We have
left Qalqilya and are in Tel Aviv, waiting to fly out tomorrow.
it was so strange being on Israeli roads and having no checkpoints.
Almost surreal.
So yesterday we did this incredibly exciting
action with about 30 farmers. We took shovels and marched to one
of the roads that the farmers need to get to their farms which
has been blocked by a roadblock.
Roadblocks are mostly big piles of dirt/sand/stone.
Some are huge concrete blocks. On this road it was mostly dirt,
about as tall as a person & 1/2, and they had made 3-4 piles
of dirt because people kept going around the original roadblock.
So we started in with our shovels and fairly
soon the soldiers showed up. They fired over our heads to warn
us, and all of us internationals put our hands in the air while
the farmers stopped digging momentarily. Then the soldiers came
closer. They checked the i.d.'s of the 4 press people we had with
us (one from the local TV station, one from the French press and
one from Reuters) and detained one of them (they were all Palestinian).
Cori and James (another member of our group,
a really sweet British man in his 60's) went to talk with the
soldiers. We told them this was a peaceful demonstration &
the farmers just need to be able to get to their fields. They
said the farmers could go to the main checkpoint in the town &
get permission to go around from the outside of the town (which
is patently false - they can't get permission, they are not allowed
through the checkpoint and they can't drive on the settler roads
to get to their fields another way).
When Cori tried to engage the soldier about how he felt about
the occupation, the soldiers ended the conversation abruptly and
told us just to leave.
We said we would wait for the journalist
who had been detained and they promised to let him go in several
minutes after checking his i.d.. Soon after they let him go, and
we moved back to the roadblock. The farmers decided to keep digging
even though we had told the
soldiers that we would leave. The soldiers moved back to their
original position and just watched us finish digging.
We moved on to 2 other piles of dirt further
on the same road and made small passages in each. enough to get
a donkey and cart through. Then we left. This was a small victory
in terms of making a small passage in the roadblocks (farmers
are still likely to be shot if
caught in their fields), but a bigger victory in terms of nonviolent
organizing in the town. This kind of protest had not been organized
in some time. The townspeople are planning another march (this
time to the checkpoint) on Saturday. We wish we could be there
for it.
Update from Alma
Piggy-banking on Cori's last thought, I
want to relate to all of you an experience that made quite and
impact on me and I hope I am able to convey to you the importance
of any change in the favor of the living conditions in which Palestinians
are forced to live under.
As part of our work, we rode with the Red
Crescent ambulances. During one of my evening shifts, we were
called to bring a 21 year old woman who had experience complications
during birth. After arranging safe transportation for 1 1/2 hours
on the phone from the Mayor of Qalqiliya and the Checkpoint folks,
we went to deliver her in
critical condition to the hospital in Nablus. After a rather unusually
speedy crossing, we deliver her and went back. On route, we were
stopped by a jeep around 4:00 am.
We were all asked to step down and a search
was carried inside the ambulance, all our i.d.s were checked and
we were ordered to wait until they checked on them. After about
15 munutes, we were let go. Once in the ambulance, the doctor
received a call on his cell phone. The 21 year old woman had just
passed away.
