Tel Rumeidah Support Campaign

The campaign report below was drafted by Riad Arar of Defense for Children International-Palestine.  To learn more about the campaign, visit https://www.freedom4telrumeida.com/. 

Justice now – End the isolation – End the ethnic cleansing – End the occupation
10th December 2016
The International Day for Human Rights

Due to the constant human rights violations, cold blooded crimes, illegal executions, and systematic and organized apartheid that the area of Tel Rumeidah suffers from, as a tool to force the Palestinian population into leaving their homes and property, and to isolate them from their relatives and neighbors, and to control the course of their daily lives and to complicate the possibility of having any comfortable living in the area, a group of organizations have begun to brainstorm a global and local support campaign, to stand with the residents and support their just demands of living in freedom and security, far from the occupation and its oppressive actions.

Date: 10th of December 2016, the international day for human rights.

Objective: Shedding light on the size and type of violations committed against the residents and area of Tel Rumeidah.

Target Group: Local and international community.

Campaign Participants: International human rights activists, academics and professionals from different fields, international volunteers, civil society organizations, varied unions and networks, consulates, international and Arab and local media, Palestinian authority organization from the ministry of foreign affairs and local rule and education.

Campaign organizers: The international movement for the defense of children, the committee to build Hebron, the Hebron municipality, Al Mahawer charitable association, Human Rights Defenders, the social workers union, the committee against the wall and occupation.

Campaign Demands:

1. Supporting the resistance of Palestinians living in Tel Rumeideh.
2. Demanding the international community’s pressure against the daily crimes by the Israeli occupation, and its policy of ethnic cleansing in the area.
3. Ending the closure and the removal of barriers and checkpoints.
4. Ending collective punishment against the Palestinian residents.
5. Ending the occupation.

Campaign Activities:

First Day: Press conference and crowding in front of the entrance of Al Shuhada St. in the presence of the media, while carrying posters and flags in different languages that portray the campaign’s slogans, children’s theatre on the reality of life for children and residents of Tel Rumeidahspeeches by: the mayor and governor of Hebron, the head of the committee for the resistance of the wall and the occupation, a word for human rights, a word for the families of Tel Rumeidah. Followed by a theatre act for children on the daily life of kids and residents in Tel Rumeidah, and a press statement on the campaign.

Second Day: A visit to 10 families in Tel Rumeideh to collect information on daily life of people in Tel Rumeideh and the nature of the violations they undergo, film for a minute showing life in Tel Rumeideh, produce a pamphlet in different languages about the visits and the stories collected in them, and an entertainment activity with 50 children.

Third Day: A conference on Tel Rumeideh for 150-200 participants: Opening session with the film, gallery of drawings and pictures with commentery from the residents of the area, a session on the international law and human rights with the international movement organization for the defense of children, and Al Had organization, the Palestinian council for human rights, the committee for building Hebron, the Palestinian foreign ministry. Finally, a session of testimonies on the right to life, the right to an education, the right to movement, the right of health, and the ending statement of the conference.