Tag: Rafah

Global actions target Egyptian embassies to break Israel’s closure of Gaza

26 August 2011 | International Campaign to Open the Rafah Border

Fed up with the closure of Gaza that has kept more than a million and a half Palestinians locked in to the strip’s tight borders, a beacon call is coming from Gaza and resonating across to Egypt, to break Israel’s siege and re-open the border with Egypt immediately.

Activists from South Africa, to youth leaders of the Egyptian revolution, to European, North and South American, and Asian supporters will present signatures to their respective Egyptian Consulates starting Friday August 26th to demand the permanent re-opening of the Rafah Crossing with Egypt without conditions.

Despite promises by the Egyptian government to open it, approximately 35,000 people wait daily to cross the border. Meanwhile, Israeli air strikes last week killed at least 21 people, including 2 children, and injured at least 80 more.

Actions:

Launching the campaign internationally, on Friday, August 26, South Africans in Pretoria have delivered the petition to their Egyptian embassy, in solidarity with Gazans who share similar circumstances to those under the Apartheid regime. This delegation will be supported by faxes, emails and calls to Pretoria from around the world.

The Egyptian ambassador in South Africa received the delegation, was receptive and promised to follow up. He cited security reasons for the slow flow at the crossing.

Each Friday until September 30, international actions in solidarity with Gaza and in support of the on-going Egyptian people’s movement will request that the Egyptian Supreme Council of the Armed Forces honor the human dignity and freedom of its own people and the people of Gaza by opening the Rafah Crossing permanently and unconditionally.

Today, the South African embassy is receiving emails, faxes and calls from across the globe in support of the delegation to Pretoria.

The full text of the petition and signatories is available at: petition.

Click to see the petition’s Facebook page

Email contact: rafahcrossingcampaign@gmail.com

It’s time to end this siege for good

13 August 2011 | Viva Palestina

Viva Palestina is returning to Gaza with our sixth major international aid mission to bring an end to the illegal siege. Much has changed for the Palestinian people and the wider region in the 11 months since our last convoy. Dictatorship has fallen in Egypt. Palestine has moved up the international agenda. Yet the siege on Gaza remains. Israel recently blocked the second international flotilla. Major aid agencies report that the situation in Gaza is as bad as ever. Civil society organisation and NGOs in Gaza have issued an appeal to the transitional Egyptian authorities to open the Rafah crossing for the free movement of people and goods.

A promised partial opening earlier this year did not go far enough and has largely been reversed. Meanwhile, the condition of Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank and Jerusalem continues to deteriorate with ongoing illegal settlement building and the construction of the apartheid/separation wall. Outside Palestine, conditions for three million Palestinian refugees living in camps remain desperate, despite UN and international recognition of their right to return to their homes. The VP convoy will be highlighting the call to open Rafah and also the conditions facing Palestinians in exile and under occupation. It will aim to arrive just after Christmas, on 27 December, the third anniversary of the beginning of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead attack on Gaza.

At this time of year, the world’s Christian communities and many others are particularly focused on Jerusalem and the crisis facing the inhabitants of that ancient city will also be part of our message.

All four of VP’s previous convoy’s have successfully entered Gaza. As well as bringing millions of pounds of desperately needed medical and humanitarian aid, we have been told by people in Gaza and by supporters of the Palestinians in Egypt that they have helped play a role in highlighting the unjust policy of the now ousted Mubarak regime in maintaining the siege. The democratic upsurge in Egypt opens the prospect of ending that siege for good. We will be working in partnership with humanitarian organisations in Egypt to help to bring that about before another year of unnecessary suffering is inflicted on 1.5 million people subsisting in what British prime minister David Cameron has described as the world’s largest open air “prison camp”.

We ask you to join us in this mission, which again will enjoy widespread international support. Experience has shown that successful missions to Gaza require a high level of organisation and planning. The VP management team has built up that experience with hundreds of volunteers who have taken part in our previous convoys and other events. So everything from decisions on what aid to bring to what volunteers should expect of themselves and the mission as a whole is based on those successful convoys and nearly three years of experience.

We believe the time is ripe to finally end this siege with a massive return convoy, with considerable Egyptian participation, and to raise the underlying reasons for the humanitarian suffering of the Palestinian people as a whole.

We will be opening registration shortly. Please send an email to tony@vivapalestina.org to register your interest, and we will let you know when registration is open.

We will be heading off from London at the end of November to arrive in Gaza on 27 December. International participants will be joining en route. Further details will be coming out over the coming weeks, so make sure you are on our mailing list.

