Nakba, the Palestinian catastrophe (1948)

Israeli police entered the Jerusalem compound housing Al-Aqsa Mosque on Sunday evening and forcibly removed worshipers, a Ma'an correspondent said.

Israeli police forces raided the Haram Ash-Sharif complex after the Tarawih, the additional extended prayers performed during the holy month of Ramadan after the last obligatory prayer, Ma'an's reporter said.

The police removed from the site a group of around 30 people, who were spending a special time of seclusion in the area where the mosque and Dome of the Rock stand, as part of Ramadan devotion.

They had at first refused to leave, the correspondent said, as they wanted to prevent further raids by right-wing Israelis on the compound, which is revered as the third holiest site in Islam.

On Friday night, a group of right-wing Israelis entered the Haram Ash-Sharif where they clashed with local youth.

An Israeli police spokesman could not be reached for comment.

During the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast during daylight hours and spend extra time in devotion and charitable giving. Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza strive to enter East Jerusalem to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque, where daily special prayers are held.

Source: Ma'an News

Tension is running high in the holy Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem after Jewish settlers stormed and roamed the plazas of the holy site at the early morning hours on Monday.

The Aqsa guards said that Israeli occupation police escorted the groups of settlers who were roaming the mosque in provocative tours.

They said that the policemen were barricading the settlers in face of the angry Muslim worshipers, who were preparing to confront the settlers.

Israeli policemen and special forces broke into the holy site on Sunday night and forced out worshipers for the third straight night.

Source: International Solidarity Movement

This Ramadan, don't break your fast with an Israeli date

Ramadan is a time of year when we remember those who are less fortunate than ourselves.  It  would be an affront if at such a time we helped support oppression

Every year, Israel exports millions of pounds worth of dates to the world, which many people unknowingly buy and use to break their fasts. These dates are grown in illegal settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, on land that has been stolen from Palestinians. By buying these dates, we are in fact helping Israel to continue its occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people.

For this reason, Friends of Al Aqsa will again be launching the ‘Check the Label’ Campaign.

Check The Label

Most of the major supermarkets will stock dates produced in Israel, West Bank and the Jordan Valley. Dates produced in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley are from Illegal Israeli Settlements and should also be boycotted.




Making Money from the Occupation

- Dates were Israel's leading fruit export, most of which come to Europe

- The total income for Israel from dates in a year is approximately €80 million.

You can order your FREE Check The Label literature here



The Palestinian Call for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions

Inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid and in the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression,

We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.

These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian peoples inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:

   1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;
   2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
   3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.

Click here for the full text and endorsements


Palestinian Workers

Israelis will claim that Palestinians are allowed to work on the land of these settlers and therefore they are provided with jobs and a boycott will harm them. In actual fact, these Palestinians are employed for paltry wages, and they are required to do the back-breaking work that the Israeli settlers will not do themselves. This means the Israeli settlers reap the rewards for the harvests while doing very little of the work themselves.

Palestinian children are employed by these settlers, and they are forced to work long hours under a hot baking sun for small sums of money. This exploitation means that these children miss out on an education.

Alternatives to Israeli Dates

There are plenty of varieties of dates from various other countries to break your fast. However if you would like  Medjoul dates from Palestine and  help the Palestinian farmers they are available from  YAFFA. YAFFA source there dates from Palestine and FOA are helping YAFFA distribute dates this Ramadhan.

Another provider is Zaytoun, www.zaytoun.org.uk


Get involved

There are two stages to this campaign:

Stage 1 – Contact and inform the wholesalers and shops.

Stage 2 – Contact and inform consumers.



Stage 1

FOA have sent letters to over 1000 wholesalers and shops but we need your help to add the personal touch as that is the best method to encourage people to join the campaign.

There are 6 steps to this stage. We would like you to:

Preparation:

1.If you can try and involve family and friends in the campaign.

2. Print letters for Wholesalers and Shop Owners: Click here for the letter.

3. Order Check the Label posters and postcards from dates@checkthelabel.org.uk so you can put poster up on shop windows and leave postcards on the counter (with permission)

Method:

1. Identify the wholesalers, importers and shops in your area hand deliver the wholesaler/shop letters supplied by FOA.  Inform them about Israeli human rights abuses (you can give them of FOA leaflets).

2.Tell wholesalers and shop owners about the concept of boycotting and how it has worked e.g. South Africa. Ask them to boycott dates from Israel, West Bank and the Jordan Valley. Explain West Bank and Jordan Valley are illegally occupied and buying dates from there would mean they are supporting the occupation of Palestine.

3. Let them know that they can buy dates from many other countries, but if they want to buy medjoul dates from Palestine they can contact medjoul@checkthelabel.org.uk, 0116 2125 441 or Zaytoun on 0207 609 5699

4.Keep in touch with the shops that you have approached and continue to encourage and support them to join the campaign.

5.Write down addresses of shops which agree to support the campaign so we can write a letter to them to thank them for their support. 

6.Take pictures of the campaign and keep head office updated on your work in your locality.


Stage 2

Most of the people we have approached during the Check the Label campaign did not know dates are from Israel and also did not know that dates labelled West Bank or the Jordan Valley should also be Boycotted.   Once they were told, the overwhelming majority of people were happy to join the boycott.

