This is an urgent and repeated appeal to the world to immediately intervene, in light of the recent stories of rape and sexual violence against Palestinian women by Israeli occupation forces during Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Palestinian women are being displaced, tortured, killed and forcibly disappeared, while the world sits idle. Silence and inaction in the wake of these horrifying crimes amount to complicity.

Over the past few days, more horrifying testimonies and stories have emerged from Gaza of sadistic acts by Israeli soldiers, including torture, rape, and mass field executions at hospitals where civilians are seeking shelter, medical treatment and refuge.

Palestinian civil society and UN experts have sounded the alarm multiple times and reported cases of rape and sexual violence before and during this genocide. These reports continue to be deliberately and inexcusably ignored, including by prominent and otherwise vocal feminist organizations and figures.

The deafening silence of “Western” feminists and mainstream media in particular is deliberate and inexcusable, as opposed to their earlier outrage over Israeli allegations and misinformation, used to justify this genocide.

Many Palestinian women and girls who are survivors of rape and sexual violence are hesitant to come forward, due to the social stigma in a conservative society and the belief that Israel will not be held accountable for such crimes.

Israel is committing the most horrific war crimes, and weaponizing rape and sexual violence against Palestinians as part of its genocide in Gaza and assault on the Palestinian people as a whole, throughout all of Palestine. This is the result of decades of impunity, preferential treatment and lack of international accountability by the international community. Words are not enough to describe or stop this horror; action is needed.

We conclude this SOS appeal by reminding our sisters and allies around the world that our rights, our dignity, and our humanity are indivisible. Forsaking Palestinian victims now for political convenience would be an unforgivable betrayal to decades of sacrifice and feminist struggle.

We call for:

• The international community must employ all available tools of international accountability, including political and economic sanctions, to bring an immediate and lasting ceasefire and provision of unconditional humanitarian aid.

• States must immediately impose an arms embargo on Israel and honor their moral and legal obligations, including those pronounced in the Genocide Convention.

• States need to investigate and prosecute Israeli soldiers with dual citizenship implicated in these atrocities.

• The Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict must honor her mandate and launch an immediate investigation into the ongoing atrocities.

• Feminists around the world must sound the alarm globally on the unspeakable human rights violations taking place in Gaza, namely the sexual abuse and rape of Palestinian women and girls.

• Journalists and media outlets must do their due diligence in reporting on these stories through fair and unbiased coverage.

Signatories:

1. American Federation of Ramallah Palestine
2. Association of women’s Action
3. AWMR Italia - Donne della Regione Mediterranea
4. Bisan Center for Research and Development
5. Community Development and Media Center
6. Cultura è libertà una campagna per la Palestina
7. Enjaz Foundation for development
8. Filastiniyat
9. Human Rights and Democracy Media Center SHAMS
10. Institute of Women's Studies
11. Not to forget women society
12. Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA)
13. Palestinian Women's Action committee
14. Rete Femminista Marche Molto+di194
15. Rural Women Development Society
16. Sinal do Vale
17. Singola
18. Teaching Palestine: Pedagogical Praxis and the Indivisibility of Justice
19. The center for defense of liberties and civil rights “Hurryyat”
20. The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy - MIFTAH
21. The Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development-PWWSD
22. The Regional Coalition for Women Human Rights Defenders in Southwest Asia and North Africa (WHRDMENA)
23. Union of Palestinian Women Committees
24. Wattan media network
25. Women Media and Development
26. Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
27. رابطة المرأة العراقية
28. شبكة المستقبل الديمقراطية العراقية

We, at the Palestinian NGO Forum to Combat Violence against Women and all Arab women’s and rights organizations raise our voices loud and clear on the eve of March 8, to say: “Stop the onslaught and crimes against women and children in Gaza. Stop the crime of genocide, the crime of starvation and forced displacement”. So far, this aggression has resulted in the killing of 31,000 Palestinians, over 70% of whom are women and children. Two women are killed every hour , in addition to many others still under the rubble. There are women whose fate is unknown, after being taken away by occupation forces.

