Category: Journals

Volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement are encouraged to write personal reflections about the work they engage in with Palestinian communities, the events they experience, and the people they meet. These journals offer the human context often missing in traditional reports or journalism. These articles represent the author’s thoughts and feelings and not necessarily those of the International Solidarity Movement.

“They’re the army. They’re always right”

by Yifat Appelbaum, January 24th

A. made some fried squash tonight at the office. He looked a little more serious than he usually looks. As we were eating, he told me a story.

“Today I was at Qalandia,” he started, “Some army jeeps started going down the road towards Ramallah. And there were some kids.”

(pause)(nod) Ok, I think I know where this is heading..

He continued, “And they started throwing rocks.”

(pause) Yeah I know how this is going to end up and I’m starting to get that sick feeling in my stomach.

“And the soldiers fired one shot.”

(pause)

“It hit them?” I asked.

“Yeah, it was really close, from 5 meters, and live ammo. And then the jeep drove away. I wish I knew who to call to find out if he’s ok, if he’s still alive.”

“Dude that sucks.” was all I could think of to say.

long pause… all kinds of stuff running through my head.. was this the first person he saw get shot ? Of course not. He’s been shot himself, at least three times I think. He’s Palestinian. He’s from
Jenin for christ sakes. Ok, I’ll try not ask any dumb questions.

“How many people have you seen get shot ?” Wait, that’s a dumb question, I bet he’s lost count.

“Well the worst was this time in Jenin. Some kids were let out of school, and some soldiers invaded and occupied a house near the school. I was in Tulkarem at the time and my friend called and said there was a problem so I hurried back.”

“There were some kids throwing rocks. A soldier shot my brother’s friend twice in the stomach. Then he tried to escape, and the soldier got out of the jeep and finished him off. Right there in front of me. He was 15.”

“In the newspaper they said he was carrying a bomb and that’s why they shot him.”

(long pause) Don’t ask him for details.

“Can’t anyone say anything to argue with the army about that ?” I ask. Shit that was a dumb question.

“They’re the army,” he said “They’re always right. You can’t argue with them. They do whatever they want. If they go into Nablus and kill a couple fighters and some kids too, they’ll say they only killed fighters.”

I’ve been here a year now and I still naively think there there is some semblance of justice here. I am so wrong.

A trip to the post office…

by Lucretia Reflection,

Yesterday I had to take some things to be mailed at the post office in Jerusalem and had conservatively estimated 4 hours for the trip. Oops, silly me !

When I first came to Palestine a year ago, the trip from Ramallah to Jerusalem took about 20 minutes. Fast forward one year of additional checkpoints and Israeli paranoia and you have a trip that most people expect to take an hour.

Being somewhat uninformed about my status as new Israeli citizen living in the West Bank and confusion about what nationality I should present myself as at which checkpoint, (it’s illegal for me to be in certain places in the West Bank including Ramallah) I showed the soldiers at Qalandia checkpoint my Israeli ID instead of my American passport. Instead of giving it back and waving me through, they took off with it and told me to get out of the car. I followed a soldier around asking for my ID back. She spoke to me in Hebrew despite my telling her I don’t speak Hebrew. Another soldier asked me what I was doing in Ramallah.

“Just visiting friends,” I replied.

“You live in Jerusalem ?” the soldier asked.

“Yes,” I lied.

Thinking I was probably about to be arrested, for being Israeli and being in a prohibited area, I started making phone calls.

“Turn your phone off and give me the battery !” the soldier barked at me.

“Um, no,” I replied.

“ARE YOU SAYING NO TO ME ?” The soldier screamed.

(silly soldier, I may be a new Israeli citizen but I’ve had enough dealings with your people to know what your intimidation tactics are.)

“Yes, I am telling you no. If you want my phone or battery, you’ll have to call the police.” I replied.

“Ok we will call the police and they will arrest you.”

(now it’s time for my all time favorite line)

“Ok, arrest me, I like being arrested !”

“How long have you been in Israel ?” the soldier asked

(well I haven’t really been in Israel, I’ve been in Palestine but we’ll save that debate for some other day)

“It’s none of your business,” I told the soldier.

After being detained for about 10 minutes, a soldier gave me my ID back and sent me on my way.

(my favorite line works every time !)

After passing through Qalandia checkpoint, there were an additional two flying checkpoints we had to go through. A flying checkpoint is a temporary checkpoint, arbitrarily set up by the IOF in random places.

At the first flying checkpoint, the soldier came into the bus and visually checked everyone’s ID. At the second one, the soldier collected everyone’s ID and manually checked them by calling the ID numbers into the DCO (the District Coordination Office – the Civil Administration wing of the Israeli military in the West Bank). This is to check and see if anyone is ‘wanted’. This took about 20 minutes.

I was dozing in and out of sleep when the soldier came back onto the bus to return the IDs. A Palestinian woman sitting next to me asked me “Where are you from, Canada ?”

“No, the US.” I replied.

“Well now you get to see a small example of the suffering we face in Palestine.” She told me with a sad smile.

(if you only knew, heh..)

As a result of the flying checkpoints, I arrived in Jerusalem 10 minutes after the post office closed and an hour and a half after I’d gotten on the bus in Ramallah. Rather than go back and face the same thing the next day, I decided to stay the night in Jerusalem and go to the post office the following morning.

