Tag: Digests

1. ACTION ALERT: Stop the bombing of Gaza! Prevent a humanitarian crisis!
2. Laila El-Haddad: “Just another Gaza Friday”
3. Laila El-Haddad: “And suddenly, the seams of childhood disappeared”
4. Video: Shelling of Gaza Continues
5. Amnesty International Calls for Halt to Gaza Attacks
6. Human Rights Watch: “UNRWA Director: ‘Counting down to a crisis in Gaza’ ”

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1. ACTION ALERT: Stop the bombing of Gaza! Prevent a humanitarian crisis!

Eight days and thousands of shells later, the assault on Gaza continues. Israel has vowed that it will continue to intensify the attack. Eighteen people are dead, including at least two children, and many more are injured.

Amnesty International is “calling on the Israeli army to end immediately its air bombardments and shelling of civilian residential areas in the Gaza Strip.” Amnesty says, “Israeli forces…must put an immediate end to the frequent, disproportionate and excessive use of force against Palestinians. Such attacks continue to cause death and injury to Palestinian children and other bystanders, and constitute violations of international law.”

John Ging, Director of UNRWA Operations in Gaza, stated that “from a humanitarian perspective the outlook here in Gaza is bleak at the moment. We are once again facing imminent food shortages, insecurity is making delivery of humanitarian services difficult and we are very concerned about the public health risks from the outbreak of avian influenza. All of this is likely to add up to more refugees falling below the poverty line and becoming dependent on humanitarian assistance.”

Please help stop these atrocities:

1. Contact your local representatives and demand they raise the issue of the bombardment of Gaza and the closure of the Karni checkpoint (see information below).

2. Contact your Ministry of Foreign Affairs and demand they put pressure on Israel to stop the bombardment of Gaza and open the Karni checkpoint (see information below).

3. Hold a protest, vigil, or rally in front of your Israeli embassy or consulate and demand that Israel stops bombarding Gaza and opens the Karni checkpoint. To find the address of the Embassy or one of the Consulates, go to (www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-of/Israel.cfm#171)

UK
Contact MPs
politics.guardian.co.uk/aristotle/

Fax your MP direct from this site
www.faxyourmp.com/

USA
Contact local representative
www.house.gov/writerep/

Contact your Senators
www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

US (Department of State)
www.state.gov/

Websites for Ministries of Foreign Affairs
For all countries see www.usip.org/library/formin.html

Australia
www.dfat.gov.au/contacts.html

Denmark
www.um.dk/en/servicemenu/Contact/?wbc_purpose=basi

France
www.diplomatie.gouv.fr

Greece
www2.mfa.gr/www.mfa.gr/en-US

Germany
www.auswaertiges-amt.de/www/en/index_html

Japan
www.mofa.go.jp/feedback/index.html

Spain
www.mae.es/en/Home/

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2. Laila El-Haddad: “Just another Gaza Friday”

from her blog: http://a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com

I’ve always loved Fridays in Gaza. In the mornings, save for the lone garbage collector futilely sweeping the abandoned streets and Municipality park, littered with plastic cups, watermelon seeds, and strangled straws from the night before, the hustle and bustle of the city comes to a standstill.

It is a serene if lethargic time, an escape from the sea of chaos, uncertainty and violence that grips our lives each waking day and night. For a few hours, things seem ordinary in a place where ordinary is an illusion. And it doesn’t seem like anything can disrupt those moments, as if some force is saying to the madness that envelopes us: “come back another hour!”

Slowly, the streets come to life again as evening takes hold. This is Yousuf’s favorite time. He likes to go out to the balcony, as we did yesterday, and “people watch”-just take in the incongruent and cacophonous sites and sounds of another Friday in Gaza.

In the park in front of us, children boisterously played football, women licked ice cream cones and chatted, and wedding motorcades ( “zaffit sayyarat”), which, no matter what the season or situation, you can always except to hear on Thursday and Friday evenings like clockwork-made their way to beachside hotels and lounges. They tirelessly honked their horns in sync with live wedding dabke music, blaring out from portable speakers or played by live for-hire bands seated in the back of rented pick-up trucks decorated with carnations.

Boys and relatives clamored for a standing space in the back of the trucks, dancing and clapping feverishly along with the music. Young children chase them down the street to join in the fun. If the wind is just right, the sky becomes a showcase of homemade kites, dancing and flirting with each other, challenging the physical bounds imposed upon this battered area’s residents, reaching to places they can only dream about, allowing them to navigate freedom, no matter how purposeless, for just a little bit.

In the distance, the ubiquitous double-thuds of artillery fire could be heard exploding a few kilometers away, increasing in number and intensity, it seemed, as the evening progressed, only to be drowned out ever-so-slightly by the cacophonous symphony of Friday blitheness, as if to say-“not today! Today, you will not steal our moment.”

The evening passes, the clock strikes midnight, and suddenly, the carriage tranforms into a pumpkin again. The magic dissipates. And 6 people are dead.

Just another Gaza Friday.

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3. Laila El-Haddad: “And suddenly, the seams of childhood disappeared”

from her blog: http://a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com

Say to her, “My dear, my dear,
It is not so dreadful here.”

Hadil Ghabin, 9 years old, was killed Monday night after an Israeli shell struck her family’s home. 13 other members of her family were injured, including her pregnant mother, several toddlers, and her 10-year-old brother Ahmed, who lost his eye sight.

One-year old Rawan comforts her other sister, Rana

Hadil’s mother was baking bread when the shells began to fall around them. She gathered her children and they huddled inside the house for safety.

According to her aunts, Hadil loved reading, writing stories, and playing “make-believe”. Her Aunt told me :”She would always gather all the neighbourhood children and tell them all sorts of wild stories” .

And why not, for sometimes imagination is the only refuge we have here, the only realm that cannot be invaded.

The Israeli Army asserted today that despite the civlian deaths, which resulted from narrowing their range of attack, the shelling will continue.

Overcome with emotion, Hadil’s mother collapsed when the body of her daughter, limp and expressionless, was brought to the house for a final farewell.

Hadil’s 10-year-old brother Ahmed lost his sight in the attack.

Neighbours tried to comfort the grieving family, as they wept alongside them and threw fragrant basil flowers on her lifeless body before the burial.

Even as Hadil was being carried away, shells continued to pound the area, leaving billows of white smoke in the distance and an acrid smell lingering in the air.

The Ghabin household. The mother was baking bread when the shelling began, and gathered her children together in the living room when their house was hit.

“And suddenly, the seams of childhood
disappeared

And the stories and dreams
flew away
like a kite”

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4. Video: Shelling of Gaza Continues

Watch footage of the Israeli shelling of northern Gaza:
http://dc.indymedia.org/usermedia/video/7/mvi_0036.avi

Also watch footage of a family mourning in the aftermath of recent deaths caused by shelling:
http://dc.indymedia.org/usermedia/video/2/mvi_0031.avi

Both are from Laila El-Haddad’s blog:
http://a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com

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5. Amnesty International Calls for Halt to Gaza Attacks

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
11 April 2006

http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=ENGMDE150312006

Israel/Occupied Territories: Israel must halt attacks on Gaza residential areas – children killed

Amnesty International is calling on the Israeli army to end immediately its air bombardments and shelling of civilian residential areas in the Gaza Strip. At least two Palestinian children have been killed and tens of other civilian bystanders injured in recent days during the course of such attacks; at least 15 other Palestinians, most of them reported to be members of armed groups, were killed.

Hadeel Ghaban, a seven-year-old girl, was killed on 10 April 2006 when Israeli troops fired artillery shells at her home in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia. The child’s mother and a dozen of her siblings and other relatives, including several children, were injured in the attack. Three days earlier, a five-year-old boy, Bilal Abu al-‘Einein, was killed in an Israeli air strike as he was standing near a car with his 14-year-old brother and their father. The boys’ father and three other men were also killed and several other bystanders, including two children, were injured in the attack. The four men who were killed in the attack were reported to be members of a Palestinian armed group but not to have been involved in any armed confrontation at the time when they were targeted by the air strike.

Commenting on this 7 April attack, the Israeli army stated: “In a security forces activity tonight in the southern Gaza Strip, the IDF carried out an aerial attack against a vehicle carrying terrorists as it was leaving a training camp of the Popular Resistance Committees organization. Terrorists were using the camp for terror training and weapons training.” The statement failed to mention the killing of the five-year-old child.

Israeli army and Defense Ministry sources were reported by the Israeli media to have expressed regret over the killing of Hadeel Ghaban but to have vowed to continue intensive attacks on the Gaza Strip. On 11 April, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz was reported to have stated that “As long as it’s not quiet here [in Israel], it won’t be quiet there [in Gaza.]”

Expressions of regret by Israeli army and government officials for the killings of Palestinian children and other bystanders ring hollow as repeated attacks by Israeli troops on densely populated residential areas continue to claim the lives of Palestinians, including children, in situations where they pose no threats to the lives of Israelis.

