Novidades Palestina

20 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Beginning this week local organizers in Al Khalil (Hebron) and Youth Against Settlements have organized a series of events to commemorate the Baruch Goldstein Massacre and demand the re-opening of Shuhada Street, once the commercial heart of Al Khalil, now off limits to locals, Palestinians in general, and even international supporters following the massacre that claimed 29 Palestinian lives.

While one street may seem insignificant or small, the segregation, economic strangulation, violence, and oppression that Shuhada Street suffers is a microcosm of Zionist policy. As extremist settlers continue to harass and violently attack Palestinians and internationals, and the Golani Brigade continues to show no accountability or concern for international law, it is all the more essential that this street be the symbolic avenue of freedom for Palestinians.

An illegal Zionist settlement pollutes the very heart of a historic piece of Al Khalil now overtaken with settler violence, racial epithets, and sadly, pure hatred for Palestinians and their supporters.

The residents of Al Khalil, Palestinian activists, and International Solidarity Movement  call on the international community to display their support in a project that will showcase international solidarity for the opening of Shuhada Street.

As such we ask that the international community submits a photo of solidarity to International Solidarity Movement. This photo will be of a major street or landmark of your hometown with a display or sign of solidarity for Shuhada Street. Diversity in support for human rights can humanize the victims of Zionist oppression in Al Khalil and elsewhere.

Get creative with your slogans and locations! Please note that multiple photos from the same location will not all be published, so local organizing in deciding a location in your community is suggested, or the ISM media team will select 1 photo from each location.

In order to participate, please submit a photo to palreportskhalil@gmail.com and keep in mind the following guidelines:

1. In the subject line of your email please be sure to write “Open Shuhada Street Campaign”
2. Photos should not be a maximum of 1 MB
3. A poster, sign, clothing or any other visual statement supporting the opening of Shuhada Street should be visible in the photo along with the landmark or major street
4. It is not necessary for individuals to be a part of the picture, as your privacy is honored, however if individuals can please indicate their names (if they wish to be identified)
5. Please include a location of the photo (example: Hollywood sign, Hollywood, California) in the email
6. Include the date when the photograph was taken in the email
7. If the visual is written in a language other than English, please write the statement in the body of the email in order to be translated.
8. Photos are original and not edited or borrowed from another entity
9. Please submit photos no later than February 28th

ISM Palestine looks forward to receiving your photographs. Stay tuned for a publication on April 1st on palsolidarity.org

21 February 2012 | Addameer

*At approximately 7:50 PM local time, it was confirmed by Ran Cohen, Executive Director of Physicans for Human Rights-Israel, that Khader Adnan has ended his hunger strike.

Khader Adnan’s hearing at the Israeli High Court was cancelled today, 21 February 2012, only minutes before the hearing was to take place. On Khader’s 66th day of hunger strike in protest of his administrative detention and inhuman and degrading treatment by the Israeli authorities, one of Khader’s lawyers negotiated a deal with the Israeli military prosecutor that Khader will be released on 17 April instead of 8 May and that his administrative detention order will not be renewed. Addameer lawyer Samer Sam’an is actively working to gain permission to visit Khader to confirm whether or not he will continue with his hunger strike.

Photo Courtesy of Carlos Latuff, 2012

Khader previously stated to Addameer lawyers that though he was calling for his immediate and unconditional release, the minimum requirements he would consider for ending his hunger strike would be the guarantee that he would not receive a new administrative detention order and that his duration of detention would be considered from the date of his arrest on 17 December 2011 and not from the date that he received his administrative detention order on 8 January 2012. The provisions of the deal reached today as announced by the lawyer involved do meet these minimum requirements. However, if new “secret material,” upon which administrative detention is based, presents itself during the next two months, there would still be grounds for the renewal of his administrative detention order. This caveat is consistent with similar deals made in the past, in which Israeli officials leave the door open for re-arrests.

Addameer maintains that the fact that Israeli officials negotiated the duration of his detention, in addition to agreeing to an early release, reveals that there were no grounds for his administrative detention in the first place. His administrative detention order, as is the case with all other administrative detainees, is based on the alleged threat he poses to the “security of the State of Israel.” However, if Israeli officials agree that he will not be a threat on 17 April, as clear from today’s deal, he surely does not pose any threat today and his case provides further proof of Israel’s policy of arbitrary detention. Addameer reiterates its call for his immediate and unconditional release and the release of the 308 other administrative detainees.

Addameer’s main concern remains Khader’s health, in critical condition after over two months of hunger strike.Whether or not Khader continues his hunger strike, he must receive proper arrangements for observing his health condition, which will likely now have irreversible consequences. If he does decide to end his hunger strike, the potential complications from such a protracted hunger strike will require urgent and trusted care, which can only be provided if he is released.

Addameer continues to salute Khader Adnan for his incredible steadfastness in challenging Israel’s policy of holding Palestinians in detention without charge or trial, which is in violation of international law. Addameer further thanks all individuals and institutions who have chosen not to ignore the basic human rights violations being committed against Palestinian prisoners on a daily basis and who have expressed their explicit support for Khader and his fellow prisoners. The date set for Khader’s release, 17 April, ironically falls on Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, which will serve as a reminder of the thousands of other Palestinian political prisoners who remain in Israeli detention.

by Aaron 

21 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

If you ask an Israeli settler in or around Al-Khalil (Hebron) what calls them to live on contested land, most will speak to a religious connection to the city and the Cave of the Machpelach (“patriarchs”), where Jews, Muslims, and Christians come to revere the biblical figures believed to be buried there. A series of signs posted nearby along Shuhada Street, the once-main road and market district now closed to Palestinians, tell a story of Hebronite Jewish habitation dating from biblical times, brought to a sharp and bloody end with a 1929 pogrom, which resulted in the deaths of 67 Jewish residents and the displacement of the survivors. Citing this narrative, many of today’s settlers justify their occupation of the old city as a rebirth and continuation of this community, a story echoed in publications distributed by the Gutnick Center (a Jewish cultural center) and soldier-escorted weekly tours through the Palestinian market. The problem with this narrative is that no one, not even the survivors’ descendants, agrees on it.

Competing narratives of the 1929 Pogram - Click here for more images

On Monday, February 20th, the Jerusalem Post published an article presenting the conflict between the survivors’ descendants as a microcosm for Jewish public opinion, some of whom support the settlements and a growing number who oppose Hebron’s especially active settler community, one  which Yair Keidan calls “a loaded bomb that can blow up peace altogether.” Both sides have signed petitions to the Israeli government, asking variously to maintain, evacuate, and/or halt settlement activity, and both groups claim a right to the legacy of their parent community.

“You can’t bring back the dead,” said Ya’acov Castel, a survivor from 1929, “but there are people living here now who are carrying out the dream of the Jews who lived here for hundreds of years.” Yona Rochlin, whose family went back many generations in pre-1929 Hebron, argues the opposite—pointing out that the majority of settlers are US immigrants, who have settled in a foreign city unfamiliar with the customs, language, or neighborly habits of the people they claim as spiritual forebearers. Unlike the predominantly Sephardi and Mizrahi (Spanish/North African and Middle Eastern respectively) Jewish minority that coexisted with a Muslim majority for five centuries, she says that today’s settlers “came to the city to take revenge for the 1929 massacre and their main idea was to drive out the Arabs and turn Hebron into a Jewish city.”

Hebronite settlers have many claims to fame, including the first West Bank settlement Kiryat Arba (founded 1968, pop. 7200) and the only settlements within the bounds of a Palestinian city—Avraham Avinu, Beit Hadassah, and Beit Romano, which lie at the heart of the Old City and fall under Israeli military control. They are also known to be among the most violent and hardliner, with many claiming allegiance to the Kahanist, Gush Emunim, and other extremist Jewish political and religious sects. Particularly infamous Kahanists include Baruch Marzel, founder of the Jewish National Front, and Baruch Goldstein, who in 1994 massacred 29 and injured over 150 Muslims at prayer in the Mosque al-Ibrahimi. Today Goldstein, who was killed during the attack, is venerated as a hero and martyr—and his tomb in Kiryat Arba continues to draw extremist pilgrims, even though his shrine was removed in 1999.

