http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahap7fXRP10&feature=player_embedded

Army Demolishes A Mosque Near Tubas

Friday February 18, 2011 05:47 by Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies 

Israeli soldiers demolished on Thursday a mosque located in Khirbit Yirza, near the West Bank city of Tubas, and also removed 10 tents used by farmers and shepherds in the area.

Image Palestine-Info

Local sources reported that several Israeli military jeeps invaded the village and demolished the mosque for the second time in six months.

After demolishing the mosque and the tents, soldiers also handed orders for the demolition of three homes and animal sheds.

Also, army bulldozers demolished ten tin-houses in Bardala area, near Tubas. This is the second attack of its nature against the village.

The ten tin-houses were initially demolished by the army several weeks ago, and the residents rebuilt them.

The area in question is in the Jordan valley, a main target to the construction of Jewish settlements due to the fertile nature of the lands and the sensitive geographical location.

Al-Arakib Demolished For The 18th Time

Thursday February 17, 2011 15:49 by David Steele – 1 of International Middle East Media Center Editorial Group 

JNF (Jewish National Fund) bulldozers re-entered the village of al-Arakib this morning and destroyed buildings that were put up after yesterday’s destruction.

This is now the 18th time that al-Arakib has been destroyed in a matter of months. The last occasion was yesterday. The Alternative Information Centre reports that police, riot police and Special Forces were involved in the operation, which occurred in the early hours of this morning. Residents were barricaded into the cemetery where they had fled for safety after yesterday’s destruction and were sleeping.

Later on, residents from the nearby city of Rahat came to al-Arakib and demonstrated in support of the villagers. They were blocked from entering the village and riot police opened fire with rubber bullets and tear gas. They were chased for approximately 2 kilometers and seven were arrested, including two children.

Al-Arakib is a Bedouin village which pre-dates the state of Israel. Although residents have tax receipts and deeds of ownership dating back to the Ottoman years, the Israeli authorities do not consider these valid and have not recognized the village. As part of Operation Blueprint Negev, the JNF intends to plant a forest over the area presently occupied by the village.

The link for IMEMC news: http://www.imemc.org/

I have been wanting to write something about Palestinian prisoners.  One of the duties of our team is to attend the weekly vigil or demonstration held by the Prisoners’ Club in front of the Red Cross/Red Crescent office every Tuesday morning.  To describe a typical Tuesday: People bring plastic chairs across the street and sit in a line on the sidewalk with photos of the prisoners on their laps.  Women at one end, men at the other.  One older man has a baby granddaughter on his lap.  A few other children sit with their mothers.  We get a chance to talk to a middle aged woman who has apparently been a teacher and speaks good English.  She tells us her son was taken 9 years ago and her home demolished.  Patricia asks her why he was taken.  Her face hardens and she gives a bit of a political speech against Israel and for the Koran.   Later I ask if her home was demolished at the same time as he was taken or later.  “At the same time,” she tells me.  The soldiers searched the house, breaking the furniture as they went.  They took her son.  They set bombs around and blew up the house.  “I went out in my bare feet,” she said.  “And after that my nerves were bad.  I had to leave my job”.  And then her face crumbled and her eyes filled with tears, and so did mine.

I would really like to understand better who the prisoners are.  Those served by the Prisoners’ Club have been detained by the Israeli Military and tried in a military court.  They are people who have participated in resistance against the Occupation, whether it be non-violently or as fighters.

Some of the websites say as many as 40% of Palestinian males have been in prison.  Certainly it seems almost everyone we talk to in Tulkarem has.  Many are put in “administrative detention” with no court process whatsoever.  Some have been arrested during periods of time when it was deemed illegal by the occupation authorities to belong to student groups or particular political parties.  Men and especially youth are arrested to try to turn them into collaborators by bribery or abuse.  Youth are arrested for rock throwing.  I’ve heard of a case where someone was arrested because they had the same name as a suspected militant, and another where a taxi driver was arrested after he picked up a fare who happened to be a wanted militant.  There are activists involved with the non-violent resistance movement in prison (see previous post).  And then of course some of the prisoners are militants.