Who will restore normalcy for us Palestinian women after these atrocities?

We have always held activities on March 8. We had a long list of rights we demanded and others we were able to achieve. However today, as the women of Gaza are being annihilated, we stand the length and breadth of our homeland and our Arab nations, angry, in a state of revolution and in deep mourning. Our demand today is to halt the genocide in the Gaza Strip and to halt the reproductive genocide against our women. We declare this day the day of Palestinian women, as they stand hungry in long queues, waiting for insufficient aid, terrified of the skies above them, filled with missiles of death. This is for the women whose bodies are exhausted, in camps for the displaced and in shelter centers, for those raped in prison and for their naked bodies stripped at checkpoints. It is for the menstruating women who cannot find sanitary products and for those with high-risk pregnancies who are starving, displaced and bombed. It is for the women whose wombs may be removed for the simplest of medical complications and those whose privacy has been violated because of overcrowded tents and displacement. It is for the mothers who could die at any moment and for all women whose Palestinianism has crucified humanity at the altar, amid deafening Arab silence, boundless American support and the complicity of several European countries.

Nevertheless, we continue to appreciate all forms of Arab and international support and solidarity with the Palestinian cause, which shows respect for our people’s dignity. Widening this solidarity will further reaffirm the justness of our cause. Hence, we await more action and movements in solidarity of our right to demand an immediate end to the genocide in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Jerusalem, to forge our way forward towards freedom, self-determination and the establishment of an independent and fully-sovereign Palestinian state.

Today, we Palestinian and Arab women, reaffirm the following on March 8 and every day forward:

- To put pressure on Israel to immediately halt its aggression and to hold its leaders accountable for their crimes in violation of international law, the Fourth Geneva Convention and all international laws and treaties, towards delegitimizing this occupying entity.

- To open the Rafah Crossing and all crossings to allow aid in and the wounded out for treatment

- To dismantle the land corridor linking Israel with some Arab countries supplying it with goods

Long Live Palestinian Women, who stand steadfast and resistant in the face of the Zionist aggression We speak in the voices of Gaza’s women and say:

Halt the genocide…halt the onslaught immediately!

In a recent statement, nearly five months into the Israeli genocide in Gaza, several UN experts confirmed the various reports and testimonies that have been coming from Palestinian women and human rights organizations for months now. In Gaza, women have been kidnapped and forcibly disappeared and placed in dire conditions in undisclosed locations. In the occupied West Bank, released prisoners testified on the horrific realities inside Israeli prisons and the widespread torture and ill-treatment where sexual violence is used as a weapon employed against both women and men. The targeting of women and girls with such atrocious crimes is targeting the most vulnerable, in an attempt to break and degrade the society as a whole.

The inaction and failure of the international community to stop Israeli crimes, namely the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and other heinous crimes all across Palestine for decades now has emboldened Israel to act with impunity. This allows Israel to continue committing horrific crimes against Palestinian women and girls, namely rape and other forms of sexual violence and torture.

The silence of “Western” feminists has also been appalling, given their earlier outrage about unsubstantiated Israeli allegations which were used to justify and commit the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

First and foremost, we demand an immediate ceasefire and the unconditional provision of humanitarian aid. In order to put an end to such heinous crimes and impunity, we reiterate the need for an independent international investigation into all crimes, especially sexual violence, followed by international accountability for the perpetrators.

Violence escalates as Israeli soldier puts gun to head of Danish national and threatens to pull the trigger. 

At approximately 9:00AM, 18 internationals accompanied Palestinian farmers to their olive groves to harvest their olives near the village of Al-Hatab, East of Nablus. Five minutes after they arrived, the Israeli army descended upon the group. 

