Reports From Palestine Rapprochement Media Centre January 25, 2003 1-The soldiers do not like it when we laugh...hahaha - Nablus - Palestine 2-Rafah Incursion: 3 Houses Demolished, 2 Wounded and Electricity Cut – ISM to Protest Incursion by Dismantling Roadblock 3-Encounters with Children - Nablus - Palestine 4- Articles worth looking at ( Ghassan Andoni )

1-The soldiers do not like it when we
laugh...hahaha

This is now the fourth day of 24-hour curfew in Nablus
- a situation which is expected to continue at least
until the elections next week. Curfew means that no
one is allowed onto the streets, except possibly people
travelling in emergency vehicles such as ambulances.
According to a legally knowledgeable Red Cross
employee, the occupation force is only allowed to use
tear gas to enforce curfew but, as with most IOF
operations in Palestine, international law is not
abided by. Soldiers and military police regularly shoot
live and rubber ammunition at children and adults
attempting to make their way to school, to buy bread,
to the doctor... These people are seen as potential
terrorists, thereby becoming legitimate targets.

At noon three days ago, the IOF blocked off Amman
Street, one of two roads linking Nablus City to Askar
and Balata refugee camps, as well as to villages and
exit routes to Jerusalem, Jericho, Jenin etc. The
second road, Jerusalem Street, is once again unusable
since the army put up two even bigger roadblocks than
the ones courageous Nablusians removed two weeks ago.
As people in general were unprepared for this sudden
military initiative, the road was jammed full of cars
and trucks, obstructing the path of ambulances and
attracting lots of stone-throwing shebab. After being
chased around by hummers and jeeps for a while on
Jerusalem Street, occasionally seeking refuge behind
the ruins of what was once the Palestinian Authority
building , the boys moved up nearer the improvised
checkpoint, crouching behind parked cars and belting
rocks and bottles at unwitting soldiers, most of them
unusually old for Nablus. They of course, in their hard
helmets and protective vests, felt extremely threatened
by this onslaught of pebbles and proceeded to shoot
rubber bullets at the children, later switching to
firing live ammunition in the air as night began to
fall.

The people in the cars, trapped in the crossfire,
started to panic and beep their horns. I asked the very
macho colonel ("Captain?! I was captain ten years
ago!") why he was wasting his time shooting at children
when there were peaceful people waiting for his
permission to go home. He told me that he had been
given orders to stay at the checkpoint for a certain
number of hours and hence there was no great hurry.
Further prying was dismissed by a haughty "You want me
to tell you all the secrets of the IDF? One day, when
there is peace, I will tell you why we are here today."
I can't wait... Anyway, he eventually returned to his
original post at the checkpoint. Yet, instead of
quickly letting people past the jeeps and confiscated
trucks parked across the road, he started the long
process of checking the ID:s of each driver and
passenger! This with a rain (or at least a drizzle) of
stones still descending upon them and soldiers
sporadically shooting in random directions in a futile
attempt to put a stop to it. Some people, having waited
in their cars for about six hours, decided to take the
matter into their own hands - I saw at least four cars
rev their engines and whiz past the preoccupied (praise
Allah for an incompetent army) soldiers.

As the mass of cars started to diminish, the shebab
retreated and left were at last only ten Palestinian
men aged between 16 and 35 ( a crime not treated
lightly by the IOF), a jeep and a hummer. The colonel
in the hummer claimed to be checking the men's ID:s.
The checking of identification cards is another army
mystery. At times it takes about one minute, a glance,
a wave of the hand. At other times, it takes several
days and needs the expertise of the DCO, located at
the not-so-easily-accessible-if-you-are-Palestinian
Huwarra military base. A soldier once told me that the
check must go through an inefficient number of four
people and that the computers often break down, another
that the exact procedure is classified information. On
this particular evening, the checking took about two
hours and was accompanied by the habitual power games,
such as pretending to drive away with the oh-so-vital
papers only to return twenty minutes later and refusing
to hand the ID:s to the men if they did not line up in
a, to the colonel, pleasing way.

So, this was the beginning of what many fear will be
another long period of curfew, a taste of the
humiliation and destruction that is to come. Just as
the Nablusians were almost starting to allow themselves
to enjoy the relative freedom that is going to school
(although scarred by tanks) and earning a living, these
basic rights are once again snatched away from them.
Treated as impostors, living as refugees in their own
land, they must once more summon up the strength to
face an insidious oppression. That impossible strength
that over and over again keeps these malnourished
bodies and tired minds from collapsing, seeming to
spring from the conviction that they are in the right
and that the world must one day bring itself to see and
act upon what it sees.

