Life in the villages of Nablus

By Nat

After tea at Abu Fadi’s house, we went to Abu Kamel’s house to have breakfast (there was some competition between these two cousins as to whose house we were to have breakfast at), we had a tour of Salim: the water tower that had been ransacked, the house that had been occupied, the olive trees that had been cut down because they were next to the settler bypass road, and the bypass road which the villagers were not allowed to cross but which divided them from their olive trees and surrounding villages. We had a nice long chat with the IDF soldiers in an APC about the occupation, and we had one Salim resident who spoke good English talk with them as well. The soldiers justified their presence there because of the suicide bombing. They said they didn’t think the bombing would subside or stop if they left the West Bank and Gaza, but they also recognized that being there just created more anger and suicide bombers.

They basically didn’t have much hope for peace. One of them, in a side conversation with Mika (who has been here 3 times and is very good at talking with them) said that if he were Palestinian he’d probably be a suicide bomber and resist the occupation with arms. When we were finishing our conversation, some Palestinians approached us from Salim and wanted to pass, and the soldiers let them pass because they had a doctor’s note (which was forged), and they could get close enough to the soldiers to give them the note because we were there. One of them was pregnant. We then went to the clinic in Salim to investigate a hepatitis A & B outbreak. They said they needed hep vaccines from the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health in Nablus. The doctor there (Dr. Ibrahim Mubarek) said that more than 20 people with hep had come to the center, and that more had gone to Nablus or don’t know that they have the disease. He said it was caused by pollution, lack of garbage disposal. Hep A is treated in the center, Hep B has to go to the hospital in Nablus.

The outbreak is also in neighboring villages (Beit Fareek and Beit Dajar) which both have clinics of their own. They need special medical personal from the Ministry of Health to administer the vaccines. After phoning the UPMRC with this information, we heard back that the vaccines are being held up because of politics and funding from Israel (West Bank taxes have been withheld by Israel during the Intifada). At the clinic we also met a man whose son had a head injury because of an Apache helicopter attack a few months ago and who had shrapnel in his arm and needed to go to the hospital in Nablus. Another man said he had to go to a hospital in Tel Aviv to have his broken leg checked out (he apparently broke it in Tel Aviv). He wanted us to go to the Hawara military base to help him get permission to go to Tel Aviv. We then went to the UPMRC center in Nablus (United Palestinian Medical Relief Committee) and from there headed out to a house occupied by the IDF near the Rujeib village. This was the first time in the 21 days of occupation that they had had visitors.

The 4 of us came with a doctor from the UPMRC and brought medicine and food and other supplies. When we arrived we negotiated with the soldier to allow all of us up to see the family, and then we heard their story (over coffee of course): ‘Occupied for 21 days. When the soldiers came, they took all the keys. There are 5 families with 15 adults, 30 children, 1 old sick man (who the doctor checked out – he has bronchial asthma). The kids get 30 minutes outside in a patio with guns pointed at them. Nobody else is allowed out except to get groceries every so often (the last time they had been out was 12 days ago). Telephones and electricity were turned off. They occupy half of their house, the soldiers the other half. The soldiers attempted to occupy more space but the family stopped them in some way from doing this. They are farmers and rely on their crops for their livelihood, and according to them all their crops were lost because of lack of watering. They also lost a donkey.

The kids have allergy from the dust created by the soldiers (it’s a training camp for the soldiers and they shoot their guns and otherwise make lots of noise at night). At one point the soldiers took one of the men of the house (Hamud Ali Absun Salan) to another village to be a human shield while the soldiers arrested someone there. The soldiers attempted to take the man’s child as well but the mother successfully resisted. They appeal to the international community to get the soldiers out and expose their story. They are innocent people, none of them are wanted in connection to the Intifada (they are not a family of a suicide bomber), and they want peace and justice for themselves and for Palestine.

They are in area C (according to the Oslo agreements) and are therefore worried that their homes will be taken or demolished in a final peace settlement with Israel. One woman (Maisud) is a student and needs to take her exam in accounting Saturday at the Nablus university (in 4 days). They need more medicine and supplies. It was very hard to leave because we saw how much they appreciated us being there. One of our groups did magic tricks for the kids and made balloon shapes for them, which was a huge hit. The senior man took me aside and pointed to his field, saying “all lost.” When we left, we spoke to one of the soldiers and appealed to him to let the people out and water their crops. He claimed that they were allowed out every day and that the soldiers were giving them whatever they needed. The crops looked shriveled and dead to us. Next we went to another house in Msaken Shabiya where 20 internationals held a vigil and some of us then prepared to sleep next to the house. The commander came out and said that we had to leave and in 15 minutes he would “use power.” 15 minutes later he came out and asked if we could make a deal: if he let the family go out X more hours a day, would we leave. We said 2 more hours, and after he agreed and after we talked with the family to make the situation clear to them, we left.

