In Palestine, solidarity not tourism

Rebuttal statement on behalf of ISM London, 20th January 2010

By Pete Jones, ISM activist

As volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement, London we were disappointed to read Seth Freedman’s highly misleading description of the non-violent protests by the Palestinians of Bil’in, and the ISM’s support for them (“Palestine’s occupation tourism“, Comment is Free, 20th January).

Blaming the victim, Freedman bizarrely berates Palestinian participants in the unarmed weekly protests against the Israel occupation army for “aggression”. This reverses reality. It is the Israeli army that invades the village at night, the Israeli army and settlers that are occupying over 50% of the village’s land. Israel is the aggressor.

As someone who lived in Bil’in for almost two months and participated in a number of demonstrations, I witnessed the leaders of the Popular Committee regularly calling for stones not to be thrown during demonstrations. These calls are made both during the march if the youth (shabab in Arabic) are seen preparing to throw a stone, and in announcements during the week. There is plenty of video footage of Bil’in demonstration organisers asking shabab not to throw stones.

The ability of the leaders of the Popular Committee to make such calls may have been diminished recently — considering the fact that two of them, Abdullah Abu Rahmeh and Adeeb Abu Rahmeh were kidnapped by the Israeli army and are still being held prisoner, and a third, Mohammed Katib has been banned, by Israel, from the village during demonstrations.

It is true that these efforts are not always successful and some hot-headed youth end up throwing stones at the soldiers after the main demonstration, usually after they have been attacked with rubber-coated bullets and tear gas (which sometimes result in death, such as in the case of the late Basem Abu Rahmeh, a peaceful Palestinian protestor murdered by an Israeli soldier in April of last year). Freedman does not live in Bil’in and does not have to live with the regular night-time raids of the Israeli army, in which teenagers as young as 13 are seized, and therefore has no right to dictate the method of resistance to the Palestinians.

Israeli occupation forces have even gone to the extent of infiltrating stone-throwing “mistarvim” (Israeli forces disguised as Arabs) into the protest (see “Gandhi Redux” in Haaretz, 6th September 2005).

Freedman’s claim that ISMers are ‘occupation tourists’ is also false. In fact the ISM has had an ongoing presence in Bil’in since the villagers’ struggle began in 2005. It is telling when Freedman claims that “activists and NGO workers who have been operating in the region for years can be relied upon to update the watching world on the state of play in the village [without the need for ISMers]” and yet does not name a single one of these mysterious NGOs or activist organisations. The reality is that the ISM has an ongoing and long-term presence in the village. Volunteers often live in an apartment, many staying for months and forging long-term friendships with the people of Bil’in.

ISM volunteers are obliged to attend an intensive training course before they are permitted to work with the organisation. This training ensures ISM activists know the principles which guide the organisation’s work: non-violent action only, Palestinian-led action only and group action only. Freedman seems to scoff at the idea that ISM’s work should be Palestinian-led.

No ISM activist has the authority to tell a Palestinian how to run their resistance. We are not in Palestine to teach non-violence — in fact the Palestinians’ own long tradition of non-violent resistance has a lot to teach us all, from the protests and strikes against the British occupation in the 1930s onwards.

Freedman’s description of this central principle as an attempt to “absolve” ourselves “of any responsibility for the aggression emanating from the Palestinian side” is a typically orientalist attitude based on the false assumption that we westerners know what’s best for the Palestinians and should lead them.

On the contrary we in ISM view our role as witnessing the occupation so that we can raise awareness in our home countries while at the same time making the environment a little safer in Palestine. As a former Israeli solider, Freedman might know that the Israeli army has different rules of engagement at Palestinian protests when internationals or Israelis are involved in them. Live ammunition is not supposed to be used when they are present, but is allowed when Palestinians are alone.

Freedman has written some excellent CiF articles about the Israeli occupation of Palestine in the past, but shifting away from a colonialist point of view is often a long and difficult process. We wish him a speedy progression.

Raph — as he’s known within the ISM — instigated legal proceedings against the Jewish Chronicle after it published a letter in November 2008 falsely claiming he had “sheltered” British suicide bombers five days before they blew up a Tel Aviv bar in 2003.

In April, Raph won the case in the high court, accepting substantial damages and an apology. The paper also paid legal costs. The weekly newspaper accepted it should never have published the letter.

