16th October 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Firefund | illegally annexed East Jerusalem, occupied Palestine
Shadi and his friend Ahmad were arrested at a bus stop in Jerusalem. A group of East Jerusalem illegal settlers called police to investigate the two boys, on suspicion of being Palestinian.
In the ensuing process of arrest, interrogation, and abuse, the Israeli police proclaimed that the two boys had gone to Jerusalem with the intent to stab a soldier, and subsequently charged them both with attempted manslaughter. During the interrogation, the boys were shouted at, beaten and given electric shocks. According to Shadi’s family, he still maintains his innocence, but in the Israeli courts, no evidence is needed to convict a Palestinian.
Shadi is now imprisoned in al Masra youth detention centre, a facility for teenagers incarcerated for theft, assault and drug possession, where he suffers from abuse and isolation. His family visits him as often as possible, but travelling from the hometown Kufr Akab to the north of Israel is expensive, and the Farah family has no prospect of paying for a good lawyer to take Shadi’s case.
The reason this can happen is that the Israeli authorities believe the international community doesn’t care. With this campaign, we’re going to prove them wrong!
Costs
Shadi’s unjust incarceration has not been without cost for the family, emotionally as well as economically. The Farah family in general has little money, and the imprisonment of Shadi is a heavy burden on the family’s economy. In order to visit Shadi at the al Marsa detention center, the family has to rent a car and pay for the gas, amounting to about 800 NIS (almost €200) per trip.
The Farah family has already been forced to borrow money in order to cover these expenses, and on top of that they have to finance the expenses of the upcoming trial, amounting to approximately €1000, something that is common practice when it comes to Palestinians.
For the time being, Shadi has been appointed an Israeli lawyer. But as a Palestinian being prosecuted under a racist apartheid system, he will need a good lawyer with expert knowledge and experience in defending Palestinians, if he wants any hope of avoiding prison.
Shadi’s trial has been set to October 27, and it is expected that he will be sentenced to prison for at least two years. After this trial, it will be possible to appeal the case, but the only chance of winning the appeal is to get a good lawyer, which will amount to a minimum of another €3500.
Support Shadi
We are doing this campaign to collect €4500 for Shadi’s legal case and to create awareness about child prisoners in Israel. But only if we reach our goal, the money will be withdrawn and sent to Shadi and his family, so we need your help.
Please support the campaign by pledging and by sharing it!
Let’s tell Israel that they can’t put children in prison without resistance from the international community – let’s #bringShadihome!
6th October 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
The 3rd and 4th of October marked the celebrations of the Yewish New Year. In the occupied West Bank, Jewish holidays, celebrated by the settlers from the illegal settlements. This usually translates to an increase in harassment, restrictions and the presence of heavily-armed military occupying forces and settlers, often not only from the illegal settlements of the respective cities, but additionally ‘settler-visitors’. In occupied al-Khalil (Hebron), with the celebrations for the New Year now past, preparations for the upcoming week-long holiday of Sukkot are already underway.
Palestinian children play outside their homes – right next to heavily armed Israeli forces watching movement of Palestinians
During the two-day celebration of the Yewish New Year, the part of Ibrahimi Mosque that has not been confiscated by the Israeli forces has been closed entirely for Palestinians and Muslims. Sixty percent of the Mosque was illegally annexed by Israeli forces who installed a synagogue inside in the aftermath of the 1994 Ibrahimi Mosque massacre. Additionally, the nearby Ibrahimi Mosque checkpoint that connects the new Palestinian market (after the closure and ethnic cleansing of Shuhada Street, the former bustling Palestinian market, in the aftermath of the Ibrahimi mosque massacre) with the Ibrahimi Mosque area has been closed for Palestinians since Sunday night. This leaves Palestinians, including residents, school-students and teachers with only few options to reach school, work and their homes, as the closest alternative of Shuhada Street is ‘illegal’ to use for Palestinians under Israeli occupation ‘rules’. On Thursday, October 6th, both the Mosque and the nearby checkpoint were closed as well – even though there’s no official Yewish holiday; yet another arbitrary movement restriction on Palestinians in order to favour settlers.