Boycott is about people power.  We need your help to inform people they should ‘Check the Label’ and boycott dates from Israel, West Bank and Jordan Valley.

Preparation:

1. If you can try and involve family and friends in the campaign.

2. Print letters for mosques and organisations : Click here for the letter

3. Order Check the Label posters and postcards and stickers  from dates@checkthelabel.org.uk so you can put poster up on shop windows and leave postcards on the counter (with permission).

Method:

1. Identify Mosques and Community Centres in your area and hand deliver the Mosque/organisation letter supplied by FOA.  Inform them about Israeli human rights abuses (you can give them of FOA leaflets).

2. Tell the mosque/ community centre contact about the concept of boycotting and how it has worked e.g. South Africa. Ask them to boycott dates from Israel, West Bank and the Jordan Valley. Explain West Bank and Jordan Valley are illegally occupied and buying dates from there would mean they are supporting the occupation of Palestine.

3. Ask them if you can leave leaflets at the entrance and put up a poster

4. Organise a time with friends and family to distribute outside the mosque after prayers, especially after Friday prayers.

5. Let FOA know when you are planning to distribute outside mosques so we can try and co-ordinate with other volunteers.

6. Contact your local newspaper and your local radio Ramadhan to let them know what is happening. Take photos when it is appropriate  and send updates to info@checkthelabel.org.uk

Coverage of Last Years Campaign:

• Guardian


• Press TV


• TV Advert

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities bulldozed over 100 gravestones in a 12th-century Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem overnight Saturday, the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Waqf and Heritage said.

The foundation said three bulldozers, two trucks and around 20 workers entered the historic Mamilla (Ma'man Allah) cemetery at 11 p.m. and destroyed over 100 gravestones, loading rubble from the gravestones into a truck.

Advisor of the Islamic movement in Israel Sheikh Ali Abu Sheikha notified the foundation of the demolitions.

The foundation sent a delegation to document the destruction, and said Israeli workers left the area when journalists arrived.

In 2009, Israel disinterred over 1,500 graves in the historic cemetery to build a Museum of Tolerance on the historic site, funded by the US Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Following another series of demolitions in the cemetery in August 2010, UN General Assembly President Ali Treki expressed "profound concern" at what he described as a "sacrilegious and provocative act against the spirit of peace as well as dialogue among civilizations and religions."

The Jerusalem Municipality said the gravestones destroyed in August 2010 were "built illegally with the aim to take over the plot."

Prophet Muhammad's companions, numerous Sufi saints, jurists and Palestinian dignitaries are said to be buried at the site.

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- The head of the crossings authority in Gaza said Sunday that Egyptian authorities have begun implementing a new mechanism at the Rafah crossing to alleviate a backlog in travel.

Hatem E’weidah said the new protocol would take into consideration emergency cases and persons whose residencies expire in June.

E’weidah said that Egyptian authorities were still committed to facilitating travel, as they have pledged, except for the number of people crossing each day. "This has led to a huge crisis," he said.

"The issue that prevented the Egyptians from allowing large numbers of travelers via the crossing was due to logistical obstacles including decreasing state security staff" after the revolution.

The opening of the terminal, more than three months after former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned following 18 days of massive street protests against his rule, was warmly welcomed in the coastal strip and the Egyptian street, though Israel strongly criticized the move.

Shortly after the terminal was opened, Egyptian and Gaza authorities clashed over coordination and travel mechanisms, causing a temporary re-closure, before the sides agreed to limit travelers and other mechanisms.

The border had remained largely shut since June 2006 when Israel imposed a tight blockade on Gaza after militants snatched Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who is still being held.

The government in Gaza is working on speeding up approval for those Palestinians who have been returned to Gaza due to unspecified security concerns, E’weidah added.

While the terminal was opened by Egyptian authorities on May 28 for visa-free passage of travelers, bar males between 18 and 40 and up to 5,000 individuals specified on a blacklist, Egypt has set a cap of around 300 to 400 travelers per day.

A registration process to the Gaza Ministry of Interior has been overwhelmed by applicants and had been closed temporarily.

Also, an Egyptian consulate will be opened in the near future, he added.

Eamon Gilmore reiterates Ireland’s position that Gaza blockade is ‘unjust and counterproductive’ but does not advise Irish nationals to join the flotilla, which includes the Irish boat MV Saoirse.

As the second “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” gets ready to sail this week, Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore urged Israel to avoid any repeat of last year's actions against the convoy, Irish media reported Sunday.

"Israel must exercise all possible restraint and avoid any use of military force if attempting to uphold their naval blockade," Gilmore, who also holds the post of trade minister, said after meeting with Israeli Ambassador to Dublin Boaz Moda.

"In particular, I would expect that any interception of ships is conducted in a peaceful manner and does not endanger the safety of our citizens or other participants,” he added, reiterating the country’s position that the Gaza blockade was “unjust and counterproductive” and that the violence that marked last year’s flotilla venture was “completely unacceptable and unjustified.”

At the same time, Gilmore said that his words should not be construed as advice to anyone to join the flotilla. “I have made it clear that I cannot advise any Irish national to participate in a venture which potentially brings them into harm’s way through seeking to break a naval blockade,” Gilmore said.

