21 October, 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Jordan Valley
The ISM visited the land of Ahmed, a resident of the Jordan Valley. Ahmed’s land falls in both Area A (under the Palestinian Authority control) and Area C (under civil and military Israeli occupation). He has a house and palm plantations on the “A side”, while on the “C side” he had built an irrigation system and started to plant bananas. The Israeli army destroyed everything there, as Palestinians face huge challenges to build and farm in area C.
A bit further away from Ahmed’s land there is a green patch: it is a mango plantation (photo) belonging to illegal Israeli settlers who stole Palestinian land under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces. The Israeli settlers are digging a trench (photo): they broke all the water pipes and water is now wasted filling the trench. It almost looks like they are trying to demarcate and separate Area A and C.
Palm plantations in the area A side of Ahmed’s land.
As settlers’ attacks increase in the area, farmers have put out an urgent call to international and local institutions and institutions of the Palestinian National Authority:
“We are farmers of the Jannat El Balqa region, in the area between Nuweimah and Al-Auja/North Jericho.
In these critical moments, we are exposed to attacks by settlers under the protection of the occupation army and their bulldozers, digging tunnels and trenches, sabotaging and destroying water lines, fences and roads on the Islamic Endowments land leased to us, which is accompanied by the occupation’s aggression against our people in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Therefore, we invite you on Sunday, October 22, 11 am to be with us in that area and the land of the Awsaj village.
Your participation protects us, our land, and our farms.
Published by: Balqa Paradise Committee and Ikhelia Jordan Valley Association.
For further information, you can call the coordinator on this number: 0599845312.
Thank you.”
Green mango plantation from illegal Israeli settlers.
Instead of demanding the implementation of international law, many Western governments are fuelling the flames
Photo of Gaza October 2023: Naaman Omar apaimages
Last Friday, with over a thousand other Jewish Israelis, I sent letters to diplomats in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, pleading with them to intervene – to demand Israel stop bombing Gaza; to prevent the Israeli ground invasion; and to support the call of thousands of Israelis for an immediate prisoner/hostage exchange. We received no response.
At the time that our group, Israelis against Apartheid, was calling to stop the slaughter, hundreds of Israelis, including the families of those taken prisoner by Hamas, began demonstrating in Israeli cities. They were demanding immediate efforts be made to release the hostages in a prisoner swap for Palestinian political prisoners, including women and children, held in Israeli jails.
In our letters, we wrote: “We fear that in the coming hours Gaza’s hospitals will turn into graveyards. With fuel reserves for electricity generators all used up, there will be no more power for operation rooms, vital monitors, ventilators, ICU drips, newborn incubators, or even lights. Communication networks are failing and people can no longer call for ambulances. Medical care can never be a subject for negotiation.
We could not have imagined that reality would surpass our fears
“Please help us stop this catastrophe, which is costing the lives of thousands and destroying the vision of a just and safe future for the region.”
In our worst nightmares, we could not have imagined that reality would surpass our fears. Doctors in Gaza are now operating without painkillers, and the only cancer hospital has been bombed, reportedly killing more than 500 people.
Our voices calling for an immediate ceasefire and prisoner exchange were drowned out by a tsunami of incitement.
For example, Knesset member Ariel Kallner tweeted: “Nakba for the enemy now! This day is our Pearl Harbor. We will learn the lessons later. Right now, one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of ’48. Nakba in Gaza and Nakba to anyone who dares to join because like then in 1948, the alternative is clear.”
This kind of sentiment is not new but it is now amplified and emboldened.
There is a risk of genocide against the Palestinian people
On Thursday, the UN office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said: “There is a risk of genocide against the Palestinian people”. Instead of the international community demanding the implementation of international law, many Western governments are fueling the flames.
On Wednesday, the UK Government refused to endorse cross-party calls for a ceasefire and, only one day earlier, had rejected – along with France, the US and Japan – the UN resolution for a Gaza ceasefire. The US continues to veto UN resolutions for “humanitarian pauses”.
On 11 October, the leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmerdeclared his backing for what he described as Israel’s “right” to totally cut power and water supplies to Palestinians in Gaza, an act of collective punishment which constitutes a war crime under international humanitarian law.
In the past 12 days, Israel has dropped more than 6,000 bombs and laid waste to many Gaza communities. NGO Defence for Children Palestine has reported that one Palestinian child is killed every 15 minutes in Gaza. Hundreds of fatalities remain trapped under the rubble. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering in schools and hospitals, without mainline electricity, and with dwindling stocks of food and water.
Whole communities are being wiped off the map in the West Bank
While all eyes are on what’s happening in Gaza, whole communities are being wiped off the map in the West Bank, which is now under military siege. The UN has documented at least 56 killings of Palestinians in the West Bank by Israeli forces in the past 12 days, as well as 82 settler attacks. A total of eight entire communities have been forcibly evicted by settler violence since the beginning of the attack on Gaza.