Rochlin, a politically active parent and child of conservative Jewish parents, in 1996 coauthored an open letter to the Israeli government, “Message from the original Jewish community of Hebron: Evacuate settlers,” which stated, “[Hebronite settlers] are alien to the culture and way of life of the Hebron Jews, who in the course of generations created a heritage of peace between peoples and understanding between faiths.” She sees evidence of this tradition in the fact that Muslim neighbors intervened to save her family and over 400 more when the Jewish community was attacked in 1929. Who exactly did the killing, and from where, is uncertain—but there is surprisingly little disagreement over the 19+ Palestinian families that sheltered and defended Jews. Although some Palestinian community members invited their neighbors to stay or return, by 1936 the British Mandate had relocated the remaining Jews to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and elsewhere.

Curiously, although the Israeli Jews’ narratives tell radically different stories, many area Palestinians also know a great deal about the pogrom and mourn the loss of friends and neighbors. For Muhammad, head of the Abu Aisha family who live in the famed ‘caged house’ on Tel Rumeida, where their home is surrounded by settlement homes, it is a matter of family pride that his father is named among the Palestinians to save Jewish residents. Nonetheless, the Abu Aisha family struggles with daily harassment at the hands of settlers, who occupy land all around the home. Hajj Yussef, one of the few surviving Palestinians who responded in 1929, talks about “our Palestinian Jews,” who dressed and spoke like non-Jewish neighbors. To Yussef, like the children of his refugee neighbors, the obstacle to peace in Hebron lies not in difference but attitude and actions: “I have no problem living with the Jews, like we lived many years ago. But today’s settlers are not Palestinian Jews, they came here from abroad. And I have a problem if the Jews live in my country as occupiers and settlers.”

Open Shuhada Street, the international campaign to end Israeli Apartheid in Al-Khalil/Hebron will continue February 20th through 25th, with actions and cultural events in Khalil and around the world. Each day, we will cover a different aspect of the Occupation’s effects on Shuhada Street and the city generally.

Continue to follow www.palsolidarity.org throughout the week for more stories and analysis.

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

by Joe Catron

20 February 2012 | Mondoweiss

Every Monday morning the families of 445 Gaza Palestinians detained by Israel occupy the courtyard of Gaza’s International Committee of the Red Cross headquarters to demand that the ICRC fulfill its obligation to protect the rights of their imprisoned relatives. This week’s gathering was infused with fresh energy and a singular focus as Khader Adnan neared 66 days on hunger strike against his administrative detention. A government-sponsored rally after the sit-in drew hundreds of Palestinians and international visitors.

“The Monday protests have gone on since 1994,” said Osama Wahaidi, a former prisoner and spokesman for the Palestinian Detainees’ and Ex-detainees’ Association. “People are trying to express their anger at what is happening to Khader Adnan and all Palestinian prisoners. The Israelis have no right to hold him or any of them, especially over 300 administrative detainees.”

Administrative detentions, Wahaidi said, “can be extended for years without evidence or trials. And detainees have no idea when they will be freed! Some have been told to prepare for release and taken as far as the prison gates, before being dragged back to their cells. This has a terrible effect on their morale and psychology.”

When asked about the event’s location inside the ICRC, Wahaidi replied, “If the issue is Shalit, the human rights organizations start inciting against Palestinians, calling us criminals and terrorists. But when the issue is Palestinian prisoners, they practice what I call the crime of silence. We don’t ask the ICRC to come and chase the Israelis for us! But we demand that they treat us fairly and stop using double standards against us.”

After the sit-in, participants moved to the street outside, where hundreds more had begun to arrive. The rally that followed included speeches by Abu Abdullah Barghouti, the father of a current detainee sentenced by an Israeli military court to 67 life sentences; Um Mare’e Abusaddya, whose son is serving eleven life sentences, and who traveled from the West Bank for the event; and a representative from a delegation of seven Jordanians, including two former parliamentarians, who recently arrived in Gaza to join activities supporting Adnan and the Palestinian prisoners’ movement.

“Khader has been on hunger strike for 65 days, but he will keep going until his demand for freedom has been met,” said Doa’a Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Detainees’ and Ex-detainees’ Affairs in Gaza. “And the Palestinian people will keep supporting him, for as long as it takes.”

She added that Palestinians, including those in Gaza, would mount a general strike Tuesday to support Adnan and demand his immediate release. “His hunger strike has mobilized people throughout all of Palestine,” she said. “Tomorrow will reflect that.”

20 February 2012 | Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

Bassem Tamimi from Nabi Saleh testified yesterday as part of the defense’s case in the ongoing trial against him. Tamimi, suspected of protest related charges, was arrested on March last year, and remains in detention since.

Bassem Tamimi photo: ActiveStills

After 11 months in an Israeli jail, Bassem Tamimi, a prominent Palestinian activist from Nabi Saleh, was given a chance to plead his case before the military court in regards to the allegations against him, denying them in full while owning up to his and his village’s struggle against the Occupation and the theft of their lands. Tamimi, who was recognized by the European Union as a human rights defender last year, said, “International law gives us the right to peaceful protest, to demonstrate our refusal of the policies that hurt us, our daily life and the future of our children”.

Media contact: Jonathan Pollak +972-54-632-7736

Tamimi began his testimony by telling of his past experience in Israeli prisons and interrogation rooms. He recounted how he was tortured so badly by the Israeli Shin Bet in 1993 that he suffered a severe Intracranial hemorrhage which left him unconscious for a week and partially paralyzed.

He then continued to explain the reason behind the Nabi Saleh protests, saying “I do not know and do not care if they are permitted by your law, as it was enacted by an authority I do not recognize”. He narrated how the settlers from the nearby Halamish continuously took over lands belonging to his village since the 1970s abetted by the army and how, when villagers tried to prevent the latest attempts to seize their lands, the Israeli army exerted repression tactics against them. “Every time we try to help them work the land, before we reach it, they disperse us using rubber bullets, tear gas and using excessive force. This is what happens every Friday”, he said.

Based on coerced statements extracted unlawfully by the Israeli police from two minors, Tamimi is charged with organizing his village of 500 people in a formation of 11 battalions and assigning them different roles during the demonstrations. When asked of his reply to the charges against him Tamimi answered:

This is ridiculous and makes no sense, how stupid would I be to try and organize a 500 people village in 11 battalions [...] If indeed there were such battalions how come the Shin Bet or anyone else did not continue the investigation and arrests after mine was carried out? No one continued to look into this issue to try and dismantle this ‘army’ of mine…True justice would not have me stand here before this court at all, let alone while I am imprisoned and shackled. This case is baseless and made up with the sole goal of putting me behind bars…

During the course of Tamimi’s trial, new evidence has emerged, including proof of systematic violations of Palestinian minors’ rights during police interrogations (see video below) as well as first hand verification given by a military commander of disproportional use of force by the army in response to peaceful demonstrations.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Legal background

On March 24th, 2011, a massive contingent of Israeli Soldiers raided the Tamimi home at around noon, only minutes after he entered the house to prepare for a meeting with a European diplomat. He was arrested and subsequently charged.

The main evidence in Tamimi’s case is the testimony of 14 year-old Islam Dar Ayyoub, also from Nabi Saleh, who was taken from his bed at gunpoint on the night of January 23rd. In his interrogation the morning after his arrest, Islam alleged that Bassem and Naji Tamimi organized groups of youth into “brigades”, charged with different responsibilities during the demonstrations: some were allegedly in charge of stone-throwing, others of blocking roads, etc.

During a trial-within-a-trial procedure in Islam’s trial, motioning for his testimony to be ruled inadmissible, it was proven that his interrogation was fundamentally flawed and violated the rights set forth in the Israeli Youth Law in the following ways:

1. The boy was arrested at gunpoint in the dead of night, during a violent military raid on his house.
2. Despite being a minor, he was denied sleep in the period between his arrest and questioning, which began the following morning and lasted over 5 hours.
3. Despite being told he would be allowed to see a lawyer, he was denied legal counsel, although his lawyer appeared at the police station requesting to see him.
4. He was denied his right to have a parent present during his questioning. The testimony of one of his interrogators before the court suggests that he believes Palestinian minors do not enjoy this right.
5. He was not informed of his right to remain silent, and was even told by his interrogators that he “must tell of everything that happened.”
6. Only one of four interrogators who participated in the questioning was a qualified youth interrogator.

