|
|
||
|
 |
IWPS-Palestine Annual Report No.2. 2003-4September 2004Table of Contents
SummaryThe second year of the project took place within a context of increasing human rights abuses, the extension of the building of the Wall deep into the Salfit area and the international condemnation of the Wall being reflected by the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion that found that the building of the Wall on Palestinian land was "contrary to international law". Much of the work of the House Teams in Haris has been in support of local people working nonviolently to resist the building of the Wall. As nonviolent demonstrations have been met with high levels of violence by the IDF this has meant a great deal of trauma for everyone involved as they have experienced tear gas, beatings, and rubber bullets alongside the distress caused as the Wall continues to spread. The Israeli Military Occupation continues to oppress and distort Palestinian society. Poverty and despair is tragically increasing as the months go by. The work of the project continues to be extremely challenging as more and more villages call for an international presence. The majority of the villages in Salfit have now had a basic village survey completed and this information along with the regular fortnightly House Articles and Human Rights Reports are all on the website and give a good overview of the work done. Increasing numbers of volunteers have served in the house and have taken a renewed commitment to work for justice and peace for the Palestinians back to their home countries. The excellent working relations with the Israeli peace movement that were forged in the first year have continued and these have been nurtured in co-operative working relationships between Palestinian, Israeli and International peace movements. The financial and organisational systems of the project have been developed and an IWPS-Palestine Manual has now been written that contains all the various policies and protocols that are emerging through practical field-work. The Aims and Objectives of IWPS-Palestine for 2003/4Aims
Objectives for summer 2003 to summer 2004
PersonnelIWPS-Palestine has worked hard throughout the year to ensure a continuing presence in Haris. This has been made difficult by the Israeli authorities denying entry to 5 more of our volunteers (3 were denied entry last year). Nevertheless the work has continued and replacements found. The work of the Outreach Sub-Group has ensured that we are recruiting a much wider diversity of volunteers of colour and from the two-thirds world and this is making our team more reflective of the global community. The wider diversity enables a larger audience to be aware of and act in support of the Palestinian's right to survive. IWPS-Palestine has developed and is beginning to implement a scholarship scheme for those under-represented women who would not be able to afford to come as self-funded Volunteers. We now have two kinds of volunteers : Long-Term Volunteers (LTVs) and Volunteers (Vols). As of August 2004 we had:
IWPS-Palestine has recruited, interviewed and accepted as Vols another 44 women who have yet to serve in Palestine, most of whom will be going out in the coming year. Of these 44 women, 14 are from the USA; 5 each from South Africa and the UK; 3 from Canada; 2 each from Australia, France and Mexico; 1 each from Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Czech Republic, India, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Macedonia, New Zealand, and Switzerland. 14 out of the 44 are from under-represented communities or countries of which 8 have been offered scholarships. Most LTVs have served between 2 and 3 months and most Vols serve between 2 and 4 weeks. On average each month 7 different women have been present in Haris. Some gaps have arisen from time to time leading to difficult times when only one or two LTVs and one Vol have had to keep everything going. Our aim of having 5 LTVs and 2 Vols in service in Palestine at all times has unfortunately not been possible. As the situation gets worse and as the Israeli authorities deny entry to more and more people IWPS-Palestine will continue to need to recruit more women to replace those turned away. Any women interested in volunteering should contact iwpsvolunteers@yahoo.co.uk Context for IWPS work in PalestineIWPS-Palestine is based in Haris, Salfit, in the northwest part of the West Bank. In the two years it has been set up it has seen
