By Graham Peebles, Director, the Create Trust
Showing posts with label settlers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label settlers. Show all posts
Monday, 30 January 2012
Saturday, 15 August 2009
Homeless in East Jerusalem
On 2 August, Israeli riot and border police evicted two Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem, claiming the land on which their houses were built belongs to Jews.
The court ruling was the result of a Jewish settlers' association claiming there were Jewish inhabitants in the region in the 1930s.
The Real News spoke to the evicted families, and to Stephen Lendman, Research Associate at the Center for Research on Globalization about whether the same could happen to Jewish families.
Tuesday, 28 October 2008
Jewish settler violence leads to the arrest of peace activists
From Neve Gordon:
At dawn the activists arrived. Around 30 Ta’ayush (Arab-Jewish Partnership) and international volunteers came to the Palestinian groves adjacent to the Jewish settlement in Tel-Rumeida, Hebron, to help the landowners pick their olives. Previous attempts by the Palestinian farmers – who live behind fences and are subjected to daily violence – to reach their olive trees had been blocked by the residents of Tel Rumeida, a stronghold of the most militant and extremist Jewish settlers. Even the Israeli police are afraid of these settlers while the military routinely bows down to their commands.
A few days earlier, the activists had been informed that the settlers had entered the groves and had stolen olives from their rightful owners. Complaints to the police were ignored, while the military decided to deny Palestinians all access to the trees.
After meeting their Palestinian partners, the activists began picking the olives. They worked fast and were making considerable progress when four settlers arrived on the scene, and, without warning began beating an international activist and a press photographer, while breaking their cameras.
The settlers had come to the site accompanied by Israeli soldiers, whose job is to protect the settlers from Palestinians. It is therefore not surprising that the soldiers did nothing to prevent the violent attack, did not detain the settlers and even told the settlers that they would do well to hide before the police arrived.
The Ta’ayush activists had already called the police, informing them that the settlers were attacking the olive pickers. This time, the police arrived at the scene fairly quickly, but instead of arresting the belligerent settlers they notified the Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals that they had to leave the area since it was declared a “closed military zone.” Once again the violent oppressors had triumphed.
The activists, however, refused to accept the unjust decision, claiming that it was implemented to stop the Palestinian landowners from reaching their olives. This time the police officers and military thought it appropriate to use force and started evacuating the activists.
Three Ta’ayush activists were arrested, and were taken to a jail, where the police planned to keep them overnight. After midnight, following a request for an urgent hearing their case was brought to court and they were released. Again, the settlers had won the day and managed to prevent the harvest, only this time the event was covered by the press, and the true face of the settlers, police, and military was exposed. Usually, the world is left ignorant of the violence.
Help Ta’ayush (Arab-Jewish Partnership) continue its activities
Ta’ayush Jerusalem has been active since 2001. Over the years we worked together with Palestinian communities in the southern part of the West Bank, including the Palestinians cave-dwellers in the south Hebron hills, with Palestinians living in the city of Hebron, with groups of Palestinians in the Bethlehem area and in East Jerusalem. All these Palestinians are subjected to ongoing violence, including house demolitions, the threat of expulsion, and the confiscation of land. They are living in extreme poverty due to the military siege and Israel’s draconic restriction of their movement.
In order to maintain their weekly activities with the Palestinians, Ta’ayush needs your help.
1. The cost of weekly activities to south Hebron is approximately 1000 Israeli shekels (about $250) for a group of 20 volunteers.
2. The cost for larger-scale activities, which requires renting buses, is 5000 shekels ($1250).
3. Monthly costs for petrol and telephones for Israeli and Palestinian activists – roughly 3000 shekels ($750).
Click here to help.
Ta'ayush – Arab-Jewish Partnership
To read about Neve Gordon’s book (Israel’s Occupation) and more click here.
A few days earlier, the activists had been informed that the settlers had entered the groves and had stolen olives from their rightful owners. Complaints to the police were ignored, while the military decided to deny Palestinians all access to the trees.
