1-Attack on Beit Sahour Medical Center 2-Israelis Block Patriarch Sabbah at Tel Aviv Airport 3-Israeli War Crimes Index 4-Occupied House in Zawata, Nablus - Max 5-IWPS Report - Kate

Reports From Palestine
Rapprochement Media Centre
January 22, 2003

1-Attack on Beit Sahour Medical Center

Dear Friends

On 16 Jan.2003, shortly after 10 p.m. the Israeli
soldiers attacked the clinic in Beit Sahour. Until 13
Jan.2003, we had an emergency team staying in the
clinic overnight. Although we were still under the
curfew, which has been imposed since 22 Nov. 2002, we
decided to cancel the night duty for a few days because
of fatigue.

We heard an explosion and some pounding. The mayor of
Beit Sahour called me and shortly afterwards other
friends called me also and told me that the Israeli
soldiers are pounding at the iron door of the clinic
trying to open it. We had a very bad experience last
April when Atallah Hayek from Beit Sahour was killed in
very similar circumstances. He had driven to an
apartment building he owned after neighbors called him
to say that soldiers were breaking into it. He was
shot fatally while still in his car, attempting to
convince the soldiers that he would open the building
for them, and bled to death before an ambulance could
arrive. We decided to wait.

I do not live far from the clinic and I could hear the
commotion and pounding on the iron doors from our
balcony. In the meantime, the soldiers threw a sound
bomb, which detonated at the entrance of the clinic. We
found the residue in front of the door. I received
other calls a little later from neighbors telling me
that the soldiers had entered the clinic. At around
11:45 I received a phone call from the soldiers:

“ My name is Captain so and so. I am in the clinic.
And I want you to come to the clinic within five
minutes”. “ Yes, I know that you are at the clinic.
But it is curfew and your soldiers will shoot.” “
No they will not.” “Make sure to tell them not to
shoot. Besides how should they know that it is me?”
“When you come closer to the clinic just shout my
name and the soldiers will know.” “ My wife is
coming with me, so take notice that two persons will be
approaching.”

When we reached the clinic I shouted his name and we
continued till we came to the entrance. There were at
least 4 jeeps and one larger truck. Soldiers were
surrounding the building. The soldier who spoke very
good Arabic told us to stay outside until the soldiers
finish the search. He said that they were looking for
terrorists and that there might be shooting and that
this was for our own safety.

Finally at around 1 a.m. about 12 soldiers emerged from
the building and we entered the clinic together. All
doors had been forced open and their frames damaged.
Some were almost out of the wall. As the weather
outside was rainy and muddy, every room had mud tracked
through it. Even the operating theater was dirty.
Luckily the soldiers did not damage any machines or
instruments. The false ceiling was damaged in several
places and hung down.

Before they left the soldier assured me that this had
been necessary as it was a security matter. I told him
that he had my phone number and he also knew the
mayor’s phone number so we could have opened the
doors for them and there would have been no need to
break them all.

They left us behind, not very much afraid but sad to
see the clinic in such a mess. Friends came and we
stayed the whole night, as the clinic was completely
open. As early as seven o’clock in the morning we
started making repairs and cleaning up. Despite the
ongoing curfew, we were able to finish the same day.
In the evening everything was back as it was before.
The emergency team is back to work as usual. We
continue.

Dr. Majed Nassar
Deputy Director, Health Work Committees - Palestine
=============================================================================
2-Israelis Block Patriarch Sabbah at
Tel Aviv Airport Officials Disregard His Vatican
Diplomatic Passport

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 19, 2003 (Zenit.org).- Latin-rite
Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem was unable to
leave Tel Aviv airport because of a security search he
was subjected to by Israeli officials.

The Vatican's semiofficial newspaper L'Osservatore
Romano reported today that the search was a violation
of the respect due to a Vatican diplomatic passport,
which the patriarch showed at the airport Friday.

Consequently, the patriarch was unable to attend the
symposium organized on Saturday in Rome by the
Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. During
that event, Archbishop Michael Louis Fitzgerald,
council president, publicly noted the patriarch's
absence.

The Latin patriarch was scheduled to deliver an address
on "The Spiritual Resources of Religion for Peace." In
his speech, which was read at the symposium in his
absence, Patriarch Sabbah said that the priority task
of religions in the Middle East is to contribute to
"break the spiral of violence."

Sources of the patriarchate told ZENIT that the Israeli
security services not only obliged the patriarch to
open his suitcases to inspect what he was carrying, but
they also tried to search through his personal
documents.

The Italian newspaper Avvenire considered the search a
violation of the fundamental 1993 agreement between the
Vatican and the state of Israel, which provides for
the safeguarding by the Israeli state of the freedom
necessary for pastors of the Catholic Church to carry
out their mission.

LATIN PATRIARCATE – JERUSALEM
=============================================================================
3-Israeli War Crimes Index (Several
Sources - see below)

* Number of days since the beginning of the current
Intifada until October 30, 2002: 763

* On average, number of trees uprooted in the occupied
territories, per day: 896

* On average, number of homes demolished by the Israeli
army in the occupied territories, per day: 15

* Total number of homes demolished: 12,099

* Area of land confiscated in the West Bank and East
Jerusalem by the Israeli authorities since the
beginning of the Intifada, in square miles: 63.05 (Area
of Manhattan, New York, in square miles: 22.7).

