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CRY FREEDOM.net
formerly known as
Women's Liberation Front
MORE INSIGHT MORE LIFE
Welcome to cryfreedom.net,
formerly known as Womens
Liberation Front.
A website
that hopes to draw and keeps your attention for both the global 21th. century 3rd. feminist revolution as well
as especially for the Zan, Zendegi, Azadi uprising in Iran and the
struggles of our sisters in other parts of the Middle East. This online magazine
that started December 2019 will
be published every week. Thank you for your time and interest.
Gino d'Artali
indept investigative
journalist
radical feminist and women's rights activist
'WOMEN, LIFE, FREEDOM'
You are now at the section on what is happening in the rest of the Middle
east
(Updates
Oct. 27, 2024)
For the
Iran 'Woman, Life, Freedom' Iran actual news
Updated Oct 25, 2024
For the 'Women's Arab Spring 1.2' Revolt
news
Updated Oct. 27, 2024
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October 25 - 23, 2024
"Gaza parents' heartbreak
as children’s clothes, shoes fall to pieces..."
and "While arrest warrants
in themselves won't stop crimes, they could have a real
effect on the ground and potentially save many lives,"
said international law professor Adil Haque,
a seasoned ICC observer...
and more actual and revealing news
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October 17 - 15, 2024
Food for thought:
As a more than reliable source
(a nazi-camp 'gypsy' survivor)
told me yesterday
israel is heading straight
to become a extreme fascist dictatorship
and more actual fact-finding news
Click here to go throughout
September
and earler, 2024
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When one hurts or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi
figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da
qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so
called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali.
Al Jazeera - Oct 20, 2024 - By Shaima Madboly and
Faris Ka'abneh
<<Forced out
Ramallah, occupied West Bank - The dilapidated tent does not offer much
protection against the cold in the winter or the fierce heat in the
summer. It sits on a barren patch of land near the city of Ramallah. But
it is the only shelter Abdelrahman 'Abu Bashar' Ka'abneh and his family
have. Three beds are arranged next to the tent. In the summer months,
the family chose to sleep outside to catch the cooler night air. It
provided some comfort after months of displacement, having been forced
out of their village - now reduced to rubble - by Israeli settlers in
October 2023. Abu Bashar, 48, is the head, or mukhtar, of the village of
Wadi as-Seeq, 25.7km (16 miles) from Ramallah on the road east to
Jericho. A member of the Kaabneh tribe, one of the biggest of the
Palestinian Bedouin tribes, Abu Bashar thought he would spend the rest
of his days in Wadi as-Seeq. His family had been in the village for more
than 50 years, after being forcibly displaced from the southern part of
the occupied West Bank as a result of Israel's victory in the 1967 war.
After the division of the West Bank into administrative areas as a
result of the Oslo Accords in the mid-1990s, Wadi as-Seeq sat in Area C
- under full Israeli military control - and the push to force
Palestinians out began. At the time, Israeli authorities started
preventing the residents of Wadi as-Seeq, and other nearby Palestinian
villages, from building new structures. The reduction of access to water
for agriculture led to partial desertification of their land.
And then, in 2015, the settler attacks began.
"They stole over 400 cattle and sheep, demolished the school and
constantly harassed us and beat us," Abu Bashar said. "The attacks
increased after an outpost was built next to us at the beginning of
2023... When we objected or called the police, we were arrested and
released only after paying large bails that depleted our savings." The
settler attacks reached a crescendo in the week following October 7,
2023, when Hamas led an attack on southern Israel, and Israel
subsequently launched a war on Gaza. Israel has killed more than 40,000
Palestinians in its war, while 1,139 people were killed in Israel during
the Hamas-led attack. Emboldened by the conflict, settlers ramped up
their attacks on Palestinians, including in Wadi as-Seeq.
As Abu Bashar explained what happened, he asked his child to play
further away, so he could not overhear. It is still a painful story for
the mukhtar to recount. "On October 12, about 80 heavily armed soldiers,
police and settlers attacked us," he said, explaining that the Israelis
had closed off all the roads into the village. "Among us were two
officials from the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance
Commission [a Palestinian Authority body supporting Palestinians
affected by the Israeli occupation] and four Israeli peace activists who
came to support us. They and some villagers were tortured by settlers in
front of us: they were handcuffed, stripped to their underwear, urinated
on and severely beaten...The army took our IDs and phones, giving us one
hour to leave or be killed... We took what we could carry and left, lost
without a future."
The villagers have not been able to return and Wadi as-Seeq sits
deserted.
