ISM

PRESS CONFERENCE STATEMENT
Recent Developments Concerning the International Solidarity Movement

Monday May 5, 2003 - International Solidarity Movement (ISM)

Recently the International Solidarity Movement has been the focus of
a lot of attention and misinformation; attention that we've been
trying to get for a long time engaging in Palestinian nonviolent
resistance. However, usually what we hear from journalists is "call
us if there is blood."

The International Solidarity Movement is a Palestinian-led movement
committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land
using nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles. This
international coalition was founded to support and strengthen the
Palestinian nonviolent resistance by providing the Palestinian people
with a resource, international protection and a voice with which to
resist, nonviolently, an overwhelming military occupation force. The
occupation forces have shown little reservation in using brutal force
against Palestinian civilians, and the Israeli government has
shown little willingness toward ending its 36-year military
occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and its devastating Apartheid-
like system of oppression, which daily robs Palestinians of the right
to life and liberty.

The initial campaign of the ISM was in August of 2001 at which time
over 50 civilians from various countries came to the Occupied
Palestinian Territories to engage in a coordinated campaign of
nonviolent direct-action against occupation forces and policies.
Since that time we've had over 1000 civilians from all over the world
come join us. Many of our volunteers come from the United States and
the United Kingdom, though we have a good number of volunteers also
from Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Sweden, among
others. The age range of the volunteers is vast, with the
average age being over 30. A number of volunteers have been over the
age o f 50 and we've even had people in their seventies join us. The
religious and socio-economic backgrounds are varied, with
approximately 15-20% of our volunteers being Jewish. Israelis have
also joined in this struggle with the ISM, and have faced the same
violence from soldiers and settlers.

While the primary purpose of the ISM has been to engage in and
support the Palestinian unarmed, civilian-based freedom struggle
against occupation, as the aggression of the Israeli military against
Palestinian civilians has increased, the ISM has had to take up a
role in providing humanitarian assistance and protection by using
their status as internationals to escort doctors, ambulances,
schoolchildren and other civilians to work, hospital and
school.

The ISM believes that in order to end the violence in Israel and
Palestine, the Israeli occupation - the root of the violence - must
end. To that end we are mobilizing nonviolently.

Over the course of the past year and a half, the Israeli military and
government has used various tactics in efforts to delegitimize our
message. Some of you in the media have repeated or suggested the
accusations yourselves: that we are "young and naive", that we
are "trouble-makers", that we are "pro-Palestinian". As I've noted
above, the ISM is diverse in age and make up. We're Palestinian-led,
but not pro-Palestinian. We're not pro or against any group. We are
pro freedom and against occupation and injustice.

On March 16, 2003, the first international ISM volunteer was killed
when she was run over by an Israeli-driven, American-made bulldozer
in Rafah while she was trying to protect the house of a Palestinian
doctor from demolition. Rachel Corrie was clearly identifiable in a
florescent orange jacket with reflector stripes. Four days later,
American volunteer Eric was hit 4 times with rubber-coated steel
bullets, though he too was clearly identifiable in a bright yellow
vest and he was no t standing in the line of Israeli fire at
Palestinian children throwing stones. Two weeks later, American
volunteer, Brian Avery, was shot in the face with a high caliber
bullet in Jenin. He was also wearing a florescent jacket with
reflector stripes and was clearly unarmed in an empty street, with
his hands in the air, when he was shot by an Israeli soldier from an
APC. Only 6 days later on April 11, British volunteer Tom Hurndall
was shot in the back of the head from an Israeli military guard
tower, while he was escorting Palestinian children out of the
line of Israeli fire. Tom now lies comatose at Saroka Hospital in
Beersheva, without much hope of survival. Instead of the media asking
questions of Israeli authorities as to why these civilians were
targeted, why they were hit in the head, or questioning the
legitimacy of the Israeli army killing civilians, the media has
instead helped blame the victims for their victimization through its
reporting.

Instead of taking responsibility for its actions and the lives of
these international volunteers, the Israeli military has attempted to
skirt the issue of its responsibility for the protection of civilians
by spreading untruths and engaging in character slander. The same
disregard for human life that has been applied to the Palestinians,
is now being applied to international civilians.

The ISM activists are NOT human shields. The term human shield is a
specific reference to civilians used by military or armed personnel
for protection. The ISM DOES NOT do this. On the contrary, documented
reports of the Israeli Army engaging in this very behavior are
available from all human rights organizations, including B'Tselem,
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others. We request that
the press cease using this terminology as it is false, and instead
refer to the ISM activists as accompaniment for Palestinian
civilians, or as interposing themselves to prevent war crimes
(such as the targeting of civilians demolishing civilian homes, etc. -
all crimes of war according to international law).

With regards to getting rid of the ISM:

On April 16, Army Chief of Staff, Lt. General Moshe Yaalon announced
that he had given the order to "take the ISM out", claiming that
we "injure [the] freedom of action" of his troops. The Israeli
military "freedom of action" includes military invasions and sieges
of Palestinian civilian areas and flagrant abuses of basic rights and
humanitarian law. It includes continuing to fire on innocent
Palestinian men, women and children and continuing to hold a civilian
population hostage to military terror.