Wednesday July 31:

We went back to Salim to remove the road block, which went well and we made a road around the 5 foot ditch dug by the bulldozer the night before. It was mostly internationals digging, but we had spades and pick axes this time. Some people stayed behind to make sure the bulldozers didn’t come again. I and 3 others went to the occupied house in Msaken Shabiya to see if the soldiers kept their promise to let the family out twice a day for two hours instead of one. There was a rumor that the soldiers had left altogether, and when we arrived we found this to be true! The family was cleaning up where the soldiers had been, and we got a tour of all the damage the soldiers had done during their 21 day stay: 2 stereos damaged, 1 VCR, holes in the walls, curtains and towels and clothes taken and used to oil the guns of the soldiers, broken drawers, fridge, oven, writing and dirt on the walls, the bed damaged from soldiers jumping in it during the night when they blasted music. TV remote gone. Window screens, 2 fans, and much more damage.

After leaving the family (and the obligatory coffee, tea, soda) we went to Husein’s house in the old city (Nablus) and slept. We then got reports that tanks and bulldozers were heading towards the Salim road block so we headed out to the road block but then heard reports that tanks were invading the old city and came back with all the other internationals. By the time we got back they had left, but we walked around the city to see if they would return. At night the teenagers came out and hassled the women in our group – it’s the time when I’ve seen the ugliest part of Palestinian society – at all other times it is so beautiful and loving. We then went back to our own houses and slept.

Thursday Aug 1:

Woke up in the old city for a planned 9:30am media story on the ISM by a Danish TV group. When they arrived, we got reports that the Balata refugee camp was being invaded by tanks and jeeps. The media crew agreed to follow us there after conducting a short interview with one of us. We headed out, 7 in a taxi, to meet the other internationals staying in Balata camp with families of suicide bombers (these families are often targeted with collective punishment, and their homes are often demolished). When we got to the camp we could smell tear gas and we went into an alley to escape it and also to see kids throwing stones at a tank.

Then we went to the Titi house (where some of the internationals were staying) to group and decide what to do. From there we saw an army jeep hurl tear gas. They retreated and we went outside to where two tanks were in an agricultural field on the edge of the camp. For about an hour the kids hurled stones at the tank and the tank would advance and retreat, firing M16 bullets into the air or the ground which would chase the kids back. We made sure to make our presence known (about 13 of us) and then tried to get away from the kids but still be in a position to witness the situation. An ABC TV camera man showed up and then some of us went to get water and food. When we were away, one of the tanks fired a bullet just above the crowd of internationals and Palestinians, and the ricochet hit a Palestinian in the head. I saw the car speed off with him as we were eating hummus and pita. At that point the tanks retreated and left the camp, and we went back to the Titi house where I took a nap.

After about 2 hours 3 tanks came back and drove on the road outside the camp where they again fired into the ground while kids threw stones at the tanks. Seeing the kids throw stones, I immediately thought about what would happen if the kids sat down in front of the tanks to stop them from entering the city. Maybe they would be fired upon (no different than now), but it would change the dynamics of the conflict immensely. This possibility doesn’t even seem in the realm of possibility based on what I have heard Palestinians say about the conflict: “they are defending their city; it’s an exciting and righteous game for the kids; being passive is giving up their city; they have successfully defended their camp with stones in the past; stones are all they have.”

Claiming three bodies in Sarra

by Gattu Marrudu

The two taxis full of volunteers proceed slow and scared along “the most dangerous road of Nablus,” climbing up the hill in dusty and tight curves. At each curve stays a local “sentry”, who warns any hazardous wanderer of coming tanks. I guess it’s a job too; like the taxi drivers’, not accepting to stay at home during the curfew without doing anything to do. So they risk as much as they can, raising the price for the run. I guess they feel a little bit like Israeli bus drivers. You have to find the ones who agree to take you there, because not everyone dares to.

The volunteers’ job is simple: three people (maybe relatives or friends of activists – who knows?) have been shot in the village of Sarra, 20 km east of Nablus, and the soldiers won’t let the relatives pick up their bodies. It’s not a new thing: sometimes they kill people and then “arrest” them, bringing their bodies to Israel, putting them in refrigerators and then negotiating with their relatives for their “liberation.”

Denying the burial of a body is always been the most brutal sign of despising the enemy. Ancient Greeks used to let enemy bodies be eaten by dogs and crows, so that the soul would wander under torments, and the Romans wouldn’t let the relatives pick up the bodies of crucified people for burial, letting them rot on the cross. But trading on dead bodies is the ultimate offence to human dignity and definitely a violation of human rights. We just don’t understand why IDF are getting deeper and deeper in this suicidal situation.

