Israeli forces assaulted 7 year old Adam Mansour Rishq during tense scenes in Silwan today. The child was beaten by Israeli troops who accused him of throwing stones at a military vehicle, who then attempted to arrest the youth but were stopped by residents who flocked to the scene. One resident told soldiers that “if you want to arrest him you can send an order to his father, summoning him to the police station.”
An Israeli policewoman was witnessed shouting at the mother of Rishq as she arrived on the scene, accusing her and other residents of covering up their children’s faults. The mother, fearful of the police officer, fled in to the house. Her son was brought in to the house over an hour later, when he was found hiding in a nearby tree out of fear of a repeat attack by soldiers. Rishq, clearly suffering from severe shock, was taken to Sharat Zedek hospital in West Jerusalem where he was treated for trauma and hallucination. Despite receiving treatment for 4 hours, the hospital refused to issue any papers to Rishq’s family to prove the necessity of medical attention following the assault.
Adam’s mother stated that “events such as this make our fears to great as to even send our child to school, lest he be subjected to another attack.” The family’s neighbor who had been present at the time said that “my children have been arrested by the Israelis and sentenced to house arrest, outside their own home of Silwan, in Beit Hanina. The police said they were arrested for participating in an “illegal” gathering on the streets. We do not understand what they mean by “illegal gathering” – my children were returning from school when they were taken by Israeli forces to the police station.”
25 November 2010 |ICHAD & Al Jazeera
Following the demolitions and evictions in East Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley yesterday, this morning the Civil Administration accompanied by large Army and Border Police forces demolished a mosque in the Jordan Valley and several structures in the South Hebron Hills.
Yesterday the Ministry of Interior demolished a Palestinian home in A Thuri, East Jerusalem, displacing a family of 7 including 4 children. The family had been living in their 60m/sq home for more than 8 years and were unsuccessful in years of court battles to resist the demolition. Settlers moved into another Palestinian home close-by on the Mount of Olives after a Palestinian family lost court battles to remain in their home and were evicted from the premises 3 years ago. A new court ruling this week gave the green-light to the settler take-over.
Today Civil Administration representatives along with armed border police forces destroyed a mosque in the East Tubas Bedouin village in the Jordan Valley, following the demolition of 4 structures displacing a family of 12 yesterday in the neighbouring village of Abu Al Ajaj. The recent escalation in the Jordan Valley comes after a spate of settler aggression over the last month amid attempts by the Massu’a settlement to annex adjacent lands from the Abu Al Ajaj community, in the Al Jiftlik area.
Jordan Valley Solidarity have requested volunteer assistance both with recovery and salvage from the recent demolitions, as well as to provide accompaniment for local communities at risk of settler violence. For further details visit Jordan Valley Solidarity.
Earlier this week a Palestinian family was forcibly evicted from their home by settlers in Jabal Mukabber, East Jerusalem, and the Bedouin village of Al Arakib in the Negev was demolished for the seventh time.
This weekend the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) conference was held in Jerusalem, despite pressure from human rights groups for it to be held elsewhere or not at all. After their insistence on holding the conference here, ignoring Israel’s blatant violations of international law and colluding with their aspirations to claim Jerusalem as an Israeli capitol, we were forced as activists with conscience to confront the participants with criticism, posters, and a giant banner.
We came upon a detailed schedule for the “Round Table” conference of high profile OECD ambassadors, and were thus able to meet them at the Jerusalem Bird Observatory, 8:30 AM on Friday. Our signs had pictures of ostriches with their heads buried in the sand, and the slogan “Don’t Close Your Eyes to Apartheid” in several different languages. They were surprised to find us there. We were told to stand at the exit, but all of the ambassadors still had to pass us on their way out. A few smiled, but most quickly averted their eyes or glared at us.
click for full sizeSaturday we dropped a ten meter wide banner off the Calatrava bridge at the entrance to Jerusalem, that again said “Don’t Close Your Eyes to Apartheid,” and had an “OECD Approved” stamp over a photo of the Apartheid Wall. As a result of Shebat, there were no police in the area so our banner remained in place for at least a few hours. Some Israeli passersby attempted to untie the banner, but were unsuccessful due to our proficiencies in knotting. A few boys tried to pull the banner back up onto the bridge, but when they saw us filming them they threw it back over and ran away.
click for full sizeDespite Israel’s persistent violation of human rights as protected by International law, the OECD — whose member countries include most of the rich countries of the world — granted Israel membership on May 27th this year. This not only symbolized diplomatic approval of Israel’s policies on the part of the most powerful countries in the international community, but also brought many potential economic benefits to Israel.
Turkey will not send any delegation to a biannual tourism conference in Israel later this month, the country’s culture minister said Tuesday, marking the first boycott of Israel on a multilateral level since a deadly raid on a Turkish aid ship in May.
Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay told a group of reporters Tuesday that Turkey would not send any representative to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, conference on Oct. 20-22 in Jerusalem. “Regrettable statements have been made. We want tourism to take place, not politics,” he said.
Diplomatic sources told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that the Turkish decision would mark the first boycott of Israel on a multilateral platform. Despite the May 31 flotilla incident, an Israeli Foreign Ministry diplomat attended a meeting of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, or CICA, last week in Ankara.
Initially, Turkey intended to send the ministry’s deputy undersecretary, Özgür Özaslan, to the tourism conference, but Ankara changed its decision after evaluating the situation.
