International Committee of the Red Cross: Gaza closure: not another year!

June 14, 2010

News release 10/103
Gaza closure: not another year!

Geneva/Jerusalem (ICRC) - The hardship faced by Gaza's 1.5 million people cannot be addressed by providing humanitarian aid. The only sustainable solution is to lift the closure.

The serious incidents that took place on 31 May between Israeli forces and activists on a flotilla heading for Gaza once again put the spotlight on the acute hardship faced by the population in the Gaza Strip. 

As the ICRC has stressed repeatedly, the dire situation in Gaza cannot be resolved by providing humanitarian aid. The closure imposed on the Gaza Strip is about to enter its fourth year, choking off any real possibility of economic development.

Gazans continue to suffer from unemployment, poverty and warfare, while the quality of Gaza's health care system has reached an all-time low. 

The whole of Gaza's civilian population is being punished for acts for which they bear no responsibility. The closure therefore constitutes a collective punishment imposed in clear violation of Israel's obligations under international humanitarian law.



"The closure is having a devastating impact on the 1.5 million people living in Gaza", said Béatrice Mégevand-Roggo, the ICRC's head of operations for the Middle East. "That is why we are urging Israel to put an end to this closure and call upon all those who have an influence on the situation, including Hamas, to do their utmost to help Gaza's civilian population. Israel's right to deal with its legitimate security concerns must be balanced against the Palestinians' right to live normal, dignified lives."

The international community has to do its part to ensure that repeated appeals by States and international organizations to lift the closure are finally heeded

.

Under international humanitarian law, Israel must ensure that the basic needs of Gazans, including adequate health care, are met. The Palestinian authorities, for their part, must do everything within their power to provide proper health care, supply electricity and maintain infrastructure for Gaza's people.

Furthermore, all States have an obligation to allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of all relief consignments, equipment and personnel.



Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is about to enter his fifth year in captivity. Hamas has continued to rebuff the ICRC's requests to let it visit Gilad Shalit. In violation of international humanitarian law, it has also refused to allow him to get in touch with his family. The ICRC again urges those detaining Gilad Shalit to grant him the regular contact with his family to which he is entitled. It also reiterates that those detaining him have an obligation to ensure that he is well treated and that his living conditions are humane and dignified.
Read statement.
 

He withdrew from the panel meeting because its organizers gravely misrepresented him in their public invitation and did not inform him of this.

"Why are there at least three organizations whose aim it is to silence us, and often to remove us or even get us arrested? I would be happy to blame it on the tight inner logic and moral superiority of our arguments. But I don't really believe that. Instead, I think the explanation is to be found in my own field, psychology. I will first formulate this theoretically and subsequently in political terms. "
Read Speech

June 3, 2010

The violent attack ordered by the Israeli government and executed by its military in violation of international law on a convoy with humanitarian aid to Gaza, resulting in the deaths of at least nine innocent civilians, is yet another atrocity in the illegal and unjust siege of Gaza and the occupation of Palestinian land.
We call on the academic community, the general public, international institutions, and governments to make every effort:

• to end the siege on Gaza,
• to bring a complete end to the occupation,
• to achieve an internationally guaranteed, secure, and just peace treaty between Palestinians and Israelis.

The Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla by Israeli Navy Commandos on May 31, 2010

The Legal Framework of International Law

By Lynda Brayer,  a human rights lawyer who specializes in the laws of war and international law in representing Palestinians.  She lives in Haifa.

Crimes against the Peace and Crimes against Humanity

During the pre-dawn hours of May 31, 2010, the Israeli Navy attacked the six civilian vessels of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. The attack took place in international waters against ships flying under national flags of countries with which Israel is not at war, namely Turkey, Greece and the United States. The ships were carrying civilians from more than sixteen countries.

Salient points:
1. Since no state of war existed at the time, the attack on these vessels constitutes an act of war against those governments under whose flags the vessels were sailing.
2. The attack falls within the purview of the ius ad bellum, those laws which govern the resort to armed conflict. Israel’s action does not fall into the category of the ius in bello or the laws which govern the actual conduct of war.
3. Because this attack was carried out in international waters, the status of the relationship between Hamas, or any other Palestinian body, and the state of Israel is of no relevance whatsoever. Likewise, neither the blockade of Gaza nor Israel’s claims and legal interpretations regarding it has any bearing on its acts of aggression in international waters.
4. This is not an act of piracy. Piracy is an act of aggression carried out in international waters by individuals and not by states...

