Press Release May 19 2012   
  
Gush Shalom calls for abolition of "Jerusalem Day". This is a holiday only to settlers and racists, who get a license to provoke and harass Palestinians . . The real 'Jerusalem Day' - when Jerusalem becomes the capital of two states living in peace.


A lie does not become a truth, even if repeated forty-five times. Jerusalem is a not a united city, and has never been a united city in the forty-five years since 1967. East Jerusalem is a Palestinian area under occupation rule. Just so is it treated by the  governmental and municipal authorities of the State of Israel, and by the settlers who are dispossessing the Palestinian inhabitants, with the funding and backing of these authorities - as recently happened again in  the Beit Hanina Neighborhood.

"Jerusalem Day" is not a holiday to Israel's citizens or to residents of Jerusalem. It is a holiday only for the young settlers, who are given by the Jerusalem Police a free hand to hold a provocative "Flag Dance" throughout East Jerusalem – even though in previous years this "dance" developed into an ongoing chain of racist harassment and violence against Palestinian inhabitants.

It is time to end the lie and erase this ugly stain from the calendar of the State of Israel. The real Jerusalem Day will be the day when the occupation ends and Jerusalem becomes the capital of two states - West Jerusalem the capital of Israel and East Jerusalem the capital of Palestine. Only then can Jerusalem truly be a united city, by the free will of all its inhabitants - Israelis and Palestinians alike.


Contact: Adam Keller, Gush Shalom Spokesperson 054-2340749

Solidarity !!!

Israelis and Palestinians will demonstrate at the Old City's Damascus Gate against the "Jerusalem Day",  which is the Day of Occupation

Today, Sunday May 20, there shall be marked the so-called "Jerusalem Day", dedicated to glorification of the myth of the Unity of the City. But Jerusalem is not united, it is divided and occupied. "Jerusalem Day" a day of celebration for the settlers who make of use of this date to hold various activities in East Jerusalem, activities which are, year after year, accompanied by the terrorizing and mass use of violence against Palestinian inhabitants.

We will join our Palestinian partners in marking Nakba Day which occurred last week and protesting against the Right-wing "Flag Dance" which celebrates the ongoing occupation of East Jerusalem. The East Jerusalem neighborhood committees invited Israelis to join in the

Protest event at the Damascus Gate at wall of Jerusalem's Old City, facing the Right-wing "Flag Dance", on Sunday, May 20, 2012, at 6:00 PM.

It should be noted that the protest is organized by Palestinians and it is our partners who will determine the nature of the demonstrations. We must also warn that in recent years, "Jerusalem Day" is often marked by violence from both settlers and the security forces.

For more information: +972-52-5357456 

The Israeli Army plans to force farmers from Deir Istiya, a village in
the northern West Bank, to uproot 1400 olive trees in Wadi Qana by the
first of May.

The village, together with international and Israeli supporters, will
resist and open up a protest camp in the olive goves.

It is to expected that the Israeli army will respond with the usual
excessive force to quell the resistance and enforce the uprooting of the
trees. The village needs all the outside support it can get.

The International Women's Peace Service IWPS, who are based in the
village of Deir Istiya, set up a online petition to write to the
relevant Israeli politicians in protest:

Uprooting trees is one of the many strategies the Israeli government uses to weaken the spirit of Palestinians peacefully living on their land. Sign this petition to show your support that uprooting these trees is not ok for the following reasons:

1. There is no logical reason for why the Israeli Defence Force needs to uproot these trees. 
2. Agriculture is one of the few remaining ways of how Palestinians put bread and butter on their table. By destroying these trees the IDF is abusing their basic human rights. 
3. These trees are owned, planted and cared for by Palestinians on their own land. They are not stolen, they do not harm anyone, and they are not on Israeli owned land. Ask yourself why then do these trees need to be uprooted?

Please sign this petition so we can show the Israeli government that the outside world cares about the atrocities they think they are secretly committing.

http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-uprooting-palestinian-trees

Please keep informed in the following days and help us reach out to the
media and a wider public:

http://iwps.info/
http://palsolidarity.org/

Contacts in the village:

International Women's Peace Service 00972-9 251-4644; 00972-597317193
Rezeq Abu Nasser (Farmer): 00972-599116416
Nazmi Salman (Mayor of Deir Istiya): 00972-599788273

International Women's Peace Service

--
“They have succeeded in dominating us more
through ignorance, than through force”.
Simon Bolivar

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."  Voltaire

"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the  oppressed"  - Steve Biko

www.freeahmadsaadat.org + campaign@freeahmadsaadat.org

Twitter:http://twitter.com/freeahmadsaadat

March 14-15, 2012 marks the sixth anniversary of the attack on Jericho prison and the Israeli abduction of Palestinian national leader Ahmad Sa'adat and his comrades, who had been held under U.S. and British guard in a Palestinian Authority prison.