* On average, number of Palestinians injured by Israeli
forces and settlers, per day: 27

* Number of Israelis injured by Palestinians (including
soldiers and settlers), per day: 6

* Number of Palestinian teachers detained by the
Israeli army: 75

* Percentage of Palestinian children, age six month to
five year old, who suffer from chronic malnutrition:
45%

* Number of journalists injured by the Israeli army:
254

[Sources: The information in this msg was taken from a
larger report published in "Between the Lines", Vol
III, #19, December 2002. (see > <A
HREF="http://www.between-lines.org/about/index.htm">http://w
ww.between-lines.org /about/index.htm, although as
of December 4, > 2002, the December issue is not yet on
line).

The sources cited by "Between the Lines" for the entire
report are: The Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the
Ministry of Health, the Palestinian Central Bureau of
Statistics, The World Bank and the International
Management Group, Office of the United Nation Special
Coordinator (UNSCO), United Nation Children's Fund
(UNICEF), the Ministry of Education, the Palestinian
Journalist Syndicate, Defense for International
Children - Palestinian Section, Ministry of
Agriculture, PECDAR, Arij, and UN Economic and Social
Committee for Western Asia. The source for Israelis
injured is the IDF web site >
(<AHREF="http://www.idf.il/english/news/jump_2_eng_300900.stm">
http://www.idf.il/en
glish/news/jump_2_eng_300900.stm). The Manhattan >
statistics is from
<AHREF="http://www.hotel411.com/">http://www.Hotel411.com.
The conversion from acres to square
> miles was done in
> <AHREF="http://www.onlineconversion.com/">http://www.onlineconversion.com.
> AK]
=============================================================================
4-Occupied House in Zawata, Nablus -
Max 21.01.03

"I don't know why they have come to our house... and I
don't know when they will leave." - Hana' Husni Risheh

The Israeli Army occupied the Risheh house on 11th
January 2003. They had come to survey the house the day
before, and had warned Hana', the mother of the family,
that they might want to use the house for their own
purposes then. She simply couldn't believe that they
really would do so.

When they arrived the next afternoon they commanded the
family downstairs and ordered them to remove all the
furniture from the top floor. The family has had to
rent a flat in order to store that furniture - with
money that they simply do not have. There are 13 in the
house - 10 children aged 3yrs to 26yrs - and they are
now all forced to sleep in two rooms downstairs. The
family have no poliical connections, are not wanted by
the IOF, and are not deemed 'terrorists'. The father,
Ahmed, works as a teacher in Nablus and Hana' works as
a teacher in the local primary school.

They are being punished for being Palestinian - and
used as human shields by the Israelis - because their
house is on a strategically important location on the
outskirts of Nablus. The army want to be able to watch
traffic on the Jjnesnia road from Nablus to Tukarem,
Jenin and beyond to the Green line, aswell as local
traffic in Zawata.

The shock and humiliation to the family is unbearable.
The look of dejection in Ahmed's eyes was disturbing,
and almost immediately as she began to talk to us,
Hana' was fighting back tears.

We had managed to get past the soldiers to talk to the
family, after they had told us that they do not speak
English. Hana' speaks near-to-perfect English.

No other Palestinians are allowed to visit or approach
the house. Indeed we are told, and we witness, boys
going past the house on the main route to the local
school are shouted at by the soldiers and told to go
another way around.

Tanks and APC's come and go bringing soldiers with
them. If the family want anything they have to ask
permission first. They are not allowed one step up the
flight of their stairs. At night the soldiers
consistently bang loudly, keeping the whole family
awake. They have not said how long they will be here,
and they probably do not know themselves. It is this
uncertainty which makes the situation so much worse, so
much more desperate.

We leave and bring back medicines from the UPMRC,
ciggarettes for the family, and sweets for the kids.
The family gave us coffee and invite us for lunch. They
ask what we can do about it, but there seems so very
little. They can't believe the army can get away with
this. I feel useless as I don't know the law properly,
but surely this is illegal... it is effectively using a
whole family as a human shield in a war of occupation.
Illegal or not, it is disgraceful.

We take the names and ID no's of all the family members
to pass onto human rights organisations, and we tell
the family that everybody has heard about the
occupation in town and that they are not alone. I also
tell Hana that, with their permission, I will write
about this case at home so that people know what is
being done to the Palestinian people.

We leave back to Nablus and I feel we need to organise
some sort of protest, but the family are very
frightened of the soldiers and do not want the
situation to be made worse (no one has been detained or
arrested and the men are allowed to leave the house for
college/ work etc.) The ISM does a lot of work with
occupied family houses - especially in Nablus. I will
go back to the group to ask for advice... Nablus is a
city under seige, and you get the feeling here that the
Israelis are gearing up for a full scale invasion. The
anticipation itself - the fear - is an integral part of
the terror used by the Israelis.

