Tag: Settlers - Page 125 - International Solidarity Movement

UK issues new guidance on labelling of food from illegal West Bank settlements

Ian Black and Rory McCarthy | guardian.co.uk

10 December 2009

Britain has acted to increase pressure on Israel over its West Bank settlements by advising UK supermarkets on how to distinguish between foods from the settlements and Palestinian-manufactured goods.

The government’s move falls short of a legal requirement but is bound to increase the prospects of a consumer boycott of products from those territories. Israeli officials and settler leaders were tonight highly critical of the decision.

Until now, food has been simply labelled “Produce of the West Bank”, but the new, voluntary guidance issued by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), says labels could give more precise information, like “Israeli settlement produce” or “Palestinian produce”.

Nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers live in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which were conquered in the 1967 war. The British government and the EU have repeatedly said Israel’s settlement project is an “obstacle to peace” in the Middle East.

EU law already requires a distinction to be made between goods originating in Israel and those from the occupied territories, though pro-Palestinian campaigners say this is not always observed.

Separately, Defra said that traders would be committing an offence if they did declare produce from the occupied territories as “Produce of Israel”.

Foods grown in Israeli settlements include herbs sold in supermarkets, such as Waitrose, which chop, package and label them as “West Bank” produce, making no distinction between Israelis and Palestinians. A total of 27 Israeli firms operating in settlements and exporting to the UK have been identified: their produce includes fruit, vegetables, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, plastic and metal items and textiles.

Other retailers selling their products include Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Somerfield, John Lewis and B&Q.

Goods from inside Israel’s 1967 borders are entitled to a preferential rate of import duty under an agreement with the EU. Palestinian goods from the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem also enjoy duty-free or reduced-tariff treatment. Settlement products fall outside these two categories.

“This is emphatically not about calling for a boycott of Israel,” a Foreign Office spokesman said. “We believe that would do nothing to advance the peace process. We oppose any such boycott of Israel. We believe consumers should be able to choose for themselves what produce they buy. We have been very clear both in public and in private that settlements are illegal and an obstacle to peace.”

The TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, welcomed the public clarification that marking produce from illegal settlements on occupied territory as “produce of Israel” was illegal, but said the government should have gone further.

Barbara Stocking, Oxfam’s chief executive, said: “We support the right of consumers to know the origin of the products they purchase. Trade with Israeli settlements – which are illegal under international law – contributes to their economic viability and serves to legitimise them. It is also clear from our development work in West Bank communities that settlements have led to the denial of rights and create poverty for many Palestinians.”

Dani Dayan, the Argentinian-born leader of the Yesha Council, which represents Israeli settlers, said the decision was the “latest hostile step” from Britain. “Products from our communities in Judea and Samaria should be treated as any other Israeli product,” he said, using an Israeli term for the West Bank.

Israeli officials said they feared this was a slide towards a broader boycott of Israeli goods. Yigal Palmor, Israel’s foreign ministry spokesman, said his country’s produce was being unfairly singled out.

“It looks like it is catering to the demands of those whose ultimate goal is the boycott of Israeli products,” he said. “The message here will very likely be used by pro-boycott campaigners. It is a matter of concern.”

He said the issue of different European customs tariffs should not extend to different labelling on supermarket shelves. “It is a totally different thing and not required by the EU.”

Israel came under intense US pressure early this year to halt construction in settlements, but has only adopted a temporary, partial freeze. Palestinian leaders say they will not restart peace negotiations until there is a full settlement freeze in line with the US road map of 2003.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign said it welcomed the new guidance but urged Defra to go further: “The government must seek prosecutions of companies which smuggle settlement goods in under false labels.

“We have received many calls from people who were distressed when they bought goods labelled ‘Produce of the West Bank’ because they thought they were aiding the Palestinian economy, then realised they were economically aiding Israel’s illegal occupation.

“Particularly following Israel’s massacre in Gaza, consumers have been shocked at Israel’s war crimes and want to take action. They do not want to feel complicit in Israel’s occupation by buying stolen goods.”
‘Customers will now have honest information’

The most recent government figures suggest only about £800,000 of food products, about three-quarters of it olive oil (below right), was imported from occupied Palestinian territories in the three years between 2006 and 2008.

