Burnat: 054 7847 942
ISM Media office: 02 297 1824 or 0599 943 157
Documents granting the Bedouin the right to the land
Today Bedouin houses were under threat of demolition in Bir Nabala village in the Jerusalem area. Since 1994, when forced to leave their homes in Al Ram by the Israeli military, about 100 Bedouin have been living in small shanties near the Atarot Industrial Area. The homes of these refugees are once again facing demolition due to the Israeli expansion of the annexation wall, where the Israelis claim 200 meters of free space are necessary to secure the area.
The Bedouin here are already facing numerous problems with the annexation wall. The construction of the wall has cut water pipes to their homes. In addition, the wall severely hinders their movement as they have to cross into Jerusalem to work and sell their products, but are forced to go through Ramallah and the Qalandiya Checkpoint. If they are successful in crossing, these checkpoints can cause major delays. The Bedouin children are also forced to take the same circuitous and road-blocked routes to get to their school. The soldiers guarding the wall often will not let sheep herders go out to hills for grazing. The situation with travel is compounded by the fact that Israeli factories in the industrial area are draining their sewage water next to the Bedouin homes (see photo below).
Bedouin in the West Bank are forced to move again and again by the Israeli Military and it is nearly impossible for them to get permission to stay anywhere regularly. This threatens their culture and economy which is largely dependent upon grazing. The water and air pollution from the factories as well as the wall is undermining dairy production and will make Palestinians even more dependent on Israeli products.
The Bedouin in Bir Nabala hold documents granting them permission from the Palestinian land owners to stay in the area (see above). They have taken their case to the Israeli court which today, while the Bedouins stood by fearing destruction of their homes, ruled that they could remain temporarily. Even if they court rules in their favor, the community faces a future completely surrounded by fences and soldiers effectively strangling the Bedouin way of life.
Starting around 5am this morning and lasting until the evening, the Israeli army surrounded the Mukatah (local government building) in Nablus with close to 100 military vehicles. They killed three people inside who are a part of the preventative security force of the PA, that the Israelis claim were wanted persons. They detained the bodies of the fallen in Nablus after abducting them from an ambulance. The bodies have not yet been identified because their faces were so mutilated by gunfire. This comes on the same day that the Israelis stormed a government building in Ramallah, arresting five people. They also stormed the office of the Palestinian Wafa News Agency in a pre-dawn raid.
The Israeli military has invaded El-Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza and killed 6 people, including two children. They have bombed refugee camps, civillian infastructure and government buildings in Gaza in the last few days, killing many civilians. Since Israel stepped up the bombing of Gaza last month, the Israeli army has been enforcing more severe closures on the entire West Bank. It is currently impossible to travel to Nablus from the south.
Members of the ministry of security were held hostage in the Nablus building, surrounded by bulldozers, jeeps and tanks. It has since been reported that they were moved to another building and stripped of their clothing. The army has completely destroyed the preventative security building, part of the Nablus Mukatah, which was already mostly destroyed by the Israeli offensive in the West Bank of 2004.
The Israeli soldiers occupied buildings nearby in order to shoot into the Mukatah and people nearby. Palestinian Medical Relief, one of the many ambulance services, has reported that twenty people in Nablus have been injured including an Al-Jazeera technician who was shot in the leg by a rubber-coated metal bullet while he was helping shoot a live broadcast. BBC News Online has reported 45 people injured, according to hospital officials they have spoken to. The latest figures as collected by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) in their latest press release are that 81 Palestinians have been injured and 9 killed, including 2 children.
For more pictures from Montereal rally please click here
NYC Rally
As Israeli attacks on civilians continue and escalate day after day in Lebanon and Palestine and as the world’s governments support Israel’s crimes or, at best, turn a blind eye to its actions it is time for the people to speak.
Saturday July 22, 2006 has been declared “International day of action against Israeli aggression”. We call on people around the world to rise up on that day and be heard.
