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Merrick 2148 posts |
Mar 29, 2002, 14:42
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My friend Sarah went out to Palestine in December to work with a group of internationals protecting Palestinians. They dismantled illegal Israeli roadblocks, they stayed in Palestinian houses, knowing that the Israelis don't want to kill any international citizens for fear of people realising what they're doing to Palestinians. Sarah's just gone back out to Palestine, and has sent back the first email. She's asked it to be forwarded to anyone who might want to read it, so I'm posting it here, and will do the same with any more she sends. The report's too big to post with this intro, so I'll post it separately.
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Merrick 2148 posts |
Mar 29, 2002, 14:42
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we got here. a bit of an interesting journey - i got proposed to by a jordanian taxi driver, and had no sleep for about 36 hours, which is always good. but then at the checkpoint at tantur i got my first taste of how things have changed here - we got very used, in december, to breezing through there, often winding up the border guards and making our own merry decisions about whether or not to show id. this time, we were met from a distance of about 40 yards by a soldier brandishing an M16 rifle from the booth. we backed up and tried walking, in case they just didn't want cars, but met the same response. an attempt to walk round the back walkway was quickly spotted. so we walked back - in the bitter rain - to the head of the road, where a transeet driver told us that his sister lived by the beit jala checkpoint and we could get through there - which we did, with the suspicious soldiers doing no more than glaring at the freaks wandering through the street in front of the family home they've occupied as a base. the soldiers shot a 60-year old palestinian woman about 2 hours after we tried to cross on the walkway, as she was doing the very same thing. bethlehem looks kind of different too - mainly because the bit we're staying in, not far from manger square down paul vi st if anyone cares to look on a map - is where the tanks were last time, and there are big shell holes in the wall of the pharmacy and bethlehem uni - still fresh enough to have sootmark coronas round them.and there is a perceptible tension amongst the ISM organisers that was not there last time, and neta and huweida are stuck in ramallah, possibly, so i haven't got to see them yet and get some news on how things are in ramallah and salfit generally. only bethlehem news from georgie! things in ramallah sound appalling, and the plan (not on the schedule, of course, but then the schedule has obviously gone completely for a burton) was to go there and maybe help accompany ambulances, which are not even being allowed to move. 20 journos are holed up in a hotel, and the israelis are holding 2 of the rooms in arafat's compound. he made a speeech this morning announcing that he welcomed martyrdom - we'll see about that. but it may be horribly viable - there are bodies lying around in the centre of the compound. god only knows what sharon think's he's doing this time, but it's sounding increasingly likely that it may involve taking out arafat, in which case god help us. not that i'm such a fan of abu ammar, but... there were supposed to be shiploads of ya basta! going to ramallah, but they didn't get in either. even they're not omnipotent here...maybe they'll come here instead, in which case there will probably be more italians than palestinians - there's already a bunch staying at ibda. anyway, we're not going to ramallah, as there was a suicide bombing in jerusalem about half an hour ago, and alledgedly the bomber came from bethlehem. so, we were expecting the tanks in here in the next few days anyway but now - maybe hours...there are thousands of troops massing in jerusalem and people here seem fairly certain that they will be heading this way in the near future. everyone's been panic buying since yesterday afternoon, as if curfew is imposed it will be 24hour, in all likelihood. so the talk is of maybe going to dheheishah refugee camp or to stay with families in beit jala to prevent their homes being taken over by troops, as happened last time. but again, who knows. all vaguaries, i'm afraid, but then that's what things are like here. you don't seem to be too sure of what is really going to happen until it does. but somehow it feels like we shan't be wandering around fields with farmers tomorrow. look after yourselves, all of you; i shall endeavour to do the same. i'll be in touch as much as possible, but of course if curfew is imposed i can make few guarantees. and remember that no news is good news! love, sarah
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Merrick 2148 posts |
Apr 02, 2002, 17:08
