Category: Journals - Page 102 - International Solidarity Movement

Existence is Resistance: Challenging the Assault on Ordinary Life in Palestine

One week after I left Nablus I found myself again looking out across the city’s majestic sunlit hills, this time from one of the highest mountains in the West Bank. In all my reporting on Israel’s invasion and human rights violations, I never mentioned how beautiful the ancient city is, from the surrounding mountains to the enchanting Old City, so easy to get lost in. Both remind me of Damascus (one pessimistic Palestinian pointed out the comparison early during my stay, claiming that the Nablus invasion was practice for an attack against Syria). My last day in Nablus I got to discover another one of the city’s gems: Al Najaa University. I immediately took to the old architecture mixed with modern sculptures on the main campus, but what inspired me most was watching thousands of students return to the frantic bustle of daily university life so soon after soldiers had released the city from hostage. Resilience is a defining character of Palestinian identity in my experience, and I was more impressed than surprised to see Palestinians asserting their determination to get an education even in the most difficult circumstances. Just another example of the ever-pervasive Palestinian nonviolent resistance.

The night before visiting I had passed by the empty campus–abandoned since the Army took over and classes were cancelled–in a taxi driving home with the family that was hosting me. I had grown quite close to the warm family with Leninist communist leanings, and felt happy and comfortable in their home covered with posters of Che Guevara, David Beckham, Shakira, and others idolized by the three teenage daughters. As we were driving and chatting after having visited some friends, we were suddenly surrounded with jeeps driving through the city to and from seemingly every direction. We panicked. Was there curfew? Would we be shot for being outside? Screeching to a halt, we tried to back up to the neighborhood we’d come from, but jeeps were swarming in that direction as well. Where were we supposed to go?

The jeeps left as quickly as they had come. Apparently they were doing a practice invasion, presumably to train new soldiers, as they’ve been doing a lot recently in a village called Beit Lid near Tulkarem (even though nobody in the village has been accused of threatening Israel’s security). I will never forget that feeling of being suddenly surrounded, the confusion and panic, the helplessness. There was something about sitting together to a cheerful family breakfast the next morning that felt like a kind of nonviolent resistance too: the insistence on ordinary life and pleasures no matter what havoc Occupation Forces are wreaking just outside.

I returned to the Nablus region a week later to accompany a teacher named Addawiya and her family to plow land they haven’t been able to work for six years due to soldier harassment. The next plot over hasn’t been plowed in 26 years for the same reason. There are Israeli military posts on all the highest West Bank peaks, among them the mountain where Addawiya’s land lies. As we cleared away stones that had overrun the land over the last half dozen years, Addawiya told me about the day she was picking olives with her brother when the soldiers came and threatened to shoot her brother if he didn’t leave the land immediately. He persisted in picking olives until the soldiers began shooting into the air to show that they were serious, at which point he ran off terrified. Addawiya was left alone, and on her hands and knees pleaded for her life, all along sure she was going to die. Her fear was not unjustified. Three years ago, Addawiya’s sister was taking a walk on the family’s land near the village with her husband when a group of soldiers popped out from the foliage and open-fired on him. The 33-year-old teacher died instantly

The Israeli Army came and apologized to Addawiya’s family. Apparently they were intending to assassinate a wanted man and shot the wrong guy. Addawiya’s sister, who was 23 and pregnant at the time, is now a 26-year-old going on 60. With nobody to support her and two young children to raise, she had to move back in with her mother. Incidentally, the mother invited me to move in too when we returned from plowing (as an unmarried, childless 27-year-old woman, I’m practically an old maid around here). I declined politely, and we began the journey back to Haris.

Our first stop along the way was Huwwara, the southern checkpoint out of Nablus city, where as usual hundreds of students from Al Najaa and other universities were waiting unhappily, squished together like cattle as it began to rain and everyone squeezed under the roof to wait behind metal detectors and turnstiles to leave the city.

I remembered passing through Huwwara a few days earlier on a trip accompanying other farmers in the area. Since the solidarity effort was organized by the Israeli group Rabbis for Human Rights, we were driving in an Israeli car with yellow license plates, so we didn’t even slow down as we breezed through on the Israeli-only road parallel to the one where Palestinians had been waiting for hours if not days.

On the way back from Addawiya’s land, a colleague and I decided to stay at Huwarra to do Checkpoint Watch, i.e. witness and document any human rights violations. There was already one sick man whom the Army had refused to let pass and we took his story. At first the soldiers didn’t seem to mind our presence, but after some time one soldier told us we weren’t allowed to stand where we were. He pointed to a line drawn on the floor nearby and said we could stand behind it. We began to protest, but quickly realized a fight would translate into longer waiting time for the Palestinians being processed by the same soldier, so we walked a few paces to the other side of the line. Ten minutes later, a different soldier informed us it was illegal to be observing the checkpoint at all, so we would have to leave immediately. We didn’t even dignify his absurd claim with a response. He stood next to us awkwardly repeating himself a few times and then eventually went away.

We were approached by a third soldier, speaking only Hebrew. When we said we couldn’t understand, he told us in broken English that it was illegal to be there if you didn’t speak Hebrew. This was a new one. Another soldier showed up to translate the soldier’s original message, namely that in fact we could look but not take pictures. The soldier regretted to inform us that he would have to delete my photographs. At that point we decided we preferred to leave rather than lose the photos, so we began to walk away. As expected, the soldier didn’t chase after the supposedly “illegal”� pictures. Just before we left, we saw the sick man previously denied passage try his luck with a different soldier at a different machine and get through.

