Category: Reports

Learning under occupation in Jordan Valley

by Tom

Al Jifflik is a small village in the northern Jordan Valley. The villagers live largely in houses built of plastic and tin, as they are barred in Israeli law from building or repairing their houses.

There is an UNWRA school for children up to 13 years old. Since 1967, the inhabitants have been asking for a school for the older children, but to no avail. So last year some people in the area decided to stop asking, and set up a school. They took an existing two-room house in the area, with a couple of outhouses that are used as a sleeping room and shower room for the teachers.

They concreted the ground and erected 6 large tents to use as classrooms, equipped with just desks, chairs and a blackboard. The school has electricity (which is unusual in this area), but no phone line and no address – post for the head teacher has to be sent to her sister in Jericho which is about 50km away.

This school is essential for the pupils. Without it, their education would end at 13 years. Their families have very little money and depend on them to work in the fields. To go to school further away there would be transport problems as there is no public transport. They would have to go through checkpoints. This not only makes their journey very long, but the girls were particularly upset about being searched and having their photographs taken. If the checkpoints are closed, they would have to find somewhere to sleep for the night. Then, they would not be able to go to school and help with the family farm.

The conditions are apalling. The tents flood when it rains, as they are at the bottom of a mountain, and the heat is unbearable in the summer. Yet the girls we spoke to said they would rather endure this than not be able to go to school. They say this even though the chance of getting work is close to zero, and most of the boys will end up working for the settlements for 40-50 shekels per day.

The teachers at the school all come from other areas in the West Bank and have to travel long distances and go through checkpoints to get here. They have to stay at the school, all sharing one very small room, and return home about once a month. They are now paid by the Palestinian Authority (PA), but with the US and EU withholding aid, and Israel withholding taxes due, they got paid nearly a month late last month, and don’t know if they’ll be paid at all this month. At last, the school has permission to build classrooms after going through a lengthy process, but there is no money available to build.

The head teacher of the school has a fighting spirit beyond belief. But the difficulties of life here showed themselves as we left. She got a lift from us to go down to the village, so she could pick up some medicine for her mother that somebody had brought from Jericho for her. She is very keen to set up links with schools in other countries and asked us if we might be able to facilitate this.

http://brightonpalestine.org/blog/?p=20

BBC’s Coverage of Palestine/Israel unbalanced

  • Study finds failures in news balance and depth
  • Reports said to show little to suggest deliberate bias

Owen Gibson, media correspondent, Wednesday May 3, 2006

The BBC’s coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “incomplete” and “misleading”, including failing to adequately report the hardships of Palestinians living under occupation, an independent review commissioned by the corporation’s board of governors has found.

The report urges the BBC to be bolder in setting a policy for using the word “terrorism” to describe acts of violence perpetrated against either side and suggests a senior editorial figure should be appointed to “give more secure planning, grip and oversight”.

The latest of several reports into contentious areas of the BBC’s news provision, it praised the quality of much of its coverage and found “little to suggest deliberate or systematic bias” but listed a series of “identifiable shortcomings”.

Chaired by the British Board of Film Classification president, Sir Quentin Thomas, the review said output failed to consistently “constitute a full and fair account of the conflict but rather, in important respects, presents an incomplete and in that sense misleading picture”.

The panel, which also included former ITN chief executive Professor Stewart Purvis, said the BBC should not let its own requirements of balance and impartiality become a “straitjacket” that prevented it from properly relaying the “dual narrative” of both sides.

In particular, it highlighted a “failure to convey adequately the disparity in the Israeli and Palestinian experience, reflecting the fact that one side is in control and the other lives under occupation”.

On the emotive issue of whether acts of violence perpetrated against either side should be called “terrorism”, the review said the BBC should use the term because it is “clear and well understood” and that once it had decided on a policy for the correct use of language it should be more consistent in applying it.

Like other major media organisations, the BBC regularly deals with a flood of complaints from both sides.

An internal BBC News review, led by senior editorial adviser Malcolm Balen, led to greater resources being allocated to the Middle East and the appointment of a specific editor, veteran foreign correspondent Jeremy Bowen. But the review said more should be done to provide a stronger editorial “guiding hand”.

The BBC should do more to put the conflict in context for viewers, it said. This could include doing more to direct viewers to resources offering more depth and background. Too often, it suggested, news stories were chosen on the basis of the pictures available to accompany them.

