Tag: Action Alert - Page 6 - International Solidarity Movement

Join us! For a day of action to #EndHebronMilitaryZone and #OpenShuhadaSt on March 1st

25th February, 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, occupied Palestine

Our thunderclap campaign, calling on the international community to pressure the Israeli military to put an end to the closed military zone in al-Khalil (Hebron) will come to an end on the 1^st of March, 2016. Join us for a day of action!

In 1994, the shops on formerly vibrant Shuhada street (martyrs’ street) were forced to close by the Israeli military, and soon Palestinians were not allowed in the area anymore. Within a few years the street became a ‘ghost street,’ with shops and houses boarded up and no Palestinians permitted to walk on most of what was once a main thoroughfare for the city. This arbitrary closure occurred after the Ibrahimi mosque massacre and was said to be a short-term measure. Short-term became long-term; the street has now been closed to Palestinians for 22 years.

4 months ago, the Israeli military restricted movements of Palestinian residents of al-Khalil even more by declaring the last part of Shuhada street, as well as much of the adjacent neighborhood of Tel Rumeida, a closed military zone. Palestinians had to register with the Israeli military in order to access their homes in these zones. This measure resulted in the tiny last bit of Shuhada Street that so far is still accessible for Palestinians – at least in theory – being barred for most Palestinians now – clearly yet another step in the Israeli attempts to force out Palestinians of the Old City in al-Khalil to connect the illegal settlements. This supposed ‘short-term’ measure keeps being renewed by military orders, making life for Palestinians in the area harder than ever.

Let’s not let the Israeli military once again take over more of the city of al-Khalil. It’s time show support to Palestinians struggling every day, living in an apartheid city. It’s time to show the world, once again, what is happening in al-Khalil.

What you can do to act:

On the 1^st of March, our Thunderclap campaign will come to an end, and our message to #EndHebronMilitaryZone will be published on each one of our supporters’ twitter or facebook accounts. The goal is to reach as many people as we can around the world. Support our thunderclap campaign today, join the social media thunder and raise awareness.
Tweet on the 1^st of march with the hashtag #EndHebronMilitaryZone, using sample tweets, photos and videos here provided.
Join our Facebook event page for updates and more information.
If you are in Hebron, attend the events for #OpenShuhadaSt, or share the call in the media.
Call on organizations you work with or are affiliated with to add their names to the Action Alert, and to issue brief statements detailing why the organization is supporting this campaign and why you find it important. Please send all requests to sign and statements to palreports@gmail.com for publication. Please also contact us for versions of the Action Alert in languages other than English and Arabic – we currently have translations available in German, French, and Dutch, and will update this page as more become available.
Organize an event, such as a demonstration, presentation or other campaign to raise awareness on the situation in Hebron and mobilize support in your area
Contact media outlets in your country and call on them to report on the situation of the closed military zone, in Hebron and Palestine in general
Write a message to your elected representatives (MEPs, members of congress or whichever position is the equivalent in your country) using the sample text included in this article, and encourage your friends and contacts to the same
If you are based in Europe, call on your EU representatives to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement until Israel complies with international law
Organize a delegation to visit Hebron, see the situation for yourselves and talk to Palestinians about the restrictions imposed by the Israeli occupation. Seeing the conditions in Hebron with your own eyes offers an understanding of the occupation that one cannot get from reading about it. If you want to organize a delegation you can contact the ISM in Hebron at palreportskhalil2012@gmail.com and we will help you and answer any questions you might have.

ISM calls for internationals to volunteer in Palestine

15th February, 2016 | International Solidarity Movement | occupied Palestine

Today, Palestinians are facing an enormous amount of pressure in their lives due to the growing violence of Israeli forces. They face restrictions of movement, daily harassment, intimidation and attacks at hands of Israeli occupying forces and extremist settlers. ISM is a Palestinian-led movement; our actions are initiated on the invitation of Palestinians, following their lead and wishes. We, as internationals, are needed to monitor human rights violations and show our support for the popular struggle.