Not everyone can take part in the convoy directly. But tens of thousands have supported our efforts and without them the convoys would not have taken place. You can raise money and send it to us to purchase the medical and humanitarian supplies. You can spread the word about the convoy through your networks. You can volunteer to help with vehicles, fundraising, outreach and other areas. The people of Gaza deserve the highest quality materials and professionalism. What they need above all is the end to this blockade and the restoration of trade and commerce ties that can allow them to rebuild their economy.

With your help, we aim to assist them in achieving that – this Christmas.

Call from Gaza: open the Rafah crossing permanently and unconditionally

Today, a call demanding the re-opening of the Rafah Crossing between Egypt and Palestine has come from Gaza. It is propelled by support from Egypt and has been endorsed by dozens of organizations, citizens’ groups, associations and coalitions in many countries, as well as by distinguished international personalities.

The call to action underscores the Geneva Conventions which entitle all people to freedom of movement and protection from collective punishment such as the arbitrary closure of the Crossing. Fulfilling a demand of the Egyptian revolution, supporters urge their governments to re-open the gates that have turned Gaza into an ‘open air prison’.

The Rafah Crossing is Gaza’s only exit to the external world. Israel’s continued siege of Gaza includes closure of its six other crossings

Building on the momentum of a year’s international activism to break the deadly siege of Gaza, supporters of the call to action include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Laureate; Richard Falk, Professor of International Law Emeritus, Princeton University; Ronnie Kasrils, former South African Chief of Intelligence and Justice Minister; Egyptian novelists and activists Ahdaf Soueif and Radwa Ashour; author Tariq Ali and others.

To sign the petition
Signatories will be updated on further actions in support of this campaign as they are announced.

Call From Gaza: Open The Rafah Crossing Permanently And Unconditionally

Besieged Gaza, Occupied Palestine

Article 13 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights clearly states that:

  1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
  2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

This article follows others that unequivocally recognizethe inherent dignity and equal and inalienable rights of ALL members of the human family, which naturally includes Palestinians.The inalienable right to freedom of movement of the more than 1.5 million Palestinian men, women and children who make up the population of the Gaza Strip has been denied by successive Israeli governments and the Mubarak regime which imposed a barbaric siege. Mainstream human rights organizations describe the Gaza Strip as the “largest open-air prison on earth.”

This deadly siege should have ended when the revolutionary Egyptian movement ousted Hosni Mubarak and his murderous regime during which Egyptians in their millions made clear that their emancipation and the freedom of Palestine were their joint and connected goals.

This raised the hopes of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, 1948 Palestine and the shatat (diaspora), as well as millions of others around the world, that the Egyptian government and the Supreme Military Council would finally break the blockade ofGaza, as Egyptians clearly wanted. We expected the Rafah Crossing to be treated as a sovereign border between two states, as open as all other Egyptian border crossings, including those with Libya, Sudan and Israel. This would ensure the dignity and free movement of Palestinians, and all travelers, to and from the Gaza Strip.

Former Egyptian Foreign Minister, Dr. Nabil Al-Arabi, made very encouraging initial statements that the previous Egyptian government’s treatment of Gaza was “disgraceful” and that the Rafah Crossing would be opened permanently. On 25 May 2011, Egypt’s official Middle East News Agency announced the permanent opening of Rafah.The former rules at the Crossing were to be reinstated, thus allowing Palestinians with passports to cross into Egypt every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. except for Fridays and holidays. According to a statement issued by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Palestinian women and children would be able to leave Gaza without restrictions, while men between the ages of 18 and 40 would have to obtain visas to enter Egypt. Thus more than 60 per cent of Gazans would be able to cross without requiring visas.

This decision of the government post-revolution was implemented for just two days: 28-29 May 2011, and this Rafah Crossing policy was in reality retracted without any formal announcement. The current number allowed to pass each day has been reduced to an arbitrary figure of between 160-300 travelers.

The sudden about-turn comes in the midst of the worst medical crisis that Gaza has ever suffered. Most operations have been put on hold as needed basic supplies are not available. Thousands of students have lost the opportunity to further their studies abroad because they have not been able to travel to their universities. Residency permits for Arab and foreign countries of thousands of other Gazans expired when they couldn’t leave Gaza.

The current system requires every potential traveler to register online with the Gaza Ministry of Interior and confirm this registration with the Ministry of Transport. The number registered to cross as of the end of June exceeds 20,000, and with the daily rate of travelers at the Crossing restricted to a maximum of 300, the possibility of crossing before mid-September is almost nil.

