Home Wreakers
Carl and Chris Williams in Deheisheh Refugee Camp near
Bethlehem
Wednesday, August 7, 2002
We are in the Dheisheh Refugee Camp outside of Bethlehem,
Palestine. Our affinity group has split into 2 teams, one of 3 people and the other
of 4 people. Our group is staying with one Palestinian family and the other
group with a second family. Both families have been threatened by the Israeli
Army with house demolition (in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention,
Article 33 against Collective punishments). We spent most of the afternoon at
the entrance of the camp at the 'Ibda' Community Center. We had (what else?)
falafel at a small shop in the camp. We did a little shopping for food and
stuff. The owner of the store invited us all into the back, which was his house
for tea. He showed us family heirlooms that he had in his living room. The most
interesting item was the wood pole that was from the tent that the UN gave the
family in 1948 when his family was driven out of Palestine and fled to the West
Bank, which was at that time then militarily occupied by Jordan.
We went back home to our host family. We spent some time with the younger
men of the family out on the rooftop deck that has a great view of the hills
(mostly topped by paramilitary Israeli outposts, sometime referred to as
"Settlements") surrounding Dheisheh.
Thursday, August 8, 2002
When we went to sleep things were fairly calm. We were shocked
awake by the father of the family who said that he had gotten a call saying that
another house was surrounded by the Israeli military and had ordered the family
out of the house. This house was quite near and visible to the other half of
our affinity group. We started making frantic calls to our Boston and our US
based support group, the US Embassy and Consulate and the International Solidarity
Group organizers in Beit Sahour and Jerusalem.
Needless to say we were all very nervous. This experience has
changed my view of the Israeli occupation. I thought that I understood the terror
of the Israeli military occupation before, but now I have a first hand taste of
just how dehumanizing it can be. All 12 members of our host family were at
immediate risk of being made homeless ("double homeless", in a sense,
since they are living in a refugee camp in the first place) from a crime that they
did not commit. Collective punishment is a cruel and senseless form of
brutalization.
We went downstairs and for the first time met the women of the family. Our affinity group is pretty good at consoling
each other in the time of panic. Then at 3:30 am (early Thursday, August 8,
2002) we hear the first explosion. We could feel the shock wave from the blast.
It knocked a handle of one of the cabinets in the kitchen and sent us crawling
across the floor in a panic like clawless cats on a linoleum floor.
After that we were all in a mild state of shock. Nothing could
have prepared me for that fear. It was horrible and consuming. I am glad that
our group is so cool and supportive and we were able to help each other and the
family though this time.
We thought that the common practice of the Israeli military was
just to do one house demolition in any night. But at 4:30 am we heard another explosion.
Neither of these houses were the ones our subdivided affinity group was at. But
the other group actually saw the second house blown up. They almost caught it on
film. According to the story told to us from camp residents, at one the homes
the family refused to leave, so the Israeli military took a passing child
hostage and said to the family that they would kill him if they family did not
leave the house immediately. Then the house was destroyed according to the
family.
We stayed with the family for about a few hours and thought the
worst was over. We went back to our floor mats upstairs to sleep off the nightmare.
At 7am were woken up by another explosion. We weren't expecting another
demolition to happen. I don't really have any words to explain how we felt
after this. Demoralized would not be strong enough. But somehow after a night full
of terror, the third act of terror was just an added exclamation point.
We slept on and off till about 9:30 am or so. Then one of the
family members and a friend came upstairs to start taking the house apart. They
took off the doors and said that they would do the windows later. I took this
as a sign that they were sure the destruction was really going to happen
tonight (Friday morning sometime after 3am). We left to meet the rest of our
affinity group at the Community Center. One member, Mike, had left the camp to
go to Beit Sahour to train another group of incoming International Solidarity
Movement activists. This left us a little weak numerically and we discussed how
we may reshuffle our 'forces' for tonight.
We got to play with some of the kids of the community at the
center. They almost all have slingshots or wrist rockets. And they all seem to be
much better shots than me. Another popular toy is a kite, but here in Dheisheh
a kite usually consists of a plastic shopping bag on a string, but it
surprisingly seems to fly. We found it interesting how all the children's toys
seem to be politicized. The kites are a symbolic and visible way of breaking curfew.
An activist here says he is going to give the kids some balloons so they can
try hitting the tanks with water balloons. The difference between pebbles and
water balloons will probably not be appreciated by the Israeli military.
We spent the night helping one of the families move everything out
of their house. It was great to see the many of the neighborhood men come together
to help the family move. Later we have dinner (falafel, hummus, and some
veggies) while watching the news of other house demolitions. It is tragic. We
all felt quite sure tonight was the night.
Friday, August 9, 2002
At about 1:30 we heard an explosion and several hours later we
heard another. We are still unclear what the first explosion was but we found out
the second what a homemade bomb exploding as the Israeli army was traveling
through the refugee camp. We went to sleep feeling that we would not sleep
long. We awoke at about 9 am, a bit surprised to have slept so long and to
still have a house around and under us. I slapped a wall just to feel it and
get a sense of security from it. Today we will try to figure out exactly what happened
last night and try to plan for what will happen to tonight.
As for now the houses are still standing and we are not deported, detained
or arrested.
To be continued...
---------------
Carl and Chris are part of a BostontoPalestine delegation to the International
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 and click on
"Freedom
Summer"
Also, visit Carl and Chris's personal websites at:
http://carlton.home.igc.org
http://home.earthlink.net/~christianwilliams/