ISM Reports: Hundreds March Against Apartheid Wall In Beit Surik
ISM Media Office | 21.02.2004 17:12 | Anti-racism | World
1) Correction
2) Beit Surik demonstration
3) Appeal from Beit Surik
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2) Beit Surik demonstration
3) Appeal from Beit Surik
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1) There was a typographical error in the Palestinian plan for work against
the Apartheid Wall sent out yesterday. Point #4 mentioned July 23rd
where it should have been written February 23. We apologize for this error.
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2)
February 20, 2004
"MESSAGE TO THE FREE WORLD"
Hundreds March Against Apartheid Wall in Beit Surik
[Beit Surik, NW Jerusalem] Nearly 1000 Palestinians gathered in the village
of Beit Surik today to protest the planned building of the Apartheid Wall in
this region. Joined by Palestinian political figures and dozens of Israeli
and International peace activists, the people of Beit Surik, men and women,
old and young, led a march through their village onto a hilltop overlooking
the area where they gathered to deliver a message to the "conscience of the
world."
"This wall is not being built for security, it's an attempt to ethnically
cleanse us from our land" said Mohammad Ayyash, head of the Biddu village
council. Fadwa Khader, a member of the Popular Committee to Resist the
Apartheid Wall, northern Jerusalem, asserted that the path of this wall and
its ramifications will lead to violations of international humanitarian law,
not to mention basic human rights. "We will resist the Israeli government's
attempt to wall us into little cantons and continue to struggle for our
right to live in freedom" she said. Also speaking were: Jamal Nasser, the
Governor of Jerusalem, who delivered a message on behalf of President
Arafat, Ziad Abu Zayyad, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council
representing Jerusalem, Mohammed Rabie, member of the Popular Committee to
Resist the Apartheid Wall, northwest Jerusalem, Ishai Minuchim an Israeli
from the Yesh Gvul (Refusenik) movement and Jenny from the International
Solidarity Movement.
A joint press release from the North / Northwest villages of Jerusalem:
Qatanna, Beit Anan, Beit Surik, Beit Dukko, Biddo, Beit Ija, Nabi Samuel,
Beit Ikssa, Bir Nabala, Rafat, Qalandia, Al-Gadeera and Al-Jeeb called on
"all Free Nations in the world to take part in this human struggle to tear
down this Apartheid Wall the same way that you united to end the apartheid
ideology of South Africa."
For more information:
Please see the appeal from the Beit Surik village council below and / or
call:
-Mohamed Khalid, head of the Beit Surik village council (Arabic and Hebrew):
+972-50 494 083 or +972-2 247 3255.
-Tariq Alsheikh, Beit Surik (Arabic and English): +972-67 544 919
-Huwaida, ISM (Arabic and English) : +972-67-473-308
END
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3) Appeal from Beit Surik
For a map (1.02MG) of the planned path of the wall in Beit Surik,
please email
info@palsolidarity.org Palestinian National Authority
Ministry of Local Government
Jerusalem Governorate
Tel./Fax 00-972-2-2473255
Date: 19 February 2004
Open Appeal for Assistance Concerning The Forthcoming Construction of a
Separation Wall around the Village of Beit Surik
Beit Surik is a small village to the north-west of Jerusalem, situated in
the West Bank and close to the 1967 border. During the 1980s the Occupation
Forces seized 1,500 dunums (about 400 acres) from the western lands of the
village. They destroyed about 500 dunums (125 acres) of agricultural land,
uprooting
fruit trees in order to expand the local settlements.
In 2003, the Occupation Forces seized another 500 dunums (125 acres) of
agricultural land located near the Har Adar settlement. In the same year,
they also seized another 700 dunums (175 acres) of land north of Beit Surik.
All such lands belong to the villagers of Beit Surik.
In addition, we have been told of the building of a train line that will go
through the villages and down to "Mudein" settlement to the south of our
villages where the train line will also connect Jerusalem with Tel-Aviv,
confiscating more Palestinian land.