Read complete document.

By Margaret Atwood, June 1, 2010, from Haaretz newspaper.

Recently I was in Israel. The Israelis I met could not have been more welcoming. I saw many impressive accomplishments and creative projects, and talked with many different people. The sun was shining, the waves waving, the flowers were in bloom. Tourists jogged along the beach at Tel Aviv as if everything was normal.
But… there was the Shadow. Why was everything trembling a little, like a mirage? Was it like that moment before a tsunami when the birds fly to the treetops and the animals head for the hills because they can feel it coming?
“Every morning I wake up in fear,” someone told me. “That’s just self-pity, to excuse what’s happening,” said someone else. Of course, fear and self-pity can both be real. But by “what’s happening,” they meant the Shadow.
I’d been told ahead of time that Israelis would try to cover up the Shadow, but instead they talked about it non-stop. Two minutes into any conversation, the Shadow would appear. It’s not called the Shadow, it’s called “the situation.” It haunts everything.
The Shadow is not the Palestinians. The Shadow is Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, linked with Israeli’s own fears. The worse the Palestinians are treated in the name of those fears, the bigger the Shadow grows, and then the fears grow with them; and the justifications for the treatment multiply.
The attempts to shut down criticism are ominous, as is the language being used....

Read article.
 

Eyad Sarraj, June 1, 2010

Resorting to brute force is an expression of fear. Its deployment yesterday by the Israeli soldiers who raided and opened fire on the freedom flotilla on route to Gaza, killing more than ten civilians and injuring dozens more, will not serve Israel or treat its existential anxiety.

As a psychologist and a resident of Gaza, I understand Israel’s reflexive use of force against civilians as a symptom of a structural pathology. Israel resorts to the use of maximum force as a form of intimidation. But this is the choice of the weak. It is quite possible that through Israel’s actions, it is tightening its own noose.

More than a decade ago the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a book defending Israel’s right to “a place under the sun”. But it is the racist desire to create “a nation above nations” that is the desire of Zionist extremists. In this context, peace is an anathema; the siege and war on Gaza are legitimate and justified; Israel will use every possible means to avoid reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians. 
Indeed, Israel is marching rapidly towards becoming an apartheid state.

Due to the Israeli blockade of Gaza, the unemployment rate is near 50 per cent. The World Bank has stated that 90 per cent of water in Gaza is not suitable for human consumption, 80 per cent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day, and 70 per cent depend on charity for food supplies. Chronic malnutrition affects 15 per cent of Gaza’s children and its serious consequences for their cognition and growth will be felt for years to come.

The boats that the Israeli soldiers attacked were carrying food, medicines, and materials to build prefabricated homes for the people of Gaza. The freedom flotilla was a new attempt to break this Israeli blockade, condemned by the human rights community the world over.

The former US president Jimmy Carter has called the blockade an assault on civilization. Justice Richard Goldstone has rightly called Israeli actions crimes against humanity. So many voices, including those of many Jews, have called upon Israel to end this draconian siege.

One and a half million Palestinians remain prisoners of the largest open-air jail on earth since Israel’s siege on Gaza began in December of 2008. Then, Israel’s army demolished 15,000 homes, destroyed factories and ministries, and chopped off the minarets from mosques. Even the American School in Gaza, a sprawling establishment, was completely destroyed and Israel bombed schools run by the United Nations. Israel used illegal weapons against the people of Gaza during this war, killing hundreds and wounding thousands of civilians including children.

The attack on the freedom flotilla is just the latest act of Israel’s violence. Now there is defiance in the streets of Gaza from people who demand that the world force Israel to respect them as human beings.

For the Palestinians, this is the time for us to be reunited. It is doubtful however if Palestinian factions will rise to the occasion and end their internal strife as their political alliances dictate otherwise. It is also doubtful that many Arab regimes will heed the calls from their people to break the siege on Gaza, as they are not independent from external political and economic pressure.

The mass killing of those on board the freedom boats has drawn condemnation around the globe with critical statements from the United Nations and from European capitals, but they fall short of forcing an end to the siege. As usual these capitals and the UN await a green light from the US. At any rate the Israeli killing of peace activists could be a turning point in the struggle to end the siege and the Israeli occupation.

