ACTION ALERT: Palestinian Gandhi Re-arrested

The Palestinian Gandhi, Abdullah Abu Rahme, and Akram Al Khatib, two members of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Bil’in, were arrested Friday, July 15, 2005 and are still being held at Ofer Military Base. The two were arrested during a non-violent demonstration against the Annexation Barrier in Bil’in and are being charged with assaulting a police officer.

Attorney Tamar Peleg, has filed a request with the court and the prosecutors for the immediate release of Abdullah and Akram. Peleg states that their arrest is the result of Israeli military efforts to stop legitimate, legal, non-violent political activities.

Members of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements and their families have regularly been subjected to nightly threats, harassment, arrest, and false charges in the past.

The central theme of Friday’s demonstration was that peace requires bridges, not walls, and that instead of building the Annexation Wall a better future and a bridge of peace and understanding should be constructed.

Abdullah, along with Israeli and International activists, was inside the installation with only his head sticking out. The activists inside the installation lead the march which left the center of the village toward the construction site of the Barrier. Border police and IDF soldiers were waiting for the demonstration inside the village and prevented access to the route of the Barrier which appropriates more than half of the village’s lands for the construction of new Israeli settlements.

After a few moments of debate, soldiers attacked the demonstrators with clubs, shock grenades and tear gas. Abdullah was forced out of the installation, arrested and then charged with assault. Akram who was standing nearby was suddenly grabbed by a soldier and arrested and charged with resisting arrest. Throughout the arrest which is documented by video and still photos Akram can be seen holding his hands in the air. 14 Israelis and four international activists were also arrested in the same demonstration, under the same circumstances. All but two of them were released after a few hours. The other two were released at 22:00 that night. (Video footage that proves the above is available and has been submitted to the police).

The village of Bil’in is well known for its determination and creativity in resisting the Wall. One month ago, Abdullah and his brother Rateb were arrested in identical circumstances and charged with throwing stones. Luckily, video footage which proved the charges to be false was available. In a rare move, the military judge Captain Daniel Zamir, after viewing video footage of the Bil’in demonstration that conflicted with the IDF soldier reports of the events, stated: “There was no reason for the defendant’s arrest; there was no reason for the shooting that wounded him or the blows he received from the soldier,” adding that the reality was “strangely different, to put it mildly, from the testimony of the prosecution witnesses.” Subsequently, one of the soldiers who testified against Rateb has been investigated by military police and confessed to giving false testimony.

Links to photographs from the demonstration:

Abdullah in the bridge installation, 4th from the left:
freckle.blogs.com/photos/bridges_not_walls/2.html

Image of the confrontation with the IDF:
freckle.blogs.com/photos/bridges_not_walls/5.html

Image of Akram’s arrest:
freckle.blogs.com/photos/bridges_not_walls/arrest4.html

Image of Abdullah’s arrest:
freckle.blogs.com/photos/bridges_not_walls/arrest5.html

Please call and fax the people bellow demanding Abdullah’s and Akram’s release:
From abroad, include also the Israeli embassy in your country.
for embassy email addresses:
www.embassyworld.com/embassy/israel1.html + more on:
www.embassyworld.com/embassy/israel2.html

American Consulate, Jerusalem Email: keenme@state.gov, Fax: +972-(0)2- 627-7230
European Union, Jerusalem, Email mailto@delwbg.cec.eu.int, Fax: +972- (0)2-532 6249

White House Comment Line: 202-456-1111
State Department Bureau of Public Affairs Comment Line: 202-647-6575

Tzipi Livni
Ministry of Justice
29 Salah al-Din Street
Jerusalem 91010, Israel
Fax: +972 2 628 7757
E-mail: sar@justice.gov.il

Menahem Mazuz
Attorney-General/Legal
Advisor to the Government
Ministry of Justice
29 Salah al-Din Street
Jerusalem 91010, Israel
Fax: +972 2 628 5438
+972 2 627 4481

Brigadier General Avihai Mandelblit
Chief Military Attorney
6 David Elazar Street
Hakirya
Tel Aviv
Israel
Fax: +972 3 569 4370
E-mail: c/o arbel@mail.idf.il

Lawyers Challenge EU and UK over Inaction on Palestine

Lawyers acting for campaigns group War on Want will today send letters to President José Manuel Barroso of the European Commission and UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw challenging them to provide evidence of any action they have taken to curtail human rights abuses against Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation.

