21. Feb 2012: Khader Adnan to be released on the 17 April

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As always in Palestinian related matters, the international community looks on as a 33-year-old Palestinian man that works as a baker in Jenin, refuses food for 65* days and counting. Only when he hit 5o days, did his plight receive some attention (not that this should surprise anyone). The longest ever hunger strike was carried out by animal rights activist Barry Horne, a total of 68 days against animal testing. He died 15 days after ending his hunger strike as a result of organ failure. Another example is Bobby Sands, the Irish republican prisoner who died on hunger strike in a Northern Ireland prison in 1981, lasting 66 days without food. According to the British Medical Association, death generally occurs between 55 and 75 days of a hunger strike. Khader Adnan’s health as expected is deteriorating rapidly minute by minute. One arm and one leg shackled to a hospital bed in Sieff Hospital in Israel with prison guards around him by the clock, he vows to continue.

Adnan was arrested on December 17. Not the first of his arrests, but the seventh. In 1999 he was held for 6 months without trial (like majority of Palestinian detainees), in 2000 is spent another 8 months in administrative detention. 2002-2003 he was arrested again, in 2004 he was detained again, in 2005 he was detained for another 18 months, and then another 6 months in 2008. In total he spent over 38 months in administrative detention. That’s 3 years of on and off detainment – without charge. Shamelessly the PA had also arrested him for 12 days in 2010.

Adnan was arrested in a early morning raid around 3AM. His wife Randa explained that they bound and blindfolded him, promising her that his detention would be brief. After 18 days of interrogation, he was brought to the military court where his detention period was renewed. Still no charge. Khader had managed to tell his wife that the soldiers beat and kicked him on the floor of the Jeep they had taken him in as well as humiliating him during interrogation. Cursing him, pulling his beard, slandering his wife as ‘impure’ and his daughters are not his. Within 24 hours he began his hunger strike. His condition began to deteriorate under a week so he was transferred to hospital after hospital. It is only recently that he also stopped drinking water. On the 15th of February after the long campaign by Physicians for Human Rights, he was examined by a member doctor.

“When I met the patient, he had been on hunger strike for 52 days, shackled to hisbed by both legs and one ar

m, and was refusing to undergo tests and medical treatment. He has lost 30 kgs and weighs 60 kg. He suffers from stomach aches,vomiting, sometimes with blood, and headaches. As of today, he is completely lucidand aware of his medical condition, without confusion or disorders in cognition or perception. His general condition is pale and very weak, his tongue is smooth, he hasslight bleeding from the gums, dry skin, loss of hair, and significant muscular atrophy. Mr. Adnan is in immediate danger of death. An absolute hunger strike in excess of 50 days causes the decomposition of muscles, including muscle of the heart and stomach, and the creation of toxins in the body. Death may occur suddenly, due to heart failure, or as the result of infectionfollowing the collapse of the immune system. Bleeding in the digestive tracts andrenal or hepatic failure are possible. A fast inexcess of 70 days does not permit survival.”

The Israeli Military Appeals Court dismissed the appeal against Khader Adnan’s administrative detention order on the 13th February 2012, the detention will go on to expire on 8 May.  In a report released by ADDAMEER

“Judge Moshe Tirosh stated that according to the secret material available to the judge but not available to Khader or his lawyers, the court decision was “balanced”. In his decision, Judge Tirosh completely disregarded Khader’s lawyers’ numerous arguments, including the lack of evidence that Khader Adnan has carried out any activities providing grounds for detention; that administrative detention is used in an arbitrary manner; and that affiliation to a political party is aligned with the right to freedom of expression, assembly and political association. Furthermore, Judge Tirosh stated that only Khader is to blame for his physical health condition as a result of his choice to continue his hunger strike and that his medical condition will not influence the administrative detention decision.”

Essentially, administrative detention is a procedure under which detainees are held without charge or trial, based on the British law in place during the British Mandate 1945 Law on Authority in States of Emergency. Israeli military commanders are permitted to detain an individual for up to 6 months on ‘reasonable grounds to presume that the security of the area or public security require the detention’. In practice however, this is invalid. Usually, on or just before the expiry date, the detention order is renewed another 6 months. This process can, and often is continued indefinitely. The number of men I had met in the West Bank in 2011 telling me the number of years they spent under administrative detention in Israel was never under 5. All Palestinian men, at some point in their life are subject to arbitrary arrest and detention.

Administrative detention more often than not has been used as a form of collective punishment by the Israeli military against Palestinians, in violation of international law (again we shouldn’t be surprised). For example, during the period March 2002 – October 2002, Israeli forces arrested over 15,000 Palestinians during mass arrest campaigns, rounding up males in cities and villages between the ages of 15 to 45. In October 2002, there were 1,050 Palestinians in administrative detention. By the beginning of March 2003, Israel held more than one thousand Palestinians in administrative detention. In 2007, Israel held a monthly average of 830 administrative detainees, which was 100 higher than in 2006. Furthermore, during the PLC elections of 2006, Israel placed dozens of candidates from Islamic Change and Reform Party in administrative detention. Some of them are imprisoned to this day. There are currently between 307 and 315 Palestinians being held in administrative detention.

But who is Khader Adnan? For the orientalist, he isn’t the Palestinian Ghandi that they mindlessly keep calling for. Those that make these remarks forget the fact that in terms of Universal Declaration of Human Rights and under the stipulation of International Law, it is occupation, colonialism and apartheid are illegal, whilst resistance, including armed resistance against legitimate targets of the uniformed members of the regimes outlined above, are legal. And without a doubt, I am against the notion of comparing Palestinian to former leaders of non violent resistance. The first Palestinian intifada started with a non-violent general strike. Palestinians practice non-violent resistance everyday under the given circumstances, and that is what Khader Adnan is doing now. He is drawing attention to the decades of administrative detention use by Israel. Israel picks up and throws Palestinians into their dungeons to torture, humiliate, psychologically torment, and limit the resistance against the occupier. Their prisons are attempts to dissolve the Palestinian right of resistance against years of occupation and colonialism.

I hate to be cynical, but Khader Adnan is a potential candidate for death. He knew this before he refused his first prison meal. He understood that being the native gives him one choice between servitude and supremacy. He will not die, but he will be killed. And he is sure of it. It’s difficult to imagine yourself as a man with an empty stomach, running on 64 days. But it shouldn’t be too difficult to imagine what he means when he says his ‘dignity is more precious than food’.

