Palestine Pal

I am home (final entry for now)

2006-05-09T03:34:00.000+03:00

Hello everyone.

This may be my last post for a while. I have returned to Australia after 3 exciting months in Palestine. Some people finish these sorts of blogs with "over all summaries" on the situation in Palestine. I don't want to do that because in some ways the incidents my blog reports speak for themselves and things are still playing out in Palestine. I mean there are obvious things to report about the occupation being horrible and the resistance having major problems in organising (both internal and external) but I don't want to do that here.

If anyone in Australia is interested in hearing me speak I am happy to address forums or meetings about my experience. I am based in Canberra but if you can organise an airfare and accommodation for me I am there. I would also be prepared to talk outside of Australia but I figure if you can afford to get someone you should try to get a Palestinian out as their ongoing commitment and struggle continue to inspire people like myself. I encourage people to see Palestine and meet the wonderful and diverse Palestinians for themselves.

If you want to get in contact e-mail harrison_g_healy@yahoo.com.au . I will keep this site up and running but I probably wont be adding much for a while. I look forward to still hearing from people though. Hopefully I will return to Palestine. In the mean time check out some of my links and thanks for listening to my rants about the struggles of a people facing an increasingly brutal occupation.

Thanks,

Harry

Beirzeit University: Student Elections and Institute of Women's Studies

2006-04-28T19:10:00.000+03:00

I travelled to Beirzeit to meet up with Bassima one of the people in charge of the Institute of Women's Studies at University. When we got there I was surprised to see such a strong political atmosphere on Campus. I had arrived right in the middle of the student elections. Like the elections that I saw in January (see posts "Real Democracy in the Middle East (no it is not Israel)" and "An amazing election day!") for more info. Bierzeit university was covered with flags, banners and leaflets for the various faction.

When I was on LaTrobe University in Melbourne a campus with about 16,000 undergraduate students the SRC elections rarely resulted in more then 1,000 votes (6.25%). Yet Beirzeit, a campus with 5,446 undergraduates students able to vote had 4,441 people voting (81.5%).

Student Block # of votes # of seats
Martyr Yasser Arafat - 1,947 - 23
Islamic Loyalists - 1,853 - 22
Islamic Group - 132 - 1
United Students' Pole - 265 - 3
Students' Platform - 151 - 2

I am guessing the Martyr Yasser Arafat group is a student front for either Fateh or Al-Aqusa Martyr's. If that is the case that would be interesting because when we spoke to Bassima she informed us that the Islamists had won the last two campus elections in a row. Bierzeit University however used to be a major centre for leftist activity in Palestine. When asked about the decline of the left factions in Palestine, Bassima like many others acknowledged the external problems but felt they were an excuse and that the real reason was the left had ceased to organise people at a grass roots level. Whilst groups like Hamas were actually talking to people and taking up the space that should be occupied by the left. She said "Hamas is going into the local communities and talking to women about the importance of the role women can play in their own Islamic sense."

On the role of women since the Hamas election, Bassima said "a lot is on hold and remains uncertain." specifically she talked about things that the women's movement was in the process of reform such as raising the marriage age to 18 (from 16) and making it so that women no longer required their husband or fathers permission to get Passports etc. Whilst the new parliament has more women then ever before, the new Hamas government has only one female minister the minister for women's affairs. Bassima told us that the new minister for Women's affairs was from Saudi Arabia and there she studied Sharia Law, so her hopes of progressive change coming from there weren't high.

Bassima said she didn't feel that this rise of Islamic forces relates to historical Palestinian culture. Whilst now the majority of Birzeit's women students where the hijab, "back when [Bassima] was an undergraduate at Birzeit, it was rare that you could see a women wearing a headscarf."

The institute for women's studies puts out a lot of research on development issues however it didn't appear that political in terms of its outlook and most of the research the texts they provided us from the institute (I am still working through it) appears to be very much aimed at NGO style development research rather then social activism.

