Since
July 26 I have been living in and witnessing the effects of the
Israeli military closure on the village of Iraq Bureen and its
900 inhabitants. Iraq Bureen is located three miles outside of
the city of Nablus ontop of a terraced mountain 880 meters above
sea level. Since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada and more
forcefully since the Israeli invasion into the West Bank, Israel
has imposed a closure on Iraq Bureen which impedes movement into
and from the village. The closure of the village, which is implemented
through military outposts, checkpoints, road blocks, physical
barriers, tanks, planes, and helicopters, enables the Israeli
army to completely control and restrict movement of people and
goods.
The road
leading from Iraq Bureen to the surrounding towns and the city
of Nablus is closed by a six foot tall rock and dirt barrier constructed
by the Israeli army. The road and the surrounding valleys and
mountain paths are constantly watched over by an Israeli military
camp and military posts on the neighboring mountains. Those who
risk breaking the closure by walking around the roadblock or through
the valleys risk both being arrested and being shot at. Many take
the risk in order to care for and support their families. For
example, people break the seige in order to transport food to
Nablus for the needed income, to work in neighboring villages
for the needed income, to transport water and food and fuel from
Nablus to Iraq Bureen, and to go to Nablus to receive medical
care.
MEDICAL CARE DENIED
Over 70% of the Palestinian population live in rural areas, such
as Iraq Bureen, which do not provide hospital services. Closure
therefore severly restricts the population from health care facilities.
The inablitity for the people in Iraq Bureen to reach hospitals
and clinics has severly affected pregnant women, sick children
and people requiring treatment for things such as cancer, kidney
failure, and diabetes.
On the
night of August 6 Hiyam Q's baby died while she was in labor in
her home. It was a late pregnancy, the baby was very big and could
not be delivered vaginally. Had she had access to a hospital a
ceasarean section could have been performed and most likely the
child's life would have been saved. (The UNWRA reprts that among
its patients there has been a 58% increase in the number of still
births since the military closure. Other medical organizations
reprt a 100% increase in home deliveries.)
In the
past two weeks I have accompanied Palestinians breaking the closure
in order to help them reach medical care safely. I have walked
with three sick children and their families to reach hospitals
and clinics in Nablus. And with Salwa an old woman with sores
on her hands and face who is suffering from untreated Diabetes.
Doctors at St. Luke's hospital in Nablus report a 49% decline
in general patients, a 73% decline in specialty services, and
a 53% decline in surgeries.
KILLED
FOR BREAKING THE CLOSURE TO WORK OUTSIDE IRAQ BUREEN: THE STORY
OF ADNAN AND MAMOUD
After six months without any work two laborers from Iraq Bureen,
Adnan and Mamoud, and a friend and co-worker of theirs from the
village of Tell broke the closure to work in a town North of Nablus.
They worked for two weeks painting and putting down tile. Before
their expected return Adnan called his sister to tell her they
would be leaving the next day and be home in two days. The day
after the phone call was made the three men were shot and killed
by the Israeli Occupation forces in a field in a nearby town.
They lay in the feild for two days without being discovered. On
the third day the Israeli media reported the killing of the three
men, claiming in the report that the three were suspected terrorists,
a claim that has no evidence to support it. An ambulance was permitted
to reach the three bodies and take them to a hospital in Nablus.
The bullet holes were as large as fists suggesting they were fired
upon from a plane or tank. Adnan had a large hole through h! is
stomach and eight bullet holes throuh his right leg. Mahmoud had
a bullet through his mouth and the top of his head had been cut
open. Both of their faces were blue and pocked with gravel from
being dragged from the location of the killing. Nothing supports
the claim that the men conducted violent activites against Israel.
All evidence supports that they were laborers returning from work.
I visited and sat with the two families in Iraq Bureen. The family
of Mamoud showed me the interior decorating work he had done on
their home, including a relief of painted roses on the ceiling
and a border of flowers painted on the wall.
