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Palestinian report
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Merrick
Merrick
2148 posts

Re: Palestinian report 31
Apr 18, 2002, 18:41
Thu, 18 Apr 2002 15:55:00 +0000

hello all,

today, a group of about 30 or so of us barmy internationals tried yet again to get food into the manger square area. today's bunch included christian peacemaker teams and fellowship of reconciliation members, as well as the international solidarity movement usual suspects of the last few weeks. at least we got further in than last time, past the burnt-out and exploded cars we saw being detonated on saturday and down paul vi street to about 200 yards from manger square. then we were stopped by the idf, who, in another improvement on saturday, did not open fire on us. instead, they just made it very clear we were getting nowhere. we sat down in the street for about 40 minutes whilst negotiators tried to impress upon the soldiers that the idf was breaking international humanitarian law in preventing food and medicine from reaching civilians trapped in their homes. not that it had any effect, and in the end we left, realising that our presence was complicating things for people living further back along the road who were trying to return from the areas where curfew was lifted. the food went to people in the immediate vicinity, who also have little opportunity to access food.

and then we came out into the near-rioting of curfew lift, with people grabbing at any bit of food available in their desperation to replenish their stocks and to reach the first fresh vegetables we've seen in bethlehem in three weeks. three hours of madness, and then back to lockdown and the menacing presence of twitchy soldiers.

in ramallah, the people in the muqada say that the idf is preventing the municipality from taking the rubbish generated by the 3-400 people in there away, resulting in a growing health hazard.

in jenin, there are reports of urgent need for water. descriptions of the state of the camp and the injuries and deaths inflicted on those in it are truly horrific. one man from jenin i spoke to in bethlehem, who started a job here just a few weeks ago and cannot take time off to grieve for fear of losing it, has lost a cousin and 3 friends that he knows of, and also knows that the whereabouts of their bodies is unknown...more details of the situation in jenin and nablus from http://jerusalem.indymedia.org.

s xxx
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