The Foreign Minister’s statements came after he was urged by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) to seek safe passage for the second flotilla, which includes the Irish boat MV Saoirse.??

"It is our belief that the member states of the European Union, including Ireland, have failed in their responsibility towards the protected people of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and in particular towards the people of Gaza," said IPSC chair Freda Hughes in his letter to Gilmore.??

Some 25 Irish participants, including former and current members of parliament and the European parliament, trade union leaders and former Irish rugby international player Trevor Hogan are among the passengers expected to set sail on the Saoirse.??

They are being joined by ships from Greece, Spain, Italy, France, Canada, the United States, Germany/Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands, which will be carrying medical supplies, letters of support and various equipment. 

Israel has warned foreign journalists they face being barred from the country for 10 years if they board a new Gaza flotilla.

Some 500 pro-Palestinian activists are said to be preparing to sail in as many as a dozen ships to carry aid supplies and break the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.

In an emailed statement to Reuters and other international news organisations, Oren Helman, director of Israel's government press office, said participation in the flotilla would be "an intentional violation" of Israeli law.

A year ago, nine activists were killed by Israeli soldiers who raided a Gaza-bound aid convoy and were confronted by passengers wielding clubs and knives.

Helman said that sailing in a new flotilla "is liable to lead to participants being denied entry into the state of Israel for 10 years, to the impoundment of their equipment and to additional sanctions."

Israel has made clear it will enforce a naval blockade it says is aimed at stopping more weaponry from reaching Hamas, the Islamist group that was voted into power in Gaza.

Palestinians say the measure is illegal and is strangling Gaza's underdeveloped economy.

"I implore you to avoid taking part in this provocative and dangerous event, the purpose of which is to undermine Israel's right to defend itself and to knowingly violate Israeli law," Helman wrote in the email..

At least one Israeli journalist, a reporter for the left-wing Haaretz newspaper, plans to sail in a Canadian ship in the flotilla. And a Haaretz editorial is headlined Let the flotilla go.

In response to Helman's warning, the Jerusalem-based Foreign Press Association said in a statement: "The government's threat to punish journalists covering the Gaza flotilla sends a chilling message to the international media and raises serious questions about Israel's commitment to freedom of the press.

"Journalists covering a legitimate news event should be allowed to do their jobs without threats and intimidation. We urge the government to reverse its decision immediately."

Source: Reuters/Haaretz/FPA

By Catrina Stewart in Jerusalem

Efforts by pro-Palestinian activists to challenge Israel's blockade of Gaza appeared increasingly doubtful yesterday amid reports that Greece was preventing several ships from leaving port to join a convoy bound for the Palestinian territory.

Greek authorities have delayed the departure of five or six boats, according to the Israeli news site Ynet, as Israel lobbies governments to warn their citizens against joining the flotilla.

About 350 activists on 10 ships had planned to sail for the besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza in an effort to challenge Israel's land and sea blockade, which they say is illegal and inhumane. But those numbers could now be much smaller if the ships, some of which are carrying humanitarian supplies, are prevented from leaving Greece.

The campaign, Freedom Flotilla II, was dealt a major blow recently when IHH, the Turkish group that led last year's convoy with the ship Mavi Marmara, pulled out, apparently at the bidding of Ankara.

Israel drew international opprobrium last May when a deadly assault mounted on the Mavi Marmara in international waters resulted in the death of nine Turkish activists. In the ensuing row, Israel bowed to pressure to ease the conditions of its then three-year blockade of Gaza, aimed at weakening Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs the tiny coastal strip.

Problems initially arose with the remaining flotilla participants last week when Audacity of Hope, a US-owned ship, was barred from leaving Athens for a Greek island after suggestions that it was not seaworthy.

It later emerged that an Israeli legal group, Shurat HaDin, had submitted a complaint stating that the ship was not fit to sail, obliging the Greek authorities to inspect the ship before allowing it to leave.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor, said yesterday that the group was acting independently of the government. But now several other ships are facing delays to their departure following complaints submitted to the Greeks, according to Jane Hirschmann, an activist with the Free Gaza Movement.

"They [Israel] are trying to stop the boats through administrative hurdles," said Ms Hirschmann, an American Jew sailing on the US boat. "Nobody really knows [what's going on]. We don't have much clarity. But everybody is determined to leave for Gaza."

Meanwhile, a French boat and the Irish ship Saoirse have managed to leave port.

Israel has mounted an international diplomatic offensive to halt the convoy, which includes among its participants politicians, writers and an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor. A number of countries, including the United States, have warned their citizens not to take part.

Israel also warned foreign journalists based in the country that they would face deportation and a 10-year ban from the country if they took part in the flotilla, a threat described by the Foreign Press Association as "chilling".

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday retracted that threat, urging his government to find a special formula to deal with foreign journalists on board the convoy.

Israel has warned activists that it has a right to self-defence. The navy has been instructed to prevent the convoy from entering Gaza's territorial waters while avoiding casualties.

Palestinians have held a demonstration in front of the UN office in the Gaza Strip to mark World Refugee Day and demand that the international community fulfill its responsibility toward the Palestinian refugees.

Pro-Palestine activists also took part in the event on Monday to reaffirm the importance of solidarity and burden-sharing with the Palestinian refugees, a Press TV correspondent reported.