The audio-visual recording of another central witness against Tamimi, 15 year-old Mo’atasem Tamimi, proves that he too was questioned in a similarly unlawful manner.

The audio-visual recording of another central witness against Tamimi, 15 year-old Mo’atasem Tamimi, proves that he too was questioned in a similarly unlawful manner and was led to believe that implicating others, may earn him a more lenient treatment. The boy was told, numerous times,

Tell us what happened [...] and who in the village incited youto throw stones. [...] (shouting) you were incited! You…. you are a young boy, Incited by people. Grownups, we know. It’s the grownups who incite you, right?

Since the beginning of the village’s struggle against settler takeover of their lands in December of 2009, the army has conducted more than 80 protest related arrests. As the entire village numbers just over 500 residents, the number constitutes approximately 10% of its population.

Tamimi’s arrest corresponds to the systematic arrest of civil protest leaders all around the West Bank, as in the case of the villages Bil’in and Ni’ilin.

In a recent, nearly identical case, the Military Court of Appeals has aggravated the sentence of Abdallah Abu Rahmah from the village of Bilin, sending him to 16 months imprisonment on charges of incitement and organizing illegal demonstrations. Abu Rahmah was released on March 2011.

The arrest and trial of Abu Rahmah has been widely condemned by the international community, most notably by Britain and EU foreign minister, Catherin Ashton. Harsh criticism of the arrest has also been offered by leading human rights organizations in Israel and around the world, among them B’tselem, ACRI, as well as Human Rights Watch, whichdeclared Abu Rahmah’s trial unfair, and Amnesty International, which declared Abu Rahmah a prisoner of conscience.

Personal Background
Bassem Tamimi is a veteran Palestinian grassroots activist from the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, north of Ramallah. He is married to Nariman Tamimi, with whom he fathers four children – Wa’ed (14), Ahed (10), Mohammed (8) and Salam (5).

As a veteran activist, Tamimi has been arrested by the Israeli army 11 times to date, though he was never convicted of any offense. Tamimi spent roughly three years in administrative detention, with no charges brought against him. Furthermore, his attorney and he were denied access to “secret evidence” brought against him.

In 1993, Tamimi was falsely arrested on suspicion of having murdered an Israeli settler in Beit El – an allegation of which he was cleared of entirely. During his weeks-long interrogation, he was severely tortured by the Israeli Shin Bet in order to draw a coerced confession from him. During his interrogation, and as a result of the torture he underwent, Tamimi collapsed and had to be evacuated to a hospital, where he laid unconscious for seven days. As a result of the wounds caused by torture, Tamimi was partially paralyzed for several months after his release from the hospital.

At the opening of his trial on June 5th, Tamimi pleaded “not guilty” to all charges against him, but proudly owned up to organizing protest in the village. In a defiant speech before the court he said, “I organized these peaceful demonstrations to defend our land and our people.” Tamimi also challenged the legitimacy of the very system which trys him, saying that “Despite claiming to be the only democracy in the Middle East you are trying me under military laws [...] that are enacted by authorities which I haven’t elected and do not represent me.” (See here for Tamimi’s full statement).

The indictment against Tamimi is based on questionable and coerced confessions of youth from the village. He is charged with’ incitement’, ‘organizing and participating in unauthorized processions’,’ solicitation to stone-throwing’, ‘failure to attend legal summons’, and a scandalous charge of ‘disruption of legal proceedings’, for allegedly giving youth advice on how to act during police interrogation in the event that they are arrested.

The transcript of Tamimi’s police interrogation further demonstrates the police and Military Prosecution’s political motivation and disregard for suspects’ rights. During his questioning, Tamimi was accused by his interrogator of “consulting lawyers and foreigners to prepare for his interrogation”, an act that is clearly protected under the right to seek legal counsel.

As one of the organizers of the Nabi Saleh protests and coordinator of the village’s popular committee, Tamimi has been the target of harsh treatment by the Israeli army. Since demonstrations began in the village, his house has been raided and ransacked numerous times, his wife was twice arrested and two of his sons were injured; Wa’ed, 14, was hospitalized for five days when a rubber-coated bullet penetrated his leg and Mohammed, 8, was injured by a tear-gas projectile that was shot directly at him and hit him in the shoulder. Shortly after demonstrations in the village began, the Israeli Civil Administration served ten demolition orders to structures located in Area C, Tamimi’s house was one of them, despite the fact that part of the house was built in 1965 and the rest in 2005.

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).

19 February 2012 | Palestine Information Center

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– A group of Palestinian worshipers holding a vigil inside the Aqsa Mosque have fended off dozens of fanatic Jewish settlers who tried on Sunday morning to desecrate the Islamic holy site, and clashed with their police escorts.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Israeli occupation policemen spread extensively throughout the Mosque and attempted to secure the settlers’ provocative entry. Three Israeli armed policemen were injured during the clashes with Palestinian worshipers.

According to news reports, violent confrontations are still ongoing between the Palestinians who attempt to protect the Mosque and the Israeli assailants.

The reports also said that dozens of Jewish settlers and policemen gathered near Al-Maghariba Gate, one of the Mosque’s doors, in an attempt to storm it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Other Israeli soldiers were seen preventing the Palestinian young men and women under age 45 from entering the Aqsa Mosque to help their brothers under attack.

Several extremist Jewish groups spearheaded by a movement called the temple trustees incited recently their followers to storm the Aqsa Mosque to strengthen what they claimed to be the status of the temple.

In this regard, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum strongly denounced the repeated Jewish attacks on the Aqsa Mosque and the malicious intents to demolish it to establish an alleged temple on its ruins.

He added in a press release that Israel is waging a religious war on the Islamic holy sites in the occupied Palestinian land and this war is supported by the US which is the cause of all pains and sufferings inflicted on the occupied Palestinian people.

Barhoum urged the Muslim nation all over the world to rise and revolt for occupied Jerusalem and the Aqsa Mosque and move to confront the Jewish extremists’ attempts to harm the holy Mosque.

by Veronica

17 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

In advance of last week’s regular demonstration in Kufr Qaddoum the Israeli military attempted to prevent it by turning off the electricity supply to the village from 4AM that morning. But it did not deter about 150 Palestinians from the village from marching up the road towards Qadumim. This week, the lights were on, and again the villagers were out in large numbers to make their peaceful protest, with international and Israeli solidarity activists marching alongside them.

Perseverance and resistance in Kufr Qaddoum - Click here for more images

The main focus of the protest is the opening of the road – a direct route that goes through the Qadumim settlement. Since this road was closed to villagers in 2003, they have had to drive or walk much further around the settlement. As well as taking more time and costing more, this road closure may also have caused fatalities – three people have died in ambulances denied permission to take the direct route to hospital in Nablus. There are other issues affecting the village too, including the theft of land by settlers.

Palestinian flags flew in the cold wind as the demonstration made its way through the village towards the line of Israeli soldiers. It was not long before the teargas started with the soldiers shooting it straight at the crowd at chest height. As people ran, several were injured due to being hit by tear gas canisters or from falls – not knowing whether to face the soldiers and watch for the tear gas being shot at them or to turn and run with their backs to it.

Thus began a running battle, with one side armed with tear gas, rubber coated steel bullets and sound bombs and the other merely with their voices and stones from the ground. At one point the soldiers retreated right back to the illegal settlement, and the demonstrators made their way far down the road towards them, burning tyres and flying Palestinian flags. But shouts from lookouts indicated the soldiers were back and there was a sudden rush back into the village as the tear gas started again. This time the Israeli soldiers came right into the village using all the tools at their disposal to disperse the crowd.

Click here to view the embedded video.

At least five people were hit with tear gas canisters or steel coated rubber bullets, including one Israeli solidarity activist.

Afterwards, Murad Shtewi, a member of the organizing committee in Kufr Qaddoum, explained how the whole village is behind this and will not be intimidated by the Israelis.

They have been demonstrating every Friday since July 2011. Since then Israeli forces have raided the village almost every day and night and 11 young men between the ages of 18 and 33 have been arrested – merely for demonstrating.

“But,” he says “we will not stop our demonstrations until we fulfill our goal of opening the road. And we will do more demonstrations if the Israelis try to steal more of our land, as they did last week.”