Unfortunately we only had less then an hour to talk with Bassima so we weren't able to cover everything in as much detail as we would have liked. We talked about the women's movement broadly and Bassima like most other people talked about trying to get women economically independent by providing them with training and trying to get women into university courses (particularly 'non-traditional areas'). This is incredibly important in providing the material basis for women to be independent of their husbands or their family members control. However the issues of social relations seems on the backburner for now. Bassima said that there were different initiatives organised by different women's groups tied to Political factions but unfortunately we didn't have time to go into those.

The Women's Institute has several hundred students and has a higher ratio of men involved then many women's and gender studies courses in Australia (a ratio of about 7:3 rather then 10:1). However Bassima sees that as less of a reflection of interest in gender issues or feminism (which like in Australia is often viewed at as a dirty word). Rather it is a reflection of an interest in working in NGO's (one of the only ways Palestinians can make money) given that Gendering services seems to be popular amongst international NGO's these days.

The department for all its progressive ideals cannot really talk about areas central to women's studies departments in Australia such as homosexuality, on this issue Bassima just said that it was taboo and that she has "a friend who had to leave for Brazil, so he could be open about his sexuality".

Bassima said it is "important for the women's movement to be an integral part of the anti-occupation struggle and you can't have freedom for women without freedom for Palestine, and you can't have freedom for Palestine without freedom for women."

[I borrowed a friends camera and took photo's of the election however because Israel searches your bag at the airport the photo's were posted and we are still waiting on them. I will attach some of them to this entry when we get them]

Recent Suicide Bombings - Context

2006-04-24T00:16:00.000+03:00

I am writing this blog post in the wake of the Suicide Bomb attack on a Tel Aviv bus station where 5 people were killed. Since I have been in Palestine there have been 2 suicide bombings. The one before this recent attack only took place, a couple of weeks prior and killed 4 settlers in a settlement just outside of Nablus. I do not feel it fair to talk about the suicide bombing in Nablus and the one in Tel Aviv like they are the same. The settlement outside Nablus is a settlement of armed extremist settlers who are waging in many senses of the word a guerilla war, to drive out the Palestinians. They are not civilians and I don't morn their deaths.

The bombing in Tel Aviv however is a different story. Whilst Israel may be a coloniser not all Israelis support the occupation and the arbitrary killing of Israeli civilians does nothing to aid the Palestinian cause. While 5 Israeli civilians have lost their lives this year as a result of suicide bombings, nearly every day since I got here, I heard stories of Palestinians killed. I was personally near at least 5 killings of Palestinians since my time here. This is on top of the non-fatal collective punishment that the Palestinians face on a daily basis some of which is recorded in this blog.

With the literal torture that Palestinians are facing I am surprised that one of them hadn't taken up this extreme reaction earlier this year. In terms of the hitting of civilians one thing that is not really looked at in terms of Israel's recent bombing of Gaza is that they have launched over 2000 missiles yet have only killed 16 people including children. To be honest I am surprised that 2000 missiles cant kill more then 16 people and suggests to me that these bombs are very erratic in terms of what they hit and of course they are going to hit civilians. The occupation is causing ongoing terror, frustration, control etc and suicide bombing of civilians whilst horrible needs to be understood in that context.

Beit Sira: a village intimidated into submission

2006-04-23T23:05:00.000+03:00

I attended probably the weakest demonstration in Beit Sira to date. There were 10 non-Palestinians (Israelis and Internationals) and about 35 Palestinians out of a village of several thousand marched against the wall in the village. Israel has been rapidly increasing its construction of the apartheid fence in Beit Sira, so much work had been done since I was at the village last.

The rally organisers talked about confronting the fence however due to the lack of numbers, we just marched up the road to where the special response unit was. We sat down in front of the military lines for 5 minutes and then walked back. The reason for the small turn out? Israel has been ringing up the Palestinian villagers individually and threatened to take away permits for any Palestinian involved in the actions. The permits hanning over their heads are for such things as allowing to work in Israel or simply permits to allow them to drive Taxi's through Area C (Areas of the West Bank directly controlled by Israel).

