Used by the terrorists? Not quite, Bianca Zammit says about the International Solidarity Movement, whose volunteers accompany Palestinian farmers to their lands in the so-called ‘no-go’ areas.
It’s dark. People barely visible are talking in candle-light. There is no electricity. The place: a dark flat on the first floor of an old building in the main road of Gaza City, the nest of Gaza’s branch of the International Solidarity Movement, the residence of Bianca Zammit and five other foreign activists.
Surrounding the 28-year-old Maltese human rights volunteer are members of this international cell – from Italy, UK, US, Montenegro, and Canada – and lots of Palestinians visiting her after two days in hospital. An Israeli sniper’s bullet pierced through her thigh during a demonstration at the border in Al Meghazi on Saturday, 24 April.
ISM activists and Palestinians alike keep pouring in at the apartment. A generous dish of chicken maftool (couscous) restores their energy after another day dodging Israeli soldiers’ bullets and shooting back with cameras. Earlier on the same day, 19-year-old Ahmad Suleiman Salem Dib was killed at a demonstration in Nahal Oz, when an Israeli soldier shot him in his leg.
It is not just the live Israeli bullets that are being shot at them lately. Since Zammit – the first international activist to be injured in the Gaza buffer zone demonstrations – made world headlines, the ISM has come under renewed attack from the Israeli establishment and the Zionist right wing, with fuel added for good measure by the Israeli Ambassador to Malta, Gideon Meir.
The ambassador told Net TV last Tuesday that Zammit was “used” by Palestinian militants, accusing the ISM of putting foreigners in harm’s way at the border so that Hamas and Islamic Jihad “could plant bombs and injure Israeli soldiers.”
Yesterday he reiterated his claims to MaltaToday, adding that the Israeli government has started a formal investigation into the shooting, after the Maltese foreign ministry demanded a “thorough investigation on this deplorable incident that could have led to far more serious consequences.”
Meir has already set the tone for the investigation: “One must understand that the shooting took place in a ‘conflict zone’… “The issue of agricultural land is irrelevant because the area is a conflict zone. Peaceful or not, the demonstration was not held in the city centre where it is legitimate to demonstrate against the Israeli government, and ISM is an anti-Israeli organisation. ISM has an anti-Israeli policy in whatever it does and says.”
Adding insult to injury This is not the first time the ISM finds itself under ideological fire – indeed the attack comes within a wider campaign to discredit all international, Palestinian and even Israeli human rights organisations in Israel that are being criminalised for being “anti-patriotic”, with key activists arrested or deported summarily.
Nor is ISM shy of being at the forefront of Palestinian resistance, under threat of gunfire but vehemently pacific.
“We are a threat to the Israeli occupation because whenever there are foreigners documenting violations they are exposed to the world,” Zammit said. “That’s mainly our mandate: to be present alongside Palestinians who are fighting their cause. This is not our conflict, we are there to try and deter violations and to document them when they happen.”
Despite Meir’s claim that the ISM is linked to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, journalists in Gaza say the opposite is true, as the publicity the non-violent demonstrations are getting is irking the Hamas’s higher echelons that are vying to be seen as the sole resistance.
Also, being linked to Hamas and Islamic Jihad at once is next to impossible, as the two Islamist movements do not see eye to eye, particularly about the resistance strategy.
“The ISM has no links to armed Palestinian factions,” Neta Golan, herself an Israeli Jew and co-founder of ISM, said. “Palestinian popular demonstrations, such as these non-violent protests in Gaza, are open to anyone unarmed. The claim that the ISM receives orders from armed groups is a figment of the ambassador’s imagination, and we challenge him to produce evidence,” Golan said.
The so-called “closed military zones” are in effect areas unilaterally declared so by Israel on Palestinian land, mostly agricultural, having no grounds in international law.
Golan says the Israeli-declared no-go areas are also a way of suppressing nonviolent resistance by force. “Whenever there is a peaceful Palestinian demonstration, it becomes a ‘closed military zone’,” she said. “In the West Bank in February, two villages, Bil’in and Na’lin, were declared ‘closed military zones’ for six continuous months in an attempt to suppress popular non-violent resistance by the villagers.”
Israel argues that the buffer zone is frequented by militants shooting rockets or attacking Israeli soldiers patrolling the border – but the demonstrations in which Zammit was participating are in support of unarmed farmers carrying Palestinian flags.
Bianca Zammit also said she felt insulted by the ambassador’s “patronising and deceitful attitude” towards her.
“Him saying I was an innocent victim of ISM just leaves me lost for words,” she said. “I’ve been thinking of coming to Palestine for years, and I have equally worked as a human rights activist. To imply I was manipulated for political ends is downright insulting. We work with local committees, farmers, women’s groups and student organisations to document and publicise human rights violations.”
Zammit confirmed ISM enrols members only after lengthy information sessions in which they are briefed about the practical and political issues surrounding the Middle East conflict, and that none of the members wilfully put their lives at risk.
“None of us wants to die, we’re not suicidal,” Zammit said. “You can be of no help if you are injured or dead. All our decisions are based on consensus, and every individual can opt out from any event or activity.”
As to funding, ISM relies on individual donations from countries where it has local fundraisers. Volunteers pay their own flights and expenses, while ISM covers accommodation, transport and legal assistance when required.
“The ISM does not receive any funding from any state, government or association,” Golan said. “We rely on donations from average people all over the world that support peace and the Palestinian struggle for freedom.”
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