no more walls

20 anni fa cadeva il muro di Berlino... ma sono ancora tanti i muri da abbattere (grazie a Benedetto che ce li ricorda nel suo blog con il post Another brick in the wall).

... a lavorare, allora ...

Nilin marking 20 years to the fall of the berlin wall by taking down the wall on their land

20 years to the fall of the Berlin wall

- Demonstrators toppled 8 meters tall concrete wall in Ni'ilin
The protest in Nilin was held today to mark the 20th anniversary to the fall of the Berlin wall, which has been declared an international day of action against Israel's barrier.
The 300 demonstrators managed to topple a part of the eight meters tall concrete wall that cuts through the village's land. The concrete wall in Ni'ilin - five to eight meters (15 to 25 feet) in hight has only recently been laid on the path of the wall cutting through Ni'ilin's lands, in addition to the already existing electronic barrier and razor-wire.
Since the Wall was built to allow more land to annexed to the nearby settlements rather than in a militarily strategic manner, demonstrators have been able to repeatedly dismantle parts of the electronic fence and razor-wire surrounding it. The section of the Wall in Nilin is the only place along the route of the barrier where a concrete wall has been erected in an attempt to deal with the civic, unarmed campaign waged by the village in protest of the massive land theft that will enable the expansion of the illegal settlements of Modi'in Il'it and Hasmonaim.
Since Israel began its construction in the year 2002, This is the first time demonstrators succeed in toppling a part of Israel's barrier which is a concrete wall. One of the demonstrators, Moheeb Khawaja, said during the protest: "Twenty years ago no one had thought the monster that divided Berlin into two could be brought down, but in only two days in November, it did. Today we have proven that this can also be done here and now. It is our land beyond this wall, and we will not give up on it. We will win for a simple reason - justice is on our side."

Can the Muppets Make Friends in Ramallah?

This season’s episodes of “Shara’a Simsim,” the Palestinian version of the global “Sesame Street” franchise, were filmed in a satellite campus of Al-Quds University, a ramshackle four-story concrete structure that houses the school’s media department and a small local television station. The building sits in an upscale neighborhood on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah, not far from the edge of the Israeli settlement Psagot. (...)

Fonte The New York Times Magazine

ciao Abu Nizar ...

Il cielo è di tutti

Qualcuno che la sa lunga
mi spieghi questo mistero:
il cielo è di tutti gli occhi
di ogni occhio è il cielo intero.

È mio, quando lo guardo.
È del vecchio, del bambino,
del re, dell'ortolano,
del poeta, dello spazzino.

Non c'è povero tanto povero
che non ne sia il padrone.
Il coniglio spaurito
ne ha quanto il leone.

Il cielo è di tutti gli occhi,
ed ogni occhio, se vuole,
si prende la luna intera,
le stelle comete, il sole.

Ogni occhio si prende ogni cosa
e non manca mai niente:
chi guarda il cielo per ultimo
non lo trova meno splendente.

Spiegatemi voi dunque,
in prosa od in versetti,
perché il cielo è uno solo
e la terra è tutta a pezzetti.

Gianni Rodari


... I'm sure you're in the sky now and you're looking at us with your smile ... ciao!

Un calcio alla guerra

Il 26 ottobre ad Al Ram, a nord di Gerusalemme in territorio palestinese, si è svolta l’amichevole di calcio Giordania-Palestina. Davanti a diecimila spettatori giocavano 22 donne. “Uno storico evento” dice Jibril Rajoub, presidente dell’Associazione calcistica palestinese. Nel suo programma, spiega al New York Times, è previsto l’inserimento delle donne in tutti i ruoli per “distruggere per sempre l’idea che le signore possono fare solo le segretarie”.

Tra i sogni di Rajoub c’è quello di invitare la nazionale femminile degli Stati Uniti: secondo lui servirebbe a migliorare i rapporti tra i due paesi più di qualsiasi visita di George Mitchell, l’inviato speciale per il Medio Oriente dell’amministrazione Obama. Lo sport è “il modo giusto per dimostrare che stiamo cercando la pace e l’indipendenza”, conclude il presidente. Anche se, per adesso, una partita con la squadra israeliana forse è ancora prematura.

Intanto questa si è conclusa due a due.

