Taking back the land: joint, non-violent resistance against Israeli occupation and apartheid

24 April, 2008

Today, for a few hours, Palestinians took control over an illegal Israeli settler outpost on the outskirts of Ramallah. Replacing Israeli flags with Palestinian ones, Mohammed Al-Khattib and other members of the Bil'in Popular Committee Against the Wall, accompanied by Israeli anti-occupation activists from Anarchists Against the Wall and international activists from the International Solidarity Movement and the International Women's Peace Service, non-violently took over the site for more than 3 hours.

The illegal settler outpost, which is made up of a number of cargo containers, was set up two months ago on privately owned Palestinian land which straddles Area A and Area C of the Occupied West Bank, when Israel occupation forces withdraw from a checkpoint on the land to a nearby military based. Area A is supposedly territory fully controlled by the Palestinian Authority (including full security control), while Area C, except for its Palestinian civilians, falls under the control of the Israeli military.

The military checkpoint had been set up at the beginning of the Al Aqsa intifada in 2000. In place of the military checkpoint, the Israeli occupation forces installed permanent road blocks which prevented Palestinians from using the road which connects the Palestinian village of Ein-Qinyah and Ramallah. Prior to taking control of the illegal outpost, the Palestinians, Israeli and international activists were able to use a bulldozer to successful remove the illegal road block which prevent Palestinians from using the road.

Once on the site, Palestinian activists were able to erect at least a dozen Palestinian flags signaling that Palestinians had reclaimed a section of Palestinian land occupied by the illegal settlers. It was a full hour before the Israeli military in the nearby military outpost realised that Palestinians had successfully taken back their land. Once they realised what had occurred, Israeli occupation soldiers advanced on the unarmed demonstrators and began firing live rounds from the road between the military base and the illegal outpost.

When the occupation soldiers arrived at the illegal outpost, once again firing indiscriminately on the unarmed demonstration, the Israeli anti-occupation activists and internationals moved to the front calling in Hebrew and English for the military to remain calm and non-violent. The Israeli occupation forces, however, continued to fire on the unarmed demonstrators hitting a journalist's car when protestors attempted to find cover from the military aggression.

The occupation soldiers quickly moved to remove the Palestinian flag from the main cargo container, however, in an act of defiance it was quickly replaced once again with a Palestinian flag by the Palestinian non-violent activists.



For the next hour, the non-violent demonstrators continue to remain in control of the land, despite the presence of the Israeli military. When armed illegal Israeli settlers from the nearby illegal settlement began to arrive and attempted to intimidate the non-violent demonstrators, Israeli ISM activist, Neta Golan and Mohammed Al- Khattib stepped in front of them, non-violently preventing them from continuing to harass the other non-violent demonstrators.

In an attempt to remove the non-violent, peaceful protestors from the reclaimed land, the Israeli occupation forces declared the area a Closed Military Zone (CMZ). Declaring an area a CMZ is a regular tactic used by the Israeli occupation forces in order to increase their attempts of martial control over an area. Anyone in such an area is deemed illegal and can be arrested. However, as was the case today, the Israeli military apply this martial control selectively, applying it only to Palestinians, Israeli and international anti-occupation activists, not to illegal Israeli settlers. As one international activist wryly noted today, while the Israeli occupation forces frequently use rubber bullets, live ammunition and tear gas to try and intimidate Palestinian, Israeli and international anti-occupation activists and enforce a CMZ, their preferred tactic in relation to illegal settlers seems to be to try and "scare" them with handshakes.

Despite the area being declared a CMZ, the non-violent anti-occupation activists remained in the area, moving to the section of the illegal outpost which was located in Palestinian Authority controlled Area A, where supposedly the Israeli military has no security jurisdiction. Illegal Israeli settlers, who were armed, continued to physically intimidate the non-violent, unarmed demonstrators. When Israeli ISM activist, Neta Golan attempted to prevent the continued harassment, she was violently arrested by the Israeli occupation forces who attacks the non-violent demonstrators with rifle butts and batons*

In the third hour of the protest, the Israeli military called in an armoured bulldozer to re-install the road block which had been successfully removed earlier in the day by the demonstrators. The Palestinians, Israeli anti-occupation activists and internationals attempted to block the movement of the armed bulldozer by standing and later sitting in front of the bulldozer as it attempted to make its way up the road located in Palestinian Authority controlled Area A. The non-violent demonstrators were able to block the bulldozer for approximately 45 minutes before being violently dispersed by the Israeli occupation forces. One Palestinian activist, Adeeb Abu Rahme from the Bil'in Popular Committee Against the Wall was arrested*



Protestors remained on the scene for another hour in an attempt to gain the release of the two detained activists. During this time, more armed illegal settlers began to illegally amass in the CMZ but were not arrested or violently harassed by the Israeli military, as the unarmed Palestinian, Israeli and international anti-occupation activists had been. The Israeli occupation forces then escorted the large group of illegal settlers up the hill to where the non-violent demonstrators had been sitting peacefully, allowing the illegal settlers to abuse and physically intimidate the anti-occupation activists. The armed illegal settlers, including settler children between the ages of 12 and 16 years of age, attempted to intimidate the Israeli anti-occupation and international activists by verbally threatening them, while also attempting to physically attack the Palestinian non-violent activists. The unarmed demonstrators, however, refused to be intimidated and stood their ground demanding that the Israeli military remove the illegal settlers. After 30 minutes realising that the Palestinian, Israeli and international anti-occupation activists would not be intimidated and would not leave, the Israeli military finally began to try and politely convince the armed, aggressive settlers to leave. When the illegal settlers finally began to disperse, the unarmed demonstrators voluntarily decided to end the demonstration.

Mohammad Al – Khattib said the demonstration symbolised the refusal of Palestinians to accept the illegal Israeli policy of road closures and separating Palestinians from their lands. During the action, speaking to both local and international media, Khattib called on all Palestinians to begin to mobilise to open the illegal closed road, calling for "resistance to barriers, settlements and the apartheid wall". Similarly Abdullah Abu Rahman from the Bil'in Popular Committee Against the Wall said that the idea of the action was "to send a message to the Israeli army and settlers, this land is our and [we] will never leave".

