A Chat with the Shabak

Around a week ago, I got a call from the Giv’at Ze’ev police, asking me to come in to 'clarify some technical details' about my arrest at a demonstration in the village of Bil’in a few weeks ago. By the time I showed up at the police station, on Sunday, June 26th, I had figured out that that interview would have nothing to do with the police. The shabak (Israel’s equivalent of the FBI) wanted to 'have a chat'. That was, in fact, the exact phrase they used: "This is not an interrogation. We just wanted to have a chat and pass you a message."

When I arrived at the police station, I was put in an interview room with a non-uniformed man, who stated his name was El’ad. After the usual body search, my phone and bag were taken away, though I was (generously) allowed to keep a drink I had bought earlier. Another non-uniformed man arrived and 'El’ad' passed him a note.

'El’ad' proceeded to tell me that they know I am associated with the ISM and that I am in touch with 'extremist' Israelis, internationals, and Palestinians. He asked me for a response, and I stated that I am indeed an activist, but that I do not associate with any particular group. Apparently, the super-geniuses at the shabak had googled my name and found out otherwise. I was suitably impressed.

I was then informed that I was 'on the brink of an abyss' (later corrected to 'you have one foot half-way down the abyss'), and that I was on the border of becoming a 'danger to state security'. They seemed to think that I would soon be carrying bombs and ferrying wanted men into Israel. They brought up a case from 1986 when a woman was given a bomb by her Palestinian boyfriend. I was six years old at the time…

At one point, the other man in the room shouted at me for a while, more or less repeating what 'El’ad' had said, though in a much louder voice. He then proceeded to stare at me for the rest of the interview. While the effect was meant to be intimidating, I found it rather amusing. The entire 'good-cop/bad-cop' routine was entertainingly predictable. I seemed to throw the 'bad-cop' off a little when I asked for his name, which he gave as Eyal.

I was told that they were now taking me very seriously, that I am no longer an 'ordinary activist', that I had 'gone up a couple of steps', that I had 'a large spotlight' pointed at me, that not every activist gets invited to a shabak 'chat', that up to now I had been toying with the law, but they would no longer allow that. They advised me to 'go to the beach for a while'.

The entire process took less than twenty minutes. I was shown out of the police station by a rather nervous-looking 'El’ad'. I didn’t head to the beach…

Posted by Rann

Verdict on Killing of Tom Hurndall

International Solidarity Movement
North Carolina Chapter

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June, 27 2005

Verdict on Killing of Tom Hurndall

Regardless of the outcome of today's verdict on the killing of Tom Hurndall, the North Carolina Chapter of the International Solidarity Movement (ISMNC) maintains that justice cannot been served while the culture of impunity in the Israeli army remains in tact. Tom was one of hundreds of civilians killed in Rafah alone in the past four years. He was shot while trying to move children out of the line of Israeli army gunfire. As he bent down to pick up a young boy, he was shot in the head.

Human rights activist, Raphael Cohen (39), who was with Tom on the day of the shooting said, "On the very street where Tom was shot, two children had been shot just days before. This is why he and the rest of the group went to that spot, to protest against the shooting of children as they played outside their homes. There has never been any investigation into the shootings of those children."

Last month, two Palestinian teenagers were shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the village of Biet Liqya near Ramallah. Adi Asi, 15 years old and Jamal Asi, 14 years old, were killed as the soldiers who were guarding the Apartheid Wall surrounding the village shot at the group of children. They were killed with live bullets to the chest and abdomen. Witnesses said they were playing football.

As Human Rights Watch state in their recent report, "Promoting Impunity, The Israeli Military's Failure to Investigate Wrongdoing", "Pressure for a proper investigation rises every time a high-profile killing takes place, but Israeli authorities have taken no serious steps to improve the accountability of the armed forces, create an independent investigation system, or reform the military justice system."

