Words from Palestine

On Wednesday, July 28 2 IWPS volunteers responded to an invitation by EAPPI members in the village of Yanoun to visit an exhibit of children’s photography . Having little knowledge of the village and its history, we were taken aback by the apparent desolation of the village as well as its vulnerability. It is surrounded by Israeli Occupation Forces encampments and the extremist ideological settlement of Itamar. According to EAPPI members, settlers from Itamar come into the village 4 to 6 times a week, toting machine guns and menacing the residents.

While the villagers grow wheat, vegetables and olives (they press their own olive oil!), their main source of subsistence is animal husbandry. They have sheep, goats and chickens. They make cheese and have milk and eggs which they sell in Acraba, a village about 6 kilometers away. They also make bread, but follow the traditional Palestinian lore of bread. Bread is never to be sold, nor thrown away. It is sacred, given only as a gift
Sadly, the land they are able to access is shrinking on a monthly basis. The Itamar settlers , whom even the IOF appear to fear, threaten the villagers away from their grazing areas by patrolling village land with machine guns and other deadly weapons. The villagers have suffered much violence from the settlers, yet themselves have a strict policy of non-violence. When settlers appear with their weapons in hand, the villagers, whether they be grazing their animals or tending their farmland, simply move back toward the village center. The settlers patrol closer and closer to the village center, thus the villagers lose more of their land.
The village is separated into “upper” Yanoun and “lower” Yanoun by about 10 acres of farmland and Olive trees. There are less than 100 people who remain in the village. A few live in upper Yanoun, which is most vulnerable to settler intrusion, so most in live lower Yanoun. The village was completely depopulated in 1992 by settlers. A small number of villagers returned after an international presence was established there, first by IWPS and then by EAPPI.

Recently, there has been an organized effort on the part of settlers across the West Bank to intimidate and provoke Palestinians. This effort has included going in large groups of 100 or more to pray inside and at the entrance to Palestinian villages, as well as to burn Palestinian lands and Olive trees. Yanoun was not left behind in the effort. Settlers burned about 2 acres of land, including a few Olive trees. However, in a twist of irony, the wind changed direction and the fire started burning toward the illegal settlement houses, necessitating the settlers to put it out

I and my team mate spent most of the day in the village. It is situated on a hillside just west of the Jordan valley plain; The view is spectacular. From upper Yanoun you can see for miles across the ancient valley. I felt there was something sacred about the land I was sitting on and looking across. We discussed the ways we dealt (personally) with recognizing the humanity of the settlers and soldiers without excusing their behavior. It is a constant struggle to see those who commit the atrocities we witness as human beings worthy of compassion. But it is imperative we are able to do so, lest we become consumed with resentment and other negative emotions that make our work as peace activists less effective.

As I write, we have are making plans to visit Yanoun again. However, we will not be visiting Yanoun to demonstrate. We will be going back to Yanoun simply to be a non-violent presence in the midst of some of the ugliest forms of violence I have witnessed in the West Bank.

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We have a new volunteer and was giving her a tour of the village and introducing her to some of the villagers. We stopped at the balidyia (the municipality building) and was offered tea by the mayor. While having our short visit, he received a phone call from someone in the front of the village that Israeli Occupation Forces had entered the village. We immediately went out to monitor the situation.
Villagers directed us to where the IOF was. There were 3 jeeps and about 12 soldiers. They drove around the village and parked at the entrance of a boy’s school where summer camp is being held. While the soldiers from one of the jeeps entered the summer camp, fully armed, the other two jeeps parked at the square just outside the school. Soldiers stood outside of their jeeps with machine guns in hand. The soldiers were in the school for about 10 minutes. IWPS volunteers attempted to enter the summer camp but were not allowed to pass the army jeeps. So instead we started taking photos.

After leaving the summer camp, the jeeps drove down the main street and stopped at a shop where we often buy our fruits and vegetables. The jeeps blocked the street and four soldiers entered the shop while the others were out of their jeeps blocking pedestrians, machine guns in hand. At this point the soldiers told IWPS volunteers to stop taking photos and demanded we stay some distance away from them. There were children playing all around. One IWPS member asked a soldier what the problem was. The soldier responded there was no problem. To this the IWPS replied that having machine guns around small children was a problem.

