August 11th,
2002
Susan reports
to Ken from Qalqilya, West Bank – 8/8-8/11
IOF (ISRAELI
OCCUPATION FORCES) SHOW UP LATE TO
BIRTHDAY PARTY
(WITH TANKS)
Thursday 8/8/02
Our group of
nine ISM internationals continues to do
round-the-clock
ambulance accompaniments, plus daily check
point watches,
home visits (including farms), and more. Some
of us sometimes
sleep at the Red Crescent office. At the check
point today,
there was the usual harassment of the Palestinians,
including
absurdly long delays, but no violence.
A couple of
nice events this week. One was a wedding party.
The women in
our group were invited, along with 200 Palestinian
women, to a
party for a Qalqilya ambulance driver and his new
bride, from
Tulkarm. They had been trying to get married for 2
months—held
up by the closures and town requirement for
residency.
We also had a birthday party for Olivia, one of
the Spanish
ISMs, at the Red Crescent office. We invited the
staff,
volunteers, drivers, and several local health care
providers--nice
time.
After this
party, while we were still hanging out with some of the
people, outside
the office, the Israelis re-invaded—with tanks,
jeeps,
soldiers, special forces. They stopped right in front of the
office.
They went into the home across the street and started
moving people
out of the house. We watched from windows at
the RC
office. When the soldiers saw us, they pointed their red
laser-beam
target rifles at us—quite scary. When they left--after
making an
arrest and making a shambles of the house--we took
an ambulance
ride to an area where the Israelis had ordered
people to get
out of their homes. We encountered a tank with its
gun barrel
pointing right at us. So we left and took a different
route, heading
for a reported injury.
We made two
other runs. One was for a woman who had just
witnessed
family members being beaten; she was having a
severe
psychological-physical abdominal pain reaction. All of us
stayed up most
of the night, catching a little bit of sleep at the RC
office.
QALQILYA
REINVADED
Friday 8/9/02
Three of us did
today's ambulance accompaniment run to
Nablus. We
visited the family of the Red Crescent manager, who
is our friend
now. The curfew was off, so we toured the old city,
documenting the
enormous destruction already described by
many
witnesses.
While we were
here in Nablus, the others back in Qalqilya
witnessed
another big Israeli re-invasion there. Many Palestinian
homes were
destroyed, and several arrests were made. The
internationaIs
got a taste of concussion grenades and close
calls from
rubber bullets hitting the ground near them. (All of this
has been
described in great detail by Garrick Ruiz.) Those of us
staying in
Nablus slept in the family home.
ANOTHER
HUMILIATION FOR PALESTINIAN FARMERS
Saturday
8/10/02
While still in
Nablus (before returning to Qalqilya), we were
fortunate to
have a long, quite informative session about
settlement
activity. Our meeting was with a long-time activist--a
PLO executive
commission man who has been preparing a
comprehensive
report of the settlement situation. He is working
on this report,
for the media, exposing the blatant Israeli lies
about the
settlements—that some are supposedly being
"dismantled"
and that no more are being established. In fact, the
Israelis are
continuing to build more settlements. He argues
that the settlements
are a Primary problem—that the
combination of
settlement existence and actions and
military
activity remain an absolutely fatal combination, which will
continue to
undermine any moves toward peace.
We headed
back. On the road back, from Nablus to Qalqilya, we
spotted an
ambulance next to a Nablus-municipality car. We
stopped, and
learned that the Israelis had just shot and killed a
member of the
municipality. The Israelis said it was "a mistake."
After getting
back to Qalqilya, some of us then visited two
different
farmers. Both farms are near settlements. The
Palestinians
are subjected to regular random shooting from
settlement
outposts. One of the farmers reported that his
greenhouse had
been destroyed three days earlier, during
the
night. They also had lost their month-old baby, killed by a
stray
bullet. The second farmer described the same pattern of
random
shooting, plus destruction of their water pipes—either
blown up or run
over by tanks.
A week earlier
the Israelis had killed one of their donkeys, and
then they made
the man get on his knees and "rode" him like an
animal--no
words are adequate to describe such an act of
humiliation.
The farmer's
final comment to us:
"Our life
is here. We would sleep here. We can't imagine our
fields not
being green. Our life is with the soil—we have no
choice."
WITNESS TO
BEATINGS AT IOF CHECKPOINT
Sunday 8/11/02
Today three of
us had another real big check point-watch
experience.
As usual, upon arrival at the check point, we found it
closed.
About 60 Palestinians were waiting there. Workers
were unable to
leave to go to work. People were unable to return
to their nearby
villages after medical care visits. Trucks were
stopped, backed
up, unable to get out with goods and produce.
The
internationals made the usual attempts at "dialogue" with
the soldiers,
who would give no reason for the
closure--surprise.
The soldiers were relatively calm for a while.
Then the
commanding officer finally came out, charging out in a
huge rage,
canisters in hand, threatening us with sound
grenades and
tear gas. The soldiers started moving us back,
firing into the
air. They were joined by jeeps, chasing the
Palestinans and
us back in the direction of the center of the city,
shouting,
"This is a military zone!". They were hitting and kicking
the
Palestinians, shouting, screaming, and firing over peoples'
heads. We
walked slowly, stalling them a bit, and taking
pictures.
The soldiers finally returned to the check point, warning
us not to
return—empty threats for internationals, but not for
Palestinians.
We soon returned to the check point, and found
that the more
aggressive soldiers were no longer there. The
remaining ones
were relatively civil.
Later in the
day we met with 50 members of the local business
community.
No surprises—they face overwhelming problems,
with the
closures, curfew, and the blockage of movement of
goods in and
out of Qalqilya and surrounding towns. No fertilizer
can be brought
in—"might be used for making bombs." Same
pattern
everywhere in this land--Systematic Economic
Strangulation
of a Whole People.
-----------------------
Susan is part
of a "BostontoPalestine" delegation to the
International
Solidarity Movement's (ISM) Palestine Freedom
Summer.
Hundreds of internationals have converged on the
West Bank and
Gaza to show solidarity, provide humanitarian
assistance, and
join Palestinians in nonviolent direct
action against
Israel's brutal and illegal military occupation.
For more
information visit BostontoPalestine's website at
BCPR's site:
www.bcpr.org , click on "Freedom Summer.