* Neta and Adeeb were released by the Israeli military later in the day, after being taken to an illegal Israeli settlement police station.

No Child's Play in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Today I witnessed, for the first time, a Palestinian child being abducted by the Israeli Occupation Forces. This, of course, is not the first time that a Palestinian child has been abducted in such a manner. It happens every single day in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Since the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada in September 2000, more than 2500 Palestinian children have been arrested by the Israeli forces [1]. Thousands more have been abducted and detained for several hours, often beaten and then released. In May 2007, there were 416 Palestinian child political prisoners in Israeli jails, while today of the 11,000 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons, more than 380 of them are children [2]

Despite being aware of these facts, having seen photos of young men and boys arrested by the Israeli military and having made several trips to Palestine and lived in the Occupied West Bank for more than 12 months, it still came as a shock to see the young boy, aged 14, sitting hunched over and blind folded on a rock with his hands tied behind his back. It seemed a surreal and sickening image to me.

For several months now the village of Marda, which is located directly below the illegal Israeli colony of Ariel and two kilometres from where the International Women's Peace Service is based in the village of Haris, has been subject to a systematic campaign of harassment by the Israeli occupation forces. This campaign of harassment has included almost daily and nightly incursions, searching and occupation of family houses, throwing sound bombs and teargas, imposing curfews and blocking off the only entrance left to the village that is not permanently closed by barbed wire and iron gates. The campaign has sought to target the village youth under the pretext of preventing stones being thrown at the settler road. Teenagers and young men from Marda are frequently detained, threatened and abused to try to pressure them to inform on other youth of the village.

The young 14 year old boy had been snatched from his grandfather’s house, detained and abducted under this usual pretext. Two hours earlier, Israeli occupation forces had invaded two homes in the village in search of a “stone thrower” in an orange t-shirt. At the first home, they detained a mother and her six children, aged between 6 and 16 years and interogatted the oldest son, aged 11 years, demanding he tell them who had been allegedly throwing stones. The child, however, was unable and unwilling to give them any information. When the father of the family, who had been at work in another village arrived home, the soldiers tried to prevent him from approaching the house, aiming a gun at him and threatening to shoot him. When the father insisted on joining his family, the occupation soldier opened fire with live ammunition, the bullet only missing the father’s head by centimetres.

At the same time the first house was being invaded, in another part of the village, another group of Israeli occupation soldiers randomly entered a second house looking for the same alleged stone thrower. The soldiers ransacked the house, again detaining the family and terrifying the children inside the house. At this house, however, they detained and abducted the 14 year old grandson of the house owner, despite the fact the child had been wearing a different colour shirt to the alleged suspect the soldiers were looking for.

By the time my IWPS team mate and I had arrived at the village, after being called by the father of the first family whose house had been invaded, the terrified young boy from the second house had already been snatched by the occupation soldiers. As we arrived in the taxi/car from our village, we saw the young boy bound and blindfolded next to an Israeli military jeep on the side of the illegal settler highway which runs past our village and Marda. After making sure the family of the first invaded home was alright (we were unaware at this time that a second home had been invaded) we began to walk to where the boy was being held. However, before we could get close enough the military jeep suddenly speed off with the boy inside. Two soliders remained on the side of the road. It was clear when we spoke to them, that they had absolutely no proof of the boy having thrown any stones, instead the boy's detention and abduction was purely random. He had simply been at the wrong place at the wrong time.

The child, they said, was being held by other soldiers from their unit who would determine whether or not he had indeed thrown stones and whether or not they would formally arrest him. Our request for a phone number to speak to the other soldiers was denied, as was our request for name of the soldier's unit. The child will not be hurt they assured us. “We don’t do things like ‘that’ ”, they said. Refusing to give us any more information on the boy's whereabouts, the soldiers began to pack up and leave as we took down the unit identification numbers stenciled on their jeep.

We spent the next four hours in Marda village, determining the identity of the child, visiting his family, getting the relevant information – his name, age and identification number – and making phone calls to Israeli anti-occupation activists and the Israeli military trying find out the whereabouts of the child. When we arrived at the child’s home, we found his mother - a woman in her mid 30s - laying distraught on a mattress in the family’s living room, being conforted by her 16 year old son and her daughter. She had been crying for several hours and was suffering shortness of breath and arm pains having gone into shock after hearing about her son’s abduction.

Her other son, aged16 years, was solemn and quietly angry, while sadness and concern for her mother flowed from the woman's daughter's face. Her son who had been snatched, she told us, had been in the house all day studying and only left the house just before he was abducted, to visit his uncle who was at his grandfather’s house. A week or two earlier, she informed us, his 16 year old brother had also been abducted for more than 12 hours by the soldiers, interorogated at the illegal settlement of Qedumim. He had been badly beaten and required medical attention for a facial injury he had recieved during the beating.

We collected the relevant information and drank tea with the family. Even in times of great stress and sorrow, Palestinian hospitality is never far away. We then went to visit the grandfather's house. As we left the village at 10.30pm, we saw an Israeli military jeep drive up to the entrance. We soon discovered, after making several phone calls to contacts in the village and ringing the boy’s mother, that the soldiers had released the boy. The boy had been detained and interogotted from more than 6 hours. He had been beaten, but luckily did not require medical attention.

According to the Convention of the Rights of the Child, to which Israel is a signatory, a child is every human being under the age of 18 years. However, Palestinian children from the age of 16 years are considered adults under Israeli military regulations governing the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Inviolation of both the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child and the Israeli military's own operating orders, Israeli occupation forces regularly detain, abduct and arrest Palestinian children as young as 11 or 12 years old from checkpoints, their homes, schools and from the street.