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

by Jonas Weber

18 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

“We rented this house since a year back,” says Randa Bashir as she looked around in the brightly lit meeting room at the Women Studies Centre in Nablus. Like most Palestinian houses it is designed to keep cool during the warmer time of the year rather than keeping warm during the winter and we keep our jackets on throughout the meeting.

Bashir, with a background as social worker and speech therapist, is the director of the Nablus branch of the Women Studies Centre. She has been active in the Palestinian womens movement since the 70′s and in 1977 she was sentenced to eight years in prison for her activism.

The Womens Studies Centre was founded by the organization Union of Women Action in 1978 with a branch in Jerusalem that to this day is the headquarter of the Centre with 10 employees. Except for the branches in Jerusalem and Nablus there is also a centre in Al Khalil (Hebron) with 2 employees. The activity is growing as Bashir stated:

Soon we will have a women’s library here. Many say that the national struggle most come first and that women’s struggle comes second. Here believe that the relation is more dialectic, that the struggles most be fought together. We have been an avante-garde for women’s rights in Palestine since the 70′s, many of our programs have eventually been implemented in broader society. At the same time we haven’t recieved any financial support from governments or institutions, except for the Swedish organization Woman to Woman.

“We are trying to build a female leadership within the Palestinian resistance movement.” said Randa Bashir as she went on to explain the four main programmes of the Women’s Studies Centre.

Through the programmes of the centre runs a thread of self organization and grass roots thinking. The people receiving help from
the centre often go on to help other people, and all programs are focused on empowering the ones in the most need of empowerment.

Through volontary work the centre funds the marginalized and poor students to empower children and adolescents on how
to protect themselves against sexual assault.

“We believe that young people play an important part in the process of achieving democracy. In Egypt and Tunisia the young took to the streets,” she said

Living under occupation means that the women of Palestine are subject o a combined opression, both as women and as Palestinians. To deal with this the centre offer trauma support for women who have been detained or who have lost loved ones to the Israeli occupation. The women who partake in these programs then go on to lead their own therapy groups.

The centre has also produced a series of books for children where classical gender roles are challenged. It can be something as simple as a coloring book with motives where girls are playing basketball or a scene where a father is cooking while his wife is reading a book. In a western society this might not seem very radical, but in a society were girls and boys go to separate schools the impact is obvious.

“Going to a mixed school made me a stronger woman,” said Bashir. “I learned not to be afraid of the boys and that they weren’t worth any more than me. In the Middle East we still have a lot of separation and discrimination between the sexes.”

When we asked about how it works to do this kind of radical work in such a conservative society Bashir lowered her voice and leaned forward.

“People are getting much more conservative since the first Intifada. They are afraid for the sake of their children and turn to religion
for answers. “

Before the first Intifada it was much more rare to see women wearing the hijab in Palestine then it is today, Randa explained. Even though the womens movement keeps gaining ground for their issues the movement has been taken in a religious context. Bashir went onto explain the cultural context of the hijab versus a religious one, promoting the ideal that women in the end, should always make their own choices without pressure.

Meanwhile many victories are being won by the Palestinian women’s movement. Over the years the taboo on speaking up about sexual assault has been lifted, and today it’s becoming more common to bring cases of rape and sexual violence to court. But there are no statistics as to how common these crimes are, and women face legal difficulty in seeking equality to men. For many years it has been less punishable to take the life of a cheating wife than a cheating man.

Randa Bashir proudly shows us the coloring books the centre has produced over the years. She seems incapable of ceasing to smile while she talks about her work. To keep up a never ending optimism through over 60 years of occupation is something that seems common for the people of Palestine. Laughter and smiles are never far away, even if repression is tightening or the tear gas canisters are hailing from the sky. Laughter kills the fear and in Randa Bashir I see a fearless and relentless human rights activist.

Jonas Wber is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

by Rosa Schiano

16 February 2012 | il Blog di Oliva

In the past few days five Gazan fishermen have been arrested by the Israeli Navy off the north coast of Gaza.

Adham Mahmoud Abu Ryada, 22, and his brother Mohammed Mahmoud Abu Ryala, 13, were both arrested on Sunday evening. Jamal Ramadan Al Sultan, 58 and his son Fadel Jamal Al-Sultan, 21, were arrested on Monday morning. Ahmed Mohammed Zayed, 27, was arrested on Tuesday morning.

Adham Mahmoud Abo Ryada, 22 years old, and Mohammed Mahmoud Abo Ryada, 13 years old | Photo courtesy of Rosa Schiano, 2012

Last night we visited the family of Adham and Mohammed Abu Ryada in Beach Camp, Gaza City. Gaza is without power, they welcomed us in a room lit only by candlelight. Their father started telling us their story.

It was 7 PM on Sunday evening when the two boys were gathering their nets from the sea to sail home. A strong wind had pushed the boat over three nautical miles from the coast.

The Israeli Navy came close to their boat and started shooting.

They tried to escape but they couldn’t.

The Israeli soldiers, as they usually do, asked them to undress, to dive into the water and come on board the navy ship.

Once they were on the ship, the soldiers blindfolded them and tied their hands. They could not see anything until they reached the port of Ashdod in Israel, at around 10 or 11 PM.

The soldiers led them into a room where they remained for 30 minutes. Then the soldiers checked their bodies with an electronic device and questioned them.

During interrogation, they asked them questions about the police in the port of Gaza and to “collaborate” with Israel. They also asked if their neighbors were involved in activities against Israel. Adham said he did not know anything.

After the interrogation, the soldiers took them on a bus to a crossing point unknown to them. After an hour and a half they were put on another bus and the soldiers left them at Erez to walk home.

The two brothers slept outside the gate.

Their clothes were thin, they were cold, Adham tried to cover his little brother.

The soldiers on the ship had given them only a couple of t-shirts of very thin cloth.

They did not know which way to go. So they slept till 6.00 AM, and then, in the daylight, they walked to the Palestinian security office. Finally, Adham could contact one of his brothers who came to pick them up.

His young brother, Mohammed, sits with his eyes wide open. He’s telling us that Israeli soldiers asked him, trying to make him afraid, saying, ”What will your father tell you when you return without the boat?”

Mohammed says he doesn’t want to work as a fisherman anymore.

“After my experience, I do not want to be a fisherman, I’m afraid. It’s the first time I saw something like that; I will not be a fisherman.”

He has been fishing with his brothers since he was six years old. Mohammed shows a small wound on his left leg, he was injured while climbing onto the Israeli naval vessel.

His father says, “We can’t do anything. We can no longer work. Our life has stopped.”

Eighteen people relied on that boat. The soldiers took everything, nets and fish.

The soldiers told them, “We will call you to return your boat.” But they know that it will never happen.

“We want our nets back, we want to go on fishing and we would like them to let us live,” adds their father.

–

Yesterday we went to Beit Lahia to visit the family of the two other fishermen, arrested on Monday morning, while fishing in the waters north of Gaza.

Ramadan Al Sultan, 58 and Ahmed Mohammed Zayed, 27 | Photos courtesy Rosa Schiano, 2012

Jamal Ramadan Al Sultan is a 58 year old man. His eyes are intensely expressive. With him is also another fisherman arrested on Tuesday morning, Ahmed Mohammed Zayed, 27 years.

In spite of the veil of sadness covering their eyes, they tell us their story with a sense of humor, their strength.

Ahmed starts sharing with us his experience. He was alone on his rowing boat.

He was arrested on Tuesday morning at 6.00 AM. He was collecting his nets on his boat before coming home. An Israeli naval ship approached the vessel and asked him to stop. He tried to escape but the Israeli soldiers started shooting. They hit two floats for his net on his boat. Ahmed stopped.

They asked him to undress and jump into the water. Ahmed refused to jump in the water because he cannot swim well. The soldiers started firing again. He was forced to jump in the water and they threw him a life preserver. Once on the ship, the soldiers tied his hands and blindfolded him. They started moving slowly toward Ashdod. He felt pain in his wrists because they had been handcuffed very tightly. He asked the soldiers to loosen the handcuffs and take the blindfold off. They reached the port of Ashdod and took him into a room where he remained for 30 minutes. Then, they checked his hands with an electronic device and checked his blood pressure. Ahmed was then questioned.

