St. Louisian Visits Palestine

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http://www.stlimc.org/front.php3?art...&group=webcast

Just over one month into her visit in Palestine, J, an international from St. Louis working with ISM has witnessed many atrocracies within the occupied territories.

My heart breaks for all who lost their lives yesterday, for all who have died in the bombings and as a result of the illegal occupation. For peace to happen there must be justice. I see no justice in Palestine. As some of you may already know, there was a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv yesterday. 4 were killed and several injured. Typically, after an event like this, they will shut down Chalandia (Incorrect spelling, sorry), the major check point between Jerusalem and Ramalla, and try to determine which region the shahab is from. When they find this information out they will come about 3am to demolish the home of the family and possibly invade the village to some degree.

There was no exception last night and they came illegally to collectively punish a family and a city.

The boy was 16 years old. His name was Ali and he lived in Askar refugee camp in Nablus. I wish I could show you all the camp and the conditions in which he lived everyday, but I can only tell you that no one should have to live in a place like that.

Myself and 4 other internationals decided to go to the village and find Ali's family to see if they wanted our help with the house demolition. Already the army had terrorized the village and shot a 12 year old boy in the neck as he played outside with his friends. He died. Now the soldiers were gone and the village was quiet except for the spy planes and F-16s flying over head. The streets were deserted and littered with bullet shells that I picked up until my pockets were full. Usually they take these as not to leave evidence.

As this was happening the old city of Nablus was under a semi-invasion. They had wounded 8 people and by morning 3 men had been killed.

They raided the Red Cresent, a medical relief team, and arrested 2 men. I will bring you more information as I get it from the people who were there to witness. When we arrived at the house a translator spoke with the father, Abu Ahmed, and expressed to us that he would like us all to stay with him until the soldiers came. He had emptied his house of belongings except for a few chairs, a tea kettle and a bowl of dates. He knew they would be coming to demolish the home, but he wanted to stay there as long as he could. He didn’t want to let the house go and he certainly didn’t want to let it go easily, without a stand for himself. He busied himself with cleaning and stopped occasionally to laugh and talk with us.

He was so gentle and sweet - you could see this as he told us stories of his past and his family. His brother had been killed by IOF 2 years ago and a year ago he was shot in the leg from a jeep. Now he walks with a limp and a cane.

All the friends who had gathered at the house told us stories of their IOF encounters and showed us their scars as well. One man even made a not so funny joke in response to the number of scars we were shown - everyone in Palestine has either been shot or arrested. We all watched Abu Ahmed sweep the house. Then he moved out to sweep the street. He just kept sweeping and sweeping a ground that would soon be covered with pieces of the house he had shared with his family and a son that he just lost.

The army came at 3am. The man picked up what he could carry and walked out of the house. We wanted to stay and protect the house, but without chains, without media and without anyone to protect Abu Ahmed we felt we had no choice but to leave, a choice that I will always regret. The soldiers began asking us questions as they led the father towards the jeep. They wanted to take him for questioning.

We spoke calmly to them, explaining that we were here to be with Abu Ahmed through a very stressful time (understatement) and that if he needed to talk to the captain, that would be okay, but we would all have to go with him. They grew increasingly agitated. They started asking us why we wanted violence and assured us that they would use it if we didn’t leave. They even proposed that we stand on the opposite side of the road and take pictures of everything they did to him so that we could show the world. He might as well have said show them - no one will care. We clung to him and they began pulling and pushing us to get to the man. Things got louder and one soldier put a gun to the head of an international, withdrew it after yelling something at him and then kept it aimed at the group at head height. We said we would not leave, and they allowed us to stay there against the wall in an alley as they took their explosives into the house. This was their priority.

We stood with Abu Ahmed and watched soldiers take 2 men from the camp and use them as human shields, walking door to door searching houses and alleys for fighters. They held guns to the men’s backs to ensure that they did things in a quiet, compliant mannar. We pleaded with the soldiers to stop, but the Palestinian men quieted us, and we were silent at their request. We watched dozens of soldiers file into Ali’s house with cases and other demolition tools.

We stood silent and listened to them drill holes in home. It felt like they were drilling them into me, and I cant stand to think about what he must have felt, standing there listening to them drill holes in his home, unable to do anything about it. They walked back and forth past us as they prepared for the demolition, always keeping the guns pointed at our heads.

They made us move, Bfor our safety,� around a corner and past a couple homes to avoid any flying debris. We stood there and waited, 6 plus jeeps had blocked the entrance to the alley and we could see nothing.

The sun was coming up now, so we knew it would happen soon. Abu Ahmed had missed his chance to eat, and now with Ramadan he would not eat again until 5pmâ€Â¦although Im sure this was the very last of his concerns.

They blew the house up without warning we were silent and motionless in the streets as we watched the debris fly over our heads. At that moment Abu Ahmad began to cry - he cried so hard I was filled with such disgust and anger and sadness and guilt and a million other feelings I could never describe, but all I could do was cry with him. There is no outlet for these feelings, no justice, no reasons. I didn’t want to cry, but I didn’t. I’ve seen boys choose the other optionâ maybe Ali was choosing the other option. Maybe he was tired of crying.

It seemed so senseless there in the street like this. By the end of the night 4? Israelis had died, 5 Palestinians had died, 2? Men were arrested, and 3 homes had been demolished. Add to that the psychological factors, the homes near the demolished homes that need serious repairs, the shops that were broken into, the reaction that will come to all of this and the nights after this when more violence and retaliation will follow - why? It has nothing to do with religion, it has to do with the occupation. How can there be oppression, murders, control, theft, injustice, violation of human rights and dignity with the expectation that those who are subjected to this will not react with violence. Of course violence is wrong, of course violence in itself is an injustice and of course violence only breeds more violence, but that is my point exactly.

How can they be expected to react peacefully to soldiers who assassinate their children and then that soldier and his commanders show no remorse for that action.

They actually try to justify it! They show no respect for life and dignity and this inhumane treatment is supported by the Israeli people. We can only hope and pray that people start using non violent methods of resistance, but we cannot turn our backs on them when they fall short this. This is a country of human beings, not saints. Did the US not react violently to Afghanistan? Hell, when has the states ever chosen non violence? The message needs to be clear on both sides, that all life is sacred and peace cannot be obtained without justice.

The 4 who died in Tel Aviv also saw no justice. It is not justice to demolish, maim and murder in retaliation. Justice would be analyzing the event and asking how and why. It would mean understanding reasons behind Ali’s actions and the actions of all other suicide bombers, so that we can get to the actual problem and work to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Israel would like you to believe that the problem can be fixed by tightening security, finishing the wall, teaching Nablus a lesson, but these are obviously useless, superficial actions. Justice is not punishment.

Please pray for the people in Nablus. Likely, there will be much violence in the coming days.

Allah Yirhama,
J

www.palsolidarity.org