Another example is the killing of three Palestinian children, 14-year-old Ahmed al-Sweifi and Ra’ed and Mahmud al-Batash, aged 11 and 17, in an Israeli air strike in the afternoon of 6 March in Gaza City. The children were walking in the street when an Israeli missile hit a passing car in which two members of a Palestinian armed group were travelling, killing the two passengers of the car and the three children.

More than 15 Palestinian children have been killed and dozens have been injured in Israeli army attacks throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip since the beginning of this year. They were among some 75 Palestinians killed by Israeli troops in the past three months, during which scores of Palestinians, including children, have been injured. Many of those killed were members of Palestinian armed groups who were targeted while they were not involved in armed attacks or confrontations.

The Israeli authorities have long pursued a policy of extrajudicial executions as a substitute for arrest and prosecution of Palestinians involved in attacks against Israelis. Hundreds of bystanders have been killed in such attacks, in addition to the targets of the attacks. Since Israel redeployed its troops from inside the Gaza Strip in September 2005, Israeli forces have stepped up air strikes and artillery attacks against different areas of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli authorities contend that such attacks are in response to frequent mortar and rocket attacks by Palestinian armed groups launched from the Gaza Strip against Israeli towns and villages near the Gaza Strip. Although they have rarely caused Israeli fatalities or casualties, these Palestinian attacks are unlawful and should stop immediately.

Israeli forces, for their part, must put an immediate end to the frequent, disproportionate and excessive use of force against Palestinians. Such attacks continue to cause death and injury to Palestinian children and other bystanders, and constitute violations of international law.

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6. Human Rights Watch: “UNRWA Director: ‘Counting down to a crisis in Gaza’ ”

From UNRWA: http://www.un.org/unrwa/

PDF Version of Press Release:
http://www.un.org/unrwa/news/releases/pr-2006/hqg06-06.pdf

Gaza – Another week of closure at Karni commercial crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip adds to the mounting woes facing Palestine refugees living in Gaza. This follows a weekend that saw the killing of 14 Palestinians, protests by refugee farmers who have yet to receive any compensation for bird flu and widespread public demonstrations protesting the cutting of donor funding.

John Ging, Director of UNRWA Operations in Gaza, warned that “if Karni remains closed, we are, once again, counting down to a food crisis.” 765,000 refugees depend on UNRWA’s food distribution of flour, oil, sugar and other basic items. Ging stated that “the clock is now ticking and distribution will have to be shut down entirely for the second time in less than a month if the crossing does not open immediately.”

Returning from a visit this morning to an UNRWA primary school in Beit Lahia, where parents and teachers protested that the children are in very real danger from the daily Israeli shelling in close proximity to the school, Ging stated that “from a humanitarian perspective the outlook here in Gaza is bleak at the moment. We are once again facing imminent food shortages, insecurity is making delivery of humanitarian services difficult and we are very concerned about the public health risks from the outbreak of avian influenza. All of this is likely to add up to more refugees falling below the poverty line and becoming dependent on humanitarian assistance.” However, Ging warned that UNRWA does not yet have the money to meet today’s needs and is facing a bill of almost $900,000 in penalties for port and other charges arising from the Karni closure.

-Ends-

For more information please contact:

Jerusalem: Johan Eriksson
Office: 972-2-589-0249
Mobile: 972-59-428-056

Gaza: Adnan abu Hasna
Office: +972-8-677-7531
Mobile: +972-59-428-61

Jamal Hamad
Mobile: 972-599-416-877

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For more reports, journals and action alerts visit the ISM website at www.palsolidarity.org

Please consider supporting the International Solidarity Movement’s work with a financial contribution. You may donate securely through our website at www.palsolidarity.org/main/donations/

1. The Earth is Closing in on Us
2. The shells have been falling non stop
3. MP’s call for sanctions against Israel over shootings
4. Calls for UK to act over Britons shot dead in Gaza
5. British peace activist, Tom Hurndell, was ‘intentionally killed’
6. Human Rights Worker’s Hebron Journal
7. Recent Israeli Military Operations in Aida Camp
8. More Military Operations in Nablus
9. Picking Up the Pieces

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1. The Earth is Closing in on Us
April 11, 2006
By Leila el Haddad (http://a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com/)

The shells keep falling. They’ve gotten inside my head, so that its not just my house shaking but but my brain throbbing. It’s like someone is banging a gong next to my ear every few minutes; sometimes 5 times a minute, like last night. And just when I savor a few moments of silence, it starts again as if to say “you’re not going to get away that easily.”
We went to sleep to the rattling of our windows and invasive pounding and after-echo of the shells. We sleep as they fall. We pray fajir, and they fall again. We wake, and they are still falling. When they are closer, when they fall in Shija’iya east of Gaza City, they make my stomach drop. And I want to hide, but I don’t know where.
The Earth is Closing in on Us.
That’s the thing about occupation-it invades even your most private of spaces. And while the shells were falling inside my head, they also killed little Hadil Ghabin today.
A shell landed on her home in Beit Lahiya, shattering her helpless body and injuring 5 members of her family, including Hadil’s pregnant mother, Safia, and her 19-year-old sister.
My headeaches seem inconsequential when I think of little Hadil. Sometimes people here say they prefer death to this existence; you’ll frequently here at funerals: “Irta7at”…she’s more comfortable now anyhow-what was there to live for here?”
The Earth is squeezing us
I wish we were its wheat
so we could die and live again.
That has become our sad reality. Death provides relief.
Sometimes it feels like we are all in some collective torture room; who is playing God with us this night, I wonder? When I look up into the sky, and hear the shells, or see the faceless helicopter gunships cruising intently through the moonlit sky, I wonder, do they see me?
And when the shells start falling again, I can’t help but imagine some beside-himself with boredom 18-year-old on the border, lighting a cig or SMSing his girlfriend back in Tel Aviv “just a few more rounds to go hon.….give it another whirl, Ron, its been 2 minutes already.”
Sometimes, when I’m on edge, I might just yell out and wave my arms at them.
Do they hear me?
We decided to escape this evening to my father’s farm in central Gaza, where we roasted potatoes and warmed tea on a small mangal, as we listened to thikr about the Prophet on the occasion of his mawlid from a nearby mosque, under the ominous roars of fighter jets, patrolling the otherwise lonely skies above.
“Where are you heading off to?” asked Osama, the shopkeeper downstairs. “Off to the farm. We’re suffocating,” I replied, Yousuf tugging at my arm… “mama…Yallah! Yallah!”
“Wallah Laila, we’re not just suffocating…we’re asphyxiating. I feel I can’t breathe anymore. And my head is pounding and pounding. All I hear is BOOM boom now.”
The Earth is Closing in on Us.
And little Hadil is dead.
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2. The shells have been falling non stop
April 10th, 2006
By Leila al Haddad from Gaza City
The shells have been falling non stop
we are being silenced and consigned to the realm of the irrelevant,
the over and done with
they are nailing the coffin on Gaza.
Gaza is like a neglected prison in zoo
where the zookeepers turn off the faucets
cast it aside.
occasionally, when the animals get really hungry,
they poke and prod at them
and throw them a bone.
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3. MP’s call for sanctions against Israel over shootings
April 11th, 2006
From The Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/04/11/usanctions.xml&sSheet=/portal/2006/04/11/ixportaltop.html)
Economic sanctions against Israel should be considered if the country refuses to put its soldiers before the courts in the UK over the death of two British peace activists, an MP has said.
Sir Gerald Kaufman, Labour MP for Manchester Gorton, claimed there was an element in the Israeli military which was “out of control”.
He was speaking about the deaths of Tom Hurndall, 22, and James Miller, 34, who were both shot in the Gaza Strip in 2003.
Yesterday an inquest jury returned a verdict that Mr Hurndall had been “intentionally killed” by a soldier and last week an inquest found Mr Miller had been murdered by the Israeli Defence Force less than a mile away in Rafah three weeks later.
Sir Gerald told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “One possibility is to ask for those who are accused of these murders to be brought to Britain to be tried in this country.
“The second is to put them before an international war crimes tribunal.
“If the Israelis don’t agree to either of those then I think we have got to consider economic sanctions against Israel.
“The fact that she violates international norms is not justified because she has been a victim of international terrorism.”
But Hendon MP Andrew Dismore, who is also vice chairman of the Labour Friends of Israel group, said Israel had carried out its own judicial inquiries into the deaths and the country was a democracy.
He said: “I don’t think it is going to add a great deal to the position.
“Obviously we have to have great sympathy for the families of the two British citizens who have been killed but the fact remains that Israel is a democracy, it operates under the rule of law.”
He added: “Frankly if we are trying to get a settlement in the Middle East I don’t think talking about war crimes is going to take things a great deal further.”
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4. Calls for UK to act over Britons shot dead in Gaza
April 11th, 2006
From The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1751369,00.html)
The attorney general was last night called on to seek war crimes charges against five Israeli officers after an inquest jury found that a soldier under their command intentionally killed a British peace activist in Gaza.
Tom Hurndall, 22, died after being shot in broad daylight by an Israeli soldier who later said his commanders had issued orders allowing him to shoot even unarmed civilians. Sergeant Taysir Hayb was convicted of manslaughter by an Israeli court and jailed for eight years for shooting Mr Hurndall in April 2003 as the Briton tried to rescue children who froze in fear after the soldier opened fire.
Yesterday a jury at St Pancras coroner’s court in London found Mr Hurndall had been unlawfully killed and deliberately shot by the soldier “with the intention of killing him”. Lawyers for the Hurndall family said this amounted to a finding that the peace activist had been murdered.
Last week the same court found that a journalist, James Miller, had been murdered after being shot by an Israeli soldier three weeks after Mr Hurndall, and just one mile away in southern Gaza.
Andrew Reid, the coroner who heard both cases, announced he would write to the attorney general about how similar fatalities could be prevented, including examining possible prosecutions of Israeli commanders. In court Dr Reid said he would write to the attorney because the case raised wider issues of command in the Israeli military and because “two British citizens engaged in lawful activities” had been killed by Israeli soldiers.
Dr Reid said Israel’s army posed a danger to British nationals, especially those covering the continuing conflict with the Palestinians: “British citizens, journalists, photographers or others may be subject to the risk of fatal shots.”
The coroner said he would write to the attorney general about whether his powers under the Geneva Conventions Act, namely seeking the prosecution of those involved in issuing orders about when soldiers can shoot, could “prevent similar fatalities”. Dr Reid’s actions boost the Hurndall family’s demand that Israeli officers be tried for involvement in the killing of their son.
The dead man’s father, Anthony Hurndall, said: “The British government is obliged to pursue any source of a war crime, and wilful killing is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions Act.”
After the verdict a government source told the Guardian the attorney general would “not shy away” from acting, and that “upsetting the Israelis” would not stop the case being pursued.
Michael Mansfield QC, who represented the family at the inquest, said: “Make no mistake about it, the Israeli defence force have today been found culpable by this jury of murder.”
The family will seek a meeting with senior British ministers to press them to act, and do not rule out a private prosecution.
The jury criticised Israel for its “lack of cooperation” with the inquest, with the Israeli government declining to take part and even hampering a British police investigation. In court Anthony Hurndall accused Israel of “lies”.
The jury heard extracts from the journal of the peace activist, who travelled to Gaza with the International Solidarity Movement. Days before he was shot, Mr Hurndall, a photography student from north London, wrote how he had already been fired at: “I kept expecting a part of my body to be hit by an ‘invisible’ force and shot of pain … I wondered what it would be like to be shot, and strangely I wasn’t too scared.”
In a later passage he writes about being in the sights of an Israeli sniper: “It is in the decision of any one Israeli soldier or settler that my life depends. I know that I’d probably never know what hit me.”
Israel’s embassy in London expressed sympathy for the Hurndall family and said: “Throughout the investigation and trial, the Israeli authorities maintained close contact with both the Hurndall family and the British authorities, and at the conclusion of the proceedings a full account was given to them.”
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5. British peace activist was ‘intentionally killed’
April 10, 2006
From Guardian Unlimited (http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1750915,00.html)