This year, the people of Beit Surik and the surrounding Palestinian villages
have been informed by military order that the Israeli authorities will seize
350 dunums (up to 90 acres) for the construction of the Separation Wall.
The construction of such a wall will spell disaster for the villagers of
Beit Surik: up to 6,000 dunums (1,500 acres) will be lost, including the
eight water sources that supply the village and other surrounding villages.
Even our local garbage dump will be expropriated.
Beit Surik has 4,000 inhabitants- with the constuction of this fearsome
wall, we will be left with a mere 1,400 dunums (350 acres).
We cannot stress enough the catastrophe that awaits us. Over the years we
have been prevented from building houses on our lands while land has been
taken for the further expansion of local settlements.
The roads in and out of our villages have been blocked off, thus limiting
our freedom of movement and trade and leading to rising unemployment.
What we see now is equal to that of 1948: the land of Israel will come right
up to our front doors. All the surrounding Palestinian villages shall be
physically cut off from each other. Our appeal also concerns the villages of
Biddu, Beit Idesh, Beit Iksa, Nabi Sumi'weil, Kubeiba, Beit Anan, Qataana,
Beit Dukku and Kherbet Um El Lahem.
We are helpless villagers, eager only to earn our living and live in dignity
on the lands that our forefathers carefully nurtured.
Dare anyone call this wall a "Security Wall"!! It is nothing else but the
final stage in the complete annexation of our land.
. We ask you to FAX this information onto your national and local newspapers
. Pass it on to relevant national and local NGOs
. Pass it on to your friends.
. We ask you to FAX and PETITION your national government and local
politicians
. We ask you to FAX Israeli embassies and consulates
http://www.info.gov.il/eng/sub-TZRS-embassies.asp . We ask you to FAX the Israeli government
-Israeli Foreign Minister, Silvan Shalom Fax: 011-972-2-5303704 e-mail:
sar@mofa.gov.il -Israeli Defense Minister, Shaul Mofaz Fax: 011-972-3-6916940, or
011-972-3-6976990 e-mail:
sar@mod.gov.il -Prime Minister Ariel Sharon fax: 011-972-2-566-4838 or
011-972-2-651-3955 or 011-972-2-651-2631 email:
sar@pmo.gov.il On 20 February 2004, the people of Beit Sureik, together with the people of
the surrounding villages will hold a peaceful demonstration in protest. We
hope to count upon the participation of Israeli citizens and internationals.
Just as the people of Budrus have already shown, we shall endeavour to
counter this calamitous threat together.
We depend on your support and solidarity.
The Wall is slowly becoming a reality for us. Please do what you can before
our humble voice is smothered forever.
Yours Sincerely,
The People of Beit Surik
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
www.palsolidarity.org
"For the tyrant has the power to inflict only that which we lack the
strength to resist"... Krishnalal Shridharani
ISM Media Office
e-mail:
info@palsolidarity.org
Homepage:
http://www.palsolidarity.org
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Further Updates
21.02.2004 17:16
Philidelphia Inquirer
2) ISMer and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein in the St. Louis Dispatch
3) "They killed him in cold blood"_Report from Jenin
4) Night raids in Al-Yamun_Report from Jenin
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1)
Philidelphia Inquirer
Posted on Fri, Feb. 20, 2004
It exists not for security but for apartheid
Iltezam Morrar
A 15-year-old Palestinian student living in the West Bank
On Monday, the International Court of Justice in the Hague will begin
hearings on the wall Israel is building around Palestinian cities and
villages. I live in one of them: Budrus, a small village west of Ramallah.
It is a very simple life here. Old women and farmers tend their sheep;
children go to school, and people live together peacefully. Our village has
many olive trees, which are very important for food and oil.
