Nablus resists

In the high point of a week of planned non-violent direct actions against the occupation, residents of Nablus converged on Huwara checkpoint to protest the continuing closure of the region. Prisoners' families, accompanied by more than thirty international activists, were flanked by Palestinian medics and ambulances as they approached the checkpoint. The two aims of the action were to raise the profile of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli gaols and to protest the ongoing closure of the Nablus area.

There are currently 8000 Palestinians, many of whom are women and children, illegitimately imprisoned by Israel. Currently 1400 of the prisoners are from Nablus. The town is surrounded by checkpoints, of which four are currently active. Nablus was entirely closed for much of the time from the start of the last intifada to this year's elections.

Nablus city is still frequently subject to closure and often inaccessible for the residents of surrounding villages who are dependent on services in the town. International visitors are routinely denied access at Huwara and Beit Iba checkpoints. Some 318 000 people in the governorate live with severe restrictions imposed on their movement by a system of fixed and part time checkpoints, road blocks and trenches flooded by settlement sewage.

Armed teenagers from the Israeli occupation forces can arbitrarily detain any Palestinian on the road or deny them passage altogether. UN OCHA documents the instances of delays to ambulance at checkpoints each week. Published figures count the deaths at checkpoints and the number of babies born to women refused permission to cross to reach the hospital. Delays contribute to the deterioration in health or death of further numbers of people. Ambulance drivers have been beaten and paramedics have been made to strip for the soldiers before being allowed to pass or turned away. Medics, who must suffer the oppression and humiliation of the checkpoint several times daily, made up a large number of the participants today.

Residents began their rally at Nablus's bombed-out Muqata (government office). The buildings were largely destroyed in the April 2002 invasion and the remaining structures bear heavy damage from the shelling. Four buses and eight ambulances took the demonstrators towards the checkpoint.

Read More (with more photos):
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4034.shtml