I'm on the plane home. Much as I want to
see people I'm not sure how to talk to them. Much as I wanted
to go home and do laundry and take a bath I'm figuring out how
and when I can get back. I was sad yesterday to leave the family
I had been staying with in Balata. I was sad to leave both because
they are wonderful and I'm not sure if I'll ever see them again
and because I can leave. I can pack up and go home to my own bed
where I no longer am afraid to sleep at night because there are
not tanks on the street outside, and my house has not been spray
painted with arrows to lead the Israeli military right to it so
they can destroy it with tanks or explosives. The family I stayed
with cannot even go to the neighboring city, Nablus.
Balata is a refugee camp with 20,000 or
so refugees in it. These are people who have been displaced since
1948 and cannot get out of the West Bank to return to their cities
or villages in what is now known as Israel. There are three families
in Balata who have requested that internationals stay with them
because they are afraid their houses will be demolished. The Israeli
government has a policy of demolishing the homes of "suicide
bombers" or other fighters. The people here call the snipers
or bombers "martyrs." But some call anyone who has died
for Palestine a martyr. So, for example those nine children killed
recently in Gaza are martyrs as well.
In the last few months, Balata has had
several martyrs. There have already been house demolitions, and
also areas that were bombed from F-16s or Apaches. The name of
the son who died in at the home where I am staying is Mohanned.
He was 18 years old when he died, I saw his picture. His family
is still grieving. He has 9 brothers and sisters. If the military
were to demolish his house they would displace his entire family
who are ALREADY refugees from Jaffa. His younger sisters love
doing my hair at night. I don't speak Arabic, and a few of the
siblings understand English but only a little. Still, we got to
know each other through charades. They have opened their home
to us, feed as very well and laugh with and at us. One of the
sisters taught me a card game called five. The oldest brother,
Mohammed, loves music and he fixed up the family's stereo. We
had a little music exchange- they listened to our American music
and played Arabic music for us. The biggest hit was Michael Jackson's
‘Thriller,’ which I happened to have with me. Mohammed
likes love songs (his little brother made fun of him) and so he
played a few by Egyptian and Lebanese artists. The idea of this
family losing their home is infuriating and heart breaking.
One of the problems is that the military
doesn't always evacuate the other homes, or warn the neighbors
of a demolition. Again this is in a refugee camp, the houses are
all really close to one another. This can mean neighboring houses
also go down- with people in them. The brother of the family some
of the other New Yorkers are staying with had the first floor
of his home destroyed by tank shelling. He and his son were inside.
His son was okay but he broke both of his legs and was wheelchair-bound,
now he has canes.
Nablus is under its 41st day of 24 hour
curfew today (Monday). I feel like I haven't adequately explained
curfew. All the stores except a stray one here and there are closed.
Schools, factories, offices- closed. Nobody can work or go to
school so there is no money being made or exchanged. Ambulances
can run, but some of the neighboring villages can't be reached
by ambulance because of road blocks and (when I say this I mean
6-9 feet piles of big rocks, stones and gravel sometimes dug out
of the road itself and pushed to form a pile that all over the
road and on either side so you can't drive around it) or snipers.
Sometimes you see men in the street, children, and every once
in a while women. The doctor at UPMRC and a friend pointed out
that this is harder for women and children because they are in
the house more.
But, in the airport in Switzerland I saw
in an article that the population of Nablus had ignored curfew
today and the whole city had opened up as if there was no curfew.
The only sort of Palestinian resistance we see in the news is
sensationalized "suicide bombers" or when snipers attack
settlements or settlers that are misrepresented as civilians or
villagers. Friends saw people in kuffiyehs passing out communiqués
on Friday. They were told that the people were from Fatah. When
my friend asked them what it was they said it was 'for the children.'
The second time they asked about it they were told it was a message
to people to open up the city and resist the curfew. I always
knew terrorist was not the right word to describe these people
or their struggle. After seeing the activities of the Israeli
military here, that characterization is insane. The Palestinians
are facing the 4th or 5th largest army in the world (!) and according
to international law, the occupation is illegal.
And further in the international law department-
it is illegal under the Geneva Convention (I'm told, I need to
double check but I know it is illegal) to occupy homes where people
are living during wars. It's also illegal to use hollow point
bullets, which both the Israeli military and the New York City
Police Department use. But I met this man who had his house occupied
5 times in the last 12 months. He said, "The Palestinian
people are not terrorists, the Israeli soldiers are terrorists,
they occupied my home." This family has a beautiful house
with a panoramic view of the valley and Nablus. We went Saturday
to try and get a statement about the occupation of their house.
I guess because of its position and view, the army decided it
would be one of its bases of operation.
The family: husband, wife, 2 teenage girls
and 2 younger boys were welcoming, although we didn't meet the
mother. She's been ill since the occupation, she has a heart condition
and was sleeping when we arrived. They said the noise of tanks
and helicopters at close range sets off her heart and too much
stress could be fatal. After sharing lemonade and coffee with
all of us, we sat on the family's porch to talk. The house is
empty of furniture except for beds. Because the soldiers move
all the furniture and stain it, it's all stashed away, piled up
in one of the small rooms. The father says they've spent nearly
$100,000 repairing the damage after the soldiers left. That's
why the walls have not been repainted and the furniture waits
in a room- so when the soldiers return they won’t be able
to destroy anything. They also paid the electricity and water
for the times they were kicked out and the soldiers were there,
they have received no compensation from the Israeli government.
They spent 12 years building the house
and lived in it for one week this December before the soldiers
occupied it the first time. The girl, 17, tells us each time they
come it is the same, but we focus on the most recent occupation.
In December, the soldiers were there for five weeks. They were
there in February twice, April, and then this last time starting
on June 20th for 32 days. At 8 a.m. on the 20th, when 10 family
members were there, they heard 20 tanks, 10 APC's and 1 Apache
helicopter overhead and coming up the hill to their house. They
all threw themselves on the floor, but then heard loud knocking.
From past experience they knew if they didn't open the door the
soldiers would break it down. The father opened the door and 40
or 50 soldiers with machine guns streamed into the house. The
family refused to leave and all ten of them were forced into a
small bedroom on the first floor. This, the fifth time, they were
allowed to use the bathroom and the kitchen. The other four times
the Red Cross brought them food and tried to make sure they could
use the bathroom.
The soldiers brought in all kinds of equipment
and guns. The family sent the younger kids to stay with a neighbor
or a family. The soldiers shot out of the windows down into Nablus
and killed two men just down from the occupied home who had been
standing on a little porch outside their window. One of the worst
things, according to the family, is when the soldiers would bring
groups of 3 or 4 Palestinian men handcuffed and blindfolded to
the house. The family could hear the men being beaten in the next
room. Sometimes the soldiers would throw away their I.D. cards,
the father said he would go out and look through the trash for
them later on and try to return them. After 10 days the family
was forced to leave. 22 days later the soldiers left their homes.
So they are now with no furniture waiting. They say it is hard
to sleep-especially for the kids- who have nightmares about the
soldiers and the beatings.
We're getting closer to New York now, I
haven't finished my customs declaration yet. I wonder what will
happen if I put Occupied Palestine for #9 "Countries visited
on this trip prior to U.S. arrival." My friends saw the video
that Jihad (whose family my friends stayed with) and Mohanned
(whose family I stayed with) did before they died on T.V. in Balata.
Both of them mentioned that the Palestinian people were going
through so much, and internationally people were silent and that
no one comes forward to help the Palestinians. I am furious that
my money is paying for the occupation, and that those are our
weapons the Israelis use.
Time to get a little sleep.