After meeting their Palestinian partners, the activists began picking the olives. They worked fast and were making considerable progress when four settlers arrived on the scene, and, without warning began beating an international activist and a press photographer, while breaking their cameras.
The settlers had come to the site accompanied by Israeli soldiers, whose job is to protect the settlers from Palestinians. It is therefore not surprising that the soldiers did nothing to prevent the violent attack, did not detain the settlers and even told the settlers that they would do well to hide before the police arrived.
The Ta’ayush activists had already called the police, informing them that the settlers were attacking the olive pickers. This time, the police arrived at the scene fairly quickly, but instead of arresting the belligerent settlers they notified the Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals that they had to leave the area since it was declared a “closed military zone.” Once again the violent oppressors had triumphed.
The activists, however, refused to accept the unjust decision, claiming that it was implemented to stop the Palestinian landowners from reaching their olives. This time the police officers and military thought it appropriate to use force and started evacuating the activists.
Three Ta’ayush activists were arrested, and were taken to a jail, where the police planned to keep them overnight. After midnight, following a request for an urgent hearing their case was brought to court and they were released. Again, the settlers had won the day and managed to prevent the harvest, only this time the event was covered by the press, and the true face of the settlers, police, and military was exposed. Usually, the world is left ignorant of the violence.
Help Ta’ayush (Arab-Jewish Partnership) continue its activities
Ta’ayush Jerusalem has been active since 2001. Over the years we worked together with Palestinian communities in the southern part of the West Bank, including the Palestinians cave-dwellers in the south Hebron hills, with Palestinians living in the city of Hebron, with groups of Palestinians in the Bethlehem area and in East Jerusalem. All these Palestinians are subjected to ongoing violence, including house demolitions, the threat of expulsion, and the confiscation of land. They are living in extreme poverty due to the military siege and Israel’s draconic restriction of their movement.
In order to maintain their weekly activities with the Palestinians, Ta’ayush needs your help.
1. The cost of weekly activities to south Hebron is approximately 1000 Israeli shekels (about $250) for a group of 20 volunteers.
2. The cost for larger-scale activities, which requires renting buses, is 5000 shekels ($1250).
3. Monthly costs for petrol and telephones for Israeli and Palestinian activists – roughly 3000 shekels ($750).
Click here to help.
Ta'ayush – Arab-Jewish Partnership
To read about Neve Gordon’s book (Israel’s Occupation) and more click here.
Sunday, 28 September 2008
Israeli settlers threaten to kill British film crew, curse Jesus
Video of an Israeli settler threatening a British film crew. The video shows the settler cursing Jesus ("You and you're fucking Jesus can kiss my ass... We killed Jesus and we're proud of it"), threatening to kill the film crew and the Palestinians on whose land the settlers are trespassing.
Wednesday, 30 July 2008
Palestinians capture violence of Israeli occupation on video
Palestinians capture violence of Israeli occupation on video
In a graphic and hard-hitting film Peter Beaumont speaks to Palestinians filming abuse from settlers and Israeli armed forces
Peter Beaumont in Ni'ilin
The Guardian, Wednesday 30 July 2008
An Israeli child from a far-right settler group in the West Bank city of Hebron hurls a stone up the stairs of a Palestinian family close to their settlement and shouts: "I will exterminate you." Another spits towards the same family.
Another settler woman pushes her face up to a window and snarls: "Whore!"
They are shocking images. There is footage of beatings, their aftermath, and the indifference of Israel's security forces to serious human rights abuses. There is footage too of those same security forces humiliating Palestinians – and most seriously – committing abuses themselves.
They are contained in a growing archive of material assembled by the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem in a remarkable project called Shooting Back.
The group has supplied almost 100 video cameras to vulnerable Palestinian communities in Hebron, the northern West Bank and elsewhere, to document and gather evidence of assaults and abusive behaviour – largely by settlers.
"We gave the first video camera out in Hebron [in January 2007]," says Diala Shamas a Jerusalem-based researcher with B'Tselem. But the project took off in earnest, however, in January this year.
The video is sometimes chaotic, jumpy. Sometimes only the audio is captured and a pair of soldiers' boots.