They were in the shop for 5 to 10 minutes before coming out, then drove away out of our village toward the direction of a neighboring village, Kifl Haris . Shop keepers later told us that soldiers were asking them general questions about problems in the village while other village residents told us that the soldiers were asking them about village economy and unemployment.
The same three jeeps came back into the village after a short while. They again drove down the main street and stopped in the middle of the village. There was a truck in the village center delivering the monthly rations of food given to the Palestinians. Sacks of flower, rice and lentils along with large jugs of cooking oil were being given out. The bags were marked USAID. It is a sad irony that aid from the United States is both feeding the people of Palestine as well as fueling the occupation that starves their body and eats away at their spirit.

It seems apparent to me that this incursion was an act geared toward normalizing the occupation. They want villagers to think it is normal for heavily armed soldiers to come into a village, block roads and harass people. They want the children of Palestine to think that Zionists who have come to steal their land are their friends. Though thankfully, there were not arrests or injuries from this army incursion, I found this action of the Israeli Occupation Forces one of the most insidious forms of the Zionist Occupation.

As we have been very busy with our work on the ground there hasn’t been time to keep up with writing about it! However, today will, hopefully, afford some time to give readers information on what has been happening with IWPS in Palestine.

On July 10 we joined Palestinians and other internationals at the weekly Saturday demonstration in the village of Iraq Burin, protesting the theft of village land and water by Zionist settlers . This is the same village where 2 young Palestinians were executed during a demonstration on March 20, 2010.

The village of Iraq Burin is situated on what I can best describe as the cliff of a high mountain. One has to see it to appreciate the spectacular geography. There is only one road leading up to the village and the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) had set up a road block at the beginning of the incline to the village. Palestinians asked us to accompany them to a demonstration at this roadblock. We were informed that the village had been declared a “closed military zone” and we would not be able to enter the village for the demonstration.

We met in Nablus and traveled the short distance to the road block in a big pink bus with about 50 Palestinians and internationals. We attempted to pass the road block but were threatened with arrest so we held a peaceful rally and sit in on the road for about 2 hours.
Afterwards, most of the demonstrators returned to Nablus but I and my team mate bypassed the road block by moving out of site of the soldiers and walking up the mountain. Several other activists had already done the same, and they assisted us in staying on a rough donkey path via cell phones. However, the terrain was extremely difficult and we lost the path about three quarters way up the mountain. Nonetheless, we made it (a bit winded and dehydrated!) to the village in time for the demonstration.

As we accompanied the villagers down through their land toward the spring that they have used for agriculture and potable water for hundreds of years and are now denied access to, we were met with a considerable amount of tear gas from the IOF.

The land is very dry now and tear gas canisters caused a brush fire which villagers had to put out amidst being fired at with more tear gas. One young man was injured, either by falling on the rugged terrain or being hit by a tear gas canister. He was carried away from the scene but later was walking on his own. Other than that there were no serious injuries.

The IOF maintained the checkpoint through out the day. We were prepared to spend the night in the village if the villagers felt threatened, but they were calm and didn’t feel an international presence was required.
The previous week 3 internationals were arrested as they left the village through the main road, so we left the village the same way we entered, down the donkey path.

When I first came to Palestine with IWPS, our house was located in the village of Hares. IWPS had set up it’s house there because at the time there were numerous army incursions, arrests, and curfews and other human rights violations. Among those was the shooting of Issa Souf, who was paralyzed from the waist down and will spend the rest of his days in a wheelchair. We went to Hares to visit friends there and to get an update on the situation in the village as we had heard there were demolition orders for several homes there.

( a quick recap on the circumstances of the shooting of Issa Souf… There was an IDF incursion into the village of Hares during the first Intifada. Issa was at home with his wife, pregnant with twins, and their 18 month old son. Soldiers came to their home… Issa his his wife and child in bedroom, telling her not to worry, he would see to the demands of the soldiers. He was unarmed. For a reason unknown, they shot him in the back, resulting in the paralysis.)

