Tag: Checkpoint

Playground for bombed kindergartens in Gaza

For Immediate Release:

Sunday 7th June, 10:00, Erez checkpoint

More than 750,000 children are incarcerated without a trial in Gaza – the largest prison in the world. It is forbidden to send toys and playground equipment into Gaza.

The Israeli authorities define even paper and crayons a “Security Hazard”. In defiance of this obituary and cruel regulation, a delegation of Israeli and American feminists, residents of neighboring towns, the clownish doctor Patch Adams and the Israeli Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (ICIRCA), will travel on Sunday to the Erez Checkpoint. We will come to the sealed crossing armed with Slides, Swings, Kites, Magic castles and similar deadly weapons, in order to pass them through to the besieged and bombed kindergartens in Gaza.

The action is organized by the Coalition of Women for Peace (Israel) and Code Pink (USA). The Code Pink activists have already achieved the construction of one kindergarten playground in Gaza, and staged a rally during President Obama’s speech in Cairo, demanding the president put his money where his mouth is, and cut the US funding of the siege on Gaza.

Patch Adams, the protagonist of the 1998 Robin Williams film, will stage a border-line clown show deflating the ballooning cruelty and arrogance of the siege and highlighting the absurdities robbing the children of Gaza of their right to a life of safety, freedom, and laughter. The Clown Army will be aiding and abetting.

Code Pink will attempt to traffic the playgrounds through the border. If apprehended by the Israeli army, insistent on denying the children of Gaza – hundreds of whom have been killed and thousands orphaned in the long years of siege – the fundamental right of PLAY, the Playgrounds will be erected on the border.

Israeli soldiers detain and harass Hebron residents at checkpoint

30 May 2009

Harassment of Palestinians at checkpoints happens regularly in the West Bank. Several of the abuses against Palestinians by Israeli soldiers in Hebron were documented by international solidarity activists from the ISM.

On the afternoon of 26th of May, Israeli border police stopped five young Palestinian men in a temporary checkpoint in the old town. The men were not given a reason for their detainment but were lined up against the wall for some time. After an hour, international solidarity activists arrived and 2 of the men were released. Eventually, 6 international solidarity activists were present and arguing with the soldiers. Another 2 men were released and given back their ids 15 minutes later. The border police took the remaining detained Palestinian to a closed off area near the Ibrahimi Mosque, stopping the internationals from following them. He was released within 10 minutes but with a written order to arrive at the Israeli police station for further interrogation.

At 7:30pm on the 27th of May, a young Palestinian man was stopped at a checkpoint. He was held for one hour and managed to call his father. His father and 2 brothers arrived at the checkpoint and the Israeli soldiers took their ids as well. According to the father, Adris, the Israeli soldier who stopped his son is known to be a settler from a nearby settlement and is frequently harrassing Palestinians. This Israeli settler/soldier has called family members and other settlers to encourage them to come to the checkpoint and harrass Adris and his 3 sons. According to Adris, he and his sons were held for 2 hours as the settlers and soldiers spoke abusively about Adris, his family and Islam. Additionally the settlers used physical violence against the Palestinians, kicking Adris in the lower leg. Adris explained that he tried to call the police but they never showed up.

According to the United Nations, there are 14 checkpoints, 13 iron walls and fences, 44 roadblocks, 13 road gates and 5 observation towers in Hebron city.

UN: Little change in problems with Palestinian movement in West Bank

Tovah Lazaroff | The Jerusalem Post

26 May 2009

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said little had been done in the past nine months to ease movement and access for the Palestinians in the West Bank.

According to a closure survey it completed in March 2009 and released on Tuesday, there are 634 obstacles blocking internal Palestinian movement and access in the West Bank.

This is an increase of four obstacles compared with the last report in September 2008. The obstacles include 93 staffed checkpoints and 541 unstaffed obstacles such as roadblocks, earth mounds, earth walls, road barriers, and trenches. Of the 93 checkpoints, 20 so called “partial checkpoints” are only staffed part of the time, including some which are rarely staffed.