Fonte Internazionale online

After Being Evicted From Their Home, Families’ Temporary Tent Is Destroyed By Israeli Authorities

On Tuesday the Israeli authorities dismantled the tent and took away the remaining possessions of the Al-Ghawi family who had been camping outside the home they were evicted from in August. (...)
The Ghawi family was evicted from their home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem in August this year and the same day a family of Israeli settlers took occupancy. The Ghawi’s had since set up a tent on the pavement opposite where they’d been living whilst petitioning their eviction. The family was given the house in 1956 by the UN agency UNRWA after being forcibly removed from their original home in West Jerusalem. The Israeli Authorities now claim the land the house is built on belongs to a Jewish family dating back to the Ottoman Empire though know legal documentation has ever materialized to verify this claim. (...)

fonte Palestine Monitor

Beato chi riposa in pace

Ogni tanto telefono ai Samouni, a Gaza, per salutarli. Quando un automatico “Come va?” scivola dalle mie labbra, immediatamente me ne rammarico.

Amira Hass su Internazionale

Il rapporto Goldstone delle Nazioni Unite

Il rapporto Goldstone in italiano, l'inchiesta della Missione delle Nazioni Unite presieduta da Richard Goldstone che ha verificato crimini di guerra e violazioni dei diritti umani a Gaza compiute dall'esercito israeliano e da Hamas.
Nel rapporto si chiede il deferimento di Israele dinanzi al tribunale internazionale per i crimini di guerra.
La reazione di Israele ha avuto come risultato l'allineamento degli USA e per un certo periodo
anche dell'Autorità Palestinese, che poi dinanzi alla reazione della società civile palestinese ha fatto marcia indietro.
Staremo a vedere che succede ...

BDS Marathon

Israeli arrests of Palestinian human rights activists aim at stopping grassroots activism and the global call for Israeli accountability in front of international courts and through boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) campaigns. We therefore call on all people all over the world to let Israel know: “If you want to arrest the BDS movement, you have to catch us all!”

What’s the BDS Marathon? – Two days of non-stop BDS activities around the globe!

Save your time slot now!

Participation is simple:

1) Organize an event activity during Friday and Saturday 16/17 October 2009 and let us know at: freemohammad@stopthewall.org
2) Stop the Wall will publish a time table with all planned activities.
3) We will put you in touch with the activists mobilizing before and after you. If your activity and access to internet/phone allows, you will be able to directly take over from the previous activity and hand over to the next action.

You may organize activities such as protests, leaflets handouts, street actions, speaking events, video screenings, book readings, powerpoint presentations, radio/TV programs, internet actions, a twitter campaign, a fax blitz…Be creative!

For activist material to make your event a success, contact freemohammad@stopthewall.org

For more information about Mohammad Othman, see: http://freemohammadothman.wordpress.com/

For more information about the repression of the communities affected by the Wall see: http://stopthewall.org/activistresources/2019.shtml

Inshallah Beijing!

Ghadir sogna che qualcuno le compri delle scarpe da corsa. Nader si allena sperando che un missile non gli piova sulla testa. Zakia non ottiene il permesso di allenarsi in una piscina in territorio israeliano.
Sono gli atleti della squadra olimpica palestinese che si allena a Gerico per prendere parte alle Olimpiadi di Pechino. Inshallah, se Dio vuole, perchè molte difficoltà devono essere superate prima di arrivare in Cina.
La difficoltà più grande è rappresentata dal fatto di gareggiare per una nazione che ancora non esiste, la Palestina, e che non ha I mezzi per supportare I propri atleti.
"Inshallah Beijing!" è la storia della loro avventura olimpica.

Ghadir dreams that at last someone will buy her some running shoes. Nader trains while hoping that a missile doesn't land on him. Zakia hasn't got a permit from the military authorities to get to the swimming pool.
They are athletes belonging to the Palestinian team who leave Jericho in July 2008 to take part in the Beijing Olympic games. Inshallah, God willing. Because a lot of difficulties must be overcome before reaching China.
First and foremost, the difficulty in competing for a country that doesn't exist yet – Palestine – and that doesn't have the means to support its athletes. It won't be easy to adapt because the war is not just at home: the athletes carry it inside them.
Getting to Beijing is already a victory.

full movie here
now @ Al Kasaba international film festival 2009

Palestinian villagers plant on land threatened by Israeli settlement expansion

On the morning of Saturday 3 October 2009 villagers from At-Tuwani in the South Hebron hills, supported by Israeli and international peace activists, carried out a successful planting action in Khelli valley, on the edge of the village. (...)
At-Tuwani villagers, ranging in age from 4 to late 70s, dug and planted in the field. In total between 50 and 60 people took part in the work: Palestinian villagers, Israelis and internationals. They cleared the field adjacent to the one expropriated last year, and planted 36 edible cactus plants. Because of the lack of water in the area it was necessary for the villagers to bring in a truck with water for the fledgling plants.
Despite a heavy presence of Israeli police, border police, army, and the attendance of the DCO, the work was completed without interruption.