This case is yet another story of systematic
oppression, punishment and persecution of a people
already downtrodden by decades of occupation. It is a
stark reminder that the Israelis are a law unto
themselves; that they can flaunt international
conventions and disregard completely the human rights
of Palestinians.

I walk away with a sense of rage and disgust that the
rest of the world is allowing this to happen. A local
approached us in the usual welcoming manner as I walked
through Zawata, and he insisted that when I get back to
my country, I tell as many people about these crimes as
I can. I tell him I intend to do exactly that.
============================================================================
5-IWPS Report - Kate

Friday morning, January 17, 2003, early Wednesday
night, the night before I left, the Army came into our
village at 10:00 p.m. Someone called and told me two
boys had been arrested. Nijmie and I went to see what
was happening. We found the father of the two boys,
distraught, on the street. He had been sleeping when
his two sons came to ask him for money to go to the
barbershop in the main part of the village. He gave it
to them and went back to sleep. The kids, who were 11
and 13, went and got their hair cut. When they were on
their way home, a jeep pulled up to them in the central
square, where the mosque is. The soldiers asked the
boys a few questions, said they wanted to talk to them
and took them away. Everyone says they are polite boys
(Iâ?Tm inclined to believe that; how many teenage boys
voluntarily take themselves to get haircuts?) who have
never been in trouble. They are also the youngest I
have heard of being arrested in our villages.

While we were talking about what we could do, someone
pointed and said, â?ojesh.â? We looked and saw the
flashing light of a jeep. Nijmie and I told the father
we would come back to talk to him more, and went to see
what the army was doing in town. There were two jeeps.
Eight soldiers got out and went up to a house. We
went with them. They knocked on the door. The father
came out, and two of the young men, and they argued for
a while. They didnâ?Tt pay any attention to us. They
were asking one of the young men for his ID. Some of
the soldiers went back to the house, and others stayed
in front. Nijmie and I split up; I followed the
soldiers because I had a camera, although in the dark
it wasnâ?Tt likely to be much help. I went into the
house where the mother seemed on the verge of a heart
attack. I tried to comfort her and the two girls, in
my primitive Arabic. She told me that her older son,
whom the army wanted, was in Kifl Hares.

The soldiers left the house, and I stayed with the
family for a little while. When I went back out, the
commander told me that the father had gone to get his
son from Kifl Hares. I reflected on the awfulness of
this, to have to turn in one son to save another. I
stood with Nijmie while the soldiers and the brothers
of the wanted man shared cigarettes. Nijmie said the
army said they only wanted to talk to Mahmoud. I
didnâ?Tt believe that. They told Nijmie that they
were going to release the kids after they talked to
them. They didnâ?Tt.

The soldiers apparently got bored of just standing
around and decided there was more trouble to make in
the village that night. They drove away, and I
followed them to a home I already knew, because one of
the brothers of that amily, a Palestinian policeman,
was arrested about a month ago and is still imprisoned
in Qedumim. Now they wanted another son, who was also
not home. Someone told me they had already been
looking for this young man in Salfit earlier that
night. The father, who is nearly deaf, was ranting at
the soldiers, and his sons were physically restraining
him, trying to make him go inside. He came up to me,
speaking urgently in Hebrew. His sons yelled at him
that I didnâ?Tt understand, but I said, â?oWell, yes,
itâ?Ts okay, I understand some.â? I saw one of the
soldiers look at me when I said that, and wondered if
it was a mistake. The women and small children were
huddled together in the doorway. Most of the kids
didnâ?Tt have on any shoes. They were crying and
shaking. I picked up the smallest girl, and the next
one came to cuddle close to me. I suggested that maybe
they should go inside, but they were riveted to the
scene. Eventually the soldiers gave up and went back
to the other house. I figured Nijmie was there, so I
went in and had coffee with the Sultans.

In the end, they took Mahmoud and brought him back the
next morning. The two teenagers, we did not find that
night. The next morning, Nijmie asked Jeremy Milgrom
of Rabbis for Human Rights to call around to try to
find them.Thursday afternoon, with chaos brewing all
around the house concerning DorothĂƒÂŠe maybe needing
to go to Megiddo Prison and then Salem, near Jenin, to
bail someone out of prison, I went to Ariel to mail my
documents and disks home. It was a totally surreal
experience, like being in a shopping mall all of a
sudden. (Actually, there is a shopping mall there, but
I was not in it. What I was in was the â?oIriya,â?
the center of the city, which resembles an overcrowded
school grounds in the States.) When I got home, there
were two unexpected visitors to the house, Shelley
Nativ, an Israeli friend who happened to be in the
area, and an ISM volunteer named Alice who was
erroneously sent from Nablus to Tulkarem via Hares.
With J.D. and Lisa, who kindly offered to pick me up
and take me to the airport, we had a spectacular
farewell feast thanks to Nijmie, who returned from
Salfit and set to cooking her unparalleled Palestinian
cauliflower and other scrumptious stuff.

