When it's a friend...

Living in Ramallah for an extended period of time, to an extent, in errs you against what is happening in the rest of the Occupied West Bank and Gaza. In Ramallah, it is possible, even given the Israeli occupation to obtain a degree (just a degree mind you) of normalcy.

Ramallah is a busy, bustling city that never seems to sleep. And inside its surrounds, the worst aspects of the occupation are not always visible. Last week, I travelled to Occupied East Jerusalem, via Qalandia checkpoint, for the first time in about 6 weeks. As I approached the checkpoint in the service, the apartheid wall suddenly appeared before me. I was stunned that I felt quite shocked when I saw it. It made me realise that I had adjusted, at least a bit, to the occupation and having spent the last month mainly in central Ramallah and its surrounds, I had developed a degree of "normalcy".

Sure there were PA soldiers on the streets everywhere, yes every few weeks the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) would enter the city, carry out an attack and just as quickly leave, yes I was still outraged every time I read about what the IOF were doing in Salfit or Nablus or Jenin but now that I was in Ramallah, I was not having to witness every single day the worst aspects of the occupation. And without realising it I had become somewhat complacent.

Seeing the apartheid wall suddenly appeared before me last Saturday and having to traverse Qalandia checkpoint once again soon dispelled that complacency. Just as today it was once again dispelled.

This morning, the IOF entered the northern city of Qalqilya to conduct a military raid, supposedly against Palestinian resistance fighters. Qalqilya, a once thriving city of 50,000 people, is close the Green Line and perhaps only and hour from Tel Aviv and as a result it became one of the first Palestinians cities to feel the bitter bite of the apartheid wall. In 2004, I visited Qalqilya many times and I remember the horror I felt the first time I saw and experienced this completely walled city. (see my 2004 blog: The Wall: a land grab that creates violence http://redapril.blogspot.com/2004/11/wall-land-grab-that-creates-violence.html).

When I read about the military assault today on the Palestinian Maan News Agency website, I thought to ring my friend M, who is from Qalqilya (but now lives in Ramallah) to see if his family was okay. But then I didn't, thinking to myself, that Qaliqilya is regularly raided and I was sure that there was nothing to worry about and his family would be fine. Without realising it my complacency had once again raised its head.

When I did finally ring him two hours later to see if all was okay, I was horrified to hear that the houses of two of his uncles had been demolished by the IOF during the invasion and that two rooms of his parents house had also been demolished. M told me that the IOF had seized one of the house belong to another family member and set up an interrogation base and they were interrogating all the men in the local area. He told me that his father and brother, along with all the other men in the neighbourhood, had been detained.

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He was in regular contact with his mother and was waiting on the latest news to make sure that his family were all okay. When I rang him back 30 minutes later to see if he was okay and if his family okay, the answer was no. During that short 30 minutes since I spoke to him, the IOF had gone in and demolished his parent's house completely - the house he grew up in, the house that his mother and father had spent a lifetime building, the house that was home to him and his five brothers and sisters, gone forever.

According to the reports in the Israeli media, the IOF had enter Qalqilya in the morning and more than 30 Palestinian civilians had been injured in the military assault. Some were suffering from teargas inhalation; one young man had been shot in the head. According to the Israeli newspapers, the IOF had surrounded "a cluster of homes in which the IDF said wanted militants are hiding....The troops called over loudspeakers on the militants to surrender, but were met with no response. During the operation, which is still ongoing, IDF bulldozers demolished two of the homes in the compound in an attempt to force the militants out, and are threatening to demolish the rest".

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This is of course the usual story put forward by the IOF to justify their actions, their target killings, their house demolitions, their arrests, their curfews, their mass abductions and arrests, their invasions.

The reason why there was "no response" from the supposed militants was because there were no militants in the houses. My friend's family are ordinary Palestinians, just a family trying to survive and get by like any other family in the world. But now their world has been turned completely upside down.

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Living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, I have been a witness to what my friend Wendy calls the "everyday sorrows of the occupation" – the checkpoints, the curfews, the house demolitions, the arrests, the beatings, the dehumanisation and collective punishment of 4 million people. And like any normal human being, I have felt anger and sadness at the injustice and inhumanity I have witnessed. But today, I could feel no anger. All I could feel was bewilderment, pain and helplessness.

Today, the brutal Israeli occupation cut closer to the bone then it had ever done before - it was a friend, someone I know and care for, someone I admire and respect, someone who is dear to me. Today, the Israeli occupation army destroyed, without blinking an eyelid, the lives of the family of someone I love.

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At a loss what to do, feeling completely helpless, I rang the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolition. Meir, their chief field worker, was surprised when I told him that the IOF had been demolishing houses in Qalqilya. He said that he had not heard any reports about it yet. I explained the situation to him and how my friend, so angry wanted to sue the IOF for the demolition of his parent's house. Before Meir responded, I knew what he was going to say.

"Yes, we have good Israeli lawyers who can help him, but the chance of a successful outcome is very low". He went on to say that the Israeli Courts will not intervene if the IOF say the demolitions were part of a "security operation".

It wouldn't matter that there were no "militants", it wouldn't matter that the homes of three innocent families had been destroyed, it wouldn't matter that the lives of these families have been all but destroyed in just one short afternoon.

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So now my friend is waiting.

Waiting to hear if all is okay with his family, to hear if his brother and father have been released, to hear that nothing more has happened to his family.

Tonight three branches of his family, more than a dozen or more people, will be forced to try and find comfort under the roof of his grandfather and extremely ill grandmother's house.

Tomorrow, he will travel to Qaliqilya to see his family and to make sure they are all okay. Tomorrow, he will climb through the rubble of the house that was once his home. Tomorrow, he will sit and try and comfort his mother, father and brothers and sisters. Tomorrow, the occupation will continue and the homes and lives of more Palestinian families will be destroyed.

And tomorrow what will you do? Will you stand up and be counted? Will you move a motion at your union to support the international boycott? Will you organise a rally to call for an end to the siege of Gaza? Tomorrow, will you take stand and say enough is enough? Tomorrow, will you join the campaign to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine?


VIDEO FOOTAGE OF M's HOUSE BEING DEMOLISHED - QALQILYA, 29 AUGUST 2007

B'Tselem Report on Qalqilya House demolitions: http://www.btselem.org/english/Razing/20070911_Demolitions_in_Qalqiliya.asp

Occupation 101 - A must see documentary

Dear friends and supporters

Recently a new documentary called Occupation 101 about the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine was released.

The film has won numerous awards and it can be viewed on the web at:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8481947913401709466&hl=en

This documentary, along with the Iron Wall which was released last year are both excellent introductions and explanations of what is happening in Palestine and Israel, and why.

In solidarity, KIm

Occupation 101 - A Must Watch Video


Information Clearing House
August 9, 2007

An award-winning documentary film on the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The film depicts life in occupied Palestine under Israeli military occupation.

Synopsis: A thought-provoking and powerful documentary film on the current and historical root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unlike any other film ever produced on the conflict -- 'Occupation 101' presents a comprehensive analysis of the facts and hidden truths surrounding the never ending controversy and
dispels many of its long-perceived myths and misconceptions.

The film also details life under Israeli military rule, the role of the United States in the conflict, and the major obstacles that stand in the way of a lasting and viable peace. The roots of the conflict are explained through first-hand on-the-ground experiences from leading Middle East scholars, peace activists, journalists, religious leaders and humanitarian workers whose voices have too often been
suppressed in American media outlets.

The film covers a wide range of topics -- which include -- the first wave of Jewish immigration from Europe in the 1880's, the 1920 tensions, the 1948 war, the 1967 war, the first Intifada of 1987, the Oslo Peace Process, Settlement expansion, the role of the United States Government, the second Intifada of 2000, the separation
barrier and the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as well as many heart wrenching testimonials from victims of this tragedy.

Click either of these links to view the entire video:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18145.htm
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8481947913401709466&hl=en


For more information and to purchase a DVD:
http://www.occupation101.com/

A Time for Celebration

7 August, 2007

Even during a time of occupation and a quisling government, the resilience of the ordinary Palestinian people continues to shine through. Today was one of those occasions.

Today, the Palestinian education ministry released the results for the Tawjihi exam in the West Bank (the results for Gaza had been released 5 days earlier by the deposed Hamas education minister). The Tawjihi exams are the secondary school certificate exams taken by senior high schools students which determine whether or not Palestinian students are able to get into university or not.

Anyone who spends anytime in the Occupied Palestinian Territories will no doubt be struck by the overwhelming importance placed on education by the Palestinian people. Education in Palestine is not an individual affair, it is a family and societal affair that everyone participates in.

