Tag: Jayyous

How Israel targets and suppresses opposition to Its Annexation Wall

Stephen Lendman | The People’s Voice

23 September 2009

Established in 1992, the Addameer (Arabic for conscience) Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association helps Palestinian prisoners, and works to end torture, arbitrary arrests and detentions, other forms of abuse, and unjust, unequal treatment in Israel’s criminal justice system that handles Jews one way and Palestinians another.

In July 2009, in cooperation with the Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (Stop the Wall) and the Palestinian Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association, Addameer published a report titled “Repression allowed, Resistance denied” that documents resistance to Israel’s apartheid wall and the “staggering level of repression, arrests and violence” by Israeli authorities.

On July 9, 2004 in a unanimous decision, the International Court of Justice (IJC) ruled that “the construction of the Wall being built by Israel, and its associated regime, are contrary to international law….” It said construction on it must cease. Built sections must be dismantled, Palestinian land returned, and compensation paid for property destroyed. The UN General Assembly endorsed the decision. Israel rejected it out of hand, keeps seizing Palestinian land, continues the wall’s construction, and ruthlessly suppresses efforts to halt it.

In defiance of international law, Israel’s High Court ruled that erection of a “barrier” may continue for security reasons even though its purpose is solely to steal resources and land that will include over 12% of the West Bank when completed.

The consequences for Palestinians have been devastating. Communities have been divided, isolated and ghettoized. Farmers have been separated from their land and water sources. Militarized control is repressive, and free movement is more restricted than ever.

The ICRC called the Wall contrary to international humanitarian law and repeatedly urged Israel to halt it. Article 2(c) of the Apartheid Convention says the Wall and checkpoints are key to maintaining apartheid in the West Bank. Article 2(d) adds that “the Wall and its infrastructure of gates and permanent checkpoints suggest a (permanent) policy….to divide the West Bank into racial cantons,” and the South African Human Sciences Council stated:

“Restrictions on the Palestinian right to freedom of movement are endemic in the West Bank, stemming from Israel’s control of checkpoints and crossings, impediments created by the Wall and its crossing points.” They constitute an illegal matrix of control affecting all aspects of Palestinians’ lives.

Popular non-violent, direct action resistance emerged in self-defense as well as lobbying through the courts and national and international media campaigns. It was entirely blacked out in the major media.

Most visible are weekly demonstrations, protests and marches involving Palestinians, Israelis, other Jews, and international human rights activists – in defiance of Israeli military orders that call these activities and all organized resistance “criminal offenses,” punishable by arbitrary arrests, targeted killings, brutal repression, disproportionate violence, and collective punishment in violation of international law, including Fourth Geneva protections.

Addameer “provide(s documented) evidence to show that injuries and deaths inflicted by the Israeli military at protests and activity surrounding them are intentional, not accidental.” Indiscriminate arrests are made, family members threatened, including children, and many are tried, convicted, imprisoned, fined, and ruthlessly punished for defending their rights. Israel wages low intensity warfare against a popular resistance in a futile effort to break an indomitable spirit, at a cost that includes:

— premeditated, systematic punitive attacks and collective punishment;

— entire communities targeted by state-sponsored terror;

— mass arrests, killings, beatings, torture and other abuses;

— children imprisoned or shot for throwing stones or being in the wrong place at the wrong time; and

— Palestinians victimized by decades of unremitting, systemic violence and repression, and in Gaza under siege and attack, of course, it’s much worse.

Addameer’s report “is a preliminary summary of (its) findings, based on (extensive interviews, other primary research, and) the experiences of a few protagonist villages in the struggle against the Wall.” Follow-up reports are planned to continue documenting the affects on “a wider number of villages affected by the Wall.”

When completed, it will span over 760 kilometers, be more than five times longer than the Berlin Wall, and far more imposing with its sensors, trenches, security roads, mine fields, checkpoints, terminals, watchtowers, surveillance cameras, electronic sensory devices, and military patrols using killer dogs.

Around 20% of the Wall follows the “Green Line.” The rest expropriates over 12% of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and with the settlements, military zones, and for-Jews only infrastructure amounts to about 46% of the Territory and growing as Israel keeps seizing more land.

It displaces thousands of Palestinian families, entraps all Palestinians in the West Bank, steals their land and resources, and has nothing to do with security. It’s a land grab/collective punishment scheme to enclose an entire people inside disconnected cantons in violation of international law and the ICJ ruling.

Organized Resistance Against the Wall

After Israel began construction in June 2002, spontaneous demonstrations, community actions, and meetings followed. The first public statement read:

The Wall represents “the Occupation in its ugliest face. (It’s) stealing….land and water, and….changing….the historical and demographic status of these areas. (It’s) uprooting….trees and (destroys) nature. (It’s) in opposition to all that is human and civilized.”

In October 2002, opposition groups were formed, including the Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (Stop the Wall) in response to a need for a coordinated popular resistance and to offer advocacy, research, legal challenges, and support for the communities affected. Efforts thereafter grew, and from September 2003 became a national and international priority. Israel responded with permit restrictions to bar free movement and prevent people from accessing their lands. Since then, many anti-Wall farmers lost their livelihoods when they were denied permits to cultivate their own land.

Demonstrations, protests and strikes have continued in targeted West Bank communities and villages. Campaigns not to recognize the permit system were organized. Israeli forces responded harshly. Time passed. Crops rotted in fields and livelihoods were destroyed. Yet villagers resisted despite severe collective punishment imposed. Since then, eight West Bank popular committees have been represented in the Campaign’s General Assembly, and five of the 11 members of the Campaign’s coordinating committee are representatives from local groups.