Dr. Eyad Sarraj is the president of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme and founder of the International Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza. Dr. Eyad Sarraj is also the president of FFIPP-I

31/05/2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Elders have condemned the reported killing by Israeli forces of more than a dozen people who were attempting to deliver relief supplies to the Gaza strip by sea.
Meeting in Johannesburg, the independent group of eminent global leaders repeated their call for an end to the blockade on Gaza. They called for a full investigation of last night’s incident and urged the UN Security Council to debate the situation with a view to mandating action to end the closure of the Gaza Strip.
The Elders described Israel’s attack on the aid shipment and the resulting killings and injuries as completely inexcusable. They said this tragic incident should draw the world’s attention to the terrible suffering of Gaza’s 1.5 million people, half of whom are children under the age of 18.
The Elders reminded the world that under international law, the three-year blockade of Gaza by Israel is illegal collective punishment of its inhabitants. They said that the treatment of the people of Gaza is one of the world’s greatest human rights violations and that the blockade is not only illegal, it is counterproductive. This is because it creates unacceptable suffering, in the process empowering extremists and undermining moderate forces in Gaza.
About the Elders
The Elders include Nobel Peace Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari and former US President Jimmy Carter.
Other members are Norway’s first woman Prime Minister Gro Brundtland who was also Director General of the World Health Organisation, former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Their fellow Elders, Ela Bhatt and Graça Machel, are globally recognised leaders at the forefront of the struggle against oppression and poverty, and Lakhdar Brahimi is one of the UN and the Arab world’s most respected and effective diplomats.
Nobel Peace Laureates Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi, are honorary Elders. Having retired from public life, Mandela does not participate in Elders’ meetings or activities but is kept informed of the group’s efforts.
 

May 19, 2010

By Eyad Sarraj, President of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program and of FFIPP-I

A few weeks ago I was asked to take part in welcoming Mr. Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, in his visit to Gaza. In a small room of an unfinished apartment building in Khan Younis, south of Gaza, the Secretary General said that he was happy to announce that Israel has agreed to allow for the entry of building materials for the 150 apartments, a UN project which was stopped for a few years because of the Israeli siege on Gaza. Mr. Moon was emphatic that the allowed material is not more than just a drop in the ocean of Gaza’s needs.  Mr. Moon is a polite man speaking in a low voice expressing his hopes to end the blockade of Gaza and to rebuild it after the 2009 Israeli war.
After the ceremony, Mr. Moon was swiftly driven away, and returned to his office in New York while I had to go back to my normal life. Instead of going back to my office I decided to have a look at the border with Egypt where life is taking a different shape. When I arrived at the border I was offered to have a tour inside the tunnels. I declined the offer as I am aware that tens of young people were smothered to death when some of these tunnels collapsed or when Israeli jets bombed them. But the area was bustling. The Gaza siege has produced a new layer of business and riches. Smuggling goods from Egypt through hundreds of underground tunnels has brought every possible product into Gaza, including cars. Most products are of poor quality and expensive except for the petrol which is of poor quality and cheap. A black market is flourishing while traditional law-abiding business has dwindled away. A nouveaux rich class has been created of smugglers who show off in their new cars and offer to buy anything in the well-established Gaza which makes its old families resentful and angry. In addition, money exchangers are taking the place of bankers, forcing some banks to close. It is important to note that both types of business, along with real estate, are controlled directly or indirectly by the Hamas government or by people related to Hamas. The siege has effectively meant that Hamas- related structures are getting stronger. I can safely add that the siege has strengthened the extremists within the Hamas movement at the expense of the moderates.
This is worrying. And if you add to that the unemployment rate of 50%, the water crisis (the World Bank has stated that 90% of the water is not suitable for human consumption), poverty (80% of the population live on less than a dollar a day), dependency (70% receive charity food supplies), chronic malnutrition (15% of children) with its effects on cognition and growth, and the rising infant mortality rate, your worries will be multifold. And we have not yet described the effects of the Israeli Cast Lead military assault on Gaza in January 2009; the demolished homes (15,000), the destroyed factories and ministries, the chopped off mosque minarets (!), damaged schools (The American School, a vast establishment, was utterly destroyed), the 4,600 dead and many more wounded, including whole families and children, your worries will be serious. Surely in his two hours visit, Mr. Moon was touched by all what he saw in Gaza as he was expressing sympathy and solidarity. But he was, in reality, expressing more than anything the powerlessness of the UN and the world community to challenge Israel’s illegal policy of the blockade or its record of war crimes and crimes against humanity. It was sad that this man came all the way to Gaza thinking he would bring good news, when in fact he was reminding us that Israel is above the law and is beyond accountability. He must have read Netanyahu’s book “A Place under the Sun” and realized that the Prime Minister of Israel is creating a nation above nations.
 Add to all that the Palestinian factions of Hamas and Fatah are insisting on self destruction, polarization, and division of their land, knowing that Israel is happy to keep the status quo as long as it will continue to gobble Palestinian land in the West bank and push Gaza towards Egypt. It looks as though the Palestinians are not short of enemies within or stupidity to prove that they are their own worst enemy.
Overwhelmingly controlled by extremist settlers and Zionists, Israel will use every possible mean to avoid reaching a peace agreement with Palestinians. Israel's most important aim is to take more land, and its determined plan is to allow neither the emergence of a viable Palestinian state, nor a one state for all people. Israel is marching rapidly towards an apartheid state; at which the struggle for a one man one vote, for justice and equality will begin.