And what does that mean?  I personally do not support armed resistance to injustice, but that is not the prevailing world view.  Much of the world still believes armed conflict is permissible under some circumstances.  Part of the issue under international law is whether the targets are military or civilian.  But of course both sides have targeted civilians, with a much heavier toll of Palestinian casualties.  I expressed the concern to one of our contacts that people in Canada might think that the prisoners detained by the Israelis

(there are currently  5847 of them, See links:  http://www.imemc.org/article/60142

http://www.btselem.org/english/statistics/detainees_and_priso7ners.asp

and http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article9 ) are people who went into Israel and attacked civilians.  He replied that anyone who gets into Israel and attacks civilians is very likely to be killed on the spot.  He said most of the militants in this area were people who fought back against the Israeli military incursions into Palestinian territory during the second Intifada.  (For background on the history of the second Intifada I would recommend: “Understanding the Palestinian Conflict: A Primer” by Phyllis Bennis and “When the Rain Returns”, a report prepared by an International Quaker Working Party on Israel and Palestine, published by AFSC in 2004).

The interpreter for Combatants for Peace, Malaka told me 3 of her brothers have been in prison.  The last to get out was only released 3 days before I met her.  She has sent me a very moving account of her experience of the monthly visits families are allowed to make by Red Cross Transport.  This past year she was the only one in her family to obtain a permit to go, so the responsibility was heavily felt.  If she was unable to go, her brothers got no visit that month.  She has given me permission to share her essay so I have posted it separately (see previous post).  Her father has told me that he had permission to visit the first year his son was in prison.  He made the long trip to the Negev 4 times but on one occasion, despite having a permit, was not allowed to see his son when he got there.  He also told me his son still dreams about the prison at night.

I also spoke to Nour, the local coordinator for Combatants for Peace.( http://cfpeace.org/?cat=6).   He told me that all of the Palestinian people in Combatants for Peace have been in prison.  When I asked what I should tell people in Canada about the prisoners He said, “The Prisoners want freedom.  It is difficult to do peace when Palestinians are in prison.”

The second is from Abdullah abu Rahmah, a non-violent activist whom I have not met personally.  It was sent to me by Maxine Kaufman Lacusta, author of the excellent book, “Refusing to be Enemies, Palestinian and Israeli Nonviolent Resistance to the Occupation”.

It was one SUNDAY…it was the last SUNDAY…and it will be next SUNDAY!!!

by Malaka Samara on Saturday, October 23, 2010 at 12:48am

A visit to the Israeli prison…

It’s a personal story i wanted to write on my notebook weeks ago, but every time  when I intend to start i lose all my ideas and thoughts and get a headache and remember all the similar stories since 2001 , I mean from the beginning  of the second Intifada , but when I want to sleep every night , the ideas and the exact words come to my mind, and every time I keep pen and paper next to me to write them down…and so today I’ll tell you the story of the SUNDAY…

One Sunday every month, at 5.00 am in the early morning, we gather next to the Red Cross , hundreds of people coming from the city, the towns and the villages of Tulkarm…they are the families of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli prisons…all of us wait the buses to come and pick us up…the first thing people do is buying something to eat for the long journey, me just sitting and observing everything going and all the movements of people…then they sit next together, old women, old men , young kids, very simple people… and they start to ask the same questions to each others…Whom are u going to visit??? Why is he in the prison??? For how long??? Then every one starts to tell his story about his-her son, brother , husband , and so, me just listening all the time without telling any…they tell the story of his  relative being arrested , the time and the house and the number of soldiers, tanks, bulldozers and all the stuff of occupation when they want to arrest someone…and then they go deeper, how many of his friends were arrested that night with him!!! How many were injured!!! How many were killed!!! Describing by small details every little thing was happening that time, and shifting from one woman to another , from one story to another, me just sitting and translate all these painful words and sentences into images, the same things happened with my three brothers, my uncles and my cousins…thousands of Israeli soldiers surrounded my house more than 20, 30 times, i don’t really even remember …opened fire, damaged everything in the house , killed my 2 uncles, arrested my oldest brother for 4 years just in his graduating day from the university….all these images come to my head at the same time , i feel with strong headache and want to stop their conversation but at the same time want them to continue, i feel that i need to remember  all those years and all those beloved ones i miss so much and they live in my heart , in my blood, every moment. All those memories sleep in my eyes every day…can’t forget them…

Then all women start crying  , I do my best to prevent myself , tears come to my eyes, and just like hiding myself and pretend doing something else…