A jury has ruled that a British activist shot while acting as a human shield in the Gaza Strip was “intentionally killed”. Tom Hurndall, from north London, was wearing an orange jacket to mark him out as a peace activist.
The 22-year-old had apparently been trying to move young Palestinian children from the line of fire when he was hit in the head. He was left in a coma and died nine months later.
Speaking after the hearing, the Hurndall family representative, Michael Mansfield QC, said they were delighted with the verdict. However, he stressed there was still work to be done.
“Make no mistake about it, the Israeli defence force have today been found culpable by this jury of murder,” he said.
The family accused the Israeli authorities of a “cover-up”, calling on the British government to take action under the Geneva convention.
They said it should investigate, and if necessary extradite the five Israeli officers they believe made up the a chain of command which led to Mr Hurndall being shot.
If this did not happen the family would consider pursuing justice through the courts. Earlier, Mr Hurndall’s mother had criticised the government for not speaking out about her son’s death.
“We are astonished to this day that Tony Blair has never publicly condemned the shooting of Tom,” Joyce Hurndall said. “It is necessary for the Israelis to hear condemnation from him.”
She said the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, had never seemed to “expect an apology” from the Israelis over the shooting.
Initially, the Israeli army denied a soldier from an army watchtower had shot Mr Hurndall, but witnesses at the demonstration in the Palestinian town of Rafah said he had been hit by a rifle bullet while trying to shield the children.
Following a hard-fought campaign by the peace activist’s family, ex-sergeant Taysir Hayb was convicted at an Israeli military court of manslaughter and sentenced to eight years in prison last year.
He was the first soldier to be convicted over the death of a foreign national during recent Israeli-Palestinian violence.
The inquest heard how Mr Hurndall, who had been taking photographs in Iraq before going to the Gaza Strip with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activist group, had contemplated what it would be like to be hit by a bullet.
Ms Hurndall said she had received an email from Tom on April 11, just hours before the shooting. He reported being “shot at, gassed and chased” by soldiers during the five days he was in Rafah and described the danger that both he and the Palestinians were facing.
She also described what she thought had been her son’s last words. Around half an hour before he was shot, he had been talking to a Palestinian man, who had been telling him how difficult life was for residents in Rafah, she told the hearing.
“Tom put his hand on his shoulder and said: ‘We want to make a difference’,” she said. “Really, those were his last words.”
Mr Hurndall’s father, Anthony, told the hearing that his son and other activists from the ISM had gone out to try and block tanks that had been shooting into houses at random.
He said Tom had seen a group of ten to 15 children playing on a mound of sand, and noticed that bullets were hitting the ground between them. The children fled, but several were overcome with fear and could not move.
“Tom went to take one girl out of the line of fire, which he did successfully, but when he went back, as he knelt down [to collect another], he was shot.”
Mr Hurndall said the Israelis had initially admitted someone had been shot, but claimed it had been a gunman who had opened fire first.
After photographs of Tom having been shot in the head emerged, the Israeli military later admitted that Hayb – a sentry who had won prizes for marksmanship – had shot him using telescopic sights.
“They just lied continuously,” Mr Hurndall’s father said. “It was a case of them shooting civilians and then making up a story. And they were not used to being challenged.”
There had been a “general policy” for soldiers to be able to shoot civilians in that area without fear of reprisals, he added.
Although Hayb had been sentenced, the issue of the “culture” within the Israeli army had not been addressed, he said. “This goes much higher up the chain.”
The ten-strong jury at the inquest into the death of Mr Hurndall, a Manchester Metropolitan University student, also expressed its “dismay with the lack of cooperation from the Israeli authorities”.
Mr Hurndall was shot a mile away from where the award-winning cameraman James Miller had died three weeks beforehand. Last week, a jury ruled the Israeli defence force had deliberately killed the 34-year-old during the incident in May 2003.
The coroner, Dr Andrew Reid, said he would be writing to the attorney general to see whether there was any further legal action that could be taken in relation to the deaths.
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6. Human Rights Worker’s Hebron Journal
April 11th, 2006

