This Weeks SchNEWS - Hamas-ive Attack
SchNEWS | 27.10.2006 09:55 | Anti-racism | Repression
Following the humanitarian disaster in Iraq during the 90s caused by UN sanctions, Palestinian society continues to be torn apart by the sanctions regime imposed by the US and EU and the crippling Israeli occupation (See SchNEWS 544). The US stopped all bank transfers to the Palestinian Authority from the outside when Hamas were elected in January. All US and most EU aid has remained frozen and Israel is refusing to pay the customs duties required on goods being imported to Palestine through Israel (and there is no other route for imported goods).
The US and Israel are intent on pushing Hamas out of government, to the extent of supporting the rival Fatah faction. The US have promised to sponsor Fatah to the tune of $42 million in future elections. Spurred on by international pressure on the democratically elected Hamas government, the Palestinian president and head of Fatah, Mahmoud Abbas - originally foisted on Yasser Arafat by the US - is threatening to force new elections at the start of 2007.
Violence and tension is increasing. In early October, eight people including a child died after Hamas security forces fired on a Fatah-backed demonstration in Gaza. A few days ago Hamas Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh’s convoy was attacked, missing him but destroying a car.
Meanwhile, state employees have not been paid since the elections due to the sanctions. Palestinian workers continued to work for several months without pay, knowing the role they were playing in holding society together, but most have now been forced to stop. Palestinian schools have been closed since the summer. Health workers have also not been paid and have been withholding all but emergency services for over a month.
There has been a general strike in Palestine for the past five weeks which, on particular days of action, has shut the majority of shops in the West Bank and Gaza. Many of the strikers simply want to protest at the withdrawal of their wages and the international sanctions but the strike is also being used as a weapon by Fatah to weaken Hamas. The strike has sometimes been enforced with violence; Fatah gunmen shot a strike-breaker in Jericho in early October, and teachers in Salfit, who were teaching a bare minimum of essential lessons, reported that gunmen had threatened to harm them if they did not stop work.
Throughout all of this, Israel’s illegal occupation continues. The Israeli army last week mounted new operations in Rafah in the Gaza strip. Over the last three months at least a hundred civilians have died per month at the hands of the Israeli military. On Monday 23rd October, Israeli forces killed Palestinians and wounded thirty in an invasion of Beit Hanoun, in the Gaza Strip. Over Ramadan, Israeli border police have been out on the streets of the West Bank to do ‘routine checks’, suspiciously close to the time Muslims break their fast, delaying people getting home to eat for many hours.
NO WALL FLOWERS
The village of Bil’In has been resisting the confiscation of the majority of its land for nearly twenty months. The Israeli army is building a section of the Apartheid wall which has isolated 60% of the village’s agricultural land beyond an eight-metre-high fence, flanked with barbed wire and patrolled by the Israeli army.
Technically, residents are supposed to have free access to their land, but the gates in the fence remained shut throughout the Jewish holiday of Sukkot earlier this month and can be closed on the whim of the soldiers policing them. When residents are allowed through, they have their photos and ID numbers taken by the Israeli soldiers.
Laith Yassin (19), a university student from the village, and schoolboy Mohammad Barakat (17) were arrested two months ago for allegedly cutting the annexation barrier. Both the boys’ family lands are behind the barrier, their olive trees have been uprooted, and are earmarked for the expansion of the illegal Israeli colony of Modi’in Illit. It is sadly ironic that the boys’ alleged crime is to have damaged a structure - Israel’s Apartheid Wall - that was itself ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 2004.
On 19th October, a Judge sentenced Laith and Mohammed to six months and five months respectively in Israeli prison, in addition to the two months they’ve already served. The judge gave the families the option of paying 1500 Shekels for every month they have been sentenced - amounting to 9000 Shekels for Laith (£1200) and 7500 for Mohammed (£1000).
1500 Shekels is the equivalent of one months’ salary for Laith and Mohammed’s families. Neither Laith or Mohammed’s fathers have received any salary since international sanctions were placed on Hamas. Laith’s father, a local schoolteacher, told international volunteers working in Bil’In how his family had been crippled, first by the loss of access to their lands, then by the loss of their salaries and now the loss of its sons. The families cannot afford to pay the Israeli fines and are appealing to the solidarity movement to help free Mohammed and Laith. (Details of how to make a donation to their legal fund are at www.palsolidarity.org)
While the two teenagers have been locked up, the village’s struggle against the annexation barrier has continued. Protests are held every Friday and remain a focus of non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation. After a demo on October 6th, Israeli border police, who had invaded Bil’In firing sound bombs and tear gas, arrested Reuters cameraman Emad Bornat for ‘assault on an officer’. He is currently in detention at Ofer Prison. Emad had been invaluable in refuting Israeli accusations against villagers because of his filming of countless arrests, including those of Laith and Mohammed.
Two weeks ago villagers marched to the site of the annexation barrier with a banner displaying a picture of a camera and the words ‘Their eyes will not stop recording Israeli war crimes’, in protest at the Israeli police and army’s attempt to silence the media. Last Friday the barrier was breached and villagers broke through on to the settler-only road close to their confiscated lands. Today (Oct 27th) a huge demo is planned to mark the end of Ramadan, and the upcoming hearings of three petitions on the illegality of the annexation barrier in Bil’In, at the High Court of Justice in Jerusalem.
