Palestine: "It's not my problem"

On Saturday, Rushdi Tamimi was shot in the village of Nabi Saleh. He was on a hillside in the village, taking part in a demonstration against the massacre in Gaza (which was escalating massively at that point).

He was shot with live ammunition by an Israeli soldier. He was 31 years old.

After he was shot, he lay on the hillside, surrounded by soldiers. They did not try to help him. Having shot him again and shoved him with their guns, they shot at anyone who tried to come near to help him.

This video below was filmed by someone trying to approach - you can hear being shot at as she shouts "Ana B'tselem" - "I am B´tselem" - B'tselem is a human rights organisation who film abuses by the Israeli authorities.

You can also hear the soldiers, as Rushdi's sister pleads with them to let her take him to a hospital, saying "I don't care". And "it's not my problem". The lack of humanity is chilling.

Rushdi's family eventually managed to take him to get medical help. He died 3 days later in hospital - they couldn't stop him from bleeding. Could earlier medical attention have saved him? Who knows.

Rushdi is the second person from Nabi Saleh who has died fighting the occupation. I was at the demonstration when the first, Mustafa Tamimi, was killed when a soldier shot a tear gas canister directly at his face, making Tuesday my second Nabi Saleh funeral.

There were tears, followed by anger, followed by tear gas.

Because in true bastard form, the soldiers attacked the funeral demonstration with live ammunition, tear gas, rubber bullets and skunk water. You can see pictures from the funeral taken by my comrade Alberto, on his blog here. They demonstrate a complete lack of respect for Palestinian life and a complete lack of remorse for having caused Rushdi's death.

In other news:

• There is now a ceasfire in Gaza. Inshallah it will last, and no more will be added to the 162 people who were murdered by Israel since operation 'Pillar of Cloud' began.   

• 22 year old Hamdi al Falah was killed in Hebron, demonstrating against the attack on Gaza. He was shot four times, once in the head, twice in the body and once in the leg. Friends of mine were at the funeral and said that thousand of people came to protest his death, the occupation and murder in Gaza. They were (surprise surprise) violently repressed by the Israeli army.

•  A 20 month old baby died in Qalandia after soldier fired a tear gas canister into his bedroom. It ignited and he died of the burns.

• Activists helped to remove a section of the Apartheid Wall (the Wall is in both concrete and metal fence form - the 15 metres we removed was from the wire part). The army didn't even arrive in time to stop us. Hah! 

• Activists blocked a settler road and for a second time, a settler drove a car into one of my comrades on purpose - this time it was Palestinian popular struggle organiser Abdullah Abu Rahmeh. He is fine now.

Palestine: “Shut your fucking mouth.” 

I thought I’d seen a lot of Zionist tourists when I wrote about the settler tour last Saturday. That was until I realised that this week was Abraham Day, a Jewish religious holiday. Because of this, thousands (I do genuinely mean THOUUUUUUUSANDS) of fundamentalists religious people turned up, with the belief that the whole of Hebron should be part of Israel (COUGH, green line, COUGH, international law). Oh, sorry, silly me, as I was told many times over the course of the day, these people do have the deeds to the land. They store them all in this book called the Torah apparently. *eye roll*

The majority were just a rowdy mob, rampaging through the Palestinian market, surrounded by 50 or so soldiers. They went through the market for HOURS, hassling shopkeepers, pushing over food and stuff for sale and even attacking some people who were trying to record their bad behaviour. They punched and kicked one Palestinian man who was filming for B'tselem and tried to steal his camera. They grabbed cameras of other international observers. I asked some of them if they knew what effect their 'tourism' had on the Palestinian population (soldiers on their roofs at night, sweeps of the market by 30 soldiers three times in the morning, fear, harassment, abuse) - their response? "Shut up"or "why does that matter?" or silence.

Settlers and soldiers overlooked by Palestinian kids on the roof.

I’ve said it time and time again, but any state that gives a bunch of 18-20year old men brainwashing training, huge guns and the run of a city populated with ‘the enemy’, is pretty messed up. Hebron is like a video game where the aim of the game is to protect the settlers. I can't tell you how unprofessional these soldiers/kids are. I can't count how many times I've been told to "shut your fucking mouth", "shut the fuck up", or received invitations to engage in sexual intercourse with them. *mega eye roll*

Or a new one today, "hope to see you in Gaza."

Since I started writing this blog, several days ago, much has changed here. Operation 'Pillar of Cloud' has begun, or as it would be better known, murder. Gazan Palestinians are essentially trapped in the largest open air prison in the world - blockaded from land, sea and air. In the last 3 days, children have been killed (including an 11month old baby), the majority of deaths are civilian, yet still Gazans who fight back against the occupation are the terrorists. Israeli authorities - wearing a uniform does not legitimise murder or siege or occupation. At 360 km² (about the same area as the UK city of Sheffield, but with a population 3 times the size*) Gaza is one of the world's most densely populated areas, making targeted attacks on 'militants' incredibly difficult. Add to this the fact that half of the population are children - Israeli leaders KNOW that they will kill children and they will kill civilians.Yet they continue. And yes, the besieged people of Gaza continue to resist. I don't advocate killing of anyone, but I do know that the Palestinians have a right to resist the numerous and continuing human rights abuses committed against them by the hugely more powerful (and US backed) Israeli forces. Nothing so far has worked.