The buses take us to the main Israeli  checkpoint in the city for security search and looking for the ID’s and the permissions…we pass the first one , the second one , and then we go to very small rooms…I was alone with 8 workers who work in Israel, we waited 2 hours to call us and every one was upset and angry, me too, but I didn’t show that, just was observing every one reaction…finally we get out,  but, they asked me to comeback again and again and again for the electrical machine that they used to check us with…i always do my arrangement not to bring my watch , my mobile, belt or any of those stuff that make sound in the machine…but they took my jacket and kept it for more than one hour and all the people are waiting me, because they can’t move if anybody still in…

Now the time is 10.am…then we continue our trip all the way long to the desert….just lands, stones , sand, some trees, some Israeli houses…i sleep from time to time but want to stay awake to see everything, and just wondering and asking myself about the history, the religions, the conflict, and why we have such life and for what purpose ever thing is going between Palestine and Israel, and all these stupid stuff….and what kind of world, people, rules, laws and humanity that allow this to happen for us…to go more than 12 hours to visit a human being in a prison in the desert!!!!!?????  i am thinking with myself and having all that dialog, all that questions and answers…but people still speaking loudly , and telling different things without stopping, and sometime I do some meditation trying to relax and be more optimistic, but still have strong headache …

We arrive the yard of the prison, it’s almost 1:30 pm….people start to have their places and their lunch, i am just looking how simple and innocent they are!!!…just eating and sharing food together, smiling  like happy people who have a picnic, forget all that pain of the morning…that’s good , why not??!! THEN the Israeli loudspeakers start to call the names of the prisoners to take some clothes or packets of cigarettes for prisoners. people start to rush to prepare everything, things could be in  and things couldn’t be in…some mothers get sad and some mothers get happy when they know that their children now have their clothes, some mothers start to beg the soldiers just to take one t-shirt or some of the underwear for their sons, but they refuse , no way of course, but i can see the shock on their faces …that’s really difficult situation….just the fence and the wall prevent parents and families and kids to be in the other side….

They open the first terrible gate for us to come in, then we walk another gate, we walk another gate, and the sound of the heavy iron doors and the voices of the soldiers … everything is strange and not normal…we get in , everyone starts to look for his relative, we spend 45 minutes talking by phones, behind the strong walls of glass that we can’t hear the voice from…me looking in the eyes of my brothers, on their faces, I look at every small things , their skin, their hands, fingers, nails, hair style, I feel to cry and feel to hug them …that’s difficult moment, one of the most moments i don’t like to be in my life, feel so stress and confused, they feel that , and they smile and tell me they are ok, but I am sure not because their shiny brown eyes are not shiny any more , I don’t feel that they are my brothers whom I lived with and spent all my childhood with  ,I feel them different people…they ask many questions and  don’t wait for the answers, just both of us speak random things, that like no connection…I don’t know really how to describe that….any ways we finish that what they call it a visit, funny…!!!

The phones are off now, we can’t hear any thing…with a strange SILENCE we go out out out….the same people again to the yard but I feel the difference, no one speaks any word any sound, completely silence, we all feel that we left our hearts inside, with those beloved ones , who are part of us, it’s not strange to feel that and to be shocked….

Back home, the time now, 12 or may be some times 1.00 midnight….

Last Sunday 09-10-2010 was the last Sunday to visit  my brother in the Israeli jails, after 9 years of terrible and inhuman visits, it’s over now….specially I am the only one of the family has permission this year to go to Israel, and I feel fully responsible about all the visits of my brothers, sometimes I need to leave the country but still feel  I am guilty because i have deprived one of my brothers to be out for 45 minutes, and that great happiness for them….

Next Sunday 17-10-2010 , special day in my life and all my family, we were waiting minute by minute impatiently, very difficult feeling to describe, after 9 years in the Israeli jails….all of them will be out. the last one will be out…and thousands of people will wait and celebrate this great occasion to welcome him with the Palestinian national songs  and all of us the big beautiful family will be in the same house, WOW, I can’t even imaging that…

All my best wishes for all the Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli prisons, and hope all OF  them will be out and free very soon…. I pray for all their families to be strong and patient  enough to visit them….special greetings for  my uncle and my 5 cousins in the Israeli prisons…

Even this I will keep my work for peace and non- violence resistance to end conflict, struggle, occupation , whatever we call it to have our independent state on day and live in PEACE  and FREEDOM…

