Atta Jaber on Al-Jazeera, Ruth El-Raz Obituary

Photo: Uri Fruchtmann, Israeli film producer and director (in centre), with cousins Kayad & Atta Jaber

The film also features ICAHD activists rebuilding the Jaber’s home and Jeff Halper confronting the Israeli army. Thus, it captures our relationship with the Jaber family that began in 1998 and with our commitment to them that has spanned all these years.

Please publicize the documentary and send us your feedback which we will pass on to Bruno and Uri. The documentary was shown early on 20^th November and will be shown again at: * 12 noon (UK time) on Sunday, 24 November * 1am (UK time) on Tuesday, 26 November

ICAHD Finland's Merger Photo: ICAHD Finland team gather at conference - November 2024

In a final conference reviewing ICAHD Finland’s 15 years of activity to which ICAHD Director Jeff Halper was invited, Syksy Räsänen, ICAHD Finland’s Director, announce that they are merging with a wider coalition of Finnish organizations called SUMUD. While we at ICAHD are sorry to “lose” a chapter, we are extremely proud of the leading role ICAHD Finland has played locally, in the European context as a member of the European Coordinating Committee on Palestine and in Palestine itself, where our Finnish members were disproportionally represented in our workcamps and other solidarity activities.

Founded in 2010 by Bruno Jantti after his participation in our rebuilding camp in Anata (he came back for another eight workcamps!), ICAHD Finland published numerous reports, articles and videos. It issued papers on, among other issues, the complicity of companies operating the illegal Israeli settlements and the Finnish government’s involvement in a robust arms trade with Israel.

Syksy also published a book, Israeli Apartheid, in Finnish. ICAHD Finland brought Israel Apartheid Week to Finland in 2014, as well as an annual Peace Forum of speakers from abroad on Palestine. Bruno and Syksy managed to establish a close working relations with successive Finnish governments.

ICAHD Finland will continue its work within the wider SUMUS framework, since Syksy was instrumental in organizing the coalition and will still be a leading member. In his conversations with SUMUD leadership and staff, Jeff offered to maintain close working relations between the new coalition and ICAHD. For organizations evolve and change in response to political needs and effectiveness. What is important is continuing to focus on the issue, in our case, the liberation of Palestine. All the best to Syksy and ICAHD Finland’s members in their new political home and wishing great success to SUMUD.

To effectively counter Zionism’s manipulative framing without entering into the distorted and simplistic propaganda that is the essence of Israeli hasbara, this document presents a clear, coherent, and intellectually honest framing that not only helps people make sense of “the conflict” and more effectively advocates for Palestinian rights, but also respects the integrity of the Palestinian cause.

Focusing on the Big Picture: Where Are We Headed in Palestine/Israel?

For anyone who missed attending the ICAHD UK Conference in London on Saturday, 19^th October, recordings of the sessions are now available, both on the website and on YouTube. The conference evaluated the tragic and dramatic developments in Palestine/Israel over the past year following the Hamas attack on October 7^th and with Israel’s retaliation that has turned into a genocide. With the focus on the Big Picture, we asked what is our push-back? Speakers addressed how they are ratcheting up their struggle for Palestinian rights and what we can do to make a difference. Watch the recordings here Spring Study Tour 31st March - 10th April 2025

Photo: May 2024 study tour group in the Naqab (Negev)

Demonstrate powerful and much needed solidarity with the Palestinians in their struggle for liberation. Nothing compares to going there to stand with them at a time when they feel so abandoned.

Our next issue-based study tour to Palestine/Israel will take place between Monday, 31^st March – Thursday, 10^th April.

The tour will be based in Bethlehem for the majority of the time and then will relocate to Nazareth for the last couple of nights. The itinerary facilitates around 30 encounters with some of the most influential and important voices in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and within the state of Israel. For more information see the extended tour section on the website and watch the film clip of three former study tour participants who talked about their life-changing tour experience at the recent ICAHD UK conference in London.

“This tour was an experience that I will never forget. Being able to learn from people on the ground, activists, and those who work tirelessly to resist the occupation was a privilege. I don’t believe that I could have learnt as much in any other way. I now feel far more rooted in my stance to take action and support their resistance and efforts to survive.” Aisha Docrat, Leicester – May 2024.

Ruti served on the ICAHD board, participated in our rebuilding camps and over the years, spoke to several of the study tour groups.

She trained as a psychotherapist and was a founder of the Jerusalem Counselling Centre for Women. She was active in ‘Psychoactive’, an organisation of psychiatrists and therapists who use their skills to build resiliency among victims of oppression and activists. She was on the board of Bat Shalom, the Israeli side of Jerusalem Link, a joint Israel/Palestinian women’s peace organisation as well as for Machsom Watch. For years she went to Israeli checkpoints and border crossing to monitor and document the behaviour of Israeli soldiers, providing assistance to Palestinians when possible.

In recent years Ruti has been on the board of Torat Tzedek/Torah of Justice, directed by Rabbi Arik Ascherman.

Ruti’s commitment to feminism and justice were reflected in her sculpture and her work as a visual artist. Umm Al-Hiran Demolished Photo: Israeli authorities demolish the mosque in Umm Al-Hiran - 14 November 2024 - RCUV Early on Thursday, 14^th November, Israeli authorities demolished the mosque in Umm Al-Hiran, an unrecognized Bedouin village in the Naqab (Negev) Desert. It was the final remaining structure left standing after the last half of the residents painfully self-demolished their homes a few days earlier to avoid paying hefty fines to the Israeli authorities. The land is now clear for the new community of Dror (freedom) to be established which will become home to 2,400 orthodox Jewish families.

ICAHD has been part of the 20-year long campaign to save Umm al-Hiran from demolition and forced displacement and for many years, our issue-based study tours have stopped at Umm al-Hiran, most recently this May.

Israel’s minister of national security, Itamar Ben Gvir, praised the demolition. Since the beginning of the year, he has overseen a 400 percent increase in the issuance of demolition orders and currently, between 5,000-6,000 people in eight Bedouin villages in the Naqab are at risk of forcible displacement.

The demolition of Umm Al-Hiran was widely reported, internationally as well as within Israel itself. It is hoped that all this media attention will go some way in helping to save other Palestinian villages where even the status of being citizens of Israel is not saving them from Israel’s brutal racist policies. It is another example of why global mobilization for a stronger anti-apartheid campaign is sorely needed. Note: ICAHD UK is now on BlueSky - icahduk.bsky.social Dates for your Diary From Wednesday 20 November for a Week – Rooted in the West Bank – Al-Jazeera’s Witness programme.

From all at ICAHD UK. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Israeli-Committee-Against-House-Demolitions-UK/366423593418140 Facebook https://www.twitter.com/ICAHDUK/ Twitter http://icahduk.org Website mailto:info@icahduk.org Email