Since the beginning of October, Israeli occupation forces increased their abuse of power by carrying out a series of extrajudicial killings of Palestinians, in a manner that is completely unjustified and, in most cases, constituting crimes of war. Israeli politicians have fueled the motivation to kill Palestinians by making open statements encouraging Israeli citizens to become executioners. In addition, Israeli forces are applying measures of collective punishment towards the families of Palestinians who are killed in this unlawful manner. Over 170 Palestinians have been killed since October, many of them children. On February 14th alone Israeli forces shot dead 5 Palestinians, including 3 children, and critically wounded a 14-year-old girl in al-Khalil.

IMG_1007-600x450 — Israeli forces conducting intimidating military patrol as schoolgirls walk down the street in the Old City of al-Khalil

With more volunteers, ISM could more effectively fulfill our commitments to the Palestinian communities we work with, such as walking with schoolchildren and monitoring checkpoints. A larger team also opens up the possibilities of working in more locations and regions where international presence can be useful.

Our presence in Palestine is crucial, because we witness and document what we see and can show the world what is happening on the ground. We do our best to prevent Palestinians from being harassed, and more importantly, we show them we are there in solidarity with them.

In Al-Khalil (Hebron), we need volunteers to walk children to school and monitor checkpoints where students and teachers cross on their way to and from school. Palestinian parents of kindergarten children living in H2 (the area completely controlled by the Israeli military with constant presence of soldiers and settlers) fear to send their children to school without internationals to accompany them. Children in the neighborhoods in H2 routinely face harassment and intimidation from Israeli forces and settlers, and Israeli forces deploy tear gas, stun grenades and rubber-coated metal bullets regularly against schoolchildren at some of the checkpoints ISM monitors.

One of our volunteers walks a group of children to school in al-Khalil

IMG_0112-600x450 — Young schoolboy looks on as Israeli forces body search his teacher just outside their school in al-Khalil

In occupied East Jerusalem, many Palestinian families face the constant threat of having their homes demolished by Israeli forces. As a way of showing support and sharing their story, we go to these families to document their situation and report it in the media. In the old city of Jerusalem, some Palestinian families also face eviction, like in the case of grandma Nora; all part of a plan to replace Palestinians in the old city by Israeli settlers. Part of our job is to make sure that these cases don’t stay unknown to the world by reporting them on our website and sharing it on social media.

In Ramallah and its surroundings, we monitor the Friday popular marches. Palestinian popular committees all over the West Bank organize regular demonstrations where ISM is called to participate. We work alongside popular resistance to the occupation, providing international presence and documentation at protests and actions facing attack by Israeli military forces. Sometimes, Palestinians ask us to accompany them to the military court. We attend hearings of their family members or friends in an attempt to show them that they are not alone.

tent-at-night-wm-400x267 — Demonstrators gathered at night around the fire in the ongoing protest tent opposing the closed military zone in al-Khalil

qaddumwm1-600x398 — 9-year-old girl being rushed from the scene after Israeli forces shot her with live ammunition in the arm during their attack on the weekly Friday demonstration in Kafr Qaddum

In Tulkarm and its surroundings, thousands of Palestinians cross the checkpoints everyday to go to work in Israel. The conditions of the crossing are tiring and humiliating for the workers, who arrive several hours before the opening of the gates and have to stand in line in order to be on time for work. Since October, the university of Tulkarm has also been witnessing many violent attacks on campus from the Israeli forces, in which several students were injured with teargas and live ammunition. The ISM team monitors and reports on these Human Rights violations.

A large part of ISM’s work has always involved documenting the violence and impacts of the occupation and the Palestinian struggle against it, working to produce and share media to an international audience to build awareness and global opposition to Israel’s unjust, illegal occupation.

