19 weeks strong: Kufr Qaddoum marches forward despite heavy tear gas and bullets

by Rana H.

5 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The Israeli army assaulted peaceful protesters in Kufr Qaddoum with tear gas, rubber coated steel bullets, and sound bombs, injuring two and causing severe tear gas suffocation for three families, including five children, and two protesters, including an International Solidarity Movement activist.

Approximately 250 protesters were present, including children, and international and Israeli activists.

One Palestinian broke his foot when a high-velocity tear gas canister hit him, and is currently being transferred to Jordan for special treatment. Another protester was injured when a tear gas canister hit him in the hand. Three families were forced to evacuate their homes when soldiers fired tear gas in between their homes. Five children were witnessed crying and running out of their homes and away from the approaching soldiers. Two protesters were treated with oxygen after severe tear gas inhalation, including a female ISM activist who fell unconscious.

Children lead the protest holding posters praising Mahmoud Abbas and UNESCO, calling Avigdor Lieberman a “racist” and “terrorist.” As the march progressed to where soldiers were stationed, most of the children dispersed and protesters stopped in front of the barbed wire marking, closing the street about 15 metres from the soldiers. The Israeli commander approached and spoke to some of the Palestinians, attempting to set rules but demonstrators refused to recognize these rules without Israel first acknowledging that the road is their legal right to use.

Soon after, soldiers fired several rounds of tear gas. They continued to shoot tear gas in bunches for the next hour. For the first hour, the progression kept returning after each round of gas. The soldiers then began to advance on the road into the village. They began to fire rubber coated steel bullets and sound bombs as well as tear gas. At this point the three families evacuated their homes.

Protesters continued to come back at them despite the dangerous situation, and eventually the soldiers left the street and the demonstration ended.

The Palestinian-led demonstration has occurred weekly in Kufr Qaddoum for the past 19 weeks. The village was involved in a legal battle for six years concerning the closure of their main road because it runs parallel to the illegal Israeli settlement of Qadumim. During this time there were no protests. The Israeli court finally ruled in their favour, but the road was then closed because it is not “suitable” or “safe” for travel. 5 months ago the protests resumed. Since the road has been closed, Kufr Qaddoum residents must take an indirect road to reach Nablus, which increases transportation from 15 minutes to 40 minutes. This increase has resulted in hardships, particularly because there is no hospital in the village and residents must drive to Nablus for care, and due to the increased price of transport for the many students who study in Nablus.

Rana H. is an activist with International Solidarity Movement.

Palestinians gather in Gaza Seaport to support Freedom Waves flotilla

by Joe Catron

5 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Dozens of Palestinian civil society leaders, fishermen, youth, and international activists gathered in the Gaza Seaport Friday morning to support the Freedom Waves flotilla.

Participants included representatives of the Fishing and Marine Sports Association and the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO), as well as Palestinian youth activists from Gaza.

Front row, from left to right: Rana Baker, Jehan Alfarra, Hussien Amody, and Mahfouz Kabariti – Click here for more images

Mahfouz Kabariti, president of the Fishing and Marine Sports Association, which hosted the event, greeted attendees and spoke of Freedom Waves participants. “These brave men and women are challenging the same criminal siege that confronts Palestinian fishermen daily,” he said.

“It’s not only a matter of aid, but is more importantly a statement about the ongoing blockade, as well as the lack of freedom of movement between Palestinian territories and the Palestinian people,” said Jehan Alfarra, a 20-year-old English literature student at Islamic University.

“Israel’s inhumane blockade and system of apartheid have for so long kept us, the people of Gaza, away from our relatives in the West Bank; and kept the people of the West Bank away from their relatives in Gaza,” added Rana Baker, a 20-year-old business administration student at Islamic University.

After a brief press conference, attendees launched a boat into the harbor from which they waved Palestinian flags and sang Palestinian national songs like “Unadikum” to symbolically welcome the flotilla to Gaza.

Participants returned to the Seaport Friday afternoon after hearing of Israel’s interception of the flotilla.

“At 2:00, the boats were boarded by Israel in international waters about 48 miles off shore,” announced Hussien Amody, a 19-year-old computer engineering student at Al-Azhar University.

