ICAHD UK August 2020 Newsletter (Corrected) August 2020 Newsletter * Jeff Halper responds to the agreement to normalize relations between Israel and the UAE * ICAHD UK interviews Dr Haidar Eid from Gaza, supporter of One Democratic State * Launch of online petition to NSPCC to stop taking tarnished money from JCB * Demolitions and displacements surge in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and within Israel even during Covid-19 * Help save the Sumarin family from being evicted – we must win this * Dates for your diary As always, we need to ask, what’s in it for the parties? The answer is clear: military weapons, surveillance, technology transfer and political hegemony, all directed against the Arab peoples. The US, ever hungry for oil and control of the flow of raw materials, is using compliant, corrupt and authoritarian regimes in its struggle for regional hegemony against Russia and Iran but especially against the peoples of the Middle East who yearn for democracy and development (and more freedom from religious coercion that we may suspect). The UAE epitomizes the problem. An autocratic state with no democratic institutions (it is ruled by Sharia law, in which flogging, stoning and even amputations are routine punishments), the UAE is an oil-rich country with huge financial and tourist sectors in which a thin layer of 1.4 million citizens enjoy the labor of almost 8 million non-citizens, both Emirati and foreign, with no legal or contractual rights. Read more... ICAHD UK Interview with Gaza's Dr Haidar Eid who calls for One Democratic State Haidar, you reside in Gaza where two-thirds of the population residing there are from refugee families, is this also the case for you? Yes, my parents are from the village of Zarnouqa, in the Ramla district, which was ethnically cleansed by Zionist gangs in 1948. I was born in a refugee camp in Gaza and then lived in Gaza City where I grew up. My father worked for UNRWA and my mother was at home. My parents died in 2005 but all of their lives they dreamed of returning to their village. While growing up, were you ever able to leave Gaza to experience life in other countries? Of course, it has always been difficult to travel, even before 1993 the year of the signing of the Oslo Accords, Israel controlled the Rafah Crossing and one had to apply for a permit to travel. Many young people travelled abroad to study and even work. I’ve been able to travel to many countries. I gained my first and second degrees from Eastern Mediterranean University in Cyprus, and my PhD from the University if Johannesburg, South Africa, where I stayed for about 6 years. I was fortunate because I had the support of my father and I also managed to get scholarships from my own universities due to my performance. I want to add that I learned a lot about the anti-apartheid struggle and the sacrifices of the black majority while staying in South Africa. I arrived there in 1997, three years after the collapse of the racist regime. The similarities between the two apartheid regimes (SA and Israel) were so obvious to me that I felt at home while staying in Joburg. Did you always aspire to be an academic in Gaza, educating and inspiring the next generations? Much detailed information has been sent to NSPCC Trustees as well as senior officers about JCB’s complicity in Israel’s house demolitions, a strand of the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine, but the NSPCC has taken no action. Recently over 2000 postcards have been sent to NSPCC as part of this campaign but with still not response, we are moving on to another action: an online petition to NSPCC. Click here to see the petition which we encourage you to sign and then please forward it to others. Help call the NSPCC to account so that it can maintain its reputation as an ethical charity that genuinely cares about the lives of all children. Demolitions continue despite Covid-19 Photo: Lance Larson Demolitions of Palestinian homes by Israeli authorities have been aggressive during recent weeks despite a severe second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 11 – 24^th of August, a total of 25 Palestinian-owned structures were demolished or seized for the lack of Israeli-issued building permits, displacing 32 Palestinians, and affecting around 160 others. According to the UN’s Office for Humanitarian Affairs, so far this year, about half of all demolitions in East Jerusalem (118) were carried out by the owners, following the issuance of demolition orders by the Israeli authorities, and done to avoid paying for the demolition plus the hefty fines to the Jerusalem Municipality. A few examples are: * On 15 August, a Palestinian newlywed couple had to self-demolish their house in Silwan, East Jerusalem. * On 18 August, Israeli authorities demolished a Palestinian residential building composed of six floors in Jabal al-Mukabbur, south of Jerusalem’s Old City. * On 19 August, Israeli Civil Administration along with Israeli forces demolished two agricultural structures in Hizma, East Jerusalem, affecting a family of seven, including four children. The family reported they did not receive a demolition order prior to the incident. * On 27 August, within the state of Israel, the Israeli authorities demolished the tents and crude homes in the Palestinian Bedouin village of al-Araqib in the Negev desert for the 177th consecutive time. The Negev Coexistence Forum stated in its annual report for 2019, that there were