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.

Weddings and Martyrs

Friends,

I am sorry my reports have been slow. Sometimes it is so hard to find the words to write about the things that I see everyday in Rafah. In the last two weeks there have been seven assasinations in the Gaza Strip. These are done with missles that are fired from F16s. Sometimes as many as seven missles are fired in one assasination, killing innocent bystanders, and destroying shops.

Last night I stayed at Abu Ahmed’s house. His daughter is getting married today, and the whole house feels the excitement. His neighbor Abu Fati invited us over for tea, so we went. We sat with his whole family for about an hour, and I talked with his daughter who is trying to learn English. While we were there we heard several tanks drive by the border, sometimes shooting. When we left, we noticed that there was no one out in the street. We heard a tank drive by, and cautiously walked toward Abu Ahmed’s. After a few steps, the tank opened fire in our direction. We darted back, and waited until it continued on. Back at Abu Ahmed’s I could feel my heart racing. This is what the people of Rafah face everday when walking in their neighborhoods, to school, or the store. It is so hard for me to imagine, even living here, what it must feel like to own the house that is being shot at every day, or not be able to leave like I can. The tank continued to fire at Abu Ahmed’s house all night, for about five minutes every hour. The sounds of rapid machine gun fire have been incorporated into all of my dreams.

Several days ago our group went to the nearby city of Khan Younis to visit the shahiid tent of an eight year old girl who was shot while playing next to her house. A shahiid tent is a tent that is put up for three days after someone is killed by the Israeli military. The family welcomes guests to pay their respects. We went inside, and spoke with the mother and sisters of Aisha (the shahiid).

The morning that Aishe was shot, she had been fasting with her mother. She grew hungry, and her mother gave her some money, and told her to go buy crackers and juice, as she was so young, and needs to eat. Aisha went on her bike to the store. On her way back she stopped to play with several children right outside her home. Their house is right next to an Israeli settlement, which is guarded fiercly by towers and tanks.

Aisha’s mother told us that the tanks open fire frequently on the children who play in the street. There were no adults in the area, yet on this day they opened fire again, sending live bullets through the young body of Aisha, killing her, and seriously wounding several other children. Could these eight year olds be armed resistence fighters? Aisha was the pride of her family. She got 98% on all her tests in school, and Aisha’s sister says that anyone who knew her would have given their life for her. She died because she lives in an Occupied land, where soldiers are so afraid of children that they stay inside their huge tanks while shooting at anything that moves.

I am afraid that if the Israeli soldiers in Rafah never leave their tanks, their fear will grow until nothing will ever stop them from murdering all innocent children they see. I want these soldiers (who are people caged inside their weapons), and the people of Rafah who caged inside Rafah by the soldiers, all to stop living in fear. The only way to live without fear is to live in justice and peace, without Occupation.

All of my love,
Emma

Ethnic Cleansing is the name of Israel’s Policies

by Vladislav

Just thought I’d drop a line to say I’m still well and alive. I am living in the occupied territories of Palestine, in the West Bank town of Tulkarem. I have been working with the International Solidarity Movement here, a Palestinian-led group of internationals from around the world who help the Palestinian people resist the occupation through non-violent means. The group is truly international with all sorts of countries represented.

The group is about 30% made of folks of Jewish decent, who like me, feel that this is a really outrageous injustice that is being done supposedly in our names.

We help organize demonstrations, and provide protection for the Palestinian people. Whereas the army would normally use live ammunition to stop a demonstration, they would think twice when internationals are present.

This all sounds wonderful in theory, but in reality, I’ve been stuck in crowds of rock-throwing kids, wondering if the Israelis would return live fire. Tear gas, sound grenades and rubber bullets have been tossed our way at demonstrations, although thus far no live fire thankfully. I’ve also seen quite a bit of crap here. The situation is really horrible – the Americans think that all the Palestinians are terrorists, when in reality on the ground they are simply defending their homeland against an occupying force. The real terrorists are the Israelis – the number of civilians that die here on a regular basis during ’peace talks’ is staggering.

