A R C H I V E S
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Update on Palestine from International there |
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| yunus |
| 07/20/02 at 15:07:53 |
| 1-Occupation Forces Blow Up Homes and Arrest 25 Family Members, Nablus Israeli Occupation Military forces at dawn today blew up 4 homes in Balata and Askar refugee camps and nearby Tel village and arrested families of wanted Palestinians and those who carried out operations against Israel with an aim of exiling them to Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers arrested around 25 civilians, mostly from Asida and al- Ajouri families, in preparation for exile. In Askar refugee camp, Israeli occupation soldiers blew up the home of al-Ajouri family, before arresting all family members. 4 surrounding homes were also completely demolished in the process and at least 10 other houses damaged. Two homes were demolished in Tel town, west of Nablus. A large number of Israeli military forces invaded the town at 11:00 pm last night, imposed a curfew on the residents and besieged 3 homes that belong to the Asida family. These homes and surrounding homes were evacuated and members of Zeidan and Asida families arrested (13 people). Before withdrawing from the village at 4:00 am, Israeli soldiers blew up the Asida family home. The ancient house was turned into rubble. Dozens of surrounding homes were also damaged in the attack. 4-Away from the gunfire...... This week we have heard of the two Palestinian attacks on Isrealis resulting in the deaths of ten people. However, the 43 deaths of Palestinians over the past three weeks has not been considered newsworthy. Away from the gunfire, a psychological warfare is being waged. Where the occupation imposing curfews, roadblocks and checkpoints deny Palestinians their basic human needs such as the distribution of food, medical supplies and education. Contravening International Law under the Geneva Convention. I have returned from Deir Ibzya, a small village near Ramallah consisting of 1500 people. Deir Ibzya is easy to fall in love with. Set in the mountains, surrounded by rolling hills,which on a clear day you can see the light bouncing off the sea all the way in Tel Aviv. It is hard to imagine that only two weeks ago, this village had the physical presence of tanks, APC's and soldiers looming over the hills, suffocating Deir Ibzya's economy and threatening its people. The infrastructure of Deir Ibzya's economy relies on it quick and easy access to Ramallah. However, what used to be a 15 minute drive to Ramallah, is now thanks to the checkpoints and roadblocks- a 4 hour journey. The imposition of the curfew renders mobility between Deir Ibzya and Ramallah obsolete. This has many harsh effects on the livelihood of Deir Ibzya, as people can't get to work, thus they have no money. Food is even more difficult to distribute, thus it costs more money. The repercussions of immobility know no end, from the small details of not obtaining any chicken feed, resulting the death of the trade of meat and eggs, as well as contributing to the lack of food. To the diminishing hope of the inhabitants under the occupation, whose morale sinks lower and lower, as they live under the constant fear of attack starvation and imprisonment in their own homes. Blackouts are common, either due to the electricity supply being cut off, or the generators being so old yet the village is unable to replace. Isreali aircraft adds to the terror, as F16's become a regular occurance, and the sound of gunshots in other towns carry over the hills. To heighten the isolation of this small village, are the illegal settlements that surround Deir Ibzya on two adjacent sides. In my time there I was involved in a summer camp, catering for anything up to 150-250 children. The summer camp was arranged by a local man named Deeb Kamal, and provided English lessons,Art classes, Sports, Dancing and singing sessions. I had the good fortune of taking the art class, which consisted of 25-30 kids between the ages of 11-15. It was the most rewarding experience of my whole life. I wanted the kids to create some images of how they felt about Palestine, if possible to explore their feelings in a context of hope and not suffering. On the first day, I set the project 'What I love about Palestine'. I managed to communicate this idea without the help of a translator, it took a lot of gesticulating and physical demonstrations before anyone knew what to do. However, once these kids understood the project- nothing could stop them. they were bursting at the seams with creative energy. I got beautiful images of mountains, trees, rivers and seas with fishes, and candles inscribed with the word 'peace'. Its hard to imagine that just two weeks before this, they were not even allowed to leave the house. Deeb Kamal, the director of the camp claimed that before this was set up you would rarely catch any of these village children smile. It is clear to me that these kids had a desperate need for