You may be wondering why the Israeli authorities aren’t discussing a release or retrial. And just like the death of Mustafa Tamimi,  Ibrahim Mohammad Ali Saidi, Mohammed al-Dura, and the other thousands of Palestinians slaughtered in the struggle for self-determination, Israel will not be held accountable, to anyone. And neither will it ignite a 3rd intifada as some suggest. The Palestinian struggle will gain another martyr. Let us make sure it’s not in vain.

The Israeli Mind

First of all the ‘peace process’ is an Israeli concept. It is an Israeli ideology based on Zionist supremacy of ‘we will have peace in return that you be quiet and live under our rule, our policies and our boots and agree to our demands – which includes your inevitable exile’. That essentially is what the peace process stands for, and I’m certain there is nothing anyone could produce, including a Knesset member to prove otherwise. And to talk about a genuine peace process, the one understood to be settling the ‘conflict‘ as a liberal would describe, is like kicking a dead horse rather than acknowledging that its dead. And that its not a horse, it’s a unicorn. Doesn’t exist.

Today, the number of Israelis and Palestinians living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea is approximately about 5 million each. But most demographers agree that in less than a decade, Palestinians will greatly outnumber Israelis. That means that Israel will no longer be a Jewish majority state (unless some demographic miracle happens, like say a massacre). This is quite frightening for the state of Israel who already implements extreme ‘security measures’ which come in the form of 500 watchtowers, 100 fixed checkpoints, 130 settlements (with several more settlement plans being approved every few months), 500,000 aggressive settlers, night raids, violent repression of Friday protests, Gaza’s F-16 war planes and drones, denial of medical access, administrative detentions, demolition notices, bulldozers at 6am, high velocity tear gas, skunk water, and it goes on.

The peace process – the two-state solution, is farce because, yes Israel doesn’t want two states. Israel has never in the course of history supported two states. When the current Likud party in power happens to be founded by the terrorist Menachem Begin in 1973 who was part of the Irgun terrorist group responsible for the King David Hotel bombing (of British Forces) as well as Dier Yassin Massacre, and miraculously becomes prime minister and then awarded the noble peace prize jointly with Anwar Sadat, there was never the intention of a two-state solution. Israel was founded based on one principle and one principle only. An established homeland for the Jews. And to this day, they still dream of the ‘Great Land of (all) Israel’. They believe they made the ‘desert bloom’, because Palestine was ‘a land without a people, for people without a land’. There is no West Bank, it is ‘Judea and Samaria’. There are no ‘Palestinians’, they are only Arabs and Arabs have 23 states.

Deir Yassin, 1948

Now when a country emerges and builds upon the history of another history written by peoples of different creed and colour in harmony, and declares it sacred for themselves, when a country emerges based on the ideology that they are superior to every other human being based not on a race, but scriptural belief, when a country establishes its existence on stolen geography, stolen history and undrying blood, the word peace is as invalid as US being in Afghanistan for a feminist cause. It is just beyond absurd.

Once we understand that Israel has never been a supporter of co-existing and sharing what they had came to claim for themselves and themselves only, it becomes clear as day that obviously the Palestinians do not want a two state solution. The Palestinians do not want a two state solution, just as you wouldn’t if you had your home ransacked by a foreign group, settling in your fields, in your houses, treated you like a 4th class citizen, shot your mother and cut her stomach open to kill your unborn sister leaving her skirt hoisted by her waist, dragged your father by the head to execute him with your brother against a wall, shot your grandmother in the chest, made you beg for your life, forced you to escape into a neighbouring land after half of your population was exiled and killed, and now you remain ousted for the remaining of your existence, because they have forbidden your return, whilst your people still inhabiting parts of the land undergo daily humiliation and degradation, imprisoning the men, beating the women, kidnapping the children, bombing sleeping families, uprooting your trees, building their homes, erasing your history, rebuilding your geography, swallowing your culture. You too, would not want two states. You would want it all – back.

Illegal White Phosphorus shells fired by Israel exploding in air during the Gaza Massacre of 08/09

Of course, whenever I engage in a discussion with a liberal of some kind, or someone who isn’t entirely informed on the issue but is an apologist, but do happen to accept the points made above they ask, “well realistically, the only solution is to have two states. You can’t drive the Jews into the sea or push the Arabs off the land, so it wouldn’t it make sense to have two states?”

The answer is yes, it would make sense.

It would make sense to have two states (if we’re talking about realistic terms), no settlements, no checkpoints, no military presence in Palestine, the right of return for Palestinians in exile, a formal apology by the state (just for the sake of it), Israel’s apartheid laws abolished, the physical and economic siege on Gaza lifted, the apartheid wall and settlements demolished, freeing of all prisoners, giving back land to uphold the UN partition, basically the terminating the concept of Zionism. But how is that possible when the entire existence of Israel is solely based on Zionism? To expect a Palestinian-Israeli confederation wherein the two peoples share joint political and economic institutions while maintaining a sense of semi-autonomy and preserving their cultural and religious distinctions based on the peace process, on Israeli terms, is far-fetched. The two state solution becomes a floating paradox. It is here where the dead horse or unicorn, becomes a cloud of dust.

However I must insert here, Palestine isn’t based on the 1947 partition plan issued by the UN (they were useless even then). Palestine is Haifa, Palestine is Yaffa, Palestine is Jerusalem. So I will want it all back. And if you were Hanifa al-Najjar that lost her husband after a settler that cracked open his skull, and an Israeli soldier paralysed her 5 year old daughter, and indefinitely imprisoned her brother, I believe you would too.

“The big bankers of the world, who practise the terrorism of money, are more powerful than kings and field marshals, even more than the Pope of Rome himself. They never dirty their hands. They kill no-one: they limit themselves to applauding the show.” ― Eduardo Hughes Galeano

Nigeria, the 5th top exporter of crude oil with 2.4m barrels produced a day (2007 figures), cut its state fuel grant to its citizens overnight. On January 9th, a nationwide strike commenced in Nigeria to reinstate the fuel subsidy, followed by series of daily protests in which 2 civilians were killed today (Jan 10). The subsidy cut had been debated for the past 2 months but despite the very vocal opposition from the people, the government went ahead and announced its removal on, of all days, the first day of 2012.