These movement restrictions, which are solely and deliberately only enforced on Palestinians, have directly impeded the right to education in various areas. At Ziad Jaber school near the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba, school-students, their parents walking them to school and teachers had to cross paths with the heavily-armed settlers, and often undergo bag-, ID- and body-searches based on racial profiling by the Israeli forces. Young adult men are especially targeted by these arbitrary and often humiliating searches, where they are forced to lift up their shirts and trouser-legs, basically getting half-undressed in public.
Palestinian young men are forced to lift up their shirts and trouser-legs by Israeli Forces near Ziad Jaber school
A similar procedure is enforced on Palestinians when Israeli settlers from the illegal Kiryat Arba settlement walk down to Ibrahimi Mosque (the 60% of it where a synagogue was installed) in the evenings. As any Friday night, where the settlers have the same ritual for Shabbat, Palestinians are oftentimes stopped by Israeli forces who completely line the roads the settlers will be taking, in order to allow for settlers to pass the street before allowing Palestinians to continue their way. Often, Israeli forces stop especially young men and force them to undergo similar checks, ordering them to lift up their shirts and turn around, and then lift up their trouser legs.
Israeli forces at night force Palestinian to lift up his shirt
Opposite the al-Faihaa girls school in the Ibrahimi Mosque area, Israeli forces put up an additional CCTV surveillance tower, registering and locking Palestinians’ every movement. The structure is fenced off with concrete blocks and barbed wire, and always manned with at least two soldiers.
CCTV surveillance tower newly put up in Palestinian neighborhood
For the upcoming holiday of Sukkot, where many settlers from the illegal settlements all over the Israeli occupied West Bank are expected to visit the Ibrahimi Mosque (the 60% of it where a synagogue has been installed), preparations in al-Khalil are under way for making the area as empty as possible of any Palestinian presence. New sign-posts are being put up to indicate directions for the ‘visitors’. Changing and ‘Hebrew-nising’ street names, giving Hebrew names to houses illegaly taken over by settlers, etc. has already been identified as one of the tools of the Israeli occupation to lay claim to Palestinian property and streets – an obvious attempt to erase the Palestinian existence in the mind of the people first. At the same time, ethnic cleansing is slowly but steadily taking place, especially in the Old City of al-Khalil.
New sign-post erected by Israeli Forces near ethnically cleansed Shuhada Street
5th October 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Israeli forces in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) are continuously increasing their efforts of ethnic cleansing in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood. In the area, declared a ‘closed military zone’ for almost a year, Israeli forces do everything imaginable to force the Palestinian population to move away in order to create an ethnically cleansed zone free of any Palestinian presence, geographically linking the illegal settlements.
The area of the ‘closed military zone’ (CMZ) that is solely and deliberately only enforced on Palestinians, while at the same time facilitating settler movement, has recently been extended to encompass the Tel Rumeida neighborhood in it’s entirety. On the tiny strip of Shuhada Street – that in the aftermath of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre hasn’t yet been fully ethnically cleansed of Palestinian presence – illegal annexation attempts are progressing continuously. For the few hundred meters of the street where some Palestinians are still allowed to walk and the whole Tel Rumeida neighborhood, Palestinian vehicular traffic, including ambulances, is forbidden and has effectively been made into a dead-end for Palestinians. The stairs leading to the Qurtuba school-area have been closed, again only for Palestinians, and the rest of the street continuing from there has already been ethnically cleansed and is now completely off-limits to Palestinians.
One of the main checkpoints needed to reach the area of the CMZ is the highly-militarized and fenced-in Shuhada checkpoint, where Israeli forces in the last few days have replaced their old list of ‘registered Palestinian residents’ with a brand-new copy. For the new list though, Israeli forces arbitrarily dropped many names of Palestinians previously registered, thus leaving them stranded at the checkpoint and denied passage to reach their own homes. How the ‘new list’ was created baffles the Palestinian residents, as there has not been any new ‘registration’ of residents in which Israeli forces would suddenly, usually at night time, show up in family homes in order to register names and ID-numbers of the present family members.
