Hundreds of fishermen and farmers participate in sit-inn called by Union of Agricultural Work Committees
Hundreds of fishermen and farmers
participate in sit-inn called by Union of Agricultural Work Committees
On Thursday morning,
hundreds of farmers and fishermen participated in a solidarity sit-inn in the
Gaza fishermen port to denounce the Israeli Occupation Forces actions and
attacks against the fishermen, which witnessed a significant escalation in
recent weeks, including the frequent closing of the sea and the manipulation of
fishing areas, as well as the arrest of fishermen and the confiscation of their
boats and properties.
The solidarity sit-inn came with the call of UAWC and
Palestinian Peasants’ Movement-PPM to denounce the policies of the Israeli
occupation against the fishermen and call upon the international community and
its institutions to act urgently and immediately to protect the fishermen and
stop the crimes of the Israeli Occupation against them and stop the policy of
collective punishment represented in access restrictions to their sources of
livelihood and work freely and safely.
The fisherman Hisham Bakr, one of the owners of
confiscated boats said that "the boats that were recovered from the
Israeli occupation need a lot of money to repair and rehabilitate them to
become seaworthy, and that the occupation has confiscated the outdoor engines
and the fishing nets and tools, which also needs a lot of money to buy
them".
Lawyer Mervat Al-Nahhal of Al Mezan Center for
Human Rights said: "Al-Mezan Center, in cooperation with other human
rights centers, has managed to recover one of the fishermen's boats and seeks
to restore the rest of the confiscated boats, in addition to the engines and the
fishing tools of these boats. Al-Nahhal considered the Israeli occupation
forces attacks against the fishermen is a policy of collective punishment and
violation of human rights.
The coordinator of the Fishermen local committees, Zakaria
Bakr, called on the international community and human rights
organizations to work hard to protect the fishermen and stop the Israeli
aggression against them, and bring the occupation leaders to the international
courts for the crimes that are committed and still committed against the
fishermen in Gaza.
At the end of the sit-inn Saad Eddin Ziada said that the
Union of Agricultural Work Committees will always be at the forefront of the
defenders of fishermen rights and will not abandon them. They will spare no
effort to expose the violations of the Israeli occupation and to increase
international solidarity with them in order to pressure the Israeli occupation
to stop the attacks in all its forms, which are committed against fishermen.