Israel claims that its checkpoints are for the security and safety of its citizens. What makes this claim so difficult to believe for those observing the institutions is how inconsistent and seemingly arbitrary the Army’s actions and “laws”� so frequently are. The sick man got through on his second try. Had that failed, he could have sprung for an expensive taxi ride to an alternative checkpoint 10 miles north that is scarcely monitored at all (when we passed through on the way to Addawiya’s land there were no soldiers in sight). The whole trip north and then around again would cost him several hours and paychecks, but he could exit his city with relative certainty. Anyone who’s spent time in the West Bank knows that if you’re desperate, you can get anywhere. There is always an alternative road, even into Israel, even with the Wall, which is full of holes so as not to disturb settlers commuting to Israel. Israel is not stupid. It knows that Palestinians can get around the Army’s blockades if they just drain enough energy and resources to do so. So why does Israel do it?

As our shared taxi from Huwwara to Haris left the checkpoint, the driver pulled up next to several drivers to ask how Zatara was. Zatara is a permanent checkpoint between Huwwara and Haris, but there’s an alternative road through Jama’iin village, which drivers take when the checkpoint line is too long or slow. The ride takes much longer, and is painfully bumpy and curvy. When our driver chose the detour, the woman next to me grimaced and took out some plastic bags, which she spent the ride vomiting into. I rubbed her back, not knowing what else to do, thinking about the short, straight, paved road that could have eased her suffering if it were not rendered so endless for non-Jews.

The taxi eventually dropped us off near the Haris bus stop, which soldiers have surrounded with large concrete cubes leftover from the roadblock that used to block our village. The blocks mean that waiting Palestinians cannot easily get from the sheltered bus stop to the road, so at least one traveler must wait always wait on the road to spot and flag down cars, even when it’s raining. Each time I’m forced to drench my backpack and jeans waiting to start a day’s journey, I think about what Israel has to gain by making even a bus stop inaccessible without struggle, by rendering what could be a smooth drive home into a nauseating miserable ride. I think about why the roadblocks were set up to begin with outside Haris, when villagers either had to drive their cars to the entrance, park, walk around, and take a taxi the rest of the way to work or university, or they had to take their cars along a strenuous unpaved detour through the countryside to reach the same outside road. What’s the point of making life so frustrating that people reconsider even going to work or school? What happens when daily life in Palestine becomes just too unbearable?

My questions are answered almost every day when strangers call or approach us desperate for help getting a visa to Europe or North America. They say they can’t take it anymore: First Israel took their land, then their sons, and now their dignity. What Israel wants more than anything isn’t to harm Palestinians; it wants for Palestinians to leave. Israel is the first to admit that the “demographic problem”� of too many Palestinians in an exclusively Jewish state threatens Israel more than any suicide bomber ever could.

Addawiya told me she wanted to leave as we were walking back from her groves. I asked her where, and she told me it didnt matter–she wasn’t going anywhere. “Because no country will give you a visa?”� I asked, and she shook her head. “Because that’s what they want us to do. They want us to flee as we did in 1948, so that the Jewish National Fund can again expropriate our land and reserve it for Jews only. But I won’t leave. I will stay here because it’s my right and it’s my duty, to myself and to my children.”� For Addawiya, even staying in her village and working her land is nonviolent resistance, the kind almost every Palestinian partakes in. It’s not the type of resistance that will make it onto headlines or the six o’clock news, but it is there, it is strong, and it is not going away.

In struggle,

Anna

Remembering Rachel, 4 Years and Still No Justice. Dispatch #2

by Martinez, March 17

It’s been a week since I returned home here to Palestine.

And it has been four years since a twenty-three year old American peace activist, named Rachel Corrie, was killed by an Israeli Occupation Forces bulldozer in the Gaza Strip.

I never met Rachel. But I can feel what drove her to this place. The people and the land and the history melds into the tastiest brew. But it goes stale as you witness the harassment around every corner. A concrete wall separates a Palestinian town from Palestinian town. A 22 year old Israeli soldier screams at a 60 year old farmer trying to access his farmland. How can this be? Most of my folks back home would not even believe it. It’s hard to keep the blood from boiling. The Palestinians are in a constant state of being pushed from their Land.

The balfour declaration of 1917. Al Nakba (the Catastrophe)of 1948 when Israel was created on top of Palestinian land. Then 1967 brought the illegal Israeli Occupation of what remained of historic Palestine–the West bank and Gaza. Imagine 40…60…90 years of this! All these years of deportation from your home, fear, house demolitions, harassment, destruction of farmland, collective punishment…and the list goes on and on…

And Rachel saw this four years ago in Gaza. Writing through e-mail she said,

“I have been in Palestine for two weeks and one hour now, and I still have very few words to describe what I see. It is most difficult for me to think about what’s going on here when I sit down to write back to the United States. Something about the virtual portal into luxury.”

“I have bad nightmares about tanks and bulldozers outside our house and you and me inside. Sometimes the adrenaline acts as an anesthetic for weeks and then in the evening or at night it just hits me again – a little bit of the reality of the situation. I am really scared for the people here.”

And then Israel came to bulldoze a house in Rafah, the town where Rachel was staying. Unfortunatley, the house of the civilian Palestinian stood in the zone of Israel’s Wall. Israel claimed that under the house, Palestinian militants were using tunnels to smuggle weapons from Egypt. No tunnels have been found.

So, Rachel, with her bullhorn and bright orange jacket stood affront the house. And chills go through me every time I think about what was going through her mind at that time.

“You’re gonna stop… This bulldozer is going to stop!”

But the bulldozer didn’t stop. Instead, the bulldozer, manufactured and distributed by the American corporation “Caterpillar,” moved forward. The Israeli driver did not stop for her screams. He did not stop for her bright orange jacket or when the other human rights volunteers rushed forward, flailing their arms. No, the driver buried her underneath tons of steel and earth, and then wheeled the monstrous Caterpillar back over her, crushing her for a second time.

Yesterday, in the village of Bil’in in the West Bank, there was a small vigil for her in commemoration of her life and resistance. Bil’in has a wall running thourgh it, separating Palestinians from their farmland. 60% of the farmland has been annexed into Israel due to this Wall. For over two years, Palestinians, Israelis, and international non-violent activists have demonstrated in solidarity against this Wall.