Whereas the Israeli forces are trying to enforce the ‘normality’ of family or friends, workers or medical personell – if Palestinian – as not being permitted in the so called ‘closed military zone’, Israeli settlers from the illegal settlements are free to go and come as they please. With hightened restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement, Israeli forces at Shuhada checkpoint have additionally started forcing men to lift up their shirts and trouser-legs after having already passed the metal detector installed inside the checkpoint box, which ensures that no outside observer will see what’s happening inside. The sole reason for this, as for the whole existence of the checkpoint itself, is humiliation; humiliation to a degree where Palestinians decide to leave as there is no option to live a life with at least a shroud of dignity, where you’re treated like a human being – despite being born, and identified, as Palestinian.
3rd October 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Israeli forces put up a CCTV observation tower in the Ibrahimi mosque area, further increasing not only their all-encompassing surveillance of Palestinians, but also their slow but steady illegal annexation of more and more Palestinian land in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).
At the end of last week, Israeli forces in a ‘secret’ over-night action put up the observation tower, surrounded by dozens of cement blocks and barbed-wire. Located in a corner between Palestinian houses, the observation post with a container and all the surrounding paraphernalia is just another step in the illegal annexation of yet more land. In recent weeks, Israeli forces have increased their illegal annexations of the tiny strip of Shuhada Street still accessible to Palestinian pedestrians and stepped up the game of creating a coercive environment directly leading to forced displacement of Palestinians in the Tel Rumeida area.
CCTV surveillance tower newly put up in Palestinian neighborhood
This observation tower is fitted with a camera that reaches high above the houses in the neighborhood, thus watching Palestinians constantly. This feeling of permanently being watched for Palestinians is combined with the ever present controls and humiliations at the more-and-more militarized checkpoints. Palestinians are watched, humiliated, numbered, deprived of their most basic human rights – occupied not only physically by the Israeli occupation forces, but also mentally. They can never tell whether they’ll be allowed through a checkpoint (something that solely depends on the respective soldiers whim), whether their children will be tear-gassed on their way to school or arrested, or even whether they’ll be gunned down by Israeli forces at a checkpoint and left to bleed to death. Any and all of these forms of collective punishment are enforced by the Israeli occupying forces on the entire population of civilians in complete disregard of any care for international law or humane treatment of the occupied indigenous Palestinian population.
The Tel Rumeida neighborhood, Shuhada Street, and the area around the Ibrahimi Mosque are already linked by a settler-only street that has been ethnically cleansed of Palestinians in the aftermath of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre. Restrictions in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood (declared a ‘closed military zone’ solely enforced on Palestinian residents for almost a year now) and around the Ibrahimi Mosque (where Palestinians are often prevented from passing checkpoints on a age-limit between 15-30) have escalated in a very short amount of time, making life for the Palstinians as hard – or rather impossible – as possible, leaving them with no choice than to leave. The only and clear aim is the forcible transfer of all Palestinians in this area, thus geographically linking the illegal settlements in an area ethnically cleansed of any Palestinian presence.
3rd October 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
One week ago, the United States and much of the world turned on their televisions to tune into the 2016 Presidential debate. Advertised as the most anticipated debate in a generation, millions watched as Democrat Hillary Clinton sparred off against Republican Donald Trump on US economics, foreign policy, and who would be the most well suited candidate to sit in the White House. On the critical side, much has been said on Trump’s abrasiveness and Clinton’s inability to reconcile her and her husband’s failed policies in the past. There is also much talk from the “progressive” side of US politics (those originally seeking the nomination of socialist Bernie Sanders) of voting for neoliberal Clinton as the “lesser evil” against neofascist Trump.
photo credit: Brian Snyder – Reuters
While much can be said and argued about which of these candidates might be the best (or least worse) choice for the American people, the debate failed to take into consideration a very important demographic – everyone else in the world! US domestic policy has forever been tied to its foreign policy, a foreign policy that has left countless bloodied bodies around the world from Argentina to the Philippines while Americans sit and contemplate their next big investment. As an American citizen currently residing in Israeli occupied Palestine, I viewed this debate in a much different light. Since the US gives more aid money to Israel than any other country through its government and countless zionist charities, the political course of the US is the number one factor determining the future of the occupation.
