27th July 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Beit Furik, Occupied Palestine
At 22:00 in the evening of Friday, July 25th, Israeli forces injured 15 Palestinians during a protest in the village of Beit Furik, which is located fifteen km southeast of Nablus in the northern half of the West Bank.
Approximately 2000 protesters were marching towards the checkpoint near the village. Roughly 40 Israeli soldiers were waiting for them there, and when they came into view, the soldiers began to shoot tear gas canisters in their direction. Shortly after the protest began, the soldiers changed from firing tear gas, to live ammunition.
23-year-old Yousef Mfeed Mletat was struck by a bullet in his left hip. He recounted the scene tearfully in his bed in Rafidia hospital in Nablus. “They were less than four meters away when they shot me. And then they started to beat me. A soldier was standing on my stomach while some of the others were kicking me. This went on for 15 minutes.” He revealed several welts on his arms and shoulders.
Yousef Mfeed Mletat (photo by ISM).
Yahya Hanay, who is 25-years-old, was trying to escape from the scene, when a stun grenade struck his hand, which was covering his face at the time. As he lay on the ground, another stun grenade hit his knee. Yahya has nerve damage in his left thumb, which is said to be serious.
Yahya Hanay (photo by ISM).
19-year-old Yezen Tala Khatatba, was attempting to help an injured protester, when he was shot in the left knee. The bullet exited his left knee and then entered an exited his right one. He was wearing bandages on both knees as he told his story. “The ambulance was taking me to the hospital, when soldiers twice stopped me for half an hour at a checkpoint. When I told them I had a leg injury, they said it would have been better if I’d been hit in the head.” Yezen also mentioned that another injured protestor had been taken from the ambulance at the checkpoint and beaten by soldiers.
Jews Against Genocide (JAG) held a memorial service in front of the Knesset for Palestinian children killed by Israel in its current attack on Gaza. A pile of bloody dolls was placed at the Israeli Parliament and at other locations around the world. In addition to Jerusalem, memorials were held at the Israeli Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, in front of the Israeli Consulates and embassies in Madrid, San Francisco, Stockholm, and Copenhagen. Other memorials will be held in different locations around the world in the coming days. JAG set aflame to the pile of dolls covered in red paint at Yad Vashem, Israel’s holocaust memorial museum, on July 12th.
“Jews Against Genocide” protest outside the Knesset.“Jews Against Genocide” protest in Copenhagen.
JAG spokesperson Miko Peled, an Israeli writer, human rights activist, and author of “The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine” stated, “At least 39 children have been killed, and the number continues to rise. I call on people of conscience around the world to support the Palestinian struggle and unite to call for an end to the apartheid regime in Palestine.”
JAG Member Ilan Pappe author of “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine,” Professor at the College of Social Sciences and International Studies in the United Kingdom, director of the university’s European Centre for Palestine Studies, and co-director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies wrote, “Cessation of the incremental genocide in Gaza and the restitution of the basic human and civil rights of Palestinians wherever they are, including the right of return, is the only way to open a new vista for a productive international intervention in the Middle East as a whole.”
“Jews Against Genocide” protest in Madrid.
JAG member, Nurit Peled-Elhanan, a professor at Hebrew University, the co-initiator of the Russel Tribunal on Palestine, and a Laureate of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Human Rights stated, “The international community has not done enough to stop the Israeli regime of occupation… As a result, Israel does not pay any price for seriously violating international law and human values… We, the citizens of Israel and the stateless people of Palestine, cannot bring about the end of the occupation or stop the bloodbath by ourselves… We need you to prosecute the Israeli government and army, we need you to boycott Israeli economy and culture, we need you to urge your government to stop profiting from the occupation…”
“Jews Against Genocide” protest in Stockholm“Jews Against Genocide” protest in San Francisco“Jews Against Genocide” protest in Madrid
18th July 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah | Ni’lin, Occupied Palestine
Today at the weekly demonstration in the village of Ni’lin near Ramallah, the Israeli military shot live ammunition at protesters.
Youths from the village in a cloud of tear gas before one 20-year-old protester was shot with live ammunition (photo by ISM).
Palestinians, Israeli activists, and internationals marched through the olive groves belonging to the village, demanding their land back and freedom for all Palestinians, only to be met by a cloud of tear gas.
The group split up as people ran through the trees. The army continued shooting at different groups of people and soon changed their weapons to rubber-coated steel bullets. For ten minutes the army continued to shoot at Palestinians and internationals, as well as the clearly defined Red Crescent paramedics.
The Israeli military slowly moving closer to the crowd of demonstrators. The solders then changed their weapons and began shooting live ammunition at the crowd, shooting a 20-year-old Palestinian in his leg.