The Freedom Now campaign run by the Palestinian section of Defence for Children International (DCI-P), which campaigns for the release of Palestinian child political prisoners has noted that Palestinian children are detained, abducted and arrested by the Israeli occupation forces for four main reasons [3]. The first reason being to intimidate and threaten those who are active against the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine by conducting widespread arrests of both children and adults. By imposing harsh treatment and maltreating prisoners, the occupation forces are attempting to discourage Palestinians from engaging in struggle against the occupation. The second reason cited by DCI-P is in order for the Israeli occuapation forces to obtain confessions to incriminate others. According to DCI-P large numbers of confessions are extracted from Palestinian children under duress and torture conditions, with the children being forced to sign confessions that they cannot read, as they are often written in Hebrew. A third reason for the abduction, detention and arrest of Palestinian children is so the Israeli occupation forces can hold them as "bargaining chips" with the aim of pressuring not only their family, but their village and the Palestinian population as a whole. Such collective punishment is illegal under international law. The fourth and final reason, notes DCI-P, is in order to recruit future "collaborators" who can used by the occupation forces as informers. DCI-P documentation of abduction and arrest cases has found that Israeli occupation forces use threats of force against the children, telling them they will be transfer ornot be released or they will be killed if they did not agree to work as collaborators for the Israeli military.

Similary, Addmmeer, the Palestinian Prisoner's support and human rights association notes that “Palestinian child detainees are subject to physical and psychological torture during their interrogation in order to force them to confess to activities they may or may not have done. The majority of confessions and sentences are related to throwing stones. Under extreme physical and psychological pressure, children often confess to such activities to end the circumstances they find themselves, often confessing to things they didn't do” [4]. During interrogation, notes Addameer, the "children are isolated from their families and lawyers are often not informed of the place of their detention. The child is usually not allowed to meet with a lawyer during the first period of interrogation, confining the child's world to the interrogation room and the interrogator, adding to the psychological stress the child already finds himself/herself in".

The 14 year old boy from Marda was "lucky". He was released after 6 hours of abduction and detention, with only a beating. Many other Palestinian male children who have been detained but have never been charged or sent to trail are held under "administrative detention" in adult prisons for extended periods of time, ranging from months to years. Currently there are around 30 Palestinian children being held in such a manner [5]. Other male Palestinian children who are abducted, arrested and found guilty of some crime, usually stone throwing, are tranfered to adult military prisons such as Meggido military prison. Currently more than more than 80 male child prisoners are being held behind these prison walls, often forced to live in tents. Female Palestinian child political prisoners are often held in the Neve Tertza prison near Ramleh. In 2005, there were 11 Palestinian girl political prisoners being held in Israeli prisons [6].
While held in prison, Palestinian child prisoners are often subject to deliberate sleep deprivation, lack of adequate food, forced to remain in dirty clothing, live in unsanitary conditions and are refused toilet breaks. In addition, they are subject to medical neglect and educational neglect with no provisions made for their schooling while they remain prisoners [7].
This Thursday, April 17, will marks the International Day in Solidarity with Palestinian Political Prisoners. Through out the Occupied Palestinian Territories demonstrations will be held, with families demanding the release of their loved ones. This year, Palestinian political prisoner support groups and their families are calling on all Palestine solidarity groups and prisoner solidarity groups to hold vigils, actions and demonstrations in support of both adult and child political prisoners being held in Israeli jails.

Palestinian children, like all children around the world deserve to live in freedom and in dignity and wtihout fear. However, as long as the Israeli occupation continues, this will be an impossibility. This Thursday, we will stand in solidarity with Palestinian pollitical prisoners – children and adults – and call for their freedom. We will also call for and continue the campaign to end Israel’s illegal occupation. Only then will the children of Palestine have a chance to live in freedom, in dignity and without fear.

[1] The politics of prisoners by Bex Tyrer and Tone Anderson, Alternative Information Centre
http://www.alternativenews.org/aic-publications/other-publications/the-politics-of-prisoners-20050922.html

[2] Palestinian Child Political Prisoners: Semi Annual Report 2007, Defence for Children-Palestine
http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?DocId=605&CategoryId=2

[3] Defence for Children-Palestine, Freedom Now campaign
http://www.dci-pal.org/english/camp/freedom/display.cfm?docid=244&categoryid=14

[4] and [6]ADDAMEER, Prisoner's support and human rights association
http://www.addameer.org/index_eng.html

[5] Palestinian Children's Day 2008, Press Release, Defence for Children International – Palestine http://www.dci-pal.org/english/home.cfm

[7] and [8] Palestinian Political Child Prisoners in Israeli Prisons,
Child &Youth Department, Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, UNDP http://www.amin.org/look/amin/en.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=7&NrArticle=14514&NrIssue=1&NrSection=3

A Return to Palestine

Dear friends and supporters,

Just a quick update to let you know that I am back in Palestine and hope to keep you updated on what is happening on the ground here over the next few months.

It is wonderful to be back and I am looking forward to seeing all my Palestinian, Israeli and international friends.

Over the past few days, however, Israel has once begun carrying out military attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip. Four days ago at least 7 people were killed, including three children in Khan Younis when Israeli warplanes and tanks launched attacks along the northern and eastern border of the Gaza Strip. On the same day, two Israelis were killed when Palestinian resistance members entered the Gaza Strip's Nahal Oz crossing point. The Popular Resistance Committee's An Nasser Salah Addin Brigades said the raid had been aimed at abducting Israeli soldiers. Two resistance fighters were also killed in the fire fight.

On the same day, Shimon Peres, Israel's President and former Prime Minister, called for a full Israeli invasion of the Gaza and for Israel to reoccupy the region. Israel also moved on Wednesday to deny entry to the incoming UN Human Rights investigator for the OPT, Richard Falk. Falk, a Jewish –American professor of international law at the prestigious Princeton University in June 2007 compared Israel's ongoing siege and occupation of Palestine as similar to what happened to Jews under Nazi Germany. Israel says it will attempt to prevent him from taking up his position because of his prejudice against Israel.

