SF Activst gets first hand accounts from Occupied Palestine

Messages to the Outside World from Qalqilia Prison

"We live in a prison. This town used to be like a rose- now it is nothing."
-Abu Eyad, an elderly shop keeper in Qalqilia

We have been in Qalqilia, Palestine for a week now and it is difficult to know where to start writing. Everyone we have met has welcomed us warmly - shopkeepers asking us to sit a while for tea or coffee, invitations from our local coordinators' friends to come to their homes and family celebrations, even our sixteen year old neighbor saw us in the street last night and asked us if he could bring us some tea to the apartment we are renting here. We so appreciate this hospitality and hope that we can take action here in Palestine and at home that will make us more deserving of the honor we are treated with.

With each person we speak to, three messages become clearer and clearer. Everyone we meet tells us, “We live in a prison,” referring to the Apartheid Wall that the Israeli government has built to completely enclose this town (for pictures see http://home.earthlink.net/~brookehatherton/). Everyone also tells us that the people here are suffering a great deal. When we ask people what we should do in solidarity with their struggle, they tell us that they hope we will see the truth while we are here and tell people in our home countries about what is really happening in Palestine and hopefully someday end U.S. support for the Israeli government's Occupation of Palestinian people and their land. In an effort to do this, I would like to share with you a little about Qalqilia and some of the messages people here have asked us to tell people at home.

40,000 people live in the city of Qalqilia and in the Qalqilia region there are 32 Palestinian villages in which 85,000 people live. There are also 23 illegal Israeli colonies (settlements) in the Qalqilia region with a population of 50,700 Israeli settlers. The Qalqilia region is a farming region and was once known as the "bread basket" of the West Bank. The Qalqilia region also supplies one-third of the West Bank's water from its underground aquifer.

The city of Qalqilia is now almost completely enclosed by Israel's Apartheid Wall, leaving only one entrance to the city which has been turned into a military fortified gateway-- a checkpoint. The Apartheid Wall also snakes throughout the villages and farmlands in the Qalqilia region. The terms "Apartheid Wall", "Separation Wall", or "Security Wall" all refer to the Israeli Government's construction of a 25-foot wall near the border between what is now called Israel and the West Bank and a massive, electrified fence that snakes throughout the West Bank. On April 15, 2002 Ariel Sharon announced that he will "isolate" Palestinians from Israelis by erecting "walls and buffer zones" in a plan of "unilateral separation." The strategy is to take as much Palestinian land as possible while militarily caging in as many Palestinians as possible, all in an attempt to continue Israel's colonization and occupation of Palestinian land and water resources. At the same time, Israel will effectively isolate Palestinian population centers from one another. One of the cities most affected by this plan is Qalqilia where the wall highlights Israel's increasingly visible apartheid regime.

Qalqilia's people still own 1550 acres of farmland surrounding their town. 35% of this either has been taken or will be taken for the Apartheid Wall. Another 55% of their land (900 acres) will be isolated from them on the Israeli side of the wall and many farmers have not been allowed access to their land on the other side of the Apartheid Wall. The Apartheid Wall has also been built to give near total control of the aquifer. 15 of the City's 39 wells - one-third of its water supply - will be confiscated by the Israeli Occupying Forces due to the wall. Due to the Apartheid Wall, one-third of Qalqilia businesses have shut down and the unemployment rate is 65%.

Message from the Mayor of Qalqilia

When we first arrived in Qalqilia, we met the mayor of the municipality and he shared with us about the history of Qalqilia and the current situation here:

“Our problems with the Israelis started in 1948 with the declaration of Israel as a state on Palestinian territory and lands. At that time, Qalqilia lost 80% of its land (40,000 dunams/ ~ 10,000 acres). In 1956 the Israelis occupied the town and blew up the police station and killed 70 people. In 1963, the Israelis entered the town and exploded the town's water stations. In 1965, the Israeli forces bombed Qalqilia's aquifer and all of the gas stations in town. In 1967, the Israeli military occupied the town and transferred Palestinians from Qalqilia to Jordan on trucks; we still have 17,000 people from Qalqilia living as refugees in Jordan. The whole town was evacuated at that time, and the people who were not sent to Jordan went to live in the surrounding villages. An agreement was made with the UN to allow the people to return from the villages to Qalqilia, but the refugees in Jordan were not allowed to return and they are still there.

