Deportation of prominent British Human rights activist
saleh on October 26th, 2004International Women’s Peace Service
URGENT PRESS RELEASE
Angie Zelter (also known as Angela Julian), a prominent nonviolent peace and human rights activist from Norfolk, is tonight awaiting deportation in a cell at Ben Gurion airport, Israel.
Having arrived at Ben Gurion airport on Sunday, 24th October, Zelter was detained and interrogated by Israeli authorities for over 12 hours. She was detained as a ’security risk,’ placed in a holding cell at the airport police station, and told that she could be held for up to 7 days before being put on a flight back to Britain.
Zelter is a long-time British peace and justice activist. She is renowned as a founder of Trident Ploughshares, a prominent anti-nuclear organisation. Zelter is a founding member of the international human rights organisation, International Women’s Peace Service-Palestine, a nonviolent human rights monitoring and intervention organisation based in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.
Zelter’s long-time peace work is the subject of the documentary, The Loch Long Monster, about the work of the Trident Ploughshares. Like Uri Avnery and Felicia Langer, Zelter was a recipient in 2001 of the Right Livelihood award, often called the “Alternative Nobel Prize”.
Zelter’s impending deportation must be made public. If Zelter is forced against her will to return to Britain without legitimate reason, it will reveal that Israel does not adhere to the rule of law in its policies towards nonviolent internationals who support justice for Palestinians.
editors note: Angie Zelter was eventually deported, more info available here
For more background information:
iwps.info
tridentploughshares.org
rightlivelihood.se
Palestinian Image Gallery
saleh on October 25th, 2004PalestineToday.org is a project to share photographs and stories of the lives of Palestinians and Israelis struggling to achieve a just peace in the region.
The site currently exhibits photographs from the occupied Palestinian Territories. The images are meant to show the daily life of people living in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza.
A Palestinian Child detained at a checkpoint
Summing it all up?
cathi on October 24th, 2004I’m coming to the end of my two-week stay here. I’m trying to round the experience up, but it’s so difficult to do. Actually…as I sit in the courtyard writing this I hear shouts and bangs. My first reaction is to tense up - it could be gunfire, an army or settler incursion into the village. I’m ready to pull on my shoes, grab my camera and run into the street.
That’s one way of summing it up. There is a constant, everyday awareness of violence in PAlestine. It’s violence that can come at any time, any place, from the army or from the settlers. Sound bombs at 3am; sudden curfews; gun-toting settlers in the olive groves; wanton destruction of trees and buildings. I’m trying hard to imagine what it must be like to live here, what’s the effct on an entire society when its members live permanently with fear and humiliation?
But we’vewritten quite a bit about the facts of Palestinian life in this journal. There’s been another side to our stay here too.
Perhaps the most bizarre remark I’ve yet heard here was the one made by a Tappuach settler in the groves of YAsuf. He told us that the Palestinians would “cut out our intestines and dance on them in the street”. Had the situation not been so tense I would have burst out laughing. WE reached the conclusion that the only threat the Palestinians posed to our intestines would be from constant overfeeding on rice, chicken, hummus, cheese, bread…and then n we really can’t eat any more they bring out the pastries and fizzy pop!
The Palestinians have been unfailingly warm, kind and generous to us. There’s never been a daqy when most or all of our group hasn’t been invited to share food with the families we harvest with, or to stay in their houses.
Sometimes their hospitality reaches absurd heights. Like when a few of our group - Noirin, Maggie and Amy went for a post-harvest lunch with their family (despite the fact that it’s Ramadan and the Palestinians fast all day, they always preapre delicious lunches for us!) Having eaten and stayed a couple of hours, Noirin said to the family that they would leave so that the family could sleep before preparing the Ramadan supprt. To her amazement, the entire family got up and cleared the room immediately! Noirin, MAggie and Amy stayed in bewilderment for a while before going out to see what was going on, only to be met by the family’s protestations and gentle pushing back into the room. It turned out that the family had misunderstood Noirin to say that they should leave now so that Noirin, MAggie and Amy could sleep in their living room! But they didn’t seem to think that this was at all an imposition!
The only times I have ever felt unsafe here have been at army checkpoints or roadblocks, or around ISraeli settlements. I’m sure Palestinians aren’t all angels, but I can honestly say that even under severe provocation they have remained astonishingly calm abnd reasonable.