For the past three years, since March 18, 2009, Ahmad Sa'adat has been in isolation in an Israeli occupation prison, subject to solitary confinement, poor health care and intense repression. Similarly, Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, one of his comrades also abducted from Jericho in 2006, has been in isolation for many months. The demand to end the isolation of Ahmad Sa'adat - and his fellow prisoners in solitary confinement - sparked the September-October 2011 hunger strikes that swept through the occupation's prisons.

As we mark this anniversary, a Palestinian prisoner's hunger strike has once again captured the attention of the world, very soon after the heroic 66-day hunger strike of Khader Adnan. Hana al-Shalabi, released in the October 2011 prisoner exchange, was re-abducted on February 16, 2012, and is held under administrative detention without charge or trial. She has now been on hunger strike for 28 days.

The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat echoes the call of Hana al-Shalabi's parents for a day of action this Saturday, March 17:

"We call upon...all Palestinians to go to the streets and participate in the support action planned on Saturday March 17 in solidarity with our daughter Hana Al-Shalabi and all administrative detainees. We will continue supporting our daughter’s hunger strike and we want to let our daughter Hana know: we are with you in your hunger strike until you achieve your demand; your immediate release from the unjust Israeli jails. 

Your support to Hana is necessary to achieve Hana’s immediate release; it is also needed to support our daughter in her open hunger strike which she has started on February 16, 2012.

Finally, we call upon all administrative detainees to join Hana’s hunger strike until you achieve your own immediate release and put an end to the unjust Israeli policy of administrative detention which violates human rights and International law."

Similarly, we join in the call for people around the world to take action on April 17, Palestinian Prisoners' Day, for Ahmad Sa'adat, Hana Shalabi, Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Khader Adnan, and all of the nearly 5,000 Palestinian prisoners held within the jails of the occupation:

"On Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, Tuesday, April 17, we ask that all supporters of the Palestinian political prisoners’ movement bring Khader Adnan’s spirit of resistance to the doorsteps of his captors and would-be killers...Let Khader Adnan’s hunger strike mark the beginning of a revitalized global movement for Palestinian prisoners, their rights, their families, and their struggle. Together, we can make it so."

Ahmad Sa'adat, Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Khader Adnan and Hana al-Shalabi - alongside their nearly 5,000 sisters and brothers - are paradigmatic examples of the steadfastness of Palestinian prisoners. Despite the abuse and isolation they have suffered, Palestinian prisoners - and the Palestinian people as a whole - will continue to resist occupation, racism, and settlement in order to obtain their rights to freedom, self-determination and return.

On this, the sixth anniversary of the storming of Jericho prison and the abduction of Ahmad Sa'adat, the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat reiterates that it is long past time to end the dangerous and damaging policy of Palestinian Authority security coordination with the Israeli occupation. This policy is responsible for ongoing political repression and for the imprisonment of Palestinians in both PA and Israeli jails. It must be noted that Ahmad Sa'adat and his comrades were abducted not from their homes but from the Palestinian Authority jail that had held them - contrary to Palestinian law - for over four years at the time of the military siege.

The policy of security coordination is the policy that kept Ahmad Sa'adat, a Palestinian national leader, behind bars for four years before the Israeli attack and abduction. It poses a deep danger to the Palestinian cause, and represents the inverse of the unity and national solidarity displayed overwhelmingly by Palestinian prisoners standing together across all lines to confront occupation. It endangers the accomplishments of the Palestinian revolution and dishonors the struggles of the Palestinian people over its decades.

In addition, it must also be emphasized that United States and British guards maintained the prisons that held Ahmad Sa'adat and his comrades in Jericho, and that they were warned and exited the prison in a coordinated fashion prior to the Israeli occupation attack - when their presence there had been repeatedly, and falsely, justified as "protection." The actions of the US and British guards and monitors in Jericho prison are yet one more example of the active complicity and responsibility for occupation by these states. Further, we call upon international authorities, including the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to take up their responsibility to address the ongoing suffering and abuse of Palestinian political prisoners by occupation forces.