We met with Issa , his lovely wife and their three children. Issa is an amazing man. He has learned various meditation practices to help him deal with both his disability and the continual abuse he and his family endure under the occupation. I would describe his manner as calm strength. He related to us the difficulties he faces due to his paralysis, and how life under occupation escalates these difficulties. When bound to a wheel chair, pressure sores are always a concern so one had to change positions on a regular basis. It is not uncommon for him to be held up at checkpoints for hours, which endangers his health and causes pressure sores. For himself, he has no fear of the military; he laughs at their shouting and machine guns. But his concern for his wife and children is grave.

He related that several weeks ago he went to the Wadi Qani valley with his family. It was a cool day and they remained in the car, just enjoying the beauty of valley. He said he felt as though he and the nature surrounding him were one. Suddenly, soldiers were surrounding their car, pointing machine guns at all of them and demanding they get out of their vehicle. For himself, he was not afraid and in his mind he was laughing at them. But his children were terrified. This is their life under Israeli Occupation. Of course he was unable to exit his car due to his paralysis. When he showed them the documents he carries that describes his paralysis, they allowed the family to remain in their car, but they made them leave the valley… a valley that belongs to the people of Palestine.

Then we discussed the current situation in Hares. There are currently 5 teenagers who have been arrested and sentenced to 3-9 months in Israeli prisons. By Israeli law their families are allowed to visit them. However, in reality only the mothers of the boys are allowed to visit. Fathers and siblings are considered “security” risks. As well, it is an arduous journey to the prison. The mothers must go through a complicated process of securing Israeli documentation for travel to the prison, and the travel must be coordinated through the Red Cross. Once at the prison, mothers can only speak to their sons via a telephone with a glass window separating them. My team mate asked Issa if the mothers visited their children despite such hardship. “Of course” he replied, “how can a mother not visit her child!”

We also asked about the demolition orders we had heard about. Issa has 9 brothers, all whom own homes in Hares. However, the names on the deeds to all the properties is that of their father. The IDF presented demolition orders on at least 3 of the houses but the orders did not specify which houses were under demolition order. The papers gave them 3 days to appeal, which they did, hiring a lawyer to fight against demolition. The lawyer was clear that they would lose if they went to court, so his strategy is simply to delay the demolitions.
Let me make very clear the heinous nature of these orders. There are 10 families whose houses may be demolished with (hopefully) a 24 hour notice. Twenty four hours to remove all the possession you are able, everything that may be precious to you. Since the order is for 3 of the houses owned in name by Issa’s father., none of the families know which of the 10 homes are included in the order. There is no way to know how long the lawyer will be able to stall the orders.

The families wait in dread, while Issa sits in his wheelchair, laughing at the military who can do no more harm to them than they have already done. He said, “ they have the law of force, and the Palestinians have the force of law.
Unfortunately the force of law will not save the homes to be demolished, nor will it release the boys being held in the Israeli prison.

Today my team mate and I went to the weekly demonstration at Nabi Salih. It took us almost twice as long to reach the village as the roads leading in were blocked off. We are not sure why, but it appeared they were blocked due to toad work. The narrow, winding back roads took us through picturesque villages and gave us a view of the centuries old olive groves terracing the mountainside.
We arrived early enough to have coffee and tea with our precious friends of the village. Unfortunately there are few internationals on the ground in Palestine at the time, but there were a good number of Israeli activists and press to witness and document the events of the day.

After midday prayers, the march toward the fields began, which was already seen to be an impossibility as soldiers have set up a road block in the village . The march consisted of almost entirely young children, women and elder men of the village. It was a peaceful march with children leading, carrying a banner, waving Palestinian flags and chanting slogans in Arabic and English. As the women and children , press and a few male adults led the march the Israeli Occupation forces fired sound bombs and tear gas at the children. Nagee grabbed his 3 year old son in his arms and approached the soldiers, asking them why they were firing on little children.

Nagee was immediately thrown into a military jeep along with his 3 year old son. He was handcuffed and he and his son were in the jeep with machine guns pointed at them for 10-15 minutes. Nagee’s pre-teen daughter came to the scene and was allowed to take her little brother out of custody. At this point, Nagee was taken away and held at the old British fort in Hallamish, the settlement that has expropriated the land of Nabi Salih. My team mate and I did not witness this occurrence.

As the march continued, my team mate and I skirted the main road to get on the other side of the line of soldiers. We were able to get a good view of what was happening and joined the other protesters (again mostly children) when 2 Israeli activists were arrested for an unknown reason.

