Showing posts with label israeli-human-rights-violations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label israeli-human-rights-violations. Show all posts
Monday, March 21, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Israeli navy shells Palestinian fishing boat in Gaza
Gaza Strip, (Pal Telegraph)-As occupation military offensive continues, Israeli gunboats near the shore of Rafah city in the south part of Gaza Strip targeted Tuesday evening a Palestinian fishing boat causing damage with one boat.
Local sources reported that Israeli navy opened massive fire at Palestinian fishermen, while they were practicing their job.
Israeli gunboats regularly attack Palestinian fishing boats leaving many families without support since more than 3500 residents of Gaza Strip depend on fishing as a source of their income.
On 17th February, three Palestinian fishermen were killed by Israeli shells fired from the northern coast .
Source
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Local sources reported that Israeli navy opened massive fire at Palestinian fishermen, while they were practicing their job.
Israeli gunboats regularly attack Palestinian fishing boats leaving many families without support since more than 3500 residents of Gaza Strip depend on fishing as a source of their income.
On 17th February, three Palestinian fishermen were killed by Israeli shells fired from the northern coast .
Source
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Sunday, June 6, 2010
Shaikh Raed Salah
* Raed Salah was born in 1958 in the Palestinian town of Umm al-Fahm, in the territories occupied by the nascent state of Israel in 1948. Being one of the "1948 Palestinians" (i.e. those governed by the Israeli occupation since 1948), he holds an Israeli passport, which enables him to move relatively easily across the occupied Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem. He also visits several European countries to attend gatherings of the Palestinian diaspora and conferences for solidarity with the Palestinian people and occupied Jerusalem.
* Shaikh Raed enjoys unprecedented popularity among Palestinians, especially because despite facing numerous threats from Israeli officialdom he remains one of the most daring Palestinian figures in his fight against the occupation. This struggle led to him being imprisoned more than once. Aside from his charismatic personality, he is known for his close relationship with ordinary Palestinian people, having a very modest lifestyle, high moral standards, a quiet character and a kind smile always on his face.
* He began his political and public career in 1989 through his candidacy for mayor of Umm al-Fahm and earning a tremendous victory with more than 70% of the votes cast. He won the municipal elections twice in 1993 and 1997 before, in 2001, he gave up his post voluntarily to defend the Palestinian cause and stand up for the city of Jerusalem and its inhabitants in the face of growing Israeli threats.
* As a leader of the “Islamic Movement in Palestine '48", the most popular political force in that area, Shaikh Raed Salah rejected the opportunity to stand for election to the Israeli parliament (Knesset). He believes that there are no opportunities to end the occupation of Palestine through parliamentary life due to the dominance of military, intelligence, extremist and racist forces over Israeli political life.
* He is famous for his tireless and peaceful protests against the Israeli occupation and its continued violations. His reliance on non-violent means meant that he is sometimes known as the "Gandhi of Palestine." In addition to the social programmes and the humanitarian and educational projects he stands behind, in 1998 Shaikh Raed launched the "self-reliant community" initiative which aimed to achieve the ’48 Palestinians’ self-development and economic independence from the Israeli occupation.
* He draws attention repeatedly to successive Israeli governments’ use of “peace agreements” with the Palestinian side as pretexts for continuing its expansionist policies on Palestinian lands against the Palestinian citizens. This includes the ongoing violations against the city of Jerusalem and its inhabitants, and the occupation of the Palestinian territories.
* In 2002, the Israeli Ministry of Interior issued an order banning him from travelling abroad, and the Israeli Supreme Court of Justice turned down Sh. Raed’s appeal against the order. He went on to be among the first to launch mass campaigns against the policies of the Israeli occupation in the city of Jerusalem, especially the attacks on Islamic and Christian holy places, and the destruction of tombs and encroachment on the historic Ma`man Allah cemetery.
* In 2009 and 2010, the Israeli occupation authorities issued military orders banning Sh. Raed from entering Jerusalem, after he discovered a series of secret Israeli plans for the implementation of wide-ranging archaeological digs around Al-Aqsa Mosque and the construction of complex tunnels under Muslim and Christian holy sites and the historic walls of Jerusalem.