Everywhere I have gone in the past four to six weeks, friends and contacts have at different times asked me to excuse them for not being able to attend this meeting or that or only being able to meet at a certain time. The reason was that their children, whether in primary school or secondary school were undergoing their exams and they had to be with them to assist them in their study and preparation.

When my friend, who works for one of the local radio and television stations in Ramallah, told me yesterday that today he and another colleague would spend the entire day on radio announcing the outcome of the exams for the Ramallah and surrounding districts (each individual student names would be read and their score given) it brought home even more the importance placed on the exams.

And then today, my Palestinian friends and colleagues, one after another, came around with chocolates, kanafi and other sweets to celebrate the fact that their brothers or daughters or nieces had passed the exams with flying colours. According to a friend, tonight we should expect to hear fireworks being set off all over Ramallah as families celebrate the outcome of the exams.

The Tawjihi exam celebrations reflect that fact that education has traditionally been a high priority for the Palestinian people. A fact that can be seen in the high literacy levels in Palestinian society. According to the Palestinian Right to Education campaign there is a 98.2% literacy rate between 15-24 year olds and a 91.1% total adult literacy. Palestine also has the highest enrollment rates in the Middle East and North Africa, a fact that is reflected in the number of schools and educational institutions to be found in Palestine. In 2005, there were 11 Palestinian universities, 5 university colleges and 25 community colleges. The education of girls is also seen as a priority in Palestinian society. According to Bir Zeit University in 2005, female students made up more than 52% of their student body.

The majority of Palestinians believe that education can improve their living conditions not only by opening doors to employment but also act as an inoculation against the attempts to destroy the Palestinian identity and the Palestinian culture.

Gaining an education in Palestine, however, is not a simple thing. Every single day, students and their families have to deal with the ongoing brutal Israeli occupation. As with all aspects of Palestinian life, the occupation with its checkpoints, curfews and the apartheid wall is the main barrier to any normalcy and peace for the Palestinian people. The occupation impacts on every single aspect of Palestinian life, including the right to education.

In 2001, according to Dima Al-Samma from the Palestinian Ministry of Education, "Violence and blockages the Israeli government imposed on Palestinian areas for the past 255 days hindered the educational process on all levels. Teachers have been forced to take difficult and rough side routes and bypass roads, which are extremely dangerous in light of the Israeli settler aggression. Teachers have also been subjected to physical and verbal abuse. 21 teachers were arrested. Furthermore, teachers were over burdened with transportation fees that doubled due to the prolonged routes."

During the same period, three schools in Hebron were confiscated and turned into Israeli military posts and 66 schools in the West Bank had to suspend their schooling at different times. In Bethlehem, four schools were closed for 62 days. In Nablus, two schools were closed for around 23 days. At one stage 50 schools were forced to evacuate because there was fear of random bombings by the Israeli Occupation Forces.

In 2001, the Ministry of Education noted that 90 students had been killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces, while another 2151 were shot and wounded of whom many are handicapped and bedridden. Furthermore, 76 students were arrested. In addition, the Israeli government prevented 67 out of 854 students from taking the Tawjihi examination

Bir Zeit University, in 2005, as part of their Right to Education campaign noted that between September 2000 and 2005, more than 676 children, 199 university students and 39 teachers had been killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces. In addition 2500 children had been arrested, 269 schools damaged as a result of shelling by the Israeli military, in the Gaza 73 educational institutions had been destroyed. In 2004, 14 children under the age of 14 years had been injured or killed in their classrooms in the Gaza. Iman Sameer Al-Hams, 13 years of age, was just one of several children killed on their way to school by the Israeli military. Iman was shot and killed by 20 live bullets: she was wearing her school uniform and carrying her school bag.

The Right to Education campaign also noted that in 2004, 1289 schools had been closed during sieges and curfews and 48 turned into military bases. In addition, Israel's apartheid wall has resulted in students in 22 localities being cut off from the educational institutions, resulting in more than 14, 740 students not being able to reach their classrooms.

In Palestine, there is often so much to be sad and angry about as the Israeli occupation brings with it everyday sorrows, sorrows which at time can seem overwhelming. But there is also much in Palestine to celebrate: the people, their resilience and the collective resistance. And because of this, today is a day of celebration.

A celebration not only that one's child, or niece or brother past the exam but a celebration that despite everything and despite the brutal Israeli occupation the Palestinian people will not be suppressed or made subservient. It is a day of hope and a day for congratulations and haflas (parties) and to celebrate once more Palestinian people's resilience and their struggle for freedom against overwhelming odds.

Palestinian Right to Education Campaign: http://right2edu.birzeit.edu/

Oslo Mark II and the making of the Third Intifada

4 August, 2007

Now the dust has settled, Palestinian President and Fatah leader, Mahmoud Abbas and the unelected Prime Minister of Palestine, Salaam Fayyad, along with the minority of the old Fatah guard have revealed that they have nothing to offer the Palestinian people except a return to the failed “peace process” of the 1990s.

Over the past two weeks, anyone who has any interest or knowledge of Palestinian politics would have had a distinct feeling of Déjà vu – that distinct sinking feeling that you are either experiencing something or been somewhere before. One just has to listen to the excited proclamations coming out of the mouths of Abbas, Fayyad and Olmert to feel like you have been transported back body and soul to the 1990s.

In the 1990s, Abu Mazan (Abbas) was the key Palestinian negotiator in what was to become known as the Oslo Peace Process – a process which many Palestinians believed and still believed turned the PLO leadership into a tool of the Israeli state.

In the mid 1990s, however, many Palestinians, like many Israelis held out great hope for the peace process. Ordinary Israelis were tried of Israelis wars in Lebanon and the OPT. After 26 years, the Palestinians people also wanted an end to the brutal Israeli occupation – so much so that they were willing to commit themselves to the bad deal their leaders had signed them up too – a deal which saw the Palestinians renounce the claim to 78% of their historical homeland.

Olso, however, was never really about bringing about a just peace. Arafat weakened and unable to control the first intifada saw the Olso negotiations as the only way to retain power, while Israel simply wanted an immediate end to the Palestinian intifada and an end to the international pressure being placed upon them to end the occupation. As Guardian reporter, David Hirst noted in 2001, “for the Israelis, security - theirs, not the Palestinians' - was the be-all and end-all of Oslo”. The job of Arafat, Hirst noted was “to supply it on their behalf”.

Similarly, Israeli academic, Tanya Reinhart (who died last year) noted in 2001 at the beginning of the Al Aqsa intifada that the Oslo Accord allowed Israel “to reduce the cost of the occupation, using a Palestinian patronage regime, with Arafat as the senior cop responsible for the security of Israel”.

In addition, wrote Reinhart, Olso was designed to set in train a process that:

“should lead to the collapse of Arafat and the PLO. The humiliation of Arafat, and the amplification of his surrender, will gradually lead to loss of popular support. Consequently, the PLO will collapse, or enter power conflicts. Thus, the Palestinian society will loose its secular leadership and institutions. In the power driven mind of those eager to maintain the Israeli occupation, the collapse of the secular leadership is interpreted as an achievement, because it would take a long while for the Palestinian people to get organized again, and, in any case, it is easier to justify even the worst acts of oppression, when the enemy is a fanatic Muslim organization”.

During Arafat’s life time, however, as Reinhart notes the collapse of the PA was staved off. This was because of what the Palestinians called “Sumoud” or steadfastness - a refusal to give up their land willingly, a refusal to give into the Israeli occupation and a refusal to turn on one another. In spite of Israel, Palestinian society refused to collapse and refused to fragment, instead they remained Sumoud, even as Israeli deepened its occupation and breached its Olso obligations again and again.

Over the next 7 years from 1993 until the outbreak of the Al Asqa Intifada in September 2000, the hope that the Palestinian people placed in the peace process was dashed on the rocks of the continuing Israeli occupation and Israeli intransigence.

Under the 1993 Declaration of Principles (Oslo Accord) signed by Shimon Peres on behalf of Israel and Mahmoud Abbas on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Israel agreed that it would not take any unilateral steps to alter the situation in the occupied territories. In addition, they promised that they would not expand the all ready established illegal Israeli settlements.

However, through the 1990s, Israel continued to build and expand the settlements and by the 21st century had establish more than 75 new settlements in breach of the Oslo Accord agreement. Throughout the 1990s, in breach of Oslo, Israel continued to steal Palestinian land and to deepen the occupation, it continued to arrest Palestinians and jail them, it continued to set up checkpoints, roadblocks, to demolish houses and impose, illegally, collective punishment on more than 4 million Palestinians living in the OPT.

Under Oslo, both the US and Israel demanded that the Palestinian people conduct free and democratic elections. However, as the Palestinians soon discovered in 2006, if they fairly and democratically elect a leadership that neither Israel or the US like, then they will be starved, blockaded and beaten into submissions until a quisling government is established.

