1) The Man in the Clothes Shop _ Chris Green 2) Just Like Christmas _ Drew Penland 3) From an Ambulance in Palestine_ Lisa Beth 4) Right to Education Petition from Bethlehem

1)
The Man in the Clothes Shop That Dared To Be Open
Date: February 10, 2003

Author: Chris Green
Area: Tulkarem



A quick message-


I told you two days ago about the man who worked in the clothes shop, which
dared to be a bit open during curfew and was shot in both legs.
He was buried today. He was 21, about to be married, and had worked in the
shop for a couple of weeks. The bullets went through steel shutters and through the
windows before they hit him.



Today in the store besides the obvious pictures of bullet holes in doors, we
also took pictures of jerseys still on the racks with holes in them and
racks of jeans shot through. I went into the shop later in the day and tried to buy
a shirt but the shop workers wanted to give it to me because of our help, so we end
up
leaving some money on the counter and hoping it's enough.

At the funeral an old man working in the Ministry of Health stopped to talk
to me and gave me a portrait of his son- killed in March last year by an
Apache helicopter in Ramallah.

Apart from that it was a quiet day in terms of trouble but everyone was
expecting trouble so it wasn't a great shopping day for the equivalent of
Christmas Eve. However, the shops were very busy, but everyone asks the price
of everything. There was a power cut for the whole town this morning for
about 4 hours- I don't know if it was imposed by the Israelis or not, but
last night I past through a district of the Refugee Camp where the overhead
cables had been cut- some of the tanks have special insulated cutting gear.
I was due to go to Aziz's Mum's house for Zatta on home made bread so she
was making it in a homemade oven in the back yard. Another family are making
plans to build an oven so that they can bake bread when all the power is cut
off when (if) the war starts and the Israelis impose an unlimited curfew.
Yesterday I collected two stories from an ambulance driver of brutality
against him. One was only last week, but they are too long to tell here.

Last night I collected 10 letters from local children wanting pen-friends two
of them were written in English-Yousif Moosa Ibrahim writes
"My ambitions: To be a doctor to treat the poor people in my camp, To see
peace all over the world, and to see all my family together in one country.
By friendship the world will be smaller"

I got some better feel of the smallness of the geography of this region
yesterday when driving through it in the ambulance- I realised that all the
places that I picked olives last year were all very close, even though it
sometimes took ages to travel between them.

A lovely early evening in the Orphanage below our flat, dancing and
reviewing our performance of "We are the Children of Palestine" which they
love to sing. They drive people made with some noise making puppets we've
bought, but they get a collection of presents from the ambulance drivers
and local people. Tonight we are going to sleep in houses in the Camp just in case the
military come in to spoil Eid

The checkpoints around the city have been very heavily applied today, to
stop people traveling to visit their relatives-an important Eid tradition.
As a present to the house I bought two plastic chairs two stools and another
small table- Luxury- why did I do this two days before I leave?

Love
Chris

=================

2)
Just like Christmas
February 10, 2003
Author: Drew Penland
Area: Tulkarem

Today the feeling in Tulkarem is akin to Christmas in most of our countries.
Or almost. The only difference is that soldiers in armored vehicles can
enter your shop or mall at will and injure or murder with impunity. Let me
tell you of one incident, of the many, from the last ten days. I think it
will prove instructive about the present state of affairs in Occupied
Palestine.

Two days back I and another ISM activist were watching one APC and border
police jeep enforce curfew near the hospitals in the afternoon. They were
announcing menacingly "curfew" over their loudspeaker and a few youths were
throwing rocks from behind buildings without effect. After sitting at an
intersection for a short time the armored vehicles headed down a hill to
where they often head back to the Occupation forces base.

Just as we sought to catch our breath there was shouting from up the hill in
the area of the hospital. It seemed more was yet to come. From around the
corner at the hospital rolled a different APC and border police jeep. We
stood at the side of the road and watched them come down the hill towards
us.

The vehicles looked like they were from some absurd war fantasy for
jingoists. Machine guns poked out of every window of both vehicles.
Normally one or two machine guns are pointed at local Palestinians (and us)
through windows but this time 5 or 6 guns protruded out of each vehicle and
to me was a clear signal trouble was coming.

They rolled by and we waited for our companion who was pinned in at the
hospital by herself. As the vehicles rolled by into the city center they
picked up speed.

Just past us and at the edge of site I shuddered at three bursts of machine
gun fire that came from the APC. I ran in the direction of the shooting and
witnessed the vehicles rush off. Within seconds a man exited a shop and
called in a shrill voice for an ambulance.

