Palestine 2012: Captivating. 

So. It’s been a rather busy few days. I’ve had a few new experiences…I’ve been beaten, arrested, taken to court, most likely blacklisted from returning to Israel and threatened with rape and deportation. Well that’s a few things to tick off the ol’ ‘Life Goals’ list I guess…

Went to a demonstration at Kufr Qaddoum on Friday the 21^st September for the second time – a slightly more manic experience this time. Within a few minutes of arriving, the tear gas was free flowing, and we had already run away from the soldiers once, when they chased a group of us down the road – I can only assume to catch us for the terrible crime of walking in a Palestinian village. Eventually the soldiers retreated slightly further out of the village, allowing the protesters to take their desired route, towards the road to Nablus which is now only allowed for Israeli settlers – Palestinians are not allowed to use it. 

During the demo on several occasions I saw soldiers raising their guns to shoot – whether this was tear gas, rubber bullets or live ammunition, I don’t know. Me or the other internationals stepping into their line of sight, with a raised camera made them lower their guns – this may have got on their nerves a little. Demonstrations are always more restrained when internationals are present, so we were probs hampering their ability to have a really good firing range session.

The soldiers, just pre- them chasing us for the first time.

After some to-ing and fro-ing, GB and I made our way to the front. We thought the demonstration had pretty much finished, but saw that a bulldozer was being brought into the village, so were keen to document any damage that it did. We were taking pictures, when we heard the call of the shabab, who were suddenly running. They called for us to run as well...but a line of soldiers already loomed ahead of us.

Ducking down a side-road, we ran into someone’s front garden, choked with tear gas. Peering over a wall, we saw soldiers breaking the windows of a house – seemingly for no reason, as they walked away straight afterwards. It was then that they spotted us….

Three soldiers broke off from the main group. They ran. We ran - through rubble-filled and muddy olive groves. I could hear the soldiers gaining behind me but didn’t dare turn around. I was fuelled only by the hope that they would be too heavy and slow to catch us (all those guns must weigh you down!) Eventually though, they gained enough and I felt hands land on me. 

GB, gentleman that he is, did not continue running (needless to say, he was ahead of me at this point. Note to self: do more sports). He came back for me and we executed a perfect de-arresting strategy, grabbing hold of each other and dropping to the ground, in an attempt to stop them from taking us. They immediately started grabbing at my camera and GB’s phone, prying at our fingers. They were absolutely focused on removing these from us – I can only say that if you’re that desperate to hide evidence of what you’re doing, you must KNOW THAT IT’S WRONG.

I don’t know how long we lay there. It’s a blur of kicks, punches, hands all over me, my keffiyeh being dragged tight around my neck, my hair being pulled, glimpses of GB’s face as they tried to strangle him. At one point I looked up and saw a foot being raised above my head – the effort of self-control that the soldier seemed to have to make to draw back his foot without stamping on my face terrifies me.

During my training to come to Palestine, we were taught to scream in situations like this, to attract attention of people nearby who might be able to help, and to try and stop the attack. We did practice screams – at the time, mine was decidedly a scream. Muted and tamed, it was hardly audible. Turns out however, that under the right circumstances, I can SCREAM (the pain in my throat and GB’s ears the next day is a testament to this.) The soldiers did not like this, but unfortunately no one was near enough to come and help us, or at least to document what was happening.  

Eventually though, they grabbed my camera and GB’s phone. They succeeded in dragging us apart and made us stand up, pushing us back up towards the road where their mates were waiting. The soldier who was my ‘escort’ told me “you know, I like women, I don’t want to treat them like that” – err, easy solution to that. Just don’t. GB’s soldier was telling him “you must really care to be here” – too late to make friends now guys. Friends don’t beat other friends while they’re lying on the floor begging you to stop.  

We were taken to a military jeep – inside waiting for us were two other ISMers and two young Palestinian men. Bad news. Sure it’s bad that GB and I and the other two ISM women were arrested. But the real bad news is for the Palestinians. 

While we tried to keep our spirits up, the two men, Majd and Abdelateef, were quiet. They kept their heads down. Their hands were tightly ziptied – I had been asked as I got into the jeep if I was going to make any trouble – replying that I was not, my hands had been left free. I asked for water and was given it. I asked questions of the authorities and demanded to know where my confiscated property was – I was answered (sure, the answers were entirely unsatisfactory, but still, they deigned to give me a response at least.) The Palestinians were given nothing, told nothing. They seemed small and defeated – knowing I’m sure what is in store for them.  

More and more, the unequal treatment materialised. The Palestinians were blindfolded – we were not. The Palestinians were made to sit apart from each other – we were not. The Palestinians were made to sit in the burning hot sun – we were not. The Palestinians were deprived of food and water – we were not.

I hope that our intervention made some little difference – the men were moved from the sun after our continuous complaints. We offered them our water and food, to the anger of the soldiers. At one point the soldiers ordered take-away and then took great relish in throwing away their substantial leftovers in front of us all. We were given a plum each – generous. Better than the big pile of nothing that Majd and Abdelateef were offered.  When I tried to give one of the guys a plum, the soldiers yelled at me immediately.