After Olso was exposed once and for all at the Camp David Summit, the Palestinian people rose up again in popular revolt as they realised that Oslo would never bring about an end to the Israeli occupation. The Al Asqa Intifada, sparked by Ariel Sharon’s deliberately provocative visit to the Temple Mount was simply the expression of the Palestinian refusal to submit to occupation even in the name of peace.

After 14 years of abject failure, it has become clear to just about everyone, except Mahmoud Abbas, that Israel was never interested in negotiating a real lasting peace with the Palestinian people. Abbas, as former CIA analyst, Kathleen Christison noted in a recent article on the Counterpunch website that “despite being repeatedly slapped in the face”, the leadership of Fatah who started the peace process (ie. Abbas) continues with “blind desire to please the U.S. in the expectation that this behaviour would bring some political benefit to the Palestinians, despite repeated evidence to the contrary”.

Under the leadership of Abbas, the process set in train by Oslo and outlined by Reinhart has begun to bear fruit. The refusal of a small coterie of the Fatah leadership to accept the fact they are no longer the dominate player in the Palestinian political landscape and that they no longer control the PLC has resulted in Israel being able to ferment in just 18 short months,what it has not been able to achieve in nearly 60 years – civil war between the Palestinians. This “power conflicts” as Reinhart called them have now made it “easier to justify even the worst acts of oppression” in the name of opposing a supposedly “fanatic Muslim organization”.

Over the past few weeks, since the dismissal of the democratically elected Hamas lead PLC by Abbas, while the world has focused on Israel and the US have attempted to bolster him and Fayyad and the range of “good will gestures” including the release of 250 prisoners and the release of some of the Palestinian tax funds that Israel stole, little attention has been paid to Israel’s ongoing brutality both in the West Bank and Gaza.

In just one week, between 5 – 12 July, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reported that Israel had killed 12 Palestinians, including 3 civilians; wounded 30 others, including 25 civilians, carried out 38 invasions into Palestinian communities, razed at 200 dunums of land in the Gaza, arrested 79 Palestinian civilians, imposed a total siege on the Gaza (meaning that 1. 3 million people are trapped in worsening humanitarian conditions).

Since the Sharm el Sheik Summit, Israel has also arrested more than 400 Palestinians (almost twice as many as they freed and mostly from Fatah) and have killed nearly 50 Palestinians.

The world media, however, is content to ignore these facts. Instead they focus all their attention on Bush’s announcement that he will convene of an international peace conference later this year is an attempt to bolster Abbas. However, true to form, Bush also has made it clear that all concessions in the so-called peace process would come from the Palestinians, not Israel.

As with the last peace processes, both Oslo and the Road Map, both Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have refused to set a deadline for final status discussions with Palestinians on issues such as Jerusalem, refugees, borders, settlements and security. According to a July 20 report by Ha’aretz journalists Aluf Benn and Shmuel Rosner, “the demands Bush presented to Israel were mild, almost imperceptible, compared to the challenge he gave the Palestinians”.

In the clearest rehash of Olso so far, in late July Olmert announced in the lead-up to the conference that Israel will seek to negotiate an “agreement of principles” with Abbas. The agreement of principles, as with the Oslo Declaration of Principles will push permanent status issues such as refugees, borders and Jerusalem to the backburner. Instead, the negotiations would revolve around the characteristics of the Palestinian state, its official institutions, its economy and the custom arrangements it would have with Israel.

Olmert’s plan, like the failed Oslo Accords and the Road Map, proposes a nominal exchange of land for peace. However, the larger Israeli “settlement” blocs in the West Bank will not be dismantled and will remain under Israeli control. Israel would also not withdraw from East Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives or the Old City and its environs. It would only withdraw from Arab neighbourhoods not considered part of the historical city.

Olmert has, however, come up with something new in relation to his Agreement of Principles – according tot he Israeli media he plans to connect the West Bank and the Gaza Strip through an under ground tunnel, supposedly in “order to offer the Palestinians territorial contiguity, prevent friction between Israelis and Palestinians, and preserve security”. However, Israel will demand compensation for digging the tunnel in Israeli territory.

While Olmert, Bush, Rice and Elliot Abrams (the key instigator of the US policy for the overthrow of the democratically elected Palestinian PLC and the National Unity government) are all going around slapping each other on the back and promoting Oslo Mark II, the Palestinian people are not fooled.

Fourteen years after Oslo Mark I, they are well aware of the reality of the “peace process” and the fact that it did not bring them peace, justice or a state. Abbas knows that it will be a hard sell and an even harder sell if Gaza remains isolated.
Despite, Abbas having the international backing his government is weak, something he knows as well as do the US and Israel. Israel security officials have stated that they recognise that despite everything and all of Abbas pronouncements there is enormous pressure from the Palestinian people regarding unity.

The Palestinian people do not want a divided nation and Hamas is very much part of the political landscape, whether Israel or the US like it or not. The Palestinian people will not accept two separate Palestinian territories, they will not accept the division amongst the factions and the demonising of one faction by another, they will not accept a divided struggle. Recent polls have reaffirmed this with one poll by a Norwegian NGO revealing that 85% of Palestinians want national reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. Israel and the US think they have won and they think they have crushed the Palestinian people but they have not.

The Palestinian people will remain “sumoud” despite the inadequacy of their leadership. And if Abbas, Olmert and Bush are not careful they will once again have another intifada on their hands, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not this year or next year, but when a people have nothing more to lose, then the struggle is the only thing they have left.

The Life and Death of Naji al-Ali: voice of a nation

24 July, 2007



It has now been 20 years since reknown Palestinian cartoonist Naji Salim al-Ali was shot in London on July 22, 1987 by an unknown assassin. He lapsed into a coma and died five weeks later on August 29, 1987.

During his life time, al-Ali drew more than 40,000 cartoons and was know for his sharp political wit and criticism of not only Israel, the US but also the Arab states. In his work, he campaigned tirelessly for the rights of the Palestinian refugees, Palestinian self-determination and against the absence of democracy, corruption and inequality in the Arab world. His work was often censored and he frequently received death threats. al-Ali was also detained and jailed in various countries and expelled from others for his political commentary.

At 10 years of age, al-Ali and his family were forced to flee Palestine to Lebanon, when Israel invaded and seized the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In Lebanon, he like thousands of others Palestinians, were forced to live in poor and over crowded refugee camps. This experience gave birth to his most famous creation, Handala (sometimes spelt Hanthala or Hanzala).

The cartoonist christened his 10 year-old boy creation, who never spoke but was the guardian of the Palestinian cause, after a short bitter bush which can be found throughout all of Palestine. The bush although weak, if cut, has the reputation of growing back, time and time again.



Handala, dressed in rags and bare foot, according to al-Ali, represented him at the age of 10 years when he was forced to flee Palestine.

“The young, barefoot Handala was a symbol of my childhood. He was the age I was when I had left Palestine and, in a sense, I am still that age today. Even though this all happened 35 years ago, the details of that phase in my life are still fully present to my mind. I feel that I can recall and sense every bush, every stone, every house and every tree I passed when I was a child in Palestine”.

Handala, explained al-Ali is “a child who is not beautiful; his hair is like the hair of a hedgehog who uses his thorns as a weapon. Handala is not a fat, happy, relaxed, or pampered child. He is barefooted like the refugee camp children, and he is an icon that protects me from making mistakes. Even though he is rough, he smells of amber. His hands are clasped behind his back as a sign of rejection at a time when solutions are presented to us the American way”.

“Handala was born ten years old, and he will always be ten years old. At that age, I left my homeland, and when he returns, Handala will still be ten, and then he will start growing up. The laws of nature do not apply to him. He is unique. Things will become normal again when the homeland returns”

“I presented him to the poor and named him Handala as a symbol of bitterness. At first, he was a Palestinian child, but his consciousness developed to have a national and then a global and human horizon. He is a simple yet tough child, and this is why people adopted him and felt that he represents their consciousness."



According to al Ali, Handala “protected” his soul when he felt weary and prevented him from ignoring his duty to his people and their struggle:

“That child was like a splash of fresh water on my forehead, bringing me to attention and keeping me from error and loss. He was the arrow of the compass, pointing steadily towards Palestine. Not just Palestine in geographical terms, but Palestine in its humanitarian sense - the symbol of a just cause, whether it is located in Egypt, Vietnam or South Africa. I am from Ain Al-Helwa, a camp like any other camp. The people of the camps were the people of the land in Palestine. They were not merchants or landowners. They were farmers. When they lost their land, they lost their lives. The bourgeoisie never had to live in the camps, whose inhabitants were exposed to hunger, to every degradation and to every form of oppression. Entire families died in our camps. Those are the Palestinians who remain in my mind, even when my work takes me away from the camp”.