Banners in honor of Rachel were seen scattered throughout the demonstration.

We marched to the wall where the Israeli Occupation Forces were waiting for us, as they usually are. The tactics they use to our non-violent demonstrations vary. Some walked past the razor wire to get closer to the farmland on the other side of the Wall. Others stayed back.

The IOF responded by beating people with their batons and pushing demonstrators to the ground or dragging them along it.

After the fog from the tear gas, sound bombs and rubber bullets cleared, it was realized that four people had been arrested, including Palestinian and Israeli demonstrators, and 7 were injured, including a Palestinian journalist.

Another peaceful demonstration achieving a violent response from what Israel calls their Israeli “Defense” Forces. But those who are living under Occupation and those who come to witness see their true colors.

Rachel saw this in Rafah four years ago. And those of us here now, continuing non-violent resistance to the longest-standing Occupation of our time, see these crimes. And many wonder when the rest of the world will realize that their luxury comes at a heavy price to others across the world.

There has been no justice for Rachel to date. And the crimes against the Palestinians continue to multiply as the international community turns its back.

After the demonstration I headed down to Hebron. My eyes were stained with tear gas residue and the smell seeped from my clothes. But I wanted to end this day on a happier note, for Rachel, and for the kids in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron who are living under Israeli military control, and whose neighbors happen to be the most right wing, extremist Israeli colonialists in all of the West Bank.

So I met up with Katie to have our first TRCDP Reunion.

The Tel Rumeida Circus for Detained Palestinians is a circus group that Katie and I co-founded last summer in response to the abuse and harassment placed upon the Palestinians in Tel Rumeida.

More about TRCDP can be found at: http://trcdp.livejournal.com

The kids were so excited to see us back there to do our weekly Friday fire performances. Unfortunately, Palestine is squeezing out the last of its snow and rain and the show wsa postponed due to weather. Kinda’ hard to do fire performance in the rain.

But we will be back, and invite all of you to come and see us, coming to a checkpoint near you!

But for now, time for us to get to work. To continue the work of non-violent resistance, be it through writing, photographing, protesting, videotaping, circus performing, interviewing…

_____________________________________________________________________________

I wrote this poem for Rachel Corrie and for Palestine,
may we soon celebrate their justice…

Palindrome

Echoing through my dreams I hear the voices of the peaceful masses
As the Tanks shoot tear gasses
and rubber bullets.

And echoing through the televison
I hear the same old lies
As our non-elected president stares coolly at the lens of this tele-prompter.

The strings grew tighter between Bush and Sharon
But Bush only condoned the evils of that Bastard,
While money,
Faster and Faster
and faster
Was shipped to the Rascist State
as hungry people right outside on our streets
Met their fate
with no food…No healthcare…No money….

Ain’t that funny…

Cause echoing through my mouth I say the same old words and I wonder…
Whats that word?
Repition…Repition…
Repetition…

If I say it enough will I reach you?
If I say it enough will I teach you?
If I say it enough, if I preach to you
Will you take what I say and Repeat it?

This tactic semms to have worked for the Administration,
Example:
9-11. 9-11.
9-11.
11th September, 11th September,
11th September…

Remember!…
Remember!…
Remember!…

Remember so I can justify my illegal wars!
Remember so I can pre-empt terror!
Remember so I can be emporer of this planer with
Right hand up to god and
Left hand up to Empire, with
Fingers crossed on Both, I
Pledge allegiance to Umpire
Each and Every Nation on the PLanet ’cause that’s how
HE planned it…

Well,… All for one
And one for all…
I for one can’t stand it!

‘Cause echoing through each and every cell in my body
I feel the desparation caused by Occupation.
Tax dollars manifesting themselves into Caterpillar bulldozers,
D-9 Model,
Specially designed in the United States to
Kill 23 Year Old PEACE Activists
and to Rip through Palestinian Homes,
While a Mother groans,
A Brother phones to tell of his 10-year old sister shot in the head by an Israeli soldier…

Tax dollars transcending themselves into Apache helicopters,
Dropping tons of missiles onto the crowded streets of Gaza.

“Collatoral Damage,” they call it.
I call it “A Shame!”
I call it, “Punishable under International Law
and Conventions of Geneva!”
While a Father grieves, a’
D-9 leaves ANOTHER field of Olive Trees Uprooted!

But violence is rooted in these actions.
Can’t have a fraction of one without the other.
Can’t reach an understanding
When you’re standing on the Landing Zone of and F-16 Bomber,
Branded with the words:
“Made in U- S- A-”

Ain’t no other way to end this viscous cycle…
Ain;t no other day ‘cept for the one in which we are right now…
See, fighting ain’t our pride,
But how can’t we when our kids are dying?
How can’t we when the sounds of all this Crying
Seep into each coming morning?

How can’t we when storming through the streets of:
Nablus
Jenin
Hebron
Qalqilya
Tulkarem
Come tons of tanks and bloodshed?

Fighting ain’t our pride
But being on this Ride, down the road of Genocide,
Is not going to cut it!

It’s not going to cut it the way we cut down these fences!
‘Cause let’s face it…

Echoing from the distance, I hear from out persistence:
Freedom.
Justice.
Resistance can only bring about this.

Echoing from my worldwide audience I hear a silent revolution…
But this silence is tragic…
Think of the magic of noise pollution…
Raise your voices and
SCREAM!

‘Cause echoing from the distance I hear from our persistence:
Freedom.
Justice.
Repeat.
Freedom.
Justice.
Repeat.
Freedom.
Justice.
Repeat!