I was one of the first to the scene and rushed into the clothing store. A
young man lay on the floor of the shop. He looked like a ghoulish yellow
puppet with an extra joint in his legs. Both his femur bones in his legs
were snapped by two bullets and blood was visibly spurting from one of his
legs into a growing pool that surrounded him on the shop floor.

He was reaching with his hands into the air and in severe shock and
excruciating pain, but conscious. All I could do was hold his hand. I had
my camera and thought to photograph him and try to help, but I froze for a
time. I just went rigid and held his hand and watched the crowd grow
outside the store. As people started filtering into the store I took
several steps towards the shop entrance and tried to stop people from
entering. It seemed that the young man was in such an undignified state and
I knew that too many people around him wouldn't help.

In a flash several paramedics, people who are true heroes of this struggle,
rushed through the door and with some local help the injured man was lifted
onto a bed. The ambulance was off within seconds back to Thabit-Thabit
Hospital (Tulkarem).

Now, some details about the young man. His name is Muhammed. He is 21 and a
university student who was hired at the shop for this holiday season to help
out for this busy time. It was his third day at work. He was the friend of
a close friend of mine.

I did not witness the actual shooting directly. We had to confirm with
locals that it was from the APC and not the jeep. They said it was from the
big machine gun atop the APC called a 215 something.

The evidence at the scene is quite damning. The store had been closed with
steel doors at the time of the incident. The heavy gun just shot right
through the cement wall and the steel doors into the back of the store and
the man.

At the time of the shooting there were six people in the store, including a
mother and her 10-year-old son. Many more could have been killed quite
easily. Much of the merchandise is now bullet holed and a window manikin
had its hand blown off.

The following morning the blood from the floor was mopped clean and the
store back open for business. It was almost like nothing ever happened, but
not in the hearts of the people.

The man was transferred to a hospital in Nablus (see other report) that
night and according to a doctor from the hospital underwent 7 hours of
surgery. He continued to have complications through the next day and his
bleeding never stopped. He was conscious much of the time, I cannot even
imagine the pain.

This morning he passed away. Today another funeral procession.

In truth similar incidents happen every couple days, and lesser but not
insignificant incidents like maiming kids with more frequency yet. It is
difficult to keep up with them and that is just in this city alone.

When contacted the Israeli Occupation Forces Spokesperson explained that
shooting at random was illegal and therefore not done by IOF soldiers.
Really. Apparently the killing of civilians isn’t as random as it seems.

Thanks oh Israeli soldiers for bestowing upon the people of Palestine such
pleasant gifts this holiday season. They should be more grateful. Be
assured they will never forget you and your gifts. Pray that they, and your
god, will forgive you.

Eid Sayeed,

drew
February 10
Tulkarem Occupied Palestine

Drew Penland is available for interviews over the phone and via email. He
can be reached by phone in Occupied Palestine at:
972-(0)52-371338
972-(0)67-658873 (please remember the time difference!)

For information, to arrange interviews or to support ISM efforts please
contact Reem Alnuweiri, ISM-Vancouver Coordinator by email at:
ism-vancouver@palsolidarity.org

===============
3)
From An Ambulance In Palestine
Date: February 10, 2003
Author: Lisa Beth
Area: Tulkarem

This is an account of one stage in the treatment of Mohammed Qadourah from a
paramedic's perspective. Mohammed is a 21-year-old university student who
was gunned down while working his third day at a retail shop in Tulkarem.
He was shot through both legs; one femur was shattered, and the other was
also fractured with damage as well to the femoral artery. His bleeding was
immediate and profuse. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance crew
worked to stop the bleeding and transported Mohammed to the local hospital.
There, the emergency room staff splinted both legs, took X-rays to diagnose
the injuries, started intravenous lines with multiple units of blood,
administered pain medication, and continued attempts to slow the bleeding
with only partial success.

I accompanied the ambulance crew who transported Mohammed from Dr. Thabit Thabit
Hospital in Tulkarem to Nablus, where Rafidia Hospital is better
equipped for trauma patients. When we picked up Mohammed from the Tulkarem
Emergency Room, he was awake and oriented, able to talk to his family gathered
around the bed. He had only a weak pulse in his left foot and none in his right,
evidence of an interruption in his circulation beyond the
injury sites; his skin was white, his arms and legs were cold, and pulses in
his wrists were very weak, all indications of his body's attempt to
compensate for the hemorrhage by shunting the available blood away from the
periphery and into his vital organs. He was also restless and in pain, and
continuing to bleed through the dressings on his legs, especially on the
right side.