One year after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that Israel’s Separation Wall is illegal, the EU and UK have failed to take the action required of them under the Geneva Conventions to ensure Israeli compliance with international humanitarian law. UN Special Rapporteurs have called on the EU to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, under which Israeli exports enjoy preferential access to EU markets, on human rights grounds.

Acting under instruction from War on Want, The Dove & the Dolphin Charity and a number of individuals affected by the Israeli actions, London solicitors Hickman & Rose are formally requesting the European Commission to provide evidence of all written communication with the Israeli authorities (including minutes of meetings and internal memoranda) relating to the Separation Wall since the ICJ ruling of July 2004. A parallel request is being made of the UK government under the Freedom of Information Act.

John Hilary, Director of Campaigns and Policy at War on Want, said: “Israel continues to defy international law with its actions in Palestine, and each new day of the occupation sees more Palestinians condemned to poverty and despair. Yet neither the EU nor the British government have honoured their obligations to the Palestinian people as called for by the International Court of Justice. As it assumes the EU presidency, we call on the British government to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement and bring Israel into line with humanitarian law.”

[International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered its Advisory Opinion that Israel’s Separation Wall is illegal on 9 July 2004; the Opinion is available on the ICJ website: www.icj-cij.org].

[Copies of the letters from Hickman & Rose to the European Commission and UK governments are available by email. Please contact War on Want campaigns officer Nick Dearden at 07932 335464]

[For more details, comment and interviews, contact War on Want press officer John Coventry at 07905 397084. For comment from Hickman & Rose, contact Daniel Machover at 07773 341096].

UN Conference of Civil Society calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions!

Worldwide Activism, The Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign

In their recent session in Paris, July 13, 2005 the UN International Conference of Civil Society for Peace in the Middle East unanimously adopted the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions.

Through the call participating groups recommitted themselves to ending the Occupation of Palestine and to bringing down the Apartheid Wall as a key element in ending Occupation policies of settlements, land grabs and the destruction of farms and houses.

Participants committed to working within a framework that calls for international mobilizations and campaigns to pressure their respective governments to abide by international law and end economic dealings with the Israeli Occupation until the Occupation ends and the Wall is torn down. The ruling of the International Court of Justice was seen as a key tool for these campaigns.

After the reading of the draft Action Plan, Na’eem Jeenah, Spokesman, Palestine Solidarity Committee of South Africa and President of the Johannesburg-based Muslim Youth Movement, said that within the South African context the struggle against apartheid had been based on four pillars. Two concerned internal resistance to apartheid and the international isolation of the Apartheid state. It was those pillars, which were crucial to bringing about an end to the in South Africa.

It had taken 30 years for that call to take root. Palestine and the Palestinian people did not have 30 years. From the Conference onward, it was time to intensify efforts to isolate Apartheid Israel. He highlighted the importance of Palestinian groups to be at the lead of the campaign at the global level.

The resolve of the conference declaration is a yet another step towards the consolidation of the call for the isolation of Apartheid Israel and a clear indication to the UN, governments and international bodies that the people globally are calling the decision makers into their responsibility and are leading the way inside civil society severing ties with Israel on all levels.

Sharing Each Others’ Pain

By Peggy Gish
CPT Hebron

“A donkey was stolen by an Israeli settler from the Karmel settlement, and we saw it inside the settlement compound. Please come with us to photograph it for evidence when we make our complaint.” two Palestinians asked the CPT and Operation Dove team in the South Hebron Hills village of At-Tuwani.

