International Solidarity Movement - Page 1623 - Nonviolence. Justice. Freedom.

Tulkarem choked by Israel’s illegal chemical fumes

Today’s Freedom Summer action was focused on the presence of a toxic chemical factory at the edge of Tulkarem. The Israeli-owned factory was originally located near residences in Israel, but was deemed to be polluting beyond acceptable legal levels. Following a court case in Israel, it was moved to the West Bank city of Tulkarem in the mid-eighties. The complex of factories has been expanding ever since, spreading like the cancer that the output from the factory induces.

This issue represents a particularly dangerous dimension of the occupation for the Palestinian people. As I stood looking up at the chimney and IOF watchtower inside the factory compound, it occurred to me that this was a large, ugly weapon, slowly but surely attacking the people around it.

Tulkarem has the highest cancer rates in Palestine. Residents living near the factory also suffer disproportionately from respiratory tract diseases and other health problems. The land around the factories has been labeled unsuitable for agricultural production, and farmers have faced extreme difficulties getting to it. One farmer has been shot at a number of times by the owner of the chemical factory. He has decided to convert his farm to organic production a decision which reflects the strength and resilience of the Palestinian people. No attempts have been made to clean the surrounding environment or dispose of the chemical waste safely – it is being repeatedly dumped on nearby Palestinian land.

The protest began with a march from the centre of Tulkarem towards the factory. We wore blue surgical masks to highlight the danger of inhaling the factory fumes, but as we approached the factory and began to smell the foul stench in the air I was genuinely glad to be wearing it.

Our group of Palestinian, Israeli, and ISM Activists, proceeded from the centre of Tulkarem to the factory located at the city’s edge. We walked carrying gravestone shaped signs in Arabic and English proclaiming the death of the environment, justice, freedom, and human rights, in addition to the disregard of organisations such as the World Health Organisation and the International Court of Justice.

Arriving at the factory, which is in close proximity to the Apartheid Wall around Tulkarem, the demonstrators placed the “gravestones” outside the main gate and began to chant. Messages were sprayed on the wall and we banged on the gate with stones, but nobody responded and the military did not turn up.

I only hope that they do not punish the farmers involved in the protest later, when we have left the city.

Photos can be viewed at: freckle.blogs.com/photos/no_more_poison/

The factories in Tulkarem are one of many sites throughout the West Bank where Israeli industrial complexes are situated. The companies are free to operate outside of Israeli laws regarding health and safety, the environment and the treatment of workers. The Palestinian workers come from a pool of very cheap labour; they have no rights and, following the economic strangulation of Palestine over the last five years, are desperate to work, even if this means going to a settlement and working in unhealthy or dangerous conditions. The factories are built on stolen land and disfigure the beauty of the West Bank, causing environmental problems and flattening agricultural land with concrete.

Harassment in the village of Qawawis

The sheperds living in the hamlet of Qawawis, south of Hebron, live in constant fear of the settlers living in the nearby illegal settlement outpost. All settlements are illegal under international law, but the settlement outpost near Qawawis is illegal, even by Israeli standards, a fact that doesn’t seem to have any effect on the Israeli authorities. The illegal outpost is hooked up to electricity, water and a road that is paved to to the outpost’s entrance. The nearby native Palestinian village has no access to these services.

The outpost — though illegal — is protected by the Israeli military and police, but that protection is not extended to Palestinians in Qawawis. Adding to the problem, the Israeli government has forbidden Qawawis villagers from building structures, even to replace those that have been destroyed by settlers.

The Israeli government has been trying to root Palestinians out of their homes in the Southern hebron Hills for years, but has, as of yet, failed to do so. According to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, nearly 1,000 Paelstinians in the area, including those in Qawawis, are choosing to live as their ancestors have for generations, “living in caves and earning a living from farming and livestock.”People in the area point out this way of life serves a purpose aside from ideas about nostalgia: The Israeli military has forbidden villagers from construction on their own land, even to replace those building destroyed by settlers. The caves also provide added security during settler or military incursions.

Israeli officials use the caves to argue that expulsion of the residents is justified because they are not permanent residents, and that the expulsion is an imperative military need.”

