arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Palestinians dismantle Israeli military checkpoint
by Tom Welschen Monday December 31, 2001 at 02:23 PM
welschen@tiscalinet.it

December 29, 2001 [Surda, Palestine] Over one hundred foreign civilians served as an "international protection force" for Palestinians and deployed at the Surda military checkpoint (on the road from Ramallah to Birzeit University) to allow Palestinians safe passage to and from work and school.

The Israeli military checkpoint set up at Surda is illegal according to UN Resolutions and international law. The checkpoint is also a site of daily abuses of Palestinian human rights by Israeli soldiers. Palestinian cars are not permitted to pass and thousands of Palestinians, old and young are forced to walk uphill for over a kilometer when passing. The identification cards of young Palestinian men are often confiscated and the young men themselves forced to wait, sometimes hours, in obedient positions behind barbed wire. Israeli soldiers have even resorted to harassing Palestinian youth, as international observers* have witnessed soldiers yelling at 8-10 year old children, asking them for their identification.**

Israeli soldiers attacked the international group deployed in the area with tear gas and concussion bombs, despite the non-violent nature of their presence. The foreign peace activists clearly identified themselves as an international peace force and carried a message of peace and justice. Activists were pushed, shoved and even kicked by soldiers who acted violently and aggressively. More than one time, soldiers trained their sights and laser targeting from their guns on unarmed activists in a threatening gesture.

Palestinian and international activists held firm, and kept the road open all day, allowing Palestinians to pass without harassment. Additionally, Palestinian activists removed an Israeli outpost, used by soldiers to illegally control the area. At no time were stones thrown by protestors and at no time were there any violent gestures or actions by the peace activists.

Today's action by internationals and Palestinians is a call for more concrete intervention by the international community. "It's shameful that our countries stand by while Israel continues to terrorize the Palestinian people. I'm here to stand up against injustice and to urge my government to do the same," said U.S. citizen and participant Brian Wood.

For photos, see:
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=Palestinian&c=news_photos
Digital photos also available. For more information, call Huwaida at 052-642-709 or Palestinian Center for Rapprochement at 02-277-2018.

Notes to Editor:
*The international observers are part of a group called International Checkpoint Watch. The ICW is made up of volunteers from various foreign countries who monitor checkpoints on a regular basis to document human rights abuses.
** Children do not have identification. You are assigned an ID card at the age of 16 in Palestine
FOTO: http://www.ccmep.org/palpics.html#takeover


[guardate anche i siti seguenti:

http://www.pngo.net/
The PNGO Network was established in September 1993, as a quick response to the signing of the Oslo Agreements with an objective to enhance coordination, consultation, and cooperation between member organizations working in different developmental domains. Throughout the past eight years PNGO has become an important component of the Palestinian civil society.

http://www.rapprochement.org/
The Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between People - Beit Sahour
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
CAMPAIGN TO END THE OCCUPATION

http://www.alnakba.org/
il sito eccellente di un villaggio nella Palestina occupata

http://www.icahd.org/
the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions

http://www.acrossborders.org/ENG_ABP/default.htm
Across Borders aims to bring Internet technology to Palestinian refugee camps across the Middle East and hopes to see the creation of bilingual (English/Arabic) camp websites, including on-line news, oral history and stories from Palestinians refugees. The website is in English and French

http://www.btselem.org/
This is the premier Israeli human rights web site and its coverage is comprehensive

http://www.alhaq.org/
Al-Haq is an Arabic word meaning 'fairness', 'justice', 'law', and 'truth'. This is an exellent website that provides a wide range of information on human rights.


http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/me.html
This web site has information on all aspects of Palestinian refugees and provides information on every single recognised Palestinian refugee camp. If you need official statistics this is the place to go.

http://www.maan-ctr.org/
MA'AN Development Center (MA'AN) is an independent Palestinian developmental and training institution established and registered in Jerusalem in 1989 as a non-profit organization. MA'AN has offices in Ramallah and Gaza

http://www.multaqa.org/
The Arab Thought Forum is a "think tank" organization dedicated to identifying critical issues in Palestinian society for analysis and public debate.

http://www.palestinemonitor.org/index.html
The Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO) set up this website, a gateway to civil society, as part of the newly created information clearinghouse of the same name. The clearinghouse conveys unified responses about local developments from the perspective of civil society, particularly given the present crisis in the Palestinian territories. The website will also highlight the real effects the many changes and decisions have had on Palestinians' lives over the past several years, and also provides tools for the public to take action on specific issues

http://www.poica.org/
Monitoring Israeli Colonizing activities in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza is a joint project between the Applied Research Institute in Jerusalem (ARIJ) and the Land Research Center (LRC). The project, funded by the European Union, aims at inspecting and scrutinizing Israeli colonizing activities in their different forms in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza, and to disseminate the related information to policy makers in the European countries and to the general public

http://www.shaml.org/
The Palestinian Refugee and Diaspora Centre - Shaml, is an independent non-governmental organization, dedicated to Palestinian refugees and the Diaspora ]