The pervious film, shot during the 2005 olive harvest trip, entitled "OUR SUFFERING IN THIS LAND" will be broadcast on the international Islam TV Channel shortly as follows:-
Sunday 2nd September 9.30pm and repeated Tuesday 4th 10pm.
A trailer/advert is going out currently on the channel about every two hours.
You may have the Islam Channel as part of your cable/TV bundle.
Alternatively you can see it on your computer via the internet
Log onto www.islamchannel.tv then click the "Watch-Online" label at the bottom of the picture of the TV,
then select Broadband or Mediaplayer and the channel will appear on your screen.
Palestine Campaigns Tent at the Big Green Gathering July 2007
The Big Green Gathering is probably the biggest annual activist's festival gathering in the UK or maybe even Europe! This year it runs from Wednesday 1st to Sunday 5th August in a beautiful location on the Mendip Hills in Somerset. For those who don't know it, as the name suggests it's politically and environmentally the greenest large festival in the UK scene. FFI www.big-green-gathering.com
It's a major opportunity for campaign groups to get their message out, to train and share information, and to attract in new activists. Oh, and have fun too!
In previous years Palestine campaigning has been surprisingly underrepresented. But this year this is due to change!
The organisers have agreed the large "Kinotastik" meeting tent, complete with beautiful middle-eastern wall-hangings and a 500W solar electricity system, will be available everyday, from mid-day until late evening, exclusively for Palestine Campaigning.
There will be a full program of speakers each day including:-
Zaytoun
Easton Cowgirls & Cowboys
Bristol and National Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Activist film-making in Palestine
Short vids of Palestine from Undercurrents
Jews For Justice For Palestinians
The Olive Coop
Non-Violence techniques
Permaculture in Palestine
Journalism in Palestine
Circus 2 Palestine
Olive Agriculture
Medical work in Gaza
The Peace Cycle
and much more.....
Plus a full cinema of Palestine films every evening over the whole five days.
See the full program for the Palestine Campaigns Tent here: Palestine Campaigns Tent - Program.doc, (To download and save , right click and click 'save as')
Newsflash June 2007
Some people will remember the encounter with the "Party Political Friends of Israel" when appearing in a live TV debate with a local Labour MP last December (DVD available if you're particularly interested).
Well the good news is the Lib Dems have broken ranks with the other main parties and created their own Friends of Palestine group. (LDFP (Liberal Democrats Friends of Palestine))
Ed Hill Interview June 2007
A local student film-maker, James Shaddick, has done an interview with me and used footage from the first film and my forthcoming film.
It's very good, and has the important virtue of being short - just five minutes! Plus it covers various aspects of the Olive Harvest trips and the injustice in Palestine focusing on Bethlehem, Marda, and the Salfit region.
Click the Still to play.
Please feel free to use it for the cause.
The recent 40th anniversary of the 1967 occupation created the opportunity in the local media for coverage of the computers project and the achievements of the first film. Read more here (Media Coverage).
The film May 2007
The film/dvd "Our sufferings in this land" continues to attract exciting recognition and to reach a wider audience.
"DVD of the month" in Palestine - The film is reviewed in the May issue of the leading English-language magazine in Palestine "This Week in Palestine". It is listed as "DVD of the month" on the website at www.thisweekinpalestine.com and as soon as the magazine is published you can read a full pdf version via the website.
Bristol Libraries - the dvd has just been accepted to be stocked in every branch of the lending library throughout Bristol - that's 27 copies all available to be borrowed and watched by Bristolians!
Film Festivals - The film has just been accepted for the Ecolnoa - Israeli International Environmental Film Festival in Tel Aviv in May and at the Swansea International Film Festival in the UK in June.
Stockists -
A batch of dvds have just been shipped to a distributor to be available to the North American market and world-wide via www.palestineonlinestore.com/
It is now available on the shelf at - The Educational Bookshop, 22 Salaheddin Street, Jerusalem.
It continues to be available through our own website, (Purchases Page) and since expanding our production process the price is reduced to £10 (incl p+p) and we hope this new lower price will reach a wider audience.
