Live bullets were fired from snipers at an Erez control tower within a metre of demonstrators on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on Tuesday morning in Beit Hanoun, Northern Gaza. A German activist Vera Macht was injured as she stumbled while running for cover. The Local Initiative of Beit Hanoun organized the demonstration international mural and with extra attention focusing on the growing international Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, against Israel for its ongoing human rights violations of the Palestinian people. The demonstration was held in the area where 6 farmers and rock collectors, including 2 children had been shot and injured over the previous 2 days, seeing an acceleration of violence against civilians from the Israeli Occupation Forces.
It was actually the United Nations General Assembly who in 1977 called for this annual observance of 29th November as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. It was on that day, in 1947, that the Assembly adopted the resolution on the partition of Palestine resolution 181, which began the horrific trend of violent land expropriation and expulsion of the Palestinian population. Over two thirds of Gazans are UN registered refugees from this period.
Tuesday morning 30 people, amongst them 5 internationals from the International Solidarity Movement and two more including Mavi Marmara survivor Ken O’Keefe and Irish Activist Cormac O’Daly, gathered in Beit Hanoun at approximately 800m from Erez Crossing. Opposite the remains of the destroyed Agricultural College, which was bombed during the war on Gaza, the demonstrators put up a wall of slogans and international and Palestinian flags to express solidarity. All demonstrators held up letters forming the slogan “Boycott Israel boycott!”, before marching down towards the Erez Wall.
They were also protesting their right to their land, much of which is now lost or out of bounds by the Israeli imposed “buffer-zone.” The buffer-zone, extended to 300 metres wide in December 2009, stretches along the entire border fence on the frontier with Israel. According to a recent UN report the violence used to restrict Palestinians from accessing their land actually covers areas up to 1500m from the border fence, meaning that over 35% of Gaza’s most agricultural land is in a high risk area causing severe losses of food production and livelihoods.
As the demonstrators neared to within 100 metres of the wall, chanting and waving flags it was clear one of the watch towers was open, evidently monitoring. The barren waste land all around was a result of the forced neglect as they marched into a place that has been made out of bounds by the threat of Israel snipers and shelling. As a soldier shouted from the tower, the group decided to walk back towards the village center. At around 500 metres from the fence, IOF snipers opened fire at them, the first few shots at head height missing many of the people on the march by a metre or less. Afterwards, another ten shots were fired.
According to Local Initiative organiser Saber Al Za'anin the day highlights the responsibility of international civil society to exert pressure to end the violent siege and occupation of Palestinian lands: “It is vital that Internationals support the Palestinian cause and make the world understand the horrific occupation and attacks Palestinians live under day in day out. The international grass roots boycotts are saying no to Israeli violence and oppression and its time that the International governing community did the same to hold Israel to account for their crimes. We painted flags of countries from around the world on a mural and demonstrated. Now its time for the world to increase the power of their demonstrations, lobbying, festivals, legal work and boycotts to finally end the conflict.”
On the violence at the borders, demonstration participant Ken O’Keefe said: "When people are shot and killed for collecting rocks so they can be crushed and turned into powder and ultimately into cement, because cement is banned under the Israeli siege, you know the so-called "easing" of the siege is a farce. The siege must be smashed into oblivion, and the only people who will make that happen are people of conscience who are willing to act.”
Released on Wednesday was a report ‘Dashed Hopes, Continuation of the Gaza Blockade’ signed by over 21 international organizations including Amnesty, Oxfam, Save the Children, Christian Aid and Medical Aid for Palestinians. It calls for international action to make Israel to unconditionally lift the blockade, saying the condition of the Palestinians of Gaza under Israeli siege continues devastate daily living for the 1.5million population, over half of which are children.
63 years before the day of the demonstration, On 29 November, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted for Resolution 181 for the partition of Palestine into two states and envisaged a Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem. It was this plan that triggered the ongoing suffering for the Palestinians given the hugely unequal partition of the land.
According to Israeli Historian Ilan Pappe, “The injustice was as striking then as it appears now… the Jews, who owned less than six per cent of the total land area of Palestine and constituted no more than one third of the population, were handed more than half of its overall territory”
According to Pappe, from the beginning the major global institutions and power-brokers were pitted against them: “The Palestinians were at the mercy of an international organization [the United Nations] that appeared ready to ignore all the rules of international mediation, which its own charter endorsed…One does not have to be a great jurist or legal mind to predict how the international court would have ruled on forcing a solution on a country to which the majority of its people were vehemently opposed.”