In 2004, anti-Wall resistance became widespread. The first martyrs were killed in defending their rights. The ICJ ruled the Wall illegal and ordered its demolition. Increased land theft and human fallout drew international attention and encouraged mass protests and solidarity against state-sponsored terror.

Direct actions blocked bulldozers, breached sections of fences and razor wire separating villagers from their lands, slowing construction and forcing constant rebuilding. Media strategies were also developed through international contacts. In addition, committees held rallies, demonstrations, and sit-ins to pressure the Palestinian National Authority (PA) to support affected communities, raise the Wall issue at an international level, and act to implement the ICJ decision.

Yet when UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan came to Palestine in March 2005, he refused to speak out or visit the Wall. Around 5,000 Palestinians demonstrated in protest.

Since late 2005, popular resistance had to reorganize for numerous reasons. So much of the Wall was completed that actions to stop bulldozers ceased. Since international support failed to materialize, new forms of protest were needed to sustain a long-term struggle. Friday demonstrations replaced daily ones so a semblance of daily life was possible.

Yet in areas like Anata in East Jerusalem, daily protests continued because Wall construction ran straight through school courtyards. Students were involved and sustained many injuries for their efforts.

Frustration with the Palestinian leadership also grew as campaigning for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) began in late 2005. It heightened the split between Fatah and Hamas because effective popular resistance was futile without leadership sustaining and capitalizing on it.

National actions like Land Day, the Week against the Apartheid Wall, and other events gained prominence. In March 2007, Land Day activities took place in over 20 locations with popular committees and students participating. Thereafter, Stop the Wall and popular committees have been key players in other national action days.

Resistance solidified and expanded south with new campaigns against Wall construction. People in the Jordan Valley protested against being isolated from the rest of the West Bank. Media and civil society organizations finally noticed, and political and material support began to arrive.

Since mid-2008, weekly protests gained strength in a number of villages – in Bil’in, Al Ma’sara, Irtas, Ni’lin, Jayyus, Nahalin, and elsewhere with hundreds of people facing down soldiers and risking arrests, injuries or death.

In addition, popular committees are focusing on settlements and renaming themselves “Committees Against the Wall and The Settlements” because both represent occupation leaving Palestinians dispossessed, walled-in, ghettoized, and repressed unless organized movements resist.

The villages of Burqa, Bizzariya, Silat, ad-Dhahr, Sabastiya, and Beit Imrin led protests against the resettlement of Homesh, a settlement evacuated during the “disengagement.” After a month, Homesh settlers left with all their belongings.

Other actions included boycotting Israeli products and legally challenging companies that support the Wall and occupation. “The mobilizing capacity of the popular committees and Stop the Wall (have) become (key) actor(s) at national action days, such as Land Day and the 60 years Nakba Commemoration.” During Operation Cast Lead, they sacrificed two lives in supporting Gazans under attack.

Movements against the Wall have become a “politically mature network of activism and resistance” despite escalated repression against them.

Violent Repression of Palestinian Anti-War Protests

They’re ongoing in dozens of villages, and “immediate action is require to counter it.” In Bil’in, Ni’lin, Al Ma’sara and Jayyus over 1,566 people have been wounded and six killed while protesting. IDF actions are vicious and beyond the bounds of “crowd control, security or self-defense.” They involve:

— threats to inflict individual and collective punishment;

— premeditated shooting with intent to injure, disable, kill and send a message to other protesters;

— night terror raids, curfews, closures, tear-gassing, and property destruction; and

— entire villages targeted with collective punishment, including mass arrests and unconscionable viciousness.

A Friends of Freedom and Justice video recounted a recent Bi’lin incident:

“At around 2:30AM, two groups of around 35 soldiers (70 total) descended on the village….They raided several houses, detained their inhabitants, and searched (inside). When members of the ISM and the Popular Committee of Bi’lin confronted the soldiers, they called all of Bi’lin a closed military zone and threatened to arrest anyone out of their house or anyone on top of a house taking pictures.”

“They kidnapped a 16 year old boy (Mohsen Kateb)….and took him away into the night. Haitham al-Katib, a respected Palestinian activist….was video taping….when soldiers aggressively pushed him against a wall and threatened him with arrest…..(the son of) Iyad Burant, the head of the popular committee, (was threatened) if he didn’t produce a camera….This raid follows on the heels of others that have happened almost every night for two weeks.” Arrests are made and people threatened because they campaign against the “loss of 60% of (their) farmland due to the construction of the apartheid wall and the illegal settlements” that continue to expand.

Israeli policy focuses on ruthless deterrence to break popular resistance by inflicting serious harm. Threats are made collectively and against village officials. Violence is systemically employed. Activists are threatened, killed or arrested. Live fire is used against peaceful demonstrators.

One popular committee member said: “once, soldiers broke into my home and told my mother that if her son did not stop, they would break his legs and he would never walk again.” Others recounted death threats. Parents are told “we are going to take revenge on you and on your children.” Leaflets are distributed promising “punishment (and) final warnings” to communities that keep protesting.

Home demolitions are also threatened. Farmers are told their land and crops will be destroyed. Force follows, including beatings, live fire, tear-gassing, willful killings, including against children. Soldiers justify it as “crowd (or) riot control” and that soldiers fire only in self-defense.

In fact, actions are grossly excessive against activists and peaceful demonstrations, and include ambushes, shootings from rooftops and concealed locations, and extreme aggression against a civilian population. At an early 2004 Biddu protest, soldiers unleashed a massive attack, killed two, injured 70 others, some severely, and caused an elderly man to die of a tear gas-induced heart attack. Numerous other demonstrations, then and now, were disproportionately attacked by “massive retaliatory violence” with dozens killed and thousands more injured throughout the West Bank. Prominent activists are targeted for removal, willful disabling, or death.