Cardiff political activist's music site to donate to Computers4Palestine project. Jan 2007
Following a film showing of Our Sufferings in this Land in Cardiff in December, Jon Blake decided to donate profits of his music download website to the Computers4Palestine project.
Closure
Jon Blake
Release Date: Dec 03, 2006
Total Songs: 18
Closure is an online album of acoustic and electric songs by BBC Talent awardwinner Jon Blake (secretary of Cardiff Social Forum), described by online reviewers as 'beautiful', 'powerful and moving', 'consistently good', 'aching in emotion', and 'very melodic indeed'.
Please feel free to download 'Closure' (the album) for less than a UK fiver. click here to visit the website. All proceeds till March are being donated to the Bristol Computers 4 Palestine appeal.
Palestine Trip. December 2006
Bristol man, Ed Hill, has just returned from visiting Palestine with a team of UK Peace Volunteers. They have been staying in small West Bank towns to help with the Olive Harvest have been witnessing the ongoing injustices in Palestine.
During the second week of their trip they witnessed soldiers obstructing and delaying farmers and their families trying to reach their fields to harvest their olives. They heard accounts of threats of attacks from settlers to farmers tending their fields. And they saw evidence of deliberate acts of pollution, which have killed the farmer’s fruit and olive trees. They also spent time at checkpoints observing the obstruction of Palestinian travel between their different areas of the West Bank. Finally they witnessed the Israeli army demolishing farmers homes and buildings.
Az Zawiya
Some of the volunteers stayed in the small rural town of Az Zawiya. Here a large area of the farmers land is being cut off behind the infamous Israeli Separation Wall/Fence. In order to reach their olive trees the farmers have to walk for three-quarters of an hour from their nearest road, pass through a drainage tunnel under a new Israeli highway, and pass through the one remaining gap in the Wall/Fence. This gap was guarded by Israeli soldiers. Every day they blocked the farmers and their families for up to an hour & a half before they would let them pass to start their picking.
As Sawiya
Ed Hill visited the town of As Sawiya, where volunteers helped with the olive harvest last year. He spoke to organisers in the town to hear of the problems they have faced over the last twelve months. Farmers faced problems from the nearby settlement when they went to plough their fields this spring. An additional problem has been a deliberate release of sewerage, which poisoned the land and killed some trees.
Last year the town had a vibrant and therapeutic youth club including billiard tables, two computers, and a Dabka dance group. Sadly this has had to close this year due to the shortage of money to pay the rent on the premises. In addition, the organiser in the town, who works during the day for a Government Ministry, hasn’t been paid since March 2006 and has had to take out a personal loan for the bus fare to work, to continue his job as a volunteer.
Masha
Ed Hill visited the small West Bank town of Masha. Here, surpassing any of the absurdities of the Berlin Wall, a Palestinian house has been incorporated into the midst of the Separation Fence/Wall. As the house was built before 1967 it couldn’t legally be demolished. So the Separation fences have been built all around the house while the family are still living there. The Israelis, out of vindictiveness, have built a section of 25- foot high concrete wall in front of the house to separate it from the rest of the Palestinian town.
Deir Ballut
This is a checkpoint that controls a Palestinian area that can only be described as an “enclave off an enclave” trapped behind multiple stretches of the Israeli Separation Wall/fence that join the (illegal) Settlements back to Israel. The gates on the checkpoint close at sunset, but if anyone is taken ill in the area ambulances aren’t allowed to pass. Since the building of the checkpoint, an elderly man has died of heart failure and a woman has given birth to premature twins (which have died) in ambulances, which have not been allowed to pass the checkpoint by the soldiers.
Checkpoints
Ed Hill spent some time at the various checkpoints observing the delays and heavy military domination of Palestinians as they try to pass from one part of the West Bank to another. Vehicles are minutely inspected and searched by soldiers and with dogs. Pedestrians have to queue up to be searched inside their clothes, in their bags, and to have their IDs checked. All this is done by young and nervous armed soldiers. On some days the delays can be for hours at a time. On occasions checkpoints can close altogether and people must return home. Ed heard accounts of how the soldiers can open fire at any moment and heard distressing accounts of Palestinians being shot dead on the spot, for no apparent reason.