In 1982, al-Ali once again experienced first hand the military might of the Israeli Zionist state. Back in Ain Al Helwa refugee camp in Lebanon, he and his family and thousands of others were forced to flee from the camp. He and many others were taken prisoner by the invading Israeli army.

He recounted once he and his family were freed five days later, they sought to return to the refugee camp:

“We travelled by day. The corpses of the victims still lay in the streets. The burnt-out hulks of Israeli tanks still stood at the entrances to the camps. The Israelis had not removed them yet. From my inquiries into the circumstances of the resistance, I learned that it consisted of a group of no more than 40 or 50 youths. The Israeli army had burned the camp while the women and children were still inside their shelters. Israeli missiles had penetrated deep inside the camp, claiming the lives of hundreds of children in the camp in Saida. The young men in the resistance group had spontaneously taken an oath to one another that they would die before they ever surrendered. And, in fact, the Israelis never captured a single one of them. In daylight, the Israeli forces would attack. At night, the resistors would strike. This is what happened in Ain Al-Helwa, as I saw for myself. But I also know that there were other forms of resistance in the camps of Sur, Al-Burj Al-Shamal, Al-Bass and Al-Rashidi”.

The subsequent butchery of Palestinian refugees in the camps shocked al-Ali to the core, none more so than the infamous massacre at Sabra and Shatila camps. For two days the IDF surrounded the camp, closing off all routes of escape and than sat and listened as their allies, the Lebanese Christian Phalangists, carried out the dirty work of murdering 3000 unarmed Palestinian men, women and children. (Israeli Defence Minister - who was later to become Prime Minister - Ariel Sharon was found personally responsible by an Israeli commission for the massacre, while the Israeli military personnel were found indirectly responsible because they knew the massacre was happening and did nothing to stop it)



In response, Handala’s 10 year-old hands become more animated, raised in anger and against oppression: sometimes holding a Palestinian flag or throwing a stone as a sign of resistance but always in condemnation of those who betrayed the justice of the Palestinian cause.

His untimely death came just five short years later. Ten months after his death, Scotland Yard arrested a Palestinian student who turned out to be a Mossad agent. According to the agent, Israel were well aware in advance of the assasination attempt. Israel, however, refused to pass on any information they had on al-Ali assasination. In response, Britain expelled two Israeli diplomates and closed down Mossad’s last base.

Despite his death, al-Ali’s legacy continues to live on, even now 20 years later. He once remarked that Handala, "this being that I have invented will certainly not cease to exist after me, and perhaps it is no exaggeration to say that I will live on with him after my death".

al-Ali words continue to ring true and since his death, his creation continues to speak out, in deafening silence, for Palestinian self determination. Handala, the small refugee boy, dressed in rags, silent in defiance and strong in resistance can be found everywhere throughout Palestine.

And while his image is prolific, he is of course found most at home in the Palestinian refugee camps - the place of his birth - where he continues to remains a potent symbol of Palestinian resistance and defiance against all odds.

Samples of Naji al-Ali's cartoons can be found at: http://www.najialali.com/

Israel’s “good will gestures": The distance between reality and rhetoric

For the past month, Israeli and international media has been lauding Olmert’s for his “good will gestures” which include the proposed release 250 Fatah aligned Palestinian Prisoners. While the news of the yet-to-be released Palestinian prisoners is all over the international news, barely a word has been said about the fact that Israeli has arrested more than 300 Palestinians, the majority from Abbas’ Fatah party, in the two weeks period after Olmert and Israel began touting their good will gestures. According to Palestinian News Agency, Ma’an, the figures were released by Fatah’s information office on July 10 reveal that Israel has continued to target and illegal abduct Palestinians.

This week, the PA run Palestinian National Information Centre also released its monthly statistics on the Israeli occupation. According to the PNIC, during the month of June, Israel occupation forces killed 49 Palestinians and wounded a further 147. During the same period, the Israel abducted and arrested 383 Palestinians and carried out 765 invasions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and committed a total of 2,380 human rights violations against the civilian Palestinian population.

In their weekly report on Israeli human rights violations the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights noted that in the week of 5 July to 11 July:

•IOF killed 11 Palestinians, including 3 civilians, in the Gaza Strip and a 12th one on the West Bank.
•The victims in the Gaza Strip were killed during an IOF incursion into al-Boreij refugee camp.
•The victim in the West Bank was extra-judicially executed by IOF.
•30 Palestinians, including 25 civilians, were wounded by IOF gunfire in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
•24 of these Palestinians, including 20 civilians, were wounded during an IOF incursion into al-Boreij refugee camp.
•IOF arrested 2 of the wounded in the West Bank.
•IOF conducted 36 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, and 2 incursions into the Gaza Strip.
•IOF razed at least 200 donums of agricultural land in the Gaza Strip.
•IOF damaged some public and private property.
•IOF arrested 69 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, and 10 others in the Gaza Strip.
•IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT.
•IOF have isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world and a humanitarian crisis is likely to emerge.
•At least 6,000 Palestinians have been stuck at the Egyptian side of Rafah International Crossing Point, and the number of deaths among them has mounted to 14.
•IOF positioned at various checkpoints in the West Bank arrested 3 Palestinian civilians.

So while the Bush and the EU laud Olmert for his (yet to be actually given) “generous gift” of 250 Fatah aligned prisoners and Abbas seeks to undemocratically retain control of the PA, another 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners languish in Israel’s jails. The road blocks Israel promised to remove still remain in place, as do the checkpoints and 380 prisoners take the place of the ones who are supposedly going to be released and the Israeli occupation continues ...

We’ve tried to enter Palestine by land. We’ve tried to arrive by air. Now we’re getting serious. We’re taking a ship!

BREAKING THE SIEGE IN GAZA

Dear friends and supporters,

please find below a copy of an article with information and interviews about the Break the Siege/Free Gaza campaign. The below article is an attempt to raise awareness and support for the campaign and includes a link to the campaign website.

Break the Siege needs your support - you can support the campaign in a variety of ways, including financially, but also by publicising of the campaign and organising solidarity events to coincide with the ship's departure to and arrival in Gaza.

Please feel free to distribute the article to your networks. Please consider talking to your social justice networks and the Palestine solidarity groups in your town, city or country about how they can support the campaign.

You can checkout the campaign website at www.freegaza.org

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

Palestine: Breaking the siege in Gaza
Kim Bullimore

14 July 2007

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/717/37247


"We've tried to enter Palestine by land. We've tried to arrive by air. Now we're getting serious. We're taking a ship".


In August 2007, up to 70 human rights activists from 13 countries will attempt to non-violently break the Israeli and international siege of the densely populated Gaza Strip by sailing a ship into Gazan territorial waters with US$25,000 worth of humanitarian aid to donate to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Israel has prevented the activists — who include teachers, students, musicians, politicians and holocaust survivors — from carrying out humanitarian work in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). The campaign aims to raise international awareness about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip and to pressure the international community to review its sanctions policy and end its support for continued Israeli occupation.

Green Left Weekly spoke to three activists involved in the campaign.

Sharyn, who lives in Britain, gained the dubious distinction in 2002 of becoming the first international peace activist with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) to be shot by the Israeli military, just four days after she arrived in the OPT. Despite this, Sharyn returned a further five times to carry out human rights work in the OPT before she was placed on the Israeli government's official blacklist of individuals prevented from entering Israel and the OPT.

Fellow Australian activist Michael, who was the ISM's media officer in 2003 when US activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death while trying to prevent an Israeli armoured bulldozer from demolishing a home in Rafah in the Gaza Strip, has also been blacklisted by Israel. When Michael tried to return to Palestine in 2004, he was detained for a week as a "security risk" and deported without ever leaving Israel's Ben Gurion airport.

According to Sharyn, "this blacklist has been [Israel's] plan B after plan A of simply shooting us drew international condemnation". Both Michael and Sharyn told GLW that the idea for the Break the Siege campaign was born in November 2006 because so many human rights and peace activists had been prevented from entering the OPT.

According to Michael, "The original idea was for these peace activists to arrive simultaneously at Ben Gurion airport and demand admittance to the OPT. However, it was soon decided that the real story was not Israel's treatment of internationals, but of the Palestinians themselves, and that we needed to focus on Israel's siege of Gaza." This led to the plan to charter a boat.

"Israel claims that since it pulled its settlers out of Gaza, the strip is a 'foreign country' that is no longer under Israeli occupation. If this is the case then its total control over Gaza's air space, territorial waters and border crossings [including those into Egypt] is a gross violation of international law", Michael said.

"The purpose of the mission is to draw attention to the fact that Israel is using its illegal choke hold on Gaza to wage economic warfare on an already desperately impoverished population by arbitrarily closing the strip's border crossings to exports, restricting the supply of food and medicines, closing offshore fisheries to Palestinian fishermen and brazenly stealing customs duties that belong to the Palestinian people."

