Define Ceasefire (ISM reports)

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1. One British and 32 Israeli peace activists arrested on Saturday,
21st of May in Hebron whilst attempting to visit Palestinian
families in Tel Rumaida.

Tel Rumaida is a neighborhood of Hebron where settlers have expanded
their takeover of land and subjected the Palestinian residents to
daily violent attacks. Israeli peace activists, members of Ta'ayush
and other organizations, were welcomed by the residents of Tel
Rumeida to visit and witness the conditions in which they are forced
to live. International and Israeli activists experienced some of
the violence that the Palestinians face on a daily basis.

Israeli police forces were stationed in the area since early morning
and attempted to prevent the solidarity visit from taking place.
When the activists succeeded in entering the neighborhood they were
attacked by settlers and most were arrested by the Israeli police.

Some international and Palestinian protesters were besieged inside
the house of Hani Abu Heikel as settlers threw stones and broke
windows, frightening the adults and children who hid inside the
building. Hani left the house and was subsequently blindfolded and
detained by soldiers, who did nothing to stop the settler attack. He
was later released.

Settlers also stoned international observers, including members of
Christian Peacemaker Teams, while on their way to visit the Abu
Haikel home.

Meanwhile soldiers chased and arrested over 30 Israelis and one
international peace activist in different areas of the Palestinian-
controlled area of Hebron. They were also attacked by armed settlers throwing
stones and eggs and spraying water. The activists chanted slogans against the
settlements and the occupation, and at one point soldiers prevented them from
filming or speaking with local Palestinians.

They were later detained in a military vehicle as a crowd of
Palestinians cheered and held children up to them to shake their
hands. It was the first time in a long time that a group of Israelis who were not
settlers had entered the area. Eldad Kisch, an Israeli activist said, "The IDF is
completely subservient to Hebron settlers. Why do they try to prevent peace? How
can the army be so afraid of a few Israelis having tea and talking with a few
Palestinians in their homes? "

Ten Israelis were able to reach and visit two families who live next
to violent Israeli settlers. They were offered tea and hospitality,
while sharing stories of the daily violence and harassment they
endure from Tel Rumeida settlers. Armed Israeli settlers blocked
the exit of one of the Palestinian homes, forcing activists to leave
by a different route.

All those arrested were charged with being in Area A. and were
released a few hours later.

To see recent pictures of Tel Rumeida please visit the Christian
Peacemaker Team website at:
http://www.cpt.org/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album109


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2.Illegal demolition of 4 Houses in South Hebron Hill: the poorest
zone of the West Bank
Written by Operation Dove
22 May 2005

Four houses destroyed by Israeli Occupation Forces in Massafer Yatta
area of South Hebron Hills.

At 9.30am in the small village of Halt-El Thabit, three IDF jeeps
and two bulldozers destroyed the only house in the village. No
demolition order had been delivered to the family, who had to leave
their house in five minutes, trying to take with them as many of
their belongings as they could. The family - consisting of eleven
people - witnessed the demolition of their house without being able
to do anything.

The house was built in 1998 next to the cave where the family
previously lived and where they will be obliged to live again
starting from today.

According to the UN, Massafer Yatta area is the poorest in the West
Bank. In this area people live in caves, some of them because they
can't afford a house, some of them because they cannot get
authorization to build from the Israeli administration, which has
total control of the area according to the Oslo agreements.

The army operation took about 15 minutes and the soldiers left the
area immediately after the demolition. They proceded to the nearby
village of Sarourah where they destroyed a further three Palestinian
homes which were built out of stones.

In the area there are several Israeli settlements, whose inhabitants
belong to the most extremist Jewish groups. Frequent attacks are
carried out by the settlers against the local Palestinian people.
Several times international volunteers have also been attacked and
wounded - sometimes seriously - whilst going to pastureland with
shepherds or accompanying Palestinian children from the small
village of Tuba to their school in Al Tuwani.

There are also a number of outposts in this area, which were built
after 2001 and which - according to the Road-Map - should be
dismantled.

A plan by the Israeli Ministry of Defence, called Firezone 918, has
already been drawn up for the forced displacement of about 1300
inhabitants of the area. This will create a military area for
manoeuvres, which are already being carried out despite the presence
of the villages.

All access roads to the Massafer Yatta area have been closed since
the beginning of the current intifada. In order to enter or leave
the area Palestinian residents must sneak onto the settler-only
roads, risking reprisals from the military.