Of course this is illegal and Israel will never admit publicly that they were making these threats but this is what the villagers were telling us. This only adds to the economic grief of the Palestinians who are being starved of funds since Hamas were democratically elected. Still with the situation getting so bad for Beit Sira the people have two options to capitulate or fight. Sadly at this stage it appears the majority are submitting.

One of the very frustrating things about Palestine is a distinct lack of cross village solidarity. Despite the close proximity of villages to each other (5 minutes away) the only activists that travel to support the different demonstrations are the Israeli activists, the Internationals and the ISM Palestinian Organisers.

Damn tourists, but only when they are with the Palestinians.

2006-04-23T22:00:00.000+03:00

Passover, a time of family meals, of bad public transport in Israel and a time when thousands of Jews converge on Hebron. One of the soldiers informed us an estimated 10,000 people were coming to visit the extremist settlers in Hebron. ISM and Tel Rumeida activists as usual patrolled the streets to help provide a sense of security for the Palestinian population and to assist them during the frequent events of settler violence. Four Israeli activists came to help out as well but were stopped by the police who decided they weren't allowed to be in Hebron because they were Israelis but weren't with the settlers. They got escorted out of Hebron in a military jeep.

There were so many tourists walking all around H2 but it appeared that most of them were totally oblivious to the problems occurring in Hebron. There were some Israelis amongst the blowins but a lot were Jews from places like the United States. When I first got to Hebron I took pictures of Shuhada street, where the Palestinian shops were all closed (because the army thought they might 'provoke' the settlers. For me it was important to take pictures of what was clearly a once thriving street to reflect on the impact of the occupation. For the tourists it felt like they were taking photo's of just another interesting street. I am so used to Settlers running around and beating up Palestinians it threw me back a bit having Americans walking up the hill complaining in a joking manner about having to walk so far. It felt more like Seinfeld then settlers.

I have the feeling that so many of the tourists there were just observing the wacko extremists in the same way that many less religious Christians may visit orthodox churches for 'the experience.' In some ways their presence actually made things safer because I don't think the settlers wanted to alienate their friends by having them witness the stoning of a 5 year old.

After most the tourists had left the streets, a group of us internationals on tourist visa's went out to get food. The savory food in Hebron is the best in the West Bank (that I have experienced so far) and I recommend people eat out in Hebron. We walked through the checkpoint to H1 as normal but some of the internationals at the back of the group were told that H2 was now a closed military zone for 'tourists' and that none of us would be let back in till Passover was over in 3 days time.

We tried to dispute our being kicked out of H2 pointing basic things out like the fact that we have an apartment in H2 and that they were kicking us out on the street. We also asked why the closed military zone order was only being enforced on our 'tourists' but the 'tourists' who were staying with the settlers were not being hassled. Many of the settlers aren't even Israeli coming from several other countries and never even going through the process of obtaining citizenship.

So faced with this 'closed military zone' that only applied to about 8 people, we decided to sneak into H2 through a back way. We hoped given the arbitrary and stupid nature of the closed military zone order that maybe when we got up the next day things would be sorted. Some of the others volunteered to do the morning school run whilst some of us volunteered to sleep in (slacker I know). At about 7am the activists came into the apartment agitated telling us that their passports had been confiscated by the army who told them they had 10 minutes to collect their stuff before they had to leave H2. We quickly got dressed in case the army was going to raid the apartment and those who had their passports confiscated decided to go down, collect their passports and leave.

The whole military order thing seemed dodgy to me. So I decided to go onto the street, knowing that they were likely to insist I leave. I was to refuse to leave and be arrested. The army would have to have me face a court within 24 hours and the judge could rule (hopefully in my favor). Rather then calling the police to arrest me (soldiers can arrest Palestinians but only detain Internationals or Israelis), six soldiers decided it was just easier to try and strangle me, beat me and throw me out through the checkpoint. I wasn't too badly beaten but a bit shaken.

