27 November 2010 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
Ahmed Mahmoud Jarboh
At 12:30 pm, Ahmed Mahmoud Jarboh, aged 26, was shot in the back of the left knee by the Israeli Offensive Forces while fishing at the shore of Beit Lahya, in the north of the Gaza Strip. He is currently hospitalized in Kamal Udwan, in the neighboring town Jabalya, where his condition is being monitored.
Beit Lahya borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west and the 1949 Armistice Line with Israel to the north. The village’s economical resources are crippled by Israeli policies that restrict the fishing zone to three nautical miles and impose a 300 meter buffer zone on Palestinian land.
For over a year Ahmed has daily frequented the same area to fish with a small cast net. Today he and two of his colleagues were fishing from the shore at approximately 350 meters from the border fence. This incident again exemplifies a recent UN report conclusion that the danger zone does not halt at 300 meters: it can reach up to 1.5 kilometers.
“For over a year I have come here daily to fish. The soldiers in the watchtower see me every day: they know I am only a fisher! There was no reason for them to be suspicious as this is a normal, daily scene. Nothing special was going on.”
Even though the IOF soldiers should be familiar with Ahmed’s face, he was shot without warning:
“The only shot that was fired was the one that hit my leg”, he states.
When they heard the bullet being fired, the two other fishermen ran away to find shelter. As soon as they considered the situation “safe” again, they realized what had happened. They went to pick up Ahmed from the water and brought him to the hospital. The wound is stitched now, but probably surgery will not be necessary. It is still uncertain how long Ahmed will have to remain in the hospital and how long it will take for him to fully recover from this injury.
“I’m a father of two and I am the sole provider for my family. We have nothing else than what I gain from fishing.”
The 3 nautical mile restriction has resulted in a depletion of revenues which pushes people into the dangerous buffer zone. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, there have been nine people injured this month while working in the buffer zone. Ahmed Mahmoud Jarboh marks the tenth victim of IOF buffer zone aggression in four weeks.
17 November 2010 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
28 year old Ibrahim Yousef Ghaben from Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, personifies the trials of life for Palestinians and their families, and the multitude of hardships brought by Israel’s siege and violent attacks. It would not normally have been Ibrahim’s choice to collect rubble with a donkey cart as a means of providing for his sick mother, wife and 8 young children. But in Gaza, external pressures force people to make choices that anywhere else would be deemed beyond reason and perhaps beyond imagination.
Collecting rocks near the Erez Border, Beit Hanoun
Ibrahim Yousef Ghaben, 28, from Beit Lahia
Bassem Qassem 23 years old, from Beit Hanoun
Omar Sabri Hamad 24 years old, from Beit Hanoun
Nazmi Salim Tanboura, 50 years old, from Beit Lahia
The shooting on the 10th of November was the latest setback for Ibrahim, the most recent of the 10 rock collectors shot near or in the Israeli imposed ‘buffer zone’ during the last 3 weeks. The buffer zone is a 300m wide strip of land that runs along the border from where Israel justifies shooting those who enter, although according to a recent United Nations report people are at risk up to 1500 metres from the border. Ibrahim couldn’t speak because he was in so much pain, as he lay in his hospital bed with his right leg plastered and bolted.
His brother Atif described, “he was shot by Israeli soldiers stationed at a border control tower in his right leg when he was about 600 metres from the fence. Friends put him on a donkey cart and took him to an ambulance. The bones in the lower part of his leg have been shattered, and the doctors think it was a ‘dum dum’ (explode on impact) bullet. He had been collecting rubble for 5 months with his donkey cart in the Beit Hanoun border area.”
Every day hundreds of men and youth collect stones, metal, pieces of concrete and brick in the border areas despite common knowledge that Israeli snipers are at every control tower. They get around 50 shekels for a donkey cart but, like Ibrahim, many of them end up in a hospital bed with a cast wrapped around their bullet wounds.
So why do they do it? The recurring reasons given by scrap and rock-collectors is a complete lack of available work.
Israel’s siege has torn the economy apart and left 67% of the population without jobs. The few imports allowed in are costly and Israel continues to ban all exports from the Strip. The economic value in Gaza of ‘rubble’ has emerged only over the last two years, due to the huge demand for building materials and the very limited supply. Israel allows literally no concrete and building materials to enter the Gaza Strip and although inefficient, recycling the stones and rocks is still cheaper than the small amounts of high priced concrete brought in through the Rafah tunnels from Egypt.