www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/04/337745.html
This post is from a Brighton based activist spending April in occupied Palestine with the International Solidarity Movement, a network of international activists set up to support Palestinian non violent resistance against Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. In these posts I will be writing short accounts of aspects of the occupation and resistance.
I am currently volunteering with the ISM in Tel Rumeida, Hebron. Internationals from the ISM and the Tel Rumeida Project stay in Tel Rumeida as witnesses to settler violence and to non-violently intervene if settlers attack.
Tel Rumeida is one of the saddest places I have been in Palestine. It is a tiny district on the outskirts of the Old City separated from the nominaly PA controlled area of Hebron by a permanent checkpoint across a narrow street. It feels like it should be a lively and vibrant place but Shuhada street, once lined with shops, now looks like a ghost town. It is flanked by boarded up shops and a military checkpoint at each end. Shuhada street appears empty but in fact it is still home to many Palestinian families living above deserted shops who often feel too intimidated to walk in the street.
This is because Shuhada street and Tel Rumeida street (see www.telrumeidaproject.org/map_telrumeida.html ) live alongside some of the most violent and extreme members of the settler movement in the occupied territories. These Israeli Jewish settlers live next to the Palestinian inhabitants and have mounted a campaign of harassment against them with the desired end result of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Hebron.
International volunteers in Tel Rumeida escort Palestinian children to and from the local school. This is to provide protection from settler attacks. Settlers regularly beat and throw stones at Palestinian children, there were 12 incidents of this in December 2005 (see www.telrumeidaproject.org/monthly_summary.html for monthly reports). Although the Israeli army have a huge presence in Tel Rumeida they regularly ignore such incidents. Every morning and afternoon Palestinian children must walk through a hostile neighbourhood through IDF checkpoints and barbed wire to reach their school.
Simply continuing to live in Tel Rumeida is an act of resistance for local Palestinians. In the short time I have been here I have had stones thrown at me by Settler children and have seen people spat at by the settlers. But things can get much worse, often settlers riot in Tel Rumeida hurling rocks and terrorizing the community (see www.telrumeidaproject.org/riots_photos.html ).
On Wednesday Israeli holiday time began and will continue until April 21st. During Israeli holidays Palestinians are particularly vulnerable to attacks from settlers, who are often joined by supporters from the wider ’settler movement’. Some of the worst attacks on Palestinians have occurred on Shabbat. I hope that Tel Rumeida will be quiet throughout the holidays but I think the international community should be watching the events in Tel Rumeida in the coming weeks
The Wall Must Fall
thewallmustfall@hotmail.com
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7. Recent Israeli Military Operations in Aida Camp
April 8th, 2006
From: Abdel Fattah Abu-Srour, PhD
Subject: News from Aida Camp
(http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=184)
Israeli occupation soldiers during this whole week continued their harassment to Aida camp inhabitants, with tear gas, rubber bullets, taking hostages and shooting 3 kids 11-13 years old (one of them is a deaf-mute child) with rubber bullets in the head and abdomen, and provocative actions through the loud speakers of their armored jeeps.
On Thursday, two workers on the popular committee went to a store to take out some of their equipment to start working in one of the job creation projects in the camp. It was an Israeli soldier who opened the door and the weapon pointed at them ordered them to come in. The director of the Camp, who is a UNRWA employee, with another employee went to check what happened (the building is just next to their office), they were also taken hostage… so another UNRWA employee called the UNRWA direction and 2 hours later, the UNRWA employees were released however, Mustafa Jamil Abusrour, and Mustafa Shawkat Malash were kept hostages.
We went to see and ‘negotiate’ the liberation of the hostages, and took a glance where the soldiers hide, and they were painted black on their faces. We asked if they had anyone responsible to talk with, the answer was “go home”. Around two hours later, a military jeep came in from the military point occupying the Mosque of Bilal Ibn Rabah (transformed into a synagogue after 1967 occupation and renamed Rachel’s Tomb) and passed back and forth, no body moved, and they didn’t say anything. Then the jeep went into the camp, and made several tours, and then on the other end of the camp we heard some shooting. It was tear gas and rubber bullets.
About 6 hours later, the 2 hostages were released and the soldiers went out of the building… it seemed that they used it as a hiding place to surprise the kids and to keep watch over the building of the new illegal wall and new Synagogue to the east of Aida, south of the mosque Bilal ibn Rabah.
The most provocative day was today (April 8th) after they assassinated a “wanted” Palestinian in Bethlehem, the jeep entered the camp, near the girls school (few meters from the illegal apartheid wall), and the other one near the intercontinental hotel. According to someone living in that place, one of those arrogant soldiers starts shouting in a shameless tune:
“Come out to me inhabitants of Aida! Come out and take your dose”
The soldier next to him was telling the one who was shooting what to shoot, once tear gas, another time rubber bullets. Some of the kids gathered a bit far, and threw stones at them, but they were not even close to the jeep, but the shooting and tear gas continued.
At around 4:30 p.m, a mother of twin girls who were in the theatre rehearsals called at the center, and asked me not to let the girls leave the center, because the army was just shooting tear gas near the school where their house also is located. Life continues… and we continue to write… and you continue to read… how long will that continue…. how long before those who have some authority in this world exercise their authority to force such gangsters and bandits to stop their crimes against the humans we are, and against humanity itself? Can anyone help us with an answer?
Wishing you a better day and a better night, and a better week than the one had…
Abdel Fattah Abu-Srour, PhD
Director of Al-Rowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Center
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8. More Military Operations in Nablus
April 11th, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
At least 15 people have been arrested and 10 people injured in an Israeli Military operation this morning, according to international human rights workers based in the area. The situation regarding house occupations is unclear.
The Israeli military entered Nablus in the early hours of the morning. At about 4.30am they began military operations in the district around al-Najah University and on 24th Sreeet. Fifteen were arrested, more than 10 injured, 3 by rubber bullets. A Palestinian journalist, Jafa Ishtayi, was beaten by a soldier with an M16 rifle.
Since the Israeli election the Israeli military have entered Nablus almost nightly and frequently during the day. Yesterday 4 people were injured by rubber bullets in an afternoon military invasion.
For more information call:
Mohammed Ayyash: 054 6218759
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9. Picking Up the Pieces
March 22, 2006

IWPS House Article No. 84 (http://www.iwps-pal.org/en/articles/article.php?id=881)
Jenin refugee camp, in the northern part of the West Bank, is home to approximately 14,000 people, crowded into an area of about 1 square kilometer. The refugees came mostly in 1948 from the Haifa area, a coastal town in what is now the state of Israel.
At the entrance of Jenin refugee camp there is a huge horse sculpture. It is made from an assortment of scrap metal, the remains of an ambulance and two cars which were attacked and exploded when the Israeli army invaded the camp in 2002. Everyone was killed, including a doctor, reportedly one of Jenin’s best. Being a medic in Palestine is a dangerous job.
Our first stop was to the rehabilitation centre for people with disabilities. It is the only centre of its kind in the northern part of the West Bank. The centre works particularly with children, both those who have been born with a disability, such as cerebral palsy and those who have been injured physically and mentally during the Intifada. They provide a wide range of services, such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, psychological interventions/treatments, medication and family support.
The newly opened prosthetics department is on the ground floor. It was one of the many times I fought back my tears. Seeing the artificial limbs was a very stark image of life under occupation. Rows of feet lined up on the shelves, an assortment of sizes from small children to adults. This image stabbed me. Hanging on the wall outside were crutches and on the workbench limbs in progress.
Up until a few months ago when the department opened, they relied on a specialist coming every two months from Ramallah or Bethlehem. The measurements would be taken, the new limb made, but by the time the specialist returned two months later (due to long curfews, travel restrictions or heavy work load), the limb would often no longer fit and so the process would start again.
Upstairs in the centre was a well equipped play room and what had been a computer room, before the contents were destroyed and vandalised by the Israeli soldiers. On the corridor walls were pictures, drawn by 11 and 12 year olds. The first one was of the camp pre-invasions, all the rest were of during the invasions. I was deeply moved by the stories told, of the horrors that became reality for those children, as they were attacked by one of the most powerful armies of the world. Pictures of bodies lying bleeding in the street. Pictures of apache helicopters and fighter plane bombing their houses. Pictures of soldiers firing their weapons.
Jenin camp was very badly hit during the 2002- 2004 invasions, and the whole city and surrounding areas were under long curfews. The first 2 weeks of the invasions were the worst in terms of the numbers killed, 57 or 63 according to differing sources of the day. Much of the camp was razed to the ground. 420 homes completely destroyed. 800 homes partly destroyed. Given the size of Palestinian families that means thousands of people left homeless. For some of the older generation that was at least the third time in their lives they were made homeless, first in 1948, followed by 1967 and then again in 2002. Many of the houses were destroyed as the armoured Caterpillar bulldozers ploughed through the narrow streets of the densely populated camp, decimating everything in its path in order to reach and destroy the houses of fighters. An extremely blatant example of collective punishment and clearly violates international law (4th Geneva Convention, Article 33 prohibits collective punishment, prohibits reprisals against people & property. Hague Regulations, Article 50 outlaws collective punishment)
Our host, Basem, spoke not only about the camp but also about his village, Yabad, which is now surrounded by 5 illegal Israeli settlements and the Apartheid Wall. A journey which could take as little as 13 minutes took him 6 hours during the invasions. In order to transport a sick neighbour to hospital he had to drive cross country, through the olive trees, unable to use the roads in what had been declared a closed military zone.
The short journey through the camp to our next stop, the “Freedom Theatre” revealed to me something of the extent of the destruction during the invasions. All the new houses, of which there were countless, were the ones that had been rebuilt after being demolished by the Israeli army. The remaining houses were littered with bullet marks.
The “Freedom Theatre” has new premises. A hall with a stage and some lights. On the wall some photos of Arna mer Khanis (an Israeli woman married to a Palestinian man) and the Palestinian and Israeli children she brought together in theatre projects. Too many of them are now dead. Alongside the photos a “Free Tali Fahima” poster. Later, Basem showed us the remains of a house, which had been destroyed the third time over, nothing more than some rubble & timber. One of the homes in which the “Freedom Theatre” had formerly performed.
After lunch we visited the “Not to Forget” women’s centre. Farha, the chairperson welcomed us and explained how during the 2002-2004 invasions, a group of women formed a society to help the women and children of Jenin camp. The centre grew out of their work. All the women are volunteers and most of them have lost someone during the Intifada. They provide lots of activities for children, such as art and dance classes as well as summer camps. Over a thousand children are benefiting from their services, having a chance to rediscover something of childhood. For the women they provide training such as computer classes and education around the elections, as well as embroidery groups enabling them to generate some income. Farha explained how many women in the camp have psychological problems, arising from having their sons or husbands in prison, financial problems due to high unemployment, losing family members as martyrs and the difficulties resulting from long curfews.
Whilst we were there six girls, around 10 or 11 years old, gave a dance performance. The serious, focused mood of the first few dances dissolved into something lighter and ended with all of us joining the dabka, the traditional Palestinian folk dance. Watching these girls smiling, laughing, eyes twinkling, and the young man who was teaching them with such energy and joy, was a beautiful experience. I was moved by their spirit and their ability to pick up their lives. Throughout the West Bank there are countless examples of the attempts by the Israeli government and military to erase the Palestinian people and culture. I am learning all the time of the countless forms of resistance. Keeping the traditional dances alive and vibrant is one such form.
Refugee camps can conjure up the image of masses of people living a temporary life in tents. Whilst there may be a mental insecurity, triggered by (the then) frequent invasions, there is not a sense of impermanence. People are living in houses. There are shops. Schools. Clinics. Mosques. The land is rented for long periods. It is obvious the problems faced by the refugees will not be resolved quickly, if ever. The enormity of the refugee problem is slowly dawning on me. Basem spoke of how many of the old people keep safe the keys to their houses and deeds to their land, in what is now Israel. Clearly the idea of “a land without people, for a people without land” is inaccurate, to say the least. By continuing to live in the camp, rather than moving elsewhere the people of Jenin camp are maintaining their status as refugees, and with that their right of return.
Text by: Alys
Editing: Grace, Lina