The first question was about his family, the number and names of his brothers. Ahmed forgot to tell the name of the last brother, who was born recently. The soldiers then started accusing him to be a liar, “You’re a liar, what about Youssef? He’s a month old!”

Ahmed replied: “No, he’s two months old.” Then they asked information about his district and the harbor police. One of the people who was questioning him asked, “Do you want me to tell you things?” Implying they already knew everything to intimidate him, those who questioned him already knew all about his family.

Then Ahmed replied: “Why are you asking me if you already know everything?”

“Because I want to know if you are a liar or not,” the interrogator answered.

Then they showed him a large map and started questioning about some areas in Gaza.

They also asked questions about a water treatment plant. Ahmed told them, “That’s a waterworks.”

“No, it’s a waste facility,” they replied.

They continued asking information about the port police in Soudania and about the port office in Gaza. Then, they pointed on the map to the area where he lives. One of the people questioning him pointed to his brother’s shop.

They told him, “Where do you want to go?” and they showed him the spot where his car was parked. Then they asked him if he wanted to go to an area called Birlnaaja, Ahmed replied “I do not know that area.”

Then, they asked for his phone number. Ahmed replied he had lost his phone, but he could tell them his number. Then they asked for his family’s phone numbers. Ahmed said he could not remember the phone numbers of his family members. The person who questioned him told him he was a liar and said, “I want to have your phone number to return the boat back to you.”

Ahmed gave him the number of the phone he had lost. Then, the person who was questioning him called a soldier to take him away and put a blindfold on him. Ahmed said he could not keep the blindfold on because he suffers from an eye problem. The soldier answered, “These are the orders, but I will not tie it too tightly,” then he added “Take care of your wife and your children” and asked Ahmed to become “friends.”

To become “friends” means to provide them with information, to become “collaborators” with Israel. Ahmed said “No, I do not want that”.

He asked him if he was happy.

Ahmed replied, “If you release me now and I lose the boat, I will still be happy without your friendship.”

The person who was questioning then asked him to take a taunting message to the Internal Security of Hamas: “You cannot work with computers now, because you have no electricity”.

Then the soldiers led Ahmed in the same room where he was before. Ahmed told them he was not feeling well. A soldier gave him some mint to drink, then the soldier left Ahmed alone for an hour. Suddenly two men entered the room and asked him to get up. They grabbed him violently and tied his legs with manacles. They asked him to walk with them to the bus. Ahmed could not get on the bus, because his legs were manacled. “I cannot get on” he said. The soldiers replied, “You must get on.” Ahmed was forced to get on the buy by crawling on his knees. On the bus, the soldiers told him to fasten his seatbelt. “I cannot,” replied Ahmed, “my hands are tied.” A soldier fastened his seat belt. Once arrived at Erez, the soldiers delivered Ahmed to a person in a civilian uniform who started making fun of him. “How was the fish today?”, Ahmed replied “You took my boat, now I will go home to sleep with my family.”

The soldiers gave him the papers stating the limit of three miles in the waters of Gaza and the limit at the northern border with Ashdod, telling him to deliver those papers to the other fishermen. At the exit gate they told him to walk looking straight ahead “If you look away we’ll shoot you.”

Then Ahmed began to run. He met some Palestinians and walked with them up to the Palestinian security office. Then he went to the internal security for questioning. After questioning he returned home.

We ask him if he wants to send a message to the international community.

“I ask you to support us to get the boats back. Our life has stopped because it depends on that boat. And I ask for support for the Palestinians every day.”

Ahmed has two sons, 2 and 3 years old.

It is the fourth time he was stopped by Israeli soldiers, “I cannot count how much pain I have received from Israel.” He has worked as a fisherman since he was 13 years old. “This is my work. I will continue to work in the sea,” concludes Ahmed.

–

Finally, Jamal, who was arrested on Monday morning, told us his experience.

Jamal was on a rowing boat with his son, they had the same experience as other fishermen, Israeli soldiers stopped them, asked them to jump into the water and took them to Ashdod. They showed them a map, this time not on paper, but on a computer screen and asked for information. Jamal told us that they offered him drinks and medicines, but he refused, he would not swallow anything he was offered.

Jamal and his son stood 30 minutes in a room, then, they were interrogated.

Then the soldiers took them to Erez where they were subjected to another interrogation. The interrogator asked him about their family and how many sons he had.

Jamal answered that he has 8 sons. The interrogator said him “No, you have 9 sons”. Jamal replied: “No, you killed my son during Cast Lead in a school”.

They started to tell him that his son was a fighter.

Jamal’s son was 27 years old when he was killed with 3 others young men in UNRWA school targeted by a missile, three years ago during Cast Lead.

During Cast Lead a lot of people took refuge in the schools to be safe, but Israel bombed the schools indiscriminately.

The interrogators asked him for information about the Palestinian resistance and the training camps.

Jamal answered he didn’t know. “We know”, they answered him and they asked him about the places from which the resistance fires missiles. “I don’t know”, answered Jamal.

They asked him if he wanted to eat, but he refused. They offered him their “friendship”: “If you have any information you will be happy”. They took him to the gate, he went to the Palestinian security office and he came back home. His son was still at the Hamas Internal Security office to be interrogated.

We asked Jamal if he felt like to send a message to the outside world. He stated

All the fishermen suffer from this situation, we face all these troubles in the sea, we try to feed our families, we try to survive. The international community must support the Palestinian case to stop this siege, because we are under siege in the sea, in the air, and on our land.

Rosa Schiano is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

by Sylvia

16 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Idhna has suffered considerably since the Israeli occupation, particularly due to the construction of the segregation wall and some 3,000  dunums of land which has been stolen since the second Intifada. Idhna is surrounded by the Israeli settlements of Adora and Telem to the northeast, a bypass road that runs through the northern parts of the town, and the segregation wall that borders Idhna to the north and the west.

According to municipal officials, twenty water sources have been isolated or destroyed in Idhna.

Ahmed Jeyowi spent three years in prison after his involvement in the Intifada resisting illegal Israeli occupation in Idhna. He has since been blacklisted and is not allowed a permit to work in Israel, and so he is expected to live from what he can cultivate from his land, which is now destroyed by the Israeli military.

Ahmed owned two houses before 1988,  when Israeli forces demolished his first home. His second home was demolished last month when around 50 Israeli soldiers stormed the house at 6 AM whilst Ahmed was drinking tea and preparing to work his land. The soldiers forced Ahmed’s wife and six children from their beds and gave the family no time to salvage their possessions before they demolished their home.

 Ahmed has since been forced to send his wife and children to live with other family members whilst he lives on the ruined site which once was his home, now replaced by a tent provided by the Red Cross. The tent is far from withstanding the cold weather conditions, especially as it is forcasted to snow at end of this week. Ahmed is left with no heating or lighting, no gas, no toilet, and insufficient bedding.

When presence is resistance - Click here for more photos

Everything the family now owns fits into a small compartment of the tent. Due to the imposed water limitations and the demolishing of two local wells, Ahmed is forced to visit the ruins of the wells in the middle of the night to collect his water. One year ago Israel issued Ahmed with an order to either demolish his home, or be sent a bill for the procedure. He had taken the issue to Israeli court but the house was demolished before a decision was reached.

Israel began demolishing houses in Idhna in 1967, and it is thought that at least twenty homes were demolished following the second Intifada. Ahmed estimates that by 2010 some twenty wells had been destroyed in the town. Most recent was a functional ancient Roman well of which the municipality had the lease. Furthermore, waste water from neighboring settlements has polluted what is left of Idhna’s water supply. The water is needed both agriculturally and domestically.

 A number of agricultural roads have been closed or destroyed in Idhna, making the harvest of crops difficult. Olive trees have been uprooted and various field crops and grazing lands have been destroyed. In terms of education, restrictions on mobility has made reaching schools difficult. Students are forced to travel an average of six kilometers to get to their schools.

Idhna currently has forty houses with demolition orders placed on them. These families will undoubtedly be greeted with the same call at 6 AM and left with only a tent to shelter them from the weather. Ahmed is now seeking a gas heater and a weather worthy tent. He is afraid to leave the ruined site of his home in case Israel confiscates his land.

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

16 February 2012 | Operation Dove

At-Tuwani – On February 15th 2012, the Israeli Army demolished five buildings in the Palestinian village of Saadet Tha’lah and destroyed a water tank and tore down 50 trees in the Palestinian village of Ar Rakeez.