“This is a crime, of course,” he continued. “Why don’t they just open the borders and let supplies enter if they really want us to have them?”

Israeli forces and settlers try to drive away Um Alfagara residents

by Aida Gerard

5  November 2011  | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Thursday November 3rd at dawn, 8 military jeeps with around 25 soldiers and one bulldozer arrived at Um Alfagara. The bulldozer immediately began to demolish six pylons built for bringing electrical wires from the nearby village of Attwani to Um Alfagara. The bulldozer worked a couple of hours, guarded by the Israeli Occupation Forces until the six pylons were torn down and destroyed.

Destruction in South Hebron village – Click here for more images

Um Alfagara is a small village with 150 inhabitants in the South Hebron Hills on the edge to the Jordanian dessert and beside a large area declared to be a permanent closed military area used as a shooting practice range by the Occupation Forces. There is no access to water except from the wells belonging to the villagers and no electricity except from the electricity provided by a small windmill producing just about enough for the villagers to charge their phones.

A new project for bringing electricity is the latest attempt to ease the life for the villagers who mainly stand the poor conditions in their village in order to protect their land against land grab both from the Israeli Occupation Forces and from the settlers in the neighboring settlement Ma’on. The project received the second demolish order on the electric poles around one month ago.

A local coordinator in the area answered when asked why the Occupation forces demolished the pylons, “The occupation has tried for many years to make life as hard as possible for the citizens in the South Hebron Hills in order to force people to move to the major cities so that settlers can steal our land for good. The policy used against the inhabitants in the South Hebron Hills are very similar to the suppression of the Bedouin population”

The Israeli Civil Administration is planning to expel Bedouin communities living in Area C as soon as January 2012, claiming that the Bedouins do not have rights to the land on which they live and that all Bedouin construction has been done without permits. Demolition orders have been issued against most Bedouin structures. Um Alfagara lies in Area C, under full Israeli military and civil control.

Attwani the neighboring village, inhabited by around 300 Palestinians, managed last year in the month of Ramadan to implement electricity and running water. The water is brought in by the neighboring settlement and was finally approved by the District Coordination Office after some months, but the electricity pylons have been destroyed several times. Two pylons on each side of Road 316 have been destroyed many times, but since the villagers of Attwani rebuild the electric pylons every time, it seems that for a while the Occupation Forces stopped harassing the villagers and destroying their pylons until recently.

The electricity villagers seek is not only useful for getting light in night but also for charging phones and cameras that are essential for documenting the violation by settlers and the Occupation Forces. Though attacks by settlers have eased a bit, there is still a high risk factor of settler violence in the area of Um Alfagara and Attwani. The settlers from the outpost Havat Ma’on have a long history of violence. The last severe attack was June 2011.

Aida Gerard is an activist with International Solidarity Movement (name changed).

Act Now: Rafah border crossing closed for 6 days

5 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Only hours after activists from popular committees and youth movements throughout the West Bank formally presented the Egyptian ambassador, His Excellency Yasser Othman, with an appeal and a petition to open the Rafah crossing unconditionally and permanently, the Palestinians of Gaza learned that the crossing will in fact be closed for six consecutive days during the Eid holiday.

A petition was originally issued by Gaza-based civil society sectors including academics, students, workers, and youth. It was immediately supported publically by Egyptian revolutionaries and grass-roots organizations as well as renowned International human rights defenders such as Desmond Tutu and Richard Falk.

Despite assurances by the Egyptian ambassador that conditions at Gaza’s only lifeline to the outside world will improve in the coming days, it seems that the people of Gaza will continue to suffer from frequent and arbitrary closures on weekends and holidays.  This closure comes while the Taba crossing to the Israeli city of Eilat as well as other Egyptian border crossings, airport terminals and seaports are closed for only one day for Eid al Adha and continue their activities throughout the year without interruption.

While Palestinians and their allies continue to struggle against the criminal Israeli-imposed siege, the frequent closures of the Rafah crossing by the Egyptian authorities compounded with the quota system that only allows a limited number of people to cross every day results in long delays and significant hardship. At times, students miss their school terms and workers lose their jobs while waiting for their turn to cross. Family members who hold foreign passports are still prevented from visiting their loved ones in Gaza.This severely hinders the freedom of movement of the Palestinians of Gaza, a basic human right under international law.

