Tag: Tubas

IOF Plans Home Demolitions in Fasayil

Home Demolitions Planned in Fasayil
from Brighton Palestine 12 April 2007

On Sunday, April 8, Israeli Occupation Forces visited the village of Fasayil, close to the settlement of Bet Syel in the Jordan Valley, and told residents that five houses would be demolished after the Pesach, the Jewish holiday. The residents of Fasayil fear the army may return soon.

Fasayil is situated within Area C and villagers have been prohibited from building new structures or improving their existing homes since the Israeli occupation in 1967. As a result the villagers live in severe poverty in homes in a terrible state of disrepair. Israeli occupation law systematically denies the villagers the right to develop basic facilities or the means to sustain a livelihood. Last year the IDF ordered the demolition of the village’s electricity pylons which supply the only power source for the village. The Israeli courts also ruled that the villagers could not tarmac the road to access the village and ordered the demolition of the village toilet. These demolitions have been halted after interventions by the Palestinian Authority and foreign governments.

The villagers of Fasayil are under constant threat from house demolitions. One woman has had the same house demolished four times.

The land previously owned by Fasayil has been expropriated by the illegal settlements of Tomer and Bet Syel. The residents are now forced to work for the settlers as their traditional livelihood is being destroyed. 90% of the villagers work in the settlements, for companies like Carmel-Agrexco with no contracts, sick pay or employment rights. Many children from the village work on the settlement as the village is prohibited from building a school and students often have to travel to Jericho to get an education.

Palestinians from Fasayil who challenge these Israeli restriction are forced to pay massive legal fees for representation in the Israeli courts.

The current demolition orders in Fasayil are a part of a systematic policy to force the Palestinian residents out of the area. However, the villagers plan to stay on their land despite the relentless harassment by the Israeli state. Fasayil is resisting the Israeli attempt to destroy their community with very little support from outside agencies. They feel that their plight is going unnoticed and are asking for international support to stop the demolitions.

To see a video the Israeli Occupation Forces demolishing Palestinian homes and internationals attempting to halt the operation, click HERE.

For more info, contact:
Brighton-Tubas Solidarity Group 05260122203, thewallmustfall@riseup.net
ISM Media Office, 0599-943-157

The Unbelievable Stench of Irony

The Unbelievable Stench of Irony
by Dan Glass, Brighton-Palestine, 10 April 2007

The look in their eyes gave it all away. They knew something was wrong – how could they not? Only sixty-five years ago my grandparents were running from young soldiers dressed in green, with machine guns strapped to their under-developed arms, with officers sending them orders, with their uniform trousers tucked into their calf high boots. Those same soldiers who were charged with sexually assaulting women, killing innocent civilian children and with swastikas on their arms inspired the tactics of soldiers you find at Israeli checkpoints today that we have seen throughout out journeys over the past week. It’s sick. It’s enough to make a skull smile.

When will the zionist advocates, the belief in an ethnically centred Jewish state, realise that if you try to snuff out a culture, blow out its light and extinguish its values – they will only unite into a fighting force? Just as the Jews did? All you have to do is experience the beauty of Palestinian family hospitality and values, the rich taste of home grown humus and the colours of the hijabs which adorn the proud role of Palestinian women, to realise that whatever plan, zone or border one builds – it will never break the will of such a tenacious people. When will the zionist followers learn that playing poker with some of the brashest profit-driven corporations on the planet is a venal and dangerous game? Just as Coca Cola and IBM were complicit in the Holocaust crimes and as Carmel Agrexco and EDO MBM are today, when it is these cultures turn to role the dice and shuffle their hand, they will pull out the wrong card and suppressed community anger will eventually pop and explode? And when will the zionist believers realise that destroying a human civilisation next to ‘their borders’ wreaks long term consequences? That what must also be counted in the costs of war, are the trampled vegetation, the charred trees and the carcasses of livestock who have innocently strayed within the territories of human greed? Unfortunately, it is these policies of ecocide and this ignorance which will ultimately be the undoing of the arrogance of the human species.

