27th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Gal·la | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
Charlie Andreasson, a member of Ship to Gaza Sweden, explains the new Gaza Ark project of this year 2013. The several unsuccessful attempts to break the siege on Gaza, imposed by Israel, from the outside to the inside made the activists think about this project which is based on breaking the siege from within. We wish all the best in this time. Free Palestine!
23rd June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Nablus, Occupied Palestine
This Saturday, June 29 marks the 9th anniversary of the Israeli assassination of Naif Abu-Sharah, former resident of Nablus and leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade until his death. But even though his death has long passed, Israeli authorities haven’t ceased collectively punishing the family he left behind.
During the early morning of Monday, June 23, the Israeli military surrounded the Hosh al-Hitan neighborhood of the Old City of Nablus and arrested Fadi Abu-Sharah, the 25-year-old son of Naif, in the same building in which they assassinated his father nine years ago. He is currently believed to be held at Huwwara Interrogation Center, south of Nablus.
This is not the first instance of punishment by the Israeli military against the Abu-Sharah family. Fadi has been arrested and imprisoned for extended periods in a number of previous instances, and his older brother, Fathi, was kept in an Israeli prison for nine years before being released a year ago. According to his family, Fathi was also given an order from Israeli authorities to appear at Huwwara Interrogation Center for questioning this week. About five years ago, Naif’s brother Ghassan was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers in his home. Neither Fathi, Fadi, nor Ghassan have ever been involved in military activities. The Abu-Sharah family hopes to hear news of their son within a week.
Collective punishment is a tactic long used by the Israeli authorities against the families and communities of those who have been active in resisting the Israeli occupation. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, collective punishment is deemed a war crime. Further to this, under the Oslo accords Nablus city is Area A and is thus under full Palestinian civil and security control, meaning that the Israeli authorities have once again demonstrated their complete disregard for treaties that they have signed.
25th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
Saturday is supposed to be a holy day for the Jewish settlers of the illegal colonies in the West Bank; many don’t work, they don’t turn on electrical appliances, they don’t drive cars. But some of the violent and Zionist among them still allow themselves one activity – attacking and harassing Palestinians.
This Saturday, four international volunteers accompanied a farmer and his family from the town of Beit Ummar to their land, which is in the valley directly underneath the settlement of Bet Ayin, notorious for violent attacks against Palestinians, especially on Saturdays. The family had asked for an international presence to act as a deterrent for the settlers and also to speed the farming, as the quicker we could bring in the harvest, the less time the family would be at risk on their land. This day, thankfully, there were no settlers running down the hills throwing rocks at the farmers, and there were no helicopters bringing Israeli military to “protect” the attackers, as has happened in the past (needless to say, they don’t come to protect the Palestinians who are being attacked). We picked enough plums to fill all of the boxes that the farmer had brought and these were loaded onto a donkey to be taken to market.
It was after we were finished – and after we had been given one (or two, or three) of the delicious plums by the farmer – that we were taken on a tour of the valley and the family’s land. Although it is still lush, well tended and green, there was also destruction visible everywhere. Fruit and olive trees had been hacked down leaving just stumps, branches of figs had been half torn off, grapevines were ripped from their supports. In addition several newly planted young olive trees had been uprooted.
The farmer walked us through, pointing out each and every plant which had been killed over the last couple of years. Each had been sown with love, hope and resistance – and each had been torn down by the settlers. At every plant and tree the farmer paused and told us to “see, see what they did! It is so bad”. It was clear that every new piece of destruction was a blow to him.
He also showed us the river running through the valley and how it was polluted, poisoning some of the trees and causing weeds to grow wild, blocking access across the river to the land on the other side. The pollution comes from the looming settlement of Bet Ayin. When his English was limited, the farmer acted out the attacks to which he had been subjected – showing us marks on his head where the settlers had beaten him.
But despite all of this, the farmers will continue working their land, each tree a symbol for their resistance and each harvest a step towards the day when they will be able to farm their land on Saturdays – and every other day – without international accompaniment and without having to watch the hills for settlers.
24th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Awarta, Occupied Palestine
Awarta, a small village south east of Nablus, faces constant intimidation from the Israeli army and nearby Itamar settlement.
In the past month, the Israeli Civil Administration handed out two land confiscation orders to residents of Awarta. The first one, three weeks ago, stated that 360 dunums of the village’s land will be confiscated and the second one, issued last week, confiscated 63.4 more dunums. However, residents of Awarta affirm that the actual total amount of land confiscated raises up to 1,500 dunums.
As you can see on the map, the area confiscated is located around the settlement of Itamar, where farmers own hundreds of olive trees. While the confiscation orders are valid until 2015, farmers fear that Israeli authorities will renew them so the land and thus, all olive trees are now lost to Itamar settlement.
The past ten years farmers have only had permission to visit this land once or twice a year, despite the fact that they have documents stating their ownership of the land. Three weeks ago, the 22 farmers affected from the first land confiscation order went together to visit the land but were denied access, only getting within 2km of the land before being stopped by the Israeli army. The farmers were attempting to visit the land due to the recent destruction of 300 olive trees and concerns that the 600 dunums of land was being damaged by chemical pollution from the settlement.
