ExitUs

Although the two reports below don’t fit into any regional catagory, they are being posted for any international who is leaving the airport to go home. Many stories have already been documented of the treatment when entering, some have reported the treatment when leaving. These two women are 81 and 71 years old, and they want to pass on recommendations to all of us.

ExitUs
by Hedy Epstein
August 23, 2005

I was detained from arrival time at the airport until it was time to get to the gate for boarding. I was questioned much more than ever before, much of it having to do with Women in Black (WiB). They attempted to get names from me; all I ever gave was WiB.

“Who invited you?” “WiB.” “What is WiB?” I pointed to my clothes, since I was wearing a plain black top and black pants. “How did they know to contact you?” “Because I am a woman in black.” To every question I responded, “WiB”. They went through my stuff, but only superficially.

I was taken to one of their lovely rooms to be patted down and scanned with the metal detection wand. The young woman wanted me to “take out” my knee replacement (because it’s mostly metal, the wand goes off). I explained it couldn’t be done. She insisted I could and that I must do so. Finally, she called in her supervisor, just a couple years older, who also insisted that I “take it out.” I suggested they bring in a doctor or nurse, who can “educate” them. Finally, they gave up, probably because it was time to get me to the gate “on time.”

Recommendation: Check your wallet when they give it back to you. Someone took the four $100 bills I brought with me in case I needed to hire an attorney when I entered Israel. Since I didn’t need him, I was carrying the money home.

Before I went to security, I looked in my wallet to make sure my money was still there. It was. I realize I should have checked my wallet when it was finally returned to me, but didn’t. It probably was stolen while I was away from the security area, being wanded.

I’ve sicne contacted the airport ombudsman, which I did earlier today. I’m sure it’s a futile attempt to retrieve the cash. I might get a response, but not the money. Make sure you check your money both before and after you go through security if you are stopped. In fact, tell them how much money you have, then insist that it is checked before you leave.

Leaving on a jet plane
by Marie
August 23, 2005

I didn’t expect any problems at the airport on leaving, so I was somewhat surprised at being taken from the line immediately after they looked at my passport. Obviously they were expecting me, because they didn’t scan it or check it against any list. They just saw my name and beckoned for three or four goons who said I must follow them. They didn’t want me to push my luggage cart but I said I needed to lean on it due to leg problems. They let me do that, but made sure I didn’t touch my bags.

Across a long hallway, up a freight elevator, down another long hallway and into the luggage searching department.

“Do you have a cellphone?”
“Yes”
“Where?”
“In my purse”
“Sit down there”

“Do you have a laptop?”
“Yes”
“We have to check it.”
“Whatever”

“Do you have a cellphone?” (again)
“Yes, why do you keep asking me if I have a cellphone, are you going to take it away from me? I need to use it.”
“No, No of course not.” “Sit there.”

“Come here and take out your laptop.”
“You take it out”
“No, you must do it”

Limped over to baggage counter. Opened bag. Dragged out clothes and stuff on top and threw it all over counter.

“Don’t throw everything all over!”
“Why not, you’re going to do it anyway. I’m sick of this.”
“Come with me”
“I don’t want to leave you with my money and things”
“Don’t worry, everything will be here”

In the Wanding Room for metal detection
“Do you have anything on your body?”
“Exactly what I had when I came in.”

Back to seaching area
Used telephone to tell someone I was being held.

‘”I need to take your phone, and your (phone) book.”
A few minutes later, they brought it back.

Person I had called calls back.
“We must take your phone for a minute”
(obviously to check number of caller)

All was repeated for about one and a half hours until they repacked everything and gave me the guided tour to the ticketing office (me limping and wheezing all the way) where I asked for my wheelchair. Wheelchair was brought; Australian Airlines employee asked for passport; I told her my guard was holding it.

When I finally boarded I felt I wanted to burn all my clothes, and never never never go back to Ben Gurion. I will fly into Gaza next time. Inshallah.

Regarding the questioning:

I was never asked a single question about where I had been, what I was doing, who had I visited.

They obviously knew everything they needed to know about me. At one point while the bodyguard was arguing at a security checkpoint with a guard who didnt want to let him and wheelchair pass I heard “Palestine” mentioned. I just waited for them to sort it all out between them, and eventually my bodyguard insisted on pushing my wheelchair through, with much
screaming and arguing in Hebrew.

When I returned to France, I discovered they have done something to my laptop computer. The battery is completely discharged, and the power cord doesn’t fit propertly and won’t charge it. The panel on the bottom of the computer has obviously been taken out and no longer fits properly.

Recommendations: Take your cellphone to the airport with you. Even if they take it away, you still have time to call someone and let them know you are being harrassed. But recognize that they will take it away from you and check the phone numbers you have dialed.

Mail whatever you can back to yourself, including memory sticks, photos, tapes, material. Ask them to turn the computer or camera back on when they give it back to you to prove it still works.

Nine hours to get home

by Ash
August 20, 2005

UPDATE: Last night, five Palestinians were killed by the Israeil Occupation Forces in Tulkarem

On the way home yesterday, I was stopped 6 times at Israeli checkpoints traveling from Ramallah to Tulkarem. These were not pop-up checkpoints this time — a little different this week — but concrete at both ends with a cover for soldiers’ equipment.

