Peace Camp Against the Wall

Jenin
9 Jul 03
Jordan

Palestinian villagers and international activists at Peace Camp in path
of
Apartheid Wall face harassment and threats of violence

Last Sunday, another solidarity camp went up in the West Bank in
protest
over the thievery of land and in an attempt to stop the apartheid wall
being
built by the government of Israel. Citizens from the USA, Sweden,
Denmark,
and the UK joined Palestinian villagers as they set up a peace camp in
the
village Arrabony in the north of the West Bank. In the two days since
they
started the camp, they’ve faced harrassment from the Israeli military
and
threats of violence from Israeli paramilitary forces.

Arrabony is a village by the northern border of the occupied West Bank,
8 km
northeast of Jenin, with around 900 inhabitants. This small village is
another one of dozens of Palestinian villages, towns and cities that
will be
affected with lands stolen and the livelihood of inhabitants
devastated, by
Israel’s Apartheid Wall. With the wall complete 800 dunums of land
will be
confiscated from the people of Arrabony, leaving approximately 2000
dunums
in the hands of the villagers - with much of this remaining land
difficult
to access because of the Wall.

Since the camp was set up, activists have faced threats and harassment
-
from the Israeli Military, from heavily armed security guards working
for
the Israeli company building that section of the Wall, and from Israeli
settlers. Activists have been threatened with violence, removal, or
arrest.

Throughout, there has been steady and enthusiastic support from the
people
of the village of Arrabony. Men, women, and children have been a
twenty-four-hour presence at the camp, and are coming every day in
greater
numbers. Activities at the camp include games and sports, music, and
more.
With the increase in harassment has come an increased determination.

In the first day, the camp was immediately visited by soldiers and
armed
guards, who threatened to arrest everyone present. The international
activists responded that they were there at the request of the people
of the
village, and didn’t recognize Israeli military authority over the area.
The
military returned the following day - this time soldiers photographed
international activists and local villagers, and attempted to single
out and
target one Palestinian activist.

Yesterday (Tuesday), the building contractors came early in the morning
with
armed guards, and began marking the ground in the center of the camp.
Later
in the day, armed guards threatened to destroy the camp. In the early
evening, heavily armed Israeli settlers twice entered the camp.

Similar protest Camps have been set up and are maintained in Deir
Ghosoon
(Tulkarem region), Mas’ha (Salfit region) and Jayyous (Qalqilya
region),
where farmers are camping out on their land, which has already been
isolated
from them.

We invite all people to join us in one of these areas against the
confiscation of land and the creation of Palestinian ghettos, and we
invite
journalists not to ignore the voices of the people and the devastating
facts
that Israel continues to create on the ground, despite talks about
peace and
a \"roadmap\".

For more information contact:
Huwaida - +972 (0)67-473-308

Arrabony Peace Camp:
Tobias from Sweden - +972 (0)57-836527 or +972 (0)67-437690 Andrew from
the UK - +972 (0)67 943 926 Jordan from the US - 011 972 66 312 547

Tulkarem: Flo - +972 (0)64-309-753
Jayyous: Sharif Omar - +972 (0)369-771 or John - +972(0)066-351-890
Mas’ha: Yousef - +972 (0)55-972-547 or +972 (0)52-448-134



For more information on the Freedom Summer Campaign, contact:
Huwaida: 067-473-308
Ghassan: 052-595-319
ISM Office: 02-277-4602

Web: www.palsolidarity.org

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2.
Report from Qalqiliya

Qalqilia
8 Jul 03
Brooke

This morning a group of 5 international acitivsts went to the Qalqilia
checkpoint for checkpoint watch at 9:00 am and upon arrival found that
the Isaeli Occupyiong Forces had apprehended a taxi cab. Two ISM
activists asked a local resident what the situation was and he informed us
that the taxi driver had been detained. The activists agreed that to
investigate the situation. They approached the man with success, he was
told that he would be released shortly, and was released. The flow of
movement of Palestinians trying to enter and leave Qalqilia was steady and
constant for the most part. A delegation of 6 internationals came for
a meeting from Jayous and were forced to wait at the entrance to
Qalqilia for over an hour, they then attempted sucessfully to enter by just
walking in without the soldiers’ permission. Shortly after this, a
commander repeatedly asked the ISM group doing checkpoint watch to leave
the area and took the passport of two ISM activists. After about on half
hour of negotiations the passports were returned and the group left the
checkpoint.