The twelve volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement also don’t understand why but they go ahead on foot, from where the taxi can’t go anymore. They’re well trained for such situations: they decide who is willing to get arrested and to stay in first line to make pressure on the soldiers. They arrive in the Tel village, welcomed by the mayor and by dozens of children running, shouting and whistling from all the corners.

The Tell people escort the volunteers until the end of the village, and then we’ve got to go alone. We encounter an Israeli police jeep, inside which are three soldiers, all very young. One speaks Arabic, the other Russian and the third won’t even approach us, standing near the jeep wearing dark glasses and looking away with crossed arms and a tough expression.

The soldiers make signs to go back. The volunteers advance, shaking their hands and saying they want to talk. The soldiers appear quite bored, tired and nervous from a bad day, looks like they would just let us in but they have orders. And they try their best to look as rude as possible. There’s a very short moment in which they even appear to want to negotiate, and ask us where we come from. They look almost scared by those twelve people, mostly older than them, claiming for three corpses. In fact, after a few minutes comes another jeep with four soldiers inside, advancing at full gas on first gear and with its headlights on, making a lot of noise. Such Hollywood film scenes don’t impress the volunteers very much, who just draw instinctively to the sides of the street. The soldiers get out of the jeeps, angry and nervous, and begin to push. A soldier loses two chargers from his pocket while he does this. Some volunteers laugh. It’s a ridiculous scene, they just pretend to beat us. After pushing us back for some hundreds of meters they go back to the jeeps. The volunteers sit down on the street, the second jeep leaves. We receive a call from the ambulance in Tel, they say there are still five people wanted in Sarra, the place is going to get hot. It’s pointless to try again, the volunteers withdraw. The soldiers stay there eating their sandwiches, soon they will end their duty. Hope the ghosts of the three bodies won’t give them too many bad dreams tonight.

On the next day they try it again. Soldiers are all around the hills between Nablus and Tel. They say we’d better not go ahead because there’s shooting everywhere. The people they have shot yesterday aren’t the ones who they are looking for. But these soldiers are nicer (or maybe they’re just allowed to be, as we’re still far from the hot zone) and let us pass. One group stays with the ambulance, the others stay there and wait to be picked up on the next journey. We arrive in Tel, welcomed as usual by kids surrounding us. They want to be photographed. They hold a little bird in their hands, passing it to each other, putting it in their pockets and pulling it out again. Mika and Ethan, two of the volunteers, slept in Tel, and made it to Sarra this morning, though they didn’t manage to let the ambulance in and take the bodies. We wait for the other group to come. The kids are playing again with the little bird, this time without its head.

We wait for hours. The ambulance was stopped by the soldiers and can’t pick the other group. It’s getting late, we decide to head back.

On the way back we encounter the other group coming toward us. The soldiers have arrested some farmers in the surroundings and their donkeys were still around, with their heavy load on their back. The volunteers decided to bring them back to Tel. They still couldn’t pick up the three dead people, but saved ten living donkeys. Let’s call it a good day.

The smell of death

by Bob of the New York Solidarity Delegation

It is Friday. I am writing from inside the Deheisha refugee camp. My body is sore – less from the sun or the walking, or the lack of water but from holding this truth that I see and feel and hear.

It smells here. If you were in New York mid-September you remember it smelled pretty foul. On the 2 train, the first time they opened the stations below Brooklyn Bridge, those of us from Brooklyn rode into Manhattan with a nervous silence. Most of us were pretending to read our books, papers, morning prayers… it was still in that amorphous time when New Yorkers were crossing their previously un-crossable lines and it seemed like maybe the change was still to come. The doors opened at Wall Street or Park Place and we were completely quiet. Waiting, waiting, and then it hit.

The stench. Some of us retched. I made eye contact with a woman across the way. Me in my big headphones, her in her head wrap, and we knew and we said it out loud although it came out like a moan, it came out like a whisper. Death smells like burnt plastic, like stale smoke, like moldy water, like smoldering paper, like burning hair, like excrement, like flesh, like mortar, like bones.

I walked through the camp with a guy about my age. He generously explained life in Deheishe to me. Perhaps because I might be the one who will tell the story loud enough, to the right person, to the wrong person, to no one. The adults nod salaam and the kids holler hello! or shyly wave.

The outer walls of homes serve as corridors through the camp. The homes which house over 14000 people, the homes on top of each other, like precarious bricks, never meant to be permanent residences.

They were tents in ’48 when they came mostly from Zacharia, Betateb and J’rash. They built nothing, waiting to go home. Then the UN built these structures in the 1950’s maybe 8 feet tall (generous) maybe 20 feet X 10 feet (generous still) – one room with kitchen and bath for families under 6, two rooms for more, indicating the wait might be less then temporary, their towns renamed K’far Zk’harria, Bet Shiamish, Jrosh.

