Palestinians have burned rubber tyres along the trail of the Israeli separation barrier in the West Bank in a symbolic protest against its ongoing construction under the smokescreen of the Gaza pullout. Black smoke seen rising along the wall’s path from the areas of Marda to Qalandia in the Central West Bank on Thursday was an “SOS to the world” to take action to stop Israel’s annexation of their land and “imprisonment of the Palestinian people”, according to Ayed Morrar, coordinator of the Popular Committee to Resist the Wall in Ram Allah. Read more about Palestinians protest Gaza smokescreen
Thousands of transport trucks line the winding highways of Akkar, an impoverished region in northern Lebanon which borders Syria. Currently all land border crossings into Syria are shutdown to economic traffic, dealing a serious blow to Lebanon’s already unstable economy. The Syrian government has publicly justified this border lockdown in the name of regional “security”, as Syria is under intense international political pressure mainly from the U.S. to introduce tighter border controls. In Lebanon, the newly formed government and various unions representing impacted sectors, have painted the border crisis as an attempt to hit the country economically after the forced withdrawal of upwards of 15 000 Syrian soldiers from Lebanon in April 2005 and the recent election results. Read more about Lebanon / Syria: Border Lock Down....
In the high point of a week of planned non-violent direct actions against the occupation, residents of Nablus converged on Huwara checkpoint to protest the continuing closure of the region. Prisoners’ families, accompanied by more than thirty international activists, were flanked by Palestinian medics and ambulances as they approached the checkpoint. The two aims of the action were to raise the profile of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli gaols and to protest the ongoing closure of the Nablus area. There are currently 8000 Palestinians, many of whom are women and children, illegitimately imprisoned by Israel. Currently 1400 of the prisoners are from Nablus. Read more about Nablus resists
Today, Palestinians are not able to sue the state for damages caused by combatant activity, broadly defined as, “…any action of combating terror, hostile actions, or insurrection, and action intended to prevent terror and hostile acts and insurrection committed in circumstances of danger to life or limb.” If the Knesset passes the new amendment to the Civil Wrongs Law, intended to excempt Israel from paying compensation to Palestinians injured by the security forces, it will almost completely block the ability of Palestinians to file for compensation, even for damage caused by illegal shooting, looting, negligence on training grounds, abuse and degrading treatment at checkpoints, or physical violence. Read more about Israeli government proposes blocking Palestinian compensation suits
On Sunday, July 17, Tali Fahima’s trial sessions will be continued. On this occasion, we are calling on all solidarity movements around the world to join us and let the people of the world and the State of Israel know that the persecution and unjust incarceration of the woman who represents hope for a future of friendship and commonality between Palestinians and Israelis will not pass unnoted. Tali Fahima, a Jewish Israeli woman, has been harassed by the Israeli General Security Services for over a year for defying the apartheid logic set by the occupation forces and showing public solidarity with the people of the Jenin refugee camp in their daily efforts to stay alive and resist their oppressors. Read more about International Campaign to Free Tali Fahima
The Church of England should follow the recommendation of the Anglican Consultative Council and vote to divest from companies supporting Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine during its General Synod this weekend, campaigners will say at a fringe meeting at York University on Friday (8 July). The Church of England’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group has been examining whether the £2 million of shares currently held in Caterpillar are consistent with the Church’s ethical investment policy, which prohibits investment in arms companies or companies making ‘weapons platforms’ such as naval vessels or tanks. Read more about Church of England urged to follow ACC divestment recommendation on Caterpillar
In November 2003 Ahmed Abdel Majeed, a stateless Palestinian born and raised in Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon, was deported from Canada. The distance between Montreal and Lebanon stretches thousands of kilometers over oceans and continents, but is only a short distance in Ahmed’s eyes and living memory of an existence shaped by the daily struggle of statelessness. Today Ahmed resides in Ein el-Hilweh, with an estimated 80 000 other stateless Palestinians in the country’s largest refugee camp located on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese city of Saida. Read more about From Montreal to Ein el-Hilweh: Deportation, Destitution & Dignity
One year after the ICJ ruling on the Wall, Palestinian civil society calls upon international civil society organisations and individuals to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. Palestinian civil society organisations appeal to them to pressure their respective governments to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law. Read more about One year on: Palestinian civil society calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions
“You can’t just come storming in here,” barks Neta Golan to foreign activists who walk casually into her kitchen during their lunch break. “This is someone’s house you know - there’s a kitchen in the other apartment,” she tells them. “They don’t understand it’s rude to just barge into someone’s home here - they have a lot to learn,” says Golan about the internationals who have come to help support Palestinians in non-violent resistance. Just another day in cultural training for Golan and the ISM, during which the 34-year-old Israeli activist explains to foreign volunteers when they can snap pictures, how to behave in people’s homes and how to respect local Palestinians. Read more about Israeli activist bridges worlds
Only a few of the 420 Palestinian prisoners recently released numbered among the nearly 700 prisoners currently serving administrative detention orders. Adnan Na’im ‘Abdallah, age 31, is married without children and has been held in detention without charge or trial by the Israeli army for two and a half years. Nina Mayorek started a campaign to release Adnan. Adnan lives between 9m cement walls in the Negev desert. The detention camp is divided into cages with 120 prisoners living in tents inside each cage. Adnan’s cage separates him from the world. Read more about Free Adnan Abdallah!