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Sat, 30 Mar 2002 13:41:05 hello again, well, no tanks in bethlehem as yet - there are 3 apcs sitting on the main road through beit jala into bethlehem and several more waiting higher up. there has also been israeli shelling into the ida (sp?) refugee camp near rachel's tomb. there are huge numbers of palestinian militia etc wandering around town with kalashnikovs - again, a big departure from last time. we've been warned to stay well out of the way if there is any shooting at all, as we will just be regarded as getting in the way by both sides - not that i have any desire to get anywhere near palestinian efforts to keep the soldiers out, although some misguided peaceniks have apparently tried to do so in the past. we had a little march up to the apcs, who shot a little and then chucked a percussion grenade, but otherwise didn't react massively, but then called their slightly more aggro big brother from up the hill. the locals then tried to get us to withdraw, which the italians from deheishaa who were with us refused to do, which is helpful, and totally in character. we went round deheishaa refugee camp last night - 11,000 people from over 40 villages crammed into a square km of stark concrete. the demolished homes of martyr's families, and the barren homes of the rest of the inhabitants, with a few painfully defiant attempts to paint rural scenes on the walls - some in the colours of the palestinian flag. the girl who did the suicide bombing in jerusalem yesterday was from there - she was said to be very beautiful, and her family are devastated beyond belief, wild with grief. you can see why someone does that, being brought up in there their whole lives. not a place for any human being, especially children. adam from the ism team (adam shapiro) was riding with the ambulances in ramallah yesterday and managed to end up in arafat's compound, where he got a couple of wounded out but in some ways more importantly got a video camera in and seems to have got the footage to cnn, which is good, since the footage on ha'aretz at least was pure fiction. arafat himself is at present holed up in just 2 remaining rooms, with no water or electricity. the lebanese are also, apparently, offering for him to be able to go there, which would leave this place in god knows what sort of chaos. the plan for tonight is to go and stay in houses in ida and al-azzar camps, so that the israelis are less likely to randomly shell it. and some of us will be on call to ride with ambulances if needed. george, the guy running this internet cafe, whose family lives up by where the apcs are stationed and who needs to get there later, has just walked in and said that the israelis tied up 5 people in ramallah this afternoon and shot them through the head. that's execution. has any of that appeared in any of the fucking press with you guys. why do i think not. bastards. anyway, it's on al-jazeera. take care, and i'll be in touch when i can, but tomorrow is easter sunday and this is a christian town, so i guess stuff will be shut.
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Merrick 2148 posts |
Apr 02, 2002, 17:09
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New mail from Sarah in Palestine: Mon, 01 Apr 2002 18:35:05 well, here's another one. things are pretty fucked here at the moment, and there's been some casualties today - we marched up to the tanks at beit jala and the soldiers responded by shoottign splintering rounds at the ground and wall in our immediate vicinity. 5 internationals were hurt, most of them were allowd out of hospital immediately, including kunle with wounds to the face and elbow. 'kate' is still in hospital and will not be out too quickly; she had shrapnel wounds to the stomach and has been sedated for the night because she's in a lot of pain. she was under general anaesthetic for about 2 hours having it removed and cleaned up; she was holding a banner at the front of the march, kunle was one of the negotiators but they fired when the negotiators had only taken a couple of steps. they then followed us down the road for quite some distance, shooting all the time and then firing at the press corps there. there are about 60 tanks up at tantur checkpoint and we are kind of assuming that they will come in tonight. we thought they'd be in last night and most of us were staying at refugee camps, which are generally the first places they go into. we had some fairly close shelling and could hear gunfire from the settlement at gilo, and there were tanks ringing the ida refugee camp near rachel's tomb, but no-one actually came in. things are also terrible in ramallah; total terrifying infringements of human rights including door-to-foor searches and the arrest of most men between 16 and 60, including Palestian Authority policemen labelled 'terrorists' for carrying their legitimate weapons. we also saw the news last night, which included footage of the israelis going into the halls of residence at bir zeit uni and arresting people, including some of the gazan students i met in december. the footage of arafat cornered in the mukata also included one of the officials i remember fetching us extra chairs and bringing us pizza and shashlik for lunch. pretty horrible to realise he will probably me massacred by some fucking fascist israeli soldier in the next day or so. anyway, the soldiers seem to have something like a carte blanche to shoot at anyone, including internationals, and tonight i'm emailing from and working in the media centre in bethlehem, which is part of the bethlehem tv building, and we all know from voice of palestine what happens to television stations round here... so, please, please, please, forward this to everyone you can, and if you have any media contacts tell them they can ring (international access) and then: (0)67435459 (0)55840767 (0)22777558 (0)67270398