14,000 people live within the 750 sq. meters of the camp. 55% of them are under the age of 15. There is 24-hour curfew so technically no one should be outside at all. Ever. When you get caught by a tank, a jeep, a helicopter, you get shot or jailed. Young men, probably my brother’s age walking around missing hands or legs.

Pictures of martyrs line the walls, alongside arrows spray painted by the Israeli military so they know how to get out when they come in.

I will write more in a minute. I need to walk away.

The Effect of Closure on the Village of Iraq Bureen

by Ellen O’Grady

Since July 26 I have been living in and witnessing the effects of the Israeli military closure on the village of Iraq Bureen and its 900 inhabitants. Iraq Bureen is located three miles outside of the city of Nablus on top of a terraced mountain 880 meters above sea level. Since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada and more forcefully since the Israeli invasion into the West Bank, Israel has imposed a closure on Iraq Bureen which impedes movement into and from the village. The closure of the village, which is implemented through military outposts, checkpoints, road blocks, physical barriers, tanks, planes, and helicopters, enables the Israeli army to completely control and restrict movement of people and goods.

The road leading from Iraq Bureen to the surrounding towns and the city of Nablus is closed by a six foot tall rock and dirt barrier constructed by the Israeli army. The road and the surrounding valleys and mountain paths are constantly watched over by an Israeli military camp and military posts on the neighboring mountains. Those who risk breaking the closure by walking around the roadblock or through the valleys risk both being arrested and being shot at. Many take the risk in order to care for and support their families. For example, people break the seige in order to transport food to Nablus for the needed income, to work in neighboring villages for the needed income, to transport water and food and fuel from Nablus to Iraq Bureen, and to go to Nablus to receive medical care.

MEDICAL CARE DENIED
Over 70% of the Palestinian population live in rural areas, such as Iraq Bureen, which do not provide hospital services. Closure therefore severly restricts the population from health care facilities. The inablitity for the people in Iraq Bureen to reach hospitals and clinics has severly affected pregnant women, sick children and people requiring treatment for things such as cancer, kidney failure, and diabetes.

On the night of August 6 Hiyam Q’s baby died while she was in labor in her home. It was a late pregnancy, the baby was very big and could not be delivered vaginally. Had she had access to a hospital a ceasarean section could have been performed and most likely the child’s life would have been saved. (The UNWRA reprts that among its patients there has been a 58% increase in the number of still births since the military closure. Other medical organizations reprt a 100% increase in home deliveries.)

In the past two weeks I have accompanied Palestinians breaking the closure in order to help them reach medical care safely. I have walked with three sick children and their families to reach hospitals and clinics in Nablus. And with Salwa an old woman with sores on her hands and face who is suffering from untreated Diabetes. Doctors at St. Luke’s hospital in Nablus report a 49% decline in general patients, a 73% decline in specialty services, and a 53% decline in surgeries.

KILLED FOR BREAKING THE CLOSURE TO WORK OUTSIDE IRAQ BUREEN: THE STORY OF ADNAN AND MAMOUD
After six months without any work two laborers from Iraq Bureen, Adnan and Mamoud, and a friend and co-worker of theirs from the village of Tell broke the closure to work in a town North of Nablus. They worked for two weeks painting and putting down tile. Before their expected return Adnan called his sister to tell her they would be leaving the next day and be home in two days. The day after the phone call was made the three men were shot and killed by the Israeli Occupation forces in a field in a nearby town. They lay in the feild for two days without being discovered. On the third day the Israeli media reported the killing of the three men, claiming in the report that the three were suspected terrorists, a claim that has no evidence to support it. An ambulance was permitted to reach the three bodies and take them to a hospital in Nablus. The bullet holes were as large as fists suggesting they were fired upon from a plane or tank. Adnan had a large hole through his stomach and eight bullet holes through his right leg. Mamoud had a bullet through his mouth and the top of his head had been cut open. Both of their faces were blue and pocked with gravel from being dragged from the location of the killing. Nothing supports the claim that the men conducted violent activites against Israel. All evidence supports that they were laborers returning from work. I visited and sat with the two families in Iraq Bureen. The family of Mamoud showed me the interior decorating work he had done on their home, including a relief of painted roses on the ceiling and a border of flowers painted on the wall.

The families of Mamoud and Adnan fear that the Israeli military will soon come to destroy their homes. Since 1967, the Israeli authorities have partially or wholly demolished close to 10,000 Palestinian homes. Often these house demolitions are used as punitive measures (e.g., against the families of suspected terrorists). Nearly every day in the past week we have heard the explosions and demolitions of homes in Nablus and the village of Tell. There has been increased tank activity around Iraq Bureen; people here fear there homes will be next.