But what it documents in all its rough reality is the experience of occupation on a daily basis for the most vulnerable families and communities – giving a voice to those who have been voiceless for so long.
"Right now we have about 100 video cameras," adds Shamas. "The largest number are in the Hebron region where the most frequent complaints of settler attacks are. And recently in the northern area and the region next to the [building] of the [separation] wall where there are demonstrations."
She explains the reason for introducing the Shooting Back project.
"The project started as response to the need to gather evidence. We were constantly filing complaints to no avail on the basis of lack of evidence, or … we don't know the name of the settler.
"Now we are going back and forth with our video-cassettes to [Israeli] police station begging them to press rewind, freeze… it is the bulk of our work. The value of the footage is not only evidential. It also has had a remarkable value in terms of advocacy and campaigning.
'We quickly realised the media value of this footage. It is maybe an overstatement but we started bridging this gap between what was happening in the occupied Palestinian territories and what the Israeli public can see.
"There was a conspiracy of silence surrounding settler violence in particular. This footage is shocking to Israelis.'
And in particular it has been two pieces of video, shot by Palestinians this year and released by B'Tselem, that have gained massive international attention by throwing the issue of human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories back into the spotlight.
The first was footage of a group of four hooded settlers from the settlement of Susya armed with what look like pickaxe handles brutally beating a group of Palestinian farmers.
The second – not taken as part of Shooting Back programme – but supplied to B'Tselem by a 17-year-old schoolgirl from the village of Ni'ilin earlier this month showed a protester against the building of the West Bank barrier on his village's land being shot in the foot by an Israeli soldier with a plastic bullet as he was held blindfold and bound.
The protester was Ashraf Abu Rahma, aged 27. The video was shot by Salam Kanaan aged 17. A constant presence at the demonstrations in the Palestinian villages in the rocky hills of the West Bank, Ashraf is employed by the villages as a watchman on land that is threatened with being taken from the Palestinian villages for the building of the West Bank barrier.
He says he was unaware of what was happening to him until almost the moment before he was shot and wounded in the foot.
It is only when he saw the video too that he was able to understand what happened to him.
Arrested during a demonstration against the West Bank barrier in Ni'ilin on July 7 he recalled last week being almost immediately blindfolded.
"They had rounded up the foreigners [from the International Solidarity Movement] and arrested me and another guy separately.
"They put me in a jeep and started cursing me, hitting me and using bad language in Hebrew and Arabic. It had never occurred to me that they would shoot.
"They held me in the sun for a long time. Later I heard them discussing what they were going to do with me.
"I recall hearing a conversation about how to shoot me. What I recall is the words rubber bullet, rubber bullet... I was blindfolded so I was only aware of their aggression.
"It was only when I saw Salam's video that I understood what happened to me. The guy touching me on my right shoulder before I was shot.
"Just before it happened they said they're going to beat me. They said they were going to send me to hell. They know me because I've been to every protest."
Ashraf claims the abuse continued even when he was on the ground after the shot was fired. "When I asked for medical attention they said: this is nothing, we are going to beat you more."
Although the Israeli military's version is that the shooting was a misunderstanding of the orders given by the lieutenant colonel on the scene — and that the aim was only to "frighten" Ashraf examination of the footage makes it hard to credit that version.
Eyad Haddad, B'Tselem's Ramallah-based field researcher who tracked down the footage of Ashraf's punishment shooting, believes that the project has helped supply crucial evidence in documenting abuses.
"These events that happen are often so distant, or happen in the middle of the night, where there is no media.
"Where we've seen there is a lot of violation from the settlers and especially where there are demonstrations happening and we want to monitor the Israeli soldier's behaviour we are distributing video cameras.
"It is having a good effect and it will stop the violations."
Haddad says the organisation is now trying to encourage people living in areas of confrontation to use their own cameras — if they have them – or mobile phones to film potential abuses that they encounter.
"We want to encourage a mentality to use the cameras. It is the only weapon that the civilians have."
