First paragraph (Teaser):

 
An update from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) mailing list:

1. Palestinian Gandhi Re-arrested - ACTION ALERT
2. Killing Salfit
3. Non-Violent Organizing Resumes in Salfit
4. UN Conference of Civil Society calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions!
5. All eyes on Gaza disengagement
6. Together, by Mansour

Rest of the text:

 
An update from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) mailing list:

1. Palestinian Gandhi Re-arrested - ACTION ALERT
2. Killing Salfit
3. Non-Violent Organizing Resumes in Salfit
4. UN Conference of Civil Society calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions!
5. All eyes on Gaza disengagement!
6. Together, by Mansour

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1. Palestinian Gandhi Re-arrested

ACTION ALERT
18 July 2005

The Palestinian Gandhi, Abdullah Abu Rahme, and Akram Al Khatib, two members of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Bil'in, were arrested Friday, July 15, 2005 and are still being held at Ofer Military Base. The two were arrested during a non-violent demonstration against the Annexation Barrier in Bil'in and are being charged with assaulting a police officer.

Attorney Tamar Peleg, has filed a request with the court and the prosecutors for the immediate release of Abdullah and Akram. Peleg states that their arrest is the result of Israeli military efforts to stop legitimate, legal, non-violent political activities.

Members of the Bil'in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements and their families have regularly been subjected to nightly threats, harassment, arrest, and false charges in the past.

The central theme of Friday's demonstration was that peace requires bridges, not walls, and that instead of building the Annexation Wall a better future and a bridge of peace and understanding should be constructed.

Abdullah, along with Israeli and International activists, was inside the installation with only his head sticking out. The activists inside the installation lead the march which left the center of the village toward the construction site of the Barrier. Border police and IDF soldiers were waiting for the demonstration inside the village and prevented access to the route of the Barrier which appropriates more than half of the village's lands for the construction of new Israeli settlements.

After a few moments of debate, soldiers attacked the demonstrators with clubs, shock grenades and tear gas. Abdullah was forced out of the installation, arrested and then charged with assault. Akram who was standing nearby was suddenly grabbed by a soldier and arrested and charged with resisting arrest. Throughout the arrest which is documented by video and still photos Akram can be seen holding his hands in the air. 14 Israelis and four international activists were also arrested in the same demonstration, under the same circumstances. All but two of them were released after a few hours. The other two were released at 22:00 that night. (Video footage that proves the above is available and has been submitted to the police).

The village of Bil'in is well known for its determination and creativity in resisting the Wall. One month ago, Abdullah and his brother Rateb were arrested in identical circumstances and charged with throwing stones. Luckily, video footage which proved the charges to be false was available. In a rare move, the military judge Captain Daniel Zamir, after viewing video footage of the Bil'in demonstration that conflicted with the IDF soldier reports of the events, stated: "There was no reason for the defendant's arrest; there was no reason for the shooting that wounded him or the blows he received from the soldier," adding that the reality was "strangely different, to put it mildly, from the testimony of the prosecution witnesses." Subsequently, one of the soldiers who testified against Rateb has been investigated by military police and confessed to giving false testimony.

Links to photographs from the demonstration:

Abdullah in the bridge installation, 4th from the left:
http://freckle.blogs.com/photos/bridges_not_walls/2.html

Image of the confrontation with the IDF:
http://freckle.blogs.com/photos/bridges_not_walls/5.html

Image of Akram's arrest:
http://freckle.blogs.com/photos/bridges_not_walls/arrest4.html

Image of Abdullah's arrest:
http://freckle.blogs.com/photos/bridges_not_walls/arrest5.html

Please call and fax the people bellow demanding Abdullah's and Akram's
release:

From abroad, include also the Israeli embassy in your country.
for embassy email addresses:
http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/israel1.html + more on:
http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/israel2.html

American Consulate, Jerusalem
Email: keenme (at) state.gov, Fax: +972-(0)2- 627-7230
European Union, Jerusalem
Email: mailto (at) delwbg.cec.eu.int, Fax: +972- (0)2-532 6249

White House Comment Line: 202-456-1111
State Department Bureau of Public Affairs Comment Line: 202-647-6575

Tzipi Livni
Ministry of Justice
29 Salah al-Din Street
Jerusalem 91010, Israel
Fax: +972 2 628 7757
E-mail: s...@justice.gov.il

Menahem Mazuz
Attorney-General/Legal
Advisor to the Government
Ministry of Justice
29 Salah al-Din Street
Jerusalem 91010, Israel
Fax: +972 2 628 5438
+972 2 627 4481

Brigadier General Avihai Mandelblit
Chief Military Attorney
6 David Elazar Street
Hakirya
Tel Aviv
Israel
Fax: +972 3 569 4370
E-mail: c/o arb...@mail.idf.il

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2. Killing Salfit

16 year old boy killed in Salfit following assassination of two men by Apache helicopters; 9 people injured by gunshots, rubber bullets, and tear gas inhalation; Army raids hospital and fires tear gas at entrance; ambulances blocked and doctor beaten