 FFIPP-I Newsletter, May 2010

May 12, 2010

By Daphna Golan

A few weeks after we said "Next year in Jerusalem" at the Passover seder, Jerusalem Day has arrived, forcing us to ask whether this is the Jerusalem we meant. Jerusalem is currently enjoying a pleasant spring. The sun is shining. And in the west of the city, traffic circles are blossoming, while thousands of armed policemen and civilians are afraid of the next explosion.
Is this the Jerusalem to which Diaspora Jews dreamed of returning? The united Jerusalem that stretches from Shoafat to Beit Sahur? A city where on one side they build a monster like the Holyland apartment complex, and on the other there is no master plan, there are almost no building opportunities, and thousands of people live in fear that their homes, which were built without permits, will be demolished?
Did we imagine that when the Jews returned to Jerusalem they would evacuate Palestinians from their homes in order to settle in them?
Is it possible to celebrate the "unification of Jerusalem" when Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah are expelled from their homes under the aegis of the court to let Jews live there in their stead?

Read Article

Publications, including maps of Jerusalem from the The International Peace and Cooperation Center in Jerusalem, IPCC.

A year ago, on Friday April 17, 2009, Bassem Abu Rahmah was killed by Israeli soldiers during a non-violent protest in the Palestinian village of Bil'in.

A film was done by his Israeli friends in his memory. Watch Film

What follows is the text of a speech by Professor Judith Butler, and a member of the board of directors of FFIPP-USA, given on Wednesday, April 14, to the students of the University of California, Berkeley. On March 18, Berkeley's Student Senate voted 16-to-4 to divest from General Electric and United Technologies because of their role in harming civilians as part of Israel's illegal occupation and the attack on Gaza. A week later, the Senate president vetoed the bill. Speech.

 David Grossman's speech in Sheikh Jarrah

April, 9 2010

...I think that we are all beginning to grasp - even those who maybe don't really want to - how 43 years ago, by turning a blind eye, by actively or passively cooperating, we actually cultivated a kind of carnivorous plant that is slowly devouring us, consuming every good part within us, making the country we live in a place that is not good to live in. Not good not only if you are an Arab citizen of Israel, and certainly not if you are a Palestinian resident of the Territories - but not good as well for every Jewish Israeli person who wants to live here, who cherishes some hope to be in a place where human beings  are respected as humans beings, where your rights are treated as a given, where humanity, morality, and  civil rights are not dirty words, not something from the bleeding-heart Left. No. These are the bread and water, the butter and milk of our lives, the stuff from which we will make our lives, and really make them lives worth living here... Speech

“The world has condemned Israel’s settlement plans in east Jerusalem,” Ban told a news conference after his brief tour. “Let us be clear. All settlement activity is illegal anywhere in occupied territory and must be stopped.”
“I go to Gaza tomorrow to express my solidarity with the plight of the Palestinians here and to underscore the need to end the blockade,” he said.
Text of a letter to Ban Ki-moon from the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee of Bil’in, Ni’iln, alMa’asara, Nabi Saleh, Jordan Valley, South Mount Hebron Hills.

Statement by Middle East Quartet, March 19, 2010
 The following statement was issued today in Moscow by the Middle East Quartet. The Quartet -- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, United States Special Envoy for Middle East Peace George Mitchell, and High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union Catherine Ashton -- met in Moscow on 19 March 2010.  They were joined by Quartet Representative Tony Blair.

