Nobel Peace Laureate writes in support of West Bank village’s protests against annexation wall

Mairead Corrigan Maguire, founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement and recipient of the Nobel peace prize, wrote a letter this week to the poeople of the West Bank village of Bil’in in support of their continued struggle against Israel’s illegal annexation wall.

Dear Friends,

To : Palestinian and Israeli Peace Activists – Support For Nonviolent Resistance in Bil’in. Village. I write to join with you in the spirit of solidarity and friendship, and to offer my full support for your Demonstration on Friday September 9th in Bil’in. It is our duty and right, as human beings wherever we live, to speak out for human dignity, human rights and against State injustice and oppression.

Building the wall, occupying Palestinian villages, demolishing Palestinian homes and building more Jewish settlements, is not the way forward and will not bring forward the day of peace for the Palestinian and Israeli people. Only dialogue and justice for the Palestinian people can hasten the much desired peace which all your people of goodwill long for.

The Israeli Government, using military repression and brute force against nonviolent unarmed civilians, whose only crime is to follow their conscience and refuse to be silenced in the face of such gross injustice against the Palestinian people, is committing a crime against humanity; and this is not the way to peace. There is another way: it is time the Israeli Government listened to your peace activists’ sane voices, and took up their human and political responsibility by getting serious about peace negotiations with the Palestinian authorities. They owe it not only to the Palestinian/Israeli people but to the world, who need signs of hope, in these days of suffering and pain for so many people around the world.

The politics of fear and repression only births more fear and more repression and continues the vicious circle of cruelty and violence from all sides. There will, just as in Northern Ireland, not be a military or paramilitary solution to your problems; only through dialogue and negotiations can you solve this tragedy and suffering of all the people.

We are inspired by our Palestinian and Israeli peace friends and activists and thank you for your courage which gives us all hope.

Shalom, Salaam, Peace,

Mairead Corrigan Maguire
Nobel Peace Laureate
Northern Ireland
6th September, 2005
www.peacepeople.com

Does this deserve a “Sh’hechiyanu”?

by Lawrence Zweig

Here is a prayer that traditional Jews say when they do something for the first time in any specific year, and even in their life.

Last Friday I got my first dose of tear-gas and sound-bombs. It was at a demonstration against the occupation, the wall and other inhumanities, in the West Bank Palestinian village of Bil’in which is near the Israeli town of Modi’in, the Israeli colony of Modi’in Ilit and west of Ramallah.

The Bil’in protests in this form have been going on for over 8 months now, every Friday and sometimes during the week. My luck was that the soldiers decided (were ordered) to march into the autonomous Palestinian village before the demonstration could begin.

The demonstrators come from Bil’in, but are backed-up with international activists from the International Solidarity Movemant (ISM), the International Women’s Peace Service (IWPS), Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall, and Women in Black among others.

The provocative actions (occupation, wall, presence in the village) of the soldiers escalated to the point that drew reactions which, as the soldiers know in advance, means defensive actions on the Palestinian side such as stone-throwing (the Israeli system leaves them with almost no other way to defend themselves). The internationals try their best to defuse the situation by confronting the soldiers with demands to leave the village, lower their weapons and end the provocations, but were met with rubber bullets, tear gas, sound bombs, detentions, beatings, and the threat of even more drastic measures.

Once the soldiers introduced the violence, it was difficult to stop. The Israeli protesters often took the front lines shielding the others and confronting the soldiers with chants and yells of “go away”, “go home”, “stop this violence”, etc. in Hebrew and tried to put themselves between the soldiers and the others.

The soldiers, having no legitimate grounds for being there, pulled back. This gave the demonstrators the chance to come together and decide what to do, which led back to the “normal” Friday demonstration. These demos almost always end in violence directed at the villagers from the Israeli military to the protesters and the villagers.

I decided to say the last half of the prayer, leaving the first part that mentions God out.

Namaste

Petition challenges Sharon’s address to the U.N. General Assembly

From Al-Awdi

Palestinians remember the anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacres of September 16-19, 1982. On Sept 15, a day before the twenty-third anniversary of the killing of thousands of Palestinian refugees, Ariel Sharon will speak as an honored guest at the United Nations in New York City.

