Tag: Gaza - Page 12 - International Solidarity Movement

Israeli Forces shoot at family harvesting crops on their land

2nd May 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza team | Gaza, occupied Palestine

After more than six months risking their lives while ploughing, planting seeds and weeding their land, and after investing a large amount of money on seeds and on renting a tractor, the Qudaih family from the village of Khuzaa were finally ready to start harvesting their barley and the wheat two days ago.

We arrived at the fields, located around 100 metres from the fence, at 7am. Around 9am one jeep from the Israeli occupation forces stopped in front of the farmers and a group of soldiers emerged. After a few minutes they fired several shots in the air, then returned to the jeep and left.

A family member working on the land in Khuzaa

45 minutes later another jeep arrived. This time the soldiers fired shots on the ground next to the farmers and the ISM activists that were with them. The shots were near misses, just a few centimetres from their feet. As if this was not terrifying enough, next they fired shots close to the farmers’ and activists’ heads. At that moment most of the farmers started to run away from their fields terrified by the whistling sounds of the bullets flying around them: One Bedouin man that was picking herbs for his animals laid down on the ground hiding behind his donkey, while the soldiers fired shot more than five times just a few centimetres from him. The shooting didn’t even stop when everyone started to run away, preventing the farmers to secure their horse cart holding what little harvest they had collected until they were attacked.

The Qudaih family harvesting their barley on their land.

These families now have to choose between losing all the money invested as well as their main sustenance for the year, or continue trying to harvest the crops on their land – despite the risk of someone getting killed or disabled.

Five year anniversary of the death of Vittorio Arrigoni

18th April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Gaza, occupied Palestine

Last Thursday 14^th April marked four years since the disappearance of Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza, under the Israeli blockade. According to subsequent statements and investigations carried out by Hamas, ISM activist Vittorio’s body was discovered the following day, having been kidnapped and executed by the previously unheard of “Brigade of the Gallant Companion of the Prophet Mohammed bin Muslima,” a Salafist splinter-group. His alleged murderers were eventually arrested and sentenced to life-imprisonment (reduced to fifteen years on appeal).

Vittorio wearing a keffiyeh — Vittorio wearing a kaffiyeh

Before his death Vittorio was a committed, passionate ISM activist who spent the best part of three years of his life in Gaza between 2008 and 2011, working in solidarity with the Palestinian people suffering from the Israeli blockade. He first went to Gaza as part of the Free Gaza flotilla that broke the blockade in August 2008. Vittorio worked in solidarity with farmers and fishermen, attended demonstrations and documented, for both ISM and other media outlets, the countless examples of Israeli human rights abuses that he witnessed. This was none more evident than in his work during Operation Cast Lead, in which hundreds of civilians were massacred.

Despite the difficulties he encountered in his work Vittorio was an incredibly positive, happy and optimistic person. He described the breaking of the blockade in 2008 as the happiest moment of his life, stating that, “it became clear, not only to the world but Palestinians also, that there are people who are willing to spend their lives to come and hug their brothers here in Gaza.”

Vittorio was a born activist whose grandfathers “fought and died struggling against occupation, a fascist Nazi one. For that reason presumably in my DNA, my blood, there are particles that push me to struggle for freedom and human rights.”

Hundreds of Palestinians gathered in Gaza last week, where Vittorio is considered a Martyr to the cause of peaceful resistance, to commemorate the anniversary of Vittorio’s death- singing, dancing and showing a film dedicated to his life. Vittorio’s memory is still honoured in Gaza by the street and school that carry his name. A book of Vittorio’s daily dispatches to Italian media – “Gaza: Stay Human” – was first published in 2010 with an introduction by Ilan Pappe.

ISM continue in Vittorio’s spirit, to support and show solidarity to the Palestinian people in their peaceful, non-violent opposition to the blockade of Gaza and the occupation of the West Bank.

“We must remain human, even in the most difficult times … Because, despite everything, there must always be humanity within us. We have to bring it to others.”

Vittorio Arrigoni

4^th February 1975 – 15^th April 2011

Israeli military destroys agricultural lands in Gaza

3rd of March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Gaza Strip, occupied Palestine

At around 9am on Thursday, the 31st March, four Israeli bulldozers entered the Gaza Strip at El Fakhuri. They came in order to destroy agricultural lands located near the border, once again violating the indefinite truce that ended the 2014 Israeli aggression against Gaza.

