International Solidarity Movement activists Bridget Chappell and Ryan Olander spoke in Bratislava, Slovakia about the Occupation and their experiences as volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=88B090425F5A4C4EFollowing their presentation, the audience participated in a discussion.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=45329CDC062219B1International Solidarity Movement activists Bridget Chappell and Ryan Olander are raging through Europe! Speaking in cities across Europe about their experiences and observations from their time working with the ISM on the ground in occupied Palestine, their mission is to spread the message of worldwide, popular resistance to the Israeli occupation and incite others to action through direct action, boycott and solidarity with the Palestinian people.
23 June FALUN, SWEDEN
6:00 @ Left Youth Center
1 July OSLO, NORWAY
18:30 @ Blitz
12 July BOCHUM, GERMANY
19:30 @ Langendreer Bahnhof
13 July KAMEN, GERMANY
19:00 @ Gesamtschule
14 July KARLSRUHE, GERMANY
19:00 @ Ver.di-Haus
15 July HEIDELBURG, GERMANY
19:00 @ Karlstor-Bahnhof
17 July PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
18:00 @ Klub v Jelení
[ +Palestinian food, poetry, music & party]
19 July OLOMOUC, CZECH REPUBLIC
19:00 @ Galerie u Mloka
20 July PARDUBICE, CZECH REPUBLIC
18:30 @ NZDM Free Klub
21 July BRADÝS NAM LABEM, CZECH REPUBLIC
18:30 @ Knihovna Eduarda Petišky
22 July BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC
19:00 @ Mistogalerie na Skleněné Iouce
25 July BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA
16:00 @ A4
[ +Palestinian food, film screening, music & party]
26 July VIENNA, AUSTRIA
19:00 @ Amerlinghaus
28 July BUDAPEŠT, HUNGARY
19:00 @ Budapešt Infoshop
30 July SWANSEA, UNITED KINGDOM
19:30 @ the Environment Centre
31 July BRISTOL, UNITED KINGDOM
18:00 @ Black Kitten Radical Info Shop
2 August LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
19:30 @ School of Oriental and African Studies
4 August BRIGHTON, UNITED KINGDOM
16:00 @ Cowley Club
6 August OXFORD, UNITED KINGDOM
19:00 @ St Michael at the North Gate Church
9 August CAMBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM
19.30pm @ Emmanuel United Reformed Church
23 August BARCELONA, SPAIN*
*Time/venue to be announced.
Further dates in United Kingdom & France to be announced – keep checking this page for updates!
Hailing from the northern wilds of the United States, Ryan Olander decided to halt his complicity in the Occupations of Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan. He achieved this aim through his cessation of work for money in the United States thereby freeing his labor from funding such vile acts of the country in which he was born.
However, alleviating himself from complicity was not enough amidst the atrocities and human rights abuses visited upon Palestinians by Israel. He decided to use his life to physically stand with the Palestinians in their plight for liberation and justice.
In November 2009 he began working with the International Solidarity Movement. He spent last 4 weeks in Ramle Givon Detention center fighting illegal deportation, which he would win some months later. After his release from prison he was unable to return to Sheikh Jarrah (where he had been working with families struggling against illegal home evictions), so he coordinated media for ISM, attended demonstrations in the west bank, participated in direct actions against the construction of the Wall and taught English in the East Jerusalem community of Silwan. Alas, after nearly 6 months in Palestine Ryan’s process was over and he had to leave so ISM could retrieve the 10000 shekel bail that was paid in his name.
Spurred on by the shocking images of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, Bridget Chappell left Australia last August to join the popular struggle against the illegal occupation of Palestine. Her work as international co-ordinator and in the Nablus area of the West Bank brought her to focus on the annual olive harvest, settler and military violence, demonstrations and steadfast resistance. She was arrested by the Israeli military in an illegal night raid operation in February this year, as Israel’s crackdown on popular resistance surged. Determined to fight her deportation order, she managed to remain in Palestine a further four months before heading to Europe to continue cultivation of the new global intifada.
Follow the event on Facebook here, to see updates to the tour and new dates added.
If you are interested in having Ryan and Bridget to speak in your city, please contact projectbridget@gmail.com or dfedwing@yahoo.com
Bridget Chappell | GreenLeft
27 May 2010
Israel has exposed the extent of its crackdown on resistance to its occupation in an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court on April 29. It claimed the Israeli Shin Bet intelligence agency has been conducting surveillance on myself, a non-violent activist and Australian citizen, in Area A of the West Bank.
The affidavit claimed my arrest on February 7 and the ongoing surveillance of my activities was justified on account of various Israeli military orders. This highlights the Israel’s overall authority in the implementation of apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories and its total disregard for the sovereignty of the Palestinian Authority and the Oslo peace accords.