Sharon began his murderous career in 1952 as a commander of the army during the massacre in Qibya where 69 villagers were slaughtered. He was the architect of the massacre in Sabra and Shatila that cost the lives of 2,000 people. He is one of the masterminds of the Occupation’s settlement policies in the West Bank and Gaza and now implements the project of the Apartheid Wall prepared by his predecessors against the rights of the Palestinian people and in defiance of international law.

In remembrance of those killed, the Palestinian organizaton Al-Awdi is calling on all who value human rights to challenge the UN’s decision to have Sharon appear as a guest of honor.

Sharon represents a regime that is not only fighting the Palestinian right of existence on their land but also violates international law and
conventions on a daily basis. Hundreds of UN resolutions have been disregarded by the Occupation while the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to dismantle the Wall has been brushed aside by the Occupation bulldozers that continue their to destruction of Palestinians lands and lives.

The UN prepares to applaud Israel’s latest move towards the Bantustanization of Palestine – the Gaza “disengagement” – refusing to acknowledge that Gaza is and remains the world’s largest open air prison. It pressures the Palestinian people to “negotiate” on the status of their ghettos and to surrender to the facts on the ground imposed by the Occupation.

Popular mobilization in the West Bank and Gaza will remind UN that:

  • The Palestinian people do not require Walls or Ghettos but Freedom and the Liberation of their land.
  • The Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Shatila, in Gaza and all over the world will never give up their right of return.
  • If the United Nations want to keep up a facade of coherence with their own rules, it should not allow the presence of the wretched war criminal and Prime Minister of Apartheid Israel in front of the General Assembly but work towards ending Israel’s impunity and the international support for the Occupation, colonization and ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

The 60th Session of the UN General Assembly is asked to:

  • Start the implementation of the UN resolutions including resolution 194.
  • Enforce the decision of the International Court of Justice to tear down the Apartheid Wall and to prohibit any international aid or assistance for this crime.
  • Insist on the true meaning of the “Gaza disengagement”, as a ploy to further split and weaken the Palestinian resistance and to enable the annexation of 47 percent of the West Bank and the expulsion of Palestinians from their capital in Jerusalem.

You can:

Related websites:
International Campaign for Justice for the Victims of Sabra & Shatila
The Sharon Files – The Guardian
UN Security Council Resolution condemning the massacres

New Settlement Puts Pressure on Jerusalem Palestinians

by Jon Elmer
The New Standard

Situated on a hill overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, the new Israeli housing development looks like it could be an upscale planned community in suburban North America: a billboard solicits buyers for “phase one” housing units; another shows the blueprint of the future community, complete with a daycare, a shopping center, a school, parks, a country club and, eventually, a hotel.

Read the rest right here.

Gaza occupation continues after disengagement

From the CNI Foundation

The Israeli settlers have left, but the siege of Palestinian towns and villages in Gaza that lie near the old settlements continues unabated, according the latest report of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

The Israeli Defense Forces razed houses and leveled areas on the eastern border with Israel. They have limited the number of Palestinians from using the international border at Rafah – the only way Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are able to gain access to the international world. All Palestinians between the ages of 16 and 35 are prohibited from leaving Gaza, for example, a prohibition that has been in effect for some time.

Unspecified attacks and sometimes unreported attacks are taking place against Palestinian civilians, for example, a 19-year-old living in Rafah, which was reported on a Rafah blog site. The PCHR reported paralyzing roadblocks on the main road of the Gaza Strip. “Thousands of Palestinian civilians were seen waiting at the roadsides to travel between the north and south of the Gaza Strip.” Moreover, the occupation in the West Bank continues at full force. During the period August 25-31, PCHR reported more than 30 military incursions into the West Bank, the raiding of private houses and arrest of civilians. The Israeli military continues to raze houses that have been constructed “without permits,” and to confiscate land for checkpoints. In Hebron, where Israli settlers have attacked Palestinians repeatedly, a new attack took place on August 25. According to PCHR, they “threw stones and empty bottles at a house belonging to Mohammed Hamed Abu ‘Eisha. They also demolished the fence of the house. The Israeli military were present in the area, but did not intervene to stop this attack. The house was damaged.”