Settler press conference and clash in Sheikh Jarrah

16 October 2010 | International Solidarity Movement

Thursday illegal settlers of the Umm Haroun Compound of Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem gave a press conference about their plans for the upcoming year. The Settlers’ Organization stated that they plan to build two new blocks of settlements and a holy tourist park of biblical archeology on the Palestinian owned land of East Jerusalem. The organization’s website has a one-year-plan on how to remove the Palestinian people from Umm Haroun.

Later in the evening there was a violent clash between settlers and Palestinians. Police arrived and arrested three Palestinians and one Israeli activist.

Sheikh Jarrah is home to about 3,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem, close to the 1967 border that separates East and West Jerusalem. The residents suffer from settler violence and several families have been unlawfully evicted from their homes, in the Israeli authorities’ effort to replace Palestinians with Israeli settlers and “Judaise” Jerusalem.

The Palestinian community organized a contra press conference to provide more information on the history of the area. Ownership of the land is disputed, according to the Israeli government, because Israeli laws recognize Jewish citizen’s assets from before 1948, but don’t allow claims to Palestinian assets prior to 1948.

In the late 1990s, Jewish settler groups began seizing buildings and settling compounds in the neighborhood. One of these compounds is a plot of 70 acres in which twenty-eight Palestinian refugee families whose homes were taken in 1948, came to live. These refugees were given houses by the Jordanian government and the UN during the 1950s in exchange for renouncing their refugee status and the rights and welfare that go with that status.

These Israeli laws, founded in racism, were used to forcefully evict three Palestinian families from their homes in 2009. In August and November a large number of Israeli police and border police blocked sections in East Jerusalem in order to evict the Palestinian families by force. These families still are unable to return home.

After the press conference, young Palestinian boys from the group “Batizado Caipoera” made a performance in Caipoera (martial arts) to symbolize their struggle for ownership of their land.

For more information about the problems in Sheikh Jarrah you can read on: http://www.en.justjlm.org/.

al-Arakib razed sixth time

13 October 2010 | International Solidarity Movement

Al-Arakib, the Bedouin village in Negev, was demolished for a sixth time Wednesday morning. Haya Noah, leader of the Forum for co-existence in the Negev, was hit by police officers and arrested following her request to see a court warrant.

Israel Land Administration officials refer to the village as “unrecognized” and have claimed the demolitions are legal because residents “invaded” an area that wasn’t theirs. Villagers say they have owned the land since the Ottoman Empire, and the village graveyard confirms this with graves dating back to 1908.

Turkey will not attend OECD conference, minister says

12 October 2010 |ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News

Turkey will not send any delegation to a biannual tourism conference in Israel later this month, the country’s culture minister said Tuesday, marking the first boycott of Israel on a multilateral level since a deadly raid on a Turkish aid ship in May.

Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay told a group of reporters Tuesday that Turkey would not send any representative to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, conference on Oct. 20-22 in Jerusalem. “Regrettable statements have been made. We want tourism to take place, not politics,” he said.

Diplomatic sources told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that the Turkish decision would mark the first boycott of Israel on a multilateral platform. Despite the May 31 flotilla incident, an Israeli Foreign Ministry diplomat attended a meeting of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, or CICA, last week in Ankara.

Initially, Turkey intended to send the ministry’s deputy undersecretary, Özgür Özaslan, to the tourism conference, but Ankara changed its decision after evaluating the situation.

Spain and Britain will also not attend the OECD conference.

Israeli press claimed Palestinians were pressuring European countries to shun the conference on sustainable tourism, which normally takes place in Paris, on the grounds that the event would take place in east Jerusalem, considered the capital of the future Palestinian state.

Diplomatic sources, however, told the Daily News that the conference would take place in west Jerusalem.

Join the 2011 Olive Harvest Campaign

11 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

At a time of increasing settler violence in the West Bank, the International Solidarity Movement is issuing an urgent call for volunteers to participate in the 2011 Olive Harvest Campaign at the invitation of Palestinian communities.

The olive harvest started across the West Bank last week. ISM is working with villages that are close to Israeli settlements to monitor and prevent attacks by settlers, which have been commonplace in previous harvests.

We are currently working in Burin and Qaryut villages. The villages of Qusra will start to pick olives this Friday. So far there have been few settler attacks, although some olive trees were burnt in Qusra this week. However, it is expected that attacks by settlers will escalate over the next few weeks as more villages begin to harvest olives. In previous years settlers have physically attacked Palestinian villagers during the harvest and have burnt and uprooted trees. The army is often reluctant to intervene to protect Palestinians from attacks and has also prevented access and denied permits to farmers to pick olives on their own land.

Olives are a vital part of the Palestinian economy and culture. Farmers should be free to pick olives on their own land without fear of attack by settlers or hindrance from the Israeli government.

International volunteers are needed to help monitor and document any problems in villages that are harvesting olives and are vulnerable to settler attacks. The harvest will continue in some villages until mid November.

Join the 2011 Olive Harvest Campaign
Join the 2011 Olive Harvest Campaign

The olive tree is a national symbol for Palestinians. As thousands of olive trees have been bulldozed, uprooted and burned by Israeli settlers and the military – (over half a million olive and fruit trees have been destroyed since September 2000) – harvesting has become more than a source of livelihood; it has become a form of resistance.