In 1996, the Israeli military gave local farmers notice that they would be taking land on the west side of town [along the Green Line] to build a “security” road. Israel promised they would make access across this road for the farmers to go to their lands on the other side, but soldiers prevented Palestinians from crossing the road, shooting at them and frightening them. The Israelis said that after 5 years they would give back the land, but instead on August 15, 2002, the Israelis began building the Wall. In September, the Israelis said they also wanted to put their hands on the other sides of Qalqlilia [for the Wall] and gave the farmers three days notice of this by hanging leaflets on trees. We went to the Israeli high courts and got a decision that the contractors and bulldozers must stop until the court case was settled, but they went on uprooting the trees and destroying houses. The contractors said that we must take the decision to the commanding officers near Ramallah and that the Israeli military would have to tell them to stop before the contractors would stop. So we did this, but the contractors continued the work saying that this is a high risk area and the court has no authority. More farmers today received letters from the Israeli Occupying Forces about more land that will be confiscated, but the notices do not say “confiscate”. They say they will “amend” or “adjust” the borders. They do not have the right to do this. There must be an international supervisor to negotiate between Palestine and Israel according to international law this is how international borders are decided.

“The wall and fences on all sides of the town affects our economy and services in the town. Qalqilia used to be a center for all of the surrounding villages inside the West Bank and the 1948 borders. Even the education, culture, spirit, and psychology of the people are affected. When you go out of your home and find an 8-meter wall- the young people feel they are in a jail, a prison. To go out of the town, you must show your ID, maybe they let you go out, maybe they keep you in, maybe they arrest you. Yesterday they arrested an 18-year-old man out of an ambulance- they say he is wanted , but if you are wanted you don't go to the soldiers and show your ID. The Israelis always say these things are done for security reasons, but they have to abide by international law. On the west-side of town we have a border with Israel, on the other sides of town we have borders with the West Bank and they have no right to make the walls and fences on all four sides. To make it on all four sides and to put walls around other Palestinian villages. They have no right.

“This is concerning sovereignty. They don't want the Palestinians to have sovereignty over the land. They break us up into isolated pieces- this is political: they do not want a Palestinian state joined. A state without sovereignty is not a state. They want the water of the area. 32% of our water is on the other side of the wall and we cannot reach it. They destroyed the irrigation systems and the roads of the farmers -- this is not about security, this is about sovereignty. We have 23 settlements in the Qalqilia region. Israel wants to enlarge the settlements and connect them with highways and put Palestine in small ghettos. If you cut the income of the people, people then have to try to go out of the village and leave and move to another city or even another country because no one can live forever with no income. This is Sharon's strategy of transfer. They want the Palestinians to be forced to choose to leave and to not have to evacuate the people by force. 8000 families in Qalqilia currently live on food from NGO's.

“All of this affects the psychology of the young people, causing them to think of making military operations. You are pushing them to do this by the policy you are pushing on them. No normal person thinks of killing themselves our young people don't care if they commit suicide. We have no logic to use to encourage young people to go along with the peace."

Messages from the Farmers

The same day, we met with a representative of the local agricultural committees to discuss the problems the Israeli Occupying Forces are causing for Palestinian farmers in the region. The key problems they are facing are:

-A factory in a nearby Israeli colony (settlement) is dumping its waste into Palestinian farmland and destroying the crops.

-The Israeli Occupying Forces destroyed a water pump house for irrigation and continues to interfere with its reconstruction.

-Farmers continue to be cut off from their land by the Apartheid Wall, road blocks, and checkpoints.

-It is very difficult for them to access their own water. The Israelis are stealing their water, packaging it and selling it back to them.

When we asked them how they are dealing with these problems he said, “We want to do what we can to help ourselves, but we are not going to send our sons to die. There are illegal roads we could use, but we can be shot or killed for being on them. We cannot take the risks we need to take to help our situation.”

Every one we speak to has lost land because of the Apartheid Wall. Our local coordinator's family had ten dunams (2.5 acres) of farmland near Qalqilia and the Israeli Occupying Forces took half of it to construct part of the security fence and a gate to restrict movement between Qalqilia and a nearby village. Yesterday we met with two farmers from a local farmers union. He talked to us about the troubles they have had reaching their land. The roads have been blocked and they must exit the city from only one point and then walk long distances to get to their farmers which were a short walk or drive from their homes before the Apartheid Wall. For the many of the elderly farmers it is too much and they must abandon their land. For others, even if they can get to their land, they cannot transport their goods to the market because of roadblocks and gates. Now the Israeli Occupying Forces are telling the farmers that they must apply for special permissions to leave the city to go to their land. One farmer told us, "They are doing the same thing they did on 1948. They are making it so hard to farm and sell our produce that we will be forced from the land."

