When last I wrote, Jenin was under curfew and Muhammad Ott was laid to rest under the ground.

We returned to the camp for the night, tired from a long day. At 5am, we heard tanks and some shooting and shortly thereafter, helicopters encircled the camp. For an hour in the dark we sat and listened and watched. As dawn broke we found the camp occupied by hundreds of foot soldiers, tanks and jeeps, with 3 Apache helicopters, 1 Huey helicopter and a drone spy plane overhead.

Unsure about the goals of the invasion, we moved to a neighbors roof where we watched movements and talked more on the phone to other people in the camp.

After walking around for about an hour and following leads from people talking through windows and from conversations on the phone, we learned that the main army concentration was in the northeast corner of the camp where they were moving house to house and arresting people.

The camp is built on a hill and we walked toward the area where the soldiers were concentrated. We approached the street where they were arresting people, turned a corner and saw an empty jeep and an open door in front of us as well as many soldiers along the street. The soldiers up the street pointed their guns at us and yelled to leave so stayed at just around the corner out of their sight.

A jeep and a larger troop carried arrived next to us with about 15 soldiers and German shepherds. They threatened us, called one woman a prostitute and we moved back down the street and into a house with a partial view of the occupied street. We watched as troop carriers left and more troops and more jeeps and more tanks arrived.

We saw many men taken out of their houses, blind folded and bound. We heard that they were rounding all of the men in the area up in the street and that all of the women and children were in another house.

Snipers took positions in many houses in the area and began shooting continuously for about 30 minutes.

A family from the street came running from the area and into the house. He told about the arrests and how the army beat him with their guns, smashed his car and threw a grenade into his horse stable.

Based upon their behavior, speculation from the people in the area and that one of the houses was the house of a martyr, everyone suspected that the objective of the operation was to explode this house if not a number of houses in the area.

At abut 3pm, the army began to pull out and we braced for the explosion, but the people who were detained came out into the streets and said that they would not explode the house. We went to the street alive with their release and angered at the operation. We learned that a number of people were arrested including the martyrs father and two sons.

We saw an old man whose foot was broken by the soldiers during the detention.

A woman international who was able to get to where the women were detained said that the operation was an arrest of a major Hamas leader and the one youth was arrested who didn’t have his ID (haweeya). Because he was arrested at the same time and didn’t have his ID, his family was worried that he would be held for a long time. They asked some of us to go to the detention center called Salem with a copy of his ID so that the soldiers would have it.

Two of us walked the streets to find a curfew defying taxi that would take us to Salem. After walking about 15 minutes we found one and we sped toward Salem. He dropped us off about 100 meters away from the checkpoint and we walked into the checkpoint looking for someone who could direct us. Surprisingly, no one seemed interested in two scruffy foreigners walking amidst the tanks and jeeps. We finally found someone who said that the people who were arrested in Jenin were no there. We asked to talk to the DCO (District Coordinating Officer) who works to coordinate security with the PA and with the community. We walked to where they pointed us and found ourselves talking to a polite guy in window 3 who said again that they weren’t there and that the PA counterpart to the DCO would have to call from Jenin and that the process might take a few days. We asked if they could find where he was taken and they said no. We asked if there were any other places we could check they said no. We left and returned to Jenin to learn that the arrested were in Salem and that youth without the ID had been released.

We learned after everything was over that the operation was to arrest Sheik Jamal a main Hamas leader in the Jenin Area. He had apparently returned that night after having been outside the camp for many months. Soldiers apparently arrived to the house at about 2am, obviously because of a spy. They searched a house, didn’t find him and began to interrogate the family in the house. The soldiers were threatening that the whole neighborhood would be destroyed my an F-16 if he was not found. There was one who said that the sons were tortured to find his location, others said that someone close to him was a spy. Either way, in the morning time, neighbors heard a call from the radio to look in the kitchen at which point they went into the kitchen and removed a number of tiles in the floor to reveal his hiding place.

The soldiers arrested him along with the father and brothers in the house, bound them, stripped them to their underwear and beat them in the street. Sheik Jamal has only 1 arm, so they ripped a hole in his underwear and handcuffed him to his underwear to beat him.

Sheik Jamal was a well loved person and had done many things for the people in the camp. Even though he was constantly in hiding, he was able to know which families needed help in the camp and anonymously gave them the things they needed.

He is charged with orchestrating hundreds of operations against israel and will probably serve life in prison without parole regardless of whether he was actually involved or not.

When last I wrote you, the situation had quieted down as if the zionist beast was sleeping (at least here in Jenin). But the quiet is sometimes worse than military presence because of the uncertainty of what is to come.

There was no official curfew in Jenin yesterday. In the morning the market was bustling and in good spirits with people happy to see each other and to be out. As evening approached, many people were sitting out in Harat Sharkia (Eastern Neighborhood), an area in the east part of Jenin – smoking argeela, drinking tea, playing cards.

A tank entered the street immediately firing on the crowd. Two were injured and the people ran for their lives. Some youth got their guns and made a resistance to the presence of the tanks and one was shot in the process. He lay in the street with the tank staring down upon him. His friend, Muhammad Hatem Ott, saw his comrade in danger, tried to pull him in off the street and was killed in the process.

Muhammad Aot was a fighter with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (Katayeb Al-Aqsa) and was loved by many people. All of the movements quickly joined in a march to carry his body to the hospital and the night was filled with shouts and grieving and gunfire.

We awoke at about 7:30 the next morning to hear tank movement and some gunfire. We got out and walked the streets to ensure that people who did not know about curfew weren’t gunned down (especially children whose school years has recently started). We continued to hear tank movement and gunfire. 3 were injured on the east side of the city. We went to the hospital to find a middle aged mad shot in the leg and foot, a 16 year old shot in the leg and a 12 year old shot in the knee.

Despite curfew and tank fire, hundreds of people came to the house of Muhammad Ott in the morning to be with his family. We arrived at the house around 10am, walked past about 100 youth in the alley outside the house and joined about 70 men sitting in the yard in silence, listening to pieces of the Qur’an played on loud speakers. There was a steady stream of people who came to console the family and to prepare for the funeral.

As we waited, we heard tank fire in the city and that a women was shot in the leg.

We sat for about an hour until the body arrived to the house in an ambulance. The body was carried to the house by his friends and was received by his female relatives who said prayers and kissed him.

The funeral procession started down the alley and into the street with about 500 people in attendance. The body was placed next to a wall on the street and we lined up to say a short prayer.

The march continued down the street, touching the beginning of the commercial area of the city and turning up and into the graveyard. He was laid in the grave, prayers were made and he was covered with earth as friends and leaders made speeches.

The tanks remain around the city and most things are closed except for this lone internet cafe and hopefully somewhere to eat a lil something.

Inhumanity, Hamra Checkpoint and Yamun

Last Friday, we left Jerusalem in the morning for Jenin, the northern most city in the west bank, via the highway along the Jordanian border. We arrived in the early afternoon and were just sitting down to meet people when we learned that there was a taxi driver in trouble south of Jenin.

On Thursday, 16 August, Abdel Hamid and a friend were driving on a back road to avoid closure when they were stopped by soldiers on a dirt road that runs along the fence of the Male Efraim settlement. The soldiers took his identification card, the keys to his car and deflated two of his tires with a knife. They told him to stay there and they left. He was stuck between checkpoints in an area dominated by settlements without an ID, no food or water and flat tires. When we heard of the situation he had been stuck next to the settlement for almost 40 hours, had spent the night next to the settlement fence and was extremely worried about what would happen.

Our first reaction was to get a car and go to him, but we soon realized that in order to do that we would need a car and the only cars available were driven by Palestinians who could not go to the place and were at great risk of repression even if they were accompanied by internationals. We tried to contact israeli organizations to get an israeli, but it was fruitless. We tried to call the Palestinian Authority to do negotiations, but nothing came from it. Finally, we called the driver and asked if any of his friends were willing to risk going with us. We bought food and water and two of his friends picked us up in a taxi with new tires.