Demolitions
On the final day, members of the team were called to the town of Al Funduq. Here the Israeli army demolished two family homes and two large agricultural buildings. Sound bombs and rubber bullets were used to quell protest from the Palestinians. Such demolitions are deemed to be legal, as the Israeli haven’t granted planning permission for any new buildings in the West Bank since the 1967 invasion - hence all recent buildings are under threat of such demolition. (see www.IWPS.info report number 279)
Ed Hill says, “In every aspect of life the Palestinians are being robbed and degraded. Farmers land is gradually being stolen from them for the Wall or the illegal settlements. Their crops are being destroyed by wonton acts such as pollution. People face ever-increasing restrictions on their travel within their own country. Their resources and their precious time are being stolen from them. This is all economic sabotage of their economy. Their houses and lively-hood are being wrested from them by brutal demolitions. And all this under the barrel of a gun. It is clear to me the Israelis are engaged on slow-motion ethnic-cleansing to gradually clear the Palestinians from their own homes and lands in the West Bank so it can eventually be incorporated into Israel. This is theft of an entire land and I think it’s an international scandal!”
He goes on to say “I recommend anyone to visit Palestine as a Peace worker. There is a wide-range of peace, faith and solidarity groups that can arrange trips. Then people can see, with their own eyes, the unbelievable and unbearable levels of injustice and oppression taking place here. ”
Ed Hill’s film will be show in the Bristol/SW area:-
Wednesday 6th December. 7.30pm Cardiff Social Forum, the Social Centre, Brunel Street, Riverside, Cardiff. FFI Jon Blake 0292-0213-053
and at the last count copied onto about a dozen websites around the world!
Did you miss this?
Sunday 3rd December Bristol & SW BBC TV "The Politics Show" 12.30pm includes excepts from the video footage of the 2006 trip together with a live debate between Ed Hill and a pro-Israel MP.
You can view "The Politics Show" again if you click here.
If you can't view the video, you will need a "Real Player" Plugin, click here to download the plugin.
Palestine Trip. November 2006
This year the Zaytoun Olive Picking Group is much larger, and we split into three separate groups. Our group of six stayed in Marda, which will now be well known from the film.
I have been telling the media in the UK about the town being “strangled by a ring of steel”. But when I arrived and saw the gates and the miles of fencing it was a shock to see it with my own eyes. The “Separation Barrier Wall/Fence” stretches along the hillside so-say protecting the settlement of Ariel. This will eventually become the de-facto new border with Israel, even though it is more then ten miles inside the west Bank. And the long silver/grey mesh fence that snakes along the side of the Settler-Road makes you question if there is any wire or steel mesh left in the rest of the world, because it seems there is a danger that it’s all being used up here. The massive gates have a sinister engineering logic with their massive concrete blocks, the criss-cross of the gate, and massive steel cables and fasteners which I assume can be locked up in some way to keep the gates closed. It made me want to cry, I admit.
It is such an injustice that this innocent town of farmers, who just want to get on quietly with their own lives, are being treated in this way.
Our team busied itself going out each day picking the olives with the farmers. Most days in the fields near the main road and alongside the house which you will have seen the film. This is the house which was commandeered by the army as a base. At the moment it seems unused but is fenced off with razor wire and the Palestinians say not to go inside for fear of danger.
I have also been working on media coverage in the UK. I set up a photo-opportunity and presented my film (DVD) to the Mayor of the town. The Mayor is also one of the farmers in the town and needs to leave at 6 am each morning to harvest his olives, so this did require a very early start to the day!
I also talked to local people about their experiences when the Israeli army has locked the gates and prevented vehicles entering or leaving the town. This has already happened several times this summer, for periods ranging from hours to days. When the gate is locked across the road vehicles can not enter or leave the town. People have difficulty getting to work, or students to their education in other towns. Delivery Lorries with supplies for shops in the town, and staff for the clinic, are also blocked. Farmers can not reach their fields on the other side of the road.
