ISM Reports: 1. Armed Settlers Attack Palestinian Farmers Israelis and

ISM Media Office (via-c.) | 08.05.2003 15:00

The Latest ISM Activist Reports and Statements From Palestine

There are 3 messages in this issue.

Topics in this digest:

1. Armed Settlers Attack Palestinian Farmers Israelis and
Internationals
From: "ISM Media Alerts"
2. Reports from Palestine, May 6, 2003
From: "ISM Media Alerts"
3. Resending press statement
From: "ISM Media Alerts"

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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 15:28:10 +0200
From: "ISM Media Alerts"
Subject: Armed Settlers Attack Palestinian Farmers Israelis and
Internationals

For more Information Contact, Nadya:
The International Women's Peace Service (IWPS)
Office: 09-2516-644 Mobile: 055-854-988

IWPS@palnet.com
www.womenspeacepalestine.org

May 7, 2003
PRESS RELEASE

Internationals, Israelis and Palestinian Farmers Injured in Attack by
Armed Settler/Colonists

As two Internationals, five Israelis and 10 Palestinian farmers,
including 3 very elderly women, plowed the fields of the West Bank
village Sawiya this Wednesday morning, up to 20 armed settler/colonists
with a German Shepherd from the illegal colony of Eli descended and
began attacking them. The Israeli and international accompaniers had
gone to the land to offer a protective presence to the farmers who are
repeatedly attacked by settler/colonists as they peacefully farm their
own land.

An elderly woman was beaten severely in the head with guns and sticks
and her arm appears to be broken. Settler/colonists threw stones at
least one Palestinian man while he was calling to warn other groups in
the field. He was also beaten with rocks, and he is now bleeding and
his shoulder may be dislocated. One international from to South
Africa,
Anna, was attacked by several settlers and a large German Shepherd, and
her purse and camera were snatched from her. Another International,
Ayesha, fell and injured her ankle while being chased down a rocky
hillside by the settlers. Keren, Raz, Ariel, and Ilan, all Israelis,
were beaten with sticks. One French journalist named Frederique was
beaten and his camera stolen. Other thefts included one donkey, one
horse, and plowing equipment.

One Israeli soldier witnessed the attacks but took no action to deter
the settlers from their crimes. Later on, more Israeli soldiers
arrived, only to physically push the farming group away and to tell the
Palestinians to leave their own land that they were farming, which is
at
least 300 meters from the border of the illegal settlement, Eli.

The attack occurred this morning 9:30 am. The settlers "seemed to
appear from nowhere," according to Anna from IWPS, and began running at
the groups screaming and shouting "Nazis, Nazis!"

"This attack was an attack against peace," said Anna. "We were working
together to plow the fields, side by side with Israelis and
Palestinians. It's obvious that the illegal settlers want to destroy
peace between people and terrorize them in order to get them to leave
their land. We were simply enjoying the beautiful day in this pastoral
landscape, and were suddenly surrounded by violence and being
attacked."

Despite the attack, the Palestinian farmers, Israelis and
Internationals
will remain in the field today to continue plowing their land.
"Despite
the risks, the land must be plowed so that the farmers can feed their
families," explained Anna.

Tom
ISM Media Coordinator
Beit Sahour, Occupied Palestine

ism-alert@palsolidarity.org
972 -2-277-4602
+972-52-360-241
+972-67-862-439

[This message contained attachments]

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Message: 3
Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 15:36:18 +0200
From: "ISM Media Alerts"
Subject: Resending press statement

For all of those that could not open the attachment, I have simply
posted the text of our press statement in this email. Hopefully it will
work this time. thanks--

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==================

PRESS CONFERENCE STATEMENT
Recent Developments Concerning the International Solidarity Movement
Monday May 5, 2003

