Report from the Occupied Territories

"I already well up with tears when I think about leaving here in only 8 days and abandoning all of these people who suffer so much every minute of every day. I know now that the ISM is really nothing but the weakest and most frail line of defence around lives under constant threat. It can't reach around even a tiny fraction of the people here and it ruptures all the time. The miracle is that it even exists."
-- Shira

Up-to-date articles on the Israel-Palestine conflict in general (as well as extensive background info, Q&A's, etc.), can be found on the Mideast Watch site at:

http://www.zmag.org/meastwatch/meastwat.htm

--------------------------------------------------------------

Gideon Levy, "Nothing Happened" (Published in Ha'aretz):

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=22&ItemID=2227

----------------------------------------------------------------

TULKARM INVADED: ISM ACTIVISTS REPORT WHAT MEDIA DOES NOT

This is a report written by Roxanne, on behalf of Cindy (US - NYC) who has been in Tulkarem for the past week. She is part of the first ISM international contingent in this West Bank town, which lies near the Israeli border.

Roxanne writes:

Today in Tulkarem, things are very tense. While I haven't heard much about it on the media over here, Cindy reports that the Israeli army has invaded the Tulkarem refugee camp. They raided in the middle of the night, with tanks on the ground and Apache helicopters overhead. So far, at least 2 Palestinian men have been confirmed dead, while the number of injured is unknown. The military has the camp under complete lockdown and they're not allowing anyone in or out, including ambulances and the press (although Cindy says Al Jazeera is the only network who seems interested in covering the story). Five ISM volunteers were able to sneak into the camp at 1 pm today. Wearing shirts that said "international observers," they sneaked past the soldiers to try to document what was taking place inside the camp.

They interviewed a family whose house the soldiers occupied in the middle of the night last night, to use for surveillance, as the house is high atop a hill. The soldiers took the top level, while they forced the family to the bottom. The family reported that from 3-7 am they heard explosions from every direction. They also said that the soldiers used Palestinian children as human shields, as they went house to house to round up all the men. They described how the soldiers even used children's shoulders to aim their guns.

Cindy told me a little about this family, whose stories of terror are tragically similar to many other Palestinians. As in the rest of Tulkarem, they have been living under constant curfew for the past three months, lifted only 3 or 4 hours a week, to enable them to buy provisions. The father, who was a construction worker in Israel, hasn't been able to work for 2 years. The boys used to sell goods across the border in Israel, but they haven't been able to do this for some time either. The three boys, who are ages 12, 13 and 14 have scars on their necks, chests and faces from being beaten by the soldiers. Earlier this year they were arrested and detained for three days and held in a jeep in the sun with no food or drink. They did not know why they had been arrested.

On her way back to the Red Crescent society, Cindy saw a large group of men waiting across the street at the hospital. Upon speaking to them she found out that they were the men who had been rounded up in a section of the camp the night before (the army partitions the camp into block-wide sections to conduct their "investigations.") This is their report:

At 3:30 a.m. the military called on loudspeakers for everyone to get out of their houses and onto the street. They then blindfolded and handcuffed all the men (it is illegal under international law to blindfold someone while arresting them. It is also illegal to cover your face when arresting someone, and the soldiers had camouflage painted on their faces.) The men were taken to a military base and held until 10 am, when the soldiers began collecting their IDs and photographing each of the men. At 1 pm they were finally released, but because it was in the middle of curfew, they were too afraid to return home. So they were waiting by the hospital until they felt it was safer.

Cindy felt appalled and disheartened by everything she's seen today. She said in the camp, everything is silent except for the sounds of gunfire. People are not even going near their windows, because they fear they might be shot. One ISM volunteer was in the ambulance that picked up one of the dead Palestinian men, and he described how the body had bullet holes all over, as well as marks from being beaten with the butt of a gun.

No one Cindy talks to is untouched by this brutal occupation. The woman who runs the orphanage where Cindy is staying wants to get to the hospital where her brother is wounded after being shot in the leg by soldiers overnight. One of the babies in the orphanage is suffering from an eye infection. They were finally able to get him to the hospital for an exam, and the doctor prescribed antibiotics. But there is no pharmacy open to buy antibiotics, so the baby's infection will continue to spread.

Cindy reports that over the border in Israel the other night she could see fireworks. The only explosions in Tulkarem are from the occupying army.

To contact Cindy, please call: +972-67-429-641
To contact other ISM activists, please call:
+972-67-270-398
+972-2-277-2018

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT - http://www.palsolidarity.org