On Tuesday, June 5, in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Golan Heights, Palestinians will stage a demonstration and plant over 50 olive trees at Huwara checkpoint. A large number of groups in Nablus have been involved with organizing this action and demonstration, including the Women’s Society, the Rehabilitation Union, the International Solidarity Movement, the Agricultural Ministry, the Breaking Closure and Checkpoints Committee, and others.
Palestinians have invited international solidarity activists from many peace groups inside Palestine, and they are expecting a huge turnout because of the many organizations involved with the planning.
Palestinians and solidarity activists are expected to plant the olive trees just meters from the checkpoint. Sameh, a resident of Nablus, said that “after we plant the trees, we will then take over the Huwara checkpoint. We are expecting a violent response from the Israeli soldiers at Huwara, who are usually aggressive towards us on a daily basis. We are calling on all internationals to join us in this action, to witness our non-violent struggle, and to protest Israel’s ongoing, brutal Occupation.”
Demonstrators will meet on Faisal St. near the Municipality Building at 10:00am. From there, the trees and activists will be transported to the checkpoint. Once the trees are planted, the checkpoint will be blocked, according to Sameh. The action is expected to last approx. 3 hours.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 528 checkpoints and roadblocks were recorded in the West Bank, choking its roads every few miles. Israel’s daily Haaretz newspaper puts the figure even higher: in January there were 75 permanently manned checkpoints, some 150 mobile checkpoints, and more than 400 places where roads have been blocked by obstacles.
Demonstrations against Israel’s 40 year Occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights, are scheduled to take place over the next week, reaching from Hebron to Ramallah, to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and more.
For more info, contact:
ISM Media Office, 0599-943-157, 0542-103-657, 02-297-1824
Memorial posters decorate the walls of the Rafidiya government hospital in Nablus, covering earlier posters of countless young people who have been killed. But this poster is like nothing we have seen before: a fetus covered in its own blood, its tiny head blown up by the bullet that struck its mother, and the caption – “Who gave you the right to steal his life?”
The killing of the unborn child, Daoud, by Israel Defense Forces troops raises a series of moral, legal and philosophical questions. Is the killing of a fetus manslaughter? Is it murder? And how old is the victim? But all these questions are dwarfed by the woman lying stunned and injured in the maternity ward of the hospital in Nablus, in agony, with all kinds of tubes attached to her, refusing to answer a single question.
It is obvious that Maha Katouni is still in a state of trauma. Wounded in the abdomen, she lies in bed, her elderly mother by her side. The tube in her nose makes it hard for her to speak. She is 30 years old and was in the seventh month of pregnancy, a mother who got up in the middle of the night to protect her three small children, sleeping in the other room, from the bullets that were whistling by outside. As soon as she got out of bed, the bullet struck her. Bleeding, she fell on the nightstand by her bed. Maha survived, but Daoud – as she and her husband planned to name their son – was removed from her womb with a bullet wound to the head.
“And babies?” a reporter once asked an American soldier who had taken part in the My Lai massacre in the Vietnam War. His succinct answer was just as chilling as the question. “Babies.” And now, a fetus.
The day before, I had been in Soweto, near Johannesburg, South Africa, accompanied by the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, comparing the horrors of apartheid to the Israeli occupation in the territories. The next afternoon I was here, in the Rafidiya maternity ward, standing before the bed of the wounded Maha, who had lost her baby.
The biggest hospital in the territories is practically deserted, barely functioning. It has been this way for two months now. Like the other hospitals in the West Bank, Rafidiya accepts only emergency cases, because of the economic boycott of the Palestinian Authority, which also prevents the workers here from being paid. Only 20 of the hospital’s 168 beds are currently occupied, and only about a third of the hospital’s 380 staff members show up for work. In the emergency room we saw just one patient, who had arrived that morning. The rest of the beds were empty. In the past two and a half months, the workers have received just NIS 1,500 per person, from funds provided by the European Union.
Hospital director Dr. Khaled Salah says that the staff and patients don’t come to the hospital because of the difficulties in getting to Nablus and the cost of the trip, which has risen significantly because of the checkpoints. The Hawara checkpoint and the Beit Iba checkpoint, the two checkpoints on the city’s outskirts, are relatively deserted, because of the difficulty in getting past them.
Maha lies in bed, her eyes closed. A green headscarf covers her head. Her skin is ashen. Every once in a while she opens her eyes but then quickly closes them again. Once in a while she also murmurs a few words in a feeble voice and then goes quiet again. How are you? Silence. Maha is a resident of the Ein Beit Ilma refugee camp on the outskirts of Nablus. She is married to Rifat, a 36-year-old school janitor, and the couple have three children: Jihad, 10; Jawad, 7; and Jad, 3. Two uncles and her mother watch over her, not budging from her bedside. For the father of the family, it’s too hard to be here. He’s still in shock.