I visited my friend Yuval and his girlfriend Yael in west Jerusalem where he gave me a quick refresher course on what my rights are as an Israeli in terms of dealing with soldiers. Then I went to the Ethiopean restaurtant on Jaffa road near the Old City where an Israeli guy began chatting me up.

“Where do you live ?” he asked.

“In Ramallah. ” I answered.

(look of shock) “Aren’t you scared ?” he said, laughing.

(Compared to Hebron, the last place I lived, Ramallah ain’t no thang ! There are no soldiers in Ramallah except for when they invade, there are no settlers either. I walk around late at night
alone and have never had a problem. Somehow I always manage to be in Hebron every time there is a clash between Hamas and Fateh or when the IOF has invaded Ramallah. But this answer is far too long for this situation.)

“No, what’s there to be scared of ?” I asked.

He shrugged and then told his friend I live in Ramallah and they both had a chuckle.

The restaurant owner said “She comes all the way from Ramallah just to eat here !”

The next day I went to the post office and returned to Ramallah at about noon. So that was a long trip to the post office..

I’m eligible for free Hebrew classes in Jerusalem, but living in Ramallah I know I will frequently be late if I don’t budget an hour and a half for the car ride. This doesn’t even include the time it
takes to walk from my house to the cars or the walk to the school in Jerusalem. So I guess I’ll just focus on getting better at Arabic for now.

“Are you Fateh or Hamas?’ – “I am neither”

by the ISM media team, December 23rd

Last night Israeli forces invaded Ramallah Old City around midnight, occupied a family home, blindfolded the twenty-year old son, banged his head against a door and refused to allow the grandmother suffering from diabetes to use the bathroom.

Several jeeps, a hummer and an APC invaded Hizbe Al Qadim Street in Ramallah Tahta around midnight and demanded entry into a family home by banging with rifle butts on the front door. Forced with complying or having their front door blown open, the family opened and several soldiers were seen entering with large bags. Once inside the soldiers imprisoned the family in one room, blindfolded the son and started interrogating him about his political affiliations as well as banging his head against the door. Soldiers also damaged the walls with rifle butts.

Whilst this was happening other military vehicles continuously shone their searchlights on the windows of neighbouring houses, focusing particularly on one flat. After around an hour the military vehicles left with the soldiers still in the house. Intermittent shooting including automatic gunfire was heard and about an hour later the IOF returned to pick up the occupying soldiers. No one was kidnapped.

In the morning some neighbours identified blood on the walls. This event doesn’t seem to have received any local media coverage, as scenes like these are played out several times nightly across the West Bank.

Israel has the right to defend herself

by John, December 18th


“Israel is a democracy and a friend and has every right to defend itself from terror.”
George Bush, May 2004

I had a tour of Hebron today going a bit further than the Tel Rumeida settlement. But we did pass through this area – it turns out that the soldiers often ban the residents from repairing their houses, hence the fact that many have moved out. Many more moved out after the massacre in 1994 by Baruch Goldstein and the Israeli government imposed a curfew for their own ‘safety’. This curfew stopped them going outside for days at a time or visiting shops.

The settlers have also invaded a number of Palestinian homes. The most ‘amusing’ story I heard from one activist is when a group of Palestinians saw an Israeli leave a satchel in a field nearby. The police investigated and found it contained food – it transpired that the Israeli Jews had decided that they would come and throw rocks and stones in the village but because of Shabbat cannot carry food. Locally they have also burnt down olive trees that date from the Roman or even Byzantium era.

A local house has also been turned into a closed military zone but local Jews are often observed going here for illicit affairs and for drinking alcohol. But when the locals return they are often harassed by the soldiers.

The most shocking thing I think I saw today was the sign pictured above, which is written all over the place in Hebrew and as pictured in English. The fact that some Jews want to perpetrate a Holocaust is awful, especially as the fact is the state of Israel was largely created due to the Holocaust.

Although there were no egg throwing incidents (we quite blatantly kept a camera trained on the window that they have been coming from) two settler children did attack some Palestinian boys with sticks. The soldiers intervened, but told the Palestinians off.

Another interesting thing is the fact that for a long time there has been a Palestinian Jewish presence in Hebron and we were shown the old Jewish cemetery and for years they lived peacefully with the Muslims. Again I heard I don’t want all the Israelis to leave Israel but I want the settlers to leave my land. And also the fact that although people don’t condone suicide bombing they are not surprised when it happens. One email I had from a friend asked if they don’t condone it why don’t they stop it. But its not that easy, as on can see in my home country, a large majority was against the Iraq invasion with many demonstrating against it but even in this democratic country we couldn’t stop thousands of soldiers going. So why should we blame the majority of the Palestinians for the actions of very few.

I’m starting to feel quite angry and helpless here and can fully understand the motives behind attacking the Israelis. Palestinians say they have all served in the army (OK not quite true but a large percentage have) and so they are all complicit in the crimes of the settlers – we were told of numerous court rulings that allow them to go to various places or use various roads that they cannot get enforced. Whilst the settlers break various rules but they cannot get them prosecuted – if they try and film they are often harassed and attacked by the settlers and soldiers.

As I’m finishing this off there are some settler kids wandering the streets with music blaring out, they just walked past two soldiers who did absolutely nothing. I’m now going to go looking for quotes from the Bush administration that state the Palestinians, and their democratically elected government, have the right to defend themselves from terror. If anyone can provide me with one I’d be most grateful.