J Halper’s Sept update, Salwa Duaibis dies, New standing orders required

Photo: Umm al Hiran, unrecognised village in the Naqab - slated for complete demolition

Seventy percent of the Jewish Israeli population support what Israel continues to do in Gaza even though the army does not want to be there and says that it accomplished its military objectives there months ago.

Our job is to re-focus attention to the genocide and what is happening in the West Bank. A re-framing is needed because this is not about Israel’s need to defend itself. This is Israel pursuing its settler colonial agenda. Under international law, Palestinians have every right to defend themselves as they fight for their own rights. View this video update here ICAHD UK's October Conferences

ICAHD UK is hosting two conference this autumn – in London on 19^th October and in Edinburgh on 26^th October.

They will be wonderful opportunities to engage with our speakers and to meet with other attendees involved in the Palestinian struggle so book your tickets now. Live streaming will also be provided for the London conference.

Speakers include Palestinians Naema Wajeeh Aldaqsha and Daoud Ghoul; Israelis Jeff Halper and Livnat Konopny Decleve; Marian Pallister, and more to be announced.

However, Palestinians and Palestine remain under threat. Even as we are focused on Gaza, we cannot lose sight of the bigger political picture: collusion among Israel, the US and Saudi Arabia to “normalize” Israel’s apartheid regime over all of historic Palestine in their larger geopolitical interests of ensuring Western hegemony over the Middle East in face of Iranian threats and Chinese inroads.

The ICAHD UK conferences will evaluate the tragic and dramatic developments in Palestine/Israel over the past year. With the focus on the Big Picture, we ask what is our push-back? How are the Palestinians and their allies ratcheting up their struggle for Palestinian rights and, most important, what political programs for the future are Palestinians formulating?

During August 2024, at least 100 Palestinians were forcibly displaced, and in many cases, they were coerced by Israeli authorities to demolish their own home or pay huge fines that the Palestinians could not afford. These took place in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Naqab desert, where Israeli forces demolished homes, roads, community and livelihood structures.

The unrecognized Bedouin village of al-Araqib in the Naqab, was demolished for the 229th time since the first demolition of the village in July 2010. The constant rebuilding of al-Araqib following the demolitions is what Palestinian resistance looks like.

We have received news that on Thursday, 12^th September, many Israeli police raided the unrecognized village of Umm al-Hiran in the Naqab and relayed the message that the remaining 50% of the village (following earlier demolitions) will be demolished within the next two months. The plan is to replace Umm al-Hiran with Hiran (Dror), that will be just for Jews, and to forcibly transfer the Palestinians from their agricultural community to the urban town of Hura that has been created for them.

For more details on the demolitions and forced displacements happening in the Naqab, see the latest news on ICAHD’s Facebook pages.

Yet another courageous person, Ayşenur Eygi, who gave her life for a just cause, that of Palestinian rights, has been killed in action. She joins two other members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall, who also stood against Israeli destruction of Palestinian life in its genocidal campaign since 1948 to Judaize Palestine.

She was shot during a demonstration by a member of the Israeli army in Beita, the town of about 12,000 people near Nablus, which has been the target of deadly Israeli attacks for decades, both by the military and by settlers. In 1988, during the First Intifada, the then Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin ordered the army to "break the bones" of Palestinian protesters. Twenty men from Beita and the vicinity said to have been involved in stone throwing were assembled, bound, and actually had their bones broken by soldiers. They were then abandoned at night in a muddy field.

A couple of months later, a group of Israeli settlers entered Beita in a demonstration of strength "to show them that we are the masters of the country." The group was led by two heavily armed settlers with criminal records of attacks on Palestinians. In the ensuing melee, two Palestinians were shot by one of the armed criminals and with several left wounded. Also killed by the settler's M-16 was an Israeli girl, though the Palestinians were initially blamed. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir attended her funeral where cries of "the village of Beita must be wiped off the face of the earth" were raised. Read full article here

Once again this was a peaceful, good-spirited march as people of all ages and from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds took to the streets. Calls went out for a full arms embargo, a permanent ceasefire, and the end of Israel’s apartheid and genocidal policies over the Palestinian people.

ICAHD UK supporters continue to be part of the Jewish bloc. There is always much interest in ICAHD’s work and many conversations with other demonstrators happen along the way.

The next national march will be in London on Saturday, 5^th October. Do join us then.

Our interaction with Salwa began when she was the International Advocacy Coordinator for the Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC) in Ramallah. She went on to co-found Military Court Watch (MCW) with Gerard in 2013. Participants from our issued based study tours and the rebuilding camps had the opportunity to hear from Salwa during our visits to WCLAC and then to MCW. Our last engagement with Salwa was in May during the recent study tour and a short interview with her was recorded. View this video here

Salwa’s research focussed on the devasting effects of the Israel army’s night raids on Palestinian families. They happen as an everyday occurrence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory which means that Palestinians cannot feel safe even in their own homes. When we met with Salwa in May, she described how since 7th October the number of Palestinian children held in Israeli prisons has skyrocketed. They are kept without charge, now with no schooling or access to lawyers and with food and bedding shortages. This means that Palestinian families are extremely worried about what is happening to their children and cannot see a future for them.

Dates for Your Diary Saturday, 5 October – National March for Palestine, noon, central London. More details to follow.

Saturday, 19 October – ICAHD UK Annual Conference - from 10.00am to 4.15pm. Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church, 235 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8EP.

Saturday, 26 October – ICAHD UK Conference – Edinburgh – 10.30 am – 3.30 pm Quaker Meeting House, 1^st Floor, 7 Victoria Terrace, Victoria Street, Edinburgh EH1 2JL.

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