Tear gas fired at unarmed internationals
One American and 2 Palestinian members of the press taken into
custody
Volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement received
notice today that the Israeli Occupation Forces had been holding
a Palestinian family hostage in their home in Nablus since 2:30
AM. Five Internationals, Anila Kahn (Great Britian), Neta Golan
(Canada), Marissa McLaughlin (Seattle, USA), Lisa [unknown] (Great
Britian), and Sarah Reeske (New York, USA) proceeded to the home
to check on the safety and well-being of the family. This home
was not marked with an Israeli flag, unlike other homes that the
army occupies. After finding no one on the lower floors the Internationals
knocked on a locked door on the upper floor. After several minutes
with no answer the internationals opened a window and saw army
rucksacks inside. We continued knocking and a Palestinian man
spoke to us from the other side of the door. He told us that there
were no soldiers inside and that everything was OK. We asked him
to open the door and he said that he couldn't because he had lost
the key. We decided to wait around and see what happened.
A few
moments later a Palestinian man came out onto a balcony and told
us that the soldiers said that they would shoot us if we didn't
leave. We called for more Internationals and were joined by Rae
and Eric Levine(San Francisco and New Haven, USA) , Suzy [unknown]
(Seattle, USA), and 5 other Internationals. The Israeli occupation
forces threw 5 percussion grenades from the home but none landed
near the Internationals. We made signs in Arabic and English reading
'Danger, Soldiers Here' and taped them to the home to alert the
locals that soldiers were hiding in the home.
We decided
to place Internationals on the balcony to try to negotiate the
release of the family being held hostage by the occupation forces.
Several Internationals moved to the balcony and tried speaking
with the soldiers about the release of the hostages.
After
an hour or so a bulldozer and two tanks began aproaching the home
from a side street. Sarah, Eric, Neda, Anila, and Marissa sat
in the street holding hands to block the tanks' entry to the area.
We greeted the tank driver with news of the World Cup scores and
he responded with a thumbs up. We were served tea and cookies
by a Palestinian neighbor and as we sipped our tea we sang a song;
'Palestine will be Free', and flashed peace signs at the tanks.
The driver of the foremost tank asked to speak to one of us without
a camera. Suzy went up to talk to them. The soldiers demanded
that the press and the people behind us leave the area. We counter-offered
by inviting the soldiers to come out and drink tea with us and
discuss the situation. The soldiers refused, saying that the children
would throw rocks at them. We offered to protect them from the
rocks but they still refused. After a few minutes the soldiers
fired 2 tear gas cannisters at us but we remained sitting. The
tank in the back fired a shell but apparently it was just fired
into the air and no one was hurt.
After
about 45 minutes of facing off with the tanks and the bulldozer,
the soldiers in the house fired on the ground to disperse the
people between us and the house. More soldiers arrived in a jeep.
Soldiers jumped from the jeep and apprehended 2 of the 3 members
of the press who were filming the event. Two soldiers then came
to where we were sitting and grabbed Eric by the collar pushing
him to the ground. They then drug him face down for about 25 feet.
They yelled at him, 'Now will you get up?' They pushed him into
the jeep and then one soldier turned to the rest of us, all females,
and told us that we had one minute to leave or be arrested.
We decided
that we had accomplished our goal, which was to alert the people
that soldiers were hiding in the home so we left peacefully.
After we left the soldiers went onto the balcony and told the
Internationals there that they would leave if the Internationals
left. They agreed and left.