The families
of Mamoud and Adnan fear that the Israeli military will soon come
to destroy their homes. Since 1967, the Israeli authorities have
partially or wholly demolished close to 10,000 Palestinian homes.
Often these house demolitions are used as punitive measures (e.g.,
against the families of suspected terrorists). Nearly every day
in the past week we have heard the explosions and demolitions
of homes in Nablus and the village of Tell. There has been increased
tank activity around Iraq Bureen; people here fear there homes
will be next.
AGRICULTURE UNDER SEIGE
The majority of the people in Iraq Bureen depend on the sale of
cactus fruit, milk and yogurt to support their families. These
past eleven days the cactus fruit should have gone to markets
in Nablus. Because of the closure and a strict curfew on Nablus
there has not been access to markets and much of the fruit is
beginning to rot. The small amount of fruit that has reached Nablus
has been carried in buckets by farmers and their donkeys who were
able to evade the military blockade. This is getting more and
more difficult as the presence of tanks and military blockades
around Iraq Bureen and Nablus has increased over the past two
weeks.
I have
spoken with nine farmers who had been trying to get to Nablus
with their cactus fruit this past week and who had been stopped
by Israeli soldiers and forced to sit with their faces bowed down
to the ground for more than four hours in the hot sun and never
permitted to sell their fruit.
I have
spoken with seven farmers who in the past four weeks have been
detained by the Israeli occupation forces for attempting to transport
milk, yogurt and fruit to Nablus. Two of those detained, Mohamed
and Said, brought me to the place they had been taken by the Isreali
soldiers and showed me the broken glass yogurt jars that had been
thrown to the ground and broken by the soldiers who had detained
them.
From
the top of Iraq Bureen I have watched tanks stop and turn back
farmers and their donkeys on the road leading to Nablus.
HUNGER AND MALNUTRITION
As a direct result of the closure there are families in Iraq who
have no food or money and are surviving on olive oil. I sat with
the mothers of two families, Iman and Miriam. Iman has a husband
who suffers from a mental illness (dissociation) that is treated
through medication. However since the closure he has not been
able to recieve his medication. Since the invasion the medication
is not even available in Nablus, only in Israel. As a result he
has been mentally unstable and unable to provide for the family.
The husband of Miriam also suffers from a mental illness. Until
the seige, the family of her husband had been providing for her.
Now, the family of her husband has little money for themsleves
and so Miriam's children go without food and sleep much of the
day to try to escape their hunger.
Many
families in Iraq Bureen are getting by just on bread and olive
oil and are suffering from malnutrution. The Palestine Bureau
of Statistics recently relased a survey on nutrition and found
that 63.8% of those surveyed faced difficulties on food supply
since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada. 45.5% are suffering
from chronic malnutrition. 36.9% are suffering from mild chronic
malnutrition.
WATER
UNDER SIEGE
Iraq
Bureen is one of many villages suffering from a severe water shortage
as a result of closing the Palestinian territories. There is no
water source in Iraq Bureen so the village depends on water tankers
to come and fill people's wells. Normally water tankers come every
week during the summer months. Under the closure they cannot reach
the villages. This forces people to break closure, bring donkeys
down to a river and collect what little water they are able to
with plastic containers.
POWER
SHORTAGE
Iraq
Boreen is one of over 130 West Bank villages that has electricity
supplied for only a fraction of the day. Electricity in IB is
generated by a motor powered by benzine. Normally the motor runs
for seven hours. Under the seige there is often only enough diesel
fuel to run for three hours a day.
*********************
Closure is in direct violation of internationl humanitarian
law. Under the conditions incurred by the closure, people of Iraq
Bureen and throughout the occupied territories are suffering from
a lack of access to food, fuel and water and access to basic health
care. Breaking the closure puts people at risk for being detained
and arrested as well being shot at and killed. The people here
are in a state of emergency. We must do everything we can to end
this seige and the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
