Tag: Apartheid - Page 5 - International Solidarity Movement

A night of protective presence needed

3rd April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, occupied Palestine

The two boys met us at the store, shouting the name of our Palestinian contact and waving us along. The cobbled stones in the alley made a nice contrast to the darkness of the night. My feet landed softly on the mud where we started our climb. Glimpses of trash were seen from the flickering flash lights, as if we were threading our way across the city dump. We were going to the house of Imad Abu Shamsiyyeh, the man who had managed to catch last week’s execution on film. His name was out in the media and he and his family had received death threats. The local illegal settlers had also put up posters with his name and face on them, saying they wanted him skinned alive. The house had already been firebombed. We were going there as an international presence to act as a deterrent to what seemed a likely further attack.

Emad in his family home — Imad in his family home

This night his backyard looked like your average neighbourhood barbecue, except that nobody was eating. Imad was sitting by the brazier alongside ten other men from the surrounding houses. His children were buzzing about, and his wife Faisa made sure everyone got their coffee and tea. When the soldiers showed up she made sure everything got caught on film.

There were three of them, all dressed in green, with black automatic rifles and some form of knee pads, which went well with the beret of their leader. They reminded me of turtles with their inability to look back over their shoulders. The execution had been condemned by president Netanyahu at first but later on, as the Israeli public opinion cleared in favour of the soldier, the shooting was surrounded with excuses. The situation for the messenger had however deteriorated.

As the soldiers walked in to the backyard a handful of camera LCDs lit up the night, like torches keeping the wolves at bay. Faisa brought her camera close to the officer’s face, where he hopefully saw a reflection of himself, a harasser of ordinary people.

The soldiers stood around for a while as they checked our passports and IDs. The situation was a bit tense but as everyone had the right to be there, they turned on their heels and left. They were the second delegation from the Israeli army that night. A lone soldier had come at first, to see if there was any protection present, and Issa guessed, to go back and tell the settlers. Luckily, there were a lot of people showing Imad and Faisa their support.

As the hours passed people started to leave for their homes. Our delegation from the ISM spent the rest of the night at Imad’s place. There was an Indian soap opera on TV, dubbed to Arabic, and the children surfed the internet. It could have been a quiet night in a home anywhere in the world, if it hadn’t been for the occupation, or the death threats.

Olive tree planting connects Palestinians in the Jordan Valley

2nd April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Jordan Valley, Occupied Palestine

On Saturday 2nd April, Palestinians and international activists alike worked together in solidarity to plant olive trees in the town of al-Bikaa in the Jordan Valley, the town falls under area C of the occupied territories. The act of planting the trees today was symbolic and had several meanings behind the days actions.

In November, 2015, the occupying Israeli forces confiscated a field of land from the native Palestinians and used it to plant grape vines, fruits that often end up on the tables of naive western countries who’s citizens have very little idea of the vegetation’s origin and the ongoing struggle for Palestinians that is created from these malicious land confiscations.

A man in the new field with the Israeli field behind him

The primary agenda behind the tree planting today was to strategically plant the olive trees in a freshly ploughed and fertilised field to the right of where the Israeli government has planted their grape vines. There is hope amongst the Palestinians that if the fields are being utilised then the occupying forces will not confiscate the land.

It was the first activity organised by the popular union to protect the Jordan Valley. It was a symbolic and momentous day as previously, each village throughout the regions of Nablus, Tubas and Jericho have each had their own governing bodies. There have been more than twenty five unions in the past and this has brought them all together under one new body.

Young children playing whilst helping in the planting of the olive trees

The Palestinians of the Jordan Valley face an ongoing struggle against the occupying forces from malicious land confiscations, the constant threat of home demolitions, the struggle to attain building permits along with limited water and electrical supplies to Palestinian local farmers (illegal Israeli settlers have unlimited water and electricity at their disposal). Despite all of this the Palestinian people remain defiant, resilient and will stand together in solidarity in hope for a brightful future of their rightful lands.

Apartheid in the fields: Part 3 How the food gets to us and what we can do

1st April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Gaza Strip, occupied Palestine

A new report from Corporate Watch outlines exactly how the food grown in the illegal settlements of Palestine gets to our plates in Britain. This final summary looks at what we in Britain can do to support the boycott called for by Palestinians.