Israeli checkpoints are symbolic of the daily humiliation we face. Not only do Israeli soldiers keep us waiting for long hours; the entire procedure is an attempt to make us lose our humanity, to degrade us so that we feel worthless and sub-human. Sometimes Israeli soldiers ask people to take off their clothes, sometimes people are forced under gunpoint to eat during the fast in Ramadan.

When I arrived at Jabra, just four km outside Tulkarem, a soldier told our bus driver that we were not authorized to go to Tulkarem through this checkpoint, so we had to turn around and try the only way left. We made our way to Innab roadblock, which consists of a metal bar that cuts off Tulkarem city from the nearby villages. A huge razor barrier, about 15 ft high, is built on the right side of the road equipped with an Israeli watch tower. We got out of the bus and passed the new metal bar which had been put in only a few days earlier.

More than 60 Palestinians were standing in two lines on both sides waiting for one Israeli soldier to come and check their IDs. The soldier checked IDs and luggage on either side of him while four other soldiers stood watching!!

People were frustrated and angry as they were made to wait for a long time and, of course, it is not in the soldiers’ mandate to speed up. One woman walked toward the soldier checking IDs and said “You stole our land, our water, our air. Why are you restricting our movement? What more do you want?” The soldier shouted, “Shut up!” then ordered everybody to move 20 feet back and headed away to drink water! He looked at us and smiled. Then after 10 minutes he walked lazily forward and said “Yallah! (Let’s go! in Arabic) One by one!”

After the soldier looked at my ID and checked my bag, I took a service (shared taxi) to Innab, then walked around the metal bar and took another service to Tulkarem.

On the way to my village of Saida, 16km to the south of Tulkarem, an armed military vehicle, parked on the side of the main street just 6 km outside of the city, was stopping dozens of vehicles from moving. While we were waiting, two Israeli soldiers stopped a bus on the other side of the street. All passengers got out and the two soldiers asked everyone to pull up their clothes while one soldier on the top of the armed vehicle was aiming his M-16 at them.

After 30 minutes, our moment of being humiliated came. Two soldiers walked toward our taxi. One got close to the window and asked the driver where he was going. The driver answered, “We are going to Saida village”. The soldier opened the door in the middle and asked one young Palestinian to step out; then he came to the front seat where I was sitting and punched me on the shoulder and said, “Get out!”. We were standing just five feet in front of the two soldiers. The same soldier again asked us to pull our clothes up and turn around. Then he took my ID and asked, “Where are you going?”. “Saida,” I answered. “Where do you live?”. “Saida,” I replied again. Then the soldier said, “Yalla”!

Two days ago when I was in Bil’in village, I went with an Israeli friend to Tel Aviv for the first time since I was 12 years old! My friend told me that it’s easy to get to Tel Aviv, but I was very concerned since I am a Palestinian, and it is illegal to travel there. It’s like another world for us. We took a taxi at around 9:30 pm to the nearby village, Dier Qaddis to the west of Bil’in and walked for three minutes to reach a settler road. I was breathless, and scared that I might be caught by Israeli border police.

We continued walking on that settler road until we reached Modo’een Elite settlement, which is built on Bil’in’s land. I was standing at the entrance that has a lighted stone arc, looking at the beautiful and fancy buildings they have – green trees and a fountain – wondering if the people who live there know that their government is stealing more land from the Palestinian farmers and families of Bili’n to build their houses!

After 20 minutes, a settler pulled over to give us a ride to a stop station, where we picked up a bus straight to Tel Aviv.

If Israeli checkpoints are for ‘security’, why don’t they set up checkpoints in Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv? Why were there no soldiers to check my ID that night? Why did no one stop me from going inside Israel? Were the Israeli soldiers off duty in Tel Aviv?

All this makes me think that maybe it is the “Israeli democracy” that is trying to break our spirit and take our freedom under the big lie of security and peace.

Suffer the Little Children

by Nils and Lo
August, 2005

HEBRON — Since the Oslo agreement, the city of Hebron has been divided into areas ruled by the Palestinian Authority and areas ruled by Israel. Today, there are about 500 Israeli Jews living inside Hebron, with a Palestinian population of close to 200,000. Two to three thousand Israeli soldiers serve as ‘protection’ for these illegal Israeli settlements. This ‘protection’ is, in fact, a system of oppression of the Palestinians, imposing major difficulties on their daily lives.

The old town of Hebron, for example, is home to just a few settler families and is therefore surrounded by checkpoints. Many Palestinian shops are closed, and there are nets hanging over their streets, because of all the garbage, bottles and rocks that the settlers on the rooftops keep throwing at the Palestinians below.

Lots of streets and entire neighborhoods are closed off with iron gates put up by the military. Most Palestinians were forced to move out of the old town during the long and systematic curfews following the outbreak of the second Intifada.

Abrahams’ mosque has been divided into a Jewish and Palestinian part since Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Palestinian worshipers in the mosque in 1994.

