Sydney BDS "flashmob" at Max Brenner

Dear friends,

a terrific video from Sydney BDS activists, who recently conducted a flashmob at Max Brenner.  I have included the blurb from the video below, along with the video.

Max Brenner  is owned by the Strauss Group — one of Israel’s largest food and beverage companies. On its website, the Strauss Group emphasizes its support for the Israeli military, providing care packages, sports and recreational equipment, books and games for soldiers. Strauss boasts support for the Golani and Givati Brigades, which were heavily involved in Israel’s military assault on the Gaza Strip in the Winter of 2008-09, which resulted in the killing of approximately 1,400 Palestinians, the majority civilians, including approximately 350 children. While Strauss has removed information about their support for the Golani and Givati brigades from their English language website, information about the company’s support for both brigades remains on their Hebrew language site.

 In solidarity,

Kim

Video Blurb: On Thursday 13 October 2011, Jews against the Occupation Sydney led a flash mob action outside Max Brenner Chocolate Shop in the Westfield Plaza, Bondi Junction, Sydney. We were supported by the Socialist Alliance, the Socialist Alternative, Actively Radical TV and other Palestine solidarity activists.

We support the call by Palestinian civil society for boycotts, divestment sanctions against Israel because the State of Israel continues to defy international law and the human and national rights of the Palestinians.

Video: Occupy Melbourne NOT Palestine!

Dear friends,
over the last few months, I have been trying my hand at learning videography.  As you will be aware, the "Occupy" protests have now gone global and Melbourne also joined the global day in solidarity on Saturday 15 October.   Coincidently, the same day for the international "Occupy" actions was also the same day we had scheduled a pro-Palestine, BDS action here in Melbourne. 

The video above while predominately focused on Occupy Melbourne activities, also includes a few minutes footage of the pro-Palestine BDS/Max Brenner action.  I will be putting together a longer video about the Palestine action later this week.


In solidarity, Kim

Occupy Wall Street not Palestine!

BDS National Committee Statement

  

Occupy Wall Street not Palestine!

We are part of the world’s 99% yearning for freedom, justice and equal rights!

If a people one day wills to live  fate must answer its call

And the night must fade and the chain must break

-- Abou-Al-kacem El-Chebbi (Tunisia)

Occupied Palestine, October 13 -The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), the largest Palestinian civil society coalition struggling for Palestinian rights, is proud to stand in solidarity with the movements struggling for a new world based on democracy, human rights and economic justice. From New York to Athens, from Madrid to Santiago, from Bahrain to Rome, these huge mobilisations provide a much needed reminder of something that Palestinians have always known – that another world, a dignifying one, is possible and ordinary people can create it.

Our aspirations overlap; our struggles converge. Our oppressors, whether greedy corporations or military occupations, are united in profiting from wars, pillage, environmental destruction, repression and impoverishment. We must unite in our common quest for freedoms, equal rights, social and economic justice, environmental sanity, and world peace. We can no longer afford to be splintered and divided; we can no longer ignore our obligations to join hands in the struggle against wars and corporate exploitation and for a human-friendly world community not a profit-maximizing jungle.

The Occupy Wall Street movement and its counterparts across the US, Europe, Latin America and elsewhere are -- at least partially -- inspired by the Arab Spring for democracy and social justice. Leaders of the Arab popular revolts tell us that they, in turn, were largely inspired by our own, decades-old struggle against Israel’s occupation of our land, its system of discrimination that matches the UN’s definition of apartheid, and its denial of the right of Palestinian refugees to return home.

The rapidly emerging movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law is a key and effective part of the Palestinian struggle. Anchored in universal principles of human rights and struggling for freedom, justice and equality, the BDS movement, established in 2005, is deeply rooted in decades of Palestinian peaceful resistance to colonial oppression and is inspired by the South African struggle against apartheid as well as the civil rights movement in the US. It is adopted by a near consensus among Palestinians everywhere, with all the main political parties, trade unions, professional syndicates, women’s unions, student groups, NGO networks and refugee advocacy networks represented in the BNC, the reference for this growing movement to end Israeli impunity.

The Palestinian-led BDS movement is a global effort of groups, from South Africa to Britain, from Canada to India, and within Israel itself, all committed to ending Israel’s denial of basic Palestinian rights. It is endorsed by towering moral leaders of the calibre of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Holocaust survivor and co-author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Stephane Hessel. It is supported by world renowned cultural and intellectual figures such as Alice Walker, Naomi Klein, Roger Waters, Judith Butler, Sarah Schulman, John Berger, Ken Loach, John Greyson, and Adrienne Rich.  Massive trade union federations such as COSATU (South Africa), CUT (Brazil), TUC (UK), ICTU (Ireland), among many others, have also adopted BDS.

