Israeli Forces raids offices of Palestinian NGO.

At 1:30am this morning the Israeli Army, equipped with 10 armoured jeeps, surrounded and raided the offices of Stop the Wall, a Ramallah-based NGO.

Founded in 2002, Stop the Wall is a grassroots movement ‘uniting the struggle of the popular committees in the villages, refugee camps and cities against the Wall and the settlements’. 

During this morning’s raid the Israeli military stole 2 laptops, 3 hard drives and 10 memory cards containing files and photos as well as archive material relating to the work that the organisation does in opposition to Israel’s apartheid wall.

Jamal Juma`, coordinator of the Stop the Wall Campaign, linked the attack to the on-going hunger strikes which hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are taking part in to protest the Israeli policy of administrative detention:

“It is not surprising that the Israeli authorities have chosen this moment to escalate their repression against the Stop the Wall grassroots network of civil resistance against the Wall and the settlements, choosing to act on the same day that the Israeli High Court rejected the appeals of Palestinian hunger strikers Bilal Diab and Tha’’ir Halahleh, imprisoned without charge and without trial, effectively condemning them to death”.

You can read the full report here and see pictures of the raid here.

United Methodist Church fails to pass disinvestment resolution but votes to boycott settlement companies.

The United Methodist Church’s 2012 annual conference decided yesterday to call for an explicit boycott of all Israeli companies “operating in the occupied Palestinian territories” although it failed to pass a resolution which called for divestment from three specific US companies which profit from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

The BDS Movement website released this statement concerning the Methodist conference.

Anna Baltzer explains the reasons behind the proposed divestment resolution (which was unsuccessful) in an article for Mondoweiss:

We are talking about companies with a solid track record of human rights violations: Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions, and Hewlett-Packard.

Caterpillar produces the bulldozers that have been responsible for the demolition of innumerable Palestinian homes and the uprooting of full orchards. Motorola Solutions produces equipment used to maintain surveillance systems around Israeli settlements, checkpoints, and military camps in the West Bank. Hewlett-Packard provides on-going support and maintenance to a biometric ID system installed in Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank which deprive Palestinians of the freedom of movement in their own land and allows the Israeli military occupation to grant or deny special privileges to the civilians under its control.

However, despite numerous calls for disinvestment from Palestinian and international groups and a large number of statements of support from many prominent Christian and Jewish figures including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Rabbis Brant Rosen and Mordechai Liebling, today the United Methodist conference failed to pass the resolution.

Despite this Jewish Voice for Peace, who worked tirelessly to encourage members of the Methodist Conference to vote to disinvest, wrote today of the positives which have come out of the campaign:

We regret that the values we share with the United Methodists Kairos Response, that were so beautifully expressed on the floor before the vote, were not turned into action.

We were most proud that this effort provided the opportunity to conduct hands-on, meaningful, and impactful interfaith work. The coalition that supported the United Methodist Kairos Response during their push for selective divestment was a remarkable array of groups across faith, ethnicity, nationality, and religion. The coalition included clergy who have made great strides from questioning the merits of divestment to now proudly supporting the church’s effort, Congolese Methodists who see parallels with struggles in their country, and Jews who stand side-by-side with their Christian brothers and sisters in this historic struggle for justice, equality and self-determination. Most importantly, the plight of Palestinian Christians, and all Palestinians, under occupation were at the center of this struggle.

We salute the United Methodist Kairos Response for their organizing efforts. We will continue to work with them and with all people of good conscience in an effort to end the Israeli occupation and to bring justice and peace.

You can read Jewish Voice for Peace’s full statement here.

‘Welcome to Palestine’ visitors blacklisted and detained.

The 2012 ‘Welcome to Palestine campaign’ took place on Sunday (15th April) with hundreds of people attempting to fly into Israel and declare openly that they intended to visit Bethlehem.

The campaign was designed to highlight the fact that visitors to Israel who want to visit the West Bank are forced to lie about their intentions at Israeli airports.  Robert Naiman sums up the situation well in this Aljazeera article:

Right now, if you, as a citizen of the United States, Canada, or Europe, decide that you want to visit Bethlehem, a Palestinian city in the West Bank - the same Bethlehem that Christians believe to be the birthplace of Jesus - you cannot pass without the permission of the Netanyahu government, which controls all paths you can take to Bethlehem.

Even if you have never committed any crime and have no intention of ever committing one, even if you have never attended a Palestinian protest in the West Bank and have no intention of attending one you could be barred by the Netanyahu government from going to Bethlehem simply for the thought crime of supporting Palestinian human rights. 