* He led many solidarity actions with the inhabitants of the city of Jerusalem against the Israelis’ plans to expel them from their homes, withdraw their identity cards and cancel their residence permits in the city. He had a direct role in organizing daily convoys of buses loaded with people from the Arab towns and villages occupied in 1948 showing solidarity with inhabitants of the Old City of Jerusalem.
* Over the last few years, Shaikh Raed has played an effective role in demanding implementation of the right of return for Palestinian refugees who were expelled by Israeli forces from their towns and villages in 1948. For this purpose, he regularly participates in gatherings and conferences organized by the Palestinian refugees in living in Europe to claim their right to return to Palestine. Raed Salah is famous for his dictum declared on the sixtieth anniversary of the Nakba (the catastrophe of 1948) which said, "No retreat from the right of return”.
* In 2000, Israeli troops shot him in the head in what was considered by observers as an attempted assassination; needless to say, he survived. The Israeli occupation authorities arrested him several times, the first being in 1981. Between 2003 and 2005, Shaikh Raed Salah was imprisoned for two years but after his release he continued with his public and popular movements against the occupation, facing further arrest a number of times for his contribution to protest rallies in solidarity with the city of Jerusalem and its inhabitants. On January 13, 2010, an Israeli court sentenced him to nine months in prison plus a six-month suspended sentence in addition to a fine. The sentence was supposed to take effect from February 28, 2010.
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/resources/fact-sheets/1082-shaikh-raed-salah
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* Shaikh Raed enjoys unprecedented popularity among Palestinians, especially because despite facing numerous threats from Israeli officialdom he remains one of the most daring Palestinian figures in his fight against the occupation. This struggle led to him being imprisoned more than once. Aside from his charismatic personality, he is known for his close relationship with ordinary Palestinian people, having a very modest lifestyle, high moral standards, a quiet character and a kind smile always on his face.
* He began his political and public career in 1989 through his candidacy for mayor of Umm al-Fahm and earning a tremendous victory with more than 70% of the votes cast. He won the municipal elections twice in 1993 and 1997 before, in 2001, he gave up his post voluntarily to defend the Palestinian cause and stand up for the city of Jerusalem and its inhabitants in the face of growing Israeli threats.
* As a leader of the “Islamic Movement in Palestine '48", the most popular political force in that area, Shaikh Raed Salah rejected the opportunity to stand for election to the Israeli parliament (Knesset). He believes that there are no opportunities to end the occupation of Palestine through parliamentary life due to the dominance of military, intelligence, extremist and racist forces over Israeli political life.
* He is famous for his tireless and peaceful protests against the Israeli occupation and its continued violations. His reliance on non-violent means meant that he is sometimes known as the "Gandhi of Palestine." In addition to the social programmes and the humanitarian and educational projects he stands behind, in 1998 Shaikh Raed launched the "self-reliant community" initiative which aimed to achieve the ’48 Palestinians’ self-development and economic independence from the Israeli occupation.
* He draws attention repeatedly to successive Israeli governments’ use of “peace agreements” with the Palestinian side as pretexts for continuing its expansionist policies on Palestinian lands against the Palestinian citizens. This includes the ongoing violations against the city of Jerusalem and its inhabitants, and the occupation of the Palestinian territories.
* In 2002, the Israeli Ministry of Interior issued an order banning him from travelling abroad, and the Israeli Supreme Court of Justice turned down Sh. Raed’s appeal against the order. He went on to be among the first to launch mass campaigns against the policies of the Israeli occupation in the city of Jerusalem, especially the attacks on Islamic and Christian holy places, and the destruction of tombs and encroachment on the historic Ma`man Allah cemetery.
* In 2009 and 2010, the Israeli occupation authorities issued military orders banning Sh. Raed from entering Jerusalem, after he discovered a series of secret Israeli plans for the implementation of wide-ranging archaeological digs around Al-Aqsa Mosque and the construction of complex tunnels under Muslim and Christian holy sites and the historic walls of Jerusalem.
* He led many solidarity actions with the inhabitants of the city of Jerusalem against the Israelis’ plans to expel them from their homes, withdraw their identity cards and cancel their residence permits in the city. He had a direct role in organizing daily convoys of buses loaded with people from the Arab towns and villages occupied in 1948 showing solidarity with inhabitants of the Old City of Jerusalem.