I breezed into the airport with the privilege I had
come to rely on. J.D.â?Ts yellow-plated rental car
was waved through the security checkpoint without even
stopping. They deposited me in front of the door. I
hugged Lisa and J.D., collected my luggage, and dawdled
at the currency exchange, where everyone was taking a
very long time for some reason, haggling, I was told.
I exchanged the shekels Iâ?Td received as
reimbursement for household expenses for over 200 USD.
Then I moved toward the many lines marked â? osecurity
check.� I was not worried. Last time I left, the
security check consisted of four or five questions. I
was only nervous because there were so many people, but
they were all on my flight, Continentalâ?Ts 11:55 p.m.
to Newark, so I figured I would not miss it.

A very young woman with red hair glanced at my passport
and waved me to a line. Then she came back and asked,
â?oDo you have your ticket?â? When I nodded, she
went away. A minute later, she was back, asking for my
passport. I gave it to her and she went away, I saw
her talk to someone, she brought it back and went away
again.Another woman came over and told me to follow her
with my luggage. We went to an area where there was a
counter. I put my luggage on it, and she said,
â?oIâ?Tm going to ask you some questions for your
safety and the safety of your flight.� I was
prepared for the questions â?" what was the purpose of
my trip, where did I go, where did I stay, what were
the names of my friends. Was this all my luggage, did
it belong to me, where had it been since I packed it?
I gave the answers Iâ?Td prepared. She said,
â?oDonâ?Tt take anything from anyone from now until
you board the flight,� and I thought okay,
thatâ?Ts that, I passed. She went away, then another
woman came, with short hair dyed blonde and eyes
outlined goth style in black. She said she was a
security supervisor. She asked the same questions, in
the same words, but her tone was more disbelieving.
When I said, â?oTravel and visit friends,â? she
said, â?oFor nearly three months?â? in an
incredulous tone. I have to say, though it was
something I had worried about, I was surprised because
a lot of people do spend three months, or even a year
or more, in Jerusalem just hanging out, and Israelis
spend lots of time in other countries doing nothing.
She was skeptical of the rollaway that I have â?" did
I travel with it? â?oMost people who travel donâ?Tt
bring so much.� I said no, I left it at my
friendâ?Ts, but three months is a long time and I
wanted enough stuff.

I told myself to stay calm, I had done nothing wrong so
I neednâ?Tt be nervous or angry. They kept asking if
I knew any Hebrew, where I learned it, and if I had any
family there. I always answered the same â?" the
truth, for once â?" that I went to Hebrew school, long
ago, didnâ?Tt speak much, there are some cousins but I
donâ?Tt know them. I didnâ?Tt understand why they
always ask that. (Naomi says itâ?Ts because if you
have family there, you are less likely to collaborate
with terrorists. Next time, she says to say sheâ?Ts
my family.) The supervisor with the dye job wanted to
know how I could afford to take three months off and
travel. Again I was surprised, because so many
Israelis do it, plus they see a lot of U.S. tourists,
and Iâ?Tm over 40. I said, â?oI make good
money.â? I explained about the firmâ?Ts leave
policy.

Once while they were off conferring, I thought maybe I
should just tell the truth. But I remembered that this
was a trap many people had warned me about. I told the
second woman I had been in Bethlehem because she
didnâ?Tt like my having been so few places. She
asked, â?oWerenâ?Tt you afraid? Donâ?Tt you know
whatâ?Ts happening there?â? I answered that my
friend said it was fine, that it was open for Xmas, and
no, I wasnâ?Tt afraid. â?oAnd in Nablus?â?she
asked. â?oThere are soldiers and guns and bombs, you
werenâ?Tt afraid?â? I said, truthfully, that I
didnâ?Tt see any bombs.

She said, â?oDonâ?Tt accept anything from anyone from
now until you get on the plane,� and I thought
again, kay, thatâ?Ts it. She went away, then both of
them stood talking with some men, and suddenly about
five people were escorting me through the lobby with
the dyed-blonde pushing my luggage on a cart. I
remember seeing Nancy do this in April so I told
myself, relax, thereâ?Ts no problem, itâ?Ts routine.
We got to a door with a red â?oDo not enterâ?
symbol on it. They opened it and one of the men put a
hand on my back to make sure I went in â?" like where
else would I go? But I was jolted by that light touch
because the whole time I was in the West Bank, even
when I was arrested, men were extremely reluctant to
touch me. I felt the seeming immunity Iâ?Td carried
around for three months, which allowed me to walk up to
men with guns ready just as I had the night before in
the dark in our village, dropping away. I felt I had
crossed over magically from a land where I could do
anything I wanted to one where they could do anything
they wanted to me.

A handsome coffee-colored man asked me, â?oAny
Hebrew?� I answered, as I already had several
times, â?oKtzat, rak.â?Only a little. He smiled,
so I said, â?oWhy does everyone keep asking that?â?
He said, â?oThey want to know what language to speak
to you in.� I thought that was strange, because
they talked to each other, so didnâ?Tt they include,
â?oShe mostly speaks English,â? in their vital
information? The redhead was there, and she said,
â?oCome in here, I need to do a body search on
you.� I was concerned. We went into a room like a
dressing-room in a cut-rate department store. She told
me how and where to stand. I crossed my arms over my
chest and she said, â?oPlease put them down.â? I
said sorry, I didnâ?Tt like this. She said, â?oYes,
Iâ?Tm sorry, Iâ?Tll try to make it as pleasant as
possible.� Her English was perfect and unaccented.
I found her use of the word â?opleasantâ?
unsettling, particularly as she proceeded to knead my
neck and scalp and feel around and under my breasts
(over my sweater). She patted me down very completely,
took my shoes out of the room, then someone brought
them back.