As night fell we approached the Hamra checkpoint, 5 internationals and two Palestinians to negotiate the relief of the two stranded, starving people near the settlement. Our plan was to use our international citizenship, especially the Americans, to kiss their ass and hope to accomplish our goal.

No Palestinians are supposed to travel through this checkpoint unless they have permission. At night, the only people passing were in Trucks who probably worked for business collaborators and had special permission to bring products into the cities for sale. The only civilian cars we saw were the occasional Mercedes, most likely collaborators or spies. Our drivers were noticeably nervous as were our support people in Jenin who urged us not to go because it was extremely dangerous, especially at night.

The soldiers stopped the car and asked the drivers in Hebrew what they were doing. After they checked their IDs they turned to us.

“what are you doing here?”
“we heard that our friend is stuck without tires and we are bringing him new ones”
“Why are you with these people? You can’t trust them, they aren’t your friend’s, they will stab you in the back”
“….he has been very good to us and we want to help him…”
“where are you from?”
“many places, America…”
“where in America?”
“New York…Brooklyn…”
“Why are you here? New York is a beautiful place, no shooting, no Arabs”
“….”
“Can we pass? What’s the problem”
“Where are you staying?”
“American university in Zebabdeh (Christian area)”
“What are you doing there? tourists?”
“uh…yea…can we pass?”
“you can go, but the Arabs cannot go with you.”
“how are we supposed to get there then? should we walk and carry the tires?”
“we have to call the commander, wait here….you can wait in the car”

We waited for about 40 minutes before a big open jeep arrived with about 6 soldiers, two M60 automatic machine guns mounted on each side. The soldiers approached the taxi, questioned the driver, checked his ID and searched the car. The commander, a young Arab or Druze israeli, asked us the same questions again.

“you know this area is very dangerous” he said.
“We know, we are very worried for our friend”
“your friend is almost dead” another soldier said.
“we are worried, we want to bring his new tires”
“i shot at him”
“why”
“he didn’t stop”
“if he did something wrong, if he was in a place where he wasn’t supposed to be, why is he not under arrest and in jail?”
“i almost killed him” he said with a proud smirk.
“can we go?”
“you can go, but if all of you don;t return” said the commander, pointing to the driver, “i will kill this man, i will put him in jail for a long time”
He gave the driver the keys to the car but took his ID.

With the opportunity we moved quickly to Abdel and his friend. We drove for about 15 minutes, passing close to the Mekhera settlement and finally to a man in the road who guided us up a dirt road to the taxi. The two were glad to see us and immediately went to work on the tires. Once the tires were on, we had to return to the checkpoint to get the IDs back.

We had some problems with the tires and had to stop along the road a few times to adjust them but finally returned to the checkpoint at about 11pm. We approached the soldiers as a caravan of three with the internationals in the front so that none would not be killed for the lack of our presence. As the cars entered the checkpoint, Abdels car approached along with us but despite the obvious fact that they were expecting us, Abdel was greeted with shouts, running and cocked guns. The situation calmed down and we were allowed to pass leaving Abdel behind. Uneasy about the situation but with no other choice, we passed the checkpoint and waited. A few minutes later we got a call from Abdel phone that the car was stalled and that we had to return to push it. We tentatively started the car and reapproached the checkpoint, passing waiting cars and hoping to God that the soldiers on this side knew what the reason for our approach was about. We got to the middle of the checkpoint, got out and went to help push the car. We got the car rolling and started and through the checkpoint, much to the entertainment of the soldiers who sat and laughed. Abdel, his friend and all of us were relieved and proceeded back toward Jenin through the night.

Word was that two soldiers had been injured and the situation was really dangerous for us and especially our Palestinian friends. Tanks and jeeps were in the town as usual and at night they don’t know the difference between an arab and and international, all are targets for death. So we went to Yamun, a suburb of Jenin to stay the night. We stayed in a tall building in Yamun and from the roof we could see the lights of Haifa and other israeli towns.

In the morning, on our way back to Jenin, we stopped briefly to see a recently destroyed house of the family of a martyr who made an operation against a checkpoint near Net Sarim. The pattern of attack on the family of Nimer Abu-Sifen mirrored the other houses we had visited. 8 jeeps arrived with many soldiers, gave the family of 11 a short tme to evacuate and explode the house, damaging all of the neighbors houses in the process.

Jenin Camp (Muhaiyem Jenin)

Jenin has stood in peoples minds and in the media as a mythic place since the April invasions. The destruction in Jenin is like none in the occupied territories. There was a total shoot to kill curfew for over two weeks as bulldozes destroyed hundreds of houses, many with the people in them. Dead bodies were left in the sun for weeks and the stench remained for many weeks afterwards.

During the attack, over 500 homes were leveled and 800 were rendered uninhabitable, leaving over 3000 people homeless. The preliminary Israeli estimate by Shimon Peres was 500 dead. This number has since decreased steadily to about 60 people. Palestinians think more, but it has been difficult to know.

Al Jazeera broadcast images of the rotting bodies that were not permitted to be buried and the bulldozers that ran 24 hours a day burning people alive. There were also report of Refrigerator trucks taking bodies from the streets and mass graves by the border with Jordan on military controlled land. The account from one soldier who was driving one of the bulldozers was published in the israeli newspaper Ha’aretz – he was constantly drunk throughout the operation, but proud of his deeds.

When Colin Powell made his trip to the middle east in early April, he took two weeks to arrive. His first stop was Morocco, where he was greeted my 2 million protesters and the king asked him why he was in Morocco and not in Jerusalem. When he finally reached tel aviv, he met with israeli government representatives, didn’t even go to the territories let alone to Jenin and declared that a massacre had not happened in Jenin camp.

The United Nations delegation in April was prevented from conducting an investigation.

Following the invasion 5 children have been killed from unexploded munitions and gas tanks in the rubble and 15 others have been severely injured.

We visited the camp, on Saturday August 17th in the late afternoon, more than 4 months later.

The camp on the surface is much like many of the other refugee camps in Palestine, about 10,000 people crowded into homes made from cinder block. The people had been refugees from many towns, lived in tents for a while, worked in israel in construction, factories or in Saudi or the gulf to built a decent home for their families as they continually lost hope of returning to their homelands.

As we entered the camp from the west, we noticed massive damage from tank rounds and apache missiles. It seemed like every house had been hit with bullets and at least one house on every block was destroyed. As we entered what used to be the densely populated heart of the camp we found large open spaces with massive piles of rubble – football fields of rubble and destroyed houses. 4 months later, the massive destruction remains despite efforts to clean it up, impossible for the mind to comprehend what was and the
process that it became as it is today.

We met Kassam, 9 years old, in the street on his bicycle. He approached us and we joked around a bit. He pointed to the wall where a picture of a child was posted and said it was his brother, Bassem. Seven-year-old Bassem was near the corner where we stood about 4 weeks ago, when a tank shot him in the chest three times at close range.

Across the street from the camp next to the UN administered secondary school, 64 tents were erected by the UN in anticipation of a need for houses for those families whose houses were destroyed. Only one person has ever set foot in them. The people see them as an insult and as long as there are any houses standing and Palestinian hospitality, they refuse to return to 1948 conditions. The one person is actually from Gaza but came to Jenin two years ago where he has been stuck since. He says that he wants to return to his family in Gaza but cant due to closure. The camp is also built at the crossroads of three main roads that are used by the tanks and is therefore a very dangerous (and noisy) place.

Despite its lack of residents, the camp employees 4 Palestinians for Jenin for maintenance and security.

Continual Army Presence: Curfew means nothing in Jenin.