Later in the morning another group of internationals and the local
coordinator went to meet with a community leader that works with the
families of martyrs in Qalqilia (doing things like helping coordinate aid
from NGO’s for things like the rebuilding of homes which have been
demolished by the IOF and organzing support groups for family members) and who
also acts as a liaison for NGO’s who need things from the Palestinian
Authority. The purpose of the meeting was to dicsuss ISM’s role in the
local community and plans for the Freedom Summer Campaign. The
community leader welcomed the ISM activists to Qalqilia and thanked them for
coming to Palestine. The community leader stressed the importance of
ISM activists building relationships with the local community and local
community leaders and that stability, credibility, and accountability on
the part of ISM activists in Qalqilia will be necessary to build trust
in the commmunity and to do collaborative actions in the community. The
community leader also emphasized the importance of ISM activists
sending information about what they are learning in Palestine to their home
countries. At the end of the meeting, the ISM activsts were invited to
come to a community soccer match and then to meet with a few families
of local martyrs later in the evening.

The soccer match the ISM activists attended was historic, it was the
first time Qalqilia’s team had been able to play against the team from
Tul Karm in three years, even though Tul Karm is only 10km from Qalqilia,
due to the restriction of movement imposed on Palestinians by the
Israeli Occupying Forces. In oder to ensure that the game would happen, the
soccer players from Tul Karm had come to Qalqilia the night before and
stayed in Qalqilia overnight.

Later in the evening, the ISM activists met with six fathers of martyrs
from Qalqilia and together all went to visit the family of the most
recently killed martyr from Qalqilia. 30-year-old Mahmoud Shawar was
assassinated by the Israeli Occupying Forces in the early hours of July, 3
2003 - a violation of the current cease-fire agreement. We met with his
wife, four young children, his mother, his sisters, and his brother.
Mahmoud was shot first in the legs and then the chest. A friend who was
with him laid on top of him to try to save him and the soldiers shot
the friend and arrested him. The soldiers killed Mahmoud by shooting him
in the back of the head at close range after he had been left to suffer
for some time from the earlier gunshots. The ISM activists have been
invited to meet with other families of martyrs in Qalqilia to document
their stories.



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3.
Report from from Qalqiliya Checkpoint

Qalqilia
9 Jul 03
Alex

MORNING CHECKPOINT
6 ISM members arrived at approximately 10:00 to find a relatively
smooth flow of people. After about 2 hours They were approached by two young
soldiers, the junior of which told them, in English, that they had to
leave. The soldiers were assured that there was no problem, and without
being specific, that the group were waiting on some friends to arrive.
After negotiating for 10/15 minutes, the soldiers agreed to give them
20 more minutes to leave. This would take them to 12:30, but at approx
12:25 they noticed two trucks full of soil, and two checkpoint police
cars go past. They contacted the local coordinator to tell him, fearing
that the soldiers may attempt to build another illegal roadblock, and
were told to meet immediately at a convenient location. It later
transpired that the coordinator had understood the trucks to be Special forces,
and as this was not the case, and nothing seemed to come of it, It was
deemed to be a false alarm, and the group prepared for a meeting with
the mayor of Qalqilya later that day.

MEETING THE MAYOR
That afternoon, 8 members of Qalqilia’s ISM unit met with the mayor of
Qalqilia. He received us in his office and began with a historical
account of the suffering of the peoples of Qualqilia from the 1948
declaration of Israel until the present day. He told us of the systematic
betrayal and exploitation this town has suffered at the hands of the Israeli
forces. Between the years of 1956 and 1965, we were informed, the
Israeli military had destroyed the infrastructure of this once bustling
market town. In this period the police, water and gas stations were
destroyed by the occupying forces. The mayor went on to tell us of the
displacement of 17000 Qalqilia residents to Jordan and the evacuation of the
city, after which only the refugees in the local area (not those
relocated to Jordan) were allowed to return. In 1996, we were informed, the
Israeli military seized The Western side of Qalqilia in order to build a
military bus route, the residents were told the land would be returned
to them after a period of 5 years, and that they would not be denied
access to their lands; both of which turned out to be untrue.
The brief history went on to include the levelling of the west side of
the town, the start of the walls construction (including the
confiscation of 70 metre’s of farmland either side of the proposed construction,
failure to guarantee Palestinian farmers access to there land, the
destruction of the north, south and west of qalqilia, and subsequent
developments in the construction of Israel’s \"apartheid wall\". The meeting
was cut short when ISM members learnt of the harassment of civilians at
a hastily constructed \"checkpoint\".

\"CHECKPOINT\" INCIDENT
At 2pm border police blocked a road. ISM members arrived to find four
soldiers harassing civilians. Two Palestinian members of the group were
isolated from other members who were ordered to retreat 100 metre’s and
turn their backs. The two Palestinian members’ bags were searched, and
they were \"frisked\" in the street. ISM members eventually retreated
as it was apparent that the soldiers were adamant, and were gesturing
toward their guns. After completing the search, the soldiers stopped
harassing the civilians, and removed the temporary checkpoint. As ISM
members returned, the soldiers drove away.


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