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Merrick 2148 posts |
Apr 09, 2002, 17:50
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Tue, 09 Apr 2002 08:56:04 dear all, g vanished out of the office this morning and has just called me to say that she's walking to beit sahour with a group of about 35 men who've just been released from israeli custody; they've been held for a week, and during that time have been beaten and tortured. a horrible fact which doesn't surprise me but is so hideous in the confirmations. one of them estimates that there are at least 1,000 being held in the presidential palace - a shockingly large number; we knew of hundreds but not that many. there is speculation that today will see more releases (though the curfew will not apparently be lifted so it's very dangerous for them to be outside). weird phone calls this morning; one would hope that mossad, with all their funding and supposed expertise, could come up with some slightly more sophisticated attempts at agents provocateurs. either that or we just have an influx of nutters this morning. at least we haven't had a any rightist zionist psychos for a day or so screaming at us that they hope the idf get better aim with their tank shells... a group of internationals have headed out to nablus to try and do what they can there, and cnn have been asking us about a 'leftist demo' (god they are so stupid and fossilised in their thinking and phraseology) at jenin. i hope it's true, anyway. to those of you doing actions and demos and letter writing and press work and fundraising. you are all stars. if fundraising for imc isn't your thing, physicians for human rights have a big appeal out for funds to try and get medical aid into jenin and nablus, and god almighty do they need it. it's beautiful out, if chillingly quiet, but even while the humans have to cower in their homes the bethlehem bird and cat life continues its soap opera convolutions... sarah xxx ps keep an eye on the jerusalem.indymedia.org website for updates, and hopefully soon for some mp3s of 'sounds from the imc office.'
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RiotGibbon 1527 posts |
Apr 09, 2002, 23:57
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Mezza, have you got a whole copy I can stick up on GuilFIN? cheers LazyGibbon
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morfe 2992 posts |
Apr 10, 2002, 10:28
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Stout heart Sarah. Am passing this around to all I can think of.
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Merrick 2148 posts |
Apr 10, 2002, 17:21
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Gibbonstic One, When I posted Sarah's first email, I never realised a) how the situation was gonna kick right off b) what a superbly human and eloquent writer she was c) how many emails there'd end up being. So, although I don't have a big all-in-one of these, once she's left Bethlehem I'm gonna stick em up as Feature articles in U-Know, so they'll be easily linked to and so they'll always be properly archived and not lost in these threads. If ya want to use them before that, it's a big cut n paste job.
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Merrick 2148 posts |
Apr 10, 2002, 18:48
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Wed, 10 Apr 2002 08:14:31 dear all, still bleary from sleep smeared with strange dreams and punctuated with loud explosions of as yet unknown sources, and huge amounts of idf machinery trundling by since the early hours. in my fantasies they are leaving... broke curfew yesterday to get heather clean clothes, and ended up trapped at the hotel whilst the idf shot at journalists to keep them out of the street whilst they looted shops. then we snuck round a back way, with about 15 pitiful journos following us from a distance of about 20 yards, cameras trained, obviously hoping they'd get some good pictures of international chicks with no flak jackets (unlike them) getting blasted. as usual, they were all ludicrously kitted up and utterly cowardly; there are a couple of really cool press out here,. like bob fisk and khaled from bethlehem tv and the crew from al-jazeera, who are very brave and capable. but the rest are lily-livered machistas who pose with their bulletproof jackets and big cameras and seem to spend most of their time cowering round corners whilst palestinians look bemused. things are comparatively quiet in bethlehem now; continuous idf proximity and the oppressive presence of the gilo and har homa settlements means that bethlehem is permanently under a state of semi-occupation anyway, so crushing it is less difficult than the more distant cities of nablus and jenin, which have fought so despererately and bravely for the last week. it is quite stunning that jenein camp, a refugee camp of 15,000 people crammed into a sqaure kilometre, has managed to keep out the idf, one of the most heavily armed forces in the world, with just a few kalashnikovs and handarms, pitted against tanks, helicopters, missiles and the utter racist brutality of the israeli army. and despite a large portion of the camp having been bulldozed, often with the inhabitants of the houses trapped inside. and the old city in nablus - a beautiful, ancient kasbah of the most gorgeous buildings and narrow, winding streets, which has been devastated, the sides of buildings blasted away from their occupants, whilst again a few sparsely-armed young men attempt to mount a last stand against the israeli war machine. a brutal machine which will, of course, break all the rules of human rights by ensuring that if wounded they will rot in the dark instead of being taken to hospital; a report from a nablus ambulance driver yesterday described how the old city streets are littered with bodies, and one has been lying there since last week, being eaten by dogs. but awareness seems to be growing, and action is grinding slowly to life. there are internationals in nablus now, and hopefully more will be able to get in soon if the local population deem them necessary and useful. jenin, however, is still cut off, bar a few press; a driver reputed to be able to get 'anywhere' had his cab fired on by a tank missile 2km outside it. again, the idf will do whatever they can to limit the witnessing of their crimes. anyway, rant over. i'll try to get to people in the next few days, but i may be heading up north. we'll see. s xxx
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RiotGibbon 1527 posts |
Apr 11, 2002, 13:33
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yeah, I sussed that comes to a pretty pass when I would rather read and write about drilling holes in your own head, than spend 10 minutes spiking together some first hand accounts of the slaughter of civilians or maybe it's an entirely logical response ... RG
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RiotGibbon 1527 posts |
Apr 11, 2002, 13:47
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OK, go to: http://www.guilfin.net/reviews/?id=rwINET892 if you want to point people in the right direction quicker ... I've got a file of the whole lot for the other sloths out there ... RG
