Tag: Action Alert

Call to action – Join the ISM in 2013

2001 – 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Palestine

Prior to ISM’s foundation in 2001, live ammunition was the most commonly used weapon to quell Palestinian demonstrations, resulting in huge casualties. Since it’s foundation, ISM has seen live ammunition become far less common over time and the Israeli Army now utilize tear gas, sound bombs, and rubber coated steal bullets, more often as alternative crowd dispersion techniques. This is largely due to the presence of international and Israeli activists at demonstrations, something ISM has been central to.

During the second intifada we notoriously ran past soldiers into the Mukataa, Arafat’s compound which was under siege, the shelling stopped with a mixed International presence. A similar story unfolded at the same time in the siege of the church of the nativity in Bethlehem.

In 2004 ISM marched with Palestinian and international activists along the route of the Apartheid wall in the West Bank at the invitation of the effected villages. The march gathered momentum over a number of days, and upon arrival at the Qalandia checkpoint numbers had reached over 1000. The Israeli Army was unable to stop the march as it crossed into occupied East Jerusalem.

We cannot fail to mention that through the years farmers have gained increased ability  to implement their rights to access their lands during the olive harvest with help from international volunteers and advocacy.

Since the most recent 2012 bombardment  activists have accompanied Palestinian farmers onto their fields in the military ‘buffer zone’ enabling them to work their land, despite coming under fire on occasions. In Israel’s buffer zone for the first time, soldiers have begun using tear gas and firing warning shots rather than shooting to kill.

In the West Bank, ISM activists have recently been vital supporters in Palestinian actions such as blockading settler roads, invading settler-only supermarkets, and we continue to join Palestinians on their weekly Friday demonstrations against the Occupation. We have been and continue to be ready for whatever arises on a daily basis.

In a time of an increased need for international presence in Gaza and what looks to be a upsurge of violence in the West Bank, we call on international activists to join the ISM on the streets of Palestine. Volunteers of the ISM are requested to make a minimum of a two week commitment, long term volunteers are always needed. Please see more information on how to join.

As an inspiration, you can read also “ What YOU can do as an International to help people in Palestine“.

Media activists needed in Palestine

Reporting the voice of Palestinian struggle from the root        

Download for more information: ISM Call for Media Activists

About ISM: The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli occupation in Palestine by using nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles. Founded by a small group of primarily Palestinian and Israeli activists in August 2001, ISM aims to support and strengthen the Palestinian popular resistance by providing the Palestinian people with two resources, international solidarity and an international voice.
For detailed information on ISM please visit palsolidarity.org.

Interning / volunteering with ISM: You will be based in the West Bank, experienced and interested activists may be placed in Gaza. Apart from gaining reporting and photography experience, you will also be networking with existing media outlets and develop skills during media meetings on reporting the occupation of Palestine. ISM is seeking a minimum 3 month commitment, and will provide accommodation during your stay.

ISM is a non-hierarchical solidarity movement. Consequently, you will not be treated as a classical intern but rather as a fellow voluntary member of the activist group.

Fields of work:

  • Learn to humanize the voice of the struggle by reporting on events ranging from anti-occupation demonstrations to house raising demolitions.
  • Establish contacts with local Palestinian and international media
  • Help refining the ISM media strategy by developing and incorporating own ideas on information spreading techniques

Application documents: Please send in any relevant information about yourself and experience or background you may have in reporting and journalism. Express why you are applying for this voluntary internship and what you hope to gain from it. Send an example of your written work and an optional photo sample of your work.

Applications are accepted year round and should be sent to: palreports@gmail.com

        The voice is the movement. Let it be heard.

                      We wish you the best of luck and hope to see you reporting in Palestine.

What YOU can do as an International to help people in Palestine

17th November 2012 | Palestine

via http://qumsiyeh.org

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Before we address what can be done, we need to ask what Palestinians want from the International Community and what are some goals to adopt for your group to help achieve that. The Palestinian Civil Society Call to action is the best articulation of what Palestinians want from the International community. They include the Palestinian Constants or Thawabet. The Civil Society Call was initially signed by 170 Palestinian civil society organizations and communities and has since been endorsed by thousands of groups. It is posted at http://www.bdsmovement.net/call

Second, we must educate ourselves. Visit Recommened Books and Links

Here are possible goals for your group:

Ultimate Goals
1. To implement the right of return for refugees to their homes, farms, businesses, and lands (include restitution, and compensation for suffering).
2. To develop and implement a pluralistic democracy in Israel/Palestine with equality and human rights for all.
3. To end to all acts of violence, colonization, and oppression.