The West Bank and Gaza demonstrate thelack ofoptions that are open to Palestinians. If they co-ordinate with Israel for its security, such as the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, illegal settlements will continue to expand, putting people at risk of being killed by settlers and soldiers.
Starmer, Sunak and other politicians in Britain and around the world are doing us – Israelis – no favours by encouraging Netanyahu’s government to commit war crimes against Palestinians. And, by doing so, they are complicit in the crimes themselves.
Neta Golan is an Israeli activist with Israelis against Apartheid and a co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement. She currently lives in Ramallah in the Occupied West Bank
Military checkpoint in the Jordan Valley. 17 October, 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Jordan Valley
Tuesday 17 Oct, an update from the Jordan Valley:
Since Israel waged war on Gaza, on October 7, the situation in the Jordan Valley has deteriorated dramatically.
Military checkpoints are often completely closed, and movements in and out of the Jordan Valley are severely limited. West Bank citizens who are not residents of the Jordan Valley are identified and can be forbidden to enter certain areas or villages in the Jordan Valley. While residents of the Jordan Valley are hindered from moving.
There is also limited gasoline or diesel available and any solidarity activity is prohibited. There was an activity in Khirbet Atuf in the northern Jordan Valley, which was responded to by the occupation army forces with live fire, resulting in the martyrdom of the young man Muhammad Ahmad Bsharat, and more than 20 injuries.
Residents of the Jordan Valley and Bedouin communities are also prohibited from moving after 5 p.m.
There are more than 10 communities and villages that cannot obtain water due to closures and the water deprivation policy.
Israeli settlers also took advantage of the support from Minister Ben Gvir and the state of emergency and began to displace Palestinian citizens.
Queues at military checkpoint, Jordan Valley. Credit to Jordan Valley activists.
Several families in Bedouin communities were displaced, threatened by armed settlers. The settlers attacked, intimidated and destroyed the private property of residents in the Jordan Valley and confiscated some lands.
The situation is difficult, and the communities realize that they need to struggle for survival during this ongoing war against the Bedouins and pastoral communities, also being waged taking advantage of the state of emergency and the continuous crimes against children and civilians in Gaza.
13 October, 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Tulkarm
By Diana Khwaelid
On the evening of Friday, October 13th, 2023, Israeli snipers opened direct live fire on a white civilian car while it was passing near the Sanaoz military checkpoint, in Tulkarm city.
Ahmed Abed, who was one of the two passengers in the vehicle, said that Israeli snipers on the tower opened fire on the car as they were on their way to the gas station to fill up on fuel. Ahmed was hit by four live bullets in the back and shoulder area, but was lucky to survive, he said.
Rami Hassan, 33, from the village of Arta, husband and father of a 3-year-old girl, Abe, was mortally wounded by several bullets that penetrated his body. His condition was initially described as serious. Rami did not withstand the wounds and died 8 hours after the shooting. Rami worked in a blacksmith shop and as a government employee in the municipality of Tulkarm to support his family.
The wounded and witness to the incident, Ahmed, said that they were about 500 meters away from the miltary checkpoint and they did not pose a danger to the Israeli occupation forces, as they were not near a military area and did not cross the border. Nevertheless, they were surprised by direct live fire on them.
He added that the Israeli occupation forces directly targeted them knowing that they were civilians, and that the snipers clearly intended on killing them. No warning shots were fired. Ahmed said he survived miraculously.
The National Action factions in the city of Tulkarem mourned the martyr Rami Hassan, dozens of Palestinians participated in his funeral, and he was given a farewell look by his family and friends. Palestinian demonstrators chanted patriotic phrases expressing anger and sadness at the continuation of the Israeli occupation forces targeting Palestinian civilians.
On Tuesday, October 17, over 1100 Israelis joined an open letter to the international community organized by “Israelis against Apartheid,” asking other countries and the UN “to intervene immediately to stop the indiscriminate bombing of 2.3 million people living in the Gaza strip”, “to prevent the imminent and disastrous ground military invasion into Gaza,” and “to agree to a prisoner and hostage exchange immediately”.
The group was first formed in 2021 with another 1500-strong petition, calling upon the international community to intervene against the 2021 Israeli attack on Gaza. Last week, on October 12, members of the group shared a similar urgent call for intervention with 400 foreign embassies and diplomats in Israel and with the UN. One of the group’s organizers stressed that “as we watch now hundreds killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza hospital, we implore the international community to stop its cooperation and support for any further killing and displacement of civilians”.
The group’s spokesperson further said that “the Israeli government is using the tremendous loss of Israeli civilian lives to implement a genocidal campaign on the men, women and children of Gaza, ignoring calls of Israelis, including those who just lost their loved ones, to stop.”
“We mourn the indescribable loss of life, and call for massive pressure upon the Israeli government to agree to a prisoner and hostage exchange immediately, and for a safe humanitarian corridor to be created for medical teams and supplies, electricity and fuel. Please help us stop this catastrophe, which is costing the lives of thousands and destroying the vision of a just and safe future for the region.”