Those who travel via Rafah face inhumane conditions: standing for long hours in the heat, then escorted by police to Cairo airport, and then waiting in a holding cell until departure. No other citizens in the world have to endure this humiliation, uncertainty and indignity by another country when they choose to exercise their right to leave their own country.

Palestinians demand freedom of movement now

These restrictions should no longer be imposed on Palestinian people. It is an offense to the immense ongoing struggles of the Egyptian people in pursuit of human rights for the present Egyptian authorities to so quickly break promises made to them.

Under the Geneva Conventions we are all entitled to freedom of movement and protection from collective punishment such as the arbitrary closure of the Crossing.

Our demand, therefore, is the permanent and free movement of Palestinians, without distinction or limitation of any kind, through the Rafah Crossing.

  • Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU)
  • University Teachers’ Association in Palestine (UTAP)
  • Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI)
  • General Union of Youth Entities (GUYE)
  • Palestinian Youth Against Israeli Apartheid (PYAIA)
  • Arab Cultural Forum
  • One Democratic State Group (ODSG)
  • Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, Palestine
  • Campaign for the Right to Enter the Occupied Palestinian Territory
  • Karama Campaign for the Free Movement of Palestinians
  • Palestine Justice Network
  • Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People (Beit Sahour)
  • Al-Rowwad Center (Aida Refugee Camp)
  • Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution, Egypt
  • People’s Socialist Alliance Party (PSAP), Egypt
  • Democratic Workers Party, Egypt
  • Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
  • The Free Egyptian Movement
  • National Front for Justice and Democracy, Egypt
  • Popular Democratic Movement for Change, Egypt [HASHD]
  • ElNadim Centre for the psychological rehabilitation of victims of violence and torture, Egypt
  • Hisham Mubarak Law Center, Egypt
  • Arabic Network for Human Rights Information
  • Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, Egypt

We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with this demand for basic human rights of the people of Gaza and Egypt:
Click to add your support

  • Tariq Ali, author and activist, UK
  • Radwa Ashour, author, Egypt
  • Mona Baker, St. Jerome Publishing, UK
  • Oren Ben-Dor, School of Law, Southampton, UK
  • Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies, US
  • Haim Bresheeth, University of East London, UK
  • Martin Caton, Member of Parliament, UK
  • Richard Falk, Professor of International Law, Princeton University, USA
  • James C. Faris
  • Bill Fletcher, Jr.,BlackCommentator.comeditorial board, USA
  • Keith Hammond, University of Glasgow, Scotland
  • Nelly Hanna,American University in Cairo, Egypt
  • Richard Hudson, FBA, London, UK
  • Colin Imber
  • Najaty Jabary, Medico, Spain
  • Fanny and Sonja Karkar, Australia
  • Ronnie Kasrils, former South African government minister, author and activist
  • Muhammad Ali Khalidi, York University, Toronto
  • Erwin Lanc, Federal Minister of the Republic of Austria,
  • Yosefa Loshitzky, London, UK
  • Ian Macdonald, QC, UK
  • Mike Marqusee, author, UK
  • Nur Masalha, St. Mary’s University College and SOAS, University of London, UK
  • Hajo Meyer, Holland
  • Christl Meyer, Women In Black, Vienna, Austria
  • Gail Miller, Women of A Certain Age, U.S. Ship To Gaza
  • Fanny-Michaela Reisin, International League of Human Rights-FIDH, AEDH;
  • German Section (President), Jewish Voice for a Just Peace (EJJP Germany)
  • Dalia Said Mostafa, University of Manchester, UK
  • Mai Perez Apraiz, Empresaria, Spain
  • Steven Rose, Open University, UK
  • Ibrahim Jabary Salamanca, Empresario, Spain
  • Pilar Salamanca, Escritora, Spain Waltraud Schauer, Austria
  • Suleiman Sharkh, University of Southampton, UK
  • Lidon Soriano, Spain
  • Ahdaf Soueif, author, Egypt
  • Baroness Jenny Tonge, UK
  • Waltraud Torossian
  • Desmund Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa
  • Peter & Joan Unterweger
  • Angela Waldegg, Austria

Organizations:

  • Al-Awda, Palestine Right to Return Coalition
  • Al-Awda New York: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
  • Americans Against the War, France
  • American Muslims for Palestine
  • Arab Resource and Organizing Center, USA
  • Artdialog, Italy
  • Artists Against Apartheid, South Africa
  • Association Des Universitaires Pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine, France
  • Australians for Palestine
  • Bay Area Coalition to End Israeli Apartheid, USA
  • Bethlehem Group, Glasgow, Scotland
  • Black Alliance for Just Immigration
  • BRICUP- British Committee for the Universities of Palestine
  • British Writers in Support of Palestine (BWISP)
  • Canadian Boat to Gaza Campaign
  • Caribbean Labour Solidarity, UK
  • Catalyst Project, USA
  • Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), USA
  • Center for Encounter And Active Non-Violence, Austria
  • Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA)
  • CODEPINK, USA
  • Collectif Judéo Arabe et Citoyen pour la Paix- Strasbourg, France
  • Comitato Varesino per la Palestina, Italy
  • Comite De Solidariedade Com A Palestina, Portugal
  • Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)
  • Davis Committee for Palestinian Rights, USA
  • En Nuestro Nombre No- Tucumán, Argentina
  • Farrah France-Strasbourg, France
  • Frantz Fanon Foundation, France
  • Frauen in Schwarz (Wien) – Women in Black, Vienna, Austria
  • Free Palestine Movement
  • Friends of Deir Ibzi’a, USA
  • Gaza Foundation-Rotterdam, Holland
  • Global Compliance Research Project
  • Global Exchange, USA
  • Global Women’s Strike, (GWS)
  • Goldsmiths College (University of London) Students’ Union, UK
  • Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, USA
  • Hadeel Palestinian Fair Trade, Scotland
  • Handicap Solidarité- Strasbourg, France
  • Headlines Theatre, Canada
  • International Forum for Secular Bangladesh, UK
  • International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, France
  • International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, UK
  • International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), USA
  • Independent Jewish Voices, Canada
  • International Payday Men’s Network
  • International Solidarity Movement
  • International Solidarity Movement – Northern California, USA
  • International Solidarity Movement – Chicago, USA
  • Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC)
  • Israel Divestment Campaign (California), USA
  • Italian Peace Research Institute – Net for Civil Peace Corps, Italy
  • Kritische Jüdische Stimme (Österreich) – Critical Jewish Voice (Austria)
  • Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG), UK
  • Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost, EJJP (Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East) , Germany
  • Jewish Voice for Peace, USA
  • Jews Say No! USA
  • Justice for Palestinians, USA
  • LA BDS for Justice in Palestine
  • Labor for Palestine, USA
  • Leeds Palestine Solidarity Campaign, UK
  • Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, USA
  • Merseyside Jews for Peace and Justice, UK
  • Middle East Children’s Alliance
  • Middle East Crisis Committee Of Connecticut, USA
  • New York City Labor against the War, USA
  • Netherlands Palestine Committee (NPK)
  • NION – Not in our name – Jews opposing Zionism
  • Our Developing World, CA, USA
  • Palcrafts Charity, Scotland
  • Palestine Action Group, Corvallis, Oregon, USA
  • Palestine Solidarity Campaign, UK
  • Palestine Solidarity Committee, South Africa
  • Palestine Solidarity Alliance, South Africa
  • Palestine Solidarity Committee (PKR)-Rotterdam, Holland
  • Peace for Life, Johannesburg
  • Red Internacional Judía Antisionista (IJAN), Argentina
  • Red Thread, Guyana
  • RESCOP, the Spanish network of organizations in solidarity with Palestine:
    • Asociacion Al Quds (Malaga)
    • Asociacion Hispano Palestina Jerusalen (Madrid)
    • Asociacion Paz Ahora
    • Asociacion Paz con Dignidad
    • Castello per Palestina
    • Coordinadora de apoyo a Palestina Rioja (La rioja)
    • CSCA (Comite de Solidaridad con la Causa Arabe)
    • Ecologistas en Accion (Madrid, Valladolid)
    • Grupo de ONG por Palestina (Plataforma 2015 y Mas y Federacion de Asociaciones deDefensa y Promocion de los Derechos Humanos- Espana) + ACSUR
    • ISM Cataluna/Valencia
    • Interpueblos (Cantabria)
    • Izquierda Anticapitalista
    • Komite Internazionalistak (Euskadi)
    • MEWANDO (Euskadi)
    • Mujeres en zona de conflicto (MZC)
    • Mujeres por la Paz- Accion solidaria con Palestina (Canarias)
    • Palestinarik Elkartasuna (Euskadi)
    • Plataforma Palestina (Ibiza)
    • Plataforma Solidarida con Palestina (Sevilla)
    • Red de Jovenes Palestinos
    • Red de Judios Antisionistas (IJAN)
    • REMCODE
    • Sodepau
    • Sodepaz
    • Sodepaz Balamil- Valladolid
    • Talua Per Palestina (Baleares)
    • Xarxa d’enllaC amb Palestina (Barcelona)
    • Xarxa Solidarida Palestina (Valencia)
  • Right to Return, (DAR), France
  • Sabeel-DC, USA
  • Sacramento Regional Coalition for Palestinian Rights, USA
  • Scottish Friends of Palestine
  • Scottish Palestine Solidarity Committee (Edinburgh)
  • Siege Busters Working Group
  • Silicon Valley De-Bug, USA
  • SOAS Palestine Society, UK
  • Stop Agrexco Roma
  • Stop the Jewish National Fund Campaign, UK
  • South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU)
  • Trade Union Friends of Palestine (ICTU), Ireland
  • Un ponte per, Italy
  • US Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel
  • US Citizens for Peace & Justice
  • US Palestinian Community Network
  • Vic to Gaza first Convoy, Italy
  • War Times/Tiempo de Guerras, USA
  • Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace, USA
  • WESPAC Foundation, NY, USA
  • Women in Black- Strasbourg, France
  • Women of Color in GWS
  • Women for Justice and Peace, UK
  • Women for Palestine, Australia
  • 14 Friends of Palestine, Marin, California, USA

