Tag: Buffer Zone

Gaza: Planting in something dead

5 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza 

Around Gaza is a 300 meter “buffer zone,” a no go zone, a land of death.  Gaza is not just a prison, it is a shrinking prison.  Every time that Israel expands this zone, Gaza gets a little smaller.  Every Tuesday, the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative and the International Solidarity Movement march into the buffer zone to challenge the occupation and the theft of Palestinian land.  Today, we also marched in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners who are on hunger strike in the jails of the occupation.

What could be more logical than one group of prisoners marching in support of another group of prisoners?

We gathered near the Agricultural College of Beit Hanoun at 11 a.m.  We loaded olive trees, shovels, and big jugs of water onto the van.  There was no space in the van, so all of the goods rode on top of the van.  We set off down the road toward the buffer zone, slowly so that nothing would fall off the van as we drove down the rutted road.  We reached the buffer zone, stopped the van, and began to unload the olive trees and everything necessary to plant them.  These olive trees would join the others that we planted last week.  We plan on slowly returning the lands of the buffer zone to what they were before the Israeli’s declared the area a zone of death, we plan on making olive groves flourish in the buffer zone.  Our struggle is not just to return life to the buffer zone, but to make a regular life possible in the areas close to the buffer zone.

The buffer zone is now a little greener than yesterday after planting 20 trees in the buffer zone.  The death that haunts this area is a result of the occupation and its relentless destroying bulldozers.  The same bulldozers that crushed Rachel Corrie to death in Rafah in 2003.

Sabur Zaaneen from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative spoke.  He said that we must “affirm our right to land and cultivate and strengthen the resilience of farmers and their return to work the land despite all the terrorist practices of the Israeli occupation.”

“[We] need for a mass movement to support the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.”

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.

Protests in Northern Gaza

15 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza 

The Palmer Report, recently released by the United Nations, was a moral travesty. It asserted that the naval blockade of Gaza was somehow separate from the land siege of Gaza.  The Palmer Report was an attempt to break up the oppression of Gaza into bite size morsels so that it could be consumed without causing one to choke on the injustice of the occupation, of the siege.

Last week, we planted a Palestinian flag in the buffer zone, it stands alone, everything else has been destroyed by Israel.  We did not leave it alone; we painted another flag on a large piece of rubble.  We moved the flag even farther into the buffer zone, about 30 meters from the wall encircles Gaza.

On Tuesday, September 13, the Local Initiative of Beit Hanoun, fisherman from Beit Lahia, and activists from the International Solidarity Movement gave their response to the Palmer Report.  They gathered on the beach near Beit Lahia and marched north, into the buffer zone, land that has been stolen from the people of Gaza and depleted of any fecundity.  Across from the buffer zone is the land of the refugees in Gaza from which they were ethnically cleansed 63 years ago.

The buffer zone doesn’t stop on the land, as the Palmer Report may suggest, yet it extends onto the sea.   Israel’s disregard for Oslos allotment of 20 miles of sea access to Palestinians has been defamed to a restricted area of three miles off the shore for fisherman to access.

The buffer zone has extended beyond the last grain of Gaza’s beach and continues into the waters under the misnomer of “buffer zone.” Scrap collectors shot to death, farmers murdered, families left without land to support themselves, it is a death zone.  After the balloons popped, the flags survived, just as the Palestinian people have survived all of the Israeli violence directed at them.

We gathered at Waha, a hotel complex destroyed by Israeli bombs, at 8 AM and marched north along the beach, towards the wall that marks the northern boundary of the open air prison that is referred to as Gaza.  We looked out over the sea that marks the western wall of the prison that is Gaza–the sea where earlier this week the Israeli Navy kidnapped eight fishermen, and then destroyed their boats with gunfire.

At 10:30 we gathered in Beit Hanoun to march north into the same buffer zone.  For three years the people of Beit Hanoun have demonstrated weekly against the occupation and against the buffer zone.  Participants marched north chanting and playing music over the megaphone into the buffer zone. They carried Palestinian flags attached to balloons.  As the balloons floated over the buffer zone trailing their flags, they occasionally fell to earth and popped on the thorn bushes which are the only thing to survive the regular Israeli bulldozing of the buffer zone.

Sabur Zaaneen, from the Local Initiative spoke on the need for a Palestinian state, he urged Palestinian leaders to continue the struggle this September, he urged them not to forget their duty to their people, not to forget the right of the refugees to return, the right of their people to justice.  The farmers of Beit Hanoun stand with the fisherman of Beit Lahia, with the people of Bil’in, with the people of Nil’in, we all carry the flag of popular resistance to the occupation.  None of us will give up.  We will be back next week, together, united in one cause, ending the occupation and justice for the Palestinian people.

 

 

Today we planted in Gaza’s buffer zone

6  September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Strip

Today, like every Tuesday in Beit Hanoun, we marched into the buffer zone to protest it and the illegal Israeli occupation.  In many ways it was the same as every Tuesday.  We gathered at the Agricultural College, we marched down the road that leads to the buffer zone, we sang, and we chanted.

What was different this week?

The demonstration was bigger than it has been in a long time, Ramadan is over, and the people are newly energized.  Also people were more afraid than they had been in a long time.  Israel has just finished its latest round of heavy violence on Gaza.  We were worried that Israel would fire on us, we are always afraid of this.