Date of incident: July 15, 2005
Place: Salfit, West Bank
Witness/es: Dr. Naim Sabna, director of Salfit Emergency Medical Hospital, Salfit residents including 12 year old boy who witnessed shooting of Moath

At approximately 2:30 PM on Friday, July 15 two Apache helicopters fired rockets and opened fire on three men in an olive grove east of the town of Salfit. Two men, Samer Abdulhadi Dawhqa and Mohammad Ahmed Marri, were killed instantly. The third man, Mohammad Yusef A'yash, was gravely injured with multiple injuries to the chest and head. He was taken to the Emergency Medical Hospital in Salfit, where he was given emergency treatment and sent by ambulance to the hospital in Ramallah. On the way to the hospital, the ambulance was stopped by Israeli soldiers. The soldiers took the keys to the ambulance and beat the doctor on his shoulder and foot with the butt of their gun. Mr. A'yash was taken away by an Israeli military ambulance. His location and condition are not known at the time of this writing.

At about 3 PM army jeeps entered the town shooting gas and declared a curfew. The people ran inside their houses and closed their shops, but there were some young men and boys on the main street who threw stones at the jeeps. The soldiers fired at them and they ran away, scattering in different directions.

Between 3:30 and 4:00 PM, a soldier in a jeep shot at two boys who were in an alley near the main street, approximately 15 meters from the jeep. One boy escaped, but the bullet hit Moath Jamal Sulieme, 16 years old, in the forehead above the left eye and exited from the back of his head. A small group of young boys (ages 12-14) saw the soldiers fire at Moath and ran over to help him. The soldiers fired rubber bullets at them so they ran away and called an ambulance.

The ambulance picked up Moath and took him to the Salfit Emergency Hospital, where he was given emergency treatment. Moath was sent by ambulance to the hospital in Nablus. On the way to the hospital, the ambulance was detained by Israeli soldiers at the Zatara checkpoint until an Israeli military ambulance arrived. He was transferred to the Israeli military ambulance and taken to a hospital in Israel. At 10:30 PM the hospital informed the DCL that Moath had died.

At approximately 5 PM about 20 jeeps and more than 50 soldiers surrounded the Salfit Emergency Hospital and demanded to enter. When the hospital director refused, the soldiers threw tear gas into the courtyard of the hospital which filled the inside of it with gas. The army entered the hospital by force, searching all of the rooms, including the operating room and delivery room. Around 10:00 PM the army left the hospital and Salfit.

Injured Persons treated by the Salfit Emergency Hospital

Mohamad Al Masri (22): bullet injury, right shoulder
Anas Fatash 16: bullet injury, hand
Mahmoud Asad Yunis 16: rubber bullet injury, left thigh
Dia Madee 18: rubber bullet injury, right knee
Mahamad Shahir Darweesh: Bullet injury, right loin
Jalal Abdall 30: multiple traumas, right shoulder
Jalila Jammal 49: tear gas inhalation
Ahmed Darweesh 15: rubber bullet injury to the head
Said Shtaeh 30: anxiety attack
Ramee Mraita 18: rubber bullet, right elbow
Martha Jlal: anxiety attack

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3. Non-Violent Organizing Resumes in Salfit

Place: Deir Ballut, Az Zawiya, and Mas'ha in the Salfit District, West Bank
Date: Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Time: 10:00 AM

Non-violent Palestinian activists, joined by internationals and Israelis, will hold a one day tour of three villages in the Salfit District which have been severely affected by the construction of the Separation Barrier. Participants in the tour will meet with local residents and learn about the impact of the occupation on daily life in these villages.

The tour will begin at 10:00 AM at a partially constructed school in Deir Ballut. The Israeli Army has halted construction on the school since June 2003 and will not allow the village to complete the school, which is funded by World Vision, a project of USAID.

At 11:00 AM the tour will proceed to Az Zawiya. Local residents, city council members, Women for Life, and girls from a local summer camp, will meet with the tour participants to discuss effects of the occupation and construction on the Separation Barrier in Az Zawiya and neighboring villages.

At 2:30 tour participants will visit the house of Hani Aamer in Mas'ha. Since the completion of the Wall in Mas'ha two years ago, the Aamer house has been surrounded by the Wall on all four sides. The family may only enter and leave when soldiers open the gates.

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4. UN Conference of Civil Society calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions!

Worldwide Activism, The Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, July 16th, 2005

In their recent session in Paris, July 13, 2005 the UN International Conference of Civil Society for Peace in the Middle East unanimously adopted the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions.

Through the call participating groups recommitted themselves to ending the Occupation of Palestine and to bringing down the Apartheid Wall as a key element in ending Occupation policies of settlements, land grabs and the destruction of farms and houses.

Participants committed to working within a framework that calls for international mobilizations and campaigns to pressure their respective governments to abide by international law and end economic dealings with the Israeli Occupation until the Occupation ends and the Wall is torn down. The ruling of the International Court of Justice was seen as a key tool for these campaigns.