We transported Mohammed, accompanied by a Tulkarem ER doctor and Mohammed's father,
to a meeting point close to the Nablus hospital. There we were met by another
ambulance where Mohammed was transferred through a roadblock set up by the Israeli
army—the reason a transfer of care was necessary—and the second ambulance continued
on to Nablus. At the time of this transfer, Mohammed's condition had deteriorated
significantly. He was no longer responding to us, and except for grimaces of pain,
seemed unaware of his
environment. Pulses were no longer present anywhere except weakly in the
carotid arteries (the major blood vessels in the neck); his blood pressure
was only 60/40 despite additional IV fluids administered while we were en
route; and his respirations were mechanical and ineffective, an ominous sign
of shock so severe that his brain was not receiving enough oxygen-carrying
blood. At the time I began writing this account, the update on Mohammed was
that he had gone through several hours of surgery at the Nablus hospital and
was in critical condition.

Our transportation of Mohammed would be called "Code 3" in the United
States: "lights and sirens", and permission to disobey traffic laws safely
in order to hasten the journey. However, "Code 3" in Palestine is defined
much differently. For the most part, Palestinian ambulances do not use
sirens, as the sound is too similar to the Israeli army vehicles that are
constantly patrolling the cities and villages, and would therefore serve
only to frighten the residents. In addition, while an American ambulance
must negotiate stoplights and intersections—where the traffic law exemption
comes into play—the Palestinian ambulance encounters instead multiple
"checkpoints". Many of these checkpoints are established and known, but
just as often the Israeli army will set up spontaneous checkpoints. At
these locations the ambulance must stop. An Israeli soldier will either
approach the ambulance and request identification of the driver and all
passengers, or will request that the driver exit the vehicle with these
i.d.'s; often, the ambulance is waiting several minutes before the soldier
initiates this first stage of the check. At times, the driver must also
lift his shirt and turn around at gunpoint, to prove he is not armed. The
soldiers then inspect the ambulance, compare i.d. photos with faces,
sometimes inspect bags and purses, and ask about our point of origin, our
destination, the reason for transport, and other questions which vary in their
apparent relevance. The Palestinian ambulances do not have traffic law exemptions
at these checkpoints.

During the leg of the journey in which I participated, we were stopped at
least three times. At one checkpoint we were delayed at least five minutes,
even though the units of blood attached to IV lines were clearly visible, as
was the blood on and around Mohammed's legs that continued to seep out
throughout the transport. One soldier included in his interrogation the
questions, "who shot him?", "why are you going to the other hospital?", and
asked our point of origin three times. Finally, after several minutes, I
approached the jeep with the intention of explaining again that our patient
is critical—as I motioned to the soldier to roll down his window, he simply
returned the i.d.'s and told us to go on.

My role has been not only as a paramedic and part of the rescue crew, but
also as an international presence to facilitate movement through these
checkpoints. It is unclear how much longer this ambulance would have been
required to remain at the checkpoint if I had not been present.

At the time I am finishing this account, we have learned that Mohammed died
of his injuries this morning, Monday, 10th of February.

----------lisa beth
Tulkarem, Palestine

=================


Request To Join A Committee Of Recommendation For A Petition To Stop Restrictions On
Palestinian Daily Life And Education





Dear Sir or Madam,



Through this letter we would like to enlist your support for a petition. The
petition, included at the end of this letter, will be addressed to international
educational authorities requesting that the Israeli government lift the present-day
collective measures that it has imposed upon the civilian Palestinian population in
the West Bank and Gaza. Specifically we would like to ask you whether you are
willing to join a committee of recommendation for the petition. This committee will
be presented in the following way:



"The petition is endorsed and recommended by the following persons (name and
title)". In this way, we expect to collect more signatures and support and to
increase the petition's impact. After the action will be completed in about two
months' time, we will foreword the signatures to international educational
authorities and the international press.



We appreciate having your response within two weeks (before February 14). If a
person from your circle is willing to join the committee, we would also appreciate
to have a brief description of their position/title. Apart from the petition
itself, you can find a background text below. We welcome your response at
aei@p-ol.com or fax: +972-2-277.7554.



Thank you very much for your attention and support.



Fuad Giacaman and Toine van Teeffelen

Arab Educational Institute/secretariat "Let Our Children Go To School Campaign"

Bethlehem / 00-972-2-274.4030 / fax: 00-972-277.7554


INTRODUCTION TO PETITION
The Israeli army regularly and routinely imposes full 24-hour curfews across many
inhabited areas of the West Bank without explanation and without accountability. It
is expected that new curfews will be issued to coincide with a possible war in Iraq.
After experiencing prolonged curfews during the last year, several of which lasted
for more than a month, many Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza have
reached the limits of what they are able to bear.