—-Salamaat
from Palestine

War and Irony on Hebron Hilltops

by Anna, March 10th

No matter how bad things get in the North West Bank, it’s never as bad as in Hebron. I’m back in the ancient city exactly two years after my last visit:

Previous Reports:

http://annainpalestine.blogspot.com/2005/03/from-jericho-to-hebron.html

http://annainpalestine.blogspot.com/2005/03/conversation-with-hamas-supporters.html

I participated in several solidarity actions, among them school patrol in Tel Rumeida. This small Palestinian neighborhood of Hebron is home to some of the most violent ideological settlers in the West Bank, who have moved into local homes by force and parade the streets with guns, terrorizing local residents including children on their way to and from school. The settlers in Hebron are here because they believe the city of 150,000+ Palestinians belongs exclusively to the Jewish people.

Hebron’s were the first settlements in the West Bank after Israel occupied the area in 1967, when the Old City’s Palestinian population was around 7,500. Twenty-five years later, the population had shrunk by 80% to 1,500, a mass exodus provoked by Israeli settler and state violence and dispossession. The wealth left with the refugees; only the poorest residents remain, those with nowhere else to go. Their children dodge sticks and stones—from settler children (and their parents)—on their way to school every day as soldiers watch on indifferently; I and several other internationals accompanied the students to document and even shield the settler kids’ attacks.

Today my station was on Shuhada St, which used to be a major Palestinian thoroughfare before settlers moved in down the road and blocked it to non-Jews. Cars drive frequently through the neighborhood but they are all yellow-plated (Israeli) or jeeps; Palestinians are not allowed to use cars in Tel Rumeida. They are banned from even walking on the main street, so they wind through a cemetery to get from their neighborhood to the city. More than 2,000 small businesses in the Old City and Tel Rumeida area have closed down, and the once thriving cultural and economic center is now a ghost town.

We watched the schoolchildren advance cautiously down the road where Israeli flags hung from street lamps and nearly every Palestinian home had a star of David spray-painted outside. Out of one house came Jamilya, whose mother was recently attacked by a settler girl who incited a mob to come rip the family’s door off. Their windows are caged like all others on the street, to block stones; occasional cracks show where small rocks still get through. At the military station, Jamilya climbed a set of stairs to her right and then entered a school via a narrow stone path that was just reconstructed for the third time. A Palestinian gate nearby reads: “Arabs to the Gas Chambers.”

An Israeli friend Cesca showed a colleague and me around the olive groves between Tel Rumeida settlement and the school, where a few Palestinian families are still struggling to survive. Cesca introduced us to a shepherd named Abu Thalal, who welcomed us warmly into his home. He said he’s grateful for Israeli allies like Cesca, and has even tried reaching out to the settlers who trespass on his land everyday. Abu Thelal said when a settler once asked him for a cigarette he didn’t hesitate to hand one over, and even prepared tea for the two of them. Shortly after, Abu Thelal was shocked to see the same man and his children throwing stones at his home. He shrugged after he finished the story: “There are good Israelis and bad Israelis, just like there are good Palestinians and bad Palestinians.”

From Abu Thelal’s home you can see the mosque and temple where Abraham was buried. The groves and ruins surrounding Abu Thelal’s home are not just old; they look and feel biblical. Cesca said she once watched in horror as settlers set fire to one of the hills during the Jewish holiday Lag Ba’Omer. She said they burned Palestinian flags along with the ancient land.

Jewish holidays frequently translate into Palestinian suffering in the West Bank. This past week was Purim, so closure was imposed on the entire West Bank Palestinian population so that soldiers could go home to celebrate with their families. Extra help was needed patrolling today because it’s Shabbat, when attacks are more frequent because settler children don’t have school.

Soldiers also didn’t intervene when settlers rioted in Hebron during Sukkot holiday a few years ago. According to the Alternative Information Center (AIC), “during a big march of settlers, participants started attacking Palestinian homes close to the Tel Rumeida settlement. The house of Palestinian Hana’a Abu Haykal was stoned and windows were smashed in three apartments, and settlers also injured Jameel Abu Haykal, aged 12, in his shoulder. Hana’a said the assault happened during the daytime as soldiers stood by without trying to stop the assaults, while the Palestinians were confined to the house because of curfew.”

I met the Abu Haykal family, who live literally next door to a military outpost on one side, and Tel Rumeida settlement on the other. Their windows are caged, much of their land has been declared a “closed military zone” (although settlers frequently trespass it without consequence), and they removed the staircase to the roof so that soldiers would stop coming to use it for surveillance. Settlers have done everything they can to scare away the family so they can move into the large well-situated house, but the family just won’t give up.

The Abu Haykals have 11 children and have lived in their home since the neighborhood was Jewish, before Zionism and the Hebron Massacre of 1929 (again, see previous Hebron update for elaboration). Settlers claim they are reclaiming Jewish territory, yet the families who left have issued joint statements demanding that the settlers leave and stop all violence against their former neighbors.

Many Jewish Israelis like Cesca have spoken out against settler violence in Hebron. Many of them came with us today on a joint action to rebuild destroyed houses in the South Hebron hills. Across the South West Bank there are dozens of tiny villages where Palestinians live in caves, tents, and small stone houses surrounded by rolling hills where they graze their sheep every day. Many years ago, fundamentalist Jews began settling hilltops all over the area, and frequently harass or even physically attack the shepherds on their land and in their villages. Settlers from the illegal outposts have poisoned village water sources with dead chickens and dirty diapers, and cemented over cave entrances. They run down the hills into villages wearing masks and carrying baseball bats or large guns. (There’s a telling image from Purim two years ago up at http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3735.shtml; click on “Click here.”)