Two days after an Israeli soldier and a settler told a Palestinian family they were not allowed to use their land either for their sheep or for raising vegetable crops, team members watched nearby while three Palestinian children continued to let their flocks graze.

Another day, the team videotaped Israeli settlers combining and hauling away wheat planted by a Palestinian family on their land, while Israeli soldiers watched and did nothing to stop them.

By mid-June, an unofficial tally counted at least 57 adult and 46 young sheep and goats from the villages of At-Tuwani and Mufakara have died from poison Israeli settlers spread on Palestinian grazing land in March and April of 2005.

As I leave the West Bank tomorrow to return to work with the CPT team in Iraq, I can’t help but think of the differences and similarities between life under occupation in both places. In Iraq there is an inadequate supply of medical equipment and medicines, while in the West Bank, the people are blocked when they try to reach clinics or hospitals. In the West Bank the water is allocated in an unfair proportion favoring Israeli Jews. In Iraq, the available water is mostly impure. In Iraq there isn’t the overt confiscating of the homes and land, but their economy is hurt by U.S. economic policies that allow for systematic takeover of natural resources and exploitation by international corporations.

Palestinian families in At-Tuwani tell us, “Yes, we have our problems but the problems in Iraq are much greater.” In turn, Iraqis tell me, “The Palestinian occupation is the ‘mother of all problems,’ and needs to be resolved in order to have peace in the whole region.” I am impressed by the ability of the Iraqi and Palestinian people and many other compassionate people around the world to look beyond their own troubles and be able to care for the sufferings of others. In both places, we are encouraged by organizations and individuals who take significant personal risks to work non-violently.

Immatin, West Bank under curfew as punishment for non-violent resistance

Military jeeps invaded Immatin early this morning and announced curfew until 6 PM. One of the soldiers told an international volunteer that the area would be opened when work on the wall for today was completed.

However, some of the villagers defied the curfew to perform Friday prayer at the village mosque. Soldiers surrounded the mosque and threw tear gas and sound bombs on its door step. Villagers reported that military jeeps were driving around the village throwing teargas and sound bombs. Residents reported that the army loaded stones into the jeep and threw them toward the houses. These events follow a demonstration against the Wall that took place in the village yesterday in which 300 Palestinians joined by Israeli and international activists non-violently protested the theft of their land for the construction of the Annexation Wall.

Israeli military and border police were scattered throughout the village’s olive groves before the non-violent demonstration left the village and walked toward the location where Israeli bulldozers were uprooting olive trees. Israeli soldiers said the area was a closed military zone (they did not produce a warrant) and immediately began firing sound bombs and tear gas at the non-violent and peaceful demonstration. The tear gas canisters shot from special guns were not shot into the air but were aimed directly at the protestors.

Some Palestinian youth responded by throwing stones at the soldiers. Palestinian medical personnel reported over 31 demonstrators were injured by teargas canisters, rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas. Mahfouz Abu Turk, a Reuters photographer was hit in the head with a rubber bullet and was treated on location by Palestinian medical personnel. Neta Golan, an Israeli activist with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was taken to the Qalqilia Hospital after Israeli soldiers fired a tear gas canister at her from 6 meters away. She was treated for burn wounds and a ruptured muscle in her right thigh and was released.

Three Israeli activists, Jonothan Pollak, Eli Fabrakant and Karil Kiatkovski from `Anarchists against the Wall’ were arrested and taken to the illegal Israeli settlement of Qedumim where they were charged with illegal assembly and entering a closed military zone. They faced a judge today and were released on conditions.

After the demonstration retreated to the village, Israeli soldiers and border police entered the village and surrounded the clinic where injured people were being treated, detaining twenty of them. Women from the village grabbed the detained men away from the army as other residents and activists surrounded them. As more people congregated near the clinic, the military and border police began firing tear gas and rubber bullets inside the village. The military commander also assaulted a non- violent Palestinian protester.