Despite the ongoing siege of Gaza and the everyday sorrows and hardship that the illegal and brutal Israeli occupation continues to bring both there and in the West Bank, the Palestinian people remain sumoud (steadfast) in their refusal to give up their land, their culture and their heritage. And like the Palestinian people, we too must remain sumoud in to opposition to oppression, human rights violations and the dehumanization of more than 4 million people living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

This year, as no doubt many of you will be aware, marks the 60th anniversary of Al Nakba (the catastrophe) which saw more than 700,000 Palestinian people were ethnically cleansed from their homeland. In the lead up to the 60th anniversary of Al Nakba in May, the Palestinian people and Palestine solidarity activists around the world will once again organising actions and activities which will be calling for an end to Israeli brutal and illegal occupation. While our governments stand by and do little, it is up to us to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, so please consider how you can be part of this.

It can be a simple as writing a letter to the newspaper and/or to your local politician. It could be joining in with or organising a stall near a busy shopping mall or on your uni campus to inform people about what is happening in Palestine or it could be holding a film showing or a forum on Palestine. Or starting a Palestine solidarity group on your campus, in your town or city, at your church, if there is not already one there. It could be joining or organising a speakout or a rally or a vigil to mark Al Nakba.

Whatever it is, no matter how big or small, it makes a difference. As Australian Aboriginal songwriter and singer, Kev Carmody and Paul Kelly, once penned about the struggle of our people in Australia, "From little things big things grow" **

For an end to the Israeli occupation and for a Free Palestine NOW!

In solidarity, Kim
www.livefromoccupiedpalestine.blogspot.com


** From Little Things Big Things Grow is a song about Aboriginal leader Vincent Lingiari and the Gurindji people who carried out a 8 year strike at Wave Hill Station in Australia's Northern Territory from 1966. In 1975, the then Prime Minister of Australia, Gough Whitlam, handed back some of the land to the Gurindi people. Whitlam famously poured sand from the land into Vincent Lingiari's hands, signalling the recognition of the Gurindji's ownership of the land. It was the first time any Australian government recognized the rights the Aboriginal people and the claim to land and the right to practice cultural and law on those lands.

Song Lyrics can be found at: http://unionsong.com/u036.html

Free Speech is not Free! Support Palestine Chronicle

Urgent Appeal: Palestine Chronicle Needs Your Help

Dear friends and supporters,
As you will be well aware, free speech is not free.

The alternative and independent media plays a huge role in getting out information that the corporate media consistently fails to provide.

Palestine Chronicle is one of the many independent media sources which has sought to provide consistent, up-to-date and much needed information, news and analysis of what is happening in Palestine and the Middle East. Palestine Chronicle needs your help to be able to keep doing this.

Please find below a fundraising appeal from Palestine Chronicle. Please consider subscribing to Palestine Chronicle and/or making a donation towards helping with its very important work.

in solidarity, Kim
www.livefromoccupiedpalestine.blogspot.com

**********************
Urgent Appeal: Palestine Chronicle Needs Your Help

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Kindly read our urgent message below and/or visit the PalestineChronicle.com homepage to help. We urge you to take action: your support is the secret behind our survival all of these years. Please stand by us now. Read some of the testimonials below and take immediate action. Also please make this message available to your friends, fellow activists and various lists within the pro justice and peace, antiwar and progressive communities everywhere.

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The PalestineChronicle.com

“The Palestine Chronicle is proof positive that there is hope. Hope that alternative media can one day overpower the corporate mainstream. Hope that justice can prevail for all the exploited peoples of the Middle East; that we can overcome our inhumane tendencies.” – Joshua Frank, co-editor of DissidentVoice.org and author of Left Out! How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush, and co-editor (with Jeffrey St Clair) of the forthcoming Red State Rebels (AK Press, March 2008).

“The Palestine Chronicle is an essential publication for keeping up with the big picture in the Middle East. Acute analysis and a principled defense of the democratic rights of the Palestinian people inform each and every issue.” – James Petras, Professor Emeritus, Binghamton University; author of many books; his latest: Rulers and Ruled: Bankers, Zionists and Militants (Clarity Press, Atlanta: 2007).

Dear readers, friends and supporters,

The Palestine Chronicle is once again calling for your urgent support to help us continue bringing free commentary on Palestine and Palestine-related issues to readers all over the world. It is only the voluntary subscriptions of readers that that have enabled us sustain this unique online newspaper since its inception in 1999. As events related to Palestine don’t cease to bring up urgent issues and debates rarely covered with any real credibility or impartiality by mainstream media sources, it is imperative that independent, intelligent viewpoints remain freely and widely available.

One of the most special features of the chronicle lies in the way it incorporates Palestine with wider issues and events, with the aim of making our struggle firmly ingrained and incorporated into other contemporary activist movements and dialogues, such as anti-globalization, anti-war and so on. Bringing together a specialist focus on Palestine and Middle East issues by leading international political intellectuals and journalists, the Palestine Chronicle remains the only such resource in existence at the moment.

Our writers and contributors are very well regarded and come from diverse backgrounds. These are but a few of the writers – academicians, journalists, human rights activists, artists, etc – that contributed articles to PalestineChronicle.com in recent months:

James Petras, Kevin Zeese, Stephen Lendman, Emily Spence, Nicola Nasser, Hasan Afif El-Hasan, Sam Hamod, Uri Avnery, Kathleen and Bill Christison, Jim Miles, Ahmed Yousef, Ron Forthofer, Kathy Kelly, Hussein Al-Alak, Aijaz Syed, William A. Cook, Sherri Muzher, Roger H. Lieberman, Joshua Frank, Sonja Karkar, Neve Gordon, John Whitbeck, Omar Barghouti, Franklin Lamb, Jamil Toubbeh, Agustin Velloso, Dan Lieberman, Randa Abu Naeem, Silvia Cattori, Mazin Qumsiyeh, Gilad Atzmon, Ben White, M. Shahid Alam, Elias Akleh, Vijay Rajiva, Kim Bullimore, J. A. Miller, Susan Abualhawa, Iqbal Jassat, Suzanne Baroud, Robert Jensen, Ramzy Baroud, Sam Bahour and many more.