We were fingerprinted, interrogated and photographed. We were told that we had knowingly been in a closed military zone (this is when the Israeli army decide that any area, whether it’s a Palestinian village or not, is closed for access except for the military. They’re such land hogs – come ON Israel, can’t we all share?) – when I had asked the soldiers about this, they had refused to show me any paperwork backing up the claim. One guy eventually waved a sheet of paper vaguely in my direction, saying ‘oh, it’s all in Hebrew’, refusing to show me a date on it, or a map of the actual closed area or any indication that they were talking anything but absolute bollocks. In fact he seemed pretty damn keen to stop me looking at it at all – entirely against their own bloody rules (which I challenge the basis of anyway, but hey.)

The next accusation was that we had thrown stones at soldiers. I’d like to see some proof of that, it’d have to be a pretty good photoshop job, as the last stones I recall throwing were into Coniston Water in the Lake District, and unless the Israeli army were there masquerading as fish under the water, I’m pretty damn sure I’ve never thrown a stone at a soldier. Also, as my friend Paul knows, my poor brittle bones would crumble under the weight of the stone as I tried pitifully to lift it from the ground.

After many hours, we were all taken away to different places. The Palestinians to one prison, the women to another and poor GB all on his own to a third prison. As we were suddenly posing a pretty terrible threat, they decided to shackle us all hand and foot. Imagine my pride in British industry when I examined the handcuffs and found that they had been made in back in Blighty. Also as a warning to other possible miscreants, do try not to get leg shackled EVER. It is PAINFUL.

We were searched regularly, strip searched occasionally, our belongings were pored through and listed, we were deprived of sleep, passed through a ridiculous system of bureaucracy that was entirely inefficient, humiliated and then more than anything, BORED. Hours would go by without anything happening except a million more cockroaches coming to visit.

Until in the middle of the next night, we were taken to court – our hearing was held in Hebrew – which I know one word of, which is ‘shalom’ – meaning ‘peace’, or ‘hello’. Surprisingly enough, I didn’t hear much of that word being used. Thankfully, an Israeli activist was willing to translate for us, so we didn’t come out entirely clueless. The conclusion was that we were to be held in prison for another night, and then if they needed more time to investigate all our naughtiness, we were to be held under house arrest for one week, not somewhere within the occupied territories.

So. That’s where I’m writing this from – a flat in Tel Aviv, very kindly donated by another Israeli activist, as were clearly deemed dangerous enough to warrant further investigation. Yet another activist has acted as our guarantor – if we poke even our little toes outside of this building, he’ll be billed three thousand pounds by the Israeli authorities. Another activist brought us food, and yet another took our documents on a memory stick to be emailed out to the world, as we haven’t had regular internet. We’ve been treated with such kindness and generosity by the community here, especially members and friends of Anarchists Against the Wall.

But while we’ve essentially been here in the lap of luxury, Majd and Abdelateef are still in prison. They’re waiting for a hearing in a military court - which naturally all Palestinians are sentenced in, rather than a civil court. We’ve been told that the evidence presented against all six of us is exactly the same. However, while we’re likely (INSHALLAH) to be released rather than deported at the end of this week of house arrest, the Palestinian men are likely to receive at least five to seven months in prison. Before trial, they can also be held indefinitely under a system of ‘administrative detention’ (another gift from the British mandate, THANKS) – this can last for years with no charge, with no evidence produced, with no chance to appeal their imprisonment.

Our lawyer told us that if we’d been Israeli we wouldn’t have even been placed under house arrest. The racism implicit in this system is appalling.

The arrests of Palestinians are just another way to quash any sort of resistance to the occupation – what better way to stop a demonstration than by putting all the attendees in prison. In Kufr Qaddoum and most of the other demonstration villages, there are regular night-time raids, where youth are snatched from their beds by soldiers. Not the nicest wake-up call, a soldier looming over you, helmeted, smeared in camouflage paint, pointing a gun at you and ordering you out of your home.

I would really appreciate if anyone could write to the Israeli authorities about what is happening to Majd and Abdelateef – You can write to the Minister of Public Security, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, at sar@mops.gov.il, and the Military Advocate General, Brigadier General Danny Efroni at avimn@idf.gov.il, calling for:

• The immediate release of Majd Obeid (23) and Abdelateef Obeid (25), or for them to be promptly tried in a hearing which meets internationally recognized fair trial standards;
• An end to ill-treatment of Palestinians in detention;
• An end to the harassment and arrest of international and local human rights defenders.

If you can, you can also make a donation to ISM here or Anarchists Against the Wall here. The legal fees to keep activists safe in the West Bank are crippling, and for the organisations to continue their uber-important work, they need help. 

A letter from Gordon Bennett, Ellie Clayton and Aimee McGovern – currently under house arrest in Tel Aviv.

A letter from Gordon Bennett, Ellie Clayton and Aimee McGovern – currently under house arrest in Tel Aviv.

As many of you may already know, we are currently volunteering in the occupied Palestinian Territories with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) – a non-violent Palestinian-led solidarity organization. Much of the work that we do is documenting human rights abuses, taking pictures and videos, writing reports and carrying out direct action, such as attending demonstrations. Hence our presence in the village of Kufr Qaddoum on Friday the 21^st of September.

As Friday’s demonstration progressed, it became clear that the army were targeting international observers for arrest - a tactic regularly used by the Israeli authorities to prevent human rights abuses being reported in international media. The three of us were eventually beaten and arrested after taking pictures of the demonstration.