To add insult to injury, the Israeli Army has been demolishing Palestinian structures across the region, most of them homes and bathroom facilities. The pretext is that the shepherds didn’t secure building permits from Israel before building the rooms and outhouses on their own land. Building permits are expensive (up to $20,000), and generally refused to Palestinians. In contrast, they are readily available to Jews who want to build homes, even on land that does not belong to them. The caravans of violent settlers who have snuck onto Hebron hilltops, surrounding the rural families, are meanwhile encouraged to flourish with subsidies, infrastructure, and protection from the Israeli state, even though they are illegal according to international and Israeli law.

Hundreds of rural Palestinians’ homes and caves have been bulldozed, and many families have fled in an exodus that can only be described as ethnic cleansing. Still, several villages remain, despite tremendous obstacles, refusing to leave their ancestral land. One such village is Qawawis, where I spent the day rebuilding homes that the Army recently demolished. Organized by Ta’ayush, a joint Jewish-Palestinian human rights group from Israel, dozens of Israelis, internationals, and Palestinians came together to build foundations, stone walls, and rooftops for the four rural families of Qawawis and other nearby villages. We mixed cement, formed assembly lines, and broke bread together throughout the beautiful exhausting day. When we were finished I headed back to Hebron.

Re-entering Tel Rumeida, soldiers searched my bag and person for weapons. Beyond the checkpoint I could see settler children and their parents carrying M16s home from synagogue. I reflected on the irony of being checked to enter a street where armed fundamentalists known for violence are granted virtual impunity.

As the Alternative Information Center puts it, “the core issue is Israel’s tacit cooperation with the fundamentalist settlers for its own colonial goals: 1. To exploit resources…[,] 2. To expand Zionist control… [and] 3. To realize military and strategic advantages…” AIC sites four main methods employed by Israel for land confiscation in the Occupied Territories: “the seizure of land for military needs, the designation of land as `state land,’ the definition of land as `absentee property,’ and expropriation of land for `public needs.’ All these methods serve a single purpose: the transfer of land from Palestinian to Israeli ownership.”

This trend of cooperation has been true for administrations of both major Israeli parties. As the foreign minister under Yitzhak Rabin’s first government, Yigal Allon of the “left-wing” Labor party offered substantial political support to settlements in the east Hebron area, trying to prevent Palestinian development in sections of the West Bank that were to be incorporated by Israeli according to the Allon Plan. Having too many Palestinians on certain coveted sections of the West Bank could threaten the “Jewish character” of Israel when they were eventually annexed.

Of course, Hebron’s radical settlers have generally been allied with the right-wing Likud, which along with Labor has facilitated the settler strategies of establishing facts on the ground and attacking Palestinian residents. Israel has stationed 4,000 of its soldiers at checkpoints and military outposts throughout the city of 150,000 in order to protect the 500 settlers. Palestinians are closely monitored while soldiers frequently fail to intervene in settler attacks against Palestinian civilians. In addition, the Army often imposes curfew following settler attacks so that the settlers won’t fear retaliation. Curfew only applies to Palestinians. Their Jewish neighbors, who often perpetrated the crimes prompting the curfew, are free to wander through the Palestinians’ streets and land.

If Palestinians manage to leave their homes and wish to register complaints at the police station, they have been prevented from entering by soldiers and police, who commonly dismiss charges directed towards settlers. In fact, settlers in Hebron are subject to a different legal system altogether from their Palestinian neighbors. Jewish settlers are subject to Israeli law, while Palestinians are subject to military law. Therefore, they have different rights and face different legal consequences for the same crime. In every scenario, the Israeli penal code is more lenient. Settlers—if tried at all, a rare occasion—frequently enjoy even lighter sentences than usual. For example, a settlement leader Rabbi Levinger spent just ten weeks in jail for killing an unarmed Palestinian merchant, while a Palestinian convicted of manslaughter could face life in prison. According to AIC, “Israel is violating the principle of equality before the law by creating a situation in which ethnic identity determines the applicable legal system.”

Sitting around the dinner table at night, I kept thinking about Nablus. Jewish fundamentalists once tried to set up camp in Nablus city but they were driven out by the city’s armed resistance. It was one of the few victories of the Second Intifada. What would have happened if the people of Hebron had taken up arms back in 1967 when the settlers arrived? Nablus fighters are called terrorists, and Hebron’s would surely be as well. Still, knowing now what wasn’t known then, could we really blame them? These were the thoughts swirling through my head tonight as I prepared to return to my relatively peaceful existence in Haris.

“We are a Democracy!”

by Hugh, March 11th

Walking through Bethlehem yesterday I was stopped by a taxi driver I have come to know over the years, Abu Anwar. He seemed agitated and angry. He knows of my work over here and was keen for me to go back to his house to show me what had happened during a surprise early morning visit he had received two nights earlier.

Abu Anwar and his wife life with their five children in a small house in Doha City, a relatively new city, effectively a suburb of Bethlehem, that has grown rapidly as there is little land left in Bethlehem itself for development due to the Apartheid Wall and Israeli colonization. They have three daughters and two sons. I have visited their house before, socially, as is the custom in Palestine, to drink coffee and talk.

At around 1am in the early morning of 7th March the whole family were, as most families would be at such a time, fast asleep. Abu Anwar works long hours, with early starts in his taxi, in order to provide for his family. When the first rock came through their window they woke with a fright. As more began to rein against their house and smash their windows they had no idea what was happening. The large green metal gate into their garden was ringing out with the sound of a barrage of rocks and bricks. Their heavy metal front door was echoing through the house as it was being kicked and beaten with the butts of M-16s. Um Anwar began to shout out, to find out what was happening:

“What’s wrong? What’s happening? What’s the matter?”

The answer was predictable enough for any late night disturbance in Palestine; it was not so much an answer as an order:

“We are soldiers, open the door, open the door now!!”

Um Anwar made her way down the stairs to the front door and opened it nervously:

“What are you doing? What’s wrong with you, we are trying to sleep!”

The reply she received was again more of a barked demand than an answer:

“Where is your husband? Get him down here now, I want all your family outside and on the street now!”