No end to displacement
Palestinian Bedouins have long inhabited the hilly area of the West Bank
where Wadi as-Seeq is situated, relying on the environment to herd their
sheep and cattle. They are proud of their Bedouin lifestyle: the women
wear distinctive patterned clothing and the men don the keffiyeh. The
Bedouins even have an accent of Palestinian Arabic particular to them.
Their way of life, secluded from major cities and communities, made
their villages unique attractions - but it has also made them more
vulnerable to settler attacks. Recognised as among the Indigenous
Peoples of the region, Palestinian Bedouins have historically inhabited
large swaths of the West Bank and what is now Israel - including the
Naqab (Negev) desert.
But since 1948, and the creation of the state of Israel that saw the
forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, many
Bedouins have also been forced out, some even to neighbouring countries
like Egypt and Jordan. The Kaabneh themselves were originally from Tel
Arad in the Naqab, before they were forced out by Zionist militias in
1948. In the southern West Bank, where they found refuge, they were
forced out again after 1967, when the Israeli military turned their
villages into a military training zone. So they headed northwards, where
they now find themselves displaced once again. It is part of a practice
that Sarit Michaeli, the international advocacy lead for the Israeli NGO
B'Tselem, described as <a systematic Israeli government policy to
illegally seize Palestinian lands>. Michaeli explained that Wadi as-Seeq
was a clear example of that policy, despite it being in contravention of
international law. "The Israeli government is exploiting the events of
October 7 and the world's focus on Gaza to completely control the West
Bank. According to our statistics, two outposts are being built each
month to besiege and intimidate Palestinians until they are displaced,"
Michaeli said. The Israeli military denies that narrative, describing it
to Al Jazeera as <both cynical and deceptive>.
While not directly commenting on actions committed by settlers, COGAT,
Israel's Ministry of Defense body responsible for Palestinian civilian
affairs, said: <When residents of the area are harmed due to violence
from any party, officers of the [Israeli] Civil Administration assist
them in filing a complaint with the Israel Police, who then address the
matter>.
Settler violence
Israel's policy towards Palestinians is evident in the frequent support
the Israeli army offers settlers, even during their attacks on
Palestinians. In some cases, Palestinians are imprisoned despite being
the victims of the attacks. Musab Eid, 35, and his brother Ahmed, 31,
regularly took their sheep to graze on the green mountains near their
community, Abu Fazaa, in al-Muarrajat, to the north of Wadi as-Seeq, as
their family has done for years, despite the increasing settler attacks.
One spring morning in 2021, the brothers say they were confronted by an
armed settler claiming the land as his own, just metres from their
village. After the settler attempted to attack them, the brothers said
they decided to return home to avoid further conflict. However, on their
way back, they were stopped by the Israeli army and settlers. They said
they were were beaten, tied up and detained at a nearby camp. The army
also confiscated footage Ahmed had documented of the settler's assault.
"I still suffer from severe back pain from the attack," Musab recalled.
"We were released a week later after paying a large bail, but they gave
us a one-year suspended prison sentence and banned us from travelling or
working inside Israel or any territories under its control." A few days
after their release, the Israeli army demolished their village without
warning. However, Ahmed and a few others remained among the ruins. Musab
explained that Ahmed was taken by settlers in April. They were dressed
in Israeli military uniforms, he said, and set fire to what remained of
the village. "They took Ahmed to an unknown location," Mussab said. "We
eventually learned through a lawyer that he was sentenced to two years
in prison on arson charges. He's still imprisoned today."
The Hilltop Youth
The settlers are organised into several groups. Among the most violent
are the Hilltop Youth, a group that has committed numerous acts of
violence against Palestinians. The settler movement is backed by the
Israeli government, despite the settlement of occupied territory being
illegal under international law. In fact, some of the most far-right
members of Israel's government are settlers themselves. But while
support for a two-state solution is now a minority position within
Israel, there are some Israelis who choose to document the settler
attacks against Palestinians. Angela Godfrey-Goldstein is one such
activist. She co-directs Jahalin Solidarity, an organisation dedicated
to protecting Palestinian rights. She has been active in supporting
Palestinian rights since the 1990s, but is now losing hope that there
will be any imminent change to the status quo.
Godfrey-Goldstein said that Israel is using "fascist methods" against
Palestinians, particularly in the current war on Gaza, and noted that
the demolition of homes and the displacement of Palestinians by the
Israeli government constitutes war crimes. "Israel is such a nasty place
now, I see a future failed pariah state... The ICJ advisory opinion
should make the international community extremely cautious not to aid or
abet anything related to the occupation, the settlements, or Israeli
military attacks on civilians," she said, referring to the International
Court of Justice's recent ruling that the Israeli presence in the
occupied West Bank is unlawful. Godfrey-Goldstein explained that there
are two types of settlers, in her view. The first are primarily economic
settlers, living in large settlements subsidised by members of the
Israeli right wing and pro-Israel billionaires in the United States.