Every day that we have been in Jenin, there has been curfew called and every day, the people go about their business. Most of the day, the tanks have been circling and making random appearances at various sides of the city and camp. The people keep working until the very last minute before they close their shops and go into their homes and resume work soon after. Life cannot stop everyday here, so it continues despite the army.

On Saturday night, tanks drove through the streets announced curfew at about 12am. They maintained their presence with random shooting through the night.

The tanks also came into Jenin city and camp at night and there was heavy firing. from our roof in the city we could see tracer bullets and through the night we heard f-16s circling and rapid tank fire, as well as some massive explosions through out the city. In the morning, the army left the camp at about 9am, having damaged many houses. There was rumor that the resistance fighters had destroyed a jeep with a home made mine.

Hamas Party

We were invited to a party for students who passed their exam to complete high school (taojeehee) sponsored by Hamas. There were about 300 people in attendance. Students received awards and their families ate cake and drank soda. There was a group of youth who sang and played music on a drum machine through massive speakers and members of the community gave speeches honoring the students and their achievements. The organizers were happy for us to be in attendance and to see ‘another face’ to Hamas.

Death in Burqin

The army had also been in occupation of Burqin, a suburb of Jenin, since the previous day and remained there until the evening. At about 11am on Monday August 19th, 2002, Muhammad Ali Amin Abu Odi, 13 years, was shot in the forehead from a tank while in the street. There are no hospitals or well equipped clinics in Burqin, so he was brought to a military position on the road between Burqin and Jenin to await an ambulance.

When the ambulance arrived from the Palestinian Red Cresent (PCRS) in Jenin, the military denied the paramedics to take Muhammad. The ambulance returned to Jenin to get an international and to negotiate entrance of the ambulance. After the ambulance was denied entry, Muhammad was taken in a taxi through back roads and arrived DOA at Jenin Hospital at about 1pm.

We saw the car arrive at the hospital and heard that he had died. When he entered the hospital, the doctors were checking Muhammad. We stood at the side with unbeliving eyes and followed as they took the body through the kitchen and out the back door to the ‘morgue’ in the back of the building. The morgue is basically a big refrigerated trailer that is parked in the back of the hospital. They wrapped his body, put him in the trailer and locked the door.

“Since 1936, the Palestinian resistance has not died in Jenin”

That night, we stayed in the home of Ahmed Abu Samir Sabbagh. Abu Samir is 74 years old and lives in the camp just 1 block from the camp center (ground zero). His oldest son, Samir is 54 years old, lives in Saudi and has not intention of returning. His second son, Muhammad, was arrested at the age of 16 in the first intifada and is serving 4 consecutive life sentences + 20 years for killing an israeli soldier. His youngest son, Ala’, is 23 years old, a wanted resistor with Fatah and currently underground with little contact with his parents. The family is refugee from Haifa and during the first intifada, their hose was destroyed two times. In April, their house was hit with a rocket from an Apache helicopter which destroyed 1 room and started a fire which took two women who were alone in the house at the time, 3 and 1/2 hours to extinguish.

In 1936 Abu Samir’s father was killed in the Arab revolt against the British. In 1948, Abu Samir served in the Iraqi army against the Israeli forces as a radio transmitter and later in the Jordainian army when it assumed control of the area. He soon left the Jordanian army when he saw that it was corrupt, repressive and a collaborator with the Israelis.

Na’eme, the sister of Abu Samir, lost two sons on March 8th, 2002. Yasser Hassan Sais, 28 years old, was looking out his window from his house during curfew when he was shot in the head. His brother Iyad, 20 years, went to another window to call for an ambulance when he was shot in the heart. Iyad had just gotten married 3 months previous to his death. Yasser had 4 children.

Misadi, another sister of Abu Samir had a son, Naem Mohammad Khalil Sabbagh, 48 years old, who was living in Saudi. When he heard that his cousins had been killed he immediately returned for the funeral. He had been in the camp for one day when on March 10th, 2002, he was killed by a tank shell in the house.

Misadi had lost another son, Motasem Mohamad Khalil Sabbagh, the previous year on May 15, 2001. Motasem was a resistance fighter who was killed by an Apache rocket. He was exiting his car when a collaborator called his mobile phone. He went to get his phone and when he answered the rocket killed him.

Abu Samir’s brother, Issa, lost a son, Bassem, in the first intifada who was shot in the chest by an israeli soldier in the camp. On April 16, 2002, the family witnessed Bassem’s brother Jamal arrested, bound, blindfolded and layed in the street. The soldiers drove over him with a tank, crushing him to death. He had 3 children.

Abu Samir’s brother Muhammad lost his Son, Nader Muhammad Mahmood Sabbagh, 38 years old with 3 children, on July 24th, 1999 when he was shot in the chest while eating in his home.

At 2am on August 12th the occupation forces came to the house of Abu Samir and entered. They questioned the family about their wanted son, searched and damaged the house and told the family to come with them. The women in the house refused to go, the mother of Ala’, his sister and his 7 month pregnant wife. The army took Abu Samir to the Salem detention camp which serves as a civil administration center and military court as well. He was not permitted to bring his medicine for diabetes and was kept for interrogation without food for two days. An Israeli doctor saw him, but did nothing to get him medicine or food.

In interrogation, the army asked him about his sons. He told them that Samir was in Saudi and that Muhammad was in Jail. He told them that his third son was named Musa (Ala’ is his nickname). Abu Samir asked the soldiers if they knew why his son was called Musa and they said no. He told them that when he used to work in Haifa he had many Jewish friends. One night, one of his good friends, Moshe, was at his house for dinner. At the time, Abu Samir’s wife was pregnant. The friend told Abu Samir that it would be a boy. Abu Samir, who had 8 girls and only 2 boys, was very happy and told his friend that if it was a boy, they would name him after the friend (Moshe in arabic is Musa). The soldiers said that they knew almost everything about the family but that they did not know this story.

After interrogation, they released Abu Samir and told him that he had to turn Ala’ over to them. They said that if he did not return to the Detention Camp with Ala’ by Tuesday, August 20th, they would return to the camp and destroy his house.

Bravery or desperation?

On Tuesday, August 20th, one tank and 3 merkava armored personnel carriers (APCs) entered the camp at about 3pm. We were in the city and ran to the camp, worried that they might be going to the house. When we arrived in the camp we split, two of us going straight to the house and 4 going to the soldiers positions.

The 4 who went after the soldiers found themselves in the middle of a crowd of children throwing stones, garbage and even doors from destroyed houses onto an APC. The action is fairly symbolic becuase it doesn’t really effect the APC or the soldiers. Apparently, the only option for the APC was to shoot them.

When we arrived to the house, things were calm. After we were staying there for a short time they received a call from relatives that their grandson, Yousef, had been injured. Later we found out that he had climbed the APC and attempted to take the gun off from it. He was shot in the chest. 7 others were wounded, 1 other, Munir, seriously and many others including 1 international, Quiva from Ireland, sustained some surface wounds from shrapnel. The Sabbagh family spent most of the night worried, keeping a vigil at the hospital while Yosef underwent hours of surgery. He is doing better now and i think he is eating. Hopefully we will visit him today.

Abu Samir asked, “why are the children doing this? rocks do nothing to a tank.” These children have seen their lives destroyed, family members killed, their houses destroyed and are under constant threat of military incursion and death. They no longer have fear of death or reason to live. Their lives are resistance through all means that they have.

Things have been quiet since Tuesday, although the F-16s fly by occasionally and the rumble of tanks is fairly consistent.

Yesterday there was an incursion in Sili, another suburb of Jenin. The people were afraid of a house demolition so a group of us went. The army left after having destroyed a few cars with the tanks.

Abu Samir said this morning that “Sharon is resting now.”