* Over the last few years, Shaikh Raed has played an effective role in demanding implementation of the right of return for Palestinian refugees who were expelled by Israeli forces from their towns and villages in 1948. For this purpose, he regularly participates in gatherings and conferences organized by the Palestinian refugees in living in Europe to claim their right to return to Palestine. Raed Salah is famous for his dictum declared on the sixtieth anniversary of the Nakba (the catastrophe of 1948) which said, "No retreat from the right of return”.
* In 2000, Israeli troops shot him in the head in what was considered by observers as an attempted assassination; needless to say, he survived. The Israeli occupation authorities arrested him several times, the first being in 1981. Between 2003 and 2005, Shaikh Raed Salah was imprisoned for two years but after his release he continued with his public and popular movements against the occupation, facing further arrest a number of times for his contribution to protest rallies in solidarity with the city of Jerusalem and its inhabitants. On January 13, 2010, an Israeli court sentenced him to nine months in prison plus a six-month suspended sentence in addition to a fine. The sentence was supposed to take effect from February 28, 2010.
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/resources/fact-sheets/1082-shaikh-raed-salah
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Monday, May 31, 2010
UN chief 'shocked' by Gaza aid flotilla raid
KAMPALA — UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Monday he was "shocked" by a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla and demanded a full investigation.
"I am shocked by reports of killings and injuries of people on boats carrying supplies for Gaza," the UN chief said at a press conference following the opening in Uganda of a key conference on the International Criminal Court.
"I condemn this violence," Ban added, as an Israeli television channel reported that as many as 19 pro-Palestinian activists may have been killed in the Israeli military raid.
"It is vital that there is a full investigation to determine exactly how this bloodshed took place," Ban said.
"I believe Israel must urgently provide a full explanation," he added, moments after delivering a speech hailing the "new age of accountability" heralded by the creation of the ICC in 2002.
The Hague-based tribunal, of which Israel is not a member, is the world's first permanent court mandated to bring perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide to justice.
The UN chief said that a detailed account of the incident was needed before the international community could coordinate its response.
http://islamicscholars.newsvine.com/_news/2010/05/31/4442389-afp-un-chief-shocked-by-gaza-aid-flotilla-raid?threadId=969074&commentId=14504515#c14504515
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"I am shocked by reports of killings and injuries of people on boats carrying supplies for Gaza," the UN chief said at a press conference following the opening in Uganda of a key conference on the International Criminal Court.
"I condemn this violence," Ban added, as an Israeli television channel reported that as many as 19 pro-Palestinian activists may have been killed in the Israeli military raid.
"It is vital that there is a full investigation to determine exactly how this bloodshed took place," Ban said.
"I believe Israel must urgently provide a full explanation," he added, moments after delivering a speech hailing the "new age of accountability" heralded by the creation of the ICC in 2002.
The Hague-based tribunal, of which Israel is not a member, is the world's first permanent court mandated to bring perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide to justice.
The UN chief said that a detailed account of the incident was needed before the international community could coordinate its response.
http://islamicscholars.newsvine.com/_news/2010/05/31/4442389-afp-un-chief-shocked-by-gaza-aid-flotilla-raid?threadId=969074&commentId=14504515#c14504515
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Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Talking Palestine to power
Today, there is no excuse for not knowing the truth about Palestine, especially what is happening in Gaza. Even taking into account the disinformation spread in mainstream media, there are enough glimpses one gets of a ravaged Gaza and a brutalized people that should compel us to ask questions. There are enough websites and blogs easily available for anyone to learn more, even if it requires sifting through and evaluating the available information. Certainly, the alarm bells should be ringing when our political leaders declare undying fealty to Israel or cavalierly wear it as a badge of honor, despite the documented reports of Israel's war crimes by human rights groups and official enquiries.
