the olive branch

A Palestinian walks next to an Israeli jeep with an olive tree on the lands of Jubbet ahd Dhib Theeb as part of a solidarity action to reclaim the lands in danger of confiscation by the settlers, on 01.02.1010. Around 20 Palestinians came to help farmers in a isolated area next to the settlement of Noqedim. 50 olive trees were planned to be planted but ithe [sic] solidarity action was stopped by settlers and Israeli soldiers. As soon as they started to plant, a car of armed settlers came with dogs and threatened the group, declaring that "this is our land". The Israeli army arrived and asked everybody to leave the area within 5 minutes, claiming that the owner should first go to the Civil administration to prove ownership. Journalists were also prevented to document. Palestinians living in this area are very isolated and subjected to constant harassment by the settlers. Photo by: Anne Paq/Activestills.org.

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A related story on the cutting down of olive trees by settlers.

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Further to the story below, there is a woman who is seven months pregnant on that boat. She was four months when the boat first entered Indonesian waters. Apparently the people on the boat are all highly skilled professionals, especially in the medical fields. Lord knows,Australia has a shortage of such individuals. A very good radio interview with one of the advocates can be heard here. It is the first interview of the programme.

How we treat educated people and Bethlehem greeting cards

Archive photo of Abdallah Abu Rahmah, Bilin, Palestine, 17.5.2005.

In This archive photo taken on the 17/5/2005 in the village of Bilin, Abdallah Abu Rahmah is seen during a demo against the apartheid wall, while Israeli soldiers try to arrest him.

At exactly 2 AM last night (10/12/2009), seven Israeli military jeeps pulled over at Abdallah Abu Rahmah's residence in the city of Ramallah. Soldiers raided the house and arrested Abu Rahmah from his bed in the presence of his wife and children. Abu Rahmah is a high school teacher in the Latin Patriarchate school in Birzeit near Ramallah and is the coordinator of the Bil'in Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements.Photo by : Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org

Not too late if you are in Australia to buy these Christmas cards. If you are a Christian, well, you're supporting your fellow Christians. If you are a Christian and a humanitarian, you are supporting your fellow Christians who are also human, and humans who may not be Christian. If you are a humanitarian, but not Christian, well, you'll be supporting humans no matter their religion, so all is good, even when it's not.

on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall

Palestinians, Israeli and international protesters toppeled one segment of the concrete wall, during a demonstration against the barrier in the West Bank village of Nilin, near Ramallah, Friday, Nov. 6, 2009.
The protest in Nilin was held to mark the 20th anniversary to the fall of the Berlin wall, which has been declared an international day of action against Israel's barrier.
The 300 demonstrators managed to topple a part of the eight meters tall concrete wall that cuts through the village's land. The concrete wall in Ni'ilin - five to eight meters (15 to 25 feet) in hight – has only recently been laid on the path of the wall cutting through Ni'ilin's lands, in addition to the already existing electronic barrier and razor-wire.

Photo by: Keren Manor/ Activestills.org
Photo by: Shachaf Polakow/ Activestills.org

tomatoes

Israeli army destroy a Palestinian field, Hebron, Palestine, 29/10/2009.

Atta Jaber shows tomatoes from his field after Israeli army contractors destroyed it and removed the irrigation system near the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, near Hebron, on October 29, 2009.

The Israeli army claims the field poses a security threat because it is too close to the settlement.
Photo by: Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org

please Mrs. Clinton

A protest vigil with the evicted families of Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem, 10/08/09

Demonstrators hold a sign as Israeli and foreign peace activists join Palestinians in a candlelight vigil in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah on August 10, 2009 to protest against the eviction of two Palestinian families from their homes. Israeli riot police evicted the Hanun and Ghawi families on August 2, defying international protests over Jewish settlement activity in the area.
Photo by: Keren Manor/Activestills.org

For more information on the housing demolitions Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions and A Layman's guide to Home Demolitions in East Jerusalem.

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Also, an interesting story about Netanyahu protesting not only about the testimonies of IDF soldiers who belong to Breaking the Silence, but to the whole organisation itself: Netanyahu's attempts to silence breaking the silence. The report is from the Jewish Voice for Peace.

lest we forget it's best to remember

I hold the belief that all cases of ethnic cleansing, genocide, holocaust, massacre and injustice should be remembered, including Australia's genocide of the original owners of the land, the Australian Aborigines, in the hopes that such holocausts will never happen again.