Last night, Um Samir said that “we are not at war with Israel, we are at war with America. The guns, the planes, the bombs are all from America. It Bush says the word, israel will stop.”

We were told that we were needed in Al-Fara’ refugee camp to stay in the house of a martyr (shaheed). We left around 4:30 to hike into the camp. We passed Balata camp for lunch and headed for Askar refugee camp. We stopped at the beginning of the camp to buy an icee from a man on the street. As we were paying, a tank came from the opposite side of the camp toward us at about 40mph. There was a lot of shooting and sound grenades and the tank was releasing a huge cloud of smoke as it advanced up the street. We stood at the side of the street with our icees as the tank advanced, slowed, waved to us and roared toward Balata followed by a police jeep and an APC.

We proceeded through the camp and talked with the youth in the streets, but what can you say to people who have just been terrorized by a tank that was bought with your tax dollars in a land that is illegally occupied by force of your countries political support?

The situation quickly turned to rock throwing and my friend was hit by a tomato in the back. Some of the older youth understood our plight and gave us refuge in a shop for a few minutes before escorting us to the massive Maksum that blocks the camps western entrance. We said “shookran” (thank you) and salaam and continued our journey to Al-Fara’. We approached a settlement on a mountain to the right as the road turned slightly to the north.

Destroyed and blocked in about 7 places during the course of about 2 km, the road cut through dramatic mountains along a breathtaking chasm. . We reached a town called Wadi Bedoun where we got a ride to Al-Fara’.

Al-Fara’ camp is located between Nablus and Jenin in the region of Tubas. The camp like other refugee camps is crowded and impoverished. We reached Al-Fara’ at dusk and ate with members of the friends of UPMRC, an ad-hoc committee of residents that work to improve the medical and food situation in the camp [www.geocities.com/farafriends]. There is no hospital or even an ambulance in the area, and while it is only a 20 minute drive to either Nablus or Jenin hospitals by ambulance, these days it takes about 4 hours due to closure (if the ambulance is allowed to pass the checkpoint). They are supposed to receive food packages from the UN every 3 months, but they have not received one in over 6 months. Despite closure and upwards of 65% unemployment, the people in the camp were well organized and in good spirits.

We came to al-fara’ camp to stay in the the home of a shaheed, Muhammad al-Ghoul whose house is under threat of demolition. The house is three stories and separated by less than a meter from three other houses. The family of 12 had moved their furniture out of the house and were staying in other houses for fear of arrest.

It was difficult to stay in the house of the Al-Ghoul family because they were facing much pain. Their son had blown himself up in an operation on 18 June 2002, 10 days after the middle brother was married. The family was shocked when they heard that their son had blown himself up. Muhammad was the top of his class and knew the whole Qur’an by heart. The brother, Iyad, used to work in a hospital in Jerusalem and was the only source of income for a family with 4 brothers. Iyad lost his work permit and his job and now the family (and all of their neighbors) might lose their house.

They were living with relatives, but because the camp is already crowded enough, it was a difficult situation. In addition, their house was not yet destroyed so their problem had not yet reached a resolution and the pain of the demolition was being drawn out and the inevitable delayed. They kept a smile on their face, but it would occasionally break and tears would come to their eyes suddenly. One morning the father, a man of over 60 years, broke down crying in front of us. He was a refugee from Haifa in 1948 and now he was a refugee again. His whole life of struggle for his family to live better than him was about to be destroyed.

The Al-Ghoul family is a participant in a court case demanding that families must informed about when and if their house will be destroyed so that they have an opportunity to appeal their decision in court. The ‘Israeli High Court of Justice’ rejected the petition, basically giving the green light for the house demolition policy to be used liberally.

Our request was to sleep in the house at night and do what we could to save it or at least the neighbors houses when and if the military came. In the day we were basically on vacation. There was no army to be seen, the weather was nice and the land was beautiful. The camp is in the midst of a rural farming area and sits at the head of the Fara’ valley. The Fara’ valley has its source in a natural spring which flows into the valley making it green like a small Nile river valley. One day we were invited to a house in the valley and walked through orchards of limes and fruit, tomato fields and even a few palm and banana trees.

In the past two weeks, a number of homes have been destroyed in the Tubas region. For the sake of documentation and the get a better sense of what might happen to the Al-Ghoul house, we visited the houses and the families. The following is a report we made about two destroyed houses:

Report on Recently Demolished Homes in the Tubas Region
Report Date: Sunday, 11 August 2002
Prepared by: Members of the International Solidarity Movement in Al-Fara’ Refugee Camp.

Town of Ak-Kaaba: Masri Home

Ezzeddine Masri was a member of Hamas who made an operation killing himself and 22 israelis at the Sbarro restraunt in West Jerusalem on August 9th 2001. His action was in retaliation to an attack on a Hamas office in Nablus on August 1, 2001. The public office was exploded by apache missiles. 8 people, 2 Hamas leaders, 4 office staff and 2 children (ages 6 and 8) walking by on the street, were killed.

The Israeli Occupation Forces arrived at the Masri home at 2am on Sunday, August 4th 2002, nearly 1 year after the operation in West Jerusalem. Their force consisted of 2 tanks, 8 jeeps and more than 200 soldiers. The soldiers kicked in the door to the house awaking Ezzeddine’s parents and 4 children (each under 4 years). They asked a neighbor to knock on the door of the adjacent house. The Occupation Forces arrested Ezzeddine’s father and three brothers. The family had 20 minutes to leave the house and the soldiers asked all of the neighbors to leave the area.

The house was exploded at about 5am. 4 neighboring houses were damaged by pieces of the house and by the concussion from the explosion itself. A large piece of the roof from the house flew over 50 meters, landing on the roof of a neighboring house and smashing a large hole in the roof. Doors were shaken from their frames, a car was destroyed, windows were shattered and there were holes in the exteriors of the neighboring houses. The stable of the Masri house was also completely destroyed leaving 20 sheep dead.

“What is our crime?” Ezzeddine’s uncle asked.

The Red cross visited the house and promised a tent which has yet to arrive.

The father and three brothers were released after 4 days of detention in Ofr detention camp, a newly established prison camp that consists of large tents. They were beaten and interrogated. One of the brothers, who showed us marks from beatings and lacerations from handcuffs, estimated that there were about 7000 Palestinians held in Ofr currently.

Town of Tubas: Fukha Home

Mazen Fukha, 28, a member of Hamas was arrested by the isreali occupation forces on Tuesday, August 6th 2002 under the auspices that he was suspected of helping bombers. His family has not been in contact with him and does not know where he is being held until the date of this report.

36 hours after Mazen was arrested, 4am on Thursday, 8th August 2002, the Israeli Occupation Forces came to the Fukha Home, owned by Mazen’s father. They arrived with 16 jeeps and more than 200 soldiers. They told the 9 people in the house (Mazen’s father, mother, sister, wife, brother and 4 children) to exit the house immediately. The people refused because some of the women were without proper clothes. The soldiers entered the house and told the family that they had 20 minutes to leave the house.

As they tried to save some things from the house, neighbors offered to help, but were scared away by shots fired in the air. Both Mazen’s father, Muhammad Sulieman, and his 18 year old brother, Ma’an, were arrested. The women of the family and many of the neighbors were told to go to the municipality building 500 meters up the road.

At 5:45 am, the army exploded the house with dynamite. Rubble from the house landed hundreds of yards from the house. All of the glass in the neighbors houses shattered and many of their door frames were broken from the blast.

Some neighbors were still in their homes and a man who did not understand what was happening approached the house after the soldier had left. He was knocked to the ground by the blast but did not sustain serious injuries.

The family was surprised by the operation because their son has not even had a trial following his arrest. He has not been convicted of anything let alone his entire family.