According to Sharyn, Break the Siege is about showing "solidarity with people who are living under terrible conditions" and letting the "Palestinians know they are not forgotten", as well as placing international pressure on Israel.

Should they make it to Gaza, Sharyn expects "to be given gallons of sugary tea and have multiple families attempt to feed me their entire week's food supply in one sitting". However she doesn't expect the same welcome from the Israeli military, which is likely to "make it very evident" that it holds Gaza "in an iron grip" and "will attempt to stop our boat reaching the port. Since our Israeli colleagues will be on board with us, I hope the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] will decide a violent attack wouldn't be a good idea."

Also travelling on the ship will be 82-year-old Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, whose parent's perished in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Hedy told GLW she received "a wake up call" about Israel and Palestine in 1982 when she learned "about the massacres in the two refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon".

"I needed to find out what and why it happened; what preceded it, what had taken place since 1948. The more I learned and the more I understood, the more I began to speak out publicly against the policies and practices of the Israeli government and military."

Hedy hopes that the Break the Siege campaign will also serve as a "wake up call" for others and will contribute to a sustained global campaign to educate people about the reality of what is going on in the OPT.

Michael said the activists hoped that the campaign would assist in "mobilising people against Israeli apartheid" and that people would not only publicise and help finance the campaign, but also organise solidarity actions around the world to coincide with the ship's departure and its arrival in Gaza.

"The Israel-Palestine conflict has become the defining struggle between racism and justice in the world today. It is impossible to support justice, human rights and democracy without opposing Israeli apartheid", Michael said.

The Break the Siege campaign needs your support. Visit http://www.freegaza.org.

From: Comment & Analysis, Green Left Weekly issue #717 18 July 2007.

Would you like an invasion with that?: On Israel's peace making

2 July, 2007

For the past two weeks or three weeks, the Israeli, American and world media have repeatedly told us that since Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared a state of emergency and dismissed the democratically elected Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh (from Hamas) and his government, that this is now the Palestinians best chance for peace. Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert has publicly been reported as saying that Israel would recognise the new unelected Palestinian emergency government and “would work with it to advance the peace process as well as the U.S backed road map for peace” (Ha’aretz).

According to Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper on June 23, Olmert and Israel will do this by offering a “pack of gestures” to Abbas and the Palestinians. This “good will” package will include the release of 250 Fatah aligned political prisoners, release of Palestinian taxes stolen by Israel, not cutting of water, electricity, food and medicine supplies to the Gaza Strip, allowing Palestinian businessmen to enter Israel, transferring armoured cars to Fatah and “renewed” security cooperation. Ha’aretz went onto quoted Olmert as saying that, “We are not interested in punishing the population solely because they are ruled by a terrorist organization”. He further was quoted as saying "We are not indifferent to your suffering. We are not ignoring the need to bring it to an end, through understanding and peacemaking” and “As Israel's prime minister, I say to you: We have no desire to rule you... nor run your lives. We have no intention to make decisions for you. I believe that soon you will be able to live in your state alongside the State of Israel."

On Wednesday, the Palestinian people of Gaza and Nablus and several other cities in the West Bank got to experience first hand Israel’s “peacemaking”. In Gaza, Israeli warplanes and ground troops killed 13 Palestinians, including three children and injured another 44. In Nablus, Israeli troops put 100,000 people under curfew for almost three days, blew up houses, blockaded hospitals and killed one man and injured dozens of others, including children. Olmert, obviously inevertenly forgot to mentioned that his so-called “peace package” or “package of goodwill gestures”, also include military invasions, curfews, tear gas, rubber bullets and illegal collective punishment.

In response to the Israel’s latest efforts in “peace making”, my team mates and I recieved a call from the Palestinian coordinators of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in Nablus requesting our assistance. My team mate W and I quickly packed our overnight bags and made our way to Nablus, which is about a half an hour from our village.

My first visit to Nablus was in 2004. At the time, it was a permanent closed military zone, which meant that it was closed to all international observers unless you have receive prior permission from the Israeli state to enter the area. Located on its outskirts of Nablus are three refugee camps, Ein Beit el Ma, Balata and Askar. While all Palestinian refugee camps are considered by the IOF as being “terrorist centres”, Balata tops their list. The small two square kilometre camp is home to more 80% of Palestinians internally displaced refugees in the OPT and the refugees there have played an active role in opposing the brutality of the Israeli occupation in both the first and second intifada. By the declaring the region a closed military zone, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) were able to act with impunity, carrying out continuous and no-stop military campaigns, “targeted” assassinations, house demolitions and illegal collective punishment without the prying eyes of human rights activists, the media and international observers.

In 2004, for a period of about 9 months, the only way that international volunteers were able to get into Nablus was by surreptitiously scrambling through the back roads and the mountains surrounding the city. On the day in 2004, that myself and four other volunteers attempted to enter Nablus via the hills, we were prevented by IOF soldiers being stationed at our drop off and pick up points. Although we did not hold much in succeeding, we decided to take the chance and see if we could get in through a checkpoint. Much to both our surprise and others, we became the first internationals to enter the Nablus through a checkpoint during that period. At the time, I remember our Palestinian friends in Nablus greeting our news with complete shock and disbelief.

According to friends, the permanent closure was lifted in 2005, so this time my team mate and I had a relatively easy job of getting to Nablus. Once we arrived, we were briefed on the situation, along with the international volunteers from ISM. Shortly we broke into four teams, with our main tasks being to patrol the old city, which was under lockdown and curfew, in order to see if any Palestinians were in need off aid, such as food, water or medicine but also to monitor the activity of the IOF. As we walked into the Old City, I was struck by how eerie the scene in front of me was. I had been in Nablus three weeks earlier and the streets of the Old City, as usual, were crazy busy, with vendors selling their wears, spruiking and hundreds of people.

For hundreds of years, Nablus has been the main Palestinian centre for agricultural and commercial trading. Prior to the Israeli occupation in 1967, it had a booming economy and was famous for its olive oil, soap, leather production and sweets (with Nablusian Kanefi being the most delicious and famous). However, now the streets were completely silent except for the sounds of Israeli military vehicles patrolling the streets and sound grenades exploding. All the shops were closed and locked up and as we walked through the deserted streets, we could smell the teargas wafting through the air.



As our group split into our teams, we could see the IOF hummers and tanks patrolling the streets. At first, the IOF ignored our presence on the streets letting us pass without hassle, only occasionally coming closer to see what we were doing. If we encountered any soldiers, myself and another ISM woman had been elected as the negotiators for our team. Our job was to negotiate with the IOF in order to either secure our passage through the military lines, to ensure the Palestinian civilians we were accompanying came to no harm and to ensure both ourselves and them were not detained or arrested. Of the four teams, it turned out that our team encountered the least problems. We were able to enter the Old City and make it to the Medical Relief office with very little trouble.

However, two of our other teams were not as lucky. One team, who were accompanying medical volunteers, was unable to make it into the old city as the IOF refused to let them in, saying it was a closed military zone. Another team was detained for an hour or more by the IOF, when they refused to leave the two Palestinian medics they were accompanying. The soldiers demanded the huwiyas (ID) of the medics ensuring they would not be able to leave or continue with their duties.

The confiscation of a huwiya by the military is equivalent to physically kidnapping a Palestinian. Palestinians can not travel anywhere without a huwiya. If they can not produce their huwiya, they will be immediately arrested and jailed. So if a soldier confiscates a Palestinians huwiya, he or she can not go anywhere and must remain there until his huwiya is returned. This can sometimes be for 10 minutes or sometimes it can be in 3 or 7 or 12 hours or even longer. On many occasions, IOF soldiers while not arresting Palestinians, have refused to return their huwiya, telling them to come back the next day. The Palestinians are then caught in a catch 22 situation. They are reluctant to leave without their huwiyas but do so because they know if they don’t follow the orders of the solider they run the risk of being arrested. However, they also know if they do leave, they now run the risk of being arrested because they don’t have their huwiya. In addition, they know that if they leave without their huwiya, they will mostly not get it back the next day.

After our initial patrol was finished, our teams regrouped at our original starting point. As we waited for all the teams to turn up, we could hear sound grenades being exploded and then one huge explosion. We all ran to the balcony, realising that the IOF had just set of explosive charges in order to demolish a Palestinian house. As we looked up, we could see the dust from the explosion rising into the air. As we watched the dust dissipate, we could hear more sound grenades exploding. About an hour later, around 10.00 pm, a second detonation took place. Shortly after, we received a call from the local Medical Relief teams asking if there were any volunteers who could help facilitate the entrance of the medical team and help with the rescue efforts as there were people trapped in the rubble. Around 15 of us raised our hands and quickly ran to get our bags.