AGRICULTURE UNDER SEIGE
The majority of the people in Iraq Bureen depend on the sale of cactus fruit, milk and yogurt to support their families. These past eleven days the cactus fruit should have gone to markets in Nablus. Because of the closure and a strict curfew on Nablus there has not been access to markets and much of the fruit is beginning to rot. The small amount of fruit that has reached Nablus has been carried in buckets by farmers and their donkeys who were able to evade the military blockade. This is getting more and more difficult as the presence of tanks and military blockades around Iraq Bureen and Nablus has increased over the past two weeks.

I have spoken with nine farmers who had been trying to get to Nablus with their cactus fruit this past week and who had been stopped by Israeli soldiers and forced to sit with their faces bowed down to the ground for more than four hours in the hot sun and never permitted to sell their fruit.

I have spoken with seven farmers who in the past four weeks have been detained by the Israeli occupation forces for attempting to transport milk, yogurt and fruit to Nablus. Two of those detained, Mohamed and Said, brought me to the place they had been taken by the Isreali soldiers and showed me the broken glass yogurt jars that had been thrown to the ground and broken by the soldiers who had detained them.

From the top of Iraq Bureen I have watched tanks stop and turn back farmers and their donkeys on the road leading to Nablus.

HUNGER AND MALNUTRITION
As a direct result of the closure there are families in Iraq who have no food or money and are surviving on olive oil. I sat with the mothers of two families, Iman and Miriam. Iman has a husband who suffers from a mental illness (dissociation) that is treated through medication. However since the closure he has not been able to recieve his medication. Since the invasion the medication is not even available in Nablus, only in Israel. As a result he has been mentally unstable and unable to provide for the family. The husband of Miriam also suffers from a mental illness. Until the seige, the family of her husband had been providing for her. Now, the family of her husband has little money for themsleves and so Miriam’s children go without food and sleep much of the day to try to escape their hunger.

Many families in Iraq Bureen are getting by just on bread and olive oil and are suffering from malnutrution. The Palestine Bureau of Statistics recently relased a survey on nutrition and found that 63.8% of those surveyed faced difficulties on food supply since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada. 45.5% are suffering from chronic malnutrition. 36.9% are suffering from mild chronic malnutrition.

WATER UNDER SIEGE
Iraq Bureen is one of many villages suffering from a severe water shortage as a result of closing the Palestinian territories. There is no water source in Iraq Bureen so the village depends on water tankers to come and fill people’s wells. Normally water tankers come every week during the summer months. Under the closure they cannot reach the villages. This forces people to break closure, bring donkeys down to a river and collect what little water they are able to with plastic containers.

POWER SHORTAGE
Iraq Boreen is one of over 130 West Bank villages that has electricity supplied for only a fraction of the day. Electricity in IB is generated by a motor powered by benzine. Normally the motor runs for seven hours. Under the seige there is often only enough diesel fuel to run for three hours a day.

*********************
Closure is in direct violation of internationl humanitarian law. Under the conditions incurred by the closure, people of Iraq Bureen and throughout the occupied territories are suffering from a lack of access to food, fuel and water and access to basic health care. Breaking the closure puts people at risk for being detained and arrested as well being shot at and killed. The people here are in a state of emergency. We must do everything we can to end this seige and the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Compassionate Listening Project – in Israel and Palestine

Meeting with Adam and Huwaida of the International Solidarity Movement
Interview by Linda Wolf

Linda: You too just got married, yes? What a time and place to be newly weds! But life really does go on. Adam, you’re Israeli and Huwaida is Palestinian? Where did you meet and where are you two from?

Adam: Yes, we’re from the states. I’m Jewish, not Israeli. We both have US passports. We’ve both been working in Israel for a long time. We met when we worked together with Seeds of Peace.

Huwaida: I’m Palestinian. My parents are from here. I was born in the US and lived there most of my life.

Adam: She was conceived in Palestine!

Linda: I’m sure you must have heard this before, but when I arrived here, not even yet off the plane, and mentioned that I might be working with the ISM, someone called me a self-hating Jew.

Adam: Yes, I’m the ”King of self hating Jews!“

Linda: What is the philosophy behind your work with ISM?

Adam: The Philosophy behind, and the impetus for, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) developed out of the realization that many people don’t know that a Palestinian non-violent movement exists. It was not receiving attention or support domestically, internally or externally. And it needs the support of foreigners to help support it and be a resource for it, because when internationals are present the IDF is more on guard not to exercise violence when the people respond to the situation non violently.

Linda: This seems to be the most important reason.

Basically, when Palestinians try to go out and march, or protest their situation, or remove a roadblock to the entrance of their village, they face the possibility of extreme violence and intimidation from Israeli soldiers. Even before a stone is thrown, an action on behalf of Palestinians can be seen as violent, and the response of the IDF is often to fight back, starting with rubber bullets, and then going to live ammunition. But, when internationals are present, the dynamic changes. This brings the international media, who will take an interest even when it’s only a few Palestinians, if you have internationals there. But, for the past few months, the media has been limited in its extent to move in the West Bank, and we haven’t been getting as much media as we would like. The visibility is very important as it helps quell violent reactions.