Intermediate Goals
1. To develop and implement governmental and public support for the ultimate goals by media work, lobbying, and educational campaigns.
2. To develop and implement campaigns of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) as happened in South Africa and as civil society has called for.
3. To develop and implement strategies and tactics for Palestinians remaining on their lands and resisting Israeli colonization and ethnic cleansing (e.g. by job creation and supporting non-violent direct actions).

Short-term Goals:
1. To develop community members and structures to identify with this vision.
2. To engage in efforts of education and alliance building.
3. To ensure fair media coverage and exposure with a concerted media strategy and action.
4. To provide direct relief and humanitarian aid to those suffering from human rights abuses.
5. To increase political/human rights tourism.

64 Ways to act for peace with justice (what YOU can do)

1) Educate yourself via reliable books. For example books by Ilan Pappe (Ethnic Ceansing of Palestine), Edward Said (The Question of Palestine).

2) Educate yourself and track current information and key historical data via websites (and disseminate it). For example look into http://www.imemc.org/, http://electronicintifada.net/, http://english.aljazeera.net/, Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem, Palestine Remembered, and similar websites.

3) Educate yourself by visiting Palestine and writing about it. There are many organizations doing tours that inspire. Examples Siraj Center, Alternative Tourism Group, Holy Land Trust, Global Exchange, Birthright Unplugged, ISM etc

4) Practice using clear and unambiguous vocabulary including language to protest apartheid and colonization. See for example developing anti-partheid framework for the struggle (PDF File): http://www.endtheoccupation.org/downloads/AAF%20curriculum%20training%20.pdf

5) Challenge media bias by first educating yourself and others about its existence and the extent of the bias. See for example http://ifamericansknew.org/

6) Write to the mainstream media. You can do letters to the editor (usually 200 words) and/or opinion pieces (700-900 words).

7) Start your own group or join an existing organization that works for justice. Simply search/google your city with the word Palestine to identify candidates.

8) Join the International Solidarity Movement, the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program (EAPPI), Christian Peace Maker Team, or other groups doing work in the occupied areas

9) Develop close working relationship with progressive parties and groups in your country.

10) Network and enhance groups working on sanctions and suspension of US aid to Israel. e.g. Suspend US Aid to Israel Now

11) Lobby. This is done individually or by supporting/joining one or more od the many groups doing it, e.g. Council for the National Interest, Citizens For Fair Legislation, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine, and American Association for Palestinian Equal Rights (http://www.aaper.org/).

12) Hold a teach-in, seminar, or public dialogue. This is straightforward: you need to decide venue, speakers, and do publicity. This can be facilitated through such groups as Palestine Media Watch which have speakers bureaus.

13) Send direct aid and support for people on the ground through transparent and trustworthy groups.

14) Use youtube and googlevideo to disseminate information

15) Challenge Israel in local and International courts.If you are a lawyer, donate your time and start some networking and initiate cases (e.g. US congress is violating US laws by sending money to Israel, US Citizens can bring cases against foreign governments that harmed them). Groups with great interest and activism on behalf of Palestinians includes Lawyers Without Border, National Lawyers Guild, Al-Haq, Yesh Din, and Adalah – Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.

16) Help coalitions work for Palestine and insist they do not leave this issue; example is http://CTUnitedforPeace.org.

17) If you work in a group, suggest formation of local or national coalitions to increase the power by association.

18) Join the campaigns for economic boycotts. For example see successful examples here: http://www.qumsiyeh.org/boycottsanddivestment/

19) Join or initiate a campaign for cultural and academic boycott; see http://pacbi.org/.

20) Host an art exhibit or other art performance (music, dabka etc) that highlight the rich Palestinian culture.

21) Engage in civil disobedience actions to draw attention and change policies.

