At
Home in Deheisha - Carl and Chris Report
Monday,
August 5th, 2002
On
Monday, Aug 5th we attended a training presented by the International Solidarity
Movement in Beit Sahour, Palestine. Beit Sahour is a town on the outskirts of Bethlehem.
It is populated with mostly Christian Palestinian and is know from being the home
and source of the Palestinian non-violence movement. It was the source of much of
the resistance during the 1st Intifada. We
had to take a number of 'services' taxis to get to Beit Sahour. We met up with the
International Solidarity Movement organizer. She took us through the Bethlehem checkpoint.
It was an easy but interesting experience. There was concertina (razor) wire all
around and concrete roadblocks and tank tracks everywhere.
We
got into Beit Sahour and met George Ashrawi on of the heads of the Rappraochment
Center. The training went into a lot of background of ISM, non-violent action, and
affinity group structure. Towards the end of the afternoon we met Huwaida one of
the founders of ISM. She told us that there was a request from Palestinian families
in the neighboring Dheisheh refugee camp to have some Internationals stay with them
because their houses were under threat of demolition by the occupying Israeli Army.
We decided that even thought we were not finished with our training we would go if
they wanted us.
After
a number of calls back and forth they decided that they were (or at least felt) safe,
so we stayed at our hotel in Beit Sahour. We were however woken up at around 1:30am
thinking we were going to go out to the homes at the last minute, although in the
end we didn't. Truthfully, I was not
looking forward to doing a 1 hour walk at midnight, breaking the Israeli military
curfew that was in effect in Beit Sahour and Bethlehem. We did meet all the other
members of our affinity group during the training and got a chance to discuss a lot
of stuff with them. We also met a number of people from the Palestinian Center for
Rapprochement between Peoples (PCR) which is headquartered in Beit Sahour.
I
got a call from a producer at WGBH, the Boston PBS affiliate, he had seen Carl on
the news talking about a shooting incident we had witnessed Damascus Gate in Jerusalem.
I told him that we were fine and in training. He told us to get it on film.
It
was a bit strange being in Beit Sahour. The first issue was that we were under curfew
for the first time. It was not that strictly enforced and some people were out in
the street. The other strange thing was seeing all the random destruction by the
Israeli military. Just down the street we saw the burned out hulk of a car that had
been crushed by a tank. Many of the sidewalks were crushed into dust from tanks driving
over them. The streets and curbs often had tank tracks pockmarking them. IT sort
of reminded both of us of being in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, that was the
first place we had ever see tank tracks. There were also lots of walls, lights or
electric poles destroyed by tanks.
Tuesday,
August 6, 2002
We
keep getting emails from friends (and others) that they have seen us in the newspaper
or on TV commenting on the attack at shooting incident that happen at Damascus
Gate, in East Jerusalem. The response has been interesting. I guess it will
give us lots of change for dialog when we get back.
None
of the media seems to have really picked up on the fact the innocent Palestinian
civilians were killed in the hail of automatic gunfire from the Israeli security
forces.
Anyway,
on Thursday August 6 we had finished up with our non-violence training and then headed
back to Jerusalem to get the rest of out bags. The soldier there was a bit annoyed
with us because we left our visa slips back in Jerusalem, but he let us through.
We
picked up our stuff at the hostel in East Jerusalem (the Arab section, also know
as al-Quds)and came right back to Bethlehem. We met one of the organizers from the
Palestinian Center for Rappraochment between Peoples (PCR) and he drove all 7 of
us over to the Dheisheh refugee camp. We stopped at the IBDA, which is a community
center in Dheisheh. There are lots of kids all over here and fortunately a nice computer
room with internet access (where this very message was created).
Our
affinity group broke up into 2 groups. 3 people, Mike, Ronise and Jennie went out
to do a home stay with one Palestinian family whose home is under threat of house
demolition (in contravention of the fourth Geneva Convention, Article 33). And 4
of us (Carl,Chris, Sherri and Susanna) went to another home under the same threat.
Both homes are scheduled to be crushed by a bulldozer (an armored Catapiller D-9)
or blown up with dynamite because family members (who are now dead) were accused
of taking part in attacks against Israel. In one of the cases the dead family member
didn't even live in he home scheduled to be destroyed.
We
spent a night talking with the families and neighbors and planning on how we would
use non-violent direct action (a la Gandhi and MLK) to deal with the Israeli military
if and when they
appeared.
When
we awoke in the morning we were relieved to have been able to sleep through the night.
Tomorrow
might be another story.
Carl
and Chris Williams
972-67-387-881
Mobile
(call
anytime, we are +7 hours from Eastern Standard Time)
---------------
Carl
and Chris are part of a BostontoPalestine delegation to theInternational Solidarity
Movement's 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: www.bcpr.org (click on Freedom Summer)
Also,
visit their personal websites (highly recommended):
http://christian.home.igc.org
(click on ISM Travel Blog)
http://carlton.home.igc.org
(click on My Freedom Summer)