Protest against the "Nakba Law", Tel Aviv university, Israel, 27/5/2009.

Students hold signs during a protest out side the Tel Aviv’s university against the suggested “Nakba law”, a law that will forbid any kind of commemoration of the 1948 Palestinian Nakba.Photo by: Meni Berman/ Activestills.org

mud bricks mixed with straw and resilience

Photo by Eva Bartlett
Which century do we live in? Why is it that one of the most advanced nations in the world, in terms of education, health, gross national profit, military, the arts and a slew of other ways in which we measure our life is given the support to make sure that another group of people live in third world conditions? This is a deliberate policy. This poverty and lack of quality of life is not due to natural disaster or the misfortune of being born in an area devoid of fertile ground and fishing seas.

Israel is still not allowing concrete into Gaza. As Israel bombed and shelled Gaza during its war on the same, houses and infrastructure, including schools, universities, mosques, United Nations compounds, have been destroyed. The international community (people from everywhere) and the governments of countries pledged aid, delivered aid, but what is the good if the aid cannot be let in?

Well, the Palestinians are very resilient, and they are building their houses from water and mud. With our energy resources rapidly dwindling, maybe the last laugh will ultimately rest with them as they retain the skills needed to live in a world without modern conveniences. I really don't think we should be putting it to the test, though.

The story is here, from In Gaza. The picture is lifted from the blog, too, and there are many more wonderful pictures.

Jihad el-Shaar is pleased with his mud-brick house in the Moraj district of Gaza. The 80-square metre home is a basic one-storey, two-bedroom design, with a small kitchen, bathroom and sitting room, made mostly with mud and straw.

“My wife and our four daughters and I were living with family, but it was overcrowded, impossible. We knew we had to build a home of our own,” Shaar said. “We waited over two years for cement but because of the siege there is none available. What could we do, wait forever?”

So he decided to do it with mud.


Building earthen structures like bread ovens and small animal pens is a technique many Palestinians are familiar with, but extending the method to houses isn’t a notion that has taken hold in Gaza.

Jihad el-Shaar got the idea from his travels in Asia and the Middle East. “I travelled in Bangladesh, India, Yemen, Turkey…they all use some similar technique of building houses from earth. All you need is clay, sand and some straw.” These he mixed with water, and poured into brick moulds that were left in the sun to dry for three days. Good enough to build a fine house with.

While some Gaza residents speak of shame at the way life has ‘gone backwards’ with the siege – using cooking oil in cars, wood fires for cooking, and horse and donkey carts for transportation – Shaar is proud of his clay home.

“In the winter it is warm, and in the summer it will be cool. There’s no problem with leaking, and this type of house will last a lifetime,” he says. “And it was cheap to build. A house this size made of cement would cost around 16,000 dollars at least. This one, because it was made with simple, local materials cost just 3,000 dollars.”

Prior to Israel’s crippling siege on Gaza cement would have cost 20 shekels (about five dollars) a bag. Now, with cement among the many banned items, what does make it into Gaza through tunnels under the Egypt border costs ten times as much.Read more.

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I keep posting the pictures of these non-violent protests in the West Bank. They are against the apartheid wall, and the settlements which keep encroaching on Palestinian land. They're very inventive and deserve far more attention. Even if the wider world may not know very much about this situation, I think it should pique the curiosity as to why so many Israelis and internationals join Palestinians in protest.

A group of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals build a shack on the lands of the Jabari family in protest of the illegal building of settlements, next to a shack that was put by the settlers a few weeks ago, close to the settlement of Kyriat Arba, in Hebron, on 8.05.2009. The settlers tried to destroy the shack and put it on fire but they did not manage. They also repeatedly attacked and provoked the group.The Israeli soldiers and police arrived at the scene and violently pushed the group away while the settlers were allowed to stay. 8 Israelis, 2 Palestinians were detained. Photo by: Anne Paq/Activestills.org

A Palestinian throws away a torch that was sent by some settlers who attempted to set h[sic] [fire to] the protest Palestinian shack on fire during an action against the settlements in Hebron on 8.05.2009...The settlers tried to destroy the shack and put it on fire but they did not manage... Photo by: Anne Paq/Activestills.org