Palestinian farmers and agricultural workers are asking us to boycott not only produce which we think was produced in the occupied territories, but to boycott all produce exported by Israeli export companies who benefit from economic conditions and exploitation in Gaza and the West Bank, particularly as ambiguous labeling can make it difficult to distinguish where exactly products originated.

BDS activists demonstrate outside Sainsbury's in Brighton. Photos provided by Brighton & Hove Palestine Solidarity Campaign — BDS activists demonstrate outside
Sainsbury’s in Brighton. Photos provided
by Brighton & Hove Palestine Solidarity
Campaign

These companies include Arava, Mehadrin, Hadiklaim, Carmel Agrexco, and Edom and Valley Grown Salads. They export products such as peppers, tomatoes, onions, chillies, grapes, strawberries, avocadoes, figs, dates, aubergines, and herbs, and these foods end up at all the main supermarkets in the UK. They may be labelled as coming from Israel (wrongly, when produced in the occupied territories), Palestine, Jordan Valley, and even allegedly, Saudi Arabia.

In 2009, after intense pressure from campaigners, the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) issued new guidelines regarding the labelling of products being imported from the West Bank: ‘the Government considers that traders would be misleading consumers and would therefore almost certainly be committing an offence if they were to declare produce from the OPT, including from the West Bank, as “Produce of Israel”.’

UK supermarkets now say they label such produce as “West Bank” but labels indicating produce of Israel remain common.

What can you do in the UK?

Read the full report for more detailed advice
Boycott Israeli goods altogether (read the label and also check for barcodes beginning 729)
Apply pressure to your local supermarket and its national office to stop using companies that benefit from illegal land seizure, appalling employment practices and child labour (this is a Fair Trade issue too).

For the full report: https://corporatewatch.org/publications/2016/apartheid-fields-occupied-palestine-uk-supermarkets

Another home destroyed in Gaza

29th March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Gaza Strip, occupied Palestine

During the latest wave of aggression by Israeli forces against the Gaza Strip, Gaza resident Mohamed Shorrab, 70 years old, lost his family home. It was shot at and destroyed by Israeli tank fire and artillery shells from the gun turrets located on the annexation wall that separate Gaza from the lands occupied by Israel in 1948. During this wave of aggression, Israeli bulldozers also destroyed his five hundred beehives along with most of his fruit plantations and olive trees. Previously Mohamed’s twenty one sheep were killed, alongside all of Gaza’s livestock, during the 2014 massacre of Gaza by Israeli forces.

In 2012, two of Mohamed’s sons were killed by the occupying army. They were killed whilst heading home during a cease-fire, when a soldier told them they couldn’t continue and had to go back to where they were coming from. Immediately upon turning back a tank fired at them. Ambulance services were not allowede to reach the two men until six hours later.

House destroyed in the last Gaza massacre

Apartheid in the fields: Part 1 Gaza: farming under siege

29th March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Gaza Strip, occupied Palestine

A new report from Corporate Watch outlines exactly how the food grown in the illegal settlements of Palestine gets to our plates in Britain, and what we (in Britain) can do about it. The situations in Gaza and the West Bank are quite different so our summary here for ISM will look at it in three parts. Today:

The Israelis evacuated direct occupation of Gaza in 2005 but its control over that tiny strip of land remains almost total. Israel controls borders and with it all imports and exports. The effect on the Gazan economy has been calamitous. A buffer zone agreed in the 1990s under the Oslo accords has expanded until it covers over a third of all agricultural land, and exactly where that zone lies is unclear and changeable. Closest to the border farmers risk being shot at and further away land and crops may be destroyed. Over fifty farmers have been killed in the buffer zone, thousands of farms, nearly a thousand houses, mosques, schools and water wells have been destroyed. But farmers must continue to farm to make a living and to hold on to the land.

What cannot be sold in Gaza is largely waste: Israel only allows a tiny proportion of Gazan food produce to be exported, and that through Israeli companies.

Gazan farmers are calling for a boycott of all produce exported through Israeli companies although they know it will initially harm their livelihoods even more: ‘The Israeli occupation allows us to export a small quantity of produce, just to show the world that they are nice to the Palestinians, but they are using us. Everything they do is controlled by them,’ says Sa’ad Ziada from the Gazan agricultural union, UAWC.

For the full report: https://corporatewatch.org/publications/2016/apartheid-fields-occupied-palestine-uk-supermarkets