According to Diala Shamas the recent high international profile of the footage shot of the settler beating in Susya and the shooting of Ashraf Abu Rahma has meant that the group has not only been inundated with requests for cameras from Palestinian communities, but those who already have cameras supplied by B'Tselem are shooting more footage of their day to day experiences.
"In the beginning we were almost begging people to take the cameras with them when they went out. They didn't see the use of it. But after the media coverage over the Susya incident… we've gotten a flood of requests for our video cameras. And those who have got the cameras are using them much more frequently."
Commenting on the Ni'ilin footage she said: "It is one of the biggest victories because it is the troops not the settlers. It is not just a 'rotten apple' which is usually the response that we get from the government spokespeople. We didn't give out 100 video cameras to document rotten apples. It was to show there was something systematic happening and it was structural to the occupation.
"In this case it was remarkable that it was actually the soldiers themselves. They did in fact open an investigation.
"They couldn't ignore it."
In a graphic and hard-hitting film Peter Beaumont speaks to Palestinians filming abuse from settlers and Israeli armed forces
Peter Beaumont in Ni'ilin
The Guardian, Wednesday 30 July 2008
An Israeli child from a far-right settler group in the West Bank city of Hebron hurls a stone up the stairs of a Palestinian family close to their settlement and shouts: "I will exterminate you." Another spits towards the same family.
Another settler woman pushes her face up to a window and snarls: "Whore!"
They are shocking images. There is footage of beatings, their aftermath, and the indifference of Israel's security forces to serious human rights abuses. There is footage too of those same security forces humiliating Palestinians – and most seriously – committing abuses themselves.
They are contained in a growing archive of material assembled by the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem in a remarkable project called Shooting Back.
The group has supplied almost 100 video cameras to vulnerable Palestinian communities in Hebron, the northern West Bank and elsewhere, to document and gather evidence of assaults and abusive behaviour – largely by settlers.
"We gave the first video camera out in Hebron [in January 2007]," says Diala Shamas a Jerusalem-based researcher with B'Tselem. But the project took off in earnest, however, in January this year.
The video is sometimes chaotic, jumpy. Sometimes only the audio is captured and a pair of soldiers' boots.
But what it documents in all its rough reality is the experience of occupation on a daily basis for the most vulnerable families and communities – giving a voice to those who have been voiceless for so long.
"Right now we have about 100 video cameras," adds Shamas. "The largest number are in the Hebron region where the most frequent complaints of settler attacks are. And recently in the northern area and the region next to the [building] of the [separation] wall where there are demonstrations."
She explains the reason for introducing the Shooting Back project.
"The project started as response to the need to gather evidence. We were constantly filing complaints to no avail on the basis of lack of evidence, or … we don't know the name of the settler.
"Now we are going back and forth with our video-cassettes to [Israeli] police station begging them to press rewind, freeze… it is the bulk of our work. The value of the footage is not only evidential. It also has had a remarkable value in terms of advocacy and campaigning.
'We quickly realised the media value of this footage. It is maybe an overstatement but we started bridging this gap between what was happening in the occupied Palestinian territories and what the Israeli public can see.
"There was a conspiracy of silence surrounding settler violence in particular. This footage is shocking to Israelis.'
And in particular it has been two pieces of video, shot by Palestinians this year and released by B'Tselem, that have gained massive international attention by throwing the issue of human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories back into the spotlight.
The first was footage of a group of four hooded settlers from the settlement of Susya armed with what look like pickaxe handles brutally beating a group of Palestinian farmers.
The second – not taken as part of Shooting Back programme – but supplied to B'Tselem by a 17-year-old schoolgirl from the village of Ni'ilin earlier this month showed a protester against the building of the West Bank barrier on his village's land being shot in the foot by an Israeli soldier with a plastic bullet as he was held blindfold and bound.
The protester was Ashraf Abu Rahma, aged 27. The video was shot by Salam Kanaan aged 17. A constant presence at the demonstrations in the Palestinian villages in the rocky hills of the West Bank, Ashraf is employed by the villages as a watchman on land that is threatened with being taken from the Palestinian villages for the building of the West Bank barrier.
He says he was unaware of what was happening to him until almost the moment before he was shot and wounded in the foot.