Spain and Britain will also not attend the OECD conference.
Israeli press claimed Palestinians were pressuring European countries to shun the conference on sustainable tourism, which normally takes place in Paris, on the grounds that the event would take place in east Jerusalem, considered the capital of the future Palestinian state.
Diplomatic sources, however, told the Daily News that the conference would take place in west Jerusalem.
The International Solidarity Movement is calling on activists to protest in Jerusalem in the third week of October against the annual tourism conference of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) which should not be held in the occupied capital of an apartheid state in violation of a plethora of international laws.
>>>>> ISRAEL IN THE OECD:
Despite Israel’s persistent violation of human rights as protected by the law, the OECD – whose member countries include most of the rich countries of the world – granted Israel membership on May 27th this year. This not only symbolized diplomatic approval of Israel’s policies on the part of the most powerful countries in the international community, but also brought many potential economic benefits to Israel.
>>>>> ABOUT THE CONFERENCE & JERUSALEM:
The conference consists of 2 parts, in total lasting three days (Oct 20th-22nd). According to the official website the war criminal Shimon Peres will be attending, along with representatives from each of the powerful OECD nations. Its stated aim is to discuss how to make the tourism industry ‘greener’.
Having disgracefully admitted Israel to the OECD, this conference represents a further instance of the international community deliberately turning a blind eye to the slow and insidious ongoing process of ethnic cleansing taking place in Jerusalem in which Israel is clearly working to ‘Judaize’ all areas of Jerusalem, employing numerous means to this end, including: evictions of Palestinians from their homes, house demolitions, residency permit revocation, settler takeovers of Palestinian houses, illegal settlement construction, land confiscation, discriminatory allocation of municipal resources, police persecution combined with impunity for settlers, restrictions on freedom of movement, permit systems and legal discrimination against Palestinians. This is occurring everywhere inside Israel but is perhaps most acutely felt in Palestinian East Jerusalem neighbourhoods such as Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan.
>>>>> OPPOSITION TO THE CONFERENCE:
Because it is unacceptable that Jerusalem plays host to the wealthiest and most influential members of the international community and allows them to ignore Israel’s crimes happening in plain sight, a letter of protest was issued jointly by the Alternative Tourism Group, Kairos Palestine and Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism.
The Boycott National Committee has also issued a letter, pointing out that “Rather than condemning such illegal practices under international law, the OECD conference will cement Israel’s hold on occupied Jerusalem, and will be perceived as a stamp of approval of Israel’s violations of international law in Jerusalem and elsewhere.”
The BNC ‘s statement also points out that “Internationally, tourism is overtly deployed by Israel to ‘rebrand’ the state as an attractive holiday destination, and to cover up its occupation, colonization and apartheid policies.” By turning a blind eye to war crimes and holding this conference in Israel, OECD members are sending a signal that they are willing to be complicit with Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and actively support Israel’s PR efforts to whitewash its illegal practices.
It concludes: “The OECD ought to respect its own obligations under international law and relocate this ill-conceived conference out of Israel. Failing to do so will further undermine the organization’s already dismal respect for human rights and the international rule of law.”
>>>>> PROTESTING THE CONFERENCE:
But sadly it seems unlikely that the rich nations of the world that make up the OECD membership will relocate this conference. So instead we must ensure that it is not carried out in the heart of Jerusalem without attention being drawn to the issues of real importance. No business as usual at the expense of justice!
No-one organising or participating in this conference can make a credible claim to be ignorant to Jerusalem’s ugly realities – occupation, racism, and the destruction of lives.
It’s clear they are trying to avoid the issue – just take a look at the sentence that’s been guiltily omitted from the description of Jerusalem used here on the OECD conference website compared to the otherwise identical description supplied here on a separate conference site. (The OECD description omits the sentence about Jerusalem’s Old City, in an attempt to avoid controversy). They also take pains to note in their expensive package tour offers for delegates that the Jerusalem tour covers the west of the city only.
But it’s not enough to try and skirt this issue this way. They are and rightly should be politically sensitive to this issue and must be embarrassed and shamed for choosing to hold the conference in Jerusalem despite Israel’s continual flouting of international law, violation of human rights and oppression of Palestinians inside Israel, in the occupied West Bank and in besieged Gaza.
Contact – palreports@gmail.com if you can come to Jerusalem to protest this event in October.
>>>>> OTHER EVENTS IN OCTOBER:
* Olive Harvest
If you’re coming to Jerusalem in October to protest the conference, you could also spend 2 or more weeks on the Olive Harvest campaign run annually in Palestine, where volunteers support farmers to harvest their crops. Approx Oct 8th – Nov 20th. More information here.
* Rachel Corrie Trial Dates and Commemoration Event
October will also be an important time for ISM and for the family, friends and supporters of Rachel Corrie. The last trial dates in the court case, which represents the most important hope for justice in the seven-year struggle, will be happening in late October (possibly one in early November). People are encouraged to attend the court in Haifa, Israel. See Rachel Corrie Foundation site for more info.
Although a verdict will likely not be announced until the spring, ISM in the West Bank are hoping to organize a commemoration event including a screening of the film ‘Rachel’ by Simone Bitton and hopefully Rachel’s parents, Craig and Cindy Corrie, will be able to attend. An exact date and venue will be confirmed nearer the time.