Linda: We’ve been listening to a lot of people and it’s clear this is a very critical time right now. How are you dealing with all this?

Huwaida: I am the one who sends out the email alerts to the international community. I’m beginning to feel like things in this situation are so normal; everyday, I hear the same thing. Today, for example I was putting out an email alert, when I got call about an incident in one of the occupied villages – soldiers opened fire at a checkpoint where no internationals were and shot a 17-year-old girl in the head. Her uncle, a man I know, called it in. The sad thing is that this doesn’t surprise me anymore.

If you go to the Gaza checkpoint and see the way the soldiers treat Palestinians, as we saw when we were monitoring, they are herded like cattle. And if they don’t comply with the soldiers at the checkpoint, or if one person complains, one soldier can hold 50 people back from crossing, deciding their fate for the rest of their day. These people may have set aside 2 hours to get through the checkpoint and might have to wait many more, if they’re lucky at all, to get through that day. If they get restless and reactive, and ask questions, a soldier will toss a tear gas canister or concussion bomb. I have to ask myself so often, how can anyone have so little regard for human life and human suffering.

When you’re Palestinian, your life is totally determined by soldiers and the people with the power over you. What the Palestinians see is that even if they are in the right, there is no one there to hold the soldiers accountable. That’s what the importance of an international presence is for.

Linda: When we were in Gaza we met a group of ISM folks. I have to say they looked a little bored that day. I know what you’re doing is incredible work, but on this trip we’ve heard some criticisms of ISM, not from those folks we met, but from others in the ”peace movement.“ I say that in parentheses because the word peace has come to have a very different meaning to me since coming here.

We’ve heard three specific criticisms. One is that you won’t work with Israeli peace organizations. Another is that ISM international activists leave here only having had an experience of actions without having a strong contextual grounding, a good sense of history or broad overview. The last is that you are not balanced, you represent only one side of the picture – that of the Palestinian suffering – and leave out the Israeli point of view.

Adam: We all feel we have not been as active as we want to be, or as some expect us to be, in terms of direct action; especially the last few months, because the situation is so grave. Curfews, and invasions, checkpoint closures make it harder to be active. A lot of what people are doing here is, yes, helping ambulances and medical personnel, these kinds of things, but a lot have spent time sitting and talking to families and community leaders and community activists and learned a lot. I’ve listened to people, who have been here working with ISM, give talks in the US, who have spoken brilliantly, not so much about themselves but giving voice to those they heard. This is very valuable. I know from living in the US that the Palestinian people don’t have much of an identity in the US except as terrorists. By coming here, working and witnessing what is going on, talking to the people, and going back home and sharing what they’ve seen and heard, ISM people have a very important role in helping people get a broader sense of what it is to be Palestinian. They can describe their situation and explain how it is for them to live under occupation.

About not working with Israeli peace groups: Having worked with Seeds of Peace, I’m very aware of many of the Palestinian and Israeli organizations, and the focus of most Israeli peace groups is different than ours. Ultimately, the focus of ISM is peace, but in the immediate, our focus is freedom. These are two different concepts and not well understood. In my assessment of the way I think Palestinians see it, Palestinians are looking for freedom and peace and Israelis are looking for peace and security.

Linda: Or security and peace.

Adam: The dynamics used to achieve freedom are different than the dynamics used to achieve peace. I don’t know if, for the most part, Israeli peace groups have internalized this concept in their work.

Huwaida: The ISM has been portrayed as an internal peace group and in that sense Israeli peace groups would ask why we don’t want to work with them, but speaking as a Palestinian womanÉI believe in the power of the people to affect change, and non-violent direct action as means of liberating ourselves and bringing an end to the occupation. There are so many reasons why Palestinian people feel disenfranchised from non violent ways of action. Non violence has been tried in so many forms and what they see and experience is that it has been met with so much violence, so it’s hard to believe that non violence will work. There has been no indication it will work.

I am a firm believer, as are the people who are involved in ISM in nonviolence. We are calling other people to join us, based on a resource we can use which is international solidarity. If we call on good people, by-pass all the resolutions which are resolutions that aren’t being adhered to, forget the governments that aren’t upholding justice, like the US, that aren’t respecting our rights, but calling on average citizens from all over the world, regardless of race and religion, people with an inherent belief in the freedom of all people, to come stand with us, this is a way to extend our voices and work with the power of the people against injustice.