Last Wednesday was an ordinary day in the Katouni household. The father went to work, the kids went to school, and in the evening everyone went to bed – the parents in their bedroom and the three children in their room in the third-floor apartment. Shortly after two in the morning, Maha was startled awake by the loud sounds of gunfire from the street. She didn’t even manage to turn on the light when she got up to run to the kids’ room next door, to reassure her three little boys and keep them from getting scared. The gunfire was very heavy. The window of her room was open and her bed was close to the window.
Maha got out of bed, took one step, and then the bullet struck her in the lower back. She fell onto the nightstand. Another bullet struck the nightstand. Soldiers from the Nahal patrol battalion were standing on the roofs of the surrounding buildings. “Wherever we are sent – to there we go,” the poet Yaakov Orland once wrote in “The Nahal Anthem,” sung by the Nahal entertainment troupe, which also sang “The Song of Peace.”
Rifat rushed to call an ambulance. The children, who had awakened, were hysterical, especially the youngest, 3-year-old Jad, at the sight of the blood trickling from the front and back of their pregnant mother, who lay wounded on the floor. The bullet had struck her from behind, passed through the fetus’ head and the mother’s intestines and exited through the abdomen.
Family members say that about 45 minutes went by before the ambulance from the Medical Relief organization was permitted to approach. In the meantime, Maha’s mother, Umm Ibrahim, tried to leave her home nearby to come to her daughter’s aid. Umm Ibrahim says that when she tried to leave her house there was gunfire; she hurried back inside. “It’s a miracle that I was saved,” says the woman in the white headscarf. She could not reach her injured daughter and would not see her until two hours later, in the hospital.
The pain is written all over Maha’s face. One of her brothers somehow managed to cross the line of fire and get to her house; he tried to stanch the gaping wound in her stomach with a towel. Her husband, Rifat, was paralyzed with shock. Umm Ibrahim says that her son, who tended to Maha, could see through the hole in her abdomen that the fetus had been wounded in the head and was dead.
The gunfire finally subsided at around three in the morning and they were able to take Maha out to the street, carried by her brother and the paramedic from the ambulance that had parked in the nearby alley. The brother says that on the way to the hospital they were stopped twice by soldiers, who wanted to check the wounded woman’s identity and to make sure there were no wanted men hiding in the ambulance. Maha was barely conscious when she reached the hospital, but her mother says she understood right away that she had lost the baby.
The family says the IDF enters the camp nearly every night and that there is almost always gunfire. Umm Ibrahim managed to get to the hospital at four in the morning, when her daughter was in the operating room and the dead fetus had already been removed.
Dr. Ihab Shareideh was the surgeon who was summoned to the hospital in the middle of the night to operate on Maha. He says that her recovery has been more difficult and slower than usual, not only because of her injuries, but because of her traumatized mental state. Fortunately, not many blood vessels were injured, so the delay in getting her to the hospital did not cause further damage. It is too soon to gauge the extent of the damage to her digestive system, or to say whether she will be able to get pregnant again. The fetus died as a result of the bullet that penetrated its brain on the way to the mother’s intestines.
The anesthesiologist, Dr. Iyad Salim, a resident of nearby Hawara, roams the hospital corridors. On his cell phone camera is a video of the operation and the removal of the fetus. So close to being a fully developed baby, with a bullet wound to the head. The memorial poster shows the etus bleeding from the head. The image is unbearable.
They were going to call him Daoud, after an uncle, and also after a resident of the camp who was killed. At home they had everything ready: new clothes, diapers and a crib passed down from his older brothers. Daoud was buried in the camp cemetery. Only a few close family members attended the funeral of the unborn baby.
At press time, no response had been received from the IDF Spokesperson’s Office.
Israeli military using Palestinian population for war games scenario by Malaka 2, 10 May 2007
Beit Leed is a Palestinian village located between the cities of Nablus and Tulkarm. It is a village completely isolated. Whether you are coming from Nablus or Tulkarm, one must cross through a checkpoint, littered with young Israeli soldiers, metal detectors, cages, turnstiles, and lines of people just waiting and waiting and waiting for the Israeli soldiers to let them cross so they can get to their jobs or to take their exams or visit family members.
What has been happening in Beit Leed almost every Wednesday night for the past three months may be nearly unbelievable for many minds of the readers of this entry.
Imagine this: You live in Pennsylvania. Canada comes into your state and sets up these military installations throughout your state. These installations come in the forms of 25 foot high walls, trenches, fences, sniper towers. Then you have checkpoints, armed with Canadian soldiers. Many of them do not speak English but they speak French. And you have to explain to these Canadian soldiers why you want to cross from your Pennsylvanian neighborhood to the next Pennsylvanian neighborhood where your sick Pennsylvanian grandmother lives. Pennsylvania is hot in the summertime. You are caged in with hundreds of other Pennsylvanians, waiting in queue until it is your turn to explain yourself to the Canadian occupiers of your neighborhood. “No Smoking” signs are scattered throughout the cage in which you are waiting. Nerves are up. It’s hot. Soldiers are laughing in an air-conditioned booth and your physics test is already half over because you have been stuck like an animal in this fenced in area.