Please organize an action in your city or area on that day, under the banner of the “International day of action against Israeli aggression”. If you already have something planned for that day condemning Israel’s actions or in support of the people of Palestine and Lebanon, please link it to the international action.
Each city area is requested to appoint one coordinator (or more) and send us their email addresses to create a coordination list.
Please act now. There is no time to waste. Thank you.
Montreal coordinators:
Mohamed S. Kamel (mohamed@btceramique.com) +514.863.9202
Ehab Lotayef (ehab.lotayef@mcgill.ca) +514.941.9792
Further information: http://tadamon.resist.ca/
The “International day of action against Israeli aggression” is endorsed
in Montreal by the following organizations:
Association des jeunes libanais musulmans
Canadian Muslim Forum
Coalition against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees
International Solidarity Movement Montreal
Members of the Lebanese Diaspora
Members of the Palestinian Diaspora
Palestinian And Jewish Unity (PAJU)
Parole Arabe
Presence musulmane Montréal (PMM)
Solidarity with Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR)
Tadamon! Montreal
Voices of Conscience (OCVC)
Le Regroupement des Algeriens du Canada
Solidarity Across Borders
No One Is Illegal-Montreal
Canadian Muslims for Jerusalem (CMJ)
More Actions Over The Globe
1500 New Yorkers Demand End to Israel’s Attacks on Lebanon and Palestine
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 18, 2006
New York, NY – 1500 New Yorkers packed the city block opposite the Israeli Consulate in Manhattan today, chanting and waving Lebanese and Palestinian flags. This was the third in a series of growing protests in New York City over the last two weeks. The protests have been organized by an ad hoc New York coalition against Israeli aggression. Protesters demanded, “Stop bombing Lebanon.” “Free, free Palestine,” and “End the occupation now.” They chanted, “No justice, no peace, US out of the Middle East.” Speakers called for an end to the US and Israeli wars in the Middle East. They criticized the US’ one-sided support for Israel, and the lack of media coverage of Lebanese and Palestinian civilian deaths. The demonstration concluded with a spirited march past Grand Central Station and into Times Square.
Israel’s attacks on Lebanon are a disproportionate “response” to the detention of two Israeli combatants. Israeli bombing has killed over 230 Lebanese people, including entire families, and many children. They have destroyed Lebanese ports, roads, bridges, power plants, apartment buildings, and Beirut’s International Airport. In Gaza, Israel has killed more than 90 Palestinians in two weeks, bombed Ministry buildings, roads, homes, and jailed Palestinian Cabinet Ministers. This has plunged Gaza’s 1.4 million residents into a humanitarian crisis, with little access to electricity, water, medical supplies and food. Israel’s actions have been widely criticized by human rights groups and the UN.
Issa Mikel, a spokesperson for the ad hoc coalition against Israeli aggression, said, “Israel must be held accountable for its grave violations of international law, reminiscent of those of the South African apartheid regime. For peace, based on justice, we call on international civil society organizations and people of conscience around the world to carry out broad boycotts, implement divestment initiatives against Israel, and demand that their governments impose sanctions on Israel until it ends its apartheid system, respects the sovereignty of its Arab neighbors and the right of refugees to return to their homes and lands, and fully complies with international law.” The protest organizers vowed to maintain the pressure with continued demonstrations in New York.
Endorsers of today’s demonstration included:
The National Council of Arab-Americans
– New York, International Solidarity Movement
–NYC, the New York Campaign for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions, ANSWER Coalition, Campus Anti-War Network,
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee – ADC NY,
International Socialist Organization,
United for Peace and Justice – NYC,
International Action Center,
US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation,
The Party for Socialism and Liberation,
Women in Black Union Square,
Jews Against the Occupation – NYC,
West Queens Greens, and Sunnyside Woodside Peace.
For information contact: protectpalestine@gmail.com
protectpalestine@gmail.com
Boycott Israel to Stop its War Crimes in Lebanon and Gaza!