Until then, Nablusians are excepted to comply to every
new decree issued by the occupying force, even when
poorly communicated..."Is there curfew today?" one
will soon find out if venturing out onto the street.
Either by being shot at or detained by patrolling jeeps
(often decorated with bright splashes of paint dealt
out by artistic shebab), by being denied passage at an
improvised checkpoint dividing the city, or by not
being unable to buy bread in the now closed-up
cornerstore. "Curfew...it is a call from God it
seems!"...exclaims one exasperated man, still laughing
after three hours of waiting for his ID. And so it does
seem. You are either summoned or you are not. Appeals
to human rights organisations are largely
futile..."There is nothing we can do. They know there
is curfew and should not be out on the street."Hmm, I
wonder if she has ever lived under curfew for months at
a time. The people of Nablus sure have. And they are
resisting, albeit at times only by laughing. You see...
"The soldiers do not like it when we
laugh...hahaha..."
=============================================================================
2-Rafah Incursion: 3 Houses
Demolished, 2 Wounded and Electricity Cut – ISM to
Protest Incursion by Dismantling
Roadblock

At 10.30 last night Israeli tanks entered the Brazil
District of Rafah without warning to destroy 3 houses
using explosives and bulldozers. Two members of the
Palestinian resistance were wounded resisting this
incursion and several houses and shops damaged by the
explosions and machine gun fire. Six families have
been left homeless as a result of the demolitions,
their possessions destroyed with their houses.

The Occupying Army has also cut off electricity to
Rafah since the time of the incursion.

The homes were destroyed to create a buffer zone of
between 70 and 100 metres between Rafah and the
"Security Fence" being constructed along the Egyptian
border. 600 homes in Rafah have been destroyed in the
creation of the buffer zone.

To protest the ongoing dispossession and terrorism
against the people of Rafah the six members of the
International Solidarity Movement (ISM) based in Rafah
will attempt to dismantle the military roadblock on
Saleh de-Deen Road (the Western Road) between Rafah and
Khan Yunis.

The Moraj area, through which the road passes contains
an outgrowth of the Gush Katif Settlement (one of the
largest in the Occupied Territories) and is where the
Israeli Army bases a large portion of the tanks and
bulldozers that they use for military incursions and
demolitions throughout the cities and refuges camps of
the Gaza Strip.

The army has declared the Moraj Area a closed military
zone, cutting communications between Rafah and the
Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis and forcing ambulances to
take a circuitous eastern route which extends the
journey from 7 minutes to up to half an hour.

The activists of the ISM have chosen the road block as
the target for their protest because it represents an
outrage of the Geneva Convention, United Nations
Resolutions 194 and 242 and the human rights of the
indigenous Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip.

The nationalities of the ISM volunteers taken part in
the protest are as follows;

2 British, 1 Irish , 1 Swedish , 1 Italian , and 1
American..

For further information contact Olivier on 067 852 036
or 055 874 693
=============================================================================
3-Encounters with Children:

On Sunday (19/01) the IOF staged an incursion into
Nablus. Many tanks, APCs and Jeeps entered the city,
and throughout the afternoon they maintained a highly
visible presennce at points throughout the city. For a
while I watched them re-establish a checkpoint on
Amman Street, a site near the Muqatta, where I spent a
lot of time on my last visit.

A couple of us then set off to meet an International at
the Al-Najar University, which was being evacuated. We
wondered into the city, where there reports of scuffles
between soldiers and stone throwing children at
various points. We came across one such group at the
Western end of the city. Soldiers and an APC were
located at the bottom of a hill, where they had
detained a man and his car. A group of children were
further up the hill, rolling tyres down the hill at the
soldiers.

Occassionally they would throw a stone, but were too
far away to get anywhere near their target. An
ambulance arrived and asked us to accompany them to
retrieve an injured person from a flat. We ran down an
alley with the crew, followed by a second ambulance.
In a first floor flat we found a young man who had been
shot in the back, with a plastic bullet, he was
screaming in pain and seemed unable to move. One of the
ambulance crew carried him down the stairs in a
firemans lift, and the ambulance roared off. The other
ambulance set off to attend a reported shooting near
the University. Shortly afterwards the soldiers
released the driver they were holding and sped off in
their APC. Their presence there appeared arbitrary and
pointless.

