December 2013 Newsletter
Children Under Occupation A Tacit Admission that Israel is Ethnically Cleansing Palestinians International Solidarity in the Refugee Camps of Lebanon SodaStream’s Commitment to Green Love and Freedom Call for Volunteers pdf version
June 2013 Newsletter
Land Day is Commemorated in the Occupied Territories of the Palestinian West Bank
by: Palestinian Grassroots Anti-apartheid Wall Campaign
Various events were held throughout the Occupied Territories in the West Bank to commemorate the 37th anniversary of the glorious Land Day. Stop the Wall implemented activities in lands which are threatened by confiscation and which are subject to continuous attacks by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).
December 2012
Palestinian Activists Block Settler Road 443
By Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, October 16, 2012
About 50 Palestinians joined by a number of international activists blocked today the Apartheid Road 443 (known as Modi’in, which passes on West Bank lands, connecting Tel Aviv to Jerusalem). The road was blocked for about 30 minutes to Israeli and settler traffic.
Soldiers and Border Police who arrived on the scene physically attacked protestors and journalists, and used pepper spray and sound bombs. One Palestinian protestor was detained and beaten. He was released an hour later.
June 2012
The Global March to Jerusalem
By Rick Williams, May 2012
The seed of the idea for GMJ initially came out of the Asia to Gaza Caravan of 2010-2011. In Spring 2011 a small group of Palestinians and Internationals reflected on that previous project and decided that a global march and rally focusing on Jerusalem could be a good way to draw the world’s attention to what is happening in Palestine. As they later said, “The Global March to Jerusalem aims to shed light on the issue of Jerusalem (The City of Peace) as the key to peace and war in the region and the world.”
Throughout Summer and Fall 2011 the idea was proposed to activist organizations and individuals around the world. In many cases the initial response was skepticism. As Ghada Karmi said, in an eloquent article written in the run-up to March 30, “I had not expected it [Global March to Jerusalem] would ever happen when I first heard about it.”
December 2011
ISM Turns Ten
By Neta Golan, October 2011
As one of the co-founders of the International solidarity movement (ISM) I often refer to ISM as my first baby. Well, my first baby is now an independent unruly and uncontrollable ten-year-old and I am one proud Mama. But I am one of ISM’s many proud Mamas (some of whom are male). For a movement to come into existence it needs to be a vision shared by hundreds or thousands of people who find an opportunity to come together and make it happen. In truth ISM has hundreds of co-founders, and only few of us have been acknowledged.
There is a word in Arabic, Nawal, that means a deep wish that is fulfilled. ISM is one of my Nawals and I proud and grateful to have had the opportunity to take part in its birth. Now, more than ten years later it is obvious that ISM has a life of its own, independent from any of us that were involved in its beginning. This is the one of the sources of my pride in the movement and there are many. I would like to name a few:
June 2011
Remembering ISM Volunteer Vittorio Arrigoni, 1975-2011
By Paul Larudee, April 2011
The most vivid memory I have of Vik is of him with a big grin on his face as he clung to the bow of a Gaza fishing boat, bouncing precariously across the waves and waving a Palestinian flag while he bid farewell to those of us returning from a victorious effort to break the siege of Gaza in 2008. Vik chose to stay, along with nine others who re-constituted the ISM presence in the Gaza Strip, which had been closed to volunteers since 2003.
We tend to use the term “hero” liberally, but if we don’t use it in Vik’s case, the word has no meaning.
December 2010
Why Should You Be An Activist in Palestine?
By Cide Benengeli October 2010
The moral reason to go to Palestine cannot be disputed. Palestinians are currently in their seventh decade of military occupation and are subject to the most brutal immiseration and politicide. Only the most jaded conscience can fail to be moved at the sight of the horrors perpetrated. Furthermore, the Occupation is personal to Americans. The F-16s that rain death over the Gaza Strip come with “Made in USA” labels.
However, if compassion drives us, emotions alone cannot be the reason to go. One argument of IDF intellectual hitmen has been “but why do you unfairly target Israel when there are so many other tragic situations in the world?”. They have a perverse point. Unmanned drones wreak havoc in Pakistan, and ethnic cleansing plagues the Congo. If we are, however, to avoid comparing victims to see who is “more oppressed,” then we have to consider the strategic dimension.
June 2010
Hope and Despair
by Paul Larudee May 2010
The outlook for Palestinians has never been more desperate – nor more hopeful.
The desperation is easy to understand. Eight million Palestinians remain homeless. Whether they live in a crowded refugee camp or in Beverly Hills, Israel has denied them their homes for up to 62 years and is working hard to expel the rest.
The crushing Israeli restrictions on Palestinians is intended to destroy their ability to earn a living, get an education, maintain their culture, or even keep their families together. Under the new “infiltrator” law, it is now illegal for Palestinians in one part of Palestine to be in another part, and they are subject to “deportation” to the location shown on their Israeli-issued ID. Many who went abroad for education or work have been refused permission to return, and Jerusalemites are being expelled to the West Bank. More than 24,000 homes have been demolished. On top of that is the devastation of Gaza, with the threats and prospect of being repeated.
December 2009
Resistance to the Wall Continues in Nil’in and Bil’in
By Tracie De Angelis Salim, November 2009
Optimystical is a word coined by one of the doctors treating Tristan Anderson at a hospital in Tel Aviv. Nancy Anderson, Tristan’s mom, uses it to express her feeling about Tristan’s recovery.
On March 13, 2009, Israeli Occupation Forces shot Tristan in the head with a high velocity tear gas canister as he stood in solidarity with Palestinians in the village of Ni’lin. He had been drawn to Palestine because he is a human rights activist and recognized the need for internationals to stand with the local population against injustice— in this case by demonstrating against the Israeli Apartheid Wall that would take a third of their land for an Israeli settlement. Tristan suffered severe brain injuries, and his survival was by no means certain.
June 2009
Six Years Without Rachel
By ISM Gaza Strip, March 2009
Every March 16th we remember Rachel Corrie, a kind, insightful, talented person committed to the Palestinian plight and the courage of her convictions. We believe that before she is remembered on this anniversary of her death, Rachel would want the world to remember the 1,400 Palestinians killed in Israel’s massive assault on the Gaza Strip. The situation is now even more desperate than when she was here. We still demand justice. We still demand that the world hold Israel responsible for the murder of Rachel and so many Palestinians. We also demand that the US hold responsible the Caterpillar corporation that provides the military bulldozers that killed Rachel and many Palestinians and, which have demolished thousands of Palestinian homes.