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Here
you can find news about ISM-Vancouver activities. For the latest
news about ISM campaigns in Palestine, please visit their website
at www.palsolidarity.org.
For general news about the situation in Palestine, we suggest you
visit electronicintifada.net.
News
Release
For
Immediate Release
Vancouver, January 15, 2003
Israeli
Occupation Army kills another Palestinian boy - who cares?
ISM-Vancouver
activist Drew reports that the brutal murder of unarmed
boys in the Occupied West Bank is no longer considered newsworthy
by the Western media.
TULKAREM,
JANUARY 15 - At 7:00 am this morning, Israeli Occupation Force (IOF)
Armoured Personnel Carriers and jeeps moved into downtown Tulkarem,
declared a daytime curfew and began firing shots into the city.
They tear-gassed the schools as students were arriving, forcing
them to evacuate the schools.
International
Solidarity Movement (ISM-Vancouver) volunteer Drew was drawn
downtown by the noise of the assault. "The youth resisted valiantly,
throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails in an attempt to drive the
war vehicles out of this populated area," reports Drew.
IOF
soldiers fired live ammunition into the groups of children on several
occasions. "We rushed down an alley to see one youth carrying
another in his arms," said Drew. Haza Qassan Fawaz Shadid,
16 years old, had been fatally shot in the chest. He was carried
to a truck and brought to Tulkarem hospital.
Earlier,
at 3AM that morning, Mohi el din Mahmood Hamzi, a boy of 17, was
shot while crossing the street in front of the Tulkarem refugee
camp. "Israeli soldiers shooting from an Armoured Personnel
Carrier riddled his body with bullets," reports Drew. Mohi
was pronounced dead on arrival at Tulkarem hospital.
After
the murders, Osama Qashoo, ISM-Palestine Coordinator for the region
frantically contacted news agencies about the day's violence but
received little interest. "Time and again he was told that
the killing of Palestinians was not newsworthy," explains Drew.
"In fact, very little of the brutality happening to Palestinians
under occupation is deemed worthy of any news media attention."
Drew
went to the hospital to photograph the tragedies. Realizing his
digital camera lacked additional space, he was forced to delete
photos of Palestinian children playing and attending school. Unfortunately,
the joyful space was filled with horror – "with the faces,
the victims, of the Israeli occupation."
"Another
young boy dies in defense of his embattled country. A rock thrower,
yes. And a student, a son, a brother. No less a child," writes
Drew from Occupied Palestine. "We in the West live in a
time of closed ears, closed eyes, closed mouths... a time of willed
ignorance."
Drew, a resident of Delta BC, is currently an ISM-Vancouver Delegate
to Palestine. He is working with other Canadian and international
volunteers to support the Palestinian non-violent resistance to
the occupation. Drew was previously a UN Accredited Electoral
Observer of the UN Consultation on East Timor in 1999.
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Drew is available for interviews by phone and email.
Drew's eyewitness reports are available online at valis.indymedia.org/ism-vancouver.
For
more information or to arrange an interview, please contact Reem, Coordinator of ISM-Vancouver by email at
info@ism-vancouver.org.
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