Illegal weapons are used, including bullets that break into pieces on contact leaving shrapnel slivers inside bodies that are very hard or impossible to remove. Besides willful killings, legs are targeted to inflict disabling injuries, including against children. Head shots are also used with rubber bullets and tear gas canisters dangerous enough to cause cranial fractures and permanent memory problems. Ambushes and other surprise attacks are employed using indiscriminate fire with lethal weapons unrelated to crowd or riot control.

Indiscriminate attacks also occur that are passed off as unfortunate errors, when, in fact, they’re deliberate, for revenge, and “constitute an integral part of” oppressing popular resistance and right of Palestinians to be free. Innocent civilians are wounded, disabled or killed in cold blood because soldiers are ordered to do it.

Collective punishment is systemic and longstanding in the form of:

— night terror raids to intimidate entire communities and villages; children are especially affected by shooting, explosions, and shouting through loudspeakers;

— harassing curfews on entire villages prohibiting anyone from leaving homes on threat of being shot or arrested; while in force, soldiers break into homes, search them, and arrest occupants for interrogations that include beatings, humiliation and torture;

— village closures and sieges are also imposed allowing no one and nothing in or out; throughout, homes are raided, people tear-gassed, arrested and shot, and property is destroyed;

— besides outdoor tear-gassing, canisters are fired into homes without pretext, damaging property, human health and causing fires; a Jayyus resident said:

“I cannot count how many times they fired tear gas inside my house….As a result of everything, I had a heart attack, and have had two operations. My daughter has also been in the hospital.”

— willful property destruction occurs, including windows, possessions, and village water tanks; items are also stolen, including money, computers and books; and

— fields are set afire, crops and trees uprooted, and land effectively destroyed.

State-Sponsored Repression

The above incidents show that “death, maiming and injury resulting from military violence….form a consistent pattern of repressive violence….Individual and collective punishment are two, complementary parts of this strategy” that aim to weaken solidarity, create divisions, and crush the will to resist – to kill it “from the roots.”

Intimidating munitions are used, including:

— hollow point bullets that expand in human flesh to maximize tissue and organ damage;

— exploding or fragmenting bullets to tear apart human flesh and leave hard to remove metal fragments inside;

— .22 caliber bullets designed to be less lethal but more deadly than rubber-coated ones that at times can maim or kill; and

— 40 mm high-velocity tear gas rounds that resemble shells and explode internally for added velocity and impact; when fired directly at crowds, they’re like missiles able to cause serious injuries and deaths.

Collective Punishment and Community Blackmailing

Collective punishment includes threats that it will continue as long as demonstrations persist. It also aims to divide communities, families in the interest of their children, hurt economically by destroying property, deny permits to hamper movement, and break the will to resist.

Violating Civil and Political Rights

As explained above, Israel employs a range of repressive tactics, including threats, physical pressure, curfews, blockades, isolation, arrests, property destruction, and targeted and indiscriminate killings on pretexts such as:

— stone-throwing;

— interfering with soldiers’ activities;

— resisting arrest;

— being in a closed military zone; and

— threatening the security of Israel, even though the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) affirms that assembling and peaceful protests are lawfully protected activities.

Since 1967, however, over 750,000 Palestinians (as much as 40% of the male population) have been victimized by systematic arrests, detentions and brutalizing treatment in custody.

“Over the years, thousands of Palestinians have been detained and charged with maintaining ties to an organization, institute, office, movement, branch, centre, committee, faction, group, or whatever the law defines as ‘a body of persons’ branded ‘hostile’ or ‘terrorist’ and included in an ever-expanding list of unlawful associations.”

Israel’s Military Court System

Unlike Israelis, Palestinians are processed, tried, and sentenced in military courts located inside Israeli military bases. From the outset, they haven’t a chance under a system rigged to convict. Less than 1% are acquitted. Individual rights are denied. Institutionalized racism prevails. International human rights laws are defiled, and according to the UN Human Rights Committee:

— a state of emergency never justifies deviation from fundamental principles of fair trials;

— military courts should never be used, except in cases where civil ones aren’t able to function;

— when used, military tribunals must afford all protections guaranteed under ICCPR’s Article 14 that stipulates: “All persons shall be equal before the courts and tribunals….shall be presumed to be innocent until proved guilty,” shall have a fair and impartial trial, and be granted all rights according to established international law.

Israel’s military courts defile all of the above and offer no possibility for justice. Judges are hanging ones. Children as young as 16 are tried as adults. Secret evidence is used, and the right to appeal flawed verdicts and sentences is severely compromised.

Israel targets anyone suspected of resisting as well as children for the “crime” of assembly, throwing rocks, or having a family member previously arrested. Popular committee heads are especially sought as a way to remove leaders and weaken movements. A Bil’in village head, Iyad Burnat, was arrested twice – in 2005 when he blocked bulldozers beginning work on a segment of the Wall. He was beaten severely enough to require hospitalization. Then in 2008, he was arrested again during a demonstration, tried and fined. Similar incidents occur regularly in other villages.

Youths are frequently targeted because they’re among the staunchest and most proactive demonstrators, yet more vulnerable, less aware of their rights, and as a way to intimidate parents. At times, military raids provoke them to react and crack down hard indiscriminately when they do.

According to Defence for Children International/Palestine Section 2009 Annual Report on Palestinian Child Prisoners, when soldiers clash with youths, they go after “any child in the vicinity, regardless of whether that child was actually involved in the unrest of not.” During interrogations, they’re then subjected to psychological and physical abuse, just like adults, to extract confessions of whatever authorities want – “which (most) Palestinian children do not understand.”