After the reading of the draft Action Plan, Na'eem Jeenah, Spokesman, Palestine Solidarity Committee of South Africa and President of the Johannesburg-based Muslim Youth Movement, said that within the South African context the struggle against apartheid had been based on four pillars. Two concerned internal resistance to apartheid and the international isolation of the Apartheid state. It was those pillars, which were crucial to bringing about an end to the in South Africa.

It had taken 30 years for that call to take root. Palestine and the Palestinian people did not have 30 years. From the Conference onward, it was time to intensify efforts to isolate Apartheid Israel. He highlighted the importance of Palestinian groups to be at the lead of the campaign at the global level.

The resolve of the conference declaration is a yet another step towards the consolidation of the call for the isolation of Apartheid Israel and a clear indication to the UN, governments and international bodies that the people globally are calling the decision makers into their responsibility and are leading the way inside civil society severing ties with Israel on all levels.

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5. ALL EYES ON GAZA DISENGAGEMENT

July 15, 2005
What May Come After the Evacuation of Jewish Settlers from the Gaza Strip?
A Warning from Israel

By URI DAVIS, ILAN PAPPE, and TAMAR YARON

We feel that it is urgent and necessary to raise the alarm regarding what may come during and after evacuation of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip occupied by Israel in 1967, in the event that the evacuation is implemented.

We held back on getting this statement published and circulated, seeking additional feedback from our peers. The publication in Ha'aretz (22 June 2005) quoting statements by General (Reserves) Eival Giladi, the head of the Coordination and Strategy team of the Prime Minister's Office, motivated us not to delay publication and circulation any further. Confirming our worst fears, General (Res.) Eival Giladi went on record in print and on television to the effect that "Israel will act in a very resolute manner in order to prevent terror attacks and [militant] fire while the disengagement is being implemented" and that "If pinpoint response proves insufficient, we may have to use weaponry that causes major collateral damage, including helicopters and planes, with mounting danger to surrounding people."

We believe that one primary, unstated motive for the determination of the government of the State of Israel to get the Jewish settlers of the Qatif (Katif) settlement block out of the Gaza Strip may be to keep them out of harm's way when the Israeli government and military possibly trigger an intensified mass attack on the approximately one and a half million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, of whom about half are 1948 Palestine refugees.

The scenario could be similar to what has already happened in the past - a tactic that Ariel Sharon has used many times in his military career - i.e., utilizing provocation in order to launch massive attacks.

Following this pattern, we believe that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz are considering to utilize provocation for vicious attacks in the near future on the approximately one and a half million Palestinian inhabitants of the Gaza Strip: a possible combination of intensified state terror and mass killing. The Israeli army is not likely to risk the kind of casualties to its soldiers that would be involved in employing ground troops on a large scale in the Gaza Strip. With General Dan Halutz as Chief of Staff they don't need to. It was General Dan Halutz, in his capacity as Commander of the Israeli Air Force, who authorized the bombing of a civilian Gaza City quarter with a bomb weighing one ton, and then went on record as saying that he sleeps well and that the only thing he feels when dropping a bomb is a slight bump of the aircraft.

The initiators of this alarm have been active for many decades in the defense of human rights inside the State of Israel and beyond. We do not have the academic evidence to support our feeling, but given past behavior, ideological leanings and current media spin initiated by the Israeli government and military, we believe that the designs of the State of Israel are clear, and we submit that our educated intuition with matters pertaining to the defense of human rights has been more often correct than otherwise.

We urge all those who share the concern above to add their names to ours and urgently give this alarm as wide a circulation as possible.

Circulating and publishing this text may constitute a significant factor in deterring the Israeli government, thus protecting the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip from this very possible catastrophe and contributing to prevent yet more war crimes from occurring.

Please sign, circulate, and publish this alarm without delay! call for action from peace and human rights organizations now:

Please send notification of your signature to Tamar Yaron
tiyaron@hazorea.org.il

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6. Together, by Mansour

It is a very hot day today... in fact the last two months have been very hot here in Palestine, yet we continue to have a strong desire to resist the Occupation especially the Annexation Wall. Every day that we have a nonviolent demonstration or action the sweat of Palestinians, internationals, and Israeli activists proves the reality of solidarity and the possibility of coexistence between people.

Force is not the language for peace. Unlike the coalition forces who claim to create democracy and global justice through their weapons and destructive technology, in Palestine, simple human beings with empty hands and full hearts face one of the strongest armies in the world the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). We won't react towards the IOF by using the same means of violence that they use against us.

We are not teachers or lecturers, but we have the experience of 57 years of resisting the Israeli Occupation. By our continuous resistance and the hope we have maintained, we prove that force and violence is the weapon of the loser. We need you, our friends, side by side with us to work for that peace. We await you in Palestine.

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(this update was originally circulated via the ISM's palsolidarity mailing list -- minor editing, formatting and links were applied before its posting here)

[PHOTO from http://freckle.blogs.com/photos/bridges_not_walls/5.html]