But getting rid of the ISM and other attempts to break the phenomena
of international solidarity and nonviolent resistance is not a new
policy for the Israeli military and government. The statement by Lt.
Gen Moshe Yaalon was made before the tragic attack in Tel Aviv and
we've noticed this policy in effect since at least April of 2002.
From April 2002 until August of 2002 the Israeli government has
deported approximately 50 ISM volunteers. Since April of 2002, the
Israeli Ministry of Interior has denied hundreds of human rights or
aid workers and others suspected of being "peace activists" or
"Palestinian sympathizers" entry into the country. Therefore, the
suggestion that the two Britons accused of carrying out an attack in
Tel Aviv posed as "peace activists" or members of the ISM to get into
the country, is highly suspicious. For doing so would have ensured
that they would've been turned away by Israeli officials, not let in.

The ISM views it reprehensible that Israeli officials are
exaggerating the connection of these two attackers to ISM to serve
its own interests. There is in fact NO connection to be made. The two
Britons, Omar Khan Sharif and Asif Hanif never made contact with the
ISM, never registered to join us and never attended our mandatorytraining and orientation. To talk about the incident in which the ISM
team and the two crossed paths in Gaza, is Raphael Cohen from our
Rafah team.

Raphael Cohen

Shortly before noon on Friday, the 25th of April, about 15 people
came to the ISM apartment in Rafah, the Gaza Strip. They were in
three groups: 4 British citizens from London who were looking to
prepare a summer camp in Gaza in conjunction with local Palestinians
from Rafah; three Italians and two Britons. The last two have been
accused of perpetrating the attack in Tel Aviv early last Wednesday
morning.

Our group of 5 offered all of them tea. I asked them general questions
like who they were? were they with any group? and what they were
doing in Rafah? The two accused Britons answered that they weren't
with any particular organization but that they came with "alternative
tourism". I've seen reports that suggest the two came with the
Alternative Tourism Group. I only heard them say "alternative
tourism". We stayed in the apartment for approximately 15 minutes,
before we went down to the place where Rachel Corrie was
killed by an Israeli Occupation Force bulldozer on March 16. Owing to
the presence and approach of an Israeli army tank, we were only able
to spend a few minutes at the site where Rachel was killed. We placed
a flower on the place in the dirt where Rachel was run over.

Our ISM group then went to the house of Dr. Samir Nasrallah, the house
that Rachel died defending, while everybody else, including the group
that had visited us, went their own way.

I've been in Rafah for the past 4 weeks. In that time one British
journalist, cameraman James Miller, has been killed by the Israelis
and one British ISM volunteer Tom Hurndall is brain dead after being
shot in the head by an Israeli sniper. I can recall at least six
Palestinians who have been killed. I have personally visited eight
people in hospital shot by the IOF, many tens more I could not visit.
There have been two large Israeli incursions involving 60 and 20
military vehicles respectively. I felt the explosions which blew up
civilian houses. The night James Miller was killed, an ISM
colleague and I were shot at from a tank , likely the very same one
used to kill James, at 30m distance. The shots were extremely close
and forced us both to throw ourselves to the ground and crawl away
through the dirt. There did not seem to be any justification for the
Israeli tank fire. The Israeli military was in a civilian area full
of people and homes, and there was no Palestinian resistance.

In sum I have experienced unjustifiable Israeli army terrorization
for the last month. Perhaps you can see it has taken a toll.

Huwaida Arraf

While we absolutely do not support in any way the attack by the two
Britons in Tel Aviv, or any other targeting and killing of civilians -
Palestinian or Israeli - we believe that significant fault for the
Tel Aviv attack lies the Israeli security apparatus - which clearly
failed its own citizens. The ISM bears no responsibility in anyway,
as there was absolutely no connection between these two men and the
ISM. Furthermore we believe that Israeli security can be greatly
enhanced by Israel declaring an immediate end to the occupation,
withdrawing its forces from the Occupied Territories, and
complying with UN resolutions and international law.

The ISM has no plans to leave the Palestinian areas nor to reduce our
actions or our efforts. The declaration by Israeli officials that we
are to be detained and taken out is not only a concern to us, but
should be a concern for the international community and humanity. Our
volunteers have been instrumental in documenting and sometimes
preventing grave human rights abuses against Palestinian civilians.
This effort by the Israeli government is seen as nothing short of a
further attempt to shield from the international community the
brutality of the daily Israeli military actions against the
Palestinian people. The international volunteers are guests of the
Palestinian people and seeing as they are all from countries with
diplomatic relations with Israel, unwarranted detentions, arrests and
deportations will be taken up at the diplomatic level. We will
consider any ISM volunteer detained or arrested while in the West
Bank or Gaza, as "disappeared" as human rights activists and
opposition figures were considered in Chile, Argentina and
many other places suffering under military rule.

Our actions and efforts are supported and often joined by many
Israelis. What is to happen to them? Some of them are here with us
today: A copy of this press statement has been sent to our diplomatic
representatives in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and we will follow up with
our embassies to ensure our safety and protection according to
international law.

Thank you. We will open up for questions.