Recently the International Solidarity Movement has been the focus of a
lot of attention and misinformation; attention that we've been trying
to
get for a long time engaging in Palestinian nonviolent resistance.
However, usually what we hear from journalists is "call us if there is
blood."
The International Solidarity Movement is a Palestinian-led movement
committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using
nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles. This international
coalition was founded to support and strengthen the Palestinian
nonviolent resistance by providing the Palestinian people with a
resource, international protection and a voice with which to resist,
nonviolently, an overwhelming military occupation force. The occupation
forces have shown little reservation in using brutal force against
Palestinian civilians, and the Israeli government has shown little
willingness toward ending its 36-year military occupation of the West
Bank and Gaza and its devastating Apartheid-like system of oppression,
which daily robs Palestinians of the right to life and liberty.
The initial campaign of the ISM was in August of 2001 at which time
over
50 civilians from various countries came to the Occupied Palestinian
Territories to engage in a coordinated campaign of nonviolent
direct-action against occupation forces and policies. Since that time
we've had over 1000 civilians from all over the world come join us.
Many
of our volunteers come from the United States and the United Kingdom,
though we have a good number of volunteers also from Canada, Denmark,
France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Sweden, among others. The age range
of
the volunteers is vast, with the average age being over 30. A number of
volunteers have been over the age of 50 and we've even had people in
their seventies join us. The religious and socio-economic backgrounds
are varied, with approximately 15-20% of our volunteers being Jewish.
Israelis have also joined in this struggle with the ISM, and have faced
the same violence from soldiers and settlers.
While the primary purpose of the ISM has been to engage in and support
the Palestinian unarmed, civilian-based freedom struggle against
occupation, as the aggression of the Israeli military against
Palestinian civilians has increased, the ISM has had to take up a role
in providing humanitarian assistance and protection by using their
status as internationals to escort doctors, ambulances, schoolchildren
and other civilians to work, hospital and school.
The ISM believes that in order to end the violence in Israel and
Palestine, the Israeli occupation - the root of the violence - must
end.
To that end we are mobilizing nonviolently.
Over the course of the past year and a half, the Israeli military and
government has used various tactics in efforts to delegitimize our
message. Some of you in the media have repeated or suggested the
accusations yourselves: that we are "young and naive", that we are
"trouble-makers", that we are "pro-Palestinian". As I've noted above,
the ISM is diverse in age and make up. We're Palestinian-led, but not
pro-Palestinian. We're not pro or against any group. We are pro freedom
and against occupation and injustice.
On March 16, 2003, the first international ISM volunteer was killed
when
she was run over by an Israeli-driven, American-made bulldozer in Rafah
while she was trying to protect the house of a Palestinian doctor from
demolition. Rachel Corrie was clearly identifiable in a florescent
orange jacket with reflector stripes. Four days later, American
volunteer Eric was hit 4 times with rubber-coated steel bullets, though
he too was clearly identifiable in a bright yellow vest and he was not
standing in the line of Israeli fire at Palestinian children throwing
stones. Two weeks later, American volunteer, Brian Avery, was shot in
the face with a high caliber bullet in Jenin. He was also wearing a
florescent jacket with reflector stripes and was clearly unarmed in an
empty street, with his hands in the air, when he was shot by an Israeli
soldier from an APC. Only 6 days later on April 11, British volunteer
Tom Hurndall was shot in the back of the head from an Israeli military
guard tower, while he was escorting Palestinian children out of the
line
of Israeli fire. Tom now lies comatose at Saroka Hospital in Beersheva,
without much hope of survival. Instead of the media asking questions of
Israeli authorities as to why these civilians were targeted, why they
were hit in the head, or questioning the legitimacy of the Israeli army
killing civilians, the media has instead helped blame the victims for
their victimization through its reporting.
Instead of taking responsibility for its actions and the lives of these
international volunteers, the Israeli military has attempted to skirt
the issue of its responsibility for the protection of civilians by
spreading untruths and engaging in character slander. The same
disregard
for human life that has been applied to the Palestinians, is now being
applied to international civilians.
The ISM activists are NOT human shields. The term human shield is a
specific reference to civilians used by military or armed personnel for
protection. The ISM DOES NOT do this. On the contrary, documented
reports of the Israeli Army engaging in this very behavior are
available
from all human rights organizations, including B'Tselem, Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch and others. We request that the press
cease using this terminology as it is false, and instead refer to the
ISM activists as accompaniment for Palestinian civilians, or as
interposing themselves to prevent war crimes (such as the targeting of
civilians demolishing civilian homes, etc. - all crimes of war
according
to international law).

With regards to getting rid of the ISM:
On April 16, Army Chief of Staff, Lt. General Moshe Yaalon announced
that he had given the order to "take the ISM out", claiming that we
"injure [the] freedom of action" of his troops. The Israeli military
"freedom of action" includes military invasions and sieges of
Palestinian civilian areas and flagrant abuses of basic rights and
humanitarian law. It includes continuing to fire on innocent
Palestinian
men, women and children and continuing to hold a civilian population
hostage to military terror.
But getting rid of the ISM and other attempts to break the phenomena of
international solidarity and nonviolent resistance is not a new policy
for the Israeli military and government. The statement by Lt. Gen Moshe
Yaalon was made before the tragic attack in Tel Aviv and we've noticed
this policy in effect since at least April of 2002. From April 2002
until August of 2002 the Israeli government has deported approximately
50 ISM volunteers. Since April of 2002, the Israeli Ministry of
Interior
has denied hundreds of human rights or aid workers and others suspected
of being "peace activists" or "Palestinian sympathizers" entry into the
country. Therefore, the suggestion that the two Britons accused of
carrying out an attack in Tel Aviv posed as "peace activists" or
members
of the ISM to get into the country, is highly suspicious. For doing so
would have ensured that they would've been turned away by Israeli
officials, not let in.
The ISM views it reprehensible that Israeli officials are exaggerating
the connection of these two attackers to ISM to serve its own
interests.
There is in fact NO connection to be made. The two Britons, Omar Khan
Sharif and Asif Hanif never made contact with the ISM, never registered
to join us and never attended our mandatory training and orientation.
To
talk about the incident in which the ISM team and the two crossed paths
in Gaza, is Raphael Cohen from our Rafah team.