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Merrick 2148 posts |
Apr 11, 2002, 20:53
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Wed, 10 Apr 2002 21:25:09 hey all, a 60 year old man walking down the hebron road this evening was shot dead in the street. the ambulance trying to collect him was delayed whilst the idf confiscated his id card. i can't help wondering whether he was the old guy i saw walking down the street earlier in the afternoon, given that there were very, very few people outside today. curfew was lifted in beit jala only, so now opportunities for the rest of the city to acquire food and other supplies. possibly this was because the idf are cooking something up round by the still-besieged church of the nativity, where they cleverly managed to shoot a monk this morning. a big fat white idf blimp was hovering over it most of the afternoon, or rather two, as the first got shot down after an hour or so. ha. but there is a general worry that the israelis will seriously fuck over the muqada and the church of the nativity because they need to break these two stalemates before colin powell turns up to play hero on friday, once he's finished sunning himself in morocco. according to neta, the tanks are lining up on the front of the muqada at the moment and there has been shelling at it since the afternoon. some of the internationals got into nablus, and the reports we've had from them include people being buried in the rubble of their homes, men being held for four days and then released into the curfew and shot at, soldiers laughing as a woman miscarried after being denied medical care for some time. the internationals have been riding red crescent ambulances despite being warned that they would be shot at. reports from ramallah also describe the trauma of children seeing their houses covered in shit after being taken over by soldiers and trashed. and a member of the israeli government has declared that the people trapped in the nativity church should be gassed and the refugee camps should just be aerial bombed... good night and sweet dreams. sarah
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Merrick 2148 posts |
Apr 11, 2002, 20:54
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Thu, 11 Apr 2002 17:06:47 hey all, a tense day in bethlehem today. the idf have been carting off truckloads of young palestinian men towards jerusalem, which is worrying; previously they were being detained in beit jala but apparently a jail in the negev desert has been re-opened so we are concerned that they are being taken there. the idf were also doing house-to-house searches around manger square today. they used a young man as a human shield as they went round houses breaking down doors. they had previously hit him in the stomach with a rifle butt until he puked and beat him when he then sat unsufficiently still. the idf were being guided round by a man in a black hood, believed to be a palestinian collaborator. the director of a peace centre whose house was searched was threatened with shooting if guns were found on the premises. his american wife has been told by the israelis that she will never be allowed to return if she goes back home to the states with her first 2 children, both US-born. there was also another surveillance balloon over the church of the nativity again, and again it was shot down. there has been a fair amount of shooting and shelling around the city today, and the whiff of tear gas this evening from an as yet unidentified source. a group of internationals were not allowed into deheishe camp today, which is the direction from which the young men were being taken in confinement. when they are shipped like that they are put in standing trucks like cattle and can be kept that way for hours. so that's worrying. a couple of journos were pretty obviously shot directly at when trying to head in the direction of the nativity church this afternoon. there are also reports, which we have been trying to confirm, that the souk (market) inthe old city of bethlehem has been mined. this is of particular concern to us at the moment because a group of internationals are planning to try and get humanitarian aid up there tomorrow. we'll probably just get fired at again, but there you go...once the old city ceases to be under permanent curfew, there is also of course the probability that mines would cause considerable loss of life. a group of internationals have also been prevented from entering jenin. it has also emerged that the bbc crew that got into jenin were actually escorted in by the idf and had a military presence with them at all times. israeli groups like tayush are trying to organise a demonstration there tomorrow; they won't get in, and they'll get beaten and tear-gassed, but it's good to see really militant activity from israeli groups. it has also been reported that the idf have been digging large pits - mass graves? - in the area of the refugee camp and around the city. in nablus, ambulance crews have been stripped and detained and then made to carry the wounded into the hospital by hand instead of taking them in by ambulance. the wounded have also been made to wait in ambulances while this happens, or themselves stripped and searched. and to get the AR folk on side - the idf use local cats for target practice. take care, all. sarah xxx
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Merrick 2148 posts |
Apr 12, 2002, 20:02
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Fri, 12 Apr 2002 07:54:31 hey all, just a brief one; i've only been up half an hour so don't have too much to say. only that khaled, the bethlehem tv cameraman who has been such a friend to us over the last few weeks, got arrested at deheishe last night. palestinian journalists are routinely beaten in custody, and khaled had a very special line in winding up idf (whilst western journos cowered behind an ambulance last week as we were held in the middle of the beit jala road outside al-husayn hospital, khaled had his camera right up the arse of the armoured personnel carrier full of troops, one of whom had a rifle pointed at him the whole time). so, we are worried about him both as a palestinian subjected to detainment by the occupying forces, and as a friend. the idf are doing house-to-house searches in beit sahour this morning, similar to those i described round manger square yesterday. again, they seem to have the aid of a collaboator who has informed them of exactly wich houses to search and harass. most of these collaborators - of which there are said to be many thousands in the west bank - are trapped by the israelis, eg by being photographed with prostitutes after being arrested, or are offered large sums of money. the incentives have to be large, as the potential fates they face are gruesome. off to manger square again for another no-doubt-futile attempt to appeal to the consciences of the idf to let us take food to families up there, who have been under continual curfew for 10 days now and have had none of the access to shops that other residents of bethlehem and surrounding towns have at least had once or twice. take care, sarah
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