During arrests, violence is standard practice. Samed Mohammad Hassn Salim’s experience was typical. On February 18, 2009 in Jayyus, he and 60 others were arrested for participating in a weekly protest against the Wall. His pregnant wife was thrown to the ground and later suffered a miscarriage. A medical report confirmed it resulted from the fall and sound grenades used in the assault.

Those in detention face intimidation, humiliation, threats of recriminations against family members, long interrogations, physical and psychological torture and abuse, demands to sign confessions and provide information on other protesters, denial of medical care, poor sanitary and hygiene conditions, inadequate quantity and poor quality of food and water, and exposure to the elements.

According to one detainee: “They always beat you – that is normal.” Another said: “They were beating me. It felt like they were trying to kill me. They handcuffed me and forced me into a chair. My neck still hurts from the beatings I received. They were strangling me. I lost consciousness.”

At times, treatment is severe enough to leave permanent psychological and/or physical scars. Detainees are forced to sign confessions in Hebrew they don’t understand, confess to crimes, and deny they were tortured. Nonetheless, one military commander said that for every 1000 detainees, only one will provide information, and even that might prove useless.

Palestinian human rights activists are generally treated harshest of all, including severe treatment and longer sentences for resisting repression and standing up for their rights that include peaceful demonstrations and displaying the Palestinian flag.

Israeli, International and Palestinian Protesters: Different Rights, Different Jurisdiction, Drastically Different Repercussions

Israel and international activists face far different treatment under Israel’s judicial standards. In detention, they’re generally treated humanely, endure no long interrogations as a rule, most often are released in a few hours, may or may not face charges, but if so are tried in civil courts under a completely different system of justice. Acquittals are more common, fines lower, first offenses forgiven, if sentences are imposed they’re for much shorter periods, and the right of appeal is assured.

In the first seven months of 2009, 129 Israeli activists were indicted, 15 convicted, and the majority got suspended sentences or convictions reversed on appeal. Deportation was how most internationals were handled. “To date, there have been no reported cases of an Israeli or international activist serving more than a week in prison, or being placed in administrative detention,” and most are rarely sentenced. Currently, no international activists are in prison for having participated in an anti-Wall protest.

In contrast, Palestinians charged with throwing stones face up to 20 years in prison although generally they’re released within a year.

Under ICCPR’s Article 14, fair, impartial trials are guaranteed. Under the UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, access to competent counsel must be granted within 48 hours. Adequate time and facilities must be available to communicate privately, and if detainees can’t afford to pay, proper representation must be provided anyway.

Nonetheless, Palestinians are affected by factors such as counsel’s citizenship and residency status, as well as military orders, Israeli laws and prison procedures that violate international standards, so their right to fair, impartial justice is impossible.

Inflated and multiple charges also assure convictions on at least one offense regardless of the validity of evidence. The result is less than 1% acquittals as explained above and 97% resolutions by plea bargain agreements for the most leniency lawyers can get.

Military tribunal justice is near-impossible when charges of throwing stones or owning a gun are inflated to “trying to kill” and prosecutors rely solely on soldiers’ testimonies for corroboration. Lymore Goldstein who’s represented a number of Palestinian and Israeli activists cites Israel’s apartheid justice with Jews treated one way and Palestinians another:

“The evidence used against people is never verified, for instance, all the (Palestinians) who touched the microphone (at a specific protest) were charged with incitement – there was no mention of what they had said” or what, in fact, they incited. “This is a very typical example,” but for Jews it’s entirely opposite. Even when Palestinians can prove their innocence, acquittals are rarely gotten.

Attorney Sahar Francis expressed frustration saying:

“I’m against the military courts. Let the occupiers do this job for themselves. Why should lawyers go there and try to do things when we know at the beginning” how things will turn out.

From their time of arrest, Palestinians have almost no chance to prevail under a system of kangaroo court justice, so it’s why up to 12,000 languish in Israeli prisons at any time and endure torture and other dehumanizing treatment.

Mohammed Brijiah, from Al Ma’sara described his arrest and trial ordeal:

“Three times during the night, they came and attacked my house, took out my brothers and nieces….and my children, including my 1-year-old daughter. They made my family stand outside for 3 – 4 hours. They damaged the furniture, told me to get dressed and that they would take me to prison. I was arrested twice (in November 2007 and December 2008). They brought me to a court and then released me….I stayed one week, but the arrest was because of the demonstration. (Another) accusation was that I beat a soldier, but (video evidence) clearly shows that I did nothing like this.”

Prosecutors did all they could to extend his detention and brought up baseless old charges to delay his trial hearing. Brijiah was luckier than most others who disappear for months or years in Israel’s criminal justice system that affords none of it to Palestinians. No bail, long sentences, high fines, and brutalizing treatment are common, nearly always in violation of international law. For example, under Military Order 378, stone throwing carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment, and the threshold of evidence to convict on mere suspicion is low enough to prevail.

Former soldier, now writer and journalist Seth Freedman says it’s common for the military to select targets, regardless of whether they’re committing the act in question. Then it’s their word against defendants, nearly always they prevail, and many innocent youths are imprisoned for offenses they didn’t commit but have no way to prove it. They can’t prove a negative.

Nor can they defend against threats that serve as “a powerful coercive means of intimidating – and harassing – protestors.” In detention, death or physical harm threats are made during interrogations. Also making them against family members is commonplace as a way to induce cooperation.

Further, collective punishment, mass arrests, and various forms of intimidation are repeated throughout the West Bank. They comprise ways “to punish anyone exercising their right to self-determination and resistance. Their impact will be manifold, affecting family’s livelihoods, freedom of movement, as well as their rights to express themselves and assemble freely.”