By me,A sister of 3 X-prisoners in the Israeli jails

Malaka Samara

For those of you who have seen the wonderful film Bil’in Habibti, Abdullah is the soft-spoken school teacher and nonviolent activist who expressed embarrassment at being so neatly dressed when Mohammed Khatib joked about becoming less fastidious about his cleanliness after hanging around so much with the Israeli Anarchists.  He’s been in jail for a full year on a charge of incitement to violence.
Maxine

A Message From Abdullah Abu Rahmah on International Human Rights Day

A year ago tonight, on International Human Rights Day, our apartment
in Ramallah was broken into by the Israeli military in the middle of
the night and I was torn away from my wife Majida, my daughters Luma
and Layan, and my son Laith, who at the time was only nine months
old.

As the coordinator of the Bil'in Popular Committee against the Wall
and Settlements I was convicted of "organizing illegal demonstrations"
and "incitement." The "illegal demonstrations" refer to the nonviolent
resistance campaign that my village has been waging for the last six
years against Israel's Apartheid Wall that is being built on our
land.

I find it strange that the military judges could call our
demonstrations illegal and charge me for participating in and
organizing them after the world's highest legal body, the
International Court of Justice in The Hague, has ruled that Israel's
wall within the occupied territories is illegal and must be
dismantled. Even the Israeli supreme court ruled that the Wall's route
in Bil'in is illegal.

I have been accused of inciting violence: this charge is also
puzzling. If the check points, closures, ongoing land theft, wall and
settlements, night raids into our homes and violent oppression of our
protests does not incite violence, what does?

Despite the occupations constant and intense incitement to violence in
Bil'in, we have chosen another way. We have chosen to protest
nonviolently together with Israeli and International supporters. We
have chosen to carry a message of hope and real partnership between
Palestinians and Israelis in the face of oppression and injustice. It
is this message that the Occupation is attempting to crush through its
various institutions including the military courts. An official from
the Israeli Military Prosecution shamelessly told my Attorney, Gaby
Lasky, that the objective of the military in my prosecution is to "put
an end" to these demonstrations.

The crime of incitement that I have been convicted of is defined under
Israeli military decree 101 regarding the prohibition of hostile
action of propaganda and incitement as "The attempt, verbally or
otherwise, to influence public opinion in the Area in a way that may
disturb the public peace or public order" and carries a 10 year
maximal sentence. This definition is so broad and vague that it can be
applied to almost any action or statement. Actually, these words
could be considered incitement if they were spoken in the occupied
territories.

On the 11th of October of this year I was sentenced to 12 months in
prison, plus 6 months suspended sentence for 3 years, and a fine. My
family and I, especially my daughters, were counting the days to my
release. The military prosecution waited until just a few days before
the end of my sentence before appealing against my release, arguing
that I should be imprisoned longer. I have completed my sentence but
remain in prison. Though international law considers myself and other
activists as human rights defenders, the occupation authorities
consider us criminals whose freedom and other rights must be denied.
In the year that I have spent in prison, the demonstrations in Bil'in,
Naalin, Al Maasara, and Beit Omar have continued. Nabi Saleh and other
villages have taken up the popular struggle. Within this year, the
International campaign calling for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions of
Israel until it complies with International law has grown
considerably, as have legal actions against Israeli war crimes. I hope
that soon Israel will no longer be able to ignore the clear
condemnation of its policies coming from around the world.

In the year that I have spent in prison, my son Laith has taken his
first steps and said his first words,  and Luma and Layan have been
growing from children to beautiful young girls. I have not been able
to be with them, to walk holding their hands, to take them to school
as they and I are used to. Laith does not know me now. And my wife
Majida has had to care for our family alone.

In 2010 children in Bil'in and throughout the West bank are still
being awakened in the middle of the night to find guns pointed at
their heads. In the year that I have spent in prison, the military has
carried out dozens of night raids in Bil'in with the purpose of
removing those involved in the popular struggle against the
occupation.

Imagine if heavily armed men forced their way into your home in the
middle of the night. If your children were forced to watch as their
father or brother was blindfolded, handcuffed, and taken away. Or if
you as a parent were forced to watch this being done to your child.

