International Solidarity Movement - Page 344 - Nonviolence. Justice. Freedom.

VIDEO: Mornings in Khalil: child and adult detention

30th October 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

This morning, Wednesday 30th October, as children made their way to school Israeli soldiers burst from an alleyway firing stun grenades and detained two 10-year-old boys. In a separate incident nearby, a Palestinian was detained and taken to a military base for unknown reasons.

This morning international activists were monitoring checkpoint 29 where many children pass through on their way to school, when approximately 6 Israeli soldiers ran from an alley, firing stun grenades directly at a group of children. The soldiers immediately grabbed one child (10-year-old) Nor and another (10-year-old) Mohammed, before firing another stun grenade towards the rest of the school children causing them to flee in panic.

Israeli soldiers marched the two young children to a nearby police station, refusing to answer why they were being taken when questioned by international activists. When a relative attempted to communicate with the boys, Israeli soldiers forcibly pushed him away and refused to answer his questions.

The children were detained inside the police station for approximately 45 minutes before being transferred to the Palestinian District Coordination Office (DCO) at 9:30.

Shortly after the young children were released, a Palestinian was questioned at a checkpoint on his way to work when he was aggressively pushed, handcuffed and taken to Tel Rumeida military base. No reason was given for this detention and the Palestinian was released shortly after.

Children in Khalil are routinely harassed on their way to school in this way; arrests and stun grenades are commonly used against them. Palestinians living under occupation experience regular detentions and arrests which are executed without just cause or reason.

Photos: Hundreds greet freed detainees at midnight rally in northern Gaza Strip

30th October 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Charlie Andreasson | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

As part of the resumption of negotiation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, 26 Palestinian prisoners were released overnight Wednesday from Ofer prison in Israel. Five were transferred to the Gaza Strip via the Erez checkpoint in Beit Hanoun. This was the second of four planned releases of a total of 104 Palestinian prisoners, nearly all imprisoned before the beginning of the Oslo system in 1994. The 26 released in this round have been detained from 19 to 28 years, and are between 38 and 58 years old. But they could have regained their freedom long ago. As part of the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum in 1999, all Palestinians captured and sentenced before Oslo should have been freed.

The five men returning to the Gaza Strip were hailed as heroes for their resistance against the occupation by the 400-500 Palestinians gathered at Erez to greet them. The scene in Israel, however, was entirely different. On Monday, thousands gathered outside Ofer prison to protest against plans to release the 26 prisoners, all but two sentenced to life.

Even within Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, there have been strong disagreements about the release. The Jewish Home party, an ultra-right coalition member, unsuccessfully proposed legislation to bar future releases. Its leader, Naftali Bennett, criticized Israeli justice minister Tzipi Livni, one of the negotiators, in strong terms, saying that stopping the release of Palestinian prisoners was far more important than than Livni’s continued presence in the cabinet. Less extremist elements within the coalition said that Netanyahu could have prevented the release by accepting a freeze on the construction of new settlements in the occupied West Bank, or negotiations based on its boundaries as the borders of a future Palestinian state. This is a view shared by opposition leader Shelly Yachimovich, who claimed that Netanyahu’s Likud prefers to release prisoners than freeze settlement construction.

A freeze on the construction of new settlements and the expansion of existing ones, all illegal under international law, has always been a demand of Palestinians to continue negotiations. It was Israel’s refusal to meet this requirement that crashed the talks 2010, and only after the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s mediation were the parties were able to return to the negotiating table. But Netanyahu has already stated that permission will be given for more settlements. It is speculated that this will include between 1,200 and 1,700 units of settler housing. How this will affect the negotiations remains to be seen.

A spokesman for the Hamas-led government in Gaza, Fawzi Barhoum, accused the Israeli government of using the release of prisoners as a smokescreen for house demolitions, the construction of the wall, changing the status of Jerusalem, obstructing the right of return, and seizing even more Palestinian land. Hamas is not part of the negotiations. Barhoum’s claim expresses what many believe, that Israel hopes to change the focus of the negotiations. A resolution giving Israel the opportunity to expand settlements on occupied territory is an agreement between a pacified Palestinian authority and an occupying power. With the announcement escalated settlement expansion, the Netanyahu government has proven what it wants out of the talks.

Photos: Detainee families, supporters keep Gaza vigil on eve of prisoner release

29th October 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

Families and supporters of Palestinian detainees held by Israel celebrated tonight’s promised release of 26 prisoners during a weekly sit-in Monday morning.

The regular event, which began in 1995, brings comrades, friends and relatives of Palestinian prisoners together in the courtyard of the International Committee of the Red Cross’ Gaza City office.

“I and my family can’t believe Hazem is going to be released,” Taiseer Qassem Shubeir said after the event.

Shubeir is the brother of of Hazem Qassem Taher Shubeir, one five prisoners from the Gaza Strip scheduled for release.

“We had lost hope,” Shubeir said. “Now all the Israelis’ excuses have been broken. We are unbelievably happy, and the whole family is waiting nervously.”

