After
tea at Abu Fadi's house, we went to Abu Kamel's house to have
breakfast (there was some competition between these two cousins
as to whose house we were to have breakfast at), we had a tour
of Salim: the water tower that had been ransacked, the house that
had been occupied, the olive trees that had been cut down because
they were next to the settler bypass road, and the bypass road
which the villagers were not allowed to cross but which divided
them from their olive trees and surrounding villages. We had a
nice long chat with the IDF soldiers in an APC about the occupation,
and we had one Salim resident who spoke good English talk with
them as well. The soldiers justified their presence there because
of the suicide bombing. They said they didn't think the bombing
would subside or stop if they left the West Bank and Gaza, but
they also recognized that being there just created more anger
and suicide bombers.
They basically didn't have much hope for
peace. One of them, in a side conversation with Mika (who has
been here 3 times and is very good at talking with them) said
that if he were Palestinian he'd probably be a suicide bomber
and resist the occupation with arms. When we were finishing our
conversation, some Palestinians approached us from Salim and wanted
to pass, and the soldiers let them pass because they had a doctor's
note (which was forged), and they could get close enough to the
soldiers to give them the note because we were there. One of them
was pregnant. We then went to the clinic in Salim to investigate
a hepatitis A & B outbreak. They said they needed hep vaccines
from the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health in Nablus. The
doctor there (Dr. Ibrahim Mubarek) said that more than 20 people
with hep had come to the center, and that more had gone to Nablus
or don't know that they have the disease. He said it was caused
by pollution, lack of garbage disposal. Hep A is treated in the
center, Hep B has to go to the hospital in Nablus.
The outbreak is also in neighboring villages
(Beit Fareek and Beit Dajar) which both have clinics of their
own. They need special medical personal from the Ministry of Health
to administer the vaccines. After phoning the UPMRC with this
information, we heard back that the vaccines are being held up
because of politics and funding from Israel (West Bank taxes have
been withheld by Israel during the Intifada). At the clinic we
also met a man whose son had a head injury because of an Apache
helicopter attack a few months ago and who had shrapnel in his
arm and needed to go to the hospital in Nablus. Another man said
he had to go to a hospital in Tel Aviv to have his broken leg
checked out (he apparently broke it in Tel Aviv). He wanted us
to go to the Hawara military base to help him get permission to
go to Tel Aviv. We then went to the UPMRC center in Nablus (United
Palestinian Medical Relief Committee) and from there headed out
to a house occupied by the IDF near the Rujeib village. This was
the first time in the 21 days of occupation that they had had
visitors.
The 4 of us came with a doctor from the
UPMRC and brought medicine and food and other supplies. When we
arrived we negotiated with the soldier to allow all of us up to
see the family, and then we heard their story (over coffee of
course): 'Occupied for 21 days. When the soldiers came, they took
all the keys. There are 5 families with 15 adults, 30 children,
1 old sick man (who the doctor checked out - he has bronchial
asthma). The kids get 30 minutes outside in a patio with guns
pointed at them. Nobody else is allowed out except to get groceries
every so often (the last time they had been out was 12 days ago).
Telephones and electricity were turned off. They occupy half of
their house, the soldiers the other half. The soldiers attempted
to occupy more space but the family stopped them in some way from
doing this. They are farmers and rely on their crops for their
livelihood, and according to them all their crops were lost because
of lack of watering. They also lost a donkey.
The kids have allergy from the dust created
by the soldiers (it's a training camp for the soldiers and they
shoot their guns and otherwise make lots of noise at night). At
one point the soldiers took one of the men of the house (Hamud
Ali Absun Salan) to another village to be a human shield while
the soldiers arrested someone there. The soldiers attempted to
take the man's child as well but the mother successfully resisted.
They appeal to the international community to get the soldiers
out and expose their story. They are innocent people, none of
them are wanted in connection to the Intifada (they are not a
family of a suicide bomber), and they want peace and justice for
themselves and for Palestine.
