Tag: Buffer Zone

Further into the No Go Zone

by Nathan Stuckey

19 January 2012

Every Tuesday we gather next to the half destroyed Beit Hanoun Agricultural College.  At eleven o’clock, we set out into the no go zone.  This week there were about thirty of us, members of the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, the International Solidarity Movement, and other activists from Gaza.  At eleven o’clock the megaphone starts to play Bella Ciao and the flags are hoisted in the air, soon we start to march down the road into the no go zone.  Today feels strange, something is different, there is only one body in the sky, the Israeli blimp that constantly hangs over Beit Hanoun watching our every move is missing, today only the sun is over us in the sky, the sun and some Israeli F16’s.

Entering the no go zone is always a strange experience.  First, you always remember the danger, Israel claims the right to shoot anyone who enters the no go zone, every week, someone is shot for doing what we are doing.  They are shot for going to their land, sometimes to gather cement to rebuild the houses shattered during the massacre the Israeli’s call Cast Lead, sometimes searching for metal to recycle and sell for a few shekels, sometimes shepherds with their sheep.  The no go zone is like a dystopian future, the people who used to live there have all been expelled, they live as internal refugees in the prison that is Gaza.  When you walk in the no go zone you are sometimes reminded that people used to live here, you find shredded irrigation pipes, wells, the foundations of houses, and today, for the first time, I saw an old quarry that used to provide rocks for building.  The orchards and fields that used to cover the no go zone have been thoroughly erased, there is no more evidence that they even existed.  In 1948 the Zionists plant forests to hide the ethnically cleansed Palestine villages, in Gaza, they do not bother, they just grind the evidence up under the treads of bulldozers.  The orchards have already disappeared, there is no trace of them, most of the houses have disappeared, with time even the wells and the remaining foundations will slowly be ground to nothing.  Only the quarry will remain.  The land here is not like the rest of Gaza, walking is difficult, the bulldozers have left it completely scarred, jagged mini hills and ridges are everywhere.

Today, we walk deep into the no go zone.  Deeper than we have ever gone before, to land no Palestinian has been on since 2000.  Sometimes it feels like a nature walk, instead of watching out for tigers or lions we watch out for jeeps or tanks.  We finally reach the barbed wire that lays about 20 meters in front of the wall, there is no way through it.  A smaller balloon than the usual one begins to rise over the wall.  Sabur Zaaneen from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative speaks, “We would like to welcome all of the activists who have to come to Gaza with the Miles of Smiles Convoy, I hope that many more activists come to Palestine to work in the towns and refugee camps of Palestine where they can confront the state terrorism of Israel directly.”  We climb a nearby hill and plant a flag.  We spot a jeep; it drives up to the concrete tower embedded in the wall.  The soldiers climb the stairs and begin to shoot at us.  We begin to walk back to Beit Hanoun.  The soldiers climb down from the tower, get in their jeep and drive to higher hill overlooking the no go zone.  They get out, and aim their guns at us again.  It does not matter that they are under no threat, that we are a completely nonviolent demonstration of civilians on their own land.  In Gaza, the occupation is reduced to its most basic, the tracks of bulldozers and the crack of rifles.  The bulldozers erase all evidence that anybody ever lived there, the rifles erase the people that live here.  We will not be erased.  The olive trees that we plant in the no go zone will feed the children of Gaza.  The martyrs will live on in our hearts.  The popular resistance will outlast the occupation.

Resistance continues, demonstration in the No Go Zone

by Nathan Stuckey

11 January 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

The No Go Zone – Click here for more images

Every Tuesday we gather in front of the Beit Hanoun Agricultural College, members of the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, the International Solidarity Movement and other activists from all over Gaza.  We gather, and we march into the no go zone.  Sometimes we are shot at, sometimes there is no response.  We accept both of these.  We cannot control when the Israeli’s will shoot at us, at unarmed civilian demonstrators on their own land.  We are not discouraged by the appearance that nothing changes, you never know when change will happen, but you can be sure that if you do nothing, nothing will change.  So every Tuesday, we march into the no go zone, the rest of the week, everyone struggles against the occupation in their own way.  Teachers teach, farmers farm, fisherman fish, but under occupation all of these things can become revolutionary things, life itself can become a revolutionary act.