However, just as the medical team arrived and we assembled on the street to accompany them, an IOF jeep spotted us and blocked our exit. The soldiers called over the chief medic and demanded to know what was going on. Myself and J from the ISM quickly joined the medic, as we had once again been elected the team negotiators. After 10 minutes of discussion, we were informed that we could leave but the Palestinian medic could not. We, of course, refused to leave without him. Eventually, we were finally told we could all leave. However, the medic was informed that if we accompanied him or any other medical teams that he and the medical teams would be arrested. We quickly discovered that these instructions were put out to all IOF vehicles. This meant that the medics would have to go without us because they could not run the risk of being arrested. They advised us that if they needed us, they would call us and we would try and make it to the site without them. However, this would be also be very dangerous for us to be travelling without Palestinians, as not only were there IOF on the streets but also Palestinian militants who were engaged in running battles with the IOF. All throughout the evening we could hear gun fire being exchanged between the two groups and we later heard that the militants had blown up three IOF jeeps, injuring several soldiers.

While we were frustrated that we were unable to accompany the medics to the site, we were even more upset by the knowledge that there were people caught in the rubble of the demolished homes and we could not help them. Upon our return to our accommodation, we learnt that the IOF weren’t letting the medical teams enter the demolition sites, saying it was a closed military zone. This was despite that there were injured people and people caught in the rubble. Twenty minutes later, we heard yet a third huge detonation, signalling a third demolition had just taken place.

Looking around I could see the grim looks on all my fellow internationals faces. Many of them were choking back their anger and trying to hold back their tears. Many of us tried to find a quite out of the way place, away from the main crowd in order to pull themselves together. It had been a long and hot day and we had witnessed already so much oppression. We were angry because we knew that people were hurt and injured and we had been prevented from helping them. We were angry because all day long we had been inhaling teargas and hearing sound grenades being discharged. We were angry and distressed because we saw people locked in their houses and treated like animals. We were angry and distressed because with each demolition explosion, we knew the lives of another family had just been irrevocably destroyed. We were angry and distressed that the Israel could continually collectively punish an entire people, something which is illegal under international law, with impunity. We were angry and distressed at the injustices we say and the fact that world seemed to be standing by and turning a blind eye to it all.

As I sat on the balcony, I starred up at the beautiful sky above me and tried to hold back my tears. In Nablus, the intensity of Israel’s occupation is overwhelming. More then anywhere else of I had been in Palestine, it is the city where death and oppression is all around you, constantly. In Balata, more than 600 martyrs have died during the second intifada and their lives are remembered on the walls throughout the old city and the camps. It should be explained, however, that In Palestine, the word “martyr” is used to refer to anyone killed as a result of the occupation, not just the militants who participate in suicide bombing operations or who are part of the armed resistance in the camps. They are also the innocents who had died at the hands of the Israeli occupation

Martyrs are the children - boy and girls - killed on their way to school, in their class room or while playing in their homes. They are the ordinary women and men - young and old - innocent by standers, who are killed by the Israeli security forces during the IOF’s 'target assassinations’. They are those who died, inside their houses, as the IOF bulldozed their homes and they are the women who die giving birth in ambulances delayed at checkpoints.

In Nablus old city and Balata, they stare down at you from the walls in posters commemorating their lives. It can be overwhelming and disturbing to walk down the street and see so many faces – babies, toddlers, primary schoolers, teenagers and young men and women in their 20s, as well as the middle aged and the elderly – staring back at you. As I sat there, my heartached for young children who would grow up in the refugee camps, such as Balata, and who would never know one single day free from brutal repression and occupation and who saw so much death and destruction around them. However, as I sat there trying to push down my angry, tears and feelings of impotency, I reminded myself that I could walk away from this at anytime but my Palestinian friends could not.

As I sat there, I marvelled at the strength of my Palestinian friends, who had chosen the path of non-violent resistance, despite all the destruction, death and oppression around them. I recalled, how during my last visit to Nablus three weeks earlier, my friend S told me how during the last Israeli invasion of Balata in February, how half an hour after having a coffee with a friend, he had to return to the same cafe to help recovery his friend’s body and pick up the pieces of his friends brain splattered all over the wall and sidewalk. S told me that this wasn’t the first time that he had to go and recover the body of a friend killed by the Israel military. I wondered if I had to do the same, would I have the same strength as my friend...

The next day, we were woken at 6.30 am by the Israeli military shouting orders about the curfew in Hebrew through the load speakers of their military jeeps. As we prepared to go to Balata, we heard that the IOF was beginning to withdraw from both the camp and the old city. By 9am, the IOF had left the city and people began to emerge back onto the streets. While the IOF may have left the city, our jobs were not over. Over the next 6 hours, our job was to document as much as possible any violations carried out by the IOF.



We visited three of the houses that the IOF occupied and used as military posts during the invasion. All three houses had been ransacked, with cupboards, drawers and tables overturned. In two of the houses, the doors had been smashed in and broken. The families were either locked in a small room or forced to leave and go to a neighbor’s house. In at least two of the houses, the IOF had bore holes in the floors and walls or ripped open the ceilings, supposedly in search of explosives, weapons and tunnels. We also visited the three houses that had either been partially or completely demolished with explosive charges. Rubble was everywhere and the families were distressed about the destruction.

Later in the day we also visited two of the three hospitals that had been blockaded by the IOF during the invasion. The doctors and nurses we spoke with told us how many of the medical staff were not able to reach the hospitals due to the Israeli curfew. They went on to tell us how all the staff and patients that did make it to the hospital were, either, delayed or prevented from entering the hospitals. Nurses at one hospital also reported that the Israeli military had opened fire on the hospital at least five times during the course of the invasion, splaying the walls of the hospital with machine gun bullets. The went onto tell us how the Israeli forces also prevented supplies of oxygen and dialysis treatment chairs from entering the hospital for more than a half hour, along with basic supplies such as bread.

After we finished out documentation duties, W and I made our way back to Haris. Despite being exhausted we promised to return to Nablus, if the IOF reinvaded. During the last invasion in February, the IOF left Nablus for around 12 hours before re-invading and placing the city under a renewed curfew for another three or four days.

For the moment, Nablus is free of Israeli occupation forces but the question is for how long ....

10 Days: the Palestinian crisis and the Hamas-Fatah struggle

24 June, 2007

It has now been 10 days since Fatah leader and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared a state of emergency, sacking the Hamas led Palestinian National Unity government. During this period, Abbas has moved to isolate Hamas further and strengthen his positon.

While the US, Israel and the European Union has come out in support of Abbas, promising to lift the crippling economic blockade and return taxes Israel stole from the Palestinian people, an attempt by the US to get UN Security Council backing for Abbas' action has failed. Russia, South Africa , Indonesia and Qatar have al opposed the US sponsored Security Council declaration of confidence in the emergency government on June 20. According to Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper, " Russia and South Africa have questioned the legitimacy of the Palestinian emergency government and argued that a Palestinian unity government is not only still possible, but would be preferable to the emergency government headed by Fayad, which has authority in the West Bank only". In addition, "the South African ambassador argued that the international community, especially the U.S., Israel and the Quartet, are to blame for the situation in the Gaza Strip". Objections were also raided to the declaration of support by the Palestinian observer who argued that such a declaration would constitute intervention in the PA's internal affairs.

Last week, I spent two days in Ramallah and it was clear that there are divisions amongst the other Palestinian factins. The Palestinian People's Party and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) has come out in support of the Abbas, the declaration of the state of emergency and the dismissal of the government. They have also called for new elections based on proportional representation.

However, the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) have stated that they weren't part of the new emergency government despite reports in some of the Palestinian media and they didn't see the emergency government as a solution. The PFLP has publicly stated that they reject Hamas's military take over of the Gaza , but they also support a new unity government involving Hamas.

While I was in Ramallah, I also tried to speak to as many internationals and "ordinary" Palestinians as possible. Amongst the internationals I spoke to, whether individuals or involved with different solidarity groups, their primary concern was for the plight of the Palestinian people as a whole and they were angry that both sides seem to have forgotten about the occupation.

Amongst the Palestinians, in the first 5 days after the state of emergency being declared, there seemed to be no clear consensus about whether Abbas was right or not - as one Palestinian told me, you can ask one person a question and get two different answers from that same person. Some expressed support for one side or the other depending on their party affiliations. Others while agreeing that Hamas had been undemocratically ousted, also felt well what else were we to do, the blockade was causing such hardship.