An Israeli activist argues with an Israeli settler during an action against the settlements in Hebron on 8.05.2009... Photo by: Anne Paq/Activestills.org

your grandmother, your tax dollars, 7 million a day

Protest against the apartheid wall, al Masara. Palestine, 1/5/2009.
Photo by: Anne Paq/Activestills.org


Protest against the apartheid wall, al Masara. Palestine, 1/5/2009.
Photo by: Anne Paq/Activestills.org

U.S. aid to Israel.
What you can do about it

Read this report: Stephen Zunes via Norman Finkelstein: Pelosi the Hawk (My emphasis).

Reports by international human rights groups and from within Israel in recent weeks have revealed the massive scale of war-crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law, committed by Israeli forces during their three-week offensive against the Gaza Strip earlier this year. Despite this, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has steadfastly stood by her insistence that the U.S.-backed Israeli government has no legal or moral responsibility for the tragic consequence of the war.

This is just one episode in a long history of efforts by Pelosi to undermine international humanitarian law, in regards to actions by a country she has repeatedly referred to as America’s most important ally in the Middle East. It’s also part of her overall right-wing agenda in the Middle East. As the powerful Speaker of the House, Pelosi could very well undermine efforts by President Barack Obama in the coming years to moderate U.S. policy toward that volatile region.

...

Pelosi has supported strict economic sanctions and even threats of military force against Middle Eastern governments targeted by the Bush administration — such as Iraq under Saddam Hussein, Iran, or Syria — that were slow in complying with UN Security Council resolutions. Yet she has never publicly called on Israel to abide by any of the dozens of Security Council resolutions on international humanitarian law, illegal annexation of militarily-occupied territory, or nuclear proliferation with which that government remains in material breech. In Pelosi’s worldview, a country’s obligations to comply with the UN Charter and UN Security Council resolutions depend not on objective international legal standards but on their relations with the United States.
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Unfortunately, few Democrats are even aware of how far to the right Pelosi is when it comes to the Middle East. Not only has the mainstream media failed to call attention to her Middle East agenda, but progressive publications have failed do so as well. In These Times praised Pelosi for her "solid record" on human rights issues, while Ms. Magazine lauded her for having a "voting record strong on…human rights," failing to even mention her defense of Israeli war crimes against Palestinian and Lebanese civilians.

Obama was initially able to withstand attacks by right-wing Republicans over the Chas Freeman appointment and tentative plans to participate in the UN Anti-Racism Conference, but he capitulated once prominent Democrats began pressuring him as well. Unless, then, rank-and-file Democrats are willing to challenge Pelosi on the Middle East, there is little hope that Congressional Democrats will allow the Obama administration to take human rights or international law seriously — not just in terms of Israel and its neighbors — but anywhere else. Read more.

I wrote about Pelosi and some of her cronies in this post, too The undemocratic stance of the democrats

it's a shame these slugs ain't real

On the left photo, taken on the 25/7/2008, Bassam Ibrahim Abu Rahme is seen during a protest in Bilin, flying his kite between two sections of the apartheid fence.
On the right photo, taken on the 24/4/2008, Mohamed Khatib flies the kite of Bassen after he was killed one week before, in front of the apartheid fence in Bilin.
Bassen was murdered by Israeli soliders on the 17/4/2009, during the weekly protest in Bilin.
Photo by: Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org

I wrote about Bassem here and here and here. I'm fairly sure Mohamed Khatib was the man trying to negotiate with the Israeli soldiers to stop shooting in the video in this post after Bassem had been critically wounded by a teargas canister shot directly at him from a distance of 30 metres. As for the caption above, it is a bit confusing. I think the 'after he was killed one week before' should maybe be omitted. Visit the active stills photo stream. There are some quite amazing photos such as the ones below. All of the protests against the wall in Bilin that active stills documents are non-violent.

