I am a political activist who has worked and lived in the West Bank of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This blog chronicles my time in Palestine and also provides news and analysis about Palestine and the situation on the ground in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Dear friends, please find below the media release issued at the conclusion of the successful BDS conference in Melbourne, Australia.
In solidarity, Kim
***
MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release –
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign in Support of Palestinian Human Rights Moves Forward in Australia After Landmark Conference
4 November, 2010
From October 29-31 more than 150 Palestine solidarity activists and supporters of human rights gathered in Melbourne for Australia's first national Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) conference. The conference represents a watershed moment in the Palestinian solidarity movement in Australia with activists across various campaigns coming together and addressing the way forward in the global campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions.
The conference was launched with a public meeting on October 29 at the Victorian State Library, chaired by the ABC's Bryan Dawe and addressed by Palestinian artist and activist Rafeef Ziadah speaking on behalf of the Palestinian Boycott National Committee (BNC). Also speaking was Palestinian academic and radio presenter, Yousef Alreemawi, Jerusalem based Israeli activist Ofer Neiman from "BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS call from within" and Kim Sattler, the Secretary of Unions ACT in Canberra.
Keynote speaker Rafeef Ziadah, a member of the steering committee of the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, explained "this conference is an important step in coordinating a national BDS campaign across Australia to put pressure on Israel to simply abide by international law".
Other guest speakers included prominent American Jewish activist Anna Baltzer and Australian-Palestinian author and activist Samah Sabawi.
One of the conference highlights was a concert on the Saturday that formally launched Australian Artists Against Apartheid (AAAA).
On the labour movement front, the conference helped to bring together unionists who are members of twenty different unions across Australia, with five Australian unions sending official delegations to the conference to discuss practical implementation of BDS resolutions.
The conference unanimously adopted a calendar of BDS actions to be carried out over the next 12 months. Conference organizers urged all attendees ''to build on the momentum of the conference and work together to build the strongest possible grassroots campaign to hold Israel accountable for its actions."
The conference was organized in response to the call by 171 Palestinian civil-society organizations in July 2005 for the international community to implement a comprehensive boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) strategy against apartheid Israel as the focal point of solidarity efforts with the Palestinian people.
Inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid, the Palestinian-initiated BDS campaign is conducted in the framework of international solidarity and resistance to injustice and oppression and calls for non-violent punitive measures to be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognise the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with international law.
Media Contact: ausbds@gmail.com
For more information on the Australian BDS Conference: Visit: http://australianbdscampaign.wordpress.com/
Dear friends, I have just realised that it has been a month since I last published a post here. Although things have been quite on the blogging front, things have been very busy in the "real" world :)
For the last four or five months, myself and several other Australian Palestine solidarity activists have been working hard on pulling together Australia's first national Boycott Divestment and Sanctions conference in support of Palestine. Unfortunately, this meant that in the last four weeks in the lead up to the conference, I have had little time for blogging.
However, the wonderful news is that the conference was a great success! The conference resulted in bringing together in Melbourne more than 150 activists and supporters of human rights from around the countryto discuss kick starting a national BDS campaign in Australia in support of the Palestinian people.
Over the next few days, I will be posting up a range reports, media releases and video clip shot at the conference.
Dear friends, the International Women's Peace Service in Palestine is currently inviting applications for women to join them as long term volunteers working on the ground in Palestine.
Please find below the details of how to apply or visit the IWPS website at www.iwps.info
in solidarity, Kim ***
The International Women’s Peace Service in Palestine (IWPS-Palestine) is a team of women human rights workers, who provide international accompaniment to Palestinian civilians, document and non-violently intervene in human rights abuses and support acts of non-violent resistance to end the illegal Israeli occupation and building of the apartheid wall.
IWPS-Palestine is currently inviting applicants from women who would like to join our team of longer term volunteers. Successful applicants will serve a minimum of one three month term in Palestine and support our on-going work outside. Preference will be given to women able to commit to further terms in Palestine (1-3 months). Deadline for application 30.09.09. Please contact: iwpstraining@yahoo.com for more info and application form. More information about IWPS see: www.iwps-pal.org
Today, once again, the Israeli military lied to its citizens and the rest of the world.