It is only when he saw the video too that he was able to understand what happened to him.
Arrested during a demonstration against the West Bank barrier in Ni'ilin on July 7 he recalled last week being almost immediately blindfolded.
"They had rounded up the foreigners [from the International Solidarity Movement] and arrested me and another guy separately.
"They put me in a jeep and started cursing me, hitting me and using bad language in Hebrew and Arabic. It had never occurred to me that they would shoot.
"They held me in the sun for a long time. Later I heard them discussing what they were going to do with me.
"I recall hearing a conversation about how to shoot me. What I recall is the words rubber bullet, rubber bullet... I was blindfolded so I was only aware of their aggression.
"It was only when I saw Salam's video that I understood what happened to me. The guy touching me on my right shoulder before I was shot.
"Just before it happened they said they're going to beat me. They said they were going to send me to hell. They know me because I've been to every protest."
Ashraf claims the abuse continued even when he was on the ground after the shot was fired. "When I asked for medical attention they said: this is nothing, we are going to beat you more."
Although the Israeli military's version is that the shooting was a misunderstanding of the orders given by the lieutenant colonel on the scene — and that the aim was only to "frighten" Ashraf examination of the footage makes it hard to credit that version.
Eyad Haddad, B'Tselem's Ramallah-based field researcher who tracked down the footage of Ashraf's punishment shooting, believes that the project has helped supply crucial evidence in documenting abuses.
"These events that happen are often so distant, or happen in the middle of the night, where there is no media.
"Where we've seen there is a lot of violation from the settlers and especially where there are demonstrations happening and we want to monitor the Israeli soldier's behaviour we are distributing video cameras.
"It is having a good effect and it will stop the violations."
Haddad says the organisation is now trying to encourage people living in areas of confrontation to use their own cameras — if they have them – or mobile phones to film potential abuses that they encounter.
"We want to encourage a mentality to use the cameras. It is the only weapon that the civilians have."
According to Diala Shamas the recent high international profile of the footage shot of the settler beating in Susya and the shooting of Ashraf Abu Rahma has meant that the group has not only been inundated with requests for cameras from Palestinian communities, but those who already have cameras supplied by B'Tselem are shooting more footage of their day to day experiences.
"In the beginning we were almost begging people to take the cameras with them when they went out. They didn't see the use of it. But after the media coverage over the Susya incident… we've gotten a flood of requests for our video cameras. And those who have got the cameras are using them much more frequently."
Commenting on the Ni'ilin footage she said: "It is one of the biggest victories because it is the troops not the settlers. It is not just a 'rotten apple' which is usually the response that we get from the government spokespeople. We didn't give out 100 video cameras to document rotten apples. It was to show there was something systematic happening and it was structural to the occupation.
"In this case it was remarkable that it was actually the soldiers themselves. They did in fact open an investigation.
"They couldn't ignore it."
Monday, 30 June 2008
UK supermarkets sell illegal Israeli settler products under misleading labels
Press Release
Palestinian General Delegation to the UK
London, 30 June 2008: The Palestinian General Delegation to the UK has been pursuing the issue of illegal Israeli settlements’ products being exported to the UK (branded as the produce of the West Bank).
A number of British organizations and activities brought to our attention that Tesco, Sainsbury and Waitrose sell products described as the produce of the West Bank. Upon investigating the matter, we found no evidence that these are Palestinian products.
In December 2007, we wrote to the three stores to seek clarifications (please find a copy of the letter below*). As of today, we have not received a satisfactory answer. We therefore would like to bring this issue to the public and call upon our friend and supporters to take note of this issue and help us by writing to the three stores and by ensuring that Israel does not profit from its illegal occupation of Palestinian land.
The Israeli military occupation spares no efforts or time to forcibly and illegally confiscate Palestinian privately and publicly owned land as evident by the numerous UN and international bodies’ reports. Whilst encouraging, protecting and providing economic incentives for illegal settlers in the occupied territory to steal and farm Palestinian land, the Israeli authorities have been applying unjust policies aiming at strangulating Palestinian economic activities, particularly the agricultural sector. Among other policies, the confiscation of land; the building of the Wall; creeping annexation and expansion of settlements; construction of hundreds of bypass roads for Israeli settlers only; denying access to natural resources, particularly water; movement restrictions; and siege – all these meant that the Palestinian economy is near collapse and the Palestinian people are being imprisoned in an ever shrinking bantustans.
