20th January 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
Dozens of Palestinians joined a rally organized by the Popular Campaign to Save the Life of the Captive Patient Ibrahim Bitar outside the International Committee of the Red Cross’ Gaza office this morning.
(Photo by Joe Catron)
The gathering followed a weekly sit-in by families and supporters of Palestinian detainees that has been held in the ICRC courtyard every Monday morning since 1995.
Ibrahim Bitar’s mother sits between two young supporters. (Photo by Joe Catron)(Photo by Joe Catron)(Photo by Joe Catron)(Photo by Joe Catron)(Photo by Joe Catron)(Photo by Joe Catron)(Photo by Joe Catron)
18th January 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Jordan Valley, Occupied Palestine
A Palestinian activist and an international were arrested today whilst peacefully protesting in the Jordan Valley. The international activist is falsely charged by Israeli forces with endangering people’s lives on the road, assaulting a soldier and trying to grab his rifle.
The march held in Jiflleck Adam Junction saw around 60 people gathered to protest against the ongoing demolition of Palestinian houses in the area. The protesters started their demonstration by chanting against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and in opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu.
When the march was almost over and protesters were walking back to the buses, a group of 15 Israeli soldiers standing nearby followed the crowd and initiated clashes.
Two international activists attending the march were pushed to the ground and handcuffed by Israeli forces while successfully preventing the arrest of a Palestinian youth. One of the activists managed to escape from detention, but the other one was blindfolded and forced to kneel for over an hour on the ground.
Before scattering the protest, the military arrested the Palestinian youth, 20-year-old Ahmad Walid, whose arrest had been previously thwarted; he and the international activist were taken in a jeep to Male Akon Military Base and later transferred to Shomron Police Station in the illegal settlement of Ariel where they are currently being held.
Overall, around 40 Israeli soldiers, police and border police were present during the non-violent demonstration in which 60 people demonstrated peacefully.
They are young, and they are fearless. In Gaza, a growing nonviolent movement, led predominantly by youth, is challenging Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestinian lands in the so-called “buffer zone” — a unilaterally demarcated and militarily patrolled area that, according to Harvard researcher Sara Roy, now absorb[s] nearly 14 percent of Gaza’s total land and at least 48 percent of total arable land.” The zone officially extends 300 meters into Gaza’s territory, but attacks against civilians take place anywhere up to approximately 1.5 kilometers inside the border fence,” according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. (That’s about a mile into a strip of land that is seven miles at its girth.) In this video, some 300 protesters are shown under fire from Israeli guns, too far to see but no less lethal for it. The protestors’ crime? They were planting citrus trees to replace those destroyed by Israel’s ongoing occupation, which daily deprives Gaza’s more than 1.7 million Palestinians of access to their farmland, to the sea that borders them, to the airspace above them — and, crucially, to their fellow Palestinians. With more than 10 percent of the worldwide Palestinian population living in Gaza, no serious discussion of the conflict or its resolution can exclude them.
16th January 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Deir Istiya, Occupied Palestine
In the early morning of Wednesday the 15th January 2014, at 3:45 AM, the muezzin of the Deir Istiya village went from his home to the Abu Bakr mosque west of the village in order to prepare for the first prayer. He found the entrance to the mosque on fire. He immediately brought water from his home in order to douse the flames. When the fire was under control, he announced over the loudspeaker of the mosque for all the villagers to come and see what had happened.
The villagers witnessed graffiti in Hebrew lettering at the entrance of the mosque; they also found gasoline containers which had been used and empty spray paint canisters. The graffiti said: “Our blood has been shed and we will take revenge for Qusra,” “ In memory of Qusra” and “Arabs Out”. In February 2013, Settlers had attempted to burn the same mosque which was built in 2005. The guilty parties were never found.
The Israeli border police and Israeli soldiers arrived at the scene at 6 AM. They took pictures of the mosque, including the graffiti and the burned entrance. They took the gasoline containers and spray paint canisters into evidence. On the land between the west of the village by the mosque and the settler road the police found a mobile phone which is believed to belong to one of the settlers, lost on his or her escape. This was also taken into evidence.
The evening before the incident, Israeli forces entered the village of Deir Istiya; they then set a curfew not allowing any of the villagers to leave their homes after 10 PM; the residents then witnessed the soldiers shooting flares and throwing stun grenades. Nobody knows exactly when the Israeli army left the village. The residents believe that the Israeli soldiers prepared everything for the settler attack to avoid eye witnesses on the streets.
On the settler road by the junction to the illegal settlements of Revava and Yakir, there is an Israeli army jeep parked at all times in order to protect the settlements; there is also a camera tower, which monitors the street, the field up the hill and to the mosque on the edge of the village of Deir Istiya. However, when a villager arrived at the mosque that morning, he noted that the army jeep was not in its usual position; he speculated that the soldiers left that area in order to allow the settlers free access.
Due to the surveillance camera which monitors the street, in addition to the evidence collected at the scene: the mobile phone, the gasoline containers and the spray paint canisters, it would appear to be straightforward to find the criminals who burned the mosque.
Villagers believe that the Israeli forces do not want to find the settlers responsible.
On the 7th January 2014 Palestinians from the villages Qusra, Jalud and Qaryut defended themselves against attacking settlers. The settlers were beaten and held until the Palestinian DCO handed them over to the Israeli army. Because of the graffiti on the mosque, the villagers of Deir Istiya believe that it was a revenge action from a group of angry settlers.
15th January 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Marco Varasio | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
Children rally for Palestinian detainees in Gaza. (Photo by Joe Catron)
Like every Monday morning, people gathered at International Committee of the Red Cross’ Gaza office to demonstrate in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention facilities.
(Photo by Rosa Schiano)
This week’s rally started with the chanting of slogans against the illegal detention of Palestinians and people offering sweets to pay homage to Rami Barbakh, a prisoner freed in the latest release who attended the rally.
Banners in honor of Ibrahim Bitar, a Palestinian patient prisoner from Khan Younis detained in the prison of Nafha, whose family has been recently banned from visiting him, were held by Palestinian youth movements.
(Photo by Joe Catron)
Members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine also distributed flyers urging all Palestinian factions to join together to pressure the Palestinian Authority to act against the illegal detention of Palestinian and against solitary confinement in Israeli jails.
Outside the IRCC, last week a rally organized by the Fatah Youth Movement saw Mahmoud Salman, Rami Barbakh and Ibrahim Abu Ali awarded pictures and scarves to celebrate their release on 30th December 2013, after more than 20 years of detention. This week, Palestinian Islamic Jihad organized a rally in solidarity with the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in Siria, and with Palestinian prisoners.
(Photo by Rosa Schiano)
“We have more than 5,000 prisoners in the Israeli jails,” Ahmad Abu Soud, an ex-detainee who spent 26 years in occupation jails, said from the stage. “Our priority is the sick prisoners. We want Abu Mazen to increase efforts to set them all free.”
While the Israeli detention of Palestinians continues, G4S, the company which provides Israel with surveillance equipment at its checkpoint and in its detention facilities, is under major investigation by international authorities for its activities in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
(Photo by Joe Catron)
In the last four months, G4S lost contracts in the United Kingdon, Norway, South Africa and the Netherlands due to its involvement in Israeli violations of the international law, and to the pressure generated by the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