The other day I visited a morgue and saw the results of Israeli terrorism. They shot a man in the legs with a half dozen bullets. Then at point blank, about four bullets were pumped into his head (gun directly to the head). The Israelis claimed he had a bomb near him, but if that was the case, why execute him? War crimes occur here on a daily basis – we have a flat for example right above a red crescent building that has been shelled by Israeli tanks (hospital bombing!) several times. The Israeli soldiers routinely use rubber-coated metal bullets to shoot at Palestinian kids’ eyes. The bullets pierce the eyes and enter the brains, killing the victim. This of course is in response to rocks being thrown at armored jeeps.

The reality on the ground is that these people are simply defending their homeland against an invasion. This is the same story as of any indigenous people — they are being driven out, slowly and patiently. This is ethnic cleansing, pure and simple. The Israeli policies are very similar to what occured in Africa during the Apartheid, and there are tons of laws that are purely racist. For example, if an Israeli marries a Palestinian, their children will not be considered Israeli citizens.

The other key sticky issue is the security fence, which when completed will leave to the Palestinian people 42% of the West Bank, but in reality when you consider the settlements (230 some of them in the west bank) the Palestinians will be left with about 8% of the west bank. All the water will be owned and controlled by the Israelis, and the fence DOES NOT follow the internationally recognized borders of Israel, but rather cuts miles and miles into the Palestinian land.

The Israeli state is a well-funded apartheid state. The people on the other side are left to resist with Kalashnikov rifles and explosives. They are caught between the Israeli terrorists and Arab states that do not ever want to see a democratic Palestine. It is a critical misunderstanding to think that this is about religion – it is about simply one group of people driving the other out. This is racism and ethnic cleansing, plain and simple.

The suffering on the ground is immense. I’ve seen a lof suffering here – far far far too much. I’ve seen the damage that a bomb from an American-funded F-16 fighter jet does to a building. I’ve seen the conditions within which these people live, the poverty, the destruction, the pain, the suffering. I’ve seen bullet-hole ridden walls in many of the cities here, left over from Israeli jeeps and tanks that ride around the cities and shoot indiscriminantly. I’ve watched a brother of a man killed by the Israelis break down and completely lose it after the death. I’ve negotiated with Israeli soldiers and prevented them from arresting the Palestinians, physically using my own body as a shield to prevent them from getting to Palestinians.

Suicide bombings are not about religion. They are about people who have no hope in life, who are driven by the suffering, the pain to use their own bodies to call attention to their cause. They do not have rockets, they have no tanks, no gunships, no helicopters, no armored jeeps. They have their own bodies and home-made explosives. And under international law they have the right to resist the occupation through military means. I do not feel it is my place to condemn them choosing to resist by all means necessary, although I really do not feel that the violence will solve this conflict.

To talk of terrorism, I think it is also essential to point out that far more civilians die in car accidents in Israel each year than are killed by suicide bombers. It is also critical to point out that the casualty count on the Palestinian side is far heavier. Almost every Palestinian male has been through the Israeli jail at least once, usually for about 6 months administrative detention, and most have no clue whatsoever what crime they were guilty of (sound familiar? Think Guatanomo Bay for the Afghanistan war victims). The Israeli army routinely and regularly maims and murders civilians, usually with no reason whatsoever.

There is a real ladder here of value of life – at the bottom are the Palestinian men, then Palestinian women, then Israeli Sephardic Jews, Israeli Ashkenazi Jews, and somewhere near the top are the internationals – killing them is really bad PR. Israel is a racist state – plain and simple, there is nothing more to it.