We commend our many British friends who are standing firm in defending the laws of the UK that safeguard the right of British consumers to accurate information and in upholding international law. The growing number of forces that are siding with justice, freedom and dignity for the Palestinian people and fighting all attempts to profit from occupation give us greater hope for a better future for our people and for the human family.
--
*Subject: Herbs showing the origin “West Bank”
Date: 05.12.2007
Dear Sir/Madam,
It has come to my attention that herbs showing the origin “West Bank”are now being sold in your stores. This, I understand, will cover all produce coming from the cccupied Palestinian territory, regardless of whether this produce comes from Palestinian farms or Israeli illegal settlements.
This is an extremely disturbing practice, and it is very misleading for the following reasons:
The vast majority, and in fact very probably all produce that comes from the West Bank, comes from illegal Israeli settlements. Very little, if any, produce that comes from Palestinian farms makes it to supermarket shelves in the UK.
The West Bank has become synonymous with Palestine in the public mind. Consumers buying these products believe that they are supporting the Palestinian economy, while in fact they are supporting the economy of the occupier.
The settlements are illegal under international law. The Geneva Convention states that the transfer of a civilian population into occupied territory is a war crime, to be ancillary (complicit) in this crime is also a crime in English law under the terms of the International Criminal Court Act 2001. The settlements are built on stolen land and are irrigated by water stolen from the Palestinians. It is no secret that they are projects that exploit the Palestinians and employ child labour.
Tesco must not sell these products and thus be party to this unethical and illegal operation. If you feel you want to continue selling illegal settlement products despite all of the above, then they must be labelled in a way that clearly shows their origin and sets them apart from Palestinian produce, so that consumers can make ethical choices.
We are also aware that most settlement products, the dates from the Jordan Valley for example, show Israel as country of origin. This is also misleading as the Jordan Valley is occupied territory and not part of Israel. Profiting from military occupation, we believe, is the most
unethical act and must be stopped immediately.
We would highly appreciate your clarifications for this matter that we deem of utmost importance to the national interest of the Palestinian people and to the vast majority of the British people who wholeheartedly support our quest to end one of the longest foreign military occupation in the history of mankind.
Thank you in advance for your kind considerations
Yours sincerely,
Ambassador Manuel Hassassian
Head of Mission, Palestinian General Delegation to the UK
Palestinian General Delegation to the UK
London, 30 June 2008: The Palestinian General Delegation to the UK has been pursuing the issue of illegal Israeli settlements’ products being exported to the UK (branded as the produce of the West Bank).
A number of British organizations and activities brought to our attention that Tesco, Sainsbury and Waitrose sell products described as the produce of the West Bank. Upon investigating the matter, we found no evidence that these are Palestinian products.
In December 2007, we wrote to the three stores to seek clarifications (please find a copy of the letter below*). As of today, we have not received a satisfactory answer. We therefore would like to bring this issue to the public and call upon our friend and supporters to take note of this issue and help us by writing to the three stores and by ensuring that Israel does not profit from its illegal occupation of Palestinian land.
The Israeli military occupation spares no efforts or time to forcibly and illegally confiscate Palestinian privately and publicly owned land as evident by the numerous UN and international bodies’ reports. Whilst encouraging, protecting and providing economic incentives for illegal settlers in the occupied territory to steal and farm Palestinian land, the Israeli authorities have been applying unjust policies aiming at strangulating Palestinian economic activities, particularly the agricultural sector. Among other policies, the confiscation of land; the building of the Wall; creeping annexation and expansion of settlements; construction of hundreds of bypass roads for Israeli settlers only; denying access to natural resources, particularly water; movement restrictions; and siege – all these meant that the Palestinian economy is near collapse and the Palestinian people are being imprisoned in an ever shrinking bantustans.