22) Develop campaigns to support the right to enter: see www.righttoenter.ps
Israel Takes Aim At Palestinian Families By Ida Audeh
http://www.countercurrents.org/audeh110907.htm

23) Facilitate a visit by the Wheels of Justice bus tour to your area (in the US) or create a bus like that (e.g. in Europe). See justicewheels.org

24) Donate to aid Palestinian Children. For example, Palestine Children Relief Fund, and Playgrounds for Palestine

25) Develop campaigns to ban Political Junkets to Israel.
Here is an example “In a challenge to one of the most powerful lobbying tactics used by the Jewish community, a county in Maryland decided last week that local legislators could no longer go on sponsored trips to Israel. http://www.forward.com/articles/11553/

26) Support the campaigns to end the siege on Gaza. See http://www.freegaza.org/, http://www.witnessgaza.com/

27) Work in your country against discrimination
Arabs Against Discrimination: http://www.aad-online.org/
American Arabs Anti-Discrimination Committee http://
28) Support Human Rights: Amnesty International http://www.amnesty.org, Human Rights Watch: http://hrw.org/doc/?t=mideast&c=isrlpa
B�Tselem:The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories http://www.btselem.org

29) Support the Right to Education Campaign: http://right2edu.birzeit.edu/

30) Promote lifting Siege against Palestinians, especially Gaza

31) Work against home demolistions:
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions: http://www.icahd.org/eng

32) Support empowering Youth from Palestine e.g. see http://www.yfppal.com/ and http://www.alrowwad-acts.ps

33) Write to and work with alternative mass media (like DemocracyNow, Public Access TV).

34) Create your own content and post it to the web

35) Utilize social networking sites to reach a mass audience (e.g. facebook)

36) Go into chat rooms, email discussions etc and spread the word.

37) Buy Palestinian Products, for example from www.palestineonlinestore.com, www.canaanfairtrade.com, www.palestinefairtrade.org.

38) Pray for Peace and Justice or if you are not religious, take time out to think and meditate on what can be done to achieve Peace with Justice

39) Make a podcast or public service announcement and spread it

40) Drop a banner from a traffic bridge or any other publicly visible location

41) Put out an information table in a university student center, public gathering, festivals, or other places where people congregate.

42) Host a fundraising party or dinner at your home.

43) Show a documentary in a public setting and then have a discussion about it.

44) Organize a public debate between those who support Zionism and those who support equality and justice

45) Learn Arabic or if you are an Arab learn another language (including Hebrew) so that you can communicate better

46) Make a street theater

47) Engage in Civil disobedience acts (this may entail getting arrested).

48) Reach out to Christian religious leaders and ask them to act based on the Kairos Palestine document www.kairospalestine.ps

49) Challenge the Zionist attempts to doctor Wikipedia (ie. imposing a Zionist distorted version on this free web encyclopedia). Become a wikepedia editor/writer.

50) Start a genuine interfaith dialogue based on acting for justice rather than chatting to hide injustice.

51) Find a way not to pay taxes to governments that violate human rights and use your taxes for war and oppression.

52) Host a dinner with Arabic food and show people the rich cultural traditions like embroidered dresses that go back to Canaanitic times.
Write to us to remind us of other ways to act.

53) Run for public office.

54) Put-up a billboard in your community that highlight a certain aspect of the struggle.

55) Develop partnerships/twinning between universities, schools, colleges, churches etc with similar Palestinian entities.

56) Introduce a divestment resolution from Israel at your city or town council.

57) Pass-out flyers or stickers at a public event.

58) Host a speaker from your community who was in Palestine to tell personal stories and experiences

59) Ask your Church or University or other appropriate group to invite a Palestinain speaker.

60) What ever your field of work, you can find a way to network people in it with Palestinains in that work: librarians, professors, pediatricians, journalists, farmers, small shop owners, workers etc.
61) Wear an armband on particular days to start conversations about Palestine. For example a black arm band on Nakba day (15 May) or a green armband on Land Day (30 March). It allows you to tell a story to those who ask.

62) Hold a sign that says boycott apartheid in front of every visiting Israeli official in your country including artists or university faculty or othesr that represent Israeli institutions.

63) Do a flash mob at facilities that support Israel (like Starbucks).

64) Organize programs to support Palestinian political prisoners (more than 750,000 Palestinains were imprisoned since 1967).

(list initiated by Mazin Qumsiyeh, George Rishmawi and others at the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People).

More ideas in this collection of activist experiences found in the Activist Manual

An Open Letter from Gaza to EU: Do not reward apartheid!

