On Saturday the 11th of July, solidarity activists of Ta’ayush and inhabitants of Susiya (South Hebron Hills) organized a picnic of resistance next to the outpost of the settlement of Susiya.
Activists from the ISM, Tayyoush and Palestinian residents gathered to non-violently protest the illegal outpost. The action was planned for 8am, but two buses with Tayyoush activists driving from Jerusalem were held for approximately two hours at a checkpoint.
At 10am, around 50 Palestinian, Israeli and international activists gathered near the outpost to have a picnic as a means to challenge ongoing illegal outposts on Palestinian-owned land.
On the way to the land, the activists were stopped by Israeli forces. They were able to walk around the soldiers and set up their picnic near the outpost. Israeli soldiers surrounded the picnic area and began to hassle the activists. They announced a ‘closed military zone’ and demanded that everyone leave the area.
Despite the fact that the land is Palestinian owned, and owners have a right to hold a picnic, Israeli soldiers began to physically push the picnickers away from the area. Upon inquiry of what the purpose of the ‘closed military zone’ order was, soldiers told activists that it was meant to ‘protect’ the settlers. Then Israeli occupation forces arrested three Tayyoush activists, using unnecessary violence against the activists.
The three arrested were released within hours due to lack of charges against them.
The Palestinian residents of Susiya face difficulties in living their lives, due to the violence from nearby Israeli settlers and soldiers. As a result of the maintanance of the illegal settlement of Susiya, (illegal in international law by the Geneva Conventions), Palestinians cannot graze their sheep or harvest their land. Israeli soldiers or settlers frequently harass residents and forbid them from going on their land with ‘closed military zone’ orders.
The Spirit of Humanity leaves port in Larnaca for Gaza
P. Selvarani speaks to Free Gaza Movement chairperson Huwaida Arraf to discover a woman determined to see an end to violence. She could have lived a blissful life as a successful lawyer, raising a nice, happy family in the Land of the Free. But social activist Huwaida Arraf, a first generation Palestinian-American, instead found her calling helping free her people.
For the past 10 years, Huwaida has often found herself staring down the nozzle of an Israeli army Uzi submachine gun, roughed up, handcuffed and thrown into jail — all in her quest to free Israeli-occupied Gaza and provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
A lesser mortal would have caved in under such pressure and atrocity but then Huwaida is no ordinary woman.
“It’s not going to stop me. I’m lucky to be alive and not injured like others. Some of my friends have been killed. It’s bad when that happens but what Palestinians are going through on a daily basis is more horrifying,” said the Free Gaza Movement (FGM) chairperson and founder of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) whose mission is to resist Israeli occupation of Palestine using non-violent tactics.
Just a week before this interview was conducted in Kuala Lumpur, Huwaida and her team of FGM volunteers found themselves once again under siege by Israeli forces.
“On June 29, we departed Cyprus in the ‘Spirit of Humanity’ ferry to provide aid such as medicines, toys and books to the Palestinians in Gaza. But the next day, we found ourselves surrounded by Israeli warships. They threatened to use force against us if we would not leave.
“I told them we were unarmed civilians who were just bringing humanitarian aid. But they kept following us and when we were about 18 knots from the Port of Gaza, their commandos jumped on board our ferry and forcefully took control of our vessel. They took away our cameras and phones and when my husband (documentary producer Adam Shapiro) tried to prevent them, they beat him up.”
Huwaida’s efforts to placate the commandos and assure them that they were on a humanitarian cause ended with her being handcuffed by the soldiers.
“They isolated me in the kitchenette of the ferry. I didn’t know what happened to the rest of the volunteers, including my husband. As the ferry shook violently while they steered it to an Israeli port, crockery and cutlery were falling all over me. Fortunately, I was not injured.”
Huwaida and another volunteer, who are both Israeli citizens, were detained in a huge warehouse near the port with six soldiers watching over them. They were released 16 hours later without being told why they were arrested.