What followed was a 48 hour ordeal of detention - being split up, strip-searched, shackled hand and foot, denied access to prescription medication and imprisoned in cockroach-infested cells with no idea of what was going on.

We were eventually brought to court, where we were charged with fabricated offences – throwing stones at soldiers and knowingly being in a ‘closed military zone’. No evidence was brought against us, because there was none. After 48 hours, we were released to 24/7 house arrest in this flat in Tel Aviv, where we await a decision as to whether we’re to be deported at the end of the week. We’ve been told by the British consulate in Jerusalem that this is not a punishment they have heard of being used before for British nationals, so for this reason we are unsure of our status.

Thankfully for us, during this ordeal ISM and Israeli activists from Anarchists Against the Wall (AATW) have provided us with legal assistance, a translator, transport, accommodation and support in Tel Aviv. They’ve also acted as guarantor for our conditions of house arrest – if we were to take even one step outside of this building, our friend would be charged 3500 pounds. Without their help, we would likely have been held for seven days in prison and then deported immediately.

Both ISM and AATW are working on tiny budgets and regularly have to face these kind of crippling financial costs to maintain their work against the occupation in Palestine. Donations are desperately needed to allow both organisations to continue. The three of us would like to appeal to our friends and families to make a donation to support their ongoing work.

As international citizens, we are provided with some legal protection under Israeli law. Palestinians, on the other hand, are not. Two Palestinian men were arrested at the same time as us, facing the same charges. They are still awaiting trial, but there’s no way they’re going to get the chance of moving to house arrest after just two days inside - Israel’s ‘administrative detention’ regime for Palestinians can mean being held indefinitely without charge for months or years. It’s a regime that has been criticized time and again by human rights organisations.

Please write to the Israeli government: the Minister of Public Security, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, at sar@mops.gov.il, and the Military Advocate General, Brigadier General Danny Efroni at avimn@idf.gov.il, calling for:

·         The immediate release of Majd Obeid (23) and Abdelateef Obeid (25), or for them to be promptly tried in a hearing which meets internationally recognized fair trial standards;

·         An end to the policy of administrative detention for Palestinians;

·         An end to the arrest and trial of Palestinian minors as adults;

·         An end to ill-treatment of Palestinians in detention;

·         An end to the harassment and arrest of international and local human rights defenders.

You can make a donation here which will be used to help cover our legal fees, and to support ongoing work by ISM and AATW. This link is for the ISM donation site, so PLEASE write a note on the Paypal page for all or part of the donation to go to AATW. Alternatively, if you would prefer not to use Paypal, email us to make a pledge to either organization and we can provide you with bank details to make a transfer and we will pay it directly to AATW or ISM.

Also, please share this letter as widely as you can!

Shukran! (Thank you!)

Gordon, Ellie and Aimee. 

Palestine: Sticks and stones will break your bones. 

The last few days has made me very familiar with the hospital in Nablus.

First there was Akram, who we visited after he had been attacked by settlers. He was farming his land with his family when he heard shouts from settlers telling him to get off 'their' land (naturally, the settlers are from an illegal settlement, which is in fact on Palestinian land.) He urged his family to go back to the house, leaving him isolated - and when he heard a shout in Arabic, he went to see who it was, concerned for their safety with the settlers around.

Turns out these settlers knew some Arabic. Having lured him further away from his home, they proceeded to beat him unconscious, with sticks, stones, fists and feet. He passed out eventually, at which point the settlers ran for it.

Luckily, he regained consciousness a little while later. Luckily, he had his phone with him. Luckily, he was able to identify to his brother whereabouts in the fields he was.

If not for this luck, he could have died. He had been left for dead. His arm was broken. His face was broken. He couldn't really speak or move when we saw him. He had to be taken to hospital by car, despite the possibility that he had a broken neck, as ambulances take too long to get to villages in the West Bank - slight problem with roadblocks, checkpoints and roads destroyed by the Israeli authorities.

Akram in hospital

Then two days later, we were back in the hospital. This time to see Maher, who had been had been walking home one evening with his brother and cousin. Within sight of their house, six settlers jumped out of the olive trees at the side of the road. Three of them were holding M16 semi automatic rifles.

Two blocked the road back to the house. The others started beating the men - again, with sticks, stones and fists and feet. 

Maher in hospital

Luckily, they didn't use their guns (this time). Luckily, Maher's brother managed to escape, get back to the house and call for help. Luckily, this scared the settlers away. Maher told us "ten more minutes and they would have killed us."

Often in cases like this, the families will call the Palestinian police after an attack. They will then call the District Coordination Officer, who in turn will call the Israeli army, who have a responsibility to protect the Palestinians from attack. Let's see how this goes eh?

In Akram's case this led to the army arriving on the scene, where more settlers had arrived after Akram had been taken to hospital - rather than stopping the settlers from attacking the village, the army JOINED IN, shooting tear gas and rubber bullets at Palestinians in the middle of the night while they tried to protect their families. (Jeez, it's hard enough to dodge in the daytime, I can't imagine a demo in the dark...)

In Maher's case the call led to the army arriving and asking questions, saying that they would try and find the attackers. Ooh, finally the army doing something right! Yay! One slight problem - they were in the wrong village. Despite being told this repeatedly by the people they spoke to there, they have not been to the correct village or spoken to Maher or his family. As you can tell, they're trying reaaaallly hard to track down those attackers.

