14th February 2014 | Operation Dove | At Tuwani, Occupied Palestine
On the afternoon of February 11, Palestinians discovered about eighty olive trees uprooted alongside bypass road 317 near the Susiya junction in the South Hebron Hills.
Uprooted olive tree (photo by B’tselem)
The olive tree grove belongs to the Hushiya family from the nearby town of Yatta and had been planted only three weeks ago. Yesterday afternoon the owners and B’tselem staff members gathered near the destroyed trees, waiting for the police. The Israeli police and District Coordination Office arrived on the scene and documented the incident. Today Operation Dove volunteers and B’tselem staff went there to take more pictures.
This field is part of the area that settlers from the nearby settlement of Susiya illegally occupied during 2007, planting a vineyard. Immediately the Palestinians with the help of Rabbis for Human Rights filed a complaint and started a legal process concerning this land (for more details click here). In 2013 the Israeli High Court ordered the army to dismantle these crops and the order was implemented by force.
The number of Palestinian-owned trees uprooted and damaged in the South Hebron Hills area since the beginning of 2014 has risen to 100. Olive trees are an essential resource for the Palestinian community, and their damage causes serious economic loss.
Nevertheless the Palestinian communities of the South Hebron Hills area are still strongly involved in using nonviolence as a way to resist to the Israeli occupation. Just two days ago twenty-five Palestinians planted sixty new olive trees on their own land close to the illegal Avigayil outpost (for more details clickhere).
Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.
For further information:
Operation Dove, 054 99 25 773
[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]
Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) seeks to raise awareness about Israel’s apartheid policies towards the Palestinians and to build support for the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. Reflecting the global grassroots rejection of Israel’s military and political aggression, IAW was held in more than 200 locations in 2012 and more than 150 cities in 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0KONygMEg8
Tenth Annual Israeli Apartheid Week – #apartheidweek
UK and US: February 24-March 2
Europe: March 1-8
South Africa: March 10-16
Brazil: March 24-28
Palestine, Arab world and Asia: TBA
IAW is an annual international series of events including rallies, lectures, cultural performances, film screenings, multimedia displays and boycott of Israel actions held in cities and on university campuses across the globe.
If you would like to organize and be part of Israeli Apartheid Week on your campus or in your city please get in touch with us at iawinfo@apartheidweek.org. Also find us on Facebook and Twitter.
Being part of Israeli Apartheid Week is easy – here are five things you can do:
1. Organize a film screening
Consider hosting a film. For more info or for suggestions contact us at iawinfo@apartheidweek.org
2. Arrange a lecture, workshop, rally or protest
There are many speakers ranging from academics, politicians, trade unionists and cultural activists that we can suggest for you to host. Be in touch with us and we can put you in contact.
3. Organize a BDS action
Organize with others a practical boycott of Israel action or have a boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) motion tabled at your relevant student council, trade union branch or municipality. If you are already working on a BDS campaign, Israeli Apartheid Week can be a great opportunity to build that campaign and bring it to a wider audience.
4. Join us online – #apartheidweek
Help us spread the word online about Israeli Apartheid Week. Follow Israeli Apartheid Week on Twitter and Facebook, including using the hashtag #apartheidweek.
5. Be creative
Be creative! Draw attention to Israeli apartheid by erecting a mock Israeli Apartheid Wall or Checkpoint, organising a flash mob or creative demonstration or by holding a concert or poetry reading.
12th February 2014 | Corporate Watch, Tom Anderson and Therezia Cooper | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
Flowers from Gaza being prepared for export (Photo by Corporate Watch)
Valentine’s Day is almost upon us and for supermarkets and florists that means a massive increase in the sale of flowers. But how many romantic couples consider where the flowers they exchange are grown?
Farmers in Gaza have long been encouraged by Israeli export companies to focus their production on high risk ‘cash crops’ such as flowers and strawberries, and the arrival of carnations from Rafah to European markets for Christmas or Valentine’s day is often cheered on by the Israeli Government who uses it as a PR exercise to show how it ‘facilitates’ Palestinian exports. Unsurprisingly, this is not the full story.
According to the Palestinian Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) there used to be over 500 dunams of carnations planted in the Gaza Strip, but since the beginning of the siege in 2007 flower exports have plummeted year on year and there are only around 60 dunams left. The planted land used to produce over forty million stems for export, but now the few carnation farmers who are left are struggling to sell 5-10 million.