The 19 others, including Adam, spent the next six days in an Israeli prison and were eventually deported. They included Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire and former US congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.
It’s this type of unnecessary aggression against innocent folk that makes Huwaida, a Christian, even more determined to fight the Palestinian cause.
Understandably, although she is only 33, Huwaida wears a weary look on her face as she has witnessed this kind of brutality all too often. But doesn’t it feel like she’s flogging a dead horse?
“I can’t accept the violence of the Occupation. When you see (the brutality and oppression) every day and you get used to it, THAT would be a tragedy. I try not to be desensitized to what is happening because we cannot give up.
“Sometimes you feel a sense of guilt, especially when you have access to luxuries denied to other people. I used to feel very guilty about sleeping (she manages on about five hours of sleep a day). Now, I don’t feel as guilty as before because I have to take care of myself but sometimes I still do, especially when I find myself in a place like this,” she said, gesturing at the Club Lounge of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, where the interview took place.
(Barely hours after she landed at the KLIA, Huwaida was whisked to Putrajaya for a press conference held by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on the plight of the Palestinians.)
Huwaida said the sight of Palestinians waiting in long queues for hours as they go through the numerous Israeli checkpoints to get to the West Bank is degrading.
“The soldiers decide everything. You see old folk, mothers and children going to school sometimes waiting the whole day just to get through.”
She recalled seeing a soldier yelling at a Palestinian man from Jerusalem who needed to get to Nablus to pay his last respects to his father who had died that morning before they buried him.
“The soldier refused to let him through but when the man kept on insisting, the soldier raised his gun. I intervened and pleaded for the soldier to let the man through on humanitarian grounds. Instead, they handcuffed and took him away. I still protested and they asked me to leave. When I refused, they arrested me.”
Huwaida’s parents — her father is an Israeli-Arab and her mother a Palestinian who both migrated to the United States as they wanted to bring up their children away from the violence in Palestine — are always pleading with her not to waste her life like this.
“I have sometimes thought about what we’re doing. But what’s happening in Palestine is so illegal and immoral. There have been times when I thought about returning to the US to practice law, become successful and build an influence, but I never thought about it for too long although I know I need to strike a balance in my life now.”
She said although she and Adam, whom she met at the Seeds of Peace youth organisation, have been married for seven years, they’ve hardly thought of starting a family because of the work they do and the limited time they spend with each other.
“I do want to have children but with so much to do now, I have not thought of starting a family. I guess I have to find a better balance in my life because I am not getting any younger!”
Huwaida confessed that when she first met Adam, they didn’t initially hit it off.
“For the first year we didn’t really talk to each other very much but I think there was a hidden attraction between us. And within a few weeks after our first kiss, he proposed! Two months after we were married, my husband was arrested in Israel and deported and not allowed to return for 10 years.”
It was a difficult period for Huwaida as she was unsure whether to stay on or join her husband in the US. She decided to stay on in Palestine and only went to the US in 2004 to read law.
“Our struggle is a long one and we need to gather as much support as we can from all over the world. Some governments support us but many are unwilling to stand up against Israel’s policies. People in power know what’s going on but they are consciously choosing to ignore it.
“But I know I can’t always be there. I tell myself not to allow this war pre-occupy me too much in order to focus on the bigger change.
“The people whom I have had the honor of meeting and working with, especially our volunteers — who come from all over the world and who’ve not given up in the face of all this persecution — offset the disappointments we face.
But what really keeps Huwaida going is the spirit and resilience of the Palestinians.
“I was in a village called Jayyous where we were planning a demonstration against the Israelis for confiscating the farms of the people to build a wall. The night before I was staying with a friend and his family and I was visibly distressed by what I saw.
“But here was my friend, who had just lost his land, trying to comfort me and make me laugh. I was bewildered! I asked him how he could laugh in the face of all this adversity.
“And he told me that although his land had been confiscated by the Israelis, what was important was that they didn’t take away his ability to laugh and live away from them.”