This month, Raph announced to ISM London that he would donate part of his award to the ISM.

We are always willing to help journalists, but we will not tolerate lies being told about our volunteers or our organisation.

ISM London is supported entirely from individual donations and our own fundraising efforts. See our Donations page for details.

Press coverage in The Guardian and the Press Gazette.

Regardless of the outcome of today’s verdict on the killing of Tom Hurndall, the International Solidarity Movement, London maintains that justice cannot been served while the culture of impunity in the Israeli army remains intact. Tom was one of hundreds of civilians killed in Rafah alone in the past four years. He was shot whilst trying to get children out of the line of Israeli army gunfire. As he bent down to pick up a young boy, he was shot in the head.

Human rights activist, Raphael Cohen (39), who was with Tom on the day of the shooting said, “On the very street where Tom was shot, two children had been shot just days before. This is why he and the rest of the group went to that spot, to protest against the shooting of children as they played outside their homes. There has never been any investigation into the shootings of those children.”

Last month, two Palestinian teenagers were shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the village of Biet Liqya near Ramallah. Adi Asi, 15 years old and Jamal Asi, 14 years old, were killed as the soldiers who were guarding the Apartheid Wall surrounding the village shot at the group of children. They were killed with live bullets to the chest and abdomen. Witnesses said they were playing football.

Recent Human Rights watch Report

As Human Rights Watch state in their recent report, Promoting Impunity, The Israeli Military’s Failure to Investigate Wrongdoing, “Pressure for a proper investigation rises every time a high-profile killing takes place, but Israeli authorities have taken no serious steps to improve the accountability of the armed forces, create an independent investigation system, or reform the military justice system.”

According to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, between the beginning of the intifada and the end of November 2004, 3,040 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces, including 606 children. According to Human Rights Watch, “The number of official investigations into alleged wrongful use of lethal force equals just two percent of the total number killed and only 15 percent of the number of children killed, despite the fact that many deaths occurred in non-combat circumstances and the extreme unlikelihood that many of the children killed were legitimate targets.”

The investigation into Tom’s killing was the result of a long hard process by his family and supporters to pressurise the Israeli government into providing answers. Without the family’s unrelenting efforts and personal investigations, this trial would not have happened.

No Human Rights for Palestinians

Israel has no national human rights institution, nor any independent commissioner for complaints about human rights violations committed by the army. Meanwhile, the government of Israel continues to deny entry to human rights activists, witnesses and journalists and deports those who take part in non-violent demonstrations against the seizure of Palestinian land and destruction of homes.

We, at ISM London, are calling to the people of Britain to do what our government refuses to do, to demand justice for the Palestinians. Britain continues to supply military equipment to Israel to be used in its campaign against the civilian Palestinian population. We urge people to put pressure on the government and people of Israel via economic boycott, to end the killings, withdraw the settlements, end the occupation and allow the people of Palestine and Israel to have a peaceful and prosperous future. This will be impossible while the occupation continues. Without justice there can be no peace.

Human Rights Watch report linked to here.

Attention Journalists!

ISM London is always happy to help journalists with specific questions and general background information. We can also provide speakers for radio or TV debates, and access to volunteers who have spent time in the Occupied Territories and are glad to be interviewed.

If you’d like to get in touch with the ISM London, the best way is to send an e-mail to: info@ism-london.org.uk

We also believe in free speech, and accept that not everyone views the Isreal/Palestine conflict the same way as we do.

But we will not tolerate lies. The internet has several misleading stories about the ISM that have been repeated on numerous sites that give them a superficial appearance of truth. The vast majority of these sites are operated by pro-Zionist extremists that shelter under US laws that effectively provide unrestricted free speech, regardless of the facts. But outside the USA there have been a few cases where journalists have printed this material leaving themselves open to legal action, and in the UK the attention of the Press Complaints Commission.

If you come across material which seems at odds with the aims and philosophy of the ISM, the chances are it’s false. To prevent any misunderstandings or (at worst) legal action, we suggest you do some elementary fact checking before you publish:

1. The main ISM website has a detailed FAQ that contains most of the false charges made against the ISM, together with the facts. You can find the FAQ at the bottom of the main page here: http://www.palsolidarity.org
2. If you can’t find the material in the FAQ, please contact us immediately and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

We welcome journalists and will help you in any way we can, but we will challenge any story that lies about our members, our aims, or our organisation.