Thursday,
the Israeli occupying army lifted the curfew that has plagued
this, one of the oldest cities on the planet, for over 3 weeks.
Desperate to accomplish the most basic of tasks, from getting
medicine or getting to the hospitals, to finally getting home
if they were stuck somewhere away from home after the last time
the curfew was lifted, Palestinians throughout the Nablus region
were bustling from early morning and throughout the day. On the
outskirts of Nablus, in the Askar refugee camp, the army has occupied
a 3-story house as a base of operations and from which they have
a prime vantage point over Askar and the villages in the valleys
heading toward Al Fara, on the eastern edge of Nablus. There is
a family living locked inside the bottom floor of this house,
literally underneath the bootsteps of the soldiers who will not
even allow them into their yards without permission. When curfew
is lifted this same family is permitted out of the house for only
2 of the normally 8 hours given most other families. A group of
internationals was successful today in escorting members of this
house who been staying in Balata since the last curfew was re-imposed
back to their house. They were doubled up in Balata and though
the internationals couldn't understand why they would want to
live in the house with the soldiers, the family was reunited.
This house/army base sits up the street
from a roadblock leading out of Askar/Nablus to the road to Al
Fara. Our group was called to reinforce another group of internationals
further down the road who were facing a tank that was prohibiting
people from leaving Nablus or Askar. They were playing a cat and
mouse game with people. The tank blocked the road completely,
swiveling the turret 360 degrees and charging back and forth as
people tried to run on the sides between the hills out of which
the road was carved. The group finally convinced the army to turn
off the engine and move to one side until we negotiated a way
to let the people through.
Two other internationals hiked back up
to the occupied house/army base to negotiate with the command
center there to find out why Palestinians were being refused passage
when the curfew was meant to be lifted, as well as try to negotiate
a way to get people through. Two other internationals approached
a Border Police jeep that appeared and began charging at people
and yelling for people to go back up the hill and back over the
roadblock and back to Nablus. These internationals were successful
in calming down the jumpy soldiers and began negotiating allowing
people through. Over the next several hours up to two hundred
people were allowed through with international accompaniment,
however, the soldiers' aggression did not abate as several hundred
people were trying to leave the city to return to their homes
in the villages outside Nablus. People were carrying garbage bags
full of possessions. At one point, the soldiers threw to the ground
the ID of a doctor who was meant to get to a clinic in one of
the outlying villages. This was just one example of the kind of
humiliation meted out to Palestinians who were waiting to pass
that day. The soldiers warned the internationals there to help
and observe: "If you've come for a problem, we'll give you
a problem."
In the meantime, hundreds of Palestinians
were approaching the army to implore they be let through. One
Palestinian woman told Michigan Peace Team member Jilnar "They
(Israeli Army) lifted curfew so we came to do the things we haven't
been able to do since. With God we did it, we always listen to
them when there is curfew, we ran out of food, we needed to go
the hospital (for my diabetes) and now we want to go. Dear God,
why does this happen, what did we do to deserve this? I don't
understand, why would they lift curfew and then. We do as they
say."
At around 1 pm, after several hours under
a hot sun with hundreds of Palestinians still waiting at this
new, "impromptu" checkpoint, the situation began to
escalate and the soldiers began to completely refuse any free
passage. They threw sound bombs and tear gas repeatedly over the
next two hours in an effort to clear the area. Everyone from old
men to little babies was stung with the tear gas. Children were
crying as the sound bombs went off all around. The driver of the
Border Police jeep was especially cruel, as he would drive straight
into crowds of people who were burdened with their belongings
and slow to move. Still, many people, desperate to take this one
window of opportunity to move, steadfastly approached the roadblock
each time the army went back up to the base. Says New York activist
Ananda LaVita: "It was incredible to see the kinds of risks
Palestinians take over and over again. At the roadblock today
they kept trying to get past it, literally running past at the
risk of being arrested, gassed or even shot by the police or army."
As this second cat and mouse game continued,
indeed many Palestinians did successfully get through the roadblock,
though many hours later. Once, when a taxi sped up to the roadblock
to drop people off, the jeep sped up behind, soldiers forced the
people out of the taxi and one began beating the driver, who remained
in the car, with the butt of his machine gun. 2pm came and the
curfew was re-imposed, the tanks came back through the streets
and people scattered again. They went back to whatever shelter
they could find in Nablus, until the next time curfew is lifted.