Abu Anwar came down as he had been ordered and walked onto the street asking them what the problem was. He was abruptly ordered to shut up, and told that they didn’t have to tell him anything (despite the fact they were terrorizing his family and damaging his property). Um Anwar went back upstairs to find her children and was followed inside by scores of IOF soldiers. Her too youngest children had locked themselves in the bathroom. Cowering with fear, a 9 year old boy and his 7 year old sister, hoped in their naivety that if they hid they would not be hurt and the intruders would leave. The IOF banged on the bathroom door, Um Anwar told her children to open the door knowing that if they did not the IOF would open it themselves with force and the children would be hurt. As a terrified little boy opened the door tentatively he peeped round:

“Salaam alekum” (Peace by with you)

As the nozzle of an M-16 was pushed through in front of a soldier, and the door was pushed open, even he received a screamed response:

“Salaam! You want salaam? I will give you salaam!”

The two young children cowered away, then, as the soldier entered the bathroom they ran out to their mother, looking for safety. She pulled them close to her. Their other two sisters were also in the living room and all the family stood close together. As the soldiers were spreading out through the house all the family was ordered outside to join Abu Anwar. Sound bombs were being thrown all around the house. As they walked down the stairs and outside they saw soldiers everywhere. Their garden was full of IOF, all with their guns trained on the family members. The neighbouring houses and the roofs of all surrounding buildings were also covered with these violent intruders. IOF Jeeps were spread all over the road blocking it, with their soldiers everywhere.

The eldest son, Anwar, lives in a bedroom on the bottom floor of the property, he had also barricaded himself into his room. The IOF’s steel toe-capped boots soon broke down his door. Anwar had his hands up in the air when the IOF entered, save giving them any excuse to shoot him. With all guns trained on him they searched him roughly before violently tying his hands behind his back with plastic cuffs. He was then pushed onto his bed and blindfolded, before being lifted up and pushed out through the door. As Anwar was dragged into the street his parents began to shout at the soldiers:

“What are you doing to him! What is wrong with you? He has done nothing!”

Anwar was immediately put into one of the jeeps which then sped away into the dark night. Abu Anwar tried again to question the soldiers:

“He has done nothing. He is a student. He studies, he works, and he sleeps, he has no time for anything else. What are you doing with him?”

With guns pointed at him he was again told:

“Shut your mouth, we have to tell you nothing!”

Bizarrely one soldier also informed him:

“We are a democracy!”

Quite what was meant by this comment no-one is sure. But what is certain is that all the family were terrified, the children screamed hysterically.

For the next 4 hours the family were kept on the street in the cold, dark night as the IOF systematically ransacked their house. At one stage a soldier ran outside with two large bags, maybe two or three kilos each, filled with a white crystalline substance:

“This is explosives! This is for bombs isn’t it!”

The two bags were then emptied all over the floor in the house’s entrance hall. This was the family’s entire supply of sugar…

When the family, minus the now disappeared Anwar, were finally allowed to return to their home around 5am, the destruction that they found added to their
devestation.

In the entrance hall all the boxes which had been stacked together filled with assorted toys, pots and pans and other household goods were scattered all over the stairs. As they went up the stairs they found smashed windows all along the way, one which looks as though it has been shot through with a bullet. At the top of the stairs next to the entrance to the living room is a sofa, they found it broken and cut to shreds with a knife. As they walked through the smashed door into their living room they saw the family computer lying on the floor, its hard drive removed and wires extruding. The sofa and chairs in here were also all damaged and had clearly been cut with knifes. The refrigerator was wide open, its door broken and food strewn all over the floor. The table and chairs where family meals are shared were all broken. Underneath the windows concrete is cracked and plaster is falling out after what must have been damaged with considerable force. The washing mac hine stands smashed and unusable. Children’s toys litter the floor, plastic cars and toy soldiers crushed, a large fluffy white bear has knife marks right down its back and its stuffing pulled out. Next to the front window a religious text has been ripped off the wall and the plaster behind it smashed and dug out with something. In the bedrooms all cupboards and wardrobes were lying prostate across the floors and their contents strewn everywhere, beds were turned upside down and mattresses slashed. On the top floor of the house, which leads out onto the roof, they find more of the same, smashed windows, storage boxes upside down and their contents thrown everywhere, and a new water storage tank, recently fitted to the roof, now full of holes and useless.

The family later discovered that other family members in the neigbourhood had received similar visits. Four houses in all had received this disgusting treatment. Around twenty jeeps had been counted up and down the street and an estimate of somewhere between fifty to eight soldiers were reported by witnesses. Anwar was the only person arrested but dozens had been terrorized through the night, including many young children.

Um Anwar shows me the footage she recorded on one of her daughter’s mobile phones. The film shows the destruction immediately as they returned to the house. Being shown round the house I can still see all the damage but things have been cleared up off the floor.

The family have received similar visits in the past. Anwar was arrested previously in 1998, when he was just 15, that time it was two years before he saw his family again. He was also fined 10,000 NIS (well over $2000) and banned from leaving Bethlehem or passing any checkpoint for five years. He was charged with stone-throwing but has always claimed his innocence and at the time all of his friends went to visit Anwar’s parents to say it was not true.
Um Anwar also shows me video footage of an incident that happened in December when a man was shot by invading IOF forces outside their home. With an IOF jeep parked across the road Anwar was ordered from his room at gun point and told to carry the injured man over to the jeep. The footage shows Anwar attempting to lift the man who is much larger than himself. He is clearly struggling with the weight as he drags the man through a pool of his own blood towards the jeep.

Anwar’s parents found out through the Red Cross that their son is being held at Acion detention centre. They still do not know if he is actually being charged, and if so with what crime.

The family are all clearly and understandably distraught, Um Anwar cannot contain her anger:

“They claim they are a democracy, what democracy! No democracy treats people in this way! They are no democracy, they are stupid, they are evil!”