Conclusions

Israeli authorities act in violation of the fundamental right to assemble, demonstrate, and protest peacefully. Violent and aggressive measures are used repeatedly in violation of international law. Palestinian activists risk arrest, interrogation, long detentions, kangaroo trials, imprisonment, torture and other forms of abuse. Nonetheless, they persist, and according to one interviewee:

“The army has created a lot of obstacles but it hasn’t prevented the protests.” Those arrested do it again, at times more cautiously, but others with a determination to prevail.

The entire judicial process is racially biased and blatantly discriminatory. Indiscriminate arrests are made. Demonstrators are intimidated and targeted. Popular committee leaders and youths are most vulnerable. State terror is common practice, and in detention humiliation, torture and other abuses are employed for extended periods – to break their spirit, crush their will to resist, make them docile and submissive, or simply give up and leave. For over four decades under occupation, Palestinians, on their own, have continued their struggle to live freely on their own land, in their own country as international law affirms.

Recommendations

— on July 20, 2004, the ICJ ruled the Wall illegal and called for its demolition; the UN General Assembly endorsed the decision; it’s time for the UN “to follow through on its mandate to develop relevant measures to ensure the implementation of the ICJ decision;”

— Israel should be pressured by targeted sanctions, including an arms embargo;

— the UN Human Rights Council and Special Rapporteur for Human Rights should address these issues;

— the international community should:

(1) “Take real action to ensure that Israel complies with the” ICJ’s decision;

(2) protect the lawful right of Palestinians to protest against the Wall and land confiscation to build it;

(3) affirm Palestinians’ right to resist against Israeli repression;

(4) hold Israel accountable under international law and pressure it to halt arbitrary arrests, indiscriminate violence, mass arrests, torture, and other human rights violations;

(5) assure international standards and legal guarantees protect Palestinians brought to trial;

(6) until and unless Israel fully complies, “suspend cooperation, free trade, research and development,” and other normal relations with a rogue state; and

(6) sanction companies that “aid or assist the construction or maintenance of the Wall, and follow the same course of action with regards to companies that construct, invest or operate in the settlements.”

— Palestinian, international, and other NGOs should continue their active support for “the popular committees on the ground through their services and capacities.”

Like people everywhere, Palestinians yearn to live freely on their own land as international law affirms. They deserve universal support for the most fundamental of all rights without which all others are compromised.

Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Free Mohammad Othman now!

Stop the Wall

24 September 2009

Mohammad Othman
Mohammad Othman

On September 22, Mohammad Othman was arrested by soldiers on the Allenby Bridge Crossing, the border from Jordan to Palestine. He is now being held in Huwara prison as a prisoner of conscience, arrested solely for his human rights work.

Mohammad, 33 years old, has dedicated the last ten years of his life to the defense of Palestinian human rights. He has campaigned with the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign against the dispossession of Palestinian farmers and against the involvement of Israeli and international business in the violations of Palestinian human rights.

His village, Jayyous, has been devastated by the Apartheid Wall and Zufim – a settlement, built by Lev Leviev’s companies. These companies are facing a successful boycott campaign because of their violations of Palestinian rights.
Mohammad was returning from one of his trip to Norway, during which he met with senior officials, including Norwegian Finance Minister Kristen Halvorsen. Norway’s national Pension Fund recently announced that it had divested from Elbit, the Israeli company which provides both Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and other military technology for Occupation forces, as well as security systems for the Wall and settlements.

This is not the first time Palestinian human rights defenders have been arrested after trips abroad. Recently, Muhammad Srour, an eye witness at the UN Fact Finding Mission on Gaza, was arrested on his way back from Geneva. This arrest was a clear act of reprisal against Srour for speaking out about Israel’s violations of international law. Arresting Palestinians as they return from travel is yet another Israeli tactic to try to silence Palestinian human rights defenders. It complements the overall policy of isolation of the Palestinian people behind checkpoints, walls and razor wire.

We call on international solidarity and human rights organizations to act immediately to bring attention to this case and advocate for the release of Mohammad Othman by:

Recommended Actions:

• Encourage others to join this campaign through petitions, demonstrations and / or letter writing / phone calling. Please provide them with contact information and details;
• Urge your representatives at consular offices in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem/Ramallah to demand the immediate release of Mohammad Othman. (For your consular contacts, see: http://www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-in/Israel#11725)
• Let the Israeli Embassy in your country know that you are campaigning for Mohammad’s release and for a just and lasting peace based on international law
• Sign the online petition for Mohammad on: http://www.petitiononline.com/stopwall/petition.html
• Bring the case of Mohammad to the attention of local and national media outlets;
• Follow the blog and facebook to free Mohammad Othman to see the latest updates and action alerts.
Blog: http://freemohammadothman.wordpress.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=36429272741&ref=ts

Mohammad Othman represents only one of the 11,000 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons. More than 800 are being held in “administrative detention”, meaning that they are imprisoned (indefinitely) without charge. International solidarity and governments have to hold Israel accountable and achieve an end to the large scale repression and mass imprisonment of Palestinians as part of their efforts to bring about an end to the occupation and the restoration of Palestinian rights.

Sample letter to embassies and foreign ministries:

Dear x,

I am writing to you to express my deepest concern about the detainment of Mohammad Othman on, September 22, at the border between Jordan and the West Bank. He was returning home after a visit in Norway.

I fear that the detainment of Mohammad Othman is a result of his peaceful criticism of violations of international law by Israeli authorities. The charges against him have not been made clear, but there is reason to believe that he is a prisoner of conscience, arrested solely for his human rights work through legal organizations.

I ask you to take all appropriate measures, including official inquiries and protests, to ensure Mohammad’s immediate and unconditional release. Furthermore, whilst being held, he should be protected from any form of torture or ill-treatment, and the conditions of his detention should fulfill the requirements of international law.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this urgent matter.