After that they had me open all my bags and told me to
have a seat. I took the book and cellphone out of my
daypack and sat down. They got me to take all my money
out and keep it with me. I called Lucas to say
goodbye. A woman in a suit came up, carrying my
laptop. I looked up at her and she said, â?oOh, go
ahead and finish.� When I hung up, she said,
â?oWe canâ?Tt check your laptop here, weâ?Tre
keeping it and weâ?Tll send it to you in 24 hours. No
problem, weâ?Tll wrap it in bubble wrap, the airline
will bring it to your house.� I protested, and she
said, â?oItâ?Ts your choice, you can stay in Israel,
miss your flight, but itâ?Ts not going with you
tonight.� She mentioned something about September
11 and the U.S., and I said yes, when I fly, they ask
me to turn it on and show itâ?Ts not a bomb, why do
you need to do something more? â?oThis is
Israel,â? she said. I asked, â?oWhy do you have
different procedures than everyone else?� and she
said, â?oIâ?Tm not going to explain our procedures to
you.�

I said I wanted to do some things to the computer and
she said, â?oYouâ?Tre welcome to take the disk
out.� I said okay, and turned the computer over,
but when she was gone, I realized I didnâ?Tt have a
screwdriver and the disk doesnâ? Tt pop out. I
decided I would just make sure everything was deleted
properly I looked at the Outlook and realized I had
not emptied the sent items. I kept trying to do it,
and it kept hanging up. I decided I would take out the
disk after all, and rummaged for a makeshift
screwdriver. I found a pen and got one screw out, but
the other wouldnâ?Tt come out. A guy came in and said
to me, â?oWe need it now.â? I said, â?oWhatâ?Ts
your hurry?â? He said, â?oWhat?â? I said, if
itâ?Ts going to take 24 hours, you can wait 20
minutes. He said, â?oThatâ?Ts clever,â? which was
odd because I didnâ?Tt feel clever at all. A clever
person would get her laptop back or at least, be able
to take the disk out. I asked someone for a
screwdriver. They got all upset and kept saying,
â?oMaâ?Tam, you canâ?Tt do that.â? I said the
woman had told me I could, and they said, â?oWho?â?
Finally I deleted the Outlook files and emptied the
recycle bin. When I shut it down, I left it on the
chair and the guy whoâ?Td been so hot for it ignored
it.

The women were going through every pair of dirty
underwear. I happened to look up and see the
dyed-blonde examining my â?oJews for a Free
Palestine� t-shirt, but it seemed to me they
werenâ?Tt interested in the content of anything. They
didnâ?Tt say anything to me except about the laptop
and to open a package that was taped shut.

The redhead asked if I wanted to repack myself or for
her to do it. I was still busy with he computer so I
said, â?oGo ahead.â? When I was done I went over
to help. Then another woman came out of the room next
door and said, â?oDid you have some sweets with
nuts?â? I said yes. She said, â?oYou wonâ?Tt be
able to fly with them, theyâ?Tll come later, with the
laptop.â? I said, â?oBut that doesnâ?Tt make any
sense.� I demanded to know what the security
problem could be with Turkish Delight. They refused to
say. I was really upset about that. I said, â?oBut
theyâ?Tre a gift for the people who are picking me up
at the airport.� The guy who looked Black said,
â?oWeâ?Tre not going to explain our security
procedures to you. Curiosity can be annoying.� I
said I was not curious, but upset. He said, â?oI
know.�When they were done repacking, the supervisor
with the dye job came up to me with a bottle of olive
oil I got as a gift and said, â?oThis has to go in
your hand luggage.� I said no. I knew I could not
have it in my daypack when I got off the plane in New
Jersey if I wanted to get it in. I shoved it into the
trolley and she pleaded, â?oMaâ?Tam come on, we need
to hurry.� She seemed on the verge of tears, as I
was. I was struck by how polite they tended to be, at
the same time they were violating my privacy,
insinuating that Iâ?Tm a liar (which okay, maybe I am,
but itâ?Ts situational) and maybe a terrorist and
making veiled threats.

We took off nearly running, her pushing the cart with
my luggage, me struggling to keep up. We went through
passport control, the window marked, â?oCrew
Only.� They stamped my passport and she turned me
over to another woman, this one with long blonde hair,
and said something I didnâ?Tt understand. I heard the
English word â?ocheckpointâ? in the middle of a
flood of Hebrew. I also thought I heard to word,
â?oMossad,â? but it well might have been something
that sounds like that.