Human Rights AbusesIWPS-Palestine is continuing to respond to tragically far too many human rights abuses that are brought to their attention. In the last year another 112 Human Rights Reports have been written and sent onto Human Rights organizations. A database of these abuses is kept updated and a quarterly summary report and an annual summary report are also compiled. The village of Haris where IWPS-Palestine is based has suffered the killing of yet one more young man by the IDF in April 2004 and in July 2004 the critical shooting of an older woman, who died of her injuries on October 3. This is on top of other woundings, "administrative detentions" that last many months, and military incursions into the village. Other villages and towns have suffered far worse abuses. For the annual summary and an analysis by type of human rights abuse and by location please see Appendix 1 : IWPS Human Rights Annual Summary for 2003/4. Village OutreachIWPS-Palestine has continued to support the international presence in Yanoun (Nablus Governorate) by relieving the international Ecumenical Accompaniers (who have now taken over prime responsibility for providing the presence) when they need to take breaks. Unfortunately the illegal settlers of Itamar settlement are still aggressive and intimidating and are still controlling, by force of guns, many of the fertile fields and grazing hills of the Yanoun villagers. However, the international presence ensures the continued survival of the village itself and this last year international donors have provided a paved road between upper and lower Yanoun which makes the journey of the school bus much easier. IWPS-Palestine continued to provide protection to Qarawat Bani Zeid (Ramallah Governorate) throughout the year and extended this to the nearby village of Kufr Ein. Both these villages are experiencing continual military incursions and not only had adults been shot and killed but also an increasing number of school children. IWPS-Palestine provided a regular school watch and also a presence in the home of one family who was being subjected to increasing harassment. A PowerPoint presentation and reports on Qarawat Bani Zeid are helping to build pressure for a proper investigation of the abuse by the IDF unit involved. IWPS-Palestine worked with other International and Palestinian NGOs to enable a nonviolence course to be conducted for both children and adults to explore nonviolent ways of resisting the lethal military abuses of the IDF. 17 village surveys have now been completed. These give a short summary of the presence and history of the indigenous Palestinian communities. This is seen as an important part of IWPS' solidarity work considering the pressures from the Israeli settlers who try to erase signs of Palestinian life in the areas they take over and who are still trying to propagate the lie that no-one lives or owns the land on which they are building their settlements and military outposts. See Appendix 2 - Table of Village Surveys. Olive Harvest 2003For Palestinians the olive tree is a symbol of life, the basis of their survival and the strong roots of their long connection to their homeland. However, a distressingly large number of olive trees around Palestinian villages are being uprooted and destroyed by bulldozers of the Israeli Army. The official explanation of the Israeli Occupation Force is that it is necessary for "security reasons". Since the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada in September 2000, the farmers have been picking most of their olives under life threatening conditions. In the past four years at least nine olive farmers have been killed, and hundreds injured and harassed by Israeli settlers, threatened by Israeli soldiers and blocked from harvesting their crops. According to the statistics published by the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture (30th September 2004), as of Sept. 2003, Israeli forces have uprooted some 953,071 trees and confiscated thousands of dunums of olive groves. Since the construction of the Apartheid Wall on Palestinian land in early 2002, this confiscation and destruction has escalated. During the olive harvest IWPS-Palestine accompanies farmers with the help of international and Israeli volunteers, to enable harvesting despite attacks from Israeli settlers and army restrictions. The harvesting also decreases the chances of land confiscation, as land, which has not been cultivated over a period of three years, can be annexed by Israel, according to the unjust laws it has in place. Every second year is a good harvest - 2003 was one of the weaker harvests. Due to a call for IWPS volunteers, we had quite a number of women ready to support farmers in threatened areas. Starting in late summer, we met with representatives of the Peasants' Union, Ministry of Agriculture, District Coordinating Liaison (DCL) and Palestinian police to plan how to best work with the farmers. We also had meetings with individual village coordinators in villages where we expected the demand for accompaniment to be high. We also intended to meet with representatives of the Farmers' Union, but that did not take place. We hoped to have all parties and factions meet together and for all the farmers with land in a threatened area to go together with the internationals, but this did not work out. Except in Mas'ha and Deir Istya, we cooperated mainly with the coordinators for the Peasants' Union. Most time was spent in the village of Marda. Farmers needed accompaniment to fields along the Ariel fence and along the main settler highway. At the fence to Ariel, there were confrontations between farmers and security guards, and at times the army forbade farmers from picking within 100 meters of the fence. Though they sometimes attempted to enforce this rule, all the olives were picked with the international help. Along the road the Israeli Army often wanted to stop the farmers from harvesting. In both cases harvesting was only successful due to the presence