Sincerely,

Five years after ICJ ruling, Israel expands its illegal Wall onto more Palestinian land

Ben White | Media Monitors Network

28 July 2009

“The wall has changed not just the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, but also the dynamic of the Palestinian struggle. The reality created inside the occupied territories (a process begun during the Oslo accords) by Israel’s colonies, Areas A/B/C zoning, the permit system, separate roads–and now the wall–has led to the creation of a Palestinian enclave-state in waiting, and thus the death of a genuine “two-state solution.”

Five years ago this July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague handed down its advisory opinion on Israel’s separation wall in the occupied Palestinian territories (see p. 32). Both the Israeli government and the Palestinians had been preparing for the decision since December 2003, when the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution requesting an ICJ advisory opinion.

On July 9, 2004, the ICJ ruled 14-1 that the wall was illegal in its entirety, that it should be pulled down immediately, and that compensation should be paid to those already affected. The judges also decided 13-2 that signatories to the Geneva Convention were obliged to enforce “compliance by Israel with international humanitarian law.” Less than two weeks later, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution 150-6 supporting the ICJ’s call to dismantle the wall.

Exactly one year and one day after the ICJ had issued its opinion, Israel’s cabinet approved the final details for the wall in Jerusalem, a route expected to include Ma’ale Adumim. In the five years since the wall was deemed illegal by the ICJ, Israel has pressed on with construction to the extent that it is now one of the most defining components of its occupation. As of last year, two-thirds of the wall’s planned route of more than 450 miles had either been completed or was under construction (a figure rising to 77 percent in Jerusalem). Across the occupied West Bank, the wall’s economic and social impact already is disastrous: the World Bank has estimated that 2 to3 percent of Palestinian GDP was lost annually due to the wall.

This existential threat to the very survival of many Palestinian communities (not to mention the broader political implications and breaches of international law) has spurred on various kinds of resistance to the wall: popular resistance by Palestinians living in the occupied territories; cases brought in Israeli courts; and, outside of Palestine, the international legal arena and activists’ campaigning.

As soon as work on the wall began in 2002, Palestinians organized themselves to resist. This was a relatively slow process, starting in a handful of villages, before spreading to others also destined to lose huge tracts of farmland and olive groves. Particular villages have become famous for their insistent, creative nonviolent demonstrations against the Wall: Jayyous, Budrus, Bil’in, Ni’lin and Aboud, to name a few.

In Jayyous, demonstrations began in 2002, with close to 150 demonstrations over the following two years. Between 2004 and 2008, however, protests stopped, after Israel used the leverage of the permit system–allowing limited access to farmland isolated by the wall—to apply pressure on the village. In November of last year, the weekly demonstrations resumed.

Mohammad Jayyousi, the son of a Jayyous farmer, is youth coordinator for the Stop the Wall Campaign. While justifiably proud of the protests to date, he also is frustrated by what he sees as a kind of resignation among older Palestinians who, he says, have sometimes told the youth that no one can stop the Israelis from building where they want to.

“For us as a new generation, it’s we who will suffer,” he says. “In my opinion, you need to mobilize the youth, and educate them to understand the consequences of the apartheid system–the wall, settler roads, settlements, etc.–for them to see that for a better future, there will need to be a cost.”

Although Jayyous and other villages like Bil’in and Ni’lin have active committees of all ages involved in resisting the Wall, active Palestinians are a minority. Palestinians don’t participate in the popular resistance, Jayyousi explains, “because they don’t want to be in trouble with the occupation.” His own father stopped going after the first demonstration for fear of losing the family’s only permit to visit and work their farmland.

These weekly demonstrations, a strategy adopted for various periods of time by other West Bank villages, serve a few purposes. One is to empower the villagers to be able to do something to defend themselves; to express their refusal to surrender. Another is to slow down the physical construction of the wall as much as possible. Finally, the protests are also designed to attract local and international media attention to the wall and its consequences.

The Israeli military’s response to this popular resistance has been harsh: “troublesome” villages have been subjected to raids, curfews, and mass arrest campaigns. The protests themselves are routinely met with force: 18 Palestinians have been killed, and hundreds injured, by the Israeli military during anti-wall protests.

The IDF apparently does not consider the possibility that the anti-wall protests could inspire, and develop into, a wider movement.

A different (though sometimes complementary) strategy employed by a number of Palestinian communities is to take their fight to the Israeli courts, an approach that has brought mixed results. In Jayyous, Mayor Mohammad Taher Jabr told me that he felt this legal avenue was “a waste of time”:

“I went in November to the Israeli High Court,” he said. “The judge asked me if I accepted the change to the route, and I replied that when the Israeli army made the wall in the first place, they didn’t ask us. The army works on the ground without talking to the court.”

Suhail Khalilieh, head of the Urbanization Monitoring Department at the Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ), points out that “at the end of the day, the West Bank is governed by the Israeli army and the civil administration, so it’s subject to military law. The Israeli army can simply override any court decision by saying they are doing it for military or security purposes.”

That said, there have been limited successes for individual villages. Bil’in, a village famous for its popular resistance, also secured an apparent “victory” in the Israeli courts in September 2007, when the Israeli High Court of Justice ordered a one-mile change in the wall’s route.

Yet it wasn’t until April 2009, some 19 months later, that a new route was finally submitted in compliance with the court order. The wall’s new path isolates 1,000–rather than 1,700–dunams of Bil’in’s land.

The case for taking the battle to the Israeli courts is arguably supported by the recent slow progress of the wall: in 2008, it grew by just seven and a half miles. In February of this year, a spokesperson for Israel’s Defense Ministry “blamed the lack of progress on High Court of Justice rulings,” as well as “pending petitions.”