The girl took me straight to the gate, handed them my
ticket, me my passport, I got the ticket and boarding
pass stub back and went to my seat. They had checked
me in and checked my luggage through without me even
noticing. I still donâ?Tt know if I cold have done
something that would have made it go differently. They
seemed to pick me out before ever asking a single
question or even looking carefully at my passport.
They did not believe my story, but itâ?Ts not that far
from the truth. Was it the shoes, as DorothĂƒÂŠe might
say? Did I just seem to be lying? Maybe Iâ?Tm just a
bad liar. When I got off in Newark, the USDA woman
asked me, â?oDo you have any food?â? I nswered,
â? oNo.â? She scribbled on my customs form and
when I cleared customs, they told me to go to
Agriculture and have my luggage x-rayed, which I did,
and no problem.

Does it even matter? Is it luck of the draw? When I
boarded the plane, I was shaken. Now it seems like no
big deal. Should I go through Amman next year?
Perhaps Iâ?Tll know more by then. Postscript â?"
Tuesday, January 21, 2003I got the laptop back, not 24
hours but 48 hours later. It didnâ?Tt work at all.
The screen was broken and it wouldnâ?Tt boot up. I
took it to a repair place and they said they didnâ?Tt
think it was fixable, but I insisted they open it up
and $165 later, they have it working, but itâ?Ts not
long-term usable. I talked to Shamai, the lawyer
whoâ?Ts been handling a lot of ISM-related cases and
who did Angieâ?Ts deportation hearing and Jaggiâ?Ts,
and he says I can sue them for the cost of replacing
it. On one hand, I want to do that because even if it
costs me nearly as much as I would get, I think they
shouldnâ?Tt be able to just break peopleâ?Ts
computers. (Incidentally, I only got back one of the
two packages of Turkish Delight, and it was a little
mangled.) On the other hand, I didnâ?Tt have the
sense that they were targeting me for political reasons
(Shamai assumes they were), and I donâ?Tt want to give
them reason to look into my activities if theyâ?Tre
unaware of them. Plus itâ?Ts possible that suing them
would just automatically put you on a list of people
not to admit. So I need to think about it and get some
more advice.

Iâ?Tm not adjusting that well to being back. On
Saturday morning, I went to North Berkeley BART to go
to the big march in San Francisco. There were at least
1000 people waiting to get into the station. I went
straight into checkpoint mode, went and asked the
agent, â?oCanâ?Tt you let people in? Weâ?Tre going
to miss the march.â? But when she said, â?oNo, we
were instructed not to open the gates,â? I didnâ?Tt
know what to do. I have no special status here.

Presumably if I just said, â?oWell Iâ?Tm going
anyway,� she would call the police. People
arenâ?Tt friendly to me, nor to each other, the way
Iâ?Tm accustomed to now. But Iâ?Tm going to try to
start a new trend. I feel that the time in Palestine
has changed my personality some, opened me up more and
made me more willing to take risks (I mean in terms of
relating to people, not physical risks, which Iâ?Tve
always been willing to take). I thought I would be
relieved at least to speak English all the time without
guilt, but I find I even miss bumbling along in
Hebrabic, and learning new words and wondering every
time I get in a car what language(s) the person will
want to speak.

I am happy to see all my wonderful friends, though, so
if youâ?Tre in the Bay Area and I havenâ?Tt seen or
talked to you, please give me a call or drop a line. I
am giving myself a few more days before I start
figuring out what presentations to do when, but if you
have any ideas, especially if you want to host a house
party or something, please be in touch. I would love
to speak to smaller groups of less informed people this
time around; I think the info I have to share is suited
to that kind of environment.

Kate
510-666-1376/510-381-1287
Still katrap@mindspring.com

==========================================================================
For further detailes and info, please
call the PCR office at 02-277-2018 or 052-595319 [ END]

The Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement between
People 64 Star Street, P.O.Box 24
Beit Sahour - Palestine
Tel: 02-277-2018
http://www.rapprochement.org
================================
The center is a non-profit making NGO,
started in 1988 during the first Intifada. PCR
runs community service programs, youth
empowerment and training programs. PCR is also
very much involved in the non-violent resistance
against the Israeli Occupation to Palestine.

Reports From Palestine
Rapprochement Media Centre
January 22, 2003

1-Attack on Beit Sahour Medical Center
2-Israelis Block Patriarch Sabbah at Tel Aviv Airport
3-Israeli War Crimes Index
4-Occupied House in Zawata, Nablus - Max
5-IWPS Report - Kate
=============================================================================
1-Attack on Beit Sahour Medical Center

Dear Friends

On 16 Jan.2003, shortly after 10 p.m. the Israeli
soldiers attacked the clinic in Beit Sahour. Until 13
Jan.2003, we had an emergency team staying in the
clinic overnight. Although we were still under the
curfew, which has been imposed since 22 Nov. 2002, we
decided to cancel the night duty for a few days because
of fatigue.

We heard an explosion and some pounding. The mayor of
Beit Sahour called me and shortly afterwards other
friends called me also and told me that the Israeli
soldiers are pounding at the iron door of the clinic
trying to open it. We had a very bad experience last
April when Atallah Hayek from Beit Sahour was killed in
very similar circumstances. He had driven to an
apartment building he owned after neighbors called him
to say that soldiers were breaking into it. He was
shot fatally while still in his car, attempting to
convince the soldiers that he would open the building
for them, and bled to death before an ambulance could
arrive. We decided to wait.