“The Israeli occupation allows us to export a small quantity of produce, just to show the world that they are nice to the Palestinians, but they are using us. Everything we do is controlled by them”, said Saad Ziada from UAWC when we met him in his Gaza City office in November last year, just before what was supposed to be the start of the flower exporting season. This statement is true of all produce in Gaza but flower exporters are particularly susceptible to the control Israel holds over exports, as their produce relies on hitting the market at exactly the right time for popular flower buying holidays. If the border is closed for a week and the flowers miss the export window for Valentine’s Day, for instance, their profit for the whole year can be lost.
We visited Rafah to talk to one of the few flower growers still in business and hear about the situation for farmers under the siege.
“The problem is the border and the siege”
Hassan Hijazi’s greenhouses in Rafah (Photo by Corporate Watch)
Hassan Gazi al Hijazi has been in the flower business for over 25 years and has seen many changes in the flower export industry. When he started out he had to be registered as an Israeli grower, despite growing his flowers in Gaza, and he gave classes in the art of flower growing to new farmers. “There used to be 53 flower farmers in the Rafah area and now there are only 4 of us left” he told us. “I personally used to have 40 dunams and now I only have 4”. He said that he needs assistance from outside to even operate them now, his flower packing house displays signs showing that he receives financial support from Spain.
(Photo by Corporate Watch)
Just as with all produce from Gaza, his flowers have to be exported via Israel, through an Israeli company. In the past this used to be Carmel Agrexco, which used the name Coral for Palestinian produce, but after its liquidation he now works with a Palestinian Co-operative which exports under the brand name Palestine Crops using the slogan ‘From Palestine Land to Global Markets’. Palestine Crops is a Gaza initiative which works with agricultural co-ops in the strip and aims to create a market for Palestinian labelled goods and, eventually, independent exports. For now, however, this is impossible and although some exports from Gaza come with Palestine Crops branding, they are dependent on their Israeli distributor. In the case of flowers, this is primarily the Flower Board of Israel. Once transported out of Gaza, the flowers are taken to the big flower auction houses in Holland, where they are sold by grower name. By the time the bouquets reach our shops they will have been mixed with other flowers and it is unlikely the the buyer will be aware of their origin.
Talking to Hassan, it becomes obvious just how much the farmers of Gaza are at the mercy of the Israeli occupation forces. Palestine’s flower export season lasts from December until May. The most important sales periods are Christmas and Valentine’s Day. According to Hassan, these are often the seasons when the border is closed. Our interview took place on 5 December, a time which should be busy in Rafah. “I should be exporting my flowers around the 15th of December to be in time for the Christmas market, but I do not know how much I will be allowed to export yet”, Hassan told us. “if you are not able to export for those occasions the price for flowers drops and you lose”. Farmers in Gaza are not able to export flowers during the summer as this is the season when Holland grows the same crops.
“The problem is not the growing of the flowers, the problem is the border and the siege” Hassan said whilst showing us his beautiful dunams of ready to go flowers. As with most custom designed cash crops there is not enough of a local market for Hassan’s flowers if he fails to export them, they either just go to waste or become animal food. No one in Gaza can pay a price which would even make the enterprise break even.
In the past Hassan could get around $120 000 for exporting two million flowers if he had a good season, but for the last five years he has been paying the big upfront outlay necessary in flower growing from his own pocket, just dreaming that he will be able to get a return on his investment.
The statistics: The decline of Gaza’s flower exports
Recorded Gaza Flower Exports (according to Palestine Crops):
Date
Carnations
Stems
Trucks
End of 2004
44,000,000
200
2005
30,700,000
210
2006
21,500,000
205
2007
37,400,000
187
2008
2,100,000
10
2009
0
0
2010
10,668,520
74
2011
8,974,890
57
2012
0
0
The table above shows that flower exports have decreased to a fraction of what they were in 2004. During 2012 and 2009, the years of major Israeli attacks on the Strip, exports were prevented entirely.
Gaza’s flower growers see no light at the end of the tunnel with most not having the cash flow to continue their profession. Exports are declining and becoming even more unpredictable with increased border closures.
We asked Hassan for his opinion about the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. We particularly wanted his opinion as his livelihood relies on exporting produce through Israeli companies. “You should continue these campaigns even if it damages our business” he said. “The problem for us is that there is no other way we can export, but people on the outside should continue to boycott and help us keep the borders open”.