While individual villages are grateful to regain sections of land they thought lost, this is small consolation when compared to what is still being confiscated. Worse still, Israel, while ignoring the ICJ opinion, can use these rulings as propaganda cover, claiming to respect Palestinian rights within “security” constraints.

Internationally, the wall has been taken up by human rights organizations and Palestine solidarity groups as a focus for their work and campaigns. This has often been highly effective, to the point of overcoming Israel’s propaganda push about it being a temporary, legitimate, “security fence.”

Pictures of the concrete sections of the wall in urban Palestinian areas resonate strongly in the West, where the memory of the Berlin Wall still lingers. While Western media outlets almost always feel obliged to cite Israel’s security excuse as “balance,” there have been numerous reports on the suffering experienced by Palestinians affected by the wall.

The wall has changed not just the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, but also the dynamic of the Palestinian struggle. The reality created inside the occupied territories (a process begun during the Oslo accords) by Israel’s colonies, Areas A/B/C zoning, the permit system, separate roads–and now the wall–has led to the creation of a Palestinian enclave-state in waiting, and thus the death of a genuine “two-state solution.”

These three methods of resistance (popular struggle, Israeli courts, and international advocacy) have had both successes and failures. On the anniversary of the ICJ opinion, however, it is perhaps worth emphasizing the inability thus far of the Palestinian leadership to really make a case for what is a significant legal endorsement of the Palestinian position.

Many of those affected on the ground by the wall feel disappointed that the ICJ ruling has not been fully exploited. Sameeh al-Naser, deputy governor of Qalqilya, told me that he feels the Palestinian Authority, while perhaps restrained by its relationship with donor countries, has not used the ICJ decision in the right way.

Mohammad Jayyousi concurs: “I know the Palestinian leadership is under huge pressure from the international community, but the ICJ ruling has started to become like all the U.N. reports—like tissue paper to be buried. I really hope the PLO wakes up and works with the ICJ decision.”

As Prof. Iaian Scobbie, international law specialist at SOAS’s School of Law, pointed out to me, “If the Palestinians are not pushing for a solution by making specific proposals and representations to other states, then states might well not see the need or have the inclination to do anything.”

ARIJ’s Khalilieh also emphasizes the international dimension: “The conflict with the Israelis now is not about what you do on the ground, it has to do with international pressure—without that we will not go very far.”

Jayyous’ Mayor Jabr suggests that he may well have given up altogether on successful resistance of the wall by Palestinians alone:

“As Palestinians, we are asking all the time for a peace process, a real one,” he says. “What we want from the PA is that if with all these negotiations and meetings with the Israelis there is no peace, then stop all of that. And we ask the rest of the world to getjustice for us.”

Villages and organizations ask Norway to divest from Leviev’s Africa-Israel over settlements

Adalah-NY

6 May 2009

The West Bank Palestinian villages of Bil’in and Jayyous and 11 national and international networks from Europe, Palestine, Israel and the US have sent letters calling on Norway to comply with its ethical guidelines and divest from its pension fund holdings in the company Africa-Israel, owned by the controversial diamond magnate Lev Leviev. The villages of Bil’in and Jayyous cited the devastating impacts of the construction of Israeli settlements by Africa-Israel and another Leviev-owned company, Leader Management and Development, on their villages’ agricultural land.

The letters to Norwegian officials follow controversy in Norway over pension investments in Africa-Israel and other Israeli companies involved in human rights abuses, statements by Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen supporting a review of pension fund investments, and an April 28 article in the UK’s Guardian by Abe Hayeem of Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine urging the governments of Norway and Dubai to “emulate the example set by the UK and sever their relationships with Leviev’s companies.” In March, the UK announced that it would not rent its new embassy in Tel Aviv from Leviev due to concerns over settlement construction. UNICEF and Oxfam have also publicly renounced all connections with Leviev.

A May 4 letter to Norwegian officials signed by Jayyous’ Municipality, Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Committee, and Land Defence Committee noted that, “Leviev is the co-owner of Leader Management and Development, the company that is building the Israeli settlement of Zufim on our village’s land… Today, many families from our village live in poverty because they can no longer reach their farmland due to Israel’s construction of a wall on our land, a wall intended to annex Jayyous’ land for the expansion of Zufim settlement.” The letter closed by noting, “In Jayyous, we are engaged in a struggle for justice, for our freedom – indeed, for our very lives. We call on the government and people of Norway to divest from Leviev’s companies and stand with us in our struggle to save our land, our communities and the dreams of our children.”

In an April 21 letter, Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements expressed “great dismay” “that Norway, a strong supporter of human rights and peace in the Middle East, has invested its citizens’ pensions in a company, Lev Leviev’s Africa-Israel, that is building Israeli settlements on our village’s land, and is destroying our olive groves and any hope for justice and peace in Palestine.” Bil’in highlighted its long “nonviolent campaign to prevent the seizure of 57.5% of our village’s land for the construction of the settlement of Mattityahu East,” “more than 250 creative protests over the last four years,” the April 17th killing by Israeli soldiers of Bil’in nonviolent protester Bassem Abu Rahma, the injuring of 1300 civilian protesters, and the arrest of 60 more. The letter summarized, “We are sure that the people of Norway do not want to support the seizure of our farmland, and violence against our community.”