Six years after the abduction of Ahmad Sa'adat from Jericho prison, the Palestinian people and Palestinian prisoners are steadfast as ever, unbowed by repression, confronting the occupier from behind its own bars. They are a living beacon of steadfastness and inspire our struggle for the liberation of each prisoner - and the liberation of all of Palestine, its land and its people.

Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat

Take Action!

1. Picket, protest or call the Israeli embassy or consulate in your location and demand the immediate freedom of Ahmad Sa'adat, Hana al-Shalabi, and all Palestinian political prisoners. Join in March 17 actions and events!

2. Distribute the free downloadable Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat flyer in your community at local events.

3. Write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other human rights organizations to exercise their responsibilities and act swiftly to demand that prisoners' rights are recognized. Email the ICRC, whose humanitarian mission includes monitoring the conditions of prisoners, at JER_jerusalem@icrc.org, and inform them about the urgent situations of Hana Shalabi and Ahmad Sa'adat. Make it clear that isolation is a human rights violation and a form of torture, and that the ICRC must stand up and play its role to defend prisoners' rights. 

4. Email the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat at campaign@freeahmadsaadat.org with announcements, reports and information about your local events, activities and flyer distributions.

WHO IS AHMAD SA'ADAT?

Ahmad Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was elected to his position in 2001 following the assassination of the previous General Secretary, Abu Ali Mustafa, on August 27, 2001 by a U.S.-made Apache missile shot from an Israeli military helicopter as he sat in his office in Ramallah. PFLP fighters retaliated by assassinating Rehavam Ze'evi, the racist extremist Israeli tourism minister and head of the Moledet party, notorious for his political platform based on the "transfer" or ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, on October 17, 2001.

Sa'adat was abducted by Palestinian Authority security forces after engaging in a meeting with PA officials under false pretenses in February 2002, and was held in the Muqata' PA presidential building in Ramallah until April 2002, when in an agreement with Israel, the U.S. and Britain, he and four of his comrades were held in the Palestinian Authority's Jericho prison, under U.S. and British guard.

He remained in the PA jails, without trial or charge, an imprisonment that was internationally condemned, until March 14, 2006, when the prison itself was besieged by the occupation army and he and his comrades were kidnapped. While imprisoned in the PA jail in Jericho, he was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council. Since that time, he has been held in the prisons of the occupation and continually refused to recognize the illegitimate military courts of the Israeli occupation. He was sentenced to thirty years in prison on December 25, 2008 solely for his political activity, and has spent three years in isolation at the present time.

The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat

http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/

campaign@freeahmadsaadat.org

Twitter: @FreeAhmadSaadat

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A list of actions that people can take as a result of this evening's demolitions will be posted on the ICAHD UK website within the next twenty-four hours.

 If you can't see this newsletter properly click  here <http://www.altro.co.il/newsletters/show/1432?key=327d8b3250df625b97315537c0e0f268> 

 ICAHD Peace Center 'Beit Arabiya' Demolished  for the Fifth Time 02:10 , 24-01-12   

Israeli authorities demolished  Beit Arabiya (“Arabiya’s House”)  last night (Monday, January 23rd) for the fifth  time, along with structures in the East Anata Bedouin compound.   Beit Arabiya, Located  in the West Bank town of Anata (Area C) just to the northeast of  Jerusalem, is a living symbol of resistance to Occupation and  the desire for justice and peace.  

As its name  suggests, Beit Arabiya is a home belonging to Arabiya  Shawamreh, her husband Salim and their seven children, a Palestinian  family whose home has been demolished four times by the Israeli  authorities and rebuilt each time by ICAHD's Palestinian, Israeli  and international peace activists, before being demolished again  last night.     At around 11p.m. Monday, a bulldozer  accompanied by a contingent of heavily armed Israeli soldiers  appeared on the Anata hills, to promptly demolish Beit Arabiya,  along with residential and agricultural structures in the nearby  Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin compound. 3 family homes were demolished  along with numerous animal pans, and 20 people including young  children were displaced, left exposed to the harsh desert  environment. While standing in solidarity with Palestinians, ICAHD  staff and activists were repeatedly threatened by Israeli  soldieries. ICAHD Co-Director Itay Epshtain was beaten and sustained  minor injuries.    