However, it was clear that while Abbas, with US and Israeli backing, is trying to move as fast as he can to legitimise his emergency governments and to isolate Hamas, as the dust is beginning to settle more and more ordinary Palestinians are coming out in support of not only new elections but also unity between the factions. This as I mentioned before will put more and more pressure on Abbas to negotiate with Hamas, despite objections from the US and Israel . As veteran Israeli peace activist, Uri Avnery, has correctly pointed out in his latest piece, Saving Abbas, it is "pure fantasy" to think that any Palestinian "will agree to the separation of Gaza and the West Bank" or that the Gazan people will rebel against Hamas and that the West Bank Palestinians will forsake those in Gaza. They instead will demand unity and any party that does not respect that will be lost to the Palestinian street.

In addition, a number of Palestinian media outlets have either begun to question the way in which Abbas has "bent" Palestinian basic law, while other Palestinian Human Rights organisations have accused Abbas outright of violating the letter and spirit of Palestinian Basic law.

For example, the most popular Arabic and English language Palestinian news website during the crisis, Ma'an, while not explicitly condemning Abbas, has increasingly begun to refer to him as either "bending" or "eradicating" Palestinian Basic Palestinian laws. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) while condemning both Hamas and Fatah for trying to resolve the conflict between the two factions military, has also come out and condemned Abbas for violating and violated undermining the Basic Laws saying this was "no less dangerous than what is happening in Gaza

In a statement issued on June 18, the PCHR argued that "Steps taken by President Mahmoud Abbas in response to these events violate the Basic Law and undermine the Basic Law in a manner that is no less dangerous than what is happening in Gaza". It went on to say that Abbas had no authority " to dissolve or interrupt the work of the PLC during the period of emergency (article 113). The Basic Law is superior to all laws, from which all powers, including those of the President and Prime Minister, are derived, and it must not be undermined or suspended in all circumstances". According to PCHR, the steps taken by Abbas "complicate the crisis" rather then solve it. It went onto say that the crisis is political rather then constitutional and the only solution was dialogue between Fatah and Hamas.

In recent days, PCHR, the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI) and the Palestinian Non-Government Organisation Network (PNGO) have come out and criticised Abbas for issuing a presidential decree on June 21 suspending the Palestinian laws relating to the Palestinian Civil Society Organisations (CSO) and NGOs.

According to the PCHR, "this decree as a first step in a crackdown on civil society organizations with the aim of closure or restricting its work during the state of emergency in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)". PCHR noted that the decree the Ministry of Interior has the right to "review all permits for associations and organizations issued by the Ministry of Interior or any governmental source" and has the right to "take any steps deemed necessary against associations and organizations with the intent of closure, amendment, or any other action". The decree also demands that "all organizations and associations must submit new registration applications within one week; and all who violate this directive are subject to the law". According to PCHR, "this decree is a serious violation of the right to establish organizations, which is a basic human right guaranteed by article 26 of the Amended Basic Law for 2003, stating Palestinians' right to Establish unions, associations, federations, clubs, and public organizations in accordance with

Similarly, the PNGO stated in a press release on June 23, that "this Presidential Decree violates the law governing societies and organizations (Law N. 1 of 2000). It will restrict the work of associations and institutions and put them under Palestinian Authority's control without legal justification or practical procedure".

The issuing of the decree by Abbas is widely seen as an attempt to under cut the work of Hamas affiliated charities and NGOs, however, as Mustafa Barghouti's Palestinian National Initiative pointed out in statement (on June 23) condemning Abbas's decree that most Hamas affiliated NGOs were not registered under the NGO laws anyway. According to the PNI "as such, the decree has serious implications only for those CSO's [Civil Society Organisations] that adhere to and respect the NGO law". The PNI statement went on to state that "Palestinian CSO's are viewing the decree as a dangerous step that could represent an attack on CSO's and on Palestinian democracy, and see it as a move that could jeopardise the legal position of the new Palestinian emergency government"

Over the past week, the PLO Central Committee has met and has declared support for Abbas and has called for new elections. At one point, some PLO members called for the PLO central committee to replace the PLC. However, as outlined previously, this would be completely illegal as there is no provisions in the Palestinian Basic laws to dismiss the PLC (although Abbas has sought to isolate them). Despite repeated calls from Hamas and Haniyeh for renewed dialogue between Hamas and Fatah, Abbas and the PLO Central Council rejected any possibility of dialogue with Hamas. Instead, they called for amendments to the election law, establishment of a proportional electoral system rather than a district-based system.

However, the head of the PLO's political department Farouq Qaddoumi has been reported by the Egyptian media as denouncing not only the Palestinian Authority is as a "an illegal and illusory authority" but also denouncing Abbas for misusing his presidential authorities. According to reports, Qaddoumi stated that Abbas and the presidential office had misused PLO departments such as the Preventative Security forces using them "to commit things which we were not satisfied with, especially after the appointment of [Muhammad] Dahlan as national security advisor". Qaddoumi, while condemning the role of Hamas in Gaza , also called for unity between Fatah and Hamas, saying that it was unacceptable to establish separate "cantons" in the OPT.

In response to the dissolution of the Unity government, Israel has segregate Palestinian political prisoners for the first time. However, leaders of the various factions have rejected the new policy and called on all factions for unity, saying that the Palestinian struggle for their own land is greater then the struggle amongst their own people. According to one leader, Tawfiq Rabay'a, the segregation was aimed at separating brothers and to prevent them meeting. He accused Israel of implementing this rule as part of its policy of deliberately severing the Gaza Strip from the West Bank.

Hamas has continued to argue that its actions in Gaza were to stop collaborators undermining the Palestinian national struggle. According Ahmed Yousef, the political advisor to Ismail Haniyeh (Hamas leader and Palestinian Prime Minister) in an article in Ma'an, " Hamas's actions to secure Gaza from the horrific recent violence of the Palestinian contras have been out of self-defence. The assassinations of Hamas officials and supporters, attempts on the life of the elected prime minister, and kidnappings and bombings by some in President Mahmoud Abbas's paramilitary groups had to stop". He went on to argue "The PA has a clear legal right, indeed an obligation, to prevent this violence, by force if necessary, and to protect the Palestinian people. It is not Hamas that has "outlawed" the government. When has an elected party with a voting majority ever resorted to banning the government to get its way?".

Yousef went on to say "Some critics raise the red flag of 'al-Qaeda' and say that Hamas and parliament are a stalking horse for Salafi Jihadists. I defy them to demonstrate one instance in which Hamas's military structure has struck against any force outside the theatre of the occupation. The struggle has always been against the Israeli agenda of ethnic cleansing and conquest. Hamas is a movement of Palestinian liberation and nationalism - Islamist, yes, but in the sea of contending faiths that is the homeland, where is the sin in loving one's creed? Likewise, those who demean resistance to the occupation as little more than a proxy for Iran, Syria or Hezbollah are ignorant of history".

Hamas has also claimed that they have found conclusive proof amongst documents they seized from the headquarters of the Fatah aligned Preventative Services that there was extensive collaboration between Fatah, Israel and the US to undermine the democratically elected Hamas lead PA, as well as the Palestinian National Unity government. At press conference on June 23, Hamas said they could produce documents it has seized.

In response to Hamas' allegations, Abbas, has accused Khaled Mes'hal of being behind an attempt to assassinate him. However, Abbas and Fatah are yet to provide proof of the tape they say they supposedly have. In addition, the Fatah aligned head of the Palestinian intelligence agency has accused Hamas of receiving training from Iran and Syria and denied that any Preventative Security members had been involved in assassinations of Hamas members.

Over the past week, several rallies have been held in Gaza by Hamas supporters. According to Pal media, "several thousand Hamas supporters demonstrated on the streets of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday evening, protesting and condemning the speech of President Abbas, during which he launched a strong attack against the Hamas movement ....Protesters shouted slogans against President Abbas, and burned photographs of him, alongside American and Israeli flags, demonstrating their anger at his rejection of dialogue with the Hamas movement"

In the West Bank proper, it has been exceedingly quite on the highways and only minimal movement from the Israeli occupation forces, this is primarily because the Preventative Services are currently doing most of the arresting of Hamas militants, arresting 120 in the last week. During this same period, however, Israel has continued its occupation, killing at least 5 Palestinians in Gaza and arresting at least 13 Palestinians in the WB, including members of Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and the DFLP. On Friday, they killed a young Palestinian man at a checkpoint in Hebron . Israel and the IOF has also continued to restrict the movement of Palestinian human rights workers, including Shawan Jabarin, the director general of the Palestinian human rights non-governmental organization Al-Haq and one of the editors of Ma'an news agency.

Bil'in: Teargassed again but the struggle continues...

June 23, 2007

For the past two and half years, every week, the villagers of Bil'in have staged a heroic struggle against the Israeli occupation, as well as the illegal construction of the Israeli Apartheid wall and the theft of their land. On Friday (22/06), myself and three of my team mates were fortune enough to join the 124th demonstration staged by the villagers of Bil'in.