and intervention from IWPS volunteers plus the efficient support of Rabbis for Human Rights. One farmer was abducted by the army and tortured for several hours. Another had sacks of olives confiscated by the army. Families from Kifl Haris with land inside Ariel also only succeeded entering and harvesting through numerous interventions of IWPS in close cooperation with the Rabbis for Human Rights. Several days were spent with families from Jama'in in their fields close to the settlement Tapuach. Radical settlers threatened the families, who then decided to stop picking in this area, despite the presence of internationals at the time. They later finished picking in the area with support from a large group of Israeli and international volunteers. Different families in the villages Haris and Deir Istya went harvesting with IWPS volunteers to fields near the settlements of Revava, Yakir and Nofim. Although settlers from Nofim and the security guards of Revava harassed the farmers at the beginning, the harvest continued successfully. The villages of Yasuf and Salfit reported problems once, but managed alone and did not ask for support. The village Mas'ha had support from Israeli groups from the Mas'ha camp. IWPS, along with Israeli activists, accompanied farmers attempting to get through the Wall gates in Mas'ha on a number of occasions. Palestinian Olive Oil ExportIWPS-Palestine's work on the olive harvest highlighted the problem that many rural Palestinians have exporting their oil due to the Israeli closures. It was decided to try to reduce the plight of the Palestinian farmers by facilitating between Fair Trade Companies in different countries and the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee to export Palestinian olive oil and thereby ensure a fair price for the farmers. The agricultural sector has traditionally been the backbone of the Palestinian economy. The most important Palestinian agricultural export is virgin and extra virgin olive oil. Olive oil is a very important source of income for some 70,560 Palestinian farmers who produce an average of around 35,784 tons of olive oil in a good year harvest and consume about 12,500 tons. Palestinian farmers face very serious problems in marketing the remaining 23,284 tons. IWPS-Palestine used its international status to establish contact between the often isolated Palestinians and the outside world, taking responsibility for helping eligible farmers sell their oil for a fair price. IWPS-Palestine is also engaged with the cooperation partners to distribute not only the precious oil, but also background information on the difficulties and risks of farming land under the Israeli Military Occupation. The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee (PARC - www.pal-arc.org) is a non-governmental organization working in the field of rural development, environmental protection and enhancement of rural women's role and status in Palestine. Since it became impossible for farmers to market their oil directly and the price was decreasing to a point that farmers were not able to cover their production costs, PARC decided to buy large quantities of olive oil directly from the farmers at a higher price. This managed to stabilize the prices and stop further decline. PARC is hoping to open new marketing channels in other countries in order to help more farmers. The Palestinian olive oil is marketed as "virgin" or "extra virgin" (in the EU called "nativ" or "nativ extra"). Its cultivation is organic and the oil is free of cholesterol and known for its low acidity and special taste. This oil maintains its nutrients and taste long after it is bottled. IWPS-Palestine has helped facilitate the export of this oil to the following countries over the last year:- over 6.5 tons to Austria/Germany (see www.iwps.info/olive%20oil/oliveoil_english.htm), over 7 tons to England and over 11 tons to Japan. Our Austrian partner is also currently working with us on the export of za'tar (thyme). Apartheid Wall CampaignConstruction of the Apartheid Wall began in June 2002. In September 2002, when the IWPS-Palestine presence in Haris was only a few weeks old, IWPS-Palestine became involved in documenting, reporting and working together with local communities and Israeli, Palestinian and International activists to oppose the Wall's construction. Then, together with local Palestinian and Israeli peace groups, IWPS-Palestine co-ordinated a five month long camp in Mas'ha village between April and August 2003, on land designated for bulldozing land for the Wall construction. This activity meant that thousands of people could visit Palestine and see the ongoing land destruction for the first time. In August 2003, the camp was moved to protect the Amer family home in Mas'ha, which the IDF had designated to be separated, alone, from the rest of the village. The Apartheid Wall was to be built through the Amer's sheepshed and the Amers were to lose all their land to the military road. Nonviolent resistance to the destruction of the Amer's land and sheepshed culminated in mass arrests of Israeli and international peace activists, and the virtual imprisonment of the family thereafter behind the Wall on one side (the Mas'ha side) and three fences on the other