Israeli forces raid Tel Rumeida homes

25 April 2009

On the evenings of the 23rd & 24th April, Israeli soldiers entered the homes of Palestinian residents in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron. During these illegal raids the houses were searched and the families harassed before the soldiers left with no evidence of law infringement of any kind.

On Thursday 23rd at 9pm soldiers began their operation; it lasted 3 hours with five Palestinian houses being searched. The following day, Friday 24th, this move was replicated, with a further five houses searched. A number of these families were forced into a single room and sometimes made to wait outside their houses during the raids, oblivious to what was happening inside.

These raids are not the first of their kind in Tel Rumeida. Every month the soldiers enter numerous houses in the neighborhood, under the pretense of searching for incriminating weapons. Information has been received from former soldiers that this method of action is used simply for army training, violating not only the Geneva convention, but also Israeli law itself.

The Palestinian families in this area have long suffered from regular harassment from the Israeli army, not to mention constant settler violence. With checkpoints situated all over the neighborhood, detention for hours on end is an everyday occurrence for the Palestinians living here. To make matters worse, the army offers them no protection from the aggressive, and sometimes wild, behavior of the settlers.

Freedom Summer 2009: Defend the Land and Jerusalem

The International Solidarity Movement is issuing a call-out for internationals to volunteer as field activists and office workers in the West Bank, Gaza, and occupied East Jerusalem this summer.

Whether you can come for only few weeks or several months, your presence is needed to support Palestinian communities who are nonviolently resisting the Israeli occupation. Freedom Summer 2009, which will run from June 6th until August 15th, aims to challenge the continued theft of Palestinian land for the rapid expansion of illegal Israeli settlements and their infrastructure in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Volunteer training sessions will be held every week on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Visit our “Join Us in Palestine” section to read more information about volunteering.

Below are some of the actions ISM volunteers can anticipate this summer:

  1. ISM volunteers will stand in solidarity with the Palestinian families of occupied East Jerusalem who face dispossession.
    International activists will join families in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, Shu’fat, and other neighborhoods whose residences are threatened, in resisting evictions and demolitions with non-violent, direct actions methods. ISM volunteers will also participate in demonstrations against discriminatory Israeli policies and support ongoing organization of Palestinian heritage and cultural events.
  2. In the West Bank, volunteers will join Palestinian villagers in nonviolent demonstrations against the Wall, and other apartheid infrastructure of the occupation such as checkpoint, settlements, and Israeli-only roads. Activists will be working in communities such as Ni’lin, Bil’in, Jayyous, Husan and Tulkarem to support direct actions under Palestinian popular leadership. Recently Israeli military violence during nonviolent demonstrations has escalated, making it more important that international solidarity activists are present to help deter and document the repression from Israeli forces. Additionally, volunteers will accompany farmers and shepherds to deter violence from the Israeli military and settlers. In the South Hebron hills, the army’s designation of large areas as military closed zones will be challenged.
  3. The ISM volunteers in the Gaza Strip will continue to accompany Palestinian farmers who frequently face live fire from the army as they work their land in the buffer zone. Volunteers will stand in solidarity with the people of Gaza against the crippling siege and sporadic attacks on the region. Several ISM activists will be joining the Free Gaza Movement’s Hope Fleet that will sail into Gaza’s port at the end of May. International activists will mass on the Egyptian border with Gaza between the 22nd of May and the 14th of June, in an attempt to challenging the ongoing closure and isolation of the people of Gaza. Individuals interested in volunteering with ISM Gaza must have previous experience with ISM in the West Bank.

Come to Palestine to support the Palestinian people in their struggle against occupation. Become an eyewitness to the Palestinian struggle for freedom! ISM volunteers have become better advocates for the freedom and self-determination of the Palestinian people in their home communities.

This summer, support and participate in the Palestinian non-violent resistance to the Occupation by using direct action methods to defend the land of East Jerusalem and the West Bank.