ISM volunteers work amplifying Palestinian voices of resistance while in Palestine and especially after returning to our home countries around the world.

a-600x338 — 5 children who were forced out of their home in Jerusalem after it was demolished; the ISM team met with their family to learn and share their story

When you come to Palestine, try to bring a camera and your laptop if you have one, as both are extremely useful for media work. To plan your trip to the West Bank, please read our traveling information. We ask our volunteers to commit for a minimum of two weeks after completing our two day training, but keep in mind that we always prefer to have volunteers stay for longer periods of time.

Please note that we cannot sponsor people or otherwise facilitate anyone’s entry into Gaza; the information contained here and in our travel and training pages applies to our work in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.

When you decide to come to Palestine to join ISM, or if you have any further questions not covered in our page on joining us in Palestine, please contact palreports@gmail.com or call the phone number for the training coordinator once you have entered Palestine at 059 530 7448

In solidarity,

ISM Team

ISM volunteers raising Palestinian flag in front of the Apartheid wall.

Call for Action! Protest to demand Mohammed Al-Qeeq’s freedom!

11th February 2016 | International Solidarity Movement | Palestine

33 year old jopurnalist, Mohammed al-Qeeq, in his hospital bed is today near death. — 33-year-old hunger-striker political prisoner, Mohammed Al-Qeeq, is today nearing death.

URGENT CALL FOR ACTION – Palestinian journalist is nearing death on hunger strike for freedom.

33-year-old Mohammad Al-Qeeq’s health condition is deteriorating rapidly. He has lost over half his body weight, and is unable to see or talk properly; there is imminent threat to his life. An independent doctor visited Al-Qeeq at HaEmek hospital in Afula on Thursday 4 February and said that he appears to be close to death, reported Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHR-Israel), who organized the visit. Although Al-Qeeq refused to be examined, visible signs point to severe ill-health.

This is the time for action; this is to time to mobilize for freedom. We call on you, our friends and comrades in the struggle for justice and freedom to act now. Protest at an Israeli consulate or embassy or public square and demand freedom for Mohammed al-Qeeq. Contact government officials and demand that they break their silence on Al-Qeeq and support for Israeli violations of Palestinian rights.

Al Qeeq is from the West Bank village of Dura near Hebron, where he worked as a TV reporter for the Saudi news channel “Almajd.” His wife Fayha Shalash says Israeli soldiers raided their home in Ramallah on the night of November 21, 2015 blowing up the house door and waking up the family, blindfolding Mohammad and arresting him. Al-Qeeq was taken in for interrogation at Israel’s Kishon (Jalame) detention center north of the West Bank. He was not allowed to make contact with either his wife or his attorney for 20 days.

Shalash says her husband is being held without charge or trial for doing his job as a journalist. She says her husband chose to refuse his arbitrary detention and continue to raise his voice by refusing food and refusing to be detained by Israel as punishment for his opinion. Mohammad began refusing food on the 25th of November 2015, protesting the conditions of his interrogation and unlawful detention. Al Qeeq told his lawyer he was interrogated and accused of media incitement, and that interrogators threatened to rape him and assault his wife if he does not confess to incitement. Al Qeeq said the interrogators told him that he had two options: to confess to incitement or face up to 7 years in administrative detention. He had no option but to go on hunger strike.

Ashraf Abu Snaneh, Al-Qeeq’s lawyer, says Israel is using administrative detention as a peg to silence the journalist and is forbidding him from due legal process. “If the Israeli security apparatus has evidence against Mohammad they should bring it forward to court and at least give him the right to fight for his innocence at court, but holding him on so-called secret files is unfair and unlawful.”

ACT NOW TO SAVE HIS LIFE ACT NOW FOR FREEDOM AND JUSTICE

Ambulance to attempt to transfer hunger striker to hospital in Ramallah

9th February 2016 | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On Wednesday February 10th, 18:00 supporters will arrive at the hospital in Afula, accompanied by an ambulance and doctors, to transfer Mohammed Al-Qeeq for medical treatment in the Ramallah hospital.

