Israel-Palestine

Friday 11 April, Israeli soldiers shot another peace activist with the International Solidarity Movement. Tom Hurndall, a 22-year-old British civilian was shot in the head by the Israeli military, while trying to move Palestinian children out of the line of Israeli fire. The International Solidarity Movement was protesting at the Israeli military tactic of shooting into Palestinian civilian neighbourhoods, by making their unarmed presence known to the Israeli military. Tom was wearing a…

Answering an appeal from Palestine/Israel to help pick olives, I joined a group of friends from Switzerland for a couple of weeks (28 Oct - 10 Nov 2002) under the auspices of the YMCA and ATG (Alternative Tourism Group, Beit Sahour/Bethlehem).

Entering Israel in Tel Aviv took a long time, but without major difficulties. We reached Bethlehem after a couple of hours, including a stop…

It is a little known fact that Israel is the only country with mandatory conscription for women. This makes the draft resistance of Israeli women, which is undoubtedly a major component of the entire resistance movement, into a unique phenomenon.

As the total numbers of draft resisters rise, the numbers of young women requesting exemption from military service on grounds of conscience also continue to remain very high.

Female conscripts are traditionally…

“In prison, when I am forced to salute state and army, I shall, in my mind and heart, be saluting all my brave friends ... all those who sacrifice so much more then I for peace, against the occupation.”

Palestine, Palestine is an unusual creature, a film about this beautiful and terrible land which shows something of everyday life in the West Bank.

It is not a documentary as such, although it deals with real people and their day-to-day existence. It has more life and lyricism than that. But it is also grounded in reality and makes inescapable the way that the Israeli presence is not just a matter of the brutal incursions which hit the Western news but a daily challenge to the…

The “International Solidarity Movement” (ISM) is a series of nonviolent solidarity events in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, undertaken by foreign peace activists, coordinated by the Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement.

The campaign planned for this April was going to include helping farmers cultivate land under threat of Israeli seizure, removal of roadblocks, protests against checkpoints - attempts to halt the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Instead we found ourselves having to…

There is nothing more horrendous than sending people off to war. This is what my country is doing. Israel is sending its children to war and it has been doing so for many years now. Indeed we have been warring from the moment we came into being, and have been involved in conflict pretty much ever since.

For many of us who live in Israel, it seems almost natural, almost a necessary part of our lives, that at the age of 18 we will be enrolled into the army and made to fight these wars…

My son Yinnon Hiller is the first young Israeli to appeal to the Israeli High Court for his human right not to serve in the military on the grounds of his pacifist beliefs and he is one of a fast-growing group of Israeli conscientious objectors.

At a hearing held in February 2002, the panel of judges decreed a second court injunction in favour of Yinnon. The first hearing, held six months earlier, ordered the state to present valid reasons why the military did not accept Yinnon's…

As Peace News went to press more than 60,000 demonstrators were in Tel Aviv taking part in largest peace rally since the second intifada began 19 months ago, demanding that Israel withdraw from the Palestinian territories

The rally, organised by an umbrella group of peace groups, took place on the same day that around 150 members of the Arab-Jewish group Taayush…

In December 2001, about 35 women from Britain joined with a similar number of US citizens to fill the gap left by the irresponsible international community in the Occupied Territories.

This is the international community which seems to have no problem in getting millions of pounds and thousands of soldiers together to bomb the hell out of countries, but cannot deploy peacekeepers and human rights monitors to stop violence and terror when ordinary people call for it.

We went…

It is important to note at the outset that my own intellectual and moral development was profoundly influenced by Martin Buber's writings. Buber's article “What is to be done” in Pointing the Way represents a milestone in the process of my ideological radicalisation. (Uri Davis, Crossing the border)

This, then, is a personal account of a critical Buber disciple. Buber did not live to witness the 1967 war and the cruelty and the violence of the Israeli occupation of…

Between December 2001 and PN going to press, at least 11 Israeli and Druse men spent time in military prisons for refusing to serve in the Israeli Defence Force. Most served short sentences of between 14 and 28 days, although one refusenik, Rennan Amin Salameh was charged with desertion and remains in prison awaiting trial. If convicted he faces up to three years in prison.

Two of these conscientious objectors Yair Khilou and Igal Rosenberg (pictured above) had earlier signed a…

On 3 February, dozens of foreign civilians marched in Ramallah to deliver a message to the Israeli occupation forces.

Recognising that the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine is the root of violence in the region, and witness to the illegal and brutal policies of the Israeli occupation army, foreign civilians urged the Israeli soldiers to refuse the serve the occupation.

The Israeli forces attacked the international civilians with tear gas and concussion grenades…

On 28 September 2001 the Palestinians commemorated the first anniversary of the second Intifada with more people killed and injured adding to the already hundreds of deaths and the thousands injured during this year.

The characteristic of this Intifada in contrast with previous Palestinian confrontations with the Israeli occupation is the extraordinarily high number of civilian casualties within both the Palestinian and Israeli societies. This was due to an excessive use of…

Several young Israeli men are refusing to participate in military service and a number continue to be imprisoned for their principled stance. As we went to press at least three were serving short sentences in military prisons.

In an extract from a letter written in prison, CO David Haham explained his motivation for refusing to bear arms: “I am imprisoned over my refusal to take part in repression of the Palestinian people, because I feel it is out of the question to be a Jew, son of…