Then after the resolution partition came the Nakba or ‘Catastrophe’ during which the nascent Israeli army forcibly annexed even more land, leaving them controlling 78% of the land for a prospective Israeli State, leaving behind the West Bank and Gaza. During these attacks which began in March 1948, which included massacres such as Deir Yassin village, close to 800,000 Palestinians were uprooted, 531 villages had been destroyed, and eleven urban neighbourhoods emptied of their inhabitants. With the ‘slow motion ethnic cleaning’ that has ensued ever since, Israel has now settled over 60% of the 22% of historic Palestine and militarily occupies the rest. [1]
[1] Pappe, I. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006), One World Publications, Oxford
yet another element of those peaceful Israelis just trying to spread peace with firearms
Yet another example of how Israelis respond to peaceful resistance.
Clearly BDS is not necessary when it’s so much easier to make the better argument. I mean, better arguments stop bullets in mid air.
As Defence for Children International (DCI) reported in October, this activity – shooting Palestinians, especially children – while they’re engaged in peaceful activities on Palestinian land, has been an ongoing pastime for the IDF:
New research from Defence for Children International (DCI) shows that Gazan children are routinely fired upon if they stray too close to the border fence. They have documented 10 cases since May, of which six took place beyond Israel’s stated exclusion zone of 300m. Many more are expected in the coming weeks.
The report goes on to say than under Oslo, the agreed buffer zone was 50 metres. Similarly, under Oslo fisherman in Gaza had the right to go up to 20 nautical miles (32km) from the coastline, but Israel has unilaterally restricted that to just 3 miles, shooting on average two fisherman per month earlier this year.
It’s just disgusting Obama and other western leaders let Israel get away with this crap.
This is simply appalling . Give me the hasbara ,hasbaradim.
link to irishtimes.com
…
“The import of construction materials is approved for projects authorised by the Palestinian Authority in consultation with the international donor organisations. Israel’s only role relates to security considerations. There is no humanitarian crisis and no hunger in Gaza.
Food shops and stalls are full and the recently-opened luxury mall is crowded. Life expectancy, infant mortality and literacy rates are better in Gaza than in many Arab and even some EU countries. ”
….
I hope that this letter may bring some clarity to the issue. – Yours, etc,
BOAZ MODAI,
Ambassador of Israel,
Pembroke Road,
Ballsbridge,
Dublin 4.
Hmm. A letter from Ballsbridge.
Amnesty, Oxfam and 20 other international “development, human rights and peace-building organisations” would beg to differ:
The crux of the Amnesty, Oxfam et al report:
>> The crux of the Amnesty, Oxfam et al report:
Revolution! Maximalism! Who are these anti-Semitic, Israel-hating do-gooders who dare suggest that Israel stop collectively punishing an entire population? Are they not aware that Israel is comprised entirely of “generation to generation” fear-scarred Jews? That Zionism was/is a “mix of defense and offense” devised and implemented in order to create “a good in the world”? Have they not heard about San Remo, Judaea and Samaria? Do they not “Remember the Holocaust!”? Can they not appreciate the fact that ethnic cleansing is “currently not necessary”?!
And, anyway, Palestinians are “resilient and energetic”, so what’s the probem?
It is made even worse by the fact that this comes from the representative of a State that was founded to ensure that the world would never again allow Jews to be brutalised, confined to ghettos and starved. 70% of Gazans live on less than $1 per day as a direct result of Israeli policy and are dependent on international relief organisations for food. A few miles up the road in Tel Aviv, patrons of one of the city’s sado masochism clubs pay $6 for a local beer or $8 for imported beer.
>> It is made even worse by the fact that this comes from the representative of a State that was founded to ensure that the world would never again allow Jews to be brutalised, confined to ghettos and starved. … in Tel Aviv, patrons of one of the city’s sado masochism clubs pay $6 for a local beer or $8 for imported beer.
Sounds like Jews aren’t being brutalised, confined to ghettos and starved, so I would say “Mission Accomplished!” :-)
As for the Gazans, all they need to do is:
- “humanize ‘the Other” and make “better wheels”;
- be grateful that ethnic cleansing is “currently not necessary”;
- remain “resilient and energetic”;
- understand that Zionism is a “moral work” and that Israel is “a good in the world”;
- thank gawd for the scraps of food and dignity they still have; and, most important of all,
- never forget to “Remember the Holocaust!”
Gaza is the moral nadir of Zionism.
>> Gaza is the moral nadir of Zionism.
I get the impression that Zionism – supported in and by Amurrika – has not yet reached its lowest point.