For many years, the Israeli football association has given membership status to six teams that play in illegal settlements built on Palestinian land in the West Bank. This is in direct violation of FIFA’s rules, which state that permission is needed to play matches on another member’s territory. Instead of enforcing these rules, FIFA has repeatedly delayed action. FIFA President Gianni Infantino says that a decision on Israeli settlement clubs is coming in October 2017. [Sources: http://bit.ly/vp-fifa]
7th August 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, support group Australia | Australia
Multi-award winning poet and playwright Samah Sabawi began Australia’s second and biggest national conference on Israeli Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions last week in Sydney, with words from the diaspora: “In 2005, after decades of failed negotiations, Palestinian civil society lit a candle in the darkness. They started a non-violent, grassroots movement, based on international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They called on people of good conscience around the world to apply boycotts, divestments and sanctions on Israel…And we are here at this conference to discuss ways in which to respond to this call. Palestinian civil society is not asking us to get involved. They are asking us to end our involvement with Israeli apartheid. Because we are already knee-deep in complicity.”
Omar Barghouti is one of the founders of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (Photo by The Electronic Intifada)
On March 19th Israeli authorities barged into the house of Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement; in an attempt to tarnish his image and reputation by claiming an alleged income outside of Israel. Omar and his wife Safa endured a first round of interrogation lasting 16 hours, Omar was subsequently jailed for five days and although he has already been released he is under a gag order.
This last attempt to silence and tarnish the reputation of Omar Barghouti is a desperate move by Israeli authorities that recently considered the BDS movement as a “strategic threat”. In fact, in 2016, at least one Israeli minister went as far as suggesting “targeted civil eliminations” (meaning murder) of BDS leaders with the help of Israeli intelligence.
Inflammatory fabrications were published against Omar Barghouti just a day before his arrest was made effective, signalling an attempt to silence and tarnish his reputation. Furthermore, the current investigation includes a travel ban which may stop Omar from receiving the Gandhi Peace Award jointly with Ralph Nader, scheduled in a few weeks time in the USA.
The International Solidarity Movement stands in solidarity with Omar Barghouti in the light of this new attempt at silencing the voices of those who stand for freedom, justice and equality against a brutal military occupation; and we ask our friends and comrades to intensify their solidarity work with Palestine, including BDS chapters throughout the world.
Actually, personally, my family and I are well, Alhamdililah! But I can feel the intensified fire under our feet.
I know the feeling. And I know the explosion that comes after it.
This week alone the Israeli apartheid government has escalated its actions, bombing Gaza daily while tightening the already lethal siege around it, announcing that the PLO fund that provides support for families of Palestinian martyrs is illegal, while killing more young boys and men, escalating land theft through settlement construction and land confiscation, and promoting a law that will regulate that theft, announcing that colonial settlers will invade al Aqsa under armed guard during Ramadan while making the call to prayer from mosques illegal … The ground under our feet is burning.
I have felt this before. And I can only conclude that those in charge of the apartheid authorities know what they are doing. I have seen them do it before. They must know the Palestinian people will not just decide to roll over and die quietly. They must want a violent reaction in response to these actions, and I have no doubt that they will get one. Young people with no hope of being allowed to live with their dignity intact and with nothing to lose will sacrifice their lives in the hope that this situation will change for others.
And the apartheid authorities will then respond by doing what they do best: a torrent of death and destruction that they can then display at the international arms trade exhibitions, with clinically proven, effective weapons, tested live in the modern battlefield of urban warfare, on a besieged and imprisoned population. They will show your military and police force, “We got them where it hurts, we destroyed essential public infrastructure and killed x people in x days and, the best part is, we got away with it. If we can do it, you can do it too. All you need is a smart system of security cameras and a fleet of killer drones. All for the discount price of …” and your countries are literally buying this.
Now tell me again why BDS makes you uncomfortable?
3th of March, 2017 | Popular Resistance Committee of Kafr Qaddum | Occupied Palestine
Today, at the weekly Friday protest in Kafr Qaddoum, a large number of Israeli Forces raided the village and fired large amounts of live ammunition, rubber coated steel bullets, stun grenades and teargas at Palestinian protesters. One journalist, from Palestine TV, was shot in the head with a rubber coated steel bullet. A group of masked Israeli soldiers also took his telephone, and deleted all of his pictures and videos from the demonstration. The journalist is alive, but will be hospitalized over the night. Later a large number of masked Israeli Forces raided the village, trying to arrest Palestinians, and entering the house of a Palestinian family, scaring the crying children.
Palestinian protesters marching in Kafr Qaddoum, against the illegal closure of their road to Nablus
The protest started with a march at 12.30, after the Friday noon prayer in the local mosque of Kafr Qaddoum. A large group of Palestinians, journalists, and a few Israeli and international activists marched from the mosque towards the closed road that used to connect Kafr Qaddoum with the large city of Nablus.
After marching for around 30 meters, three Israeli Military jeeps and large numbers of Israeli forces arrived. They opened fire on the Palestinian protesters, who retreated back further into the village. Between 1 PM and 3 PM, Israeli forces continuously fired live ammunition, rubber coated steel bullets, stun grenades and teargas at the Palestinian protesters.
At several points, masked Israeli soldiers stormed the village, in an attempt to arrest the protesters. At one point, a large group of masked Israeli soldiers, entered the house of a Palestinian family, who were not participating in the demonstration. From outside the house, Palestinian children were heard screaming and crying, and Israeli soldiers were yelling intensely at the people inside the house.
Israeli Forces invading the Palestinian village Kfar Qaddoum
Israeli Forces invading the Palestinian village Kfar Qaddoum
Ahmad, a journalist from Palestine TV, was shot in the head by Israeli forces with a rubber coated steel bullet, and was bleeding heavily from his forehead. Israeli soldiers also took his private telephone, and deleted all of the pictures and videos he had made of Israeli soldiers firing live ammunition at Palestinian protesters. The journalist is now hospitalized, where he will stay under supervision over the night.
Palestinian journalist shot in the face by Israeli Forces with rubber coated steel bullets.
A local organizer of the protest described the situation as the feeling of “… a real war, with constant bullets being fired from 1 PM to 3 PM. Children crying and screaming. The situation was so terrifying.”
Israeli Forces fired a large amount of live ammunition and rubber coated steel bullets at civilian palestinian protesters
Prior to the protest, Israeli Forces had also set up a roadblock at the entrance to the village, pulling cars over and checking people’s IDs, as an act of collective punishment.
For five years the people of Kafr Qaddum have been holding weekly demonstrations, protesting the closure of their main road to Nablus and the expansion of the illegal Israeli settlement of Kedumim, which surrounds the village. In 2003, the road was sealed permanently by an Israeli roadblock, extending the fifteen minute commute to Nablus to about forty minutes. The roadblock has had severe economic consequences for the people of Kafr Qaddum, as many who once worked in nearby Nablus have had to seek alternatives. The United Nations estimates that movement restrictions imposed by the Israeli Occupation, such as the situation in Kafr Qaddum, cost Palestine about 185 million USD each year.
After more than five years of weekly demonstrations, Kafr Qaddum continues to resist.