The farmers, residents of Al-Hatab, had obtained the necessary permits to pick olives. However, the Israeli army said they could not pick olives today and that the internationals had "ten seconds" to leave the area. Eye-witness reports claim that the soldiers were extremely aggressive and attempted to arrest one Palestinian after taking his identity card. 

When six internationals tried to intervene, the soldiers began beating them with their guns, punching them in the face and kicking them. One international from the United Kingdom was badly cut and bruised. Another activist, from Denmark had been thrown to the ground. An Israeli soldier then put his gun to the Danish mans head and pulled on the trigger as if he were going to shoot.

It is increasingly difficult for Palestinian farmers to access their land and harvest their crops due to the construction of the Israeli Annexation Wall, Israeli army control of gates through the wall and  the violence of settlers who attack Palestinians attempting to pick olives on Palestinian land that may border the illegal settlements. 

At the time of this release, the internationals are remaining in the area in the event that the Palestinian farmers are unable to harvest their olives.

The Freedom March Against the Wall, that began July 30 in Jenin, has traveled for 16 days and visited approximately 60 villages and towns. On several days the March has been joined by over 1000 Palestinians, Internationals and Israelis and numerous organizations and political parties. They have met with families and farmers along the path of the Wall, under the constant watch of the Israeli Army. On several occasions the marchers have been met by military force as the Israeli Army has attempted to block their path and arrest them.

Palestinians, internationals and Israelis are marching along the path of the Apartheid Wall, through cities, towns and villages arriving in Jerusalem, August 19. The purpose of the Freedom March is to highlight the devastation and suffering Palestinians and their communities are enduring as a result of the construction of the Wall.

The March will arrive in Biddu Sunday, where there has been strong resistance to the Wall. The March will be joined by hundreds more as they approach Ramallah and Jerusalem.

On August 18 and 19 the Freedom March will travel from Beitunia, through Qalandia, Al-Ram and will attempt to culminate in Jerusalem.

Wednesday August 18, the Freedom March will walk to Ramallah where they will visit with the prisoners’ solidarity tent to show their support for the political prisoners who will be on hunger strike as of Sunday August 15 to demand basic rights and an end to abuse in the prisons.

The Freedom March will then visit President Arafat, in order to share the stories they have heard from the communities about the hardships resulting from the Wall and the impact on the lives of Palestinians throughout the West Bank.

The march will continue on to Qalandia where Israelis will be joining them from the other side to march together to Al-Ram. From there they will attempt to reach Jerusalem. Gush Shalom will be joining the March August 18 at Qalandia checkpoint.

To all Friends and Supporters of Human Rights around the World:

The Committee for the Families of Political Prisoners and Detainees in the West Bank, representing 7,500 political prisoners currently in Israeli prisons, is seeking the support of the international community in its campaign against the gross violations of their rights that the prisoners are enduring and against the appalling conditions under which they are being detained.

Political prisoners in Israeli prisons will be commencing a hunger strike on Sunday, August 15, 2004 to protest their conditions. They complain that the conditions they experience are reminiscent of the former Abu Ghoraib facility in Iraq which gained worldwide notoriety recently for its treatment of detainees.

The families of the Palestinian political prisoners plead with you, the members of the international community, to join in solidarity with our sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters who are being held in Israeli prisons by organizing demonstrations, marches, holding silent vigils or activities to publicize the plight of the political prisoners and to bring pressure on the government of Israel to cease these violations of law and to treat Palestinian prisoners as human beings entitled to basic human rights.

Israeli Public Security Minister, Tzachi Hanegbi, told reporters at a press conference in Jerusalem on August 13th that the prisoners "can strike for a day, a month, even starve to death, we will not respond to their demands".