On another occasion when the [ISM] was trying to prevent the Israeli soldiers from conducting house-to-house raids in Nablus, Huwaida received a call from someone. “He said he could see our volunteers trying to stop the soldiers and although he felt the volunteers could not really do much, the fact that we were trying to do something was comfort enough for him. I did not know who this man was or how he got my number!
“It’s this kind of positive spirit that motivates me and tells me that our efforts are not wasted. At the very least, we are telling the Palestinians that “we see you, we hear you and we are doing what we can to help you”.
Her most challenging moment was when she had to face the parents of a 23-year-old American volunteer who was killed when an Israeli bulldozer ran over her as she was trying to prevent the demolition of a house.
“I was in the US when this happened. Having to face her parents was the most difficult thing I had to do.”
Despite the odds, Huwaida is optimistic that the conflict will end soon.
“We are going to continue to stop this blockade in Gaza. And I believe that if people unite and work together we can be a force to reckon with. Even one person can make a difference.”
12 pm, Monday, 13 July 2009: Israeli and international solidarity activists will set up tents on King George St. in West Jerusalem as part of a coordinated campaign in solidarity with Palestinians facing home evictions and demolitions in East Jerusalem.
4 pm, Monday 13 July 2009: A press conference will be held at the Sheikh Jarrah protest tent.
Speakers will include:
Sheikh Raed Salah – President of the Islamic Movement inside the Green Line
Mr. Maher Hanoun – Owner of one of the house in danger of eviction, Sheikh Jarrah
Mr. Fakhrie Abu Diab – Owner of one of the houses in danger of demolition, Al Bustan , Silwan
Maher Hannoun, a Sheikh Jarrah resident facing eviction and imprisonment, said:
As refugees and people living under occupation, we are asking the Israeli and international public to help us with our struggle for our rights. It is unbelievable that in the 21st century, Israel’s authorities can get away with demolishing the homes of Palestinians in order to build settlements or national parks. The price we and our neighbours have to pay is too high, we are faced with two impossible choices – either we throw our kids out on the street or we go to prison. If we lose our homes, there is nowhere else for us to go, the only option we have is to live in tents.
Later in the evening a play for children by the Sanabel theatre will be held at the tent.
Similar actions will be happening on the same day in the USA, the UK, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Ireland, France, Spain, Denmark, Holland and Egypt.
Tents have become a powerful symbol of the struggle of Palestinian people living in occupied East Jerusalem. They have been set up as centers of protest in neighbourhoods threatened by Israel’s policy of ethnically cleansing East Jerusalem of its Palestinian population through house evictions and demolitions. A number of the tents, notably the one in Sheikh Jarrah, have been built by Palestinian residents forcibly displaced as a result of this policy. Palestinians, who became refugees in 1948 & 1967 are, once again, facing dispossession from their homes and land as the international community stands by.
The neighbourhoods most severely affected are Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, Ras Khamiis, Al Tur and Sur Beher however house evictions and demolitions are not uncommon in the Old City itself. In Silwan, 88 homes in the al Bustan quarter are facing immediate destruction in order to create space for a planned national park. A total of 1500 residents would be displaced if this plan went ahead. In Sheikh Jarrah, 28 families are living under the threat of house evictions which are part of a plan to implant a new Jewish settlement in the area, close to the Old City. After the Al Kurd family has been forcibly removed from their home in November 2008, it is now the turn of the al-Ghawe and Hannoun families who face imminent eviction, while others are awaiting further court decisions. Fathers of the two families with current eviction orders also face imprisonment, should they not leave the houses voluntarily by the deadline (19th July) issued by the latest court hearing.
In Beit Hanina, Al Tur, Ath Thuri and Wadi Yasul, a combined total of more than 3,600 persons are affected by pending demolition orders – this includes two apartment buildings in Al Abbasiyya, housing 34 families.
PACBI has been heartened by the untiring efforts of BDS activists in the US and UK in organizing demonstrations and pickets at Leonard Cohen’s performances in advance of his planned concert in Tel Aviv later this summer. The call, “don’t Play Israel!” has been heard loud and clear.
