20th January 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
Dozens of Palestinians joined a rally organized by the Popular Campaign to Save the Life of the Captive Patient Ibrahim Bitar outside the International Committee of the Red Cross’ Gaza office this morning.
(Photo by Joe Catron)
The gathering followed a weekly sit-in by families and supporters of Palestinian detainees that has been held in the ICRC courtyard every Monday morning since 1995.
Ibrahim Bitar’s mother sits between two young supporters. (Photo by Joe Catron)(Photo by Joe Catron)(Photo by Joe Catron)(Photo by Joe Catron)(Photo by Joe Catron)(Photo by Joe Catron)(Photo by Joe Catron)
15th January 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Marco Varasio | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
Children rally for Palestinian detainees in Gaza. (Photo by Joe Catron)
Like every Monday morning, people gathered at International Committee of the Red Cross’ Gaza office to demonstrate in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention facilities.
(Photo by Rosa Schiano)
This week’s rally started with the chanting of slogans against the illegal detention of Palestinians and people offering sweets to pay homage to Rami Barbakh, a prisoner freed in the latest release who attended the rally.
Banners in honor of Ibrahim Bitar, a Palestinian patient prisoner from Khan Younis detained in the prison of Nafha, whose family has been recently banned from visiting him, were held by Palestinian youth movements.
(Photo by Joe Catron)
Members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine also distributed flyers urging all Palestinian factions to join together to pressure the Palestinian Authority to act against the illegal detention of Palestinian and against solitary confinement in Israeli jails.
Outside the IRCC, last week a rally organized by the Fatah Youth Movement saw Mahmoud Salman, Rami Barbakh and Ibrahim Abu Ali awarded pictures and scarves to celebrate their release on 30th December 2013, after more than 20 years of detention. This week, Palestinian Islamic Jihad organized a rally in solidarity with the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in Siria, and with Palestinian prisoners.
(Photo by Rosa Schiano)
“We have more than 5,000 prisoners in the Israeli jails,” Ahmad Abu Soud, an ex-detainee who spent 26 years in occupation jails, said from the stage. “Our priority is the sick prisoners. We want Abu Mazen to increase efforts to set them all free.”
While the Israeli detention of Palestinians continues, G4S, the company which provides Israel with surveillance equipment at its checkpoint and in its detention facilities, is under major investigation by international authorities for its activities in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
(Photo by Joe Catron)
In the last four months, G4S lost contracts in the United Kingdon, Norway, South Africa and the Netherlands due to its involvement in Israeli violations of the international law, and to the pressure generated by the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
26 political prisoners, held in Israeli prisons since the Oslo Accords, were released the night of 30th December. About 5,000 others remain in prisons located in the territories occupied in 1948, a violation of international law.
Umm Dia’a thought her son would be among the prisoners released. She had been told so by neighbors, several rumors confirmed it, she got ready to celebrate, she invited friends. But the Zionists distributed the list of those to be released only the day before, and her son was not on it. Rami was there instead, the son of a friend of hers, who was not expecting it. In all, there were three prisoners from Gaza. Umm Dia’a was so sad that she did not even show up to the weekly sit-it in solidarity with the prisoners that takes place in front of the Red Cross last week. Instead, those who had received good news were celebrating by offering pastries to all participants. Maybe Dia’a will be released with the next group. The 26 prisoners released last week are the third of four groups, which include 104 Palestinian political prisoners that Israel promised to release as a sign of goodwill to start the so-called peace talks.
(Photo by Sil)
Dia’a and Rami were seized by the Zionists when they were 16 and 15 years old. Since then, they have spent most of their lives in prison, only occasionally being able to receive visits from their families, and without being able to finish their studies. Rami now is 35 years old. 20 years have been spent in prison, accused of fighting an illegal, unjust and murderous military occupation. Two days after his release , friends and relatives were still celebrating, They had built a tent, and anyone could go to shake hands and welcome this man who had returned home at last, who was just a teenager when left. Rami is in a different world from the one he had left. The population of Gaza has increased greatly, the people, the political situation, everything has changed. Yet despite the inevitable shock, he has clear ideas about what he wants. While he can rejoin his family, another 5,000 political prisoners remain in the Zionist jails. He spoke of a special case, one of many. “Among others who remain in prison is a friend of mine. He has health problems and should receive some care that he does not receive. He’s named Ibrahim Elbitar. Make sure that he is released. It can be cured!”