Beit Arabiya was issued a demolition  order by Israeli authorities back in 1994, following their failure  to grant a building permit. It has since been demolished four times,  to be rebuilt by ICAHD activists. Following a reissue of the  demolition order last Thursday, came last night's fifth demolition.  ICAHD Director, Dr. Jeff Halper, standing astride the ruins, vowed  to support Salim and Arabiya in rebuilding their home. "We shall  rebuild, we must rebuild forthwith, as an act of political defiance  of the occupation and protracted oppression of Palestinians" said  Halper.    

Beit Arabiya has become a symbol of  resistance to the Judaization of the Occupied West Bank and Israeli  demolition policy. "ICAHD is as determined as always to rebuild the  home, and endure in its struggle to bring about justice and peace"  added Halper.    Salim and Arabiya, along with their  neighbors and friends stood last night and watched as this tragedy  unfold once again. Arabiya and Salim have dedicated their home as a  center for peace in the memories of Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan,  two women (an American and a Palestinian) who died resisting home  demolitions in Gaza. In the past decade ICAHD has hosted numerous  visitors at Beit Arabiya, and based its annul rebuilding camp at the  house, rebuilding 185 demolished Palestinian  homes.   

Only earlier this month, ICAHD extended  an invitation to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate  Housing to visit Beit Arabiya during her country visit to the  Occupied Palestinian Territory scheduled for later in the month. "It  is our hope, that while we cannot extend the same hospitality to the  Special Raportueor, Prof. Raquel Rolnik will visit the ruins of Beit  Arabiya, and report on the utter cruelty, and illegality of Israeli  policies and practices, and that members of the international  community will follow in her footsteps". " said ICAHD Co-Director  Itay Epshtain.   

 For more information and coordination  of visits to Beit Arabiya, kindly contact Itay Epshtain  at itay@icahd.org<mailto:itay@icahd.org>  or  +972-54-2623306 

Additional  Information    House demolitions and forced evictions  are among Israel’s most heinous practices in the Occupied  Palestinian Territory (OPT). In 2011, a record year of displacement,  a total of 622 Palestinian structures were demolished by Israeli  authorities, of which 36% (or 222) were family homes; the remainder  were livelihood-related (including water storage and agricultural  structures), resulting in 1,094 people displaced, almost double the  number for 2010. The Jordan Valley sustained the largest number  of demolitions (32% of total structures demolished, 40% of  residential structures demolished, 37% of people displaced), with  199 structures demolished and 401 people displaced.

Israel  now controls 40% of the West Bank through 149 settlements and 102  outposts, housing more than 500,000 Jewish Israelis, as well as  through closed military zones and declared nature reserves. In  addition, house demolitions, forced evictions, and land  expropriation, exacerbated by settler violence and the economic  effects of movement restrictions, have left Palestinian communities  struggling to make a living. Palestinians live in constant fear of  displacement and dispersion, while Israel secures its domination and  control.   

The demolition of Palestinian homes  is politically motivated and strategically informed. The goal is to  confine the 4 million residents of the West Bank, East Jerusalem,  and Gaza to small enclaves, thus effectively foreclosing any viable  Palestinian state and ensuring Israeli control, and to allow for the  expropriation of land, the ethnic displacement of Palestinians, and  the Judaization of the Occupied West  Bank.      The recent ICAHD report 'The  Judaization of Palestine: 2011 Displacement Trends' provides a  political analysis of the root causes and consequences of Israel’s  house demolition policy, focusing on the demolition of Palestinian  homes and other structures in the Occupied West Bank. Click here to read the report…

29 December 2011

Veolia Takes Severe Blow As It Fails To Win 485 Million Pound Contract In West London

Human rights campaigners are celebrating after the West London Waste Authority ('WLWA') excluded French multinational Veolia from a £485 million contract covering 1.4 million inhabitants of  the London boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond-upon-Thames, for treatment of residual domestic waste. 

The reasons behind the decision by the WLWA to exclude Veolia are commercially confidential but the impact of human rights campaigners should not be under-estimated. 

Over the last six months campaigners lobbied Councillors and Council officials to exclude Veolia from the contract and submitted a letter to the WLWA - signed by nearly 600 local residents - documenting Veolia's direct complicity in grave breaches of international and humanitarian law in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Campaigners pointed out that:

Veolia helped build and is involved in operating a tram-line which links Jerusalem with illegal Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank.