* November 12-16th is the International Week of Action against the Apartheid Wall in Palestine see www.stopthewall.org for details, for UK actions see www.palestinecampaign.org
Media Sources on Palestine
www.imemc.org - Independent Middle-East Media Centre
www.palsolidarity.org - International Solidarity movement
www.electronicintifada.net - Palestine’s Weapon of Mass Instruction
www.stopthewall.org - Up to date info from the anti-wall movement
And there’s more at
www.bigcampaign.org
www.palestinecampaign.org
www.brightonpalestine.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For the rest of this weeks issue with articles on Hungary, Starbucks, Brian Haw and more go to
http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news566.htm
The US and Israel are intent on pushing Hamas out of government, to the extent of supporting the rival Fatah faction. The US have promised to sponsor Fatah to the tune of $42 million in future elections. Spurred on by international pressure on the democratically elected Hamas government, the Palestinian president and head of Fatah, Mahmoud Abbas - originally foisted on Yasser Arafat by the US - is threatening to force new elections at the start of 2007.
Violence and tension is increasing. In early October, eight people including a child died after Hamas security forces fired on a Fatah-backed demonstration in Gaza. A few days ago Hamas Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh’s convoy was attacked, missing him but destroying a car.
Meanwhile, state employees have not been paid since the elections due to the sanctions. Palestinian workers continued to work for several months without pay, knowing the role they were playing in holding society together, but most have now been forced to stop. Palestinian schools have been closed since the summer. Health workers have also not been paid and have been withholding all but emergency services for over a month.
There has been a general strike in Palestine for the past five weeks which, on particular days of action, has shut the majority of shops in the West Bank and Gaza. Many of the strikers simply want to protest at the withdrawal of their wages and the international sanctions but the strike is also being used as a weapon by Fatah to weaken Hamas. The strike has sometimes been enforced with violence; Fatah gunmen shot a strike-breaker in Jericho in early October, and teachers in Salfit, who were teaching a bare minimum of essential lessons, reported that gunmen had threatened to harm them if they did not stop work.
Throughout all of this, Israel’s illegal occupation continues. The Israeli army last week mounted new operations in Rafah in the Gaza strip. Over the last three months at least a hundred civilians have died per month at the hands of the Israeli military. On Monday 23rd October, Israeli forces killed Palestinians and wounded thirty in an invasion of Beit Hanoun, in the Gaza Strip. Over Ramadan, Israeli border police have been out on the streets of the West Bank to do ‘routine checks’, suspiciously close to the time Muslims break their fast, delaying people getting home to eat for many hours.
NO WALL FLOWERS
The village of Bil’In has been resisting the confiscation of the majority of its land for nearly twenty months. The Israeli army is building a section of the Apartheid wall which has isolated 60% of the village’s agricultural land beyond an eight-metre-high fence, flanked with barbed wire and patrolled by the Israeli army.
Technically, residents are supposed to have free access to their land, but the gates in the fence remained shut throughout the Jewish holiday of Sukkot earlier this month and can be closed on the whim of the soldiers policing them. When residents are allowed through, they have their photos and ID numbers taken by the Israeli soldiers.
Laith Yassin (19), a university student from the village, and schoolboy Mohammad Barakat (17) were arrested two months ago for allegedly cutting the annexation barrier. Both the boys’ family lands are behind the barrier, their olive trees have been uprooted, and are earmarked for the expansion of the illegal Israeli colony of Modi’in Illit. It is sadly ironic that the boys’ alleged crime is to have damaged a structure - Israel’s Apartheid Wall - that was itself ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 2004.
On 19th October, a Judge sentenced Laith and Mohammed to six months and five months respectively in Israeli prison, in addition to the two months they’ve already served. The judge gave the families the option of paying 1500 Shekels for every month they have been sentenced - amounting to 9000 Shekels for Laith (£1200) and 7500 for Mohammed (£1000).
1500 Shekels is the equivalent of one months’ salary for Laith and Mohammed’s families. Neither Laith or Mohammed’s fathers have received any salary since international sanctions were placed on Hamas. Laith’s father, a local schoolteacher, told international volunteers working in Bil’In how his family had been crippled, first by the loss of access to their lands, then by the loss of their salaries and now the loss of its sons. The families cannot afford to pay the Israeli fines and are appealing to the solidarity movement to help free Mohammed and Laith. (Details of how to make a donation to their legal fund are at www.palsolidarity.org)
While the two teenagers have been locked up, the village’s struggle against the annexation barrier has continued. Protests are held every Friday and remain a focus of non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation. After a demo on October 6th, Israeli border police, who had invaded Bil’In firing sound bombs and tear gas, arrested Reuters cameraman Emad Bornat for ‘assault on an officer’. He is currently in detention at Ofer Prison. Emad had been invaluable in refuting Israeli accusations against villagers because of his filming of countless arrests, including those of Laith and Mohammed.
Two weeks ago villagers marched to the site of the annexation barrier with a banner displaying a picture of a camera and the words ‘Their eyes will not stop recording Israeli war crimes’, in protest at the Israeli police and army’s attempt to silence the media. Last Friday the barrier was breached and villagers broke through on to the settler-only road close to their confiscated lands. Today (Oct 27th) a huge demo is planned to mark the end of Ramadan, and the upcoming hearings of three petitions on the illegality of the annexation barrier in Bil’In, at the High Court of Justice in Jerusalem.
* November 12-16th is the International Week of Action against the Apartheid Wall in Palestine see www.stopthewall.org for details, for UK actions see www.palestinecampaign.org
Media Sources on Palestine
www.imemc.org - Independent Middle-East Media Centre
www.palsolidarity.org - International Solidarity movement
www.electronicintifada.net - Palestine’s Weapon of Mass Instruction
www.stopthewall.org - Up to date info from the anti-wall movement
And there’s more at
www.bigcampaign.org
www.palestinecampaign.org
www.brightonpalestine.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For the rest of this weeks issue with articles on Hungary, Starbucks, Brian Haw and more go to
http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news566.htm
SchNEWS
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