Gaza fishermen petition High Court

Aviad Glickman | YNet News

16 June 2009

Four Palestinians from Gaza petitioned the High Court of Justice Tuesday in an effort to get back their confiscated fishing boat, seized by the IDF last month.

The fishermen claim that their livelihood had been gravely undermined by Israel’s Defense Ministry and demand compensation in addition to the ship’s return.

The Navy operates near Gaza’s shores regularly in a bid to prevent maritime terror attacks and often encounters innocent fishermen, who are promptly warned to sail back to permitted zones. However, the petitioners claim that they were sailing in an approved area during the incident in question.

According to the petition, two IDF vessels approached the ship, fired at it, and ordered the crew to leave. Later, a Navy boat approached the fishing vessel and ordered the fishermen to disembark, the petitioners said. The soldiers are said to have covered the fishermen’s eyes and handcuffed them.

Two Palestinians were eventually questioned by Shin Bet officials following the seizure, before being returned to the Gaza Strip via the Erez crossing. The four ship owners say Israeli officials promised to return the ship and its contents within a week, but have not done so to date.

The petitioners say they approached the Defense Ministry several times but have not received a relevant response. They said that none of them were ever involved in terror activity against Israel.

Bedouin family to search for the body of their missing son

14 June 2009

A Bedouin teenager – Ahmed Salama Eid Abu Hashish, 18 – from the border area east of Beit Hanoun has been missing since 21st April, 2009. His family believe that he may have been killed in the “buffer zone” – an area of Gaza next to the border that Israeli soldiers attempt to prohibit access to by shooting at people. On Sunday, 14 June 2009, his family, along with members of the Local Initiative from Beit Hanoun, and volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement – Gaza Strip will attempt to search for his body in this area.
The ISM is aware of 18 people who have been injured by Israeli gunfire or shelling.

Dexia Israel stops financing Israeli settlements

Martijn Lauwens | ‘Israel colonises, Dexia finances’ Campaign

12 June 2009

The Belgian-French financial group Dexia has announced it will no longer finance Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories through its Israeli branch Dexia Israel. This is the result of a months-long campaign in Belgium, supported by NGO’s, political parties, local authorities, trade unions and other organisations. Dexia’s management states that financing Israeli settlements is indeed against the bank’s code of ethics and it will stop giving loans due to this.

A Belgian bank financing Israeli settlements

In 2001 Dexia Group buys the Israeli bank Otzar Hashilton Hamekomi and renames the bank Dexia Public Finance Israel. Just like other Dexia subsidiaries, Dexia Israel is specialised in financing municipalities and other local authorities.

It takes until October 2008 for a few Belgian solidarity groups to discover that Dexia Israel is not only financing regular Israeli municipalities but is also granting loans to illegal settlements in the Palestinian territories. In a document of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament), the director of Dexia Israel, Mr. David Kapah, confirms that the bank has indeed granted credits to seven settlements and three regional authorities in the occupied Westbank between 2003 and 2007.

This ‘smoking gun’ evidence entails the start of a fast growing campaign in Belgium. United under the slogan ‘Israel colonises, Dexia finances’, the campaign knows its first successes. In the following months petitions are being launched, MP’s are being questioned and local actions are being started up. Very important is the support of local Belgian authorities such as municipalities and provinces, as they hold a vast amount of shares in Dexia Group.

Today the action platform consists of 61 Belgian organisations, gathered over 4000 signatures and got 29 local authorities to sign a resolution. They all demand that Dexia breaks off its relations with the settlements and stops financing the occupation immediately.

Dexia: ‘Guilty, but we won’t do it again’

For several months the Belgian government and the Dexia management never really responded to the demands of the action platform. However as the campaign started to get more media coverage and the pressure started to rise, something changed. On May 13, the activists of the campaign were able to voice demands at the annual shareholders meeting of Dexia Group in Brussels.

In response, Jean-Luc Dehaene, chairman of the board of Dexia and former Belgian prime minister, admitted that the bank has been extending loans to Israeli colonies. He stresses however that, since September 2008, there has been no additional financing of these or other colonies.

Dehaene declared no new loans will be granted to the settlements. He added that the credits and loans to the settlements which are granted before are in runoff and will not be prolonged any longer; neither will they be replaced by similar loans.

Dehaene: “In the past, Dexia Israel granted 5 million Euros of loans to the settlements, this was only 1% of the total budget of Dexia Israel. The loans to the Jerusalem municipality are not included in this amount, as Dexia Group feels that Jerusalem is not contested territory.”