In addition to this, we spoken to people who have been victims of army raids into the town. These raids have been happening almost every night over the last week, usually between midnight and four in the morning.
Army raids this week and other incidents:-
Night of Sunday 5th November.
Soldiers walked the length of the town periodically throwing sound-grenades and firing flares into the air.
Night of Monday 6th November
Woman, a Psychologist, was asleep in her home with her two young children (aged 1 and 3 years old) and her elderly mother. At about 3am a large number of soldiers surrounded the house and started throwing stones damaging the door, the walls, and breaking a large window. She went to the door and the soldiers demanded to see her husband. On finding he wasn’t in the house they took them all out into their garden and held them at gun-point, squatting on the ground for about an hour while they questioned them.
During this time they also attacked a neighbour’s house when someone turned on a light in the house.
They then went to another house in the same road, searched and ransacked the house, and arrested a young man. He was released a day later without charge.
Someone in the town phoned the Zaytoun Olive Harvest team and we walked into the town where at about 4.15am we saw and videoed army vehicles driving around and parking in the middle of the town near the mosque. We witnessed a sound-grenade being let off at about the time that people would be going to and fro to the Mosque for early morning prayers.
Night of Wednesday 8th November.
During the night soldiers went to the house of a Farmer. They broke the glass panel in the front door of his house. This is the third time his house has been raided. His son (21 years old) was arrested recently from his family home and held for 8 days, then released this week, without charge.
Night of Thursday 9th November
After visiting this man and neighbour reported that soldiers had been to his house in the night and ordered people out into the street and made them lie down. He said this was a terrifying experience for them and especially their children.
I also met and interviewed a 14 year old boy who was arrested for going near the Separation Wall (Fence) around the settlement. This barrier is in fact a triple set of fences; an outer pair of high razor-wire barriers and a central fifteen foot high wire mesh fence equipped with sensor wires on the sides and at the top. This occupies a strip of land 50 to 100 metres wide including gravel and a tarmac patrol road. He was detained for three weeks and then released.
The gesture of crossed hands is a sign-language we're getting used to here in Palestine to mean arrest or imprisonment.
On Friday 10th in the afternoon the Zaytoun Olive Harvest team were working harvesting olives near the main road. Three Israeli army vehicles arrived with about twenty soldiers who spread out among the trees near the edge of the town and carried out an operation involving beatings, shouting and carrying casualties on stretchers. This caused panic to the farmers, their families, and to the people in the town as they though Palestinians were involved. The Team approached the soldiers who explained it was an exercise but made no apology for carrying it out near the town, or on Friday – the Muslim prayer day. One soldier spoke to the team explaining he thought “The only good Arab is a dead Arab”.
Morale in the town has been low, along with the rest of Palestine. Most government workers haven’t been paid for the last seven months. Since the election of the Hammas Government the US and EU have withheld aid grants, and Israel has withheld tax refunds to the Palestinian Authority. One of the many consequences of this is the schools finally closed I the summer and most young children have not been able to attend school.
Despite the crushing oppression of the Israeli occupation and the obvious attempts to strangle the town, there are some positive "seeds of hope" which are tribute to the Palestinian resilience and organisational skills.
A new Human Rights monitoring office has recently opened in the town. This is a branch of the Jerusalem Legal Aid office and offers legal support throughout the area. For instance it has engaged solicitors to fight the route of the Israeli Wall and destruction of agricultural land, etc with some notable successes. The office also is planning training courses in human rights and legal work for representatives from across the West Bank.
In addition, there are plans to restart the Permaculture project in Marda. The original project was very successful and attracted students from across the Middle East to study and research techniques in arid Permaculture. Although the first facility was destroyed by the Israeli army during the Second Intifada there are plans to buy land and to start a new centre in the town. Interestingly, the new project leader in Marda was trained by Mike Fingold (sp?) from Bristol - small world eh!
We were embarrassed to not have been able to deliver the computers we had hoped. There is a building available in the town and there will be volunteers to run a computer centre. Fund-raising in the project is still going slowly, but you can help if you want. Cheques to the usual mailing address and you'll notice the website now has a new "PayPal" facility to make donating easier.