I’m sad to leave, and also afraid that when I return, I will see yet more settlements, Palestinian villages cut off from their groves by the hideous “separation wall” and a mounting desperation amongst the people in the West Bank. I feel that time is reallyl running short for a people whose love of life and sense of community is so strong, and so generously shared.
Jama’in
cathi on October 24th, 2004The last 2 days we’ve been picking with families from Jama’in, a small town of 11-12,000 people on the western side of the road between Ariel settlement and Zattara junction, opposite Marda. The reason for picking with these people is because their groves are situated right beneath the Tappuach outpost above Yasuf, and almost every day since the harvesting began these faremrs have been harrassed and intimidated by gun-toting settlers.
WE went back to Jama’in after 2 peaceful days’ harvesting, to talk to a family whose son, Mahmud Hajali, broke his leg in two places because whilst out picking on Tuesday with his family, 4 settlers with guns appeared over the ridge. Being high up the tree he saw them first, and in his haste to get down and move his family tosafety he fell from the tree, breaking his leg. He had to be transported off the hill on a donkey before an ambulance could pick him up on the road.
Mahmud’s family told us that they, and most of their fellow villagers, would no longer go out harvesting this year unless accompanied by internationals - they are too afraid of settler attacks. Last year one of Mahmud’s uncles was beaten up so badly in the groves that he spent a week bedridden. Last week the settlers stole a horse and the entire day’s harvest, as well as hurling rocks at the villagers. WE met another man, Mahfoud, from Jama’in whose hand was still bandaged as as result of the injury sustained that day.
The family have about 120 olive trees, all near the settlement of Tappuach, which would take 2 weeks to harvest. We can only accompany them for the few days that we are here. After that, perhaps the Rabbis for Human Rights can go out with them - but there is no certainty of this and the villagers need to know in advance in order to prepare for harvesting.
Mahmud’s leg will take 2-3 months to heal. Because the Palestinian economy is so stunted by restrictions on movements and work permits, he has to work in the settlement of Ariel on construction of new houses. It’s hard to imagine how difficult thios must be - working on the expansion of a settlement that is illegally on your land in the first place! Of course he will get no sick pay, so life for him and his family of 6 will be very hard until he recovers and can work again.
In fact, while we were waiting for a lift to the groves one morning we watched as two Israeli pick-up trucks came to collect workers from the roadblock obstructing Jama’in’s exit to the main road. Palestinians often have no choice but to work in the ISraeli settlements or industrial zones situated on their doorstep. Any hope of a fair wage, or of sick pay, pensions or paid holiday is non-existent. It’s a very feudal, colonial society - and the sheer barefaced racism we encounter every day really sticks in my throat.
Permaculture in Palestine
cathi on October 24th, 2004Permaculture in Palestine
In 1993m with the help of Ophaida, an Australian organisation, and experimental permaculture centre was built in Marda. As N, the Marda spokesperson explained to us, permaculture was seeen as a way of reviving Palestinian traditional methods of land management. They were re-learning how to fertilise their lands without the use of chemicals, how to produce compost, as well as seed saving and water recycling
In Nov 2000, 100 soldiers from the Israeli Defence Force destroyed this centre. They smashed the doors and windows, broke computers, and set fire to the nursery and compost site. THey then declared it a “closed military zone” and said that they would shoot anyone who went there. To this day, no explanation nor justification has been given as to why they chose to destroy this centre.
It is impossible for me to understand any reason why the IDF chose to smash up a permaculutre centre. As N said to the soldiers, he was willing to give them a key if they needed to inspect the place.
The project was funded and supported also by Canada, Germany and Holland. It was supposed to be a gift for the whole of the West Bank, a way for the Palestinians to develop their traditional, sustainable methods of land management.
Marda is overshadowed by Ariel, the biggest Israeli settlement in the West Bank. There are 21 settlements in this area, which is rich with water and olive groves. Not only do the settlements steal land and trees from the Palestinian villages, they also pollute the natural springs with their sewage. Marda’s inhabitants can no longer drink from their spring, and uphill from the village you will find hte “sewage line”. Whether wilfully or through neglect, this is where ARiel’s raw sewage spills out onto MArda’s olive groves.
I have heard some Israelis boast that the establishement of their country “made the desert bloom”. Then I hear about the destruction of permaculture centres, see the burning and uprooting of olive trees, and the pollution of the water table that has remained clear and clean for centuries. I look at the settlements newly built all along the hilltops and the roads connecting them which carve through the valleys.