Most of the rubble collectors are based in the North in Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya where incursions are frequent, hence the larger number of border side houses and other buildings that have been bulldozed or bombed by the Israeli Occupation Forces. What’s more in Beit Hanoun near the Erez crossing was the site of an industrial centre built by Israel before their forces were redeployed to the border areas in 2005, an area with a high concentration of concrete and stone.
Intensifying the dire need for building material was Israel’s operation: ‘Cast Lead’: the 3 week bombing and land assault over the new year of 2009 that destroyed or damaged beyond repair over 20,000 houses, schools, universities, hospitals, office buildings and mosques. The attack also killed 1400 people including over 400 children; a further 5300 were injured. Ibrahim’s house in Beit Lahiya was destroyed by shelling during the attacks nearly 2 years ago and on Wednesday he became the tenth rock collector in three weeks to be shot collecting rubble.
On Thursday 21st October, we met 23 year old Bassem Gassem and 24 year old and Omar Sabri Hamad who that morning had both been shot in their right foot in Beit Hanoun near to Erez crossing. They were near to the Israeli imposed ‘buffer-zone’.
“There were 50 rock collectors around the area I was shot, without a warning.” Bassem told us. “I was hot and walking so didn’t feel the pain initially, but once I came to the hospital the pain began. He had plied this trade for nearly one and a half years and still can’t see another option once he has recovered. “I used to work the markets with fruit and veg from Erez crossing when it was open but that work dried up. So I began collecting rocks after the war. This is part of life for our families, the siege, the shootings of people guilty of nothing but hard work when there are not jobs. People around the world see the circumstances we have here but they do nothing.”
His mother by his bedside explained the responsibility that was on Bassem’s shoulders: “His father was injured and paralysed during the war. There are 14 family members altogether and he’s the only one providing a regular wage for us. But he’s a strong boy; he’s been working for the family since the 5th grade. I told him not to do this job because of the danger and go back to the markets – but he knows that 30-40 shekels a day is not enough for the family.”
“I will go back there, it’s the only work there for me”, said Bassem
Omar from Beit Hanoun is married with 2 children and the bullet broke bones in his foot, requiring surgery. He will not be going back. “It was my first day collecting rubble, I need the money for my family and there’s no jobs here, no means of providing for my family. A few hundred metres from the control tower at 9am with no warning they shot me in the leg and friends had to carry me out. That’s it for me, I’ll never do that again.”
The other area with numerous border attacks is around Beit Lahiya where Nazmi Salim Tanboura, a 50 year old father of 10 was shot through his thighs at 8:15am on Sunday 31st October. He was approximately 800m from the fence when one bullet went through the back of both of his thighs. “I caught a glimpse of two Israeli soldiers stationed on a small hill. They shot me and I was shouting for my son but he was far away. A friend nearby came and put me on a donkey cart. I was taken to Beit Lahiya corner where an ambulance arrived and took me to the hospital. I’m the only one supporting the family and my sons are all married.”
Like the others, the circumstances around him had left Nazmi with no choice. “There are no jobs, there’s no work. Many people go there despite all the stories of people getting shot. My cousin was shot collecting rocks last month but I didn’t think of stopping. But I’m old now. I’ll buy a new donkey for my cart and try going back to work on the vegetable markets. I don’t depend on people on the outside because we’re always sending messages out but the world doesn’t see us or listen to us. Look how we live! I only have God to turn to here.”
Last Wednesday, as we left Ibrahim in Beit Lahiya hospital, his father was wiping his son’s brow while his 10 year old son stood crying at his bedside. There was a fear as to the ordeal still ahead for Ibrahim’s slow and painful road to recovery. Brother Atif said he and his brothers’ families would take care of him and his children but doesn’t see much hope for Ibrahim to go back to work. “The doctor said his leg is smashed and he’ll be in this condition for 6 months. We don’t know what he’ll be capable of doing in 6 months, or what he has the will to do. Before this he was a farm labourer.”
A cousin Mohammed was not hopeful that the hardships faced due to the Israeli occupation and siege would recede any time soon: “The only thing Ibrahim cared about was earning a wage to provide for his family. If the siege was ended and the concrete and building materials could arrive like in any other country, people like my brother wouldn’t be forced to risk their lives doing this. And the response – bullets while the world watches.”