I stayed In Qawawis for three days. On the first day, a group of settlers appeared on a hill that is part of the village. The Palestinian family living on this hill had just returned home from a nearby town, where they fled to two years ago to escape settler violence. Shortly after the appearance of the settlers, who carried machine-guns, an army jeep arrived and waited for the settlers to leave for 40 minutes. On the third day a settler car stopped on the settlement road and two settlers came out and walk towards a Shepard and his flock, hurling verbal abuse for about 10 minutes before continuing on their way.

These two incidents ended without violence but this is not always the case. The community lives under constant threat. The families of Qawawis are defenseless. They urgently ask for your help.

B’Tselem is urging the government of Israel to revoke the order declaring the caves area in South Mt. Hebron a closed military area and cancel the eviction orders currently pending against the cave residents. The organization is also calling on the the army and police to protect the cave residents; enforce the laws in protecting villagers from violent settlers; recognize the right of the cave residents to live in their villages; and to compensate Palestinians whose land and personal property were damaged by settlers, the army, or the Civil Administration.

4,050 Palestinians killed during intifada

Report Source: Xinhua

An official report said on Sunday that 4,050 Palestinians were killed and 44,848 others injured by the Israeli army since the beginning of the intifada, or uprising, against Israel’s occupation in September 2000. The report, issued by the State Information Service, said that Israeli military actions persisted even after Palestinian militant groups accepted in March a one-year halt of attacks against Israel. According to the report, the number of Palestinians killed during the intifada, is 4,050, including 751 children, 236 women, 344 security men, 836 students and teachers and 325 militants. The report said that 50 people were killed during Jewish settlers’ assaults on Palestinian residents in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It said that among the dead, 1,922 people were from the West Bank and 2,128 from the Gaza Strip, adding they were killed from Sept. 29, 2000 to June 30, 2005.

It also said that 8,200 Palestinians are detained in Israeli jails, 614 of whom were arrested by the Israeli army before the intifada. Meanwhile, the report said that some 272,000 Palestinians are jobless in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, while the rate of the Palestinians living under poverty line reached 76.6 percent in 2003.

Border Policeman Dies, Police Lie About Cause

By Jonathan Lis
July 4th
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/595276.html

A Border Policeman died yesterday after suddenly collapsing while policing the separation fence near Har Adar, outside Jerusalem.

Police initially said that Natan Yasais, 21, of Lod had been hit by a rock thrown by a Palestinian. However, hospital officials said they saw no signs of him having been hit by anything. They said that he arrived with a high fever and apparently died either of an existing illness or of dehydration. They added that he was in critical condition upon arrival and died very shortly afterward.

Police officials said they initially assumed Yasais had been hit by a rock because when he died, he was helping to disperse a violent demonstration against the fence that involved dozens of rock-throwing Palestinians. The demonstrators were eventually dispersed by means of shock grenades, the police reported.

Anarchists Against the Fence, which is involved in many anti-fence demonstrations, insisted that there was no demonstration at all in the Har Adar area yesterday, either by Israelis or by local Palestinians. They accused the police of deliberately spreading misinformation in order to “delegitimize the nonviolent demonstrations that take place in this area” – a charge that the police termed “a gross lie.

IDF officer arrests Israeli cameraman

By Meron Rapaport
July 4th
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/595280.html

An Israel Defense Forces deputy brigade commander confiscated the Government Press Office-issued press card of an Israeli journalist, informing him that he was revoking his card and ordering that he be arrested for terming him “insolent.” The director of the Association of Israeli Journalists, Yossi Bar-Moha, defined the incident as severe, and as one that “can only take place in totalitarian states.”

The incident occured last Friday during a demonstration in the Palestinian village of Bili’in and involved cameraman Shai Carmeli Pollack, who is filming a documentary for Channel 8 on the protests against the fence. During the course of the demonstration, Pollack exchanged words with IDF officers about the way in which the security forces were dealing with the protesters and their demand t Brigade deputy commander Shai Malka then asked Pollack if he was a journalist. On receiving an affirmative response, Malka said, “I am revoking your press card.” Malka then ordered that Pollack be arrested, and seized his credentials, accusing him also of insulting a public official.

This was Pollack’s third arrest during demonstrations against the fence.

“Clearly the IDF doesn’t want coverage of what is happening there,” said Adi Arbel, program director for Channel 8.