To be able to provide independent commentary free from alliances to any particular ideology, individual or political party, the chronicle has never received grants or state funding. It is reliant entirely on the freely given time of volunteers and on voluntary financial subscriptions from our readers around the world. Our last fundraiser in the summer of 2007 showed us the extent to which people around the world wish to have access to – and indeed contribute to - such independent media ventures. It enabled us to continue our services to the present day, and to launch our new and much improved website with introduces many new features including exclusive photos, art, videos and audio, among others.

We need to make these appeals periodically to continue to survive and grow stronger, and we hope to do this until the issue of Palestine can no longer be ignored by any informed global citizen.

To offset the unavoidable expenses necessary to sustain this venture for the next six months, we need to raise 20,000 by the March 31, 2008. Any contribution, large or small, will help to keep us alive and growing.

Contributions --- will also receive a special gift in thanks for the solidarity.

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Live from Occupied Palestine Exhibition

@Centre for Latin American Solidarity and Studies,
North Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

The exhibition includes anti-occupation and political posters from Occupied Palestine, drawings by the children of Jenin refugee camp in the aftermath of Israel's 2002 "Defensive Shield" operation (Israel's biggest military assault on the OPT since 1967) and photographs by Kim Bullimore, who worked in Occupied Palestinian Territories in 2004 and 2007 as part of the International Women's Peace Service.

"Having been to Palestine twice in three years and spending almost a year there on my second visit, I was struck not only by the beauty of the region but also the determination of the Palestinian people. Despite overwhelming odds, the Palestinian people have remained 'sumoud' (steadfast) in the face of a brutal occupation and overwhelming odds, refusing to give up their struggle for freedom and justice. I hope with these photographs, drawings and posters that I have brought back from the Occupied Palestinian Territories, I can convey to other Australians what life is really like for the Palestinian people living under the illegal Israeli occupation".

POWER TO THE (PALESTINIAN) PEOPLE!

Dear friends,
one day after I wrote my last blog, the Palestinian resistance detonated the wall that separated Palestinian Rafah from Egypt. Within hours, tens of thousands of Palestinians were flooding into the Sinai to buy much needed food, clothing, heating oil, fuel and other supplies. By afternoon, the Egyptian authorities put the figure at 60,000 while the UN put the figure as high as 350,000.

According to Israeli journalists, such as Amira Hass, the detonation of the wall had been planned for months by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza. They had covertly weakened the foundations of the wall over a period of time and then on the morning of January 23, they detonated up to 20 explosions bringing down two section of the wall.

Please find below an excellent piece by Israeli activist, Jeff Halper from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. The title of his piece says it all!

POWER TO THE (PALESTINIAN)PEOPLE!

in solidarity, Kim
*************************************

POWER TO THE (PALESTINIAN)PEOPLE!
by Jeff Halper
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
January 23, 2008


The people of Palestine have done it again, taking their own fate in their hands after being let down by their own "moderate" political leadership and, indeed, the entire international community in their struggle for freedom. Early this morning they simply blew up the wall separating Gaza from Egypt, breaking a siege imposed on them by an Arab government in collaboration with Israel.

We, the peoples of the world, should take great pride and encouragement in this quintessentially civil society refusal to accept subjugation, to abandon their fate to governments, including their own, for whom the lives of ordinary people are simply grist for their political charades – Annapolis and its subsequent "peace process" being but the last cynical expression. For the Palestinians represent far more than just themselves. Their refusal to submit to the dictates of governments, or to governments' lack of interest in the well-being of people in general, reflects the desire of billions of oppressed people for identity, freedom, a decent life and actualization of their collective and individual rights and potentials. Most of the oppressed, the "wretched of the earth" as Franz Fanon called them a half-century ago, are too preoccupied with the daunting daily struggle for survival to organize and resist. Others do resist in a myriad of ways, but are most often repressed by their own political and economic "leaders," disappearing anonymously from view. In a few cases they have managed to mount effective resistance to oppression, even to prevail – though the billions spent on "counterinsurgency" warfare by the US, Europe, Russia, Israel and many "developing" nations augur ill for peoples attempting to
overthrow oppressive regimes.

In this the Palestinians stand at the forefront, in the front lines of peoples' insistence everywhere that their rights, well-being and fundamental values as human beings be respected by governments. And they do so (and I write this as an Israeli with great sorrow and shame) against one of the world's strongest and most ruthless military powers – a power that has dispossessed them from 85% of their land, which is trying to transform its occupation into a permanent regime of apartheid, which has spent decades impoverishing and disenfranchising them; the fourth largest nuclear power
which nevertheless casts itself as the victim. Not only have the Palestinians experienced the dehumanization all oppressed and colonized peoples experience, not only have they been made into the embodiment of the rich and powerful's greatest fear, evil "terrorists" who may tear down their privileged "civilization," but they have been turned into guinea pigs. Israel is able to gain an edge in the counterinsurgency industry and win entree into the heart of the American military/hi tech complex by turning the Occupied Territories into a laboratory for the development of fiendish weaponry and tactics intended for use against people.

And yet the Palestinian people – and in particular those who remain *sumud*, steadfast, in Palestine – continue not only to resist but to surprise and confound its would-be Israeli master at every turn. Despite unlimited control, a complete monopoly over the use of force, utter callousness and a vaunted Shin Beit, Israel's military intelligence, Palestinians vote as they want, resist, carry on their daily lives with dignity – and blow huge holes in the walls and policies constructed in order to imprison and defeat them.

