1-House demolished in Rafah 2-Hundreds Rally Against Wall and for Unity 3-Israelis fire on parents of injured British peace activist

============================================================1-House demolished in Rafah

ISM activists and Palestinians shot at by tank nearby

Rafah, Gaza Strip.

At Approximately 7:15 PM on Friday, May 2, 2003, ISM Rafah was
informed that the Israeli Military had begun to demolish a home in
the Barazil area. In addition to the demolition crew, a tank was
stationed nearby shooting, as it usually does, into the area. Two
ISM activists approached the area to assess the situation. Using a
strip light and megaphone, and wearing flourescent jackets, the ISM
volunteers cautiously approached the tank and requested a pause in
bulldozing to enable the family to remove their furniture. When the
volunteers were approxamitely 20 meters from the tank, two or three
Palestinians approached. The tank opened fire; the red flashes of two
gun barrels were seen by both activists, who flung themselves to the
ground. Further shots were fired, even after Palestinians retreated.
The two internationals crawled through the dust and sand to a safer
place behind a mound of earth, where they waited about ten minutes
before walking across the road to relative safety.

ISM activists had been sleeping with the family in the targeted
house for five weeks.

The IOF has been systematically demolishing houses in Rafah to
clear a 100-meter "no-man's land" between the city and the Occupation
Wall being built along the Egypt border. Thus far over 700 homes
have been demolished in Rafah.

ISM Media Coordinator

Beit Sahour, Occupied Palestine
==============================================================2-Hundreds Rally
Against Wall and for Unity

May 4,2003, Mas'ha, Occupied Palestine

Four hundred Israelis, Palestinians & International peace
activists participated in a rally yesterday in the village of Mas'ha
to fortify the existence of the Mas'ha peace camp located in the West
Bank, Occupied Palestine. Founded one month ago, the peace camp
exists in order to draw attention to the construction of the new
Israeli "security" wall within the western border of the West Bank.
This wall, commonly referred to as the apartheid wall, will
confiscate over 30% of Palestinian land within the West Bank,
including villages, water access and agricultural areas.

Despite sweltering heat and a rocky climb, demonstrators walked
from the roadblock near Mas'ha through the village itself and
converged on top of the hill where the camp exists. At the peace
campsite, speeches were made by representatives of many groups
including, the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee, the Land
Defense Committee, Mas'ha Village Council, the International Women's
Peace Service, the International Solidarity Movement, Gush Shalom,
the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition, the Alternative
Information Center, and Black Laundry. Many mentions were also made
in support of the international peace activist presence that has
recently come under fire from the Israeli Government.

Tanya Reinhardt a professor at TelAviv University said
that `Behind the smoke screen of "the road map" - a new fake "peace
initiative", Israel is stealing Palestinian land. The wall is not
built on the border line of 1967. When the plan for the wall was
approved by the previous government in June 23, 2002, Peres said in
protest that it amounts to annexing 22% of the Palestinian land to
Israel. The route of the wall was since extended even deeper into
Palestinian land. The military junta that rules Israel is driven by
one goal - get as much of Palestinian land and water as possible.
Farmers who are seperated from their land and means of livelihoods
will be forced to move out of their villages. Thus the fence is a
form of cruel transfer. What is happening in the Mas'ha camp is a
new form of struggle. Palestinians and Israelis unite to break the
barriers of the occupation and the Israeli military junta, to protect
together Palestinian land, and to carry the message that a different
future is possible of coexistence based on justice.

I salute the members of the international community who are
present with us today. I admire your courage and determination, in
these dark days, when Israel is killing members of the ISM, and
declaring that their presence is illegal. Your presence carries the
message that this is not just a local struggle of Palestinians and
Israelis, but the struggle of all people of the world, who have not
lost their conscience. Your presence gives us hope. The combined will
of the people of the world, is bound to win.'

Together, this rally and these groups can stand as an example of
true peace and cooperation between peoples, and work to build an
international campaign against the Apartheid wall and the subsequent
transfer of thousands of Palestinians.

Declaring the rally a success, organizers from all represented
groups pledged to continue this campaign and work in support of unity
amongst the people of Palestine, Israel and the world.

ism-alert@palsolidarity.org
================================================================3-Israelis fire on
parents of injured British peace activist

By Cahal Milmo

06 May 2003

The parents of a British peace activist who was shot in the head by
Israeli troops came under fire themselves as they travelled to the
spot where their son was critically injured.

Anthony and Jocelyn Hurndall were in a British diplomatic convoy
entering the town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip when Israeli soldiers at
a checkpoint fired a shot, which passed narrowly over the top of
their vehicles.

The incident on Saturday afternoon took place despite the Israeli
Army being given notice of the journey on at least three occasions –
the last minutes before the convoy arrived.

The Foreign Office said last night that an explanation had been
requested from the Israeli authorities for the warning shot, which
was fired as the two armoured Range Rovers entered the Abu Khouli
checkpoint on the edge of Rafah at about 1pm.

Concerns were being raised yesterday over the conduct of Israeli
soldiers in the south of the Gaza Strip. The incident in which the
Hurndalls were fired at comes not only after their son was shot in
Rafah, but after two other Westerners were killed in the city.

The Hurndalls, whose eldest son, Tom, is in a coma in an Israeli
hospital after he was shot three weeks ago while trying to reach two
Palestinian children, were being accompanied by Tom's youngest
brother and the military and political attachés to the British
embassy in Tel Aviv.

Mrs Hurndall, a schoolteacher from Tufnell Park, north London,
said: "We were passing through the checkpoint very, very slowly when
there was the sound of a bullet – it was like the sound of a large
stone coming off the car.

"What struck me was the ludicrousness of the situation. Here we were,
the parents and brother of someone who has been wounded by Israeli
Defence Forces and who then fire a warning shot over our car for no
apparent reason.

"It was a measure of the insanity that can take hold here." The
single shot was fired from one of two watchtowers that stand above
the checkpoint, causing the two British cars, identifiable by their
white diplomatic plates, to come to an immediate halt.

Not until the defence attaché, Colonel Tom Fitzalan-Howard, had
stepped from the car with his hands in the air to talk with the
soldiers inside the tower was the convoy able to proceed.

Notice that the cars would be passing through Abu Khouli was given at
least three times – in the days before the trip, just as it was
setting off and 10 minutes before it arrived.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "A single warning shot was fired
as our staff were crossing the checkpoint. No-one was injured but the
incident has been raised with the Israeli Defence Forces."

It is understood that an Israeli Army captain at the checkpoint later
told members of the convoy that the shot had been fired because the
vehicles had not stopped. There was no order to do so.

The journey by the Hurndall family to Rafah, where they met peace
activists from the International Solidarity Movement who had been
working with Tom, was made as they launched an appeal to raise
£20,000 to bring him back to Britain by air ambulance.

The 21-year-old student, who was studying photography at Manchester
Metropolitan University, was hit by a high-velocity bullet fired by
an Israeli sniper as he moved towards two frightened Palestinian
children in daylight.


http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/
story.jsp?story=403582