1. Press Release from al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades
2. Israel Denies Work Permits to Protesting Villages
3. Beit Sira Demonstrates Despite Threats from Israeli Civil Administration
4. Hebron Anticipates Escalating Violence over Passover
5. Just another Gaza Friday
6. ‘Bite’ Activist Arrested
7. Farmers in Nablus Prevented from Working their Land by Both Settlers and Military
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1. Press Release from al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades
April 9, 2006

For a PDF of the Arabic Version see: https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/04/09/a-press-release-from-al-aqsa-martyer-troops/

Translation:
From the Koran: “Allah forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for (your) Faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them: for Allah loveth those who are just.”

To the great Palestinian people in whose blood is written the symbol of steadfastness and resistance. You who have broken the conspiracies with the stone of your steadfastness. You who have been a thorn in the side of the occupation and a dagger in the chest of the spies and collaborators. While the Israeli attacks continue against our people as does the criminal planning in the region and the politics of facts on the ground by building the separation apartheid wall, confiscating more and more land to expand the settlements, and separating the Palestinian people into 3 cantons. Our people in Bil’in, Beit Sira, Abud, and other Palestinian communities face this oppression by continuing a peaceful popular Intifada against the occupation. The occupier uses violence and every kind of weapon to stop these demonstrations. Here our friends from all over the world standing in solidarity with our people. To stop the crimes of the oppressor they participate in the popular demonstrations. They send our message to their people and tell them what is happening to the Palestinian people.

We in the al- Aqsa Martyr Brigades issue these points:

1- We give our support to the international solidarity and the peace activists, and we are taking care that they are not affected in anyway or by anyone.
2- We call the Danish people to continue their solidarity with our people and call on their government to apologize to the Muslims.
3- We call all the countries around the world to stand by their responsibilities by taking effective steps to force Israel to implement international law and by preventing Israel’s criminal planning in the region.

The general leadership of the al-Aqsa Brigades in Palestine.

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2. Israel Denies Work Permits to Protesting Villages
April 9th, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Israeli Civil Administration has threatened to deny workers in West Bank villages permits to work in Israel if their demonstrations against the occupation continue. Workers in Bil’in, Beit Sira, Beit Likya, and Harbata have received threats, but the villages have continued their demonstrations regardless.

Last week a member of the Civil Administration calling himself “Samir”, phoned Mahmud Samara Abu Ala, a 60 year-old merchant from Bil’in, and told him “not to bother” trying to renew his work permit. Mahmud asked if the Civil Administration was systematically denying permits to people in the village and Samir replied that they would continue to deny permits as long as the demonstrations continue.

Before the Friday, April 8th demonstration in Beit Sira, a member of the Civil Administration called the head of the village council, Ali Hassan Mahmud Abu Safeya, in to tell him that the Administration would stop giving permission to villagers to work in Israel. Thirty families are at least partially supported by locals who work in Israel.

This threat of systematic denial is consistent with the army’s practice of collective punishment. Israel, as an occupying power, is subject to the Geneva Convention, which states that collective punishments are a war crime. Article 33 of the Fourth Convention states that “collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.” By threatening the villages with the denial of work permits, Israel is attempting to intimidate the villages into stopping the demonstrations.

According to Israel’s Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya’alon, the overriding goal of such permit denials is to phase out Palestinian workers from Israel. “The goal is to stop Palestinians from working in Israel by 2008” he said on March 10th 2006.

As Palestinians are increasingly being denied work permits, Israel is continuing to make it harder for a Palestinian state to be economically viable. The apartheid wall is annexing Palestinian land from farmers, making it impossible for some to access their land. Recently, Israeli banks have cut ties with Palestinian banks in a further attempt to harm the Palestinian economy.

Each month since the elections, Israel refuses to give back $50 million of Palestinian tax funds they withhold. International governments have also been cutting off funds to the Hamas led Palestinian government in what Prime Minster Ismail Haniyeh is calling “blackmail”.

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3. Beit Sira Demonstrates Despite Threats from Israeli Civil Administration
April 9th, 2006

At 1:30 this past Friday, the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in the Palestinian village of Beit Sira, just west of Ramallah held a demonstration against the apartheid barrier being constructed on the village’s land. This was all despite recent threats from the Israeli civil administration to withdraw permits to work in Israel from villagers if demonstrations continue.

The march of about 100, was held by villagers and accompanied by Israeli and international supporters. It marched through the village and down a road adjacent to the nearby illegal Jewish settlement of Makkabim, singing and chanting. All along the road we could see olive trees that had been cut down to stumps and replanted there by the military. They had previously been uprooted from another part of the village land where they plan to build the annexation barrier.

At the head of the demonstration, Palestinian and Israeli activists symbolically chained themselves together as an illustration of the imprisonment of the villagers due to the wall and settlement. About 15 minutes after they had set off they met a solid line of Israeli Border Police in Riot Gear blocking the road and preventing the demonstration from proceeding. The Palestinians reacted to this in a completely non-violent fashion. They sat down in the road and held some speeches and some interviews with the press. Some of the border Police tried to provoke the youth of the demonstration by moving around the small peaceful crowd armed, as usual, with fully-automatic machine guns.

Their provocation failed to provoke the response that meant they would have been allowed under Israeli military rule to open fire with rubber-coated bullets. Instead, when the interviews and speeches were over, the villagers calmly ended the demonstration, walking hand-in-hand to bring the demonstration to a close without being attacked by the Israeli soldiers, as has happened in past demonstrations.

For photos see:
https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/04/09/beit-sira-demonstrates-despite-threats-from-israeli-civil-administration/

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4. Hebron Anticipates Escalating Violence over Passover
April 8th, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fears that settler violence against Palestinian residents will increase over the Jewish holidays came to a head as Israeli settlers took over a Palestinian house on Thursday. The army has refused to remove them until the squatting has been challenged in the High Court and IDF soldiers have been stationed near the house to protect the settlers.

Palestinians in Hebron are anxious that settler violence may increase over Passover as settler youths are off school and many people will be visiting the Hebron settlements. There is a trend of increasing attacks on Palestinians over holiday periods.

The house is close to the Avraham Avinu settlement near the Hebron wholesale market. In January 2006 the IDF issued eviction notices to settlers who had been squatting there since 2001. The eviction prompted rioting (see www.telrumeidaproject.org/riots.html) by settlers throughout Tel Rumeida and Hebron’s old city where masked settlers stoned Palestinians, threw paint bombs and looted Palestinian homes in full view of the IDF. Eventually a deal was reached that the shops would be evacuated but that settlers could return after the Hebron municipality’s lease ran out. However, on April 4th the Israeli attorney general ruled that the IDF deal was illegal and the settlers would not be able to reoccupy the market. Local Palestinians fear that this move, combined with Passover, will lead to further violence by settlers.

Today in Tel Rumeida, on the first Shabbat of the Passover school holidays, two Palestinian were assaulted by settlers on Schohada Street. One man was punched by a group of settlers and a man had stones thrown at him while returning to his house.