Trump and Clinton thus used the debate to showcase their complete disregard for the people of West Asia – what we in the US refer to as the Middle East. Despite their many disagreements, both candidates hold the same mantra regarding this rich and complex region: Go after terrorism, no matter the cost! Trump used this point to attack Clinton, saying that the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, which Clinton indeed supported, “created the power vacuum” that Isis (known in this part of the world as Daesh) filled. This is very true, yet Trump’s surprisingly seeming anti-imperialist analysis came crashing down when he added his own two cents to the solution – we never should have pulled out the troops in the first place! If the US occupation had just continued, Isis would never have existed, says this logic.
Many would expect such imperialist rhetoric from Trump, though many have seemed incapable of recognizing the same tendencies within Clinton’s talking points. Clinton fired back at Trump, saying that US occupying forces were pulled from Iraq because “the new Iraqi government would not have protected them”. This colonial apologist language was backed up by her praising of NATO forces for supporting the occupation of Afghanistan, an occupation that has existed in different forms up to the present day. In order to attack Trump for claiming that “America’s allies need to pay their fair share” in terms of military alliances, Clinton finished by saying that she would work with “America’s allies” until the end.
The Israeli state and its illegal settlements in the West Bank are funded directly by the US government and zionist charities within that country. This ambulance, donated by a family from the US state of Michigan, was parked outside the illegal settlement of Beit Hadassah in occupied Hebron.
These “allies” Clinton and Trump speak of join the US in being some of the most oppressive, militaristic nation states that exist on the map. Top among them is Israel. During Trump’s speech to the American-Israeli Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC), he praised “[America’s] cultural brother, the only democracy in the Middle East, the state of Israel”, and vowed to “veto any attempt by the UN to impose its will on the Jewish state”. Anyone looking for a less hawkish alternative would find no ally in Clinton who claimed to “ensure Israel maintains its qualitative military edge” while expressing, “For the security of Israel and the world, we need America to remain a respected global leader, committed to defending and advancing the international order”. She even went as far as to encourage the young people present to “oppose the alarming Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement known as BDS”.
What both of these Presidential candidates have proven through their rhetoric is that no matter who wins the Presidency, zionism has already won in the United States. When politicians speak of Israel’s “security”, it is code speak for the racist and militarized occupation of the Palestinian people. When President Obama signed the recent $38 billion dollar weapons deal with Israel, he signed it in Palestinian blood. American bullets pierce the skin of Palestinians standing up for their rights. American guns are used to intimidate Palestinian shop owners as settlers parade through their market places. American tanks and jets rain death upon Palestinian communities. And American bulldozers destroy Palestinian homes to make way for illegal Israeli settlements. Both Trump and Clinton have shown that “business as usual” will be taken to far more dangerous levels. Palestine has already lost the US Presidential election.
Rifle-fired tear gas canister shells used against unarmed Palestinian youth in the streets of Bab al-Zawiye in occupied Hebron. These crowd-control weapons are bought with money from US aid packages to Israel, usually directly from US arms companies.
If you stand with Palestine, the time has come to admit that the election is nothing more than a distraction from the solidarity work that must be done. To support the Palestinian people is to act not with your ballet but with your body. Join Palestinian solidarity groups and take to the streets of every major city demanding an end to this support of apartheid. Proudly take up Clinton’s mantle of “bully” and actively take part in the BDS movement to call out and cut off the corporations that profit from land grabs and state violence in Palestine. And, of course, come to Palestine and bear witness to the brutality of the Israeli occupation and the undying resiliency and wonderful hospitality of the Palestinian people.
The people of Palestine have asked for our unconditional and uncompromising solidarity. It is time we answered their call.
