The Other Israel briefing, June 21
The Anti-Occupation Struggle: Ongoing Actions & Threatened Free Expression
1) Next Ta'ayush food convoy this Saturday, June 23
2) Land Defence Committee: systematic destruction of trees at Ab'oud
3) Gush Shalom: Uri Avnery targeted by rightwing campaign
4) Ongoing struggle in El Khader
1) Next Ta'ayush food convoy this Saturday, June 23
The following is excerpted from Miri Weingarten's earlier message
Our next Arab-Jewish food and solidarity convoy to the Occupied Territories
will take place on Saturday, June 23rd. The convoy will take food to two
encircled villages in the Nablus region.
This convoy is especially significant in light of the tightening of the closure and blockade on the Occupied Territories, aiming to separate and isolate the Palestinian population. Recent Israeli activities include the creation of a new ?security zone? east of the Green Line, division of the West Bank and Gaza into eleven separate and isolated zones, prevention of Palestinian travel on roads by means of numerous new barricades, trenches, and manned checkpoints, supported by tanks and armored vehicles, as well as the practice of shooting at the tires of moving Palestinian cars.
For Palestinians in the villages, this means virtually no work and no school. Visiting a hospital or pharmacy is now almost impossible. Fuel is scarce and becoming scarcer. Worst of all - food and basic medicines are running out.
These violations have been consistently ignored by Israeli media. The public must be made to see reality on the other side of the barriers.
We meet at Rakevet Tsafon on Saturday morning at 9.30, continuing to Kfar Qassem (1000), and from there to our final destinations. Contact: arab_jewish@hotmail.com; ph: 03-5240166
2) Land Defence Committee: systematic destruction of trees at Ab'oud
A non-violent protest us planned also for thsi Saturday at Abo'ud Village,
Ramallah District where wide-scale uprooting of trees and burning of fields
by army and settlers is taking place. So far at such short notice no Israeli
organization took it upon itself to organize Israeli participation in this
action with many people already having committed themselves elsewhere.
You may write a line to Secretary of State Colin Powell Dear Mr Secretary
The uprooting of trees and burning of fields by the Israeli army and
by settlers on the lands of Ab'oud village in Ramallah District is incompatible
with the idea of stabilizing a cease-fire and of calming down the situation.
copies to:
Israeli Defense Minister, Benyamin Ben Eliezer Land Defence Committee The following is background information excerpted from the LDC message:
"Over the past 11 days, the Israeli army has implemented a massive program
of tree-uprooting alongside road 465 (running East from the Green Line
towards Um Safa and serving three illegal settlements). This devastation,
affecting upwards of 50 Abo'ud families' livelihoods and covering an area
estimated to be 3 km by 1 km, was initiated by settlers on June 7th, in
what Ha'Aretz called "a simple act of revenge," following unrelated shooting
incidents in another area. On June 10th, Latin Patriarch Michael Sabbah
tried to enter the area to appeal for restraint but was warned by settlers,
"if you enter we will kill everyone with you," whereupon the army informed
him, "we will not protect you." Since that date the army has bulldozed
huge swathes of land along both sides of road 465 and held the village
under total closure, denying 22 Tawjihi [matriculation] exam students access
to their examinations and more than 50 Birzeit University students from
reaching their classes. LAW have documented several cases of urgent medical
treatment being denied to Abo'ud (pop. 2,000) residents.
The action on Saturday will see a non-violent mass protest march in
solidarity with the rural community of Abo'ud, whereby we intend to return
the landowners to their land (or what is left of it) while drawing attention
to the plight of this village and the numerous others facing the same senseless
destruction. We encourage you to pass on word of this demonstration and
attend in a spirit of peaceful solidarity. Contact: Issa Samandar 3) Gush Shalom: Uri Avnery targeted by rightwing campaign
In today's Ma'ariv, a right-wing institute calling itself "Palestinian
Media Watch" - which specializes in collecting tendentious quotes - launched
an attack on Uri Avnery, for "inciting the Palestinians to continue the
Intifada."
The settler pirate radio station Arutz-7 elaborated on the theme and
reported that a complaint to the police was lodged against Avnery for "incitement
to murder" (sic!).
Avnery calls upon the public to view the text in question. It is available
in Hebrew, and in English translation at http://www.avnery-news.co.il/index.html
and it could be easily seen that what he wrote is a sober analysis of the
terrible situation in which we all are. The accusations are an effort to
deprive opponents of the occupation of their right to free expression -
part of the deligitimation campaign whose main targets so far were the
Arab Knesset Members. The bill now pending in the Knesset which would specifically
legalize "a call for killing a member of a terrorist organization" is another
example of the rapid deterioration of democratic norms in Israel. So is
the Knesset ethics committee's proposal to include the term "an army of
occupation" among terms which would be forbidden for Knesset Members to
use from the floor.
4) Ongoing struggle in El Khader
Jose Bove, the French farmer who gained fame for damaging a McDonalds
restaurant to protest globalization and who is on a short visit to this
country, joined the group at al-Khader because "We farmers are protesting
together with the Palestinian farmers to defend their land." There were
about 100-150 Palestinian villagers who demonstrated, together with about
20 Israelis and 30 internationals -- twenty of them from Bove's group.
The activists had a very hard time reaching the village, because the army
had closed off all the access roads. But the group found a way in, climbing
fences until the spot where the villagers were there to greet them, and
although they were spotted and followed by Israeli soldiers, the events
continued as planned.
The Palestinians, Israelis and internationals began to climb up the
hill toward the settlers' mobile homes placed on top, carrying signs that
said "Stop the occupation" and "Settlers, get out!". Once stopped by the
police and army, they attempted to set up a protest tent near the foot
of the hill, to replace the one confiscated by the army a few days ago.
This was constantly impeded by the security forces, which finally lost
patience and began to arrest those they considered "ringleaders", followed
by the release of tear gas canisters and stun grenades into the crowd.
The violence was on a lesser scale then last Friday, according to those
who were present on both occasions, and no one seems to have been seriously
injured, although several activists were struck by police clubs..
The detainees - four Israelis, one Palestinian-American and three French,
including Bove himself whose arrest made headlines on the French radio
- spent several hours in detention, and went through the normal routine
of refusing to sign an obligation not to come back and finally getting
released neverthleless. Neta Golan took part in the action - and was arrested
- despite having a broken arm from the Friday action.
There seems no sign of the army intending to evict the settlers from
this hill, though their presence is illegal even under occupation law and
though Sharon and Ben-Eliezer promised the Americans to remove all illegally-established
settlement outposts created since the elections, of which this is one.
So furhter action on the spot is likely in the coming weeks.
The Other Israel - bi-monthly peace movement magazine (hardcopy)
Israeli Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres
In his article "An Interim Balance Sheet: Who won?" Uri Avnery of the
Gush Shalom movement analyses the supposed aims of the two sides in the
ongoing Israeli-Palestinian war of attrition. The article was spread a
few days ago through the internet. One of the papers who published it (in
translation) was the Palestinian daily Hayat Al-Jadida.
The Wednesday action in El-Khader went unreported in the Israeli media
which give so much space to settler demonstrations. It was only in the
English Ha'aretz, but not in the Hebrew one. It was well-reported abroad,
especially in France, but if you didn't get to hear of it: here is an excerpt
from the account written up by Gila Svirsky on the basis of what she heard
from a participant, Liad Kantorowicz. (We added some details from other
sources.)
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