The present Israeli Occupation is creating a humanitarian disaster. In combination
with tight closures and other restrictive and oppressive measures, the curfews
severely disrupt normal personal and family life. The economy in the Occupied
Territories is in dire straits, poverty and health conditions reach alarming levels,
and normal community life is completely paralyzed. It is not difficult to imagine
how people feel when they consistently lack control over their daily lives and are
barely able to plan. This particularly applies to education where the staff working
at schools and institutes for Higher Education are constantly having to improvise
their lessons and change their schedules, or cannot go to their work. Some
universities have been closed by military order.



Not only are hundreds of thousands of pupils and students lacking any study rhythm,
they are also often exposed to killings, injuries or teargas, and feel hopeless
about their present and future. Their lack of orientation is compounded by the fear
for a war on Iraq, and its consequences for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Many
educators here have to live with the thought that a new young generation – the large
majority of the Palestinian people, in fact – at present do not feel any future
here. Regard this message, written while Bethlehem is once again under curfew, as an
_expression of self-respect and a cry for help. We very much appreciate your
support, especially at this dark moment in our lives.



The Arab Educational Institute (AEI) in Bethlehem is working on community education,
especially for youths, in the southern West Bank. Its work focuses on peace and
non-violence education, as well as inter-religious and inter-cultural cooperation
and exchanges. AEI is affiliated to Pax Christi International, supported by CORDAID
and a partner in the Euro-Arab Dialogue from Below (EAd) network.



AEI is also the secretariat of the campaign "Let Our Children Go To School" which
started in the beginning of October 2002 in Bethlehem with a demonstration of many
hundreds of school children in the presence of Christian and Moslem religious
leaders, civil authorities and local NGOs. Another two demonstrations were held in
Bethlehem and in the West Bank village of Taybeh, before the December curfews made
new planned demonstrations impossible.



PETITION TEXT

To be addressed to international educational bodies and authorities.



Dear Sir / Madam,



Restrictive measures which collectively and over prolonged periods target the
civilian Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza, such as the present
curfews and closures, are completely unacceptable and should be lifted immediately.



The undersigned emphatically support the rights of the Palestinian people in the
West Bank and Gaza to go to their schools and institutions of learning, and to
conduct their normal duties of daily life.



Also in order to strengthen a long-term prospect for a just and stable peace in the
region, we request you to do everything in your power to put appropriate pressure
upon the Israeli government in accordance with the demands of international legality
including the right of education.



Name:



Profession:



Email address:







Copy and send the signed petition to: aei@p-ol.com or +972-2-277.7554 (fax).



The action will last until April, 2003.
===============================

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
http://www.palsolidarity.org

4-HEBRON: A Knock at Midnight
CPTnet
February 7, 2003

By Art Gish

It was almost midnight. I was fast asleep. The knocks on the door and
the shouting startled me. I jumped out of bed to face my greatest fear
about working with Christian Peacemaker Teams in Hebron: getting
attacked by Israeli settlers. What would the settlers do? Would they
kill us or just beat us? How would I respond?

I was spending the night in the home of Sufian and Suzanne Sultan in the
Beqa'a Valley, just east of Hebron. Sufian is deputy minister of the
environment and a professor of agriculture. Suzanne is finishing her
masters degree in computer science.

I had just spend the day in the Sultan neighborhood visiting about
fifeen homes where two weeks ago settlers had gone on a rampage,
attacking at least twenty homes and demolishing cars, gardens and trees,
while soldiers watched. The windows in most of the houses are broken.
In one home, a family showed me a home video of the rampage. The
Palestinian victims of the assaults then endured a twenty-four-hour
curfew for twelve days while the offending settlers came and went as
they wished. The road into this neighborhood now seems to be for
Israelis only.

I opened the bedroom door, walked out into the living room to face the
unknown, and saw four soldiers yelling at us as if we were animals,
ordering us around, trying to intimidate us. There were at least eight
more soldiers outside surrounding the house. Only when they realized an
American citizen was present did they quiet down.

After soldiers took our identification documents, they put us into
separate rooms. They put the three frightened young children into my
bedroom. The soldiers then began searching the house and interrogating
the family as if they were criminals. Soldiers told the Sultans they
were lying. We were forbidden to talk with each other. When threatened
by one soldier, Sufian responded, "You can kill me if you want. I do
not have any weapons like your gun. I use my mind."

