Israeli forces raided two Palestinian television networks early Wednesday in Ramallah and briefly detained four employees, journalists said.Soldiers confiscated computers used by editors and reporters in Watan TV’s newsroom and general offices as well as administrative and financial files, the network said.
Troops also raided Al-Quds Educational TV in Al-Bireh and confiscated its broadcasting equipment, the head of its TV department Haroun Abu Irreh told Ma’an.
“This attack is nothing but piracy under a policy of systematic attack targeting Palestinian media organizations and journalists,” Watan TV said in a statement.
The network “deplores this aggressive behavior against an efficient and effective media organization,” and said it will restore the stolen equipment and transmitters and to try to resume broadcasts.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said soldiers were accompanying an operation by the country’s communications ministry, which had determined that the networks were broadcasting illegally.
They had been asked to cease their broadcasting “which significantly interrupts other legal broadcasting stations,” an army spokeswoman told Ma’an. “During the operation and in accordance with law, the communications ministry confiscated several transmitters.”
“Illegal broadcasting interfered with aircraft communication, which is very, very dangerous.”
Abu Irreh of Al-Quds Educational TV called the events of Wednesday morning “harassment to media and education stations and a way to shut the mouths of media and reporters.”
Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti condemned the raids in a statement.
“This act is not only a violation of human rights and humanitarian law,” he said, “but also a breach of the agreements that forbid the Israeli military forces from entering or carrying out operations” in Area A.
“We will campaign worldwide to repel the Israeli aggression,” he said.
Watan TV identified the four employees who were detained as head of production Abdul Rahman Thaher, correspondent Hamza Salaymeh, graphics expert Ibrahim Milhim and broadcaster Ahmad Zaki.
They were released after several hours, the network said.
The attack resulted in Ghanem spending 36 hours in the Intensive Care Unit and a subsequent 11 days in the hospital. No effort has been made to investigate this attack by Israelis or illegal settlers from Yitzhar settlment, where the attackers are based.
Ghanem and her family will be left recovering from the physical and emotional trauma suffered, whilst remaining aware that at any moment, they or someone they know could be the victim of a similar attack, with potentially the consequences being even more severe.
Although clearly still weak, Mrs. Ghanem was far from beaten, and although there remain significant health issues as a consequence of her attack, when asked how she felt as she lay on her hospital bed flanked by loved ones, Mrs. Ghanem responded, “Better, thank God.”
According Ghanem’s son, Fares it is his brother-in-law and driver of the car, who is finding it most difficult to recover, emotionally that is. Fares Muhammed Ibrahim explained that his brother-in-law feels “guilty” and “responsible” for this incident and has not “shaved” since the attack. Clearly the affects of attacks such as these extend far beyond the physical injuries sustained and can take much longer to recover.
It is without question that Ghanem, her family, and Palestinians in general will continue to resist, whether it be through hunger strikes, weekly protests, refusing to relinquish their rights to live and work on their land, or in this case simply driving along the road to visit your daughter.
Fransisco Reeves is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
3 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
When your land is occupied by those who harbor hatred towards you emanating from a belief that they are inherently superior to you, each day brings with it a genuine threat to the security of your life and the lives of your loved ones.
“They want to kill,” is how Fares Muhammed Ibrahim simply put it. And on February 2nd, “they” very nearly did.
A broken windshield of the family vehicle reveals the impact and size of thrown projectiles - Image via Alternative Information Center
At approximately 1pm Maysar Abd Al Majeed Ghanem, Fares’ 61 year old mother, was travelling in a car along with her husband and her son in law on their way to visit her daughter in Ramallah. The family were travelling along the main road connecting their village of Sarah to Ramallah, known as Yitzhar Road due to its proximity to the infamous settlement.
They were attacked by three settlers standing near the entrance to the illegal Yitzhar settlement.
Fares explained that his brother in law, who was driving the car, saw three men standing by the roadside facing away from the traffic and consequently did realize that these men intended to terrorize them in a way that was potentially fatal.
As the car approached the three men standing near the entrance to the settlement, the men turned around to reveal the large rocks they were holding in their hands. It is clear to the family that this was a premeditated attack on unsuspecting and innocent victims.
The target was obviously Palestinian, without concern for gender or age of passengers. On this occasion it was Mrs. Abd Al Majeed Ghanem who was the unsuspecting victim. The rocks thrown by the three attackers were of such a size and thrown with such force they destroyed both the large rear window and smaller right rear window before striking Ghanem, causing three fractures to her skull and bleeding to the brain.
The injuries were so severe that Ghanem spent 24 hours in the Intensive Care Unit of Nablus Hospital before the doctors considered her condition stable enough for her to be released to the general ward.
“When you throw a stone at a moving car it’s is like throwing a bomb,” said her son. Fortunately the events were not as catastrophic as they potentially could have been, although this is no comfort for the family of the 61 year old.
“This time…they didn’t kill her, but I don’t know about next time” explained Ibrahim. He explained that his mother was one of many victims of attacks by settlers from the illegal Yitzhar settlement and neither the Israeli Occupation Forces nor police do anything to prevents such attacks but instead protect the violent, illegal settlers.
A Palestinian accused of throwing a stone at professionally trained and armed military faces the prospect of years in an Israeli prison.
Ibrahim made the point that if a Palestinian were even accused of committing a similar act to that committed by these three settlers the entire Palestinian village would become a restricted military zone and the accused Palestinian would likely have their home destroyed before type of military trial could begin.