One of the other internationals in the apartment who actually wanted to leave H2 and was to bring down my bags was stopped and told she couldn't leave H2. She asked why that was and the soldier basically said the rules had changed from 20 minutes prior because he said so. She argued with him for a while before he finally agreed to let her go if she was 'escorted' inside a military jeep all the way to the checkpoint.

Zionists vs. Zionists in Salem

2006-04-16T00:34:00.000+03:00

Apart from trying unsuccessfully to get into occupied homes, we also attended a demonstration in the village of Salem near Nablus. The hills of the Nablus region are covered with tiny extremist settler populations. Salem has been facing constant harassment from settlers. The settlers have cut large numbers of the villages olive trees and 68 year old man being beaten and taken to hospital 3 days prior. Rabbi's for Human Rights decided to organise a demonstration in Salem to allow for the Palestinians to be able to work their land.

The rally had a very different dynamic to those occurring in the South. There were only 10 Palestinians there, the rest were Israelis and whilst I recognised some of the Israeli anarchists the bulk of the 40 Israelis present at the demonstration were part of the kibbutzim movement (little Jewish in theory "collective" farms). The demonstration walked to the lands that the Palestinians wanted to farm (olive groves and grazing lands for sheep). When we arrived the Palestinians and some of the Israelis began to work.

However the whole rally quickly gravitated around two settlers who blocked the Palestinian tractors. The settlers and the kibitz people started to argue with each other in Hebrew. One of my anarchist friends told me that the discussion was really bad and that we should just continue plowing the field. I asked him what he meant by that and he said the entire argument was basically a chest beating session as to who was more patriotic and Zionist. Whilst the settlers went on with their usual rhetoric about how all this land was theirs, the kibbutzim people argued along the lines that by expanding into the west bank the settlers were undermining the Zionist project. They talked about the taking over of the majority of Palestinian land like it was a good thing. They even put forward the racist myth that "they made the desert bloom." This line about making the desert bloom is basically a myth that apart from Jewish Zionist colonisation, the Palestinians were all backward and essentially ate sand.

They try to block out the history of the majority of Palestinian villagers that weren't just taken over in 1948 but were actually destroyed and entirely replaced by Jewish towns. The Palestinians have very deep roots with their land and places like Jayyous both what we could access and the vast lands over the horizon make it clear that such talk is entirely nonsense.

Anyway the argument got louder and louder, eventually 6 army vehicles drove up to protect the settlers. The army denied the Palestinians the ability to work on much of their lands and supported the settlers who ended up driving their ute around the sheep, that were slightly further back, in order to scare them. Apparently the sheep were provoking or something. I joked with a friend that they were Palestinian sheep so they probably thought there was a bomb in them or something.

The rally surrounded the ute and I managed to stuff flowers and grass in one of the petrol canisters of the settlers. The army finally instructed the settlers to go further back but forbid the Palestinians to move forward onto their land. We stayed for a few hours but had to go back to Nablus to deal with some home occupations.

The settlers around Nablus are extremists who constantly harass Palestinians and who would be fairly described as crazy by most Israelis. A few weeks ago there was a suicide bombing which killed 3 settlers in the Nablus hills. Normally I do not condone suicide bombings as they kill innocent people and set back the Palestinian cause. Apart from my sympathy towards the poor man who felt the need to kill himself I have no sympathy for these people. The settlements around Nablus are military instillation for an armed guerilla army that unlike the proper Israeli army have no rules or regulations at all.

Nablus re-invaded

2006-04-15T21:02:00.000+03:00

A planned breakfast and a cake making session in Jayyous were cancelled as we received word that Nablus had been invaded by the Israeli military. Within two hours another ISMer and I were in Nablus. We were quickly directed to where a conflict was taking place between an armored jeep firing plastic coated metal bullets and Palestinians throwing stones. We stayed next to the medical team as the last stones were thrown and the army retreated out of the city at least in terms of street presence (elaborate later). Several people had been arrested. No one was "killed" but several were injured a boy was shot with a rubber bullet right in the middle of his forehead forcing part of his brain out of his scull. He was in a severe condition possibly brain dead. Palestinians don't have the medical equipment for brain surgery, he would have to be moved to either Israel or Jordan.