(Photo by Sil)
Israel released these 104 Palestinian prisoners as a sign of goodwill for the peace agreements. But another 5000 remains in jail, against international conventions, against common sense, unjustly, and with the silent complicity of international institutions and organizations. All Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are political prisoners. According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel as occupying power has no right to deport people from the Gaza Strip or the West Bank into the 1948 territories,. The very presence of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails is therefore in itself illegal, as well as horrible. The liberation of about 2% of these prisoners does not take us 2% of the way down the path towards justice for all Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.
(Photo by Sil)
Addameer, a human rights organization that deals with Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, says that prisoners have been released at the starts of many phases of peace talks. But others were arrested in the meantime, so that the total number of Palestinian political prisoners remained almost constant. And Zionists did not change policies such as administrative detention, which provides for imprisonment without any reason being declared. And that’s not all: Prisoners released in these cases must follow rules. For example, one freed in Gaza cannot leave the Strip for 10 years, and cannot be involved in political activity. Also, if they are captured again, they must serve the entire sentence from which they were released through the exchange. A famous example of this is Samer Issawi, who, released an exchange for Gilad Shalid, was seized and imprisoned again by the occupation forces. He would have to finish his entire sentence if he had not risked his life through a long hunger strike, attracting international attention and ultimately winning his release in Jerusalem.
(Photo by Sil)
While these prisoners are released, Israel promises further expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem. That news fades into the background, making it appear the release of these prisoners is a sign of goodwill on the part of Israel, while illegal colonial expansion is not considered an insurmountable obstacle to the ” peace process.” Maybe we should change the language, quitting the search for a peace process, and looking instead for a process of decolonization. This would lead more quickly to justice and then, finally, peace, especially since this “peace process ” has more the appearance of a “Zionist colonial expansion project.”
So despite happiness at the release of these prisoners, the political victory seems at least partial. Addameer calls for the release of all Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, as happened in South Africa, before the beginning of the so-called peace process.
Small fishing boats, or hasakat, moored in the Gaza seaport. (Photo by Charlie Andreasson)
On 17 December, Palestinian fishermen and their supporters erected a tent — a traditional venue for protest, as well as celebration and mourning — inside the Gaza seaport.
“It was to highlight the situation, the crimes of the Israelis against fishermen here,” said Amjad al-Shrafi, treasurer of the General Union of Fishermen. “We wanted to send a message about the blockade against the fishermen and how we cannot fish freely.”
The protest, organized under the title Free the Holy Land Sea, ended two days later with the delivery of a letter to the nearby office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, demanding international protection for fishermen.
Over three days, hundreds of well-wishers visited a crowded tent decorated with banners and posters supporting fishermen. The organizations represented on its walls ranged from human rights centers to prisoner support groups.
Under fire
“One of our main goals was to push governments around the world to force Israel to give fishermen free lives and let us sail without any limits,” al-Shrafi said. “It’s our right to sail freely in our waters.”
“Another was to pressure the Israeli forces to release the boats and fishermen they have captured.”
Palestinian fishermen in coastal waters off the Gaza Strip frequently come under fire byIsraeli naval forces, which target their boats on both sides of a boundary imposed by Israel.
Through its subsidiary, HP Israel, the US corporation won a contract to run the Israeli navy’s computer and communications network in August 2006 (“HP Israel wins navy IT outsourcing contract,” Globes, 14 August 2006).
The fishing area permitted by Israel, which doubled in size as part of the ceasefire agreement ending eight days of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and retaliatory fire by Palestinian resistance groups in November 2012, now officially reaches six nautical miles from the shore.
But fishermen say the Israeli navy often shoots at them and sometimes captures them and their boats well within the zone it ostensibly allows them.
Captured
Fishermen and supporters hold posters with images of colleagues captured by Israeli forces, in Gaza City on 19 December 2013. (Photo by Joe Catron)
“We were far from the prohibited zone, 500 meters away,” said Saddam Abu Warda, a 23-year-old fisherman whom the Israeli navy captured along with his 18-year-old brother Mahmoud around 9am on 10 November.
“They were shouting, ‘You must get out of here in five minutes.’ We had to cut the net to pull it out of the water. Then they started to fire bullets close to our hasaka [small boat]. As they came close to us, their boat looked like a big building with lights.”