Statement

A Bill to In Support of UC DIVESTMENT FROM WAR CRIMES

March 19, 2010

...7. WHEREAS, United Technologies supplies the Israeli government with Blackhawk helicopters and with F-15 and F-16 aircraft engines and holds an ongoing fleet management contract for these engines, and, Amnesty International has documented the Israeli government’s use of these aircraft in the bombing of the American School in Gaza, the killing of Palestinians civilians, and the destruction of hundreds of Palestinian homes;

8 therefore, be it
RESOLVED, that the ASUC will ensure that its assets, and will advocate that the UC assets, do not include holdings in General Electric and United Technologies because of their military support of the occupation of
the Palestinian territories; be it further...

Full text

Jerusalem, March 16, 2010

Palestinian girls runs for cover from rocks thrown by Palestinian youth during violent clashes in Shuafat refugee camp March 16, 2010 in Jerusalem, Israel. Hundreds of Palestinian youth clashed with Israeli police throughout East Jerusalem, while the U.S. Middle East Envoy cancelled plans to return to the region as the crisis over settlement expansion worsened. Getty

Tuesday 23 March / doors open 20:00, start 20.30 hrs
Entrance: free for students, 5 euros for non-students
Location: CREA, Turfdraagsterpad 17, Amsterdam
Presentations by and panel discussion with:
- Tania Hary, Director International Relations at Israeli Human Rights Organization Gisha


- Lucy Royal-Dawson, Project Coordinator at Equalinrights, former coordinator of the Right to Education Campaign at the An-Najah National University in Nablus and PhD student on the right to education during conflicts.

Together with many human rights organizations, Gisha has persistently emphasized the obligations of Israel to ensure the free movement of people and goods in the occupied Palestinian territories. Particularly regretful is the prevention of Gazan students to take up funded places at universities outside Gaza as a consequence of the continuous blockade of the Gaza Strip. In addition, Operation Cast Lead (December 2008 – January 2009) caused immense human suffering and severely disrupted the infrastructure and educational system in the Gaza Strip. But also in the West Bank, students are directly affected by the Israeli restrictions. This observation leads us to the question: To what extent are students in Gaza and the West Bank prevented from exercising their right to higher education – enshrined in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights?
During a panel discussion, the speakers will review the circumstances in the Palestinian territories under which students exercise their right to education. Some of the issues which will be addressed:
- What is ‘the right to education’? – What is Israel’s responsibility as occupying power? – How does the right to freedom of movement relate to the right to education? – What are the consequences of Operation Cast Lead for the educational system in Gaza? – What are existing obstacles for students to seek higher education in the West Bank? – How will the consequences of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the educational system affect the Palestinian society in the long term? – What is the role of human rights organizations like Gisha, and the international community, in this matter?
This event is organized by The Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, the Netherlands (FFIPP-NL) in cooperation with A Different Jewish Voice (Een Ander Joods Geluid), Gate48 and Sivmo. For more information, visit www.ffippnl.wordpress.com, www.ffipp.org, www.gisha.org, www.equalinrights.org, www.eajg.nl, www.gate48.org and www.sivmo.nl
 

FFIPP-NL Website: www.ffippnl.wordpress.com

Newsletter.

Howard Zinn,  professor, author, teacher, activist and a leader for social justice and peace,  died today, 1/27/10.  He was a giant lighthouse for many of us.

The author, poet and activist Alice Walker said ( Democracy Now, January 28, 2010 : "Well, my former teacher (Howard Zinn) was one of the funniest people I have ever known, and he was likelier to say the most extraordinary things at the most amazing moments.
I think I felt he would live forever. And I feel such joy that I was lucky enough to know him. And he had such a wonderful impact on my life and on the lives of the students of Spelman and of millions of people. We’ve just been incredibly lucky to have him for all these years, eighty-seven. That’s such a long time. Not long enough. And I’m just so grateful."

Noam Chomsky said about Howard Zinn “He’s made an amazing contribution to American intellectual and moral culture. He’s changed the conscience of America in a highly constructive way. I really can’t think of anyone I can compare him to in this respect.”
Chomsky added that Dr. Zinn’s writings “simply changed perspective and understanding for a whole generation.”
“He opened up approaches to history that were novel and highly significant,” Chomsky said. “Both by his actions and his writings for 50 years, he played a powerful role in helping and in many ways inspiring the civil rights movement and the antiwar movement.”