Gaza man found dead, another injured due to Israeli shelling

16 July 2011 | Palestine News Network

A Palestinian man, who went missing during an Israeli attack on a tunnel in Rafah city, southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, was found dead this morning, local sources reported.

Ibraheem al-Bayok, 21, went missing on Thursday when Israeli jetfighter bombarded the tunnel he works in at the borders with Egypt. Five workers were injured on Thursday while al-Bayok and another worker went missing inside the collapsed tunnel.

Earlier another man was injured when an Israeli military drone fired a missile at a group of residents gathered near their home in Beit Hanoun, a town in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

Medical sources said that the man sustained moderate wounds and was moved to a hospital in the town.

The recent escalation came after the Israeli military claimed that Palestinian fighters have resumed the firing of Qassam home-made shells at Israeli targets near Gaza.  Israeli sources reported three Qassam shells over the past three days none caused injuries or damage.

Guardian: Rachel Corrie’s family claim Israeli military withheld vital video evidence

11 July 2011 | The Guardian

The family of Rachel Corrie, the US activist killed in Gaza while protesting against house demolitions in 2003, on Monday claimed the Israeli military authorities withheld video evidence during the Corries’ civil lawsuit and misled US officials on crucial details.

Craig Corrie, Rachel’s father, told a press conference in Jerusalem that the footage from a surveillance camera near the scene of his daughter’s death submitted to the court was “incomplete”. Additional video material obtained by the family showed Rachel’s body in a different spot to the place identified by some military commanders, he said.

He also alleged that the Israeli military had misled US officials on the position of Rachel’s body when she was killed.

Rachel, from Olympia, Washington state, was killed while attempting to protect the home of a Palestinian family in the Rafah area of Gaza from being demolished by Israeli troops in March 2003. Her family and other activists who witnessed the incident say she was crushed by an Israeli army bulldozer.

Following Rachel’s death the then Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, promised US president George W Bush a “thorough, credible and transparent” investigation.

An internal Israeli military investigation, which was never published nor released to the US government nor the Corries, concluded that the two soldiers who operated the bulldozer had not seen Rachel and that no charges would be brought. The case was closed.

In March last year the Corrie family launched a civil case, accusing the military of either unlawfully or intentionally killing Rachel or of gross negligence. Hearings in the case ended on Sunday and a verdict is due to be delivered next April.

“After more than a year of hearings, we are at this moment in much the same place as we were when they began – up against a wall of Israeli officials determined to protect the state at all costs, including at the expense of truth,” said Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s mother.

“We came seeking accountability. We demand justice,” said Craig Corrie.

The final witness in the case, Colonel Pinhas Zuaretz, told the court in Haifa that Rafah was a war zone in 2003 and “reasonable people would not be there unless they had aims of attacking our forces”. Members of the International Solidarity Movement, such as Rachel Corrie, were aiding “Palestinian terrorists”, he said.

In arguing that the case should be dismissed, the Israeli government claimed Rachel was responsible for her own death. Both sides have 90 days to submit closing arguments in writing.