Tag: Hebron

Palestinians appeal for release of Western activists kidnapped in Iraq

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
RAMALLAH

Palestinians, led by their top Muslim cleric, appealed to Iraqi insurgents on Wednesday to release four Western peace activists, saying three of them had spent time in the West Bank aiding the Palestinians.

The four workers for the group Christian Peacemaking Teams – an American, a Briton and two Canadians – were shown in a video released Tuesday by insurgents in Iraq.

While in the West Bank, American Tom Fox and the two Canadians demonstrated against the construction of Israel’s security fence, helped Palestinian children to get through Israeli army checkpoints and pitched in with the olive harvest, Palestinians across the West Bank said Wednesday.

“We demand that these aid workers be released immediately,” said Mufti Ikrema Sabri, the Palestinians’ top Muslim clergyman. “We tell them that these aid workers have stood beside Palestinian people and it’s our duty now to stand beside them.”

Sabri said Islam opposes taking civilians hostage and said such kidnappings are “inhumane.”

Palestinians in several towns said they had worked with the three activists and asked Sabri to issue the appeal. Hundreds of international activists have aided the Palestinians in largely nonviolent demonstrations during the more than five years of fighting with Israel.

“They subjected themselves to grave dangers when they stood in front of Israeli bulldozers,” said the mayor of the West Bank village of Jayyus, Shawkat Samha. “We knew them as people who were against occupation and supported freedom for occupied peoples, like the Palestinian and Iraqi peoples.”

Samha said he had met Fox and recognized him in the video that was shown on the Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera.

Fared Tomallah from the West Bank village of Salfit said he cried when he recognized captive Canadian Harmeet Sooden on television.

“I saw him many times suffering through tear gas with the Palestinians when demonstrating against the wall,” Tomallah said, referring to the separation barrier. “We appeal to Iraqi insurgents to release him and we assure them that these people have nothing to do with the occupation.”

The local branch of Christian Peacemaking Teams in the West Bank city of Hebron said that one of the captives, James Loney from Toronto, Canada, had helped Palestinian children get through Israeli army roadblocks in the divided city. Loney was slated to return to Hebron next week to continue his work, said Rich Meyer, an activist with the group.

“The kidnapping prevents him from coming here to work,” Meyer said.

The group’s Toronto branch released a picture of Fox sitting with children.

Widerstand bedeutet, in Hebron zu bleiben

UN-Solidaritätstag mit dem palästinensischen Volk: Internationale Präsenz in den besetzten Gebieten
Interview by Wladek Flakin
Ursprünglich innen veröffentlicht Junge Welt

Die Israelin Neta Golan ist Mitbegründerin der International Solidarity Movement (ISM) und lebt in Ramallah im Westjordanland.

F: Am Dienstag war der von den Vereinten Nationen proklamierte Tag der Solidarität mit dem palästinensischen Volk. Wie unterstützt Ihre Bewegung die Palästinenser?

Neta: Unsere internationale Solidaritätsbewegung wurde zu Beginn der zweiten Intifada im September 2000 gegründet. Wir unterstützen den gewaltfreien Widerstand in Palästina. Es ist eine gemeinsame Bewegung von Palästinensern und Aktivisten aus dem Ausland, den sogenannten Internationalen. ISM steht aber unter palästinensischer Führung.

Bei uns laufen mehrere Projekte parallel. Ein zentraler Bereich ist die Unterstützung des Widerstandes gegen die Annexionsbarriere, die Mauern und Zäune, die rund um die Westbank gebaut werden. Wir konzentrieren uns auf das Dorf Bilin bei Ramallah. Dort demonstrieren wir seit zehn Monaten Freitag für Freitag.

In Nablus unterstützen wir palästinensische Bauern. Zusammen mit israelischen Gruppen wie “Rabbiner für Menschenrechte” oder “Anarchisten gegen die Mauer” gehen wir auf die Felder und pflücken Oliven in Gebieten, die von den Siedlern bedroht werden.

F: ISM ist aber auch in Hebron in der südlichen Westbank präsent.

Neta: Ja. Wir haben eine Basis in Tel Rumeida, einem Viertel in der Altstadt von Hebron, wo Palästinenser neben Siedlern unter Apartheidbedingungen leben. So können die Palästinenser zentrale Straßen nicht nutzen, weil diese für die Siedler reserviert sind. Palästinensische Kinder werden auf dem Weg zur Schule von jungen Siedlern mit Steinen beworfen. ISM-Aktivisten begleiten diese Kinder jeden Tag zur Schule. Für die Palästinenser bedeutet dort Widerstand, in der Gegend zu bleiben.

F: Wie kommen die ISM und andere Gruppen gegen die Besatzung in der israelischen Gesellschaft an?

Neta: Es gibt eine andauernde Diffamierungskampagne gegen uns – vom Außenamt, das wir nicht wegen Beleidigung verklagen dürfen, sowie von rechtsextremen Siedlergruppen. Sie verbreiten die unglaublichsten Lügen. Über mich wurden wahnsinnige Sachen geschrieben, zum Beispiel, daß ich mein ganzes Leben in einer Psychoklinik verbracht hätte.