expression, as once they understood the project they we're so self directed. They produced some amazingly colourful images of what they idealised about Palestine, although there were a few images of refugee camps with people carrying shahid's (those killed by Isreali's). I didn't quite know what to say about these.Another project that was given to this class was to create an image of how they idealise themselves in the future. These kids have dreams just like the rest of us- I saw images of dentists, doctors and art teachers- to name a few. It is so clear to me that all these kids need is a chance. The situation they are finding themselves in is abysmal. they are being deprived of their basic needs. Their education is constantly undermined by the occupation. This is particularly evident when the IDF broke into a school to vandalise.* The small village is further isolated by surrounding illegal settlements. During my stay in Deir Ibzya there was another blackout, which coincided with the helicopters settling over Ramallah and the sound of firing. The next day, I discovered that occurances like that were part of these peoples every day lives. They were so accustomed to the sound of attack they didn' t seem to notice or surprise them anymore. Although the tanks have left the hills of Deir Ibzya, occasionally soldiers still pass through the village, fuelling peoples sense of feeling unsafe within their own homes. Under the occupation people are unable to live their lives. The most they can do is sit at home and panic. When they chance on watching the news, it is they who are being portrayed as the persecutors, further isolating them from the rest of the world. This is why an international presence, such as the ISM have such significant implications. As it denies the IDF to persecute whilst the world isn't watching. It also helps to boost the morale of the Palestinian people, many of which believe the world is against them.It seems that there is a difference between knocking people down and keeping them down. The Isreali's have succeeded in breaking Palestinian morale, now what they are striving to achieve using psychological warfare is leaving them with no hope. In the many interviews I had taken, when asked 'What hope do you have for the future?', the answer is always negative. Even when the physical presence of the soldiers are not there, Palestinian people are forced to live under its shadow. *This is described in more detail In the interview with Nadia Ayesha 5-Update from Cathy I wanted to share with you a few of the beautiful letters written by the children of Deir Ibzya Summer Camp to penpals in the United States. The children wrote the first sentences of their letters in English and then wrote a message in Arabic which we translated to English. with love and hope for peace in Palestine, Cathy Letter from Latfa. My name is Latfa. I am 12 years old. I like to swim. I am in 6th grade. I feel very happy now because the internationals are beside us. And we shall miss them and I hope they will please visit us again. I want to tell them thank you very much all of you and I hope you will come again to visit my village. I thank you very much. Letter from Diana Greetings in God's name. My name is Diana. I am 12 years old. I like to swim. I am in 6th grade. I was very sad when the Israelis came into our land. We cannot make anything. But when the internationals came, I am very happy. They want us to forget the sadness in our lives and to laugh and play. Our friends such as Wendy, John, Arla, Cathy, Seth, Ola and I thank my Uncle Deeb for making the summer camp in our village so we will forget the sadness in our hearts and laugh and play again. You make us happy. Thanks to my Uncle Deeb. I will never forget him. I thank you three times for making the summer camp. It is very good and it makes us very happy. Thank you. Letter from Alaa My name is Alaa and I am 12 years old and I like to swim. I am in 6th grade. I am very happy when I hear that the internationals are coming. We are learning with them very much. And we are playing many games and it is wonderful. WE are happy for the first time since the occupation in our village. And when we were sleeping we heard the sound of bullets from the armored vehicles. But now we are forgetting the sound of the bullets from the armored vehicles and we are thinking of the summer camp and forgetting the occupation of our village. And I am very happy because I see the smiles on the children's lips. Letter from Safia My name is Safia. I am 12 years old. I like to swim. I am in sixth grade. I love you. The children of the Palestinian people are very sad because of the occupation by the Israelis. But after this summer camp we are now very happy because of our uncle Abu Ferraz (Deeb Kamal) and the internationals. They come from all over the world. I hope my Uncle Abu Ferrz will please make the summer camp every year. And I thank my Uncle Deeb from all my heart. And I thank the internationals. The summer camp is beautiful. I thank you very much. Letter