Israeli government talks about "the solution." Date: 12 February, 2003 Author: Kristen Ess Area: Bethlehem

Kids are gathered round a burned out car in Manger
Square. There is no school today, their town under
curfew. A Palestinian ambulance is stopped and
searched in the rain. It's another day under Israeli
military occupation.

For weeks Israeli soldiers have been invading and
reinvading the Bethlehem area, holding the residents
captive in their homes. In the past two nights Israeli
soldiers abducted 20 Palestinians from the Bethlehem
area, adding them to the approximately 9,000
Palestinian political prisoners being held, largely
without charge, in Israeli jails.

A man who lives in a refugee camp called a UNRWA
ambulance for his sick child last night. The UNRWA
informed him, "We are under orders to not move." This
is the United Nations, too afraid of the Israeli
military to use its own ambulance service. The UNRWA
is also talking about the one million Palestinians who
will starve to death in the West Bank when the US
officially declares war on Iraq.

Last night in Bethlehem's Manger Square, Israeli
soldiers blew up a Palestinian car. An Israeli soldier
stood watching with gun pointing.
Another car, with two Palestinians inside, drove by
and shot the invading soldier. One young man was
trying to take a walk, he said,
"Just one day I want to be normal, to relax." Israeli
soldiers sped through the streets yelling, "You are
under curfew. Go inside your houses. All the people of
Bethlehem do not go from your houses." And after, the
Israeli soldiers shrieked, "allah akbar." The young
man who wanted just to take a walk, sit in a cafe, had
to race home, not half a chance for a life.

Palestinian journalists called me last night, asking
if we could all go together to get the story of the 50
jeeps and dozens of tanks. Their press credentials and
bulletproof vests don't protect them from invading
Israeli soldiers the way a foreign passport sometimes
does. In the end, no one went out. Journalists could
not do their jobs. When light came and some of us were
able to go out we were stopped by Israelis, told to
turn our cameras off, told that this, the home of
Pedestrians, is a closed military zone.

The UNDP is staking an area in Jordan called the Al
Azraq desert, planning to build 60,000 small
buildings. A friend, already a refugee, is telling the
story. "They say these are for the Palestinians. There
are Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine. I
think when this war starts they're going to transfer a
lot from here." He's sitting in the home he built in
the camp, his eyes are teary, at once defiant and
defeated. He goes on, "What can we do if they start
loading families into buses. We can't stop them. The
Israeli government just said in 2025 there will be
more Palestinians in Palestine than Israelis. They say
the solution is to transfer one million Palestinians
out of Palestine. I think this is the most dangerous
news."

Families who were given "permission" by the Israeli
military to visit family members for Eid, those who
the Israeli government exiled from
the West Bank to Gaza were stopped by Israeli soldiers
along the way, new clothes and haircuts for nothing.

While the Israeli government is talking about "the
solution," reporters are calling, asking about the
so-called peace negotiations being held inside '48.
These are meetings that Sharon has denied permission
to
Palestinian President Arafat to attend.

Kristen Ess
Occupied Palestine
12 feb, 2003

011.972.(0)67.341.268
011.972.(0)59.347.526

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