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3.Define Your Ceasefire, written by ISM Nablus
Saturday 21st may

For the fifth consecutive night the Israeli army has invaded Balata
Refugee Camp, near Nablus. Last night they entered two homes,
cutting water to the houses and electricity to the entire
neighbourhood for the night. The night before they arrested four
young men and injured another three.

For the first three of these nights, between the hours of 11:30pm
and day break, residents were subjected to intermittent gunfire and
sound bombs thrown from armored vehicles in the streets and fire
from the army base on the hill above the camp. No military
operations were reported.

On Thursday night the army entered Balata again, this time detaining
eight men and arresting at least three of them. Two elderly men were
injured as they walked to the mosque for the early morning Prayer.
Samer Nadal Terawi was arrested. Neighbours reported that the army
set dogs loose in his home, that he was not detained until after the
dogs had been allowed to attack and injure him and that he was shot
and injured during his arrest.

Last night military vehicles were heard in the camp again and
gunfire and explosions continued until after 6:30am. Two families
reported that the army entered their homes, apparently looking for
someone, but as yet no arrests or injuries have been reported.

Balata Camp and the city of Nablus have suffered continual military
attacks during this intifada. The area has had a particularly high
number of deaths and injuries at the hands of invading Israeli
forces. Incursions have not stopped, despite the outside world's
perception of peace. Residents continue to be subjected to military
harassment and restrictions on movement. Young men from the refugee
camps and other civilians continue to be arbitrarily detained at the
Israeli army checkpoints that block the main roads to the town.

Some of the roads between Nablus and the surrounding villages have
been closed since September 2000. On Thursday, 12th of May,
residents of Asira demonstrated to open the Sebetash road, removing
roadblocks themselves. Their success lasted a couple of hours,
before the army came and blocked their way once more. Despite the
so-called ceasefire, the oppression of occupation goes on as before.

Since the Sharm el Sheik talks, Israeli forces have not stopped
invading Nablus or Balata, and are in one place or another most
nights and, on a small number of occasions, during the day. They
have assassinated two men from the camp and a third nearby. This
does not fall within any ordinary definition of the term "ceasefire". In the months
since Sharm, they have injured or
arrested tens of young men and threatened at least one family home
with demolition. How long can the Israeli government claim to be maintaining a
ceasefire whilst the military continues to invade homes and arrest and kill
Palestinians on their own streets?


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4. The lamps in the prison of Ariel are still glowing in the
corridors.
Written by Gustav Fridolin
19th May 2005

This letter was written by Gustav Fridolin, a member of the national
Parliament in Sweden for the Green Party. He has been to Palestine
to work with the ISM and was arrested in Budrus and deported.

As I read the news about the Swede Johan Persson who was arrested by
Israeli police during a protest against the construction of the wall
in the West Bank, it makes me wonder how people there manage to
stand it all.

Johan will soon be home in Sweden, but in Palestine the Wall is
growing bigger day after day. For ordinary Palestinians it is
getting harder and harder to see a future. For ordinary Palestinians
it is getting harder and harder just to see the olive growth outside
their windows.

It is now 507 days since I got arrested while attempting to stop the
wall builders from uprooting the olive trees outside of the village
of Budrus and ended up in the prison in Ariel settlement. I'm
wondering if Johan will end up there too, or if they will take him
straight from the police station in Givat Ze'v settlement to the
judge and deportation.

I am thinking of the lamp in the Ariel prison corridor that always
glows night and day. In my brief visit there I met Palestinians that
had been inside for a month between the concrete walls under that
cold little electric light. And probably the light is still glowing.
507 days. Probably it's not the same light bulb and, hopefully, not
the same Palestinians in there.

But the reality between the walls in the Ariel prison is still the
same. It is a long painful moment without end as the protest against
the wall's construction feeds the cells with new prisoners and
surprised foreigners - such as Johan and myself - on temporary
visits. They too will be offered tea by fellow prisoners as good
Palestinian customs dictate.

The time goes by and I'm wondering how the people in Palestine stand
it. Johan is soon home but the light in the corridor is still
glowing. I know that what Johan has done, to inject his
international presence supporting civilian and peaceful protest, is
right. Near Budrus village the Wall route has changed. The olive
trees I ended up in prison in Ariel settlement to protect, and what
hundreds of Palestinians were shot at during protests for, have been
saved for now.

The Wall is one of the largest obstacles to a solution of the
conflict. It's an example of "art by accident." The Wall is this
century's big black piece of art. The brutality of its physical form
demands that it not be obeyed. Nine metres high the concrete wall
snakes through fields and olive tree groves. It leaves in its wake
pain, separation and loss.

It will not last. These sort of buildings humanity cannot allow to
stand.