Activities
ICAHD's activities, which are based on nonviolent direct action, include exhibits, films, workshops, tours of the occupied territories, publication of books and articles on the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, international advocacy.
ICAHD also organizes the rebuilding of demolished Palestinian houses using a network of Israeli, Palestinian and international volunteers. In April 2012 founding member Meir Margalit estimated that the organisation had rebuilt 1,000 homes including 200 in East Jerusalem. In addition to rebuilding demolished Palestinian houses, ICAHD often takes legal actions on behalf of Palestinians whose houses have been demolished or are threatened with demolition (see example of Aqabah).
Members of ICAHD have been arrested numerous times by the Israeli army and police for attempting to prevent the demolition of Palestinian homes. Most recently, on April 3, 2008, ICAHD Coordinator Jeff Halper was arrested for the eighth time while nonviolently protesting the bulldozing of the home of the Hamdan family in a Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem – a house that had already been torn down once by Israeli authorities and had been rebuilt by ICAHD.
In April 2012 one of ICAHD's founders, Meir Margalit was questioned by the Israeli Interior Ministry. Margalit, who admitted being involved in the rebuilding of over 200 homes, later commented, "I was asked if I did it on purpose and answered that I do not recognize the Interior Ministry's right to question me about my activities in East Jerusalem, which is occupied territory and where Israeli law is not valid". Margalit, a Jerusalem City Councilor, felt that he was being singled out for political reasons stating "we’re in the McCarthy era, and it will get to everyone sooner or later." In response, the Interior Ministry spokesperson said that "Mr. Meir Margalit was summoned for questioning on suspicion of building without a permit, which is a criminal act."
ICAHD sends out action alerts and activists from different groups go out and engage in civil disobedience by stopping the bulldozers.
ICAHD, in January 2005, called for a campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions "until the occupation" is over.
ICHAD supported the "Jewish Boat to Gaza" in 2010.
Read more about this topic: Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
Famous quotes containing the word activities:
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—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“If it is to be done well, child-rearing requires, more than most activities of life, a good deal of decentering from one’s own needs and perspectives. Such decentering is relatively easy when a society is stable and when there is an extended, supportive structure that the parent can depend upon.”
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“When mundane, lowly activities are at stake, too much insight is detrimental—far-sightedness errs in immediate concerns.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)