On the same day that the attack on Gaza began, we had a demonstration, or several demonstrations really. Hundreds of Palestinian, Israeli and international activists blocked roads to illegal settlements, urging settlers to leave. The regular Friday demonstrations in the Palestinian villages of Nabi Saleh, in Kufr Qaddoum, Bilin etc are amazing and inspiring, but the people that they most inconvenience are often the villagers themselves - this new tactic of demonstrating on settler roads, or in settler supermarkets will remind these settlers and the Israeli forces that their actions are not without consequence. To block the roads, we used chains, we used ourselves - each time, the soldiers arrived and the settlers arrived, attacking with gas, batons as well as with their plain old hands and feet. Our non-violent demonstrations are always met with this type of aggression.

At the last roadblock that we staged, a friend of mine was standing in front of a stopped settler car. Then the car accelerated - directly into him. He was thrown over the bonnet, as the settler sped into the distance and we all stood gaping. An ambulance was called and he was taken to the hospital in Ramallah for x-rays and tests. He was not badly hurt thankfully. Also, none of us were arrested, which was surprising considering the amount of de-arresting that we had to do.

Activestills pic of us de-arresting Mohammed Khatib, protest organiser.

Still, I can't keep away from the news of Gaza - another death, another air strike, the possibility of a ground strike is looming. Israeli reserve forces have been called up. We are so near in the West Bank, and yet so far - life here is a million miles away from life in Gaza. I run out of words to say what I mean, but I do know we're not gonna "shut our fucking mouths", whatever you do. Palestine is not that easily shut up.

Love and solidarity to Gaza - see demonstrations that you could join around the world here.

*Sheffield/Gaza population comparison in honour of Amy Man.

Palestine: Tourism - settler style

When I visit a new city, personally I prefer to explore it on my own - I find it the best way to engage with a new place, wandering the streets at my leisure, finding the city's secrets myself. Despite this, I do understand that some people prefer guided-tour style tourism, where you can really learn some history and interesting titbits of information about a new area.

But, I do rather reject the idea of visiting in a group of more soldiers than tourists. Especially when the city you are visiting is part of the occupied West Bank and you are an Israeli settler. This is what happens every week in the city of Hebron. For the last two weeks, I have had the pleasure of tagging along on the tour, because in the past, there have been attacks and harassment of Palestinians by the 'tourists' and by the soldiers 'protecting them'.

Before the settlers have even arrived, the soldiers 'secure the area'. This area that desperately needs to be secured is where Palestinians are getting on with their lives. It's their market, it's their homes, it's their shops. The 'securing of the area' often consists of breaking into houses, pointing guns into doorways and around corners and climbing onto Palestinian roofs. GB and I followed three soldiers who had climbed onto someone's roof - just as the soldiers were walking past, a little girl opened the door of her apartment. Not who I would like to find walking down my stairwell - unsurprisingly, she speedily shut the door again.

Just hypothesising, but I suspect that if that had been a young man who had shut the door, the soldiers would immediately have suspected wrongdoing and taken some action against it. The past few days, I have seen innumerable Palestinian 20-something men stopped and detained by soldiers. I ask why these men are being stopped - the soldiers admit they aren't looking for anything, they are just following orders. This is so often the case of these soldiers, pawns in the Israeli occupation. They don't know what they are doing, nor why. (Not that this excuses them of their actions. We've heard the line 'I was just following orders' before.)

So after the soldiers have finished invading people's houses and harassing people before the tour, it's time for the settlers to arrive. They come out of the illegal settlement right in the middle of Hebron city centre. Then they go directly to a Palestinian playground. Imagine 40 soldiers and a tour group arriving into a playground where you played as a kid. Imagine all the soldiers are heavily armed. Imagine that they do not care what happens to you, they care only for the tourists that they are 'protecting'.

In Hebron, some of the kids are so used to it that they try to carry on with their game of marbles. The soldiers clear them out of the way. Other kids stop and stare, or run away. The group of smartly dressed settlers wander through the park, hearing Zionist version of the history of Hebron - at one point, the Christian Peace Team and B'tselem (other observers watching the tour) get a mention by the tour-guide as busybodies who want to stop them enjoying their day out. (Benefit of ISM not having uniforms - we don't get name dropped by settlers as much!) Many of those on the tour are women younger than me. Their glares at me are piercing.

Continuing the tour, the soldiers shove their guns around corners as the tour group enter the winding paths of the souq. They stop Palestinians from walking past the settlers, only occasionally letting them edge by, squashed between the soldiers' guns and the walls. They are required to wait until the tourists have passed them - anyone who tries to pass on their own streets is liable to be pushed back by the soldiers.

Eventually, they retreat back into the settlement and lock the gates behind them.

Recently Israeli television channel referred to Palestine solidarity activists as 'hate tourists'. That label would be more correctly applied to these settlers. 

yallah bye settlers

P.S. finally, a tribute to my fallen comrade GB who will no longer feature, due to his yallah-bye-ing outta Palestine. Sad day.