sides (the Elkana settlement side). However, between August 2003 and September 2004, IWPS-Palestine managed to secure dozens of interviews with international television news crews for the Amer family who have become a symbol of the injustice of the Apartheid Wall. From September 2003 onwards, IWPS-Palestine intensified its support of local women's grassroots organising efforts against the imminent Apartheid Wall in Salfit after local women launched the "Salfit Women against the Wall" committee : a Palestinian women's organisation led by Palestinian women. Between September and November 2003, over 400 women from 11 villages in the Salfit district participated in the activities of the women's committee. According to organizer Fatima Khaldi, at this time this was the only district-wide activist project undertaken by the women of Salfit during the second Intifada. Salfit Women against the Wall held a successful, nonviolent demonstration at the Amer home on November 9th 2003 : an international day of action against the Apartheid Wall. At this point, the Amer family was imprisoned in their home since the IDF held the key to the one tiny gate in the fence. However, solidarity actions and media attention led to the IDF being forced to hand over the key to the family so that they could move freely back and forth between their house and Mas'ha village. Building on the success of the Mas'ha Peace Camp, the village of Deir Ballut requested a peace camp in December 2003. The camp's activities began on Friday, December 19th 2003 and ended on January 3rd 2004. The village chose a primary school under construction in the path of the on-coming Wall for the site of the camp. The IDF had stopped the building a few months earlier, saying that the school's land would be used for the Apartheid Wall. The partially built school was due to be bulldozed at this time (but is still standing today). The Deir Ballut camp held daily activities. The Salfit Women against the Wall held organising and solidarity workshops for women and girls from seven villages inside the half built school. Three mass marches were held (one to open the camp, one by schoolchildren, and one with the aim of nonviolently removing the town's checkpoint). Israeli, International and Palestinian campers made daily and nightly interventions at the checkpoint, which separated the town completely from the nearest city and medical centre. Just days earlier, on 22nd December 2003 (see Human Rights Report No 69) premature twins had been born and died an hour later after their mother had been refused leave to pass to hospital. A solidarity tree-planting visit took place at the isolated Amer home in Mas'ha, and a mass demonstration against the fence surrounding the Amer home was held on 26th December. On this day, the IDF shot an Israeli activist with live ammunition. Gil Na'amati later lost the use of one of his knees. After this, and in preparation for the continuation of the Apartheid Wall (also known by Palestinians as the Expropriation Wall) past Mas'ha along to the next village (Az Zawiya), the IDF set up a checkpoint between the two neighbouring villages (which were to be totally separated by the Wall). IWPS-Palestine made almost nightly interventions at this checkpoint, in co-operation with the villages and Israeli activists, determined to prevent a new permanent checkpoint. IWPS-Palestine succeeded in getting an Israeli Knesset member (Parliamentarian) to visit the checkpoint late one night when several hundred people were being detained there. The visit of the MK Roman Bronfman forced the soldiers to open the checkpoint, which was permanently dismantled just days later. The Deir Ballut camp also had some success : just after it ended the concrete blocks were removed, making it possible for villagers to drive to Ramallah. The Deir Ballut camp was also a pivotal moment in building village to village solidarity against the Apartheid Wall in the Salfit region, increasing Palestinian women's participation and leadership of nonviolent demonstrations and in building relationships with Israeli peace groups that paid off when, four months later, bulldozing for the Wall began in this village. The camp led to requests from other regions in the West Bank for international/Israeli nonviolent land defence forces. From December 2003 until July 2004, IWPS-Palestine helped in the setting up of a long-term presence against the Wall's bulldozers in Budrus village at the request of the newly formed Popular Committee against the Wall in West Ramallah. The international house was established, becoming the base for nonviolent land defence actions by Israelis, Palestinians and internationals in several villages in the West Ramallah region. In these villages the Wall's bulldozers could not proceed with their work because they were blocked by nonviolent resistance every day. In March 2004, high ranking Israeli Defence Force officials arrived in Budrus and informed the community that they would move the Wall away from the village to the Green Line. In January 2004, IWPS-Palestine compiled legal evidence of hardships to Palestinians, land confiscation and property destruction for the International Court of Justice hearing into the Wall, at the request of the Palestinian