Mazens mother said: “I was born here and my grandfather and his grandfather. Why do the people from Europe and Russia have the right to live here and we do not? How does someone from Russia have the right to explode my house?”

The Red Cross visited the house and gave the family a small tent. The family does not know where either Mazen, his father, or his brother are being held.

We left for Nablus in the afternoon with a woman named Neta, an israeli married to a Palestinian living in the old city. We knew that we would be barred from entering the city and packed light expecting to hike through the mountains.

We reached the checkpoint around 6pm and tried to find routes from local people that would get us close enough to hike in to the city in a reasonable time. We entered a town called Bureen where we exited the taxi and began a hike into Iraq Bureen (the Heights of Bureen). We ascended up the mountain trails with guides on horses. There are two roads that connect Iraq Bureen to other towns and cities, but both are closed. The only way to bring food is by horseback or foot.

The town is built amidst dramatic mountains on a cliff. We entered at dusk and the hills had a mystical glow of purples and pinks. As night fell, we could see the glow of Nablus from beyond the next mountain.

There was some discussion of moving to the next town, Tel, Because they were worried about a military operation against the home of a martyr. Our hosts decided that it was not wise for us to continue in the night and invited us to stay in Iraq Bureen.

At 4am we were awoke from a loud and earth shaking explosion which we knew was tel. In the morning we heard that the army had exploded the house in tel.

The israeli army and government have been changing their focus to the destruction of martyrs (suicide bombers) homes. This is an extreme form of collective punishment that is illegal by international law. Under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, collective punishments are a war crime. Article 33 of the Fourth Convention states: “No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed,” and “collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.”

We heard that journalists were having trouble getting into tel so we decided to go there to witness the destruction and talk to the family. We arrived to find a three story house with its roof on the ground. Many of the other houses were also damaged. The animals in the stable next to the house were all dead. We talked to the family members and witnessed the destruction. AP, Reuters and Al Jazeera came later and there was at least coverage on Al Jazeera.

We found a ride from tel to the outer limits of Nablus and walked in from there. The town was completely empty and the streets were torn up from tank treads.

As we entered the old city we passed many Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) and encountered our first Merkava tank. The good thing about tanks though is that the people are not allowed to get out of them so it is pretty easy to pass. The bad thing is that it is massive and loud and it points its giant gun at you.

We met some internationals in the old city who were were working with a mobile medical unit from the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees (UPMRC) [www.upmrc.org]. We protected people as they came out of their homes to see the damage in their shops and to get water from a box in the street. We witnessed a large group of men led away in the distance, blindfolded and bound. We spent the afternoon walking the old city and surveying the previous nights damage to homes and stores. As night fell we heard huge explosions every 10 to 20 minutes from soldiers moving house to house through the walls.

At night we stayed in Balata refugee camp in the house of the Teitti family. Two sons of the family were martyrs. The first was killed in a gun battle and the second collected the shells from the gun battle, made an explosive belt and blew himself up in israel. The family was worried that the house (along with the surrounding homes) would be destroyed.

The next day we returned to the old city of Nablus to help deliver food and medicine. We also visited occupied homes. The first occupied home we visited, soldiers told us that there were two families were inside. They would not let us talk to any of the family members or give them food and medicine. We also visited another building where the army was keeping as a barracks and base. When we asked the guard if there was anyone inside he said no, but when we pressed his commanding officer, they admitted that there was a 60 year old woman who was cooking their food. God only knows what her situation was.

Settler Rampage in Al-Khalil

We heard news that during a march of about 2000 settlers in the Old City of Hebron, settlers had killed a 14-year-old girl by gunfire, stabbed a 9 year old boy and occupied a house in the old city.

We visited the house of Abu Samir Sharabati. Along with his niece, Afifah, we were given a tour of the house which had been broken into by settlers from the Abraham Avinu settlement during the rampage. The house was a museum and historical library which contained artifacts and books as old as 1200 years. The house itself was built 1193 years ago in the time of Salahadin.

The settlers entered from the roof and proceeded to destroy and burn the house. They also occupied the house of the niece and her family (Yousef Sharabati) and show no signs of ending their occupation of that house. Another piece of the old city of Al-Khalil lost to the cancerous settlements.

The destruction, occupation, stabbing of a 9 year old boy and shooting of a 14 year old girl was done in full view of the 1500 soldiers stationed in the old city, but yet there was no one charged with any crime.

We returned to Beit Omar on Wednesday with 4 new people, happy to be back and warmly received by our friends. We settled into the apartment and acclimated the new people to the town and the situation.

Two Shot

The next day the army came into the town shooting. We quickly moved to the towns central electrical transformer which had been exploded by the soldiers a few nights previously.

When the transformer was exploded, almost all heard and many even saw shooting flames 10 meters into the air. Thanks to God that no one was near it. The transformer cost about 50,000 NIS ($10,000USD) which fell upon the Municipality (local government).

The transformer had been replaced by a spare that the municipality kept, but the town was worried that they might destroy it again, leaving them without electricity.

The soldiers advanced from the checkpoint and immediately moved toward the transformer. We held our space and questioned them about the purpose of their mission. They questioned us in turn, inspected the new transformer and moved back to enter the town on the main road.

With our new number of 6 we were able to split into two groups. 3 of us kept watch at the transformer while three moved through an alley to meet them on the main road. We arrived at the main road to witness them shooting water tanks and windows and then into the center of the town. Because it is difficult to follow them, we held our position to witness their retreat.

After about 15 minutes the soldiers returned down the street stopping occasionally to fire back up the street toward the town center. Undoubtedly toward children who were throwing rocks and jeering them. As the soldiers passed out of sight, shooting continued but the brave youth kept pressing behind them yelling at them. They moved near our position and were watching the soldiers from around the corner. One youth was waving his red t-shirt like a matador to the soldiers and dodging bullets as they came from around the corner.

After a few times of this waving, a live shot was fired which hit his friend in the leg. The shots (as witnessed by the other group of three) were fired from a position of about 80 meters distance to children who at that moment were not throwing rocks and even if they were to throw a rock it could not possibly have reached the soldiers who are wearing helmets and flack jackets.

We went to the clinic along with another older man who had been shot in the arm and I rode in a car to meet the ambulance in a town about 15 kilometers away.

The driver raced down narrow one lane roads around trucks and taxis and cars. I kept telling him “shuy amo, shuy” (slowly uncle, slowly) and that we didn’t need three more in the hospital. The older man was ok, but the youth was in much pain and passed out after taking some water.

We flew through Surif and Beit Um before reaching Harras when we, screaming down the road me the ambulance screaming up the road and screeched to a halt in the middle of the street. A large crowd gathered as we moved the injured into the ambulance for the journey to Al-Khalil through more back roads.

The drive back to Beit Omar was quiet and sad.

Re-Consideration and Doubt

After the incident, our role as witness was seriously questioned by ourselves and many people in the town. For the next few days we talked a lot about strategy and solicited feedback from people we met.

In many ways, we felt that our presence might have made the children feel safe and allowed for the circumstances that led to the youths injury. We received many words of support including from the youths family that they were happy for what we were doing, but the doubt remained in our minds.

Idna

That Sunday we split into two groups. Two people rode with a truck of fruit to the tarkumian checkpoint and four went to Idna, a town on the opposite side of the Israeli Settlement Karmet Tzur and just next to the Green line (border of the West bank and israel).

____________________________________________________

Map of the North West of Hebron

  S
E-|-W
  N

Al Khalil (Hebron)
                          \                       (green line)
                           \                           idna         \
                            ^      halhul              nuba       \
                             \  *KARMET TZUR*     beit um   \
             (Route 60)  \                               harras
                                %     beit omar   surif
al arroub refugee camp
                                  %
                      *EFRAT* \ 
                                     \ *GUSH ETZYON*

KEY:
a = town
*A* = settlement
\ = border/road
%=checkpoint
^=maksum
___________________________________________________

Idna has been hit hard economically because at least 50% (and by some estimates upwards of 80%) used to work in israel but who have lost their jobs since the 22 month intifada began.