I will be meeting people next weekend who may be able to advise and assist with shipping the computers from the UK through Israel and into Palestine. Watch this space for future news.
Picture attached (Higher resolution pictures available on request)
Ed Hill has started a project to supply computers and other IT resources to small rural towns in the West Bank like Marda. FFI see www.BristolComputers4Palestine.co.uk. This website also has more pictures.
Olive harvest tours, such as these, are organised by Zaytoun, the UK ethical cooperative that imports Palestinian olive oil to be sold as a fair-trade product. See www.zaytoun.org
Human Rights abuses in the Salfit region of Palestine are monitored by the International Women’s Peace Service, a team of internationals based in the West Bank town of Haris. FFI see www.IWPS.info
CONTACTS:
Ed Hill mobile in Palestine 00972-54-731-3690
Email EdwardHill1@yahoo.co.uk (notice the one)
Donation to “Children of Bethany” Project.
November 2006
Bristol Computers4Palestine made its first donation. A digital camera and laptop computer were presented to Suzana Zorko Founder/director of the CHILDREN OF BETHANY PROJECT (see picture).
The Israeli separation Wall is being built through the south-eastern suburbs of Jerusalem cutting off some 40,000 people in the Abu Dis area outside the city and fragmenting up to 60,000 people in other nearby communities. Previously people travelled into Jerusalem, just three miles, for employment, hospitals, education, and cultural entertainment. But the construction of the Wall is now stopping this. Unemployment has now risen to some 70%. Medical treatment is supplied by just small clinics, and there are few faculties for children beyond basic education.
The CHILDREN OF BETHANY PROJECT takes its name from the nearby Christian community around the Bethany area, where by tradition Jesus stated his journey into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. It raises funds for children’s entertainment and cultural trips. For instance to the zoo, for a recent international puppet festival, and shortly the premiere performance of the first Palestine Circus troupe in Bethlehem.
Suzana Zorko says “The Wall cuts us off here, like a limb severed from the rest of the body. Without these trips there is almost nothing for young people to do here and very little hope. The donation of the camera and laptop will enable us to record our work and maintain our website and to communicate our project, both locally and internationally, to attract fund-raising for this essential work for our community”.
The donation was made in the area of Al-Eizariya where the Israeli Wall cuts straight across the main dual carriage-way that previously linked the area to Jerusalem (see map).
For further information on the project visit www.circus2iraq.org
Pictures of the Circus project in Palestine can be seen on www.circus2iraq.org and click on the “Children of Bethany and Jerusalem Suburbs” button from the list.
Emergency Appeal Launched
October 2006
Our original plan to share a shipping container to Ramallah has been put back. The British Council withdrew from the West Bank in the summer and now don’t plan to return until spring 2007. Even then, we have a lot of enquiries to make to ensure the Israelis won’t obstruct our shipments.
Meanwhile, conditions in Palestine are getting desperate. The town of Marda has been sealed off several times this summer. The school in the town is closed, as the Government has no money to pay any of its staff. Farmers are anxious they will face even worse restrictions during the olive harvest. The Israelis can impose draconian measures, such as needing a pass to take donkeys into the fields; they can even declare the whole area a closed military zone and the olives will rot on the trees. The whole town is in despair.
We decided we must do what we can to help Marda urgently. Other members of the 2005 group are fund-raising in their local communities. In Bristol, I worked with the Imam from the local Mosque to publicise and EMERGENCY APPEAL (see picture). Our story has gone out to the local papers, national left-wing papers, and in particular the national Muslim newspapers.
We arranged a photo-opportunity at a computer centre in Bristol. At the launch in Bristol of the Emergency Appeal this is what we said:-
Imam Assad Ali Shah, of the St Marks Road Mosque says, “The more we hear about the continued injustice in Palestine, the more we feel for its people’s sufferings. This little town of Marda, like many others in Palestine, is the victim of the continued Israeli occupation and settlement building in the West Bank. This is illegal under international law, yet it is the Palestinians who are being punished. What a terrible injustice that these people are being ruthlessly driven from their homes in order to wipe Marda off the map. I feel we must do all we can to help give this town and its people a chance of a future”.