Now, the current case in Nigeria, as all socio-economic crisis’s, contain external factors (the internal being corrupt government officials). The ruling external factor here, as in most countries in the Global South (or the ‘third world’, a filthy term which generates the feeling that they, are not like ‘us‘), is called neocolonialism.  Though Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan asserted that the cut then will allow infrastructure and social development programmes to flourish with the $4-8 billion saved, this appoints the very question of then why Nigeria, containing the tremendous wealth of 2.4 million barrels of crude oil production a day, has barely any infrastructure and stable electricity in the first place. What is even more alarming is the fact that Nigeria with such resources, must now invest £4.2bn annually in their refineries, because Nigeria believe it or not, imports oil. It’s like bringing sand to the desert.

Prior to oil production, which surged after the 1970s, agricultural production was the largest export sector for Nigeria. After the country became a largely oil-intensive economy, the agriculture sector took a back seat, giving the front seat, to The Bretton Woods institutions; the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. Herein, is where the problem begins.

The IMF is made up from its 185 member countries, each of whom contributions quota of resources to the organisation in proportion to their economy, which in definition determines their percentage of voting rights and the amount of resources to which they can have automatic access. A one dollar one vote system if you will. The U.S as would be expected, is the largest shareholder of 18%. Germany, Japan, France, U.K and the US combined, control about 38%. The way this all ties in with Wall Street is well, the interests of bankers, investors and corporations from industrialized countries are essentially put above the needs of the world’s poverty stricken, working class majority. Including their own countries.

Since the debt crisis of the 1980′s, the IMF has assumed the role of ‘bailing’ out countries with collapsing economies with its emergency loans. But of course, like all business contracts, in order for a country to receive the crippling hand of the IMF, there are terms and conditions which appear as new policy reforms in the given state. In essence, it is a global financial mafia.  Usually, when you fail a payment to a loan shark they break a leg and a few ribs. Fail an IMF or World Bank payment, they will virtually gut your entire economy or send over US special forces to exact their gallon of blood from your whole population.

The World Bank works a little different but nevertheless is IMF’s brother. It started off as the International Bank for Reconstruction in post war Europe as well as development in the rest of the world. It is mainly for development, such as assisting infrastructure, transportation, education and so forth. The World Bank resources, as opposed to the IMF, come from its issue of bonds in the capital markets. These bonds are backed up by guarantees provided by the governments who belong to the institution. Already, it is obvious that it is a more complex system with internal affiliates, such as the International Development Assosciation (IDA), International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Multilateral Guarantee Agency (MIGA). World Bank assistance again, comes with strings attached regarding the economy, however the IMF is essentially the debtor nations financial advisor. The IMF isn’t the primary a lending institution as is the Bank, though it may seem as such. It is first and foremost an overseer of its members’ monetary and exchange rate policies and a ‘guards’ of the code of conduct.  The World Bank, is more of a fund, and the IMF is more of a bank.

The World bank and IMF in reality are economic hit men for the former colonial powers who operate the business of institutional neoliberal colonialism. The IMF and the World Bank, provides loans knowing full well they possess the required military power (say from the US, UK, France..) to have the debtors pay their loans, but the loans and their conditions are so extortionate and immobilising, they know the money will not be paid off. As a matter of fact, they don’t want the loans paid off. What they want, what they need, is the pearl in the shell. What they want is the debtor nation to open up their country’s natural resources to be plundered by foreign banks and multi-national corporations (as done in Nigeria, Argentina, Kenya, Mexico and countless others) which are in bed with the IMF and World Bank.

Now the conditions are infact  ’structural adjustment policies’ (SAPs). These are supposedly designed to ensure debt repayment and are more or less immediate measures to reduce inflation, government expenditure, and government deregulation to: privatise national assets; cut spending on education and health; eliminate basic food and transportation subsidies; devalue national currencies to make exports cheaper;  in other words, the installation of neo-liberal policies. In Mexico for example, when the debt crisis hit in the mid-1980′s and Mexico announced it was unable to repay loans in 1982, the IMF and World Bank were already at the door. The primary policies that were introduced were reduced public spending, privatisation of most state-owned enterprises, trade liberalisation and the removal of barriers to foreign investment. The World Bank suggested that privatising certain health services could provide a solution to this problem. However, the majority of Mexican citizens could not even begin to afford any type of private healthcare, and in respect nutritional deficiencies tripled infant mortality rates in the 1980′s. In 1994, Mexico was plunged into an economic crisis after a rapid devaluation of the peso. The main factor that led to this crisis, was the massive amount of debt built up as a result of practices brought about by SAPs such as; the liberalised financial sector; which included fee free lending/borrowing rates, as well as the elimination of banks’ reserve requirements. Banks were hastily privatized, oftentimes without proper regard as to the new shareholders and/or bank officials. And so today, Mexico currently owes the greatest amount of loan, leading the debtor league at number one, closely followed by Greece and Iceland.

“Brilliant theorists of economics do not find it worthwhile to spend time discussing issues of poverty and hunger. They believe that these will be resolved when general economic prosperity increases. These economists spend all their talents detailing the process of development and prosperity, but rarely reflect on the origin and development of poverty and hunger. A a result, poverty continues.” ― Muhammad Yunus

The IMF and World Bank have to deconstruct agriculture and industrial production, basically any sector which are the components of a self-sustaining economy, and focus on export induced growth instead. Also known as, ‘cash crops’: grown for money than for food. Take Kenya’s green beans for instance. It is only produced to be exported to Europe, majority of its cultivated land is used to produce one type of crop as a commodity to be sold at forced low prices (set by the Global North of course), and inevitably ending up with nothing to eat. So what can they do? They import food (at a high cost). Now, an estimated 2.4 million of Kenyans face food insecurity for 2012. Nigeria has to import oil. Uganda has to import food. Iraq has to import dates. Haiti has to import rice. And every single one of these countries prior to foreign invasion and colonialism had hundreds of years of farming dates, rice, beans. This is the dependency effect. Yes, the IMF and World Bank, are the white masters on the field, and this time they don’t even need a whip.

