International Solidarity Movement
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Intifada International

Published in: Arabia.com

by Ramzy Baroud
January 02, 2002

The International Solidarity Movement needs no vetoes or
American government approval to support the Palestinian people

They confront Israeli tanks, armed with Palestinian scarves on their shoulders and signs demanding freedom and justice for a besieged nation. Israeli armored vehicles speed toward them, rubber bullets get shot at them, soldiers punch them, detain them. Tear gas grenades fall all around them. But they refuse to desert the battlefield. Some of them lay down before tanks and insist on delivering their message, and others kick tear gas grenades back at the soldiers who shout at them to leave.

If you have assumed that the above description refers to Palestinian demonstrators somewhere in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, you’ve guessed wrong. They are Americans, French, British, Italians and internationals from many countries around the world who, with their simple means, come to Palestine offering protection to those whom the United Nations has failed to protect.

At the Security Council, the United States has repeatedly used its veto power to prevent even minimal protection to the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza. But the International Solidarity Movement needs no vetoes or American government approval to bear witness to the atrocities faced daily by Palestinians.

Members of the movement speak many tongues, hold different looking passports, and reside in towns and cities oceans apart. Yet they come to Palestine united by their respect for the common principals of humanity. Words like justice, peace and human rights for them still have meaning and value, meaning that is not corrupted by manipulative politics and hidden agendas.

In mid December, in the Palestinian town of Ramallah, they faced Israeli tanks; they conveyed their message that they came in peace, but Israeli troops fired anyway, creating clouds of gas and dust, giving them a glimpse of what the life of Palestinians is like.

An illustrative photo captured the scene in Ramallah as an Israeli tank rolled over a banner while the person holding the banner, a European demonstrator, struggled to salvage it from under an advancing Israeli tank. The photo clearly showed the word “peace” as it was being slowly smashed under the chains of the reckless vehicle.

Later near Gaza City, they came to show solidarity and to visit refugee camps, schools and houses bombed or bulldozed by Israel. Israeli soldiers, whose government is beginning to realize the danger of being exposed before the international community, prevented the delegation from entering Gaza.^

The internationals insisted on crossing the checkpoint; it was their right, they argued. Tired of arguing, Israeli troops began dragging and beating the activists, forcing them back into the buses. On the other side of the Erez Israeli border checkpoint, on the Palestinian side, the Palestinian delegation that came to greet the visitors was also humiliated and then detained.

Israel may have hoped that its crackdown on peace activists would discourage the movement from carrying out more protests, yet following each violent clampdown, more Americans, French, British, Italians and internationals from many countries around the world gather somewhere in the West Bank, laying before tanks and chanting for true peace and justice.

In the early months of the Intifada, as Israel upgraded its violent measures to include random bombing and shelling of residential neighborhoods, internationals “deployed” themselves into Palestinian homes around the West Bank. They first hoped that Israel would refrain from bombing homes if they knew that internationals are lodging there. Israel’s bombardment never ceased however, nor did the persistence of the internationals to use themselves as “human shields”.

Various groups continued to cooperate, crossing national boundaries and ideologies: “more internationals are needed as human shields in Beit Jala”, they’ve sent urgent messages over e-mails and called on more Americans and Europeans to join them in for their fight for justice.

Israel continues to refer to them as “publicity-seeking provocateurs”, and the United Nation gives them no legitimacy, for they are not the “unarmed observers” Palestinians keep seeking for. They are a popular international movement, whose mere existence is a clear indication of the incompetence of the United Nations and Western governments.

British activist Malanie Jerman, 30, had a fair share of Israeli tear gas yet continues to lead, with hundreds of her peers, their overseas struggle. She told a journalist, as she was blinded by the tear gas, “it’s important to challenge the (Israeli) occupation and to say that the occupation is killing Palestinians and cannot continue.”

Despite her teary eyes and the loud, angry sounds of Israeli army tanks and stun grenades, Jerman’s message managed to break through all Israeli checkpoints and made it to the British Telegraph the following day.

Palestinians who got used to standing alone before Israel tanks are touched by the genuine support coming from people in the United States, France, Britain, Italy and from many other countries. On their behalf: thank you for joining our fight for freedom, true peace and justice.