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Members of the International Solidarity Movement serve as "human shields," protecting Palestinian civilians and terrorists alike.
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06/25
Jerusalem Post |
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06/23
Palestine Media Center |
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06/13
FrontPageMagazine.com |
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| By Ellis Shuman June 25, 2003 |
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The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) said that more 2,000 people from all over the world will come to Israel this summer to protest the "brutality of the [Israeli] occupation and the injustices perpetrated by the Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians." The controversial group has been condemned by the IDF, which accuses its members of collaborating with terrorists.
The ISM has organized a "Freedom Summer" campaign from July 1 to August 15, which will place international volunteers in a non-violent confrontation with the Israeli army in an attempt to draw attention to the struggle of the Palestinian people and their just cause, ISM officials said.
"The ISM is a Palestinian-led movement of Palestinian and International activists working to raise awareness of the struggle for Palestinian freedom and an end to Israeli occupation," said Huwaida Arraf, spokesperson and coordinator of the ISM.
Most of the ISM's summer campaign will be focused on the security fence, which it refers to as the "apartheid wall." According to ISM cofounder Ghassan Andoni, "The wall... is turning the life of many Palestinians into hell and forcing them to lose their land... it is a kind of collective punishment."
Attention focused on the ISM in March, when Rachel Corrie, an American, was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in Rafiah. On April 5, American Brian Avery was seriously wounded in the face by Israeli gunfire in Jenin. Tom Hurndall, a British activist, went into a coma after being shot in the head on April 11 by an Israeli soldier in Gaza.
The ISM claims its members serve as "human shields" between the Israeli army and Palestinians. But the IDF says the international activists serve as shields for Palestinian terrorists as well.
Omar Khan Sharif and Asif Mohammed Hanif, the two terrorists who staged a suicide bombing attack at a seafront Tel Aviv pub on April 30, killing three Israelis and wounding more than fifty, entered Israel from the Gaza Strip disguised as "peace activists" and were in contact with the ISM in Gaza. The two attended an ISM solidarity march in Corrie's memory.
As a result of their pro-Palestinian activities, the Foreign and Defense Ministries drafted plans to bar ISM members from entering Israel and to expel at least dozens of activists who are already in the country. According to the Jerusalem Post, some 50 ISM members were deported from Israel this spring.
"We have nothing against the internationals," said a senior IDF officer, quoted in the Jerusalem Report. "But, as far as we are concerned, ISM is not an international organization or a peace organization. It's a pro-Palestinian organization, set up by Palestinians, funded by Palestinians and linked to Palestinian terror."
The army says that by their provocative actions, ISM activists put themselves in danger in a war zone. "There is no other country in the world that would have allowed these people so much scope, and in the end Israel gets blamed," the officer told the Jerusalem Report. "The human shields obstruct IDF work, while the [ISM's] witnesses and spokespeople give a deliberately distorted picture of what is going on."
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