The olive harvest is an annual affirmation of Palestinians’ historical, spiritual and economic connection to their land, and a rejection of Israeli efforts to seize it. Despite efforts by Israeli settlers and soldiers to prevent them from accessing their land, Palestinian communities remain steadfast in refusing to give up their olive harvest

International and Israeli volunteers join Palestinians each year to harvest olives, and this makes a big difference. It has proven in the past to help limit and decrease the number and severity of attacks and harassment. The presence of activists can reduce the risk of extreme violence from Israeli settlers and the Israeli army and supports Palestinians’ assertion of their right to earn their livelihood. International solidarity activists engage in non-violent intervention and documentation and this practical support enables many families to pick their olives. In addition The Olive Harvest Campaign also provides a wonderful opportunity to spend time with Palestinian families in their olive groves and homes.

The campaign will begin early October and run for approximately 6-8 weeks, depending on the size of the harvest. We request a minimum 2 week commitment from volunteers.

Training

The ISM will be holding mandatory two day training sessions which will be run every week. Please contact palreports@gmail.com for further information.

Ongoing campaigns

In addition to the olive harvest, there will also be other opportunities to participate in grass-roots, non-violent resistance in Palestine.

Experiencing the situation for yourself is vital to adequately convey the reality of life in Palestine to your home communities and to re-frame the debate in a way that will expose Israel’s apartheid policies; creeping ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem as well as collective punishment and genocidal practices in Gaza.

Bil’in’s Abdallah Abu Rahmah sentenced to a year in prison

11 October 2010 | Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

Bil’in protest organizer Abdallah Abu Rahmah was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment today, for his involvement in his village’s unarmed struggle against the wall.

Abdallah Abu Rahmah was sentenced today to 12 months in prison, plus 6 months suspended sentence for 3 years and a fine of 5,000 NIS. In the sentencing, the judge cited the non-implementation of an Israeli High Court ruling which declared the current route of the wall on Bil’in’s land illegal as a mitigating factor.

The military prosecution is likely to appeal this sentencing – as they did in the case of Adeeb Abu Rahmah, who was also sentenced for 12 months on similar charges but is still in prison after 15 months, pending the decision about the prosecution’s appeal. The defense attorney, adv. Gaby Lasky, is considering an appeal against Abu Rahma’s conviction.

Today’s sentencing hearing was attended by diplomats from the United Kingdom, the European Union, Belgium, Germany along with representatives of UNSCO and Human Rights Watch.

“The Israeli army, which served as prosecutor, judge and jury in this case, is try to use Abu Rahmah to set an example that will deter people from protesting. They have even said so themselves”, said Mohammed Khatib of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee. “Their message falls on deaf ears, as we have no choice but to continue struggling for our lands, our freedom and our dignity”, he added.

Background

Abu Rahmah, the coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, was arrested last year by soldiers who raided his home at the middle of the night and was subsequently indicted before an Israeli military court on unsubstantiated charges that included stone-throwing and arms possession. Abu Rahmah was cleared of both the stone-throwing and arms possession charges, but convicted of organizing illegal demonstrations and incitement.

An exemplary case of mal-use of the Israeli military legal system in the West Bank for the purpose of silencing legitimate political dissent, Abu Rahmah’s conviction was subject to harsh international criticism. The EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, expressed her deep concern “that the possible imprisonment of Mr Abu Rahma is intended to prevent him and other Palestinians from exercising their legitimate right to protest[…]”, after EU diplomats attended all hearings in Abu Rahmah’s case. Ashton’s statement was followed by one from the Spanish Parliament.

Renowned South African human right activist, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, called on Israel to overturn Abu Rahmah’s conviction on behalf of the Elders, a group of international public figures noted as elder statesmen, peace activists, and human rights advocates, brought together by Nelson Mandela. Members of the Elders, including Tutu, have met with Abu Rahmah on their visit to Bil’in prior to his arrest.

International human rights organizations Amnesty International condemned Abu Rahmah’s conviction as an assault on the right to freedom of expression. Human Rights Watch denounced the conviction, pronouncing the whole process “an unfair trial”.

Legal Background

Abu Rahmah, the coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, was acquitted of two out of the four charges brought against him in the indictment – stone-throwing and a ridiculous and vindictive arms possession charge. According to the indictment, Abu Rahmah collected used tear-gas projectiles and bullet cases shot at demonstrators, with the intention of exhibiting them to show the violence used against demonstrators. This absurd charge is a clear example of how eager the military prosecution is to use legal procedures as a tool to silence and smear unarmed dissent.

The court did, however, find Abu Rahmah guilty of two of the most draconian anti-free speech articles in military legislation: incitement, and organizing and participating in illegal demonstrations. It did so based only on testimonies of minors who were arrested in the middle of the night and denied their right to legal counsel, and despite acknowledging significant ills in their questioning.

The court was also undeterred by the fact that the prosecution failed to provide any concrete evidence implicating Abu Rahmah in any way, despite the fact that all demonstrations in Bil’in are systematically filmed by the army.

Under military law, incitement is defined as “The attempt, verbally or otherwise, to influence public opinion in the Area in a way that may disturb the public peace or public order” (section 7(a) of the Order Concerning Prohibition of Activities of Incitement and Hostile Propaganda (no.101), 1967), and carries a 10 years maximal sentence.