These are not only great victories of the BDS movement, but solid examples of success, and why boycotting places like Waitrose selling fresh produce labelled ISRAEL on its strawberries, or a red Coca-Cola can with large shares belonging to Zionists, is crucially important. Let this be a reminder for the cynical who dismisses the act of BDS as insignificant for the plight of Palestinians, let this be a reminder for the cynical who argues that BDS is not a solution to the occupation, that it doesn’t tackle the root thus ineffective. Let this be a reminder that boycotting isn’t merely a method to solve the problem but an underlying act of resistance and solidarity. Let this be a reminder that as Palestinian youth continue to throw stones at the occupation, we can slowly carve and depict apartheid’s economy.

BDS is one of the easiest, yet most ignored action against apartheid. Ideally we should be boycotting all American and British- in fact all large bloodsucking corporations, for its destructive Capitalism and military occupation in places like Afghanistan (Starbucks serving troops).  BDS actually becomes a small ripple, a little domino effect. Boycotting Israeli goods touches the boycott of these American-Zionist corporations that do exploit children in Coca-Cola factories in Brazil, that do contaminate its waters in India.

For instance, every year Coca-Cola bankrolls the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce Awards which honours companies that have contributed most to U.S.-Israel business relationships by generating both jobs and investment in Israel. Coca-Cola also owns dairy farms in the illegal Israeli settlements of Shadmot Mechola in the Jordan Valley and a plant in the industrial zone of Katzerin in the occupied Golan Heights. It’s pro-Israeli activities are absolutely endless.

Has it become so difficult to say no to ethnic cleansing related consumerism? Has it become so difficult to express some humanity by refusing to buy a ridiculous overpriced cup of Starbucks, a bitter sweet brew of imperialism, occupation, and exploitation, served with whipped cream on top? Are such requests necessities we cannot live without when Caterpillar bulldozers demolish homes at 6am leaving dozens of families homeless? Have we become such consumers shaped by our individualism to the tragic point of indifference, that we cannot  show simple solidarity? I often wonder how these luxuries are more powerful than the moral’s it crushes.

“The issue of a principled commitment to justice lies at the heart of responses to the suffering of the Palestinian people and it is the absence of such a commitment that enables many to turn a blind eye to it.” – Desmond Tutu

When Chief Albert Luthulimade a call for the international community to support a boycott of apartheid South Africain 1958, the response was a widespread and dedicated movement that played a significant role in ending apartheid, and in 2010 South Africa collectively launched the BDS campaign. Though it should not be perceived that BDS is just consumer boycotting of the few companies mentioned above. BDS  includes a cultural and academic boycott movement recognised globally, with many universities, firms and organisations taking part. Such activity draws attention not only to BDS, but the refusal of being part of the brutal Israeli occupation. BDS is necessary because the international community has failed. Because the Palestinian ‘Authority’ has failed. Because people everywhere continue to fail Palestinians. The basic boycott of Israeli products has become a moral obligation above all.

We must never underestimate small acts done in the name  of resistance as empty attempts for justice, for however small, they are victories of humanity’s conscience.

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Click here to see what you can boycott.

Nabi Salih (Arabic: النبي صالح‎) is a small Palestinian village of over 530 in Ramallah, West Bank. I regularly attended the Friday demo's as this village is notoriously known for the brutal response of Israeli soldiers.

"Shab" gripping stones in his hand. "Yallah Shabab" is often echoed in protests, Yallah meaning "Hurry up" or "Come on" and Shabab: young male youth. Extremely satisfying to hear stones shatter the windows of the Israeli Jeeps.

Nabi Saleh, Abed Reemawi crosses his hands in representation of all Palestinian prisoners with peace signs up, towards the Israeli Settlement of Halamish, located across Nabi Saleh, which also occupy Bashir Tammimi's spring.

Volunteer medic (only medics are allowed gas masks, Palestinian protesters refuse to wear them), Ahmed runs away from tear gas cannisters being shot at a regular Friday demonstration in Nabi Saleh

Themes are usually given to Friday protests around the West Bank. This theme is protesting for the freedom of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

Road blocks made up of rocks, burning tyres and bins, set up by the shabab of the village two hours before protests begin to prevent and make it difficult for military jeeps to reach the village.

Nabi Saleh demonstration, entrance of village closed off by IOF

Sundown in Nabi Saleh, the army leave, only to return the next Friday.

A transport checkpoint, which resembles border control, only it is located in the West Bank, in Bethlehem/Ramallah, the apartheid wall visible.

An old Palestinian shop in Shuhada street welded shut, and scrawled with the Star of David.

Hebron Bike Demonstration. Youth and instructors get on bikes to defy the restriction of movement in Hebron due to illegal settlements.

Welcomed Israeli style.

Netting in Old city market to protect Palestinians from objects thrown by settlers living above

One of the many signs located in Shuhada Street, Hebron, claiming it as sacred Jewish land.

The eeriness and emptiness of Shuhada Street, a Muslim cemetery and Palestinian homes lie ahead.

Mural on a Palestinian school in Hebron, the words Free and Palestine painted over by settlers.

3am. Editing what was wiped off.

Settlements stick out like a sore.

One of the armed settlers who approached me after I and 3 other activists had been attacked with stones and spit, Hebron

Anat Cohen, a female settler who organised her sons to come and pelt us with eggs, stones and spit, with the aftermath of her attempts to run us over. Unsucessful all 3 times.

"Free Israel" slogans are spray painted in and near Tel Rumeida, where Palestinians reside in Israeli Controlled H2 part of Hebron. I found most of the slogans and edited them into "Free PALESTINE FROM Israel". Within a week they were spray painted over with the Star of David.

Hebron H1, at night.

Every Saturday in Hebron, a tour of the Old City in H1, Palestinian populated, is opened to Israeli settlers living in H2, and given a tour. They are accompanied by a large number of soldiers, as they enter the Old City Markets and streets, pointing their rifles at windows of Palestinian homes, to scare the children who would stare in curiosity.

Trailing behind the settler tour assisted by soldiers in Hebron, Old City as the soldier on the right points his rifle at me.

Settlers in West Bank trying to hitch rides from settler drivers.

Apartheid Wall in Bethlehem: graffiti of the Statue of Liberty weeping and cradling Handala, the symbolic refugee child cartoon.