The soldiers claimed to be looking for weapons, but the search was not
very thorough. They seemed particularly interested in personal items.
They searched through a stack of photo albums. I told them, "This is
disgusting. Personal photos have nothing to do with weapons and you
would not want Arabs coming into your homes doing this to you." The
soldiers ignored me.

After an hour and a half of humiliation, the soldiers left. For over an
hour we sat in silence, we laughed, we shared our disbelief that people
could act in such depraved ways, that people could actually believe that
this will bring peace. They showed me their possessions scattered
around their bedrooms.

This is one small part of a larger picture of the increasingly harsh
oppression of the Palestinian people. The universities have been
closed; children are prevented from going to school, and the vegetable
market--a major source of the Hebron food supply--was demolished on
January 30. The Israeli government is dismantling the basic
infrastructure of Palestinian society.

We have been living under 24-hour curfew for eighty days now. There are
few signs of peace, but the people here seem full of determination and
hope. They say they will let the Israelis kill them rather than leave.
========================================================
1-Deep in Gaza, a Lopsided Battle Raid Illustrates Disparities in Firepower, Casualties

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A49387-2003Feb9?language=printer

===================
2-Israel Abducts, Tortures Wives Of Palestinian Resistance Fighters

http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20030210052451622

www.rapprochement.org

1- Prisoners for 100.000 at the stroke of a pen
2- A War Against Children
3- The story of Mohammad
========================================================================
Prisoners for 100.000 at the stroke of a pen:

Israeli Military Unmasks New plan for Wall to surround Tulkarem.

The town of Tulkarem has been dealing with the devastating consequences of the
Apartheid Wall since its construction started last year.

On the morning of 29th January 2003 farmers arrived at their fields to find that
the future of the local community is being further assaulted. A new military order
had been nailed to their trees. It informed them that their land will be confiscated
in order to build a 9.9 km long wall. It demanded that the farmers attend a meeting
later that day or forfeit their right to compensation. Many will not attend such
meetings, refusing to recognize the right of the Israeli occupation forces to determine
the future of Palestinians´ land.

This latest Apartheid Wall will complete the encirclement of Tulkarem and make
the population of the city prisoners -requiring them to pass through a gate
in the wall every time they travel. This policy of caging a large community has
already been enforced in the city of Qalqilya with a devastating impact on the
community.

It is widely believed that the erection of this wall constitutes part of a long
planned strategy of the Israeli regime to "encourage transfer" or ethnically cleanse
the area by making it practically impossible to live in the city. Communities
which will have land destroyed by this latest Wall include Nor Shamis refugee camp,
Bala'a, Iktaba, Shofi, Ezbit, Shofi, Kufur Labad, Anabta, Jaroshiea, Mas Qafi and
Shweka.

Already many greenhouses, olive trees, wells and agricultural land have been
destroyed or separated from their Palestinian owners in the first stage of the
Apartheid Wall's construction, representing a massive de facto annexation of
Palestinian land. This new second stage of the Apartheid Wall will continue
this destruction and further the "Ghettoization" of the West Bank. According to
the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee over 236 dunums of land will be
lost by the actual construction of the Wall around Tulkarem while over 23,000
dunums will be included in the enclosed area. The Wall will also destroy a
large part of the Nor Shamis forest, a natural habitat for a variety of rare birds.

ISM will be steadfast in its support of Palestinian non-violent resistance
to this latest illegal attack on the land of Palestine. We call on the
Israeli regime to abandon this latest step towards further ghettoizing Palestinian
communities and violating basic human rights. We call on the Israeli people to
oppose the grave violations of human rights being committed in their name.
We call upon all supporters of human rights around the world to boycott
Israeli goods and lobby their governments to impose trade and diplomatic
sanctions until it abandons the construction of the Wall and withdraw from the
Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which it has illegally
occupied since 1967.

Join the campaign against the Apartheid Wall by contacting PENGON at:
Jamal 052 285 610 / 026 565 887 email: info@pengon.org

For further information on ISM in Tulkarem contact:

· Drew 052-371 338 / 067-658 873
· Radhika 067-628 514 / 052-574 754

=======================================
Michael
ISM Media Coordinator
Beit Sahour
Occupied Palestine
Phone: +972-2-2774602
Cell: +972-67-628439
web: http://www.palsolidarity.org
=======================================================================
2- A War Against Children

IWPS Report #28, February 10, 2003

On November 27, Ali was a normal teenager living in a small Palestinian village under Israeli
occupation. He went to school, whenever it was open. He helped his parents harvest their olives and
his sisters care for the chickens. He never got in trouble. He hung out with his friends and his
older brother, Jihad, who was studying for his Taojihi, the final examination that high school
students must pass to go on to university.