One of Howard Zinn's last public lectures at Boston University on Three Holy Wars in January 2010. From Democary Now. www.democracynow.org/blog/2010/1/8/howard_zinn_three_holy_wars

An article by Zinn from Common Dreams.org : A Just Cause, Not a Just War

January 4, 2010

On International Human Rights Day in 2008, my husband Abdallah Abu Rahmah was in Berlin receiving a medal from the World Association for Human Rights. Last year on the same day, December 10th, Abdallah was taken away at 2am by Israeli soldiers who broke into our West Bank home. Abdallah was arrested for the same reasons he received the prize - his nonviolent struggle for justice, equality and peace in Israel/Palestine
.
My husband is a school teacher and farmer from the Palestinian village of Bil'in. When Israel built its apartheid wall here, it separated Bil'in from more than half of its land, in order to facilitate the expansion of the illegal settlement Mattityahu East. In response, Abdallah and fellow villagers began a campaign of nonviolent resistance. Every Friday for the past five years, we've marched, with Israeli and international supporters, to protest the theft of our land and livelihoods.

In September, 2007 Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the route of the wall in Bil'in was illegal and should be changed. Over two years later, the wall remains, unmoved. Many were discouraged, but Abdallah told them that the pressure of our campaign and international support could bring down the wall.

As the grassroots struggle grows here, the efforts to end our actions have intensified. The army has been instructed to use weapons against the protesters and arrest participants. Our beloved friend, Bassem Abu Rahmah, was murdered by Israeli soldiers as he tried to talk with them, while participating in a demonstration. Seventy-seven others have been arrested in violent night raids.

Among the other arrestees is Abdallah's cousin Adeeb Abu Rahmah, who, like Abdallah, never missed a demonstration and was never violent. Adeeb, a father of nine, has been in prison for five months, with no end in sight. Since the first time our home was invaded, our seven year-old daughter Luma has been waking up screaming, and five year-old Layan wetting her bed. Only our nine month-old son Laith still smiles and giggles, but I cry when he calls for his father.

Leaders like former President Jimmy Carter and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, one of the leaders of South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle, have visited our village. They stood with Abdallah at Bassem's grave last August. Mr. Tutu told us, "Just as a simple man named Gandhi led the successful nonviolent struggle in India and simple people such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King led the struggle for civil rights in the United States, simple people here in Bil'in are leading a nonviolent struggle that will bring them their freedom."
The afternoon before his arrest, Abdallah prepared a speech to be read on his behalf to the World Association for Human Rights since Israel would not allow him to travel to Germany for the ceremony. Abdallah wrote:

"I wish I could be with you to share in the joy of our colleagues receiving this year's prize and to celebrate with you the 20th anniversary of the removal of the Berlin Wall. But the occupation not only robs us of statehood, land, and so often of our lives, it also deprives us of many beautiful moments."

"My mother passed away in a hospital in occupied East Jerusalem, our historic capital, in August but the Israeli occupation refused me a permit to be with her. An Israeli friend held a mobile phone to my mother's ear so that I could say good bye to her and thank her for all the love she has given me. In the darkness of all these difficulties the occupation imposes on us, the solidarity of justice-seeking people like you all over the world gives us strength."
"Unlike Israel, we have no nuclear weapons, and no army, but we do not want or need those things. With your support and the justice of our cause, we will bring down Israel's apartheid wall."

Twelve hours after Abdallah was taken to a military jail from our home, I listened as President Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize and spoke of "the men and women around the world who have been jailed and beaten in the pursuit of justice." I thought of Bassem, Adeeb and my husband, and wondered if President Obama will take action to support our struggle for freedom.
 

December 29, 2009

Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a leader of the Bilin Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, was arrested at his home during a military operation in Ramallah by the Israeli Army on December 12.

FFIPP interns and members of faculty delegations know Abdallah Abu Rahmah well.  For the past two years, he has received our students and faculty at his home in Bilin and has taken them to see the Separation Wall on the village's land. 

Abdallah with FFIPP students and faculty in Bili'n

Abdallah is currently in military prison and is being charged with illegal weapons possession, in response to his creative exhibition of discharged tear gas canisters, bullets and sound grenades used by the Israeli military in Bil’in against non-violenet protestors. As many of our students and faculty have witnessed, the exhibition was created for educational purposes and does not have live ammunitions but only the remains of weapon used by  the Israeli Army.

In the last 20 years Israel confiscated more than 50% of Bil’in land for Israeli settlements and the construction of the separation wall. Supported by Israeli and international activists, Bil’in residents have peacefully demonstrate every Friday in front of the Separation Wall on their land for the past five years.
Under international law the confiscation of land in Bilin for the construction of the settlements on the village's land is illegal. The ongoing  construction of the Wall is also condemned by the UN and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In 2007 the Israeli High Court of Justice ordered the government to reroute a section of its separation barrier that is on the village's land.