The recommendations met with some disquiet among BBC News managers, who felt the appointment of a senior editorial figure to oversee all output on the topic would contradict the findings of a review following the Hutton inquiry.

“We are confident we have the right editorial structures and processes in place to provide high quality, impartial journalism and to ensure we continue to make progress in developing the authority and comprehensiveness of our output,” said BBC News management in a statement.

The Council for Arab-British Understanding said “the panel quite correctly highlighted that there was little reporting of the difficulties faced by Palestinians in their daily lives”.

Daniel Shek, of the British Israel Communications & Research Centre, said: “The report argues that the Israelis and Palestinians are not on equal terms, since the Israelis possess a fully functioning state and the Palestinians do not. It then implies that an imbalance in BBC coverage could be acceptable. If such an argument absolves the BBC from offering balanced reporting then it is a slippery slope towards biased coverage.”

Israeli mayhem in the Jordan Valley

I have just returned from the Jordan Valley – an area that takes up 30% of the West Bank but is almost entirely annexed by Israel. It’s the most fertile land in the West Bank with massive underground water reserves, yet the Israeli Army and settlements control 98% of this water and 95% of the land. Olmert has openly declared that he wants to annex the Jordan Valley and make it part of Israel. Once again, I am using my ‘privilege’ as an International. Palestinians are barred from going to this part of their country. To go there they have to fulfill one of three conditions:

1. They have to live in the Jordan Valley area, in which case they get a Jordan Valley ID – they are not allowed to move there so can only meet this condition if they already lived there before the restrictions were applied.
2. They work in one of the Israeli settlements – in which case the Settlement issues them with a temporary Permit to enter the area.
3. They are issued a DCO permit which has to be authorized by the Army.

We are lucky enough to have a host who lives here and has the right ID. There is a range of mountains between the Jordan Valley and the rest of the West bank, so to get there without passing through one of the many checkpoints you would have to walk over the mountains which takes at least 3 hours. This is also very dangerous as the Israeli Army uses the mountains for ‘exercises’ and they are littered with landmines.

Once we had made it through the checkpoints we drove down the highway, surrounded by settler plantations. We could see the neat white houses of the Israeli Settlements – there are 6,400 settlers in the Jordan Valley. We also saw the homes of the 52,000 Palestinians who still live here. These were in small villages of concrete houses, and others that look more like shantytowns, with houses put together with tin and plastic. This is not because they are poor – although they clearly are – it is because the Palestinians here are banned from building new houses, or even improving or repairing their existing homes. The villages have had all their land stolen from them, except for a few meager fields, and are surrounded by the settlements. There is no public transport here so we had to hire a taxi for the day – of course it had to be a taxi driver with an ID or permit that allowed him into this area.

We were very keen for the taxi to slow down, or stop, so we could take photos, but were told that the army and the settlers control these roads, and in a Palestinian car we were not allowed to stop. When we did persuade him to stop he immediately had to jump out, open the bonnet, and pretend he was filling up with water.

For everyone living here in the Jordan Valley: to exist IS to resist. There is very little health care, education is limited, there are no phone lines or public transport, and often there is no electricity. There are no Universities. If anyone moves out of the Jordan Valley so they can access these services more easily for their family, they will lose their Jordan Valley ID and their right to be here – every time somebody does this it is a small victory for Israel in it’s aim to remove all Palestinians from this area. Every Palestinian we met told us this.

We spent a day here, seeing houses that had been demolished, a school where they are taught in tents, farmers who are struggling to be able to overcome all the restriction Israel places on them so they can sell their produce and survive. We will write more about these soon.

At the end of the day we were in the village of Bardala in the north of the Jordan Valley, and wanted to go to Tubas, the nearest town which is just 20 km away. Our host would be able to make this journey be going through Tayasir checkpoint, and would get home within the hour if the checkpoint let him through. Without the checkpoint it would take him just 20 minutes. However, as internationals we cannot use this checkpoint.

The next best thing would be for us to stay in Jerusalem for the night. But our host is Palestinian and not resident in Jerusalem. He therefore can’t go into Jerusalem. He has the wrong ID.