from Raghda. My name is Raghda. I am 13 years old. I like to Intifada. I am in 8th grade. I am a Palestinian Child. I live in Deir Ibzya. We are the children of Palestine. We send this to all the children of the world and especially American children. We tell you here about our tragic situation in the shade of an unfair occupation who doesn't know the word mercy. The Second Terrorist After Bush (Sharon) kills the children, arrests the men, humiliates women, demolishes houses, destroys trees, pollutes the air, steals the goods of the country and has the movement of the citizens in his hands. He besieges the cities and villages since a year. WE can't see our relatives and friends. Who needs something has to walk many meters on foot over the mountains to reach the main road. There he might find the army, who sends him back to the place he came from. So he has to go back after a long suffering. The army shoots fire on the people so a Palestinian can be killed in seconds. The feelings of the Palestinian children are sad in the shade of Israeli terror. The child can't play and laugh like all the children of the world. He can't reach any amusement places. Our rights are taken from us. The tears are in our eyes. The ears listen to the sounds of guns and bombs. The eyes see blood and the legs run away from soldiers. The hands treat the injured people. We ask American kids to help us, because we asked the adults but they didn't listenn. We hope that you hear our call for help and help us. We believe that we'll get our rights back some day. We thank everyone who tried to help us, especially Mr. Jon Jackson. Thank you very much. 6-Update from Penny (returned 7/16) Hi everyone, I am getting ready to fly home very late tonight, but just wanted to let you know about my last week or so....and many thanks to Seth for sending out reports for me! I just heard that F-16's bombed Khan Younis last night, sounds like very near where we were. Getting out of the southern part of Gaza, Rafah and Khan Younis, was another whole experience. The 2 of us who were leaving that day arrived with our driver at the checkpoint at 7:30am, but it was already closed. We went up to the soldiers, passports in hand, who were high up in their guardtower with guns pointed; they said the checkpoint would open in 1/2 hour, but they didn't open it for 2 hours. Imagine a sea of cars -- taxis, donkey carts, garbage trucks, trucks with chickens, individual cars -- all swarming to cram thru the 2-lane dirt road. The gate lifts, it's a mad dash, much honking, then boom! after only about 40 cars are let through, the gate comes down again. Wait 5-10 minutes, the gate goes up, cars cram through, maybe 20 this time, the gate comes down, another wait, etc. On and on, infuriating, humiliating, degrading....and tho they say this is all for security, they never stop a car, never check any ID's, never look inside a car or truck. So it is clear that this is all about power and control, nothing about security. I spoke with Jeff Halper, from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (they are having a weekend the end of July to rebuild Palestinian homes in East JErusalem), and he spoke at length about Sharon's plan for a Palestinian statelet in Gaza, and that the only difference between that and Labor's plan, is that Labor's plan for a Palestinian state would include some of the West Bank as well. But both states would only have limited 'autonomy', would still be under Israeli control, governed by US puppets. I know this is not new info to us, but it was chilling to hear it. Jeff urged our NGO's to play a stronger role in calling for an end to Occupation; he also supports various boycott and divestment campaigns of Israeli goods UNTIL THE OCCUPATION ENDS. He was also enthusiastic about the new campaign in the US against Caterpillar bulldozers, the 2-story tall machines which demolished Jenin. He believes we should boycott academic conferences in Israel, but not prevent Israeli academics from going to international conferences (this is anti-intellectual) - - but that professional associations should confront Israeli academics. I had an inspiring meeting with Amneh Badran of the Jerusalem Center for Women, the partner of Bat Shalom, (who together are the Jerusalem Link) inspiring to hear her say in the midst of all the curfews and re-occupation, "There is a peace partner on the other side, women can provide an alternative approach to peacemaking." She advocates for a win-win strategy rather than one of compromise. The Jerusalem Link are working to build a joint women's movement for peace, both as Palestinian and Israeli women, and as a larger movement to involve women worldwide. Everyone is talking about the Knesset's plan (not finalized yet as far as i know) to pass a law making it illegal for Jews to sell land to anyone but other Jews -- i'm sure you have heard about this. Former Knesset member Shulamit Aloni said that Israel is a democracy for Jews -- just like South Africa was a democracy for white people.... I