Some of the conditions that the prisoners are protesting include:

- Arbitrary and indiscriminate beating of prisoners in their cells, in prison courtyards and during transportation to and from prisons.
- Arbitrary and indiscriminate firing of tear gas into prisoner's cells and prison courtyards and intimidation of prisoners by guards entering their cells with guns.
- Humiliating strip searches of prisoners in full view of other prisoners and guards each time they enter or exit their cells
- Subjecting prisoners to solitary confinement for excessive periods of time, for months and even years.
- Arbitrary imposition of financial penalties on prisoners for minor infractions, arbitrary revocation of visitation rights and extended confinement to cells as punishment for minor infractions such as singing or speaking too loudly
- Confining children with adult prisoners and political prisoners with criminals
- Withholding or delaying medical treatment and the provision of medication to sick detainees
- Severely restricting the category of family members entitled to visit prisoners thus denying visitation rights to other close family members
- Arbitrary denial of travel permits to family members of prisoners living in the West Bank or Gaza so that they cannot travel to prisons to see their relatives
- Imposing conditions on travel for family members and obstacles that result in travel of a few hours being prolonged to 16 or 17 hours for a 45-minute visit
- Conducting humiliating strip searches of visiting family members even though they are usually separated from the prisoners by a full glass barrier as well as a wire mesh barrier.
- Providing such poor visitation facilities that prisoners find it difficult to see or hear their loved ones
- Maintaining prisoners on near starvation diets that are insufficient to sustain health.
- Applying rules concerning items that prisoners may receive from their families arbitrarily and inconsistently, on the whim of the guards, with each visit.
- Withdrawing studying privileges that in the past allowed prisoners to continue their high school or university studies through correspondence courses

The treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israel violates both international and Israeli laws, as well as rules governing the administration of Israeli prisons. The Committee for the Families is planning a series of activities in the West Bank to coincide with the start of the hunger strike on August 15th.

Scheduled Activities:

1. A press conference at noon in Ramallah will kick off the campaign Sunday, August 15.
2. Hunger strike solidarity tents will be set up in the centre of all the cities in the West Bank and in all the Red Cross Centres and will be occupied by the public around the clock for as long as the prisoners'strike lasts.
3. August 18; The Palestinian Prime Ministers' office has declared this day National Day for Prisoners, a day that all Palestinians will show solidarity with the prisoners. All government ministers, members of the Palestinian National Council and heads of all political parties will join the public in the Solidarity Tents and fast in support of the prisoners.
4. August 20; after Jumپfa prayers at mosques processions will march towards the Solidarity Tents.
5. August 21st; Palestinians in various Israeli cities will march, together with other supporters, to the prisons where Palestinian political prisoners are being held
6. August 22; after church services, processions will march to the Solidarity Tents. These processions will be held every weekend during the campaign.
7. August 23; children of the prisoners will lead a procession.
8. August 25; all professionals involved in the Justice system in Palestine will congregate at the Solidarity Tents in their official legal gowns and will lead a procession to the centre of their cities.
9. August 26; the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Arun Gandhi, will lead a mass procession in Ramallah.
10. August 28; candlelight processions will be held at 8:00 p.m.
11. August 29; all members of the public are invited to join the open hunger strike.

September 4, 2004: International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners

We ask you also to register your protests by letter, fax, email, or telephone to the officials listed below. Ask them to stop the harsh treatment of Palestinian political prisoners and to accede the demands of the striking prisoners so that the conditions under which they are imprisoned are consistent with international norms of human rights and basic decency.

In addition, please register your protest with your own political representatives and governments ministers.

Please send a copy of your protest message to alhureih@yahoo.com

Messages of support from organizations would also be appreciated by the prisoners and their families. Please send them to the same address with some details of the organization.

For more information visit our temporary website at www.palsolidarity.org/prisoners or telephone (972) 2 277 4602 or (972) 547-358-579 or email: info@palsolidarity.org

With much appreciation for your valued support,

Mahmoud Ziadi, General Secretariat, Families of Palestinian Political Prisoners PO Box 2151, Ramallah, Palestine.