The Abu Wardas’ small boat had no engine. “We tried to escape by paddling quickly,” Saddam Abu Warda said. “They forced us to take off our clothes and raise our hands. They were firing bullets in the air and in front of our hasaka. One soldier was shouting, ‘You have to leave your hasaka and get in the water.’ I was shocked. I couldn’t move. I didn’t know why.”
Finally, gunfire forced the brothers into the cold water. “They didn’t stop firing bullets over our heads,” Abu Warda said. “I was far from my brother. He started shouting, saying, ‘I am injured.’ He wasn’t able to keep swimming. I swam back to my brother to try and save him. His blood was [spilling] in the water. Then two small boats came close to us. They pulled my brother from the water. They didn’t take me.”
When Abu Warda reached the Israeli gunship, he lost consciousness after soldiers bound, hooded and kicked him. He awoke in a detention facility in Ashdod, a port in present-day Israel beside his brother Mahmoud, whose right abdomen was stitched by military physicians. The brothers said that Israeli bullets caused the wound.
During an interrogation after he awoke, an Israeli soldier tried to convince him otherwise. “I told him, ‘Three of your gunboats were around us. They were firing bullets. My brother’s blood was everywhere in the water. He was injured by your soldiers.’”
After a lengthy interrogation that continued both in Ashdod port and after their transfer to a detention center by the Erez crossing between Gaza and present-day Israel, Israeli forces released the Abu Wardas into the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun around 10pm — 13 hours after their capture. Their boat and its equipment remained behind.
“We have three hasakas in the Ashdod port,” Abu Warda said of his family’s prior losses to the Israeli navy.
Severe damage
The Abu Wardas’ experiences echo many more documented in a new report by thePalestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR). The PCHR, which supported the Free the Holy Land Sea campaign, is translating the document — already published in Arabic — into English.
Over four years, from 1 September 2009 through 31 August 2013, the Israeli navy killed two fishermen, wounded 24, and captured 147, according to the report. The navy also seized 45 boats and destroyed or damaged 113 more.
The report also records the losses incurred by about thirty bombings of four fishing ports during Israel’s November 2012 attacks on the Gaza Strip, including damages to an additional 80 boats and destruction of a health clinic and a youth center used by fishermen.
“There was severe damage to different fishing facilities during the military offensive,” said Khalil Shaheen, director of PCHR’s economic and social rights unit.” At the ports in Gaza City, Middle Area, Khan Younis and Rafah, different facilities were targeted and destroyed.”
“The report also documents the impact of the total damage to fishermen and the fishing sector,” Shaheen added. “One of the main impacts was the loss of 85 percent of income in the fishing sector, as the result of access restrictions and the naval blockade.”
Casualties have continued to mount in the four months since the period covered by the report ended. The PCHR publishes regular reports on human rights abuses in Gaza. These reports indicate that Israel has shot at fishermen at least 37 times since September, as well as seizing six boats.
“I would like to thank all the solidarity campaigns who were involved in this action and show solidarity with Palestinian fishermen,” al-Shrafi said.
“We ask that the international community continue to pressure their governments, to ask for dignity and a free life for us.”
27th December 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Marco Varasio | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
(Photo by Silvia Todeschini)
On 23rd December, like every Monday morning, relatives and friends of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails gathered at the International Committee of the Red Cross’ Gaza office for the weekly rally.
But people at the rally had another reason to gather: the impending release of the Palestinian hero Samer Tariq Issawi, who spent more than 270 day on hunger strike before signing an agreement with the Israeli authorities on 22nd April .
Mothers and wives holding banners of their imprisoned relatives chanted slogans paying tribute to Issawi and all the Palestinian prisoners.
“Today Samer Issawi will be released,” the rally’s opening speech began. “We are so happy for him. We will distribute flowers to all the people here to celebrate his freedom. We need freedom of all the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.”
“We, as Activists for Palestinian Prisoners, celebrate his release to Jerusalem after a 270 days hunger strike,” said Samoah Ahmeed, a Palestinian activist and journalist. “We are close to his family. We want freedom for all the Palestinian prisoners in the future.”
(Photo by Silvia Todeschini)
Sweets and flowers were distributed to the people attending the rally to honor Issawi’s release.
What made the release of Issawi’s freedom so special was also that he was not deported to the Gaza Strip, but was instead released in his hometown Issawiya, northeast of Jerusalem.
The Israeli authorities will release another five Palestinian prisoners in the Gaza Strip through the Erez checkpoint next week as part of the current round of negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government.
