Tag: Women - Page 2 - International Solidarity Movement

Women of Kafr Qaddum: Steadfastness and determination

12th August 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Kafr Qaddum, Occupied Palestine

In June 2013, a photo depicting Suriah Mahmood from Kafr Qaddum won first prize in a photography compitition in Qatar. International activists met Suriah to talk to her about non violent Palestinian resistance and the village of Kafr Qaddum.

Kufr pic — Suriah Mahmood in her house in Kafr Qaddum (Photo by ISM)

The people of Kafr Qaddum have organised non-violent marches every Friday, with men and women sharing roles in the demonstration according to Suriah Mahmood, a prominent woman from Kafr Qaddum. Women participate in the demonstration by directing the ‘shabab‘ – the young men of the town. The women tell the shabab demonstrators where to move and where the soldiers are hiding in ambush as they attempt to injure and arrest people.

‘We’ve suffered a lot over the decades, for the long distance and the time it takes to reach Qalqiliya and Nablus.’ The monetary cost doubles for travel due to the distance and checkpoints, not to mention the psychological costs of having a checkpoint to the entrance of the village, making people continually worry they are going to be detained, arrested or harrassed. The village suffers as they have to use longer and even more circuitous routes when the checkpoint is closed. These hardships are then multiplied again when the army invade the village. ‘I go out onto the street when the army chase shabab into the village. Something in my heart and emotions, activate me quickly, telling me to go out the house and protect the shabab from the army.’ Suriah has joined demonstrations along with other Palestinian women from Kafr Qaddum, although the demonstrators are typically male Palestinians along with some male and female international and Israeli activists.

‘I think to myself, who takes part in the demonstrations? The shabab are our brothers and sons from Kafr Qaddum. I think it is my duty to go out to make trouble for the soldiers to make them busy so they are unable to continue to chase the shabab. I again feel something internal in my heart. Sometimes I throw stones or block in front of the soldiers. I shout to make the soldiers nervous and crazy and can’t control my emotions because I think it’s the role of Palestinian women to stand with our brothers against occupation.’

kuf pic 2 — Photo of Suriah Mahmood that won the photography competition (Photo by Alaa Badasreh)

On Friday 2nd August the army invaded the village and shot teargas in all directions, some of the teargas canisters entering houses. ‘My husband and son’s wife and my grandchild Yakub, suffocated alot and suffered for two hours. Asma the wife of my son fell unconscious. I began to cry , shout and called an ambulance to make first aid. When the army left the village, the teams of first aid were allowed to do their job and help those suffocated in the house.’

When asked about what Suriah hopes for in the future for her village she replied, ‘I hope for a chance to come to the Palestinian people to be free and have peace in the land without having the army to storm the village. I hope to re-open the historic road that existed before the occupation. I hope that all over the world governments rule to protect people from occupation. I think decades of occupation is enough and it is time to live happy and free.’

Closed shops, empty pockets: Israel’s policy of economic strangulation in Hebron

by Paige L

20 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Walking down Shuhada Street in occupied Hebron (al-Khalil) is an eerie experience even during peek commercial hours in the rest of the city. Nearly empty streets are framed by rows of closed Palestinian shops, doors welded shut under Israeli military orders. Armed religious settlers walk freely through the streets, while Palestinian vehicular and pedestrian access is severely restricted. Signs in English and Hebrew assert a purely Jewish heritage in Hebron, telling a narrative that simultaneously erases the Palestinian history and rightful ownership, in an attempt to forge Israel’s illegal settlement in city center.

Palestinian shops have been forcefully closed by Israeli military due to illegal settler presence in Hebron.

The sight of closed shops is also common in the old city, as is the sound of young Palestinian children asking five shekels for the small tourist items they are selling from small plastic bags; perhaps beaded bracelets the color of the Palestinian flag or packs of chewing gum. Some are not selling anything but ask passersby to “give me one shekel.” Palestinians are a proud people, so the occurrence of begging, especially in the economic center of the southern West Bank, illustrates the extent of the economic devastation caused by Israeli policies.

Hebron is the largest city in the West Bank with a population of approximately 170,000 people. Known for its limestone, shoes, leather, dairy products, and glass blowing industry, Hebron is responsible for around one third of the West Bank’s GDP. Despite its reputation as a commercial hub, the city center of Hebron has suffered severe economic consequences since the closing of its main commercial artery, Shuhada Street in 1994. The closure followed the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre, when a far-right settler from the nearby illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba opened fire on a group of Palestinian Muslims at prayer, killing 29.

Since the Hebron Protocol of 1997, the city has been divided into two sections, H1, which is home to 140,000 Palestinians and under the control of the Palestinian Authority, and H2, inhabited by 30 ,000 Palestinians and 500 illegal Israeli settlers and under the control of the Israeli military. The H2 area includes Shuhada street, the Ibrahimi mosque, and the historic old city of Hebron.

Palestinian movement and economic activity is severely restricted in this area under an Israeli regime based on the “separation principle” – a policy of legal and physical separation for the benefit of the Israeli settlers at the expense of the Palestinian majority. These policies include the imposition of a number of permanent and temporary checkpoints, and the creation of a strip of road in the city center on which the movement of Palestinian vehicles is forbidden. Along Shuhada street Palestinian pedestrian access is forbidden as well. The closing of Shuhahda street is therefore a microcosm of a larger Israeli policy.

The economic consequences of closure have been devastating. A 2011 report by the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that more than 1,000 Palestinian homes in the city center had been vacated and over 1,800 commercial businesses shut down. According to a 2009 study by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), 77 percent of the Palestinians in Hebron’s Old City live below the poverty line. Though many shops were closed by military orders, a significant number have closed because the Israeli separation regime makes economic activity impossible.

Nawal Slemiah and her sister Leihla run a shop in the old city called the “Women in Hebron Cooperative” selling keffiyehs, and hand-embroidered dresses and bags made by local women from nearby villages to a dwindling number of foreign visitors. Though the store has managed to stay open despite crippling Israeli policies, being a shop-owner in the old city proves extremely difficult. Leihla points out that her customers have only one route open to them to reach her store, and must pass through checkpoints in order to shop there. Last year the military told her she must close her shop in 5 minutes for “security” reasons or she would be arrested. During the annual campaign to open Shuhada street, the Israeli military closed 3 shops, and threatened to close all shops near Bab al Baladia, the opening of the old city market. “If you support the demonstrations” she says, “they will close your shop.”

As the 2012 Open Shuhada Street campaign begins, it is important to remember the fight to re-open Shuhada is not about one street, but a larger Israeli policy of separation and the collective economic punishment of the residents of H2. It is about the right to live, work and move freely in the city center, basic human rights that have been routinely denied to Palestinians.

Paige L. is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Palestinian female prisoners suffer in Ramadan

7 August 2011 | Palestine Telegraph

Israeli prison administration decided to tighten its harsh measures against Palestinian female prisoners of Hasharon during the holy month of Ramadan.

A researcher at the international solidarity foundation, Ahmed al-Betawi, stated that Israeli prison administration refused to allow female prisoners of Hasharon prison to purchase their food from canteen.

He added that female prisoners have suffered from insects and high humidity especially in these very hot summer days, while the prison administration deprived them from using fans.

Palestinian prisoners emphasized that the unprecedented repressive campaign has been escalated by the prison administration during the holy month.

The lawyer of the international solidarity foundation visited Hasharon prison last Thursday and met a number of female prisoners who told him about misery they have lived in.

Palestinian officials condemned Israeli toughening measures that affect the lives of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails, calling for an end to Israeli violent practices and abuses.