ISM: Internationals Arrested, a Family Endures, an Anniversary and more

Author: International Solidarity Movement (ISM)

First paragraph (Teaser):

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

Rest of the text:

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

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1. For Immediate Release: STAYING ARRESTED TOGETHER

20 July, 2005

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT -- Three international activists are refusing to sign release papers after being arrested alongside a Palestinian protester. The arrests occurred during a nonviolent action against the Illegal barrier in the West Bank village of Bil'in. The three women -- one Danish and two U.S. citizens -- say they won't accept conditional releases so long as the Palestinian they were arrested with is not offered the same treatment. The three go before a civil judge Thursday July 21. The Palestinian awaits a military trial.

The arrestees were among a group of Palestinians, internationals and Israelis at a nonviolent action against construction of the barrier on Palestinian land.

Alison Brim of North Carolina, Nina Olsen of Denmark, and ISM cofounder Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian American of Michigan, were taken in front of a judge and offered release with the condition that they stay 500 meters away from the path the wall in Bil'in. Meanwhile, Bil'in resident Tamer Al Khatib was taken to Ofer Military Base where he awaits military trial. In solidarity with their Palestinian friend, the international activists refused. They are being held in Givaat Zeev police station, awaiting a court appointment set for 12 PM Thursday at the Peace Court in the Russian Compound.

The four were among seven activists arrested Wednesday morning in Bil'in. Also arrested were Pel'e Minddal of Denmark and Israelis Avi Mugrabhi and Moshe Berger. Minddal signed papers for immediate release in order to get medical treatment for his arm, which was injured amid the arrest. Berger and Mugrabhi also signed for their release.

The protest Wednesday involved several activists. The seven who were arrested had locked themselves inside a large metal cylinder decorated with symbols of the Palestinian political factions and a Palestinian flag which was placed in the path bulldozers use to build the wall on Palestinian land in Bil'in. Only their head and feet protruded out of port holes while they were chained to one another inside.

Israeli soldiers beat them with batons and cut into the cylinder, forcing the activists out.

Interestingly, the arrested activists were charged with attacking the soldiers. The charge was dismissed by a judge Wednesday who had viewed a video tape of the incident and stated that it obviously was the soldiers who had attacked the activists.

Violence, false charges and harassment are not new responses to the nonviolent resistance in Bil'in. Abdallah Abu Rahme and Akram Al Khatib, members of the Bil'in Popular Committee Against the Wall have been in detention at Ofer Military Base since their arrest during a non-violent demonstration Friday, July 15. They have a military court appearance scheduled for today at Ofer Military Base.

For more information contact: 054-5892681 or ISM Media Office at 02-2971824.

For photographs, go to: http://freckle.blogs.com/photos/strength_in_unity

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2. Nablus Summer Campaign Programme: July 21st-28th, 2005

There will be five direct actions in the Nablus area, four in the surrounding villages and one at the main checkpoint.

Friday July 22nd: Asira Village
Direct Action to open Sabaatash (17), the main road from Asira to Nablus

Asira village, with a population of 12,000, has been under closure since the start of this intifada. The main road connecting the village to the town has been closed by earth mounds, forcing the residents to take a time-consuming and costly longer route into town through another checkpoint where they may be further delayed or even denied passage.

This has a particularly negative affect on students living in the village who attend Nablus' An Njah University, who find they must pay 20 shekels for the longer trip only to be potentially denied entry at the Beit Iba checkpoint because they are under 25 years of age.

Farmers are also greatly affected. Asira has been famous for the high quality of its olive oil and used to host a thriving market, attracting buyers from great distances. Now the market is gone, and farmers have difficulty taking their oil as far as Nablus. Some Asira families try to spend olive oil rather than cash in the village shops. The economy of the village has been destroyed by the closure.

In April there was a direct nonviolent action to open Sabaatash road, with protestors marching close to an Israeli military base, from the village to the road block. International and Israeli activists walked the route with villagers who spontaneously removed the roadblocks. Local TV celebrated the first taxi to take the Sabaatash route to Nablus in four years. However, within hours the army closed the road again, declaring the area a closed military zone and constructing a new block. The army had watched and filmed the entire action from a Palestinian home they had occupied (monitor this house during future actions). Locals report a significantly increased army presence in the area from the date of that action until today. Soldiers have begun to man the roadblock regularly and have fired at innocent citizens. Residents now feel unable to even safely walk around the roadblocks. Shepherds, who have become reluctant to use their adjacent part of their lands, will join in this latest demonstration with their flocks.