The movement has scored in the last two years some spectacular achievements when internationally renowned artists and music groups heeded the cultural boycott of Israel and refused to perform there or cancelled scheduled appearances. These have included the Pixies, Elvis Costello, Snoop Dogg, Meg Ryan, Vanessa Paradis, Gil Scott-Heron, among many others. The Norwegian state pension fund, among others, major European banks and some corporations have all been convinced to divest from businesses implicated in Israel’s violations of international law. Increasingly, BDS is recognized as a civic movement capable of ending Israeli impunity and, crucially, contributing to the global struggle against the war-mongering, racist agenda which Israel has persistently played a key role in. 

So as you break your own chains and build your own effective resistance against corporate tyranny, we ask you to demand a just peace for all the peoples in the Middle East, based on international law and equal human rights. Palestinians, too, are part of the 99% around the world that suffer at the hands of the 1% whose greed and ruthless quest for hegemony have led to unspeakable suffering and endless war. Corporate power has not just profited from our suffering but has colluded in maintaining Israel’s occupation and apartheid to perpetuate an unjust order that profits oil and military companies and multinational financial institutions.

We call upon all the spreading social movements of the world to think critically when considering their attitude towards the Israeli ‘social justice’ protests, which have almost completely ignored the key issue at the heart of all of the problems faced by ordinary Palestinians and even Israelis: Israel’s costly system of occupation, colonialism and apartheid over the Palestinian people. Without putting an end to that multi-tiered Israeli system of oppression, our entire region will never enjoy a comprehensive and lasting peace, one that is based on justice and human rights.

Money for jobs, health and education, not for racist oppression and occupation!

Nowhere is this more important than in the United States. Despite Israel’s persistent denial of Palestinian rights, the US has provided Israel with unconditional political and military assistance that directly contributes to the denial of Palestinian rights, but also to the problems faced by ordinary US citizens. Could the $24bn of military aid provided to Israel in the period 2000-2009 not been better spent on schools, healthcare and other essential services? Did Israel not play a major role in prodding the US to launch and continue its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, at immense human and material cost, mainly borne by the poorest in those countries? 

But, we must remind ourselves all the time that this struggle will never be easy, and reaching our objectives never inevitable. As Martin Luther King once said:

"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent." 

The refreshing scenes of determined peaceful protest for justice from around the world tell us that we, the 99% of the world, are in the process of straightening our backs, collectively, with unwavering fortitude and boundless hope.

BNC Secretariat

www.BDSmovement.net

 Wall St protests - End American military aid to Israel

 Palestinian women demonstrating outside of Ofer military prison in support of Palestinian political prisoners on hunger strike

Nariman Tamimi's letter to the world: support Palestinian political prisoners on hunger strike

Dear friends,
please find below an article, which includes an appeal from my friend Nariman Tamimi calling for support for the current Palestinian political prisoners hunger strike taking place  Nariman is one of the amazing women from An Nabi Saleh whose courage is beyond words. 

Nariman has been arrested and imprisoned twice for her non-violent activism against Israel's occupation.  Nariman is a videographer who regularly documents Israel's brutal repression against her village, An Nabi Saleh (for more information on the village's non-violent struggle click here)

Currently, Nariman's husband Bassam Tamimi is imprisoned in Israel's military occupation jail for the "crime" of organising non-violent resistance to Israel's occupation and apartheid polices.  Bassam, who is also a dear friend, is one of the hundreds of political prisoners currently on strike.

For more information on the hunger strike click here

in solidarity,
Kim
***

A letter from Nariman Tamimi to the world
By Diana Alzeer 

On 27 September 2011 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons announced the start of a campaign of disobedience to protest an escalating series of punitive measures taken against them by the Israeli Prison Service. Today marks the 8th day of their hunger strike. A call for Solidarity actions around the world has been issued for this friday 7/10, to find your local solidarity action please check : https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=231330736923906

 Today outside a sit-in at the Red Cross in Ramallah I met with Nariman Al Tamimi from Al Nabi Saleh village.  Nariman is an ex-prisoner herself and the wife of the political prisoner 'Bassem Al Tamimi'. As a resident of the village her family has been suffering from the Israeli occupation on a daily basis. In the space of 5 years she has been shot a total of 7 times, while her eldest son Wa’d who is 14 years old has been shot with rubber bullets over 10 times. Furthermore, their house faces the threat of immediate demolition by Israeli forces.

Due to her history Nariman has became a symbol of ‘somoud’- steadfastness- to many Palestinians. Despite the endless tragedies she is continually facing she never wavered from demanding for her and her people’s full legitimate rights. Today from the sit-in in Ramallah, Nariman wished to send a message to the world urging them to take solidarity actions with the hunger strikers in Israeli jails.

“I want to tell the world about international law and all the human rights resolutions that are meant to protect human rights including the rights of prisoners of war. I would like to ask why these laws are not protecting our prisoners? Why are the human rights activists are not doing anything regarding the Israeli violations? Why is the world still silent?

