Tag: Buffer Zone

Entering the deadly zone, demonstration in front of Erez

7 February 2012 | Chroniques de Palestine

A Palestinian plays football in the no go zone near Erez during the weekly demonstration against the occupation in Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, February 7, 2012. Every Tuesday Palestinians and supporters march from Beit Hanoun into the “buffer zone” or “no go” zone , where the fertile land has been made inaccessible to Palestinians due to the imminent danger of shooting by the Israeli army. | (c) Anne Paq/Activestills.org, Beit Hanoun, 07.02.2012

Since 2008, demonstrations are organized in front of Erez in Beit Hanoun. This is in defiance of the “no go zone” imposed unilaterally by the Israelis. Any person who approaches the Green Line is under risk of being shot at. In fact many farmers; or rubble collectors have been shot in these border areas. The “no go zone” is not really defined. The Israelis announced a 300 meters line not to be crossed but people have been shot as far as 1,5 kilometer away from the border. All this “shoot and kill” policy means than more than 30% of the agricultural land in Gaza has been made inaccessible to Palestinians due to the imminent danger of shooting by the Israeli army. This is affecting thousands of farmers along the roughly 50km-long border with Israel. Many lands in these areas have been bulldozed. Houses were destroyed especially during Operation Cast Lead. The zone has become a strange no-mans land with not one tree standing. For more information see here.

A group of Palestinians and supporters are seen with flags and foot balls in the no go zone near Erez during the weekly demonstration against the occupation in Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, February 7, 2012. Every Tuesday Palestinians and supporters march from Beit Hanoun into the “buffer zone” or “no go” zone , where the fertile land has been made inaccessible to Palestinians due to the imminent danger of shooting by the Israeli army. (c) Anne Paq/Activestills.org, Beit Hanoun, 07.02.2012

In defiance of this policy, Palestinians and their supporters walk with great courage every Tuesday into the buffer zone. Last time I went to the demonstration in Beit Hanoun, Vik (Vittorio Arrigoni, a long-termer Italian solidarity activist and journalist who was killed on 15 April 2011 by suspected members of a Palestinian Salafist group in Gaza) was there. I would certainly not have imagined than one year and an half year ago I would be back in the same demonstration where a football game would be held in his memory. The demonstration was also held in memory of Mustafa Tamimi from the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. All suddenly the demonstration took a different meaning. It was somehow heartwarming to hear a familiar name: Nabi Saleh, here in Gaza, connecting all the places involved in the popular resistance. The more connections are being built, the stronger it will become. It was also good to walk for Vik.

We met as last time near the destroyed building of the agricultural college of Beit Hanoun and walked into the direction of Erez, together with flags from different countries and footballs. One noticeable sad difference with last year was the absence of women in the demonstration; apparently it has become too sensitive now for them to participate. When we reached the open field we continue further and further until a distance of about 50 meters from the concrete Wall and Erez crossing.
In 2010, we could only approach within 250 meters. Unlike the demonstrations in the West Bank, here we see only rarely Israeli soldiers. Yet they are there, hidden in their military towers and they can shoot at any time, as they did last week and here, there is nowhere to hide or take cover. You feel completely vulnerable.
After a few launch in the air of the footballs, we retreated a bit to enjoy a football game between a team made up of internationals and a team of Palestinians.

Saber Zaaneen, the coordinator of the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, leads the chant during the weekly demonstration against the occupation into the” no go” zone in Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, February 7, 2012. Every Tuesday Palestinians and supporters march from Beit Hanoun into the “buffer zone” or “no go” zone , where the fertile land has been made inaccessible to Palestinians due to the imminent danger of violence by the Israeli army. | (c) Anne Paq/Activestills.org, Beit Hanoun, 07.02.2012

Beit Hanoun is currently the only place in the Gaza Strip where such regular demonstrations are held. Saber Zaaneen (photo n.1) , the coordinator of the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, is one of the main organizers of the protest. See below some extracts of an interview I conducted in October 2010:

” On 2nd July 2008, the Israeli army announced the existence of a “buffer zone”. As Palestinians, we refuse to call it “buffer zone”. A buffer zone is between two countries, but the so called “buffer zone” is on Palestinian lands and we do not accept it. We call it “zones where Palestinians do not have access”. [OCHA uses the term “no go” zone]. In Beit Hanoun we are particularly affected because we have the greenline on the north and on the east. We decided to do something to oppose this decision and resist. We had to support the farmers. I love what they are doing in Bil’in, Ni’lin, in Al Ma’sara to resist the Wall. We were inspired by them and we decided to do the same in Gaza. On 27 July 2008, we organized our first demonstration against the “buffer zone” to say: we are here and we will not move. We went to the direction of Erez, carrying some Palestinian flags. Hundreds of people came. But when we approached, the Israeli army shot at us, even before we reached the 300 meters. The Israeli army then increased the shootings. Farmers were shot, even if they were standing after the line. Many young people collecting rubble were also shot.
(…)

There is a high price to pay. It can be death. I am not supposed to die there because I am an unarmed civilian, but I know it can happen. I think of my family and it is hard, but this is my duty. Anyone who wants freedom has to pay. We will continue to struggle until we got our rights. We will never stay silent.”

Music against the No Go Zone

by Rosa Schiano

31 January 2012 | il Blog di Oliva

Every Tuesday we demonstrate at the Erez border crossing, in Beit Hanoun, in the northern  Gaza Strip. The demonstration started at about 11:00 AM. We headed for the No Go Zone. The No Go Zone is an area taken by Israel that extends along Gaza’s entire northern and eastern border inside Palestinian territory. For all intents and purposes, the No go Zone imposed by Israel is illegal and prevents the farmers from working part of their lands. Those who enter the area are attacked by Israel with live rounds.
This week we brought with us musical instruments, small drums, and a trumpet. We marched into the No Go Zone raising our Palestinian flags, playing music, and singing Palestinian songs like “Filisteeni” and “Onadekom.” We marched on the land ruined by the Israeli bulldozers, we crossed big ditches using our hands in a vain attempt to not to fall down into the mud, and we arrived near the separation barrier.At one point, our music was interrupted by Israel firing live ammunition at us. We were speechless at the Israeli live fire. Silently we raised our arms in the sky. Silently we looked at the border. Silence fell on the land; we heard only the sound of the Israeli gunshots that are the sound of the death. They shot toward peaceful demonstrators armed only with flags and musical instruments.

They shot toward youth that have only their voices to ask justice and freedom for their land. But the Israeli soldiers don’t know our language; they only know the language of the violence.

After a short time, bravely, we started again to sing, challenging the Israeli gunshots. We placed a Palestinian flag near the separation wall and we stood there, singing and playing music. A group of youth started to dance the Dabka.

Then, near the flag that we placed, we started to sing Bella CiaoUna mattina mi sono svegliato, o bella, ciao! bella, ciao! bella, ciao, ciao, ciao! Una mattina mi sono svegliato, e ho trovato l’invasor…

One morning I awakened, Oh Goodbye beautiful, Goodbye beautiful, Goodbye beautiful! Bye! Bye! One morning I awoke, and I found the invader…).

As an Italian, I felt a strong emotion, singing this song with all my heart with the Palestinian people.

We came back home with a smile on our faces, the music gave us joy and strength; we will never give in to the siege. Last week, the Israeli soldiers attacked us with bullets and tear gas, tear gas between our feet and bullets over our heads. Yesterday we gave this answer to the Israeli bullets: the music of our small drums against the crack of their bullets.

We will keep demonstrating against the illegal No Go Zone, against the occupation, and against the siege. We’ll keep on demonstrating with the popular resistance, we will keep demanding freedom and justice for Palestine, we will keep on demonstrating for the right of the Palestinians to their lands.

Rosa Schiano is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

 

We will keep demonstrating against the illegal No Go Zone, against the occupation, and against the siege. We’ll keep on demonstrating with the popular resistance, we will keep demanding freedom and justice for Palestine, we will keep on demonstrating for the right of the Palestinians to their lands.
Rosa Schiano is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.


Beit Hanoun demonstration under fire

by Nathan Stuckey

25 January 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Strip

Gaza was treated to a strange new sight today, not really new, but something that has not been seen in Gaza in a long time: tear gas.  In Gaza protests are not smashed with tear gas and clubs like in the West Bank, they are met with live ammunition.  In a continuation of Israel’s policy to separate the West Bank from Gaza, nothing is overlooked.  The sub-human status they wish to cement in the world’s mind when it comes to the people of Gaza is adhered to brutally.  On May 15th 2011, when over a hundred demonstrators were shot near Erez, only one canister of tear gas was fired. Before that the protesters faced live ammunition and tank fire.  In the three years that regular demonstrations have been carried out near Erez by the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, regulars tell me that this was the first time they had seen tear gas.