Photos available here: http://bit.ly/wRhml

Fonte Operation Dove

Gaza Tunnels

Zouheir Alnajjar, a Collective Journalism contributor who lives in Gaza, takes us through the secret tunnels that connect Gaza and Egypt - a common route for smuggling under the border.
The tunnels beneath the Egyptian border have become a common way for Palestinians to attain items that they cannot due to the Israeli restrictions on imports into the Gaza Strip. Some of these items, like medicine or cigarettes, are relatively innocuous, but weapons and rocket parts are also smuggled through the tunnels, making them a target for Israel's IDF forces.
Collective Journalism, Current's citizen journalism program, works by combining perspectives from around the world to create a picture of the world we live in.

fonte Current TV

Netanyahu's speech / Cheapening the Holocaust

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cheapened the memory of the Holocaust in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday. He did so twice. Once, when he brandished proof of the very existence of the Holocaust, as if it needed any, and again when he compared Hamas to the Nazis.
If Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust, Netanyahu cheapens it. Is there a need of proof, 60 years later? Or, the world might think, is the denier right? (...)

fonte Haaretz, Gideon Levy

Jerusalem Diary: Monday 21 September

"Two pandemics are running wild all over the world," he says. "The first is swine flu, the second is 'settlement psychosis'."

fonte BBC News, Middle East, Tim Franks

Quel sangue del Sud versato per il Paese

Vengo da una terra di reduci e combattenti. E l'ennesima strage di soldati non l'accolgo con la sorpresa di chi, davanti a una notizia particolarmente dolorosa e grave, torna a includere una terra lontana come l'Afghanistan nella propria geografia mentale. Per me quel territorio ha sempre fatto parte della mia geografia, geografia di luoghi dove non c'è pace. Gli italiani partiti per laggiù e quelli che restano in Sicilia, in Calabria o in Campania per me fanno in qualche modo parte di una mappa unica, diversa da quella che abbraccia pure Firenze, Torino o Bolzano.
Dei ventun soldati italiani caduti in Afghanistan la parte maggiore sono meridionali. Meridionali arruolati nelle loro regioni d'origine, o trasferiti altrove o persino figli di meridionali emigrati. A chi in questi anni dal Nord Italia blaterava sul Sud come di un'appendice necrotizzata di cui liberarsi, oggi, nel silenzio che cade sulle città d'origine di questi uomini dilaniati dai Taliban, troverà quella risposta pesantissima che nessuna invocazione del valore nazionale è stato in grado di dargli. Oggi siamo dinanzi all'ennesimo tributo di sangue che le regioni meridionali, le regioni più povere d'Italia, versano all'intero paese. (...)