approximately 2,241 structures demolished in the Bedouin communities of the Negev that year of which some 655 are estimated to be residential. Full report here . Also within the state of Israel, demolitions of homes, shops and industrial workshops under the pretext of non-licensing, have taken place this year affecting Palestinians who live in Ain Mahal, Jaffa, Shfaram, Kafr Qasim, Qalansawa, Kafr Yasif, Arara, Umm al-Fahm, Lod, Jaffa, Sakhnin, Harfish and others. Follow our posts on Facebook and Twitter to keep abreast of our demolition alerts. Write to your MP demanding Israel be held to account for violating international law. See sample lobby letters here . Watch the recording of ICAHD UK’s August webinar ‘Demolitions within Israel and the Impact on Women and Children’ with Khalil Alamour from the Negev and Nabila Espanioly from Nazareth here . On our website, we have added the links to four short films of about how demolitions impact women and children in the Naqab. Watch then via this link . Help save these Sumarin family children from being evicted from their home Photo: David Shulman ICAHD UK continues its involvement in the Sumarin Campaign to stop the Jewish National Fund (JNF) from evicting the 18-member Sumarin family from their home in East Jerusalem, located directly below the Old City. On June 30th, 2020, the Jerusalem District Court ruled in favour of the JNF and ordered the family to leave their home on 16^th August so that the JNF could take it over. However, on 5th August, the Israeli Supreme Court stayed the eviction, stating that it will debate whether to hear the family's appeal. For now the family remain in their home and we have more time to continue building the campaign. This appeal has been described as a ‘test case’. If the Sumarin family is not successful, the expulsion of Palestinians from their privately owned land could accelerate therefore much is at stake. Help us win! ICAHD’s Jeff Halper stated, “Using in this case the Jewish National Fund, a quasi-governmental corporation with charitable status in the UK, Israel is expending time, resources and political capital on removing one family on doubtful legal and moral grounds. If this is allowed to happen, if the UK government continues to grant the JNF charitable status, if the Jewish community and other ‘pro-Israel’ voices continue to support policies of Judaization and displacement, then they are all complicit. We of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) call on the British government to protect the Sumarin family and revoke the political JNF’s charitable status.” If you haven’t already done so, please write to your MP with the request to sign the Early Day Motion about the family and also send a message to the JNF using the text that has been prepared. All of this information can be found on our website here . 5 September at 4.00pm (UK time) - Stop the JNF Webinar. Nexus of Forces Allied with the JNF. Kholoud al-Ajarma (Palestinian activist), Cody O'Rourke (Good Shepherd Collective) and Myssana Morany (Adalah). Register here 26 September at 10.45am (UK time) - ICAHD UK Webinar / Workshop - Resisting the companies complicit in home demolitions. Including a presentation from Stop the Demolitions (UK) and Corporate Occupation/Shoal Collective. Stop the Demolitions is part of Palestine Action (PalestineAction.org). Register via this link Advance Notice: ICAHD UK’s 2021 annual conference is set for Saturday, 24 April, at Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre, London. Many thanks for your ongoing support. If you're not already a member of ICAHD UK, please consider joining us to enable our campaign to spread at this critical time in history. 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 Actions You Can Take Bulletin - August 2020 * Be entertained and donate – ‘Walking the Wall’ with Mark Thomas – 11 August * Register for the webinar on ‘Demolitions within Israel and the Impact on Women and Children’ – 12 August * Order your postcards to NSPCC– deadline looms – 14 August * Write to your MP as the Sumarin family appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court * Read the July Demolition and Displacement Report * Call for release of Mahmoud Nawajaa, Coordinator, BDS National Committee * Watch the film ‘Jews Step Forward’ 'Walking the Wall' with Mark Thomas 11 August at 7.30pm (UK time) ICAHD was involved in briefing Mark before he started his journey walking the entirety of the Israeli separation barrier and the first excepts from the show were performed at ICAHD UK’s annual conference in 2010. The show on August 11^th will begin at 7.30pm with a live introduction from Mark (with BSL interpreter), a stream of the filmed show (with captioned option), followed by a live interview with Colin Green, Founder of IMET2000 and ICAHD UK Patron, around the theme ‘Child Victims of War and Pandemics’, in turn followed by a Q&A (with BSL interpreter). A recording of the whole evening will be available for 24 hours after the livestream. Mark and his great team are also offering a free bonus recorded discussion with Mark and Phil Stebbing, who accompanied Mark and filmed the walk, which will be available for a week after the livestream. By using the link below, three organisations will benefit: IMET2000, Firefly International and ICAHD-UK who will share equally any proceeds from it (20% of each ticket sold and any donations kindly made to this cause). Payment in different currencies is accepted to include