Israeli Government Contacts:

Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon Office of the Prime Minister 3 Kaplan Str., P.O. Box 187 Jerusalem, 91919 Israel Fax: 972-2-670-5475 e-mail: pm_eng@pmo.gov.il

Minister of Defense, Shaul Mofaz 37 Kaplan Str. Tel Aviv, 61909, Israel Fax: 972-3-696-2757 or 691-7915 e-mail: san@mod.gov.il or pnoit@mod.gov.il

Minister of Justice, Yosef Lapid 29 Salah al-Din Str. Jerusalem, 91010, Israel Fax: 972-2-628-5492 e-mail: san@justice.gov.il

Minister of Interior, Tzahi Haneghi Kiryat Hamenshala, P.O. Box 18182 Jerusalem, 91181 Israel Tel. 972-2-530-9999 Fax: 972-2-584-7872 e-mail: sar@mops.gov.il

Addresses of Israeli embassies worldwide can be found at www.embassyworld.com/embassy/isreal1.htm or go to the Government of Israel website at www.info.gov.il/FirstGov/

We just shot an Arab boy-now you will hear his screams," Israeli soldier told family.

Israeli soldiers drove into Balata camp this morning and proceeded to shoot a 15 year old boy, Nasser, in his stomach. Two hours later they blew the arm off another boy, Abdul Salem. International volunteers are trying to prevent the soldiers from shooting more children but the soldiers are continuing to rampage and shoot live rounds.

Almost every day for the last three weeks soldiers have come into the camp, parked their jeeps to provoke the children, and then used excessive force against them. Two days ago in Nablus, a soldier leaned out of an occupied house and shot Salim Alkusa (16) in the stomach, he died two hours later. The soldiers first pointed his gun at a medical crew. Internationals yelled out,"don't shoot," he changed direction aimed his M16 at a group of teenagers on the other side of the road and shot Salim.

Later in Balata, whilst internationals were standing with a group of children, a soldier opened the side door of his jeep and shot Sami Abu Mustafa in the back of his head. Internationals and medical volunteers ran to pick him up- there was a hole in his skull, he was bleeding profusely and his eyes were rolling back.

In the last three weeks in Balata alone, soldiers have shot and killed three teenagers, one while he was drinking tea with his friends in the cemetery next to the grave of his relative. There is no reason for the soldiers to be in the camp: often they do not appear to be doing any kind of military operation; they do not arrest anyone; they just seem intent on terrorizing the residents.

The last boy killed was shot from a house which soldiers had occupied up on a hill. The family whose home it is told us that just after the soldier shot the boy, he turned to them and said: "We just shot an Arab boy, now you will hear his screams".

Latest update: Israeli soldiers occupied the home of the Walweel family last night. The family had already lost their son six months ago when he was shot by an Israeli soldier. The mother was six months pregnant and the terror she experienced when the soldiers entered the home resulted in the death of her unborn child. ISM activists accompanied the male members of the household to the cemetery to bury the baby.

Names of those shot since 17th July.

Husam Abu Zaitoun 17 years old - shot dead whilst he was drinking tea with his friends in the cemetery next to the grave of his relatives.
Salim Alkusa 16 years old shot in the stomach - died 2 hours later
Sami Abu Mustafa 15 shot in the back of head now in intensive care
Bashar Zwiek 16 shot in the eye with a rubber coated metal bullet - now blind.
Mohammed Hurani 15 shot and killed in the street yesterday by snipers.
Yasir Tantawy (20) Soldiers shot him in the leg, then whilst he lay injured on the ground and while a medical crew tried to reach him, a soldier got out of his jeep and riddled his body with bullets.
August 4, Israeli soldiers shot a market stall holder dead.
Latest child death: unborn baby dies in mothers womb

All of these people were unarmed and soldiers could see clearly who they were shooting.

For more information contact:

Kole: 972-59-737-118 or 972-658-64-284 Media Office: 972-2-277-4602 or 972-547-358-579