Human Rights Worker refuses deportation; Threatened by Police Officer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

At 01:15 on Thursday morning, Andrew Macdonald, a Human Rights Worker from the ISM, refused deportation from Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. The refusal is a protest against the State of Israel’s policy of deporting Human Rights Workers from the Occupied Territories of Palestine.

After the refusal, a police officer from the Special Operations Unit, threatened Andrew, saying that they were going to drug him and use handcuffs and leg shackles to force him on the next available plane. They also threatened to put him in jail for two months if he would not comply. Currently, Andrew is being held at the Tzohar Detention Center near the Rafah crossing to Gaza.

The arrest took place last Thursday at 15:00 in Tel Rumeida, Hebron. Andrew had just finished escorting Palestinian children to school. ISM together with the Tel Rumeida Project provides an international presence in Tel Rumeida that supports the daily Palestinian non-violent struggle against attacks from Hebron’s violent settler community.

Andrew Macdonald’s own comment is: “Something very odd is happening here. In order to eject people from Israel, they are snatching people out of Palestine, and forcing them into Israel. It’s not for Israelis to decide who can stay in Palestine, it’s for Palestinians to decide.”

For more details:

ISM Media Office +972 2 297 1824
Tel Rumeida Project www.telrumeidaproject.org

Palestinians offer their help to gain freedom for kidnapped CPTers


Palestinians led by their top Muslim cleric appealed to Iraqi insurgents Wednesday to release four Western peace activists, saying three of them had spent time in the West Bank aiding the Palestinians. The banner on the right reads in Arabic: “we demands the release of the CPT members” and the banner on the center reads: “CPT are friends of Palastine and the Arabs, release them.”
(AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

On November 30, 2005 the National and Islamic Forces in Hebron held a press conference to ask for the release of four CPTers being held by an Iraqi armed group. The first speaker was Sheikh Najib Al Ja’abri, who hosted the press conference at the Ali Baka’a Mosque in the Haret e-Sheikh neighborhood of Hebron. He spoke of his warm sense of working together with CPTers over the years. The second speaker was Abdul ‘Alim Dana of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, followed by Fahmi Shahin, Coordinator of the National and Islamic Forces in Hebron, representing the Palestine People’s Party.

Naim Daour, Public Relations Director for Hebron University, talked about repeated closures of the university and CPT’s work to help to re-open the university. “Sometimes it is hard to tell who is working for us and who is against us, but really Christian Peacemaker Teams helps us – whoever is holding the CPTers has made a mistake.” Fariel Abu Haikal, Headmistress of Qurtuba Girls’ School, emphasized the difference between CPTers and the American government. “Saif al-Haq (‘Sword of Justice,’ the Iraqi armed group holding the CPTers) I don’t know, but these problems in Iraq, they come from George Bush. He is the problem, not CPT.” She described the accompaniment that CPTers have provided for teachers and students at her school, who are often assaulted by Israeli settlers from the nearby settlement of Beit Hadassah.

The last Palestinian to speak was Jamal Miqbal of Beit Ummar. Jamal and his family live in the shadow of the Israeli settlement of Karme Tzur, and the Israeli military issued a demolition order on their home. Many CPTers have stayed at their home, both in tense times when the Miqbals feared that the bulldozer would come, and in more relaxed seasons.

At the conclusion of the press conference, CPTers read this message:

“We are very worried about our four friends. We fear that whoever is holding them has made a mistake. They are four men who went to Iraq to work for peace. They oppose the occupation. They are not spies.”

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.