Now Ali is a casualty of the Israeli government’s war on Palestinian youth, especially the young men
it fears are most likely to become involved in resistance to the occupation. Since November 28, Ali,
who was then only 14 years old, and Jihad, 17, have been sitting in Israeli military prisons. Ali is
charged with throwing stones at Army jeeps and with being the lookout for someone planning to throw a
Molotov cocktail. Like nearly all kids who are taken for “questioning,” he “confessed” to the stone
throwing, but he has consistently denied being involved in the Molotov cocktail incident, despite the
heavy coercive tactics of Israeli interrogators.[1] Kids charged with throwing stones who have not
been arrested before are normally released after questioning. The Molotov cocktail charge is
considered much more serious and is probably the reason Ali is still in prison.

IWPS was contacted about the arrests the night they occurred by a friend in Deir Istya. We made
phone calls for the next several days and finally located the boys, though there was a lot of
confusion about where they actually were. Initially, the Army denied having them at all. Then,
someone reported that Ali had called his parents and said he was in Qdumim, a military prison in the
Tulkarem district. Qdumim is the nearest detention center to our area and most of those arrested in
the villages in Salfit start out there. Qdumim does not hold children, however, so officers we spoke
with denied that the kids were there. Hamoked, an Israeli legal organization which traces prisoners,
said that they were in Qdumim. The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) Spokesperson’s office, which also
traces prisoners, called and told us they were in Shechem prison near Nablus. It was nearly a week
after Ali and Jihad were arrested that anyone was able to tell their parents definitely where they
were: Ali was in Qdumim and Jihad had been moved to Ofer, near Ramallah.

Since Hamoked was already involved in the case, we felt there was nothing more we could do. They
connected the family with Defense of Children International, which assigned a lawyer to represent
Ali. Israeli law requires that children be allowed to post bail, and that they be represented by a
lawyer at any hearing. However, Ali’s family was never given the opportunity to bail him out. He was
taken to a military court and with no lawyer present, ordered held until March 4, when there would be
another hearing to determine his fate.

On Thursday, December 27, Ali’s father came to see us with a friend who speaks English. He wanted to
know what we could do for Ali. He told us that Ali had never been visited by a lawyer or anyone
else, in the month that he had been held. His lawyer had met with the prosecutor and tried to get
her to drop the charges, but she refused to do it. He had not filed any papers in court. We offered
to go with him and his wife if they wanted to try to visit. He said they would like that very much.
I called the Army office in charge of the prison to see if that would be possible on Friday. The guy
I talked to said it was impossible that Ali was there, that they never hold anyone that long and
certainly not children. I said that we knew Ali was there, and we were so anxious to have the visit
because it is illegal for a child to be imprisoned without representation and without being able to
see his family. He said, “I agree, that’s why I don’t believe it.” He said he would check into it,
and I should call back in half an hour. When I called in half an hour, I was told that he had left.

Frustrated, I called an Israeli lawyer we know and he offered to call the prison. A little while
later, he called back and said that he had confirmed that Ali was there and that we could visit. I
asked if it would be a problem to go on Friday morning, because I know that Friday is kind of a
half-day-off for a lot of Israelis and especially government offices don’t tend to work much on
Fridays. He said no, he was told there is visiting on Friday.

On Friday morning, Ali’s parents, Abu and Um Saad, picked up Karin and me at 8:30 and we went to
Qdumim. They had brought a tote bag with clothes and some snacks to give him. Karin explained to
the soldier in charge that the family wanted to see their son. He immediately said, “There are no
visits in this prison.” I said, “But he’s only 14.” He said, “Oh,” and went into his booth to call
someone, and I thought maybe they wouldn’t give us trouble about it. But when he hung up, he said
the expected, “I'm sorry, but there are no visits allowed.” I said, “But I had an Israeli lawyer
call and he assured me we would be able to visit.” “Yes,” he said, “they told me the Israeli lawyer
called, but there are no visits here.” Karin began to list the illegalities about the detention:

Ali had been denied bail, held without representation, held in an adult facility, and all we are
asking is that at least his mother be allowed to visit her son. “No,” he said, “but I can bring him
his clothes.”