Sainsbury’s, which sells dates and small amounts of basil and tarragon, welcomed “the greater clarity on how to label produce from occupied territories”.

“This allows us to fulfil our commitment of providing customers with clear and honest information about the origins of their food,” the supermarket chain said.”We have full traceability back to settlement and/or grower.”

Waitrose also said it would be following the guidance on the small number of West Bank lines it sold. “We source a small selection of herbs from the West Bank area, grown on two Israeli-managed farms, on which a Palestinian and Israeli workforce have worked side by side for many years,” said a spokesman.

“We are not motivated by politics. Instead our policy is to ensure high standards of farming and worker welfare on the farms from which we source. Our buyers … have visited the two farms in the West Bank to ensure that worker welfare meets the high standards that we insist on. As part of our normal sourcing policy we will be carrying out an audit on these farms in the next six months.”

This year the Co-op began selling Fairtrade olive oil from the West Bank – a move hailed by Gordon Brown, who said it meant British shoppers could help Palestinian farmers make a living.

Toby Quantrill, head of public policy for the Fairtrade Foundation, said farmers in Palestine faced barriers to trade which jeopardised opportunities to trade internationally on equal terms with people making similar products.

21 activists arrested during a protest against house evictions in Sheikh Jarrah

Nir Hasson | Haaretz

11 December 2009

Six Israel Police officers were lightly wounded and 21 left-wing activists were arrested Friday during a demonstration that turned violent in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem.

The demonstrators were protesting the eviction of Palestinian families from their homes.

The protesters on Friday marched from the city center to Sheikh Jarrah, where police said they tried to enter a home that is partly occupied by Jews before being stopped.

Police were instructed to disperse the demonstration, but the protesters refused to leave. Police then used force and tear gas to disperse the crowd.

The entry of the Jews into the home follows a court order ruling in early December that the Arab al-Kurd family, which lives in a portion of the house, had no right to occupy an addition that they had built onto the house. The court rejected the al-Kurd family’s petition seeking to prevent the Jews from moving into the building.

In recent months, three Palestinian families have been evicted from Sheikh Jarrah homes. Activists accuse settlers of trying to take over 28 homes in the neighborhood, which would allow them to create a Jewish community at the heart of the mostly Arab vicinity.

Israeli forces disrupt UNRWA chief’s farewell

Ma’an News

10 December 2009

UNRWA Commissioner-General Karen AbuZayd with Refka al-Kurd

Israeli police ordered outgoing UNRWA Commissioner-General Karen AbuZayd to leave an East Jerusalem home on Thursday during her last official visit as the head of the relief agency.

Ma’an’s reporter on the scene said AbuZayd left after police gave her five minutes to evacuate the premises of the house of the Al-Kurd family, as a Palestinian woman yelled “We want our homes and our lands. We have no alternative.”

Amidst Israeli police and soldiers, AbuZayd visited Palestinians recently evicted from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem on International Human Rights Day. She spoke of Jerusalem as a “City of Dispossession,”

“On this day, and in this place, I wish to remind the international community of the unfinished business in Sheikh Jarrah and elsewhere in the West Bank,” she said.

“The dispossessed, the displaced must see their losses acknowledged, their injustices addressed,” she added. “Peace is possible, but only if we insist on our universal humanity.”

Members of the Al-Kurd family, who are fighting a court battle to keep their home from being taken over by Israeli settlers, told her, “What are we to do? International Law should have helped us.” As she spoke, settler watched nearby.

During a news conference before entering the Al-Kurd house, AbuZayd said, “As a colleague of mine said, we have ‘failed with distinction’ … I am leaving reluctantly, at a time of greater political uncertainty than at any time I’ve been here in nine years and at a greater time of economic and financial difficulties.”