As the Human Rights Watch 2012 report on Palestine says:

“The Israeli government generally took no action against Israeli settlers who destroyed or damaged mosques, homes, olive trees, cars, and other Palestinian property, or physically assaulted Palestinians.”

 It seems to be only luck which is on the Palestinian side. There is no justice from the Israelis- and until there comes an end to impunity for these horrific attacks, I can't see an end to them.

Palestine: Waiting for the settlers to come.

Settler pollution in Yatma

Have spent the last few days based in Nablus, travelling around the villages in the area, hearing story after story of the Occupation. For example.......

Yatma village - where the spring which had previously provided free water to the village was stolen by the army for a nearby settlement. Now the settlement get priority and as much water as they need, while the village has to buy back the water from their own occupiers, still going about half the week with none.

Burin village - where we came across a team building a wall next to the school because of the hassle that the kids get from soldiers, even though they know that the wall (along with the school) will most likely be demolished (AGAIN) because the area is officially under Israeli control and Palestinians are not allowed to build anything without permission (which they never get). Land is regularly grabbed for settlements - a big chunk had been taken the day before. As an added extra, they also have regular attacks from craaaaaaazy Zionist settlers. But don't worry, the army will come for protection.....oh wait, protection for the attackers, not the villagers.

Israeli forces invading Kufr Qaddoum

Kufr Qaddoum - where we joined their regular Friday demonstration, against the roadblocks which double the length of the journey to the nearest city of Nablus. We arrived along the majorly bumpy backroads, because there was a 'flying checkpoint' blocking the road which is now used as a replacement for the main road. When we got there, there were ALREADY soldiers invading the village - pre-empting any demonstration. They were blocking people from going to mosque, and shot tear gas into completely civilian areas before the procession even started, at head height. Great. Several confrontations and many burnt tyres later (to stop the army invading any further), we headed home.


Aska refugee camp - where there are refugees from Palestine, inside Palestine. The land and houses that they lived in were taken during the Nakba in 1948, and although they still have keys and ownership papers, they now cannot return - the guy we spoke said that he knows that a Russian family live in his house in Jaffa. Instead, the refugees now live in half a kilometre squared - from which they are not allowed to expand, except upwards. The result is a claustrophobic mish-mash of tiny streets, towered over by tottering homes. Three or four times a week, the settlers nearby want to take a pilgrimage to Joseph's tomb. Unfortunately Aska Camp is, oh so inconveniently for the settlers, inbetween the settlement and Joseph's tomb (fun fact, Joseph himself actually apparently has tombs around the West Bank, and Egypt...and a lot of people say that this particular tomb actually resembles an Islamic burial site, what with the grave pointing at Mecca and all...so they may be all pilgrimaging for nothing.) This means that around three times a week, people from the camp are not allowed to use the road - the army come and close it down for about 7 hours on each day, limiting movement and essentially creating a curfew, so that the busloads of settlers can travel through on their daytrip.

Aska refugee camp

Then last night we spent the night at Khan al Liban. This is the home of 17 year old Jalaal, his little brothers and his mum and dad. However, although they had all the hassle of buying a new home, buying furniture for it and doing the move, the family have never lived in their new house. This is because when they tried, they were attacked by their neighbours up the road - the settlement of Ma'ale Levone. The mother and two of the kids were beaten by 30 men - the kids, who are 13 and 9 had to be hospitalised afterwards. “Nour was thrown at the wall by one of the big settlers, and they were laughing” said Mu'min about his little brother being attacked. Their furniture and car were also trashed and burned.

Jalaal, who had been trying to fend off the attackers, grabbed an axe and hit one of the settlers. As soon as the army arrived, he was arrested and branded a terrorist. The settlers were not arrested. They were not charged. They have total impunity. Jalaal has only just had his bail paid, with money raised through ISM donations and has now come home, awaiting trial.

We went to visit, welcome Jalaal home and stay the night at the now empty house to deter more settler damage (the family are staying at their old house in the nearby village of Liban.)

Nour with some of his artwork

It was a beautiful evening of freshly picked figs, almonds and walnuts from their garden, and more tea and fresh pomegranate juice than you could possibly drink. The family were so welcoming, and after a shy start, we had a lot of fun with the kids, with them drawing portraits of us all and also serenading us with some excellent beatboxing. You wouldn't believe that these were the same kids that someone had attacked just over two weeks ago.

We four internationals went to stay in the empty house, waiting for the settlers to come. Having just spent 5 weeks camping, I'm used to hearing noises outside a tent and assuming that they're nothing dangerous - like the snuffling noise that you can hear? That's probs a rabbit rather than a bear. However, this was the reverse. That rustling? Could be a settler sneaking up to attack. Luckily it wasn't, and the worst injuries that we sustained were some mosquito bites. But that was just one night - we don't live there, and nor can the family as the attacks are completely unpredictable.

Finally, last night we also heard that a farmer, Akram, had been attacked on his land by some settlers - we went to visit him in hospital and found him with a broken arm and a broken face. The three men who had beaten him with sticks and rocks had literally left him for dead.

A lot of families here spend their time waiting for the settlers to come, afraid and alone. It sounds like a horror film, but it's real life

Palestine: The kids aren't alright. 