We met with academics, medical workers and government people who were all very enthusiastic to see us and eager to invite us back for a more extensive visit. We planned to return go the next day to spend the night.

Our taxi was scheduled to leave for Idna the next day at 3pm. As the taxi arrived we were told that there were military jeeps in the town and that they were announcing curfew. This foiled our plan to leave and we moved up to the village to make our presence known to the army and to see the situation.

Mass Detention Press Release
Monday, 22 July 2002

At about 3:00pm this afternoon, Israeli soldiers, military police and civil police entered the town of Beit Ummar, North Hebron District. The forces were an extraordinary increase above the regular detachment in the town. Today’s force included 3 Armored Personnel Carriers (APC), 2 Military jeeps, 2 Military Police jeeps, a white Civil jeep and over 25 army soldiers on foot.

The forces announced curfew by amplified sound, tear gas, percussion grenades and the firing of both rubber coated steel bullets and live ammunition. Soldiers occupied the roofs of many houses and entered the mosque with an explosive charge, desecrating the sacred space with their boots (shoes are forbidden inside the mosque). Approximately 1 hour after curfew was announced, the Israeli forces told all men ages 15-50 to go to the mosque. Soldiers went from home to home searching for men who did not obey the order and forcefully removed those men who were found in their homes.

Internationals from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) witnessed the mass detention and attempted to accompany the men as they were taken to the mosque. Israeli soldiers forcefully moved the internationals from the area and threatened them by saying “you must leave the area or you might be accidentally shot.”

After about 1 hour, most of the men were released. One local man, Jaber Jawabra, was taken into custody. Mr. Jawabra was released approximately 4 hours later.

Internationals took testimony from men who were released. Detainees testified that soldiers told them that this time detention was only for one hour but next time it might be 6 or 7 hours. They were also told that detention might happen everyday, at night, without clothes and that ‘uncooperative’ people might have their homes destroyed.

For the last 22 months in Beit Ummar, there have been regular but smaller military incursions, targeted and random killings as well as a policy of economic strangulation. This aggressive action marks a sharp escalation of military activity. The residents of the town and internationals were surprised and appalled at this seemingly unprovoked and unwarranted operation.

Mass Detention Narrative

When we reached the center of town we saw something that surprised us. Military police in jeeps with massive israeli flags were driving around the town announcing curfew. We split into two groups and while the others moved to the transformer, we took a position opposite the mosque in the main square. The police stopped and asked us what we were doing, we asked them what they were doing. They told us that this was a ‘military action’ and that they could not guarantee our safety if we stayed.

We moved to meet the others and watched as waves of soldiers entered the town moving toward the mosque. We tried to hold our position but were were continually told to move through threat of force and threats on our lives.

“you might get shot if you stay here”
“you are the only ones we see with guns”
“you might get shot”
“is that a threat?”
“its not a threat, but you might get shot”

We moved to the mosque through various routes along their perimeter around the center of the town, trying to see what they were doing. We received a call from the family near our house that there was an Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) in front of their house and that they were afraid. We broke into two groups, one to continue to pressure the soldiers in the town center and the other to go to the family.

As the other group moved to the house, we continued to pressure the soldiers but were forced to a place outside the town and out of sight of the mosque. The soldiers had positions there as a perimeter and had also taken positions on the roof of a house.

People, especially women continually challenged the curfew by walking past the soldiers and braving bullets by staying and moving in the streets.

The soldiers and police announced that all men ages 15-50 had to go to the mosque “to pray.” They spoke over the PA in their jeeps in an eerie voice that was slow and deep. As they drove past us, we saw them laughing.

Hundreds of men slowly came out of their houses to go to the mosque. Continually in contact with people on our phones, we heard that men who did not go would be beaten. Many men were escaping to the fields with women watching to see if the coast was clear. We tried to go with the men to the mosque but were repelled again.

After the men either escaped or went to the mosque, the soldiers searched house to house. A group of about 10 soldiers approached us singing “give peace a chance,” mocking our presence.

Many tried to talk with us and justify what they were doing. One soldier who had threatened us earlier tried to speak with us. We spoke to them but kept our comments direct. At one point many soldiers were surrounding us and talking. We felt uncomfortable and kept our hands up. This made them uncomfortable:

“you don’t have to raise your hands”
“you have a gun”
“put your hands down”
“no i’m a afraid because you have a gun”

We were were concerned that they were distracting us from our observation and about what people would think by our proximity to their occupiers. I began to make my comments pointed and showed my anger on my face and with the tone of my voice. The soldier became heated and just as my companions were cautioning me about my behavior, he was pulled away by the other soldiers. At least they stopped talking to us.

After about an hour, we witnessed most of the forces leave the town and moved into the town to meet the men who had been released from the mosque to ask them what happened and if anyone had been taken. Curfew remained for 1 more hour, but many people were in the street and there was no incident.

We came to learn that our friend was the only person taken and did our best to find our more information about where he was. 4 hours later we found that he was released and safe with some bruises from being beaten and a boot mark on his white t-shirt. On our way to meeting him we were met with a shower of stones from somewhere in the night.

The next day the soldiers returned. we moved to our positions for observation to find that there was no place where there was not intense rock throwing or intense shooting. We were forced to stay in homes at various points and finally to leave the center of the town. We learned later that two youths were hospitalized from rubber coated steel bullet shots in the back of their legs at close proximity.

For the next few days we discussed our role extensively and committed ourselves to walk the
streets, asked people what they thought about our presence and solicited advice.

Al Arroub Refugee Camp

On Friday we visited Al Arroub Refugee Camp. The camp has about 9000 people, is administered by the United Nations and has one doctor. There is a checkpoint at the mouth of the camp and it borders one of the oldest and largest settlement blocs called Gush Etsyon.

In the morning we met with Abdel Rahman, a refugee whose parents were dispossessed of the their land in 1948 during al-nakba. They originally lived in an area near Gaza called Iraqi-i-Menchia. They escaped to the mountains with others from their village as well as from 54 other pre-1948 Palestinian towns in what is now called israel.

The people lived in tents at first, waiting to return to the land as dictated by UN resolution 194. After 15 years, the UN built cement rooms for people in three sizes of A, B and C. C was for the largest families and measured about 10 square meters. There was an average of 7 people in each room and there was 1 bathroom for each 25 rooms.

The refugees found work in israeli work camps, building settlements and working in large israeli
plantations called sheta. They worked hard to save money and built concrete houses for their families.

After many years, Adbel Rahman married and saved enough money (about $20,000USD) to buy land and build a house outside of the camp for his family. His house was completed in early 2000 but was destroyed by israeli bulldozers (before this intifada) because it did not have a permit (Permits are almost never issued for anything by the israeli government).

We then met a man from the family who originally owned the land that the UN ‘rented’ to build the camp. When i asked him what advice his parents gave him before they died, he said that his mother told him “son, look at the camp. the people there left their land because they were afraid. now they live like animals. learn from the refugees, son, never leave the land. protect it with your life.”

Al Khalil (Hebron)

On Saturday, curfew was lifted in Hebron so we went with some our friends who are university students to Al Khalil. We went to both Palestinian Polytechnic University (PPU) and Al Quds Open University, took tours of the grounds, met student groups, professors and administrators. At PPU, we witnessed damage caused by Israeli breaking and entering including kicked in doors and tank damage. Both universities are behind schedule about 1 month and a half due to closure and curfew.