Apartheid wall in Bethlehem: One of the many creative pieces of art, next to a watchtower

Sunset in Bethlehem

Apartheid Wall in Bethlehem: My own graffiti on the wall, the ladder was supplied to me by a kind Palestinian man who also bought me water, after having watched me standing on a rubbish bin for 15 minutes.

Sunrise in Jordan Valley, al-Awja, with mud bricks made the day before, left out to dry

Jordan Valley

Taking a quick break from building a kitchen out of mud bricks under the sun in al-Awja with Jordan Valley Solidarity, a JV based group of International and Palestinian volunteers who build housing for Palestinians in Area C, in defiance of Israeli issued demolitions, we build to resist. Thank you for everyone who donated, more than half of the donated money was used for this project.

A completed mud brick wall.

Susya, Southern Hebron. As most of the villages here fall under Area C, they are not allowed to build any permanent structures on their own land higher than 2 metres, thus the villages are made up of large tents, in fear of facing demolition.

I visited a family in Susya, a village located in Southern Hebron, who had been attacked the day before by Israeli settlers. As I listened to her father, she and her brothers and sisters sat around me, fascinated by a 'ejnabi' a foreigner.

Susya, Hebron.

Spent the day farming with a Palestinian family who received a demolition notice for their well. To escape the manual labour, I befriended his beautiful mother Abiha, as we cooked Diwali (stuffed vine leaves)she told me of her youth, with attempts of marrying me off to her widowed son.

The narrow streets of Balata Refugee Camp in Nablus..

Balata Refugee Camp: an overwhelming majority of the refugees in Balata camp come from Yafa and Haifa, densely populated with 30,000 residents in an area of 0.25 square kilometers.

Sheikh Jarrah: Palestinian house has illegal settlers after the extension of their home was ruled unlawful, thus giving it to settler youths. The blue tent is for activists who take shifts 24/27 monitoring the aggressive settlers who regularly attack the family.

One of the settlers living in the Palestinian extension attempting to enter the tent. He was witnessed molesting another child settler a few days before this photo was taken. And shortly after he spat on the monitoring activists.

The little mischiefs in the Sheikh Jarrah home.

A group of settlers visiting the settlers in the Sheikh Jarrah home, and harassing the activists monitoring them at the same time.

All forms of media-television, radio, and newspapers-have been monopolized by corporations. When it comes to reporting, these commercial media outlets have no trouble feeding propaganda into the masses. And this is exactly what happens when Gaza is the given subject. Propaganda. In fact more often than not  Gaza doesn’t seem to be worth that. Besides its regular power cuts, Gaza experiences a constant media blackout, the popular censorship of Gaza’s suffering, imposed by the ‘only democracy in the middle east’, Israel.

Now there’s obvious reasons as to why Gaza is an overlooked problem, but which one do we begin to address? The fear of appearing anti-Semitic? The genuine belief that Gaza is a prison camp harbouring terrorists that want to murder all Jews? Or the belief that Palestinians are the ones occupying innocent Israel? Or the impartiality news agencies such as BBC insist on? Whatever the excuse, it will always stand insufficient.

As someone who is always cynical of the legitimacy of what the media ‘reports’ or rather interprets and portrays on daily world news and politics, the media blackout on Gaza fails to surprise me. Even for Afghanistan and Iraq. British or American deaths in these countries are reported on heavily whereas leaked pictures of soldiers from the same countries posing with half naked corpses, killing them for sport and mutilating body parts for trophies is lingered on shortly. It’s important to note that language of media is also extremely crucial. There are always specific words these corporate machines subtly replace with another of their choice, which completely changes the given altitude of meaning to whichever story. The Language of Media Propaganda.

When most people think of propaganda, the posters and songs created by a government during wartime springs to mind, yet the truth of the matter is that propaganda has a much broader application. It refers not only to the efforts a government goes to make people adopt certain beliefs or attitudes, though it does not stop there, for the purpose of politics it does.  We can label “propaganda” any organised effort to persuade large numbers of people about the truth of an idea, the value of a product, or the appropriateness of an attitude. When the government uses the media in an organised and deliberate way to get people to believe that a war is necessary for their safety such as Iraq, that’s propaganda. When a corporation uses the media in an organised and deliberate way to get people to think that Gillette 3 layered razor is better than the other brand, that’s propaganda. If a private group uses the media in an organised and deliberate way to get people to adopt a negative attitude towards immigrants as the Daily Mail loves to do, that, is also propaganda.

So what is the language of media propaganda? Language can be extremely powerful, especially when you know how to steer it, and politicians of course are experts when it comes to this craft. For  instance when Tony Blair on Iraq said “The bombing is unfortunate, but it’s necessary”, most people usually fill in the gap by projecting their own understanding of what “necessary” means.  We don’t stop to wonder, on whose criteria is it necessary, or by what standard is it necessary? When Barack Obama in his 2011 AIPAC speech said, “America’s commitment to Israel’s security flows from a deeper place, and that’s the values we share. ” He values emotions over objective information again audience giving their own understanding to what the shared values are. This is the most subtle skill in propaganda. The media is just as good at this skill. New terminologies are in fact invented. ‘Islamists’, ‘Jihadists’ all given without definition, allowing the audience to interpret it as the words what the media is really pointing unashamedly to; terrorists and terrorism. Another example Robert Fisk clearly noted “The US and British – and Israeli and Palestinian – leaderships have used the words ‘peace process’ to define the hopeless, inadequate, dishonourable agreement that allowed the US and Israel to dominate whatever slivers of land would be given to an occupied people”. The apartheid wall isn’t an apartheid wall but a ‘separation wall‘ , ‘fence‘ or ‘security barrier‘ in Israeli hasbara (propaganda) terms. The occupation becomes ‘conflict‘, the illegal Israeli colonies on annexed Palestinian land become ‘settlements‘ or ‘Jewish communities‘.

In the case of the recent Eliat attacks, Israel as usual is given the spotlight in the media. ‘Gaza militants’ was the most common expression present within the news. Hamas was not the perpetrator of the attack, but the very term initiated the thought, as the west introduced Hamas as the ‘terrorists in Gaza’.  Anything Palestinians seem to do is ‘terror’. Non-violent demonstrations become ‘riots’, BDS movement becomes ‘economic sabotage’ or ‘economic terror’.  A week after the Eliat attack, Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz eventually admitted ‘doubts’ that it was Palestinians members of Popular Resisitance Commitee’s organised the Eliat’s bus attack, but actually Egyptian’s as it was revealed. But this new piece of information fails to surface upon the western news agencies, instead, “Gaza fires rockets into Israel” headlines are seen, Popular Resistance Committee’s handmade mortars of retaliation to the American supplied Israeli missiles. Casual attempts to make the oppressed seem as the oppressors.