Soldiers invading the old city

So. Hebron on Monday the 10th of September was a little crazy. At around 5am, a couple of Palestinians apparently tried and failed to burn down Israeli Checkpoint 56 (there are 113 Israeli roadblocks, closures and checkpoints in the city of Hebron. And it's reaaaally not very big.)

I am self-plagiarising now from my previous visit to Hebron for a bit of background (feel free to read the whole thing, with more detail here):

Hebron does NOT feel like a safe place. The settlers here are some of the most fanatical in the West Bank, and have been known to regularly attack Palestinians and internationals. In the 1960s, the first extremist settler group arrived in Hebron, barricaded themselves in a hotel, posing as Swiss tourists and refused to leave, eventually prompting the Israeli government to legitimise their actions and reward them with land on the outskirts of the city, which was named Kiryat Arba (this was unfortunate for the Palestinians also living in the area, who have since faced attacks and regular harassment.) Then another illegal settlement was founded right in the centre of Hebron, prompting the government to cave to their demands and make it possible extremists to settle in the centre of Hebron as they wished. Apparently it’s possible that more houses in central Hebron are being purchased currently. All of this has led to some of the most blatant and extreme examples of discrimination and apartheid policies that I’ve experienced since being in the West Bank.

There are around 500 settlers now living in the central area of Hebron, compared to 30,000 (although swiftly lessening) Palestinians. This area is now totally run by Israel (unlike the suburbs, which are run by the Palestinian authority), in order to protect the Zionists who have chosen to live there illegally. There are around 2000 soldiers stationed in Hebron at all times – four for each settler. The number of checkpoints is staggering and really impedes movement into, out of and around the Old City.

Checkpoint 56 is one of the most problematic for Palestinians, who are often detained there for long periods and face constant harassment by the soldiers (which we internationals received a taster of...more on this later), so I must say I'm not surprised that they tried to attack it. In the morning, there was no visible damage to the checkpoint, but there was to one of the Palestinian men, who was shot with live ammunition in the leg and taken to hospital in Israel (the soldiers wouldn't let a Palestinian ambulance, which arrived earlier on the scene, treat him). He will probably now spend many years in prison.

Kullu is not kwayyis. 

So because of this, later in the day there was a great deal of tension in the air (this is as well as demonstrations going on against the Palestinian Authority, in another part of the city, VERY confusing), and there was an increased Israeli army presence in the city. We were wandering in the old market when we bumped into a group of six soldiers, pointing their guns into Palestinian homes and at Palestinian children. A little boy ran around the corner right into the soldiers, laughing and calling to his friends - I don't think I'll ever forget how his face changed from laughter to terror in that split second, as he turned and ran. This little girl in pink was also terrified, and there's only so much you can say 'kullu kwayyis' ('everything's alright') to a kid to calm them down. Because really, everything is not alright.

We followed the soldiers around, asking them what they were doing. The guy at the front of the picture spoke perfect English. With a British accent. Turned out he was from North London. I don't know how someone could choose to come here and do this - he said that they were there to protect the settlers - the fact that the area that we were in is off-limits to settlers didn't seem relevant to them. They eventually went through a door which we were not allowed to pass through and we lost them, but asserting an international presence is important to keep them in check.....

Because, the Israeli Army is possibly the most unprofessional army EVER. Imagine taking a bunch of teenagers, filling them with bile and hatred for another group of people and handing them guns and what is essentially a license to do whatever they want (convictions and punishment for crimes by the Israeli army is notoriously low). Must be a dream come true for video-game lovers. This is a taster of what I experienced from the 'Israeli Defence Forces' in these couple of days in Hebron:

• Being spat on by five or six soldiers from a rooftop
• Debris being kicked down from the same rooftop
• Being called alternately 'beauuuutiful' and 'ugggggly', as well as receiving generally high levels of sexual harassment
• Being told 'oh, you're so annoying' (not a big deal, but seriously guys, do things properly)
• Soldiers leaning into my face and literally screeching at me
• Being shut outside the checkpoint and told that it was closed for 20 minutes - except when we walked through anyway, they just ignored us
• Being filmed on mobile phones and told that the videos would be uploaded to www.fuckthearabs.com

Yeah, professional right?

Soldiers entering the new city

At this point we were heading back to the ISM flat, and got half way up the hill when we bumped into another group of six soldiers running down the hill - one when he saw us crowed 'now, we go to save the daaaaay'. They truly treat this as a sort of game, as if the Palestinians are not real people with real lives and real feelings. We followed them (back down the hill, aieee), only to find them entering the new city, which is under Palestinian control, meaning that the Israeli army should NOT be there (well naturally it shouldn't be anywhere in Palestine, but this is their OWN laws that they're breaking, not just everybody else's). Despite this, they ran in, started pointing guns at everyone and everything and dashing about while people were trying to get on with their day - we asked them what they were doing. They said they had heard an explosion, but no one else seemed to have noticed it, oddly enough. It was after this that the soldier made the rather threatening statement - 'you were in our line of fire, you really could get hurt here, you know' - his bloody 'line of fire' should not have been there. It's like saying 'oh, sorry I shot you, but really you shouldn't get in the way of my bullets'.

