Thirty activists from the Local Initiative Beit Hannoun and the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) participated in the weekly demonstration asking for Palestinian land to be returned to its rightful owners. The activists gathered at the site of the University College for Agriculture which now lies in rubble following air attacks during operation Cast Lead.
The activists walked towards the Erez border chanting “Down with the Occupation” and “With my life and soul I will free you Palestine”. The activists reached 50 meters from the border and there Saber Zanin, Director of Beit Hannoun Local Initiative, spoke about the hardships farmers face on a daily basis as they attempt to plough and farm their land. Farmers risk being shot at either by Israeli snipers or from the automated tower machines which line the Gaza-Israel border zone. Speaking in Hebrew to the Israeli soldiers present within the watch tower, Zanin explained to them that the crowd was gathered on Palestinian land and that they had a right to be there by international law.
Zanin referred to the new regulation created by Israel upon Gaza that no person could come closer than 300 metres from the border. In reality, human rights groups within Gaza have documented that farmers have been shot at 2 km from the border.
As the demonstration came to a close and the activists started making their way back, shots were fired very close to the activists. A member of the ISM spoke to the Israeli soldiers through a microphone and asked the soldiers why they were firing upon civilians. The soldiers continued to fire as the group left. Seven shots were fired in all.
Peace activist Rachel Corrie died while protesting in front of a bulldozer trying to destroy a Palestinian home in Rafah in March 2003. Photograph: Denny Sternstein/AP
The family of the American activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza seven years ago, is to bring a civil suit over her death against the Israeli defence ministry.
The case, which begins on 10 March in Haifa, northern Israel, is seen by her parents as an opportunity to put on public record the events that led to their daughter’s death in March 2003. Four key witnesses – three Britons and an American – who were at the scene in Rafah when Corrie was killed will give evidence, according the family lawyer, Hussein Abu Hussein.
The four were all with the International Solidarity Movement, the activist group to which Corrie belonged. They have since been denied entry to Israel, and the group’s offices in Ramallah have been raided several times in recent weeks by the Israeli military.
Now, under apparent US pressure, the Israeli government has agreed to allow them entry so they can testify. Corrie’s parents, Cindy and Craig, will also fly to Israel for the hearing.
A Palestinian doctor from Gaza, Ahmed Abu Nakira, who treated Corrie after she was injured and later confirmed her death, has not been given permission by the Israeli authorities to leave Gaza to attend.
Abu Hussein, a leading human rights lawyer in Israel, said there was evidence from witnesses that soldiers saw Corrie at the scene, with other activists, well before the incident and could have arrested or removed her from the area before there was any risk of her being killed.
“After her death the military began an investigation but unfortunately, as in most of these cases, it found the activity of the army was legal and there was no intentional killing,” he said. “We would like the court to decide her killing was due to wrong-doing or was intentional.” If the Israeli state is found responsible, the family will press for damages.
Corrie, who was born in Olympia, Washington, travelled to Gaza to act as a human shield at a moment of intense conflict between the Israeli military and the Palestinians. On the day she died, when she was 23, she was dressed in a fluorescent orange vest and was trying to stop the demolition of a Palestinian home. She was crushed under a military Caterpillar bulldozer and died shortly afterwards.
A month after her death the Israeli military said an investigation had determined its troops were not to blame and said the driver of the bulldozer had not seen her and did not intentionally run her over. Instead, it accused her and the International Solidarity Movement of behaviour that was “illegal, irresponsible and dangerous.”
The army report, obtained by the Guardian in April 2003, said she “was struck as she stood behind a mound of earth that was created by an engineering vehicle operating in the area and she was hidden from the view of the vehicle’s operator who continued with his work. Corrie was struck by dirt and a slab of concrete resulting in her death.”
He described how she first knelt in the path of an approaching bulldozer and then stood as it reached her. She climbed on a mound of earth and the crowd nearby shouted at the bulldozer to stop. He said the bulldozer pushed her down and drove over her.
“They pushed Rachel, first beneath the scoop, then beneath the blade, then continued till her body was beneath the cockpit,” Dale wrote.
“They waited over her for a few seconds, before reversing. They reversed with the blade pressed down, so it scraped over her body a second time. Every second I believed they would stop but they never did.”
While she was in the Palestinian territories, Corrie wrote vividly about her experiences. Her diaries were later turned into a play, My Name is Rachel Corrie, which has toured internationally, including to Israel and the West Bank.