I do not live far from the clinic and I could hear the
commotion and pounding on the iron doors from our
balcony. In the meantime, the soldiers threw a sound
bomb, which detonated at the entrance of the clinic. We
found the residue in front of the door. I received
other calls a little later from neighbors telling me
that the soldiers had entered the clinic. At around
11:45 I received a phone call from the soldiers:

“ My name is Captain so and so. I am in the clinic.
And I want you to come to the clinic within five
minutes”. “ Yes, I know that you are at the clinic.
But it is curfew and your soldiers will shoot.” “
No they will not.” “Make sure to tell them not to
shoot. Besides how should they know that it is me?”
“When you come closer to the clinic just shout my
name and the soldiers will know.” “ My wife is
coming with me, so take notice that two persons will be
approaching.”

When we reached the clinic I shouted his name and we
continued till we came to the entrance. There were at
least 4 jeeps and one larger truck. Soldiers were
surrounding the building. The soldier who spoke very
good Arabic told us to stay outside until the soldiers
finish the search. He said that they were looking for
terrorists and that there might be shooting and that
this was for our own safety.

Finally at around 1 a.m. about 12 soldiers emerged from
the building and we entered the clinic together. All
doors had been forced open and their frames damaged.
Some were almost out of the wall. As the weather
outside was rainy and muddy, every room had mud tracked
through it. Even the operating theater was dirty.
Luckily the soldiers did not damage any machines or
instruments. The false ceiling was damaged in several
places and hung down.

Before they left the soldier assured me that this had
been necessary as it was a security matter. I told him
that he had my phone number and he also knew the
mayor’s phone number so we could have opened the
doors for them and there would have been no need to
break them all.

They left us behind, not very much afraid but sad to
see the clinic in such a mess. Friends came and we
stayed the whole night, as the clinic was completely
open. As early as seven o’clock in the morning we
started making repairs and cleaning up. Despite the
ongoing curfew, we were able to finish the same day.
In the evening everything was back as it was before.
The emergency team is back to work as usual. We
continue.

Dr. Majed Nassar
Deputy Director, Health Work Committees - Palestine
=============================================================================
2-Israelis Block Patriarch Sabbah at
Tel Aviv Airport Officials Disregard His Vatican
Diplomatic Passport

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 19, 2003 (Zenit.org).- Latin-rite
Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem was unable to
leave Tel Aviv airport because of a security search he
was subjected to by Israeli officials.

The Vatican's semiofficial newspaper L'Osservatore
Romano reported today that the search was a violation
of the respect due to a Vatican diplomatic passport,
which the patriarch showed at the airport Friday.

Consequently, the patriarch was unable to attend the
symposium organized on Saturday in Rome by the
Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. During
that event, Archbishop Michael Louis Fitzgerald,
council president, publicly noted the patriarch's
absence.

The Latin patriarch was scheduled to deliver an address
on "The Spiritual Resources of Religion for Peace." In
his speech, which was read at the symposium in his
absence, Patriarch Sabbah said that the priority task
of religions in the Middle East is to contribute to
"break the spiral of violence."

Sources of the patriarchate told ZENIT that the Israeli
security services not only obliged the patriarch to
open his suitcases to inspect what he was carrying, but
they also tried to search through his personal
documents.

The Italian newspaper Avvenire considered the search a
violation of the fundamental 1993 agreement between the
Vatican and the state of Israel, which provides for
the safeguarding by the Israeli state of the freedom
necessary for pastors of the Catholic Church to carry
out their mission.

LATIN PATRIARCATE – JERUSALEM
=============================================================================
3-Israeli War Crimes Index (Several
Sources - see below)

* Number of days since the beginning of the current
Intifada until October 30, 2002: 763

* On average, number of trees uprooted in the occupied
territories, per day: 896

* On average, number of homes demolished by the Israeli
army in the occupied territories, per day: 15

* Total number of homes demolished: 12,099

* Area of land confiscated in the West Bank and East
Jerusalem by the Israeli authorities since the
beginning of the Intifada, in square miles: 63.05 (Area
of Manhattan, New York, in square miles: 22.7).

* On average, number of Palestinians injured by Israeli
forces and settlers, per day: 27

* Number of Israelis injured by Palestinians (including
soldiers and settlers), per day: 6

* Number of Palestinian teachers detained by the
Israeli army: 75

* Percentage of Palestinian children, age six month to
five year old, who suffer from chronic malnutrition:
45%

* Number of journalists injured by the Israeli army:
254

[Sources: The information in this msg was taken from a
larger report published in "Between the Lines", Vol
III, #19, December 2002. (see > <A
HREF="http://www.between-lines.org/about/index.htm">http://w
ww.between-lines.org /about/index.htm, although as
of December 4, > 2002, the December issue is not yet on
line).