Ed Hill, of Computers4Palestine, says, “This Emergency Appeal aims to raise £6,000 in 6 weeks. It’s a high target. But the situation in Palestine is desperate. A group of International volunteers will take this money out with them when they go to help with the olive harvest in November. It will be used to buy a network of computers and we will deliver them personally to Marda to equip their Computer Centre. He goes on to say “It’s not just the money and the practical aid. So much of what is happening in Palestine simply isn’t reported in our media. I hope through this publicity people will understand more of what is really happening. I hope they will pressurise our Government to stop supporting American and Israeli policy of aggression and oppression. I also hope this appeal will act as a successful model for campaigners to link up with Muslim communities – together we are stronger and in the end we all believe in the same things – the principles of fairness and justice for everyone.”
You, the readers of this website can help too. This website has been considerably improved. It now has an on-line “Pay-Pal” facility and it’s now a lot easier to order the book and the DVD of the 2005 Olive Harvest Tour that started all this. It’s much easier to get added to the email list for our mailings.
But most of all, PLEASE DONATE NOW so we can take sufficient funds out with us this year to buy a network of computers in the West Bank, and to deliver them personally to Marda. To give this town some hope in the face of Israeli injustice that wants to wipe this little town off the face of the map.
Bristol East MP Kerry McCarthy endorses project. She says:-
"I very much support the appeal for computers and digital cameras for Palestine, which i am sure will be put to good use in schools, youth groups, and withing the general community. There is a dire shortage in Palestine of such resources, and this initiative will provide much needed help for those Palestinians who are trying to achieve an education in very difficult circumstances."
"I have vistied the West Bank twice, most recently as an Election Observer at the January 2006 elections. I was deeply concerned by the extent to which the economy has suffered as a result of the Israeli occupation including severe restrictions on freedom of movement, the confiscation of land, the building of illegal settlements, the construction of the seperation wall and significant damage to infastructure caused by military incursions."
"Recently developments in Gaza, and now in Lebanon, have made hopes for peace in the Middle East seem like a distant prospect, but we must do all we can to ensure that the peace process is resurrected and a two-state solution with securty from terrorism for Israel and a viable Palestinian state is achieved."
"In the meantime, we must do what we can to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people, any contribution, no matter how small, can make a real difference. I would therefore urge people to support this appeal."
Postcard Campaign
September 2006
In August, when it emerged that US transport planes loaded with bombs and missiles destined for Israel to be used in the invasion of Lebanon were refuelling at British airfields, the public was once again reminded of the Governments direct and indirect support for Israeli aggression. Here in Bristol East we are fortunate that our MP, Kerry McCarthy, has visited Palestine on Parliamentary delegations and seen the injustice with her own eyes. She, and another Bristol MP Roger Berry, have published hard-hitting articles in the local newspaper.
A postcard campaign was launched and rapidly gained momentum. Hundreds of cards were signed by all sections of the community including campaigners, various faith groups, at mosques, and by many other people passing by street stalls. The cards were presented to Kerry McCarthy on Friday22nd September on the eve of the Labour Party Conference.
They were pinned to giant display boards to illustrate the shocking deaths and injuries of Palestinians in just the last three months alone.
FILM PREMIERE
BRISTOL INDYMEDIA/PSC
PRESENT An evening of independent films on Palestine
Monday 7th August 7.30pm Cube Cinema, (Dove Street off King Square) Bristol
£2/3 though nobody turned away for lack of funds
Bristol Indymedia is pleased to screen the first ever showing of the first feature length documentary by Bristol activist and filmmaker Ed Hill.
Ed visited Palestine on a two week Olive Harvest trip organised by Zaytoun (Palestinian Olive Oil importers www.zaytoun.org) and the International Women’s Peace Service (www.iwps.info), in November last year.
He also visited an Orphanage in the northern town of Tulkarm to deliver money raised by the Bristol PSC group. The evening is a fund-raiser for Bristol Computers 4 Palestine. Bristol Indymedia is a volunteer run media project that aims to give open access to people in Bristol and the SW.