Bil'in has become famous as a model of non-violent resistance against the occupation and wall. It is home to around 1600 Palestinians and is located approximately 12 kilometers west of Ramallah and around 4 kilometres east of the 1967 Green Line. The construction of the wall will result in 60% of the village's farming land being stolen. On the land stolen from Bil'in, a new illegal Israeli settlement is being built called Modi'in Illit .

To get to Bil'in from Hares we need to travel to Ramallah (anywhere between 1 hour and two hours) and then to Bil'in (anywhere between ½ hour to 1 hour). We had arranged to meet some of the activists from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and other internationals in Ramallah and to travel to Bil'in.

When we arrived in Ramallah, however, we received some bad news – one of the activists from the ISM had been literally "snatched" at Qalandia checkpoint the night before, when Israeli Border Police were waiting for him to come through (the IOF or Israeli Occupation Forces aka as the IDF can not arrest internationals, Palestinians or Israelis, only the Israeli Border Police can. Instead the IOF work hand in glove with the IBP to detain you until the Border Police arrive). At the time of his abduction, he was travelling with another ISM activist, however, she was let go as she had Israeli citizenship.

Discussing the incident with other ISM activists, while many were upset, they were also were not going to let such an event stop their activity. As one told me, reflecting the attitude of most internationals working in Palestine, "we all know this can happen, what we need to do now is regroup and make sure we keep doing our work. That is the most important thing".

While it was a shock to hear about the arrest, it was heartening to hear that resolve in the voices of the other ISMers. I felt inspired not only by their resolve but also by another: the simple fact that all of those who had made it to our meeting point in Ramallah were women.


Our little group of 9 women represented such a wonderful cross section: women from all over the world, who had come to show solidarity and oppose a brutal occupation. Our ages spanned a spectrum of 30 years, with the youngest being 21 years of age and the oldest being in their early 50s. We were women, who were represented not only the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths, but also women who were atheist. Some of us were teachers, some students, some journalists, some human rights workers, while others were artists. While our back grounds and belief systems may have been varied and many, we were united in one thing: our belief that the Palestinian people had the right to live lives free from Zionist occupation and oppression.

As we made our way to Bil'in, I recalled how in 2004, I had attended a number of demonstrations against the construction of the wall and theft of land in Budrus, the village right next door to Bil'in. At this time, the construction of the wall had only just begun and the illegal settlement of Modi'in Illit did not exist. As a result, I was keen to see if much had changed in the region, since I was last there. As we approached the village, myself and my team mates sat in stunned silence as we viewed the landscape in front of us. After few minutes of staring at the sight in front of us, one of us let out a shocked gasp.

Although, the region around Budrus and Bil'in is dotted with olive trees, across a range of hills, devastation was everywhere. I had seen photographs of clear felling of dense forests and photos of the environmental damage and ravages of open cut mining and the scene in front of me seemed to be a combination of both. In amongst this devastation, an alien entity seemed to be growing up slowly. I suddenly felt like I was on an alien planet or the set of a sci fi show, where a completely alien structure or city had been plonked, with little care for the surround environment or population. This alien structure in this case, was of course, the illegal Israeli settlement of Modi'in Illit. It was shocking to see such destruction on such a vast scale, so much so I still find it hard to fully take it all in.



A few minutes later, however, we arrived in Bil'in and we made our way to the "International House" the meeting point for the demonstration. Already at the house were other internationals, Israeli peace activists and Palestinians. Over the past two and half years, the size of the demonstrations have varied, from 100 people to 2000. At every demonstration, the villagers have been violently attacked by the IOF who fired on them indiscriminately with tear gas, rubber bullets, live ammunition and sound grenades. Today, we expected much the same again, although, the demonstration was on a smaller scale with around 120 people attending, most likey due to the recent Palestinian crisis.

We soon made our way down to where the wall had been constructed, we found the IOF waiting. They had already blocked of our approach about 300 metres from the wall/fence in a gully, with razor wire. As we reached the razor wire, the villagers began chanting and making speeches against the wall. Within in minutes, despite the protest being completely peaceful and the IOF being in absolutely no danger, the IOF began shooting of the first rounds of teargas and sound grenades.

As villagers, internationals and Israeli activists began to disperse, the tear gas canister kept whizzing over head and exploding. Everyone was crouched low to keep not only clear of the tear gas but to avoid being hit by canisters. In 2004, I had been hit from behind with a tear gas canister and it was not a pleasant experience. Israeli soldiers had opened fire on us as we attempted to lift an Israeli peace activist, who was injured, into an ambulance. This was the not the first demonstration I had attended where the IOF open fire on ambulances and medical aid workers.

For the next two weeks, I bore the legacy of my experience, carrying a massive multi-colour 30 centimetre in diameter bruise, as well as burns due to the heat of the canister. My entire body also ached all over as a result of the high velocity impact of the canister. I was, however, glad to have been hit by the teargas canister, rather then the live ammunition and the rubber bullets the IOF soldiers had also been firing at us.



While I avoided being hit by teargas canisters and sound grenades at Bil'in, one of my team mates was not so lucky. She was hit by two sound grenades, but luckily she was only lightly bruised. The most shocking aspect of the demonstration, despite the complete absence of violence on behalf of the demonstrators when we arrived at the razor wire and the retreat of protestors after the initial volley of teargas, was that the IOF soldiers kept firing on the demonstration. My team mates and I estimated that probably more than 60 canisters of teargas were shot at the small peaceful demonstration.

Tear gas works works in two ways: physically and psychologically. Physically, the chemicals in it react with the moisture on the skin and the membranes in your eyes, nose and throat. It causes a burning sensation burning in your throat and nose causing your eyes to start streaming tears, your nose to start running and you start coughing. If you take into much of it can cause severe coughing and vomiting, as well as causing disorientation, dizziness and restricted breathing. Psychologically, because you body begins to react in such a manner,it causes you first to limit your breathing (so as not to take in more gas) but the restricted breathing, along with disorientation can then lead to panic. This is why protesters are often armed with onions or lemons or something with a strong scent (such as a bandana soaked in vinegar). Breathing in the strong scent of onions, lemons or vinegar forces you brain to react and reminds you to start breathing again. This helps to stem the panic and it also gives you something to concentrate on, limiting your disorientation.

During the barrage of tear gas, the IOF and Border Police began advancing up the hill, firing more sound grenades and teargas and targeting two members of the Bil'in Palestinian Popular Committee against the Construction of the Wall and Settlements, abducting them. One member of the Committee was later released. The other member, however, was taken to a detention camp and is still being held.

The villagers and other protestors after 124 weeks of protest were no going to be discouraged by massive amounts of teargas. As the air began to clear, villagers began to make their way back towards the wall. Although it was impossible to get to where we had been, the Palestinian youth showed their refusal to be intimidated. They soon gathered under an olive tree and began chanting, singing, moving out into clear sight to let the IOF know that they would not be so easily run off their own land.

During the chaos of the tear gas being fired, I had made my way up the hill. At one point, I was finding it difficult to breath due to the intense saturation of the air from the amount of teargas being fired. As I moved to find a clear spot, the Palestinian Red Crescent workers, whose amazing bravery is witnessed at every demonstration, attended young Palestinians overcome by the tear gas. Myself and several other demonstrators sought refuge in a local villager's house. Inside we could hear the tear gas whizzing overhead and the sound grenades exploding. At one point, we all ducked for cover when the house was clearly hit by one of the missiles being fired by the IOF. Later when I went out of the house, we discovered that the IOF had advanced to just outside of the house and had been firing rubber bullets. One of the bullets had shattered the back window of a car, causing glass to fly everywhere.



At one point, when I was trying to escape the teargas, I also passed a house Palestinian workers were constructing. From the roof top, where they were working, they began shouting directions to those at the demonstrations trying to tell them the direction of the incoming tear gas. About an hour later when I passed the same construction site, I was completely astounded to see once again the amazing resistance of the Palestinian people and their refusal to let the Israeli occupation stop them living their lives. Although tear gas was still being fired (but not to the same level as earlier), the builders who had earlier sought to assist the dispersing villagers were now continuing to go about their business constructing the house. I stood and marveled their amazing fortitude and wondered if I would ever be able to display such qualities if I had to experience the occupation every day as they did.

After a tense stand off for another hour, the IOF began to once again fire a high barrage of tear gas at the demonstrators, who were probably a good kilometre from the wall and soldiers. As the tear gas began to rain down on us again, this time we moved further back into the village, with the hope that the IOF would not enter the village.

The demonstration may have been over for the day but next week, undeterred, the villagers of Bil'in will once again brave the teargas, rubber bullets and possible arrest to oppose the stealing of their land. Next week, once again, they willagain act as an inspiration to the rest of the Palestinian population (and many others around the world) by collectively organising in non-violent resistance to say no to Israeli occupation and oppression.