For me, not only is the situation desperate and disparate, but, more than anything, an embarrassment – an embarrassment for all that my holocaust-surviving grandparents fought for. Lying in their graves, they turn, turn and turn in sheer disbelief. If only their suffocated silence could screech their thoughts of, ‘WHAT IS GOING ON??!!’. For all the nights they slept rough, for all the food they were starved of, for all the limbs they lost and all the holocaust-remembrance ceremonies held ever since 1945 – the justification of divisions in the name of security is a farce when we have learnt many times that two, three, ten or twenty cultures can co-exist in peace. So, I write this personally for all you young Jews out there – realise that every innocent Palestinian death, every crop-trashing and every person who is being actively robbed of their livelihood, their homes, their water and, above all, some semblance of dignity, is being done in your name and in the struggles your grandparents fought so hard for.

The Judaic culture has a great and wonderful history of strength, solidarity and resistance – today we may not be a great race – but we can, once again, be a great people. Just as my grandparents (and many of yours too) stared back death in the face with hope for peace – we can do too. Remember, the only thing more powerful than the British and American Governments and NGO’s who are funding the occupation, is the British and American civil population. The time has come, the stakes are raised and the mirror is holding high the glinting reflections of what our grandparents dreamt of. Tear down the Israeli ghettos and the wall of death and say, ‘No nations- No borders- not in my grandparents, mine or my future generation’s name.’

Free Palestine’s Political Prisoners! Solidarity week in Tubas

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

In commemoration of Palestinian Prisoner’s Day on April 17th, prisoner solidarity events will emerge in the West Bank region of Tubas. For 8 years, the Prisoner’s Society of Tubas has been organizing such events, emphasizing the plight of Palestinian prisoners within Israel’s unjust legal system. Israel is holding approximately 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners behind bars.

On April 12th, a “Stop Movement” action will bring the whole of Tubas to a halt for 10 minutes. Ziad, from the Prisoner’s Society, says that “everything in Tubas will halt. The traffic, the pedestrians, the shops, even time itself. This action will grab thousands of Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals and bind them to the struggle of the Palestinian prisoners.”

On April 15th, a solidarity football match between the Tubas and Askar Camp teams will be held in honor of the prisoners. Representatives are planning to dedicate the match to the political prisoners with speeches and literature. The solidarity match kicks off at 16:30.

On April 17th, Palestinians have organized a solidarity strike to be held in front of the Red Cross building. Representatives, family, and friends of prisoners will rally and give speeches. Ziad said that “families will be demanding better conditions for the prisoners and stronger visitation rights.” After the rally at the Red Cross, the Prisoner’s Committee are planning to give a three hour tour “where internationals can visit the families of the prisoners and hear firsthand about the lives and inhumane conditions of the Palestinian political prisoners,” said Ziad.

Of the 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners being held captive by Israel, according to Stop the Wall, 450 are children and teenagers, 125 are women. Held in “administrative detention” are 1,050 Palestinians, which means they have not been charged with any crime and can be jailed for up to 6 months with the detention renewable indefinitely. According to the Prisoner’s Society, 186 Palestinians have died in the 27 Israeli-run prisons. Groups like the Prisoner’s Committee of Tubas strive to release these facts to the international community.

The Brighton-Tubas Solidarity Delegation has been active in the Tubas region. International and Israeli solidarity groups are expected to join in the events.

For more information, contact:
Fathy (Stop the Wall), 0599-352-266
Mahmoud Sawaftah (Society) 0599765720
Polly Wingfield (Brighton), 0525029691
ISM Media Office, 0599-943-157

UPDATE- New Palestinian Play in an Old Israeli Prison

New Palestinian Play in an Old Israeli Prison

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
8 April 2007

JORDAN VALLEY- Moans from Palestinian prisoners from their torture cells will be heard from the beginning of the show. Checkpoints, army tents, and dungeons will set the scene as insults are slung about by “Israeli security”, shocking the audience as they enter the prison the same way the Israelis left it.

“This is going to be the first performance of its kind in a place like this,” said Wasfi Tayeh, the leader of a local theatre group in al-Far’a refugee camp in the northern West Bank. “The cells, torture seats and rooms of interrogation are still as they used to be,” says Tayeh, who will reproduce the atmosphere of a functioning Israeli prison.

