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Palestinian report
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Merrick
Merrick
2148 posts

Palestinian report 2
Apr 02, 2002, 17:08
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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