In the week leading up to the Welcome to Palestine event, stories began to emerge reporting that airlines across Europe and the US were cancelling certain people’s flights. 

In Israel, public security minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch stated that “The provocateurs will be dealt with in a determined and quick way. If they arrive in Israel they will be identified, removed from the plane, their entry into Israel will be prevented and they will be moved to a detention facility until they are flown out of Israel.”

The Guardian carried the story of three activists from the UK who had been informed that their flights were cancelled by UK airline Jet2 who stated that:

“We regret that, in light of the decision taken by the Israeli authorities, we are unable to accept you for carriage to Israel on this occasion and your booking with Jet2.com has been cancelled.”

The airline apologised and said the cancellation was “totally beyond our control” but said the passengers would not be reimbursed.

Palestinian News Agency, Ma’an reported too that Europeans were being denied entry onto flights.

It reported that  one activist, a French citizen, said that 31 out of 50 people in her group were barred from boarding their flight in Lyon airport, with the others prevented from entering Israel upon their arrival at Ben Gurion.

Organisers told Israeli daily Haaretz that more than 60 per cent of the expected 1,500 had flights cancelled by airlines, after Israel circulated a blacklist of passengers and warned it would fine carriers. 

The Guardian reports that Israel had distributed a list of about 1,200 names of personae non grata to airlines, demanding they be barred from flights. “Failure to keep this instruction could lead to imposing sanctions against the airline,” said a letter from the immigration authority. Carriers were told they would bear the cost of repatriating deported activists.

Mondoweiss carried a report by one activist who was prevented from boarding her flight to Tel Aviv and who reflected on the situation saying: “It is worth taking a step back to realize how thoroughly absurd and far-reaching these policies have become. With this sweeping denial of entry of hundreds of activists simultaneously, the Israeli government policy of criminalizing mere travel to the Occupied Territories is laid bare for all the world to see” .

Haaretz reported that even an Israeli Foreign Ministry official admitted that at least 40% of the names on the no-fly list compiles by Israeli intelligence service, Shin Bet were not activists. “We put people on the list who are as far removed from anti-Israel political activity as east is from west,” he said. “We have insulted hundreds of foreign citizens because of suspicions, and have given the other side a victory on a silver platter. Direct damage has been done to tourism and to Israel’s good name.” 

Organisers of the campaign in Bethlehem condemned the way Israel treated those attempting to take part in the week of activities which were set to include laying the cornerstone of a kindergarten, repairing damaged wells, and planting olive trees.

Israel’s response was “paranoid and hysterical”, said Mazin Qumsiyeh,  university professor in Bethlehem. “They simply don’t want the world to know what’s going on in Palestine.”

The mayor of Bethlehem, Victor Batarseh, told a press conference: “These people are coming to talk about peace, they are not coming to wage war against Israel. They are coming to visit the Palestinian people who are under occupation and to talk to them and to help them because these people are isolated.” 

“We have shown that Israel pretends it is the only democracy in the Middle East,” coordinator Abdul-Fatah Abu Srour said,”It is a real disaster for the Israeli government.”

Fifty-two passengers who reached Israel were detained and at least four Israeli sympathisers who unfurled a banner reading “Welcome to Palestine” in the arrivals hall were arrested. 25 people reached Bethlehem. 650 Israeli police officers had been deployed at Tel Aviv airport in anticipation of the arrival of the activists.

The 270 people who took part in last year’s protest have been banned from entering the country for 10 years (Haaretz).

As participating activist, Laura Durkay, sums up:

“One of the goals of the Welcome to Palestine initiative is to highlight the fact that, while conditions may not be as dire as in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank is also under Israeli siege, since Israel controls all points of entry and exit. Today, with the willing cooperating of European governments and corporations, that siege extends as far as Brussels, Paris and Manchester.”

Israelis call on Red Hot Chili Peppers to cancel Tel Aviv gig.

Israeli citizens have issued a public call to the American band, Red Hot Chili Peppers, to join the cultural boycott of their country and cancel their Tel Aviv concert scheduled for September this year.  

Their letter states that they support the call for the boycott of Israel against the country’s policies of racism, apartheid and occupation towards the Palestinian people and underlines the importance of the cultural boycott writing:

“Israel’s attempts to mask systematic human-rights abuses and decades-long oppression against the Palestinians largely rely on its ability to maintain a progressive and democratic image in the eyes of the international community.” 

The letter then details the trauma suffered by Palestinians living in the occupied Territories and within Israel before listing quotes from other artists and celebrities who have chosen to join the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement. Roger Waters, Elvis Costello, Faithless, Alice Walker, Devendra Banhart, Mike Leigh and Macy Gray have all made the decision not to perform in Israel or have publicly stated that they regret having performed there in the past.