Demonstrators run avoid tear gas shot by the Israeli army, during a protest against the apartheid wall in the west Bank village of Bilin, on the 24/4/2009.
Hundreds of Palestinian, Israelis and internationals protested the murder of Bassam Ibrahim Abu Rahme, which was shot by an Israeli solider on the Friday demonstration last week in Bilin. Photo by: Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org

Demonstrators hold shields to protect themselves from tear gas canisters and rubber coated bullets shot by the Israeli army, during a protest against the apartheid wall in the west Bank village of Bilin, on the 24/4/2009.
Hundreds of Palestinian, Israelis and internationals protested the murder of Bassam Ibrahim Abu Rahme, which was shot by an Israeli solider on the Friday demonstration last week in Bilin. Photo by: Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org

It's nothing to worry about, really. I know that the Australian and western governments use similar techniques to disperse all those people who protest against the Iraq war

Iraq War protest, Los Angeles, 2007
Wait, no tear gas or rubber bullets (remember to check out the size of those tear gas canisters) how about here?

Policeman stands over a white student (an onlooker or protest supporter), while tear gas hangs in the air during the Afro-American Society takeover of Duke University 's Allen Administration Building.[Durham, North Carolina] (photograph by Harold Moore, courtesy of the Herald-Sun).

or

here:
1976, Soweto Uprising, South Africa
That's more like it. We support this type of suppression of protest in the West, don't we? We have never condemned it, have never supported civil rights, or thought that apartheid was wrong?

I know so much of it is about media coverage. Without media coverage, the hearts of the general populous cannot be won. So I was pleased to see that the following got blanket reportage:

Fourth Bil’in International Conference on Popular Nonviolent Resistance, Bilin, Palestine, 22/4/2009.

A member of “Anarchist against the wall” speaks during the opening of the Fourth Bil’in International Conference on Popular Nonviolent Resistance, on the 22/4/2009.Photo by: Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org

Here a member of Anarchists against the wall speaks out at the Fourth Bil'in International Conference on Popular Nonviolent Resistance. Read that word, Nonviolent. I've written it a few times so that it doesn't get lost in the typeset. As said before, I'm glad that it got blanket coverage in the mainstream presses, because nonviolent protest is what it's all about.
Oh, it didn't. . ?
. . . the speaker is a terrorist, or oppressed. That must be the reason. She looks pretty threatening, I must admit. She is probably Israeli, too. There are plenty of Israelis who join in the nonviolent protests. But we all know about that, too, don't we?

And who said Palestinians didn't have a sense of humour?

Fourth Bil’in International Conference on Popular Nonviolent Resistance, Bilin, Palestine, 22/4/2009.

Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad (center), holds an art work made from rubber coated bullets, shot by the Israeli army towards protestors against the wall in the west bank village of Bilin.
The gift was given to him by the people of the village of Bilin, during the opening of the Fourth Bilin International Conference on Popular Nonviolent Resistance, on the 22/4/2009.Photo by: Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org

monkey brain sushi

There is serious stuff to write, and hopefully I'll get around to it. Unfortunately, the world does not stand still while I'm nursing a hangover. Monkey Brain Sushi was a great book of Japanese short stories that I read in the early nineties. It's how my head feels, too, and my general being. Kind of raw and slithery. Still, I will go to the castle in a few hours with a friend, and enjoy some of the remaining cherry blossoms. Hopefully the weather is not too chilly. Oh, okay, I'll get a little serious. A follow-up to yesterday's story.

In these two photos, an Israeli protestor [sic] is seen in two different demonstrations, both held in front of the Ministry of Defense in Tel aviv, holding a sign with the same slogan: “Also I am an un-armed protestor- shot [sic] me!”

The first photo was taken on the 19/5/2004 during a demonstration after the Israeli army attacked a protest in the Gaza strip, kilning many Palestinians, and the second one, was taken on the 18/4/2009 during a demonstration after the Israeli army murdered Bassam Ibrahim Abu Rahme during a protest in Bilin.

Photos by: Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org

A Palestinian man holds the tear gas canister that killed Bassem Ibrahim Abu Rahme (ElFeel), at a hospital in the West Bank city of Ramallah on the 17/4/2009.
Bassem was murdered by the Israeli army, during a protest against the apartheid wall in Bilin. A soldier shot him with an extended range tear-gas projectile that was aimed directly at him from a distance of 30 meters. Bassem was critically injured in the chest and died shortly after arriving at a hospital in Ramallah.

Photo by: oren Ziv/ Activestills.org

flying kites

From the active stills group.

An archive photo, taken on 25/7/2008, shows Bassem Ibrahim Abu Rahme (ElFeel) during a protest against the wall in the village of Bilin.