We asked to speak to whomever was in charge, and he said, “There’s no one in charge.” He said that
the commander of the prison was not working because of the Shabbat, and we asked to speak to whoever
replaces him. He kept insisting that there was no replacement. “There are only simple soldiers here
now,” he kept saying. “Well, if there were an emergency, like a riot or a medical emergency, who
would you call?” “The doctor,” he said. “Well, okay, but if there were a riot?” “Well, if there
were a riot, we would deal with it; we're the guards. We can deal with that, but not visits.” This
struck me as a little ridiculous, that “simple soldiers” would be entrusted to put down a riot but
not to let a 14-year-old visit his mother.

We stood there arguing for quite a while, getting nowhere. I kept thinking that he could just decide
to ignore us, we weren’t in the way, but he didn’t. He seemed to want to help. “I’m sure if you
come back on Sunday, it will be all right. I'm sorry you came all this way,” he added when I started
to complain. “Look,” he confided, “I don't care. I don't even want to be here. I just want to go
home.” This is a refrain we hear a lot from soldiers.

Finally the surrogate commander came and told us that no exception could be made because “we have 30
or 40 prisoners here, and if we do it for you….” He didn't bother to complete the sentence. Karin
and I both argued at once, “But no other children.” “No,” he said, “because we don’t hold children
here.” “So you're making an exception already,” I said, “so you can make another one.”
I called the Israeli lawyer who had told me that we would be able to visit, and he was incredulous.

“They won’t let them visit their own son?” I got the major to talk to him, and when he gave me back
the phone, Shamai said, “He’s rude and violent. He’ll never let you in.” He told me to tell him
that he’d get in trouble, that he could be personally sued, and gave me the citation of a recent
Supreme Court decision in which prison authorities had had to pay 5,000 shekels to the family of a
Palestinian detained illegally. I wrote all this down and went to talk to the guy in charge, whose
name is Nir. He was on the phone. When he hung up his phone call, he said to me quietly, “I’ll take
the mom to visit her boy.” I was so shocked, I had to ask him to repeat it.

I went with Um Saad into the prison. The guards searched the bag of clothes she had brought and said
that the little bag of snack food was not allowed. Nir set up two chairs in a small fenced corridor,
and told Um Saad to sit in one and Ali was led in, not cuffed or shackled, and they sat facing each
other. He is a handsome teenager, taller than his mother, with deep black wavy hair. Instinctively,
I reached for my camera, and one of the guards snapped, “No pictures,” but Nir said I could take one
picture and then leave. I stood outside the fence with all the soldiers, who kicked around a soccer
ball and played with a little dog while Ali and his mother visited for about 20 minutes, constantly
touching. She kept adjusting the sleeves of his sweatshirt. Much of the time, they were both
crying.

After the visit, everyone’s spirits were high, though of course it was hard for Um Saad to see her
son go in prison. We went back to Deir Istya, and Karin was finally able to reach the lawyer, who
said he was going to file a petition on Sunday to try to get Ali released, or at least moved to an
appropriate facility for juveniles, where his family could visit. But the following week, we talked
to the family and they had never heard from the lawyer. We tried to get in touch, and were never
able to reach him. We asked some other lawyers for advice, but no one could do anything else unless
the family could pay them a lot, which they cannot.

Two weeks later, a few days after Ali turned 15, Nijmie and I went with his parents to try to visit
him again. I had tried repeatedly to reach the commander to see if he would allow it, but he was
never available. When we got there, we again talked to a young soldier, a Yemeni Jew who spoke some
Arabic, and who also was very polite but told us no, no one could visit. We argued and asked to talk
to someone in charge, and eventually the commander of the military base came and then the commander
of the prison, but they all said the same thing: only a lawyer could visit, and only with three
days’ notice. This time, we were not able to persuade them. The commander said the previous visit
had been allowed without his authorization, and “It was a nice thing to do, but it will not happen
again. Not today, not ever.”

A few days after that attempted visit, Ali was moved to Huwara prison near Nablus. We had been told
that once he was moved to another facility, the family could visit, but Huwara does not allow
visitors either, and we have not been able to get permission for the family to see their son. He has
now been held more than two months. The Red Cross has visited him once, but he still has never seen
or spoken to a lawyer.

Ali is one of over 2000 children under 17 who have been arrested by the since the beginning of the
Second Intifada two and a half years ago. Defense for Children International estimates that 300-350
are currently being detained. Several dozen are held in the infamous Ketziot prison in the Negev
desert, where prisoners were recently beaten and tear gassed for protesting the inhuman conditions
under which they are forced to live. The Mandela Human Rights Institute reports that in this
Intifada, there has been a dramatic increase in the detention of youngsters 13 and older. On the
night of January 15, the Army entered Hares and arrested an 11-year-old and his 13-year-old brother
on their way home from the barber shop. (They were released the next morning.)