There is little I can say to the family. They wanted to me to document the destruction and to tell their story, so here it is, another story of violence, destruction and families torn apart, thanks to ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’…

Dos meses en palestina como ISM

Primeramente son galega aunke escribiendo en mi lengua llegaria a mucho menos personal asi k por favor k no se ofenda nadie y a pesar de luchar en ontra de la ocupacion israelita en palestina y su derecho a tener un estado estoy mas pro la desaparicion de las fronteras k la creacion de nuevas, bien ya me he presentado asi k al ajo de la cuestion. Espero se disculpe la ortografia, puntuacion, gramatica y demas no soy lo major del mundo escribiendo pero es simplente una experincia k igual a alguien interesa .

La mayor parte de mi tiempo la he pasado en Hebron en el barrio Tel Rumeida donde hay 4 pekenhos asentamientos de judios con unos 400 habitantes y por esa razon parte de la ciudad vieja y este barrio en concreto estan bajo las leyes israelitas eso implica k los palestinos k viven en el barrio k por cierto llevan ahi generaciones y generaciones no tienen derecho a conducir por k solo Israelis coches pueden circular alli dentro es decir si alguien se enferma hay k cargarlo fuera a mano por k hacen falta dos dias de antelacion para pedir el acceso de una ambulancia,asi k ya os podeis inmaginar como es la vida alli cargando continuamente los alimentos el gas … y por aclarar un poko la cuestion la calle principal es una cuesta k nada envidia a la accession al parc guell o a rua das trompas (compostela). Ademas del impedimento del vehiculo los palestinos son sometidos a un continuo chekeo algunos tienen k pasar 5 puestos de chekeo para llegar a sus casas y en estos puestos de control los soldados israelitas pueden pedirles la documentacion, controlar todas sus pertenencias , hacerles levanter la camisas y girarse ,claro esta esto es solo una mera muestra de poder por k hay al menos un par de entradas al barrio sin pasar ninguno de los controles es decir si alguien con una bomba o algo parecido kiere entrar puede encontrar la manera pero el estudiante k viene del colegio tiene k pasar por un detector de metales y abrir su mochila o hacer todo lo k pidan los soldados, es solo un ejemplo, inmaginais vivir en un lugar asi…

Por si no fuera bastante kon el acoso de los soldados, resulta k estos no estan tan mal comparados con sus vecinos los judios k habitan en los asentamientos k simplemente los odian por ser arabes y vivir alli se dedican a escribir “gasear a los arabes” y a dibujar estrellas de david en las tiendas k konsiguieron cerrar despues de seis anhos impidiendo el acceso de productos y cerrando el area por tokes de keda ,pero ademas usan la violencia fisica es decir se dedican a tirar piedras a los palestinos , entrar en sus jardines, ocupar sus casas… Incluso los soldados y los policies k los protegen piensan k estan lokos pero resulta k por esa razon alli son ley y orden si no fuera por el trabajo de diversas organizaciones internacionales k hacen k minimamente se cumpla la ley k ya es bastante infima para los palestinos.

Durante mi estancia en Palestina en Jerusalem los israelitas escavaron cerca de la mezquita Al-aqsa, el tercer sagrado monumento del islam este incidente produjo los ninhos en Hebron estaban nerviosos y enfadados y lanzaron piedras contra el puesto de control claro k ninguna llego a la parte israelita bueno igual una o dos pero esto fue la escusa para salir a la parte palestina alrededor de 20 soldados y disparar balas de goma y gas lacrimogeno a el Mercado central de la zona k cerro durante 4 dias por k los soldados salieron cada dia a repetir la operacion el ultimo dia incluso un ninho menor de 16 fue al hospital por una bala en la pierna esta vez no era de goma….Podria contra una mil anecdotas de tel rumeida pero kreo k para hacerse una idea basta.

Manifestaciones contras el muro en un pueblo cerca de ramallah llamado bi’lin llevan dos anhos hacienda una manifestacion seminal (cada viernes) por k la construccion del muro les esta exprodiando el 60% de sus tierras y es ilegal incliuso para Israel k tiene leyes distintas para segun donde y quien ,las manifestaciones suelen ser relativamente trankilas hasta k al final los ninhos del pueblo comienzan a tirar piedras ,mas k nada es un simbolo de resistencia por k obviamente los soldados llevan cascos k los protegen y demas pero con esta escusa pueden usar todo su tactica y material belico debido a la presencia de israelitas e internacionales k apoyan su lucha ya no usan balas de verdad sino solo balas de goma , gas lacrimogeno y canhones de agua a presion claro k son kapaces de usar este material directamente contra los participantes es decir a una distancia k puede llegar realmente a causar estragos.

Invasion en Nablus ,el ejercito israelita invadio la ciudad y ocupo la television local pidiendo la aparicion de 8 personas que buscaban despues de hecho esto sitiaron la ciudad vieja y ordenaron un toke de keda sin limite de tiempo ,en este tipo de situaciones lo unico k se puede hacer es acompanhar a los del servicio medico y asegurarse k se les permite hacer el trabajo asi como asegurarse k tienen alimentos y las medicinas necesarias, en una de las visitas con el medico mientras tomabamos un te fuera en la terraza de la casa y nos contaban como acababan de inspeccionar la casa con un perro y se habian asustado mucho por k en la casa habia unos 8 ninhos menores de diez anhos, bien mientras nos contaban la experiencia un grupo de soldados subia por el tejado vecino y se acercaron a la casa iba un perro con ellos y nos mandarin entrar a todos en una habitacion mientras inspeccionaban la casa por segunda vez ,es deplorable k unos ninhos menores de diez anhas tengan k ever soldados apuntandoles con armas y un perro con bozal y muy nervioso lo unico k podia hacer era intentar entretener a la chikilla de dos anhos sentada en mis rodillas para k no hiciera mucho caso a lo k estaba sucediendo.