This sentiment was one that was repeated over and over again across the Gaza Strip, and the challenge for the solidarity movement is clear: in order for Palestinians to be able to control their own exports we first need to break the siege -permanently.
We will publish some further articles on the problems faced by Palestinian exporters in the coming weeks.
12 February, 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
On the afternoon of February 11, 2014, settlers in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Al-Khalil (Hebron) cut down trees belonging to the Abu Eisheh family. While attempting to film the destruction of the trees, four human rights activists were arrested by Israeli police.
At approximately 3:30 p.m., three activists, a Swiss-American, an American, and an Italian, were sitting in their apartment in Tel Rumeida when they heard a commotion outside. Outside the apartment, they found a group of settlers, Palestinians, Israeli soldiers and Israeli police. They were informed by the Palestinians that a group of settlers was cutting down trees at a house just up the road.
The three activists began filming but were not allowed up the road to where the tree-cutting was taking place. While filming, the American activist was physically assaulted by a settler. None of the soldiers or police officers present intervened. Instead, the Israeli police took the passports belonging to the American and Swiss-American and told them to sit on the ground.
At this time, the Italian citizen returned to the apartment, where she was joined by a fourth activist, an American, who had just arrived. Shortly thereafter, a group of soldiers and police officers attempted to enter the apartment. They were not allowed entry, but briefly questioned the two activists outside the apartment door. The Israeli police then confiscated the passports belonging to the American and the Italian.
Not long after, all four activists were transported to the police station near Kiryat Arba, where they were interrogated and threatened with deportation. After seven hours, the activists were released.
The following day, February 12th, two activists from Christian Peacemaker Teams visited Tel Rumeida to document the destruction of the trees. They were not there long before several Israeli soldiers approached them, told them to stop filming, and took their passports. They were held for two hours before their passports were returned. Israeli soldiers informed the two activists that if they approached the trees again they would be arrested.
The destruction of Palestinian trees by settlers is a chronic problem, not only in Tel Rumeida, but all over the West Bank. In the past month alone, more than 2500 trees in the village of Sinjil were destroyed by settlers. Trees have also recently been destroyed by settlers in Qusra, Ramallah, and Nablus. Fruit trees are an essential resource for the Palestinian community, and their damage causes serious economic loss. It takes as long as 12 years for an olive tree to reach full maturity.
ISM activist with settlers in Tel Rumeida (photo by ISM Italy)
8th February 2014 | Operation Dove | At Tuwani, South Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestine
On the morning of February 8, 2014, during a nonviolent action claiming the right of Palestinians to access their own land, a group of settlers from the illegal outpost of Mitzpe Eshtamoa attacked Palestinians, Israeli activists and internationals with stones and sticks, while Israeli soldiers stood by and watched.
At 9:36 a.m. about fifteen Palestinians from the South Hebron Hills village of Shuweika, accompanied by eight Israeli activists and five internationals, went with five flocks to the valley near Mitzpe Eshtamoa to claim their right to access their own fields. When the shepherds arrived in the valley they found a Star of David created with stones and rocks on Palestinian-owned property. Palestinians, Israeli activists and internationals together removed the stones and rocks, cleaning up the field. At 9:59 a.m. a group of settlers appeared from the outpost, looking toward the shepherds and activists. After about half an hour settlers started organizing the attack, even as Israeli soldiers were inside the outpost.
Photo by Operation Dove
At 10:53 a group of twenty settlers, half of them masked, stormed down the hill and threw stones with slingshots. Israeli soldiers watched the scene without intervening, even when four settlers ran towards an Israeli activist and beat him up. After that the settlers moved to a nearby hill and continued throwing stones. Only at this time did the soldiers unsuccessfully attempt to stop the settlers. Several minutes later the Palestinian landowner arrived in the valley to show his property document to the soldiers. Settlers also threw stones at the landowner, but they didn’t hit him.
No settlers were arrested or detained by soldiers or Israeli police, the latter arriving on the scene at about 12:00 p.m.
Settlers beating Israeli Activist (Photo by Operation Dove)
Despite this event, the Palestinians from the village of Shuweika are still strongly committed to accessing their land for everyday farming activities. Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.
[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are also considered illegal under Israeli law.]