Never mind - I hear the ISraelis are growing carnations now in Gaza.
Qalqilya - town of peace?
saleh on October 21st, 2004
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Qalqilya is a large market town of 45,000 people on the western edge of the West Bank, and it serves as a center for another 50,000 in surrounding villages. WE visited it last week because it is completely surrounded by what the Israeli authorities tem the ?security fence?. Actually ? in many places this fence is an 8m high concrete wall which very effectively separates the Israelis and the Palestinians from even seeing each other, let alone talking or trading or socializing or any of the other things we in the West have the freedom to do.
It?s 12 miles to Tel Aviv from Qalqilya. But just 1km away is the first of the illegal Israeli settlements. The history of this town is one of co-operation with its Israeli neighbours ? many people here speak Hebrew and the mayor tells us there existed a real trust between the two peoples. Families kept up good relationships with each other and the town was a thriving industrial center ? textiles, painting, paper making, farming ? where both Palestinians and Israelis worked together. There was also co-operation on environmental projects ? solid waster treatment for example, and Palestinian and Israeli children would go on trips to Europe together.
Even national commemorative occasion were celebrated together ? the anniversaries of the assassination of Rabin for example, and the Israelis would walk into town to do their shopping and sit in cafes.
Even after the first intifada this co-operation continued ? but after the second intifada in 2001 all of this changed. A Palestinian terrorist from Jordan entered Israel as a tourist. Although his family had once lived in Qalqilya, he slept in Tel Aviv. After a month of being in Israel he carried out a suicide bombing. Despite the fact that Qalqilya had not hosted this man in any way, the Israeli army carried out collective punishment on the entire town. One night they entered and bulldozed an entire area at the entrance to the town ? 55 shops and cafes were flattened and everything inside destroyed. There was no evacuation notice given. Seven electricity transformers were destroyed as well as the municipal buildings.
The residents of Qalqilya district this year have been given three days to harvest their olives. It usually takes a month. After the three days the olives will be free for the illegal settlers to collect. The wall, whose construction began in 2002, is 38km long in the district and between 60-104m wide. It does not follow the Green Line border between Israel and Palestine but cuts 25km deep into West Bank territory, and only 30% of the farmers are given permission to go through the three gates to their lands ? even then they may not be allowed through on the days allotted for harvesting, and without their families to help they can do very little to bring in the harvest. According to Israeli law if land is not tended for three years the Israeli government has the right to develop it. The Israeli settlers are taking photos of the land cut off by the wall every 6 months. The 3 gates in the wall are opened for 10-15 minutes three times a day and other than that there is no way to cross. Women give birth at the gates if the ambulances cannot get through and so far 5 people have died due to the delay in opening the gates.
There are 23 illegal Israeli settlements here containing 53,000 people - 26% of the settlers in the West Bank. 19 wells pump 2.5 million cubic metres of water to the settlements and to Israeli land while 19 of the Palestinians? artesian wells have been isolated by the wall ? these wells have provided water for farming and domestic use to thousands of people. 105,000 olive trees have been bulldozed although some have been carefully preserved to replant in the illegal settlements.
There is now 65% unemployment in the town and 64% live below the poverty line. Poverty and desperation will push the Palestinians here into the arms of the right-wing parties ? a situation feared by many of the town?s inhabitants themselves. Israelis are forbidden to enter the town now, and we were told by soldiers that it is dangerous. We saw no sign of danger other than the gun-toting soldiers themselves.
If the ?separation fence? is for security reasons why are the Israelis stealing land and water from the Palestinians?
If the ?separation fence? is for security reasons then why are the two peoples prevented from ever meeting each other although they have lived peacefully alongside each other here for many years? The organization ?Mayors for Peace? consisting of 20 mayors from Palestinian and Israeli towns cannot meet in Palestine or Israel but have to fly to the Hague due to Israeli ?security? restrictions. Thus a 3 hour meeting takes 4 days.
Ramadan, broken trees and preparing olives
cathi on October 20th, 2004Last night we had a fairly disrupted sleep so we are feeling pretty tired. After the destruction of the Olive trees last night people felt concerned that the army would enter the village as they had done following similar attacks. Two of us agreed to sleep near the door of the house so we could be easily woken if we were needed. It was quite difficult to get to sleep, partly because of worrying about the army and partly because of the continuous dive-bombing of particularly noisy mosquitoes, which seemed to be coming in droves through the broken window in the room. It turned out to be a quiet night ? just as well, because the fast of Ramadan started the next day with the villagers awaking before dawn to eat breakfast (no eating, drinking or smoking from sunrise to sunset).