“While the international community is committed to the goal of establishing two states, with Jerusalem as a shared capital, it is difficult to imagine how that outcome can be achieved in light of the systematic settlement activity and violations of basic human rights currently afflicting the Palestinian community in East Jerusalem.

“The impact of this urban settlement activity being conducted with seeming impunity is manifold and acute,” AbuZayd continued. “The intimate juxtaposition of two cultures, such as exists in the building behind me, with its accompanying violence and tension, destroyed the communal atmosphere that has evolved over decades.”

UN condemnation of forced evictions

AbuZayd reaffirmed the UN’s condemnation of the ongoing Israeli policy of forced evictions of Palestinians and house demolitions. “The UN rejects Israel’s claims that these cases are a matter for municipal authorities and domestic courts. Such acts are in violation of Israel’s obligations under international law.”

“To date, four of the 28 families have lost their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, affecting over 55 people including 20 children. At present, a further eight families are under direct threat of forced eviction, having been served with orders to vacate their homes, potentialy affected another 120 people. In all incidents to date, settlers have taken over with the active protection and assistance of the Israeli authorities. But the numbers don’t speak to the human suffering and trauma that has been the unfortunate hallmark of these forced evictions.”

Plight of the Bedouin

During her final speech in Sheikh Jarrah, AbuZayd took the opportunity to speak of the ongoing displacement of the Bedouin across the West Bank. “On International Human Right day, I would also like to highlight the plight of one of the most disadvantaged groups in this region, the bedouins of the West Bank.”

“As the occupying power, Israel remains responsible for ensuring that the basic needs of the occupied population are met. But many refugee Bedouin and herding communities, originally displaced from their traditional lands in 1948, are now experiencing multiple counts of displacement from area C as they are forcibly moved from their homes.”

“These groups are now sinking deeper into food insecurity and abject poverty, as grazing land continues to shrink and access to natural resources is severely restricted by the occupying power. Administrative demolition, forced evictions, collapsing livelihoods, poverty and settler harassment represent the key triggers to displacement for area C herding communities today and they’re already stretched coping mechanism are now reaching their limits. They’re full rights must be respected as a matter of utmost urgency.”

Human Rights Day

“It is … fitting that on my last official visit to Jerusalem as UNRWA Commissioner General, and on International Human Rights Day, I should come to the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of the city, where the failure of the international community to fulfill the promises of the Universal Declaration is so acutely felt and where the pain and ugliness of dispossession and occupation are so tragically in evidence.”

Israeli army soldiers were also on the scene, the reporter added. The forces also dispersed journalists from the area. AbuZayd had the brief opportunity to speak with Maher Ghawi, another Jerusalemite affected by Israel’s forced eviction policy.

Full text of Karen AbuZayd’s speech can be found here.

Israeli police pepper-spray 13-year old Palestinian boy in Sheikh Jarrah, arrest twenty four

11 December 2009

On Friday 11 December 2009, the fourth demonstration march against evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem arrived in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood. The demonstration takes place every Friday, and gathers Israeli, Palestinian, and international activists in West Jerusalem to subsequently march to the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem.

The demonstration this week gathered about 150 activists, demonstrating to the beat of an Israeli samba drum band. Following a scuffle between a settler and an activist, outside the occupied al-Kurd family house, the large police force on site proceeded to violently disperse the demonstrators. 24 activists were arrested; 21 Israeli, one American, one Canadian, and one German. Police unnecessarily used pepper-spray on two Israeli activists and a 13-year old Palestinian boy.

A non-violent Israeli activist being attacked with pepper-spray by the Israeli police:

13-year old Palestinian boy, a Sheikh Jarrah resident, recovering from being attacked with pepper-spray by the Israeli police:

Activists being arrested and taken to the al-Kurd family house occupied by Israeli settlers, temporarily turned into a police station to hold the 24 arrested activists:

The arrested activists subsequently suffered from bad treatment during their up to 40 hours detention, including exposure to cold temperature, strip search humiliation, food deprivation, and inadequate court process. A detailed description of their ordeal can be found here.

