“I call to the whole world to treat us like everybody else, to break the blockade of the sea and of the whole Gaza Strip, so that people will be able to make a living from the sea again”, states the happy winner of the first Gaza boat race, Jamal Baker.
On the 26th July 2010, the race took place near the port of Gaza city, with ten boats participating. The boats sped through three laps, always staying near the coastline from where a cheering crowd followed the action.
It was a symbolic sign of resistance against the siege, which has been imposed on Gaza since 2007. The livelihood of the fishermen especially has been deeply affected by the siege, since they are only allowed to fish within three mile range of the shore. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights this means that they are unable to catch enough fish to earn the income they need to nourish their families. It has also left the narrow area along the coastline heavily over-fished.
But the life of Gazan fishermen has not only become unbearably hard, but also very dangerous. Israeli gunboats shoot at fishermen on a regular basis while they are trying to do their daily work on the sea.
Beyond that, the naval blockade is affecting the quality of the life of all people in Gaza, who are already suffer immensely under the situation. Yet still, “people here love the life”, Mustafa Alkabarity, the organizer of the event, told us. “They want to go sailing, fishing, or surfing. But the problem here in Gaza is that we can’t import any equipment – even surfboards are a security problem for the Israeli side.” And it’s not only surfboards that apparently jeopardize Israel’s state security. Sewage pumps are also prevented from entering Gaza; this has led to serious pollution of the sea.
Nonetheless, the people of Gaza haven’t given up on their dreams, as they demonstrated by conducting this boat race against all the odds. Baker had spent five days training on the sea, and since his victory, his ambition to take the race on to bigger things is clear: “I hope that we are able to compete with other countries, and that also European countries would join the race. We have the ability for that”, he affirms.
The winner of the boat race, Jamal Baker, is lifted aloft by friends and supporters
The jubilation of the crowd as Baker and his first mate were hoisted on the shoulders of some ecstatic supporters exemplified the enthusiasm for maritime culture that exists here in Gaza. The know-how and talent of the sailors was self-evident, but in their case having the ability is not enough.
What the people of Gaza essentially need is the basic right of free access to their national waters, so that the next race can be even more than a symbolic act of defiance.
Nahal Oz demonstration Wed. 28th July (Photo: TILDE DE WANDEL)
29 July 2010 | ISM Gaza
Five International Solidarity Movement volunteers participated in a demonstration against the bufferzone near Nahal Oz border crossing, east of Gaza City on Wednesday (July 28th).
The march had a big turn out of over 200 people and was organised by the Popular Campaign for the Security in the Buffer Zone, an umbrella group which includes organisations representing farmers and local people living near the border. Members of the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF), a grass-roots organisation heavily involved in the protests against the buffer-zone, waved prominent large white flags.
An Israeli army jeep and a large armoured Israeli vehicle were already in position as the demonstrators approached a ridge 150 metres from the fence, where they stood, waving flags and chanting well inside the ‘no go area’ or ‘buffer-zone’ unilaterally imposed by Israel, covering land 300m from the border fence along the entire frontier with Israel. Violent attacks by the Israeli military on anyone in the area have been a consistent occurrence – frequently live ammunition has been used against peaceful demonstrators and even farmers harvesting crops. According to the Palestine Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) the ‘buffer zone‘ contains over 30% of Gaza’s most useful arable land.
As the demonstration progressed three more jeeps and two tanks arrived. Five soldiers in firing positions were visible outside the vehicles.
Nahal Oz demonstration Wed. 28th July (Photo: TILDE DE WANDEL)
In the beginning of the demonstration the majority of participants marched to about 300 metres to the border where the speeches were made, with demonstrators that included a large group of women, carrying banners condemning the occupation and the siege.
Although in the previous demonstration in Nahal Oz the protesters there were heavily fired upon, this time the watching Israeli snipers did not fire. Some youths advanced to within 100m of the border fence, near to where 21 year old Ahmed Deeb was shot and killed by an explode-on-impact bullet or ‘dum dum’, at a Nahal Oz demonstration on the 28th April this year. That demonstration was non-violent as was Wednesday’s but the continuous use of live ammunition by the Israeli Occupation Forces has caused frequent deaths and numerous injuries for farmers and their families, scrap collectors and demonstrators.
Abu Walid Mahmoud Al-Zaq of the Popular Struggle Front and coordinator of the Popular Campaign for the Security in the Buffer Zone was pleased with the turn-out and helped re-group the crowd when the demonstration had finished, fortunately without injuries.
He explained the importance of continuing to demonstrate despite the risk of live fire: “We will support the farmers who have to work their own land in the buffer-zone in spite of the regular violent attacks on them and their families – we will refuse to let the access to our land be controlled by the brutal policies of the Israeli Occupation Forces.” He also said he invites anyone who can to join a buffer-zone demonstration.