This week the door of our cell was opened and a sixteen year boy was
pushed inside. My friend Adeeb Abu Rahmeh was shocked to recognize his
son, Mohammed, whom Adeeb had not seen since he himself was arrested
during a nonviolent demonstration 16 months ago.

Mohammad smiled when he saw his Father, but his face was red and
swollen and it was clear that he was in pain. He told us that he had
been taken from his home two nights previously. He spent the first
night blindfolded and shackled, being moved from one place to another.
The next day after a terrifying, disoriented, and sleepless night he
was taken to an interrogation room, his blindfold was removed and an
interrogator showed him pictures of people from the village. When
questioned about the first picture he told the interrogator that he
did not recognize the person. The interrogator slapped him hard across
the face. This continued with every question that Mohammad was asked:
when he did not give the answer that the interrogator wanted, he was
slapped, punched and threatened. Mohammad's treatment is not
unusual.

Young boys from our village have been taken from their homes violently
and report   being denied sleep, food, and water and being kept in
Isolation and threatened and often beaten during interrogation.

What was unusual about Mohammad is that he did not satisfy his
interrogator and with competent representation was released within a
few days. Usually children, just because they are children, will say
whatever the interrogator wants them to say to make such treatment
stop.  Adeeb, myself, and thousands of other prisoners are being held
in prison based on testimonies forced or coerced out of these
children. No child should ever receive such treatment.

When the children who had testified against me retracted what they
said in interrogation and told the military judge that their
testimonies where given under duress, the judge declared them hostile
witnesses.

Adeeb Abu Rahmah and I are the first to be convicted with incitement
and participation in illegal demonstrations since the first Intifada
but, unfortunately, it does not seem that we will be the last.

I often wonder what Israeli leaders think they will achieve if they
succeed in their goal of suppressing the Palestinian popular struggle?
Is it possible that they believe that our people can sit quietly and
watch as our land is taken from us?  Do they think that we can face
our children and tell them that, like us, they will never experience
freedom? Or do they actually prefer violence and killing to our form
of nonviolent struggle because it camouflages their ongoing theft and
gives them an excuse to continue using us as guinea pigs for their
weapons?

My eldest daughter Luma was nine years old when I was arrested. She is
now ten. After my arrest she began going to the Friday demonstrations
in our village. She always carries a picture of me in her arms. The
adults try to look after her but I still  worry for my little girl. I
wish that she could enjoy her childhood like other children, that she
could be studying and playing with her friends. But through the walls
and barbed wire that separates us I hear my daughter's message to me,
saying: "Baba, they cannot stop us. If they take you away, we will
take your place and continue to struggle for justice." This is the
message that I want to bring you today. From beyond the walls, the
barbed wire, and the prison bars that separate Palestinians and
Israelis

When we arrived we were invited onto the family’s tree shaded veranda and sat with the young man, M., his uncle, and another young man, while he gave his testimony to Abdel Karim.  He said he had gone with his 80 year old grandmother the previous Friday to work in the family’s olive grove.   Picking is over but people are still pruning trees, cleaning up, preparing ground.  The family owns 50 dunams on the west side of the wall i.e. in the “seam zone” between the wall and the 1948 armistice (green) line.  (The grandmother came and joined us later.  Apparently she is quite famous.  During the construction of the wall she stood in front of a bulldozer and embraced an olive tree that was being uprooted.  The photo later was made into a poster and widely publicized).

At 11:30 he left his grandmother and went to the gate so he could go the noon prayers at the mosque as it was Friday.  He sat down cross legged with his back against the gate and put his water bottle and pruning saw beside him.  The speculation is that by leaning on the gate he triggered an alarm.  A jeep arrived.  He said when he first saw it he was happy that the gate would be opened and he would get to prayers on time.  However, the soldier approached him and immediately began to kick and beat him.  When he asked why he was told that he “bothered” security by sitting there.  He was accused of wanting to cut the fence with his saw.  He pointed out that the saw was only a work tool and the soldiers who opened the gate that morning had allowed it through.

About 15 more jeeps arrived.  One female soldier called out, “Why are you surrounding him?  He has no weapon.”  She was told to leave.  When the soldiers in the other jeeps realized there was no real security breach they began to leave.  Finally the officer in the first jeep said, “Now I am alone here and I can do anything I want.”  M. began to shout but they quickly put a gag over his mouth.  They took photos with male and female soldiers with their arms draped over his shoulders.  Then they blindfolded him and ordered him to undress.  When he was naked his hands were cuffed behind his back and he could hear sounds that indicated more pictures were being taken.  He was then taken in a jeep to a military camp.  He could hear music and dancing and laughing.  He was made to kneel naked in the sun, told the pictures would be posted on Facebook, and verbally threatened with rape.