Veolia takes waste from Israel and illegal  Israeli Settlements and dumps this on Palestinian land at the Tovlan landfill.

The letter also gave evidence of Veolia's racist recruitment policies in Israel, as well as the company's operation of buses on Highway 443 which Palestinians are prohibited from using.

Veolia's failure to win the WLWA contract is a heavy blow for the company because it owns a domestic waste depot in the area covered by the WLWA and so should have been ideally placed to meet some of the necessary criteria for the WLWA tender.  

Worse still for Veolia, this blow comes only six months after it failed to win Ealing Council's £300m  new 'Clean and Green' contract even though Veolia already did much of the work under the old contract. When bidding for that contract Veolia had faced determined opposition from Palestinian rights campaigners over its track record in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Campaigners across the world are focussed on Veolia because it is a key target of the global Boycott Divestment and Sanctions ('BDS') campaign for Palestinian rights and which is led by Palestinian civil society organisations.

Sarah Colborne, Director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the UK , commented :

'Complicity in infringing human rights and international law has become an expensive business for Veolia.  Other companies please note: There is a strong, determined and popular international campaign for justice for Palestinians; if you aid Israel's oppression of Palestinians your business will suffer just like Veolia's'

*********************************************

N E W S L E T T E R of  "Dump Veolia West London Steering Group"

FINAL VICTORY ISSUE

29 December 2011

WE DID IT!!!

WHAT A COUPLE OF WEEKS IT’S BEEN.  Our long campaign to have Veolia excluded from the procurement on the grounds of its grave misconduct in the West Bank and East Jerusalem received an early setback when the company was one of the eight originally invited to tender. 

Our response was to step up the campaign. We met with the Waste Authority and with the help of our own legal expert, Danny Machover, we were able to explain in detail the moral and legal case for excluding Veolia.  Recognising the Authority’s concern about complying with procurement legislation we patiently reminded them that it does not rule out excluding a bidder on grounds of grave misconduct. 

At the same time we took the campaign out into the community, gathering nearly 600 signatures for our joint letter which was sent to the WLWA on 10 November. We can safely say the WLWA had never received anything like this before! The first of a projected series of public meetings was organised in Brent on 22 November. We knew the shortlist of bidders would be decided this week but rather than sit back and wait we prepared plans to broaden and intensify the campaign in the New Year. 

A few days before Christmas, the West London Waste Authority website announced its four shortlisted bidders for the domestic waste disposal contract. We scrutinised the list. We rubbed our eyes. We looked again. VEOLIA’S NAME WAS NOWHERE TO BE SEEN! Emails flew between activists in London and around the world. We checked with the Authority, spoke with its representatives, clarified whether there was an appeal process to which rejected bidders might have recourse. 

Then finally the news was confirmed. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign, whose branches in west London had initiated the Dump Veolia campaign, issued a press release, reproduced below. We are proud to have received congratulations from Omar Barghouti, leading advocate of the Palestinian Civil Society Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. It all goes to show what can be achieved by acting together. Those congratulations belong to everyone who added his or her name to the letter to WLWA or who helped in any other way during all the long months of dedicated campaign work.  The calendar says winter officially began last week, but for supporters of Palestinian human rights in west London it feels like spring.    

This victory is just one of a growing number around the world and will inspire thousands of others campaigning for Palestinian human rights. Veolia’s share prices have been sliding over the past year, not helped by its human rights reputation, and took a distinct dive a day or so ago when news of the company’s failure in west London was picked up by traders – a reminder that our victory in west London also has a direct global impact.

----

It’s good to celebrate our success – but the best way to celebrate is to apply ourselves with renewed energy to the campaign for Palestinian human rights in the months to come. 

We must never forget that Veolia and other companies continue to profit from Israel’s continuing occupation of Palestinian land and the oppression of Palestinian men, women and children.  

The struggle continues: 

·        For 2012 we are preparing a new agenda for public and lobbying activities on Palestinian human rights, which is increasingly becoming the great moral issue of our time. 

·        Some of us are active in campaigning against Veolia’s sponsorship of the Wild Life Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington where we hand out leaflets and talk with museum-goers on alternate Saturday mornings. 

·        Further activities against Veolia continue in other parts of London where campaigners are working hard to ensure decisions on lucrative contracts will go the same way as in west London. 

·        Groups of activists also regularly leaflet outside supermarkets urging shoppers to boycott Israeli and illegal settlement goods. 