The play, “Martyr Palestine,” is being organized by the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club in honor of Prisoner’s Day. The dungeons, where the stage will be set, were built during the era of the British mandate and later were transformed into the “Young Leaders preparation center,” known as the Salah Khalaf Center, named after one of the prominent leaders of the Palestinian revolution.

Center manager Marwan Wishahi said that “the project is compatible with the educational and modern mission of the center, which aims to maintain the history of this place as a witness to acts of killing and torture. “Martry Palestine” is a connection between the place and what used to happen in it.”

The play will be presented to an audience of 300 people, including a fact-finding delegation from the UK.

Dungeons open at 11am on Tuesday, April 10th at the Salah Khalaf Center in al-Far’a refugee camp.

For more information, contact:
Fathy, 0599-352-266
Morsheed, 0599-716-987
ISM Media Office, 0599-943-157

14 Member Brighton Delegation Arrives in Palestine

Brighton Tubas Friendship Group arrives in Palestine

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
5 April 2007

Fourteen volunteers from Brighton Tubas Friendship Group arrived in the Israeli Occupied Palestinian Territories on April 5th for a 10 day cultural exchange and fact finding tour.

Lasting links will be made between Brighton and Tubas region in Palestine. The delegation includes students from Sussex University and Brighton Quakers. They will visit Tubas Women’s Group, the medical centre, local farmer’s cooperatives, a youth group and schools – bringing letters and donations from children at the Supplementary Arabic School in Brighton.

The students from both countries will discuss their proposal to twin Sussex University Students Union with the Al-Quds Open University in Tubas. This initiative was inspired by the Nelson Mandela Scholarship and an understanding of the difficulties that Palestinian students have in accessing higher education.

Spokesperson for the delegation, Sarah Cobham said: “When we returned to Brighton last year, after visiting Tubas, we were determined to make sure that the voices of ordinary Palestinians are heard. Support in Brighton has been overwhelming and we are delighted to be returning with donations of computer equipment for schools and the local community.”

The group will be staying with local families in Tubas town and the Jordan Valley. They will witness the pressures of life under Israeli military occupation and discuss the possibilities of fairly trading their products, such as soap, pickles, honey and handicrafts in Brighton.
Tubas region is approximately 24km across and 28km north to south. It spreads from Tubas town, in the northern hills of the Israeli occupied West Bank, over to the fertile plains of the Jordan Valley.

Traditionally most of the people are farmers, travelling from the town to their land in the Jordan Valley. However, 95% of the land and 98% of the water in the Jordan Valley has been taken illegally from the Palestinians since 1967 and is now controlled by the Israeli Army and Israeli settlers. Palestinians struggling to survive often have no choice but to work in the Israeli settlements.

In Palestinian villages the people have lost nearly all their land and many have had their houses demolished. There is very little health care, education is limited, there are no phone lines or public transport, often there is no electricity, and much of the water supply is contaminated by waste from Israeli settlements.

The Jordan Valley can only be accessed from Tubas via Israeli Army checkpoints, which Palestinians cannot go through unless they have a Jordan Valley ID (which are only issued to existing residents of the Valley) – a situation reminiscent of the apartheid South African pass laws.

Israel’s clear intention is total annexation of the entire Jordan Valley. It is urgent that people know about this and act to prevent it.

On returning they will hold a photographic exhibition and give eye witness accounts at a public meeting at the Friends Meeting House, Ship Street on 3rd May at 7:30 pm. They will also meet with other local people and groups that have supported this initiative including Brighton Amnesty International and Brighton and Hove City Council Unison branch.

Mark Simons, who arrived in Palestine this morning, commented: “This is a fantastic opportunity for us to meet Palestinian people and see for ourselves the effect of Israel’s illegal occupation on all aspects of their daily lives. I have no doubt that I will return to Brighton far better informed and with many new friends.”

Photos and video provided upon request.

For more info, contact:
Peter Jackson, 0526335750
Polly Wingfield, 0525029691
ISM Media Office, 0599943157