Nahal Oz demonstration Wed. 28th July (Photo: TILDE DE WANDEL)
The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC) report that the fertile farmland located around the buffer zone was in recent times the source of half of the food needs of Gaza’s population. Purely due to Israel’s siege of Gaza’s borders and their continuous attacks, farming has now become a very unproductive industry. Of the 175,000 dunams of cultivable land, PARC reported that 60 to 75,000 dunams have been destroyed during Israeli invasions and operations.
The level of destruction from the last Israeli war on Gaza alone accounted for the destruction of 35 to 60 percent of the agricultural industry, according to the UN and World Health Organization. Gaza’s sole agricultural college, in Beit Hanoun, was also destroyed. Oxfam notes that the combination of the Israeli war on Gaza and the buffer zone renders around 46 percent of agricultural land useless or unreachable.
Between January and April this year there have been 50 people injured and 14 killed in attacks on the buffer zone. In the past twelve months there have been at least 220 Israeli attacks with 116 coming since the beginning of 2010 (PCHR, as of April 30th).
Journalists killed by Israel while reporting in Gaza were remembered at an award ceremony in Gaza City yesterday; family members and co-workers received a plaque in their honour.
Abu Walid Mahmoud Al-Zaq of the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF), the group organising the event – on their 43rd anniversary – presented awards in memory of ten journalists.
One of those was James Miller, a British documentary-maker killed in Gaza in May 2003, whose award was accepted on his behalf by current members of the International Solidarity Movement working in Gaza.
One Palestinian journalist honoured was Fadel Shana’a, killed along with eight other noncombatants, by a flechette shell fired by an Israeli tank, clearly seen by Fadel’s own footage of the shell being fired before he was killed a few seconds later.
After the first missile that killed Fadel, the clearly marked Reuters vehicle in which he had been travelling took a direct hit from a second tank, killing two children and another civilian close by, and injuring twelve others, including five children. Wafa Abu Mezyed, 25, a Reuters sound technician, was also injured.
On 13 August 2009 the IDF closed an investigation into Fadel Shana’a’s death, without taking disciplinary action against the tank crew that his own video clearly showed killing him.
Collecting the award on his behalf was cameraman and friend Sameer Al-Boje of Palmedia.. He expressed happiness that there were organisations showing appreciation for – and raising the profile of – the invaluable and often perilous work of journalists and cameramen in the occupied territories.
cameraman Sameer Al-Boje of Palmedia receiving the award in honour of Fadel Shana'a
When asked of the dangers he continues to face in Gaza he told us, “They don’t outweigh the importance of getting the real story out as to what is happening to the Palestinians.”
“When I entered this job, I knew that Israel doesn’t care about Palestinian journalists and that they would be happy to shoot them – there is no protection for the media here in Gaza because Israel does not want us to get this kind of news out.”
Sameer called on international organisations to do more to ensure safety for journalists in the course of their important work: “I feel its dangerous every time I go out there. We are not provided with any freedom of the press and media rights taken for granted in other countries. This is what we need if we are to continue sending out the real news of what’s happening in Gaza.”
Like the Palestinian Red Crescent, Palestinian journalists continue to be the first at the scene in the most dangerous times in Gaza, and so much of the footage the world sees is recorded by people well aware that they could become the next news story or grim statistic following the next Israeli attack in the continuous barrage.
A poster of Ihab Al-Wehadi killed 9th January during Operation Cast Lea
The full list of the journalists deservedly honoured at the ceremony
Hamza Shaheen, photojournalist for the Shihab News Agency, died December 2008.
Fadel Shana’a, a Reuters camerman, killed April 16th 2008.
Hassa Shaqora, killed March 2008.
James Miller, killed in Rafah on 2nd May 2003. Watch a video about his death here.
Ihab Al-Wehadi, (pictured right) cameraman for Palestine TV, killed with his wife and mother on 9th January 2009 during Operation Cast Lead when Israel shelled their apartment in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City.
Four-year-old Haitham Thaer Qasem, injured by an Israeli nail bomb - PHOTO: Tilde de Wandel
“She came in through and it wasn’t clear she was injured. Suddenly a lot of blood came from her nose and she vomited. All of the family saw this – her little brothers were very scared. She had just been playing in the front of the house.”
This is a mother describing to us her daughter, 9-year-old Sammah as she came in to her home at 4pm after the Israeli army reportedly shelled and fired four bombs into and around a residential area in Beit Hanoun, Northern Gaza. She is now in a semi-critical condition in hospital, suffering extensive blood loss and very low haemoglobin. She was hit by shrapnel and ‘flechettes’ from a nail bomb that landed 100m away, causing internal bleeding to the chest, severe head trauma and nails embedded in her body. Shells containing flechettes are illegal under international law if fired into densely populated civilian areas and Sammah ‘Eid al-Masri is one of four children injured in the attack yesterday, July 21st.
Two young men were killed: Mohammad Hatem al-Kafarna, 23, from severe shrapnel injuries in his back and chest and Qassem Mohammed Kamal al-Shanbari, 20, caused by injuries from nails embedded in his skull and shrapnel wounds to the back. It was unclear earlier whether they were resistance fighters or if they were civilians – the Israeli Occupation Force called them ‘militants’ – just as they called the four children, aged between 4 and 11, who were left hospitalised by their injuries ‘militants’. Their parents could be found weeping over their loved ones in Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City last night.