The megaphone announces the start of the demonstration; Bella Ciao is our marching song.  We set off down the road into the no go zone.  There about thirty of us, men, women and children, somehow, it feels like more this week.  We do not take the usual path into the no go zone, once inside the no zone we turn to the left.  We walk toward the road that leads to Erez, one of the few gates into and out of the prison that is Gaza, few Gazans are permitted to use it, it is mostly for NGO workers.  We stop about twenty meters from it; we plant a flag in the ground.  This flag joins the others we have planted in the no go zone, unlike wheat which requires months to go grow and is inevitably destroyed by the periodic assaults of Israeli bulldozers in the no go zone flags can be planted fully grown.  Eventually Israeli bulldozers will come and grind them beneath their wheels and we will have to plant new flags to replace them, but until then you can see our flags wave over the no zone.  The wall that surrounds Gaza is studded with Israeli flags, in case anyone should forget who it is that imprisons Gaza.

We planted our flag, then, Sabur Zaaneen from the Local Initiative spoke, he denounced “encounters with the leaders of the occupation and negotiations with the occupation, instead we must work toward the prosecution of the leaders of the occupation in international forums.”  He also said that “resistance to the occupation must continue, it will continue until the end of the occupation, the resistance must unite to confront the occupation.”  As we walked back to Beit Hanoun it was impossible not to admire our flags floating in the wind, three of them lining the no go zone, and the wheat that we had planted last month, growing.  Israel can destroy, but things will always grow again.  Oppression inevitably breeds resistance, a resistance that will continue to grow until the oppression is removed.

Beit Hanoun commemorates 3 years since operation ‘Cast Lead’

by Rosa Schiano

7 January 2012 | il blog di Oliva

(Photo: Rosa Schiano) – Click here for more images

On Tuesday there was another demonstration in Beit Hanoun against the “buffer zone” imposed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip. The demonstrators also commemorated the over 1400 Palestinians killed during operation “Cast Lead”.

The demonstration started at about 11.00 am. A drone was flying over Beit Hanoun.

The volunteers of the ISM and other youth marched until they were only a few meters from the separation barrier, singing songs, among them the Italian “Bella Ciao”, and waving Palestinian flags.  During the march, they heard gunshots from Israeli soldiers.  Saber Zaaneen and other young men placed a Palestinian flag in the land.

At the end of the demonstration, Saber answered some questions.

Why do you demonstrate every week in Beit Hanoun?

We demonstrate against the Israeli occupation and against the siege of Gaza. In 2008 the Israeli army created a “no go zone” along the border that prevents the farmers from working within  300 meters of the border. We demonstrate against the “no go zone” and support the steadfastness of the farmers.

There is also a “no go zone” in the sea. The farmers and the fishermen are both oppressed by the “no go zone”.

This last demonstration had a special meaning. Today Gaza doesn’t kneel and doesn’t submit. Gaza did not raise the white flag. Gaza is still strong. Three years ago the state of Israel launched an attack on Gaza. For 23 days they used every weapon on us. They used planes, tanks, guns, missiles, bulldozers and white phosphorus. They wanted to destroy the resistence and Hamas. They did not succeed. They destroyed houses, they bombed  schools, UNRWA buildings. They massacred the Samouni family, the Idaaya family, the Abed Aldayem family, the Deeb family, the Ayel family and many others.

You placed a Palestinian flag at the border, why?

For three years we have had this demonstration in the buffer zone, so we thought today to do something  new. In the last demonstration we marched into the buffer zone and we reached an area that Palestinians haven’t reached since May 2000. I was happy to see today the flag in the same area.

How was the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative born?

It was born in September 2007, from the suffering of Palestinians under Israeli attacks. The main reason was  the killing of 18 children in Beit Hanoun, some of them were in school at the time.