Journalist Mohammed Al-Qeeq is on the 77th day of hunger strike and fighting for his life. He has expressed his wish to move from hospital in Afula where he is currently being held without charge to the Ramallah hospital but the Israeli police refuse to allow it.

Hanan Khatib, one of Al-Qeeq’s lawyers, delivered his message to the press: “Al-Qeeq says he is a journalist and his arrest is illegal. The court has frozen his administrative detention but decided he must stay in the hospital in Afula. Al-Qeeq refuses to stay in Israeli hospitals and will only accept medical treatment in the West Bank.”

Al-Qeeq, a 33-year-old journalist from Ramallah, is accused by the Israeli Shin Bet of being a Hamas activist. He was arrested on November 21st of 2015. According to his friends, Al-Qeeq was interrogated about “media incitement”, tortured and refused to cooperate. After four days he was issued an administrative detention order and announced his hunger strike.

On the 76th day of his hunger strike, Al-Qeeq lost most of his sight and hearing abilities and can barely speak. He is on the verge of death and may suffer a heart attack or organ system failure at any moment.

Last Thursday, the Israeli high court ruled to “freeze” his administrative detention and allowed him to receive visitors, but stopped short of ordering his release and refused to overrule the administrative order despite the fact that in his current medical condition he could not pose danger to anyone. Attorney Jihad Abo Raya explains: “In criminal law either a person is under arrest or he is free to move as he pleases, but for Palestinian detainees the court has created something new, they claim that Mohammed Al-Qeeq is no longer under administrative detention – but they also refuse to allow him to leave Afula hospital.”

For more information contact Attorney Jihad Abo Raya: 0522814579

Facebook event

CALL TO ACTION! Join Twitterstorm to #EndHebronMilitaryZone

Three months ago, in the wake of two extrajudicial executions committed by Israeli forces in Tel Rumeida, Israeli military authorities forced Palestinians living in the neighborhood to register and receive numbers in order to be allowed to reach their homes. Everyone else, including family members, media and Palestinian and international human rights defenders are barred from the area even as Zionist settlers from the adjacent illegal settlements continue to travel unrestricted.

We are calling on everyone to participate in the Twitterstorm on February 1st, 3 pm Palestine time to demand an end to the closed military zone; three months is far too long under an illegal, unjust program of collective punishment!

Starting at 3:00 pm Palestinian time (8:00 am EST, 2:00pm for most of Europe) on February 1st, tweet with the hashtag #EndHebronMilitaryZone using our sample tweets. Please spread the word (whether or not you have a personal twitter account), and call on friends, family, and anyone you know who believes in Palestinian rights to participate. You can share this Facebook post, and also follow @ISMPalestine for any further updates leading up to the Twitterstorm. Remember to NOT use the hashtag before the date and time of the Twitterstorm.

The document contains sample tweets to use along with some accounts to target, and this folder contains visuals that you can use in your tweets We encourage you to address some of your tweets to your representatives, politicians, ambassadors/embassies to Israel and UN members; though we may continue to update the list on the google doc also feel free to tag accounts not including if you think they are relevant. Also link to the Action Alert – the call by Palestinian and international organizations to open Tel Rumeida and respect Palestinian human rights, out thunderclap campaign page, and our Call for Action listing more concrete steps people can take.

Please participate and bring awareness to the situation in Tel Rumeida, to help build public pressure on Israeli authorities to end the closed military zone. As Palestinian resident of Tel Rumeida Abed Salaymeh explains,“soldiers and settlers are making life for the Palestinians intolerable to force them to leave their houses voluntarily. This is a crime under international law. They are targeting activists to silence the truth and stop the truth from reaching the whole world.” We are reaching out to you to ask that you please help spread the truth of what is happening to the world.

Thank you for you support!