Otro espectaculo lamentable k pude observer fue cuando ibamos caminando siempre con voluntarios de primeros auxilios y a una distancia de 150m habia un grupo de soldados ibamos en la direccion contraria asi k no les hicimos caso hasta k dispararon algo para llamar nuestra atencion cuando nos acercamos a donde estaban, nos mandarin parar a un os 10m y uno por uno a los tres voluntarios medicos les hicieron abrir las chaketas, desabrochar el pantalon y girarse hacia los k estabamos esperando los otros dos voluntarios y las dos internacionales k los acompanhabamos, no hace falta recordar k Palestina es bastante tradicional y por supoesto resulto bastante embarazoso para los palestinos k unas estrangeras les vieran en gallumbos a mi me da lo mismo pero era totalmente innecesario y simplemente fue una forma mas de humillarlos publicamente.

Podria contra mas historias pero kreo k ya os haceis una idea salud y libertad para tod@s

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First of all I want to say that I am Galician, but of course if I write in my own language, less people would understand me, so, please don’t be angry with me, because despite fighting against the Israeli occupation in Palestine and the Palestinian right to have a State, I am more in favor of the disappearance of borders than the creation of new ones. So, once I’ve introduced myself, please excuse me for the mistakes I may make in orthography, grammar, etc., I’m not at all a writer, but I think that perhaps somebody might be interested in my experience.

I spent most of my time in Tel Rumeida where there are four small Jewish settlements where around 400 settlers live and therefore, part of the old city and this neighbourhood in particular are under Israeli laws. This means for example, that Palestinian residents, who have lived there for generations, cannot drive there, because only Israelis can drive a car in Tel Rumeida. So, if somebody gets ill, he or she has to be carried out of the neighbourhood on shoulders, as ambulances have to be requested two days in advance. So imagine how life is there, swinging everything over shoulders, food, gas etc, the main street is completely steep, like going up to Park Güell in Barcelona or up by Rua Das Trompas in Compostela.

Besides having this problem, Palestinians are subject to continuous checking. Some of them have to pass 5 checkpoints to arrive home and at those checkpoints, the Israeli soldiers can ask them for their documents, check everything they are carrying, make them lift up their t-shirts, and turn round. This is only to show their power, because there are at least two ways in and out of the area without having to pass through the checkpoints, that is to say that if a terrorist decided to enter, he could easily find a way to do so. But the schoolchildren have to pass through a metal detector and open their bags and do whatever the soldiers ask them to do. So, imagine what it is like living in a place like this.

And if soldiers weren’t enough of a problem, there are the problems caused by the Jewish settlers who hate Palestinians only because they are Arabs and live there and they write on the doors of their homes “gas the Arabs” and draw Stars of David on the shop doors, which by the way, the Palestinians have been forced to shut, after six years of preventing the access of products and closing the area with curfews, and using also physical violence, by throwing stones at Palestinians, trespassing in their orchards, occupying their houses. Even the soldiers and the police who should protect the settlers believe that they are crazy, but this is the reason why they are there imposing “law and order”, and only the work of several international organizations trying to protect the limited rights of Palestinians prevents an even more intolerable situation.

During my stay in Palestine, in Jerusalem, the Israelis were excavating near the Al-Aqsa mosque, the third most holy site in Islam. That is one of the reasons why children in Hebron were angry and one day threw stones at the checkpoint, and although only one or two stones reached it, this was enough of an excuse for 20 soldiers to cross to the Palestinian-controlled side and shoot rubber bullets and tear gas at the central market, which had to be shut for 4 days. Soldiers went in every day to do this, and on the last day a child below 16 years had to be taken to the hospital because he was shot with live ammunition in his leg… I could tell so many stories about Tel Rumeida, but I think that this is enough to have an idea of what is happening there daily.

At a small village called Bil’in, which is near Ramallah, they have been holding weekly demonstration on Fridays for two years ago, against the construction of the Wall that is stealing 60% of their land. This is illegal even according to Israeli laws. Those demonstrations are peaceful ones, but if at any moment children of the village throw any stones as a symbol of their resistance and nothing can happen because of course the soldiers are wearing helmets and are very well protected, they use this as an excuse to employ their military tactics and weapons. Thanks to the presence of Israeli activists against the wall and internationals supporting Palestinians, they do not usually shoot live ammunition, but only rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons directly at people and at close distance, which may be very dangerous.

Invasion in Nablus. The Israeli army invaded the city and occupied the local television, asking for 8 persons they said were ‘wanted’. After this, they besieged the old town and imposed a curfew for an unknown time. In such situations, the only things that internationals can do is accompany medical teams and ensure that they can do their work, as they have the necessary food and medicines. In one of our visits to a doctor, while we were having tea outside on the terrace he was explaining to us that the IOF had just been searching the house with a dog scaring the 8 children under 10-years old, and while they were explaining their experience, a group of soldiers climbed onto the nearest roof and came towards the house with a dog again. Then, they ordered all of us into on room while they searched the house for a second time. It is awful that children under ten have to see and experience soldiers aiming at them with weapons and a very agitated dog wearing a muzzle, the only thing I could do was to try and entertain a little girl of 2 years sitting on my knees, so that she did not pay so much attention to what was happening beside her.

I witnessed more abuse when we were walking with first aid volunteers and there was a group of soldiers about 150 meters away walking in the opposite direction. The soldiers shot a sound bomb to attract our attention and then called us over. They told us all to stop 10 meters away from them. They then called the Palestinian medical volunteers over one by one and made them pull down their trousers and turn round to face the two internationals that accompanied them. I don’t need to remind you that in Palestine it is particularly embarrassing for Palestinians to have foreign women see them in public in their underwear. This was completely unnecessary and simply a way to humiliate them further in public.