Anyone following the  Gaza siege would have already known that 3 days before the Eliat attacks, a heavy presence of F-16s and drones was lingering in Gaza’s skies, explosions without casualties occurring, and within moments of Eliat, it was the perfect excuse to begin a ruthless assault on a besieged population of 1.6 million – not that Israel ever needs an excuse. Crimes that Israel commits are never ‘responses’ – one of Netenyahu’s favourite word. Again ‘response’ gives the illusion that Gaza is the cause and problem, regardless of its oppression, since that’s hardly mentioned. Netenyahu’s ‘response’ simply waits for pretext.   Ehud Barak was quick to state that the “attacks originate in Gaza and we will act against them with full force and resolve”, fuelling disinformation which to the audience may even seem justified, since this ‘Gaza’ has killed Israeli citizens first and have been firing rockets. For the reality of what goes on in Gaza, small alternative news websites are relied on, including Palestinians tweeting from Gaza, reporting real-time as air strikes bury their martyrs and injure civilians.

Warning, distressing and graphic video below of the dead bodies received at al-Shifa hospital, Gaza:

Today Gaza entered its 7th day of Israeli imposed military assault, as 10 Palestinians have been killed in 24 hours alone, pushing the total death toll of the week to over 40 – despite Hamas and other factions pledging a ceasefire. The trend to censor Gaza’s siege and suffering seems to be full on force. It is  impossible to forget BBC’s refusal to air an appeal for Gaza during the 2008/2009 massacre. In fury I had attended the demonstration outside BBC building, outraged that their reasoning was ‘impartiality’. When the Mavi Marmara Aid Flotilla rampage took place when 9 Turkish activists where murdered, it was portrayed with a tremendous distortion of facts on BBC Panorama. Soon after ‘Free Palestine’ was censored on BBC Radio. The atrocity of these embargo’s seem to have no end. It is evident that it is up to the volume of our voices, to be the echo of humanity, and to scream to the world in defiance of injustice. The minority who rule society and control our lives with iron curtains are afraid of our voice and love our silence. We must make them tremble at all times. This not only applies to the people of Palestine, but wherever injustice has chosen as a home.

Rise, resist, and revolt.

The apartheid is most visible not only in Jerusalem (West and East Jerusalem) but in Hebron also. The Palestinians are forced to be neighbours with illegal settlers, everything in H2 is designed to comfort settlers, with ‘Jewish’ only streets. Unsurprisingly the roads denied to Palestinians can also be denied to tourists who are followers of Islam, a Muslim. The roads for settlers only, allow cars and coaches to fly past, whereas Palestinian’s cannot which has a cruel purpose. Tel Rumeida, the Palestinian side of H2 is an area of many many steep hills, making it difficult for the elderly and pregnant women. Though there is one particular road that must be shared, one being at the beginning of Shuhada Street.

Apartheid Street in H2 Hebron: Palestinians on the right, Jews on the left

Shuhada Street has it’s own tragic story. It was once the main Palestinian street that bustled with life in Hebron, running between the origin of Hebron, Tel Rumeida, the old walled city and marketplace. It was lined with 1500 businesses, selling leather, clothing, jewellery, and handmade artisan goods. Many skilled people owned and worked in these the stores, and they all were relatively successful with apartments above the stories for Palestinians to live.

In February, 1994, the Israeli government closed this street to the Palestinian people in after the Cave of the Patriarchs Massacre also known as the Mosque of Abraham Massacre. Baruch Goldstein, an American-Israeli settler entered the Ibrahimi Mosque, and opened fire to unarmed Palestinians who were praying their morning prayer, killing 29 of them, most children and injuring another 125. Though this massacre was committed by an Israeli himself, the government of Israel with is ironic logic as usual,  decided to punish Palestinians, and closed the street to them completely.  It remains closed to this day.

As you enter checkpoint 56 into Tel Rumeida, you find yourself immediately facing the empty Shuhada street. You stare at the green doors of the stores wondering who used to run it, and what type of store it was before being welded shut indefinitely. You notice the Star of David spray painted on almost every store and immediately reminded of swastika’s. You soon understand that no Palestinians are allowed on the street past the colonial “Beit Hadassah” settlement as from then on you find yourself walking with tools of occupation dressed in uniform protecting the colonialist thieves.

Shuhada Street: door of a closed store, scribbled with the Star of David

H2 thus has high military presence, about 2000 soldiers for 500 settlers. The term Settlers refer to the Jewish people who for whatever reason move into occupied West Bank, with free incentives given by the Israeli government providing them with free electricity and water, maintaining their colonies financially, though it is always the Palestinians who must pay a highest price of all; the occupation of their land, and the set up of colonies aiming to harass, humiliate and degrade their existence until they want to flee.

You will hear some of the most heart wrenching stories in Hebron. Ones of brutal attacks leaving broken arms and fingers of children, the puncturing of holes into Palestinian families water tanks by settler ammunition, the taunting and searching of Palestinian children on their way to school, the list is endless. What is even more tragic is that they are completely vulnerable to any attack, whether it be from settlers or soldiers themselves. Being in H2, Palestinian Authority Police cannot do anything, and the Israeli Police will not do anything.

One of the most known and heartbreaking stories heard by internationals is Hashem Al-Azzeh’s story. Hashem’s family – his two brothers and their families live in houses adjoining his – have suffered 20 years of harassment and attacks by the inhabitants of the Tel Rumeida settlement. 7 years ago, Hashem says, a notoriously aggressive settler grabbed his nine-year-old nephew Yusuf, stuffed stones in his mouth and punched it in, destroying his teeth.

