[GushShalom] IDF converges on Rafah & Boycott list updated

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - www.gush-shalom.org/

[] Rafah people are packing - Amira Hass 
[] B'tselem press release : Rafah Demolitions- data until May 15
[] Boycotting Settlement Products - the least you can do
   newly updated list - at www.gush-shalom.org

[Mid May - Palestinians commemorate the Nakba, the catastrophe of 1948 
which turned two-thirds of the Palestinian population of that time into 
refugees. 56 years later the commemoration gets a macabre illustration...]

[] Rafah people are packing - Amira Hass 

Gazans pile up their belongings and flee   
 
By Amira Hass 

 Mon., May 17, 2004
 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/428156.html

 Hebrew
 http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/428368.html
 
Rafah residents expect IDF to close in for unrestrained demolition of 
homes  
 
RAFAH - The streets of Rafah were filled yesterday evening with horse-
drawn carts, trucks and pick-ups, all laden to the brim with any and 
every item that the town's residents could remove from their homes - 
mattresses, water tanks taken down from roofs, clothes, blankets, doors 
and windows removed from their hinges, dismantled beds and closets, 
school books, tin and asbestos sheeting, baby carriages, refrigerators, 
gas canisters and more. 
 
  
Everyone living up to 300 meters from the border with Egypt and the 
Israel Defense Forces positions and machine guns; everyone who saw IDF 
bulldozers raze the homes of his neighbors; everyone who could and had 
not yet cleared his home of its contents; everyone living close to the 
site where an IDF armored personnel carrier was blown up last Wednesday - 
all hastily packed up their belongings. And when the loading was 
completed, the women sat at the entrances to the homes, on concrete 
blocks or plastic chairs, and watched the vehicles roll north, to 
neighborhoods far from the bulldozers.

The families who petitioned the High Court of Justice this weekend 
against the house demolitions also emptied their homes yesterday. On 
Saturday, after the High Court issued a "qualified temporary injunction" 
that stopped the IDF "from carrying out planned demolitions of any of the 
homes of the petitioners," there were those who felt a sense of reprieve. 
One of the petitioners, a big man, burst into tears unashamedly in public 
on hearing the High Court order. But yesterday morning, after the High 
Court hastily rejected the petitions, the petitioners understood that 
they had better try to at least save the contents of their homes.

Such was the understanding, for example, of Massad and Ahlam Kishta, and 
Fauzi a-Sha'ar - two of the petitioners. They live on Abu Jamal Street, 
between Salah a-Din Street and Harakevet Street, under the eyes of the 
IDF's Termit outpost. Yesterday at 6 P.M., their homes were practically 
empty.

The Kishta and a-Sha'ar families are two of the original clans of the 
area, not refugee families. Their homes were built on their privately 
owned land, where some 40-50 years ago they cultivated vegetables and 
watermelons. The Kishta family father moved to the area in 1956; and in 
the 1980s, the Kishtas began gradually building a concrete home for the 
expanding family.

The Kishta family has stopped counting the number of times IDF 
bulldozers, supported by tanks, APCs and helicopters, have demolished 
homes in the area - maybe five, or six. On one occasion, a bulldozer 
destroyed their bedroom, from where they now look out onto the steel wall 
the army is erecting along the border, the Termit outpost, bare concrete 
houses, and piles of rubble between the sand dunes. Last Thursday, 
bullets and shells left holes in the walls of their son Abed's home.

On Thursday and Friday, more homes belonging to members of the Kishta 
clan were demolished, when APCs, tanks and helicopters raided the area. A 
missile was fired at a group of women; seven people were killed. Rafah 
residents vehemently deny IDF claims that the army was targeting armed 
Palestinians. Human rights organizations in the town said all those 
killed were civilians.

"Two years ago, they tore down my first house on top of me," says one of 
the daughters of the a-Sha'ar family. "Now, the moment I heard them 
approaching, I fled."