an international audience. Unrecognized villages are especially vulnerable to demolition by Israeli authorities which in recent years have exceeded 1000 homes and structures demolished annually. An acute example of this is al-Araqib that has been demolished in whole or in part 175 times since July 2010. Another stark case is Umm al-Hiran, which Israeli authorities seek to raze so that the Jewish town of Hiran can be constructed on its ruins. The Jewish National Fund is a key player in the Judaization of the Negev. It promotes ongoing expulsion, expropriation, destruction, and demolition of unrecognised Bedouin villages so it can plant trees and help establish new Jewish communities in the Naqab. Hear Khalil Alamour from Al-Sira in the Naqab and Nabila Espanioly from Nazareth who will provide the latest information about demolitions and displacement in the Naqab and the impact that this cruel policy has on women and children. Closing remarks will be from ICAHD’s Jeff Halper. For more information and to register to attend the webinar click here . Catch up on other ICAHD UK webinars here . Postcard Campaign to the NSPCC Another campaign that ICAHD UK is running concerns the fact that the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) has accepted millions of pounds from JCB, the British company that sells bulldozers to Israel which are used in the demolition of Palestinian homes, schools, clinics, animal shelters, water pipes, cisterns and more. JCB machines are also used to build Israeli settlements which are illegal under international law and because of that, JCB has been listed by the United Nations as one of three British companies that profits from Israel's occupation of the West Bank. Over recent months we have encouraged our supporters to write to the NSPCC about this and we provided a sample letter for use . ICAHD UK is now going another step by supporting an initiative taken by Protecting Palestinian Families, an offshoot of Stop the Demolitions, by sending postcards to NSPCC to persuade it not to take tarnished money. Two postcard designs with accompanying text have been prepared. Because Covid-19 remains with us, it is impossible to distribute cards on street stalls or at solidarity meetings therefore we are looking for "hubs" - i.e. people willing to receive 10, 15, or more postcards which can be shared directly between friends and sympathisers. All people need to do is sign, give their postcode if they wish, add a stamp, and post the card. To view the postcards and learn more about safety procedures in handling the cards go to our website here . To order the postcards, please email info@icahduk.org ; include your postal address and state the number of postcards you can deliver. The deadline for placing orders is August 14^th. Thanks to all our supporters who have responded by ordering their postcards! Over 1550 postcards have already been dispatched. Eviction of the Sumarin Family * Decision follows the international campaign by Sumarin Coalition of which ICAHD UK is a part * 69 MPs have signed Early Day Motion 529 , condemning the unjust eviction of the family * Appeal has been described as a ‘test case’ * If the appeal is not successful, the expulsion of Palestinians from their privately owned land could accelerate Progress has been made but we need the Israeli Supreme Court to rule in favour of the family. We express our gratitude to all our supporters who have been involved in this campaign to stop the Jewish National Fund (JNF) from evicting this Palestinian family from their home in Silwan, East Jerusalem. Thousands of people have sent messages to the JNF, written to their political representatives, and donated to the family to enable it to pay fees to now approach the Supreme Court. We anticipate that we have until the end of November so keep up the pressure by writing to the JNF and your MP. See our website for background information on the family, an updated sample lobby letter for your MP, our latest press release prepared with Stop the JNF, and all relevant links by clicking here . We can win this but only if enough people join this campaign. In addition to the demolitions, during July, Israeli authorities entered the village of Farasin, near Jenin, and handed out 36 demolition orders for every home, structure, and water well in the village which is home to 200 people. According to Mahmoud Amarneh, head of the village council, Israeli authorities plan to demolish the entire village to expand the illegal settlements in this locality. Write to your MP demanding that Israel refrain from these demolitions and the displacement of the Palestinian people which are illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention. See our sample lobby letters for guidance here . To read the full report for July, please follow this link . STOP PRESS: During the first week of August, Israel demolished 25 structures in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, displacing 68 people, including 39 children, and affecting a further 97 people. All the demolitions were carried out on grounds of lacking an Israeli-issued building permit however Israel rarely grants building permits to Palestinians but races ahead in constructing more settlement units in the Occupied Palestine Territory, all illegal under international law. Watch the film here . Many thanks for your ongoing support. If you're not already a member of ICAHD UK, please consider joining us to enable our campaign to spread at this critical time in history. 