According to the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, between the beginning of the intifada and the end of November 2004, 3,040 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces, including 606 children. According to Human Rights Watch, "The number of official investigations into alleged wrongful use of lethal force equals just two percent of the total number killed and only 15 percent of the number of children killed, despite the fact that many deaths occurred in non-combat circumstances and the extreme unlikelihood that many of the children killed were legitimate targets."

The investigation into Tom's killing was the result of a long hard process by his family and supporters to pressure the Israeli government into providing answers. Without the family's unrelenting efforts and personal investigations, this trial would not have happened.

No Human Rights for Palestinians

Israel has no national human rights institution, nor any independent commissioner for complaints about human rights violations committed by the army. Meanwhile, the government of Israel continues to deny entry to human rights activists, witnesses and journalists and deports those who take part in non-violent demonstrations against the seizure of Palestinian land and destruction of homes.

We, at ISM North Carolina, are calling on the people of North Carolina to do what our government refuses to do, to demand justice for the Palestinians. The United States continues to supply military equipment to Israel to be used in its campaign against the civilian Palestinian population. We urge people to put pressure on the government of Israel via economic boycott, to end the killings, withdraw the settlements, end the occupation and allow the people of Palestine and Israel to have a peaceful and prosperous future. This will be impossible while the occupation continues. Without justice there can be no peace.

---------------------
International Solidarity Movement
North Carolina Chapter

Website: http://ismnc.blogspot.com
Email: palestinesolidarity@gmail.com

Collective Punishment in Bil'in

It was 12am on Sunday morning. We were headed to bed in Bil'in when we were alerted that Israeli soldiers had again entered the village. We, along with countless residents of Bil'in standing watch on rooftops, watched the military jeeps driving around the land near the annexation barrier, away from the village itself, for close to an hour before deciding to give up our post and go to sleep.

We were not able to quite lie down before we were called back to the roof — the soldiers had entered someone's home.

In a pattern that has been repeating itself over the last week or so, the Israeli soldiers, approximately 25 in number, had chosen to harass a new member of the Popular Committee Against the Apartheid Wall in Bil'in, the local Palestinian organizing body. We, the two ISMers along with one resident of Bil'in, drove toward the soldiers, stopped the car, and got out in order to investigate the situation. Immediately we were faced with a group of soldiers directly in front of us, all pointing their M-16s at our faces. They began speaking to us in Hebrew, but then in English they ordered us to back away from the house, return to the car, and drive away. The soldiers stated that they were executing a military operation and that we were interfering with it.

After a few more questions, we decided to follow the orders of the soldiers and drove back to the ISM apartment, where we stayed up waiting for news from the Palestinians whose homes were searched. The 'military operation' in question involved no more than casual harassment and intimidation. Try to imagine for a moment that a gang of soldiers entered your home at 1am, pointed guns at your family members, demanded identification and searched the house for no other reason than your involvement in non-violent organizing. Just one more example of Israeli democracy in action.

We found out in the morning that the Israeli soldiers had searched several homes, taken identification cards, and verbally harassed the Palestinians of Bil'in that night. They left several hours later.

What happened early Sunday morning in Bil'in was not an isolated incident. The Israeli army has repeatedly come to harass the people of Bil'in at night, choosing different areas to 'search' each night.

Bil'in is also not the only village in the West Bank that is being intimidated, stripped of its privacy and peace of mind. Boudrus has also experienced similar harassment by Israeli soldiers in the middle of the night. The pattern seems to be similar every time: the jeeps come to Boudrus, spend some time harassing the villagers, then drive over to nearby Bil'in and do the same again. Incidents like these are well-documented and have been ongoing for many years.

Why is this happening? According to Lieutenant Colonel Tzachi Segev, commander of the 25th Battalion of the Armored Corps, which is operating in the Bil'in area: "The stronger the activity against the fence, the stronger our operations will be. We reserve the right to enter the village at any hour ... Sometimes there is no escaping collective punishment, even if it has a negative impact. Collective punishment is closure, prohibiting people from entering a certain village, blocking the Bilin-Safa road [referring to the neighboring village] as a lever of pressure if the village does not behave properly." (Meron Rappaport - Gandhi Redux)

Collective punishment is forbidden by the fourth Geneva Convention. It is illegal to punish entire segments of civilian population for the actions of a few individuals, whatever those actions may be. In this case, groups of civilians are being punished for organizing peaceful demonstrations. The right to organize and peacefully demonstrate is protected by the universal declaration of human rights and by Israeli law. In violating these rights, Israeli soldiers are committing war crimes.