We then saw the ruins of the Mukata. About 4 weeks ago, the israeli army made a campaign against the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Hebron. Their focus was on the PA headquarters based in a building called the Mukata. The Mukata is one of many british colonial administrative buildings in Palestine that were built in each british colonial district during the british occupation (1919-1948). Arafat’s compound in Ramallah was also a Mukata. The israeli army made a siege on the building and eventually set over two tons of dynamite in the building and leveling it. The fate of 15 fighters in the building is unknown, but there is a rumor that they escaped through the sewer system and are at large. [Pictures in Al-Khalil district, file Al-Khalil #784-787]

We visited the sight which was massive. There were all types of papers and beds and instruction manuals for alarm clocks etc. A number of men were there walking around the ruble and some trying to clean it up. We asked two men if they used to work in the Mukata and they said yes. We asked what they will do now and they had no response. We asked if they knew anyone who was inside for the siege and they said that their commander was still missing.

Land Action

In the morning we joined a delegation from the United Methodist Church and went to the confiscated farmland near the settlement Karmet Tzur. We had a mass of internationals at about 20. We split into two groups and went to opposite sides of the settlement. We moved around the perimeter of the farmer’s land and met with surprisingly little resistance. we even reached the fence of the settlement. The farmer had not been on these lands for a very long time. The fruit had fallen from the trees and was rotting on the ground and his grapes had also gone bad due to lack of care.

While our group was reveling in our freedom of movement, the other group was stopped by settlers and soldiers. One Palestinian man was detained for not having his ID and the police came. Our group moved to assist our comrades and when we arrived there were about 5 settlers, 7 soldiers and two police. We waited with the detained man until he was released and returned to the town.

One of our group is leaving soon so we have returned to Jerusalem (al-Quds) to see him off. When we arrived we heard news that there was a settler riot in the Old City of Hebron (al-Khalil) and that a 14-year-old girl was killed by settler gunfire and another 9 year old boy had been stabbed. We also heard that the burned a building and occupied another. It was hard to believe that we had been there just the day before.

Today I went to Ramallah with about 30 internationals to support a march against curfew.

When we arrived in the city, we heard that there was a military operation and large scale arrest at an apartment building in the city and decided to move to that area to directly confront the army.

We walked about 10 minutes through ghostly empty streets of closed shops and silent 5 story buildings lined with hundreds of faces of martyrs from the recent past. We heard a loud explosion in the distance and continued to our destination slowly with stops to check for the military. As we came upon the building in a circumspect way, the army was leaving quickly.

The people in the building told us that we were about 5 minutes late and invited us to survey the damage. There was a main stairwell that serviced the building and it looked as though the military had blown the doors off of the apartments and overturned everything inside them.

We waited in the area with some media and decided to march through the city in defiance of the curfew. The families in the apartment building gladly joined us and we marched. People were generally happy to see us and many people (mainly children and youth) joined with us despite the risks.

We marched through the streets making lots of noise and singing in English and in Arabic. The military was never in sight for the full afternoon and evening.

By the time we left it seemed that the curfew was more lax and that people were out doing their errands etc. It was a good action and i think that it helped give the people hope in a terrible situation.

By far the most striking resistance to the curfew was the kites. Hundreds of kites of all colors filled the sky in quite and inspirational defiance.

Tomorrow a group of us are going back to Beit Omar. I have missed being there and am looking forward to getting back. Many people from the town have called us in these last few days. It seems hat the army has stepped up its aggression in our absence. Two nights ago, they rounded up over 30 people who live near route 60 and held them in a cage for many hours. Last night they shot up the town and damaged the main electricity transformer leaving much of the town without electricity. Insha’Allah (God willing) there was nothing bad tonight.

Upon invitation, our group of 4 internationals left Hebron on the 7th with a Christian Peacemaker Teams reservist to a Hebron suburb called Beit Omar.

(Christian Peacemaker Teams [CPT] are a solidarity group that has been working in the Hebron District for more than 15 years. For more Information, please see www.cpt.org)

At over 3000 ft above sea level, Beit Omar is one of the highest points in Palestine. From the town you can see the lights of Jaffa (tel-aviv) and can dream faintly of the Mediterranean as the sun sets shades of sediment.

Beit Omar is a farming community and produces some of the best plums (ghogh) in all of Palestine. I have never tasted fruit in the U.S. that comes near to the fruit in Palestine. Watermelon (batikh), cantaloupe (shamam), and so many types of plumbs and peaches it is difficult to keep track of them all.

Beit Omar is a town of about 12,000 and about half as many tractors (by far the most stylish way to ride around the town). The people are unbelievably generous and friendly and it’s difficult to find the time to sit and drink tea (shai) with everyone who invites us.

The surrounding lands of the town are farms and orchards where the people go to work in the morning and evening. These farms have been in the family for many years and I have had the privilege to see land deeds and receipts of sale that are hundreds of years old, issued under both the british and turkish occupations. Houses are terraced with grape vines, everything is green and the air is sweet.

Just like any small town, everyone wants to know who we are. There is an initial suspicion that we are Israeli soldiers, especially from the children. Many of the younger children become very afraid and cry when they see us. When we tell people we are american, they want to know about Bush and what americans think about Palestine. There is a sense that the american people hold all of Palestine in their hand and can crush it in one sneeze. They are confused about the way Bush speaks about the situation and this causes them much stress. They ask why america supports the israelis and gives them weapons. When they talk with us longer, many tell us that they hate the american government.

We try to put the people at ease by putting our politics out in the open from the start – that we are against our governments policies and sad that people support the beast that is ‘America’. This puts them at ease to discuss their feelings about the United States government. Despite their feeling about what the U.S. does, most people would like to go to America and regard it as a great place. Many people ask us if we can get them a visa or if they can visit us. There seems to be a deep pull for them toward ‘America’ but a relative misunderstanding about the realities in America. When we tell them that there are thousands of homeless in our cities, they are astounded. When we tell them about the size of our country, they cannot imagine. When we tell them we don’t like the backstreet boys, they wounder why. When we tell them that the dreamlike images of beautiful people and happiness that they see on television are lies, they do not believe us.

Beit Omar is in the north of the Hebron district and sits between two israeli settlements: Karmet Tzur to the southwest and Gush Etzyon to the north. to the west, the town runs into and over Route 60, a major israeli settlement highway. The road that once connected the town to Highway 60 is closed with a big mound of dirt and rubble (maksum) and a fortified military position that was made in a Beit Omar family’s confiscated home. No cars can enter or exit the town except for the Petrol truck who must supply his own bulldozer to remove and replace the maksum when he makes a delivery.

The garbage trucks cannot enter the town, nor can trucks or cars leave the town unless they take dirt roads in creative ways trough the fields.

Ambulances cannot enter the town and must carry patients over the maksum when they pick them up or drop them off. The first night we were in Beit Omar, a young child drank poison and because the ambulance could not get into the town (and had to navigate checkpoints and soldiers from Hebron/Al-Khalil), the child did not get to the hospital in time and is now in a severe coma. If the children’s hospital was not close by (in Al-Khalil), the child probably would have died.

Military Aggression

The people of Beit Omar are under attack in many ways. The first is direct military aggression and terror. Twice in the last week, the military has entered the town at sunset and shot hundreds of rounds. The army shoots the windows in the houses, put holes in the water tanks and have damaged electricity lines.

They provoke confrontations with the youth by shooting and beating and them and demonstrate their dominance by forcing their way through the streets with gunfire, both live and rubber coated metal, military grade tear gas, percussion grenades and armored vehicles.

On the second evening of this aggression, our group went out into the streets to make our presence know to the army, with the hope that seeing internationals might dissuade them from doing anything too atrocious or at least to confuse and distract them from their project of terror.

We walked in the street and took a place at a corner where we knew the army would pass. We saw them advance and without provocation one soldier (jundi) seized a young man in front of a closed store and beat him with his fist, boots and gun. Youth tried to come to his defense with stones and were met with live fire from an M16.