Some of the soldiers on the rooftop

A little later it really started kicking off at Checkpoint 56. We passed through to the Palestinian side and saw about 15 or so soldiers on the roof of a house (this is when the spitting happened. Lovely.) overlooking the checkpoint. The shabab were throwing stones and the army were shooting sound bombs (bloody loud, but don't do much damage unless you're very close) and tear gas at them. Little kids walking past were caught in the gas (school was out because there was a strike), and I had to almost carry one little girl out of the gas - she was choking and crying, unable to see or understand what was going on. Hard to explain to a kid not to touch their eyes because it'll make the tear gas 100 times worse, when you don't have a language in common and she's panicking that she can't see.

Then, whilst standing with a small group of internationals and a Palestinian camera-woman, two tear gas canisters were shot directly at us. The Palestinian woman was hit in the stomach, immediately doubling her over. A second canister narrowly missed her foot and she was helped to the side of the road and then rushed away in an ambulance. Imagine if she had been pregnant. Or if it hit an internal organ at the wrong angle.

It was after this that we decided to head home, as we were absolutely exhausted, tear-gassed out, and rather freaked out by this point. However, more problems were to follow. There was rubble and destruction throughout the market - Palestinians were putting out fires behind some of the roadblocks, which were apparently lit there by the army to ensure that the shabab wouldn't be able to escape. Then the checkpoint at the end of the market was closed, trapping us inside. Luckily we were invited to tea at about 5 different places, giving us the chance to have a nice sit down, and to chat to the owner of one shop, who it turns out studied in the UK, and uses phrases like 'it's always pissing it down in Manchester!' Excellent.

In the end, I can't stop thinking about all the children I saw throughout the day - from terrified Palestinian kids to teen-aged Israeli soldiers. Everything about this situation is wrong and none of the kids are alright.

Palestine: A Short Walk to Freedom (ish.)

Palestinian shops on settler roads in Hebron are soldered shut

Feeling a bit restless, the ISMers decided to have a walk. "But where oh where should we go?" we wondered. "Hmmm, I bet Hashem in Hebron will know a nice place for a walk" we decided. 

Hashem lives in the Tel Rumeida area of Al Khalil - aka Hebron. He has a small moshkilla ('problem' in Arabic*) - nasty neighbours. Although this is rather past the scale of hearing babies crying through the walls at all hours, the music being a little loud for past 11pm or  them putting the bins out on the wrong day. No, no, no, Hashem's neighbours happen to be extremist Zionist settlers, meaning a slightly more radical version of the above**. Imagine:

1. The road outside your house being shut down - so, no more access for anyone except Jewish settlers. Instead, you can feel free to scramble around the rocks and dirt tracks behind your house.
2. HUNDREDS of settlers coming into your house and smashing up all your stuff.
3. Your nephew having his teeth knocked out with stones by settlers.
4. Your wife miscarrying following settler attacks.
5. Your wife miscarrying AGAIN following settler attacks. 
6. Not being allowed to access your land with olive trees on it - except once when the Israeli Supreme Court ordered that you should be able to harvest for two hours on one day.
7. Happily going to harvest these olives, only to find that they have already been harvested and stolen by settlers.
8. Your grapes, pomegranates and other fruit trees being hacked down and poisoned.
9. Your water supply being poisoned and then your new water tank having holes shot in it. 
10. Your four children living in fear of leaving the house. 

Get the gist? When we went to visit Hashem, he told us all about this and showed us videos and evidence of the attacks. Then he surprised me. "I want an adventure," he said "let's go down the settler road from my front door." This is the aforementioned closed street, along which no Palestinians or internationals are permitted to walk. There is a soldier stationed at the entrance to the road, stopping anyone 'unsavoury' from entering. (*cough* apartheid *cough*)

So, feeling a little concerned, but proud to be able to go on this 'adventure' with Hashem, GB and I, with the rest of the ISM Hebron team followed him up a path leading onto the road. 

As we walked, I asked him how long it had been since he'd walked there - "Oh, a long, long time." he said. "A year?" I asked. "Or more?" - "Yes, definitely more, much more."

The walk was only around 200 metres or so to the checkpoint, where the soldier stared at us in amazement and confusion - 'does not compute' -  before rushing to the radio and calling his mates. Unfortunately, we dispersed speedily to avail ourselves of falafel, before he could introduce us to his friends - who I imagine may have invited us to tea. In prison. Minus the tea.

Hashem will continue to fight the occupation, and I hope one day he will have a happier neighbourhood. I feel like we did a little but important thing today. 

Who knew how big a small walk could make you feel.

P.S. You can watch a video of our walk here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyURJ33qQ2Q&feature=youtu.be



* easy to remember because mosh pits can totally kill - far too much headbanging!!
** his nearest neighbour is in fact Baruch Marzel, king of extremism and leader of the Jewish National Front 

Palestine: Kicking kids

Face-off

Saturday was a chance to have a nice chat with some Israeli soldiers...

Imagine the scene. Around 45 of them and 20 of us. They were armed with riot shields and several guns per person. We were armed with chants ("1234 occupation no more!") and words. Scary, scary words. Proportional response, eh?

Our little tête-à-tête was at the regular Saturday demonstration in Beit Ummar  - a village whose land has been stolen for an illegal settlement (when is Israel going to stop being so predictable eh? Why not steal land for something more interesting, like a theme park?). GB, some other ISMers and I were leaning nonchalantly against their shields (by nonchalantly leaning, I mean "standing on Palestinian land while they shoved us with their riot shields".)