Another a-Sha'ar family member notes, "The IDF says it only demolishes 
empty homes. First they chase us out the home with heavy fire, and then 
they can demolish it because it's empty. Do they want us to remain in the 
house while they are shelling it so that they won't destroy it?"

According to a rumor that began to spread last night, the IDF is planning 
to close off the road between Gaza City and Rafah over the next three 
days. A number of people see this a sign that the demolition work will be 
renewed - under the cover of a blackout from the entire world.
 
 

[] B'tselem press release : Rafah Demolitions- data until May 15
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Sat, 15 May 2004 17:19:22 +0200
From:           	"Noam Hoffstater" <noamh at btselem.org>

May 15, 2004

PRESS RELEASE


B’Tselem’s Investigation of the IDF Action in Rafah
Complete Data on Scope of the Demolitions: 198 Families Homeless


B’Tselem’s detailed investigation into the IDF action in Rafah this
weekend reveals the following:
 *	116 houses were destroyed
 *	198 families have lost their homes
 *	1,160 people were made homeless

Altogether since the beginning of 2004, the IDF has demolished 284 homes
in Rafah, leaving 2,185 Palestinians homeless. Over the past three and a
half years, the IDF has demolished some 1,800 homes in the Rafah Refugee
Camp. 

Such massive destructions of civilian property are illegal under
international humanitarian law.  The death of IDF soldiers cannot justify
the severe harm to civilians, who were not involved in the hostilities. 

B’Tselem calls on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to order an immediate halt
to plans for further demolitions. The organization also calls on the
Israeli government to compensate families who lost their homes and to
provide them with alternative housing.


For background, legal analysis and additional data on Israel’s demolitions
in the Gaza Strip, see: www.btselem.org

B’Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied
Territories - rapports available on http://www.btselem.org/


[] Boycotting Settlement Products - the least you can do
   newly updated list - at www.gush-shalom.org


Hebrew
http://gush-shalom.org/Boycott/boycheb.htm

English
http://gush-shalom.org/Boycott/boyceng.htm

# Sharansky and the New Antisemitism, by Adam Keller - 
  http://otherisrael.home.igc.org/sharansky.html

  (more articles of The Other Israel May issue accessible via 
  http://otherisrael.home.igc.org/contents.html)

*** Ongoing struggle ***

   how to link up with anti-Wall struggle, refusnik news etc.

#Against the Wall 
 contact addresses daily struggle / eye-witness reports 

#Refusniks (prisoner addresses & links to constantly updated sites)
 updated refusniks lists / support to five long-time incarcerated 

 
#Against the Wall

*
ðåëçåú éåîéåîéú áëôøéí îàéîéí ò"é äçåîä ìúàí òí 
àééáé 064-604172 isichel at netvision.net.il
àøé÷ 050-607034  info at rhr.israel.net

Day to day presence at villages threatened by route of wall.
Contact:  
Ivy Sichel 064-604172 isichel at netvision.net.il 
Arik Asherman 050-607034  info at rhr.israel.net 

*
Daily eye-witness reports from the Occupied Territories: 
http://www.machsomwatch.org 
  (Israeli women monitoring the checkpoints)
http://www.palsolidarity.org/pressreleases/pressreleases.php
  (internationals throughout OT)


#Refusniks

Constantly-updated refusniks lists:


English - http://www.yesh-gvul.org/english/prison/
Hebrew / òáøéú - http://www.yesh-gvul.org/prison/

English - http://www.newprofile.org/default.asp?language=en
Hebrew / òáøéú - http://www.newprofile.org/

For the latest news about the five: 
http://www.refuz.org.il/News.html

 Letters of support to 
 Noam Bahat / Haggai Mattar / Matan Kaminer
 AGAF BET
 Ma’asiyaho Prison
 P.O.B 13
 Ramla - Israel

 Adam Maor / Shimri Tzameret:
 Hermon Prison
 P.O.B 4011 
 KFAR M’RAR - Israel


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