By this time soldiers had completely surrounded the village. We returned to the village square; there were no further arrests and the soldiers had stopped violent action against the civilian villagers. After we felt assured the children and other villagers were safe we returned to our friend’s house to find out that Nagee had been arrested and his little boy had been held at gunpoint until his young sister got him out of the jeep. We immediately started making phone calls to the authorities to find out where Nagee was being held. While we were making phone calls , Nagee phoned his wife and said that was being released; she went to pick him up and there was great relief in all of us. .

His coming home was a joyful reason for family and friend to visit and hear his story, He said he was held in hancuffs for the entire time he was detained . The welts on his writs confirmed this. However, the happy ending was that he was released and safe at home with his family for the time being. Family and friends gathered at Nagee and Bushra’s home and celebrated his release with comraderie and a delicious feast. Fortunately, there were no reported injuries and, in comparison with other Friday demonstrations, violence on the part of the Occupation Forces was minimal.

Today we accompanied villagers to their land the Wadi Qana valley. Our intention was to reach an area that Palestinians lived in up until 1967, when homes there were demolished by the Israeli Occupation Forces. As I have noted in previous posts, the Wadi Qana valley is the largest aquifer in the West Bank. Fresh water springs bubble up out of the ground and the many small caverns that dot the region. Traditionally the Palestinians have used this land for their olive groves, citrus trees and grazing animals. The villagers were given “permission” to access their land today, however, soldiers denied us access.
We then walked for 3 hours over the toughest terrain I have ever traversed to return to a road that was accessible to Palestinians. Tough exercise, but a beautiful, priceless experience. There were a few times when I did not think I could continue on, but of course there wasn’t a choice, and the experience was invaluable. The steep hills and valleys of the Wadi Qana are pristine.
Though this is the dry season and the wildflowers I have made a photo album and a photo slideshow of have withered away for the summer, sage, mint, carob and other edible flora are abundant.
Sadly, the entire area is being illegally expropriated by Zionist settlers and it is fast becoming a dumping ground for the sewage and trash of the illegal settlements that line the hilltops of the valley.
I have said it before but I will say it again. The settlers build their illegal colonies with fear. They know they are living on stolen land and thieves live in fear. So they surround their settlements with barbed wire electric fences, security cameras and flood lights . Though they are occupiers, they live in self made prisons. They have both the military and private security watching over them , and many carry machine guns around with them.
It is a sorrowful sickness that has pervaded this land. Quoting my husband, “ it isn’t a land of milk and honey, it a land of tears and bloodshed.”

Friday we went to the demonstration at Nabi Salih. It began as usual with a march from the village center toward the fields of the village stolen by the settlement of Hallamish. Children led the march with a banner that read “threatening to demolish our homes will not stop our resistance to the occupation.” And as usual, the military stopped us before we even made it out of the village. However, the village had choreographed a great diversion. The smaller children of the village courageously, non-violently, confronted the soldiers with anti occupation chants, singing and playing games like dodge ball in front of them. The children were just too small for even the Zionist soldiers to react against them. The soldiers looked like fools standing en masse with their machine guns against little kids playing games. The kids kept the soldiers “detained” for most of the afternoon. The soldiers would try to move away from them but the children would follow them. The children demanded the soldiers leave their village, give them back their land, end the occupation… They formed circles around groups of soldiers, holding hands and singing, “NO, NO Israel, viva Palestinia!” This went on all afternoon.

While the children toyed with the soldiers at the entrance to the village, other soldiers who had entered the village via jeeps used tear gas against unarmed civilians and activists. Later in the day, when the young children had tired out, the IDF fired a considerable amount of tear gas into the village, seeping into the homes of people who had retired from the demonstration or who had not taken part in it. Cars were backed up when the military blocked off the road leading into and out of Nabi Salih.
My team mate and I stayed in the village late into the evening as we were concerned the military would exact fierce revenge on villagers for the humiliation they faced by the young children’s peaceful tactics.