They are in area C (according to the Oslo
agreements) and are therefore worried that their homes will be
taken or demolished in a final peace settlement with Israel. One
woman (Maisud) is a student and needs to take her exam in accounting
Saturday at the Nablus university (in 4 days). They need more
medicine and supplies. It was very hard to leave because we saw
how much they appreciated us being there. One of our groups did
magic tricks for the kids and made balloon shapes for them, which
was a huge hit. The senior man took me aside and pointed to his
field, saying "all lost." When we left, we spoke to
one of the soldiers and appealed to him to let the people out
and water their crops. He claimed that they were allowed out every
day and that the soldiers were giving them whatever they needed.
The crops looked shriveled and dead to us. Next we went to another
house in Msaken Shabiya where 20 internationals held a vigil and
some of us then prepared to sleep next to the house. The commander
came out and said that we had to leave and in 15 minutes he would
"use power." 15 minutes later he came out and asked
if we could make a deal: if he let the family go out X more hours
a day, would we leave. We said 2 more hours, and after he agreed
and after we talked with the family to make the situation clear
to them, we left.
Wednesday
July 31:
We went back to Salim to remove the road
block, which went well and we made a road around the 5 foot ditch
dug by the bulldozer the night before. It was mostly internationals
digging, but we had spades and pick axes this time. Some people
stayed behind to make sure the bulldozers didn't come again. I
and 3 others went to the occupied house in Msaken Shabiya to see
if the soldiers kept their promise to let the family out twice
a day for two hours instead of one. There was a rumor that the
soldiers had left altogether, and when we arrived we found this
to be true! The family was cleaning up where the soldiers had
been, and we got a tour of all the damage the soldiers had done
during their 21 day stay: 2 stereos damaged, 1 VCR, holes in the
walls, curtains and towels and clothes taken and used to oil the
guns of the soldiers, broken drawers, fridge, oven, writing and
dirt on the walls, the bed damaged from soldiers jumping in it
during the night when they blasted music. TV remote gone. Window
screens, 2 fans, and much more damage.
After leaving the family (and the obligatory
coffee, tea, soda) we went to Husein's house in the old city (Nablus)
and slept. We then got reports that tanks and bulldozers were
heading towards the Salim road block so we headed out to the road
block but then heard reports that tanks were invading the old
city and came back with all the other internationals. By the time
we got back they had left, but we walked around the city to see
if they would return. At night the teenagers came out and hassled
the women in our group - it's the time when I've seen the ugliest
part of Palestinian society - at all other times it is so beautiful
and loving. We then went back to our own houses and slept.
Thursday
Aug 1:
Woke up in the old city for a planned 9:30am
media story on the ISM by a Danish TV group. When they arrived,
we got reports that the Balata refugee camp was being invaded
by tanks and jeeps. The media crew agreed to follow us there after
conducting a short interview with one of us. We headed out, 7
in a taxi, to meet the other internationals staying in Balata
camp with families of suicide bombers (these families are often
targeted with collective punishment, and their homes are often
demolished). When we got to the camp we could smell tear gas and
we went into an alley to escape it and also to see kids throwing
stones at a tank.
Then we went to the Titi house (where some
of the internationals were staying) to group and decide what to
do. From there we saw an army jeep hurl tear gas. They retreated
and we went outside to where two tanks were in an agricultural
field on the edge of the camp. For about an hour the kids hurled
stones at the tank and the tank would advance and retreat, firing
M16 bullets into the air or the ground which would chase the kids
back. We made sure to make our presence known (about 13 of us)
and then tried to get away from the kids but still be in a position
to witness the situation. An ABC TV camera man showed up and then
some of us went to get water and food. When we were away, one
of the tanks fired a bullet just above the crowd of internationals
and Palestinians, and the ricochet hit a Palestinian in the head.
I saw the car speed off with him as we were eating hummus and
pita. At that point the tanks retreated and left the camp, and
we went back to the Titi house where I took a nap.
After
about 2 hours 3 tanks came back and drove on the road outside
the camp where they again fired into the ground while kids threw
stones at the tanks. Seeing the kids throw stones, I immediately
thought about what would happen if the kids sat down in front
of the tanks to stop them from entering the city. Maybe they would
be fired upon (no different than now), but it would change the
dynamics of the conflict immensely. This possibility doesn't even
seem in the realm of possibility based on what I have heard Palestinians
say about the conflict: "they are defending their city; it's
an exciting and righteous game for the kids; being passive is
giving up their city; they have successfully defended their camp
with stones in the past; stones are all they have."