All this is not on the minds of those desperate people who surged into Egypt today. They may not have the "Big Picture." Yet they deserve the respect and gratefulness of every person who cherishes a better world based on human rights and dignity, a world that is inclusive. As an Israeli Jew, I have been saddened and mortified that my own people, after all they have experienced, cannot see what they are doing to others. But on a larger scale, not as an Israeli Jew but as a human being, I take heart in the Palestinians' active refusal to be ground under a global system that is producing unimaginable wealth and power for a few at the expense of the growing ranks of the wretched.

I am not a Palestinian; I am not one of the oppressed. I only hope I can use my privilege in an effective way in order to redeem the gift the people of Gaza have given all of us: the realization that the people do have power and can prevail even in the face of overwhelming power. We may each express our responsibility towards the people of Gaza in whatever way most suits us, but as the privileged we must do something. We owe the Palestinians and the Palestinians writ large at least that.

As the lights go out in Gaza

END THE SIEGE OF GAZA NOW! FREE PALESTINE!

Even the dead cannot rest in peace in Gaza. As the world sits by and does nothing, Gaza enters its 85th day under complete siege since Israel began “phase I” of its illegal collective punishment of the people of Gaza on October 28, 2007. Not only have almost a million people been plunged into complete darkness as a result of fuel reserves disappearing, food and other basic necessities have become scarce, as have medical supplies and the death toll continues to rise. Last Tuesday (15/01) another 19 Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation forces in less then 3 hours, their death bringing the total killed in the Gaza to 113 in the 48 days since the Annapolis peace conference on November 28 (with 52 killed in the first 15 days of the new year) [1]. But still for those who died, there is no peace.

On Saturday (19/01), Israel’s leading Hebrew newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth reported on its online news site, YNet, that Palestinian health officials in the Gaza are reporting, as a result of the siege and growing death toll, there is a shortage of burial shrouds and that cement for burial tombs is scare [2]. What there is available, is only available at exorbitant prices on the black market and according to YNet, the dead are being buried, draped in flags and bed sheets.

And while the dead can find no peace, the 1.5 million living in the most densely populated region in the world are condemned to suffer. One million men, women and children (around 80% of the civilian population in the Gaza) continue to barely survive with the help of food aid from UN agencies. Israel, however, has sealed off all entrances to the Gaza - no food, medicine or humanitarian supplies have been able to enter Gaza without Israeli say so. On Friday, January 18, Israel prevented UN humanitarian aid (including food and medical supplies) from entering the Gaza, stating that the only humanitarian aid allowed to enter will be on a case-to-case basis with the explicit and personal approval of Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak [3].

And while nothing can enter the Gaza, no one can leave. Since September last year, almost 75 people – men, women, children and babies, all terminally ill and/or in dire need of medical treatment - have died at the Gazan borders denied entry to Egypt, Jordan, Israel and/or the West Bank by the Israeli secret police. Israeli based human rights group, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) in mid January told Ramallah- based RAMFM radio, that the Shabak (Israeli secret police) have been using “medical blackmail” against terminally sick Palestinians. According to PHR coordinator for projects in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Miri Weingarten, the Shabak have called patients to underground rooms at Erez Crossing and told them to either become collaborators and provide them with information on other Palestinians or be denied travel permits. Weingarten told RAMFM that this “form of medical blackmail is to be condemned. In fact, we believe it is torture to deliberately withhold medical care for non-medical reasons”. Weingarten went on to say that as a result the Shabak’s refusal to allow Palestinian patients to receive medical treatment and the refusal of Israeli courts to address the situation that “one can only compare this to Nazi practices in the concentration camps during World War II” [4].

The situation for Gazans worsened further on Sunday as the only power plant in the Gaza, which the Israeli military had previously bombed in 2006, was forced to shut down due to a shortage of fuel. According to the General Director of the plant, more than 800,000 Palestinians living in the Gaza are now in darkness. The closure of the plant has not only affected the electricity supply but also the water supply and the disposal of sewage, as fuel and power is needed to pump and filter drinking water and to run sewage treatment plants. The Gaza Coastal Municipalities Water Utility announced on January 20 that if the fuel supply did not resume by the following Tuesday (22/01) that all sewage treatment plants and the 130 water wells operated by the Utility would cease to function throughout the Gaza Strip. Currently, less then 37 water supply pumps are running in the Gaza and 600,000 residents (40% of the population) is currently without running, drinkable water. According to Oxfam, if the Gaza sewage and sanitation system closes down, the population is in danger of being exposed to water borne diseases [5]

As the cold winter nights wear on, Palestinians in the Gaza must also now survive without heating and with limited fuel reserves to cook and prepare food. Stores whose shelves are increasing empty, now cannot even open due to the fact they have no electricity, bakeries have had to close unable to bake bread due to shortage of flour and electricity. Businesses, across all industries, have been forced to close due to the shortage of goods, products and now electricity. As a result, unemployment is spiraling out of control. With the ongoing siege and closure of the plant, the entire infrastructure of the Gaza Strip has come crashing down.

As the siege deepens, hospitals in Gaza are barely managing to function. For patients with life threatening illnesses, whether they live or die, now rests not in the hands of the skilled doctors who care for them but on whether or not the hospitals generators can produce enough electricity to survive the blackouts. The generators, however, are designed for emergency use only, not for everyday continuous use and electricity is needed for everything – to run the kidney dialysis machines, to run the incubators in the infant care ward in order to save the lives of tiny babies and to run the operating theatres to carry out life saving surgery.

Under international law (article 33 of the 4th Geneva Convention which Israel is a signatory too), collective punishment against a civilian population such as this is illegal but Israel it seems has been written a blank cheque by international community and allowed to carry out heinous war crimes with impunity. In September 2007, John Dugard, the UN Special Rappoteur for the human rights in the OPT and one of the lone voices in the UN refusing to fall into wishy washy servitude to Israel and the USA, noted that the Palestinian people, particularly those in Gaza, were being punished for having democratically elected a regime unacceptable to Israel, the US and EU. Dugard, a South African human rights lawyer and activist who campaigned against his own country’s former Apartheid regime, noted that for the first time ever, an occupied people were being subject to sanctions [6]

Even as the so-called “leader of the free world” arrived on Israel’s doorstep in order to supposedly facilitate “peace” between the Palestinians and Israelis, the Israeli siege deepened as “phase II” kicked in and Israeli war planes and gunships continued to bombard the Gaza. Even as Bush made distasteful and sickening jokes about the occupation as he entered into the Occupied West Bank to visit the quisling, Abbas, in Ramallah, Israel took the lives of dozens more Palestinians.