Authority office in Salfit. From January 2004 until present, IWPS-Palestine has been the main data collection point of information related to closures and restrictions on movement in Salfit for the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), at their request. UN OCHA maps regional closures monthly for advocacy purposes. In February 2004, IWPS-Palestine succeeded in securing funding for the weekly workshops of the Salfit Women against the Wall, from the Urgent Action Fund for Women. This made self-sufficiency of this committee a real possibility and in February 2004, the committee held a mass nonviolent demonstration against the Wall in Mas'ha village on International Day against Occupation and War ; believed to be the first Palestinian women-led, women-only demonstration in the region during this Intifada. The committee also made links with Palestinian women living inside Israel (1948 Palestinians) for the first time, thus increasing resistance to the Wall. The women from inside Israel hired two buses to attend the demonstration but were blocked on the road out of Israel by the IDF. IWPS-Palestine's support of Palestinian women-led organisations bore fruit from April 2004 until end of June 2004 when the bulldozing of land for the Wall began in the Salfit region. Palestinian women were in the forefront of the nonviolent demonstrations against the Wall. There were demonstrations every day for several weeks in Az Zawiya attended by women from local villages in Salfit. Many of the women knew about the demonstrations because of the work of the "Women for Life" group (who are part of the coalition of 'Women Against the Wall') facilitated by Fatima Khaldi and which organised transport for the women to attend. On the first day of demonstrations, the 7th June 2004, women led the way to the bulldozers and were badly tear gassed. After several days of being overwhelmed with hundreds of canisters of tear gas, one woman from Az Zawiya gave birth to a still-born baby with 'blackened' skin (see Human Rights Report no 130). According to Dr. Madi, the Manager of the Salfit Health Services, this tragic occurrence was a direct result of exposure to tear gas. He also believed that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) were using a new formulation of tear gas, possibly containing some kind of nerve gas, because of the unusual symptoms, including paralysis and convulsions, displayed by those injured in the demonstrations. IWPS-Palestine has instigated an investigation in which several organisations, including Physicians for Human Rights (an Israeli Human Rights Group) and Amnesty International, are involved in getting a clinical analysis of the gas from a laboratory. This is currently still being followed up by IWPS-Palestine. Due to the high numbers and seriousness of injuries on these demonstrations, many women unfortunately felt they were unable to continue coming to Az Zawiya to support the resistance against the Wall. However new groups of women from Iskaka and Deir Ballut, organised by Fatima and others, joined in protests against the Wall in the months of June and early July 2004. IWPS-Palestine sent out calls for actions to Israeli and Palestinian anti-Wall activists and press releases to over 2000 media contacts on a daily basis during the months of June and early July. Many journalists were in attendance at the demonstrations and reported they had come due to the notice received from IWPS-Palestine. IWPS provided photographic and video documentation to the municipality of Salfit Town for use in their court case against the Wall there, which succeeded in securing a temporary injunction against the planned "Ariel Loop." IWPS videos from demonstrations in Az Zawiya, Budrus, Iskaka and Salfit have also been shown on Israeli and U.S. television news and incorporated into public education programs on the Wall in the U.S., Australia and UK. In the months of June, July and August there were also demonstrations and women-only vigils against the Wall, held at Ar Ram, one of the main checkpoints into Jerusalem. IWPS-Palestine attended some of these demonstrations and vigils including one, which was met with excessive and extreme violence by the IDF, including the use of water cannons and live bullets. IWPS-Palestine has photographic evidence of tear gas being fired into an ambulance. After the International Court of Justice Ruling on the 11th July 2004, Israel's own Supreme Court temporarily halted the building of the Wall in the Jerusalem and Salfit areas, whilst an enquiry was carried out on the impact of the Wall on Palestinian villages. From the middle of July therefore, resistance to the Apartheid Wall in the form of demonstrations, ceased in the Salfit area, awaiting the decision of the Israeli Supreme Court. From the middle of July until the beginning of August, IWPS-Palestine attended a summer camp for girls aged between 12-18 years in Deir Ballut. Girls from the villages affected by the Wall attended, including from DeirBallut, Az Zawiya, Rafat, Mas'ha, Sarta, Biddya and Haris. Around 100 young women and girls attended everyday for two weeks. As well as arts and crafts, health education, dancing, singing and outings, the girls also participated in lectures and