Atif said that everyone faces danger no matter how they try and live in Gaza: “We have large families in Gaza and we want to work but we’re deprived of our livelihoods, our dignity. Its not just rock collecting. People in the cities are all at risk from bombing, shelling. I’m a University graduate in Psychology, I have no job and I now may work in the Rafah tunnels where there are frequent casualties from Israeli attacks, just to make ends meet.”
13 November 2010 | International Solidarity Movement -Gaza
The demonstration in the Beit Hanoun Buffer-zone tuesday remembered the brutal Israeli shelling in the area 4 years earlier that killed 20 civilians and injured 60. Palestinians of the Local Initiative group and 4 International Solidarity Movement activists approached the wall at Erez crossing and passed rock collectors in the buffer zone some 100 metres from the border. The next day, Israeli soldiers positioned on observation towers near the crossing fired at the workers, shot 28 year old Ibrahim Yousef Ghaben, 28, in his right leg, breaking his bone and bringing the total number of rock collectors shot by Israeli snipers to 10 in 3 weeks, 7 injured in the Beit Hanoun border area alone.
Once the demonstrators reached the border, chanting and waving flags, they planted a Palestinian flag on the outer wall of the Erez crossing tunnel. Saber Al Za’anin, the General Coordinator of the Local Initiative group spoke of the tragedy that devastated families in the Beit Hanoun area on the 9th of November. “We are here today to ensure that the families, the men, women and children killed, injured and left behind from the massacre on November 2006 are never forgotten, and we will carry on with our struggle to bring justice for these crimes and all of the others that have befallen our people.”
He was referring to one of the most horrific massacres that took place in Gaza’s recent history before Israel’s assault in operation ‘Cast Lead’ during the winter of 2009.
The Israeli operation was called ‘Autumn Clouds’. One day after the Israeli army declared that it had finished the operation in Beit Hanoun after international pressue, 20 people were killed and at least 45 were injured as a large number of shells were fired at the town. Many of the victims were women and children and 11 were from the same Al-A’athamein family.
Local initiative demonstaters at Erez crossing
The massacre took place after a siege and street occupation by Israeli ground troops between the 2nd and 8th of November 2006. The soldiers searched house-to-house, arresting, imprisoning and interrogating males over the age of 16 years. Families were forced to stay together in a single room while Israeli soldiers took over floors and rooftops of the buildings, electricity and gas were cut and people often had not access to toilets.
A group of 1500 unarmed women demonstrated during the 7 day siege of the town in an effort to free men gathered in a mosque, only for Israeli troops to open fire on them too. 2 of the women were killed and a further 20 injured, highlighting that however the peaceful the resistance is, the same brutality applies.
Casualties arrived at Al Awda hospital in Jabalya from the beginning of the siege, but delays by soldiers to evacuate them meant some died needlessly, and those that made it to the hospital had no family members to accompany them.
It was the early morning of 9th November, when the 20 civilians were killed as Israeli forces shelled an apartment building which housed around 120 people. Majdi El Athamina lost three brothers and one of his sons, 9 year old Sa’ad – his wife and another son were seriously injured.
Dr Mona El Farra who was receiving the casualties at the Al Awda hospital remembers the horrors that emerged during the week:
“Dina El-Athamina 2 year old toddler, she had bad fractures in the pelvis – there was no father and mother with her because she lost both. The killed and the injured arrived day by day, it was horrific, the hospital was chaos. It was only civilians killed – 7 children and later the army admitted ‘it was a mistake’ Even a rescue worker and a neighbor who went to rescue the family were shot and killed. Ambulances were not allowed into the villages.
I remember one mother was in full labour – noone was allowed in or out of village. After 4 hours waiting to be allowed to leave the village, she left and came to hospital and gave birth. The army was in the village shelling and storming houses, so noone could visit. She returned home with baby in her arms to find her house was demolished. “
People couldn’t imagine the violence increasing but according to Dr Mona after the 2006 bombing, the violence has actually intensified, epitomized by the huge civilian casualties in Cast Lead. “They have no limits, no boundaries for their brutality, no ideas of safety for civilians and health workers. It is a racist, colonial regime that has no respect for international law. We believe that we have our rights and we know that justice is on our side and will one day arrive with the help of the huge solidarity around the world and the growing international boycott, divestment and sanction movement that more and more people of conscience are joining.”