 CALL TO ACTION

1. Organize a delegation to deliver the petition to your Egyptian embassy, consulate or representative office.

2.  Contact your Egyptian embassy.  In the US, fax, phone or email the DC Embass Fax: (202) 244-4319; Phone: (202) 966-6342; Consulate@egyptembassy.net

3. Sign and circulate the petition.

4. “Like”, “Share” and Post your activities on the campaign Facebook page

5. Sign this petition to unconditionally open the Rafah crossing

 

For more information and to send an email about your activities contact: rafahcrossingcampaign@gmail.com

 

Activists react to Gaza flotilla assault

by Ruqaya Izzidien

4 November 2011 | Al Akhbar English

(Photo: Peter Folter)

Palestine activists call on the international community to keep pressuring Israel to end the blockade of Gaza after the Freedom Waves flotilla was assaulted by Israel in international waters.

Gaza — Palestinian activists have condemned the Israeli navy’s assault on the Freedom Waves to Gaza flotilla in international waters.

Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian-American human rights activist said, “This kind of violent, irrational behavior by Israel is similar to that which we see in other brutal regimes that are being challenged by the people. It’s important that we don’t give into this violence and that we keep taking to the sea, to the air, to the streets, to prove that violence and military might is not more powerful than the rights that we are fighting for.”

The 27 activists and journalists aboard the boats were taken, against their will, to the Israeli port of Ashdod where they were put in the custody of local police. Benny Gantz, the Israeli army Chief of Staff gave the order to board the two boats, which were carrying US$30,000 worth of medical supplies, at around 3:15pm, Gaza time, after Israeli naval vessels had tailed them for nearly two hours.

The flotilla crew was first contacted by the Israeli naval around 1:35pm and radio communication was later established. When asked for details of their destination, crew of the flotilla responded with “the betterment of mankind.” Israeli forces then directed the flotilla to redirect to Turkey, Egypt, or the Israeli port of Ashdod. Flotilla members refused and their boats were boarded and commandeered by the Israeli navy, who led the boats to Ashdod, regardless.

Jehan Al Farra, a Palestinian blogger and student explained, “The flotilla’s arrival would have meant a lot for Gaza. The attempt itself reminds us that there are efforts to break the siege, declaring it illegal and to make the world aware of what is happening here. Remember that just because the siege has been ‘eased’ that doesn’t make it any less illegal.”

On 30 May 2010, just five miles away from today’s assault, nine activists were killed aboard the Mavi Marmara boat as their vessel was intercepted and attacked by the Israeli navy. Today, Israeli naval officers, who typically carry heavy weaponry, boarded the ship and forcibly took control of the two boats.

Before being boarded, the boats lost radio contact for over an hour, leaving supporters praying for their safety. As communication was cut, Twitter users in Gaza filled the silence with messages of support; 22-year-old blogger Lina Al-Sharif tweeted, “Praying for Freedom Waves.”

Rana Baker joined dozens of other Palestinians at Gaza port to stand in solidarity with the flotilla in symbolic gesture of solidarity. She said, “To me, Freedom Waves has already broken an extended blockade. Things need not to be clarified. Israel can no longer isolate Gaza, our cause is being contacted and supported by the 99 percent, the only one being isolated is Israel itself.” Again, in international waters, Israel attacked two small boats carrying supplies and 27 activists.

Earlier this year, Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, announced that, “Turkish warships will be tasked with protecting the Turkish boats bringing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.” Many supporters were hopeful that this support would be provided to Freedom Waves to Gaza, despite the fact that the boats are Canadian and Irish.

An Israeli military statement said the vessels were advised they could “turn back at any point, thereby not breaking the maritime security blockade, or sailing to a port in Egypt or the port of Ashdod.” The release said that “the activists refused to cooperate.”

The blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has been in effect since 2006, is considered collective punishment by many governments, a crime that is illegal by international law. The UN has repeated called for an end to the blockade.