University Student Documents Violent Attacks and Resistance Outside Nablus
By Neta Golan, October 2011
As one of the co-founders of the International solidarity movement (ISM) I often refer to ISM as my first baby. Well, my first baby is now an independent unruly and uncontrollable ten-year-old and I am one proud Mama. But I am one of ISM’s many proud Mamas (some of whom are male). For a movement to come into existence it needs to be a vision shared by hundreds or thousands of people who find an opportunity to come together and make it happen. In truth ISM has hundreds of co-founders, and only few of us have been acknowledged.
There is a word in Arabic, Nawal, that means a deep wish that is fulfilled. ISM is one of my Nawals and I proud and grateful to have had the opportunity to take part in its birth. Now, more than ten years later it is obvious that ISM has a life of its own, independent from any of us that were involved in its beginning. This is the one of the sources of my pride in the movement and there are many. I would like to name a few:
Those of us who where involved in the birth of the movement know that we were making it up as we went along. We still are! ISM is constantly changing, adjusting and reinventing itself. In the first official ISM campaign in 2001 we had a small group of about 30 activists from around the globe and a forty person Italian activist delegation organized by the legendary Luisa Morgentini. Among us we were blessed to have Linda Bevis and Ed Mast from Seattle who had been involved in the then flowering global justice movement. Our mentors from the Christian Peace Makers Team that included Le Anne Clausen and Rick Polhamus coached us in the principles of consensus decision making. Linda and Ed made sure to show us how to apply those principles to all levels of our organizing and decisions taken during the campaign.
The flat, non-hierarchical structure that we adopted early on has proven to be key in the movement’s growth and survival. The Israeli authorities have tried to chop off ISM’s head several times by imprisoning, deporting and denying entry to people they consider leaders of our movement. They seem unable to understand that our movement does not have leaders.
We of course do have experienced and inspiring activists but from the outset in ISM being a hero on the field, or in your field, did not make you a leader, and when it came to making decisions everyone had to sit through the meetings with everyone else or accept the group’s decision. We do still occasionally face problems when people translate their role or position in the movement into power over others, but I am happy to say that ISMers generally don’t put up with that for very long.
As ISM has matured, more often than not, the principle of non-hierarchy is applied and we enjoy a working environment free (or almost free) of power struggles. This structure and the flexibility that it has afforded us has not only allowed us to weather the frequent turn over that results from the occupation’s policy of denial of access, it has also made ISM a structure of empowerment for the thousands of activists who have worked with and through ISM.
ISM’s mandate is that of a supporting participant in the Palestinian struggle against colonialism and Apartheid
The other element in ISM that I am proud of is our principle of being Palestinian led. Ghassan Andoni, another one of ISM’s co-founders set this principle out as an essential condition for our work from day 1. This principle may sound like a contradiction to some since I just said that in ISM we do not have leaders. But being Palestinian led does NOT mean that we have Palestinian leaders. What it does mean is that ISM’s mandate is that of a supporting participant in the Palestinian struggle against colonialism and Apartheid.
The Palestinian people have been engaged in popular struggle since the colonization of Palestine began. Palestinians do not need anyone to tell them what to do, teach them how to do it or to save them but often, they do need our support – and that is what ISM is here for. The call from the Palestinian activists to us has never been clearer. We are called on to engage in and promote Boycott Divestment and Sanctions of Israel (BDS) and to counter Israel’s attempts to isolate the Palestinian people by breaking the siege and coming to Palestine via water, air and land. The siege has taken its most brutal form in the besieged Gaza strip but it exists in a less complete version in the West bank, to which access is severely limited. While in Palestine we are invited to witness and to join in Palestinian popular protest and to carry Palestine’s message back to our home countries.
As I write these words the Arab revolutions and the Occupy Wall Street movements are once again proving the potential of leaderless mass mobilization. It saddens me that in the global solidarity movement with Palestine, some experienced activists, some of whom grew up as activists in ISM, disregard these principles and have fallen back on the old fashioned vertical politics of top-down coalitions, charismatic leaders, and a version of professional activism where experience is used as a tool to withhold power rather than something we have a responsibility to share with others.
