On May 8,2012 the Israeli Occupation Forces raided the Stop the Wall office in Ramallah. This is not the first attack this office has seen. In 2009 two of the organizers at Stop the Wall were arrested. Neither had any charges brought against them. Yet it still took an intense international pressure campaign during their time in prison to bring about their release a few months later. Following the organizers’ release, the STW office was raided  during February of 2010.

These ongoing attacks tell us one thing with certainty: Israel is scared that the movement is effective. Today, with the imminent threat of death in the air as Palestinian hunger strikers Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh reach day 74 of their hunger strike, mass outrage is inevitable. Following behind Diab and Halahleh are over 2,000 other Palestinian prisoners on one of the largest hunger strike movements of all time.

They are protesting Israel’s long-standing policy of detaining Palestinians without charge or trial, as well as inhumane prison conditions such as egregious solitary confinement, denial of family visits, and the refusal to medically treat critical health conditions, all punitive measures which violate international law.

Stop the Wall has been supporting civil, non-violent resistance as well as avid advocacy campaigns for almost ten years. Their work is central to much of the resilient resistance on the ground against the apartheid regime.

Repression from Zionist forces is an inevitable result of the growing resistance movement and solidarity with Palestinians. Therefore it is vital that we support each other through such backlash with determination to let “the powers that be” know that we will increase our solidarity and non-violent resistance in response to increasing repression.

Photo: http://www.stopthewall.org