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 Normalization between Israel and the UAE: When "peace" is not a good thing - Jeff Halper The agreement to normalize relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is being sold to us as “historic” and a positive development that will change the Middle East. Bahrain, Oman, Sudan and Saudi Arabia are said to be waiting in line. Peace always appears to be good, especially if it can help resolve the Arab-Israeli Conflict. So what’s the problem? Yes, that was my goal all along. This is one of the reasons as to why I chose to do my MA degree in Post-Colonial Studies where I studied the works of the likes of Ghassan Kanafani, Edward Said, Aime Cezire, Frantz Fanon, Ngugi Wa Thiongo—amongst other anti-colonial thinkers and writers. This has helped me contextualize what I am teaching here in Palestine as Associate Professor of Postcolonial and Postmodern Literature at Gaza’s Al-Aqsa University. My classes encompass Resistance Literature so I include Ghassan Kanfani’s novels and short stories, Edward Said’s and Fanon’s theories, V.S Naipaul’s racist works, NJabulu Ndebele’s short stories, Nawas Saddawi’s feminist works, Ahdaf Soueif’s narratives of Egyptian women, Alice Walker’s wonderful stories of African Americans, Anton Chekhov’s brilliant short stories. But also, postmodern and modern works from James Joyce to Don Delillo. Read more... Tell the NSPCC to stop accepting dirty money! Sign this new petition The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) claims to “Give a voice to children when no one is listening” and it states, “Become a campaigner and help us demand that all children are worth fighting for. Join our network and fight for every childhood.” However, it has accepted millions of pounds from JCB and its owners, the Bamford family, despite JCB bulldozers being used to demolish Palestinian homes, affecting the lives of Palestinian children. Dates for Your Diary 5 September and 19 September at 10.45am (UK time) – UK Palestine Mental Health Network Webinars begin with live music arranged by PalMusic UK followed by a guest speaker and discussion. For further details and to register go to https://ukpalmhn.com/ Not to be missed entertainment and fund-raising for ICAHD UK ICAHD UK is delighted that our friend Mark Thomas is putting on a live-streamed show for us on August 11th, 2020. The original show ‘Walking the Wall’ was performed in many UK theatres. It was filmed in 2011 and later a best-selling book followed. To purchase tickets: please click on this link Register now for the ICAHD UK Webinar ‘Demolitions within Israel and the Impact on Women and Children’ With Khalil Alamour and Nabila Espanioly Wednesday, 12th August 2020 5-6.15pm (UK) 7 – 8.15pm (Jerusalem) Within the state of Israel, communities in the Naqab (Negev) desert and the Galilee that are not officially recognized by Israel are termed unrecognized villages and as a result, they do not benefit from state support for basic services and infrastructure such as roads, water, electricity, schools and health clinics. Of the approximate 200,000 Bedouins in Israel, more than half live in unrecognized villages and many pre-date the establishment of the state of Israel. Stop accepting tarnished money! Order your cards by 14 August To help end Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes and displacement of the Palestinian people, winning these campaigns is a meaningful step in reaching our bigger goal. Please join us by acting today. Israeli Supreme Court Stays July Demolition and Displacement Report ICAHD’s Jeff Halper says, “Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes goes on relentlessly, day & night, rural & urban, rich & poor, Muslim or Christian, no matter what is happening politically. Your governments are all complicit.” Secure release of Palestinian BDS activist Mahmoud Nawajaa ICAHD UK is part of the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP) which has called for the release of Mahmoud Nawajaa, Palestinian human rights defender and the General Coordinator of the Palestinian BDS National Committee. It prepared a letter which has been sent to Mr Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Mr Tomas Niklasson, Head of the EU Delegation to West Bank and Gaza Strip. The letter also highlights that today there are some 4,700 political prisoners held in Israeli jails, including 160 children and 365 people interned without charge or trial under Administrative Detention. ECCP asks what kind of actions the EU is going to take to ensure the immediate release of Mahmoud Nawajaa and all Palestinian political prisoners. To read the full contents of the letter see this link (https://www.eccpalestine.org/eu-must-act-to-secure-release-of-palestinian-human-rights-defender-and-bds-activist-mahmoud-nawajaa/) . Sit back and watch 'Jews Step Forward' This documentary film produced and directed by Marjorie Wright and Elika Razaee features 24 American Jews who formerly supported the state of Israel who then changed their perspectives as they discovered the reality of how Israel treats the Palestinians. It is a wonderful awareness-raising tool, especially within the Jewish community, and at a time when accusations of anti-Semitism are wrongly used when people criticize actions of the Israeli authorities which are in fact violations of international law. — ICAHD (icahd.org) /newsletter/icahd-uk-august-2020-newsletter-corrected