We commend our many British friends who are standing firm in defending the laws of the UK that safeguard the right of British consumers to accurate information and in upholding international law. The growing number of forces that are siding with justice, freedom and dignity for the Palestinian people and fighting all attempts to profit from occupation give us greater hope for a better future for our people and for the human family.
--
*Subject: Herbs showing the origin “West Bank”
Date: 05.12.2007
Dear Sir/Madam,
It has come to my attention that herbs showing the origin “West Bank”are now being sold in your stores. This, I understand, will cover all produce coming from the cccupied Palestinian territory, regardless of whether this produce comes from Palestinian farms or Israeli illegal settlements.
This is an extremely disturbing practice, and it is very misleading for the following reasons:
The vast majority, and in fact very probably all produce that comes from the West Bank, comes from illegal Israeli settlements. Very little, if any, produce that comes from Palestinian farms makes it to supermarket shelves in the UK.
The West Bank has become synonymous with Palestine in the public mind. Consumers buying these products believe that they are supporting the Palestinian economy, while in fact they are supporting the economy of the occupier.
The settlements are illegal under international law. The Geneva Convention states that the transfer of a civilian population into occupied territory is a war crime, to be ancillary (complicit) in this crime is also a crime in English law under the terms of the International Criminal Court Act 2001. The settlements are built on stolen land and are irrigated by water stolen from the Palestinians. It is no secret that they are projects that exploit the Palestinians and employ child labour.
Tesco must not sell these products and thus be party to this unethical and illegal operation. If you feel you want to continue selling illegal settlement products despite all of the above, then they must be labelled in a way that clearly shows their origin and sets them apart from Palestinian produce, so that consumers can make ethical choices.
We are also aware that most settlement products, the dates from the Jordan Valley for example, show Israel as country of origin. This is also misleading as the Jordan Valley is occupied territory and not part of Israel. Profiting from military occupation, we believe, is the most
unethical act and must be stopped immediately.
We would highly appreciate your clarifications for this matter that we deem of utmost importance to the national interest of the Palestinian people and to the vast majority of the British people who wholeheartedly support our quest to end one of the longest foreign military occupation in the history of mankind.
Thank you in advance for your kind considerations
Yours sincerely,
Ambassador Manuel Hassassian
Head of Mission, Palestinian General Delegation to the UK
Saturday, 1 September 2007
Oppressed Palestinians need our help!
From Henry Lowi:
Dear Friends,
Take a look at this short video. The farmers of Ertas, near Bethlehem, have an account to settle with Zionist settler-colonialism. They need our help. Down with the occupation!
A MEMRI (Israeli PR agency) clip from Qatar TV, showcases the class basis for the right of return movement, and the useless rhetoric of official Palestinian spokespeople.
It would be good if the ongoing siege and destruction of Nahr-al-Bared in northern Lebanon would elicit action inspired by the sentiment expressed in a recent letter to the editor printed in the Toronto Star. Let the refugees return home!
Here are two anecdotal incidents about the effort to maintain the State of Israel as a "Jewish and democratic state": click here for the first and here for the second.
Former MK Avraham Burg is having unorthodox thoughts about the "Jewish state" at and is taking the heat for his apostasy.
The ongoing IDF repression in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is the focus for worldwide protests commemorating the June 1967 war. Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, the mindless Kassam squads ("I shoot therefore I am" is their only political message) provide valuable grist for the mill of Zionist PR and thus actually help strengthen the grip of Zionist settler-colonialism.
Palestinians need our help to end the occupation!
See below report by Yoav Bar about the recent court hearing of Ahmad Saadat, charged with being a member of the political organization which he leads, and on whose slate he was elected to the captive Palestinian Legislative Assembly. Free all the Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons and detention centers!
In June 2007, the Palestine refugees, farmers, and workers bear the brunt of the oppression, and wait patiently, stoically, for effective organization, effective leadership, and effective solidarity.