Being Forced from the Land

Ever day I spend here the reality of the forced transfer - ethnic cleansing - going on in front of my eyes becomes more real to me. "Given that 45% of the city's economy relies on agriculture, land, and water, confiscation will coerce migration of Qalqilia's residents eastward, eventually making Israeli annexation of Qalqilia demographically 'acceptable.' Already, according to the Qalqilia municipality, 4000 (10%) Qalqilia residents have left the city. An additional 2,000 heads of households have left Qalqilia in order to secure work and support their families who have remained behind in Qalqilia," (PLO Negotiations Support Unit). Last Tuesday, our elderly neighbor, Abu Ali, invited us into his family's home to show us four empty apartments that his sons and their families used to live in. All four of his son's have had to move elsewhere with their families in order to survive. A Palestinian American from Chicago who is visiting family here talked with us about the differences he sees here since the last time he visited, "Since 2000 there has been a big change in Qalqilia. They were O.K. then but now it is unbelievable. I meet people who have had no job in three years, no income for three years. There are no jobs, no work, no nothingAfter the wall is finished there will not be any kind of work. Who knows what will be here after one year in Qalqilia."

Message from Mohammad

We have had many conversations with Mohammad, who works with families of martyrs -- checking on them to make sure they are doing all right, organizing support groups, helping coordinate if there are efforts to raise money to rebuild their homes when they are demolished by the Israeli Occupying Forces -- and he has talked with us about the many problems that Palestinians are facing here:

"You see how the soldiers treat the Palestinians. Why? Why? I have 2 dunams of land (.5 acres). I live from my farm. How can one tell me I cannot go to my farm? How can I accept this? How will I support my children? And the refugees we have a dream that we will return to our home, to our land in Tel Aviv and in Netanya. We believe we must struggle for this. The people in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon why can they not return home? We must not forget "Al-Nakba" [Literally the great catastrophe in 1948 when over 800,000 Palestinians were expelled from their land when Israel as established.] Every year we make a meeting about Al-Nakba for the refugees to talk about our villages, our lands, our history. Now, we the people are suffering too much. The Wall is only one of our problems. When we sit and talk we ask from where can we start? We can't choose. We haven't water and the farmers can't irrigate their lands, there are killings by the Israeli army, there is the restriction of movement. There is a movement in Qalqilia and Tul Karm against the Wall, but it is too difficult for us to think only about the wall. One of my brother's kids is 7 or 8 years old. When the tanks come into Qalqilia, he goes down from his bed so the soldiers can't kill him. The children want to eat ice cream, to see sea, to go to the cinema, to continue their education. What will the effects be on these children? The fighters, the martyrs of this Intifada were the children of the first Intifada no one can convince them to put down their guns. For the future, the children of this Intifada will be the fighters. Who is the reason, the Israelis! They kill the fathers, the mothers, the children. The kids gather -- sometimes 100 -- at the hospital to see the martyrs who have been killed."

The Children of Qalqilia

The other morning we passed a bus with a sign indicating that it was a trip organized by the red cross to take people to visit their family members in prison. The same day we were invited to join a march of young boys in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners organized by their summer camp. At the camp the children learn songs and poems about their history and their nation. The camp also tries to help them just be kids. After the march, we went to a park where the boys got to swim and the camp counselors played the Tableh (traditional Palestinian drumming) and many of the boys danced.

We were invited to the final program of another summer camp, which mixed fun and culture with the reality of Palestinian children's lives. Some children sang songs for their moms, others danced, older boys showed off gymnastics, but the program made it very clear to me how different Palestinian children's lives are from other children in the world. One group of children who were probably five and six years old, came out with the colors of the Palestinian flag painted on their faces and sang a song about their flag the determination with which they sang brought me hope and sadness at the same time. The skits truly broke my heart. In one, a group of ten and eleven year old boys acted out a scene in which they were throwing rocks and one boy pretended to be shot, they put him on a stretcher, covered him with the Palestinian flag and acted out his funeral and mourning while a young woman read poetry about Palestine's liberation struggle. In another skit, teenage women spoke as the mothers of six children martyrs, each telling the story of how the child was killed by the Israeli Occupying Forces. At the end of the program, the camp director addressed our group of internationals and said, “Make sure that you learn the truth and stop funding the Israeli government. Bush is responsible for killing Palestinians, Muslims, Iraqis, and you must put a stop to it.”