But the world lacks courage from government leaders, acquiescent mainstream media, nongovernmental organizations dependent on government support, academics looking for tenure and populations too long fed on a diet of Zionist myths. People are terrified of being labelled anti-Semitic, a mendacious charge against anyone criticizing Israel. Palestinians too, afraid of being further shunned and disadvantaged in countries that give them refuge, so often remain silent. Not only do people fear repercussions, but speaking the truth or even just hearing it has a way of taking people out of their comfort zones. They fear their troubled consciences may require them to act and so they bury their heads deeper into the sand where they hope even the sounds of silence might be extinguished.
This then is the challenge for advocates the world over. How does one talk Palestine to power if one cannot even talk Palestine to the people who are in fear of the powerful?
In the face of media saturation with Zionist viewpoints and the new "Brand Israel" campaigns, many wanting to advocate for Palestine might feel defeated, but time and again we see that the power of one can be enormously effective.
The great scholar and public intellectual Edward Said showed more than anyone else that individuals can make a difference in the public defense of Palestine. He particularly saw the intellectual's voice as having "resonance."
But one does not need to be an intellectual. Said's words can just as aptly apply to any one of us. He said avoidance was "reprehensible" and in his 1994 book Representations of the Intellectual, described it as "that characteristic turning away from a difficult and principled position which you know to be the right one, but which you decide not to take. You do not want to appear too political; you are afraid of seeming too controversial; you need the approval of a boss or an authority figure; you want to keep a reputation for being balanced, objective, moderate; your hope is ... to remain within the responsible mainstream ... ."
In 1993 when almost everyone else thought the handshakes at the White House steps would seal the negotiated Oslo accords and at long last give the Palestinians their freedom and bring peace to the region, Edward Said saw that these accords would merely provide the cover for Israel to pursue its colonial expansionism and consolidate its occupation of Palestine. However, he knew to criticize Oslo meant in effect taking a position against "hope" and "peace." His decision to do so flew in the face of the Palestinian revolutionary leadership that had bartered for statehood.
Although Said was denounced for his views, he was not prepared to buy into the deception that he knew would leave the Palestinians with neither hope nor peace. And just as he predicted, each fruitless year of peacemaking finally exposed the horrible reality of Oslo as Palestinians found themselves the victims of Israel's matrix of control, a term first used to describe the situation by Israeli professor Jeff Halper in 1999. And this domination of one people over another without any intention of addressing the injustices against the Palestinians ethnically cleansed from their homeland, has undeniably reduced Israel to an apartheid state.
The Palestinians have nothing left worth calling a state and they are facing an existential threat on all fronts. Yet, some intellectuals are still talking about a two-state solution in lock step with politicians, a mantra that is repeated uncritically, even mendaciously, in the mainstream media.
This pandering to an idea for decades has been undermined by the furious sounds of drills and hammers reverberating in illegal settlements throughout the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the catastrophic societal ruptures engineered in Gaza. Now those sounds are muffled by the rhetoric of "economic peace," "institution-building," "democracy," "internal security" and "statehood." They are words that must be challenged at every opportunity, for they are not mere words, but dangerous concepts when isolated from truth on the ground.
It is no use talking about "economic peace" when industrial estates built for Palestinian workers are intended to provide Israel with slave labor and cheap goods. It is useless to support "institution-building" when Israel continues to undermine and obstruct those programs already struggling to service Palestinian society. It is a lie to speak of "democracy" when fair elections in 2006 had Israel and the "international community" denying Hamas the right to govern. It is a charade to accept "internal security" when arming and training Palestinians to police their own people covers for Israel's and America's divide-and-conquer scheme. It is hollow to speak of "statehood" when Israel keeps stealing land and building illegal settlements that deprive the Palestinians of their homes and livelihoods while herding them into isolated and walled-in ghettoes.
Edward Said was proven right. Now, it is our turn to speak the truth and act fearlessly, regardless of the censure we are likely to encounter. The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer is believed to have said that truth passes through three stages: "first, it is ridiculed; second, it is violently opposed; third, it is accepted as being self-evident." Today, we are at the third stage: the 11 million Palestinians living under occupation, apartheid and as stateless refugees are the living truth. That is Israel's Achilles' heel.
The Palestinians are no longer the humble shepherds and farmers that Zionist forces terrorized into fleeing to make way for the Jewish State of Israel. A new generation wants justice and it is demanding it eloquently, nonviolently and strategically. Their message: no normal relations with Israel while it oppresses Palestinians, denies their rights and violates international law. And boycott, divestment and sanctions have to be legitimate tools for challenging a state that claims exceptionalism no matter how extreme and criminal its actions.