For immediate release:
Palestinian Civil Society Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions(BDS) against Israel — Acting Steering Committee
18 July 2006
Over the past six days since it launched its devastating military aggression against Lebanon, ostensibly in retaliation for Hizbullah’s capture of two of its soldiers, Israel has committed war crimes that should be more than sufficient to invite at least unequivocal condemnation from the United Nations and world powers, with their stern backing for an immediate cease-fire. Instead, the US have allowed Israel ample time to “finish the job,” destroying Lebanon’s infrastructure and killing and maiming its civilians to a degree that would turn the Lebanese public against the resistance movement and bolster Israel’s designs for pushing this resistance outside of southern Lebanon. Even Israel’s reported use of the internationally-prescribed phosphorous bombs and its massacre of at least 23 fleeing civilians in Marwaheen on Saturday failed to shake the world’s conscience or to break its deadly silence.
Meanwhile, Israel’s almost forgotten attack on Gaza continues unabated, with total impunity, leaving behind an imminent health disaster and widespread destruction of vital infrastructure. Again, the pretext that all this criminal devastation, which already caused the death and injury of hundreds of innocent Palestinians, was intended to win the release of one Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian resistance, does not stand the test of reality or logic. The truth is Israel is systematically and with premeditation trying to bring occupied Palestinians to their knees, to punish them for democratically electing the “wrong” government. Israel looks to bring about their acquiescence to its plans for further dispossessing them and forestalling any prospects for a sovereign Palestinian state emerging in the occupied territory.
There is a new double-failure by the international political system to hold Israel to account for its grave violations of international law on both fronts. This is the most recent indicator of the urgent need for international movements to take the lead in applying a comprehensive regime of boycotts, divestment and sanctions on Israel. Actions need to be taken that are similar to that successfully used to end apartheid in South Africa. Specifically, people of conscience everywhere are called upon to:
– boycott all Israeli products and services;
– boycott Israeli academic, cultural, athletic and economic institutions;
– pressure unions, professional associations and civil society organizations to divest from Israel;
– pressure governments to stop all military trade with Israel, as a first step towards adopting total sanctions against it.
All these measures should be maintained until Israel fully complies with international law and respects fundamental human rights of Arabs, whether in Lebanon or Palestine.
Israel’s criminal dehumanization of its Arab victims, whether in Lebanon or Palestine, should not go unpunished. Only boycotts, of all sorts, against Israel have any chance of fostering hope for a just peace in the Middle East.
Contact: On behalf of the Palestinian BDS Campaign:
Today, July 18, 2006, Maria Nikiforou will celebrate her thirty-fourth birthday in isolation in the Ben Gurion detention center. Israeli security put Maria in isolated detention on July 14th and is denying her entry, saying that she is a security threat to Israel. Yesterday the authorities took away her cell phone, even though it is allowed for detainees to have their cell phones in this facility.
She is the second international in the last two months to have been denied entry to Israel because of their affiliations with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). The ISM is a Palestinian-led movement supporting non-violent resistance to the occupation and Apartheid Wall. Their activities include demonstrations, accompanying Palestinian farmers to their land, and documentation of human rights abuses.
Maria’s lawyers filed an appeal on her behalf, and the state has responded saying that the reason she is denied entry is because she is a member of ISM, and didn’t state that upon entry to the airport. The judge is expected to set a court date within the next few days.
Israel continues to control all the border crossings in and out of the West Bank, as well as the border crossings used by internationals to travel in and out of Gaza. Israel has denied entry to thousands of peace activists in the past three years and completely denies foreign nationals the right to visit Gaza, except those with permits that are very difficult to obtain.
Israel has also begun a new policy of barring Palestinians carrying foreign passports, including those married to a Palestinian spouse, from re-entering the West Bank and Gaza. The new measures also affect long-time foreign residents in the West Bank such as college professors, NGO employees, religious figures and naturalized spouses of Palestinian residents in the West Bank.
For more information:
ISM media office 02 297 1824