See bristol.indymedia.org and www.cubecinema.com Political Pressure
Our Government gives tacit support to Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians.
Write at once to your MP at: House of Commons, Westminster, LONDON SW1A 0AA
Find out which constituency you are in, who your local MP is and how to contact them at www.parliament.uk Or email your MP directly via www.writetothem.com
In East Bristol we want to launch a post card campaign. If you live locally and would like to help with this project contact EdwardHill1@yahoo.co.uk
Marda closed by army 28th to 29th June 2006
See photos in “Marda Pictures” button
Read IWPS report below
Human Rights Report No. 251
Human Rights Summary: Village of Marda Closed by Army
Date of incident: June 28, 2006
Time: Before 5 a.m.; still closed at 11 p.m.
Place: Marda, Salfit.
Witnesses: Marda residents, IWPS
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident:
On June 28, 2006, the access road to the village of Marda was closed by the Israeli army in the early morning hours.
Marda is surrounded on three sides by the separation wall, and has only one access road, which leads to the Trans-Samaria Highway. The Israeli Defence Forces have installed a gate across this access road. When it is shut, there is no vehicular access to or from Marda.
When IWPS team members arrived about 9:30 a.m. in response to a call from a village resident, this gate was closed, and was guarded by four soldiers with a jeep. Three soldiers were at the gate and another was on the hillside with a rifle. An IWPS member called the IDF Humanitarian Office, which informed her that the gate would be closed for “a few hours.”
Over half a dozen cars were lined up on the Marda side of the gate, their occupants waiting to drive to work. The villagers had found the gate locked by 5 or 6 a.m. this morning. When questioned, the soldiers implied that the gate had been locked before they arrived on shift at 5a.m. The soldiers told the local residents and IWPS that settlers from Ari’el, the settlement overlooking Marda, had reported seeing boys putting stones on the road, and then running back to Marda land. The soldiers refused to open the gate to let the Marda residents drive to work, telling them that they could only leave on foot.
After a while, the IWPS team members left the gate with the resident who had called them. When they returned, around 11:45a.m., the gate was still locked. A Marda woman was to be married to a man from Deir Istya that afternoon, and her father was talking with the soldiers. They refused to let her or anyone through. After some time and negotiating, the soldiers agreed that five cars would be able to pass that afternoon to attend the wedding. The IWPS team members then left Marda. When they spoke to the resident again at 5:40 p.m., he told them that the wedding party had not been allowed to pass. It was only after IWPS and an Israeli human rights activist had made calls to the military authorities that two cars of the wedding party were allowed through.
At 11p.m., the gate was still closed, and the soldiers were not able to say when free access to the village would resume.
Collective punishment is in contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 33.
Report written by: Jo
Edited by: Marisa and Beth
Date report written on: June 27, 2006
The International Women's Peace Service, Haris, Salfit, Palestine.
Tel:- (09)-2516-644. Mobile:- 067-870-198 Email:- iwps@palnet.com Website:- www.iwps.info
Operating out of Haris, near Salfit, the International Women's Peace Service monitors and responds to Human Rights Abuses in the area. Part of our mission is to contact the relevant authorities in the case of any arrests that take place in the Haris area.
The film
Closure
Donation to “Children of Bethany” Project.
The CHILDREN OF BETHANY PROJECT takes its name from the nearby Christian community around the Bethany area, where by tradition Jesus stated his journey into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. It raises funds for children’s entertainment and cultural trips. For instance to the zoo, for a recent international puppet festival, and shortly the premiere performance of the first Palestine Circus troupe in Bethlehem.
Emergency Appeal Launched
"I very much support the appeal for computers and digital cameras for Palestine, which i am sure will be put to good use in schools, youth groups, and withing the general community. There is a dire shortage in Palestine of such resources, and this initiative will provide much needed help for those Palestinians who are trying to achieve an education in very difficult circumstances."
Postcard Campaign
Marda closed by army 28th to 29th June 2006