His house is on the Tel Rumeida slope, the only Palestinian to live right under Tel Rumeida’s overshadowing settlement. It is 2 minutes away from Checkpoint 56. To enter his home you must climb a stony bank then wind along a rough and narrow pathway through scrubland and up another couple of steep slopes. This has been the only way in and out of Hashem’s home since the building of the settlement 50 feet behind his house cut off access from the road. He had to carry his dead father in his arms down this way and along to the checkpoint to meet an ambulance waiting behind cp 56. The body kept setting the metal detector off, so the Israeli soldiers demanded him to be unwrapped from the white cloth, which revealed a watch on his father’s wrist. A soldier then smashed his watch with the end of his rifle, consequently shattering the wrist. Hashem’s stories seem endlessly full of cruel Zionist inflicted pain.

You can see the portcabins of the Tel Rumeida settlement looming over Hashem’s house and the settlement road where  illegal settlers can drive and walk as they wish , but Hashem is forbidden to set foot on it, as any other Palestinian. It’s not uncommon to see water running down this road, the result of settlers regularly cutting the water pipes to the surrounding Palestinian homes. Baruch Marzel, is his neighbour. They often cross paths, and exchange words.  “Every dog has it’s time Hashem! Every dog has it’s time!” He snarls confidently. Hashem smiles. “Then your time is soon.”

Hashem and his brothers, have been in Hebron’s Tel Rumeida for three generations, and they are determined to stay put. “We will never go,” he says. “Never.” This is the general firm attitude of Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank.  After they tell their story of Israel’s injustice,  sometimes in tears, sometimes in anger, or  sometimes with defeat in their eyes, they all boldly repeat the same sentence . “No matter what they do to us, we will never leave! This is our land. It has always been our land, our Falasteen.”

On Saturday, 9th of July 2011, I experienced a settler attack first hand myself. As an activist part of a solidarity movement in Hebron, we do ‘Patrol Strolls’. This is a simple 1 hour to 2 hour walk around Tel Rumeida mostly through every checkpoint to make sure no Palestinian is detained and if they are, to intervene in order to release as well as calling more international presence. Two female activists, Noor* and Hannah* left the apartment at 11pm for a patrol stroll. Around 12am upon passing through Shuhada street and walking up to the second guard post located outside the settler street that harbors the infamous terrorist Baruch Marzel, a group of female settlers began to shout and obstruct the activists’ way.

The guard post outside the settler street where the assault took place

The settler leading the assault was an old settler female, known as Anat Cohen who had attempted to then run them over with her car, Noor and Hannah moving out the way just in time. She then got out of the car and demanded the soldiers pointing at the activists to “Kill them, kill them!”  Her hissing becoming louder and louder each time, abruptly grabbing Hannah’s collar in an attempt to pull her closer and hit her. The two soldiers eventually left their guard post to walk to where the activists remained, calling another three as the settler presence seemed to keep getting larger. I then received a call from Hannah asking me to come down, as they are being harassed. I immediately left the apartment with a male activist Marcus* and rushed towards the guard post. Upon arriving I saw the activists sitting on a pavement, the female settlers pointing, laughing and swearing in broken English, with the soldiers loosely in between them looking rather relaxed and smiling.

Anat Cohen - the female Settler that attempted to run us over 3 times

“Is there a problem here?” I asked the first soldier that looked at me. Giving me a grin he replied “No, no problem, I don’t know”, ignoring his vague reply, I passed through the soldiers to speak to Noor and Hannah. A young female settler no older than 16, with a jeering manner asked me “Who are you, why you here? Leave my counchry!”

“Crounchry?” I repeated unable to hide my amusement, “What’s a crounchry? If you mean country, you’re on the wrong side of the land.” And as childish as her character she yelled “Shukt the fuck up”. I looked into her eyes and felt nothing but pity towards her. Pity that such ignorance exists, such racism is practiced and it was right across me, and nothing I could say or do would be able to change or erase it.

Upon our arrival, the old female settler had called the young settler boys, a group of 10 or so were suddenly running towards us, with the intention of sparking trouble, immediately they jumped on Marcus who stumbled, spat on Noor and myself, whilst a lot of cursing in Hebrew. Freezing in shock I looked at the soldiers to see if they were doing anything. They simply continued their neutrality by just standing as a fence between us and the settlers, rather effortlessly, without the intention to actually protect us.

One soldier looking rather informal without his military hat and bag, began to usher us back up towards the Palestinian area of Tel Rumeida, the settlers still obstructing our path. “Maybe if you tell the people you protect to move out our way, we could move,” I replied to the soldier who kept repeating “Come come up up, come come.” Rolling his eyes he gestured for the settler boys to move to the left of the street as we walked on the right towards the Palestinian side, where we noticed a Palestinian family coming towards the guard post, downwards to checkpoint 56 which allows entry into H1. Thus we refused to return to our apartment until the Palestinians walked past safely without any harassment as the settlers were still standing around. Leaning up against a wall, I rang two more activists, Rene* and Carlos* to join us with our camera’s. Within 5 minutes they appeared, in which I immediately began taking pictures. Doing so, upset a certain settler dressed in a bright blue t-shirt and shorts with his rifle hanging off his shoulder.

One of the armed settlers who approached me

He began walking towards me, pointing his finger at my face, “You! Stop taking pictures of me! You motherfucker! You don’t take pictures of me OK!” By this time he was inches away from my face, refusing to step back, Noor pushed me backwards telling him to go. He began walking away towards the soldiers still staring at me, disappointed that his automatic gun couldn’t intimidate.

Suddenly the previous young settler boys who had disappeared momentarily began running out of their street towards us, unable to asses the situation in such a short space of time, we were bashed with spit, stones and eggs, as well as an attempt of my snatching my camera by a settler no older than 15. The soldiers decided to rush in between us ushering us behind them with the settler boys still present laughing, clapping and hi-fiving each other. Five soldiers remained behind us telling us that we must go home. As there were no more Palestinians visible on the streets, we reluctantly agreed, slowly walking towards our apartment in Tel Rumeida. Looking back I noticed Anat Cohen get in her car and drive into a street that would lead her back round to us. The soldiers who had also noticed this walked in front of us and as expected immediately she appeared, her headlights glaring, her face emotionless, her eyes deranged. Two soldiers ensured  that she pass to the right side of us as we continued walking on the left.

In the meantime I began to quiz to the soldiers. “These are the people you protect?” Silence. “I will be filing a complaint, who is your commander, give me his name.” A soldier to my left replies “Our commander cannot help you. You call the police.”