The three of us began walking back towards town,
passing a taxi that had been shelled by a tank, and
which had no occupants. At pooints there was a strong
smell of tear gas. As we neared Amman Street, we saw a
Hammer Jeep speed up to an adolescent boy, who was
standing alone on the side of the road. In a split
second two soldiers jumped out, grabbed hold of him and
bundled him into the back of the vehicle. The Jeep then
sped off. When we got to the checkpoint, we saw the
same vehicle parked next to a second jeep. The doors
opened and the boy, now with a hood over his head and
his hands tied behind his back was transferred to the
second vehicle, receiving a hefty kick from a soldier
in the process. I grabbed my camera and took a quick
shot before he was in the second jeep, which then sped
off.

We then received a call saying that there was an
International alone with three groups of kids, an APC
and a tank further down the hill. We rushed down there
and saw kids throwing stones and soldiers retaliating
with guns. A convoy of jeeps passed and stones rained
down on them. The last jeep stopped and a soldier fired
out the back door. It was clear that no soldier in any
of the heavily armoured jeeps was at any risk
whatsoever. A small child of about 11 was hit in the
back, and I have a photo of that injury as well,
another tow older boys were also injured, all with
plastic bulletts. No soldiers received any injuries,
neither were they at any risk of doing so.

Our group of Internationals moved further back, away
from the tank and APC and the kids began to cluster
around us, asking the customary questions and offering
us water. We chatted to them for a while, and then
produced a football. The group moved onto a nearby
vacant plot, and a crazy game of football began. After
about five minutes, the tank and APC moved off and
shortly thereafter, the kids began to disperse.

It was difficult to see any reason for the soldiers
being at the points where we observed them. Their
presence excited the kids and who predictably reacted
by throwing stones, which the soldiers were only too
happy to respond to with plastic bullets. Once the kids
stopped being interested, the soldiers just moved off,
suggesting that there were no pressing security
reasons for their presence at these points.

The checkpoint at Amman street remains now, and there
seem to be soldiers all over town again today. Nablus
is close to being completely closed down, and there is
a real sense of frustration in the air, people had a
taste of near normality with the 6pm to 6am curfew
that was in place when I arrived. Now that is taken
away, schools, shops and workplaces are again shut, and
people are left cooped up in their houses, not knowing
when next they can resume their jobs and education.

Wednesday saw a completely different kind of
interaction with children. The whole group of
Internationals went to a "meet the children" day at the
newly opened Social Development Centre in New Askar.
This centre is the only public facility in a camp of
about 4000 people, and is providing an extensive
programme of activities, including art, computing,
video production, dance classes, and discussion on a
variety of topics including "early marriages", a topic
which has been discussed with about 200 young
adolescent girls from the camp. Plans are afoot to
produce a weekly television show for the whole camp.

The Internationals were treated to lunch and a tour of
the centre, before going into discussion groups with
the children. A friend and I spoke to two groups of
boys aged 8 - 13. We explained why we are in Palestine,
and the kind of activities we are involved in. They
talked about their daily lives, and asked lots of
astute political questions about our home countries,
our governments links with Israel, and our feelings
about suicide bombings and children throwing stones.

The interactions were very positive, and plans are
afoot for us to work closely with the children to
produce a video about childhood in the camp, which we
can show to interested groups back hoime on our return.

I asked the children what they wanted to be when they
grew up, and was glad to hear answers like "Doctor,
teacher, soldier!, builder, vegetable hawker and
decorator". It is good to know that the children still
have hopes for the future, despite some of the horrific
acts of violence they have witnessed in recent times,
including assassinations, house demolitions and the
shooting of an 8 year old class mate on the way back
from school a few months ago.

What was especially sobering, was that many of these
smiling and charming children had spent the morning at
the funeral of a 14 year boy from neighbouring Askar
Camp, who died in hospital that morning after 10 days
in hospital. He was shot by a tank that opened fire in
the main road of Askar, in broad daylight on a Sunday
morning.

In the UK each of these children would be receiving
trauma counselling and help, if they saw just one
incident of death. These kids have seen so many.
=============================================================================
4- Articles worth looking at:

1-In the Gaza Strip, a New Generation Wilts from War
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A37545-2003Jan24?language=printer

2-Israeli Arabs lose faith in democratic process
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGAM/20030124/UISRAM/Headlines/headdex/headdexInternational_temp/1/1/18/

3-Israelis detain hundreds without trial. Kafkaesque
nightmare awaits arrested Palestinians
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,881072,00.html

4-Israel to destroy at least 53 more stores in West
Bank market village
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/6686f45896f15dbc852567ae00530132/aae549629980959ec1256cb7005a5d17?OpenDocument