·        Public meetings are organised in various parts of west London on different aspects of the Palestinian human rights, always with expert speakers. 

Co-ordinating our efforts through the broad-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign (http://www.palestinecampaign.org/), we take our cue from the call issued in 2005 by the overwhelming majority of Palestinian Civil Society for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel until it complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights (http://www.bdsmovement.net/call#.TvXAadSRHII).

Brian Durrans, for Dump Veolia West London Steering Group

Email: nernier@gmail.com  Mobile: 0785 441 9955

by Allison Deger on November 28, 2011    Mondoweiss

Lev Leviev, Israeli settlement mogul and blood diamond trader, is still a target.  This month he sponsored an exhibition at the Fashion Institute of Technology curated by Daphne Guinness, and human rights organizations are calling for the fashion icon and heiress to distance herself from Leviev. Adalah-NY, CodePink, Jewish Voice for Peace, and human rights organizations from the U.K. sent  letters to Guinness and FIT on November 12th, calling for Guinness and FIT to “sever their ties” with Lev.

Daphne Guinness with Bernard Henri-Levy   Photo: Rex Features/Sipa Press

“By associating with Leviev due to his companies’ construction of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land in violation of international law, and their unethical business practices in the diamond industry in Angola and Namibia,” Adalah-NY wrote Guinness and FIT’s names will be” tarnished.” The designer and design school have responded to communication with the human rights’ groups, although they have yet to cancel their contracts with Leviev, which would follow the lead of Oxfam, CARE, UNICEF, and the governments of Norway and the UK , all of whom have canceled and publically distanced themselves from Leviev.

Leviev is the target of an international boycott campaign, first started by Adalah-NY in 2006, as a response to the diamond dealer’s settlement construction. While Africa-Israel is out of the settlement business as of 2010, another Leviev company,Leader Management and Development continues to expropriate Palestinian land:

"Leader and the Israeli government are seizing the village’s farmland and water resources to build the settlement, which is secured by Israel’s West Bank wall, with devastating impacts on the once prosperous farming village. In November 2010, a separate Leviev company, Africa Israel, announced that it had no plans to build further settlements, presumably because organizations, governments, investment firms and stars were distancing themselves from Leviev. All Israeli settlements violate international law."

Leviev is also under criticism by Adalah-NY, for his procurement of blood diamonds, retailed at his New York City store front:

"Leviev’s companies have a history of involvement in human rights abuses in the diamond industry in Angola. Leviev works in close partnership with that country’s repressive and corrupt government. The Angolan government also fails to respect the Kimberley Process which was put in place to stop the worldwide trade in conflict diamonds. In the diamond industry in Namibia, Leviev’s company fired around 200 striking, low-wage factory workers in 2008, and this year his employees in Namibia have been accused of trading in illicit diamonds."

Media Advisory

Monday, November 14, 2011 

Palestinian Freedom Riders to Board Settler Buses to Jerusalem

Palestinian activists will attempt to peacefully board segregated Israeli public transportation in the occupied West Bank to travel to East Jerusalem in action reminiscent of the Civil Rights Movement's Freedom Rides to the U.S. South

When: Tuesday, November 15th, 2011 at 1:00 p.m.

Where: Cultural Palace, Ramallah

Media contact: 059-234-6895 or 054-632-7736

[Occupied RAMALLAH] This Tuesday, Palestinian activists, mostly youth, will attempt to board segregated Israeli public transportation headed from inside the West Bank to occupied East Jerusalem in an act of civil disobedience inspired by the Freedom Riders of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.

Fifty years after the U.S. Freedom Riders staged mixed-race bus rides through the roads of the segregated American South, Palestinian Freedom Riders will be asserting their right to liberty and dignity by disrupting the military regime of the Occupation through peaceful civil disobedience. The Freedom Riders seek to challenge Israel’s apartheid policies, the ban on Palestinians’ access to Jerusalem, and the overall segregated reality created by a military and settler occupation that is the cornerstone of Israel’s colonial regime. 

Group spokeswoman Hurriyah Ziada said: “Israel's control over Palestinians must end and all of Israel’s Jewish-only colonies that sit on stolen land must be dismantled. As we struggle for our people’s basic rights, we call on the peoples of the world to support our struggle for freedom like they supported the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa. We ask that they devote themselves to the noblest methods of solidarity with the oppressed by implementing boycott, divestment and sanctions on our oppressor, Israel. We demand freedom, justice and self determination.”