Other foreigners killed by Israeli forces
Iain Hook, 54, a British UN official, was shot dead by an Israeli army sniper in Jenin in November 2002. A British inquest found he had been unlawfully killed. The Israeli government paid an undisclosed sum in compensation to Hook’s family.
Tom Hurndall, a 22-year-old British photography student, was shot in the head in Rafah, Gaza, in April 2003 while helping to pull Palestinian children to safety. In August 2005 an Israeli soldier was sentenced to eight years for manslaughter.
James Miller, 34, a British cameraman, was shot dead in Gaza in May 2003. He was leaving the home of a Palestinian family in Rafah refugee camp at night, waving a white flag. An inquest in Britain found Miller had been murdered. Last year Israel paid about £1.5m in damages to Miller’s family.
Gazan farmers whose land lies in Israeli defined buffer zone accompanied by international observers have been held down in their field by live gunfire. The Israeli army shot live ammunition for a quarter of an hour after finding the unarmed group fertilizing wheat crops. The international observers loudly informed the soldiers they were unarmed civilians, but the bullets only landed closer. Khuza’a is located 7 kilometers southeast of Khan Yunis. It is about a kilometer from the fence that serves as a border between Israel and Gaza.
According to the UN 30% of the arable land in Gaza is in the buffer zone. The farmers and ISM volunteers who came under fire today were on land that was recently lush with a variety of crops. Over the past few years, the number of crops grown has dwindled to due to the fatal threat posed by the Israeli army. Now, all the farmers can grow is wheat, because it requires less tending. This is affecting the physical health and economic well being of Gazans.
Farmers accompanied by International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteers, from Malta, England and Canada, ventured out to the fields surrounding Khuza’a early this morning. The field was peaceful when they arrived, but after fertilizing their wheat crops for twenty minutes, three Israeli army jeeps appeared and began shooting live rounds at the group.
Immediately after coming under fire, the group began shouting that they were unarmed civilians tending to their fields. The bullets were landing 100 meters away but moved progressively closer over the next few minutes until they were five meters away from the group – landing in the dirt and passing above their heads.
After around a quarter of an hour the group retreated ten meters and the shooting stopped. Then a plume of smoke exploded from one of the jeeps, probably from a tear gas canister that back-fired. After the smoke cleared the jeeps drove away, with the international observers clearly hearing Israeli soldiers shout, “We’ll shoot you!”
“These threats were in English. It was a clear warning to the internationals present that they were targeting us. It seems to be a warning for any internationals who dare to come and witness the daily tragedies of life in Palestine. They did not even pretend to be threatened by us, they loafed about in between their successions of rifle fire instead of taking cover,” one ISM volunteer said.
On Tuesday the 9th February 2010, ISM Gaza volunteers will be accompanying farmers from the village of Khuza’a near Khan Younis to their land near the border with Israel where soldiers fired at the farmers recently on several occasions.
Several farmers have been shot by Israeli forces while farming their lands.
The Israeli army fired four shots and shouted abuse at the group of about 40 Palestinians and internationals who, on Monday 8th February ’10, walked within 50 meters of the Erez border crossing, waving Palestinian flags and chanting demands for justice and an end to the Occupation.
Similar demonstrations have taken place weekly for over a month and this is the closest that the demonstrators got to the border, so far. To mark the occasion two Palestinian flags were placed at the furtherest spots the demonstrators reached.
Gazans protest against the siege
‘ I don’t think a Palestinian set a foot at this place for a long time’, said a participant.
The organizers, the volunteers form the ‘Local Initiative’ in Beit Hanoun were inspired by the similar peaceful resistance initiatives in Ni’lin ans Bil’in. Their aim is to support people who have farms in the so called ‘buffer zone’, a 300 metre wide belt of Palestinian land which Israelis declared a no-go area. A few weeks ago they even dropped warning flyers reinforcing the illegal ban.
Local Initiative activists are determined to reclaim the right to move freely on every inch of the Palestinian land and to support farmers to continue farming near the border where they often face firing and threats form the Israeli soldiers.
The area of Beit Hanoun, which is located in the North East of the Gaza strip has suffered significant destruction during the Israeli attacks a year ago. Many houses have been completely destroyed and not one building has been left standing anywhere near the border.
This combined with the imposition of a ‘buffer zone’ and a general lack of safety, has made farming extremely risky in this particularly fertile area, where wheat, vegetables and fruits, including famous Gazan strawberries, have been grown for centuries.