Abdallah's arrest appears to be part of an ongoing campaign conducted by the Israeli military to undermine the efforts of residents of Bil'in and leaders of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, in an attempt to discourage them from continuing their non-violent struggle and spreading their non-violent, creative and inclusive struggle to other villages. Since June 2009, 31 residents of Bil'in have been detained by the Israeli military.  Recently, other leaders of the grassroots and non-violent Palestinian movement for the removal of the Wall and for freedom have been arrested, such as Jamal Juma and Mohamed Othman.

By imprisoning leaders of the non-violent struggle against the confiscation of Palestinian land, what is the message that the Israeli military intends to convey? If the leaders of this struggle, who work openly and jointly with Israeli and international peace activists, are taken away by the Israeli military, what options are left open to a new generation of Palestinians who desire to fight for their freedom and their dignity?

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who met with Abdallah Abu Rahma last summer during a visit to Israel, under the auspices of The Elders, a group of global leaders formed by former South African president Nelson Mandela,  condemned Abu Rahma's arrest and indictment.
Archbishop Tutu said that he and his fellow delegation members - who included former American president Jimmy Carter, former Irish president Mary Robinson and former  Norwegian prime minister Gro Brundtland - were "impressed by [Abdallah Abu Rahma] commitment to peaceful political action, and their success in challenging the wall that unjustly separates the people of Bil'in from their land and their olive trees." He called Abu Rahma's arrest and indictment "part of an escalation by the Israeli military to try to break the spirit of the people of Bil'in."

Abdallah Abu Rahma and members of the Elders delegation Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former American president Jimmy Carter, former Irish president Mary Robinson, Ela Bhatt  and former  Norwegian prime minister Gro Brundtland in Bilin

All of us who met with Abdallah Abu Rahmah in Bilin share Desmond Tutu's evaluation and condemnation.

We urge students and faculty to
1) Send a message of support and solidarity to the Bilin Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, http://www.bilin-village.org/
2) Request their release from Israel, http://www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-of/Israel,
3) Ask President Obama to put pressure on Israel to release the leaders of the non-vilolent struggle Against the Wall and Settlements, http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/
 

FFIPP-France letter to the French Parliament on Bili'n

Gaza Freedom March

From Women in Black
By Rochelle
Cairo
 
December 29, 2009

Dear Friends,

After 2 grueling days of travel I arrived in Cairo on Dec. 25 which seems like a few years ago. Despite tremendous international pressure on the Egyptian embassies and consulates world wide we have been refused entry to Gaza. The bus company that contracted with the Gaza Freedom March has been told by the government to cancel our trip. A small group of about 30 people from several countries decided to go to Al Arish, the northern Egyptian city nearest the Rafa border by public transportation to attempt to enter. They were met by the military police who placed them under house arrest there. They are being "detained" in their hotel and seem to be fine, not harmed, etc. It is likely that they will be sent back to leave the country.

Our 1361 delegates were supposed to meet for a big briefing at a large cathedral but the Egyptian government pulled the permit. Here you can be arrested for meeting with more than 6 people without a permit. So far we have held meetings in several hotels crammed packed with people. You can imagine how difficult it is to communicate under these circumstances.

A plan to rent dozens of faluccas, boats that sail on the Nile for a couple of hours was also stopped by the government. Hundreds and hundreds of us arrived planning to divide into small groups on the boats to allow us to communicate more easily and to put 1400 candles into the Nile to commemorate those who were killed last year in the massacre in Gaza, half of whom were children. Instead we held a huge demonstration with candles and banners and chants. We were surrounded by police but they were restrained and we dispersed with no trouble.

We then gathered a bit later for a large outdoor meeting infront of a government building to hear about next steps. I took on the responsibility of leading a group of people who like myself were unaffiliated, ie, not part of any contingents like faith based or artists or a particular country. We have named ourselves the Lost and Found but more formally just plain Free Palestine contingent. It is made up of about 18 people ranging in age from 22 to 77. We are from the US, Belgium, Bulgaria, Libya, Egypt, Algeria and Jordan. As a group leader I will go to a meeting to represent the group and then communicate with them via email and phone. It will make it a lot easier to meet and plan. There are several Plan B's afoot including creating an encampment infront of the UN here.