Our conversation went a bit like this:

Us: "Why are you here on Palestinian land?" 
Soldiers: "Errrrr..." 
Us: "Are you so scared of us walking and chanting that you have to come here with your guns and shields to stop us?" 
Soldiers: *all puff up in show of bravado* "NO. 'Course not." 
Us: "Maybe you should find out a bit more about the occupation and why you're here." 
Soldiers: "Errr...Where are you from?" 
Us: "From Britain." 
Soldiers: "HAH. Britain occupied Ireland for so many years - you should sort out your own occupations not look at ours" - (they are past even denying that this is an occupation, yeesh) 
Us: "But we are ashamed of this. We don't act on behalf of our State to occupy anywhere, and we try to improve things by being here. You should stop acting on behalf of your State if you believe occupation is wrong." 
Soldiers: "Errrr.... but how much are you paid to be here?" 
Us: *eye roll* "Some people have no understanding of solidarity." 

The boy who was kicked

Then they carried on shoving us. 

It was shortly after this pleasant exchange that the demonstration was called to an end. We all started to wander back down the hill, away from the fence which separates the Palestinians from their land (which has now become the settlement of Kharme Sur.) And it was shortly after this that a soldier kicked a 12 year old Palestinian kid in the leg, knocking him to the ground.

Immediately the soldiers reacted, tightening their line around us, shoving us with riot shields in the process and effectively stopping us from leaving (which I was under the impression was what they WANTED. Stop changing your damn minds, army.)

The boy wasn't badly hurt - physically at least. But really, who knows the psychological impact of this occupation on the children of Palestine. 

Palestine: Thank God it's Friday?

Weekends - made for waking up slow, taking it easy, going on day-trips - generally relaaaaaxing. Right?

Tell that to a Palestinian. Every Friday ('cause weekends here are Friday and Saturday), there's a rather more serious way to spend the day. Across the West Bank, there is a demonstration in towns and villages particularly affected by Israel (e.g. land being stolen by illegal settlers). And this is NOT your typical, reasonably civilised, UK demo (kettling aside...) - rather, the Israeli military will be out in force, and using force willy-nilly against peaceful protesters.

And for this, you're not gonna wanna be feeling a bit woozy after a heavy night, ready for a lie-in (not that there's booze here...but I'm running with this weekend comparison so just go with it) - because people are regularly tear-gassed, soaked with stinking 'skunk water' and shot at with live ammunition - or delightfully euphemistically named 'rubber bullets' (maybe the correct definition of 'rubber' hasn't got to Israel? These bullets seem rather more like a ball of steel covered in a millilitre of hard plastic. Update your dictionary Israel!!)

This Friday, in solidarity with the Palestinians who, incredibly, spend their EVERY weekend like this, we went to Nil'in, a village of around 5,000 people near Ramallah. Having convened in an olive grove, the protesters aimed to have a nice weekend amble through their land. However, they were hindered by some inconsiderate human rights abusing state having put a great whopping 10 metre wall slap bang in the middle of their land. 

 

This Wall (*cough* illegal under International Law *cough*) is an excellent way for Israel to grab a bit more land for their settlements (*cough*   illegal under International Law *cough*), which is exactly what has happened in Nil'in - now surrounded by five of these settlements on well over half of the village's original land. When the Wall was first proposed by Israel, the village mobilised immediately - soon they were lying in the way of bulldozers, collectively breaking  Israeli imposed curfew, all camping out on the land for months to stop progress and demonstrating regularly (at some points, every day - not just as a weekend treat). 

 Whilst they have had some success - e.g. stopping the Wall being built between 2004 and 2008, they have also had hardships - 350 people, mostly children*, have been arrested in the last 4 years, homes have been burned down, pregnant women have miscarried after inhaling new types of tear gas (this list goes on with more horrible details ad nauseum). Five villagers have died at the hands of the army, during demonstrations in Nil'in. The youngest was ten years old. I'll repeat that. Ten. Years. Old. The boy, Ahmed Mousa, was shot in the head at close range while villagers were trying to remove Israeli razor wire from their own land.

Today, no one died, no one was injured, no one managed to pull down part of the Wall (as they did on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall). The soldiers stayed on their side of the Wall and we stayed on ours. They shot tear-gas (with the wind blowing in their direction so it didn't ever really reach us, idiots.) and threw a couple of sound-bombs. Some villagers shouted slogans, some threw stones and some set car-tyres alight at the base of the Wall, throwing cold water on it afterwards to damage the concrete and hopefully eventually break through.

After the demonstration wrapped up, we spoke with Saeed, who is part of organising the village's ongoing resistance. He bought us ice lollies (MUCH appreciated in 30deg plus heat) and told us all about the history of the village, and also about his own work bringing the occupation to the attention of the world. He compared Israel's aims in ending Palestinian resistance to cooking frogs - put 'em in cold water and boil slowly so they don't even notice they've been cooked - with the key difference being that these Palestinian frogs know damn well they're being cooked and they're hopping right out of the pan. Or they're staying in the pan, but they're gonna get the sides of the pan removed. Or something else that makes this similie work (the bit that I added, not Saeed's bit which wasn't actually nonsensical at all). 