As the Israeli government tightens its noose on the Gaza, Abbas and his unelected Prime Minister, Salaam Fayyad, continue to attend tea parties hosted by Olmert and his cronies, more interested in maintaining power and retaining their “30 pieces of silver” (US $7.4 million) thrown their way at the Paris Donors Conference on December 17, then defending the lives of their people. Unable to accept political defeat at the 2006 elections, Abbas and the corrupt inner circle that runs Fatah has sought to overturn the democratic will of the Palestinian people by undermining and ousting the democratically elected Hamas. Declaring a state of emergency in June 2007, Abbas and his corrupt inner circle began to flaunt their open collaboration with the Israeli occupiers to the entire world. Now as the Gaza crisis deepens, their betrayal of the Palestinian people is complete. Not only are they now openly collaborating with the Israeli occupiers and their security forces (and the US) to destroy their political rivals and the Palestinian resistance, they have now completely abandoned the citizens of Gaza.

However, with every step Fatah, Abbas and Fayyad take towards collaboration, the Palestinian people take a step away. On Tuesday (21/01), Palestinian media began reporting that crowds of Palestinians including lawmakers, clerics, scholars and medical patients in ambulances began an open-ended sit the previous day in at the Rafah border, located between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, in the hope to put pressure on both the Abbas based Ramallah government and the Egyptian government lead by Hosni Murburak. According to Maan News, the protesters were calling for the border to be opened, for Egypt to give aid to the Palestinians and for Abbas to end any further negotiations with Israel until the siege is lifted. Today, hundreds of Palestinian women joined the sit-in, storming and breaking through the Rafah border demanding an end to the siege. The women were beaten by Egyptian riot police, who used water cannon, dogs and clubs against the women. Earlier in the week, school children and youth also protested at the border demanding a lifting of the siege

In the Occupied West Bank, Palestinians have also began to organize protests in solidarity with their brethren in the Gaza, with protests either taking place or scheduled to take place in Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah and East Jerusalem. Brutalised by Abbas’ Fatah controlled PA security forces for holding anti-Annapolis rallies in November last year and for staging anti-Bush rallies earlier this month, the Palestinian people continue to defy Abbas and the unelected Fayyad PA. On January 26, Israeli anti-occupation activists will also stage a humanitarian convoy to the Gaza border in order to attempt to break the siege and deliver supplies to the abandoned in Gaza. When they reach the border, Palestinians in Gaza will also amass at the border to also call for the blockade to be lifted. As the UN, the EU and the Bush offer nothing but meaningless words, internationally protests have also started to be organized in Italy, France, the United States, Australia and elsewhere.

As Israeli continues to wage war, while talking fake peace, it time for all of us to take a stand in solidarity with the abandoned in Gaza, for not only an end to the siege but also for an immediate and unconditional end to the Israeli occupation of both the Gaza and West Bank. Only when this happens can there be any talk of real peace.


[1] Sutherland, K., (15 January, 2008) Israeli attacks on Gaza kill 113 since Annapolis, Palestinian National Initiative

[2] Waked, A., (19 January, 2008) Growing Distress, YNet News
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3496252,00.html

[3] UN warns of humanitarian crisis as Israel seals Gaza crossings (19 January, 2008), Ha’aretz http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/946066.html

[4] Houk, M., (10 – 16 January, 2008), Turning the Screws, Al Ahram Weekly, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/879/re2.htm

[5] see Al Haq (21 January), Media Release – End the Siege of the Gaza Strip
http://www.alhaq.org/etemplate.php?id=345 and;
Gaza Strip's water, sewage systems to shut down 'within hours', (21 January, 2008), Maan News Agency, www.maannews.net/en

[6] UN says Gaza crisis ‘intolerable’ (26 September, 2007), BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5382976.stm

Beautiful Old Photos of Palestine

Some stunning old photos of Palestine:


Palestinian Stamp


Al Quds/Jerusalem


Bethlehem


Nablus


Al Quds/Jerusalem


Al Quds/Jerusalem grain market


Fisherman on the Galilee


Jaffa

Peace and Human-Rights Volunteers needed in Palestine in 2008

•Are you a woman who is interested in working for international justice?

•Are you willing to accompany farmers while they harvest their olives in the fall?

•Do you want to support Palestinian non-violent resistance?

•Are you able to spend two weeks to three months in the rural West Bank?


International Women's Peace Service

The International Women’s Peace Service (IWPS) is a team of international women based in Haris, a village in the Salfit governorate of the West Bank, which provides accompaniment to Palestinian civilians, documents and non-violently intervenes in human rights abuses, supports acts of non-violent resistance to end the military occupation of the Palestinian Territories – particularly Palestinian women’s resistance – and opposes the Wall.

Our project is run entirely by long-term and short-term volunteers. We are currently seeking new volunteers who ideally have experience in Palestine and/or with non-violent direct action and political activism in their home countries, as well as some competence in Arabic. Computer and technical skills are also useful. Volunteers are welcome to apply from their home countries or from within Palestine.

The role of IWPS volunteers includes:

•Living and working in a village alongside the Palestinian people, gaining a first-hand understanding of their problems;

•Observing and providing written and photographic documentation of human-rights abuses, both for use of the project and for use in your home country following your term in the house;

•Accompanying farmers to their fields, especially during the olive harvest;

•Responding to emergency calls requiring mediation, intervention or care, in coordination with the house team;

•Providing non-violent intervention in human-rights abuses;

•Engaging in acts of non-violent civil resistance alongside Palestinians, in coordination with the house team;

•Assisting in the development of village profiles in Salfit in order to document the long-term effects of the military occupation;

•Communicating with independent media and international press.