also am hearing more and more about the new Israeli women's movement, Women Refuse -- how they are finding different ways "to refuse to be part of what's going on", whether by boycotting products made in settlements, refusing to go into the army, refusing to say there is no partner for peace. Each individual woman finds what it is she can refuse, so i think it's a powerful way to involve many women, including those who are not inclined to go to demonstration. I also spent time with my friends Anna and Leon in Tel Aviv, Anna is on my dissertation committee. They go to the peace demonstrations and collect humanitarian aid for Palestinians -- and they also told me "wherever we walk, the suicide bombings are always in our minds. Whenever we see 15 people in line, we think 'this is a good target.' Their 8 year old son Neder cries when they leave him to go out to the movies, he is afraid they won't make it back home, "the uncertainty that at any moment you could go out and not come back." They also told me that "people believe (progressives) that if we continue like this, we're not going to have a country -- that in 50 years, we won't exist." One of the most powerful experiences i've had this trip inside israel was going to an event organized by New Profile for young would-be refuseniks. There were about 50 of them (in jerusalem) of high school age, including some who signed the letter last fall saying they would refuse to serve (over 170 signed this letter), and some who have already served prison time for refusing to serve -- very inspiring. Apparently they are writing a new letter for others to sign this September.....Since January, over 100 Israelis have served jail time for refusing to serve in the army. I learned in much more depth what a huge deal it is to refuse -- what an enormous expenditure of time and energy and anxiety and angst to go thru this process. I was moved to see a few mothers at this event with their sons, supporting their sons -- and there were young women here as well. I was honored that my friend Rela Mazali asked me to speak at the beginning about some of my experiences in Gaza and Ramallah -- and afterwards several young men came up and thanked me for what i said - - including one young man in his army uniform and gun slung over his back. He came up and called me by name, gave me a huge smile, and said that for him, my talk was one of the most powerful of the evening. And that he now wanted to go to Gaza to see for himself (and i understood this to be NOT as a soldier, but as a witness of sorts...). I was totally shocked, and just managed to thank him and ask for his name (Moshe). Later Rela told me that he had not spoken to anyone else that evening (his brother had brought him) or given his name or signed their sign-in sheet. So, that was another revealing of complexities, of zapping some of my assumptions.... My friend Terry from Bat Shalom has given to me so much of her time, both allowing me to process my experience with her, and to share her own thinking -- it's an amazing and generous gift, because her own schedule is so packed. She believes it's important that when we talk to the liberal to mainstream jewish community in the U.S. about ending Occupation, that it is important not to take shortcuts, to allow the process to sound too smooth or comfortable -- that we need to be clear that for everyone it is going to be very painful, and at a high expense -- but then, it already is, this is the only way to peace, we simply have no other choice.... I spent 2 days in Nablus with ISM (int. solidarity movement), where we were once again welcomed so warmly by palestinians in teh streets, who all wanted to greet us, interact, speak and be listened to. I cannot emphasize enough how strongly i hear the message over and over just how poor people are -- it is worse than ever before. They have no jobs, no money, and so many do not have enough to eat. Plus there are the daily curfews, tanks rolling through the streets....I remember nablus as a city teeming with people and shops, similar to the Old City of East Jerusalem -- only now under curfew it is like a ghost town -- very eerie -- because most people are afraid to be out on the streets during curfew. I simply cannot imagine living like this, day after day. And yet, every day around 4pm, the light became very beautiful in this mountainous town, the air cooled, and children would appear on rooftops and even in the streets, flying their kites. It was so beautiful, hopeful in a way, indicative of a high-flying spirit that prevails here.... I entered Nablus with a group of young ISM'ers from Sweden, and although there was no curfew at that time, the soldiers would not let us pass thru the 2nd checkpoint. So for 2 hours we were waiting by the side of the road in the hot sun, trying to negotiate with teh soldiers. I have had a LOT of experience this trip negotiating with soldiers....Learning from Huwaida (the ISM leader in ramallah), i try to stay calm, ask open-ended questions, look at them directly in a