19 August 2012 | Besieged Gaza, occupied Palestine

We call on the European Union to challenge and not embrace Israel’s incessant land expropriation and racist subjugation against the Palestinian people. The European Union’s own reports document and supposedly lament Israel’s apartheid policies, yet continues to pursue policies that legitimize them, such as the scandalous upgrade of trade relations currently being put forward.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said that the regime you wish to do even more business with is worse than South African Apartheid, having been to the West Bank many times. But you turn your eyes and ears away from him. So does former ANC MP Ronnie Kassrils and countless other South Africans who have been to see the physical and psychological matrix of control Israel has mounted against us.

You are very well aware of what is happening to us. In terms of the brutal and illegal colonisation of the West Bank your own report from the Office of the European Union Representative (EUREP) in Jerusalem of July 2011 stated

“…large Jewish populations have settled into the occupied territory, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law. In 1972 there were 1,200 settlers which have grown to 310,000 settlers today in 124 settlements and 100 so called outposts in Area C. The Israeli government subsidizes and provides incentives including funding for housing, education and infrastructure such as special roads and water connection… The municipal area of settlements encompasses 9.3% of the West Bank Territory. However, due to the extensive network of settler roads and restrictions on Palestinians accessing their own land, the whole structure of the Israeli settlements dominate more than 40% of the West Bank.”

This is enforced Apartheid Segregation. Perhaps you shy away from using the words,”Ethnic Cleansing”, despite categorical evidence you yourselves present: “Prior to the Israeli occupation in 1967 the Palestinian population of the Jordan valley was estimated at between 200,000 and 320,000. As of 2009 the population is approximately 56,000…” This is ethnic cleansing in its most explicit form.

“Settlements of all kinds – formal or informal outposts – are illegal under international law.” You explain in the report.

They violate the prohibition against transfer of population of the occupying power to the occupied territory (art 49 IVGC), the prohibition against appropriation of private civilian property without military necessity (Regulation 46 Hague Regulations 1907) Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention names deportations and transfers under article 49 as grave breaches of International Humanitarian Law.

So why does the EU make detailed reports on Israel committing self-evident crimes against humanity – vast theft of our land, using bulldozers, tanks and army to violently push our people out?  One wonders as to why such reports are written? We fail to understand how, in spite of your own findings, you decide to reward the aggressor!

The main legal basis through which you conduct EU relations between Israel and the European Union is an “association agreement” dating from 2000. In article 2, respect for human rights is described as an “essential element” of the accord, stating that, “relations shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles which must guide internal and international policy”.

More than 15,000 illegal Israeli Jewish settlers were added last year making the current number of “illegal settlers” 650,000. Yet still you propose a Palestinian state based on the Bantustans we have been herded into, without rights to water, to real movement, to airspace, sea space and certainly no rights to the 6 million refugees around the world who European countries have continually turned their backs on.

Notably, this trade upgrade was originally frozen when the Israeli Army, the fourth most armed in the world, committed atrocities over the new year of 2009 that you, the EU, couldn’t even ignore, the Gaza Bloodbath, the 3 week Israeli operation that killed over 1400  (over 340 children) injuring over 5300, the vast majority civilians. Palestinians of Gaza are still recovering from that, though most of them never will. For most of them lost a friend or relative and the trauma continues to manifest itself in all the generations, especially the youngest.

Since the EU feels ready to reward Israel with an upgrade, does it assume that justice was brought to the perpetrators of the bloodbath Palestinian civilians suffered in Gaza, and they now have their human rights fully respected by Israel?

Seeing as you do not read your own reports perhaps we can fill you in. Despite the wide scale crop contamination, a spike in child deformities and cancers from the incessant and illegal white phosphorous and chemical weapons showered on Palestinians of Gaza; despite our destroyed roads and sewage system, despite the United Nations accusing Israel of, ‘probable war crimes and crimes against humanity’, NO international criminal court hearings, NO sanctions, NO expectation of compensation from Israel for the 20,000 houses, hospitals, schools, shops, offices, damaged or destroyed, and NO effective easing of the now 5 year medieval blockade that has left much of the infrastructure in ruins due to limits on concrete, electrical and building materials. Israel right now is collectively punishing all of Gaza, contravening article 33 of the Geneva Conventions, supplementing nicely its record number of United Nation Resolution violations.