The army had left the street but there were still houses occupied by the military. The Israeli army during missions often occupies house and holds the families inside hostage to prevent the Palestinians from retaliating.

The army is regularly coming into Nablus at night, arresting people, and occupying houses. Just a few days before we arrived in Nablus two women were taken out of their house naked and were beaten by soldiers before being arrested. All this is happening at night, when there is nothing we can do for fear of getting in between the soldiers and Palestinian fighters. We stayed for a few days in Nablus, every night there was heavy gunfire and sometimes explosions. The next morning the Mosque PA would announce what had happened that night and our co-ordinator Mohammed would translate.

Mohammed took us on a tour of the old city. So many buildings had new doors or walls as a result of the regular attacks on Nablus. Some of the destruction was old but there were some signs from the previous night where the army blew a hole in the wall of a house. Some of the houses had been re-built so many times the family has stopped rebuilding them and have just abandened them as monuments of the occupation.

We did the best we could to try and get into the occupied houses with the medical teams but were refused. We would ring non-stop on the doorbell and ask to speak to the captain but they wouldn't even answer. One of the teams that relieved us at one of the occupied houses said the soldiers were so board that even though they were not meant to speak to the people outside they ended up mocking them and doing silly mimicking of "Captain we are an international medical team please talk to us." There were 15 people including kids in that house and we finally left food on the doorstep that was collected. The families were released after a few days.

The only reason this family were taken hostage is because their house has a good snipping window. The view of the hills in Nablus are lovely, in Sydney you pay for an apartment based on how good the view is. Here in Nablus it really doesn't strike me as a sales point. We think the increase in night attacks and home occupations is a sign of things to come, possibly a re-nvasion similar to the one I experienced in February.

Jayyous: A people rich in resources made poor through land confiscation

2006-04-12T21:41:00.000+03:00

I spent two days in a village called Jayyous that's had its land confiscated by the wall. The village owns 13,000 dunum's of land (aprox 3,212 acres), but only 2,000 dunum's (aprox 494, acres) of land lies on the Eastern side of the wall. This leaves the Palestinians with barely any land for the expansion of their 3,000 strong village let alone farming land.

The people of Jayyous are very dependent on farming for their survival. Even the school principle subsidies his wages with money he earns from his green houses of tomatoes. The land confiscations along with the refusal to allow the majority of Palestinian's work permits inside Israel since 2002 has crippled Jayyous' economy. Jayyous is close to the green line and used to have a large number of people work in Israel.

Now the Palestinians are facing further economic hardships as the Palestinian Authority (the provider of income to 1/4 of Palestinians according to the UN) has stopped paying its workers in the wake of Europe, Israel etc cutting aid because of the Hamas victory.

Jayyous residents can only access their land through 2 gates. These gates are open "in theory" 3 times a day and only for 15 minutes making working hours incredibly inflexible for Palestinian farmers. The gates are only open at 7.30-7.45am, 1.45pm-2pm and 5pm-5:15.

There is a family who lives on the other side of the wall cut off from the rest of the village. Originally the army would harass this family to leave their home, however the family of 7 has refused to leave, instead cut off from the village the kids are often late to school or have to wait for long periods of time to get home.

During our time in Jayyous we met a farmers who had his lands cut off by the wall. His family had lost the bulk of their lands. About 75 mature olive trees were cut down just on the path of the wall itself. A friend in ISM who is a tree surgeon told me that 75 trees would be about $700 US profit for the farmer if sold for olive production.
There were many more trees on the other side of the wall but they were difficult to access. Even though the trees were only 30 meter's in front of us the family would have to walk several kilometers around to the gate and then back to his land in order to access it. Many of the other villagers are in a similar situation. He pointed to a shack across the wall that his father used to camp in so he could stay over night rather then have to travel each day. The army came in and threatened to shoot him if he stayed over night.