We started to demonstrate in the name of our children that Israel killed at that time. It was  my idea to set it up. Our name is Volunteers for Human and Social Service. We have a psycological support group for the children and the mothers. We visit families, helping them, to harvest their lands. During Israeli attacks we help and provide first aid for injured people.

We also have a group that dances Dabka during Palestinian celebrations. Besides this, we organize events on important days every year: on Land Day, on the 30th of March, working with farmers. On the 15th of May, Nakba Day, we planted tents in the buffer zone to reflect the condition of the refugees.

How can this conflict end?

There are some decisions from the UN that could end this conflict if they would be applied. This  conflict could end if they give to the Palestinians the lands they had until 1967, but the problem is that there is still no justice in the world. The United States and Europe still support Israel, they could end this conflict if they apllied those UN decisions. Despite all the suffering Palestinians have endured for 63 years and all of the killings, the Palestinian people still fight to have freedom and justice. Our message is a request for freedom, justice and peace in Gaza and all Palestine.»

The illegal buffer zone was established 50 meters from the border, inside the Gaza strip, according to Oslo, and since then it was extended by Israel to 300 meters and in reality it often reaches 2 kilometers, preventing  Gazan farmers from working on their lands.

Demonstration in Beit Hanoun three years after Cast Lead

27 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Photo: Rosa Schiano, International Solidarity Movement, Gaza - Click here for more images

The Beit Hanoun Local Initiative remembered the 1,414 Palestinians killed by Israel during its 2008-2009 “Operation Cast Lead” attack on the people of Gaza during a weekly march in the Israel-imposed “no-go zone.”

Demonstration in the no go zone, Beit Hanoun

by Nathan Stuckey

20 December 2011

Photo: Rosa Schiano, International Solidarity Movement – Click here for more images

Every Tuesday there is a demonstration against the occupation and the Israeli imposed no go zone that surrounds Gaza, stealing much of Gaza’s best farmland.  Today, it was unseasonably warm, it felt almost like summer.  We started our march from in front of the destroyed buildings Beit Hanoun Agricultural College.  Music played over a megaphone as we marched down the road into the no go zone.  As we got closer to the no go zone the music stopped, it got quiet.  Usually, when the music starts the chanting begins, but not today.  Everyone seemed to be lost in thought, perhaps pondering the green that has recently appeared in the no go zone.  The bulldozers haven’t come for many weeks to kill all life in the no go zones.  Perhaps they were remembering the olive trees, and orange groves that used to be here.  Perhaps they were thinking of the families that used to live in the destroyed houses that we were walking by.  Perhaps they were thinking of the houses that no longer exist, the houses that have been completely erased by the Israeli bulldozers.

We entered the no go zone and went to the flag that we left here several weeks ago.  It flies in the breeze, a reminder that this land is Palestinian, that while the people of Gaza might have been driven from their homes they have not yet been erased by the Israeli military like the orchards that used to grow in the no go zone.  We took the flag down.  We marched further into the no go zone, to land which no one had been to since May of 2000.  We made our way across the no go zone, land scarred dozens of times by the blades of Israeli bulldozers, to a small hill.  We climbed the hill and we planted the flag.  The ground was hard, it has not rained lately, but we found a soft spot and drove the flagpole into the earth.  We piled rocks around its base to strengthen it.  We looked out over 1948, the land which many residents of Beit Hanoun had been driven from 63 years ago.

We began to walk back to Beit Hanoun.  Through the no go zone, on land no one had been to in many years.  As always, when you go new places in Gaza you see new destruction which you had no inkling of before you stumbled upon, but it was always there, another untold story in the crimes of the occupation.  We paused by some rubble that I had seen many times on our marches into the no go zone, I never knew what it had been.  It was a well.  It had of course been destroyed by an Israeli bulldozer, all of the trees which it used to water ground under the treads of the same bulldozer.  The well is dry now.  Perhaps someday it will be repaired and orchards will once again thrive on this land.  Someday, after the occupation finally disappears into the pages of history.  Until then, it stands alongside the hundreds of Palestinian villages destroyed in the Nakba, alongside the thousands of homes destroyed by Israel, as a mute reminder of the crimes of Israel.