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Merrick 2148 posts |
Apr 02, 2002, 17:10
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New mail from Sarah in Palestine: Tue, 02 Apr 2002 01:42:25 another desperate message from bethlehem. we are under attack right now - there are tanks, apcs and bulldozers coming in through beit sahour and south bethlehem. there are israeli soldiers in dehaishe and ayda refugee camps, entering homes, and the ibdaa community centre there has been shelled. there are also f-16s and helicopter gunships overhead, and they are shelling and firing rounds. the troops have taken over a building - we believe it to be the school - in the centre of bethlehem. 7 internationals were wounded today in the process of a peaceful march in beit jala; one was seriously injured and has had to be operated on to have shrapnel from splinter bullets (illegal under international law and denied by the israeli army) removed from her abdomen. please get on to any parliamentarians, press etc you may be able to contact. lives depend on it. for interviews and other press updates please contact the alternative media centre on: 00 972 67435459 00 972 55840767 00 972 22777558 00 972 67270398 all but the 7558 number are mobiles so should still be running even if we are shelled or taken out of the building, which seems very possible as we are in the bethlehem tv building in the town centre, which has been a target before. we can also supply interview numbers and information on the situation in ramallah. sarah xx
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Merrick 2148 posts |
Apr 02, 2002, 17:11
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New mail from Sarah in Palestine: Tue, 02 Apr 2002 06:30:40 there are tanks in manger square and the old city is being shelled. the hotel where the majority of the internationals are is surrounded by 10 tanks and numerous soldiers. an al-jazeera tv cameraman was shot whilst trying to film from the top floor. there are troops in all 3 of the refugee camps here, and they are being shelled. sarah xxx
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AgentOrange 221 posts |
Apr 08, 2002, 11:53
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Thanks for that Merrick, havent been able to read it all yet. Its very sad to hear what is happening, I was in Jerusalem for a month or so 10 years ago just after the gulf war. I was in bethlehem for christmas. its very distressing to hear of these oddly magical places being bombed and a very intelligent people being so killed/oppressed/humiliated. I heard Broadcasting House yesterday morning and thought the discussion was one of the most enlightening that I have heard for a long time - not sure if it can be heard from the "latest programme" link on this page (I dont have a sound card): http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/audiovideo/programmes/bh/
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Merrick 2148 posts |
Apr 09, 2002, 17:38
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I've been away from email for 5 days, so forgive the backlog of Sarah's reports presented here. Again, I emphasise her requests for this stuff to be forwarded, and for people to get media and political people informed. The influence of politicians and mass media is making a perceptible positive difference in Palestine. And I'd also point everyone towards the bit where shre says that the Independent Media Center is running up massive bills and needs cash. They don't take commercial sponsorship, it *all* comes from donations. A couple of days ago a friend of my brother's complained that ITV's Queen Mam coverage was excessive and they should be covering Palestine more. He was told that they had to big up the Queen Mam to ensure maximum daytime advertising revenue for the day of her funeral. Those of us who want our news dictated by importance rather than corporate commercials, and who favour justice and compassion over deference to obsolete institiutions, need to ensure we keep independent media channels open. Donations can be made to Indymedia at http://jerusalem.indymedia.org . Scroll down to the bottom to see where to do. The page also has places we can bombard with emails, faxes, etc. live your love, Merrick xx
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Merrick 2148 posts |
Apr 09, 2002, 17:38