ISM has now set up a presence in the Tal Ramada district. Between 30 and 50 settlers live in this area, along with many hundreds of Palestinians, surrounded by roadblocks and checkpoints, which has forced almost all Palestinian shops and stores to close. The Palestinians in Tal Ramada face daily harassment from both the settlers and some of the soldiers.

Palestinian children are afraid to go out in the streets to play. It is not unusual to see the settlers, even kids, attack them, and the soldiers will do nothing to protect them. The police, who claim to
serve as protection for the Palestinians, are always very delayed and are perceived by most as useless protection.

Many Palestinians now fear that more settlers and soldiers will come as a result of the disengagement in Gaza. Already, two families from Gaza have moved in. There is also a fear that an even more aggressive Zionism will emerge among both settlers and soldiers after the disengagement.

International presence in Hebron might help to de-escalate the situation and is already needed in order for many Palestinian children to be able to go to their school and to play in the streets.

Never Underestimate the Power of Women

Women of Bi'lin

by Greta B.

More than 450 international women arrived in Be’lin on Monday, August 16 to participate in an action against the Apartheid wall being built on the land of the village. Many of us came from the International Women in Black conference that was being held in Jerusalem, many came from other organizations in support of the demonstration.

But the most remarkable aspect of the event was to see over 100 Palestinian women join us. We walked down the dusty path to the heavily-armed soldiers standing behind their plastic shields, their riot gear and guns in stark contrast to our black shirts with the big purple flower on the front, the symbol for the conference.

The shocked look on their faces as 450 of us came up and over the last hill was recorded by dozens of video and still cameras. They simply didn’t know what to do with that much estrogen facing them. The soldiers tried to spread out to cover all the angles in front of a destroyed home, but they couldn’t stretch far enough, and more than a dozen Palestinian women got behind them, dancing and singing and clapping.

Soldiers facing Women

Many of us yelled at the soldiers, telling them we were ashamed of their behavior. One Jewish woman kept shouting, “I’m ashamed of you. I’m ashamed of what you are doing, and you’re not doing this in my name.” As we moved closer to them, trying to push back the barbed wire, the soldiers all got on their cell phones and pulled out a video camera. And there we were, many of us, photographing the soldiers photographing us.

Suddenly, the Palestinian women began to sing, as we clapped. Then we began the sing “We Shall Overcome” as they clapped. Back and forth in Arabic, English and Italian came the songs. Even if we didn’t know the words, we sang anyhow. For almost an hour, the demonstration was magic.

Then the Palestinian women pushed back through the soldiers and onto our side of them, one young woman shoving the soldier aside, then brushing herself off in disgust. The Palestinian organizers told us it was time to leave, and we began to straggle back up the hot, dusty road to the buses. Sure enough, just as the last of the women rounded the corner, the IOF began shooting tear gas at the Palestinian boys who had tagged along with us. But for that day, we peaceful women won that battle, looking into the faces of soldiers that were young enough to be our sons and grandsons.

They will never forget the force that came up over the hill at them.

West Bank village constant target for home demolitions

Mirja, Lo, and Nils.

Israel’s Next Step: Destroying Financial and Economic Structures
Report from Idna just outside Hebron

Idna is a village with 21,000 citiziens. Since 1948, Israel has stolen more than half of Idna’s land for illegal settlements.

The most recent loss has cut Idna off from 3,000 dunams (667 acres) of their own land, because of the illegal annexation wall. The vast majority of this stolen land had once been used for growing olive trees and vegetables. That land also fed the farmer’s sheep and goats. Since the wall’s completion, the local economy has been ruined. About 20,000 olive trees had been located on the other side of the wall, many which the Israeli army burned while building the wall.

During the first Intifada, many homes in Idna were destroyed by the Israeli military, and they haven’t stopped that destruction, with two farms destroyed just three months ago — including the homes situated on the farms.

One of the families, formerly prosperous shepherds with 500 to 600 sheep, now lives in tents provided by The Red Crescent. The same day that this family’s farm was demolished, the military also destroyed a local shop and trading post. Vilagers say that the military has started to focus on destroying the financial and economic structures of Idna.

Most of the houses that have been demolished during the last years have been outside the city. The army either claims that the people don’t have a license and permission to live there, or insists that they are too near the wall. When the farmers try to receive permissions to be on their own land, they have been repeatedly denied.

In most cases, the military comes in the morning without any announcement, and demolishes the houses. Now, there are about 10 houses outside Idna that the army has threatened to demolish for over a year. But, since they can come in at any time, no one really can really prepare for what might happen.

Also, electricity has been destroyed for some of the farmers, and more than 20 wells and springs have been ruined. Idna has a problem with water resources, because an Israeli company delivers the water, and they never get enough. Outside the town is an illegal settlement with 1000 people; those settlers receive more water from the company than Idna does city for its 21 000 people.

Idna villagers have suffered a lot because of the wall. Before it was built, many worked inside Israel. Now unemployment is about 65%, and farmers can’t make a living, since they have lost most of their land and their houses are being demolished.

So the situation here is very uncertain, and, like the rest of Palestine, Israel is making life as difficult as possible for the Palestinian people, trying to make them leave their own land.