The action will be to walk Sabaatash from Nablus to Asira where we will meet the villagers and walk back towards Nablus. This time residents may want to walk the route without moving the roadblocks.

Israeli activists welcome

Sunday, July 24th: Salem Village
Action to work on land threatened by settler attacks

Salem is a farming village, population 5000, to the east of Nablus. Since the start of this intifada, Salem and its neighboring villages Asmut and Deir Al Hatab have been closed from Nablus to the west and Beit Furik to the southeast by ditches several kilometers in length, at points 3 meters deep and 5 meters wide. At times, sewage from the settlement floods part of the land and prevents people crossing the fields. The road across is controlled by a part-time checkpoint. On July 18th, ISMers were present when soldiers at the checkpoint shot a man crossing the field.

Elon More settlement has confiscated much of the land belonging to these farming villages. The land still nominally belonging to the Palestinians is subject to severe restrictions by the Israeli army, who only allow the people to work their land on a few specified days.

Earlier this year a further 85 dunums of land was taken from Deir Al Hatab, which has now lost all of its land up to 30m from the last house. Officially Israel says the land is taken for "security of the military base" rather than settlement expansion but the base is only there for the expanding settlement.

Elon More settlers have a history of making violent attacks on Palestinians. In April of this year, a group of 40 Elon More settlers were rounded up by soldiers in Al Bidan Valley. Another group set fire to a large area of the olive grove.

The action in Salem will be to plant trees on the land separated from the village by a "settlers-only" road.

Monday, July 25th: Huwara Checkpoint and Military Base
Demonstration for Prisoners and Against Closure of Nablus

Since the start of this intifada, Nablus has been surrounded by checkpoints -- four of which are currently active. Nablus city is still subject to closure and often inaccessible to the residents of surrounding villages who are dependent on the services in the town. There are three main Israeli military bases surrounding the city, with additional outposts on the hilltops around the town and region.

There are five large settlements close to the town. They are currently expanding and stealing yet more land from the Palestinian villages in the region.

There are currently 8000 Palestinians, many of whom are women and children, in Israeli jails. 1400 of these prisoners come from Nablus. On the day of the action, international activists will join Palestinian medics, prisoners' families and other groups. We will assemble at the bomb-damaged government buildings, from which we will take buses towards Huwara, before marching to the checkpoint. Prisoners' mothers will read letters for their sons. We aim to show solidarity with the prisoners, highlighting their plight to the media, and to protest the continued restrictions on movement in the Nablus region.

July 26th and 27th - Tana
Action to reclaim razed village

On July 5th, Israeli forces demolished the entire village of Tana, near Beit Furik, Nablus. Tana was a small farming village in the Jordan valley in one of the longest continually-inhabited areas of the world. Residents say the area is mentioned in the holy books and was known to be populated 3500 years ago. The village mosque, the only structure not to be demolished, has stood for several hundred years.

Residents received one day's notice that their homes were to be demolished, informed by a piece of paper left outside one of their dwellings. The villagers knew no one to call and the razing of their twenty-two homes went ahead unhindered. The UN estimates 170 persons have been "displaced", yet the villagers say Tana was home to 400 people at the height of the season.

The paper announcing the demolition says that the villagers had built their homes without Israeli permission. Their caves and stone constructions are hundreds of years old. In recent years they have added steel and concrete structures to the front of their caves. A school house was built six years ago and this too was destroyed. When the army destroyed the village, they demolished not only the steel structures but the caves themselves and even the villagers' cars.

In 1989, the villagers had a court case in Israel, after which they were told they would be allowed to farm the western portion of their land. In recent years, however, the villagers have been threatened by settlers from Itamar, who came and swam in their water supply.

The villagers are not defeated and refuse to be intimidated. In defiance of the army's destruction of their homes, the people of Tana intend to go back to their land, rebuild their homes and continue farming. International and Israeli activists will support this action, some staying in the village overnight.

July 28th - Asira
Action to open road to farm land

As in Salem, the people of Asira are prevented from farming even their land that has not been stolen by the occupation.

The road from the village to the land has been blocked by the Israeli army with an earth mound. Five families live outside of this block and are unable to reach their homes by vehicle. Israeli army jeeps regularly patrol the area and prevent people from accessing their land.

We will move the mound to open the road for the isolated families.