Want to find out more?

You can find out more about IWPS and what we do by viewing our website at www.iwps.info, where you may also download our volunteer information kit.

Contact us by email at: iwps@palnet.com.

Christmas in Occupied Bethlehem

Dear friends and supporters,

The festive season is once again upon us and many of us will be spending time with our loved ones and friends. For many of us, this is a time of reflection and celebration. For those of us who are religious, Christmas is a time to remember the birth of Christ and to celebrate; for those who are not so religious but come from a Christian background, we have been taught that this time of year is a time of joy, celebration of family and renewed hope for our loved ones and people around the world.

During this time, many of us in Australia (whether we are religious or not so religious) will sing songs of joy remembering a little town called Bethlehem on the other side of the world. For many of us, our image of Bethlehem is a peaceful little rural/pastoral village, awash with shepards and sheep. The Bethlehem that we know and imagine is the one we see on the front of Christmas cards or the one we read about in the bible or heard about at church services. Today, however, the real Bethlehem is very different. While it is a town of incredible beauty, it is also a city under siege and occupation.

Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Christ, is also part of Occupied Palestine.



As part of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the residents of Bethlehem – both Christian and Muslim – suffer each day under the brutal and illegal Israeli occupation. In Bethlehem, the town of the Christ’s birth, there is no freedom of movement, there are checkpoints and curfews and there are constant invasions by the Israeli military.

In this beautiful city, the Palestinian residents, like their brothers and sisters in the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories suffer home invasions and home demolitions, leaving families without shelter or comfort. The residents of Bethlehem –whether Christian or Muslim – like their brothers and sisters in the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territories in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza – are subject to arbitrary arrest and detention without charge or trail. Their brothers, sisters, son and daughters, teenagers and young men and women, their fathers and mothers are taken in the dead of night (and often in broad daylight) to Israeli prisons, where they are interrogated and are often tortured.



Throughout this beautiful city, there is razor wire, steel cages, Israeli occupation soldiers and an ugly concrete apartheid wall, 8 metres high (28 feet) – three times the height of the Berlin Wall, topped with watchtowers and snipers nests - dividing families and communities, stealing land and water resources. The illegal wall, now three quarters built, cuts Bethlehem residents off from 70% of their land.

In Beit Sahour, where Shepard’s Field is located (the place traditionally attributed with where the angels announced to the Shepards the birth of the Christ) thousands of dunams of Palestinian agricultural land has been confiscated and stolen. On some of this land, the Apartheid Wall has been built, the rest of it has been annexed to become part of the illegal Israeli settlements that surround Bethlehem. In the last few weeks, despite all the pomp and ceremony of the Annapolis conference, Israel announced that it would expand the illegal settlement around Bethlehem, such as Har Homa, further.

In the rest of the West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem, Israel continues to also demolish homes, steal and annex land, carry out mass arrests, restrict freedom of movement, impose curfews and carryout home invasions. In the first two weeks of December alone, more than 30 Palestinian were killed by Israeli occupation forces, while another 34 were injured. Israeli occupation forces also arrested 84 Palestinian civilians, including 5 children, razed 155 dunams of Palestinian agricultural land, invaded and terrorized 41 Palestinian communities in the West Bank and carried out several invasions in the Gaza.



In Gaza, Israel has imposed a total siege, illegally carrying out collective punishment against 1.4 million Palestinian civilians, cutting of their electricity, gas and water supplies.

As a result of the Israel blockade, which has been sanctioned by the US and Europe, Palestinian hospitals are reporting zero stock availability for 90 drugs, including pediatric drugs and anti-biotics, as well as shortages of chronic disease drugs, cancer treatment drugs and kidney dialysis drugs and IV glucose solution. More than 15 patients have died at the Gaza borders due the refusal of Israeli security forces to allow them to access medical treatment in the West Bank, Egypt, Jordan or Israel. Doctors have warned of a looming epidemics of typhoid and hepatitis.

Fuel, which is needed for just about everything, including cooking, running hospitals, schools, purifying, sterilizing and pumping water, running garbage collection trucks, ambulances and ordinary vehicles is increasingly expensive and scarce. 80,00 workers are now jobless, their families going hungry, due to the Israeli blockade which has forced the closure of hundreds of factories in the wood, clothing, food, construction and agricultural industries.

In this season of joy and goodwill to our fellow human beings, please remember the struggle of Palestinian people for human rights, freedom and justice in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

In 2008, please consider how you can join the campaign for a free Palestine:

It can be as simple as writing letters to your local paper or your local poltical representative in support of the Palestinian people's right to justice and freedom and/or joining a Palestine solidarity group in your town/city and/or making a donation to aid the Palestinian people under siege in Gaza.

Palestinian Red Crescent Society (Gaza Appeal) https://www.palestinercs.org/modules/cjaycontent/index.php?id=18

Break the Siege - Free Gaza Campaign http://www.freegaza.org/pages/joinIn.html

Palestine Relief Fund Australia http://www.palrelief.org/palrelief/page.php?14

You can also become part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Campaign:

Palestine BDS Campaign: http://www.bds-palestine.net/

Palestinian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott http://www.pacbi.org/

It could also include considering joining the international struggle by coming to Palestine as part of one of the solidarity organisations based or working in solidarity with the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories (or make a donation to assist their work).

International Women’s Peace Service http://www.iwps.info/en/aboutus/donations.php

International Solidarity Movement http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/donations/

Anarchists Against the Wall http://www.awalls.org/donations

Whatever you chose to do, it DOES make a difference.

Merry Christmas (and Eid Muburak) to all.

For an end to the illegal Israeli occupation and justice and freedom for the Palestinian people in 2008!

in solidarity, Kim