Posted by Allison & Rann

Israeli border police terrorize disabled Palestinians and residents of Bil'in

I had been asleep for an hour last night when at 12:45 am I woke up to the sound of border police coming into the village of Bil'in. I and another member of ISM followed the police as they entered approximately 12 homes, including several of the Popular Committee to Resist the Apartheid Wall in Bil'in, the organization that has been planning the recent demonstrations. They searched each home, asked for each person’s identification, and wrote down their names, phone numbers, and other information. The police had brought 2 hummers and 3 jeeps, all full of officers. Although there was no physical harassment, many of the Bilin residents were terrified when the police banged on their doors in the middle of the night. Some of the older residents were so frightened that they were having trouble breathing, and one woman had to take medicine to help her through this horrific situation. These border police were rude to many people, including we members of ISM, telling us not to question them about what they were doing, that it was none of our business. They finally left the village at 2:20 am. To see these Palestinians’ privacy completely invaded and to see the intimidation executed by the border police was maddening.

The following morning I went to the demonstration that the Popular Committee had planned in memory of the Palestinians who have died and been injured because of the occupation. The action began at 11 am when we marched toward the land where the annexation barrier is being constructed. We were about 60 in number, including Palestinians from Bil'in and Ramallah, Israelis form Anarchists Against the Wall, and internationals from ISM. Approximately 15 of the Palestinians with us had been injured because of the occupation, and for this reason some of them were marching in wheelchairs, some on crutches, and some with the aid of a seeing person. We carried signs with the names of the martyrs, and also ones saying “Who will be next?” We also chanted as we approached the wall. As we got closer to the border police and the wall, the police reacted to our nonviolent march with tear gas. Tear gas being shot at handicapped people is an awful sight, because unlike able-bodied people, they can not run away from the gas. For this reason a couple of the disabled had to be treated for inhaling tear gas.

After the first wave of tear gas, seven people were detained, including one disabled Palestinian, two members of the Popular Committee, one other Palestinian, and three Israelis. Following the arrests, the disabled were brought inside buildings so that they would be safe from the tear gas and other weapons. Once they were safe, some Palestinians began throwing stones at the border police, and the police responded with more tear and rubber bullets. They also drove into the village, driving around for about 30 minutes to continue their intimidation. The action concluded around 2:30 pm.

Posted by Allison

Large military force secures destruction of olive trees

At 7 am this morning, I joined a group of Palestinian villagers, Israelis, and internationals in the centre of Marda. We intended to go to the land where over a thousand olive trees have been cut to make way for the Apartheid Barrier in the last few days. Hundreds of border police were waiting for us on the villagers land. As we approached the land, the border police immediately started shooting tear gas and did not stop. Around 200 canisters of tear gas were shot over the next two hours. Two villagers were hit directly by gas canisters one of them required hospitalization. About twenty Palestinians were treated for tear gas inhalation.

No Wall work was happening at first, but the farmers quickly noticed that a bulldozer had begun to uproot trees near the top of the hill east of where we were standing. The group walked towards the olive trees and was immediately met by tear gas. Soldiers fired approximately 200 canisters of tear gas in the next two hours, hitting two Palestinians directly. One farmer was taken to Rafidiya hospital and two Red Crescent ambulances treated 20 Palestinians.

As the clouds of teargas began to disperse and some Palestinian men put out a fire that was caused by the gas, two military vehicles drove into the community. We walked back to the village at this point, scared that they might be coming to arrest villagers (as they did yesterday in Beit Surik). In the village there was a confrontation between the soldiers, and the Palestinians and other demonstrators. Some Palestinians threw some stones from the top of the house that the soldiers were very close to. The soldiers got out of their jeeps with guns in hand, and shot tear gas into some of the homes, filled with women and children.