Israel often shoots at us when we go to the buffer zone, and  this week we marched with the recent attacks fresh on our minds as we stopped fifty meters from reaching the wall.

Something else was different though.

When we reached the buffer zone it was newly plowed.  If you didn’t know better you might have thought that the buffer zone, the zone of death, had disappeared and that farmers had been to their land and readied it for planting.

This wasn’t true though.  The buffer zone is still there. The land had been bulldozed by Israel, not to prepare it for planting but instead to make sure that nothing lives in the buffer zone.  Neither plants nor people indigenous to the land were allowed to grow here.

We went to the buffer zone to bring life to it, so that people will not forget that their land and history is still living.  We went to the buffer zone to remind the world that this strip of death is not natural, the land now called the buffer zone used to be a thriving place of agriculture, people lived there, children played there.

The land was newly bulldozed, but sadly we did not have olive trees with us to plant upon the land, so we planted what we had, a Palestinian flag.

Palestinians farming creatively to overcome the ‘buffer zone’

21 August 2011 | Islam Online, Hama Waqum

On Nakba Day in May, thousands of Palestinians edged towards Israel’s borders with Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Gaza, demanding their Right of Return, and an end to the Israeli occupation. Many of these protestors would return to demonstrate on the Naksa Day in June.

A major demand put forth by the Gazan demonstrators was the elimination of the ‘buffer zone’, which forbids Palestinians from stepping within three hundred meters of the cement wall that separates Gaza from the outside world.

Farming beyond the Buffer Zone

Gaza’s farmers face dangers in tending to their land, even if it lies beyond the ‘buffer zone’. For this reason, Palestinians and internationals arrange and attend mass farming events where they harvest and plant en masse.

In June, around 200 Palestinian men and women gathered in a small farm outside of Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza. Scrambling through a wheat field to a freshly-ploughed meadow, volunteers from all backgrounds assembled to help the owner of the farm to sow tomato and aubergine plants in the fields closest to the ‘buffer zone’. The three hundred meters of farmland adjacent to the wall is left unfarmed year-round. Those taking a break from crouching in the soil would stand up only to see an Israeli observation balloon, suspended above the horizon beyond the Israeli barrier.

Wisam, a student from Gaza City volunteered, along with several grandfathers, niqabi mothers and international activists. “We came here because we must stand in solidarity with the farmers who are trying to work their land” she explained.

With many hands at work, the land is freshly graced with green saplings in less than two hours and planting time is reduced, which lowers the risks posed to farmers who would otherwise spend days in front of the military outposts planting the saplings.

Farming at gun point

Father-of-six, Jabr Abu Jala lives in the ‘high-risk’ or ‘danger’ zone, meters away from the border in Faraheen, near Khan Younis in southern Gaza. It is farms such as Abu Jala’s that request assistance, so that planting and harvesting can be carried out as quickly as possible, with no intimidation from the nearby military outposts. “We face attacks and shooting almost daily.” Abu Jala explained, “Some days it’s calm, some days it’s not, but, regardless, we are forbidden from tending to a large section of our farmland- and this is a direct result of the occupation.

“They say that the buffer zone is 300 meters, so why do people end up getting shot at when they are 800 meters away from the barrier?”

Nathan Stuckey is an American activist, who had been helping to harvest Abu Jala’s wheat yield and occasionally staying with the family on their farm.

“Last night I was lying in bed, (it was) at about 5:00am and we started hearing a lot of shooting from the north and east sides of Faraheen. It was coming from the towers or Jeeps close to the farmland, right on the border” he said explaining a frequent occurrence.  In the village Khozaa, it’s too dangerous for men to come to the field; the Israelis are less likely to shoot women, so that’s why the women do the farm work” he added.

Women till the soil

Despite the conservative nature of Gazan society—which is particularly apparent in smaller farming villages—it is equally acceptable for men and women to tend to land.

Halima is a Gazan mother who tends to a farm at Faraheen, “Many women farm here, we love to work. I’m the only woman here today, because I come to watch over my sons who are harvesting. I worry about their safety. If internationals weren’t here to harvest with us, we’d have to stop at 8 or 9am. If we farm in the evening, we die!” she said, laughing.

Sarah is a student of biology at Al Aqsa University who joined the 200 Palestinians in the planting of saplings in northern Gaza.

“I came here to help the farmers sow their seeds,” she explained, “It is important for women to help in this aspect. As women, we don’t face any trouble coming here to work alongside the men, you can see for yourself that it’s normal; nobody minds.”

20-year old Anwar took part in the Beit Hanoun demonstrations on the ‘Naksa’—or setback—day, near the Erez crossing. “We are here to protest against the occupation in the West Bank and Gaza and in memory of our heritage. We have come here with saaj (traditional bread), Palestinian coffee and dress, and dabka dancers to protest. This is a cultural demonstration.”

Palestinians in Gaza have become creative in their defiance of the ‘buffer zone’, from holding cultural parties to commemorate the Naksa, to flying kites over the forbidden land with messages to Israeli citizens. But, what is most pressing is their desire to be able to farm on their own land without being harassed by Israeli outposts. When large groups are able to mobilize and harvest a field in a couple of hours, this becomes much easier. Sadly, not all farms have access to a network of support and volunteers such as this.