Our affinity
group members, Mike, Ronise (who is deaf) and Jennie went to the
Deaf School in Bethlehem. The school serves boys and girls from
6 months to 15 years old. It was a well equipped modern school
run by the Catholic Church. The school is currently closed because
of the clamp down of the military occupation. The Italian nuns
that work there showed our team bullet holes around the school
and in a student desk. It makes you wonder what worse target the
Israeli army could pick to shoot.
Our group
had a meeting to discuss our future. We decided to leave the Dheisheh
Refugee camp on Tuesday morning. Part of the group will be staying
together after leaving Dheisheh. Sherri said goodbye. She will
be leaving the camp in the morning and leaving Palestine on Tuesday.
On Sunday night we heard a speaker at the Ibda Community Center
in Dheisheh. Narsir Al-Laham, is a
Palestinian journalist who was jailed for 6 years during the first
intifada. He has some interesting observations about the
struggle against occupation and the search for peace. Here are
few thought-provoking quotes:
"Everyone
has a story."
-- speaking of the suffering that ALL Palestinians have gone through
"If
Barak promises us 98% of the land, we guarantee him 98% security,
if Sharon guarantees us 42% of the land we guarantee him 42% security."
-- speaking of peace negotiations
"Who
makes war makes peace, no one else."
-- speaking of bringing the fighting parties to the negotiation
table, not just the 'peace camps'
"Palestinians
did not kill Arafat because of Oslo. In Israel they killed Rabin
because he said Gaza was Palestinian."
A few
Israeli army jeeps came into the camp on Sunday night. They weren't
around for long. While Samir, the brother of Ayaat (the female
suicide bomber) and Chris were up watching for signs of military
activity they started to talk about politics, suicide attacks,
and the families' situation. Samir told Chris the story of his
sister. He said that he would have "broken her foot"
if he had known she was going carry out a suicide attack in Israel.
-- For
more information on home demolision and collective punishment
read article 33 and 53 of the 4th
Geneva Convention.
Monday,
August 12, 2002
Carl
and Suzanna came over to the Abu Samir house to meet the family
for the first time. The teenage sisters of the Abu Samir family
were 'intrigued' with Chris from before and were laughing and
giggling at both of us together. It was pretty awkward given the
conservative nature of Palestinian culture and the age of the
girls. Nonetheless it was flattering.
Tonight
is our last night in Dheisheh camp. We hope that the new International
Solidarity Movement activists will be willing
to take
our place. We'll find out tonight. We are leaving so we'll have
the opportunity to do other things while in Palestine and because
some members of our affinity group will be leaving soon.
-- Check this site for more information on Palestinian
culture.
Ta'eesh
Filisteen,
Carl
and Chris Williams
Cell Phone -- 011 972 67 387 881
(call anytime we are +7 EST)
http://christian.home.igc.org (click on ISM Travel Blog)
http://carlton.home.igc.org