International volunteers from ISM and the Tel Rumeida Project plan to maintain a presence in the area over Passover.

For more information contact Tom on 0542363265 or ISM Media office on 022971824

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5. Just another Gaza Friday
April 9, 2006
By Laila El-Hadda (http://a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com/)

I’ve always loved Fridays in Gaza. In the mornings, save for the lone garbage collector futilely sweeping the abandoned streets and Municipality park, littered with plastic cups, watermelon seeds, and strangled straws from the night before, the hustle and bustle of the city comes to a standstill.

It is a serene if lethargic time, an escape from the sea of chaos, uncertainty and violence that grips our lives each waking day and night. For a few hours, things seem ordinary in a place where ordinary is an illusion. And it doesn’t seem like anything can disrupt those moments, as if some force is saying to the madness that envelopes us: “come back another hour!”

Slowly, the streets come to life again as evening takes hold. This is Yousuf’s favorite time. He likes to go out to the balcony, as we did yesterday, and “people watch”-just take in the incongruent and cacophonous sites and sounds of another Friday in Gaza.

In the park in front of us, children boisterously played football, women licked ice cream cones and chatted, and wedding motorcades ( “zaffit sayyarat”), which, no matter what the season or situation, you can always except to hear on Thursday and Friday evenings like clockwork-made their way to beachside hotels and lounges. They tirelessly honked their horns in sync with live wedding dabke music, blaring out from portable speakers or played by live for-hire bands seated in the back of rented pick-up trucks decorated with carnations.

Boys and relatives clamored for a standing space in the back of the trucks, dancing and clapping feverishly along with the music. Young children chase them down the street to join in the fun. If the wind is just right, the sky becomes a showcase of homemade kites, dancing and flirting with each other, challenging the physical bounds imposed upon this battered area’s residents, reaching to places they can only dream about, allowing them to navigate freedom, no matter how purposeless, for just a little bit.

In the distance, the ubiquitous double-thuds of artillery fire could be heard exploding a few kilometers away, increasing in number and intensity, it seemed, as the evening progressed, only to be drowned out ever-so-slightly by the cacophonous symphony of Friday blitheness, as if to say-“not today! Today, you will not steal our moment.”

The evening passes, the clock strikes midnight, and suddenly, the carriage tranforms into a pumpkin again. The magic dissipates. And 6 people are dead.

Just another Gaza Friday.

posted by Lailaumyousuf @ Saturday, April 08, 2006

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6. ‘Bite’ Activist Arrested
April 9, 2006

Adnan Ahmad Nimer, a 19 year-old activist from Beit Sira, was taken from his home last night at 2am by the Israeli military. Thirty soldiers surrounded the house, his father opened the door and the troops gathered the family into one room. They singled Adnan out, took him outside, handcuffed and blindfolded him and took him away.

Adnan has been active in the nonviolent demonstrations that occur weekly in Beit Sira to protest against the apartheid wall and the continuing annexation of Palestinian land. In the March 24th demonstration, in self defense Adnan bit a soldier’s finger as the soldier beat him to the ground. In response to the bite, soldiers attacked Adnan with clubs, breaking two front teeth.

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7. Farmers in Nablus Prevented from Working their Land by Both Settlers and Military
April 10th, 2006

Farmers in Salem, near Nablus, were joined on Friday the 7th of April by Israeli and international human rights workers to protect against further settler violence. Earlier in the week a 68 year-old villager was beaten by settlers and required hospitalization. Rabbis for Human Rights, members of the Kibbutzim movement, and internationals accompanied the farmers in an effort to enable the farmers to plow their land, tend to their olive trees and graze their sheep free from harm.

Fifty farmers and human rights workers took to the hills mid morning and were met almost immediately by a settler security truck. Two settlers blocked a Palestinian tractor from accessing a nearby field by parking their van on the track. The settlers were refusing to move when about five army vehicles and an Israeli police car arrived (further blocking the road and supporting the settlers). A second tractor arrived and was similarly blocked. When some villagers tried to circumvent the army and settler van in their tractor one of the settlers stood in front of it. Despite the repeated efforts of villagers and their supporters we were unable to get tractor access to the field in order to plow. The two settlers generally harrased the farmers driving through flocks of grazing sheep and continuously arguing. After a few hours (approx 1:30pm) we heard word of house occupations in Nablus and left. Some of the Israeli demonstrators were planning to stay as long as possible to observe army and settlers and help with farm work.

URGENT ACTION NEEDED

Nablus, Occupied West Bank

Forty hours after capture, eleven children remain captives of the Israeli army. They have been confined and isolated for nearly two days now. Since 5am yesterday morning they have been held in an 8th floor room in an apartment the army has turned into a sniper nest.

The families have been forbidden to speak, but four year-old Bashar has risked running to the door to whisper to international volunteers. He has been saying since this morning that the families are hungry and scared. Other children can be heard crying. The soldiers are not responding to calls from the volunteers, but can be heard laughing.

The army forced Amjad Aodah’s family from their apartment on a lower floor of the building yesterday morning and are holding them and the family of Abu Amare Al Hajd Hamd together. The fourteen people, aged between three and seventy, are being held in a single room. Internationals and medics have attempted to gain access, but have repeatedly been denied.

Please call or fax the following officials to demand the captives release:

Shlomo Dror
Coordinator of Activities in the Territories
Phone 50 623 4053
Fax 03 697 5177

DCO Nablus
Phone 02 548 6214 or 02 548 6217
Fax 02-5486218

Ehud Olmert
Prime Minister
Fax 02 670 5475 or 02 566 4838
Telex 25279 MPRES IL

Below is an example fax:
To: Shlomo Dror
Coordinator of Activities in the Territories
Fax 03 697 5177

RE: Israeli Army Captives in Nablus

I am writing to urge you to secure the release of the fourteen people being held captive by the Israeli Army in the Sharif Building in Nablus. Amjad Aodah, Abu Amare Al Hajd Hamd, and their families have been held in one room on the 8th floor since 5am on April 7.

For over forty hours, the families, eleven children and three adults, have been held in isolation, and international medics have been prevented from seeing them. A four year-old boy has communicated to volunteers through the closed door of the apartment that they are hungry and not being told when they will be allowed to leave.

It is urgent that these families be released and that the military be required to leave. I also urge you to require the Israeli Army to cease this general practice of arbitrarily detaining civilians incommunicado.

It is incredibly troubling that Israel is allowing children as young as four to be held captive. It is increasingly disturbing that Israel is allowing the army to isolate eleven children for this period of time.

I strongly urge you to take action for the families’ release immediately.

Sincerely,

1. Eleven Children Held Captive by Israeli Army
2. Balata invasion journal Part 1
3. Bil’in Demonstration Remembers Twelfth Death Caused by Wall
4. Separation wall ‘drowns’ Palestinian
5. Everyday resistance
6. The hope for a peaceful solution?
7. Palestinian civilians pay with their lives for IDF’s refusal to publish open-fire regulations
8. Activist’s Journal

1. Eleven Children Held Captive by Israeli Army
April 8th, 2006

Nablus, Palestine

Eleven children have been held captive by the Israeli army since 5am yesterday morning. They are being held in an apartment on the 8th floor of a building the army has turned into a sniper nest. A young boy, the only captive medical volunteers have been allowed to contact, reported that the families are hungry and without food. The army is preventing any food from being brought into the building.

The army forced Amjad Aodah’s family from their apartment on a lower floor of the building and are holding them and the family of Abu Amare Al Hajd Hamd hostage. The fourteen people, aged between three and seventy, are in a single room on the 8th floor. Internationals and medics have attempted to gain access, but have repeatedly been denied.

For more information call:
Lee 0547 385 754
Mohammad 0546 218 759
ISM media office 022 971 824

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2. Balata invasion journal Part 1
April 8th, 2006
By Jane

On the morning of April 6th I had a call saying the Israeli military have invaded Nablus, would I join 3 others and go? During military invasions the role of ISM is to go with medical teams, try to approach houses the military have occupied to speak with the families held there, bring them food and medicines.

We were not allowed to pass the checkpoint into Nablus so we walked over the mountain, a wonderful hour and a half walk thru beautiful hills. By the time we arrived the military operation was over. It left 12 injured. We went to the hospital to get the details of the injuries. Crumbling plaster work, half unpacked boxes, people on sat waiting on the stairwell, sad faces, a young man crying. A 17 year old boy was critically injured by a rubber bullet which hit his head. Two were injured running from jeeps. One 45 year old woman had shrapnel in her leg, one 25 year old was shot by a live bullet in the abdomen. The others were hit by rubber bullets in the legs and back.

