(Fwd) Urgent Appeal from Nablus! & 5 refusers to be given prison terms today

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

International release

Sunday Jan.4, at 3pm in the Jaffa Military Court  the sentence will be 
passed upon the Five Occupation Refusers (Noam Bahat, Matan Kaminer, 
Adam Maor, Haggai Matar, and Shimri Tzameret) who already spent more 
than a year as prisoners.  What is happening in Nablus on this very day 
(see forwarded report)  is a painful illustration of what they refuse to take 
part in. 

Please, pass this on to the press in your environment & organize protest 
(re the Nablus ordeal) &  solidarity (with the refusers).

------- Forwarded message follows -------
To:             	<palmedialert at yahoogroups.com>
Organization:   	International Solidarity Movement
From:           	"Huwaida" <Huwaida at palsolidarity.org>
Date sent:      	Sat, 3 Jan 2004 18:44:53 -0500
Subject:        	[palmedialert] Urgent Appeal from Nablus!
Send reply to:  	palmedialert-owner at yahoogroups.com


Please Act Immediately to Lift the Siege off Nablus, Balata and Beit Foreek!
This is a Humanitarian Crisis! 

Greetings from Nablus Under Siege. 

Nablus has been under siege for the last 10 days while Balata refugee 
camp has been under siege for the last 18 consecutive days. We have just 
heard that every single entrance/exit to Balata has been sealed off 
completely. No food or medicine is allowed in. Medical relief teams are 
being obstructed and at times completely 
prevented from passing through. Activists from ISM (the International Solidarity 
Movement) were attacked while carrying out their missions to observe and bear 
witness on what the Israeli occupation authorities are brutalizing the Palestinian 
population. Beit Foreek has been completely sealed off; its mayor reports that there 
are signs of starvation.

Two men and a boy were killed by Israeli military fire since this morning. The first, 
Amjad Bilal Masri is a 15 year old boy who was shot while standing in front of his 
house. The sniper bullet hit Amjad in the back. He 
died on his way to the hospital. The second is Amer Kathym Arafat who was 
also shot in the back by a sniper bullet. The third is Rouhi Hazem Shouman, 
25, who was also shot in the back by a sniper. Ms. Majida Masri, spokeswomen 
for the Coordinating Committee of Palestinian Political Faction, called a 
couple of minutes ago on all Nabulis who are able to get to Rafidiya 
Hospital to defy the curfew and join the families of the martyrs in a 
collective funeral for the three. "They were all shot in the back by 
cowardly snipers. Their only crime was to refuse to succumb to Israeli 
occupation designs to empty Palestine from its people." 

Reports from Balata indicate that a deliberate starvation campaign is being 
carried by the Israeli military which has sealed off the Camp and refuses to 
allow food and medicine to get through every single allyway, formal or 
informal entrances. A few days ago, the Israeli military shot and injured 4 
people who were walking a funeral for an old woman who passed away. No 
demonstrations or political events were taking place in or around the 
funeral. 

The siege of the old city of Nablus and its neighborhoods (Yasmeeneh, 
Qaryoun, Habaleh) has been intensified since December 30, 2003. The Israeli 
military claims that they were looking for the leader of the Aksa Martyrs 
Brigade, Abu Sharkh. They took his brother and wife as hostages, paraded the 
wife in a jeep in the old city and forced to call out to her husband over 
loud speakers to surrender in return for her freedom. She has been released 
only yesterday. No one can get into the old city, but Dr. Ghassan Hamdan of 
the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committee, who is in the old city 
has called on the whole world to immediately intervene to support the people 
of Nablus. He condemned media outlets for neglecting to cover what's going 
on, including the largest Palestinian daily, Al-Quds, which has not reported 
on what's going in Nablus in its front page. Dr. Hamdan 
criticized the Palestinian Authority who have not done anything to aid 
Nablus and demanded that "Abu Alaa, the Palestinian Prime Minister, hold a 
ministrial meeting in Nablus to highlight the horrible conditions the city 
is experiencing under this brutal Israeli campaign." 

We have just heard explosions in the old city. It was in Qaryoun 
neighborhood inside the Abdelhadi Palace that houses 75 people. The Palace, 
built 400 years ago, is a waqf, endowed by Mahmoud Abdelhadi for the use of 
Abdelhadi women who have no place to live and no sources of income (widows, 
single women who do not work or have no income, and women whose main 
breadwinners are disabled). The Israeli military has ordered the 75 people 
to vacate the palace at 3:30 in the mooring and left them out in the cold. 
Mr. Aslan, a neighbor, invited took in all the 75 people and offered them 
hospitality and warmth. The families are scattered throughout the old city 
(before the more strict siege) and unable to go home. Dr. Mahdi Abdelhadi, 
Director of PASSIA, has gone to the Israeli supreme court. The Court ordered 
an injunction against the destruction of the Palace but the military 
appealed the decision and received a permission from the court to destroy this 
historic building "if security needs call for such action." This also 
requires your immediate attention. 

Nablus has been split again into two parts near Maha's Gate, which is names 
after Mrs. Maha Nimr who lived nearby and whose son has been arrested and is 
currently being interrogated in Ofer settlement prison (near Ramallah); no 
family members or lawyers are allowed to see him until the "interrogation is 
completed." 

"Tora Bora," as the residents call it, is the mount of dirt Israeli 
occupation army has compiled near the destroyed Governate of Nablus (as well 
as the prison that was bombed with prisoners inside in 2002 resulting in the 
killing of 10 Palestinian policemen who were guarding the prison). Tora Bora 
literally separates the two parts of the city and no one can come or go 
without risking being shot at by the Israeli military. Children (including 
my own nephew Ibrahim and nieces Widad, Noura, and Nada who live in the 
eastern part beyond Tora Bora) have been risking their lives to get to 
school to take their final exams. Ibrahim, 10 year old, and other kids 
almost got killed on December 23, 2003 as he tried to get home. He was 
finally able to reach his home a few hours later and only after the 
international media, medical relief workers, my other brother, Amer, and 
Amal, my sister-in-law and Ibrahim's mother risked their lives, argued with 
the soldiers and insisted on getting all the kids home across a checkpoint. 

Mustapha Barghouti has described the bloody campaign against Nablus as a 
"real war on this city whose other name, the Mountain of Fire, has basis in the 
steadfastness of Palestinians and their refusal to allow the Israeli military to break the 
Palestinian collective will to continue struggling for their rights." "There 
is a completely news blockage of what's going in Nablus," Barghouti added, 
explaining that lack of news coverage has to do with "the negligence of the 
Palestinian Authority, PA, to assume its responsibility for the protection 
of the population." "Instead," Barghouti added, "the PA is wasting time and 
energy in useless meetings with the Israeli occupation government that is 
intent on destroying our people's will." 

Reporter's Note: This report is partly drawn from word of mouth of relatives 
and friends, and partly from Radio Tariq Mahabbeh (you can listen to the 
radio station at www.tmfm.net). For interviews and more information, you may 
call:
Amer Abdelhadi at (+972-59-371-372)
Tariq Mahabbeh (Radio station) at (+972 57 830 333). 
Rabab Abdulhadi(no later than 9:30 p.m.) at (+972 9 237 2891). 

Please bear with us; phone lines and internet connections are not working as well as 
we are told they should.
The People of Nablus appeal to you to declare today (Saturday, Jan. 3rd), tomorrow 
(Sunday, Jan. 4th), and Monday, Jan. 5th international daysin solidarity with 
thepeople in Nablus and Palestine.