All we want is to be able to see our sons, daughters, husbands, fathers and mothers. We want them to be treated according to International Law. We want to have our rights like anyone else around the world. I am sure the most of you heard about the Israeli captured militant 'Gilad Shalit', but I wonder if you heard about the 8000 Gilad Shalits in Israeli jails? Most of the them are civilians, including children and women. I call all human rights organizations and activists to take the side of justice and save our prisoners”

Statistics of Palestinian Political Prisoners:
-340 Palestinian children are being held in Israeli Prisons

-There are well over 120 women in Israeli prisons, 17 of these women are mothers. 2 of which gave birth in prison. The youngest female currently held is 12 years of age.

-The majority of these detainees are being held in violation of the IV Geneva Convention in prisons outside of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

(Source: Addameer, Human rights centre and prisoners support)

Say NO to injustice and take part of the solidarity actions with Palestinian Prisoners for more details click here

23 Israeli activists and Palestinians injured by settlers: Israel Police turned a blind eye to a lynching

Dear friends,

Since Friday, Israeli and international alternative media have been reporting what has been described as a "pogrom" by Israeli activists.  While the alternative media was reporting the attack, the attack was largely ignored by the Israeli mainstream / commercial media for several days, despite the fact that video of the attack clearly showed Israeli police offices participating in the settler attack, which left 23 activists and Palestinians injured and extensive property damage to activists cars.  When the media did report the incident, they gave significant coverage to unsubstantiated claims by Israeli settlers, despite the fact that much of the attack by the settlers had been caught on video. 

 
I have included below an eyewitness report from one of the activists at Anatot, which was eventually published in Haaretz.  I have also included some of the video shot by activists of the attack.   

Over the last 5 years the number of settler attacks against Palestinians has been steadily increasing.  In the last two or three years, attacks by settlers have included the torching of mosques, the burning of Palestinian fieldsand the slaughter of Palestinian livestock, as well as the invasion of Palestinian villages and destruction of Palestinian water tanks and homes.  Many of these attacks have seen settlers beating and violent attacks on unarmed Palestinians.  In the last year, the escalation in the number of attacks has resulted in even Shin Bet, Israel's secret police, warning against settler extremism (but as the following article notes, Shin Bet's concern about settler attacks is not necessary because they are concerned about the attacks of settlers against Palestinians or Israeli anti-occupation activists but because settlers may start to attack Israeli police and military personnel. For more click here) 

in solidarity, Kim

**

 

**

Israel Police turned a blind eye to a lynching

What happened Friday afternoon at the entrance to the settlement of Anatot was a pogrom, a lynching. Media outlets that don't see fit to report a pogrom of this magnitude are partners in the policy, or the sins of omission, of abandonment.

By Eyal Raz: Haaretz, 4 October 2011

Were you ever at a lynching? Were you ever someplace where an unbridled mob was beating you and your friends and then chasing you to beat you again? Were you ever the victim of wild violence before the blind eyes of policemen who ignored your desperate calls for help? Have you ever felt abandoned? The following story begins with with blood, but its point is the abandonment.

What happened Friday afternoon at the entrance to the settlement of Anatot was a pogrom, a lynching. There's no other way to describe an event in which hundreds of large men are wildly beating and pursuing a nonviolent group of male and female activists for an extended period of time. There's no way to convey to those who weren't there the threatening sense of the approaching dark - not in words, not in pictures, not even in video.

They came to destroy, to break, perhaps even to kill. They used their hands, their fists and their teeth, along with stones, pipes and knives. They aimed for the photographers, the women, for the young and the old alike. They brought individuals down to the ground and assaulted them as they lay there, surrounded. They pounced on the hindmost of those trying to flee as they pursued their battered victims.

And all this was taking place before the very eyes of the police, who didn't do a thing to prevent people from being hurt. It all passed, as usual, in a thunderous silence.

Those who abandoned the Palestinian family that had come to work its land that Friday afternoon were not the rioters who sent the family to the hospital. Those who allowed the mob to wreak havoc on the Ta'ayush and Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity activists who were present at the site that evening stood outside the circle of assailants. They did their bit, but they personally are just one rib of a multilayered structure.

How can one explain the blind eye turned by the policemen present at the site? How can one explain why they didn't know, or didn't think, that their job was to stop the pogrom?

Perhaps the fact that Anatot's residents aren't radicals like Baruch Marzel played a role. Anatot residents aren't "hilltop youth" or "wild weeds." They are ordinary Israelis, former Jerusalemites who upgraded themselves to a "quality of life" settlement - including employees of the police, who were given preferential purchasing terms there. There are even suspicions, based on testimony and evidence gathered over the last few days, that a few of the rioters were off-duty policemen themselves.