Under Israeli law, children under 16 are supposed to be held at Telmond prison, inside Israel, and
about 80 currently are. Ali’s lawyer has talked about having him moved to this facility, but if that
happens, his family will have no chance to see him, since West Bank Palestinians are not allowed into
Israel to visit their relatives. Moreover, a recent report by the Palestinian organization LAW
concludes that children held at Telmond are subjected to “brute physical violence from Israeli
guards, denial of family visits and communication with the outside world, a shortage of clothing,
appropriate medical attention, hazardous living conditions, and extremely long prison
sentences.…LAW’s lawyer said the children report they were suspected of having mobile phones. Israeli
guards threatened to beat them with electric and wooden sticks. The children were strip-searched and
police dogs were used. The guards threw Qur’ans on the floor, while dogs sniffed their prayer clothes
and other religious items.”

All of this is part of a larger campaign of violence and repression against Palestinian young people.
In “A Generation Denied,” DCI reports Israel’s myriad violations of international conventions
concerning the rights of children. Chief among them is denial of the right to education (see IWPS
Report #13). Since the start of the Intifada, nearly 200 Palestinian schools have been invaded,
shelled or damaged, including the school in Hares, which since last year has bars on the windows
because the Israeli army threw tear gas and sound bombs into the school almost every school day in
2001. In numerous villages and cities we have visited, including Qalqilya and Jayyous, the army
calls curfew almost every day at 7:00 a.m. and leaves town at 8:30 or 9:00, staying just long enough
to make sure that the schools do not open. The final day of last term, the army invaded the school
in A-Ras, which children are already being prevented from reaching because of the construction on the
apartheid wall, and tore down the Palestinian flag which flies over every school in Palestine. The
principal was told that if the flag was replaced, the school would be demolished. Students in D’aba,
another village being devastated by the wall construction, have also been threatened with the
demolition of their school if a single student is believed to have thrown one stone.

Despite the hardships of 55 years of occupation, Palestinians have one of the highest literacy rates
in the world, as well as the highest number of Ph.D.’s per capita. Israeli authorities realize that
education is a valuable resource in any resistance movement. The strategies to crush Palestinian
youth are part of the effort to destroy the Palestinian spirit. They will not succeed.
IWPS is continuing to work with Ali’s family and lawyer to secure his release. We will inform our
supporters if there is pressure you can bring to see that justice is served. If you are willing to
be on our contact list but are not, please contact us.

Text: Kate
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3- The story of Mohammad

Muhammad Hilfe was released two days ago after he had been held for almost 48 hours.
This is what he told us yesterday when we talked to him.

When the soldiers came to the Hilfe house they immediatly arrested Muhammad. They put him on
the phone with Mossad and they claimed that they had information about him. They asked him
questions about his friends and they were particularily interested to know where his mobile phone
were (he has not had a mobile phone for two years). They also threatened to demolish the house
and to arrest his 15 year old brother.

He was soon taken out of the house but the commander did not hand cuff nor blindfold him until he
was put into a jeep (probably because of the internationals present). In the jeep one soldier put
Muhannads head underneath his leg and the soldiers were calling him names like "Dirty arab" and
they also adressed him as Shahid. He was brought to an uncompleted building on Asira street were
he was beaten (handcuffed and blindfolded) and finally put in a corner where the rain could reach him.
He was then left there until the morning. He was denied to go to the toilet and he was forced to wet his
pants. He was very afraid and he was very cold. He could not feel his hands because the cuffs were
so tight.

The soldiers then dragged him into a hammer jeep and he was taken to Huwarra military base. There
he was strip searched,interoggated,tested at a medical clinic twice (blood, hair and temperature) and
he was finally allowed to go to the toilet and he was offered lunch. The interoggations lasted for a long
time ( he could not keep track of time) and then he was taken to one of the worst interrogation centres
in Israel, Betah tekfa. There he was again interrogated and they kept saying that he should tell the truth
and that they had information on him. He was know hand cuffed to a chair and terrified. After this final
questioning he was taken to a village near Qualqilya, Arson, and released together with some other men.
He was very reliefed and happy when we met him and his family yesterday. We all know that the soldiers
can come again and that this does not mean that this family and their house is safe but yesterday was a
wonderful start of the celebration of Al Ein. We will keep staying with the family in their house.
Maria - Tulkarem
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