One older woman had been affected harshly by the tear gas, and was trying everything she could think of to relieve the pain. It made me so angry to see these women trying to deal with the tear gas that the soldiers shot into their homes. The women were scared, especially when the soldiers shot several sound bombs in addition to the tear gas. Two soldiers eventually came into one house looking for the boys who were throwing the stones, but they did not find anyone to arrest.

More photos posted here.

Posted by Allison

Beit Surik, Bilin, Sulfeit

My last 4 days have been quite full of action:

Thursday in Beit Surik:
I went to a demonstration there. This village is losing more than a third of their land due to the construction of the annexation barrier being built by Israel. The barrier will allow the Israeli settlers to expand their land by stealing the land of the Palestinians. This is their agricultural land - they have been cultivating olives here for a long time, but now are seeing these olive trees uprooted and the land destroyed. The demo was pretty small, but it involved Palestinian teenagers throwing stones and the response by the Israeli border police - tear gas, rubber bullets, and a new crowd control mechanism (larger rubber bulets maybe?). One Palestinian kid (maybe 8 years old) got shot in the leg with a rubber bullet.

This was my first experience with tear gas, and it was ok - we were not in the middle of the gas exactly, so my eyes simply teared up for a few minutes. I felt quite a bit of fear during this demo though because the police can do anything they want to. They were trying to dispurse the demo, but also acting in a malicious manner. One example of this is that the tear gas shot by the police started a couple fires on the people's land, and while Palestinians were simply trying to put out the fires so their trees would not burn down, the police relentlessly continued shooting tear gas. I was steaming with anger while watching this.

Friday in Bil'in:
This demo was a march to where the Israelis are building the wall near the city part of Bil'in, a town of 1500 people. The march was huge for Bil'in - over 1000 people were there, and everyone was carrying Palestinian flags that the people of Bil'in had made. It was beautiful - people were chanting, there were lots of internationals there (including people from some christian groups that work in solidarity with the Palestinians).

The end of the demo brought tear gas, sound bombs (basically an exploding mechanism that makes a very loud noise but usually harms no one), and some live ammunition shot in no particular direction. The police were relentless again, and they succeeded in stopping us from marching to the wall - we had to stop a couple hundred meters away. 2 Israelis were arrested, including Rann from ISM-NC. They were both released later that day. The next day one of the Palestinians organizers of the march was arrested at a checkpoint.

Saturday in Sulfit:
We marched from Marda to Kifl Hares - maybe 200 attended. This was a wonderful demo - no tear gas or sound bombs or bullets. The police made us alter our route a bit, but we made it to our destination, where some Palestinians and internationals proceeded to dance, sing, and make speeches. There were tons of kids there - in fact the Palestinian kids had their own march toward the end of ours. It was amazing to see people at such a young age participating in the resistance.

Sunday again in Beit Surik:
Today we sat on and near som land that the Israelis are trying illegally to construct a road on to keep them from working. The police made us move back at one point, but we stayed around for most of the day to make sure they did not do their illegal work. While were at the demo a little ways away from the main part of the village, we learned that 3 Palestinians (2 12-year-olds and one 17-year-old with Williams Syndrome - a mental disability) were arrested from their house, presumably for participating in the resistance. They were arrested by Israelis who were dressed as Palestinians in an attempt to fool the locals into not being suspicious of them.

Overall I have had a lot of emotions at these demos and afterwards as I process them. Mainly anger, fear, frustration (that we can't stop this violence immediately), and hope. I have been inspired by the limitless bravery of the Palestinians, and because of them i know that we can make this a more just world.