Now, imagine this as Palestine. This is the Huwara checkpoint leading into the main part of Nablus. Then you reach another one before the village of Beit Leed.
On these Wednesday nights, the Israeli military uses the village and villagers of Beit Leed to practice a war-games scenario. The army has chosen Beit Leed because it resembles Syria or Lebanon. This their practice ground so they don’t have another failed war like last summer’s.
This is what the mayor of Beit Leed had to tell us:
Mayor of Beit Leed
“In our town here in Beit Leed, people live peacefully. Most of the residents here are farmers or workers. They go to bed early because they have to get up early. You go to bed as a father and you wake up early from the screams and the yelling of the soldiers around your house and they scream really loud. They sound like animals and then your kids wake up. And you know that, as a father, you can’t protect your child, you try to comfort your child but you know that you aren’t even secure yourself. So, what do you expect from a child that grows up in this situation and wakes up every night to invasions and gunfire and soldiers going through our homes.”
“And also, I am not against anybody. I am not against Jews or Christians. But I want to ask a question to the western societies… Why is it that when I go to the mosque to pray, I am a terrorist? But when a Jew or a Christian goes to a synagogue or church they are called religious? Why is it that if I grow a beard I am called Hamas but some of you here have beards and you are not called this?”
“I respect all religions. Jews they have their own and I have my own. All these three religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, they all have the same God.”
“Why does the army came here at night to our town? Why do they come to our homes and at night? I believe that in Israel they have open wide areas where they can practice their training. So why do they come here and why at night if they are not here to terrorize people and make people get scared? Why don’t they do it inside Israel or somewhere else but not in a big population of Palestinian people?”
“The fear of the soldiers invading our homes in our town- of them being inside of your home, that at anytime they can come inside your home makes you very scared.”
“The number of traumatized children has increased recently. Usually they wake up at night from nightmares, especially from the recent military training. Also, in the morning, kids prefer to stay at home instead of going to school because they are scared of going outdoors and facing the soldiers. You can imagine that that’s for the kids- but for the old people, like myself, when I want to go to the mosque to pray, I prefer to do it at home. Or to go to work, i prefer to stay here because I am afraid. Imagine if this is how an old person feels, how these little children are feeling.”
“For the Palestinian child, the Israeli soldier is a nightmare to them. And if Israeli really wanted peace, and it is clear that they do not want this, they should at least want to give these young Palestinian a good image about Israel because our children only know these soldiers with a gun and in their nightmares. So, when they grow up, this is the only image they will have of the Israelis in Israel.”
Abandoned Palestinian home that army uses for training
“This training has been going on for almost three months. The army drops the soldiers by helicopters on the top of the hill. And early in the morning around 2 or 3am they invade the village. Of course, the army doesn’t announce anything. They do this because they want the psychological effect to be higher on people, for the Palestinians to be surprised by the army’s presence.”
“We tried to contact some legal organizations. We contacted human rights organizations inside Israel, contacted the Israeli media. There have been some reports on what is happening in our town. But our resources are no many. And the Israeli is above the law. They do not use the law in their invasions. And of course, if they were using the law, they wouldn’t be here. But according to international law it is illegal yet they still come.”
“In response to these reports that have been published about Beit Leed, a military commander has said, ‘The Israeli army has the right to come to the West bank and to trainings in Palestinians towns and villages.'”
. . .
So, with this in mind, with cameras in hand, with fluorescent jackets on our backs, we set out into Beit Leed around midnight to catch this breach of international law on tape.
The winds were strong and it was humid. Some rain arrived and with it went the street lights. Absent from the streets (starting at 10pm) were Palestinians, except for two guides and curious residents who questioned us about why we were there and to tell us their personal stories.
Maybe it was because the army knew we were there. Or maybe it was because the electricity was out and the weather was temper-mental. But the army did not arrive. We headed back to the home where we were staying around 4:30am, tired but ready in case we heard those US-funded jeeps come rolling through the village.
We found out the next day that a small Israeli army regiment actually invaded a nearby Palestinian village near the illegal Israeli settlement of Kedumim.
Regardless, at least Beit Leed had a better night sleep Wednesday night. But just like the army, we’ll be back. They’ll have the war games/state-sponsored terror practice book. We’ll have our cameras and our journals.