The village of Sarah, home to the family, is a village of many in the Nablus area that was declared under siege in 2007 after a Military Order had crippled movement between the villages and their access points to Nablus and Ramallah with checkpoints and increased military presence. Now the presence of violent, illegal settlers has increased the tensity of the area and its mobility.
When visiting the family in hospital a day after the attack occurred, and being invited into the hospital ward to see Ghanem, surrounded by several women relatives, sleeping and recovering from her injuries, one could not help but sense the immense feeling of indignity Palestinians are subjected to, and yet the family, like all Palestinians, endure with much dignity.
All the men of the family stood outside of the hospital room.
Under normal circumstances undoubtedly the gender divisions present in some aspects of Palestinian culture would have been maintained, yet ISM volunteers were welcomed to visit the woman. All that remains with the family and Palestinian victims to the violent Israeli military occupation is a hope that the world will eventually take notice of the injustice Palestinians are forced to endure and resist even if that means allowing strangers into the most private of spaces.
Fransisco Reeves is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
18 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Following last week’s violence in the village of Nabi Saleh near Ramallah, international observers and activists were today denied entry into the village by Israeli soldiers. The soldiers said that the entire village was a closed military zone and provided paperwork that seemed to support their claim. The internationals were followed and harassed by the Israel military as they attempted to leave the village.
Every Friday the village of Nabi Saleh organizes a march to protest the 2009 confiscation of an important water source by the Israelis. Last week Abu Hussam Tamimi suffered injuries after being shot in the face at close range by Israeli soldiers, in violation of international law. Also last week an 11 year old boy from the village suffered rib injuries from a “rubber bullet”*
Five international activists from the International Solidarity Movement were denied entry to the village while attempting to document this weeks protest. After leaving the main entrance to the village the activists were followed by military jeeps and harassed by soldiers.
When it became clear that any entry to the village was impossible, the activists tried to obtain transportation back to Ramallah. The Israeli military prevented taxis and services to stop to pick them up.
The video below shows activists asking soldiers to allow them to travel back to Ramallah. After approximately two hours the activists were able to find transportation out of the area. The van was followed by an Israeli military vehicle for several kilometers.
Last week an ISM activists was detained for several hours after being arrested in Kufr Qaddoum while photographing the weekly protest there. He was falsely accused of throwing stones and was physically abused by the Israelis. He was released later that night.
* Israel commonly uses the term “rubber bullets” when describing round steel bullets with a thin rubber coating
Wahed Rejol is an activist with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
18 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
It was the third time that Omar, 21, tried to write his name and cell number on a piece of paper in vain. His hands were shaking and the fingers, pale as the face, could barely hold the pen. On the fifth try he was able to write his name in capital letters. As for the mobile phone number, who noted it was his 17 year old brother, Jihad.
16 years ago one member went missing in Omar’s family, Khaled, his father. Resident from the village of Qibid, near Ni’lin in the Ramallah district, Khaled spent 16 years of his life to complete a 50 year sentence.They were preparing to return to Qibid. This time, with the father.
“It was very difficult growing up without my father,” said Omar. “I was 5 years old when he was arrested and my older brother was 11. Then came the ladder: another brother with 9 years, two sisters 4 and 3 years and Jihad. My mother raised all of us by herself, with great sacrifices,” he said.
The story, the emotion and the tears from Omar mingled with other similar stories, on the morning of Tuesday, October 18, in Ramallah.
Families were united again, after years of forced separation. All 285 children were released. Fadeleh Atuya Ajula came from Tulkarem, a new dress and posters in hand, to welcome Majdi, for more than 20 years imprisoned and sentenced to life imprisonment. Family and friends of Sana’a Sh’haded, 36, almost 10 years in jail and sentenced to life imprisonment, have now joined hands and formed a corridor for her, pale and trembling with emotion from a 20 day hunger strike, walking, supported by parents, to the grave of Yasser Arafat, where he made a prayer before going home to Jerusalem.
Civil servants collectively decided to take a day off, and schools released students to celebrate the arrival of the former prisoners.
Before nine in the morning tens of thousands of people had gathered for the festival that started at the gate of the Ofer detention center, in the Betunya area controlled by the Israeli army, and ended outside the Muqata’a, the headquarters of Palestinian National Authority (PNA), around 4 PM. In the large area in front of Ofer, trucks from Hamas, Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) played party’s anthems and songs celebrating the Palestinian struggle, serving as a stage for leaders who shouted the slogans repeated by supporters. The largest and most striking presence was that of Hamas, gathering a large audience who sang and danced.
At 11:30 AM the crowd began to move toward the Muqata’a as the Israeli Army reacted to the crowd of young men with gas bombs and canisters. Sound bombs, the metal rubber-coated bullets, and even skunk water were used against the people. Soldiers shot bullets on the ground and directly at people, which is forbidden by international law.
At the PNA headquarters at noon, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the PNA, received the 133 former prisoners from the West Bank, as their families, friends and the people who attended watched them enter Palestinian society. There, in the space reserved for public events, on the lower ground to the right of the tomb of Yasser Arafat, all were compressed in an area with capacity for 40 to 50 thousand people.
“Thank God you came back safely to their families and their homeland after this forced removal, caused by your struggle for this land. Your sacrifice, efforts and work were not in vain. You will see the result of all in the independent state of Palestine,” Abbas spoke.
He also honored leaders Marwan Barghouti (Fatah) and Ahmad Sa’adat (PFLP), who remained in prison, thanked Egypt for its mediation in the negotiations that freed the prisoners and promised to carry out the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas.
Soldiers confiscated computers used by editors and reporters in Watan TV’s newsroom and general offices as well as administrative and financial files, the network said.
