Palestine #7

Palestine Report #7.

Occupied Palestine, 26 June, 2002.

My last few days in Jenin were pretty crazy. In two separate incidents on Friday, 21 June, the
occupying Israeli army murdered 4 children as they ran from the tanks. Their official
explanation was that the children were throwing stones but several people were there & phoned
the news media saying that this was a lie. I was just 50 yards down the street at the second
incident & I can tell you, it was an unprovoked attack by the soldiers. Caught in a lie, they
recanted & actually apologized for the slayings. Saturday & Sunday, I violated the cerfew to
go into the refugee camp & record people’s stories. It was both heartbreaking and inspiring.
These people have born the brunt of Israeli war crimes. They are tired & need a break, yet they
remain committed to justice & a practical resolution, not the table scraps thrown out by the
Sharon government. The army rounded up all males from 15 to 50 in the camp & sent them out of
town. They then went house to house, supposedly searching for terrorists. Several of the houses
I visited had been trashed by soldiers. Reports of looting were common, valuables were smashed,
appliances overturned, computers smashed, glass & mirrors broken; all in a manner more
consistent with vandalism than with man-hunting.

For eight of the nine days I spent there, the town was under siege. Tanks rumbled through the
streets, shooting every now & then, often at no particular target. Several cars were destroyed.
Jeeps patrolled with “shoot to kill” orders. Explosions are an hourly occurrence, either
because the army is blasting open a locked door, or blowing up a car, or damaging a home.
Sharon has recently announced that he will tighten his grip on 5 major west bank town of
Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus, Bethleham, & Hebron in response to recent suicide bombings. Need I
repeat yet again that this & everything the Israeli army does in the occupied territories is
illegal under international law.

Monday began with a tank blast at 6 AM. It turns out that the army blasted an apartment
building because they believed it was a bomb factory. I visited the sight & found no evidence
of explosives but plenty of evidence that it was a standard family residence. This residence,
as well as the dozen more in the building, were occupied at the time of the explosion & the
army made no attempt to evacuate them before the bombing.

Later that day, the town was rocked by a second explosion. This time, at a bank, also claimed
by the army to be a bomb factory. The blast destroyed the bank & several adjacent offices.

My attempts to interview Israeli army commanders were rejected out of hand. Soldiers would not
speak on the record.

To quote my latest song: “The truth walks the streets of Jenin.” Yeah, nobody needs to tell ME
who the real terrorists are.

I hitch-hiked the 20 km from Jenin to the border then walked across into Israel arriving in the
port city of Haifa to track down a story at the university (will report on this soon). Talked
to more than a dozen Israelis who left me with the feeling that support for Sharon’s reign of
terror is not as solid as we are lead to believe.

Now back in Jerusalem, hoping to get to Nablus, Bethlahem, back to Ramallah, & Gaza Strip
before I leave.