In a May 5th letter, Adalah-NY, Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, Association France-Palestine Solidarite, Norway’s Electricians and IT workers Union, European Coordinating Committee of NGOs on the Question of Palestine, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Jewish Voice for Peace, Jews Against the Occupation-NYC, Norwegian Association for NGOs for Palestine, Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign wrote to Norwegian officials supporting Bil’in and Jayyous. The organizations asserted that investing in Africa-Israel “violates government guidelines which require the exclusion of ‘companies from the investment universe where there is considered to be an unacceptable risk of contributing to… serious violations of individuals’ rights in situations of war or conflict’ and ‘other particularly serious violations of fundamental ethical norms.’” They also noted evidence of Africa-Israel’s settlement construction in Maale Adumim and Har Homa, the sale by Africa-Israel subsidiary Anglo-Saxon Real Estate of Israeli settlements homes, Leviev’s donations to the settlement organization the Land Redemption Fund, and Leviev’s companies’ involvement in serious human rights abuses in Angola’s diamond industry.

Boycott this Israeli settlement builder

Abe Hayeem | The Guardian

28 April 2009

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office must be commended for its decision to cancel renting premises for the UK embassy in Tel Aviv from the company Africa-Israel, owned by Israeli businessman and settlement builder Lev Leviev. This is an encouraging step that should now be backed by stronger sanctions against the building of the separation wall and the building of illegal settlements by Israel. Furthermore, the governments of Norway and Dubai should emulate the example set by the UK and sever their relationships with Leviev’s companies.

The Israeli paper Ha’aretz reported on 3 March 2009 that “Due to the public pressure” several months ago in a special debate in parliament, Kim Howells of the Foreign Office was asked to explain plans to rent the embassy from Leviev.

This pressure, by a letters campaign to the FCO, was initiated by Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine with human rights organisation Adalah-New York, followed by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, former BBC correspondent Tim Llewellyn and hundreds of others.

Further voices included Daniel Machover of Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights, Palestinian notables including Hanan Ashrawi, Mustafa Barghouti and Luisa Morgantini, vice president of the European parliament.

The move was frozen after ambassador Tom Phillips requested details from Africa-Israel about its activities in the settlements.

Subsequently, on 5 March, the BBC reported the FCO’s Karen Kaufman saying that: “We looked into the issue of Africa-Israel and settlements and settlement holdings and we asked for clarification …. The UK government has always regarded settlements as illegal, but what has happened in recent months is that we are looking for ways to make a difference on this issue.”

Still, despite the FCO decision, Leviev’s companies persist in their goal, backed by the Land Redemption Fund to which Leviev is one the largest donors, of “blurring the Green Line” and connecting the illegally built Zufim settlement with Israeli communities inside the Green Line, retaining 6,000 dunams of the village Jayyous’s land sequestered by the wall. This land grab is being facilitated by the enforced construction of the apartheid wall, which the International Court of Justice firmly judged to be illegal under international law in 2004, and demanded its removal.

There are weekly non-violent protests by the Jayyous villagers, Israeli and international peace groups, together with Bil’in to stop their precious land from being taken to expand settlements and build the wall. These are being suppressed by Israeli forces on a terror rampage with live fire, beatings, tear gassings, mass arrests, house occupations and, more recently, threats of home demolitions, and pogroms.

Following an Israeli supreme court ruling that the route of the wall in Jayyous should be moved slightly, Israeli authorities are trying to blackmail Jayyous’s mayor, saying if he doesn’t accept the new wall route, there will be no gates in it for the village’s farmers to access their lands. The mayor has refused to sign. Without international intervention, Jayyous will not be able to hold on to its lands behind the wall, which contain their four vital agricultural wells and most of their greenhouses. Leviev will then be able to freely expand Zufim on to Jayyous’s stolen lands. Currently, Leviev is building 35 new housing units in Zufim.

At Bil’in, where Leviev companies are also building settlements, mainstream media failed to cover the 17 April murder of Bil’in non-violent protester Bassem Abu Rahmeh, 29, by Israeli forces. A soldier shot him with the same new type of “rocket” tear gas round, as fast and lethal as live ammunition that left US activist Tristan Anderson in critical condition.

The brutal crackdown in Bil’in continues despite three Israeli supreme court orders to move the wall in Bil’in closer to the Matityahu East settlement “outpost” where Leviev’s Danya Cebus built about 30% of the units. Israel’s court has shown itself to be the accessory of this land grab. Israel’s architects, designing these settlements, are also in breach of professional ethics, and will be held to account by their international peers.

While the US, UK and the EU seem to be keen to join Israel, the perpetrator of war crimes, in boycotting the Palestinians who are the victims of crippling sieges, deadly incursions and a prison-like occupation, they are reluctant to take any positive action to stop Israel’s breaches of international law. For instance, the Norwegian government has invested €875m in 2008 in Africa-Israel. By investing its populace’s pension fund in a company at the heart of illegal Israeli settlement building, the country that sponsored the Oslo accords violates its spirit. Norway should follow the precedent set by the UK’s FCO, in one of the latter’s few bold moves, and divest from this company.

The United Arab Emirates is also shamefully equivocating after a year-long campaign against Leviev selling his diamonds in the emirate of Dubai. Dubai’s government, despite repeated assurances that Leviev would not be allowed to open two diamond boutiques in the emirate, has allowed Leviev to open stores under another name while his website advertises a Leviev store-in-store at one of the “Levant” shops of his Dubai partner, Arif bin Khadra. A second Levant store in Dubai’s Atlantis hotel boldly touts the Leviev brand.

If Dubai does not wish to be become known as the “emirate that supports settlements”, it should take immediate action, and follow the UK’s lead and demonstrate it will not allow Leviev to profit from this indirect funding of his settlement building, that steals the future of Jayyous’s children who are growing up in the shadow of Leviev’s ever-expanding Zufim settlement.

While the new Netanyahu/Leiberman government is doing all it can to obfuscate the issue of a proper peace settlement to establish a viable Palestinian state, a clear message must be sent to Israel. The sanctions against Leviev should be the start of a wider boycott of all who profit from the enforced acquisition of Palestinian land.