human way. AT the Nablus checkpoint, one of them really connected with me -- he looked at me intensely and at one point said, "I want you to get through, i believe in what you are doing." We had told them we were healthworkers trying to get to the hospital for a meeting -- and i suspect he felt that we were peaceworkers as well. Finally after much patience and persistence, we were given the ok to walk through -- and this soldier crossed to road to come say goodbye to me and shake my hand and wish me well.... 2 high points in Nablus: 1) spending time with Neta Golan who is the ISM leader there, and some of you remember from her work trying to protect olive trees from demolition, or delivering milk powder to children under curfew in Bethlehem, or acting as a human shield in arafat's compound in april. She constantly has a cellphone to her ear, directing ISM'ers (she gave us advice as we were struggling to get thru the checkpoint) or speaking with palestinians (she is israeli-canadian, is fluent in arabic, english and hebrew). Just walking down the street with her, everyone comes up to greet her, tell her their problems, from very early morning to very late at night. She is the embodiment of commitment, as well as warmth and humanity and courage -- and humility. And getting to my 2nd high point there 2) she began to lead us in "Free Palestine" chants at teh beginning of our solidarity march with Pallestinians, to break the curfew, the 3rd of these in 3 weeks. WE were close to 100 total, half palestinian and half internationals, as we marched through the Old City and into the rest of Nablus, wtih many signs, from "2 million under curfew, end the occupation" to "women for peace, against occupation," to "the whole worlld is watching" (my sign!), and others in arabic, "We have a right to food, we have a right to education, we have a right to move freely, we have the right to work," etc. There were press there, and the next day my friend Siham in jerusalem told me my picture was in teh arab paper (al quds!). As i was leaving Nablus, we heard reports that tanks and helicopters were descending on Al Farah refugee camp outside Jenin, and ISMers began the 3 hour walk there to act as human shields -- including a man and woman from the michigan peace team who appeared to be in their late 60's or 70's. Such an amazing diversity of people from around the world who are drawn to this work. I am out of time and need to end this, but need to also tell you briefly about going to Jenin. My friend Zakaria drove us there for the day, he is the person who helped guide the women's peace delegations i lead in the early 90's....Even after hearing all the reports, seeing some of the photos, i was completely unprepared for the devastation....just mountains and mountains and mountains of rubble --very much reminded me of post-earthquake scenes. I felt i was walking through a graveyard. On the sand beneath our feet, part of a sewing machine, video tape, a child's shoe. Above us half of a house remaining, a couch hanging out of it. A smashed wheelchair. As we walked and saw wires coming out of the ground, one of the palestinians with us said "we are walking on the 2nd story of a house." Unbelievable. There are no words. Prayers in hebrew started going through my head. And then, from Babi Yar, "Let no one forget, let nothing be forgotten." And the graffiti on walls: "Liberty or death, We will not leave", "we will not forget, we will not forgive." We had tea in a house overlooking the center of teh devastation --we sat in a 'lliving room' which only had 2 walls remaining -- so as we sat, we looked out on the wreckage and rubble, there was no wall or window between us.... Over 800 homes were fully or partially destroyed, and tanks continue to roll in here, people continue to be arrested, to be shot. My friend Hanan, a Palestinian-Israeli woman lawyer, spent many many days here in April, interviewing people. She has still not recovered from the experience. She said, "I'll never forget this, i'll be telling my children, i lost 3 kilos of weight...I am against the attacks on Israeli civilians -- but all the media protests that, where is the media about all the palestinians who are dying? Is the blood of Palestinians so cheap?" She told me of a man in Nablus who lost 8 family members (90 people were killed in Nablus in april/may, actually more than in jenin). The bulldozer destroyed his house and didn't give them the chance to leave. Underneath the rubble they found his sister carrying one child, and another sister carrying another....She spoke with one man who was found under the rubble alive. He said the last thing he heard was from his grandchildren crying "grandfather we are so hungry,w e want to eat." He said that when the rescuers found him, he thought he had died and that they were angels." All for now my friends, thanks for reading this, i will be back in oakland (inshallah, God willing) by wednesday the 17th-- love and peace to you all, penny |
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