The French delegates seem like their government may be having more luck intervening with the Egyptians and they may be able to take busses to Al Arish tomorrow. Whether that happens, whether they will actually then get to Rafa, whether they will then get to Gaza - en shallah - it is in God's hands. I have gotten to know several of the French folks and if they go they have invited me and a few others to join because they have some extra seats. To be seen.

It is incredibly inspiring to be among hundreds and hundreds of activists from around the world who raise their voices as part of civil society to end the siege of Gaza and the occupation of Palestinians. Cairo has the dubious distinction of being the most polluted city in the world, the air is blue, it is a filthy, crowded, noisy city that never sleeps and pulses with a tremendous life force. The people are friendly and non-Arabs are still somewhat of an oddity.

The fact that it is almost midnight seems to have no relevance to the Egyptians who are in the streets all day and night. Shops never seem to close. I however, am not Egyptian and so I will eat my falafel and go to bed.

Here, at this moment, in this in a shabby hotel filled with peace loving people and never ending clouds of cigarette smoke I really do feel that the world is a better place waiting to happen.

I will keep you posted but may be out of internet access.

Thank you all for your support and good hearts.

To a future of what could be,

Rochelle             

By Mohammed Khatib
Mohammed Khatib is the secretary of Bil'in’s Village Council and a leading member of Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements.
Published in the Nation on 9/11/09

A few weeks ago, in the dead of night, dozens of Israeli soldiers with painted faces burst violently into my home. If only they had knocked, I would have opened the door. They arrested me. My wife, Lamia, was left alone with our four children. My youngest, 3-year-old Khaled, woke up to the image of Israeli soldiers with painted faces who were taking his father away. He has not stopped crying since. A few nights ago he woke up in terror, sobbing: "Daddy, why did you let the soldiers take me?" That's the way our children sleep--in a constant state of fear.
Many Americans know that the Obama administration has been pushing the Israeli government to accept a freeze on settlement construction. What is not commonly known is that even as Israel negotiates with the United States, it has been taking steps, including my arrest, to crush the growing Palestinian nonviolent movement  opposing Israel's construction of settlements and the wall on Palestinian land in the West Bank.

Read Article

November 30, 2009

Part 1
www.youtube.com/watch
Part 2
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Part 3
www.youtube.com/watch
Part 4
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Part 5
www.youtube.com/watch

The enclosure in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Photography and art as a means of emancipation

Monday, November 30, 2009 at 5:00pm
Friday, December 4, 2009 at 5:00pm
Location:
University of Amsterdam, Spinhuis
Oudezijds Achterburgwal 185
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Description
Jerusalem - Bethlehem: The enclosure in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
Photography and art as a means of emancipation.
In the framework of educational activities related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the principle of peace upheld by FFIPP within the academic community, our network has decided to combine photos from a Palestinian partner (the EJE, a French-Palestinian NGO based in Bethlehem) and photos from an Israeli collective of photographers named Active Stills, within the same exhibition.
This exhibition portrays both Palestinian and Israeli points of view on the enclosure and separation of two populations. The innovative and complementary approach shared by our two partners is based on a common conviction: photography and art can actively support social and political change. The images are a privileged medium of testimony, moreover, tools of mobilization and pacifist emancipation.
In February 2009, the EJE (Enfance, Jeu, Education) and her partner Anne Paquier (independent photographer) launched an educational project promoting the art of photography (technics, light, structure, message) for children of the Al Aroub refugee camp (near Bethlehem). In the aftermath of the project, cameras were made available for the children to give them the opportunity to capture their daily lives and dreams. Multiple themes were captured on camera: school, generations, Palestinian culture, daily life, earth, Palestinian symbols, etc. A selection of images made by these young photographers will be on display during the exhibition.
The other photos originate from an Israeli collective of photographers, called Active Stills, and demonstrate the enclosure and uprooting in and around Jerusalem. This collective similarly uses photography as a way of militant expression, and their images are integral to the fight against all forms of oppression, racism and violations of the fundamental liberties of mankind. The themes chosen by this group of 10 professional photographers - active in both Israel and Palestine - range from the denunciation of the Israeli occupation and the blockage of Gaza to the defence of women's rights, immigrants and asylum seekers in Israel. The exhibition furthermore displays a number of their photographs related to Jerusalem and its surroundings, taken from the "Jerusalem Dispossessed" brochure, made possible in cooperation with the ICAHD (Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions).
We invite and encourage everyone, especially the academic community, to come and see the exhibition, to highlight the issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict now more than ever, and act together with us for just peace.