The demonstration started like all the others.  We gathered near the half destroyed Beit Hanoun Agricultural College and marched towards the no go zone.  There were about forty of us, men and women together.  As always, the demonstrators were armed only with a megaphone and our voices.  Today, we planned to hike from Erez to the east of Beit Hanoun, near the site where two young men were murdered last week while catching birds and collecting rubble near the no go zone.  The no go zone, which used to be an area of flourishing orchards has been reduced to yielding rubble to recycle into concrete.

Israel bans the import of concrete into Gaza.  Only humans would need concrete to rebuild the thousands of houses Israel destroyed in the 2008-2009 massacres they carried out in Gaza.  In Israeli eyes, Gazans aren’t really full people; they are half people to be murdered at will for even thinking of coming close to the no go zone.

This is why we march, we deny the no go zone, and we deny the occupation.  The refugees of Gaza, thrown from their homes during the Nakba, want to return to their homes.

We walked down the muddy road that leads to the no go zone.  As we got close to the no go zone, the shooting began.  Shooting is not unexpected; bullets are the language of the occupation, at least the language that you hear.  Ethnic cleansing, oppression, and torture are also languages the occupation speaks, but the loudest voices of the occupation are the bullets and the bombs.  The bullets passed over our heads; they slammed into the dirt in front of us.  Then, the unexpected happened; the tear gas began to fall.  The clouds of tear gas were smaller than I remember from protests in the West Bank. Perhaps the shells are old, they are used so seldom in Gaza that maybe the inventory is old.

This isn’t an issue in the West Bank, there the protests are coated in tear gas, men are killed or severely injured by tear gas canisters shot at them like Mustafa Tamimi and Bassem Abu Rahma who both passed away, or Tristan Anderson, who survived. Women are suffocated by it, woman like Jawaher Abu Rahma.  It is fired into houses, schools, fields, villages; tear gas is omnipresent.  In Gaza, tear gas is a blast from the past, here the occupation has discarded that language, in Gaza, it only speaks with bullets and bombs.

At first it wasn’t clear if the protest would continue. People were shocked by the use of the new weapon.  Quickly though, a decision was reached: We would continue.  We walked east along the edge of the buffer zone.  Soldiers in concrete towers hundreds of meters away fired live ammunition at unarmed protesters walking on their own land–soldiers in concrete towers built on the land these protesters were ethnically cleansed from.

The black flag that flies over the occupation did not come down after the massacre of Kfar Kassem, it is still there, it is just that it has been flying for so long that no one remembers anything else. the black flag is like the sun, people do not remember a day before it was in the sky.

Walking in the no go zone isn’t easy.  The ground is uneven from the constant destruction of the bulldozers which Israel uses to make sure that nothing takes root there.  The ground is littered with the past: irrigation pipes, metal rods and concrete rubble from the destroyed houses.  Slowly all of this is ground up under the blades of bulldozers and treads of tanks.  We walked east, the shooting stopped for a bit.  Two soldiers appeared on a hill to the north, they raised their guns.  They lost sight of us behind a hill.  We emerged from behind a hill: we saw a tank on another hill.  Jeeps sped along the border.  The shooting began again.  Bullets flew over our heads.

Beit Hanoun demonstration under fire – Click here for more images

We reached the eastern edge of our prison and turned south.  Soldiers appeared again on a new hill.  Shooting resumed, tear gas canisters from 500 meters arced over our heads.  We stopped and reminded the soldiers that this was a nonviolent demonstration by people on their land.

They continued to shoot, then the soldiers on the hill began to yell at us with a megaphone, “Gazans are donkeys.”  Gazans are not donkeys, they are people, but perhaps if you repeat a lie often enough, people will start to believe, people like these soldiers.  We passed the carcass of a horse, rotting.  A donkey grazed to the east of the dead horse.  At least the donkey was still alive.