“I think this is a very important moment for the Palestinians to act now and convince the international community to pressure Israeli authorities to accept the Palestinians' right to return to their homeland,” said Khalil Shaheen of Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

On Monday, a European aid convoy with 53 pro-Palestinian activists entered Gaza via the Rafah border crossing to help ease the conditions of Palestinians in the coastal sliver.

According to the UN General Assembly Resolution 194, the Palestinian refugees wishing to return to their homes should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date and compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to the property.

However, Israel has been deliberately denying the right to return of the Palestinian refugees, in clear violation of the international law.

In a recent development, Israel's Navy said it would stop an international flotilla which is planned to set sail for Gaza at the end of June. The convoy will comprise around 1,500 activists.

The Israeli military attacked the Freedom Flotilla in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea on May 31, 2010, killing nine Turkish nationals aboard the Turkish-flagged MV Mavi Marmara and injuring about 50 other people that were part of the team on the six-ship convoy.

The Israeli regime laid an economic siege on Gaza in June 2007 after an elected Hamas government took control of the strip. The blockade has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in Gaza.

Some 1.5 million people in Gaza are being denied their basic rights, including the freedom of movement and the right to appropriate living conditions, work, health and education.

(Source: Press TV) 

A team of budding engineers from the Gaza Strip has overcome the five-year Israeli blockade on the territory to build an entire racing car - from scratch.

They now aim to raise $40,000 to fly the car - and themselves - to Silverstone race circuit in the UK to compete in "Formula Student 2011", the world's biggest ever student motorsport event.

The blockade has forced the students, from the UN-run Khan Younis Training Centre (KYTC), to use almost entirely recycled parts to build the car, using water pipes for the chassis and an engine salvaged from an old motorbike.

"We are challenging all the pressures here, and the blockade," said 19-year old Osama Al Othmani, the KYTC Team Leader. "We want to prove to the world that even if we are living on nothing, we can still create something from it. The last thing we will do is to stick on the label. It will say 'Made in Gaza'."

The Gaza Strip team is highly compact compared with most who will be at Silverstone, with just 11 members. By contrast the team from Bath - one of the leading teams on the grid - has had about 50 students working on its entry. 

Smiling and wide-eyed, seven-month-old Nouralden Issa Abbassi is happily getting passed between the arms of his mother, grandmother and uncle in the living room of the Abbassi family home in the Silwan neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem.

But while the family appears carefree, the reality is that Israel’s decision to deny Nouralden a Jerusalem identification card — and by extension block his right to access public health services and education — has left everyone anxious and concerned for the future.

“They refused to give Nouralden an ID [card] because they don’t want him to stay here,” Nouralden’s mother, Riham Abbassi, told The Electronic Intifada. “They don’t want us to live here because of what Issa did.”

Issa Abbassi, Nouralden’s father, was sentenced to ten years in prison in May 2010 for allegedly shooting at Israeli settler security guards near the illegal settlement of Beit Yonathan, which sits in the heart of the Silwan neighborhood of Baten al-Hawa.

Issa was already behind bars at Ashqelon prison — one of four prison facilities run by the Israeli General Security Service (GSS), also known as the Shin Bet or Shabak — when Nouralden was born in East Jerusalem late last year.

As a result, the Israeli Ministry of Interior rejected the family’s application for the baby’s Jerusalem ID card, arguing that Issa himself would have to apply when he is released from prison since he is the only parent with Jerusalem residency rights. Riham — originally from the East Jerusalem village of Kafr Aqab, part of which sits on the West Bank side of Israel’s wall — has a West Bank-only ID card.

“The Bible and the Koran both say that the child should not be punished for what the father did. This is collective punishment. Ten years [in prison] is punishment enough. The family should not be punished too,” Nouralden’s grandfather, Daoud Abbassi, told The Electronic Intifada.

“Their policy is to deport Jerusalemites”

Daoud explained that while Nouralden received a birth certificate from the hospital after he was born, it took four months for the family to find out that he wouldn’t be receiving an ID card. The family was then given 45 days to appeal the interior ministry’s decision. As of mid-June, when The Electronic Intifada spoke with the family, they were in the process of setting up their appeal.

Nouralden’s older brother, three-year-old Kasim, received a Jerusalem ID card when he was born, before his father was convicted. Daoud said that this not only indicates that the decision to deny Nouralden his Jerusalem residency rights is arbitrary, but highlights the Israeli government’s overall aim: to punish and split up the Abbassi family, and Palestinian families in Jerusalem more generally.

“Their policy is to deport Jerusalemites from their homes, from where they live. Do you understand? It’s a plan that already exists, whether in the papers of the Ministry of the Interior, the municipality. We know it’s there. We are sure of it one million percent,” Daoud said.

According to Israeli law, a Palestinian child does not automatically receive an identity card if he or she only has one parent who is a resident of East Jerusalem. Instead, the parents will receive a “notification of live birth” for their child, and they must then submit a separate request for registration.

In order to be eligible to register their child, Palestinians must prove that their “center of life” is in Jerusalem. This policy, introduced by the Israeli Ministry of Interior in 1995, stipulates that Palestinians must present documents proving that their day-to-day life takes place in the city. Municipal tax, electricity or phone bills and school or work certificates are among the accepted documents.