After exhausting all attempts to convince Cohen to apply his avowed humanistic principles in a morally consistent way by refusing to entertain Israeli apartheid and whitewash its crimes, we called on all supporters of a just peace in our region to shun Cohen’s concerts and CDs and to protest his appearances everywhere. In an open letter to Cohen in May, we warned that we considered his performance in Israel a form of complicity in its grave violations of international law; we reminded him that by violating the Palestinian boycott against Israel he would bring back the ugly memory of artists who violated the boycott against apartheid South Africa and insisted to perform at Sun City, drawing condemnation and revulsion by people of conscience the world over [1].
We are now pleased to announce that we have received confirmation from the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club Society that they will not be hosting Leonard Cohen in Ramallah. A strong consensus has emerged among all parties concerned that Cohen is not welcome in Ramallah as long as he insists on performing in Tel Aviv, even though it had been claimed that Cohen would dedicate his concert in Palestine to the cause of Palestinian prisoners. Ramallah will not receive Cohen as long as he is intent on whitewashing Israel‘s colonial apartheid regime by performing in Israel.
PACBI has always rejected any attempt to “balance” concerts or other artistic events in Israel–conscious acts of complicity in Israel‘s violation of international law and human rights–with token events in the occupied Palestinian territory. Such attempts at “parity” not only immorally equate the oppressor with the oppressed, taking a neutral position on the oppression (thereby siding with the oppressor, as Desmond Tutu famously said); they also are an insult to the Palestinian people, as they assume that we are naive enough to accept such token shows of “solidarity” that are solely intended to cover up grave acts of collusion in whitewashing Israel‘s crimes. Those sincerely interested in defending Palestinian rights and taking a moral and courageous stance against the Israeli occupation and apartheid should not play Israel, period. That is the minimum form of solidarity Palestinian civil society has called for.
We feel that this is an occasion to reaffirm our position first articulated two years ago in relation to visits to the occupied Palestinian territory by artists, performers, and academics who wish to show solidarity with Palestinians while primarily coming to Israel to perform or participate in academic or artistic activities. As we noted then, Palestinians have always warmly welcomed solidarity visits by international visitors; however, most Palestinians firmly believe that such solidarity visits should not be used as an occasion to organize performances, film screenings or exhibits in mainstream Israeli venues or to give lectures at Israeli universities ; collaborate in any way with Israeli political, cultural or academic institutions; or participate in activities sponsored or supported — directly or indirectly — by the Israeli government or any of its agencies [2].
The Cohen team’s motives may not be so innocent, however. We believe that the plan for Cohen to perform for Palestinians is an effort to defuse the bad publicity and animated demonstrations by BDS activists at performance venues in several cities. Cohen’s managers probably felt that by adding a Ramallah gig at the last minute, they could deflate the growing protest and the PACBI call for boycott against the tour. While this is a reflection of the positive effect the boycott call has generated, it also shows that Tel Aviv is still on the tour agenda. More protests and more publicity about the boycott are needed, and this is why the demonstrations and pickets in London, Liverpool and elsewhere are so welcome.
The army does not classify .22-inch caliber bullets as a suitable means to disperse demonstrators, the judge advocate general, Brig.-Gen. Avichai Mendelblit, told the human rights group B’Tselem yesterday. According to the organization, the use of .22-caliber bullets resulted in the death of at least two unarmed Palestinians. On February 13, Az a-Din al-Jamal, 14, was killed in Hebron; and on June 5, Aqel Sror, 35, was shot and killed in a demonstration in the village of Ni’lin. Dozens of people have been wounded from the bullets, some seriously. B’Tselem says since Sror’s death, 0.22-caliber bullets have not been fired at demonstrators in Ni’lin.
Yesterday morning, shots were fired at an Israeli car near Ramallah, south of the settlement of Ofra. The shooting did not result in casualties or damage.