Message from Hiba

Hiba is 18 and has just finished her high school exams. She hopes to go to university next year and study finances. I asked her to tell me about the situation of young people in Palestine and this is what she said:

“The situation in Palestine and Qalqilia is very difficult because I want to go to university outside of my city and I can't because the soldiers will not allow me out of my city. So it is very difficult. All the young people is playing in all countries, but in Qalqilia you can't because of the soldiers, all the night the soldiers is going and killing someone. So it is very difficult. But do you know something? All of the young people have hope for the future, hope that there will be freedom in this town. I don't think that the answer to our problem can come from out side of Palestine. The answer of the problem must come from us and the Israelis. Your government - I don't think you can stop it. You know that Bush and Sharon are friends. So Bush and Sharon are very good friends so I do not think you can stop the money to Sharon. You see the Wall - that is very difficult for us. You see my city - we have many farms. You know my mother is working in the farm. She grows many things in the farm. In all of Qalqilia are farmers who eat from their farms, but if the Israelis take my farm, what will I do? I can't do anything because I haven't got anything to live on.”

Message from Motasem

Motasem has a Masters in Strategic Security Studies, and this is what he shared with us about the current situation in Palestine:

“Peace is peace all over the world. But in Israel, peace is security. What I think about justice - there is no justice without peace. Peace is not just about security. I think the Oslo Agreement is a military operation but in a political way. I see that and I think about the reality of Palestine in history. Palestine is Palestine. Ok, I need peace, I want peace. When I think about globalization, I don't think about borders between Israel and Palestine. This is the holy idea. My grandfather, his land is inside the 1948 borders. What is on TV - this not important, what is important is what we feel on the street. I think when you see the map of Qalqilia from 1948 until now, you see many, many things. Going out of Qalqilia you find Israeli military areas, roadblocks, walls. And you see the statistics from 1948 of Qalqilia land. Now we only have 10% of our land left and it is going to discussion to reach an agreement between Palestine and Israel. You see 10% of our land is not enough for 40,000 people for agriculture. I think about my children. I have a masters degree in Strategic Security Studies. What can I do in Qalqilia? I think about immigration. This farmer, he lost his agriculture land where can he go? I will work as a worker- skilled or unskilled worker it is not important but there is no work or jobs in Qalqilia. I must go to Azun, to Nablus, to Jordan. There are many problems for social life, psychological, for income, all things. I feel I am still in prison. I had 2 years in prison in the first Intifada and I see all things are still in the same place.”

Military Attacks on Qalqilia by the Israeli Occupying Forces: Shootings, Assassinations, Home Demolitions

An elderly woman we met at the checkpoint on our second day in Qalqilia told us that recently she and her family were out in the street when the Israeli Occupying Forces invaded Qalqilia looking for a wanted” man. The soldiers questioned her family about the man, but her family didn't know anything. In response, the Israeli soldiers fired live ammunition at her family and wounded her husband.

The same day our taxi driver told us that 1 year and 11 days before, the Israeli Occupying Forces had demolished the building next to his house causing the destruction of his home also. It was the house he and his wife lived in right after they married, he told us “I was a groom in that house.” They have not been able to rebuild the home because they don't have the money and now they have to pay rent to live somewhere else. The Israeli Occupying Forces have demolished 28 Qalqilia homes in the last 15 months.
Later, when we were walking down the street, our local coordinator pointed out another taxi driver to us and told us that the drivers son had been shot through the window in his house while the son was making coffee.

On July 8th, we met with six fathers of martyrs from Qalqilia and together all went to visit the family of the most recently killed martyr from Qalqilia. 30-year-old Mahmoud Shawar was assassinated by the Israeli Occupying Forces in the early hours of July 3, 2003 - a violation of the current cease-fire agreement. We met with his wife, four young children, his mother, his sisters, and his brother.

His mother told us:

“Mahmoud was the best young man anyone could possibly be. Everyone loved him and he was always on the straight-a-way and never did anything wrong, never got into any trouble. He always said if anything ever happens to me take care of my mother and take care of my kids. All he ever wanted was peace. All he ever talked about was wanting peace in their town and in their neighborhood. We have neighbors who have been in jail for 25 years or more and he always talked about having hope that someday they will release all of them. Who are the people who did this to their family? this is their idea of peace? They are talking about peace all of the time but it is out the window because they do things like this. Mahmoud was killed the night after the cease-fire was promised. They are tricking us and lying to us . They come in the night to kill our boys and men. The Palestinian people are about nothing but peace, but this is what they do: they come and kill us. I am proud of him for dying like he did, but how unfair is it that my grandchildren will be raised without a father and that they will always be asking me, Where is my father? Where is my father? and I will have to explain to them what happened.”

Mahmoud was on a wanted list of the Israeli Occupying Forces for 2 years and had been in hiding. The Israeli military tracked him down in the middle of the night on July 3rd and shot him first in the legs and then the chest. A friend who was with him laid on top of him to try to save him and the soldiers shot the friend and arrested him. An ambulance came, but the soldiers refused to let the medics reach Mahmoud and left him to bleed and suffer for a while before they shot him in the back of the head at close range. Mahmoud's wife said to us, “He is not the only one. Keep that in mind- he is not the first and he will probably not be the last. Peace to all of those that are in my position. God bless them and their children.”