Click here for more photos, courtesy of Operation Dove

At around 12 a.m. two bulldozers and three vehicles of DCO (Disctrict Coordination Office) raided in the village of Saadet Tha’lah, escorted by four jeeps of IDF (Israeli Defense Force). One house, two water tanks and two stables for the flocks were demolished. The inhabitants said they have not been allowed to make their animals safe. Five lambs died under the rubble. The owners declared their buildings were under demolition order since 2004.

After the demolitions in Saadet Tha’lah, the army vehicles and the bulldozers reached the near Palestinian village of Ar Rakeez, where they demolished one water tank under construction and uprooted 20 olive trees and 30 almond trees planted less than one year ago.

The Palestinian villages of Saadet Tha’lah and of Ar Rakeez are situated in the South Hebron Hills area, respectively near Karmel Israeli settlement and near Avigayl outpost, which are constantly expanding without any kind of restriction by the Israeli authorities, despite the outpost is considered illegal even according to the Israeli law.

Both the villages are located in Area C, under Israeli civil and military administration. In this area every construction must be approved by the Israeli civil administration. According to OCHA oPt, the 70% of Area C is off-limits to Palestinian construction, the 29% is heavily restricted and less than 1% has been assigned by the Israeli Civil Administration for Palestinian development. Since 2011 Operation Dove registered an increase in the area of demolitions, in particular against electricity and water services.

This policy of restrictions, closure, demolition, evacuation and abuse, combined with continuing violence by settlers in the area, denies the human rights of Palestinians, hindering the possibility to live in their villages and cultivate their lands by preventing development of local communities.
Nevertheless, the Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills are strongly involved in affirming their rights and resist to the Israeli occupation choosing the non-violent way.

Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.

by Satu and John

15 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On February 14, 2012, in the small village of Twael of the Aqraba district, southeast of Nablus in the Jordan Valley, the home of the Bunni Jaber family was destroyed by an Israeli backhoe protected by 20 soldiers in four military vehicles. Two men from the family were arrested – Ayman Bunni Jaber, aged 36, and Rafie Bunni Jaber, aged 30. The family’s tractor was also confiscated by the Israeli authorities.

The Bunni Jaber house was located along the green, rocky hills that dominate the landscape here, built from cloth, plastic sheeting, wire mesh, stones, and dirt. There are four children in the Bunni Jaber family, ranging from toddlers to adolescents. The family are herders, with flocks of sheep and goat, and the arbitrary confiscation of their tractor presents a serious challenge for the family’s livelihood.

Click here for more photos - Photos courtesy of Rana Hamadan, 2012

The reason given for the demolition was the house’s construction without a permit in Area C, the part of the West Bank under full Israeli civil and military control. The land belongs to the municipality of Aqraba, and is used for agriculture and herding. Obtaining a construction permit in Area C is a near impossibility for Palestinians. According to the UN agency OCHA, 96 percent of request for building permits in the Jordan Valley between 2000 and 2006 were denied. Nineteen of the 22 houses in the area have received demolition orders, as has the local mosque. Many of these have been demolished, some multiple times after reconstruction by their owners.

Click here to view the embedded video.

By longstanding local custom and law, houses without concrete or foundations like that of the Bunni Jaber family, do not require a building permit. Eighty percent of the land in Aqraba has been confiscated by the Israeli Army under the auspices of its use as “training grounds,” even though land seized is in fact stolen by illegal Israeli settlements. The villagers have resisted through various means, including a one-day hunger strike.

Satu and John are volunteers with International Solidarity Movement (names have been changed).

by Fransisco Reeves

15 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

A broken windshield of the family vehicle reveals the impact and size of thrown projectiles - Image via Alternative Information Center

Following her horrific ordeal of having her family’s vehicle attacked by Zionist settlers in early February,  Maysar Abd Al Majeed Ghanem is finally healthy enough to return to home.

 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).

by Nathan Stuckey

14 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Two months ago, few of us knew the name Khader Adnan.  Today, he is an inspiration to all of us.  Two months ago he was kidnapped from his home by Israel.  He was charged with no crime.  He was abused by his captors and interrogators from the moment he was arrested.  None of this is unusual in Palestine, every day people are kidnapped from their homes, abused, and held without charge.  Torture is a routine matter for prisoners of the occupation.  None of the abuse that Israel inflicted on Khader Adnan was new, it has happened to thousands, really hundreds of thousands of Palestinians under the occupation.

It was all so routine that no one would bother to report on it, that is a specialty of the occupation, to make crimes so routine that they are not news.  Khader Adnan, a thirty three year old Palestinian baker, stood up, he said no.  He is willing to give his life for dignity; a life without dignity is not life.  Khader Adnan has been on hunger strike for 59 days, he lies near death in an Israeli hospital chained to his bed.  He has still not been charged with any crime.

Khader Adnan is not striking only for himself, as he said, “I hereby assert that I am confronting the occupiers not for my own sake as an individual, but for the sake of thousands of prisoners who are being deprived of their simplest human rights while the world and international community look on.”

He could die at any time.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Protests have been held to support him around the world.  Hundreds of Palestinians have joined hunger strikes in solidarity with him.  Today, in Beit Hanoun, we marched in solidarity with him.  We gathered by the half destroyed Beit Hanoun Agricultural College, we passed out posters of Khader Adnan, we raised the Palestinian flag, and we set off into the buffer zone.  Above us were three Israel Apaches, a drone, and an observation balloon, in front of us was a giant concrete wall with towers full of soldiers, and a jeep and a tank on a hill.

This did not deter us.  Israel has a history of shooting missiles into demonstrations and shooting live ammunition into unarmed demonstrations is a regular occurrence, especially in Gaza.  We marched down the road into the no go zone.

The no go zone is a place of death.  Israel has forced out everyone who used to live there, it has destroyed their houses, bulldozed their orchards, and now it claims the right to shoot anyone who enters it.  The land is scarred by the blades of bulldozers, by the tracks of tanks.  We marched across it, toward Erez, toward the wall that surrounds Gaza, toward the wall that reminds us all that Gaza is a giant prison.  We walked until we were about 50 meters from the wall.

Khader Adnan’s wife called us, she thanked us for our support, and described her husband’s suffering, “He is chained to a bed, he is in constant pain, he looks like a ghost.  Still he does not give up.”

Sabur Zaaneen from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative spoke, “Israel does not respect human rights, the crimes of the occupation are unending, but so will be our resistance to the occupation, the popular resistance will continue until the end of the occupation.”  We chanted our support for Khader, for a man willing to die to live in honor, for a man willing to give his life for his people’s right to live in honor, for a man willing to give his life in his struggle against the occupation.

After the demonstration Sabur received a call from the Palestinian police at the Erez crossing.  The Israeli army had called them threatening to fire on the demonstration unless we left the area.  They threatened to fire on an unarmed demonstration in support of a man who has been on hunger strike for 59 days, a man who could die at any moment, a man who has not even been charged with any crime.  Just as 800,000 Palestinians were forced from their land in 1948 today Israel threatens unarmed demonstrators on their land with death unless they leave their land.

Just as Khader Adnan is steadfast in his hunger strike, we will be steadfast in our resistance to the occupation, like him, we struggle for a life of dignity, a dignity denied by the occupation.  Khader Adnan is our hero; his steadfastness is an inspiration to all of us.

Thank you Khader Adnan.

Nathan Stuckey is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

by Rosa Schiano

15 February 2012 | il Blog di Oliva

Locals help the family salvage animal feed for the surviving livestock | Photo courtesy of Rosa Schiano

Saturday night Israeli F-16′s bombed civilian targets in several areas of the Gaza strip. One of these strikes killed a man and injured his son in the neighborhood of al-Zaytoon, south-east Gaza city. An F-16 dropped a bomb on a farm just before midnight.

The watchman of the farm, Abed Alkareem Alzaitooni, 71 years old, was killed. He was sitting in a steel shed next to the animal pen. His son, Mohammed Alzaitooni, 22 years old, was injured. He was bringing some food to his father. Most of the animals in the farm were killed and the equipment was damaged.