Thousands of unrecognized children

It is estimated that approximately 10,000 Palestinian children currently live in Jerusalem without identification. Unrecognized by the State of Israel, these children are denied basic rights such as access to education and health care, among other things.

“If a child does not have an identification number, all the child’s benefits will not be applicable: he will not be receiving health insurance, he will not be allowed to travel or live inside Jerusalem. Most importantly, at five or six years old, the municipality will not recognize [the child] as a resident in the city and he will not be allowed to be educated inside the city,” explained Rami Saleh, a branch director of the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center.

“We are talking about a child that is born and does not have any identification. Within the rights of the child, it’s mentioned that any newborn child should have a legal name and ID number and should not be left [with nothing] until he grows up and has to search for it,” Saleh added.

Israel began occupying East Jerusalem — along with rest of the West Bank, as well as the Gaza Strip — after the 1967 War. As East Jerusalem is considered occupied territory, Israel has a responsibility to protect the rights of the residents under its control there, and is bound to international humanitarian law.

The Fourth Geneva Convention states that “the occupying power shall take all necessary steps to facilitate the identification of children and the registration of their parentage. It may not, in any case, change their personal status.”

Article 24 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states that every child “shall be registered immediately after birth” and “has the right to acquire a nationality.”

Furthermore, Article 7 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that “the child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.”

Article 2 of the UN Convention also says that states must “take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child’s parents, legal guardians, or family members.”

In other words, in the case of seven-month-old Nouralden Abbassi, he should not be punished by not receiving a Jerusalem identification card because of actions taken by his father, Issa.

“The child has a right to live in Jerusalem,” Saleh said, “and it is the right of the child to have an Israeli number because of his father, regardless of where he is.”

Ziad al-Hammouri, Director of the Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights, agreed.

“The child has to be registered, even if the father is in jail. Today, there is a collective punishment for the families and this is one of the collective punishments. The whole family [is suffering] from this punishment,” al-Hammouri said.

“When we are talking about 10,000 children [without ID cards in Jerusalem], it’s a huge number,” he added. “Look at how the families are suffering. Every family is suffering if they have one child or two [children] that [are] not registered. Then they are facing problems in schools. They are worried. Their life will not be settled.”

Despite pressure, family refuses to leave Jerusalem

For the Abbassi family, while paying for medical expenses and private schooling will be a challenge, the most difficult part of not having an ID card for Nouralden is the fact that the young child will be unable to visit his father in prison.

“I’m very afraid that he won’t receive medical attention. I didn’t know that I would have to pay for medical insurance, school, everything,” Nouralden’s mother, Riham Abbassi, told The Electronic Intifada.

“But I want my son to visit his father. I want to go with my son to visit his father. I’m going to stay here until he gets his ID because he was born here and should get an ID card,” she said.

Daoud Abbassi, Nouralden’s grandfather, added that despite all the pressure exerted by the Israeli authorities, the family would never leave its home in Jerusalem.

“They think one morning we will wake up and decide to leave? They think all this pressure they employ on us, we will one day tell them, ‘peace be on you!’ and go away, leave our houses and lands and go live in Ramallah? No! Never!” he said.

“Even if they kick us out, we will find a way to return. If they made us leave out of this door, my children and I will return to the house through the other door. If not us, my children’s children will return.”

Jillian Kestler-D’Amours is a reporter and documentary filmmaker based in Jerusalem. More of her work can be found at http://jkdamours.com.

Compensate Scores of People Displaced in West Bank Communities

(Jerusalem) - Israel should end discriminatory policies that have forcibly displaced hundreds of West Bank Palestinian residents from their homes, Human Rights Watch said today. In demolition operations on June 14 and 21, 2011, Israeli authorities displaced more than a hundred residents of three West Bank communities, including women and children, destroying their homes and other structures. Israeli authorities should compensate the residents and provide them with housing, Human Rights Watch said.

The demolitions on June 14 displaced 100 people in Fasayil al-Wusta, a community in the Jericho governorate of the occupied West Bank. Demolitions on June 21 displaced 27 people in al-Hadidiye and affected another 13 people in Khirbet Yarza, communities in the northern Tubas governorate. The Israeli military authorities destroyed the structures on the grounds that they lacked construction permits, but the authorities have made such permits almost impossible for West Bank Palestinians to obtain in areas under exclusive Israeli control. At the same time, they have readily granted lands and permits to Israeli settlers nearby.

"Israeli authorities refuse permits to Palestinians, tear down homes, and then turn around and give Israeli settlers the right to build homes nearby," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "The international community should press Israel to immediately end this blatantly discriminatory treatment."

Prior to June 14, Israeli authorities had demolished 207 West Bank Palestinian structures in 2011, displacing 459 people, "more than triple the number of people displaced compared to the equivalent period in 2010," according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Israel demolished 439 Palestinian structures in 2010, a 59 percent increase over the 275 in 2009, according to UN figures.