Tuesday’s demonstration ended without incident despite shootings there being a regular occurrence in the previous weeks. For the rock collectors working near to where the protest took place, the perils of occupation continue. An industry only created by the blockade of concrete and the fact 17000 home were so badly damaged, they now turn to this work to help feed their families
4 November 2010 | International Solidarity Movement
As Israeli army snipers in the control tower at the Erez crossing looked on, Saber Al Za’anin, the General Coordinator of the Local Initiative group spoke passionately about Palestinian resistance on the anniversary of the November 3rd 1917 Balfour Declaration.
“We carry forward the fight of our great grandfathers to dismiss the disgraceful and unjust promise that the UK Foreign Secretary offered to the Zionists to create a state in the middle of Palestine 93 years ago. Here we are, the present-day Palestinian generation standing strong again to uphold the principle of our forefathers and the struggle that has been passed down for us to continue today.”
It was the 93rd anniversary of the Balfour promise, and local volunteers from the Local Initiative group from Beit Hanoun and activists from the International Solidarity Movement demonstrated next to the Israeli border in Beit Hanoun, Northern Gaza. The crowd marched up to 100 metres from the Israeli wall, where previous non-violent demonstrations had been fired upon with live ammunition. The protesters were bringing attention to the horrific injustices that have befallen them since the promise by British occupiers to create a Jewish homeland over an area that was over 90% Palestinian Arab.
The demonstration took place near the Erez border , near the Israeli imposed ‘buffer zone’ – an area of land 300 metres from the fence stretching along the entire border fence. A United Nations investigation found that farmers, rubble collectors, civilians and protesters have been shot up 1500 metres of the fence, which makes 35% of Gaza’s most agricultural land a high risk area to access, causing severe loss of food production and livelihoods.
The demonstrators approached the Israeli wall, stopping at a barbed wire fence and ditch created by a bulldozer during an Israeli incursion over a month before in which 3 farm workers we killed. Planting one Palestinian flag at the fence, they chanted and waved flags before people spoke of the horrific legacy of the Balfour Declaration.
Local farmer Abzel Al Baseony spoke about the current plight he faces; he stands to lose more land near the border. He has been farming since 1984, taking after his father. He explained how the Israeli army bulldozed much of his land that used to be covered in trees and how afraid people are to farm there now. Like most Palestinians, he was also well aware of Britain’s historical role in facilitating the creation of Israel on Palestinian land.
“It was the British who created this problem allowing the Israeli state to be built on the ruins of our refugees and you’ve seen what they have done to us ever since. During the British mandate before 1947 their attacks on us killed many civilians, and now they, like the American and European Governments, continue to support Israel when it takes our land and bombs our families. But we will keep farming for another 93 years if that’s what it takes to get justice for our people.”
Like over 80% of Gazans, most of the demonstrators were refugees from different Palestinian towns and villages such as Faluja, Min Dimra, Askelaan or Majdel, arab villages located in what is now Israel. In total, 531 villages were wiped out and demolished in 1948 by the Israeli army after their Palestinian inhabitants were violently forced to leave. Ever since they have been refused their right of return.
British International Solidarity Movement activist Adie Mormech believes that people from his country have a duty to right the wrongs of the British involvement in Palestine, which continues today with political, commercial and military support.
“The British Government’s role in the middle east is a sad one, like much of the British empire was for the inhabitants of the countries they were colonizing. Britain contributed similarly the Apartheid system in South Africa. Fortunately many British citizens opposed the apartheid regime, boycotting the South African government until their racist policies had to end. Today in Britain and throughout the world, boycotts, divestment and sanctions of Israel are growing while the international community continues to allow with impunity Israel’s medieval siege of Gaza, it’s military occupation of the West Bank and Jerusalem and its continuing discrimination and ethnic cleansing. As was the case for South Africa, it is up to people of conscience around the world to join the movement until Israel adheres to international law and allow Palestinians the same human rights as any other people.”
The demonstration ended without incident, although there was no mistaking the memories and sense of injustice stirred by the anniversary of Balfour, emphasized by the resolution of organiser Saber Al Za’anin:
“We are out from under the rubble of Israeli oppression to prove again to the whole world that the Palestinian people will never accept the ethnic cleansing and murder against us. We will remain steadfast for our rights, our freedom and our land.”