However, East Jerusalem belongs to Palestine. Israel unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem in June 1967, and extended Israeli law, jurisdiction, and administration to this part of the city. In response the Security Council adopted resolution 252 that it “[UN Security Council] Considers that all legislative measures by Israel, including expropriation of land and properties thereon, which tend to change the legal status of Jerusalem are invalid and cannot change that status”.

In 1980 Israel declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel, including East Jerusalem. The same year the UN Security Council adopts resolution 476 that the Security Council “Reconfirms that all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, which purport to alter the character and status of Jerusalem have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and also constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East”.

Dexia’s financial support to the municipality of Jerusalem can be considered as support to the colonization of East Jerusalem.

Dehaene also states that the activities of Dexia Israel do not belong to the core-business of Dexia Group anymore, adding: “Don’t be surprised that at one point, Dexia Group will sell Dexia Israel”.

The campaign has been fruitful already, but this is not the end.

According to Mario Franssen, spokesperson of the action platform, the campaign will continue until Dexia has officially declared -and provided the proof for- a full stop of settlement funding, including the disputed loans to Jerusalem. Franssen explains that the action platform is not yet satisfied, but these concessions from Dexia are a good start. “We are still demanding a full and immediate stop of all connections between Dexia and the colonies. Dexia is guilty of financing the occupation, and this has to end”, Franssen added.

International solidarity activists protest at Rafah border

The International Campaign to Open the Rafah Border

11 June 2009

The International Movement to Open the Rafah Border continues the campaign at the Rafah gate. The group consists of David Mattacchioni, Italy; Christian Chantegrel, Micheline Garreau, Jacque Denko, France; Paki Wieland, Ellen Graves, and Don Bryant, USA. These international activists have attempted to enter Gaza since the morning of June 9, but have been denied.

The goal of the International Movement to Open the Rafah Border (IMORB) is not only to enter Gaza, but to demand to lift the extended siege. “A humanitarian crisis has been created in Gaza by the siege and the Israeli massacre in December and January.” explained Don Bryant of Cleveland, Ohio. “We were in Gaza three months ago and saw the extreme destruction in every village, refugee camp, and business district. Over 1400 people were killed, 85% were civilians.”

The INTMORB has witnessed the plight of numerous families trying to enter Gaza, some of whom some have been waiting for weeks. A Palestinian man who has been waiting waiting over 22 days, said, “I am an engineer and could be earning a decent living, but they make me live like a beggar.” For all these people, it is overwhelmingly costly to stay for an undetermined time, waiting for an arbitrary political decision.

The group has decided that they will try to pass through the border today, with, and only with all of the people who are waiting to enter Gaza, Palestine. If by 4:00 p.m, they are still denied, they will set up camp, and besiege the siege. The media is invited to come and report this international action.

Any one who wants to support this action is urged to participate in a massive lobbying campaign by contacting their own government or foreign minister, the Egyptian Embassy in their own country, and their own embassy in Egypt. Send emails and faxes, and make phone calls demanding the opening of the border and the end of the siege.

Israeli forces arrest three solidarity activists in Safa

For Immediate Release

13 June 2009: Israeli forces have arrested 1 Israeli and 2 international solidarity activists in the West Bank village of Safa.

Around 7am, Palestinian farmers, accompanied by 15 international and 10 Israeli solidarity activists, attempted to access their land in the village of Safa to pick grape leaves. Located in the north Hebron hills, near the illegal Beit Ayn settlement, Safa is Palestinian owned land.

Settlers arrived at the scene and began to throw stones at the Palestinians. Border police were present and witnessed the stone-throwing but did not intervene. After 15 minutes at the site in Safa, the border police declared the area a Closed Military Zone. When the Palestinian, Israeli and international activists began to walk away, the settlers verbally assualted them. Two border police cars arrived and attempted to arrest an Israeli activist. Having failed to arrest the Israeli solidarity activist, the border police tried to arrest a Palestinian farmer.

Four international and two Israeli activists tried to prevent the arrest by surrounding the farmer and linking arms on the ground. The border police began to violently push and kick the activists. The soldiers pulled the hair of several activists, kicked them and yelled at them. Israeli forces also used a club to beat the activists.

Shortly thereafter, the border police arrested a German activist, a Scottish activist and an Israeli activist. The Palestinian farmer was released.

They were taken to the police station in Gush Etzion settlement and then transferred to the police station in Kyriat Arba settlement. They are still being held and accused of assaulting the soldiers.

click here to see a video of the action