F: ISM wird seitens Israels vorgeworfen, terroristische Gruppen oder Aktionen zu unterstützen.

Neta: Alles, was hier passiert, wird von der israelischen Armee als Terrorismus bezeichnet. Als der britische Fotograf Tom Hurndall von Soldaten in Gaza erschossen wurde, hieß es in der ersten Erklärung der Armee, er hätte eine Tarnuniform und eine Waffe getragen. Später wurde behauptet, er hätte neben einem palästinensischen Kämpfer gestanden. Die Wahrheit ist, eine Gruppe israelischer Soldaten hat auf drei Kinder an einer Straßensperre geschossen, und Tom wollte sie aus der Schußlinie holen.

F: Wie können die Palästinenser und die ISM unterstützt werden?

Neta: Ich weiß, es ist verwirrend, wenn jede einzelne Geschichte in zwei völlig unterschiedlichen Versionen erscheint. Deshalb lade ich alle ein, bitte ich, flehe ich, hierher zu kommen und sich selbst die Realität der besetzten palästinensischen Gebiete anzuschauen.

Resistance means to stay in Hebron

Solidarity Day with the Palestinian People: International Presence in the occupied Territories
Interview by Wladek Flakin
Originally published in Junge Welt

An Interview with Neta Golan – Neta Golan is Israeli and a founding member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). She lives in Ramallah in the West Bank.

Q: The UN called for the solidarity day with the Palestinian People on Tuesday. How does your movement support the Palestinians ?

Neta: Our international Solidarity Movement was founded at the beginning of the second Intifada in September 2000. We support the non-violent resistance in Palestine. It’s a joint movement of Palestinians and foreign activists, so called internationals. The leadership of ISM is Palestinian.

There are several projects we work on it in parallel. A focal point is the support for the resistance against the annexing barriers, the walls and the fences who are build around the west bank. We focus on the village of Billin, near Ramallah. For ten months now, there is a demonstration every Friday.

In Nablus we support Palestinian farmers. Together with Israeli groups like “Rabbis for Human Rights” or “Anarchists against the Fence” we go to the fields to pick olives in areas under treat from the settlers.

Q: ISM is also present in Hebron.

Neta: Yes. We have a basis in Tel Rumeida, a quarter of the old city in Hebron where Palestinians live side by side with Settlers under apartheid circumstances. For example Palestinians are not allowed to use main roads, since they are reserved for the settlers. Young settlers throw rocks at Palestinian kids on their way to school. ISM activists accompany these kids to school every day. For Palestinians there, resistance means to stay in the area.

Q: How is the acceptance of ISM and other opponents against the occupation in the Israeli society ?

Neta: There are many defamation campaigns against us. From the foreign ministry, which we are not allowed to sue because of insult or from right-wing extremist settler groups. They publish incredible lies. They wrote about me, that I spent my entire life in a clinic for mentally ill persons.

Q: Israeli officials accuse ISM to support terrorist groups or terrorist acts.

Neta: Everything that happens here, is branded as terrorism by the army. When the British photographer Tom Hurndal was killed by soldiers in Gaza, the first press release from the army claimed that he was wearing camouflage and a weapon. Later they said that he stood side by side with a Palestinian fighter. The truth is, that a group of soldiers shoot at three children on a roadblock and Tom wanted to get them out of the fire line.

Q: How can we support the Palestinians and ISM ?

Neta: I know that it’s confusing, as every story appears in two different versions. Therefore I invite, I ask and I beg everybody to come to this place, in order to witness the reality in the occupied Palestinian territories by yourself.

Sabbath Riot by Settlers in Hebron

by ISM activists in Hebron

On the 26th of November in the West Bank, a large number of armed Israeli Settlers visiting Hebron for the commemoration of the Biblical character Abraham’s burial of Sarah broke Palestinian property and assaulted Palestinians. The rioting Settlers, numbering some one hundred and sixty people rioted in the ‘H2’ area of Hebron, so designated after the Oslo Two Peace Accord and the Hebron Protocol. ‘H2’ is that area of Hebron under Israeli civil control as opposed to the larger more populated ‘H1’ area which is under Palestinian Authority civil control. A large number of Palestinian families still remain in this Israeli controlled (and Settler occupied) ‘H2’ area and are subject to daily intimidation by local Settlers and Israeli military restrictions. International Human Rights Observers (HROs) remain in Tel Rumeida (H2) and daily escort Palestinian children to school and accompany the adults about daily errands.

Large numbers of Settlers began roaming the streets of H2 around midday. The majority were teenage youths. Initially, they shouted obscenities and spat at passing Palestinians. Around two thirty in the afternoon, a large fight broke out between the mob gathered at the top of Tel Rumeida street and the sons of several Palestinian families who were standing outside their house. One son received a fractured collarbone and another was badly beaten. The Israeli military had quickly arrived to keep Settlers away from the Palestinians, however they were greatly outnumbered by Settlers and were unable to break up the mob or prevent much of the stoning. After the Palestinians fled into their homes, attention then turned on the nearby home of the Human Rights Observers and for over two hours, five of them, with a German photojournalist remained locked indoors while their apartment was stoned and obscenities and death threats yelled at them. Another three HROs unaware that their nearby home was under siege tried to escort a single Palestinian student through this crowd and were beaten until the Israeli soldiers pulled them out.