And perhaps it is the deep-rooted hatred of "Arabs" and "leftists." Perhaps this hatred also made it easier for those on duty at the Shai District police stations, who received our calls for help, not to rush to send forces there. And even when two patrol cars did finally arrive, the policemen devoted most of their energy to informing the battered activists that an order had been issued declaring the site a closed military zone, which they were now violating.

And you should know that these are the same police stations at which the victims are supposed to file their complaints. It was, for instance, to one of them that a friend of mine was referred when he sought to repair his destroyed car. So far, he has refrained from doing so, for fear of meeting his assailants there.
Today, there is no protection for anyone who isn't on the side of the establishment, who isn't in the right-wing camp. And in the absence of such protection on the part of the agencies entrusted with upholding the law, responsibility passes to the media, which gives the public information.

Media outlets that don't see fit to report a pogrom of this magnitude are partners in the policy, or the sins of omission, of abandonment. The same goes for those who term it a "confrontation," or a "clash," or any of those other laundered words that indicate mutuality; and for those who fail to do their job of investigating and checking the facts and make do with "reporting each side's version of events;" and for those who opt to downplay a news story that they know full well would, under other circumstances, immediately become the lead headline.

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor," Desmond Tutu once wrote. This story begins with blood, but its point is the abandonment. For that is what will enable more blood to be shed in the future. And anyone who doesn't cry out against it is a party to it.
 
The writer is an activist in the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity movement.

Speaking Truth to Power: The Irvine 11 speakout!

Dear friends,

please find below an excellent video of a radio interview with two of the members of the Irvine 11, who recently were found guilty on Septembr 23 of two misdemeanors for disrupting the speech of Israeli ambassador, Michael Oren.  The students, stood up one by one stood up and interrupted Oren's speech and then peacefully walked out.   The students, including one who had lost family during Israel's all out attack on the Gaza Strip in December/Januaray 2008/09 which killed up to 1400 Palestinians, the majority of whom were civilians, including 350 children, protested Oren's role as an Israeli spokesperson who defended the Israeli assault.

The students were members of the US Muslim Students Union but did not organise the protest under the name of the Muslim Student Union.  However, UC Irvine’s administration disciplined the Muslim Student Union by suspending its charter for one quarter and placing it on probation for two years even though they maintains that they, as a group, did not organize the action.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas later decided to prosecute the students as a criminal matter, charging individual students with conspiring to commit a crime and for disturbing a meeting.  The students faced up to a year in prison, but ended up being sentenced to 56 hours of community service, fines, and probation.

The video below is of one of the first interviews with students as a gag order had been placed on them preventing them from speaking out during the lead up to and during the trial.  Two of the activists, Osama Shabaik and Taher Herzallah, spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar, the host of the Los Angles based radio program, Uprising.

I have also included an excellent article by Reem Salahi and Dan Stormer, two of the students defense attorneys, on motivation of the prosecution of the 11 activists.  Salah and Stormer note that the motivation was political and discriminatory, noting that similar protests by non-Muslim students have not been prosecuted.

In the wake of the guilty verdict, the student's attorneys have announced that they will challenge/appeal the convictions.

in solidarity,

Kim

***

Salahi & Stormer: ‘Irvine 11’ case motivated by politics, discrimination

By REEM SALAHI and DAN STORMER 09/29/2011 Orange Country Register

If anyone questioned the motive behind the criminal prosecution of eight UC Irvine and three UC Riverside students, Tony Rackauckas's recent column in the Register leaves no doubt that it was politically and discriminatorily motivated. Now that the gag order has been lifted, Rackauckas's office desperately seeks to repaint itself in a sympathetic light following the tremendous outcry in Orange County and across the nation against the aggressive and unprecedented prosecution.

In Rackauckas's self-righteous rant, he conveniently ignores the time and hefty monetary resources expended in this vendetta prosecution. Similarly, Rackauckas is notably silent about the serious misconduct of his top attorneys and investigator who acquired and maintained privileged communications and used at least one attorney-client communication to bring charges against a student. As a consequence, three top district attorneys and the lead investigator were removed from the case weeks before trial. While Rackauckas espouses illogical claims about the First Amendment, he never mentions that his office undermined the students' Fifth Amendment rights to due process and against self-incrimination during its prosecution.

Rackauckas claims that this case is about the violation of the First Amendment, alleging that "The First Amendment rights of the 700-member audience were violated." Yet, even a first-year law student could tell us that only the government can violate one's First Amendment rights. Derivations of nonexistent rights and violations were made throughout this prosecution like one's right to emotional stability.

Rackauckas ends his column by stating that "this case needed prosecution." It is thus appropriate to highlight how this case was prosecuted.

Following the 11 students' arrests on Feb. 8, 2010, the students and the Muslim Student Union underwent protracted university administrative proceedings at both UC Irvine and UC Riverside which lasted up to eight months. Ultimately, the universities imposed sanctions against the students and the Muslim Student Union and UC Irvine publicly expressed satisfaction with its internal discipline.

