Action Palestine

From DCI urgent appeal

Wa’ad was arrested from the family home in the village of Surif, near Hebron in the West Bank, at 3:00am on 28 April 2008. He was asleep at the time and woke to the sound of Israeli soldiers banging on the front door.

The soldiers entered the house and after identifying Wa’ad, tied his hands behind his back with plastic cords and took him out of the house to a waiting jeep where he was blindfolded. Wa’ad was placed on the floor of the jeep and told to ‘shut-up’. During the drive to the settlement of Karmi Zur, soldiers in the back of the jeep placed their legs on Wa’ad’s body. On arrival at the settlement Wa’ad was asked some questions about his health before being transferred to Etzion Interrogation and Detention Centre, near Bethlehem. In an affidavit given to lawyers for DCI-Palestine in June 2009, Wa’ad recalls that: ‘I did not know why they were arresting me. I started to wonder whether I had done something wrong without knowing.’

Two days later, Wa’ad was transferred to Ofer Prison, near Ramallah, where he was interrogated by a policeman in blue uniform. During the interrogation the policeman told Wa’ad that he had been informed by a third person that Wa’ad had participated in a demonstration organised by Islamic Jihad, an organisation banned by the Israeli authorities. Wa’ad could not recall there being any demonstrations organised by Islamic Jihad where he lived during the previous year and that in any event, he had not participated in any of their demonstrations. Wa’ad recalls that the interrogation only lasted around five minutes.

Several days later a prison officer handed Wa’ad a document written in Hebrew and informed him that it was an administrative detention order for six months. Wa’ad recalls feeling depressed because ‘I was expecting to be released because I had not confessed to anything and I had not done anything.’ Two days later Wa’ad’s order was reviewed by the Administrative Detention Court and reduced to four months.

Months passed, and in August, three days before the expiry of the first order, a prison officer again handed Wa’ad a document written in Hebrew and informed him that he had been given a second administrative detention order for four months – ‘I became anxious, but felt helpless. I was expecting to be released after the expiry of the first order but this new order surprised me.’ Several days later the Court reviewed the second order and reduced it to three months.

Wa’ad recalls becoming nervous in the week before the expiry of the second order – ‘I was afraid that the order would be renewed again.’ Two days before the expiry date, Wa’ad was issued with a third administrative detention order for four months, which was confirmed by the Court.

‘I feel a great injustice because of this detention that, according to what I understood from the lawyer and judge, is based on confidential material. I do not know the real reason behind my detention because I cannot remember doing anything that would put the security of the state at risk.’

In March 2009, a few days before the expiry of his third order, Wa’ad was issued with a fourth administrative detention order, for four months, which was later reduced to three months by the Court – ‘I did not know what to do in such a situation. I became unstable and unsure when I would be released. Such a situation is driving me crazy.’

On 14 June 2009, nearly 14 months after his arrest, Wa’ad was visited for the first time by his parents. Up until this time, they had been denied a permit on unspecified security grounds, and only his younger siblings had been allowed to visit him. During the 40 minute visit, Wa’ad recalls telling his parents that he was ‘certain’ to be released on 25 June. However, on 21 June 2009, Wa’ad was issued with a fifth administrative detention order for three months – ‘now I am extremely depressed and do not know what to do.’

Wa’ad was imprisoned once before in September 2005 for throwing stones and Molotov cocktails and has a 20 year-old brother who is also being held in administrative detention in the Negev, inside Israel.

Wa’ad will lodge an appeal against the issue of his fifth administrative detention order.

Administrative detention

Administrative detention is detention without charge or trial and is often based on “secret evidence.” Israeli Military Order 1591 empowers military commanders to detain Palestinians, including children as young as 12, for up to six months if they have “reasonable grounds to presume that the security of the area or public security require the detention.” The initial six month period can be extended by additional six-month periods indefinitely. This procedure denies the detainee the right to a fair trial and the ability to adequately challenge the basis of his or her detention.

There are currently at least 449 Palestinians being held by Israel without charge or trial in administrative detention, of which six were under 18 when they received their order. For more information visit the DCI-Palestine website at Freedom Now.

Delegation of UK students prevented from reaching Gaza on board of HOPE FLEET

www.actionpalestine.org/from-palestine/free-gaza-boat…kers-kidnapped/

Today Israeli Occupation Forces attacked and boarded the Free Gaza Movement boat, the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, and abducted 21 human rights workers from 11 countries. A delegation of UK students are amongst those abducted. The passengers and crew are being forcibly dragged toward Israel.