“This tree is blessed for us and our grandfathers and ancestors have taken care of this tree for generations. I grew up with an olive tree in our back yard and it represents the peaceful life we had always lived on these lands. Now our olive groves are bulldozed and farm workers are shot at so we are here in solidarity with farmers whose lives are made impossible by the Israeli siege and occupation.”
This is how much it meant to Mohammed el Massry, a 20 year old student in Al Azhar University to enter a high risk area to help farmers begin the olive harvest and help maintain land that used to be the breadbasket of the Palestinian economy. In what turned out to be a beautiful day’s climbing, picking and bagging of black and green olives, Mohammed joined other members of the Beit Hanoun ‘Local Initiative’ group accompanied by 4 International Solidarity Movement activists to help farmer Abzel Al Baseony begin the Olive harvest 300 metres from the Erez border wall with Israel.
Beginning early on Tuesday morning, farm workers, Palestinian and international activists marched with flags, buckets, step ladders and hessian bags ready for a morning’s work picking olives, accompanied by the cameras of Arabic and international media. Around the unilaterally imposed Israeli buffer zone – a 300 metre wide belt of land along the Israeli border, farm workers have been picked off by snipers and shelling as a matter of course, often over a kilometer beyond the designated area. A month ago near to where we were picking the olives Grandfather Ibrahim Abu Sayed, his 17 year-old grandson and friend were mutilated and killed by Israeli tank shelling despite being twice as far from the border as we were.
Khalil Nasir, coordinator of the Local Initiative group sees farmers as the first line of resistance: “We’re here today to offer some support for the farmers who have continued the resistance to the occupation everyday of their lives, not letting go of these lands so near to the Israeli wall. Last month three farm-workers were directly shelled, when all they were doing were tending to their sheep and animals. We thank them for the life they left behind and we want to give farmers along the border whatever support we can.”
Shootings of farmers and destruction of their land are not exceptions – the dangers of farming in the bufferzone were comprehensively documented in the recent United Nations and World Food Programme report: “Between the Fence and a Hard Place”. It concluded that the violence used to restrict Palestinians from accessing their land covers areas up to 1500m from the border fence, meaning that over 35% of Gaza’s most agricultural land is in a high risk area causing severe losses of food production and livelihoods.
This does not stop farmers and their families from continuing to plant and harvest there, their livelihoods and resistance far too important to prevent them from working their own land. Nor are the regular demonstrations ceasing despite being confronted by frequent live gunfire and many of the demonstrators were pleased to show direct solidarity by picking the olives.
“We have been shot at near here before on peaceful demonstrations”, said 22 year old student Anwar Alaaneen. “I’m here in solidarity with the farmers in Beit Hanoun who are always under threat from shooting and shelling when their land is so close to the Israeli fence. The international community should allow us the right to farm our own land, instead of allowing Israel to continue to commit these crimes.” she added.
Unbeknown to the olive pickers, nearby in the North of Gaza in Beit Lahiya a farm worker in the Siafa area 27 year old Zeyad Mohammed Tambora now and then worked for a farmer in Siafa area, had just finished picking strawberries when suddenly with no warning his right foot was hit by a bullet. He was carried back by his 2 cousins from the farmland at about 300 meter from the fence and they escorted him to a waiting car on a donkey cart. Arriving at hospital Tuesday at about 10.00 AM Zeyad then underwent surgery to stop the bleeding. The bones in his foot are smashed and according to doctors he might have problems to walk for the rest of his life and he is not expected to be walking for a few months.
Whether its for strawberry picking, olive picking or wheat gathering, incidents like this happen on a daily basis in this region. Two days before and last week, two more workers were slightly injured by firing from the border.
The farmer whose olives we were picking laments the history behind the continuous attacks on their land and the destruction of their life before. “There used to be many trees in this area, they bulldozed them and although we have lost so much we have continued to farm it”, said Abzel Al Baseony the farmer whose olives we were picking. “Everyone is afraid coming here to farm. They take photos of us from the control towers so they know who we are yet they still just shoot whenever they want at whatever they want. I’ve been here since 1984 and my father farmed this land before me. We will keep farming.”
