Tag: Action Alert - Page 14 - International Solidarity Movement

Resist the land grab: donate a tree

29 January 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus, Occupied Palestine

For more than a decade the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) has supported Palestinians during the olive harvest, a task which continues to be challenging.

We regularly support farmers by accompanying them to fields and planting olive trees in areas of high risk of settler attacks and army harassment. As part of our continuous support to the grassroots struggle, we are going to plant olive trees in the villages around Nablus, starting now. For this, we need your support.

Hundreds of thousands of olive trees are located near illegal Israeli colonial settlements, making the trees as well as the farmers a sure target for settler violence. On average, around 10,000 trees are destroyed each year. Before the olive harvest had began in 2012, farmers had to deal with the devastating effects of arson. According to the United Nations, more than 870 trees were vandalised in the first week of October’s harvest.

Working near settlements is much more than a source of livelihood: it is a form of non-violent resistance. Planting and harvesting olives is a continuous affirmation of Palestinians’ historical, cultural and economic connection to their lands and a rejection of Israeli efforts to seize them.

Villages around Nablus have seen an increased level of violence and harassment by settlers and the army. ISM activists in Nablus have spent recent months working in villages around Yizhar, the most violent settlement in the West Bank. The village of Urif has been under regular attacks by settlers and army, including settler attacks around the school which is located on the very edge of the village. Madama has also seen some extremely violent scenes involving shepherds being assaulted whilst working their lands around the settlement. Asira, another village which surrounds Yizhar, has just been the victim of yet another outrageous land grab. The village of Burin gets attacked from settlements on two sides. We want to help these villages resist by planting olive trees around the most dangerous land around Yizhar settlement.

We want to start by planting around 1000 olive trees and for this we urgently need your help. An olive tree costs $4 to $11, depending on it’s size (the bigger the tree the sooner olives can be harvested). The more money we can raise, the more and bigger olive trees we will be able to plant. Any amount you can donate helps. Please donate now so that we can start start planting. All funds raised will be used entirely for the purchase of new trees.

Please help spread the word. Join the event on Facebook.

International Day of Action for the Boycott of Israeli Agricultural Products in Gaza

Wednesday, 6th of February, 2013 | Gaza Strip, Occupied Palestine

Today´s press conference in support of Palestinian farmers and fishermen held in the port of Gaza City launched several days of activities leading up to the International Day of Action for the Boycott of Israeli Agricultural Products on Saturday 9th February. Speakers were from the Boycott National Committee, the student boycott movement in Gaza, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, PNGO and International Action for Palestine.

On Saturday 9th of February, thousands of people all over the world will participate in actions calling for the boycott of Israeli agricultural products. In the Gaza Strip, farmers and solidarity activists will plant olive trees in the east of the district of Zeytoun, near the so-called “buffer zone”, a unilaterally imposed no-go zone near the border fence. A few years ago, this area was covered with hundreds of olive trees, that have since been bulldozed by the Israeli Army.

Help release Mamun Nasser from Israeli prison

Update on 8 Feb: Mamun is now home with his family!

Thank you to all contributors who donated so far! We have received $950 and managed to borrow the other $150 for Mamun’s bail. If you can, please donate. Any amount helps. In the event that the bail money will returned at the end of Mamun’s trail, it will go towards the ISM legal fund to support similar cases. Thank you!

5 January 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Madama, Occupied Palestine

Shepherd Mamun Nasser has spent almost two months in an Israeli military prison after he was severely beaten by settlers while tending to his sheep. Military court has agreed to his release if the sum of 4000 NIS is paid for bail. Mamun’s family can not afford this amount. Help us raise the funds to secure his release.

On 17th December Mamun Nasser was tending his sheep on a hillside in his village land close to the illegal settler colony of Yizhar. Settlers sought out Mamun and handcuffed him then beat him. His brothers, two of his sisters and his mother who were first to arrive to his aid found Mamun surrounded by settlers covered in blood with most of his face severely swollen. As they attempted to get Mamun from the settlers Israeli soldiers arrived and opened fire shooting live bullets at his family, with one bullet passing through his sister’s dress. Mamun’s brother Amir wasn’t so ‘lucky’ and was hit in the leg. As word of the attack on Mamun spread more villagers arrived and fought to try to free Mamun. In the process a settler was hit by a stone and wounded.

Mamun was arrested by the military and taken away while family and friends managed to carry Amir to an ambulance. Mamun was first taken to Huwwara military base on 17 December and then transferred to Megiddo prison the next day and charged with assaulting both the settlers and soldiers. He has spent almost two months in military captivity. Then on 22 January, Mamun’s brother, Amir, who was shot in the original incident was also arrested by the military when he returned home after a days work.

According to statistics by OCHA (the United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), Yizhar is the most violent settlement in the whole of the West Bank having recorded over 70 incidents in 2011 alone. One OCHA report reveals how “90% of monitored complaints regarding settler violence filed by Palestinians with the Israeli police in recent years have been closed without indictment”. In the case of Mamun and Amir, it was not the attackers who were brought in front of a judge but them, the victims of the attack have since remained imprisoned.

This incident is only one example of collaboration between settlers, soldiers and military courts. Settlers from Yitzhar and other settlements regularly attack Palestinians whose land they confiscate. When Palestinians try to defend themselves from these attacks the soldiers take over, attack the Palestinians and kill, injure or arrest them thus keeping them off their land.

The Military courts are willing to release Mamun provided the sum of 4000 NIS ($ 1100) is paid for bail and on the condition that he does not return to the land where he was attacked until the end of his proceedings. Mamun’s family can not afford to pay this amount. Please help us raise the funds needed to secure his release now. Please donate here and send us an email saying how much you were able to raise/donate. Thank you!