Americans should know that, from our viewpoint, the wall is not a
security wall. Security and safety do not come from stealing land (Budrus
lost about 80 percent of its village area in 1948, when Israel was formed,
and stands to shrink by another 20 percent if the wall goes up). Security
does not come from killing or harassing people (there is hardly a family in
Palestine without some member who has been killed, hurt or imprisoned) or
cutting trees (which Israeli officials have started doing around my
village). So this is not a security wall. It is an apartheid wall.
Palestine will be separated into little pieces. Many people will be
unable to go to work. Students won't be able to travel to university. After
all this, when we are without land or olive trees, unable to work or study,
people will leave. That is what the Israeli occupation is for. In 1953, for
example, when Ariel Sharon led a military operation resulting in 69 civilian
deaths at Qibya, the next village over from us, some people in Budrus were
afraid and left. Everything the Israeli government has done is to make the
people leave their land.
At the first demonstration to stop the wall in Budrus, only three old
women participated with the men. I asked my father if the demonstrations
were just for men, and he said no, they were for women as well. Some women
and girls came to the next demonstration but left when they didn't see many
other women. I told my father that we needed a demonstration only for women,
and we made one.
On the first day Israeli officials came to cut the trees, I was at
school. I said, "We should go; the land is more important than our exams."
We marched to the fields, the boys and then the girls. Soldiers threw tear
gas into the middle of us. We carried on; we were still holding our
schoolbooks when we came to the Israeli captain. He was very angry and
shouted, "Stop here. If you walk one more step, we will hit you." He pushed
me, so I stood beside him and shouted "Free, free Palestine."
Because of the occupation, I cannot see my country. I can't travel in
my country. It is like a big prison, and the wall will make it worse. If
there were no occupation, I could be free. For me, the day my country is
free will be my birthday. In the occupation, I have no future.
I want to study to help my country. I want to be a doctor, because
here in Palestine, many people get hurt and there are few hospitals or
doctors and little medicine. I want four children, but then, I want to be a
doctor and will work late nights, so perhaps two is enough.
We don't hate Israelis because they are Israelis. The only thing
between us is what we see as their theft of our land. If they gave back our
land, nothing would be between us. We need enough land that all the
Palestinian refugees who live outside could come and live here. Many
Palestinians live in other countries, in tents, with no work.
Peaceful struggle is very important. It is the only way in which we
can become free and stop the wall, even if we know the Israeli army does not
want peace and will use violence. I think: If I use violence, all the
children in Israel will feel in danger and they will use violence. So this
makes the two sides always live in violence. It is important to show the
world we are a peaceful people and all we want is peace.
The hearings in the Hague are very important even though we are not
sure they will stop the wall. It is very important that the international
community does something to say the wall should be stopped, even if it
doesn't succeed.
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Contact Iltezam Morrar at
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2)
The Saint Louis Dispatch
THE MIDDLE EAST KNOW RESPECT, KNOW PEACE - NO RESPECT, NO PEACE
By HEDY EPSTEIN
02/17/2004
Violence, humiliation only aggravate the conflict between Israel and the
Palestinians.
In 1939, I left the village of Kippenheim, Germany, on a Kindertransport - a
small group of children allowed to go to England - thus surviving the
Holocaust. In December, I went to Israel to honor the memory of my parents,
Ella and Hugo Wachenheimer, who did not survive the war against the Jews. At
a monument near Jerusalem, I lit candles for my parents and for the other
80,000 Jews deported from France to the death camps.
It is impossible to visit Israel these days without being aware of the
constant threat posed by terrorists. Suicide bombs kill and maim innocent
persons riding in buses or taking a meal in a restaurant. We Jews who
survived the Shoah know all too well that the intentional targeting of
civilians is illegal and immoral. So I grieve the loss of life in Jerusalem
from the suicide bombs.
But I also grieve the loss of life in Palestine, which occurs almost on a
daily basis. So I went to Palestine as a member of the International
Solidarity Movement to observe the difficult conditions of daily life under
military occupation. It would have been enough to reach out and touch just
one Palestinian and place my hand on her shoulder and tell her that I was
with her in her pain. But I saw and did much more.