Yet during that time, Rackauckas's office sent two investigators from the Special Prosecutions Unit who tried to intimidate students to testify against their peers. One student informed us that the investigator banged on his windows and door at 7 a.m. on Sunday yelling "Police, open up!"
Another student told us that the investigator went to her grandmother's house and accused her grandmother of hiding the student. That same investigator was subsequently seen talking to neighbors. These are but two of many accounts of students and community members who were bullied by Rackauckas's office. In fact, during this investigation, community members and interfaith leaders sent letters to the Orange County DA expressing concern over the investigation and the intimidation tactics being used. The response was essentially "butt out."

Between September 2010 and January 2011, the Orange County District Attorney's office issued five search warrants to obtain the private emails of the 11 defendants as well as other UC Irvine students. The warrants falsely indicated a felony investigation. At no point were the students or their attorneys informed about the search warrants prior to the filing of charges against the 11 students. In fact, after receiving the tens of thousands of emails obtained by the OCDA, defense attorney Reem Salahi discovered privileged communications between her and her clients. Subsequently, the court ruled that the OCDA had improperly possessed 20,000 pages of attorney-client and work product privileged communications. As a result of this misconduct, the court disqualified three top district attorneys and their lead investigator from the case. The OCDA immediately entered into an agreement to drop the charges against the 11th student in exchange for community service because they could no longer rely on the privileged communication which they had used in bringing charges against the student.

Then in January 2011, the district attorney issued eight grand jury subpoenas. Six students and two UC Irvine administrators were compelled to testify about the protest and the university administrative proceedings under threat of criminal contempt. Grand juries are almost exclusively empanelled in felony investigations, yet Rackauckas's office, again unprecedentedly, used the grand jury in this misdemeanor investigation. During the grand jury, one of the district attorneys admitted to a defense attorney that they resorted to use of the grand jury because some of the witnesses would not voluntarily testify. In other words, the DA used the grand jury in a misdemeanor investigation to intimidate witnesses and acquire information they would have otherwise been precluded from obtaining.

On Day 362 out of 365, the OCDA filed two charges against each of the 11 students, including the 11th student who was arrested as he was leaving the hall with dozens of other protestors. Rackauckas's office assigned the head of their homicide unit, Assistant District Attorney Dan Wagner, to try this misdemeanor case.

During the prosecution, Rackauckas's office, and specifically his chief of staff, Susan Schroeder analogized these students to the Ku Klux Klan and intimated that they were anti-Semitic. Rackauckas's office issued a press release about the charges and published court documents as one of only six links on the OCDA website's homepage. In reviewing the OCDA's website, the authors were unable to locate other press releases or documents related to any other misdemeanor prosecution.

Now, Rackauckas's office is engaging in another libelous media campaign by further smearing the students and improperly trying their case in the media. In his column, Rackauckas selectively and unprecedentedly publicized a handful of emails (not the exculpatory ones) and highlighted comments made by unknown individuals. He also alleges incorrect facts specifically that the students shut down Israeli Ambassador Oren's talk. The reality is that the event did not start until 6 p.m. and the 10th and last student protested at approximately 6:25 p.m. During that time, Oren stepped off the stage for approximately 10 minutes. Following the last protest and a large walk-out, Oren completed his prepared remarks and had nearly 15 minutes to take questions and provide answers. Rather than engage in a Q&A session, Oren left early to attend the Lakers game at the Staples Center and meet with Kobe Bryant. It was Oren, therefore, and not the protesters, as Rackauckas claims, who cancelled the Q&A session and precluded the audience of the opportunity to ask questions.

The reality is that the protest occurred within a 15 minute window. The total time consumed by the student protest, including the clapping and walkout, was no longer than 7 minutes, well within the empirical average of dissent expressed at political assemblies and consistent with many other protests at both UC Irvine and other universities where protestors' disruptions of speeches last 5-10 minutes, if not longer. The only inconsistency has been the ensuing criminal prosecution.

If anyone has acted like organized thuggery, it is Rackauckas and his office. They preyed on the weakest and most vulnerable elements of society: youth, students and religious and ethnic minorities. They employed the mighty power of the state to obtain the private emails of the defendants and other students from Google, AOL and Hotmail and then compelled university administrators and students to testify before a grand jury. They maintained and relied upon privileged communications in violation of the law. In their aggressive prosecution, Rackauckas and his office acted in complete juxtaposition to the will of the universities and the local and national communities, as seen by the countless petitions, emails, editorials and columns. They have criminalized dissent based on its content and engaged in a racist and selective prosecution of students that chills our collective First Amendment protected activities. This prosecution has been an affront to the constitution and our concept of justice.

Reem Salahi and Dan Stormer are among the six defense attorneys representing the "Irvine 11" and are employed at the law firm Hadsell Stormer Keeny Richardson & Renick, LLP.