Residents of Fasayil al-Wusta told Human Rights Watch that an Israeli military force, including two bulldozers, about 15 military vehicles and 50 soldiers, border police, and members of the military's Civil Administration authority, arrived at 6 a.m. on June 14 and began demolishing homes. According to the UN, Israeli forces demolished 18 residential structures, six animal shelters, and two sanitary structures, displacing 100 people, including 63 children. Some residents were able to save some of their belongings, but others said Israeli forces prevented them from doing so. One resident who sat down in front of a neighbor's home to try to prevent the demolition said that two soldiers beat him with clubs. Some residents are still living on the site in small makeshift structures to shield them from the sun because they had no other alternative housing.

Fasayil al-Wusta, a community of about 130 people, is in "Area C," covering 60 percent of the West Bank, where the Israeli military's Civil Administration authority has sole control of building permits, planning, and enforcement. In practice, Palestinians can obtain building permits in only one percent of Area C, whereas Israeli settlements have been granted control over 70 percent of the area, according to the UN, Israeli rights groups, and Israeli government records. According to Israeli government figures, the military denied more than 94 percent of Palestinian building permit applications in Area C from 2000 to 2007.

Most of the community's residents are Bedouin whom Israeli authorities displaced from the Tel Arad area in the Negev desert in the 1940s and 1950s and who eventually settled in Fasayil al-Wusta in 1998. Residents told Human Rights Watch that they did not purchase the land but settled there out of necessity, because Israeli authorities had increasingly limited their access to other land and restricted their ability to pursue their traditional, semi-nomadic lifestyle of grazing sheep.

Residents told Human Rights Watch that they had not applied for building permits because the cost is prohibitive, requiring an application fee, a land survey by a professional surveyor, and other documents. They said they believed the Israeli military would have denied their applications in any case. The Israeli authorities have not zoned the area for residential use, and do not issue individual building permits for areas that lack residential plans.

International aid organizations monitoring the area told Human Rights Watch that Israeli authorities had issued between 30 and 40 orders against the Fasayil al-Wusta buildings in the last three years. Mo'in Odeh, a lawyer representing some of the displaced residents on behalf of the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, a local nongovernmental group, said Israeli authorities issued demolition orders against some structures in April 2010 on the grounds that residents had built them without permits on "state lands" claimed by the Israeli government. The residents petitioned the Israeli High Court, which granted their request for a temporary injunction. But the court lifted the injunction in March 2011 in response to a petition by the Israeli military.

"The Israeli military destroys Palestinian homes on the pretext that they lack building permits, while at the same time virtually never granting permits to those who apply," Whitson said. "Such Kafkaesque bureaucratic absurdities only underscore the oppressive reality of the occupation."

In a second case, on the morning of June 21, Israeli border police, Civil Administration officers, and nine military vehicles with about 100 soldiers arrived in the Bedouin community of al-Hadidiya. The forces demolished 29 structures, including residential tents, outdoor kitchens, and animal pens, displacing 27 members of six households, including 11 children, according to the UN.

Residents said that they had received military orders on June 16, giving them three days to object to demolition orders originally issued in 2008 against structures that lacked building permits. The military Civil Administration authority rejected the residents' appeal on June 19. The community's lawyer was at the Israeli High Court of Justice to submit a final appeal against the demolitions on the morning of June 21, when the military force arrived in al-Hadidiye and refused to delay the demolitions, the UN reported.

Human Rights Watch has documented numerous Israeli demolitions of homes and other property in al-Hadidiye, a Bedouin community with about 110 permanent residents, some of whom were born there in the 1950s. Some residents said that Israeli forces had demolished their homes five times since the late 1990s, and estimated that demolitions and other Israeli restrictions during that time had led about 40 families to leave the community. Israeli forces previously demolished some structures on the basis that they were located inside a "closed military zone," claiming that the area was a firing zone and that residents were being evicted for their own safety. The structures demolished on June 21 were all outside the closed military zone.

Al-Hadidiye is near the Israeli agricultural settlements of Ro'i and Beqa'ot, which Israeli authorities established several decades later, providing them with land, infrastructure, building permits, and water resources that are denied to al-Hadidiye. For example, Israel allocates 431 liters of water per day for household use to each settler in Ro'i, according to figures from the Israeli Water Authority, while per capita consumption in al-Hadidiye is only 20 liters, according to B'Tselem, an Israeli nongovernmental rights organization.

In the third case, on June 21 Israeli forces demolished two residential structures and two animal shelters in the village of Khirbet Yarza, affecting 13 people, including six children from two households, on the basis that they were built without permits. Israel has declared the area surrounding the village, which predates Israeli control of the area, to be a closed military zone. In November 2010, Israeli forces destroyed a mosque that villagers said predated the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, as well as a recent addition to the structure, and six homes and animal shelters, on the grounds that they were built without permits inside a firing zone.

The law of occupation applicable to the West Bank prohibits Israeli forces from destroying private Palestinian property and evacuating civilians unless their own "security" or "imperative military reasons so demand." The Israeli authorities have not claimed that in this case, citing instead only that the buildings lack permits, Human Rights Watch said.

Human rights law applicable to the Occupied Palestinian Territories requires Israeli authorities to respect Palestinians' right to housing, and prohibits policies that discriminate against them and in favor of Jewish settlers on the basis of race, ethnicity or national origin, discrimination that Human Rights Watch has extensively documented.

"Israel has grossly overstepped its international legal obligations by destroying homes and displacing the very people it is obliged to protect as an occupying power," Whitson said. "And at the very same time as it's pushing Palestinians off of their lands into homelessness and despair, it's granting the land to Jewish settlers."