Raphael Cohen
Shortly before noon on Friday, the 25th of April, about 15 people came
to the ISM apartment in Rafah, the Gaza Strip. They were in three
groups: 4 British citizens from London who were looking to prepare a
summer camp in Gaza in conjunction with local Palestinians from Rafah;
three Italians and two Britons. The last two have been accused of
perpetrating the attack in Tel Aviv early last Wednesday morning.
Our group of 5 offered all of them tea. I asked them general questions
like who they were? were they with any group? and what they were doing
in Rafah? The two accused Britons answered that they weren't with any
particular organization but that they came with "alternative tourism".
I've seen reports that suggest the two came with the Alternative
Tourism
Group. I only heard them say "alternative tourism". We stayed in the
apartment for approximately 15 minutes, before we went down to the
place
where Rachel Corrie was killed by an Israeli Occupation Force bulldozer
on March 16. Owing to the presence and approach of an Israeli army
tank,
we were only able to spend a few minutes at the site where Rachel was
killed. We placed a flower on the place in the dirt where Rachel was
run
over.
Our ISM group then went to the house of Dr. Samir Nasrallah, the house
that Rachel died defending, while everybody else, including the group
that had visited us, went their own way.
I've been in Rafah for the past 4 weeks. In that time one British
journalist, cameraman James Miller, has been killed by the Israelis and
one British ISM volunteer Tom Hurndall is brain dead after being shot
in
the head by an Israeli sniper. I can recall at least six Palestinians
who have been killed. I have personally visited eight people in
hospital
shot by the IOF, many tens more I could not visit. There have been two
large Israeli incursions involving 60 and 20 military vehicles
respectively. I felt the explosions which blew up civilian houses. The
night James Miller was killed, an ISM colleague and I were shot at from
a tank , likely the very same one used to kill James, at 30m distance.
The shots were extremely close and forced us both to throw ourselves to
the ground and crawl away through the dirt. There did not seem to be
any
justification for the Israeli tank fire. The Israeli military was in a
civilian area full of people and homes, and there was no Palestinian
resistance.
In sum I have experienced unjustifiable Israeli army terrorization for
the last month. Perhaps you can see it has taken a toll.

Huwaida Arraf
While we absolutely do not support in any way the attack by the two
Britons in Tel Aviv, or any other targeting and killing of civilians -
Palestinian or Israeli - we believe that significant fault for the Tel
Aviv attack lies the Israeli security apparatus - which clearly failed
its own citizens. The ISM bears no responsibility in anyway, as there
was absolutely no connection between these two men and the ISM.
Furthermore we believe that Israeli security can be greatly enhanced by
Israel declaring an immediate end to the occupation, withdrawing its
forces from the Occupied Territories, and complying with UN resolutions
and international law.
The ISM has no plans to leave the Palestinian areas nor to reduce our
actions or our efforts. The declaration by Israeli officials that we
are
to be detained and taken out is not only a concern to us, but should be
a concern for the international community and humanity. Our volunteers
have been instrumental in documenting and sometimes preventing grave
human rights abuses against Palestinian civilians. This effort by the
Israeli government is seen as nothing short of a further attempt to
shield from the international community the brutality of the daily
Israeli military actions against the Palestinian people. The
international volunteers are guests of the Palestinian people and
seeing
as they are all from countries with diplomatic relations with Israel,
unwarranted detentions, arrests and deportations will be taken up at
the
diplomatic level. We will consider any ISM volunteer detained or
arrested while in the West Bank or Gaza, as "disappeared" as human
rights activists and opposition figures were considered in Chile,
Argentina and many other places suffering under military rule.
Our actions and efforts are supported and often joined by many
Israelis.
What is to happen to them? Some of them are here with us today:
A copy of this press statement has been sent to our diplomatic
representatives in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and we will follow up with
our embassies to ensure our safety and protection according to
international law.
Thank you. We will open up for questions.

Flo
ISM Media Coordinator
Beit Sahour, Occupied Palestine

ism-alert@palsolidarity.org
972 -2-277-4602
+972-67-361-708
+972-67-862-439

ISM Media Office (via-c.)
Homepage: www.palsolidarity.org

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ISM Reports: 1. Armed Settlers Attack Palestinian Farmers Israelis and