On May 2, the Israeli state submitted a response to our appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court regarding my illegal abduction from the West Bank, including a statement from the Shin Bet Israeli intelligence agency claiming that I had broken the conditions placed on me by the Israeli courts since my arrest.
A Shin Bet agent said: “The facts detailed are known to me due to my examination. From information in our possession, it appears that Ms. Chappell is at this time in Nablus.”
The question of what the Shin Bet was doing in Area A of the West Bank (under full Palestinian civilian and military control, as stipulated by the 1993 Oslo accords) is not even addressed: it is as though their presence in an area of Palestinian Authority control has simply been accepted and the Oslo Accords are simply as obsolete as they were following Israel’s re-occupation of the entire West Bank during the second intifada (uprising) that broke out in 2000.
Is it really possible that a 22-year old Australian activist working with a non-violent movement in the occupied West Bank could constitute such a threat to the Israeli state as to warrant such investigation?
Such draconian practices as military raids and undercover surveillance is behavior generally associated with states recognised and condemned for their intolerance of dissent, such as Iran. Israel’s media machine, however, continues to present itself as the region’s only democratic state.
In fact, my arrest from Ramallah and the Shin Bet’s new claim that I am under surveillance serves to further abolish the myth of Palestinian control in the West Bank.
It’s clear that Israel’s matrix of control in the occupied territories extends not only to the entire Palestinian population, but international activists involved in the popular resistance.
The extent of Israeli attempts to crack down on international participation in the struggle, however, only serves to focus the eyes of the world on what Israel has hoped to execute stealthily: the bantustanisation (division into separate ghettoes) of Palestine.
Israel’s brutal system of dealing with resistance, whatever form it takes, is the same. I recall a cultural celebration I took part in that resulted in the violent arrest of seven Palestinians and one international activist.
Their crime was simply engaging in what should have been a joyful assertion of Palestinian culture and history in a city, Al Quds (Jerusalem), which lies at the center of Israel’s current campaign of ethnic cleansing.
I witnessed the same brutal force employed against Palestinians during the olive harvest last year, when international and Israeli activists join forces with Palestinian farmers to reach their lands for the annual harvest — in the face of severe military repression.
Meanwhile, Israel has heightened its use of live ammunition as a crowd dispersal technique against the growing wave of non-violent demonstrations taking place across Gaza and the West Bank. This has resulted in the death of three Palestinian protesters in the last two months.
Israel’s intolerance of resistance is shown by the imprisonment of Palestinian activists, which has recently included several prominent figures in the resurgence of popular resistance, such as Nablus activist Wa’el Al-Faqeeh.
Wa’el and I coordinated non-violent actions in the Nablus region against the occupation, responding to settler violence and demonstrations against land annexation.
Wa’el was arrested in a military raid on his home on 9 December 2009 — yet while ISM activists were involved in the same activities, he remains imprisoned by Israel to this day, still without charge.
The veiled system of martial law in the West Bank that has enabled the arrest and imprisonment of more than 650,000 Palestinian political prisoners since 1967 now appears to have broadened its targets to include international activists as well.
In my legal council’s two latest appeals to the district and supreme courts, the state has argued on the grounds of my alleged violation of a 1970 military order prohibiting “infiltrators” from remaining in the occupied territories for longer than 48 hours without written permission from the military commander of the region.
The law appears to be a precursor to Military Order 1650, implemented one month ago, which denotes the military’s ability to deport civilians from the West Bank without documentation proving their residence or permission to be there, at their own expense.
This potentially includes thousands of West Bank residents with Gazan, Jerusalem or Jordanian addresses on their ID cards, as well as international activists.
If the PA held any sovereignty over the West Bank, my return to the area would not only have been of no relevance to the Israeli authorities, but a realization of their demand for me to leave their borders.
The reality is that my court case only serves to further highlight the true nature of Israeli control over every inch of historic Palestine, be it within Israel proper or any area of the occupied territories.
Australian activist Bridget Chappell was arrested by Israeli security forces in February along with Spanish activist Ariadna Marti, in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank. Chappell and Marti were working for the International Solidarity Movement supporting peaceful Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation. Below, Chappell details the increased repression by Israel against all forms of resistance in the occupied territories.
ISM is hard at work in the West Bank and Gaza, and needs your help!
The ISM media office was raided two times in the span of four nights in February, when Bridget Chappell and Ariadna Jove Marti were arrested. In the raids, the Israeli military stole all of our computers (three laptops, one desktop) as well as several video cameras. Just a few weeks ago, the Hebron office was broken into while activists were away. We believe the military is also to blame because neighbors reported soldiers coming to look through the windows multiple times when the apartment was empty, and in the raid two laptops, multiple cameras, photo memory cards and USB memory devices were stolen, while other valuables were left in plain sight.