B'Tselem & ACRI on the illegal suppression of protests in Nabi Saleh

Dear friends, 

earlier this month, Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem issued a report called "Show of Force", which outlines the conduct of the Israeli military in the weekly demonstrations in the village of An Nabi Saleh.

I have included below the executive summary of the report below.  To read the report in FULL, click here

Also below, I have included a video of the media conference which took place in Nabi Saleh upon the release of the report, which outlines the findings of the report, includes video footage and explains in some detail the restriction of the right to protest.

If you would like to keep up to date with the non-violent struggle of the people of An Nabi Saleh, please visit the Nabi Saleh Solidarity website here and the Nabi Saleh Solidarity page on Facebook here.


in solidarity, Kim

B’Tselem Report – Show of Force: Israeli Military Conduct in Weekly Demonstrations in an-Nabi Saleh

A-Nabi Saleh is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, north of Ramallah. For for more than eighteen months now, every Friday, its residents have demonstrated against settlers seizing nearby land that belongs to Palestinians. The Friday processions held in the village have become one of the main sites of weekly protest in the West Bank in recent years.

In their handling of the protests in a-Nabi Saleh, Israel’s security forces have infringed the rights of the Palestinian demonstrators in three fundamental ways, as follows:

Violation of the right to demonstrate

B’Tselem’s documentation indicates that Israel does not recognize the right of a-Nabi Saleh’s residents to demonstrate. Israeli security forces prohibit the demonstrators from reaching the site that is the subject of the demonstration – al-Qawas Spring and the land around it – and prevent the procession from exiting the village towards the spring. Also, the army declares the demonstration illegal at the outset, sometimes even before the procession begins. The army also issues an order declaring the entire village a closed military area every Friday, and blocks the roads leading to it. As a result, persons from outside the village are unable to exercise their right to join in the demonstration.

Excessive use of means for dispersing demonstrations

The security forces’ use of means to disperse the demonstrations is excessive and occurs even when the demonstrators are nonviolent and pose no threat. The forces fire enormous quantities of tear gas inside the built-up area of the village, which is home to hundreds of persons. In one demonstration, at least 150 tear-gas canisters were fired. In another demonstration, security forces hurled tear gas canisters at a procession of children in costumes who were flying kites. At times, the tear gas canisters are fired directly at the demonstrators, endangering their lives. Also, security forces throw stun grenades almost without limitation at children and adults alike, to disperse them, even when they pose no threat whatsoever.

Photo by Oren Ziv

Harm to the civilian population

The army and the Border Police invest a great amount of resources in dispersing these regular demonstrations, in which several dozen people participate. These resources include the deployment of forces at the main intersection of the village, and the vast quantities of means to disperse demonstrations. Handling of the demonstrations in this manner is disproportionate. It intimidates hundreds of villagers and forces them to remain in their houses for many hours, making it impossible for them to lead a normal life. The massive amounts of tear gas fired penetrate the houses close to the main intersection in the village, and the occupants are unable to escape.

Also, the restrictions on movement in the area every Friday create difficulties for residents of all the nearby villages.

In advance of the expected declaration of a Palestinian state on 20 September 2011, Israel’s defense establishment is preparing to cope with wide-scale demonstrations in the West Bank. As part of the preparations, the security forces must recognize Palestinians’ right to demonstrate, and must allow them to protest against infringement of their rights. The decision to disperse a demonstration must be made only after the relevant authorities have properly balanced the right to demonstrate against other relevant interests, as is done in the case of demonstrations held inside Israel. In any event, means for dispersing demonstrations must not be used in a way that injures persons or punishes all residents of the village.

I am Nabi Saleh

Dear friends,
the village of An Nabi Saleh is one of the hundreds of Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank which is engaged in non-violent struggle againsts Israel's occupation.   I first went to the village in December 2009, when the village began holding its non-violent demonstrations against the stealing of more of their land and water springs by the illegal Israeli colony of Halamish.  Since that time, I have spent a lot of time in the village and befriended a number of the families, as a result the village and its residents are very special to me.  

I am so happy that Alison Ramer, a photographer and activist, who has lived in the village for some time and regularly attends the Friday demonstrations has involved the children of the village in a photographic project and exhibition, documenting the issues that not only effect their lives but also documenting the story of their village.

Please find below an article by Palestine Monitor on the project and exhibition, as well as two short videos about the project: one that explains what the project is about and allow the children of the village to introduce themselves and explain what they want to document and why and a second video of the opening night of the exhibition in Ramallah.

If you would like to keep informed about the struggle of the village and what is happening there, click here to go to the Nabi Saleh Solidarity website and click here to go to the Nabi Saleh Solidarity page on Facebook.