The owner of the farm lost about 20 cows, 30 sheep and most of the feed for the animals. The same farm was targeted was also during Cast Lead and then was rebuilt. The house near the farm was damnaged but luckily nobody was injured. The owner of the house told us: “I was lucky because 10 minutes before the bombing I was with Abed”.

At the scene we found 5-6 young men trying to salvage the feed an anything else they could. A jacket was placed on a cement column. It was the jacket of Abed. Some chickens walked on the rubble.

A chicken lay dead on the ground. A rooster walked over to her body and pushed at it as if was trying to encourage to move. From the rubble emerged the head of a sheep. There was a big crater in the ground from the bomb.

Photo courtesy of Rosa Schiano

Rubble is spread everywhere. The day after the airstrike we went to the mourning tent. Abed Kareem Zaytooni had 6 sons and 3 daughters. His family were natives of Jaffa. Abed spent the last 20 years of his life working as watchman. He returned home only one day per week.

He started to work in this farm 6 years ago. When he was young he worked as porter.  His brother, Achmed, 73 years old, told us: “We grew up without our parents, our dad died before I can remember.

We came to Gaza directly form Jaffa. Our life started with suffering, we always tried to work anywhere we could. At the end
everyone had his family.”

We visited the son of Abed, Mohammed, 22 years old, in Shifa hospital. Mohammed worked on the same farm as his father, he fed the animals. He started to work there 4 years ago.

He always brought food to his father when he was at work. That night he wanted to replace him so his father could have a  night off. After the bombing he searched for his father, he heard his father’s moaning. Then the moaning stopped. Ten minutes later the ambulance came.

Muhammad al Zaitoni, 22, rests in al Shifa Hospital | Photo courtesy of Rosa Schiano

Mohammed is still in the hospital while his wounds heal enough for him to go home. He suffers several broken ribs and a punctured lung. We asked him if had anything to say to the world. He said:

“For the Arab and Islamic people, they must wake up from their  sleep. For the West, you have abandoned us to death”.

During that same night, the israeli F-16′s launched similar airstrikes in Rafah and Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza strip. One of these strike targeted an agricultural shed in al-Qarara village.  The second airstrike targeted a vacant room in a house in al-Shouka village.  The third airstrike targeted an open area in al-Shouka village.

Israel announced it had bombed military targets. The targets Israeli bombed were civilian targets. Gaza continues to live under the siege and under a sky full of warplanes. Gaza continues crying, it continues to mourn its dead.

Rosa Schiano is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

14 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement and Christian Peacemaker Teams

Since the arrival of the Golani Brigade in Hebron on December 27th, international accompaniment organizations (Christian Peacemaker Teams, International Solidarity Movement, and others) have documented an increase in the number of serious human rights violations against the Palestinian people, particularly youth and children in the Old City and Tel Rumeida.

All recorded incidences have been documented through first-hand observation and/or the victims’ testimony. The following report demonstrates a sharp increase in harassment, violence, and human rights violations by the Israeli military towards the Palestinian population of Hebron. Contrary to given justifications, none of those involved were observed to voice or pose any threat to the soldiers. As the Golani Brigade is expected to remain in Hebron another two to five months, members of these international observer organizations fear that such abuses will escalate and make life unbearable for the Palestinians living under occupation in Hebron.

The International Solidarity Movement will publish each segment of the report in a series of articles. To download the full report, please click the following link: FULL REPORT- Under Attack: The Golani Brigade’s war on the Palestinian population of Al-Khalil (Hebron).

Contacts:

International Solidarity Movement, palreportskhalil@gmail.com (972/0 59-550-02864)

Christian Peacemaker Teams, cptheb@cpt.org (927/0 59 810 4549) (972/0 54 342 0117)

2. Incidences in which Golani soldiers arbitrarily detained Palestinians and/or denied them access to roads or walkways.

Wednesday, December 28th: A Golani soldier prevented several members of the Youth Against Settlements organization from walking down a path from their center towards their homes. The soldier claimed that this prevention was because settlers were walking up the path, though none were seen, and further explained, “They must wait when anyone walks past. Even if a dog walks, they must wait.”

Friday, January 6th: A soldier stopped a 19 year-old resident of Shuhada Street and ordered him to show what was in his boots, unzip his jacket, and put his face and hands against the wall.  When the soldier began to hit the man, a neighbor and internationals observers began to film, after which the soldier stopped, but detained the man and his neighbor another 15 minutes.  The youth said the same soldier had stopped him to check his ID four times in one week.

Saturday, January 7th: Golani soldiers held a Palestinian for over three hours at Checkpoint 56.  The soldier explained that he was detaining the man because “he did not like him.”  The two soldiers at the check point continuously reminded the Palestinian man of his detainment by asking him, “How long have you been here?” and forced him to urinate where he stood rather than allowing him to leave.

Tuesday, January 17th: Golani patrolled through the busy Palestinian market in H1 at midday. As they marched, they forced everyone to stand aside and randomly stopped two Palestinian men to check their identifications. A younger man had to stand with his hands raised high on the wall for six minutes to check his ID.

Monday, January 23rd: Golani enter into H1 to search cars in Haret i-Sheik.

Monday, January 23rd: Golani denied a Palestinian man access to return to his home in the Old City because they said entrance was closed after 9 pm. Internationals observed for 40 minutes, as the soldiers denied him access at multiple checkpoints, forcing him to walk back and forth carrying a heavy sack. The soldiers insisted it was the man’s own fault, but finally appeared to relent and took the man on an alternative route.

Tuesday, January 24th: Golani soldiers stopped the Abu Aisha family at Gilbert Checkpoint as they were on their way home and refused to allow them through the checkpoint.  They did not tell the family why they were not allowed to pass.  After some time, they told the family to take a much longer route home, which they did.

Tuesday, January 24th: Soldiers at Checkpoint 56 harassed Palestinians leaving H2 by “playing” with the electric doors of the container box. After people entered the structure, soldiers closed all the doors simultaneously, trapping them inside, and then opened and closed an exit repeatedly. Finally the soldiers opened the door from which the people had entered, forcing them back out the way they had come.

Monday, January 30th: Golani soldiers held a man outside in very cold rain for one hour because he was fixing the satellite on the roof of his house in Tel Rumeida. They told him that they had seen him on his roof through a camera, and that in the future he would need special permission to be there.

by Aaron

14 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

There is a place where a ground-level concrete line runs beside a country road through olive orchards, grape vines, blossoming almond trees, and homes—all Palestinian. This is the projected path of a new segment of Israeli Apartheid Wall through Al-Ma’sara, a small village 13 km south of Bethlehem in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Since 2006, protesters have held weekly demonstrations opposing the Wall’s construction—which was halted in 2009, possibly due to financial constraints. But attacks on Palestinian homes and infrastructure are on the rise, and plans have been announced to renew construction in the near future. One of the few remaining obstacles to the Wall’s extension is the Taqatqa house, a private home in the path of the wall extension, that has become the target of settler attacks and vandalism. In coming weeks the people of Al-Ma’sara, together with Palestinian, International, and Israeli solidarity activists, will converge on the house to restore it and transform it into a center for resistance against the Wall and settlement land theft.

There are many things about this house that recommend it as a site of popular resistance to the next phase of Wall construction.

Located in a fertile valley, the property remains a viable agricultural space in spite of attacks, intimidation and settlement expansion. Where apricot and olive trees were once cut, the family planted grape vines and vegetables. Neighbors said that when Khader Tayatqa, late father of the building’s current owner, suffered a fatal heart attack, it was due to the stress of attacks on his land and family. Nearby lie other properties in contention, including a hill belonging to Raed Taqatqa, who has made his continued presence also into an act of resistance, in spite of determined efforts of Israeli violence to drive him off his land.

After Raed refused to sell, Israeli soldiers removed supporting rocks from beneath his caravan to build a roadblock, damaging it irreparably “by accident.” His home destroyed, Raed built a makeshift structure of cardboard and found materials, which was leveled by settlers.

Such vigilante attacks on Palestinians who resist, on the parts of settlers and Israeli soldiers both, are common—such as an attack on the village of Burin last week.

