November 7th, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Nablus, Occupied Palestine
Today, at 6 pm local time in Occupied Jerusalem, Palestinians and supporters gathered in peaceful events all over the world to sing the “unofficial” Palestinian national anthem, Mawtini (In Arabic موطني).
Crowds gathered to sing in Arafat Square, Ramallah
Events were scheduled to take place in Occupied Jerusalem, Ramallah, Hebron, Nablus, Bethlehem, Jericho, Jordan Valley, Jenin and Salfit, and schools throughout the West Bank were encouraged to chant Mawtini during the school day and upload videos to the Facebook page of the #Mawtini-event. On the Facebook-event, posts from Ivory Coast, Syria, Gaza, and others show the wide international solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people.
Crowds sing ‘Matwini’ in Ramallah
The beginning of the second verse reads: “The youth will not tire, ’till your independence” and is a clear symbol of the current situation on the West Bank; the young generation growing up under the Oslo Accords of 1993 are the ones exerting their political power by risking their lives. They have grown up in a world where the occupation – among many other things – took away their freedom of movement by temporary check-points, road-blocks, and denying them access to Jerusalem.
A group of children singing in Ramallah
Seeing the diverse attendance and participation and listening to the poem written by the Palestinian poet Ibrahim Toukan shows the anatomy of the Palestinian people; for decades they have had their freedom of movement stolen, had their children killed, and had their villages divided by the Apartheid Wall but they continue to exist and to resist with dignity and joy.
“Mawtini (my homeland) will I see you in your eminence reaching the stars?”
Over 1,000 Black activists, artists, scholars, students, and organizations have launched a statement expressing their solidarity and commitment to ensuring justice for Palestinians. Signatories to the statement span a wide cross-section of Black activists and scholars, including Angela Davis, Boots Riley, Cornel West, dream hampton, Emory Douglas, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Pam Africa, Patrisse Cullors, Phil Hutchings, Ramona Africa, Robin DG Kelley, Rosa Clemente, Talib Kweli, and Tef Poe. 38 organizations signed on, including The Dream Defenders, Hands Up United, Institute of the Black World 21st Century, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and Organization for Black Struggle.
Picture of a Palestine2Ferguson sign at the main march during Ferguson October. (Photo by Christopher Hazou)
The statement is printed in full below:
“The past year has been one of high-profile growth for Black-Palestinian solidarity. Out of the terror directed against us—from numerous attacks on Black life to Israel’s brutal war on Gaza and chokehold on the West Bank—strengthened resilience and joint-struggle have emerged between our movements. Palestinians on Twitter were among the first to provide international support for protesters in Ferguson, where St. Louis-based Palestinians gave support on the ground. Last November, a delegation of Palestinian students visited Black organizers in St. Louis, Atlanta, Detroit and more, just months before the Dream Defenders took representatives of Black Lives Matter, Ferguson, and other racial justice groups to Palestine. Throughout the year, Palestinians sent multiple letters of solidarity to us throughout protests in Ferguson, New York, and Baltimore. We offer this statement to continue the conversation between our movements:
On the anniversary of last summer’s Gaza massacre, in the 48th year of Israeli occupation, the 67th year of Palestinians’ ongoing Nakba (the Arabic word for Israel’s ethnic cleansing)—and in the fourth century of Black oppression in the present-day United States—we, the undersigned Black activists, artists, scholars, writers, and political prisoners offer this letter of reaffirmed solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and commitment to the liberation of Palestine’s land and people.
We can neither forgive nor forget last summer’s violence. We remain outraged at the brutality Israel unleashed on Gaza through its siege by land, sea and air, and three military offensives in six years. We remain sickened by Israel’s targeting of homes, schools, UN shelters, mosques, ambulances, and hospitals. We remain heartbroken and repulsed by the number of children Israel killed in an operation it called “defensive.” We reject Israel’s framing of itself as a victim. Anyone who takes an honest look at the destruction to life and property in Gaza can see Israel committed a one-sided slaughter. With 100,000 people still homeless in Gaza, the massacre’s effects continue to devastate Gaza today and will for years to come.
Our support extends to those living under occupation and siege, Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the 7 million Palestinian refugees exiled in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. The refugees’ right to return to their homeland in present-day Israel is the most important aspect of justice for Palestinians.