Villagers reported that the army has previously used this method to arrest Palestinians, where they shoot protesters in their feet, beat them, and arrest them. At the demonstration today the young man escaped with the help of Red Crescent paramedics.
A Palestinian Red Crescent medic aids the injured youth, while other protesters escspe the continued fire of rubber-coated steel bullets (photo by ISM).The injured 20-year-old is carried up a hill after injury from the Israeli military (photo by ISM).A Red Crescent paramedic attends to the injured youth (photo by ISM).
The army continued to shoot at the crowd with rubber-coated steel bullets as they ran away with the injured youth.
After the 20-year-old protester was taken to a local hospital for medical treatment, the demonstration continued with the military firing many more tear gas canisters at the groups of protesters.
Photo by ISMTwo protesters view the Israeli soldiers present and a nearby illegal settlement (photo by ISM).
Yesterday, Saturday, 12th July, Jews Against Genocide (JAG) held a memorial service for Palestinian children killed by Israel in its current attack on Gaza. JAG set aflame to a pile of dolls covered in red paint at Yad Vashem, Israel’s holocaust memorial museum. JAG is a movement of Jews from all over the world, including Israelis, who are protesting against Israel’s intent to commit genocide against the non-Jewish indigenous people of Palestine.
The Yad Vashem security guard attempted to disrupt the memorial, confiscated JAG’s fire extinguisher, and called the Israeli police to arrest the participants.
We, Jews Against Genocide, came to Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial of the genocide committed against Jews, to honor the Palestinian children who are dying in a genocide committed by Jews.
We brought dolls to symbolise the children of Gaza, and tried to bring a glimpse of the horror that Gazan’s face, to Israel’s doorstep. We hope to show Israel, and the world, the absurd reality of using the memory of one genocide to justify another.
We invite compassionate people from across the globe to join the outcry by staging similar protests in front of Israeli embassies and consulates around the world on Tuesday 15th and Wednesday 16th July, 2014.
Just as we honor the people who were murdered seven decades ago in Europe because they were Jews, we are here to honor the people who are being murdered at this very moment because they are the indigenous people of this land who are not Jews.
The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines Genocide as, “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; […]“
The children of Gaza, who are being systematically murdered as we write this article, constitute 52% percent of the population under siege in the strip. The vast majority of these children are descendants of refugees from historical Palestine.
In the current round of atrocities committed by the Israel occupation army, so far dozens of children have been murdered in their homes, with Israel’s war-making leadership vowing “much higher costs” on the Palestinian side as the bombing and shelling continues.
The war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza today are the latest stage of an ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the indigenous people of this land.
The Jewish State was founded on the Zionist principle of “maximum Jews on maximum land, and minimum Arabs on minimum land”, which was made reality through sixty-six years of continued assault against Palestinians, denying them the right to live freely and peacefully in their historical homeland.
The Israeli regime has turned the beautiful Gaza strip into a densely populated ghetto, with unsafe water, untreated sewage, and insufficient resources and electricity. This ghetto has become a concentration camp, through repeated Israeli massacres in what the Goldstone Report described as an effort to, “humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish[ing] its local economic capacity.”
We express our support and solidarity for the Palestinian civil society’s call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, until it complies with the three basic demands of:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
12th July 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Kufr Qaddum, Occupied Palestine
There were roughly 100 people demonstrating in Kufr Qaddum yesterday.
Photo by ISM
A number of the Palestinian youths present began to throw stones, when suddenly a young Palestinian fell to the ground, clutching his leg. An entry wound and an exit wound could clearly be seen.
Photo by ISM
A protester stated that the Israeli forces, who were firing from the top of a hill, were using .22 caliber rifles, which have been outlawed since 2001 according to Israeli law. A few minutes later, another demonstrator tumbled to the ground with a similar wound. The scene repeated itself three more times. A total of five youths were taken by ambulance to Rafidia hospital.
Photo by ISMPhoto by ISM
Another protester stated the behaviour of the military was unusual as they did not fire tear gas canisters or rubber-coated steel bullets. They used only live ammunition. The fact that there were dozens of children in the crowds did not seem to deter them.
in 1978, the illegal settlement of Qedumim was established nearby the village, occupying 4,000 dunams of land stolen from Kufr Qaddum. The villagers are currently unable to access an additional 11,000 dunams of land due to the closure by the Israeli army of the village’s main, and only, road leading to Nablus in 2003.
In 2004 and 2006, three villagers died when they were unable to reach the hospital in time. The ambulances carrying them were prohibited from using the main road and were forced to take a 13 km detour. These deaths provoked even greater resentment in Kufr Qaddum and, on 1st July 2011, the villagers decided to unite in protest in order to re-open the road and protect the land in danger of settlement expansion along it.