The expected release of 26 detainees follows an earlier release that also included 26 prisoners, with 14 from the Gaza Strip, on 14 August.

Rallies have been planned to the five Gaza Strip detainees, both on their arrival at the Erez checkpoint in Beit Hanoun, expected around midnight, and later in their cities and neighborhoods.

“Families and supporters of the detainees will go to Erez,” said Osama al-Wuhaidi, a spokesman for the Hussam Association, a Gaza-based society of current and former Palestinian detainees. “After seven o’clock, people will start gathering by the checkpoint.”

“Everybody in Khan Younis is already celebrating,” said Shubeir. “I feel like Hazem is the son not only of our family, but of the whole Palestinian people.”

The Israeli government has said that the releases, part of its current negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), will free 104 detainees over nine months of talks.

These will include all Palestinians detained before the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994 and charged by Israeli with offenses before the 1993 signing of the Oslo Accords, according to Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.

Israel first agreed to release these prisoners in its 1999 Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum with the PLO.

Demolition order in the village of Tawayel

29th October 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Tawayel, Occupied Palestine

A family after their home was demolished

Today, Tuesday 29th October, Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Tawayel in the early hours of the morning to demolish several buildings and a water reserve. The demolition continued into the afternoon, where two international activists were detained before being released shortly after.

Early this morning at around 5am, the Israeli army arrived in Tawayel with several military jeeps and three bulldozers. They began by demolishing a sheep enclosure before continuing to destroy the house of one farmer. The former home of this family was completely destroyed, but Israeli forces then demolished a water reserve. This means the soldiers removed the water supplies for several families and their animals in the area.

When Israeli forces continued in their demolition by moving their focus to another house, used as a storage room, four international activists sat in front of the bulldozer to try to prevent the demolition. Several Israeli soldiers and border police told them to leave and when they refused, took one French activist and pushed her into an army jeep. Shortly after this, border police grabbed a German activist, handcuffed him and placed him in the military jeep. The farmers and the internationals then had to watch, while the Israeli army destroyed the storage room. After they were finished, they released the activists, without taking their passports or even their names.

Tawayel is a village close to Aqraba. The landscape is mainly desert, which makes it difficult for the farmers in the area to build a structured water supply. The village is Area B, but many farmers are living outside of the village, where there is more space for their sheep and animals. These farmers and their families have been living in this land for generations, though the army declared it Area C. Most of the houses the farmers are living in are quite old and in the last few years they constructed infrastructure to simplify water supply, they also built new shelters for their sheep in order to protect them from the summer sun, the cold in the winter and wild dogs. For these new buildings the farmers sent several aplications for planning permission, they did not receive a response from the Israeli government and this is why the administration declared those constructions as illegal.

This kind of structured demolition has happened before in Tawayel and the harassment from the Israeli army is ongoing, although they have never bothered to answer the permit requests from the farmers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx9YJTsK8

Photos: Israeli warplane strikes olive grove north of Gaza

29th October 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Rosa Schiano | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

On the morning of Monday, 28 October, the Israeli air forces bombed agricultural land in the north of Gaza City.

The airstrike took place at 9:25 am. An F-16 fighter jet bombed an area planted with olive trees on Mukhabarat Street, near Soudanya.

The bombing created a huge crater. The land belongs to the Shohaber family, which produces oil from the olive trees. The family also owns a trucking company that transports materials from the Karem Shalom checkpoint into the Gaza Strip.

Hazem Shohaber, owner of the land, told me his house was damaged in the bombing. His family has only lived in the new home for three months.

“I was sitting behind the wall around the yard when the bombing took place,” Hazem said. “I was shocked. I was not able to do anything. Thank God my children were not on the land. They were in school. They usually play here.”

Hazem has three sons and three young daughters who were in school at the time of the bombing. The explosion cracked the walls of his house. All its windows, as well as those of adjacent buildings, shattered.

A few meters away from the bomb site is a primary school for girls.

“The girls were in class,” Hazem said. “They fled. The situation was terrible. Teachers could not calm them. The ambulances came. Everyone feared that children had died in the explosion.”

A few meters away from the bomb site is a primary school for girls.

“The girls were in class,” Hazem said. “They fled. The situation was terrible. Teachers could not calm them. The ambulances came. Everyone feared that children had died in the explosion .”

Hazem’s wife offers a cup of coffee. His daughter, Farah, age six, hides under the table, looking shocked. Who knows how many other children will do the same today?

The ceasefire of 21 November 2012 established that the Israeli military forces should “refrain from hitting residents in areas along the border” and “cease hostilities in the Gaza Strip by land, by sea and by air, including raids and targeted killings.”

But Israeli military attacks by land and sea have followed from the day after the ceasefire,, and Israeli warplanes constantly fly over the Gaza Strip. In areas by the Israel-imposed “buffer zone,”Israeli forces have killed seven civilians since the end of the “Pillar of Defense” military offensive. At least 124 others have been wounded.

These attacks against the civilian population of Gaza continue, but are met only with silence by the international community.