Along with a favorable location, is the building’s history. Built in 1960, before Israel captured the West Bank and lay claim to its lands, the home is ‘legal’ even under Israel’s stringent permitting system, prejudiced such that Palestinian homes are often demolished using red herring justifications for their ‘illegality.’ As long as repairs only restore and add no additions, demolition of the building cannot be legally supported by the Israeli state. There is also already a history of resistance at this site, where years of weekly demonstrations and a Land Day demonstration have impacted the Wall planning process, such that far less land would be walled off from Al-Ma’sara than from neighboring or similar communities.

House at the Seam - Click here for more photos

The most serious threat now is from settler and soldier attacks which, like those on Raed’s property, are intended to damage the building and discourage resistance. Thus far, while settlers have stolen a door, some electrical wiring and a transformer, the house needs few repairs before it can be inhabited and used for events. As long as it is inhabited, it cannot be taken by the antiquated Ottoman land laws—another tool used to rescind Palestinians’ property rights after they are driven off their land.

“This [house] is a real strong point,” says Mahmoud Zwahre, an organizer from the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee and resident of Al-Ma’sara.“Legally, if we are able to keep this house we are able to keep the land.”

The bizarre set of circumstances that have made Al-Ma’sara, a rural village of about 900, one of the front lines in the battle against Israeli expansionism are sadly familiar to most Palestinians and their international and Israeli supporters. Although the village lies roughly 10 kilometers west of the 1948 “Green Line” (the only internationally recognized ‘border’ between Israel and Palestine) the massive “Gush Etzion block” of seven Israeli settlements (pop. 60,000) lies nearby, products of Israeli’s campaign to produce illegal “facts on the ground.”

These ‘facts,’ in turn are used to justify giving the Israeli military full control of most of the village’s lands and the annexation of thousands of dunums of land via planned Wall construction.

Not only would the wall’s route cut off 3500 dunums of Palestinian lands in Al-Ma’sara and limit access to services in larger communities, but it would also cut off the village’s water access and the primary routes between Hebron, Bethlehem, and Ramallah—three of the largest cities of the West Bank.

Any one of these developments would hit Al-Ma’sara and surrounding villages hard, but together they are intolerable and demoralizing. Even though there is no barrier or construction currently underway, some Palestinian farmers have chosen to stay off lands east of the Wall’s projected path, fearful of settler and military attacks. Others, however, have decided to resist—using the Tayatqa house as a focal point.

When asked what his vision for the house is, Zwahre describes a vibrant social and information center, with Palestinian flags flying and walls painted red, green, white and black. From terraces, he imagines people sitting to drink tea and looking across olive groves and fruit orchards. Farmers avoiding their land below the settlements for fear of attacks by settlers would feel safe working on it. But, he adds, that is just his vision, and it is for all those involved in the development of the center to create it.

The Popular Committees have issued a call for supporters to join them in making this center a reality. They can be contacted at www.popularstruggle.org. Weekly protests against Wall construction are held Fridays at noon, starting from the Al-Ma’sara city center.

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

by Joe Catron

14 February 2012 | Mondoweiss

Yassar Salah (Photo: Joe Catron) - Click here for more images

As hundreds of Palestinians rallied in Gaza today to demand that Israel release Palestinian administrative detainee Khader Adnan, Yassar Salah, a 17-year veteran of Israel’s prison system, spoke about Adnan’s 60-day hunger strike and his own reasons for joining it.

“We are on hunger strike to show our sympathy and solidarity with Sheikh Khader Adnan, who is battling to overcome Israel’s system of administrative detention,” he told me in the protest tent outside Gaza’s International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) compound.

“Khader Adnan is fighting a just battle,” he said. “For that reason, he is continuing his struggle without paying attention to his own suffering. Losing his health, or even his life, doesn’t matter as much as ending injustice. Adnan is a hero. Freedom has a price, and he is paying the price of his freedom.”

Salah, who launched his hunger strike with ten other Gaza Strip residents on February 11, has taken similar actions before. “I hunger struck in prison several times, for 15, 18, and 20 days,” he said. “This is nothing new for me. I assure you that in this battle, we fight with our wills, not our bodies. By our hunger, by our pains, we are achieving our goals.”

Gaza protest in solidarity with Khader Adnan. (Photo: Joe Catron) - Click here for more images

“The Israelis humiliate their prisoners,” he told me when I asked about his years in detention. “They prevent us from continuing our education, or meeting out attorneys. Many prisoners are prevented from receiving family visits. Some are even isolated from their fellow prisoners. Prisoners are kept in cells alone for months, or even years, without any contact with the outside world. Sometimes guards entered our rooms in the middle of the night, searching for nothing, only to torment us.”

What did he and his fellow hunger strikers hope to accomplish, I asked him? “People here are showing sympathy and solidarity with Khader and his struggle,” he replied. “But the levels of sympathy and solidarity are not enough. We want more, among our people and outside.”

What kind of sympathy and solidarity? “They can organize sit-ins, maybe something athletic, or artistic, or political,” he said. “We want to see a variety of activities to express the message of Khader and the Palestinian people. The most important thing is for people to adopt his case as their own. The world must take action to stop his shameful treatment.”

(Photo: Joe Catron) - Click here for more images

Joe Catron is an international solidarity activist and Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) organizer in Gaza, Palestine. He blogs and tweets.

14 February 2012 | Reporters without Borders

Reporters Without Borders strongly condemns the violence used by Israeli forces against Palestinian, Israeli and foreign photojournalists covering demonstrations against Israel’s West Bank separation barrier and the continuing colonisation of Palestinian territory.

The press freedom organization deplores the total impunity enjoyed by the soldiers responsible for these abuses.

On 10 February, two Palestinian journalists were injured by tear gas grenades and rubber bullets fired by Israeli soldiers as they were covering a weekly protest in the village of Nabi Saleh against the barrier and encroachment on their land. They included Ahmed Maslah, who works as a cameraman for the Turkish television station TRT and a photographer for the New York Times.

Witnesses told Reporters Without Borders the soldiers appeared deliberately to fire tear gas grenades and rubber bullets in the direction of the journalists after barring them from areas where Palestinian youths clashed with Israeli soldiers.

On the same day, two other journalists were slightly injured in Kufr Qaddoum, in the northern part of the West Bank near Qalqilyah – a French reporter and a correspondent for Nablus TV, Bakr Abd Al-Haq – while they were reporting on a peaceful weekly protest.

On 27 January, the Palestinian photojournalist Moheeb Al-Barghouti was wounded in the legs by rubber bullets fired by a soldier as he covered the weekly protest in the Palestinian village of Bil’in. A reporter for Palestine Public TV, Haron Amayreh, also received a leg wound from a tear gas grenade.

On 31 December, Palestinian cameraman Ashraf Abu Shaouish from the local television agencyPal Media was targeted by tear gas grenades fired by Israeli soldiers while he was filming clashes between Palestinians and Israeli armed forces which broke out during a non-violent protest against the separation barrier in the village of Assira near Nablus. He was taken to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus for treatment.

On 18 December, Israeli troops accosted two reporters from the satellite station Al Quds during a live broadcast outside the Ofer prison near Ramallah of the release of Palestinian prisoners under the exchange deal between Israel and Hamas.

Reporters Without Borders has on many occasions asked the Israeli army to undertake independent and impartial investigations into such incidents in order to identify and punish those responsible.

Even when the army does carry out an investigation, it seldom reaches any real conclusions.

Such was the case with the Israeli photographer Mati Milstein, who filed complaints against the army’s Alexandroni brigade after he and other photojournalists were the target of an attack by soldiers on the outskirts of the village of Nabi Saleh last July. He received a response from the army on 22 December.

The letter from army spokeswoman Lieutenant-Colonel Avital Leibovich is a stonewalling exercise. It says the army responded appropriately to what it considered a “violent and illegal demonstration”. She did not go over what actually took place in Nabi Saleh.

She stressed that the complaint was not appropriate because of the dangers present in the West Bank areas concerned, adding: “Sometimes the media are caught in the eye of the storm”.

She said the profession of photojournalist meant incurring certain risks. In an article published on the Web, Milstein takes issue with the army’s response.

He says a clear distinction exists between the risks incurred by journalists on the ground when covering an event and being the target of soldiers who deliberately open fire.

Reporters Without Borders is outraged at this insulting and totally inadequate response from the Israeli Defense Forces, which continually protect the army at the expense of freedom of information.

For copies of these reports in additional languages please visit Reporters without Borders.