The temptation of course is always to opt for the path of least resistance. Therefore, we must appeal to the individual, not even to sacrifice for others, but to recognize that no matter where we live in this global village, we are all vulnerable if we do not stand up for universal human rights and uphold the principles and application of international law.
Despite his own Zionist affiliations and loyalty to Israel, Justice Richard Goldstone saw the danger of tailoring his UN-backed report on war crimes in Gaza to exonerate Israel. He had the decency and courage to put the rule of law and humanity ahead of the savage condemnation he knew would come from talking truth to power.
The same can be said of Richard Falk, the Jewish professor emeritus from Princeton University and UN special rapporteur in the occupied Palestinian territories, who was denied entry into Israel because he described Israel's siege on Gaza as a "Holocaust in the making" ("Israel deports American academic," Guardian, 15 December 2008). Israel's treatment was insulting enough, but now shamefully, the Palestinian Authority has asked the Human Rights Council to "postpone" his report on Gaza and, as Nadia Hijab reported, is asking him to resign ("PA's betrayal of human rights defenders the unkindest cut," Nadia Hijab, 14 March 2010).
These are honorable men, but we too can stand on principle in smaller ways, whether that is refusing to buy Israeli goods at our local store, boycotting an Israeli-government sponsored event or exposing and protesting the collusion between governments and corporations with Israel. That is what it means to become part of a worldwide civil movement that will do what our leaders will not: pressure Israel to dismantle the matrix of control on Palestine and make reparations for the decades of injustices it has perpetrated against its people.
It is indeed possible for all of us to "squeeze out of reality some of its potentialities," the reality that University of Melbourne Professor Ghassan Hage has said is found in those utopic moments that come from challenging our own thoughts, fears and biases. In that space lies the untapped power we seek, to speak the truth without fear or favor. In that space lies the potential for political change. In that space, there will always be hope for Palestine.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11197.shtml
Subscribe to Falestin Under Occupation by Email
But the world lacks courage from government leaders, acquiescent mainstream media, nongovernmental organizations dependent on government support, academics looking for tenure and populations too long fed on a diet of Zionist myths. People are terrified of being labelled anti-Semitic, a mendacious charge against anyone criticizing Israel. Palestinians too, afraid of being further shunned and disadvantaged in countries that give them refuge, so often remain silent. Not only do people fear repercussions, but speaking the truth or even just hearing it has a way of taking people out of their comfort zones. They fear their troubled consciences may require them to act and so they bury their heads deeper into the sand where they hope even the sounds of silence might be extinguished.
This then is the challenge for advocates the world over. How does one talk Palestine to power if one cannot even talk Palestine to the people who are in fear of the powerful?
In the face of media saturation with Zionist viewpoints and the new "Brand Israel" campaigns, many wanting to advocate for Palestine might feel defeated, but time and again we see that the power of one can be enormously effective.
The great scholar and public intellectual Edward Said showed more than anyone else that individuals can make a difference in the public defense of Palestine. He particularly saw the intellectual's voice as having "resonance."
But one does not need to be an intellectual. Said's words can just as aptly apply to any one of us. He said avoidance was "reprehensible" and in his 1994 book Representations of the Intellectual, described it as "that characteristic turning away from a difficult and principled position which you know to be the right one, but which you decide not to take. You do not want to appear too political; you are afraid of seeming too controversial; you need the approval of a boss or an authority figure; you want to keep a reputation for being balanced, objective, moderate; your hope is ... to remain within the responsible mainstream ... ."
In 1993 when almost everyone else thought the handshakes at the White House steps would seal the negotiated Oslo accords and at long last give the Palestinians their freedom and bring peace to the region, Edward Said saw that these accords would merely provide the cover for Israel to pursue its colonial expansionism and consolidate its occupation of Palestine. However, he knew to criticize Oslo meant in effect taking a position against "hope" and "peace." His decision to do so flew in the face of the Palestinian revolutionary leadership that had bartered for statehood.
