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Bethlehem Ghetto

justicewheels — 25 avril 2010 — The Ghetto of Bethlehem is shrinking, the people are resisting but feel abandoned by the self-appointed leadership. Many people complain that the Prime Minister who was not elected or confirmed by the parliament comes to give his blessings to projects or to plant a tree for the cameras. In fact he symbolically planted a tree in Mitris front yard after the army bulldozed his trees. Internationals and locals replaced the childrens swings and slide only to see them pulled out again a few days later. We now have the video of the dragging of nonviolent protesters from the garden of Mitri and tape of the destruction of his childrens playground http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1iWdi…

Saturday night we had an educational protest to hundreds of Italian tourists who were brought by the catholic church on pilgrimage. We were distressed to find that they had coordinated their visit with the Palestinian ministry of tourism AND with the Israeli ministry of tourism. We objected to the way it was presented and dealt with. The wall is not after all a border between states to march to for peace and play games on the other side. The wall is an illegal apartheid structure built on occupied territories separating Palestinians in the shrinking Bethlehem Ghetto from their land and from other Palestinians and from their holy sites in Jerusalem. As the Italians were crossing the apartheid wall, the Israeli army was extending the wall around Al-Walaja village of Bethlehem and destroying more of Mitris land. But Al-Walaja people were heroic on Sunday. They delayed the uprooting of their trees at a cost to themselves: over 30 were injured and several detained. Internationals and Israelis were there. I will try to get you the link to a video of the actual action. It is hard for us to be at many places of destruction at one time and we lack resources to get video cameras in the hands of qualified people to document the atrocities so this initial video (photographed by another person) has little of the more rough and tumble action.

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Europeans’ money benefits Israel, not Palestine

In Dutch, English and Arabic

Video here

read more (in Dutch)

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Reasons to be cheerful(ish): the boycott as seen from the occupied Jordan Valley

April 24, 2010

Despite the fact that there is -as demonstrated by this web-site- clearly a lot of more work to be done for people campaigning for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israel, a recent visit to the Jordan Valley confirmed that there are plenty of reasons for the BDS movement to take stock of its successes.

The fertile Jordan Valley is the largest agricultural area of the West Bank and the origin of most agricultural settlement produce (see, for example, http://corporateoccupation.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/occupation-as-profit-the-settler-economy/). Hence companies based in the Valley, such as the vegetable, fruit and flower exporter Carmel Agrexco, have been prime targets for the boycott movement and they are now visibly suffering a reduction in exports as a result. After spending a week interviewing Palestinians working in the settlements, it seems obvious to me both that our strategies are working and that they are supported by the exploited settlement workers themselves.

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Armored bulldozers invade Gaza strip

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Two Palestinians and an International activist shot with live ammunition at a non-violent demonstration against the Buffer Zone in Gaza

El Maghazi, Deir Al Balah, Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territories, 24th April 2010, 12PM – At a peaceful nonviolent demonstration against the forceful cessation of farming within what Israel defines as a “buffer zone,” which was attended by 150 people, two Palestinians demonstrators and one International activist were shot. Israeli soldiers opened fire on the demonstrators from the border fence. Nidal Al Naji (18) was shot in the right thigh. Hind Al Akra (22) was shot in the stomach and is undergoing emergency surgery. Bianca Zimmit (28) from Malta was filming the demonstration when she was shot in her left thigh. The wounded are currently being treated in Al Aqsa Hospital.

Shortly after 11 a.m., women and men, including 6 ISM activists, marched from Al Maghazi towards the Israeli fence closing off the Gaza strip. After being met with live ammunition upon cresting a ridge, some demonstrators continued walking forward. This group included six women, two ISM activists and 20 men. The 20 male demonstrators reached the border fence. Zimmit was shot while filming the demonstration between the ridge and the fence, at a distance of roughly 80-100 meters. Hind Al Akra, also standing between the ridge and the fence, was shot in the stomach, and Niadal al Naji was shot in the leg near the fence. Demonstrators carried the wounded back across rough terrain to taxis for transport to Al-Aqsa Hospital.

The demonstrations are held in protest against the arbitrary decision by Israel to instate a 300 metre buffer zone as no-go area for Palestinians where “shoot to kill” policy is implemented. People have been shot regularly as far as 2 kilometres away from the border. Popular Campaign for the Security in the Buffer Zone, an umbrella organization that includes organizations representing farmers and Gaza residents living near the border, and also a number of political parties are present at many of these demonstrations.

Those venturing to the border regions to gather rubble and steel do so as a result of the siege on Gaza which, along with Israel’s 23 day winter war on Gaza, has decimated Gaza’s economy, including 95 percent of Gaza’s factories and businesses, according to the United Nations. Additionally, these recycled construction materials are vital in Gaza where the Israeli-led siege bans all but under 40 items from entering.

The siege prevents vitally needed construction materials from entering Gaza, where over 6,400 houses were destroyed or severely damaged in the Israeli war on Gaza, and nearly 53,000 sustained lesser damages. Hospitals and medical centres, schools, kindergartens and mosques are among the other buildings destroyed and damaged during the Israeli war on Gaza.

source

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Defense Minister: Israel needs to recognize the occupation must end

By News Agencies
bandannie : Could it be that he is smelling the coffee ?

Israel must recognize that the world will not put up with decades more of Israeli rule over the Palestinian people, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in unusually frank remarks Monday.

Barak’s comments came against the backdrop of severe friction between the U.S. and Israel’s hawkish government over an impasse in peacemaking.

“The world isn’t willing to accept – and we won’t change that in 2010 – the expectation that Israel will rule another people for decades more,” he said. “It’s something that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world.”
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H&M make your choice

H&M, the Swedish fashion chain, are opening a new store in Brixton in the
old Woolworth’s store at midday on 29 April.
That would be fine except: H&M are in the middle of a large expansion programme in Israel, including a new store in Jerusalem.

By opening that store H&M are supporting the Judisation of Jerusalem and supporting the expulsion of the Palestinians who have lived in the city for generations.

Judisation is not a peaceful process; it is conducted by demolishing
Palestinian homes and beating and imprisoning anyone who protests.
The Israeli Government has ignored international calls to halt the building of settlements in Jerusalem. There has been a European wide call to protest against H&M’s active support of Israeli apartheid.

Join our protest outside H&M’s new shop, Brixton Road
11.30 April 29
J-BIG
Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods

For more details contact
supporters@bricup.org.uk

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Breaking the Law of Return

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BNC (Mar 2010)

A Vote for Israel’s Accession to the OECD is a Vote in Support of Israel’s War Crimes and Other Grave Violations of International Law and Human Rights

Palestinian civil society urges the peoples and governments of OECD member states to defer Israel’s OECD accession until it respects international law and the human rights of the Palestinian people and shows commitment to the fundamental values shared by OECD members.

BNC, Palestine, 15 March 2010 – The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is scheduled to convene in May 2010 in order to take a formal decision on Israel’s application for membership in the Organization. A vote for Israel’s accession to the OECD will be regarded by an overwhelming majority of Palestinians, Arabs, and people of conscience around the world as a decisive and far-reaching act of complicity in rewarding and perpetuating Israel’s occupation, colonization and apartheid against the Palestinian people. Furthermore, it will irreparably undermine the rule of law and further entrench the culture of impunity that has enabled Israel to escalate its commission of war crimes and what is described by some leading international law experts as a prelude to genocide against Palestinians in the illegally besieged and occupied Gaza Strip.
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