He pointed out that "there is something of the occupation in every single thing in our life" - the drudgery of checkpoints, not being able to travel freely, the feeling of tear gas on your skin for hours afterwards. During his travels around the world to tell people about Nil'in, Saeed found himself shell-shocked by the freedom that we have in Europe - "we were born under Occupation. We don't know what freedom means or tastes like" - apparently freedom tastes of vegan food (which he hated) and a trip to a vet (which was better equipped than the hospital in Ramallah) with a friend's sick dog, which had health insurance (which Palestinians wouldn't be eligible for). Feeling guilty yet? 

However, his favourite things about being outside of Palestine were:

1. Being able to sleep at night without being afraid that the army will do a night raid and arrest him whenever they feel like it. Here he doesn't sleep until 4am as that's typically when the army will stop invading villages to do this. Saeed doesn't fancy prison again.
2. Being able to move freely around and between countries - no checkpoints or whopping great Walls in the way!

Ah well, maybe it helps that actually in Nil'in (and in many areas across the West Bank) the concept of "week-end" doesn't actually strictly apply, because (as luck would have it), unemployment is at around 75%. Those lazy Palestinian farmers not farming their land.....oh, wait, where'd it go? Under a settlement, natch. Hard to farm without any land. But I gotta say, how considerate of Israel to obligingly remove it from them (and put a massive squeeze on the economy in general) so the Palestinians wouldn't be too tired to protest about it on their weekends, eh?

Well. Thank God Friday's over, I say. Time tomorrow for a lie-in and maybe a roast dinner...what's that?...oh. Turns out Palestine demonstrates on Saturday as well. Looking forward to more weekend activities at the Beit Omar demonstration (against the ever-increasing settlement on their land) tomorrow then. 

*Israeli policy-makers appear not to be able to count. They seem to think that although Israeli children are officially 'children' until they reach 18, Palestinian children are only 'children' until they're 12. And despite this , they CONTINUE to break their own (made-up) rules, arresting Palestinian children UNDER the age of 12 under adult conditions.

Palestine: The Return

Last winter I spent 5 weeks in the occupied West Bank, monitoring and reporting on human rights abuses, accompanying farmers picking their olives (and picking some myself!), attending demonstrations and learning more about what life is like under an occupation. Oh, and learning some VERY useful Arabic along the way (e.g. "mish moshqilla, ankaboot" - "no worries, spider"). I found it...captivating. Unfortunately, Palestinians find it literally captivating and while I was free to leave after five weeks, they remained under Israeli Occupation. 

Because of this, it seems that the five weeks merely whetted my appetite to learn more (about human rights and occupation, not JUST slightly useless Arabic) and to try to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. I therefore find myself at this moment full of falafel, listening to the the call-to-prayer from a Mosque nearby and feeling the rather sweltering heat of Ramallah in the summer-time. 

I will be here for three months - during the first, I have the excellent company of GB*. We will be spending this time with the International Solidarity Movement. ISM is a non-violent Palestine solidarity activist group, led by Palestinians, working in areas like Hebron and Nablus. After this month, GB will continue his travels outside of Palestine, and I will continue mine here in the West Bank - up to Deir Istiya to volunteer again with the excellent International Women's Peace Service. I'll be blogging along the way.

I'm not going to write a whole history of the Occupation here, so if you want some background information on the situation, you can have a look at the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions page here, and Amnesty International's human rights reports on Palestine here for starters. Rest assured that (unfortunately) I'm preeeeeetty sure I'll be talking about specific examples of abuses, the history and the Occupation in future blogs.

So - experiences on the journey so far. On Monday, we flew into Ben Gurion airport and got through border control with no trouble except some rather scathing looks ("yeaaaah, we're really looking forward to the beaches. Yeaaaah." - seriously, we are excellent dumb tourists.) Israel has a policy of interrogating and deporting anyone they suspect of being a Palestine solidarity activist, so we were quite lucky with this.  

Stayed one night in Tel Aviv. The hostel was full of tourists who seemed to be totally ignorant to the fact that they are visiting a place which has been compared to visiting South Africa during Apartheid (maybe they have also invented time machines and this is next on the hols list??). I find this particularly hard to deal with, but with a major lack of accurate, unbiased and from-the-ground reporting on Palestine, the Pro-Israeli stance that many news outlets take, and Israel's own propaganda machine, it's actually hardly surprising that some people think that partying in Tel Aviv is an acceptable way to spend their summer.

Next had an amble about Jerusalem. Palestinians from the West Bank need an Israeli permit to visit the city and the Muslim holy site there, Al-Aqsa mosque - however, these are rarely granted by the Israeli government, and when they are, it seems to be kind of at random. Being an International here makes me realise again and again my privileges and freedoms - I remember speaking to a Palestinian man last time I was in the West Bank - he told me that he had been granted permission to go to Jerusalem once, many years before, and had never allowed to visit since. He told me that instead, he would purposefully drive down a particular road in the West Bank and get out of his car at a particular point where he knew he could catch a glimpse of Jerusalem in the distance. A rather poor replacement.

Then on to Ramallah, for the ISM training to prepare us for the month ahead, as well as much falafel. I have also FINALLY learned the numbers 11-20 in Arabic (thanks GB) and therefore will no longer have to only purchase things which cost less than 10 shekels. EXCELLENT. Tomorrow we plan to go to the regular Friday demonstration of the village of Nil'in - in solidarity with their struggle against The Wall cutting into their land, and to document any human rights abuses. 

So, to bed for me, and over and out for now. 

*For the purposes of not being caught by Mossad, 'GB' shall be known by this very sneaky nickname.