Although Said was denounced for his views, he was not prepared to buy into the deception that he knew would leave the Palestinians with neither hope nor peace. And just as he predicted, each fruitless year of peacemaking finally exposed the horrible reality of Oslo as Palestinians found themselves the victims of Israel's matrix of control, a term first used to describe the situation by Israeli professor Jeff Halper in 1999. And this domination of one people over another without any intention of addressing the injustices against the Palestinians ethnically cleansed from their homeland, has undeniably reduced Israel to an apartheid state.
The Palestinians have nothing left worth calling a state and they are facing an existential threat on all fronts. Yet, some intellectuals are still talking about a two-state solution in lock step with politicians, a mantra that is repeated uncritically, even mendaciously, in the mainstream media.
This pandering to an idea for decades has been undermined by the furious sounds of drills and hammers reverberating in illegal settlements throughout the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the catastrophic societal ruptures engineered in Gaza. Now those sounds are muffled by the rhetoric of "economic peace," "institution-building," "democracy," "internal security" and "statehood." They are words that must be challenged at every opportunity, for they are not mere words, but dangerous concepts when isolated from truth on the ground.
It is no use talking about "economic peace" when industrial estates built for Palestinian workers are intended to provide Israel with slave labor and cheap goods. It is useless to support "institution-building" when Israel continues to undermine and obstruct those programs already struggling to service Palestinian society. It is a lie to speak of "democracy" when fair elections in 2006 had Israel and the "international community" denying Hamas the right to govern. It is a charade to accept "internal security" when arming and training Palestinians to police their own people covers for Israel's and America's divide-and-conquer scheme. It is hollow to speak of "statehood" when Israel keeps stealing land and building illegal settlements that deprive the Palestinians of their homes and livelihoods while herding them into isolated and walled-in ghettoes.
Edward Said was proven right. Now, it is our turn to speak the truth and act fearlessly, regardless of the censure we are likely to encounter. The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer is believed to have said that truth passes through three stages: "first, it is ridiculed; second, it is violently opposed; third, it is accepted as being self-evident." Today, we are at the third stage: the 11 million Palestinians living under occupation, apartheid and as stateless refugees are the living truth. That is Israel's Achilles' heel.
The Palestinians are no longer the humble shepherds and farmers that Zionist forces terrorized into fleeing to make way for the Jewish State of Israel. A new generation wants justice and it is demanding it eloquently, nonviolently and strategically. Their message: no normal relations with Israel while it oppresses Palestinians, denies their rights and violates international law. And boycott, divestment and sanctions have to be legitimate tools for challenging a state that claims exceptionalism no matter how extreme and criminal its actions.
The temptation of course is always to opt for the path of least resistance. Therefore, we must appeal to the individual, not even to sacrifice for others, but to recognize that no matter where we live in this global village, we are all vulnerable if we do not stand up for universal human rights and uphold the principles and application of international law.
Despite his own Zionist affiliations and loyalty to Israel, Justice Richard Goldstone saw the danger of tailoring his UN-backed report on war crimes in Gaza to exonerate Israel. He had the decency and courage to put the rule of law and humanity ahead of the savage condemnation he knew would come from talking truth to power.
The same can be said of Richard Falk, the Jewish professor emeritus from Princeton University and UN special rapporteur in the occupied Palestinian territories, who was denied entry into Israel because he described Israel's siege on Gaza as a "Holocaust in the making" ("Israel deports American academic," Guardian, 15 December 2008). Israel's treatment was insulting enough, but now shamefully, the Palestinian Authority has asked the Human Rights Council to "postpone" his report on Gaza and, as Nadia Hijab reported, is asking him to resign ("PA's betrayal of human rights defenders the unkindest cut," Nadia Hijab, 14 March 2010).
These are honorable men, but we too can stand on principle in smaller ways, whether that is refusing to buy Israeli goods at our local store, boycotting an Israeli-government sponsored event or exposing and protesting the collusion between governments and corporations with Israel. That is what it means to become part of a worldwide civil movement that will do what our leaders will not: pressure Israel to dismantle the matrix of control on Palestine and make reparations for the decades of injustices it has perpetrated against its people.