Witness Accounts from Fasayil al-Wusta

Eissa Ghazal, a Fasayil al-Wusta resident, told Human Rights Watch that he, his wife, and their three children were awakened by Israeli forces at around 6 a.m. on June 14.

    They started the demolitions right away. There were two bulldozers, around 16 military vehicles, and around 50 soldiers, including border police and women and regular army. They demolished my home at 7 a.m., but by that point we had managed to get some of our things out of it because we expected it was going to be destroyed, even though they had told us we couldn't remove things from the house.

Ghazal's brother, Khaled, interviewed separately, corroborated this account, and said that an Israeli bulldozer also demolished his own home, where he lived with his wife and five children. Other residents said that Israeli forces prevented them from removing any of their possessions before demolishing their homes. Talib Mousa Ali Abayyat told Human Rights Watch that a bulldozer destroyed his and his brothers' homes by pushing them into a small valley and covering them with rubble. "Everything I had was in my home," he said. The only thing we managed to salvage were some drinking water canteens."

Taleb Taamra, another resident, said that two soldiers beat him when he sat in front of his cousin's home to prevent it from being demolished. "They came to demolish the home of my cousin, Omar Taamra, at 7 a.m., so I sat on the ground in front of his place. Then two soldiers who were holding sticks came and beat me on my sides and between my legs."

Discriminatory Land-Allocation Policies

Fasayil al-Wusta is near the Tomer and Petza'el settlements. According to a database prepared for the Israeli government by Israeli Brig. Gen. Baruch Spiegel, both settlements were established in part on "state land," and in part on lands that that the Israeli government obtained from Palestinians through a land exchange process. This process, according to a report by the Israeli State Comptroller, involved the Israeli authorities granting to Palestinians "substitute land that had belonged to absentees," in other words, lands that the Israeli government had seized from Palestinians who were absent for any reason on the date that Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967.

Other nearby settlements include Gilgal, Netiv HaGdud, and Maale Efraim, all of which Israel established on "state land," ostensibly seized for military needs, or private lands whose Palestinian owners were offered substitute land.

Human Rights Watch is aware of only one case - a small community near Jerusalem - in which Israel has allowed West Bank Palestinians to establish new communities on "state land" or on lands it has seized for military purposes. It has frequently allocated such lands for Jewish settlements.

Some Bedouin live in Fasayil al-Tahta ("Lower Fasayil"), a nearby community in "Area B," where the Israeli military does not have jurisdiction over property and land-use, but it cannot accommodate the displaced residents, said Odeh, the lawyer for some of the residents.

Legal Standards

Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which governs occupied territories, an occupying power may carry out total or partial "evacuation" of an area only if "the security of the population or imperative military reasons so demand." In any event, the people evacuated must be transferred back to their homes as soon as the hostilities in the area have ceased, and in the meantime the occupying power must ensure those evacuated have "proper accommodation." Article 46 of the 1907 Hague Regulations states that the occupying power must respect private property, which cannot be "confiscated." Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention says "destruction" by the Occupying Power of private property is prohibited unless "absolutely necessary" in military operations.

While Israel, as the occupying power in the West Bank, may in some cases lawfully require residents to leave their homes, it must not do so arbitrarily and must afford affected persons meaningful due process. Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), among other treaties to which Israel is a party and that the International Court of Justice has said apply in the West Bank, prohibits arbitrary or unlawful state interference with anyone's home. The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has said that in principle forced evictions are prohibited under that covenant - which also applies in the West Bank - and that evictions should never result in leaving people homeless.

Different treatment, on the basis of race, ethnicity, and national origin and not narrowly tailored to meet security or other justifiable goals, violates the fundamental prohibition against discrimination under human rights law. Israel's policy of demolishing the homes of Palestinian residents of the West Bank, while allowing the construction and growth of nearby settlements, without providing any adequate justification for the serious differential treatment, is discriminatory. The prohibition against discrimination is spelled out in Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and codified in the major human rights treaties that Israel has ratified, including the ICCPR, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

Ongoing home demolitions prevent residents of the West Bank from enjoying the right to adequate housing. In its General Comment 4, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which monitors the compliance of states parties to the ICESCR, held that "the right to housing should not be interpreted in a narrow or restrictive sense which equates it with, for example, the shelter provided by merely having a roof over one's head or views shelter exclusively as a commodity. Rather it should be seen as the right to live somewhere in security, peace and dignity."

In international jurisprudence on the right to property, courts, including the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights, have concluded that interference with property rights is allowed only when there is clear domestic law, the interference is for a legitimate aim, the interference is the least restrictive possible, and adequate compensation is paid. Permanent seizure or destruction of property can be justified only where no other method is possible and compensation is paid. 

Israel has stepped up demolitions of Palestinian homes in the Jordan Valley, the eastern part of the occupied West Bank, leaving more than 700 homeless since the beginning of the year, a rights body said yesterday.

Israeli bulldozers have razed 103 homes so far this year, said B'Tselem, a respected Israeli human rights organisation, marking a sharp increase from the 83 homes it said were demolished last year. The policy has drawn sharp condemnation from NGOs, which accuse Israel of deliberately displacing thousands of Palestinian rural communities in a strategic border area that the Jewish state considers critical to its security.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians, many of them nomadic Bedouin, live in the parched area that runs alongside the border with Jordan. A much smaller number of Jewish settlers also live in the valley illegally, under international law.