Bassam was murdered by the Israeli army [17 April, 2009], during a protest against the apartheid wall in Bilin. He was shot with an extended range teargas projectile directly at him from a distance of 30 meters. Bassem was critically injured in the stomach and died not long after in a hospital in Ramallah.

That is a similar teargas projectile, and a similar way of targeting, that caused American, Tristan Anderson's, criticial condition.

*Note: I see that Israeli Uri Avnery at Gush Salom has commented on this. His post is short. It follows in full (my emphasis, apart from the title):

Bil'in demonstrator Bassam Abu Rahme killed – soldiers' trigger-happiness inspired from higher up
Already for four years, demonstrations are taking place at the village of Bil'in, to protest the "Separation Fence" which robs the villagers of much of their land, and whose route is in blatant violation of the Supreme Court ruling. Also before, the army used violence to disperse the Palestinian, Israeli and international demonstrators. But, until this morning no one got killed. The killing of Bassam Abu Rahme today, a Bil'in resident, follows upon the severe head wounding of American peace activist Tristan Anderson a month ago, and constitutes a grave escalation.

This escalation was not caused by the demonstrators' behavior, in which there had been no change, but to new instructions given to the military forces on the ground. Whether by explicit instructions or by a tacit nod and a new "spirit of the commander", the finger on the trigger was loosed and authorization given for the tear gas containers as lethal missiles.

This is the harsh heritage of the Gaza War and the mass killings which it entailed. To this is added the odious spirit of the new government, which confronts the entire world and places a racist provocateur in charge of its foreign affairs - not to speak of the new-old Defence Minster Ehud Barak, who is responsible for a lot of bloodshed.

internationals arrested

Keeping in mind the ongoing settler violence, over which the Israeli army rarely does anything except make sure that the settlers do not get injured,and the ongoing shooting at farmers trying to tend to their fields, or in fact the obstruction of them even getting there in the first place, there is this rather disturbing news release from ISM:

A German national and an Italian national were taken by Israeli forces while accompanying farmers at 11am. Both individuals have been taken to the police station at Kyrat Arba. Palestinian farmers in At-Tuwani rely on the presence of International and Israeli human rights workers to mitigate violence from settlers.

As soldiers in the area frequently ignore settler violence and rarely interfere to protect the farmers, international volunteers provide support for the Palestinians. The grazing action began around 8.30 am, and the German and Italian nationals were arrested at 11am.

At-Tuwani is a village of 300 Palestinians located in South Hebron Hills. Residents make their living through farming, primarily wheat, barley, olives and grazing sheep. At-Tuwani is also one of several villages under daily threat from extremist settlers living in the area. Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills are daily nonviolently resisting settlement expansion and violence at the hands of settlers and soldiers.

Internationals accompany Palestinians as they perform agricultural work on their land and in other nonviolent demonstrations. Internationals accompany Palestinians as they work their land, use video to document settlers, soldiers, and police, and intervene as Palestinians request.

Palestinians have always been vulnerable under the occupation, and the crimes committed against them are far greater in number, and usually, in viciousness, than those committed against internationals. However, considering reports about American volunteer Tristan Anderson, who was critically injured when a tear gas canister was fired into his forehead, state that he was deliberately targeted, it seems that it may be getting just as dangerous for all internationals. I think that after Gaza, and now that Lieberman is just another further extreme face to an already extreme government, and the world's democratic governments have no problem with what Israel is doing, and in fact, provide the aid and arms for them to continue, peace in our time will not be a possibility for either territory, I'm afraid, and maybe not for the whole world.

There have been horrendous crimes on both sides, one cannot deny it, however, the longer people are treated like animals and their plight, and the reasons for their plight, is ignored by the people who could make a difference, the worse the problem will grow. How can it possibly get any better?

Below are some images from some of the peaceful demonstrations that have been held. There are many peaceful demonstrations, but that does not mean that they are not dispersed with violence. It would be good if our media could show some of these images, too. Rocks and stones get thrown at the Israeli military, but I contend that rocks are not much of a match for the Israeli rubber bullets, sound bombs, tear gas, and live ammunition, which is often used.

Photographas are taken from the active stills flickr page, and information on them can be found here


and here.