It is indeed possible for all of us to "squeeze out of reality some of its potentialities," the reality that University of Melbourne Professor Ghassan Hage has said is found in those utopic moments that come from challenging our own thoughts, fears and biases. In that space lies the untapped power we seek, to speak the truth without fear or favor. In that space lies the potential for political change. In that space, there will always be hope for Palestine.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11197.shtml
Subscribe to Falestin Under Occupation by Email
Friday, April 2, 2010
Massive oppression and rising temperatures don't stop the popular struggle
Some 25 Israelis, over 30 internationals, Palestinian supporters, a DFLP delegation and the Palestinian Minister of Culture joined Bil'in locals for the weekly demonstration against the wall. Demonstrators carried posters of Tristan Anderson, who was hit in his head a year ago by a gas canister in Ni'lin, and is still in critical condition.
This time the army decided to set a "honey trap" for the protesters. The gates in the fence were left open for them to charge through, while soldiers without protective gear (so they can run faster) hid on the Palestinian side of the fence, waiting to charge the protesters from behind and make arrests. The local shabab, however, quickly picked up the soldiers in hiding, and stormed forward despite the showers of gas canisters and rubber bullets that injured two youths. The soldiers retreated back behind the fence, and the shabab celebrated by charging to the fence. Soon enough, the organizers took over, restrained the local youth, and led some 30 protesters to the fence for a peaceful demonstration. As the wind was favorable and the soldiers slightly less trigger happy than usual, an Israeli recovered ex-soldier took advantage of the opportunity to preach to the soldiers, urging them to recognize their exploitation by Israeli politicians and contractors and to cross over and join the Palestinians demonstrating against occupation.
A smaller than usual weekly demonstration in Ma'asara, no more than fifty people strong (of different nationalities), was met after marching in the heavy heat through the village streets by a larger than usual combined army and border police force. Soldiers set up near the first houses of the village, deeper than ever before, and prevented the demonstration from proceeding towards the village lands.
After giving speeches in Arabic, English and Hebrew, a small group of demonstrators went through the barbed wire set on the road, and was pushed by the soldiers who also threatened activists will be arrested as the area is a closed military zone. Demonstrators on both sides sat on the ground, beat drums, sang songs, and called upon the soldiers to abandon the oppression of the popular struggle and join it in stead. The soldiers, already with stun and tear gas grenades at hand, were somewhat taken aback faced with this act of non-violent resistance and the many cameras documenting all over the place. And so, with nobody arrested and no attack on the demonstrators, activists eventually decided to leave willingly and escape the burning sun, promising to return next week as well.
All Reports
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Thursday, March 11, 2010
Israel indicts soldiers over Gaza
The Israeli military has indicted two of its soldiers for endangering the life of a Palestinian boy during the three-week war in Gaza more than a year ago.
The soldiers face charges for instructing the boy to open several bags suspected of being booby-trapped while searching a building in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza, the military said in a statement on Thursday.
The bags turned out to be harmless.
An Israeli military official said the soldiers could face up to three years in prison.
'Unrelated' to Goldstone
The army said it opened the investigation after the incident was brought to its attention by the United Nations, but emphasised it was "completely unrelated" to a report issued by UN investigator Richard Goldstone.
A team of UN investigators led by Goldstone said it found evidence that Israel and Hamas fighters committed war crimes during the conflict.
The two sides deny the accusations.
The UN General Assembly ordered Israel and Hamas to carry out investigations or face possible action from the US Security Council.
Israel has rejected the report and insists it is capable of investigating itself - a claim international human rights groups dismiss.
EU backs Goldstone
On Wednesday, the European Parliament backed the findings of the Goldstone report and urged its 27-member states to monitor Israeli and Palestinian probes into war crimes in Gaza.
It also urged Israel to immediately open its border crossing with the Gaza Strip to alleviate the worsening humanitarian crisis there.
The assembly is the second institution after the United Nations to back the report, with just over 50 per cent of politicians passing the resolution.
But the move was sharply criticised by Israel, which says it has opened 36 criminal investigations into complaints of improper conduct by its troops during the fighting in Gaza, much of which occurred in residential areas.
Last month a senior Israeli field officer involved in the war in Gaza was reprimanded over artillery shelling in a heavily populated area that hit a United Nations compound.