And you’ll all be sleeping comfortably. There is not Canadian Occupation. No checkpoints before arriving to work at the hospital. No 18 year old soldiers rummaging through your briefcase before reaching your second grade class where you teach social studies. No walls of Apartheid separating you from your favorite coffee shop across the way.
Tuesday night May 8th, gigantic fireballs could be seen swirling in Askar refugee camp. But wait, it’s not what you’re thinking. The army hasn’t invaded quite yet… It was the Tel Rumeida Circus for Detained Palestinians who had invaded the Askar gymnasium and performed a fire circus for 300 kids from Askar camp.
TRCDP unveiled their new choreographed circus extravaganza to an enthusiastic audience.
T.R.C.D.P. was invited by Hatem Hafi, the manager of the Nablus Center for Arts and Culture. The center teaches Palestinian folklore to children in dabke (traditional Palestinian dance), drama, French, English, painting, music, and more.
Hatem explained some conditions of the camp to the members of the T.R.C.D.P. and their posse. For example,13,000 Palestinian refugees in Askar are housed on 2.5 square kilometers of land. “At night, usually around 11 or 12, the army comes in and damages doors, and shoots at will. We don’t want money from the EU or the USA, we want time to live a good life, to be able to sleep at night.” Hatem has a one month old baby and says the baby cries when the army comes in and shoots.
“All societies work towards change, but Palestinians can’t because of the occupation,” he told us. There is a swimming pool for the camp, but right next to the pool is a checkpoint and people are afraid to go swim there because of its close proximity to the checkpoint. At this point, Hatem pointed out the sounds of a party outside. “They are having a party now, but they are not thinking about the party, because when it is over, the occupation will continue.”
Mural by French artist inside Old Askar refugee camp
Hatem continued, “If you tour the West Bank, you’ll see the occupation’s effects on kids.” A study by the Gaza Community Health Programs found the rate of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among Palestinian children showed that 54% suffered from severe PTSD, 33.5 % from moderate and 11 % from mild and doubtful levels of PTSD. Some symptoms of PTSD include restlessness, insomnia, aggressiveness, depression, dissociation, emotional detachment, and nightmares.
Besides PTSD, there are of course physical injuries. Like Jamil, the son of Abu Ashdi who was shot twice in the face by the Israeli army. Jamil lived but he’s completely lost his sense of smell. The family wants to take him out of the country for better medical attention but because eight members of his family are in jail, the Israeli government won’t grant the family permits to leave the West Bank. Abu Ashdi asked us if we knew of any human rights organizations which could help. We suggested Doctors Without Borders, but apparently they had already tried and had no luck.
Suddenly we were reminded of the reality of the occupation ourselves when Hatem warned us we should leave soon because the army would be invading shortly and we would not want to be caught in their line of fire.
TRCDP was born when two members of the ISM began performing a circus routine for detained Palestinians at checkpoints.
Stated goals of the TRCDP are:
1) Entertain Palestinians who are detained at checkpoints
2) De-escalate tense situations where Israeli soldiers are abusing Palestinians
3) Un-detain Palestinians by the previous stated goals
4) Perform circus shows for Palestinian children who are otherwise deprived of a normal, safe, and happy childhood
Israeli army detains Palestinian shepherds near Nablus by Ghassan Bannoura, 26 April 2007
The Israeli army detained a group of Palestinian shepherds for several hours south of Nablus city in the northern part of the West Bank on Thursday.
Local sources reported that a group of Palestinian shepherds were herding their sheep on farm land that belongs to Qariot village south of Nablus. Soldiers came from the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Aeli and detained the shepherds for some time. Troops then took the shepherds to the settlement and held them there for four hours. The shepherds were released after a group of international solidarity and human rights workers intervened and managed to convince the soldiers to release the shepherds.
Israeli army kidnaps five civilians from Nablus by Ghassan Bannoura 26 April 2007
The Israeli army kidnapped five civilians during a pre-dawn invasion of the northern West Bank city of Nablus and the nearby Balata refugee camp on Thursday.
A massive Israeli force stormed the city and the refugee camp, searched scores of houses and ransacked them. Before leaving the city troops abducted five men, among them were; Ala Kiali, Samih Al Hohe, and Mohamed Marahiel, 18, all were taken to unknown detention camps.
Local sources stated that resistance fighters from the city targeted the invading army force with home made bombs. The Israeli army reported no injures among its troops that invaded the city.
In the meantime Israeli army radio reported that Israeli troops invaded several West Bank cities and kidnapped at least 15 Palestinian civilians. The radio added that the kidnapping was concentrated in the cities of Nablus, Ramallah and Bethlehem.
The army claim was the usual, that the kidnapped are ‘Wanted Palestinians’, in the meantime Palestinian sources said that all who taken by the army are civilians. The deffinition of ‘Wanted Palestinian’ is not clear due to the Israeli authorities’ policies of collective punishment and obtainment of ‘intelligence’ through torture.