Palestinian activists also aim to expose two of the companies that profit from Israel’s apartheid policies and encourage global boycott of and divestment from them. The Israeli Egged and French Veolia bus companies operate dozens of segregated lines that run through the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, many of them subsidized by the state. They run between different Israeli settlements, connecting them to each other and to Israel. Some lines connecting Jerusalem to other cities inside Israel, such as Eilat and Beesan (Beit She'an), are also routed to pass through the West Bank.

While it is not officially forbidden for Palestinians to use Israeli public transportation in the West Bank, these lines are effectively segregated, since many of them pass through Jewish-only settlements, to which Palestinian entry is prohibited by a military decree.

Tomorrow, Palestinian Freedom Riders will head to Jewish-only bus stops in the West Bank and attempt to board the illegal and segregated settler buses. Palestinians understand that this act of nonviolent disobedience may result in violent attacks and even death at the hands of Israeli settlers that are to Israel what the Klu Klux Klan was to the Jim Crow South, or the authorities that protect them. Nonetheless, the Freedom Riders believe that this act of civil resistance is necessary to draw the attention of the world to the illegality and immorality of Israel’s occupation and apartheid system as well as to urge justice-loving people to take a stand and divest from Egged, Veolia, and all companies that enable and profit from this oppressive system.

 Facebook: www.facebook.com/PalestinianFreedomRides

Twitter: twitter.com/#!/palfreedomrides Hashtag:  #FreedomRides

Blog: http://palfreedomrides.blogspot.com/

Live stream: www.livestream.com/freedomriders 

Email: ridingforfreedom@gmail.com

Background

Several Israeli and transnational companies, among them Egged and Veolia, operate dozens of lines that run through the occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem), many of them subsidized by the state. They run between different illegal Israeli settlements, connecting them to each other and to Israel. Some lines connecting Jerusalem to other cities inside Israel, such as Eilat and Beit She'an, are also routed to pass through the West Bank.

Almost no limitations are imposed on the freedom of movement of Israelis in the occupied Palestinian territory. On the contrary, the Israeli government allows and even encourages its citizens to settle in the West Bank (especially in and around East Jerusalem), in violation of international law. Palestinians, in contrast, are not allowed to enter Israel without procuring a rarely granted special permit from Israeli authorities. Even Palestinian movement inside the Occupied Territory is heavily restricted, with access to occupied East Jerusalem and some 8% of the West Bank in the border area also forbidden without a similar permit.

While it is not officially forbidden for Palestinians to use Israeli public transportation in the West Bank, these lines are effectively segregated, since many of them pass through Jewish-only settlements, to which Palestinian entry is prohibited by military decrees. This is one aspect of Israel’s regime of occupation, colonialism and apartheid[i] against the Palestinian people.

The buses that the Freedom Riders boarded are operated by Egged, the largest Israeli public transportation company. Another prominent public transportation company in the Occupied Territory is the French transnational company Veolia. Both companies are complicit in Israel’s violations of international law due to their involvement in and profiting from Israeli's illegal settlement infrastructure. Palestinian Freedom Riders endorse the call for boycotting both companies, as well as all others involved in Israel’s violations of human rights and international law.[ii]

In July 2011, an Egged subsidiary won a public tender to run bus services in the Waterland region of the Netherlands, north of Amsterdam. The company makes money from trampling on the rights of Palestinians and has been a target of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign, which is endorsed by an overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society. The Freedom Riders call on the people of the Netherlands to sever all dealings with companies, like Egged, involved in human rights violations.

Veolia has been a target of an international divestment campaign for running bus lines through the West Bank connecting illegal Israeli colonies to Jerusalem and for its involvement in the Jerusalem Light Rail which connects illegal settlements in and around occupied East Jerusalem to the western part of the city, thereby directly servicing the settlement enterprise.[iii]

Israel has laid its military control over 42 percent of the occupied Palestinian territory  for the building of illegal Jewish settlements and their associated regime[iv] (including the wall which was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004) across the occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem), depriving local communities of access to their water resources as well as agricultural lands. Settling Israelis in the occupied Palestinian territory constitutes a war crime according to the Fourth Geneva Convention[v] and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.[vi]

Settlements' infrastructure includes hundreds of kilometers of segregated roads that are forbidden for Palestinians to use. They carve deep into the West Bank further separating Palestinians and their cities and villages from each other.