We therefore set off on a 200km journey. We drove south down the highway towards Jericho. At Al Auja we turned towards the west to go over the mountains. Before long we were in a queue at a checkpoint out of the Jordan Valley. More showing of IDs and passports. We had a fairly uneventful journey as we traveled along many windy roads through the villages and Beir Zeit. Then, at Huwawa checkpoint, we had to get out of our taxi and walk through the checkpoint, but nobody needed to check our passports and IDs.

We got into another taxi, and I thought we were on our way to Tubas. Nothing is ever so simple here. A bit further down, over several very rough bits of road that had been dug up by the army, the taxi stopped. We were on a dark country road with no lighting but our Palestinian host got out of the car as if all was normal. In front of us blocking the road was a mound of soil about 8ft high. We clambered over it, slipping a bit but not getting hurt, walked down the road a bit further, and come to another mound just the same, but this time it was possible to follow a track around it. And there we found several taxis waiting for a fare as if this was the most normal thing in the world. We got a taxi, which, a few more meters down the road, very carefully drove over the tracks that had developed in yet another mound blocking the road, then, at last, onward to Tubas.

We have met a lot of people over the last two days and seen the reality of Israeli Apartheid that is being imposed on the Palestinian people. Despite this we have been welcomed by everybody, and offered more food, tea and coffee that it would ever be possible to consume.

http://brightonpalestine.org/blog/?p=19

At last, a peaceful Shabbat in Tel Rumeida

This Saturday, the 30th of April everybody was apprehensive about further settler attacks. Over the last three shabbats settlers have mounted more and more organised attacks against internationals and Palestians in Tel Rumeida. There was a large intrernational presence in response.

Internationals and Palestinans have been active this last week in trying to draw attention to the increasing level of violence in Tel Rumeida. On Wednesday a conference was held highlighting the escalating violence and an open letter was sent asking the police and army to protect Palestinans in Tel Rumeida.

Throughout the week international volunteers have been speaking to the army units in Tel Rumeida and impressing on them the danger posed by settler attacks and asking that they intervene if attacks occur.

Settler violence has been covered in the mainstream media including the Jerusalem Post and some TV stations.

On Wednesday an organised group of settlers attacked workers at Qurtuba school in Tel Rumeida and later destroyed school property. Palestinians and internationals made calls to the DCO and the police asking for more policing near the school.

On Saturday an unprecedented number of border police were present at Qurtuba school stationed close to the place where the attack occurred on Wednesday. We can only assume that at least some of our efforts were worthwhile.

The day passed without any trouble whatsoever. It seems that the large numbers of police coupled with the numbers of internationals and the fact that the settlers know that the media is watching has had a preventative effect… My only hope is that we an maintain a focus on Tel Rumeida in weeks to come.

Mohammed Saqer Escapes Death From Israeli Bullet to the Brain

An update from ISM activists in Nablus on Mohammed Saqer (17), the boy shot in the head a week ago with a rubber-coated metal bullet by the Israeli army:

After being kept in a medically induced coma for 72 hours following emergency brain surgery Mohammed successfully regained consciousness and, amazingly, is able to talk. This is an extremely positive development given the original opinion of his doctor that he was likely to be seriously brain damaged, if able to regain consciousness at all.

His improvement has been so rapid he has been transfered to the “intermediate intensive care” unit.

His entire family are ecstatic, including his mother and aunt who kept a bedside vigil during his coma and was distraught at the seriousness of his condition. The family said that when he fully came out of coma he opened his eyes and immediately said “Marhaba” – arabic for hello!

This is the second time in two years Mohammed has been shot in the head by Israeli forces, and as his aunt said at the time “The first time was much better. Now, I think its worse. It’s bad”.

Certainly, even though he is alive, awake and able to talk he needs constant medical attention and his long term condition is not known. He cannot move the left side of his body and it is uncertain what mobility he will regain. But his delighted mother said his situation is improving everyday.

Extraordinarily he asked us how we were doing, even greeting us in English and asking our names. He talked of how he hopes he will be better soon and how we can visit him in his home in Askar Refugee camp saying “You are always welcome at my home”

As ISM activist Lauren says “It is really amazing that he is even alive. It was surreal to even talk to him. What a miracle that he will laugh and smile again.”

See the original press release about the shooting:
Teen Shot in the Head in Nablus

… and a update from the hospital two days later:
Lee’s Journal: Visiting Mohammed