In Bethlehem, I saw a Caterpillar bulldozer ripping up centuries-old olive
trees to clear a path for rolled razor wire and antitank trenches dividing
the town where Jesus was born.
In Qalqilia, I was dwarfed by Israel's separation wall rising more than 25
feet. In President George W. Bush's phrase, it "snakes in and out of the
West Bank." It keeps farmers from their fields and hems in 50,000 residents
on all sides.
In Masha, I joined a demonstration against this wall. I saw a red sign
warning ominously of "MORTAL DANGER" to any who dare cross this fence. Then
I saw Israeli soldiers aiming at unarmed Israeli and international
protesters. I saw blood pouring out of Gil Na'amati, a young Israeli whose
first public act after completing his military service was to protest
against this wall. I saw shrapnel lodged in the leg of Anne Farina, one of
my traveling companions from St. Louis. And I thought of Kent State and
Jackson State, where National Guardsmen opened fire in 1970 on protesters
against the Vietnam War.
Near Der Beilut, I saw the Israeli police turn a water cannon on our
nonviolent protest. And I remembered Birmingham, Ala., in 1963 and wondered
why a democratic society responds to peaceable assembly by trying literally
to drown out the voice of our protest.
At the end of the journey I had a shocking experience. I knew that what I
had said and done was viewed by some as controversial but surely not as
threatening. So I did not imagine that the Israeli security force that
guards Ben-Gurion Airport would abuse a 79-year-old Holocaust survivor,
holding me for five hours and performing a completely unnecessary strip
search of every part of my naked body.
The only shame these security officials expressed was to turn their badges
around so that their names were invisible. The only conceivable purpose for
this gross violation of my bodily integrity was to humiliate and terrify me.
Of course, I felt humiliated by this outrage, but I refuse to be terrified
by cowards who hide their identity while engaging in such unnecessary
disrespect. It is a cruel illusion that brute force of this sort provides
security to Israel. Degrading me cannot silence my small voice.
Similarly, humiliating Palestinians cannot extinguish their hopes for a
homeland. Only ending this utterly unnecessary occupation will bring peace
to the region.
Hedy Epstein of St. Louis is a Holocaust survivor, Holocaust educator and
longtime civil rights and peace activist. Her story is featured in the
Academy Award winning documentary, "Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of
the Kindertransport."
====================
3) "They killed him in cold blood"
Jenin
Andrew
16 Feb 04
I try to count the bullet holes that riddle the side, bonnet and roof of the
car but lose count at 36. The distraction of the blood, hair and brain
matter that cover the passenger and back seat proves too much. It strikes me
at that moment that it hardly matters, there were bullets enough to kill a
man. The car has been left at the side of the road, bloody, shot up, every
window gone and tyres flat. Now a harsh and uncompromising memorial, with
roses placed on the bonnet and roof, a shaheed poster pasted on the
passenger door.
Read the full report:
=====================
4) Night raids in Al Yamun
Jenin
Andrew
15 Feburary 04
"We have no clothes, no food, no water, nothing remains for us" states
Mohammed Hasan Mobada Ferihiat, 44 as he stands in the shattered remains of
his home. Two sides of the room have been destroyed, the view over the
village of Al Yamun now unimpeded save for the scaffold that is keeping the
roof from crashing in on top of us. The remaining walls are scarred with
blast marks, shrapnel holes and deep fissures, the floor sags ominously
beneath our feet. Its is 10 hours since Israeli soldiers detonated
explosives in this room shaking the house to its foundations and shattering
the windows in the neighbouring home; 10 hours since Mohammed's son, Ashraf
was taken handcuffed from his home to an uncertain future within the
Occupation detention system.
Read the full report:
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
www.palsolidarity.org
"For the tyrant has the power to inflict only that which we lack the
strength to resist"... Krishnalal Shridharani
ISM
e-mail:
info@palsolidarity.org
Homepage:
http://www.palsolidarity.org