Penny and her affinity group made it through
the Erez border
crossing and they are currently in the Gaza Strip. She says it
gets "as hot as hell," the temperature is in the upper
90s to 100, and they sweat profusely all the time. Her affinity
group is now composed of twelve internationals (nine Americans
-- including two from Los Angeles, and Penny from the San Francisco
Bay Area, one Canadian, a British woman who speaks Arabic, and
one Italian). The group always attracts a huge crowd wherever
they go. Penny says that the people there are very hospitable,
warm, and glad to see them. Not many international people come
to Gaza, because Gaza is like a prison in the sense that no Palestinians
can enter or exit. The presence of their group helps to break
this isolation.
IN
THE REFUGEE CAMPS
The group has been staying at the National Association for Development
and Services (a welfare-type center) in the Ensurat Refugee Camp
which is on the outskirts of the central part of Gaza. Penny reports
that they're eating a lot of pita and hummus and drinking a lot
of Turkish coffee. Everyone they visit gives them coffee and melon,
even though the people are desperately poor. Eighty percent of
Gaza is under the poverty line- the poverty level for a family
of six is roughly $200 per month.
ALI
The ISM coordinator in Gaza they have been working with is a man
by the name of Ali. Ali has nine children and has been in prison
as a political prisoner. He said that the Israelis imprisoned
him for distributing food to poor families and that he was called
a terrorist. "Our mission is unconditional love," he
says, and he is thrilled that half of Penny's affinity group is
Jewish. He says that the Palestinian people know the difference
between the Jewish people and Israeli
government policy. Ali tells everyone they meet that the group
is there in solidarity with the Palestinians and against the Occupation.
On Monday (July 1st) the group was down by the beach, playing
with kids as the sun was setting. Ali asked the children, "What
if there are some Jews who are against Sharon and support Palestinian
rights. Do we hate them?"
The kids said "No, we love them."
LACK
OF WATER
On Tuesday (July 2nd) the group met with the mayor of the town
and learned about the water situation. The Israelis control the
water, have the best water, and will only sell a certain amount
to the Palestinians, claiming that they need the rest for Israel.
The town (refugee camp?) has two wells, but the water is rackish.
There is too much salt in the water, which causes kidney problems;
the water also has nitrates, which cause cancer. The affinity
group was
interested in taking action on water issues because water is a
clear issue that people in other countries might be able to understand,
and because it has global connections to issues of water access.
Another problem is that at least one of
the wells is broken. When a worker goes to try and fix the well,
soldiers shoot at him. The group decided to accompany the worker
to the well, although it is near the settlement of Netzarim. The
group did lots of preparation and then walked up the road to the
settlement holding up their passports and white flags. They also
brought a Reuters reporter with them. The reporter had been shot
three times in different confrontations, so he declined to go
all of the way with them, and instead used a telephoto lens.
When they got to the tower where the soldiers
were stationed, the group yelled up to talk with them. The soldiers
in the tower sent down a Jeep with soldiers who talked to them.
The soldiers told them that they would have to get permission
from the Israeli authorities to go to the well. The group was
also worried about going to the well because they were told that
there might be land mines near the well, which is another reason
why they wanted to mention their plan to the soldiers. The group
then left after this conversation.
Since that conversation, the group has
spent time making calls to various Israeli bureaucrats to get
permission to accompany the worker to the well. However, they
continue getting the runaround and have not yet reached the right
person who would give them permission, but are not yet giving
up.
KFAR-DAROM
CHECKPOINT
On Monday (July 1st) the group went to the Kfar-Darom checkpoint.
There, in the boiling heat, they saw hundreds and hundreds of
cars and buses backed up and waiting for the checkpoint to open.
They arrived at 2:00pm and some of the cars had been there since
the morning. Approaching the guard station – located high
up and with soldiers' guns pointed -- with their passports up
in the air, they told the soldiers that they were visiting from
the U.S. and Canada, that they wanted to go through to Rafah Refugee
Camp, and asked them to please open the checkpoint. The soldiers
told them that it would be opened in five minutes, which turned
out to be true. The soldiers then let about fifty cars through
and then re-closed the checkpoint. After a while they let another
20 cars through, repeating this stop and start pattern. Throughout
this whole time the soldiers didn't check a single ID card.
Clearly the checkpoint was not being used
for security, but only for power and control. Ali told the group
that this sort of behavior by the soldiers at the checkpoint "arouses
hatred in people." Ali said that it was because of the affinity
group's presence that the checkpoint was open. "One day the
peacemakers will win because international people support the
Palestinians and those people are increasing." He also said,
"This was my dream: One day Israel will be my neighbor. There
are a lot of people like me who believe this. We are ready to
forgive. One day you will come here as tourists, not to stand
at checkpoints."
RAFAH
REFUGEE CAMP
Thursday night, nine homes were demolished in Rafah, making a
total of twenty homes this week that were demolished along the
Gaza/Israel border. These homes are all in the Hi-al-Barazil neighborhood.
When she visited the site Friday, Penny and her group saw clothing,
books, and olive trees in a large heap. They spoke with families
in the homes left standing along the edges and saw bullet holes
in the walls. They spoke with one mother whose terrified two-year
old child has stopped talking. Palestinians are afraid that the
home demolitions may mark the beginning of a new assault on Gaza,
which come together with a car bomb on Thursday night which some
Palestinians believe was carried out by Israeli forces. (The bomb
killed Jihad Amerin, 38, the Gaza leader of al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades,
and Nael Namera, 27, from Gaza, a lieutenant in the Palestinians'
security forces. Reports indicate that five Palestinians were
injured in the blast.)
Penny's group is now organizing an international
presence to stay in the homes next to the ones that were demolished,
because the residents are afraid that the bulldozers will return
tonight. The group is informing the Israeli army that its members
will be staying in the homes, alerting the media, and making signs
that they will put in the windows. The signs say, "International
Solidarity Movement," "Families Live Here," "The
Whole World Is Watching," "USA, Canada, and Great Britain
with Palestine." The group plans to stay in one or more houses
for as long as necessary, acting as "human shields".
Penny and another group member had previously planned to leave
Gaza on Saturday (July 6th), but may stay longer in Gaza if necessary.
Penny reports that she feels good about taking this action and
is as prepared as she can be.
OTHER
NOTES
The ISM presence in Gaza is less about direct action and more
about solidarity, witnessing the situation, making connections
to find out what the community needs, and breaking the isolation.
Although theirs is not the first ISM group to go to Gaza, they
are one of the first, as the ISM is just starting to develop a
presence there. Penny thinks this is very important, even though
the work is less dramatic than in most of the other places.
Penny reports that the ISM has a presence
in Jenin, Nablus, Hebron, Ramallah, Gaza and Deir Ibzi'a and that
more internationals are coming in. Unfortunately there were also
a group of Italians who were coming to participate in a human
chain for peace as well as delegates from a Fellowship of Reconciliation
group who got turned away at the airport.
In closing,
Penny recalled what Adam Shapiro (an American and co-organizer
of the ISM) said at a speech in Berkeley several weeks ago. According
to Adam, he is there in Palestine, not to do things for the Palestinians,
but to do things with them.