So the International Solidarity Movement is a Palestinian led movement, against occupation, which actively calls on people from all over the world, including Israel, to join us. As people, not as organizations. We’ve seen the phenomena of international solidarity. It is increasing and spreading, and to answer the question why don’t we work with Israeli peace groups, we do work with them, whenever they want to join us as people. When we call for an action, anyone can join, but this movement is a Palestinian movement for freedom and peace, and being such seeks to work with Palestinian people, who feel disenfranchised, people who don’t believe.

Linda: What I hear you saying also, is that sometimes you leave it up to the Palestinian community as to whether they want Israeli activists to join in with them or to not.

Huwaida: It’s left up to the communities whether Israelis are welcome. For the most part, by their own governmental laws Israelis can’t go into the occupied territories, it’s illegal for them. There’s a sensitivity that dates back to Oslo and the whole peace process. During the 7 year peace process Palestinian groups worked with Israeli peace groups, and steps were taken towards normalization of relations which were seen as benefiting only Israelis. While the whole world was talking about peace, the Palestinian economy was going downhill, check points were being instigated, homes demolished, settlements built… So Palestinians believe that they were mislead by this peace process and the Israeli peace groups were in it for how it would benefit them, without achieving justice and freedom and an end to occupation.

In general, this is a lot of what people are sensitive about. Sometimes, you encounter cynicism. People ask, are you a peace worker, because the word peace has come to mean something different. Palestinians think organizations of peace had their eyes shut to what was really happening. When you have your home demolished, and you have no one to cry to, you become cynical to the word peace, and peace doesn’t mean justice.

A lot of people became skeptical. Not all, but this was especially poignant. The Palestinian system of NGOs cut relationships. They issued decrees of no more contact with Israeli groups, unless they specifically, outrightly advocated the implementation of the UN resolutions, including 194, the right to return. This laid out what most people were feeling. We don’t want a cooperation with Israeli organizations that only benefits one side. Israeli peace groups felt hurt by that. They complained about the fact that Palestinians were cutting relationships with them, and making it harder for them to work in their community and accept peace and justice, what we’re all working for. But again, this was the stance of Palestinian civil society, this what we found. It wasn’t against Israeli civilians, but asked, under what banner do they stand? The banner of Peace Now, when I know Peace Now is a Zionist, and doesn’t believe in Palestinian right to return.

All Palestinian organizations and villages say, you’re welcome as individuals, no matter what religion, to join us in our struggle, but don’t come under the name of your group, because we don’t agree on guidelines, and I don’t want my situation to benefit your organizations mission.

Linda: What I’m understanding has to do with what Adam said, that for the Palestinians freedom is the first requisite for peace and any group or person who wants to join the Palestinian people in their struggle has to have this first and foremost as their primary intent. Including pushing for implementation of the UN resolutions, which thus far Israel has not implemented.

Adam: The Palestinian position is if they accept the 1967 borders, which is 22% of the land (they are giving up 78% of their land), they are willing to negotiate, willing to the adjust the green line in exchange for West Bank, where there are settlements.

Additionally, they are seeking to solve the refugee problem. They are asking for Israel to acknowledge the Palestinian peoples’ right of return. The PLO recognized there was also the question of how many people would be allowed to exercise that right. There are a whole list of options that are being talked about; some refugees accepting to go to a 3rd country, like Canada, to resolve issues, or to stay in whatever country they find themselves in now, like Lebanon, but at least from the negotiating position of the Palestinians, the importance is to adhere to international law and UN resolutions which means giving back lands, including lands that have been taken over illegally. And there is the question of compensation for the refugees. Settlements are an issue as well. It’s technically a war crime to establish settlements in occupied lands. So, the Palestinian position is 22% of the land, resolution of refugee problem that is fair and equitable, and to share Jerusalem.

I think most people would find the Palestinian position reasonable, and I think that is the answer to all Israeli critics out there. Now, the catch phrase these days is, Palestinians must make the painful decision to choose peace, but the Palestinians want to chose first is freedom and no one is laying that out for them. It is all wrapped up in accepting an Israeli peace deal, and it’s a shame that Palestinians are in such a weak position. All they are asking for is to uphold international law.

Linda: The Israeli position I’ve been hearing while I’ve been here has been that for the Palestinians to have their freedom and peace, they have to stop the terrorism.

Adam: The terrorism stopped for 4 years. I know for sure because I was here; in 1998 and 99 and 2000 there were no suicide bombings. This was a result of cooperation between Palestinian security agencies, Israeli security agencies and the CIA, and yet, you had a prime minister on the Israeli side in 2000 promising to deliver an end of conflict and making best offer, which didn’t even come closeÉand wanting to declare in Camp David, an end to conflict when they hadn’t even talked about refugees.

I spoke to my congressman when I was in the states, about activists being beaten up, having cameras broken, getting bloody eyes, for trying to deliver food to refugees in the camps. My congressman actually told me that we were being violent by failing to obey Israeli soldiers’ orders.