Meanwhile more than thirty tanks were located along the fence line, pointing at the Palestinian farmers who kept working on their lands despite the great risk that they face doing so.

In less than a month the wheat harvest season will start. The families who own land near the border don’t know what will happen then, as no one seems to do anything to stop the systematic aggression. The wheat harvest is vital for the families ability to feed their children.

Apartheid in the fields: Part 3 How the food gets to us and what we can do

1st April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Gaza Strip, occupied Palestine

A new report from Corporate Watch outlines exactly how the food grown in the illegal settlements of Palestine gets to our plates in Britain. This final summary looks at what we in Britain can do to support the boycott called for by Palestinians.

Palestinian farmers and agricultural workers are asking us to boycott not only produce which we think was produced in the occupied territories, but to boycott all produce exported by Israeli export companies who benefit from economic conditions and exploitation in Gaza and the West Bank, particularly as ambiguous labeling can make it difficult to distinguish where exactly products originated.

BDS activists demonstrate outside Sainsbury's in Brighton. Photos provided by Brighton & Hove Palestine Solidarity Campaign — BDS activists demonstrate outside
Sainsbury’s in Brighton. Photos provided
by Brighton & Hove Palestine Solidarity
Campaign

These companies include Arava, Mehadrin, Hadiklaim, Carmel Agrexco, and Edom and Valley Grown Salads. They export products such as peppers, tomatoes, onions, chillies, grapes, strawberries, avocadoes, figs, dates, aubergines, and herbs, and these foods end up at all the main supermarkets in the UK. They may be labelled as coming from Israel (wrongly, when produced in the occupied territories), Palestine, Jordan Valley, and even allegedly, Saudi Arabia.

In 2009, after intense pressure from campaigners, the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) issued new guidelines regarding the labelling of products being imported from the West Bank: ‘the Government considers that traders would be misleading consumers and would therefore almost certainly be committing an offence if they were to declare produce from the OPT, including from the West Bank, as “Produce of Israel”.’

UK supermarkets now say they label such produce as “West Bank” but labels indicating produce of Israel remain common.

What can you do in the UK?

Read the full report for more detailed advice
Boycott Israeli goods altogether (read the label and also check for barcodes beginning 729)
Apply pressure to your local supermarket and its national office to stop using companies that benefit from illegal land seizure, appalling employment practices and child labour (this is a Fair Trade issue too).

For the full report: https://corporatewatch.org/publications/2016/apartheid-fields-occupied-palestine-uk-supermarkets

Apartheid in the fields: Part 2 Injustice in the Jordan Valley

30th March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Gaza Strip, occupied Palestine

A new report from Corporate Watch outlines exactly how the food grown in the illegal settlements of Palestine gets to our plates in Britain, and what we (in Britain) can do about it. In this second summary report we look at what is happening in the Jordan Valley.

Much Jordan Valley produce is marketed as organic but is certainly not grown fairly

Israeli agricultural companies operate on land in the Jordan Valley taken from Palestinians by force. This leaves Palestinians there with few options but to work for the illegal settlements on land which was once Palestinian, and sometimes land which was once theirs. The research conducted in 2013 found that companies pay well below minimum wage, with workers being paid between £12.60 and £14.50 a day. They found evidence of children as young as ten being employed. There are often no written contracts, or contracts are in Hebrew only, there is no sick pay, no health insurance, no holiday pay, few health and safety precautions. Trade unions are not permitted. Some workers leave at 3 am to get through checkpoints to work and others sleep in barrack like accommodation, illegal under Israeli law.

Support for a boycott is widespread: ‘They are working on stolen land, using water that they have stolen from us. If the boycott campaign damages these companies then the settlers will leave our land’ says Fares from Beit Harava. ‘We support the boycott even if we lose our work. We might lose our jobs but we will get back our land. We will be able to work without being treated as slaves,’ agrees Zaid from Beqa’ot. (Names have been changed.)

For the full report: https://corporatewatch.org/publications/2016/apartheid-fields-occupied-palestine-uk-supermarkets