Later he was sent to a room with a soldier who began to cry when he learned the he and M. were the same age and each of them was the father of a small daughter.  The soldier gave him back his clothes and took off the blindfold and handcuffs.  He admitted he had seen M. in the security cameras and knew he hadn’t been doing anything.  However, he had not felt able to defy his superior officer.  When he heard the officer coming, he put the handcuffs back on but in front rather than behind and retied the blindfold but not as tight.  The officer put M. in a small jeep, the kind reserved for officers, and began to drive, hitting the brake suddenly so M. would slam against the seat.  They drove for over an hour and then the officer pushed him out of the car with his foot, and threw his water bottle and saw after him as he lay face down on the ground.

He found himself near a gate.  A carload of Palestinian workers with an Israeli driver pulled up.  The workers saw the handcuffs, cut them off and asked the driver to help.  The driver was at first nervous and reluctant but eventually was persuaded to help and drove him to a checkpoint near Az Zawiya from where he was able to get home.

After escaping from this scene they then went to inspect a site where irrigation pipes had been cut and dirt bulldozed into a stream.

The following day I left for a placement visit with the team based in Yanoun.  They had been to the site of a demolition in the Jordan Valley the day before and were on their way to another near Tubas that day.  When we got near, the checkpoint was closed.  We were directed by locals to a rough rocky farm track and followed it on foot through the hills for a half hour or so past olive trees and cows, trailing behind some journalists who had got there just ahead of us.  Eventually we came to a small number of dwellings and animal shelters scattered on a hillside.   Apparently there are more houses over the crest of the hill.  We were told that the soldiers had come at 6:30 that morning, had fired on people, had demolished a building serving as a mosque, as well as one house and 7 sheep sheds.  The journalists filmed a small group of men doing prayers in the ruins of the mosque and then, while they continued with interviews, one man went for the tea pot and glasses and began to serve tea.  The unfailing courtesy astounds me.

Khalid, the man we were talking to said his family had lived there for many generations but people were giving up and leaving.  Ten years ago there were 50 families in the village and now only 11.

We continued from there to visit Jiftlik in the Jordan Valley where the demolition had taken place the previous day.  There a small herding community is squeezed between 2 parallel roads, a main road and a road serving a settlement.  The settlement has expanded across the road and planted rows of grapvines on the community’s land next to their animal shelters.  They told us the soldiers came at 6:00 a.m. and gave them 15 minutes.   The people here live in tents.  The soldiers bulldozed 2 large dwelling tents and 3 animal shelters.  There was not time to get all of the livestock out.  We saw 3 dead kids and the man I spoke to estimated there were 20 more under the wreckage.  These people received a demolition order in 2008 and were going through a court process appealing it.  They tried to show the court papers ordering a stay on the demolition order until the process was finished but the soldier order the bulldozer to go ahead and when it was finished said “Now you can have your court process”.

Near the front of the cage the route zigzags, I presume to prevent pressure from the back of the line crushing those in front when the turnstiles lock.  There are 3 turnstiles.  When the terminal opens at 4 the lights turn green and people rush through toward the metal detector inside.  Every few minutes the lights above the turnstiles turn red again and the turnstiles lock up till the crowd inside clears the metal detectors and identity inspection.  The women are permitted to line up outside the cage near the turnstiles.  When the terminal opens they are allowed into the cage by a separate entrance near the turnstiles, but once inside must still mix with the press of men to get through the turnstiles.  The women’s entrance is closed again after a few minutes.

Last Sunday, the first work day after the 3 day holiday for Eid, more than 1000 people went through in the first half hour.  The atmosphere at Tayba is much more oppressive than at the agricultural gates.  But even in this grim place a few people will greet us.  Some weeks ago Susan, our main contact in Shufa, the village with the roadblock, was telling me about her sister-in-law, Fatina.  Fatina works as a farm labourer and must get up at 2:00 in order to get ready, walk down the hill to the roadblock, meet the service on the other side and get to Tayba in time to go through the women’s gate.  A few days later I heard “Yaa Sara! Yaa Sara!” and saw a smile and a hand waving from the front of the women’s line.  I knew it had to be Fatina as I couldn’t imagine who else there would know my name.