The letter ends: “Therefore, we are asking you to re-consider your decision to perform in Israel. It is with great admiration of your art and activism that we suggest that a people oppressing another should not have the benefit of enjoying it or cynically using it as a tool of self-justification.”

You can read the full text of the letter here.

The letter has caused a stir on twitter with this website encouraging people to tweet to Red Hot Chili Peppers asking them not to perform - you can see the tweets here.

If you support the cultural boycott of Israel and want to take action to ask the Chili Peppers not to perform, please do tweet them using the advice here or sign this petition asking them to cancel the gig. 

If you want to read more about the importance of the cultural boycott, this recent article by Ben White in the New Statesmen gives a good explanation and there’s also a page on the BDS Movement website.

Eradication of Palestinian life in Jerusalem debated in the Commons

Last night (Monday 26th April) saw a debate in the commons on humanitarian issues in Jerusalem. 

Alex Cunningham, the Labour MP for Stockton North, made an excellent speech which  referenced the Act Now for Jerusalem petition which will be handed into No. 10 Downing Street on Friday. 

Cunningham called on the Government to take urgent steps to stop Israel eradicating Palestinian life in East Jerusalem. He talked about the wall and the Kafkaesque “ethnic engineering” enshrined in Israel’s “centre of life” policy, which allows East Jerusalem Palestinians to be stripped of their permanent residency status and expelled from the city unless they can prove that the centre of their life lies within the Israeli-defined municipal boundary of Jerusalem.

He covered a wide range of topics during the speech, including the expansion of illegal settlements, the Separation Wall which continues to be built in defiance of the ICJ ruling, denial of building permits, house demolitions in Silwan and the seizure of Palestinian homes by settlers who claim that the land was once in Jewish ownership. He also mentioned the nightmare of the checkpoints and the issue of political prisoners in Israeli jails. Lastly he brought up the question of boycotting companies which profit from the occupation such as Elbit Systems and AHAVA asking if the Government will work to ensure that they be barred from public contract tendering.

Crucially, he asked why it is that although these policies and acts are deemed illegal by the UK, no action is taken that would result in change stating “If nobody is going to place any sanctions on Israel for what it is doing, what can be done to bring a solution? Talk is getting us nowhere.”

You can read the whole debate here or a shortened version on the Palestine Solidarity Campaign website.

Israeli air strikes in Gaza

Twenty-three Palestinians have been killed and many more injured in the Gaza Strip since last Friday as a result of Israeli air strikes.

Strikes began on Friday evening as rockets were fired into southern Israel by militants in the Strip following the assassination of an alleged militant in Gaza. Today the death toll stands at five, including a fifteen year old boy, with 46 injured. Yesterday a twelve year old boy was killed in Jabalia refugee camp in an air strike that also injured his seven-year-old cousin. 

Guardian reports that the weekend toll was the highest since Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s three-week military assault on Gaza just over three years ago. Egyptian officials were reported to be trying to broker a ceasefire.

The cycle began with the targeted assassination by Israel of a Palestinian militant who it says was planning an attack. Zuhair al-Qaissi, 49, the secretary general of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), was killed along with his son-in-law Mahmoud Hanini, 44, when their car was hit by a missile. A civilian bystander was seriously injured.

Many have questioned the legality and morality of these targeted assassinations or extra-judicial murders which Israel regularly carries out in Gaza often resulting in the death and injury of many civilians alongside the targeted militant. This article in Electronic Intifada explores the motivations behind the current exchange of fire between militants and the IDF.

Read more about the strikes on Al Jazeera, The Guardian and Ma’an News Agency.

The news of these strikes comes just a week after it was reported that Israel had allowed Gaza to export goods to the West Bank for the first time since the blockade was imposed on the strip in 2007. Before the blockade, the majority of Gaza’s exports were sold in Israel and the West Bank and the inability to trade has left the Strip with a dire economic and humanitarian situation. However, Israel were keen to confirm that the recent export of goods was a “one-off pilot project” and did not mean an end to the ban on exports from Gaza to markets in Israel and the West Bank.

Describing the easing of the illegal blockade as a “gesture after a request from the World Food Programme and the Palestinian Authority”, Guy Inbar, a spokesman for COGAT, the Israeli military division responsible for coordinating access to and from Gaza, explained that “after looking at all the security considerations we decided to authorise this specific project. It’s not a new policy regarding exports from Gaza to the West Bank”.  Read more on this story on the BBC News website and in UN OCHA’s Protection of Civilians weekly report.