Posted by Allison

Qawawis

I just got back from spending 3 days in qawawis - a very small village in the southern West Bank. By small I mean about 5 families. They all live in caves except one. None of the families has electricity or running water, and they are surrounded by Israeli settlements (groups of extreme Israelis who think they have the God-given right to the land they live on and therefore stay in Palestine depsite "political boundaries"). These settlers forced the Qawawis residents off their land for one year, and they were just able to return 4 months ago. Since their return, they have been subjected to trouble by the settlers, who have come onto their land in the middle of the night with guns, threatening them to back in their houses, among other incidents. However, when internationals are present in the village, the settlers seem scared to impose violence on the villagers. So we (ISM) keep a presence in Qawawis at all times.

When we are in Qawawis, there is little trouble, so the past 3 days for me have been very tranquil. I was there with a Spanish guy who also just joined ISM - he speaks Spanish and Arabic and therefore could translate the Arabic into Spanish for me. We basically sat around, played soccer and other games with the kids, ate, and drank a ridiculous amount of tea for 3 days. It was nice when I could take my mind off the fact that all the adults in the community were at all times preoccupied with the fact that the settlers might come at any moment.

Posted by Allison

Palestinian Flags on a Settler Road!

By Allison and Rann
June 4 2005



The village of Marda in the central West Bank district of Salfit lies at the bottom of a hill that is topped by the massive settlement of Ariel. Two days ago, 500 of the village’s trees were cut as a prelude to the building of the Annexation Wall on village land.

As a non-violent means of protesting the construction of the Annexation Barrier in the Sa`lfit region, a march was held this morning. The march began in Marda and ended in the nearby village of Kifl Hares. The two villagers are separated by a settler road which Palestinians require special permits to use. The march included Palestinians and Israeli and international activists in solidarity with their struggle. There were about 350 demonstrators in all.

We knew there would be trouble before the march began because soldiers had set up check points at both entrances to Marda and had declared these entrances closed military zones. Some demonstrators were forced to park their cars on the nearby road and walk to join the march. Unlike many previous occasions in which activists were prevented from reaching demonstrations, this time in an unusual move, the soldiers stopped people asked them if they were there for the demonstration, and if they said yes, they then allowed them to enter Marda.

At about 11:30AM we began marching down the road away from Marda but were soon stopped by the soldiers. I and many others attempted to push through the line of soldiers, but they used physical force to prevent us from proceeding as planned. At some points there was quite a bit of physical force being used by the soldiers and I was afraid they would start firing tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the demonstration as is the normal occurrence in demonstrations in the West Bank. One Israeli activist, Leiser, was beaten by Israeli soldiers as he was arrested and was hospitalized with a concussion.

After some negotiating we decided to alter our path a bit, traveling across the fields and across the settler road to dirt road that led to Kifl Hares. As we were crossing the settler road, around seventeen(!) army jeeps and hummers blocked the road, holding up settler traffic. The army pushed quite a few people around, including one elderly Israeli man who was pushed off the road and fell hard on his back. Soldiers seemed rather angry that we were waving Palestinian flags in the middle of ‘their’ road. One Palestinian man was violently ‘arrested’ only to be released a few minutes later. Eventually the march was allowed to proceed.

At one point the dirt road ran along the main road so that the march was visible to drivers passing by. We were greeted with taunts of ‘you should be ashamed’ from at least one settler and with victory signs from Palestinians. Not long afterward we successfully arrived in Kifl Hares, and there were several speeches made as well as singing and dancing. It was heartening to see such a successful march conclude with relatively little violence by the soldiers and also to see the raised spirits of all those who marched.

A few thoughts on the demonstration:
- Negotiating with the army very rarely produces any results. If this has been a Palestinian-only demonstration, or if only young Israelis and internationals had supported the Palestinian demonstrators, there would have probably been a lot more violence. The presence of older Israelis thus probably made a huge difference.

- This was a huge victory for Palestinian villagers. Marching across a settler road is an enormously powerful symbol of liberation and one that I hope to see repeated over and over again.

- The huge number of relatively calm forces used by the army (well over 100 soldiers) was interesting. The army could have used a much smaller number of soldiers and a lot more violence. They chose not to, and the demonstration felt more like a European or American one. While those types of marches are rather dull in Europe or the US, the novelty of such a demonstration here was rather uplifting.