Large numbers of the Settlers carried automatic weapons. Members of the Settler Militia were particularly aggressive toward the Western HRO’s throughout the day often shouldering and tripping them in an effort to provoke them. The HROs reported twelve separate incidents of physical assault including grabbing, pushing, shouldering, tripping and knocking one person to the ground. The mob toward evening moved along Tel Rumeida street entering Palestinian property, preventing returning Palestinians from entering their houses, breaking windows and beating on doors. The Israeli military closed a checkpoint which allows Palestinians from H2 to access H1 for over two hours while the mob paraded and Palestinians were also prevented from accessing their homes in H2 from the south. It was observed that television journalists were prevented by an Israeli soldier from entering the H2 area to film the riot and the Settlers that surrounded the soldier. Settlers remained on the street until sunset when the Sabbath fast ended.

Although the Israeli Police were called on over eight separate occasions during the day, their presence on the street was minimal and was of short duration when they did arrive. Only one Settler was seen to be detained. It was left to a small number of Israeli soldiers to hold back the Settlers. Nevertheless, many windows, doors and rooftop water heaters were smashed and Palestinians stoned, beaten and intimidated by Settlers. Despite repeated pleas, Police and army numbers remained minimal thus giving these armed Settlers free reign to roam the streets of ‘H2’ and continue the process of intimidation toward its Palestinian residents, a process which has the ultimate goal of evicting them from their homes. On Shuhaddah street adjacent to Tel Rumeida alone only eleven out of the fifty two families remain. One more family is currently trying to leave. Despite the recent high publicity Gaza pullouts, the remainder of the Settler community continues to use violence and intimidation to expand and consolidate unabated.

Settler Mobs Attack Palestinians and Besiege Internationals In Hebron

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Between 2pm and 5pm today, a hostile mob of between 100 and 150 Israeli settlers visiting from outside Hebron besieged five Human Rights Observers (HROs) and one photo-journalist inside the HROs’ apartment in Tel Rumeida, Hebron. Palestinian families, who were the main target of the settler’s hate, were also besieged in their homes. Other settlers attacked Palestinians throughout the city on a day that was advertised as a “mass prayer” for Jews only in the Ibrahimi Mosque. ISM and Tel Rumeida project volunteers alone recorded six assaults on Palestinians and twelve assaults and five stonings on HROs. The police were called on eight separate occasions and the army/DCO 4 times, but most of the time they did not arrive.

In one such incident on Tel Rumeida street, two HROs were present when settlers threw stones at Palestinians on the roofs of their houses, as well as at the HROs. Local Palestinian Basem Rajeb Abu-Aisha’s solar panels were broken by the stone throwers. In another incident, an HRO was violently pushed by one of a group of three settler girls who were trying to attack a Palestinian school girl the HRO was accompanying.

The HROs spent the morning spread along Tel Rumeida street and Shuhaddah street ready to observe the situation in anticipation of settler violence. Many were doing their usual accompaniment of Palestinian children returning home from school. Palestinian children in Hebron are regularly attacked by settlers with stones and other forms of violence.

They heard of a disturbance near to their apartment which is about 100m from Tel Rumeida settlement. They arrived to find a mob of about 150 settlers nearby throwing stones at a small group of Palestinian youth on the street. Israeli soldiers prevented the settlers from following the Palestinians. Police and soldiers picked one settler out of crowd to arrest him. He was detained for about five minutes before he escaped into the crowd of settlers. The soldiers ran after him but the crowd surrounded them and scuffles broke out between the settlers and soldiers. One of the HROs tried to take pictures of this confrontation but was met with hostility from the settlers and soldiers. The HROs were still trying to accompany Palestinians despite the hostile mob. One settler with an M16 automatic rifle threateningly followed one of the HROs, so he decided to come inside. Others from the small group of HROs also sought refuge in their apartment, fearing for their safety if they were to leave. At first they retreated to the roof where they could continue their observations, but were soon driven down when the settlers began throwing stones up at them. The settlers stayed outside singing in Hebrew and chanting slogans like “No Arabs” in English.

Other quotes from settlers throughout the day: “death to the Arabs”, “we hate all the Arabs”, “Palestinians are animals who should be in cages”, “they shouldn’t be caged just in Hebron but everywhere”, “I hope that God burns all the Arabs in hell… they are not men but dogs”.

According to Israeli Police and military, around 3000 Israeli settlers from around the West Bank and Israel have come to the Palestinian city of Hebron today to show “solidarity with the pioneers of Hebron” as they stated in their advertising for the day.

For more information:
David: 054 651 7234
ISM Media office: 02 297 1824