“Okay, give me the nearest Israeli Police station, and number and I will immediately file a complaint against this assault that you and your fellow friends found hilarious.” The same soldier replied “I cannot help you, I do not know.”

“Really? So then you’ve never rang the Israeli Police when you wanted to arrest a Palestinian?” Silence again. The soldier in front of him says something to him in Hebrew, in which Rene said, “That settler had a gun. He’s younger than you, he’s younger than me and he had a gun!” Smiling the soldier who initially had replied to me says “No he’s not. He’s not younger than me he’s the same age. I know him personally-”

“Oh you know him personally!?” I asked. “Well in that case you can give me his name and address and I can file my complaint even better.”

“No I cannot do that, he is in the army-” the same soldier who spoke to him before interrupts him again in Hebrew, and he no longer replies to any of our questions. As expected the crazed settler Cohen in her grey car was in front of us again, she had gone the same route in an attempt to run over us. Eventually reaching the complete Palestinian area where no Jewish vehicles are allowed, she paused, and patronizingly began gesturing us to the direction we were already walking in, a young settler sitting beside her laughing and sticking his middle finger up.

Only after this assault ended I realized I was shaking with anger the whole time. Not because I was spat on, egged and stoned for the first time, but because this is as nowhere near as what a Palestinian goes through everyday of their lives. I not only had anger in my blood, but pity in my heart for their mental state. I felt no gratitude for the soldiers reluctant escort of the 6 of us, but a lot of hatred for the fascist system that projects nothing but injustice and state terrorism.

It is clear. Israel has created two prisons. One of occupation, and one of ignorance.

With a clenched fist and tears in my eyes, may we continue to rise, resist and revolt.

Vittorio was granted honorary citizenship for his work on promoting the cause of the Palestinian people. Members of Gazan civil society are demanding his release; tomorrow at 4:00pm there will be a mass demonstration in Jundi Square.

British activist, Tom, aged 22, was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper, while trying to escort children caught in a crossfire to safety in Rafah, Gaza on 11 April 2003. He died 13 January 204 on a Tuesday night, in a London hospital due to complications with pneumonia. He had spent the past nine months in a coma, a vegetative state.

Back in England, he had applied to study criminology and philosophy in Manchester Metropolitan University. But he had found himself lost in photography and writing, which he saw as ways of highlighting what was important in life. So he switched to a degree in photographic journalism.

At age 21, about 10 years ago, he had photographed the million-strong London anti-Iraq war demonstration where he encountered the group planning to provide human shields in Iraq before the 2003 invasion. By February 2003, he was in Iraq, taking a break from his photojournalism course. As the volunteers ran out of money and war became inevitable he headed to Jordan and offered the remaining £500 he had to provide medical supplies for Jordanian Iraqi refugee camps. There he encountered the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), whose volunteers – committed to non-violence – were working with Palestinians as they faced the Israeli Occupation Forc. He arrived in the town of Rafah on April 6, 2003 and began emailing images of the IDF and the Palestinians back to his family.

The tone of his journals changed dramatically. “No one could say I wasn’t seeing what needs to be seen now,” he wrote.

On April 11 2003 Tom, dressed in a fluorescent orange ISM vest, was at the end of a Rafah street observing an earthen mound where a score of children were playing. As IDF rifle fire hit the mound, the children fled. But three, aged between 4 and 7, were paralysed by fear.

Tom, having taken a boy to safety, returned for the girls. He was hit in the head by a single bullet, fired by an IDF soldier. After a 2 hour delay on the border, Tom was taken to a specialist hospital in Be’ersheva, and then back to London, where he survived, in a vegetative state, until his death.

The initial IDF field report, which went to the British Embassy in Tel Aviv and to Tom’s family, exonerated the soldier who had killed him. He claimed that Tom was in camouflage, and wielding a gun. In the face of a clutch of witness statements, such suggestions were withdrawn. Just before Tom’s death, the soldier, a Bedouin Arab of the IDF, was indicted on six charges, of which the most serious was aggravated assault, implying no intention to kill. Since Tom was shot by a rifle with an advanced telescopic lens, his parents are demanding that the charge be murder, but they are also demanding the eradication of the “culture of impunity” with which the IDF operates in the occupied territories of Palestine.

According to B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, between September 29 2000 and December 18 2003 some 377 Israeli civilians and 80 security forces members were killed in Israel. Some 196 Israeli civilians and 180 IDF members were killed in the occupied territories.

In that period, 2,289 Palestinians were killed in the occupied territories, with many tens of thousands injured, most of whom have been civilians. From the end of 2002 to the spring of 2003, four “internationals” were killed in the occupied territories of whom three, including Tom, were British citizens. There have only been a handful of IDF investigations and just two convictions, with lenient sentences. Tom’s case is a landmark. For B’Tselem’s director Jessica Montell, it “has made a real contribution to the cause of greater military accountability”.

His murderer Sargeant Hayb was given 8 years punishment by Israeli courts but released within 6 years for good behaviour.

As we remember the death of Tom, let us not forget the ongoing catastrophic situation in Palestine that he was working to end. As Tom’s mother, Jocelyn, wrote in the UK’s Guardian, “It seems that life is cheap in the occupied territories. Different value attached to life depends on whether the victim happens to be Israeli, international or Palestinian.”

What do I want from this life? What makes you happy is not enough. All the things that satisfy our instincts only satisfy the animal in us. I want to be proud of myself. I want more. I want to look up to myself and when I die, I want to smile because of the things I have done, not cry for the things I haven’t done – Tom Hurndall (an email to his parents)

They took your body, but they cannot kill your beautiful spirit.

His murderer Sargeant Hayb was given 8 years punishment by Israeli courts but released within 6 years for good behaviour.

As we remember the death of Tom, let us not forget the ongoing catastrophic situation in Palestine that he was working to end. As Tom’s mother, Jocelyn, wrote in the UK’s Guardian, “It seems that life is cheap in the occupied territories. Different value attached to life depends on whether the victim happens to be Israeli, international or Palestinian.”

What do I want from this life? What makes you happy is not enough. All the things that satisfy our instincts only satisfy the animal in us. I want to be proud of myself. I want more. I want to look up to myself and when I die, I want to smile because of the things I have done, not cry for the things I haven’t done – Tom Hurndall (an email to his parents)

They took your body, but they cannot kill your beautiful spirit.