Last Sunday I chatted with another woman who had greeted me there before.  She told me she also gets up at 2:00 and asked me what time I get up.  I tried to ask her what time she would get up if there were no checkpoint.  She thought I was asking how life would be in general if there were no checkpoint and gave me quite a list-most of which I didn’t really understand, but I did get mumtaaz and mumtaaz again- excellent.  Life would be excellent.  Both she and Fatina are working on stawberries these days.

He said the people of Effrat, part of Gush Etzion settlement block, do not want the Separation Wall and have spoken out against it.  They make the services of their community, e.g. emergency medical services, available to anyone in the area including Palestinians, and wish they had more contact with the Palestinian villages.  However, he said overtures, e.g. attempts to have soccer games for  children have been rebuffed.  He stated, “Their leadership will not allow them”.  He did not comment on the fact that these same villages had lost land to the settlement block.  (This includes Al Ma’sara, subject of my last blog).  He stated he believed in a one state solution with equal rights for all.  I did get a chance to ask if a single state was formed and Palestinians were the majority would that be a matter of concern for him.  He replied confidently that there was no possibility they would become a majority for at least 50 years.

After checking the demographics, I think if the more than 2 million refugees registered with UNWRA and living in Jordan and Lebanon are not taken into account he is probably correct.  The Jewish population would be 5,593,000 (2009 figure) and the Palestinian 4,488, 630.  However , if the refugees were allowed to return (as is their right under international law) and a significant number chose to do so, this might not be the case.

We also travelled to Sderot and had a very different experience meeting with Nomika Zion and Eric Yellin of Other Voice.   Sderot is only a few km. from Gaza.  Prior to the first Intifada (uprising against the occupation) in 1987, there was considerable contact between the 2 communities.  However, movement restrictions on Gaza which began with the first Intifada increased with the second and became a blockade following the election of Hamas in 2006.  During the second Intifada militant groups in Gaza began to fire rockets into the region of Sderot.  Over the past 8 years over 7000 rockets have been launched, 10-60 daily for months on end, at times as often as 1 every 5 minutes.

Over the years 18 residents have been killed and it has taken a tremendous toll emotionally and socially on the community.  Apparently from the time the warning sounds until the rocket hits, one has 15-30 seconds to take shelter.  “Imagine”, Nomika said, “Driving a van full of children to kindergarten and having to decide whose child you will take off first.”  The government has spent 2 billion on reinforced rooms in the houses of residents .  Outdoors the bus shelters are reinforced concrete and there are shelters on the children’s playgrounds.

Nomika was one of the founders of a community-minded urban kibbutz, and moved with other kibbutz members to Sderot 23 years ago.  A few years ago when the home of one kibbutz family was directly hit, the community sought professional mental health services and after that the organization Other Voice was born.  They made contact by telephone with people in Gaza and began to develop relationships with them.

Nomika  describes the ceasefire as a tremendous time of recovery for people in Sderot, a time to recover sanity.  She said that there were occasional rockets during that time but from other groups, not Hamas.  Though she and Eric were both very critical of Hamas, she believes Hamas worked to maintain the ceasefire, that it is not solely a terrorist organization, and that it needs to be included in attempts to find a political solution.  But, she says, during the 5 months of ceasefire “Our leaders and their leaders wasted their time”.  She very clearly blames the Israeli army for breaking the ceasefire when on Nov.4, 2008 they invaded Gaza and killed 6 militants and then 4 more the following week.  (When Israel began to bomb Gaza at the end of Dec. it was frequently reported in the Canadian media that Hamas had been the first to break the ceasefire).   Following the Nov. 4 incident, Other Voice wrote a letter to Israeli leaders trying to describe how crucial the ceasefire was for Sderot and begging them to find a non-violent solution.  They also begged them to come to Sderot.  A high ranking official accepted the invitation but later cancelled and Operation Cast Lead (bombing of Gaza) began 4 days later.