Israel has defended its demolitions policy on the grounds that homes were erected without building permits or within military firing zones, a reasoning derided by rights bodies, who say it is almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain permits in Area C, the Israeli-controlled parts of the West Bank that include the Jordan Valley.

"Israeli policy is intended as... a de facto annexation of the Jordan Valley," said Sarit Michaeli, B'Tselem's spokeswoman. "The Jordan Valley is an occupied area... [that is] perceived by the government and the vast majority of Israelis as part of Israel."

The Civil Administration in the West Bank called B'Tselem's figures "completely wrong". A spokesman said the government was drawing up zoning plans for Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley that would ameliorate the situation. Many of the Bedouin lack land-ownership deeds.

I’d rather use my influence and power, in concert with other members of American civil society, to actively and nonviolently resist policies I consider abominable.

You might wonder what would motivate a Jewish American college student to participate in what may be the most celebrated - and controversial - sea voyage of the 21st century, one that aims to nonviolently challenge U.S.-supported Israeli military power in the occupied territories. I simply cannot sit idle while my country aids and abets Israel's siege, occupation and repression of the Palestinians. I would rather use my personal influence and power, in concert with other members of American civil society, to actively and nonviolently resist policies that I consider abominable. So, next week, I and more than 30 other American civilians will be sailing on the U.S. ship the Audacity of Hope, to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

I am one of a growing number of young American Jews who are determined to shake off an assumed - and largely imposed - association with Israel. Prominent advocacy organizations, such as the American Jewish Committee, which proudly proclaim their unconditional support of Israel, for several years have been declaring their "serious concern" over the increasing "distancing" of young American Jews from the state.

But what Israel apologists like the AJC view as a crisis, I see as a positive development for American Jews, who, like other parts of U.S. society, are shifting from blind support for Israel to a more critical position that reflects opposition to our country's backing for Israel's policies.

If Israel's apologists in the U.S. are alarmed by a falling off in unconditional support for Israel, they should be even more concerned that such a diverse range of youth - especially young Jews - are joining up with constituencies that actively organize against America's role in the occupation. Today, the so-called crisis has expanded from the coasts to such places as Arizona. It probably was just a matter of time before a Jewish anti-occupation group emerged in my home state, given that a fairly substantial portion of the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter on the University of Arizona campus (in Tucson ) were Jewish. For our part, we Jews launched an initial chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace at the UA campus in spring 2010 - one of nearly 30 JVP chapters throughout the country, which has a mailing list of 100,000 - and thereafter branches in the general Tucson and Northern Arizona communities, and at Arizona State University, in Phoenix.

Through JVP, I discovered there were a great many others like me, who were experiencing profound internal conflicts regarding Israel. They included people who had been intimidated from expressing public criticism of Israel, and others who were afraid to speak out in defense of Palestinian rights for fear of being labeled anti-Semitic.

It was clear that a campus JVP opened up a powerful, organic outlet through which Jewish students could safely exchange and process - without fear, intimidation or a need for self-censorship - their critiques, concerns, ideas, knowledge, questions, discoveries and plans to promote achievement of a genuinely mutual peace in Palestine/Israel. Before JVP came along, it wasn't possible to have an open discussion, or feel that we as Jews had an alternative to either unquestioning support of Israel (the status quo ) or staying silent and thus supporting it by default. I myself was silent and timid for much too long.

We are committed to acting out of Jewish ethical traditions, while holding Israel to the same standard as any other state in the international system - no more, no less. Before JVP, there was nothing on my campus that was critical of Israel from an American Jewish perspective. Zero. The group's success demonstrated that young Jews - moved by their cultural or religious values, which include a belief in universal human rights - have been on campus all the while, ready and willing to join a human rights-based cause for justice in Palestine/Israel. All it took to gain support on campus and elsewhere in the state was a potent sprinkling of opportunity, initiative and political will.

In Athens, as I write, waiting to board the Audacity of Hope, I am wearing a Star of David amulet around my neck, which was given to me the night before I left Arizona by a dear friend and fellow JVP organizer. She got it from a silversmith in Haifa while on a "Birthright" trip as an adolescent. For her, it had always been the reminder of the crude brainwashing she felt she had encountered on that trip. But when she came across the star recently, she decided it might be put to good use if I were to wear it on my journey. And so that's what I'm doing.

I wear it as a symbol of the basic values of Judaism that I feel are not emphasized sufficiently today: the imperative to welcome the stranger as you would want to be welcomed; and of helping to free the slave from a bondage that you would not wish to suffer.

As a consequence of various nonviolent actions undertaken all over the world, led crucially by Palestinians on the ground, the Israeli occupation will one day end. Those of us who face up to the unavoidable choice of either tolerating or resisting these crimes will determine how long the death and suffering of mainly Palestinian noncombatants continues, and how long a lasting peace in Palestine/Israel remains out of reach.

Gabriel Matthew Schivone is a Chicano-Jewish American from Tucson, and coordinator of Jewish Voice for Peace at the University of Arizona.