fonte La Repubblica, Roberto Saviano

Education gap divides Jerusalem

A recent report by an Israeli non-governmental organisation says 5,000 Palestinian children in East Jerusalem will not be able to attend classes this year because there are not enough classrooms.
The Arab neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem lack more than 1,000 classrooms needed to accommodate schoolchildren, according to the report issued by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Ir Amim, an Israeli nonprofit that promotes coexistence in the city.
The widening gap in education between the Arab East and the predominantly Jewish West Jerusalem is all too obvious.
Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros visited Shaafat Elementary, a school, and found that it was a converted animal barn.
The ACRI report estimates that more than 5,000 would-be students in East Jerusalem are not enrolled in any school.
According to the report, there is a huge discrepancy in the number of schools and quality of education in the Arab East part of Jerusalem, compared to the predominantly Jewish West of the City.
In fact, while the number of public schools in the West is going up. 30,000 Palestinian students in East Jerusalem this year have been forced to attend private schools due to a shortage of at least 1,000 classrooms.
Over 5,000 will not be going to school at all this year.
"There has been a huge increase in the population in East Jerusalem, and that has not been followed by a huge increase in classroom construction," Sarah Kreimer, associate director of Ir Amim, said.
The Jerusalem municipality rejected the report, saying the numbers were "distorted."
Of the nearly 90,000 children between 5 and 18 years old living in East Jerusalem, fewer than half were enrolled in municipal public schools last year, the report said.
Students who do not make it into public school because of the classroom shortage are forced to consider private schools, often at a steep cost, Kreimer said. Some families get priced out, and many students end up at home.
The report also said many existing classrooms were "small, crowded, unventilated and lacking support classes or playgrounds."
Nisreen Elyan, a lawyer for ACRI, told Al Jazeera that the shortage of schools and poor facilities will likely have a long-term social effect on Palestinian children.
"If they're not in school it means they're usually on the streets and they can get into gangs etc which is dangerous," she said.
"Also, it has been shown that once these children are out of the education system it is difficult for them to come back in."
Israeli officials admit there is a huge gap between education systems in the East and West of Jerusalem. They put it down to bureaucratic reasons and the fact that within the municipality few are lobbying on behalf of Palestinian residents.

At-Tuwani: La scorta militare israeliana non garantisce la sicurezza dei bambini palestinesi

Settembre 2009
In Palestina l'anno scolastico 2009-2010 è cominciato il I° settembre 2009. I bambini che provengono dai vicini villaggi di Tuba e Maghayir-al-Abeed per raggiungere la scuola elementare di At-Tuwani necessitano di una scorta militare che garantisca loro la sicurezza. Durante le prime due settimane del nuovo anno scolastico i soldati israeliani non hanno scortato i bambini in modo appropriato, lasciando che percorressero da soli un'area nella quale sono esposti agli attacchi dei coloni. (...)

fonte Operazione Colomba, l'articolo intero qui

Per il report completo sulle scorte scolastiche nel 2007-2008, incluse mappe, fotografie e interviste ai bambini, consultare "Un viaggio pericoloso".

How does Israel decide who gets a visa to Ramallah?

Haaretz's query as to why some visitors receive regular visas, while others receive "Palestinian Authority only" stamps, went unanswered. (...)
The Interior Ministry said it does not have representatives at the Allenby Bridge crossing.
The Israel Airports Authority said, "Israel Airports Authority employees fulfill their function in keeping with directives while maintaining the dignity of the travelers and insuring a proper level of service. The authority supervises the employees by means of a variety of methods. Stamps are given by border supervisors only (who are not authority employees)."
The Negotiation Support Unit, which advises the PLO's Negotiations Affairs Department, prepared an opinion paper on the Israeli visa policy, which was sent to consulates and foreign missions. The opinion stated: "Third states whose nationals are subjected to such illegal policies have an obligation to object once the facts are made known to them and their nationals ask them to respond or to take action. Choosing not to object would imply third states' acceptance of Israel's unlawful acts, in violation of third states' duty of non-recognition [of these acts.]"

fonte Haaretz, Amira Hass, How does Israel decide who gets a visa to Ramallah?

cleaning (and start again)

troppo tempo lontana da questo blog... ma mai lontana da quanto avviene in Medio Oriente, dagli amici in Palestina e Israele, da chi ancora spera in un soluzione di pace.
Adesso ripulisco il blog (dalle cose inutili), provo ad allegerirlo, e si riparte!

Land Day

The people in Palestine are mobilizing for the 32nd annual commemoration of Land Day, happening March 30.

Today, the Land Day protests of the people in Palestine and around the world are focused on the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. The call for a global day of action on March 30 came out of the World Social Forum in Belem (Brazil) and aims to promote BDS as the most effective tool to stop Israeli policies of land theft and colonization and the discrimination, massacres and ethnic cleansing that have been carried out against the Palestinian people in pursuit of these goals.

Actions all across historic Palestine tie the ongoing defense of Palestinian land and agriculture from the Wall and settlement project to the call for boycott of Israeli products and institutions. Where farming becomes a form of resistance, choosing Palestinian over Israeli products is an essential part of the Palestinian struggle for justice, freedom, and return. Where a people is besieged, bombed and starved with the complicity of governments around the world, the call for global BDS becomes an essential tool to break the siege.

Fonte Stop the Wall