Israeli activists welcome

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3. A Family from Saida

By L.
July 18th, 2005

We met with a family from Saida at the home of one of their relatives. Here, we were filled in on the situation. They recounted that the Israeli army had occupied the house of Sharif Abdul Ghani four days ago. Whilst stationed there, some of the soldiers came further into the village and raided the house of Sharif's brother Shafik, a martyr who was killed by the Israeli Occupation Force two months ago. It was midnight when they woke up his widow and their four children. The soldiers searched everywhere in the house. In the clothes cupboard was a packet containing US $4,624 that was being saved for the son, a two year old boy, to have an operation on the hole in his heart when he is old enough. As the soldiers left, they warned the woman not to talk to anyone or to use the phone. She was scared, and when she discovered that the money had been stolen she waited until about 5 AM when she called people to tell them what had happened. She went with her brother's wife to the occupied house to complain about the theft, but the soldiers laughed at her and told her she was lying. She called the Palestinian District Co-ordination Office, which takes people's complaints to the Israelis. She also informed B'tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, in the hope that they will be able to follow up on it in her behalf.

We were in the village of Saida, outside Tulkarm, which has suffered tremendously under the Israeli military. Soldiers have occupied the same house repeatedly. We listened as the family told us their tragic history: two brothers killed, one in prison.

The family wanted us to go to the house, speak to the soldiers about the money, and to try to persuade them to let one of the family members go inside to get some belongings. They also wanted a chance to confront the soldiers about their being in the house in the first place. We set off with a group of about twenty men, women and children.

When we arrived at the bottom of the driveway of the occupied house, the soldiers started yelling at us to go away and fired into the air to try to scare us off. Obviously they did not anticipate the indomitable spirit of the old mother who was with us, who slowly made her way towards the house regardless of the yelling and shooting, accompanied by we four internationals and her son, the rightful owner the house.

The soldiers were edgy and not at all happy about the group of people half hidden behind a bush at the bottom of the driveway. At one point the soldiers announced that they would fire at the floor to try to make the people leave. Luckily they refrained. The old woman shouted up at them in Arabic, which at least two of the soldiers appeared to understand well.

Eventually the group below us disappeared and the man who remained was permitted to go inside and collect the things he wanted. He also made the soldiers follow him as he fed the pigeons. Fantastic. At this point, a photographer who was present tried to take some photos of the man, flanked by two soldiers. He was told by the commander not to, because "It looks bad....One man with two soldiers." I couldn't quite get my head around this statement. Of course it looks bad. The whole thing looks bad. It is bad!

The most laughable quote of the day, though, came from an American soldier from New York. When we questioned them about the stolen money he replied: "Israel has the most ethical army in the world. We would never do that." We refrained from listing countless atrocities, not least the occupation itself...

I am wondering whether there is any way to raise the necessary money for the baby's operation. His mother was with us for the afternoon, and she was a person that I felt an immediate affinity with. On the way to the house she showed me the spot where her husband was killed. The car he was in remains wreckage on the hillside below. On the way back she pointed out to me the place where her husband used to sit with his friends, on a terrace underneath some olive trees. How does she cope with seeing these things whenever she walks through the village?

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4. Shoot First, Laugh After
Israeli violence up-close

It started out as an ordinary afternoon: Mohommed and I were going to a meeting with some of the people of the village of Salem to talk about ISM and other internationals planting trees with them one day next week. Villagers have reported a lot of harassment from the soldiers and settlers in the area. Half-way to our meeting place, a taxi coming from the other direction told us there was a flying checkpoint further along the road, so to expect a bit of a wait. Sure enough, we came to the back of a line of about 20 vehicles, including tractors, lorries and many taxis (shared taxi is the normal mode of transport around here). After waiting for about 15 minutes, we decided to let the taxi go and continue on foot.

We could see the squat ugly shape of the Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) as we walked. It was parked at the crossroads, at the bottom of the settlement and military base roads, so that the traffic was backed up on the other three roads. As we walked down towards the APC there was a load bang: Mohammed said, 'there're shooting the people'. In the confusion of the moment I heard a woman begin to wail, and a man, obviously injured, being carried towards us and quickly bundled into a taxi, along with a number of women (one of whom was holding a tiny baby). The taxi did as quick of a U-turn as it could, then raced up the road in a cloud of dust. I stood staring at a pool of blood not quite comprehending what I had seen. The man who had just been shot was Ahmed Baeri (excuse spelling) from the village of Salem, father of four, the youngest of whom had been born in a Nablus Hospital just the day before. He was bringing his wife and child home that day. He had come to the front of the line and called across the wide space to the soldiers asking them if he could pass with his wife as she was exhausted after the birth. They responded by shooting him in the leg.

