Bethlehem, Under Seige Now

Palestine: It's HELL
John Reese (peace activist from Seattle)

As I sit here in my office there are guns and
explosions going off
around me. Bethlehem is being re-re-re-re-invaded and
more houses
are, once again, threatened to be blown up by the
Israeli Occupation
Force. Three homes were blown up yesterday and five
more today.
Nablus is under curfew with more houses occupied then
any time in the
6 months that I have been here (somewhere around 50
homes). Gaza is
recovering from its latest bombing attack. Twelve
homes where we
were hoping to get people (if we had enough) have all
been blown up.
Five people were killed in Tulkarem on Thursday
including one 12 year-
old boy. Yesterday morning a friend of mine was shot
in the leg by
the IOF in Jenin refugee camp when she went to check
on children
being shot at by the IOF. An hour earlier an 11
year-old child had
been shot and killed. And all the usual continues -
the property
confiscation, t he beatings, the restrictions on
travel, the
humiliating treatment at checkpoints, etc....

As I prepare to leave Palestine and begin my tour in
the US I only
hope that as I go from city to city I can light some
fire in people.
Perhaps something that I say or pictures that I show
will motivate
people to come here. At the same time I wonder why on
earth would
anyone want to come here? It is, as my soon to be
seventh month of
being here can attest, HELL here. I have smelled
death, seen the
injured, been shot at, seen people kicked and beaten
and seen the
bodies of those killed. I have lived with sewage,
piles of garbage,
drank and bathed in contaminated water, been shoved
and attacked by
soldiers, been harassed and suffered their attempts at
humiliation
directed at me. Mostly though I have felt helpless -
helpless as I
hear the stories of humiliation, beatings, death and
destruction.
I do have hopes though. I hope that the nonviolent
direct action
movement expands - both within the Palestinians and in
the number of
internationals that come. I believe that Palestine is
ripe for a
nonviolent direct action movement. I can see it
slowly growing and
there is hope it will get bigger and more organized -
and of course
more effective. It is these hopes that motivates me
to return here
after my tour of the US. I truly believe that we can
make a
difference here.

I have no doubt that our presence here has reduced the
number of
homes destroyed, the children beaten and the people
killed. We have
helped children get to school, taken food to those in
occupied homes,
made sure that water could be transported to those
villages without,
ridden in ambulances, and escorted sick and elderly
across
checkpoints. None of this would have happened without
an
international presence. Had we not been here quite
the contrary
would have happened.

It is not really that anyone would WANT to come here.
They have to
be motivated. Something has to move them. It is
something they hear
from someone who has been here or perhaps it is
something that they
see. For me, I had just had enough of the US
government trying to
annihilate more people. Even though the weapons that
we sell to
Israel are only supposed to be used in defense I don't
see how any of
what they do is defensive. It is not the Israeli
Defense Force but
an illegal Israeli Occupation Force, supplied by a
country that knows
exactly what it is doing - getting someone else to
annihilate more
people so they can maintain their planetary-wide
control. So I had
to come here to speak out about what our government is
doing and try
to reduce the effect of our government's misguided
policies.
Sometimes I think fleetingly after a demo or seeing
some form of
injustice, "well tonight I'll go home and watch some
TV and escape."
But I have no TV and at best I must walk through the
garbage heaps
and step over sewage running through the streets. At
worst I will
see someone being shot or beaten or a home blown up or
a tank firing
into a crowd of men, women and children.

I only hope that while I am gone someone will be here
to help keep
their lands from being taken, their homes from being
destroyed. I
hope that those whom I have met will still be alive
when I return. I
hope that somehow I can motivate you to come here and
help. Can you
hear the call? Please answer it by coming to
Palestine. If you
can't come maybe you can help send someone here.
Maybe you can help
fund me for my next trip here or others that are
willing to come.
For the sake of the men, women and children of
Palestine won't you
please help put an end to this HELL?

For pictures from Palestine go to:
http://www.seattlecan.org/