The soldiers continued to shoot at us, bullets and tear gas. Just as Gaza did not kneel after the 23 day massacre three years ago, we will not be stopped by bullets and tear gas.  We will continue to protest until the occupation disappears.  We will continue to protest until we achieve justice.  Without the end of the occupation and true justice, peace is impossible.  We will not accept the peace of silent oppression.  We will never accept the occupation.  Gaza will not kneel.

Nathan Stuckey is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

Live ammunition fired at peaceful demonstrators in Gaza No Go Zone

24 January 2012 | International Solidarity Movement


Image from Poica.org – Click here for more information
In a peaceful demonstration into the Gaza no go zone that began around 10:30am today, January 24 2012, demonstrators report that at least 50 rounds of live ammunition were fired directly at Palestinian and international solidarity activists.

Contact:

Nathan Stuckey, International Solidarity Movement activist
Phone Number: 00970597650864
Email: GazaISM@gmail.com

 

At least two Israeli soldiers have been visible on the ground, while a large military tank also took position approximately 15 minutes following the initial shooting of live ammunition.  With a momentary pause in gunfire that lasted for approximately 15 minutes, shooting of live ammunition has resumed in Gaza’s No Go Zone. At least 50 bullets have been shot thus far.

Every Tuesday Palestinians and supporters march from Beit Hanoun into the buffer zone , where the fertile land has been made inaccessible to Palestinians due to the imminent danger of violence by the guarding Israeli military, who also bulldoze land that has been an agricultural resource for many locals in the northern Gaza Strip.

2 youth dead in attack on Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip

by Rosa Schiano

22 January 2012 | il Blog di Oliva

Israeli Apaches and land forces shelled an area east of Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, on Wednesday morning, January 18 2012.

Two young men were killed and another was injured. As we hurried to the scene we met an ambulance driving at high speed. Upon arriving we heard immediately that one of the young men, 20 year old Mohammed Shaker Abu Auda, had died instantly, while the other man was rushed to the hospital.

We went to the Beit Hanoun hospital morgue, and we saw the massacred body of Mohammed. While we were at the morgue we heard that the other young man was in critical condition at Kamal Adwan Hospital. While we were moving to that hospital, we learned that Ahmed Khaled Abu Murad Al-Zaaneen, 17 years-old, had also died.

We waited for his funeral.

Mohammed Shaker Abu Auda, martyred at the age of 20

Family members and friends told us that the two young men went near the border to find building materials to sell. The poorest youth of Gaza frequently go to the border, in the so-called no go zone of 300 meters imposed by Israel, to find building material to sell.

They also told us that the two young men were catching birds.

The body of Ahmed was at about 300-400 meters from the border.

Saber Zaaneen of the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative told us that Ahmed was losing blood from his head but that “he was still alive, he was breathing heavily” when he found him.

The ambulance could not reach the body of Ahmed immediately because tanks and soldiers were continuing to shoot and it was too dangerous to approach the area.

The ambulance was forced to back away because of the continuous fire.

The entire time the father of Ahmed was crying, “I want to see my son! I want to see my son!”

Ahmed was still alive when he reached the ambulance.

The day after, we went to the mourning tent and we met the families of the two victims.

Ahmed’s mother did not stop crying. I remained seated with her and the other women of the family, silently, I was speechless at so much pain.

Then we went to the other mourning tent. Here, the brother of Mohammed, Zahor Abu Auda, told us that the two young men were catching birds to sell them for pets.
If they were lucky, they made 100 shekels from the sale of the birds (100 shekels are equivalent to about 20 euros).

His mother can’t walk, Mohammed took care of her.

Zahor told us, “Let the world know that the Israelis killed a man that was only trying to get money to live. The Israeli forces, supported by the Americans. kill people in Gaza regularly and nobody hears about it, the world is silent.”

Missile fired by an Israeli Apache during the attack

Meanwhile we knew that Israeli spokespersons were spreading the story that the two victims were armed militants and that they were about to place explosives in the area of the border.

These Israeli declarations and their powerful influence on the mass media induce a feeling of powerlessness. Members of the families and friends told us that Mohammed and Ahmed were not part of armed groups.

Mohammed and Ahmed were civilians, they were just workers.

We join the appeal of Zohar, and we will continue to give a voice to the people of Gaza so that the silence will never completely obscure all of this pain over the agony of the mothers and over the bodies massacred.

Rosa Schiano is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement. You can read more of her writing at il Blog di Oliva.