Cynthia McKinney, a former U.S. Congresswoman and presidential candidate, who is amongst those abducted, said “This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip. President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that’s exactly what we tried to do. We’re asking the international community to demand our release so we can resume our journey.”

The student delegation, coordinated by Action Palestine, a UK umbrella organization which facilitates grass roots coordination between Palestine groups and campaigning on campuses, was to meet with students and staff to explore ways of improving solidarity links with UK Universities and Student Unions. The delegation aimed to highlight difficulties and educational needs due to the blockade and amongst the devastation of the Israeli bombing of December and January.

Schools, Colleges and Universities in Gaza were severely damaged during the bombing and many students were killed or injured. Other vital educational supplies are being deprived – according to UNWRA, Israel’s continuing blockade is also preventing ink, paper and other learning materials such as crayons and colouring books from entering into Gaza.

The delegation was to visit Al-Aqsa University, the Islamic University, the Al Azhar University and the Al Quds University. The information and networking gained from the delegation’s meetings with Universities in Gaza would have helped strengthen international student and education focused solidarity campaigns, in particular the academic boycott.

Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants were enduring their worst conditions for over 40 years according to aid agencies last year, with 80 percent of the population dependent on food aid, due directly to the Israeli blockade depriving normal food, infrastructure and medical supplies. As life became increasingly hard with death and malnutrition, Israel then launched an air and ground attack in late December and early January that killed a further 1300 people, over 300 children. Many thousands more were injured and the vast majority of the casualties were civilians. Over 4,100 houses were destroyed and a further 17,000 seriously damaged. 50,000 people are now homeless, tens of thousands lacking power, water and sanitation, as well as food and medical

treatment.

The Free Gaza Movement, a human rights group, sent two boats to Gaza in August 2008. These were the first international boats to land in the port in 41 years. Since August, four more voyages were successful, taking Parliamentarians, human rights workers, and other dignitaries

to witness the effects of Israel’s draconian policies on the civilians of Gaza. On December 30, their boat, the DIGNITY was rammed three times while 90 nautical miles out, in international waters, on its way to deliver emergency medical supplies to the people of Gaza, while

they were under the infamous attack by Israel. Contact them at www.freegaza.org.

One of our delegates, Adie Mormech features on the following video about the preparation for

the boat: www.youtube.com/gazafriends

For more information please contact: Naji 00972599791585

from BNC http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/429

PSCABI-Gaza, Occupied Palestine
29 May, 2009

“Gaza today has become the test of our indispensable morality and common
humanity.” Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee

The Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI) calls upon freedom-loving students all over the world to stand in solidarity with us by boycotting Israeli academic institutions for their complicity in perpetuating Israel’s illegal military occupation and apartheid system. We note the historic action taken by thousands of courageous students of British and American universities in occupying their campuses in a show of solidarity with the brutally oppressed Palestinian people in Gaza. We also deeply appreciate the decision by Hampshire College to divest from companies profiting from the Israeli occupation. Such pressure on Israel is the most likely to contribute to ending its denial of our rights, including the right to education.

In this regard, we fully endorse the call for boycott issued by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, PACBI, in 2004.[i]

We emphasize our endorsement of the BDS call issued by more than 170 Palestinian civil society organizations in July 2005.[ii]

We also support the Call from Gaza issued by a group of civil society organizations in the second week of the Gaza Massacre (Gaza 2009).[iii]

Our goal, as students, is to play a role in promoting the global BDS movement which has gained an unprecedented momentum as a result of the latest genocidal war launched by Israel against the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip. We address our fellow students to take whatever step possible, however small, to stand up for justice, international law and the inalienable rights of the indigenous people of Palestine by applying effective and sustainable pressure on Israel, particularly in the form of BDS, to help put an end to its colonial and racist regime over the Palestinians.

We strongly urge our fellow university students all over the world to:

(1) Support all the efforts aimed at boycotting Israeli academic institutions;

(2) Pressure university administrations to divest from Israel and from
companies directly or indirectly supporting the Israeli occupation and
apartheid policies;

(3) Promote student union resolutions condemning Israeli violations of
international law and human rights and endorsing BDS in any form;

(4) Support the Palestinian student movement directly.

To break the medieval and barbaric Israeli siege of Gaza, people of conscience need to move with a sense of urgency and purpose. Israel must be compelled to pay a heavy price for its war crimes and crimes against humanity through the intensification of the boycott against it and against institutions and corporations complicit in its crimes. As in the anti-apartheid struggle in solidarity with the black majority in South Africa, students concerned about justice and sustainable peace have a moral duty to support our boycott efforts.

The Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI)

Endorsed by:
Progressive Student Union Block;
Fateh Youth Organization;
Progressive Student Labor Front;
Islamic Block;
Islamic League of Palestinian Students;
Student Unity Block;
Students Affairs (University of Palestine).

[i] http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=869
[ii] http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/52
[iii]

http://www.odsg.org/co/index.php/component/content/article/1100-a-call-from-gaza.html

from The Journal

After five days in the Middle East with the majority of his sabbatical team, Adam Ramsay tells The Journal about their unique experiences in the troubled region.

We had a slightly bizarre week. Whether it was the people we met or the buildings being architectually similar to Edinburgh, everything seemed strangely familiar.

When we decided to take a week’s holiday to visit our twin student council in the West Bank, I don’t think any of us expected to feel quite so at home.

I met the president of the Birzeit Student Council on my first day there. We both had black and white striped jumpers on. We had both been politically active before coming to university. He had spent 8 years in prison as a result.

Naomi (Hunter, VPSA), Guy (Bromley, VPAA) and I spent one afternoon early in the week sitting in the canteen at Birzeit University. It was sunny, but at 1000m altitude it wasn’t especially warm – rather like Edinburgh at the moment. The canteen was something like a smaller version of the DHT basement.

We were sitting with two locals. Ahmed is a social science student with rapidly paced English and a dark sense of humour. Semma is a journalism student with bags of common sense, a massive smile, and more charisma than anyone I have ever met.

They chatted for a while about what it’s like to have Israeli teenagers with sub-machine guns stop them at check points on their way to university. They explained how, once, they couldn’t get to their lectures because the soldiers had decided only people with hair gel would be allowed through that day. Another time only the pretty girls were allowed through.

Ahmed joked about how he had gone on a trip to Europe once. When he returned, he was arrested by Israeli special services. His hands were shackled to the floor between his feet so that he could neither stand nor sit. He was left like this in pitch black. For eight days.

He spent another week in a 1m x 1m cell with someone else and no light. He was so severely beaten that he has lost the nerve endings in his shoulder. In all, he was tortured for seven weeks. After this, he was imprisoned for six months without charge. He was never accused of committing any crime. Telling people in Europe what it’s like to be a student in Palestine is, apparently, enough.

His dark jokes about being tortured were surreal. What was more bizarre was the fact he was most angry about was missing work and having to repeat a semester.

We stayed that night with a student and his parents in a lovely house in Ramallah. In the morning, the parents pointed over the valley – on the other side was an Israeli Settlement. In the distance is Tel Aviv. It used to take 30 minutes to get to there, they told me. Now it takes three hours. Arabs are banned from the main road.

In Nablus we met a deputy minister in the Palestinian Authority for lunch. He was a lovely man with a white moustache whose combination of an old fashioned sense of propriety and silly sense of humour reminded me of my dad. When his wife went to pray, we asked if he needed to do the same. “No” he said, taking a deep puff of his cigarette, “I quit”.

As we left I asked if he had ever been locked up by the Israeli Defence Force. “Yes. I studied my masters degree in Iraq. They didn’t like that. When I returned, they imprisoned me and I was interrogated.” This is, it seems, a normal part of life as a Palestinian.

That night we dined with a Geography lecturer called Saed. He told us that he used to drink lots, but has given up – he was shot in the liver, and twice in the chest, by an Israeli soldier while he was at a peaceful demonstration. “It’s re-growing though” he said. “I’m OK.”

We visited Najah University in Nablus. Male students expect to be beaten up by soldiers at checkpoints every now and again – one was pulled aside on the way to his lectures, recently. He spent three hours being beaten by a stream of soldiers. It turned out they were new recruits being taught how to torture Palestinians.

Another student was recently murdered when soldiers stormed into his halls and shot him in the head. It later turned out they had “got the wrong person”.

At the end we spent a morning floating in the Dead Sea. Although the coastline is part of the West Bank, it is occupied by Israeli troops. They sell towels with maps of the Middle East. These include The West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights as part of Israel. An expansionist, racist ideology symbolised on such a day-to-day object was bizarre.

And then we were back in surprisingly sunny Edinburgh. The cheery students we met have added us as Facebook friends. They will continue to study. We will continue to work for students at Edinburgh.

We will tell our friends stories of torture, an apartheid wall, roads in Palestine that Arabs are not allowed to travel on. And our harrowing morning on the old city of Nablus, where the walls are covered in photos of local children murdered by Israeli soldiers.