Nomika said, “I never felt protected by the bombing.  I never felt protected by the targeted assassinations.  I felt the most protected by my government during the ceasefire”.   During Operation Cast Lead the members of Other Voice in Sderot feared for their own safety and that of sons and husbands of friends in the Israeli military and at the same time struggled to maintain contact with the friends they had made in Gaza.  One particularly heart wrenching e-mail came from a contact in Gaza whose 14 year old daughter had seen her school bombed and her friend killed before her eyes.

Nomika described the atmosphere in Sderot as being like a festival.  People travelled from other parts of Israel to celebrate in the streets and to sit on the hills surrounding Gaza and watch the bombs light up the sky.  “The discourse in Israel is all about war, the next war.  I feel sometimes that people think peace is the enemy”.  She was moved to write an article “War diary from Sderot”.

http://villagesgroup.wordpress.com/2009/01/11/a-sderot-woman-speaks-out-against-gaza-war/

She reports many positive responses from Israel and abroad, but members of Other Voice have also received threats.  “But nobody (wishing to discredit her position) can say to me: go to Sderot”.

Other Voice, against all odds has managed to hold seminars with people from Gaza (who need a permit both from Hamas and from Israel to exit Gaza) and they are planning a large international 3 day conference for Feb. 2011.  I recommend checking their website, especially the letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu.

http://www.othervoice.org/letter-to-prime-minister-Netanyahu-End-the-siege-on-Gaza.htm

Nomika speaks to us about her experience…

Eric points out buildings in Gaza…

while a military camera attached to a balloon floats over our heads…

and we visit the concrete caterpillar that shelters children on the Sderot playground.

Re the Israeli government’s position re state borders:  http://www.imemc.org/article/59907

Re free speech and anti-semitism in Canada:
http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/11/anti-semitism-and-free-speech-parliament-weekend

Re Canadian support for the obliteration of Palestinian villages: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11601.shtml

What happens is this:  A group of people: men and youths from the village, various internationals, and a contingent of Israeli anarchists, walk up through the village.  Some of the boys carry Palestinian flags.  One of the group has a megaphone.  I try to count and I think, altogether, there are about 30 people.  At the edge of the village we come to a place where a side road leads to the left.  There are a couple of army jeeps and a van blocking the road in front of us.  The group turns left and walks toward another jeep parked on the side road.  They shout slogans and wave their hands in the air.  Some soldiers from the main road walk down through an orchard to approach the group from the side.  Eventually the soldiers start throwing sound grenades and tear gas and everyone starts to run.  When the wave of gas and sound bombs stops they turn around and approach the soldiers again.  This repeats itself 2 or 3 times with the demonstrators losing a little ground each time.  Eventually the crowd gives up and retreats back into the village.

Mandla, one of the EA’s got a face full of tear gas.  By pure luck I must have been on the upwind side of it as I was unaffected, though I did have an earache for a while from the first sound grenade which I had really not been prepared for.  We sat down on a terrace in front of a house and when the people saw Mandla they came out and offered him an onion (an antidote for tear gas).

Apparently this is basically repeated every Friday.  I asked someone “What would you do if the soldiers just didn’t show up?”  “We would walk to our lands,” he said.  Apparently the wall is supposed to be built along the far side of the road to the left that the group went down, and that road leads to land the village has lost to the settlement.  If the context of the occupation were not so serious, this ritualized performance would feel ridiculous.  I couldn’t count the soldiers, but I’m sure there were close to a dozen, fully armed, facing 30 unarmed people, and I did get the impression that some of the young men from the village enjoyed the adrenalin rush of guessing when to run and lead the retreat.   Granted the slogans and arm waving were a bit aggressive but there was no rock throwing (the organizers do discourage it) and no one touched a soldier.  Once we were in full retreat inside the village I did see some youths with rocks in their hands.  I suppose they were waiting to see if the army would follow the group into the village.

However the context is serious and not limited to this ritualized gas and sound bombs and running.  Mathilda told us a neighbouring village has given up protesting because soldiers had come in and taken people out of the village.  I heard someone from Jayous EA team say much the same: that Jayous had stopped protesting because the army was targeting the youth.  And in some villages there have been serious injuries and deaths when people have been hit directly by tear gas canisters or rubber coated steel bullets.

Some links re the situation in Al Ma’sara:  http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/2205.shtml

The Protesters set off through the village…

…are stopped by the soldiers…

…retreat from the tear gas and sound grenades…

…while the extra soldiers watch through the haze.