Tag: Beit Hanoun

Gaza: 29 years later, Palestinians march forward

22 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

For three years the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative and the International Solidarity Movement have marched into the buffer zone north of Beit Hanoun.  Tuesday, September 20th was no different.  We gathered near the agricultural college, and at 11 AM we marched north into the buffer zone.  There were about thirty of us.  The sun was hot, but spirits were high.  Over the megaphone we played Bella Ciao and chanted for a free Palestine.

As we crested the hill nearest the buffer zone we were greeted with a new sight.  The tower in the wall closest to where we protest had been covered with netting used to hide snipers.  We could see the dust of tanks rising from behind the wall.  This did not deter us.  We marched into the buffer zone.  We were propelled both by the horrors of the past and hope for the future.  Twenty nine years ago the world was just learning of the massacre of Sabra and Shatilla.  Thousands of Palestinian refugees were slaughtered in these two camps by Lebanese Phalangists with the support of their Israeli allies.  This massacre will not be forgotten.  Today though, was also a day of hope.  The Palestinian Authority was going to the UN to seek recognition of the Palestinian State.  Hopefully this new initiative will help to bring 44 years of occupation and 63 years of Nakba to an end.

We advanced to about 50 meters from the wall.  We stood along the ditch which scars the buffer zone.  Sabur Zaaneen from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative spoke of his hope for the future, that the Palestinian people would finally know the justice that has so long been denied to them.  He vowed that “we will continue the peaceful popular struggle until the occupation ends.”

As we chanted against the occupation a window on the tower began to open so that the soldiers could shoot at us.  We marched back through the buffer zone and into Beit Hanoun.  Hopefully, somewhere, someone, heard us, heard our calls for justice, freedom and peace.

Iftar at the House of the Ezkadenia

24 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Israel’s latest round of attacks on Gaza has made it too dangerous to demonstrate in the buffer zone. The people of Beit Hanoun do not demonstrate because they want to die, they demonstrate because they want to live. They want to live in dignity, they want to be able to farm their lands, they want to be able to return to their grandfather’s lands. On Tuesday we did not march into the buffer zone. We had Iftar at the house of the ezkadenia. The ezkadenia is small fruit that I have never seen outside of Gaza. This is the house where I remember Vittorio before he was killed. He was draped on a hammock, smoking his pipe, drinking tea and trying to stay out of the sun. We were planning our return to the buffer zone, vowing that we would not give up. Vittorio, we have returned to the buffer zone, we have not given up.

We did not gather here just to have Iftar, but to plan, to remind ourselves why we struggle. Local farmers from the buffer zone had been invited, both so that they could meet us, the International Solidarity Movement, and the Local Initiative of Beit Hanoun which spearheads the demonstrations against the buffer zone in Beit Hanoun. Over a meal of chicken and rice we explained to them what we did, and they told us about their lives.

Abu Alaa told us how the Israeli’s have three times destroyed his trees, his crops. Each time, he replants. He will not give up, it is his land, much of it too dangerous for him to farm, or even to visit, but nonetheless it is his land and he will not give it up. He asked me to feel his head, there was a crease in his skull, he had been shot in the head by the Israeli’s. He has actually been shot three times by the Israeli’s. Still, he does not quit. He has ten children, they must eat, he must pay for weddings and university. For this he needs his land. For this he needs the buffer zone to disappear. We met his son, Hussein, an English student in university. We looked over the balcony into the distance, at the buffer zone, the farthest light that we could see was Abu Alaa’s house.

Our struggle against the buffer zone is a struggle for dignity, for the right of people to live and work on their land. Nobody in Gaza wants to live on charity; they are forced to by the siege, by the occupation, by the Nakba. Most of the people of Gaza are refugees, forced from their land in 1948, they do not want to live on charity, they want to return to their homes, to their grandfather’s olive groves and orange trees, to their grandfather’s shops and factories. This is what we struggle for, for the right of people to live in dignity on their land.

As protesters hold Iftar in the “buffer zone,” Israeli bulldozers sever Gaza’s links with the world

16 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

On Tuesday, August 9, members of the International Solidarity Movement – Gaza Strip joined the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative for its weekly protest by the Erez Crossing against the Israeli-imposed “buffer zone.” During Ramadan, these protests take the form of Iftars with local farmers threatened by Israeli incursions. Protesters observed Israeli military bulldozers operating by the crossing, and later learned that they had severed electronic cables running under it, shutting down the Gaza Strip’s telecommunications and Internet networks for between 12 and 18 hours.

Ramadan in the Buffer Zone

2 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

The buffer zone is a place of death.  300 meters of destroyed land, land that used to be alive, that used to be filled with orchards, houses, and fields, now, all dead.  To enter the buffer zone is to risk your life, even to come close to it, the Israeli’s shoot farmers, shepherds, scrap collectors, anyone who comes close to the buffer zone is in danger.  Every Tuesday, the people of Beit Hanoun attempt to bring the buffer zone back to life.  They gather at the Agricultural College and march to the buffer zone.

Ramadan began on Monday, in honor of Ramadan, this week’s demonstration would involve going to the buffer zone to pray.  We gathered, about thirty of us, under the hot sun.  Thankfully, a breeze was blowing.  It is summer in Gaza, and Ramadan is particularly hard this year, it isn’t easy to march under the hot sun while you are fasting.  We walked to the buffer zone, newly bulldozed by the Israeli’s; our flag planted merely a week before, gone.  The men laid down a white cloth, held it down with clumps of dirt, spread prayer rugs, and Abu Issa recited the call the call to prayer.  It echoed over the buffer zone, joining the symphony of calls from Beit Hanoun.  As the men prayed we looked around nervously, today was quieter than usual; maybe because of Ramadan there was none of the usual background noise of construction to repair previous Israeli destruction.  After finishing prayers, we marched back to Beit Hanoun, at least for a little while, the buffer zone had been returned to life.  For a short while, something lived in it, people prayed in it, may justice come soon.

Activists pray in Gaza’s buffer zone

2 August 2011 | Ma’an News Agency

GAZA CITY — Popular resistance activists held noon prayers on Tuesday in the “buffer zone” in northern Gaza.

International solidarity activists joined dozens of Palestinians to pray on lands recently bulldozed by Israel near Beit Hanoun.

Israeli forces impose a “buffer zone” 300 meters from the border inside Gaza. Israel’s army says it considers the area a combat zone and frequently fires at Palestinians who enter the area, killing many civilians.

In practice, the no-go area extends over a kilometer inside the Gaza Strip in some areas. It encompasses around 20 percent of the coastal enclave, including fertile Palestinian farmland.

Activists said they organized prayers in the buffer zone as an act of resistance to Israeli forces who were watching from behind the concrete wall.