Palestinian liberation represents an inherent threat to Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid, an apparatus built and sustained on ethnic cleansing, land theft, and the denial of Palestinian humanity and sovereignty. While we acknowledge that the apartheid configuration in Israel/Palestine is unique from the United States (and South Africa), we continue to see connections between the situation of Palestinians and Black people.
Israel’s widespread use of detention and imprisonment against Palestinians evokes the mass incarceration of Black people in the US, including the political imprisonment of our own revolutionaries. Soldiers, police, and courts justify lethal force against us and our children who pose no imminent threat. And while the US and Israel would continue to oppress us without collaborating with each other, we have witnessed police and soldiers from the two countries train side-by-side.
US and Israeli officials and media criminalize our existence, portray violence against us as “isolated incidents,” and call our resistance “illegitimate” or “terrorism.” These narratives ignore decades and centuries of anti-Palestinian and anti-Black violence that have always been at the core of Israel and the US. We recognize the racism that characterizes Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is also directed against others in the region, including intolerance, police brutality, and violence against Israel’s African population. Israeli officials call asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea “infiltrators” and detain them in the desert, while the state has sterilized Ethiopian Israelis without their knowledge or consent. These issues call for unified action against anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and Zionism.
We know Israel’s violence toward Palestinians would be impossible without the US defending Israel on the world stage and funding its violence with over $3 billion annually. We call on the US government to end economic and diplomatic aid to Israel. We wholeheartedly endorse Palestinian civil society’s 2005 call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and call on Black and US institutions and organizations to do the same. We urge people of conscience to recognize the struggle for Palestinian liberation as a key matter of our time.
We offer this statement first and foremost to Palestinians, whose suffering does not go unnoticed and whose resistance and resilience under racism and colonialism inspires us. It is to Palestinians, as well as the Israeli and US governments, that we declare our commitment to working through cultural, economic, and political means to ensure Palestinian liberation at the same time as we work towards our own. We encourage activists to use this statement to advance solidarity with Palestine and we also pressure our own Black political figures to finally take action on this issue. As we continue these transnational conversations and interactions, we aim to sharpen our practice of joint struggle against capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, and the various racisms embedded in and around our societies.”
Visit www.blackforpalestine.com for the full list of signatories and more information. You can also follow the statement on Facebook and Twitter. Kristian Bailey is a co-author of the statement along with Khury Petersen-Smith.
15th May 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al Khalil Team | Ni’lin, Occupied Palestine
On Friday 15th May 2015, hundreds of Palestinians from all over the West Bank traveled to Ni’lin for a mass protest commemorating the 1948 Nakba (‘catastrophe’). The local villagers were joined by a large amount of other Palestinian protesters, as well as Israeli and international solidarity activists. There was a high level of media presence. The Israeli occupation forces responded to the peaceful protesters by firing hundreds of tear gas canisters and an excessive number of rubber coated steel bullets. Roughly 12 people were injured, as well as many suffering from tear gas inhalation. Protesters, as well as journalists, were continuously targeted with rubber coated steel bullets.
Protestors in Ni’lin running away from tear gas – photo by Haytham Khatib
After arriving in Ni’lin, ISM activists joined Palestinian, Israeli and other international protesters to mark the 67th anniversary of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine that started in 1948. The group of roughly 500 people was made up of all ages, including three generations of one local family who have all been active in supporting their community against the Israeli annexation of their land.
The march began after the midday prayer, which took place in the olive groves at the edge of the village, overlooking the segregation wall. Protesters marched towards the wall chanting loudly and waving Palestine and Nakba Day flags. The completely peaceful march was soon halted by Israeli forces who fired tens of tear gas canisters over the entire group using the ‘venom’ (a machine that can shoot 30 canisters at once). The group was forced to disperse but continued to chant and attempted to reach the wall. The occupation forces responded by continuously firing tear gas over the olive groves, reaching hundreds of canisters. The heat from the metal canisters set the dry grass a light, which quickly spread around the olive trees.
Midday prayer in Ni’lin
For local Palestinians, marching towards the wall is a symbolic protest against the annexation of their land. Construction of the wall began in 2008 and cut off Ni’lin residents from a large portion of their agricultural land. However, protesters have previously faced extreme violence from the Israeli forces resulting in serious injuries and death. The death of a 9 year old child from Ni’lin being one of the most brutal outcomes of Israeli violence towards the local villagers.