We first visited Haitham Tha’er Qassem, a four year old boy and a first and only child. He was sleeping on the hospital bed, occasionally gasping for breath through the strapping around his nose. He had suffered deep nasal trauma, and flechette darts from the nail bomb were still embedded in his tiny body, where they had pierced his back, right elbow and right leg. He was 200m from the impact of the bomb.
In his hospital ward his mother was standing to one side crying quietly and another relative at Haitham’s bedside explained what had happened.
“We had asked Haitham to get shopping for her from the market…then we heard the bombings and somebody came to our home and told our family that he was in the hospital and was injured in the bombing. We came quickly to the hospital.”
In a nearby ward we then visited 9-year-old Sammah ‘Eid al-Masri who was in a worse state. The doctor told us she was in a ‘semi-critical’ condition with severe chest, head and abdominal pain. Her blood-loss was a major concern, arriving at the hospital with 7.5 haemoglobin levels, 4-6 below the normal levels, the problem exacerbated by the fact that she, like three of her brothers, already suffered from a blood condition known as Thalassemia for which the drug Exjade is in extremely short supply due to the Israeli blockade. She was clearly in pain and confused, trying to remove the nasal tubes. Her mother showed us the bandages on her chest.
“She was in a very bad condition when she arrived – it’s difficult for children and very traumatic to insert a chest tube. Very painful. Blood was mainly coming from the chest. We will have to perform surgery and we will further explore her abdominal pain”, the doctor tells us.
This is not the first time the family was attacked, Sammah’s 4-year-old brother Ryad ‘Eid al-Masri was injured during Operation Cast Lead, the three week Israeli assault over the New Year of 2009 period, during which over 400 Palestinian children were killed.
“Our house was hit during the war, a neighbour sheltering inside was killed and our son suffered severe head injuries. He wasn’t able to access the care he needed and because of this his sight is now permanently damaged.”
As we left Sammah, she had begun to cry, moaning in serious discomfort and confusion. There were two more injured children in the hospital following the attack: Mohammed ‘Azzam al-Masri (aged 9) fractured his right hand as he fell while trying to escape; and Ibrahim Wissam al-Masri (aged 6) whose back was injured by shrapnel.
The Abu Said family house, scarred after a nail bomb attack - PHOTO: Tilde de Wandel
It’s not just the siege. Criminal Israeli violence continues unabated, resulting in Palestinians in Gaza – children like Sammah, Haitham, Azzam and Ibrahim – and their families experiencing horrific pain and suffering. Last week it was the Abu Said family, attacked in their home on the border East of Gaza city; they lost Nema, a 33-year-old mother of five as she went outside to look frantically for her youngest son. Three more family members were also injured, again by the thousands of ‘flechette’ darts unleashed by the nail bomb assault. Many of these darts will remain permanently embedded in their bodies.
Palestinians remain incredulous to the idea of justice. They will remain so as long as they’re allowed to be dismissed as footnotes by those supporting, or blindly ignoring, what has happened to them and is being done to them. But those who meet them like we did yesterday will never forget what they go through. And people of conscience around the world are beginning to open their eyes instead of turning their backs and acting against these ongoing atrocities.
A former IDF soldier who was found guilty of manslaughter in the 2003 shooting death of British peace activist Thomas Hurndall in the Gaza Strip will be released early from prison next month.
Taysir-al-Heib was sentenced in 2005 to eight years in prison for manslaughter as well as obstruction of justice and giving false testimony. The decision to shorten his sentence was made by an army committee, against the advice of Military Advocate General Brig. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit.
Hurndall, a 22-year-old student, was shot in the head in April 2003 as he was photographing the work of International Solidarity Movement activists. Witnesses said Hurndall had been helping Palestinian children avoid IDF tanks.
In his investigation, Al-Heib initially claimed he had fired on an armed Palestinian, enlisting supporting testimony from another soldier in his unit. A few months later, however, the second soldier told Military Police investigators that he had not witnessed the incident.
In the verdict, the judges upheld all the arguments of the military prosecution, outlining and emphasizing the series of false and contradictory versions of the incident provided by al-Heib throughout the investigation.
The judges found that al-Heib had shot Hurndall with a sniper’s rifle, using a telescopic sight, and that al-Heib had given a “confused and pathetic” version of events to the court.
The court also referred to a confession by the defendant in which he said he had wanted to teach Hurndall a lesson for entering a forbidden zone. Al-Heib admitted to aiming 10 centimeters to the left of Hurndall’s head to frighten him and inadvertently shooting the activist.
ISM members often place themselves between IDF troops and Palestinians in an effort to prevent military operations.
But the life of Gazan fishermen has not only become unbearably hard, but also very dangerous. Israeli gunboats shoot at fishermen on a regular basis while they are trying to do their daily work on the sea.