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[i]                  In its most recent session in Cape Town, South Africa, the eminent jury of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine concluded that, “Israel’s rule over the Palestinian people, wherever they reside, collectively amounts to a single integrated regime of apartheid." http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/sessions/south-africa

[ii]            Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS, available at: http://www.bdsmovement.net/call.

[iii]            http://www.bdsmovement.net/activecamps/veoliaalstom#.TsDEckOGXxQ

[iv]            B’tselem Report: “By Hook and By Crook, Israeli Settlement Policy in the West Bank, July 2010; summary available at: http://www.btselem.org/publications/summaries/201007_by_hook_and_by_crook.

[v]            See “Israel’s settlement policy is a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention,” The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Gaza, highlighting the relevant articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention to support the determination that settlements are a war crime, at http://www.pchrgaza.org/Intifada/Settlements.conv.htm; see also “Demolitions, new settlements in East Jerusalem could amount to war crimes – UN expert,” UN News Centre, June 29, 2010, at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35175&Cr=Palestin&Cr1.

[vi] Article 8(2)(b)(viii) of the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court prohibits “[t]he transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”

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UPDATE: Alarming developments in the West Bank community of Khan al Ahmar. Settlers from Kfar Adumim have filed a petition against the school, asking for an injunction not to re-open the school this September and pushing for the school to be swiftly demolished. 

Though the Israeli Supreme Court rejected the request to close the school, the petition has set the clock ticking for the demolition of the school. Such a demolition would effectively deny the children of the community their education and jeopardise their future.

More on the situation in Khan al Ahmar. 

How you can help:

Join our campaign 

1) Raise awareness

On Facebook:
We are asking all our friends to donate their Facebook status.

Please share the photo of six-year-old Nawal whose school is under threat and copy and paste the following as your status:

"Don’t demolish my future!
Israel: Stop demolishing Palestinian schools.
bit.ly/nKDUN3"

 
Six-year-old Nawal Ead is about to start first grade.

"After the Eid I'm going to school," she told us excitedly.

On Twitter:

Copy the photo and tweet the following: 
"Don’t demolish my future! Israel: Stop demolishing Palestinian schools #stopdemolitions #UNRWA bit.ly/nKDUN3"

2) Send a message of support

If you want to show your support for the children and community please write a short message on our Facebook wall (www.facebook.com/unrwa). We will print your messages of support and put them up on the walls for the start of the new school year on the 5th September.

To stay updated join us on Facebook and Twitter.

3) Stay informed about the bigger picture

This campaign is about more than just one school. We want Israel to stop the demolitions of schools, homes and infrastructure in the West Bank including East Jerusalem.

The Israeli practice of demolition, which has increased sharply in the first half of 2011, continues to devastate Palestinian families and communities in Area C – the 60 per cent of the West Bank controlled by Israel. Many of the people affected already live in poverty. Children are often hit hardest.

Nemir is 11 years old and is in the 5th grade. At school he loves Arabic but he has trouble with maths and English. He loves cars and would like to be a mechanic and fix cars when he is older.

The vast majority of demolition orders are issued because a home or structure has been built without an Israeli permit. However, the Israeli planning system, condemned as discriminatory by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, makes it almost impossible for Palestinians to get a permit.

The UN estimates that there are more than 3,000 demolition orders outstanding in Area C alone, including 18 issued to schools.

Find out more on our demolitions watch section (updated monthly).

More on the alarming increase in West Bank demolitions. 

The OCHA report “Displacement and insecurity in Area C of the West Bank” has detailed analysis of the current situation.

4) Support our demand that Israel meet its obligations under international law

• Immediately cease demolitions of Palestinian-owned homes, schools and infrastructure, which cause displacement and dispossession, until Palestinians have access to a fair and nondiscriminatory planning system. This should include community participation in all levels of the planning process;

• Families that have been forcibly displaced must be allowed to return to their homes in safety and dignity, and be given compensation for any harm they have suffered, including the destruction of land, homes and property.

Ben Gurion airport, Tel Aviv: 'Fly-In' demonstration - 8 July 2011
http://www.israeli-occupation.org/2011-07-10/lia-tarachansky-fly-in-activists-on-mass-deportation-from-israel/

By Lia Tarachansky, The Real News Network  <http://www.therealnews.com/> – 10 July 2011
 
 
Watch the Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL-I7Nj2b9M&feature=player_embedded
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