The sources cited by "Between the Lines" for the entire
report are: The Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the
Ministry of Health, the Palestinian Central Bureau of
Statistics, The World Bank and the International
Management Group, Office of the United Nation Special
Coordinator (UNSCO), United Nation Children's Fund
(UNICEF), the Ministry of Education, the Palestinian
Journalist Syndicate, Defense for International
Children - Palestinian Section, Ministry of
Agriculture, PECDAR, Arij, and UN Economic and Social
Committee for Western Asia. The source for Israelis
injured is the IDF web site >
(<AHREF="http://www.idf.il/english/news/jump_2_eng_300900.stm">
http://www.idf.il/en
glish/news/jump_2_eng_300900.stm). The Manhattan >
statistics is from
<AHREF="http://www.hotel411.com/">http://www.Hotel411.com.
The conversion from acres to square
> miles was done in
> <AHREF="http://www.onlineconversion.com/">http://www.onlineconversion.com.
> AK]
=============================================================================
4-Occupied House in Zawata, Nablus -
Max 21.01.03

"I don't know why they have come to our house... and I
don't know when they will leave." - Hana' Husni Risheh

The Israeli Army occupied the Risheh house on 11th
January 2003. They had come to survey the house the day
before, and had warned Hana', the mother of the family,
that they might want to use the house for their own
purposes then. She simply couldn't believe that they
really would do so.

When they arrived the next afternoon they commanded the
family downstairs and ordered them to remove all the
furniture from the top floor. The family has had to
rent a flat in order to store that furniture - with
money that they simply do not have. There are 13 in the
house - 10 children aged 3yrs to 26yrs - and they are
now all forced to sleep in two rooms downstairs. The
family have no poliical connections, are not wanted by
the IOF, and are not deemed 'terrorists'. The father,
Ahmed, works as a teacher in Nablus and Hana' works as
a teacher in the local primary school.

They are being punished for being Palestinian - and
used as human shields by the Israelis - because their
house is on a strategically important location on the
outskirts of Nablus. The army want to be able to watch
traffic on the Jjnesnia road from Nablus to Tukarem,
Jenin and beyond to the Green line, aswell as local
traffic in Zawata.

The shock and humiliation to the family is unbearable.
The look of dejection in Ahmed's eyes was disturbing,
and almost immediately as she began to talk to us,
Hana' was fighting back tears.

We had managed to get past the soldiers to talk to the
family, after they had told us that they do not speak
English. Hana' speaks near-to-perfect English.

No other Palestinians are allowed to visit or approach
the house. Indeed we are told, and we witness, boys
going past the house on the main route to the local
school are shouted at by the soldiers and told to go
another way around.

Tanks and APC's come and go bringing soldiers with
them. If the family want anything they have to ask
permission first. They are not allowed one step up the
flight of their stairs. At night the soldiers
consistently bang loudly, keeping the whole family
awake. They have not said how long they will be here,
and they probably do not know themselves. It is this
uncertainty which makes the situation so much worse, so
much more desperate.

We leave and bring back medicines from the UPMRC,
ciggarettes for the family, and sweets for the kids.
The family gave us coffee and invite us for lunch. They
ask what we can do about it, but there seems so very
little. They can't believe the army can get away with
this. I feel useless as I don't know the law properly,
but surely this is illegal... it is effectively using a
whole family as a human shield in a war of occupation.
Illegal or not, it is disgraceful.

We take the names and ID no's of all the family members
to pass onto human rights organisations, and we tell
the family that everybody has heard about the
occupation in town and that they are not alone. I also
tell Hana that, with their permission, I will write
about this case at home so that people know what is
being done to the Palestinian people.

We leave back to Nablus and I feel we need to organise
some sort of protest, but the family are very
frightened of the soldiers and do not want the
situation to be made worse (no one has been detained or
arrested and the men are allowed to leave the house for
college/ work etc.) The ISM does a lot of work with
occupied family houses - especially in Nablus. I will
go back to the group to ask for advice... Nablus is a
city under seige, and you get the feeling here that the
Israelis are gearing up for a full scale invasion. The
anticipation itself - the fear - is an integral part of
the terror used by the Israelis.

This case is yet another story of systematic
oppression, punishment and persecution of a people
already downtrodden by decades of occupation. It is a
stark reminder that the Israelis are a law unto
themselves; that they can flaunt international
conventions and disregard completely the human rights
of Palestinians.

I walk away with a sense of rage and disgust that the
rest of the world is allowing this to happen. A local
approached us in the usual welcoming manner as I walked
through Zawata, and he insisted that when I get back to
my country, I tell as many people about these crimes as
I can. I tell him I intend to do exactly that.
============================================================================
5-IWPS Report - Kate

Friday morning, January 17, 2003, early Wednesday
night, the night before I left, the Army came into our
village at 10:00 p.m. Someone called and told me two
boys had been arrested. Nijmie and I went to see what
was happening. We found the father of the two boys,
distraught, on the street. He had been sleeping when
his two sons came to ask him for money to go to the
barbershop in the main part of the village. He gave it
to them and went back to sleep. The kids, who were 11
and 13, went and got their hair cut. When they were on
their way home, a jeep pulled up to them in the central
square, where the mosque is. The soldiers asked the
boys a few questions, said they wanted to talk to them
and took them away. Everyone says they are polite boys
(Iâ?Tm inclined to believe that; how many teenage boys
voluntarily take themselves to