Europe’s aid to Palestinians will not free them from political oppression. Charity has never helped free a colonized population.  The funding of weapons to Israel completely negates it. 11 of the top 20 weapons dealers to Israel are EU member states. Germany actually sold 2 dolphin submarines while Israel was bombarding Lebanon in July 2006, killing over a thousand people. In the first three months of 2008 alone, Britain rubberstamped timely military exports of almost £20 million to Israel giving it a suitable arsenal to blow us up with a few months later. Among the Gaza debris of the 2009 Cast Lead attacks, Amnesty International found, “made in France” labels on components used in Hellfire missiles. We hope the money was good for Europe’s biggest arms exporter to Israel. EU Scientific collaboration and investment in Israel is even more rewarding.

And it comes full circle when it was revealed that €11 million worth of damage was caused to EU financed infrastructure in Gaza during these bombings. Prior to that, from August 2001 to November 2008, Israeli attacks on the occupied territories inflicted damage worth more than €44 million on EU provided aid. As Mustafa Barghouti asked European Parliamentarians, “Are EU taxpayers really happy to reconstruct what US taxpayers have paid to destroy?”

We’re not surprised that an EU diplomat found it hard to hide this epic EU hypocrisy of the new trade deal, “I was struck by the fact that a whole range of relations was offered to Israel, at the request of Israel, as if nothing is happening on the ground… We should be using [Tuesday’s] dialogue to get what we want, which is Israel’s compliance with its obligations under international law.”

Europe has historically accepted Israel trampling all over Palestinians, from the beginning in 1948. With precision brutality we have been uprooted, humiliated at checkpoints, imprisoned without charge, denied our heritage and religious sites, denied our freedom to move and see family members, denied water and our livelihoods, our arable land, our access to the sea, our dreams of visiting other countries. And Europe has merely watched.  And Israel has carried on. Because it knows Europe makes noises but it does not stand up to Israel.

It is time to stand up!

Stand up for basic human rights. Is it too much to ask you to follow basic expectations of human rights in your dealings with Israel?  Stand up against its policies of occupation, colonization and apartheid? When justice eventually comes and we can live as equals, not under an apartheid system that denies us our rights and our homes, people will look back on this period aghast that such collective punishment of an entire population, the majority children, was allowed to go on for so long, aided and abetted by the European Union. Stand up now, end this trade agreement with Israel and remember when and why Europeans finally put human rights first by sanctioning the White Afrikaaner regime. Legitimising Apartheid was wrong then, and it is wrong now.

Read the text with footnotes at One Democratic State Groups webpage

Call to action: Olive Harvest 2012

18 August 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

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 2012 Olive Harvest Campaign at the invitation of Palestinian communities.

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 have remained steadfast in refusing to give up their olive harvest.

The olive tree is a national symbol for Palestinians. Photo by Jonas Weber, ISM.

Palestinian and ISM volunteers join Palestinian farming communities each year to harvest olives, in areas where Palestinians face settler and military violence when working their land. Your presence can make a big difference. It has been proven in the past to deter 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 livelihoods and be present on their lands. 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 on the 8th of October and run until the 15th of November.  We request a minimum 2 week commitment from volunteers but stress that long-termers are needed as well.  We ask that volunteers start arriving in the first week of October, so that we will be prepared when the harvest begins.

Training

The ISM will be holding mandatory two day training sessions which will run weekly on Wednesdays and Thursdays. 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.

ISM maintains a constant presence in Hebron, where settler harassment and violence is a regular occurrence. Lately, Israeli army violence has escalated for Palestinians living in proximity to the illegal inner-city settlement. Israeli forces have used the Palestinian neighborhoods for military training and two videos surfaced lately of soldiers brutally assaulting a young man and a child. The annual demonstration for the opening of Shuhada street has also been brutally oppressed by Israeli military forces. Weekly, illegal Israeli settlers are brought on a tour of the Palestinian old city in Hebron, supported by the Israeli army. Every week, the Palestinians are put under curfew and shops are forced to close so that settlers can take a stroll. ISM maintains a presence on these tours for purposes of prevention and documentation, as Palestinians are often assaulted by the radical settlers.

ISM also has an apartment in Nablus from where we work on a number of projects including resisting demolitions in various villages, and supporting Palestinians resisting settler theft of their lands.  In addition to these activities, we participate in the weekly demonstration in Kafr Qaddum, where protesters face excessive force by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).

ISM activists have also been attending weekly demonstrations against the Apartheid Wall, the annexation of Palestinian land and the construction of illegal settlements in Al Ma’sara, Ni’lin, An Nabi Saleh.

Come! Bear witness to the suffering, courage and generosity of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation.

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.

In Solidarity,

ISM Palestine