The last principle I will mention that ISM is organized around is that we participate in non-violent popular struggle – a form of resistance in which every one and not just a select trained and armed group of people can engage. We did not invent any of these principles. But we were fortunate and smart enough to learn and adopt them and by doing so ISM has set a standard and an example of what solidarity can be.
Neta Golan, an Israeli citizen and a founder of ISM, lives in the West Bank town of Ramallah with her Palestinian husband and three daughters – an illegal act under Israeli apartheid law.
By Wahed Rejol, November 2011
ISM has maintained a daily presence at the al-Kurd residence in Sheikh Jarrah since August 2009 when Israeli authorities paved the way for Israeli settlers to occupy the front part of the family home. On the first night of Eid al-Adha, on November 6th, 2011, three international volunteers camped in a make shift area just outside of the residence, located in the same area where the ISM tent was before it was burned to the ground by the settlers just two months ago.
Nabil showed me the blankets he’d hung to prevent water, vomit and human waste being tossed at the family by illegal Zionist settlers
Thirteen al-Kurd family members spanning three generations gathered to celebrate the Muslim holiday. In tradition, gifts were given to the children and the women of the family. All enjoyed a dinner of lamb, salad, mansef (a local dish of bread, yogurt, and meat), and burma for dessert. And as always in Palestine, plenty of tea and coffee was prepared and enjoyed.After staying the night I had more time to talk with Nabil. He showed me the blankets he’d been forced to hang to prevent water, vomit, and human waste being tossed at the family from the windows of the house occupied by illegal Zionist settlers. They were hung between the areas where his children used to play and the greatly reduced patio space just outside his family’s entrance. The metal gate that once separated the space was torn down by the settlers. The swing and seasaw that his children once enjoyed were also dismantled by settlers and now lie unusable in the back of the house. The violence directed toward the Al-Kurds does not stop with the constant verbal abuse and the tossing of liquids. One female family member, for example, has been beaten on six occasions, each time requiring medical attention. On this first night of Eid, the settlers ran power tools until 3 AM, and dogs barked loudly, making sleep difficult for the family.Activists were doused with water several times throughout the evening as well.
Nabil’s wife and daughters left early Monday, the second day of Eid Al-Ahda.
Wahed Rejol is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
By Paul Larudee, November 2011
The dream of every nonviolent resister is to see a vast ocean of unarmed volunteers exercising their rights in defiance of authorities trying to stop them.
However inspiring it may be to watch the villages of Bil’in, Budrus, Beit Ammar, Ni’lin, Jayyous, Biddu and others defy Israeli forces week after week to defend against the confiscation of their land, everyone imagines what it would be like if all of Palestine and beyond were to do this in a single united effort. Now, with the models of Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab uprisings to inspire oppressed peoples around the globe – including Americans in the Occupy movement – Palestinians and their allies appear to be making their move.
On May 13, 2011, two million Egyptians gathered in Tahrir Square and chanted, “We are going to Jerusalem.” That was their intention, but Cairo is not walking distance to Palestine, and the Egyptian government shut down all transportation. Nevertheless, on May 15, thousands of Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese congregated on the Lebanese-Palestinian and Syrian-Golan borders and peacefully tried to overcome the obstacles and enter.
On May 13, 2011, two million Egyptians gathered in Tahrir Square and chanted, “We are going to Jerusalem.”
At Majdal Shams in Syria, hundreds succeeded in breaching the border, and were united with their brothers and sisters on the other side, in some cases after decades of separation. One young man, Hassan Hijazi, 28, actually reached the city of Jaffa, where his family had been expelled 63 years earlier. He gave an interview to Israeli television before he was captured and deported, but he fulfilled the lifelong dream of millions of Palestinians, if only for an instant. Others paid the price, as Israeli forces gunned down scores of unarmed protesters, 22 of whom lost their lives.
Only nine days earlier, I had been in Amman, Jordan, where two dozen organizations had decided to mount a similar effort on an even larger scale, and to include volunteers from around the world. Shaikh Raed Salah, leader of the Palestinian Islamic Movement in Israel, had already pledged that he would mobilize 100,000 volunteers from within Israel. This group is immeasurably important, because as Israeli citizens, Israel permits them to enter Jerusalem without restriction. Their presence would constitute a major success for the project.