We moved around the corner and asked the help of a young man to get to a place that we could see but were not in the middle of children and soldiers.

He led us to an alley that cut into the the main street were the soldiers had arrested the man they were beating and were holding a position against the youth trowing stones. We took pictures and were discovered by the soldiers.

The shooting ceased and the soldiers tried to decide who we were and what to do with us. One soldier told us to leave. “Where?” we asked naively. “There is shooting all around, we are sacred.” They stopped conversation and one soldier was placed at the corner to watch us. Another soldier came and yelled at us to move back, this time pointing his gun at us. We moved back out of sight and waited as the soldiers retreated from the youth and moved down another street.

We migrated with the people into the main square and talked with them to get information about the beating and to keep watch because we knew the soldiers would return that way again.

After about 10 minutes of some tense decision making, we decided the most strategic and safe place to be was in the main square and took seats on the steps of a shop there. An armored landrover screeched into the square and the children scattered into the alleys and behind corners. The landrover sat, perhaps confused and watching us, perhaps waiting for reinforcements or to survey the situation, perhaps challenging the children to do something. BOOM. A skull sized boulder broke the armored windshield of the landrover and put a huge dent in the hood. Two soldiers jumped out and began firing into the houses and stores. We stood up and slowly walked out of the square and around the corner where we sat at an open sweets shop.

Soon we were overcome with tears gas and took refuge with the store patrons in the back. We returned to watch the soldiers shooting the windows in houses as they advanced up the street – 6 foot soldiers, two armored landrovers and 1 armored personnel carrier.

There are no armed people in Beit Omar, only children with stones and a community who is hungry, without income, tired of intermittent curfew and living under military occupation. People ask us why the soldiers behave in this way, but it is difficult to come to any conclusion other than spreading terror in the people. There is no security threat to them, it seems like that are only trying to assert their dominance. Many people try to rationalize this as military training or boredom.

Structural Violence

This military aggression is not the most heinous attack upon the people of Beit Omar. More inhumane than physical violence is structural violence.

Economic Strangulation is the predominant israeli policy in Biet Omar. On June 24th, 12 Trucks from Beit Omar along with 8 trucks from other areas in the Hebron district, carrying over 300 tons of fruit for export were stopped at the Tarkumian checkpoint and detained until the 30th. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of fruit, representing a whole years work for many families, were destroyed that week.

Beyond closure, unemployment and curfew, israeli settlers continue to pose a significant and seemingly immovable threat to the community. The settlements were initiated following the 1967 war in which the West Bank and Gaza Strip were taken by the israeli army. Despite international law and United Nations resolutions, israel has settled their population into the occupied land. The land for these settlements was not empty, but was part of towns and peoples farms. Since 1967, the settlements have expanded continuously and every year. Despite numerous peace agreements that prohibit settlement expansion, including the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993, the settlers at Karmet Sur have continued to take farm lands from the people in Beit Omar.

Land Confiscation

Last week, the settlement reclassified about 30 acres of land as a ‘closed military area’ under the auspices of security for the settlement, and barred the owners of the land from harvesting their fruit. We accompanied a number of farmers to their land with the hope of helping to deal with the soldiers and settlers. We arrived to the land at about 7am ready for the days work. We began to pick plumbs and peaches from the trees, but only worked for about 15 minutes before armed settler security made a round and sped of to the settlement to get the soldiers.

Within 5 minutes, the settler security returned with a soldier who told us to leave. We talked with him and tried to persuade him that we were obviously not a security threat and that these farmers had a right to farm their land. The settler yelled and waived his uzi at us while we calmly tried to discuss the matter with them. The soldier became angry and threatened arrest. As we left with the farmers, more soldiers arrived and watched us as we walked back to the town.

The farmers ave opened a formal legal complaint with the government, but have been deferred for some time. The settlement has already began construction of a fence and security lights around the seized land. Because they are under military occupation, and because there is in all reality no more Palestinian government, there is no place for the people to go to have recourse to the decision makers. The only place that has been suggested to them is the police station in Kiriat Arba, the settlement of Baruch Goldstien and the only way is by the settlement road. This precludes the people from engaging in any type of governmental process. People tell us that the settlers used to be held accountable and sometimes were even arrested by israeli police, but this seems to be a thing of the past. The settlers seem almost untouchable now.

General Update

The general situation in the occupied territories is one of uncertainty and mixed messages. Most major cities have been under curfew for about 1 week. Yesterday, curfew in Bethlehem and Hebron was lifted during the day. One student who needed to take exams in Bethlehem said he had no problems going and returning. Students who tried to go to their exams in Hebron were met with fire from Israeli snipers. Apparently they were just joking about lifting curfew in Hebron. Similar stories have been told about other cities when curfew is lifted. Everyone goes out to try to do the things that could not do and are met with unprovoked gunfire and even death. The curfew in Bethlehem and Hebron as been reinstated today.

A number of people including a woman and two children have been killed by the military in the Gaza Strip and several young men ave been killed in Nablus.

All of this without 1 suicide bomb in almost 1 month.

There seems to be much disillusionment, sadness, frustration and fear in the Palestinian population. With the PA destroyed and the reinstitution of Israeli occupation, people do not see any hope in sight. Most people just want to work and provide for their families. There seems few options for proactive resistance let alone for anything beyond sitting, talking, watching television and trying not to think about the dark possibilities that might lie ahead.

We saw last night on Al-Jazeera that ‘our great country America’ bombed Iraq and we are afraid that a larger campaign in Iraq will increase tensions here as it did in the Gulf War and as a friend said ‘turn Sharon’s green light to neon.’ Insha’Allah this will not happen.

We came to Al-Khalil yesterday with medial supplies from Ramallah, the ad hoc Palestinian capital. We came to a check point in our taxi and were informed that Arabs cannot cross into the city on a Saturday. Our driver turned around and with the help of what those who live along the US/Mexico border call a ‘coyote’, found a rocky dirt road through the mountains. A trip that usually would take 30 mins turned into 3.5 hours.

We delivered the medical supplies to the Al-Mezan hospital and had a chance to walk around the neighborhood for a short time before curfew at 6pm. The hospital and the area around the hospital was riddled with bullet holes from an occupied house across the ridge. The people were afraid to walk by places the were in sight of this occupied house even during the day because the shooting was random and deadly.As dusk came, people stayed out in the streets despite curfew. By the kindness of the hospital staff, we slept in a hospital bed.

Al-Khalil, the major city in the south of the west bank, has about 500,000 residents. While most Palestinian cities have settlements on the outskirts of the cities, Al-Khalil also has a heavily fortified israeli settlement of 400 settlers and 1500 soldiers in the heart of the old city. Because of this, the entire city is disrupted. The main market was moved from its historical place. If a person wants to drive or walk from one side of the old city to the other, they have to take 20 kilometers instead of 1 or 2. This is of course assuming that there is no curfew or tanks patrolling the streets.

The old city has been a place of conflict since israeli settlers, mostly American, forced their way into the old city in the late 1960s. Since then, they have continually expanded their settlements by intimidating and killing Palestinian residents and driving them from heir homes. The settlers are protected in their actions by the israeli military, who is in direct collaboration with the settlers in terrorizing and removing the Palestinian inhabitants of the old city.

In 1996, an american-israeli doctor, Baruch Goldstein, entered the Mosque of Abraham (Haram al-Ibrahim) in the old city and opened fire with two automatic rifles, killing 27 praying Muslims during Ramadan. In response to this, the Israeli military placed the entire Palestinian population of Khalil under curfew, gave half of the mosque to the Israeli settlers and force all non-Jewish people going to the mosque to pass through metal detectors and a search before entering the mosque. There was also a memorial built for Baruch Goldstein in the settlement Qiriat Arba (outside of Khalil) that honored him as a hero.