Mohammed A., the ISM Co-ordinator told us that arrests are intensifying and he thinks another big invasion, such as the one a month and a half ago is about to happen. Two women were arrested 3 nights ago. The Neighbors said that they were bought out of their house naked, beaten in the street and taken to a military base. Listening to Mohammed speak about Nablus and Balata refugee camp is hard. What can you say to someone who shows you photos of his friend, head half missing, guts spewing out, corpse blackened by the explosion?

During the night there were two explosions and gun fire. At 8am in the morning the mosque load speaker system announced the death of the young man killed in the previous days violence.

Jane

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3. Bil’in Demonstration Remembers Twelfth Death Caused by Wall
April 8th, 2006

Friday’s Bil’in demonstration was a memorial for the twelfth victim of the apartheid wall. Eyad Taha Salame Taha, a 28 year-old man from Beit Annan, was drowned in a flood caused by the wall in Bil’in on Sunday, April 2, 2006.

Eyad and his brother, Raad, were traveling to work when flood waters swept their car away. They got out of the car and were washed towards the barrier by strong currents. Raad was rescued by villagers, but Eyad was found unconscious, entangled in the razor wire of the apartheid barrier.

Local Bil’in activists, joined by Israelis and internationals, held their weekly peaceful demonstration by the wall next to the village. Two people from the village were arrested, including Mohammed Khatib from the Bil’in popular committee against the wall. As long as international activists were filming, the soldiers treated them well, but when the cameras were gone, the soldiers beat them up. They were both released after the demonstration.

After demonstrating at the usual site, the activists marched to the place where Eyad was drowned. The villagers put up a beautiful monument with posters and lavender to honor Eyad. Speeches were given about this horrible loss and about the effect the wall had on this atrocity. The activists charged that the Israeli government should be held completely responsible for this death.

Eyad’s tragic death highlights the reality of the destructive effects of the wall on the lives of Palestinians in Bil’in and all along the wall.

Unfortunately, his is not the first life lost as a result of the wall. Eleven others lost their lives in demonstrations against the illegal annexation barrier, including five children under the age of 16.

Mohammad Fadel Hashem Rayan, age 25, from Beit Duko was killed in Beit Ijza on February 26, 2004 by live ammunition shot at him by border police during a demonstration against the wall.

Zakaria MaHmud Salem, age 28, from Beit Ijza was killed in Beit Ijza on February 26, 2004 by live ammunition shot at him by border police during a demonstration against the wall.

Abdal Rahman Abu Eid, age 62, from Bidu was killed in Bidu on February 26, 2004 from a heart attack after his house was tear gassed.

Mohammad Daud Badwan, age 21, from Bidu was shot by border police snipers during a demonstration in Biddu on March 26, 2004 and died April 3, 2004.

Diaa Abdel Karim Abu Eid, age 24, from Bidu was killed in Bidu by live ammunition shot at him during a demonstration against the wall on April 4, 2004.

Hussain mahmud Awwad Aliyan, age 17, from Budrus, was killed in Beitunia on April 16, 2004 at a demonstration against the wall, after live ammunition was shot at demonstrators.

Islam Hashem Rizik Zhahran, age 14, from Deir Abu Mashal was shot with a rubber coated metal bullet in Deir Anu Mashal on April 18, 2004 and died April 28, 2004.

Alaa Mohammad Abdel Rahman Khalil, age 14, from Betunia was killed in Betunia February 15, 2005 by live ammunition shot by a security guard while throwing stones at a wall security jeep.

Jamal Jaber Ibrahim Assi, age 15, from Beit Likya was killed in Beit Likya on May 4, 2005 by live ammunition shot in his pelvis while throwing stones in a demonstration against the wall.

Odai Mofeed Mahmud Assi, age 14, from Beit Likya was killed in Beit Likya on May 4, 2005 by live ammunition shot in his chest while throwing stones in a demonstration against the wall.

Mahayub Nimer Assi, age 15, from Beit Likya was killed in Beit Likya on June 8, 2005 by live ammunition shot by a security guard while he was at his family’s orchards, about 200 meters from the bulldozers parking lot.

It is the hope of activists, as we continue our protests and demonstrations, that these lives will not have been lost in vain. It is in their memory that we protest tomorrow and every day thereafter.

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4. Separation wall ‘drowns’ Palestinian
April 4th, 2006
By Laila El-Haddad
From AlJazeera.net

A Palestinian man has drowned in the West Bank after getting entangled in the separation barrier’s barbed wire during flash floods, medical officials and witnesses say.

According to witnesses, heavy rains followed by flash foods washed away two brothers, Eyad and Raad Taher, in the West Bank village of Bil’in early on Sunday morning.

The two men, from the village of Bait Annan in the West Bank, were passing through Bil’in on their way to Ram Allah via an Israeli-built road connecting the two areas, when they were washed away by the flood waters, witnesses said.

They got out of their vehicle, but were swept by the strong current in the direction of the barrier.

Raad Taher was rescued by villagers, but his brother Eyad, 26, was found unconscious, caught in the razor-wire of the barrier that separates Bil’in from nearby Jewish settlements.

Poor roads

Palestinians blamed the Israelis for poor road planning. The road runs through a valley between two mountains.

Palestinians say the road is aimed at serving the expansion of the nearby settlement of Beitar Illit without taking into consideration the possibility of flooding.

The earthworks of the barrier, whose route was ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice in July 2004, acted as a dam, flooding the poorly built road between the villages of Bil’in and Safa, west of Ram Allah, villagers said.

“We asked the army to allow us to drain the water, but they refused, saying they were worried the fence would collapse”

Mohammad Khatib, a member of the Popular Committee Against the Separation Fence in Bil’in, said: “Placing the road here in such a low area with no drains caused the water to pile up so high that it covered 15m of our olive trees.”

Villagers also blamed the Israeli army, who they say prevented their search party from using their equipment to try to drain the flooded area.

Residents say they were not allowed to dig a ditch next to the fence in order to drain water.

Khatib, said: “We asked the army to allow us to drain the water, and even the Israeli rescue services agreed but the army refused, saying they were worried the fence would collapse.”

Eido Minkovsky, an Israeli army spokesperson, said: “All the claims that we didn’t allow the forces to act are incorrect.”

Fence at fault

Khatib said: “Because of the planned route of the fence, which is being built according to the expansion plans of nearby Jewish settlements, this man was killed.

“There was a humanitarian situation and lives at stake, and they refused to let us through. So how will it be when the fence is completed? We hold the occupation completely responsible for this.”

Bil’in is a small Palestinian farming village 4km east of the 1949 Armistice Line.

The planned route of the West Bank barrier comes within four metres of the last house in Bil’in and is set to take more than half of the village’s land to make room for settlement expansion.

A report published by human rights group B’tselem recently stated that the wall’s route through the village was not chosen based on correct security claims, but rather was politically motivated and designed to incorporate illegal expansion of nearby settlements.

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5. Everyday resistance
April 5th, 2006
by: Alys a member of IWPS (The International Womens Peace Service) Epilogue By ISM media

Hebron, a city in the southern part of the West Bank, is unique in that the settlements, inhabited by fanatical Zionists, are located right within Palestinian neighborhoods. The proximity of the settlements and the often violent and abusive behavior of the settlers, makes life extremely difficult for the Palestinians whose homes now fall into H2, the Israeli-controlled area.

The population of Tel Rumeida settlement, along with the three other settlements located in the Old City (Beit Hadassa, Avraham Avinu and Beit Romano), totals around 500, yet results in approximately 4,000 soldiers being stationed there. The daily lives of Palestinians are severely disrupted by both the settlers and the military.

Tel Rumeida settlement, which began in 1984 with six mobile homes/caravans occupying Palestinian land, has continued to expand, with the settlers using any means necessary in their attempts to drive the Palestinians away from their homes and land. In 1998 the Israeli government officially approved the settlement and in 2001 the Israeli Defence Ministry gave a permit to build 16 housing units. Without the support — financial and military — of the Israeli government, it would be hard, if not impossible, for the settlement to continue.

The settlers are extremely hostile, on many occasions violent and abusive. The forms of violence include throwing stones and rocks, spitting and physically attacking Palestinians, sometimes resulting in broken bones. The settlers are free to wander the streets with guns slung over their backs. Their armed presence and near impunity before the law means they wield great power.

For the Palestinian families whose homes are now spitting distance — literally — from the settlements, their refusal to move, to be driven out, is a daily form of resistance. It is a resistance which takes courage,determination, and strength.

Shabbat. A beautiful spring day. Two teenage boys walking casually down the deserted main street. In another place, in another life, maybe a different story. But here they are armed settlers. Teenage boys, indoctrinated with fanatical religious beliefs, guns slung over their backs. A street that had formally been a thriving, bustling market. Now not a single shop remains open and only a handful of Palestinian families remain living there.

And for the Palestinians there is much to negotiate. For the families who now have the settlers living right next to them, on their land, even leaving the house is an ordeal. Not only risking being attacked, spat at, verbally abused, but also some are no longer free to walk down the street to reach their house.