The leadership of the Islamic Movement in Jordan and thirteen other organizations, with an even larger population of expatriate Palestinians, pledged 200,000 volunteers. After another meeting in July, the Palestinian Return March Committee in Lebanon, consisting of more than fifty organizations that had participated in the attempted crossing on March 15, pledged 50-100 thousand volunteers, as well.
The movement is called the Global March to Jerusalem, and as of late October it includes roughly fifty Palestinian organizations: 15 from inside Palestine, 14 from Jordan, 20 from Lebanon and a handful of others from other countries. In addition, a roughly equal number of solidarity organizations from other parts of the Middle East, South Asia, Europe, Africa and North America have joined the movement. These numbers are expected to grow rapidly, and the goal is to have delegations from at least 100 countries.
This is an exponential growth for the Palestinian nonviolent resistance movement. While this movement is very familiar to Western solidarity groups, it has until now represented a relatively small proportion of Palestinians, especially in the expatriate community. Among the rest, it has often been ignored or mocked.
No longer. Nonviolent resistance has demonstrated its strength and now has sterling credentials to its credit. It is, as they say, “going viral.”
The movement has no illusions about the difficulties, and its participants are not suicidal. The plan is to challenge every part of every border – Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Gaza and the West Bank – to march peacefully to Jerusalem. We will have hundreds of separate, imaginative plans for hundreds of separate groups, to overcome the obstacles at as many points of entry as possible, often creating our own entry points. We will also have multiple contingency plans in case we are thwarted in some areas, as will inevitably be the case. In many cases, the march may devolve into “Occupy” encampments and demonstrations. Whatever happens, we will learn from it and make improvements the following year, for what we intend will be an annual event.
The motives and views are likely to be as diverse as the participants. This is a very broad tent. For some, religious devotion will be paramount, for others, justice and human rights. For many Palestinians, it is simply reunification with their land, from which they have been separated for so long. However, all agree on the principles and practice of nonviolence, anti-racism, respect for all people and good will.
The participants are organizing along regional associations, including the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, Europe, Africa, and North America. We are hoping that associations for North/Central Asia, South America and other regions will also form.
The North American GMJ association (GMJ-NA) has elected to be an autonomous group, without voting rights in the international bodies (or vice versa). This is because citizens of the U.S. and Canada could potentially face legal difficulties if they participate in organizations that include international participants that are subject to legal reprisals in North America. The risk is small, but a precaution worth taking.
Currently, the GMJ-NA has fifteen member U.S. groups and an unknown number in Canada. In addition, it has endorsements from civil rights leader Dr. Clayborne Carson, retired U.S. ambassador Edward Peck, author and lecturer Dr. Ghada Karmi, lecturer Dr. Hatem Bazian, Professor of International Law Emeritus Dr. Richard Falk, Palestinian-American author Susan Abulhawa, and historian, novelist, journalist, filmmaker, intellectual and commentator Dr. Tariq Ali, among others.
If you or your group would like to endorse and/or participate, please go to www.gmj-na.org or write to organize@gmj-na.org, or call 510-224-3518. We welcome you help and participation in movement that is fulfilling the prediction of abolitionist Rev. Theodore Parker, quoted by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Dr. Paul Larudee is a co-founder of ISM-Northern California, the Free Gaza Movement and the Free Palestine Movement.
University Student Documents Attacks and Resistance Outside Nablus
By Mara Chinelli, October 2011
I spent a month with ISM in Palestine during the summer of 2011. Overall I spent my time with ISM in Hebron, Sheikh Jarrah, Nablus, Burin and Iraq Burin. Being in these places further revealed to me the different ways in which illegal Israeli occupation affects each city and village in the West Bank.
Burin
Over the course of July, there were four instances of attacks on Palestinian olive groves in Burin. Jewish settlers instigated three of them, while Israeli soldiers perpetrated the one that a few of us documented. I visited the village on Saturday July 30th to report on the fire that took place the previous day.
On July 29th, 2011, settlers from an illegal settlement occupying Palestinian land set fire to a valley of olive trees in the village of Burin. They torched approximately twenty dunums (about six or seven hectares) of land owned by five Palestinian families. Witnesses stated that approximately thirty-five settlers came down from the hill attempting to attack the Palestinians who tried to put out the fire. A few of those settlers shot live ammunition at the villagers, but no Palestinians were harmed. Local witnesses also mentioned that twelve Israeli military Jeeps occupied the village throughout the day, stifling movement within Burin. At one point, several young Palestinian men attempted to block the streets in order to prevent the Jeeps from reaching the center of the village. However their efforts to resist were in vain. The Israeli occupying forces set up a flying checkpoint to prevent Burin residents from accessing their burning land.