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Wed, 03 Apr 2002 16:16:19 greetings again from the IMC, things here are shifting again slightly, but not enough. there are still large numbers of wounded in manger square in the centre of the old city,and many dead lying in the streets or in houses fromwhich they cannot be removed [update this second; the family who had 2 members killed by a tank shell have managed to get them out]. the mosque,in which people were hiding, was shelled by tanks, and there are 150-200 holed up in the church of the nativity; we've just spoken to one of them and no medics have been allowed through but nuns have been attending the injured. injured in deheishe refugee camp have also been denied access to hospital,and we've just watched from our window as israeli troops surrounded and searched a red crescent ambulance. another ambulance was crushed by a tank this morning in beit jala. a group of internationals attempted to accompany an ambulanceto manger square to get humanitarian aid to those trapped, but they were fired on; apparently the israelis had chosen (without telling anyone) that they would use their clocks and not palestinian time to time the curfew and thus decided to shoot at people as soon as. a number of british nationals are being evacuated at the moment, including kunle whose father died unexpectedly and who has been denied exit by the israelis for 2 days despite strong protests from the british government and consulate. in ramallah, a group of 2,000 israelis (gush shalom) and arab israelis attempting to deliver food and medical supplies were stopped and heavily teargassed. one truck of aid was allowed through but the soldiers then emptied it and stamped on the medical supplies, leaving the food on the ground. there has also been shooting at the doors of the building that arafat and the internationals etc aretrapped in in arafat's compound. arafat's personal medicine in running out and there are fears for him. in truth, sarah from the indymedia centre, bab al-zqaq, besieged bethlehem
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Merrick 2148 posts |
Apr 09, 2002, 17:39
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Wed, 03 Apr 2002 19:08:12 hey all, thanks for the many messages of support i/we have had. just another update: 1) can people try to get out to the press that the 200 people in the nativity church are NOT all gunmen; the majority are families from the locality who initially took refuge in the mosque untilit was destroyed. many civilians have been killed in the locality and most houses are being denied medical access - i may have mentioned that a tank was crushed here earlier,and the idf are presently surrounding a medical team in beit sahour. there are people taking refuge in many of the other churches as well. THIS MISINFORMATION IS INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS AND NEEDS TO BE COUNTERACTED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. 2) we are presently trying to arrange the presence of internationals in ambulances here tonight to try and protect the medical teams. 3) there is heavy gunfire close by us at the moment, and flares have been shot over azza refugee camp; this is usually a precursor to attack, but we think at the moment that it is the tall buildings (good sniper posts) that the israelis are after.there is fairly heavy gunfightsand periodic shelling from not far off.and bethlehem university - about 500 yds away - has been occupied, with a number of monks there being searched and assaulted and one having to intervene in order to prevent the shooting of a civilian in a nearby home. 4) there is also substantial tank movement in the direction of deheishe refugee camp.god help them, there are already a number of wounded there being denied access to medical care. 5) on a lighter note,spirits here in the IMC are up,since we had a food delivery and are aware that there is another one awaiting us from the british embassy (the dogfood was starting to look appealing, we were that low while the curfew was 24 hour. i'm also smoking like a chimney, except when we ran out...). they came to evacuate a number of foreign nationals, including kunle, who had been prevented from leaving for several days after the news of his father's death. for obvious reasons,some of the wounded internationals from the demo on monday also wanted to leave, although the worst injured, an australian womam with what the operating doctor believes was a direct gunshot wound to the stomach, cannot be moved at present. in the imc we are sleeping in shifts but still have electricity and therefore heat - it's bitter here - and we also have Indymedia Intifada, the rescued palestinian puppy, to cheer us up/pee on the floor. it's kind of surreal crawling round the kitchen floor to avoid sniper sights in order to prepare puppy food! 6) whilst my political principles militate against it, getting in touch with governments and stuff really is important at the moment, as it is really one of the few things that can save people here. demos etc aregreat as pressure too,but in the end we need the US government to follow the lead of the EU in demanding instant withdrawal. Belgium and Egypt have cut diplomatic ties,and we need this to happen from other regimes too. love to you all. sarah xxx from the centre of bethlehem under attack...
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