ISM needs to replace this equipment in order to continue the important work we’re doing. Documenting ongoing settler violence and harassment in Tel Rumeida (Hebron) and Sheikh Jarrah (East Jerusalem) are two of our most important activities. The residents of these communities demonstrate remarkable resilience by refusing to be deterred by settler violence. In order for the communities to have a chance of telling their story to the global community (one of ISM’s primary roles), and to prove the innocence of our Palestinian friends when they are falsely accused (a frequent occurrence), we need to capture high-quality footage.
We need: at least two small hand-held video cameras (roughly $150-200 each).
ISM Gaza activists risk extreme danger to document some of the worst human rights violations in the world. One primary activity is documenting use of live fire in the “buffer zone” towards farmers and non-violent demonstrators. Israel’s use of live fire has killed 14 and injured over 50 thus far in 2010. Bianca Zammit, a Maltese activist, was shot in the leg April 23 while filming a demonstration, proving that such documentation is viewed as a threat by the Israeli military.
We need: a Mac laptop computer for video editing ($1000)
A camera with good ‘optical’ zoom, such as a Canon Powershot S51S ($150-300)
The strategic theft of our media equipment, combined with Bianca’s shooting, serve as a reminder that we pose a real threat in our ability to reach global audiences with information about Israel’s actions. As non-violent activists, cameras are our weapons in exposing the Apartheid. Please, help us to continue this important work by donating here: palsolidarity.org/donate, or by sending equipment to Palestine with an activist.
International Solidarity Movement
4 May 2010
For immediate release:
Ramallah, Occupied Palestinian Territories, PM – Israel has exposed the extent of its crackdown on resistance in an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court on April 29, claiming that the Shin Bet intelligence agency has been conducting surveillance on ISM activist and Australian citizen Bridget Chappell in Area A of the West Bank. The affidavit claims that her arrest and continuing surveillance of her movements is justified on account of various Israeli military orders, highlighting its overall authority in its implementation of apartheid in the Occupied Territories and its total disregard for the sovereignty of the Palestinian Authority and the Oslo Accords.
“My arrest from Ramallah in February and the Shin Bet’s new claim that I am under surveillance in Area A of the West Bank serves to further abolish the myth of Palestinian control in the West Bank,” says Chappell. “It’s clear that Israel is the authority in the Territories and that this is apartheid. Israel’s matrix of control in the occupied territories extends not only to the entire Palestinian population, but international activists involved in the popular resistance here, which is very dangerous grounds for them as their attempts to crack down on our participation in the struggle focuses the eyes of the world on what Israel has hoped to execute as a very stealthy and systematic bantustanization of Palestine.”
The state’s affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court on April 29 claimed that the arrest of Chappell was based on her violation of a 1970 military order stating that non-residents of the West Bank are prohibited from staying in the area longer than 48 hours without written permission from the military commander of the region. This is in-keeping with what may become Israel’s strategy of removing internationals from the Palestinian territories via the system of martial law enforced in the West Bank since the military occupation in 1967. Attempted implementation of these military laws on internationals in Palestine will spell the exposure of one of Israel’s most veiled weapons – the system of martial law that has enabled the imprisonment of over 650,000 Palestinians since 1967, mass annexation of land and the network of checkpoints and apartheid roads.
Omer Shatz, attorney for Chappell and Marti, states: “We are pleased that the state has finally admitted that it is the authority in Area A, as if the Oslo Accords have disappeared, and that the ‘bantustan’ known as the Palestinian Authority has no significance. This straightforward position will certainly interest the U.S. secretary of state, in light of the start of proximity talks”.
The gathering momentum of non-violent popular resistance has been met with extreme measures by Israeli forces targeting Palestinian, international and Israeli activists. In the cases of Chappell and Ariadna Jove Marti, Eva Novakova, and Ryan Olander, Israeli authorities used the ‘Oz’ Immigration Unit in an attempt to deport foreigners for their political activities. In the case of Chappell and Marti, the Supreme Court ruled that the use of the ‘Oz’ and the Israeli Defense Forces to implement arrests of internationals residing in the West Bank is illegal.
These arrests are part of a wider crackdown on the growing movement of popular struggle in Palestine, that has seen the arrest and imprisonment of many members of the popular committees of Al-Ma’asara, Ni’lin, Bil’in, Nablus and Nabi Salih. The latest codified measures of arrest are a sign that Israel is intensifying its resources against the grassroots Palestinian struggle. Targeting international supporters is just part of a multi-tiered campaign to quash a quickly spreading model of non-violent resistance.