Three small girls on their way home from school help each other climb over razor wire which blocks their way home. No longer able to walk down the street, the only route left to them — a narrow, rough track cut into the hills — is now blocked by razor wire.

I was shocked walking through the deserted Old City, once a thriving Palestinian market area, now a ghost of its former self. Wire meshing above my head. A net strung across the alleyway to catch the rubbish thrown by the settlers — toilet paper, rotting vegetables, lumps of concrete.

The journey to school not only involves negotiating the checkpoints, but also the settlers. Internationals are involved in the ’school patrols,’ strategically positioned along the route to school (and indeed some remaining in the school itself) intervening when necessary. Getting between the settlers and the Palestinian children they are throwing stones at. Hopefully helping the journey to school be less of an ordeal. And throughout the afternoon being a visible presence on the streets, complete with video cameras. The camera not only documenting, but also acting as a deterrent.

H2, the Israeli-controlled part of Hebron, is an intense, crazy place. Resistance takes many forms. Refusing to be driven from your home is an act of resistance. Playing football in the street, laughing, having even a fraction of trust in strangers — all these are forms of resistance. I was touched by the strength of the Palestinians as they sought to maintain their day to day lives
and humanity in the face of such hostility and insanity.

Epilogue:
On Saturday the 1st of April, Silvana Hogg a Swiss human rights worker with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) was assaulted by an Israeli settler in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron. This follows on from the previous Saturday when Brian Morgan, an America human rights worker with the Tel Rumeida Project, was attacked by a mob of 20 Jewish settlers while a nearby Israeli soldier ignored repeated pleas for help. Bith required stiches to the head.

Silvana was accompanying Palestinian school children on their way home when the attack happened about 5 meters from a small Israeli army outpost. Three eyewitnesses to the assault went into the Israeli police station wwith a photograph of the settler ofeender and made statements. Silvana herself went to make a statement the next day. The Police are yet to get back to Silvana about the attack.

Both Silvana and Brian regularly work in the Tel Rumeida area accompanying Palestinian school children on the their way to and from classes so that there is less chance that the children will be attacked by the settlers. Attacks on Palestinians and internationals increase on the Sabbath and on holidays when settler youths are not in school and when religious settlers can not use their cars and have to walk home, often harassing Palestinians as they go.

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6. The hope for a peaceful solution?
April 6th, 2006

Joel Beinin has written a thought provoking review of Shlomo Ben-Ami’s Scars of War, Wounds of Peace in the April 17th issue of The Nation. It’s well worth reading in full, and Beinin finishes on an optimistic note:

Where, then, is the hope for a peaceful solution to the conflict? I believe that it lies in the young Palestinians, Jewish Israelis and internationals who have been fighting shoulder to shoulder in weekly battles against the Israeli security forces since late 2003 to halt the construction of the separation wall. This struggle has been led by Palestinian villagers in unheralded places like Budrus and Bil’in, organized in the Popular Committee Against the Wall. Although their successes have so far been minor, these actions have demonstrated that trust is built through joint political action and that whether there will eventually be two states or one, coexistence, not separation, is the foundation for peace.

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7. Palestinian civilians pay with their lives for IDF’s refusal to publish open-fire regulations
April 6th, 2006

From B’Tselem:

B’Tselem today urged IDF Chief-of-Staff Dan Halutz and Judge Advocate General Avihai Mandelblit to make public immediately the open-fire regulations that have been given to soldiers in the Occupied Territories. The request follows publication of an IDF report that verifies human rights organizations’ repeated claims that the regulations are unclear and can be understood in different ways.

B’Tselem contends that the secrecy enables the senior IDF staff to avoid responsibility for the killing of innocent persons, and to divert the criticism to the soldiers in the field. Since the beginning of the intifada, the IDF has related to the open-fire regulations applying in the Occupied Territories as “confidential information,” which are provided to soldiers verbally, and not in writing, as was previously the case.

The IDF’s internal report, which was published on the Ynet Website, states: “There are units in which the Open-Fire Regulations have been condensed and summarized into a number of sentences, such that ‘the soldiers fail to understand the regulation’s nuances.’” The report also reveals that there are battalion commanders who added their own regulations: “In places in which the unit added ‘a verbal instruction” to the regulations, it was found that the soldiers become confused from the large amount of information.” These findings are consistent with the claims that B’Tselem and other human rights organizations have raised for a number of years.

Secrecy of the Open-Fire Regulations encourages a quick trigger finger. The soldiers are given the regulations in oral briefings, which easily result in distortions, misunderstandings, and hidden messages. The policy has led to the killing of civilians in unprecedented proportion. According to B’Tselem’s figures, from September 2000 to the end of March 2006, IDF soldiers have killed at least 1,816 Palestinians, 593 of whom were minors, who were not participating in the fighting.

B’Tselem’s new research illustrates why the regulations must be published immediately. Investigation of the circumstances in which nine unarmed Palestinians were killed near the Gaza perimeter fence raise a suspicion that Israel classified the land next to the fence “killing zones,” that is, areas in which the soldiers are ordered to open fire at any person who enters the area, regardless of the reason of entry. IDF officials, among them Judge Advocate General, Brigadier General Avihai Mandelblit, vigorously denied the existence of any such regulation. However, the nine cases, which occurred following the disengagement from Gaza, strengthen the suspicion. Publication of the regulations will eliminate the ambiguity and enable judicial and public review of this important issue.

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8. Activist’s Journal
April 4th, 2006

Wednesday was a quiet day in which I caught up with sleep lost to jetlag and fixed my email setup. On Thursday there was a demo in Beit Sira that we went to. It was Land Day, which commemorates a 1976 uprising of Palestinian citizens of Israel. The idea was to plant trees in the land of the village. This was unsuccessful because of the fully tooled up riot squad of Israeli soldiers that blocked our path. The most mild of pushing on their huge plexi-glass shields led to a full-on battering session.

Friday, of course, was the regular Bil’in demonstration. It was great to be back! Spirits were high and there was a good attendance. The Israeli anarchists were there in force as always. Also there were a lot of folk from Gush Shalom this week. The village committee’s plan was to use a large metal frame as a ramp to be able to get over the gate in the fence. A good attempt was made at this, but the soldiers were particularly nasty this week and lashed out almost immediately to stop this bridge building attempt. Can’t let the Palestinians into their own land now can we? The usual beatings and usage of “less lethal” weaponry on unarmed demonstrators ensued.

That night, myself along with two others from ISM stayed overnight in the Bil’in outpost, which was fun. It was a nice camping trip – it’s good to be outdoors in the fresh air! We sat around the fire with guys from the village, learned some Arabic and drank loads of sweet tea. About 7 in the morning we were woken up by the sound of an off-road vehicle pulling away. M. had seen them and said that it was soldiers who peeked in the door of the outpost to watch us sleeping. Furthermore they had apparently done the same thing three times that night!

Raining outside, though weather was warm yesterday. Training for new ISM folk tomorrow.

Must sleep. Bed soon.

***
The ISM training was yesterday and today. We had about eight new recruits, so it was a pretty good weekend session. At the end of today, we were planning how to spread ourselves around the regions that ISM covers and there was a really good vibe. We have some good activists here now and I am feeling more confident. The majority of us here now are British, I think. Mansour jokes that it is a British occupation of ISM (like there used to be a Swedish occupation).

This morning we went to a legal training session organised by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israeli (PCATI). It was a very useful and interesting session, and folk from ISM (including the new trainees), IWPS, the Tel Rumeida Project and CPT were there amongst others. Two Israeli lawyers gave us briefings on how Israeli military law applies to Palestinians in the occupied territories (the first session) and the rights of us as internationals in the occupied territories (the second session). The two lawyers are brilliant, committed people and they do loads of work for Palestinians and international activists like us supporting them. The main point that came across was that although Israel claims to uphold a fair, equal rule of law that governs the Palestinians in the occupied territories, in reality the military is the law and what they say goes. The Palestinians are subject to a whole slew of military orders, which are only written in Hebrew and are hard for the public to access. It’s a really nightmarish system. And it is an apartheid system too, because the Jewish settlers who live in the occupied territories are not subject to these military orders, rather they are governed by regular Israeli law which is far more lenient and accountable. Just one example of this – Israelis (and internationals) arrested in the occupied territories have to be brought before a judge for the initial hearing within 24 hours, but Palestinians will not see a judge for eight days. Furthermore, since this judge is a uniformed military officer, this hearing is simply a formality in which one part of the military asks another part of the military to extend the arrest. There are lots of examples of things like this, but the whole thing amounts to a system of apartheid, whose main aim is to ultimately to make the Palestinians leave their homes.

I might go to Hebron at some point this week to help the Tel Rumeida Project, as the folk there are very tired by the sound of it.

Must do laundry now.