Linda: What I’m worried about is the day when one person in a group of internationals gets killed. It hasn’t happened yet, but when it does, everything could change.

Adam: There was a doctor already who has gotten killed.

Linda: But, not from lying down in front of a tank. You’re putting your lives on the line every time you do an action. We met with the director of a Palestinian organization working on a very grassroots level, putting people together for peace and understanding and he said there is a quote that goes something like First you resist with your body and if you can’t do that, you resist with your voice, and if you can’t do that, you resist with your heart.

Adam: I’m afraid of the way things are spun in the media, when they’re reported, that the mantra that’s put out is that we are aiding and abetting terrorists and if soldiers have to run us over, it’s because we’re the ones who are wrong. In these days, in America, most people would be willing to buy this, unfortunately.

I hope people in the US are questioning what happened in_____, the village in Afghanistan where US soldiers bombed a wedding party. Forty people, mostly women and children were killed, and 120, injured. Initial reports were that they were responding to enemy fire, hunting terrorists.

Huwaida: We very much believe and support active resistance and we invite people to join us. Some people believe the only way is to turn into a human bomb and attack the other side who is attacking you. We don’t believe this way. We believe in non-violence. I hear it so much, wouldn’t it be great if the Palestinians had a massive non-violent movement; what if Arafat was like Gandhi? You’d have your own state. The nonviolent community is small now, but it’s both of us, Palestinians and internationals, and we are going to persist and put our lives on the line. The International Solidarity Movement is critical also because how are you going to help Palestinian parents, families and communities believe that they can be non-violent and stand up and speak out for themselves when 17 year-old girls get shot in the head. What is going to give them the hope that they can keep part of a Palestinian nonviolent resistance movement?

We don’t provide any false hope or notion that we won’t be attacked or face violence. There are three options. People can continue turning into human bombs and sacrifice their children who are going out to attack innocent Israeli children, civilians, and non combatants, which I and everyone I work with is opposed to; or we can do nothing, or we can use our bodies and voices and call for other voices and bodies and continue to resist. We have a right to confront their might with the belief we have that the power of the people will eventually overcome.

We know there is more suffering to come, but we’re suffering as it is and we can’t just sit and do nothing. And I, we, don’t think anyone believes that we have the power or force of arms to confront the Israeli military; that is not an option. So we use what we have, ourselves.

Just so you know, back in December or January, some high official was asked what would you do if 10,000 people marched on a settlement. He said, “either we shoot them, or we let them go, and we’re not going to let them go.“ Palestinians have good reason to fear. But one thing I am adamant about not having portrayed is that the ISM is an international movement that has the notion that we need to teach Palestinians the nonviolent way. That’s one of the first questions I am asked: Are you coming to help them be nonviolent? Because, Palestinians are always labeled violent.

People see so much violence because of the occupation forces, and then you listen to news and hear Palestinians have been violent, it’s the Palestinians who are violent. I almost want to explode. I can’t stand to hear the term. Palestinians are so abused with this term. The majority of the struggle has not been violent, it has been nonviolent and we are so misunderstood.

The sad thing that they don’t realize is what they’re doing is creating more suicide bombers and more people willing to sacrifice life in this way. I called a kid I’d worked with at Seeds of Peace once recently. He was a member for four or five years. Lots of Israeli kids loved him and he stood for peaceful resistance. I had to argue with him on the phone. His city was invaded, I could hear the missiles as we spoke, they must have been 10 yards away from him. And he was saying, Sharon is killing us; he wants to wipe out of terrorists, but he’s creating people like me who are willing to sacrifice our lives. People are fighting for freedom, we don’t have bombs to drop on them, but we will turn ourselves into bombs if we have to. Either Palestine is liberated, or else ever Palestinian is going to being wiped out.

I don’t see what Sharon is doing now as elevating or providing more security for Israelis. Sadly, when we encounter Israeli soldiers, they aren’t going to provide security for Israel, because they’re teaching Palestinians to hate them more. Every Israeli soldier will tell you I don’t want to be here in this Palestinian city, I’m only doing my job, they say there are terrorists in this city and I am going to find them.

If you want to join us, come join in with our platform, to end the occupation. But don’t come with any other banner, come opposed to the occupation. That is the stand we take. The ISM is not an organization. It is people who are standing together from all over the world, for freedom. The freedom: to be able to live life without restrictions put on us by the Israeli military government; freedom to elect and chose our own government; freedom to move freely in our own future state, in our own lands; freedom to be able to pursue an education, make a living; freedom to live.

Right now freedom would be able to open door and go to local market, without being afraid of tanks coming down the street, and opening fire. Before, freedom meant going to another village; now it means just going down the street to the neighbor’s house.