These settlers are largely attracted to the area because of the cheaper
cost of living. The second - like the Hilltop Youth - has a religious
agenda, believing in the messianic vision of a West Bank, known to them
as Judea and Samaria, that is populated by Jews. "Israelis must wake up
and stop their policy against all Palestinians," Godfrey-Goldstein said.
"If we face more disasters, that might wake up the Israelis."
Palestinian resilience
The Palestinian Bedouins of the West Bank do not have time to wait for
Israeli Jews to turn against their government’s policy towards them.
Instead, they rely on their own resilience - or, in Arabic, "sumud". The
term expresses the Palestinian sense of being rooted in their own land,
and their historical rights. It is a word which has become a guiding
principle for Palestinians, leading many Bedouins to stay on their land
despite the ongoing harassment. Many attempt to return to their villages
even after their belongings have been stolen and their homes reduced to
ruins, as Abu Bashar and a few men from Wadi as-Seeq did repeatedly.
They have tried, time and time again, to return to the remains of their
homes, empty animal pens and stolen solar panels, but with no success.
Ekhlas Kaabneh, 25, is from the Bedouin East Taybeh community in al-Mu'arrajat.
Ekhlas’s family illustrates Palestinian resilience: Although a
settlement outpost is just a few metres away, the family is determined
to stay and continue their Bedouin life, alone, despite the rest of
their community being displaced. Ekhlas waters the plants in front of
her house, made of tin sheets, and smiles at her flowers. "These flowers
have bloomed despite the extreme heat this year, she said. They always
remind me of steadfastness; this is how we should be." Ekhlas's
community was partially displaced two years ago and completely displaced
after October 7. The family lives alone on the slope of a mountainous
area bordered to the north and west by olive trees. To the east are vast
agricultural lands extending to Jericho, which were inhabited and farmed
by Bedouin families until 2017, when they were expelled by settlers,
their agricultural lands seized and settlements built in their place.
"The settlers stole our identity. [They live] as Bedouins, working in
herding sheep and cattle, even though they settle the land without a
single animal with them... They stole our livestock, which is among the
best in the world, we inherited from our ancestors," Ekhlas says, the
smile gone from her face. Several Bedouins and Israeli activists said
that settlers in new outposts since 2015 deliberately dress in
Bedouin-like clothing, build tents and herd livestock. Passersby often
cannot recognise them unless they engage in conversation, as they do not
speak Arabic. Ekhlas and her family have continued to face attacks. Last
year, on March 29, during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, she was
beaten as she slept, waking up to pepper spray in her eyes. She could
hear only the screams of her two sisters and little brother as their
house was damaged by the settlers. "After that horrible night, we became
afraid... I sleep every day with a stick next to me in case of another
attack. I always have nightmares about that night that make me wake up
in fear," Ekhlas said. Aside from the settlers, Ekhlas faces the threat
of Israel itself. Her family has been issued a demolition order, on the
pretext that their home was built on land in Area C without permission -
which is notoriously hard to obtain for Palestinians. The late
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat issued a decree in 2002,
establishing the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC) to
confront the illegal settlements. "Its primary task is to support the
Palestinians in Area C through rebuilding their homes and even having
employees stationed among them for a period to help resist and document
the settlers' violations," said Younis Arar, the head of the
commission's international relations unit and the director in Bethlehem.
Arar himself has been arrested by Israeli authorities multiple times
while defending Palestinian homes and suffered an injury to his foot
after a settler attacked him with a car. "Since October 7, 26
Palestinian communities and villages to the east of the West Bank and
Jerusalem, and the south of Hebron, have been entirely displaced and
seized, but we are making every effort to stabilise the remaining
residents in their place," said Arar. "We can't do more, the world is
unable to send a sip of water to Gaza under a genocide, and we in the
West Bank are also alone resisting the occupation. We have no choice but
our sumud."
It's a choice Ekhlas knows all too well.
"If we take a step back, they will take steps forward with their
settlement," she said. "We have no other land."
This story was produced with the Internews Earth Journalism Network.>>
Source:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2024/10/20/no-other-land-palestinian-bedouins-forced-out-under-cover-of-gaza-war
Women's
Liberation Front 2019/cryfreedom.net 2024