In solidarity,
Kim

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*************
“I am Nabi Salih” — photo exhibition shows there is more to village than weekly protests


By Silvia Boarini : Palestine Monitor: September 13, 2011


The brainchild of Alison Ramer, the photo project “I am Nabi Salih” aims to show the human faces behind the iconic village, famous for it’s popular resistance movement.


Looking at the images covering the walls at the Academy of Arts in Ramallah, one might not realize that these photos were all taken by young adults, between the ages of 14 and 17.


The young artists, all from the now-iconic village of Nabi Salih, were handed digital cameras and under the guidance of internationally renowned Palestinian photographer and video maker Issa Freij, sought to document a different aspect of their daily surroundings.

“There are many aspects of Nabi Salih that I can show,” says Rawan Jalal Tamimi.

“I am Nabi Salih” manages to portray a side of the village that remains unknown even to the tireless Friday activist. More importantly, Ramer stresses, “it was a chance to do something other than just bringing more journalists or more NGOs to the village.”

Ramer’s relationship with Nabi Salih goes back a long way. She first arrived in Israel from the USA in 2006 as part of the Zionist Youth movement, but quickly decided she needed to explore both sides of the divide. She wanted to try and understand Palestine.

Her first port of call was Nabi Salih.

“The village has played a big part in educating me about the occupation,” she says.

Community leader Bassam Tamimi, currently imprisoned for participating in the Friday demonstrations, once told Ramer, “you came to remove the occupation from your mind.” And Ramer agrees. She says that is exactly what coming to Nabi Salih has done.

“The power is understanding how to take a photo that will attract people’s attention,” Issa Freij says.

The multi-layered context in which these children live–with daily military incursions, night raids, arrests and the aggression at Friday demonstrations–means that this participatory workshop has worked on different levels: both as an art project but also as trauma treatment, empowering the children to regain control of their world.

On the opening night of the exhibition in Ramallah, the excitement is palpable. Kids run around the gallery, eager to point out which set of pictures is theirs.

The young Rawan Jalal Tamimi points at a group of pictures depicting sparse, domestic interiors captured in beautiful lighting. One picture is of an old woman baking bread. “These are my photos,” she says proudly.

It was the first time she had a camera all to herself. She chose to document the poverty in Nabi Salih and the camera opened doors to a world she did not know.

“I discovered that nearly half of the people of Nabi Salih live at or below the poverty line,” she explains. “Now when I take photos I understand that there are many aspects of Nabi Salih that I can show.


She hopes that Palestinian officials will visit the exhibition. “There is no work and many families have low incomes. Officials should come here to really understand how it is,” she says.


Tamimi now also appreciates the power that comes with holding a camera. Seeing people looking at the photos on the wall has made her understand the potential of a picture, that it can carry a message to the outside world.


She points out that now, “I understand more about how people react to an exhibition and that you have to bring the right picture to the story you want to tell.”

“The village has played a big part in educating me about the occupation,” workshop producer Alison Ramer says.


Palestinian Video-maker Issa Freij, who run the workshops, nods as Tamimi says this. “That’s the power, he says, “understanding how to take a photo that will attract people’s attention.”
A veteran photojournalist and filmmaker, Freij was initially sceptical of teaching children, but now is convinced they are the best students. “It was hard to catch their attention at the beginning,” he says, “because they were not into photography. You know, this isn’t a game. It’s serious stuff and there are rules for it.”

The photos on the walls are all extremely good in terms of composition, exposure and focus but it is the wide range of subjects covered that really makes it stand out from the average participatory workshop exhibition.

“At the beginning we were choosing one subject for the whole group but the kids were going everywhere together all the time. And the village is only one street,” Freij laughs, “they were all coming back with the same photos.”

So themes were assigned. This forced the children to look into Nabi Salih, rather than at Nabi Salih. The subjects go far beyond the usual shots of soldiers but all analyze and reflect how the occupation impacts everyday life.

There are photos tackling the lack of playing space for children by portraying toddlers using weapon parts left over by the army as toys. One set of photos takes on the theme of water shortage and another one examines the problems of garbage disposal. These are issues that most children, from an early age, will already be familiar with here.

The cameras will remain with the children and the hope is they will keep on taking photos as a way of telling an alternative story of the village and of exposing the occupation.

This is an undertaking that may prove less dangerous, or fatal, than the weekly demonstrations but that, as they have learned, also has an impact.

This exhibition is now on display at The International Academy of Art Palestine, but is bound for a tour of Europe, the US and elsewhere. It has already widened the horizons of the participants and will go on to   widen the horizons of viewers abroad for months to come.

Remi Kanazi: This Poem Will Not End Apartheid

Palestinian-American poet Remi Kanazi: This poem will not end apartheid - a poem about BDS,  which says more eloquently than I ever could why you should support the Palestinian initiated BDS campaign. 
Kanzi peformed this poem at the Sept. 15, 2011 NYC rally for full Palestinian rights including the Right to Return all over Palestine/Israel.