Today was to be our first rest day as almost none of the farmers are picking as they are celebrating the first day of Ramadan. However Jill, Maureen and Sam had agreed to accompany a family who were planning to pick and were concerned about the army challenging them, as they were one of the only families out. Noreen and Maggie were making a trip to the settlement, Ariel, as they were keen to get a better picture of what settlements were really like.
In the end the farmers never arrived, but instead we were invited over to our next-door neighbours house to see how the olives that weren?t to be taken to the press are prepared for eating. This was being done by one of the daughters of the family, who was about 11 years old and who spoke amazing English. Each olive had to be slightly squashed by a stone until it split partly open and then put into a bowl of water. The olives would then be transferred into jars filled with water lemon juice, salt, pepper; the lid would be screwed on tightly and left for one month. After this the olives would be ready for eating.
We stayed for about an hour with the girl and her sister, and managed to split about one half of the bucketful. After that we decided to go up to the road to see in daylight what damage the army had done the night before. we walked down to meet Nasfat by the trees ? the Caterpillar bulldozer tracks were obvious, and the smashed remains of 8 olive trees (full of olives) and four fig trees were obvious. None of us, including Nasfat, could think of any reason why the army chose to do this, but it isn?t uncommon, especially now when the olives are heavy on the trees.
In the morning we walked down to meet N by the trees ? the Caterpillar bulldozer tracks were obvious, and the smashed remains of 8 olive trees (full of olives) and four fig trees were obvious. The bulldozers had not only uprooted the trees but had then driven back and forth over them until they were completely broken. This would mean that the trees could not be replanted or saved. None of us, including N, could think of any reason why the army chose to do this, but it isn?t uncommon, especially now when the olives are heavy on the trees.
The destruction of the olive trees is not only an attack on the economic welfare of the Palestinians, but also on their cultural heritage. As N said, the largest of these trees was around long before the creation of Israel, and before the occupation of the West Bank. Whilst in this case the trees were completely destroyed in many cases uprooted trees are stolen and taken to be sold in Tel Aviv (at high prices) or are replanted in the settlements as though planting old trees in brand new ?towns? would provide them with some kind of non existent history.
After photographing and making notes the destruction of the trees we carried on up to Hares to write a report and fight each other for access to the computer! It was almost impossible to find transport back by the time we were ready to leave as everybody was at home breaking fast for the first day of Ramadan, but we managed to get a car to come and take us back to Marda.
Noreen had somehow managed to notice a small restaurant in the village, and after some discussion it was decided that we would go for a meal there rather than cook at home. We were welcomed really warmly by the family who owned the restaurant (which was actually more of a shop with a table in it). We were brought coffee and chocolate and Sam once again had chance to practice her Spanish as this family had also previously lived in Venezuela. We were then brought what everyone agreed were the best falafel that anyone had ever tasted, a huge bowl of hoummous and bread, followed by stuffed vine leaves, stuffed courgettes and yet more coffee and chocolate. To our total amazement when we came to pay we were told that this food was their present to us for Ramadan, and despite our protests the family refused to take any money.
From the restaurants we walked up to Marda?s olive press where the villagers take their freshly picked olives to be turned into oil. Each family takes their bags up to the press where they are weighed and poured into the machine. In return they are given the equivalent weight in oil, which is poured from a spout at the end of the machine into 2 litre bottles.
The smell of olive oil (mixed with the ever present smell of tobacco!) was over powering, as was the noise. Men from the village work throughout the night to process all the olives and bottle up the oil, with olive press running 24 hours a day through out the harvest.
Tomorrow we will all leave Marda and head for the next village in our schedule, Yasoof, which is likely to be a lot less quiet than Marda as it borders Tapoor, a settlement of very ?religious? Jews who regularly attack the Palestinian villages and olive groves.
I think the whole group is feeling side at the prospect of leaving Marda. We have all been amazed and touched by the warmth and generosity of the families we have worked with and indeed of almost everyone we met in Madar. Most of the group has been ?adopted? by one or more families so hopefully we will all be able to return for at least one visit before we go back home.