The Israeli soldiers behind the open door of their APC then beckoned the next person in line forward. A man climbed down from his tractor and slowly crossed the open space towards them. He had just witnessed a man being shot by these same soldiers, but he had to face them, as did all the others in line: their lives would grind to a halt otherwise. This is a routine day for them, but for me what I had seen was just beginning to sink in: An unarmed man had just been shot, from a distance of over a hundred yards by heavily armed soldiers from behind the doors of their APC. I had heard the shot, I had seen the blood, and I had seen him prostrate in the back of the taxi.

Then it was my turn to walk across and show my ID; I won't pretend my heart wasn't pounding. When I got there I found that none of these soldiers looked to be older than 20, maybe 22. Their were grins all over there faces. I asked why they had just shot a man, and they told me "You are lying, we shot nobody, you are a liar!" 'Come with me and see the blood', I said. More laughter. 'You should be so ashamed of yourselves, and your Mothers would be so ashamed of you too.' "No, you are wrong, she would be so proud".

They agreed to let me through but not Mohommed, so I turned back. As I walked away their laughter was ringing in my ears. Even as I write this, I still don't know the fate of Ahmed.

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5. What Every American Should Know about Israel/Palestine

http://www.traprockpeace.org/corrie_chicago_03july05.html

A heart-rending talk giving by Cindy and Craig Corrie, parents of Rachel Corrie. Rachel was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer when she attempted to block the path to a Palestinian home that they were trying to destroy.

The Corries spoke at Socialism 2005. This annual conference was held in Chicago from July 1-4, 2005 and attracted over 1000 antiwar activists from throughout the US in addition to many international guests. It was sponsored by the Center for Economic Research and Social Change, publisher of the International Socialist Review and Haymarket Books. It was co-sponsored by the International Socialist Organization, publisher of Socialist Worker. Links to the organizations and speakers can be found at the conference website, http://www.socialismconference.org/.

Cindy Corrie also spoke at the conference Rally Against War and Empire.
(http://www.traprockpeace.org/iso_antiwar_rally_03july05.html)
On both occasions, she read aloud a poem written by her daughter about Palestine and the suffering of this occupied people.

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6. At First anniversary of ICJ ruling on Israel's Illegal Separation Wall, Lawyers Challenge EU and UK over Inaction on Palestine

Lawyers acting for campaigns group War on Want will today (Monday 18 July) send letters to President José Manuel Barroso of the European Commission and UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw challenging them to provide evidence of any action they have taken to curtail human rights abuses against Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation.

One year after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that Israel's Separation Wall is illegal, the EU and UK have failed to take the action required of them under the Geneva Conventions to ensure Israeli compliance with international humanitarian law. UN Special Rapporteurs have called on the EU to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, under which Israeli exports enjoy preferential access to EU markets, on human rights grounds.

Acting under instruction from War on Want, The Dove & the Dolphin Charity and a number of individuals affected by the Israeli actions, London solicitors Hickman & Rose are formally requesting the European Commission to provide evidence of all written communication with the Israeli authorities (including minutes of meetings and internal memoranda) relating to the Separation Wall since the ICJ ruling of July 2004. A parallel request is being made of the UK government under the Freedom of Information Act.

John Hilary, Director of Campaigns and Policy at War on Want, said: "Israel continues to defy international law with its actions in Palestine, and each new day of the occupation sees more Palestinians condemned to poverty and despair. Yet neither the EU nor the British government have honoured their obligations to the Palestinian people as called for by the International Court of Justice. As it assumes the EU presidency, we call on the British government to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement and bring Israel into line with humanitarian law."

[International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered its Advisory Opinion that Israel's Separation Wall is illegal on 9 July 2004; the Opinion is available on the ICJ website: www.icj-cij.org].

[Copies of the letters from Hickman & Rose to the European Commission and UK governments are available by email. Please contact War on Want campaigns officer Nick Dearden at 07932 335464]

[For more details, comment and interviews, contact War on Want press officer John Coventry at 07905 397084. For comment from Hickman & Rose, contact Daniel Machover at 07773 341096].

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7. How Do You Like Your Blue-Eyed Boy: The Rally in Bil'in

Zachary Wales writing from Occupied Birzeit, Live from Palestine, 17 July 2005: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4006.shtml

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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/strength_in_unity]