In an article published today (June 6) on Ynet, the online version of the Israeli mass daily Yedioth Ahronoth, the Israeli military claimed that it was justified in attacking an anti-wall and anti-occupation demonstration, in which an Irish Nobel Peace Laureate and the Vice President of the European Union participated, because demonstration participants were "rioting" and "throwing stones" at the Israeli military [1].
In the YNet article about the weekly non-violent demonstration against the apartheid wall and the illegal Israeli occupation in Bil'in village located near Ramallah in the Occupied West Bank, the Israeli military claimed that "about 70 Palestinians and left-wing activists took part in the protest and hurled stones at security forces, who used crowd dispersal means in response". They went onto state that the IDF "regretted the fact that 'week after week large numbers of security forces need to deal with Israeli rioters, who turned public disturbances into a regular occurrence'.
As a non-violent and peaceful participant in this demonstration, I completely dispute these claims made by the Israeli military. For the past three years Bil'in village has become a model for non-violent demonstrations against the wall and Israeli occupation. This week's demonstration took place at the end of the 3rd annual international non-violent and grass roots resistance conference held by the village. The conference which went for three days attracted well over 150 participants, the great majority from around the world. It also had the support from across the Palestinian political spectrum, including the Palestinian Authority.
Bil'in 3rd International Conference for Grassroots and non-violent resistance
Entrance to Bil'in conference
Exhibition and art installations made from teargas canisters, sound grenades, rubber bullets fired by the Israeli military at non-violent demonstrators in Bil'in
At the conclusion of the conference and prior to the weekly demonstration, a friendly football (soccer) game was held about half a kilometre from the wall. The match was between teams made up of Bil'in residents, Israeli anti-occupation activists and international solidarity supporters. While the match was taking place, a few Palestinian teenagers from the village approached the wall but they did not throw stones. From the other side of the illegal apartheid fence, Israeli soldiers were stationed on a hill and they immediately began firing tear gas at the children. The football match came to a quick end as the wind carried the teargas across the field, causing some players and spectators, including an elderly Palestinian man, to collapse.
The conference participants who were at the football match regrouped under a tree. Shortly, we were joined by many of the residents of the village who at the end of Friday prayers, marched to the football field. The villagers were joined by around 30Israeli anti-occupation activists.
Young Palestinian boy from Bil'in with Palestinian, Fatah and Hamas flags (signalling a call for national unity)
Football match begins
Football players overcome by teargas fired by Israeli military
More than 200 people, not 70 as the Israeli occupation forces claim, took part in the peaceful, non-violent demonstration. We marched from the football field, down the wadi (valley) to the illegal barrier. The Israeli Occupation Forces were stationed approximately 50 metres away, behind concrete barriers on the opposite side of the road, behind the illegal apartheid fence. We stood standing and clapping peacefully. As we stood there, the conference declaration, which highlighted the necessity for non-violent struggle against the illegal Israeli occupation was read out.
Participating in the non-violent, peaceful demonstration were the Vice President of the European Parliament, Luisa Morgantini and Irish Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, as well as a delegation of Italian law makers, along with delegations from France and other European countries. While there were a considerable number of young people in attendance, in reality the great majority, who were from the various international delegations, were aged between 45 and 60 years.
Bil'in residents march to illegal Aparthied wall
French Delegation
Non-violent demonstrators march to illegal apartheid wall on Bil'in land
Throughout the demonstration, we - the demonstrators - repeatedly held our hands up in the air - palms open - towards the soldiers, who could clearly see us, to show we were unarmed and peaceful. No-one from the crowd threw stones at the soldiers, no-one was armed and there was absolutely no threat to the Israeli military by our presence. However, despite this, the Israeli military opened fire, directly into the non-violent abd peaceful crowd, with no warning.
Under Israeli law and under Israeli military regulations, Israeli soldiers are not allowed to fire directly at or into crowds who pose no threat to their safety. According to Israeli military regulations, a solider must only use a weapon in the event of immediate "danger to life," and when it is impossible to effectively defend one's self from the assailant other than by the use of the weapon.