The Israelis have done everything possible to kill the economy here (80-90% level of unemployment) through a number of actions (such as simply digging up the main streets of towns to kill off the shops by cutting the traffic through the area). Travel is impossible – a trip that used to take 10 minutes, now takes 3 hours to a full day due the roadblocks everywhere (mounds of dirt across major roads) and checkpoints. The other day coming from Jerusalem, a trip that normally takes 1.5 hours took 5 as my bus was pulled over by 18 year old boy soldiers who they decided to harass a bunch of Palestinian men.

Communique from Tobias in jail

Hi all.

So we´re down to 3. Me, Tarek and Fredrik here in cell #4. We are all in good spirits as we make an attempt to fight this injust deportation in the Supreme Court. As of now, we have no idea when our hearing is going to be. The word is anything from tomorrow (Sunday), until 3 weeks. Whatever happens, we stand firm in our conviction that we must fight this to as far an extent as we can take it. Our chances are slim but I hope with all my heart that I will soon be out there working again together with you, all my loved friends in Jenin and the ISM.

Love and Rage
Tobias

—–
Read about Tarek’s beating by prison guards here.

Letter from an Israeli Jail

The following was scribbled on a piece of paper by Tarek and passed to Huwaida via a lawyer during court proceedings for the deportation of 8 international peace activists on July 17, 2003. The hunger protest referred to was begun on the evening on July 15.

I had forgotten what love was. My world was one of anger, rage and hate. As the 5 or 6 police officers each took a turn hitting me, all I cold think of was hate. There could be nothing else. All of this started when Captain Ya’kov (Yoki) Golan came into our room and asked if we were on hunger strike. “We’re not eating,” we replied. A few police thugs swarmed the room and started to take anything. Capt. Ya’kov started to talk about how we were nothing, to which I replied, “shut the hell up and don’t you dare talk to us like that. You can’t break me. You can’t break any of us.” “I’m not just going to break you; I’m going to destroy you.” We all laughed.

We were strip searched 3 times in the next hour and then they came for me.

“Where are you taking him?” The other seven protested on my behalf. They cared more about me than I did. I came to terms with the fact that I was going into solitary, and finally approached the police. “I’m ready.” I declared melodramatically. That’s when the first hand came. They grabbed my shirt and pulled me to the ground in front of the cell. I did nothing. Even if I wanted to, I had lost track of all my appendages. All I knew was that they were all limp. The hitting started, and I filled the halls with screams of pain.

As I was up against the wall, with one man stomping on my leg, another bending my arm and another two or three pulling and hitting elsewhere, I caught a glimpse of the faces and entered that other world.

I can’t do anything now. The guards who were involved all smile when they pass our cell. And all of this over the only act of resistance we can do: going hungry. One thing hasn’t changed though: none of us will be broken.

Tarek

—–
Read Tobius’ note from jail here.

Midnight Victim

by Neda, Beit Sahour

It could happen very simply to any girl of us, and without any consideration to any international law or any humanitarian sense, one girl of my classmates was arrested while she was drowning in her innocent dreams, and has not any single political relation, in the middle of the night a tremendous number of Israeli soldiers, tanks and all kinds of weapons swept over Fida’s house.

Fida, whose mother died many years ago and lives with her old father, was arrested in justification that she is planning to a suicide bombing. They searched the house and turned it upside down while there is nothing to find accept some canned food which they kept for war [in case of curfews]. Fida and her old father were blindfolded in a very windy night and it was raining very hard. They didn’t allow her to take any jacket or blanket; they didn’t take care about anything and treated her like animals. She couldn’t hold on to all the awful things that were happening to her and her old father.

After they put her in jail with other two girls with same reasons they brought her one female soldier to deal and investigate, but it didn’t work and they couldn’t communicate despite there is many soldiers that speak Arabic – they intended to bother them as much as they could. Fida was already sick with the flu and sick physically besides the nightmare they brought to her and after one day they let them go and told them that they mixed up with other Fida…they think.

And this could happen to any Palestinian girl, and we are supposed to take it easy.