8/11
- 8/12
Carl
and Chris Williams in Deheisha
Refugee
Camp, West Bank
BULLETS IN A SCHOOL
DESK, QUOTES FROM A PALESTINIAN
JOURNALIST
Sunday, August
11, 2002
Our affinity group
members, Mike, Ronise (who is deaf) and
Jennie went to
the Deaf School in Bethlehem. The school serves
boys and girls
from 6 months to 15 years old. It was a well
equipped modern
school run by the Catholic Church. The school
is currently closed
because of the clampdown of the military
occupation. The
Italian nuns that work there showed our team
bullet holes around
the school and in a student desk. It makes
you wonder what
worse target the Israeli army could pick to
shoot.
Our group had a
meeting to discuss our future. We decided to
leave the Dheisheh
Refugee camp on Tuesday morning. Part of
the group will
be staying together after leaving Dheisheh. Sherri
said goodbye. She
will be leaving the camp in the morning and
leaving Palestine
on Tuesday.
On Sunday night
we heard a speaker at the Ibda Community
Center in Dheisheh.
Narsir Al-Laham, is a Palestinian journalist
who was jailed
for 6 years during the first intifada. He has some
interesting observations
about the struggle against occupation
and the search
for peace. Here are few thought-provoking
quotes:
"Everyone
has a story."
-- speaking of the suffering that ALL
Palestinians have gone
through
"If Barak
promises us 98% of the land, we guarantee him 98%
security, if Sharon
guarantees us 42% of the land we guarantee
him 42% security."
-- speaking of peace negotiations
"Who makes
war makes peace, no one else."
-- speaking of bringing the fighting parties to the
negotiation table,
not just the 'peace camps'
"Palestinians did not kill Arafat because of Oslo. In Israel they
killed Rabin because
he said Gaza was Palestinian."
A few Israeli army
jeeps came into the camp on Sunday night.
They weren't around
for long. While Samir, the brother of Ayaat
(the female suicide
bomber) and Chris were up watching for
signs of military
activity they started to talk about politics, suicide
attacks, and the
families' situation. Samir told Chris the story of
his sister. He
said that he would have "broken her foot" if he had
known she was going
carry out a suicide attack in Israel.
-- For more information on home demolision and collective
punishment read
article 33 and 53 of the 4th Geneva
Convention:
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm
SAYING GOODBYE
TO DEHEISHEH
Monday, August
12, 2002
Carl and Suzanna
came over to the Abu Samir house to meet the
family for the
first time. The teenage sisters of the Abu Samir
family were 'intrigued'
with Chris from before and were laughing
and giggling at
both of us together. It was pretty awkward given
the conservative
nature of Palestinian culture and the age of the
girls. Nonetheless
it was flattering.
Tonight is our
last night in Dheisheh camp. We hope that the
new International
Solidarity Movement activists will be willing to
take our place.
We'll find out tonight. We are leaving so we'll have
the opportunity
to do other things while in Palestine and because
some members of
our affinity group will be leaving soon.
-- For more information on Palestinian culture read:
http://www.palestine-net.com/culture/
Ta'eesh Filisteen,
Carl and Chris
Williams
----------------
Carl and Chris
Williams are part of a BostonToPalestine
delegation to the
International Solidarity Movement's (ISM)
Freedom Summer.
For more info and links, see www.bcpr.org
(click Freedom
Summer)
Cell Phone --
011 972 67 387 881
(call anytime we
are +7 EST)
http://christian.home.igc.org
(click on ISM Travel Blog)