The protest continued for three hours in which time tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets were continuously fired at protesters. One journalist was shot in the shoulder, a young Palestinian was shot in the arm, and many more were carried away and treated for excessive tear gas inhalation by the Red Crescent first aiders.
1st May 2015 | International Solidarity Movement | Occupied Palestine
We, Palestinians struggling against Israeli Apartheid, stand in solidarity with the residents of Baltimore.
We send our condolences to the family of Freddie Gray and all those murdered in police custody. We add our voices to the demand that the killers be held accountable. We send our solidarity to the families of the prisoners. Those arrested for demanding justice, for being black, brown or poor. We add our voices to the demand for their immediate and unconditional release. We stand in solidarity with those whose homes have been foreclosed, with those who live under the constant watch of surveillance cameras and under the constant threat of being stopped, harassed, arrested and assaulted by a militarized police force in their own streets.
Your struggle for justice, equality and freedom is our struggle.
In solidarity,
University Teachers’ Association – Gaza
Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI)
Bader Campaign for the Boycott of Israeli Goods
Herak Youth Center
One Democratic State Group (ODSG)
Youth Against Settlements (YAS)
The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee (PSCC)
The popular committee of Bil’in against the wall and settlements
29th April 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Huwwara Team | Tulkarem, Occupied Palestine
Around fifty Palestinians and international activists gathered today in Tulkarem, east of Nablus, to protest the presence of 11 Israeli chemical plants located in the city. The protest took place outside the Gishuri chemical plant on what is locally referred to as the “death road” due to the health problems caused by the Israeli plants.
The protesters were carrying signs demanding a clean environment and an end to the Israeli occupation, while Israeli soldiers deployed to guard the plant quickly responded with stun grenades and tear gas.
On one occasion Israeli soldiers fired tear gas canisters aimed directly at peaceful demonstrators and the press. As the protest continued, a 22-year old Palestinian man was shot by a rubber-coated steel bullet, hitting him in the abdomen. He was later taken to the local hospital and appeared to have suffered superficial damages only, although he was in great pain. The protest quickly subsided after this event.
Israels corporate occupation of Tulkarem
The protest against Israel’s chemical plants have been continuous since Gushiri Industries, a manufacturer of pesticides and fertilizers, first arrived in Tulkarem in the mid-1980s. The plant used to be located in the Israeli city of Netanya, only 12 kilometers away. However, a 1982 Israeli court order said the company was violating pollution regulations, making the company relocate to the West Bank’s Area C, which is under full Israeli control. The court order came after a complaint filed by Israeli citizens.
Since the arrival of Gushiri Industries, ten other chemical plants have located nearby, the last one in 2007. The location of these plants have caused many local farmers to lose most of their land and contributed to unemployment and poverty in the area. Hence, many local Palestinians have been forced to work at these chemical plants, as the Israeli corporations are taking advantage of the low labor costs and the non-applicability of Israeli labor laws in Area C.
Chronic diseases and land pollution
The most serious consequence of the presence of these chemical plants is the health effect on Palestinians. The air in Tulkarem has been found to contain alarmingly high rates of monoxide and toxic substances in studies by both the University of Birzeit and the Palestinian Ministry of Health. In an interview with the Middle East Monitor last year, Dr. Abed Darak of the Tulkarem Ministry of Health said the city has the highest cancer and leukemia rate in the West Bank, claiming that 20 per cent of all cases stems from the area – despite being home to only five per cent of the total West Bank population. A 2012 report from the Palestinian Ministry of Health found that 77 per cent of the cases of cancer in the city were directly linked to chemical substances from the factories.
A representative from the Palestine Technical University (PTU), which neighbors the Gushiri chemical plant to the south and the Apartheid Wall to the west, said today that the smell is “unbearable” after 3 pm, which explains why most residents of Tulkarem always keep their windows shut. Residents living near the factories have also developed health issues including asthma, reduced lung capacity, skin ailments and eye infections. This is especially true for elementary students.
Additionally, it has been estimated that approximately 300 dunams, i.e. 300,000 square meters, of agricultural land is contaminated by emissions from the factories.
A child’s cry: Stop poisoning Palestine’s schools
The global civic organization Avaaz is currently running a campaign named “A child’s cry: Stop poisioning Palestine’s schools” to help stopping the chemical plants in Tulkarem. By signing a petition on their website, you can help putting pressure on the EU, their biggest market, to apply their strict(er) environmental regulations and impose an import ban on these factories.