Fifteen soldiers that occupied the hill above the valley fired tear gas at Palestinians who attempted to both put out the fire and resist settler attacks. Furthermore, Burin witnesses mentioned that settlers made another attempt take over a Palestinian home that sits at the edge of the village. The people of Burin, however, were able to prevent them from going into the house.
Currently the Israeli occupying forces prevent Palestinians from accessing their olive trees at the top of the hill bordering a recent settlement expansion. Palestinians need special permission from the Israeli military to tend to their own land.
Iraq Burin
Every Saturday Palestinians in the village of Iraq Burin protest against an illegal settlement occupying their land across a great hill. After I left, the village ceased demonstrating for the month of Ramadan.
Before the protest began several of us internationals stayed over night with some of the local families, which was a great opportunity to get to know the locals. We decided to go the night before because of the possibility of the IOF setting up a flying checkpoint early in the morning. We spent the day on Saturday with our hosts, and in the early evening attended the demo on the outskirts of the village.
On July 23rd, 2011, we waited around the edge of the village before the demonstration began. The primary local participants wanted to wait until 5 or 6pm to begin the demonstration because the IOF soldiers usually stayed until nightfall. Earlier the same week, Iraq Burin’s Popular Committee had agreed to protest against a law passed by the Israeli Knesset outlawing the boycott of Israeli goods. So one the ISM Palestinian coordinators brought empty boxes of Israeli brands to burn as part of the protest.
When the demo started, about fifteen internationals and Palestinians marched through the valley. Approximately four soldiers stood at the top of the opposite hill diagonal to the protestors. They first fired a couple of tear gas canisters past where the demonstrators stood in the middle of the valley. After that they repeatedly fired tear gas canisters directly at the demonstrators. The demonstrators also set the empty boxes on fire announcing on a megaphone, “This is a message to your government,” and “We are demonstrating peacefully.” A couple of Palestinians made it pretty far on the hill across the valley in the trees. From where I was standing I saw two, three, then four Jeeps appear further on the hill to my right away from the demonstrators. About six soldiers were standing below the Jeeps. I could see the reflectors from their facemasks.
There were also soldiers amongst the olive trees behind where I stood on the other side of the valley. Several Palestinians, around ages 11 or 12, ran over towards them but I couldn’t see the soldiers. At a certain point I noticed more youth, old men, and women watching the demonstration from the edge of the village. About seventeen protestors remained down in the same part of the valley. The demonstration lasted for a couple of hours. When the demonstrators came back up the hill they reported that a tear gas canister ricocheted and hit one international in the leg; he was fortunately not injured. No one else was hurt. There were no arrests.
Mara Chinelli is an activist and anthropology student at the University of Rochester. She is currently co-facilitator for UR-Students for a Democratic Society.
The presence of activists reduces the risk of violence by extremist settlers and the Israeli army, and supports Palestinians’ right to protest the occupation, the apartheid wall, and illegal settlements. International solidarity activists engage in non-violent intervention and documentation, which is support that enables villages and individual activists to maintain their continued resistance.
For this year’s olive harvest we had a third of the volunteers that we had last year: no more than 20 at one time. This made it impossible to support the families in Nablus with their harvest to the extent we had promised.
Now that the harvest is over, our numbers have decreased significantly to an average of 10 total, with only 5 long term residents. It is so difficult with these numbers to maintain a basic presence in key the areas al-Khalil, Silwan, Sheikh Jarrah, and Jiftlik in the Jordan Valley, that it is an incredible strain to expend anyone for special projects, such as to live with families in need of a continuous international presence.
With increasing numbers of night-raids in Bil’in, Beit Ommar, and Silwan, and the regular violent destruction of Palestinian property by settlers, setting fires to fields or flooding villages with raw sewage, the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine is greatly in need of new volunteers present on the ground to support the Palestinian popular resistance.
Please join us!
London Beirut,
ISM Media Coordinator, al-Khalil
for more information: http://palsolidarity.org/join/