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			BostontoPalestine Boston support group for the International Solidarity Movement

	Home About us News from Palestine Contact Email Subscribe Donate Current Delegation Summer 2005 Past Delegations Olive Harvest 2004 Freedom Summer 2004 Past Campaigns Events Photos Videos (ISM) Rachel Corrie Links Speakers Be a Delegate Press faq Actions!		Dunya reports: 1) October, 30th 2002 -Last Few Days - Yasuf/Jammain comprehensive report We (ISM/IWPS) have been organizing and placing internationals and Israelis, picking and protecting, practicing violence prevention, getting to know our host families, participating in community based organizing meetings, dealing with problems related to settlers, settler security, and the Israeli police & military--all on a daily basis. We've been working both farmer's hours and organizers hours, i.e., up at 5 A.M. and working into the night. Betty and Cathy have joined us, and Rains is also in our loop. With Susan, John and myself, that makes 6 people from the Boston area, and this will help in ongoing work when we return. On Sunday 10/28, we began to work with the community of Jammian -- we recently moved there from Yasuf. Jammian is a town in the Governate of Nablus--about 8,000-10,000, on the top of a hill, with a large old mosque and an active quarry. Otherwise the town feels quite depressed. Many people are out of work, due to transportation and/or the general economic strains in the area. Some people seem to be able to pick up construction work to get by, but the area feels quite depressed. We moved to Jammian because, for days, we'd heard that settlers/colonists were sacking the trees below the small Tapu'akh settlement/colony (that borders Jammian), and had possibly sniped a bus filled with Palestinians, puncturing it's tires. In a day or so, we'd been able to connect with a local farmer, and then a few others, and were up picking/protecting in the dangerous fields that border small Tapu'akh. Small Tapu'akh is an outpost of Tapu'akh itself (where Meir Kahane's son lives) and is comprised of half a dozen mobile homes and a string of lights, presumably also providing power to this ragtag outcropping of homes. We were working pretty close to the settlement/colony, where Rains had been kicked recently, and verbally assaulted by a settler. So we were being very careful. From where we were working, the buildings of Tapu'akh, Ariel settlement/colony, and the town of Jammain could be made out quite clearly, across a series of intersecting valleys. It had been pretty quiet when we heard a loud noise. There are many noises in the West Bank that I can't place, and this was one of them. We worked about a half hour more, when confirmation came that a bomb had gone off in Ariel, killing the bomber and 4 others and injuring 30. Ariel is the largest settlement in the West Bank and is said to have a land area second only to Tel Aviv. (See below for more information about Ariel, and also a link to the Foundation for Middle East Peace's recent report on settlement expansion.) We worked a little longer. Then, given the history and temperament of settlers in this area, we decided that the Ariel bombing could only put our party at even greater risk. Quickly, we gathered ourselves into a convoy and began to make our way down the hillside, folding in families who were working in the lower terrain. As I said, these settlers snipe--and I was concerned. It was frightening. We made it down to the town of Jammain, arriving just before curfew was called. Despite the fact that we had not arranged housing for ourselves until our arrival, the town's people made showers, meals, and beds available for the eight of us. I spent a lovely night talking, laughing and drawing with a delightful family. This family had lived, died, and harvested olives in Jammain for generations. The patriarch of the family fled from Palestine in 1948. The family has since lived in Kuwait and Jordan. They returned a few years ago, with optimism about the possibility of a free Palestine, and so that the matriarch could pass her home village. They built homes and businesses and shaped lives for themselves in the ensuing years. All returned on visas, which have since expired. Though they have been Palestinian for generations, they now have citizenship or travel documents, and they face deportation if they are caught by the military. This means that the father in the family can no longer risk traveling to his job in Ramallah as a layout artist for a newspaper. He has taken day labor in construction while he tries to make a more sustainable plan for the family. There was curfew the next day. So, just to give a sense of the other kinds of work we do when we are not in the fields: Morning: Word comes that the British Consul's General's office is sending three representatives on a three-town fact-finding mission, on the hardships the Palestinians are experiencing in harvesting their olives--within the hour. Meeting with representatives of the British Consul General's office and local leaders. Meeting with representatives of the British Consul General's office and the Mayor of Jammain --about similar issues. A call comes in that Rains (who, alone, has accompanied a lone family who is breaking curfew into the fields) is at the Ariel police station, filing a report about being attacked by the same settler for the second time. Afternoon: Coordination with press (channel 10, Israel), who refused to cover our stories, as our footage of attacks merely shows cameras being smashed to the ground and no blood being drawn. Organizing a meeting for those who want support for their harvesting work in dangerous areas. Arranging for additional internationals to support our efforts to return to the fields the next day. We got our numbers up to 15 plus 5 Israelis and a French group"for a total of 25. Evening: Planning and offering an orientation for new ISM/IWPS members. Holding a community-wide meeting with internationals, to strategize about returning to the fields. Tea--throughout. The work continues. Lots of love, Dunya ------------------ Four local Boston-area people - Karen, John, Phil, and Susan-are part of a 13-person ISM group in Yasuf (Salfit district, north of Ramallah). Additional Boston-area delegates are about to join the campaign. For more information: International Solidarity Movement: www.palsolidarity.org The Rapprochement Center: www.rapprochement.org