Section of the demonstration gathered peacefully at the aparthied wall. Israeli soliders can be seen near concrete barriers
Demonstrators with hands raised to show they are unarmed and peaceful
In 2000, a report issued by the Israeli based Physician for Human Rights (PHR) revealed, however, that the Israeli military consistently violate Israeli law and their own regulations on a regular basis. According to PHR, the Israeli military use "live ammunition and rubber bullets excessively and inappropriately to control demonstrators, and that based on the high number of documented injuries to the head and thighs, the soldiers appear to be shooting to inflict harm, rather then solely in defense". The PHR's analysis of fatal gunshot wounds also revealed that approximately 50% of them were to the head, revealing that the Israeli military were specifically aiming at people's heads. In addition, they also noted that there were numerous head and eye injuries as a result of "rubber and rubber coated steel projectiles" [ie. rubber coated steel bullets] which revealed the "frequent misuse of these weapons, such as firing at a range of less then 40 metres at the upper part of the body". As a result, PHR noted that the events on the ground showed that the Israeli military not only violated their own regulations but it was "allowing soldiers to fire when they were not acting solely in self defense" [2]
Over the past four years, during my various stays in the Occupied West Bank, I have regularly witnessed the Israeli military open fire on and into crowds of unarmed, peaceful demonstrators. At the last Bil'in demonstration that I attended approximately four weeks ago in May, the Israeli military also opened fire directly into the peaceful, non-violent demonstration. At this demonstration, however, they were also using rubber coated steel bullets and live ammunition. Although I have been in demonstrations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories where rubber bullets and live ammunition has been fired at the crowd before, this was the first time I had ammunition fired directly towards me.
In 2004, at a peaceful, non-violent demonstration in the village of Budrus, against the apartheid wall, I was hit with a teargas canister fired by the Israeli military from a distance of around 150 metres. At the time, myself and others, were attempting to lift a young Israeli woman, who was an amputee with a prosthetic leg, into an ambulance. She was injured when she attempted to protect a group of young Palestinian girls, who the Israeli military opened fire on. The young Palestinian girls had simply been clapping and chanting slogans against the wall.
As we lifted the Israeli activist into the ambulance, I was hit in the upper thigh by a super-heated teargas canister traveling at high velocity. Despite wearing jeans, I suffered burn scars and intensive and deep bruising, which was around 30 centimetres in diameter. For more than a week after being hit by the canister my entire body was in acute pain, as it went into shock from being hit with such intensity. At the time, I was extremely grateful that I was not hit in the head by the canister.
Today, however, myself and my IWPS team mate, just avoided being hit by super-heated, high velocity teargas canisters being fired directly into the crowd at chest and head level by the Israeli military. One canister went whizzing by me like a missile and hit in the head an older European man who was about 4 metres in front of me. I saw the teargas canister hit him in the head and his hands fly to his head in order to protect himself. I later found out that the man was the Italian judge, Julio Toscano, mentioned in the Ynet article. Other non-violent demonstrators were also hit.
As people started to regroup and move back to try and aid those who were injured by the Israeli military's barrage, soldiers once again began firing into the unarmed and peaceful crowd. Again teargas canisters went whizzing by me at chest and head level. My team mate was hit in the back. Luckily she was wearing her back pack which took the intensity of the hit. The bag, made of nylon, however, was visibly damaged and melted due to the impact of the canister.
Today in Bil'in village there was no riot. Today, there was once again a peaceful non-violent demonstration. Today in Bil'in, once again, the Israeli military opened fire on unarmed, non-violent demonstrators, violating not only Israeli law but also the Israeli military's own operational regulations. And today, once again, in order to justify their brutality and illegal behaviour, the Israeli military lied to its own citizens and the rest of the world.
Video of forward section of the non-violent peaceful demonstration against the apartheid wall in Bil'in at the end of conference on June 6. Includes footage of new Israeli weaponary which shoots mass teargas at non-violent demonstrators.
[1]Waked, A., (6 June, 2008) Top EU official hurt in Bil'in protest YNet http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3552745,00.html
[2] Physicians for Human Rights (2000) Evaluation of the use of force in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/library/documents/reports/report-useofforce-israel.pdf