Video: Settlers and soldiers attacking Madama. It shows collusion between settlers and soldiers in Madama the day Mamun was arrested.

Announcing 4th annual Open Shuhada Street campaign (22-25 February 2013)

2 February 2013 | Youth Against Settlements

We are very excited to announce the upcoming 4th annual Open Shuhada Street Campaign from 22-25 February 2013.

The Open Shuhada Street Campaign (OSC) is a Palestinian initiative, aiming to organize an International day of solidarity with the Palestinian residents of Hebron. It was started in 2010 in Hebron and international solidarity actions took place in numerous cities around the world. In 2012 more than 35 different activities were organized.

The Israeli state has imposed on the Palestinian residents of the city a regime of forced evictions, curfews, market closures, street closures, military checkpoints, subjection to military law including frequent random searches and detention without charge, and lack of protection from rampant settler violence, which has pressured approximately 15,000 Palestinian civilians to flee their homes in the Hebron city center, turning it into a virtual ghost town.

The Israeli occupation forces closed Shuhada Street to Palestinian vehicles in 1994, after the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre, and then Prevented Palestinian residents to walk there in 2000, in order to provide security for the 600 Israeli settlers occupying the center of Hebron.

More than 500 stores were closed by military order in the center of Hebron, and more than a thousand store owners were forced to close their shops due to checkpoints and closures. At the same time, illegal settlers enjoy freedom of movement in the closed streets and are protected by occupation forces.

The activities of the occupation and its settlers in the city of Hebron have turned the lives of 200,000 Palestinians in Hebron into a living hell and expelled thousands from their homes.

On 25 February 2013 activists and organizations from around the world will join together in solidarity with the Palestinian residents of Hebron/ al Khaleel, through local protests and actions that demand for the opening of Shuhada Street to Palestinians and an End to the Israeli Occupation!

Shuhada Street used to be the principal street for Palestinians residents, businesses and a very active market place in the Palestinian city of Hebron/ al Khaleel. Today, because Shuhada Street runs through the Jewish settlement of Hebron, the street is closed to Palestinian movement and looks like a virtual ghost street which only Israelis and tourists are allowed to access. Hate graffiti has been sprayed across the closed Palestinian shops and Palestinians living on the street have to enter and exit their houses through their back doors or, even sometimes by climbing over neighbor’s roofs.

In 1994, following the massacre of 29 Muslims at prayer by America-Israeli settler Dr. Baruch Goldstein, shops on Shuhada Street were closed and vehicular traffic prohibited on the street. Despite a court case and an admission by the Israeli government that it is illegal, the street is still closed to Palestinians 16 years later. We are focusing on Shuhada Street as a symbol of the settlement issue, the policy of separation in Hebron/al Khaleel and the entire West Bank, the lack of freedom of movement, and the occupation at large.

If you would like to organize and be part of OPEN SHUHADA STREET CAMPAIGN 2013 in your city or your University campus please get in touch with us at media.yas@gmail.com. Also find us on Facebook and Twitter.

HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED

OSC offers ordinary people around the world an opportunity to partake in something truly global. If you would like to get involved and organize your own OSC event or action let us know so that we can share with you the OSC Basis of Unity and organizing principles. Here are some ways that you can actively get involved:

Demonstrations, Marches, Vigils, Flashmobs
Organize a film screening about Hebron
Arrange a lecture, workshop,Presentation
Organize a BDS action
Join us online
Photo Exhibitions concerning Apartheid in Hebron
Twitter: Use this hashtag #OpenShuhadaSt to spread the word and educate the masses about Hebron
Video Message: Create and send video messages to community forums, media, and social media outlets urging the international community to use diplomatic pressure to re-open Shuhada Street
Letter-writing and Petitions to the Israeli Ambassador and elected officials in your country asking them to intervene
Write letters to the Palestinian Families in Hebron to show solidarity
Close roads to show the public the effects of closing the main road in Hebron.
Visit Hebron to gain an understanding of the situation and the daily suffering of the people living there.
Any other non-violent activity you feel supports the cause, be as creative as possible!!

For more information please visit our website WWW.HYAS.PS

A step in the right direction; as EU consuls urge sanctions against settlements, we call for an all-out suspension of trade agreements with Apartheid Israel

28 February 2013 | Palestine Solidarity Campaign and International Solidarity Movement

The European Union is actively supporting Israel with its current trade agreements. Enough is enough; keep the pressure up, 2013 is the time for justice in Palestine.

As more and more of us become aware of the systematic denial of Palestinians human rights by Israel military occupation, it is time to make our elected representatives aware of the growing and unstoppable pressure for peace and justice.

The EU should be playing a leading role in implementing policies to ensure that Israel ends its illegal occupation, uphold international law and respect Palestinian human rights.

Instead, they are supporting Israel’s occupation by:

allowing illegal settlement products to be traded across Europe

by using EU tax-payers money to fund Israeli military companies that are responsible for killing civilians and supporting Israel’s military occupation

As recommended by European Union consuls general in East Jerusalem and Ramallah in a recent report, the European Union must divest from settlements and economic sanctions should be put on bodies and companies involved in settlement industry. A report submitted to the UN´s Human Rights Council by an independent fact-finding mission, has also called on all relevant international actors, private or state-connected to take “all necessary steps” to ensure that they were respecting human rights, “including by terminating their business interests in the settlements”.

This is a step forward but not enough; keep the pressure on EU representatives to suspend trade agreements with Israel until they fully and completely abide by international law.

It is time for actions, not words. Tell the EU to act now.

Read the full letter and sign the call here today: http://psc.iparl.com/lobby/96.

Send letters to EU Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers (in all EU languages!)

Send letters to Members of European Parliament (MEPs) (in all EU languages!)

Please, send letters today and spread widely.

When people lead, governments follow.