The ISM Northern California newsletter team spoke with Abdelkarim Dalbah, a Palestinian journalist, field researcher and human rights defender. He has been an ISMer for 17 years as an activist in nonviolent resistance. Our supporters’ donations go mainly to help support the work of the ISM in Palestine, from sending volunteers to helping maintain daily activities. Abdelkarim answered some of our questions and told us more about the current situation for the ISM and the Palestinian people, specifically in the West Bank. If you’d like to go to Palestine as a volunteer with ISM, please contact us at solidarity@ism-norcal.org. We’ll work to make sure you have the information you need to provide meaningful support to Palestinian grassroots, popular resistance.
Q: What are the biggest priorities for the ISM today in the West Bank?
A: ISM is mainly active in Hebron (al-Khalil), especially in the Old City, called Tel Rumeida. There, 600 settlers are occupying the neighborhood and making life miserable for the Palestinian people there. ISMers are supporting Palestinian life in Hebron in several ways. ISMers monitor checkpoints there and conduct “school runs,” helping the kids to go to school early in the morning and to come home in the afternoon. They provide protection for the children from daily settler harassment as well as questioning, aggression and harassment from the soldiers stationed at the checkpoints. The soldiers also make problems for teachers going back and forth to school. ISMers are present there to provide protection and document the situation. Their international presence is able to provide children and families with more protection from soldiers and settlers on a daily basis.
In addition, nowadays during the olive harvest, ISMers are joining farmers as they go to their land to harvest their olives. An international presence gives them more safety and protection, especially for the farmers who must harvest on land that is forbidden or risky to reach, such as those farmers whose land is next to the settlements. There is constant harassment and violence from settlers directed at farmers. We join them for the olive harvest, and we are also planning to join them again during the spring for more harvesting and planting.
The main reason that ISM is here is to support Palestinians in their nonviolent resistance to the occupation. ISMers attend protests in villages like Kufr Qaddum, Bil’in and elsewhere, for example in the Jordan Valley, as much as we can. Of course, our presence varies according to the number of ISMers present at any given time. ISM is based in two cities – Ramallah and Hebron – but we go to different areas to respond to requests for support from local Palestinians.
We are present in some areas, like the Jordan Valley and the South Hebron Hills, where new settlements are being built. Settlers are expanding and intensifying their harassment and violence against Palestinian villages. In addition, in East Jerusalem there are many home demolitions, and we work to be present there. When there are few international volunteers, our main priority is to be present on the ground in Hebron monitoring checkpoints and helping children to go to school.
Q: Is ISM the only international organization providing protection for Palestinians in Hebron?
A: There was a time when this was the case, but now we are fortunate that we are not the only group there anymore. After the UN observers and EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine) left, stopping their functions, the Christian Peacemaker Team sent a special temporary team. Now, EAPPI has returned and CPT is functioning well with larger numbers, but this is not a stable situation. EAPPI mainly observes the situation from far away and only has 2 or 3 people there. CPT, on the other hand, is doing well there. We conduct joint meetings to discuss how to do school runs, monitor checkpoints and develop the international work there.
The situation and the need in Hebron are getting worse and worse. ISMers are also targeted more than other groups because of our activist-oriented approach to documentation and support. With more people, we can do more work. For example, in South Hebron, there are also urgent threats to villages from settlements that require our focus.
Q: How do Israeli repression and arrests affect Palestinian popular resistance and ISM work?
A: Among the Palestinians working with ISM and participating in popular resistance, there are always legitimate fears of arrest. It is expected that at any time we may be arrested. All of the Palestinian activists are affected in different ways. Some of us may not be arrested, but we may be blacklisted or forbidden to leave the country. I, for example, am forbidden to enter Israel. We have not yet faced mass arrests, but it is a potential we live with at any time. This will not stop us from doing what is needed for our freedom and our rights as a Palestinian people and working hard to build the BDS campaign, especially internally. Of course, internationals working with ISM have also been detained, arrested and banned. One of our Austrian activists was forbidden from returning to Palestine because he volunteered with ISM. Our work is not hidden; it is open in confronting repression and silencing.
Q: How does international support help Palestinian efforts?
A: A visible presence of the ISM and of internationals here is always helpful. It gives hope to the Palestinian people and to grassroots organizations who suffer from the occupation that we are not alone. We can see how strongly time here also affects internationals, when they leave after three weeks or three months and have experienced the situation here for themselves. In addition to coming to Palestine and providing direct support, we always tell ISMers that the best things they can do when they return home is to raise support for Palestinians in their countries. Internationals can pressure their governments to end their support for the Israeli regime and its apartheid system and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians. In addition, the unconditional funds and solidarity provided by internationals to the ISM is very important. It helps us to initiate creative actions and support popular resistance, as well as helping Palestinians who have been arrested to pay legal fees and fight for their rights.
Q: What can volunteers who want to join ISM do?
A: Volunteers who want to come help us in Palestine can contact their local support groups, like ISM Northern California, or former ISMers in Europe, the US or Canada. They can email us to tell us they want to join and we will provide advice and guidance. There is always a need for more international activists and greater participation. This can help us to address more of our priorities, like supporting popular resistance in East Jerusalem and helping prisoners involved in nonviolent resistance to pay fines or bails. We, and all of the Palestinian grassroots organizations, invite internationals to come to Palestine and join ISM. Your presence here is so important and needed.