The olive trees are the main source of income for the farmers but due to the threat of violence and the restriction of access from Israeli authorities they would never visit their land alone.
When asked what are they going to do now, Awarta’s major said: “We have two ways of resisting, one, by appealing the order in the Israeli court and the other, by staying on our land. This is our land and we will never leave”.
Israeli army and settlers regularly bar Palestinian access to land surrounding settlements, one of the first moves in achieving land confiscation and settlement expansion. A B’tselem report, Access Denied: Israeli measures to deny Palestinians access to land around settlements, comprehensive report (September, 2008) states: “Blocking Palestinian access to land adjacent to settlements is the direct result, and an integral part, of the illegal settlement enterprise. This enterprise continuously violates the absolute prohibition specified in international humanitarian law on settlements in occupied territory.”
Located close to the Huwara checkpoint and military base, the village is designated within Area B but the surrounding farm land is Area C and therefore under Israeli civil and security control.
The illegal settlement of Itamar, constructed in 1984, has taken 30,000 dunums from the nearby Palestinian villages of Awarta, Beit Furik, Rujeib and Yannun. Awarta’s land comprises a total area of 22,00 dunums. However, Itamar has taken 12,000, leaving the residents of Awarta with only 10,000 dunums, most of it located in area C. Israeli government recently approved a plan to build 675 new housing units in the settlement of Itamar, Of the 675 housing units, 137 are existing apartments that have now been retroactively approved.
24th June, 2013 | International Women’s Peace Service & International Solidarity Movement, Team Nablus | Duma, Occupied Palestine
On Thursday 20th June, Israeli soldiers and border police handed out “stop building” orders to 11 buildings in the village of Duma, southeast of Nablus.
The papers state that owners of the targeted buildings, which include family houses and a furniture factory, must stop construction because “it is forbidden to build” in that area. Villagers are ordered to apply for building permits at the illegal Israeli settlement of Bet El (which is also the headquarters of the Israeli Civil Administration); they are given 30 days to do so.
As is the case with most other villages in the occupied West Bank, the built-up area of Duma is declared Area B (under Palestinian civil and Israeli military administration, according to the Oslo Accords), while around 95% of the village’s land is Area C (under Israeli civil and military control). All buildings recently given “stop building” orders are in Area C; most of them are already fully built.
Among them is a fully functioning furniture factory constructed 2.5 years ago; it employs 25 people from the village, most of whom are the main breadwinners in the family. The factory was given a “stop working” order, while its adjoining office building – a “stop building” paper. The majority of its production is sold in Israeli markets. It took the owner of the factory two months of daily knocking on institutional doors to attain a document recognised by both the Palestinian and Israeli authorities stating that he is the legal owner of the land he’s built on (29 dunums in total). He received the “stop building” order nevertheless, and is now ready to fight his case in courts.
So is Wahid, a father of four, whose house is right next to the factory. The youngest of his children is only one-and-a-half; Wahid’s family house was built 2.5 years ago. Last Thursday Wahid was not at home when the Israeli soldiers and border police were handing out their orders; he found the paper, in Hebrew and Arabic, under a rock at the entrance of the house. “I’m not afraid,” Wahid said. “This is my house and I will continue living here.”
“In the end, this is our land and so we can build here,” a local resident told ISM. “It’s dangerous, yes, but we build anyway.” In 2008, the Israeli army handed similar “stop building” orders to several other villagers in Duma; people built homes for their expanding families nevertheless; those cases are still stuck in Israeli courts.
Duma experienced its latest demolitions some 20 years ago. Villagers speculate that Israel has not yet demolished new “forbidden” buildings because of Duma’s geographical location: thanks to the rocky terrain, there are no nearby illegal settler colonies whose interests Duma would supposedly be threatening.
The reasons for such harassment as the recent “stop building” orders are thus threefold: intimidation of Palestinian population; explicit showcase of Israeli power and control over the territories it occupies (“They came to let us know that they are here, that they have the power,” a local resident commented); and money.
Applying for a building permit is a highly costly affair. Gathering all the necessary documents and paying the lawyers’ expenses in building permit cases which habitually drag on for years (with absolute majority ending in negative outcomes) can easily cost NIS 10,000 (US $2,800). “And that’s just the beginning,” said one resident who was given the “stop building” order. That’s why many families build houses on their own land without any permits from the occupation authorities. “We need to live somewhere, don’t we?”
The Israeli army has also tried to deny Palestinian houses in the outskirts of Duma to be connected to electricity and water. Pressure from the Red Crescent led to the electricity cables finally being installed; negotiations are still going on regarding the half-finished water project.
In the night, lights from several smaller illegal Israeli settler colonies and a military base in the surrounding mountains are visible from Duma. “Israel demolishes many Palestinian houses every year,” a Duma resident said, cracking the almost-ripe almonds on the land of his ancestors. “But they allow the settlers to build anywhere they want.”