Some 1,400 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, and 13 Israelis, were killed in the offensive Israel launched in December 2008
Source aljazeera
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The soldiers face charges for instructing the boy to open several bags suspected of being booby-trapped while searching a building in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza, the military said in a statement on Thursday.
The bags turned out to be harmless.
An Israeli military official said the soldiers could face up to three years in prison.
'Unrelated' to Goldstone
The army said it opened the investigation after the incident was brought to its attention by the United Nations, but emphasised it was "completely unrelated" to a report issued by UN investigator Richard Goldstone.
A team of UN investigators led by Goldstone said it found evidence that Israel and Hamas fighters committed war crimes during the conflict.
The two sides deny the accusations.
The UN General Assembly ordered Israel and Hamas to carry out investigations or face possible action from the US Security Council.
Israel has rejected the report and insists it is capable of investigating itself - a claim international human rights groups dismiss.
EU backs Goldstone
On Wednesday, the European Parliament backed the findings of the Goldstone report and urged its 27-member states to monitor Israeli and Palestinian probes into war crimes in Gaza.
It also urged Israel to immediately open its border crossing with the Gaza Strip to alleviate the worsening humanitarian crisis there.
The assembly is the second institution after the United Nations to back the report, with just over 50 per cent of politicians passing the resolution.
But the move was sharply criticised by Israel, which says it has opened 36 criminal investigations into complaints of improper conduct by its troops during the fighting in Gaza, much of which occurred in residential areas.
Last month a senior Israeli field officer involved in the war in Gaza was reprimanded over artillery shelling in a heavily populated area that hit a United Nations compound.
Some 1,400 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, and 13 Israelis, were killed in the offensive Israel launched in December 2008
Source aljazeera
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Sunday, April 12, 2009
Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue Systematic Attacks against
Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
(OPT) and Continue to Impose a Total Siege on the Gaza Strip
• IOF killed two activists of the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip and one civilian in the West Bank.
• 16 Palestinian civilians, including two children and two journalists, were
wounded by IOF gunfire in the West Bank.
• 9 of these civilians were wounded by IOF and Israeli settlers in Kherbat Safa area, north of Hebron.
• IOF conducted 26 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank.
• IOF arrested 52 Palestinian civilians, including 8 children, in the West Bank and 10 fishers in the Gaza Strip.
• IOF conducted a wide scale incursion into Kherbat Safa area, north of Hebron.
• IOF occupied 8 Palestinian houses, and reclassified them as military sites.
• IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT and have isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world.
• IOF troops positioned at military checkpoints in the West Bank arrested 9 Palestinian civilians.
• IOF have continued measures aimed at the creating of a majority Jewish
demographic in East Jerusalem.
• IOF demolished two Palestinian houses in Jerusalem.
• A Palestinian house in the old town of Jerusalem was seized.
• IOF have continued settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.
• IOF ordered the demolition of a number of houses in Hebron.
• Israeli settlers seized 4 shops in the old town of Hebron.
Story
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Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
(OPT) and Continue to Impose a Total Siege on the Gaza Strip
• IOF killed two activists of the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip and one civilian in the West Bank.
• 16 Palestinian civilians, including two children and two journalists, were
wounded by IOF gunfire in the West Bank.
• 9 of these civilians were wounded by IOF and Israeli settlers in Kherbat Safa area, north of Hebron.
• IOF conducted 26 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank.
• IOF arrested 52 Palestinian civilians, including 8 children, in the West Bank and 10 fishers in the Gaza Strip.
• IOF conducted a wide scale incursion into Kherbat Safa area, north of Hebron.
• IOF occupied 8 Palestinian houses, and reclassified them as military sites.
• IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT and have isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world.
• IOF troops positioned at military checkpoints in the West Bank arrested 9 Palestinian civilians.
• IOF have continued measures aimed at the creating of a majority Jewish
demographic in East Jerusalem.
• IOF demolished two Palestinian houses in Jerusalem.
• A Palestinian house in the old town of Jerusalem was seized.
• IOF have continued settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.
• IOF ordered the demolition of a number of houses in Hebron.
• Israeli settlers seized 4 shops in the old town of Hebron.
Story
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