Settlers occupying al-Kurd house in Sheikh Jarrah continue to harass evicted Palestinian families

8 December 2009

Settlers, who have since August 2009 taken over three houses in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem, have, after a series of violent attacks, initiated a number of actions this week with the intention of intimidating and harassing local Palestinians forcefully evicted from their homes.

In the past couple of days, Israeli settlers have three times harassed the evicted Palestinians. Even though their actions were not particularly violent, they highlight the daily suffering the Palestinians have to endure as the settlers take over more and more houses in the neighbourhood. The situation is especially difficult for the al-Kurds, as they have been forced to live alongside the settlers in their own house. On 1 December, a group of settlers occupied one section of the al-Kurd home which shares the same entrance gate and backyard as the other section, where the Palestinian family lives.

In the first incident, in the evening of Sunday 6 December, a group of about ten settlers occupying the front part of the al-Kurd, collected wood and set fire to it inside an oil barrel outside the house. They stole the oil barrel from the al-Kurds and proceeded to burn flammable items from the Kurd family belongings that the settlers took from the confiscated home and threw into the al-Kurds’ garden during the 1 December take-over. When the Kurd family discovered the theft in progress, they stopped the settlers by taking the barrel with burning wood away from them.

Settler leader Shlomo who threatened to kill Nabeel Kurd — Settler who threatened to kill Nabeel Kurd

Bed frame that belonged to the al-Kurd family. Its wooden parts have been stolen and burned by the settlers.

Kurd family belongings thrown out of their confiscated house by settlers — Al-Kurd family belongings that were thrown out of their house, now occupied by settlers

The second incident followed on Thursday 8 December at 9am, when one of the settler leaders called Shlomo stopped by at the al-Kurd family tent built outside of their confiscated house. Nabeel Kurd, father of the family, was alone in the tent. Shlomo verbally harassed Nabeel, including insults that were perceived as a threat to kill Nabeel.

The third incident happened in the evening of 8 December 2009, as settler youths that occupy the confiscated al-Kurd and Gawi houses vandalised a mural art painted by the local Palestinian children on the walls of the Ghawi, al-Kurd, and Qassem family properties. The settlers painted over the art with white paint; on the al-Kurd wall an elaborate painting of Handala, a famous Palestinian freedom cartoon figure, was covered with Israeli stars of David. Along with the Israeli flags hanging from the houses that the settlers have taken over in Sheikh Jarrah, these symbols further accentuate the presence of the Jewish settlers in the Palestinian neighbourhood and their goal to take over the whole area, drive out its Palestinian population and build a new Jewish-only settlement.

Mural art created by local children on the wall of al-Kurd house, vandalised by settlers who covered the Palestinian painting with stars of David

Background

So far, over 60 Palestinians living in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah have been left homeless after being forcibly evicted from their homes by settlers aided by the Israeli forces.

The Gawi and Hannoun families, consisting of 53 members including 20 children, were thrown out from their homes on 2 August 2009. The Israeli forces surrounded the homes of the two families at 5.30am and, breaking in through the windows, forcefully dragged all residents into the street. The police also demolished the neighbourhood’s protest tent, set up by Um Kamel, following the forced eviction of her family in November 2008. In addition, an uninhabited section of another house belonging to the al-Kurd family was taken over by setters on 1 December 2009.

At present, all four houses are occupied by settlers and the whole area is patrolled by armed private settler security 24 hours a day. Both Hannoun and Gawi families, who have been left without suitable alternative accommodation since August, continue to protest against the unlawful eviction from the sidewalk across the street from their homes, facing regular attacks from the settlers and harassment from the police.

The Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah is home to 28 Palestinian families, all refugees from 1948, who received their houses from the UNRWA and Jordanian government in 1956. All face losing their homes in the manner of the Hannoun, Gawi and al-Kurd families.

The aim of the settlers is to turn the whole area into a new Jewish settlement and to create a Jewish continuum that will effectively cut off the Old City form the northern Palestinian neighborhoods. Implanting new Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank is illegal under many international laws, including Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The plight of the Gawi, al-Kurd and the Hannoun families is just a small part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from East Jerusalem.