discussions about the Wall. Members of IWPS-Palestine attended the camp nearly everyday, taking video footage and photographs, some of which can be viewed on our website. In particular, IWPS-Palestine was able to provide accompaniment for the girls to go on a trip to Ramallah which they would have been too anxious to attempt without an international presence. IWPS-Palestine had secured the funding for the camp through one of its many generous donors. The organising was done primarily by Fatima and other women of the Salfit Women against the Wall group. As a result of the camp many of the young women formed a group called 'Flowers Against the Occupation'. IWPS-Palestine will help in the process of finding a Palestinian woman to help the 'Flowers' develop a website (to help them keep in touch with each other, despite the Occupation roadblocks and check-points that separate them from each other's villages) and find a trainer to help them learn how to write funding submissions for further project work. At the beginning of August 2004, IWPS-Palestine supported women from local villages in Salfit, including Biddya, Haris, Qarawa and Mas'ha, to join in the International Solidarity Movement summer campaign - a 'Freedom March' from Jenin to Jerusalem with Palestinian, Israeli and international activists walking along the proposed (in some places not yet built) and actual route of the Wall. More women from the Salfit area joined the march when it reached Az Zawiya, Mas'ha and Deir Ballut. Fatima was tireless in informing women and organising transport for them to attend. A small group of young women from Salfit, accompanied by IWPS-Palestine, also joined the 'Freedom March' from Deir Ballut to Budrus. Much of the funding for the women's and girls' resistance came from the Urgent Action Fund. Mikarov ProjectIn late 2003 IWPS initiated Mikarov, a ten-day intensive workshop for Israelis in the West Bank. "Mikarov" (in English "Neighbor to Neighbor") was a collaborative project of IWPS, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Machsom Watch, and the Alternative Information Center, in consultation with the Palestinian NGO Holy Land Trust. The goal of the project was to recruit and train solidarity activists to reach out to their friends and family who are not persuaded that the occupation needs to end. The word "Mikarov" in Hebrew means both "close" and "related". The name was chosen by Israeli organizers to convey a complex set of relationships. Funds for this workshop were provided by the Shefa Foundation and Quaker Service-Jerusalem. The workshop included tours of the Wall, the matrix of control in greater Jerusalem, a day of checkpoint watch, both planned and unplanned, and an overnight in Yanoun, a tiny village in the remote Nablus area, which is besieged by settlements. The 9 participants spent six nights in the West Bank, and for most it was their first experience traveling in Palestinian cars and sleeping in Palestinian villages. Discussion and feedback on each activity was facilitated by a team of trainers: Mohammed Jode from Azzun, Qalqilya; Shelly Nativ from Tel Aviv; and Alisa Klein from Northampton, Massachusetts. The final weekend was devoted to panels focusing on ways to change Israeli attitudes. Political artists Ronen Eidelman and Tal Adler inspired the group with consciousness changing art projects they have been involved with. Participants were asked to commit to specific projects they would pursue when they returned home. Some have followed through and some have not. Unfortunately, both of the IWPS team members who were most involved in creating the project were required to leave the country before the workshop ended, and were denied re-entry, and the ICAHD staff member who helped to develop the curriculum left the organization soon after. This has meant that the follow up was not as thorough as we intended, but we have remained in contact with the group members. One follow-up meeting was held in May at Neve Shalom/Wahat as-Salam. Two group members shared short videos they had produced including footage acquired during the workshop. The group decided to organize a tour of the Matrix of Control in Greater Jerusalem for their families, which was attended by 18 people, including three active female soldiers. IWPS team members are currently meeting with Mohammed Jode and Shelly Nativ to develop plans for future activities aimed at deepening relationships between Israelis and Palestinians and promoting a culture of resistance to occupation within Israeli society. Mohammed is particularly interested in creating experiences which bring small groups of Israelis and Palestinians together for several days, which will give the Palestinians an opportunity to relax and tell the truth. Several members of the original Mikarov group have also expressed an interest in helping to organize future workshops. Networking and Support of Palestinian and Israeli NGOsIWPS-Palestine works with over 60 different groups and organisations within Israel and Palestine. We share information, do joint research, support nonviolent activities against the Occupation and the Wall and encourage and support each other as much as possible. The kinds of groups we work with are within the following categories:
For a full list see Appendix 3 - List of Organisations that IWPS-Palestine works with in the West Bank. Publications and Resources
IWPS-Palestine produces a series of reports including general House Articles (averaging 2 per month) see Appendix 4 - Summary of House Articles in Second Year 2003/4 and Human Rights Reports (averaging 8 per month) see Appendix 1 : IWPS Human Rights Annual Summary for 2003/4. These are posted to the website and a selection are also emailed to IWPS supporters when they sign up by emailing IWPS-Palestine has also completed village surveys in some of the villages it works in. These are up on the website. See Appendix 2 - Table of Village Surveys. Various other resources have also been produced this year:- "IWPS Olive Harvest 2003" is a PowerPoint presentation produced by Karin on the Olive Harvest in Salfit. Used to help orient Olive Harvest Volunteers to go out for the 2004 olive harvest it is also useful for a wider audience to gain some understanding of the difficulties olive farmers are facing in the Occupied West Bank. "The Wall in the West Bank: The Separation Barrier, the Apartheid Wall, the Fence" is a PowerPoint presentation produced by Barbara with facts and pictures of what is happening on the West Bank, showing how the wall is not for security purposes as Israel claims. "Century of Transfer: The Struggle for Land in Salfit" is a PowerPoint presentation on the history of Zionism produced by Kate. Beginning with a quote from Moshe Dayan, Israeli Minister of Defense, Army Chief of Staff "Before their very eyes we are possessing the land and the villages where they, and their ancestors, have lived... We are the generation of colonizers, and without the steel helmet and the gun barrel we cannot plant a tree and build a home" the presentation brings us up to date and shows the modern face of the colonisation that is continuing with the building of the Wall. "Slaughter of a family: the Israeli Occupation of Qarawat Bani Zeid village" is a harrowing PowerPoint presentation by Anna giving an insight into a small rural village near Ramallah which has suffered the loss of 10 villagers killed by the IDF since 2001 including several children at school. The IDF are continuing their incursions and their terrorization of this traumatised village. "Restriction of Movement - March 2004" is a PowerPoint presentation by Karin giving an overview of the different kinds of road blocks and checkpoints that IWPS have witnessed over the last 2 years and an insight into the effect this has on the indigenous Palestinian people. "Truth will prevail" is a booklet written by Angie to show the living Palestinian people and communities of Salfit and is a response to a promotional brochure produced to attract new Jewish immigrants to Ariel. The brochure, called "Faces of Ariel", ignores the Palestinian presence and presents Ariel as being in the centre of Israel rather than, in fact, being deep within the West Bank. "Israel: an Apartheid State?", a PowerPoint presentation by Kate, analyzes the occupation of Palestinian lands by Israel in terms of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights definition of the crime of apartheid. "Occupation Palestine/Occupation Iraq" melds images from the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the Israeli occupation of Palestine with a powerful soundtrack of folk music by Iraqi and Palestinian musicians. Contains footage from the nonviolent resistance to the Apartheid Wall construction in the Palestinian village of Budrus. Produced by Kate, who visited Iraq in early February 2004. DVD, 15 minutes. To order, send check or money order to IWPS, 2018 Shattuck Avenue, PMB 122, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA. Requested donation: in U.S. $6-10, outside U.S. $10-12. IWPS-Palestine has a website www.iwps.info where reports, photos and maps are archived and freely available for the public. Some of the documents are translated into Arabic, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese and Spanish. Copies of the PowerPoints and the Booklet are available from the UK Office. Funding and Annual AccountsWe are in a healthy financial position with enough funds to cover the next eight months of work. We are working at present to secure enough funding to cover the last 4 months of the project. We are still engaged in discussions about whether to continue the project for a further few years, but to do so will need to secure much longer-term core funding. The new budget for the third year (August 1st 2004 to July 31st 2005) is attached as Appendix 5 - IWPS-Palestine Budget for Year 3 Aug '04 to July '05 and the second annual set of accounts as Appendix 6 - IWPS-Palestine Accounts for 2nd year Compared with Revised Budget. Total spent from the beginning of the project to date: £96,409. Total income from the beginning of the project to date: £166,611. Current net assets amount to: £ 73,330 (Bank £ 65,230; Equipment £8,100 after depreciation) Based on average monthly spending, and taking into consideration the new budget requirements, IWPS-Palestine has enough funds for the next 8months. Further donations and financial support are welcome. Appendices |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
