International Solidarity Movement
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June 29, 2002
by Rae Levine

Dear Friends,

I am still in Nablus, which continues to be under siege by the Israeli army. The word "curfew" is so mild, it does not capture the severity of the situation here. No one can get in or out of the city, which sits in a valley between 2 big mountains. Soldiers are perched on the highest points on the top of homes with guns. They shoot from time to time. Tanks, bulldozers, jeeps, armored personnel carriers (all U. S. made and bought with U. S. aid to Israel) prowl the streets day and night stopping for awhile to chase some young people who dare to go in the streets outside their homes, shooting periodically. In some areas they have dug up the street and made huge barriers of rubble. I'm told that this is a first step to close off an area and that later the soldiers return to demolish a home or take all the men away. Everywhere there are signs of destruction … smashed cars and buildings (public buildings like the government headquarters and homes), piles of rubble, walls with huge bullet holes.

The soldiers are the only law here now. Today I rode in the ambulance again. We drove down a street and there was a tank. The soldier signaled for us to turn around and go away. There was no talking to him, reasoning, asking why, saying that we needed to go pick up a patient down this road. Forget the Geneva Convention that specifies that ambulances are to have free movement even in war zones … it's whatever the soldier says. Last night we (the driver, a doctor, 3 Americans) were made to get out holding our arms up over our heads. Another time they shot first (not directly at the ambulance, though I'm told they have done that many times), then talked.

These conditions of military siege and rule are being normalized now. Yesterday the curfew was lifted for a few hours so people could get food, take care of errands, kids go to school and take their exams to finish the term. The opening was announced at 1 am (i.e. the middle of the night before) by loud speaker in the streets outside the homes. After 2 pm when the curfew was re-imposed, the tanks, jeeps, and armored personnel carriers patrolled the streets to chase people back in doors. I heard lots of shooting then.

Keep in mind that this same situation is in force throughout the West Bank now. Ramallah was surrounded and closed off again yesterday. Bethlehem has been closed for days. People cannot get out of or in to any of these cities, and others. And people cannot move around inside these cities. No one knows when the curfew will be lifted, either for a short term, or for good, that is if the Israeli's are even thinking of lifting it for good.

Everyday Palestinians are killed and wounded. Yesterday we counted 9, plus one unverified rumor of a child being shot in the back. We (2 American and 1 Israeli-Canadian women) went with the ambulance to the scene where a man had been killed here in Nablus. It was near a Palestinian military base (which I don't think is active currently, but I'm told there are soldiers, though I haven't seen any.) The man was lying in the road but the soldiers would not let any Palestinians get near him to take him away. They had a tank, an armored personnel carrier, and another vehicle or two. When we arrived, they let us approach the spot so we could tell the Palestinians waiting that there was no one lying there wounded. The dead man had one leg and part of his face blown off. Next to him was a Kalashnikov rifle on top of a carrying bag. The soldiers said he had shot at them from the taxi he was in. A man shooting at a tank from a taxi seemed unlikely to me, but they seemed genuinely threatened.

What possible justification can there be for this siege, for this daily and persistent aggression against a whole people and country? Bush has now put it onto the Palestinians to take the next steps toward peace, but they cannot even move out of their homes without being in danger of being shot by Israeli soldiers. Palestinians I speak to here say that they want peace with Israel and that all killing should be stopped. I've heard people say that if Israel truly wants peace, all that is needed is for them to withdraw the occupation and the settlements. These are the aggressions that are leading desperate young people to blowing themselves up.

Before I came here, I thought I had an idea of what was happening, but being here in person, the situation is so much more extreme than I could imagine before. The Palestinians are being caught in a vice and Israel is tightening the vice tighter every day. People I have spoken with had some hope because Bush had said he supported a Palestinian state, but now it sounds like Sharon's words are coming out of his mouth. Who will get Israel to step back from this current aggression? Please do what you can to tell our officials to stop this inhumanity now.

Rae Levine