Regards,
Henry Lowi
--
Defiant Maluh refuses to testify against PFLP Secretary-General Sa'adat
Ramallah, 30 May 2007
The Israeli occupation's military court continues its hearing in the case against the Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Ahmad Sa'adat. Usually the hearings, held in the fortified Opher military base near Ramallah, are very one-sided: Sa'adat refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the court, and forbids his lawyers from playing by the court's rules. The lawyers ask the court to be reprieved from their impossible role, and are prevented by the court from resigning, but avoid any active defense. As a result, the sole manager of the court is the military prosecutor, a young and arrogant religious Jewish soldier-lawyer, and the 3 uniformed military judges follow his script to fill the trials files with "evidence"…
But this morning's hearing was some exception. The prosecutor chose to bring as his next "witness" 'Abed elRahim Maluh, the PFLP's deputy secretary general. The aged Maluh (67), which was arrested in June 2002 and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment, proudly refused to be a witness, and the meeting of the of the two leaders in the courtroom allowed their common defiant stance expose the court in all its ridiculous vanity.
Seven television crews were allowed in before the hearing started, but they were repeatedly warned by the Military public relations officer that they are not allowed to ask Mr. Sa'adat any questions, and anybody breaching this order will be promptly expelled. As he was allowed in, between military guards and prison officers, Sa'adat chose the moment, before the cameras, to give a well prepared declaration on the occasion of 40 years to the 1967 occupation and 59 years of the Palestinian Nakba. He called on all Palestinian parties, and particularly Fatah and Hamas, to stick to national unity against the occupation and avoid any internal clashes. He called on the international community to recognize the democratically elected Palestinian government and to defend the Palestinians against the continuing Israeli war crimes. Before he went on to call for an end to the occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestine, the TV crews were all expelled out of the courtroom.
Later, when the judges came in, Sa'adat refused to stand up, reinstating his rejection of his supposed role as 'defendant'. Than the guards brought in Maluh, just half the big man that he used to be before his arrest. Cuffed and in prisoner's clothes, Maluh started with protesting at being brought without his consent. He declared he is not a witness, and doesn't regard Ahmad Sa'adat as 'a defendant', and will say only what he finds fit. He said he was proud at his role as the deputy secretary general of the popular front for the liberation of Palestine, as he already declared in the military trial in which he was sentenced for this very 'crime'. He said his main role in the PFLP was as responsible to political relations, and representing the PFLP in the Palestinian Liberation Organization, serving as member of the PLO's executive committee. When asked who serves as secretary general of the PFLP, he said it was not his business to give such information to the court. At this stage Mr. Sa'adat from his bench intervened to ask the judges to stop this ridiculous show, as they know very well that he is the secretary general. Apparently, the judges changed tactics with Mr. Sa'adat, refusing to 'recognize' his declarations. One judge told Mr. Sa'adat that if he will stand in front of them they will write down his words…
An extra surrealistic flavor was added to the whole event by the incredible translator, a young Jewish soldier, which mixed almost every sentence. Apparently he couldn't catch the difference between the popular front for the liberation of Palestine and the PLO, and had no knowledge of basic terminology like "the executive committee". So the court was held in two separated worlds, the Arabic world of freedom fighters resisting the occupation, and the Hebrew occupation world where the resistance is posed as criminal activity. Any communication between these two worlds under Israeli Apartheid was based on misinterpretation, just as the Opher military camp is posed in the middle of the Apartheid walls, separating between "Israeli" and "Palestinian" spaces.
As the court was dispersed until 29/7, Maluh and Sa'adat were dragged back to the Hadarim prison, and we went out from the Apartheid court to the Apartheid world. Most Palestinian families are not allowed to go out of the "Israeli" side of the fence, even though it is well within the 1967 occupied West Bank, within densely populated Arab area, while Israelis are not allowed at the Palestinian side. One old lady was stuck between the fences. She came with a Red Cross bus full of families that came to visit at Opher prison about 200 meters in the blue side of the fence. But as she came to the court to see arrested relatives, she couldn't cross again to Israeli territory to catch her bus. As we went away the international community was still failing to protect the rights of one old Palestinian lady to go back home.
For more details: "Free Saadat" free.saadat@gmail.com
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