Message from a Martyr's Mother

We asked Mahmoud's mother what she wanted us to tell people in the U.S. and this is what she said:

“Pass on the message of truth. Do what you can to stop the killing of the olive orchards, the killing of the children, the fact that children can't play in the streets, can't do what they want to do. Our Dome of the Rock, one of our most important holy places , we can't go there to pray. I want Bush rather than to give Israel money to insist that they let the Muslims go into Jerusalem to pray. You must be very clear about the restrictions that are put on us because of this life. I don't want us to spend three hours at the checkpoints, all of the things you have seen here. I want all of that to stop so we can live our lives normally like we should be able to do.”

Message from a Martyr's Father

One of the fathers of a martyr that came with us to the home of Mahmoud Shawar gave us this message for people in the United States:

“The most important thing is the rights of children. Why do kids and families here not have the same rights as other people? All people decide that there is a power for the army and the war? Why can't all the world decide for peace in all the world? You can change the aims of America to not just be a military power to kill people, but to encourage others to go the way of peace.”

Message from Abed Allah

Abed Allah works for the municipality of Qalqilia and is studying for his P.h.D at night. We were watching a film of the damage done by the Israeli Occupying Forces in Qalqilia during the military attacks of the Spring of 2002. This is what he shared with me:

“Mr. Sharon killed any agreement between Palestinians and Israelis. Mr. Sharon does not like peace and killed children without reason and right before the agreement between Palestinians and Israelis Mr. Sharon killed Abdullah Qawasme in Hebron. Why this time? Because Mr. Sharon does not like peace and the mentality of Mr. Sharon is very bad. Now the Palestinians agree to the Roadmap, but the Israelis I dont know. Three days ago they killed a wanted man in Qalqilia without reason. Why this time? Palestinians agree to a cease fire, but Mr. Sharon killed Mahmoud Shawar in Qalqilia without reason and killed 3 people in Gaza and two people in Hebron. Why this time? Any people of the world like peace and like security but Mr. Sharon not. People in Palestine are suffering a lot there is no money and no security and no land and the situation is very bad in Palestine. Mr. Sharon wants security for Israel, but no security for Palestine.”

The Restriction of Movement

The restriction of movement placed on Palestinians by the Israeli Occupying Forces checkpoints, roadblocks, and gates affects every level of Palestinian life.

While doing checkpoint watch, a man from the nearby town of Tul Karm came up to our group to talk with us about his difficulties in coming to work in Qalqilia. It takes him at least 2 hours to come to work everyday, even though the distance is only 12 kilometers (about 7 miles). He only makes $200, but must pay $120 of that for transportation because they must take multiple taxis and buses and come a long way around to Qalqilia from Tul Karm due to roadblocks, gates, and checkpoints imposed by the Israeli Occupying Forces.

Last week we attended a historic soccer match. It was the first time Qalqilia's team had been able to play against the team from Tul Karm in three years, even though Tul Karm is so close to Qalqilia, due to the restriction of movement imposed on Palestinians by the Israeli Occupying Forces. In order to ensure that the game would happen, the soccer players from Tul Karm came to Qalqilia the night before the game and stayed in Qalqilia overnight. When they arrived at the Qalqilia checkpoint, the team from Tul Karm was forced to wait for two hours before the Israeli soldiers would allow the team to enter the city.

We met a woman named Samia from Qalqilia who works at the University in Nablus during the week. Although the trip should only take 30 minutes each way, with the current restrictions on Palestinian movement it takes three hours each way when it is easy. On the day I spoke with her, her friends had left Qalqilia at 6:30 a.m. and not arrived in Nablus until 11 a.m. because of the roadblocks, gates, and checkpoints. Because of this she cannot go to Nablus and return in the same day, so she goes to Nablus on Sundays and returns to Qalqilia on Thursdays for the weekend.

Message from Samia to the People of the United States

“Tell Bush he should not support Sharon. Why is the media so one-sided? No one sees the things that Israel does -- the assassinations, the cutting off of the land-- they only see the suicide bombings. There is Apartheid here. Why aren't people doing something about it like they did on South Africa? The Roadmap [Bush's new “peace” plan for the Middle East] is a piece of paper. They are saying it will make things better, but we haven't seen any proof yet.”

-Brooke


p.s. I am adding some new pictures and links to my website at http://home.earthlink.net/~brookehatherton/