BDS protestors picket the Jewish National Fund in Melbourne

Dear friends,

pro-Palestine campaigners and BDS activists held a successful picketed outside the annual Gala Dinner of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) at the Crown Casino in Melbourne.

As the call for the action noted:

The Jewish National Fund (JNF) is a quasi- government organisation in Israel that buys up land in Israel from Palestinians and refuses to sell or lease it to non-Jews. Created in 1901 to acquire land for a Jewish State in Palestine, the JNF is most commonly known for its campaign to ‘plant a tree in Israel’ in order to ‘make the desert bloom.’ However, the trees are not planted in a barren desert empty of inhabitants that Jewish people have come to populate and make flourish. Lands were, and still are, obtained from their Palestinian inhabitants through exploitative land sales, forced removal or other apartheid state policies.

Sadly despite the JNF being an instrument of Israeli Apartheid, the JNF
currently has tax exempt status in Australia and is supported by the major political parties. The JNF’s Gala dinner on Sept. 21 will be attended by Victoria’s Premier and the Israeli Ambassador to Australia.

Protestors in line with the Palestinian initiated BDS campaign called for: 

End the occupation of Palestine.

Equal rights for Palestinians living in Israel.

Let the Palestinian refugees return.

No Australian support for apartheid. End the JNF’s tax exempt status.

In addition they called for: Australian state and Federal governments to break all economic, political and military ties with Israel and for Australia to Impose immediate sanctions on Israel.

Below is a copy of the media release issued by protestors.  

For more information on the BDS campaign and  the Stop the JNF campaign  - click here.

The Stop the JNF campaign was established by a coalition of solidarity organizations around the world including Palestinian and Israeli groups, aims to expose the JNF’s violations of Palestinian rights and international law, promote civil and legal challenges to the JNF throughout Europe, the Americas and Australasia, seeking to annul the JNF’s charitable privileges and tax-exempt fundraising, and have JNF offices world-wide shut down

Visit the Stop the JNF  website - click here

I have include a link to the also included a number of links, including my article which appeared in Direct Action about Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Bedouin.  The articles outline the JNF role in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and how the JNF and the Israeli state "greenwash" their actions.

Jewish National Fund: Zionism, ethnic cleansing and environmental racism - click here

Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Bedouin - click here

Israel approves plan to uproot 30,000 Bedouins - click here

In solidarity, 

Kim

JNF Protest - 21 Sept 2011, Melbourne
Photos by Gin Gordon

BDS Protesters picket the Jewish National Fund

When: 6pm, Wednesday September 21.

Where:  Crown Plaza. Cnr. Queenbridge St. and Whiteman St. Soutbank.

The Jewish National Fund (JNF), a Zionist organisation set up to confiscate Palestinian land and plants forests to hide the ruins of Palestinian villages are having a gala dinner. The event will be attended by Victorian Premier Ted Ballieu and Israel’s Ambassador to Australia.

At $150 a head, this gala dinner is the biggest annual fundraiser for the JNF.  It will be  attended an array of Australia’s “elite” collectively meeting to show their support for an organisation committed to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and whose constitution requires it to lease land ‘in perpetuity’ only to ‘persons of Jewish religion, race or origin’.   

Campaign Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) will be there to show our opposition to the JNF and the Australian governments political consensus support for Israel and calling for the Victorian and Australian government to break all economic, military and political ties with the Israeli state.

James Crafti, a Jewish anti-Zionist and one of the 19 BDS protestors arrested on July 1, sees the need to break Australia’s ties with Israel.

He said, “JNF functions have been attended by Labour and Liberal leader. Kevin Rudd has attended past JNF events and Ballieu is attending this one. Australia is the largest per-capita sponsor of the JNF internationally and that is because Australian governments continue to back this apartheid state. Within the last three months, Baillieu wanted the ACCC to litigate against the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions movement. He employed Zionist leader, John Searle, as chair of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission and is a guest of honour at the JNF’s function. The agenda of this government is clear.”

Since its inception, the JNF has played a key role in ethnically cleansing the indigenous Palestinian population from their land.  In the 1940s, units of the JNF were been responsible for compiling what was known as the “village files”, a systematic collection of data about the geography, demographics, economy and political affiliations of Palestinian villages, which was used to help ethnically cleanse more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homes in 1948 during the Nakba.

Melanie Mayze, one of the rally organisers and a member of the CAIA says it is important to make a stance against the JNF, saying "Today, the JNF continues to play a central role in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians but now it is done under the cover of ‘enviornmentalism’”. 

Mayze said: “In the last year, one Palestinian Bedouin village, al-Arakib has been demolished more than 30 times by the JNF, so a forest can be built in its place. At this moment, the Israeli government are planning to forcibly move 30,000 Palestinian Bedouin from 13 unrecoginised villages in the Negev”.