Link to photos of road signs altered hours before the demonstration:
https://israel.indymedia.org/media/index.php

Article from Al-Jazeera online:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2A05C458-9839-471D-9224-330398169C00.htm

Freedom Summer 2005

Give Voice To The Palestinian Call For Freedom

Freedom Summer Palestine 2005
(June 25 - August 21, 2005)

Freedom Summer Palestine 2005 is a Palestinian nonviolent campaign against Israeli occupation. This summer, with the participation of international supporters, Palestinians will continue their long-standing mobilization for nonviolent direct action against the Israeli occupation and draw the world's attention to what is really happening in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

While the world is hearing that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is being resolved and that Sharon has become "a herald of peace," apartheid continues to be reinforced each day in Occupied Palestine. It is more important than ever to come to Palestine this summer to join Palestinian nonviolent resistance to the Israeli military occupation !

Palestinian communities are asking ISM activists to support their nonviolent demonstrations against the continued construction of the illegal Annexation Wall, the demolitions of Palestinian homes, and their various efforts to remain steadfast on the soil of their ancestors. All this despite the continuing land theft and the constant violence perpetuated by the Israeli military and illegal settlers.

Freedom Summer, beginning June 25th and continuing 57 days, one day for every year of displacement and dispossession since 1948, is a mobilization of the Palestinian people for justice, basic human rights and freedom.

Like the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, India's National Liberation Movement and the Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa, Palestinian communities utilise nonviolent strategies to counter oppression.

This is not an issue of "Palestinian against Israeli" or "Arab against Jew." It is a struggle of humanity and freedom against injustice and oppression.

How It Works
Two-day training sessions will be conducted by ISM trainers every Sunday and Monday of Freedom Summer in Ramallah. The first training of the campaign will be June 24 and 25. On completion of training, groups of internationals will be dispatched to various regions to join local nonviolent resistance activities.

Freedom Summer actions will be directed at Israeli occupation measures that deny Palestinians basic freedom: The Annexation Wall, checkpoints, roadblocks, settlement expansion, and political prisoners.

Plans for Freedom Summer 2005 are being developed by Palestinian communities. Examples of likely actions include:

- Supporting Palestinian communities in their peaceful protesting of construction of The Annexation Wall in West Bank villages where Wall construction threatens to cut off villagers from their farmland and livelihood,
- Supporting action by communities removing roadblocks that are strangling West Bank villages,
Maintaining a presence in communities in the Hebron region that are under constant threat from Israeli settlers who are attempting to force Palestinians from their land,
- Working in support of Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem and to resist the Israeli government's attempt to isolate East Jerusalem, the Palestinian capital, from the West Bank and Gaza Strip,
- Joining Palestinian families and communities in resisting nonviolently and highlighting the demolition of Palestinian homes,
- Joining Palestinian communities in nonviolent protest against the industrial settlement complexes that are stealing and contaminating Palestinian land,
Acting in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners, thousands of whom are being held in Israeli prisons in violation of international law for struggling for Palestinian rights,
- Reporting to the media and the world on the daily criminal actions of the Israeli military and Israeli settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Bring the world's eyes to Palestine! Teams of international civilians will be hosted by Palestinians communities and will work directly with Palestinian coordinators and local peace activists.

At the local level, Palestinians are organizing, training and coordinating a summer program of activities and actions to involve all elements of Palestinian society and international supporters.

Obviously not everyone is comfortable taking the same risks or participating in direct confrontations with soldiers, police and settlers. Therefore, local committees will determine various roles and levels of participation for all, so that there is something to do for everyone.

Activists are required to make a commitment to nonviolence principles, adherence to the group process and respect for Palestinian culture and Palestinian community leadership for the duration of their stay in Palestine.

For more information write:
info@palsolidarity.org (ISM Palestine)
palestinesolidarity@gmail.com (ISM North Carolina)

Upon arrival contact:
0522-244-983
0547-429-51
02-2971824, ISM media office