Marda - olive trees smashed by soldiers
cathi on October 20th, 2004Olive trees smashed
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After another really enjoyable day out in the groves with our host families, we were cooking dinner in our house when a few of the village youths turned up to tell us there were soldiers on the main street and asked us to come out with them. Sam and Cathi went out to find out what was happening, and after a few minutes N, peasant union co-ordinator, turned up in his car. With the rest of the team back in the house ready to take messages and be present in the village if there was an army incursion there, Sam and Cathi drove down to the main street with N. Of the three or four exits from the town, only one now remains unblocked by the army. So we drove out and back up the main street. N seemed nervous ? it was his grove that had been affected, and he kept telling us the situation was dangerous. We asked him what he would like us to do if there were army still there and he didn?t want us to get out of the car or talk to the soldiers, but just to observe what was happening.
By the time we got to the groves, the army had gone, but in the darkness we could make out the uprooted olive trees in the headlights. When we got back to Marda, we asked N to call us or knock on the door if there was any more trouble. He told us that often, after this kind of incident, the army entered the village late at night, setting of sound bombs and announcing a curfew through the loudspeaker.
Olive Picking in Madar
cathi on October 20th, 2004
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A team of 7 olive pickers from the UK joined others from Austria, Germany, France and Switzerland arrived in the village of Madar at the start of this week in order to support farmers who have olive groves close to the main road to or the fence around Ariel (large Israeli settlement in Salfit region of the West bank.)
MADAR
The village of Madar is located in the Salfit region, in the the middle of the West Bank. It is currently home to 2000 Palestinians, a further 2,000 now live outside of Madar. Before the first intifada many of the villagers worked inside Israel, they can no longer get the permits needed. Many others worked overseas in the gulf states and Venezula, but since the gulf war a large number of these workers have now returned. This has meant a large level of unemployment within Madar, with many families relient on the olive harvest as their only form of income.
MADAR UNDER OCCUPATION
The village has no been virtually closed off from other villages, with all but one exit now closed by roadblcs. An agricultural road was recently built to allow tractors to reach the olive groves. This was closed by the IDF about 1 month after completion.
In orsder to get to Nablus, the nearest large city and hospital people have to cross checkpoints. in recent weeks Nablus has been declared a closed military zone, now no vehicles, including ambulances are able to enter Nablus.
Many nights the army enters the village, setting off sound bombs and occasionally enter houses. There have been cases of 11 and 12 year old boys being detained by the Israeli army and held for a number of hours and/or beaten and questioned. 4 people from the village are currently detained by the Israelis.
Olives in Marda
cathi on October 20th, 2004I?m fifteen feet up, cradled by the branches of an ancient olive tree and with a fine view to the hills all around, dotted with villages.
The branches are heavy with purple olives and the villages are trying to get most of the harvest in before the month of Ramadan starts and they begin fasting from sunrise till sunset. Imagine working all day under the hot sun with no food or water! The olives are hard to the touch, but dig in a nail and the oil oozes out. The trees are beautiful, some are hundreds of years old and they are tended with love and care, as are the rocky terraces in which they are planted. The soil is red here and there?s not much greenery but if left untended the terraces soon become choked with thistles and prickly shrubs. The trees are a silvery colour ? the bark is pale and the leaves silvery-green. Everything is dusty and we?re soon also covered in dust.
Reaching out to another branch I squeeze off the olives from the ends and they drop to the tarps laid out below with a sound like fat raindrops falling. The annual harvest from each tree is worth about 200 shekels ? about thirty pounds sterling ? a considerable contribution to the village?s economy which is so stunted by the restrictions imposed by the occupation. It?s slow, steady work, and whole families come out to do it, laughing and bantering in quick Arabic. I look over to the opposite branch to see a grandmother balanced gracefully amidst the topmost leaves ? she must be in her 60s, dressed in a traditional Palestinian black robe adorned with embroidery, headscarf and beautiful gold earrings. She climbs trees like a teenager!
I?m amazed at eh way the family works ? from 6.30 till 11.30 without a break. By the time we stop for lunch I?m really hungry. The family shares delicious food with us ? potato, cauliflower, hummus and bread, and we manage a conversation in Arabic, English and much laughter.
By the time we get home in late afternoon I?m hot and dusty. Tired, too, but in a relaxed way, and sitting on the steps of our house in the late afternoon sunshine, looking out to the hills on the horizon, I feel very satisfied that we?ve been a part of this village?s life, even if only for a few days.