I met an young man from a western nation at the hostel I stayed in who is a Muslim. He came here for a 2 week vacation. When he arrived at Ben Gurion airport he was interrogated for 6 hours. When he wouldn’t tell them what they wanted to know (he has nothing to tell them!) he was threatened, as was his family in the UK. After hours of grilling, he was told that if he didn’t tell them why he was really here, something bad would happen to him and his family. After what happened on the flotilla, he was truly frightened. He said he was taken from one room to another, with different interrogators threatening him. He said he had never felt so powerless. He of course had no information to give them, so he as at a loss of what to do. He couldn’t get away, he couldn’t answer the questions to their satisfaction, so he was at their mercy (which is by and large nonexistent).
After the 6 hours of interrogation he was allowed into the country on a 2 week visa, one day short of his plane flight, so he had to rebook his flight. I imagine he is being watched very closely…probably why they allowed him into the country. He wants to go to Ramallah and Nablus but is now fearful to enter the West Bank. He related to me that he is constantly aware that he can be arrested at any time and has no recourse to justice.
I expressed concern for him that he may have a more difficult time leaving the country than he did coming in. He contacted his embassy and asked that they assure him “safe passage out of Israel.”
I am worried for him. He is just a kid, born and raised in a western nation, and the closest he has ever come to terrorism is at the airport in Israel. I can see the sadness and concern in his eyes. And he just came here for a vacation
If I could sum up the essence of his personality in a couple words it would be kind, compassionate and mild mannered. I say this not just because of my conversations with him, but also because of his interactions with others here at the hostel. There is a a raving Zionist with obvious mental problems staying here and this young Muslim man has spent a lot of time patiently listening to his rants, never condemning him, just listening.
I have asked him to contact me as soon as he is safe at home. I am also going to see about having an Israeli friend accompany him to the airport. Perhaps that will give him a measure of safety. Oh the sadness that prevails in this land.

I returned to Palestine several days ago. I was held at the airport for about an hour and was refused the standard 3 month visa, but was given a one month visa and will apply for an extension. I am still in the Old City of Occupied East Jerusalem, waiting for my team mate to arrive and we will make our way to our village.

There is much talk of impending war. As I have not been out of the old city I can only relate what I am hearing on the street here. People believe there will be a war this summer.
The Israeli Occupation Forces are confiscating Palestinian Identification cards. It is difficult to explain how serious this is. In the United States, if you lose your ID you just get a new one. Here, if you lose your ID you might never get a new one, and if you do it could take, literally, years. If you are stopped without an ID- and if you are a young male you WILL be stopped, you go to prison or are deported to Gaza or Jordon, without your belongings, without your family even knowing what has happened to you.

Equally disturbing, the Occupation Forces began war game exercises in the villages of the West Bank this week. Their reasoning: they believe the settlers are going to rise up against the Palestinians and the Palestinians will respond with terrorism. Consider the terminology here. The settlers, illegally occupying Palestinian land, are going to “rise up” and the Palestinians, who have nothing except rocks and courage for justice to defend themselves, are going to respond with “terrorism.”

One man whom I spoke with asked me why Americans are allowing their tax dollars to be spent on Israel’s illegal occupation “Why, why,” he said, “so much money given to Israel which uses it to oppress and kill us. Tell me why”
And I am standing on his land, with all the privileges afforded my American passport, privileges he is denied in his own land, and I have no answer.

International Human Rights Volunteers Needed in Palestine
The International Women¹s Peace Service (IWPS) is a team of international female human-rights volunteers in Palestine who provide accompaniment to Palestinian civilians (including farmers during the annual olive harvest), document and non-violently intervene in human-rights abuses and support acts of non-violent resistance to end the Israeli military occupation and construction of the barrier throughout the West Bank.
IWPS is currently inviting applications from women who would like to join our team of long-term volunteers.
Successful applicants will be invited to a 9 day training program and meeting in Portugal (Sept 11th- 19th, 2010) and will serve a minimum of one 3 month term in the West Bank, Palestine, as well as supporting our work outside of Palestine.
Applicants should be able to commit to further terms in Palestine of one to three months in their 2nd and 3rd year of commitment to IWPS.
Short term volunteers are also welcome to apply (applyiwps@gmail. com) for minimum volunteer periods of 3 weeks
For more information about IWPS and our activities please see our website www.iwps.info (please note our website is currently being upgraded)
If you would like more information and/or would like to receive an application pack please contact us at applyiwps@gmail. com
Deadline for applications 31st July 2010