The 11 members of his family stay in a tiny house near the wall. He once lived in a reasonably sized house in the middle of the village but doesn't want to move back there for fear of having more land taken.

The permits to cross the wall aren't a guaranteed thing though. If a Palestinian is arrested or seen to be 'causing trouble' he could be denied a permit to cross the wall. I met a man who was jailed for 5 years and exiled to Jordan for 10 for his work in Fateh. I asked if he meant Al-Aqusa and he said no Fateh and that his work was political not military in nature. The man was elderly and was no longer involved in political activity either. He was denied access to his land so only his family can cross but not him. He has been unable to visit his land for years.

The villages utilities have also been affected by the occupation. The village has 7 wells, all on the other side of the wall. Unable to gain access to their water Jayyous has had to pay to have water pumped in from another village. In terms of electricity the village has been relying on two generators to provide their power. for several hours in the afternoon there was no electricity. The village is currently in the process of hooking themselves up to the Israeli power grid. However the village isn't holding their breath as another nearby village waited 2 years after the wiring had been done for Israel to switch them into the system.

Everyone is desperate for money. Up until now there has been a Charity school running English programs in the afternoon for the kids. At the time I was there it looked like the school was going to close down in less then a month because they could not raise the $250 US dollars a month required to sustain the program's 2 teachers (who are only paid US $100 each) and rent etc. A US based charity now might be taking over where the previous donors left off but it is impossible to say how long that funding may last.

Israel's apartheid laws explained

2006-04-03T18:17:00.000+03:00

I attended a legal training workshop run by a group of progressive Israeli lawyers, for International and Palestinian activists. Having been involved in the civil liberties campaign in Australia it was frightening just how few rights Palestinians have. Even before being arrested a soldier or police person can hold a someone for three hours without charge.

Once arrested an international has 24 hours before they have to be presented before a judge (slightly longer if they are detained after 2pm on Friday, because of Shabbat). A Palestinian on the other hand could spend 8 days before being required to front up to the military court. You have the right to notify your lawyer but you do not have the right to speak a lawyer until right before your hearing.

Palestinians can be denied a lawyer for up to 21 days despite being placed in front of a judge after 8 days meaning that they aren't allowed to have their lawyer present at their hearing (maybe the lawyer will be allowed into the court after their client has left).

Defense lawyers and even the defendants can be denied information simply on the basis that it is a security risk. In which case it is more of an interrogation then a real trial. Sometimes neither a lawyer or family will be notified of the Palestinians detention for up to 8 days depending on the investigating officers discretion (to which there is no criteria).

While Israelis deal with a civil court, Israelis are required to face a military court where the judge as well as the prosecution are both military. A Palestinian doesn't even need to be found guilty of a crime in order to be incarcerated and can be put under 'administrative detention' without charge for 6 months at a time. This 'administrative detention' can be consistently renewed and some Palestinians have spent up to 7 years in jail without charge. There are currently hundreds of Palestinians who are under administrative detention.

Another problem that many Palestinians have is the use of collaborators to obtain a confession. Even though Palestinians have the right to silence they are constantly treated like they don't and often after refusing to say anything they will be released into a holding cell where they will tell everything to another Palestinian in the cell with them. Sometimes the collaborator will pretend to be an agent of Fateh or Hamas and try to get their comrades to reveal things to them.

One of the most shocking things I had heard that day though was that a Palestinian 10 year old can be charged as a minor. The Israeli settler kids who've throw stones at Palestinians and internationals like myself, can't be charged until they are 14.

So this is equality under Israeli 'democracy.'

'Natural' disaster claims lives due to the wall

2006-04-03T18:16:00.000+03:00

There was heavy rain in Palestine last Saturday. The valley in between the villages of Bil'in and Safa was flooded and I went there with reports of one Palestinian dead and another missing. Soon after arriving I was informed that the one that was supposedly dead was actually just in hospital and the other was still missing.

In the valley I talked to locals who said that the car had been stopped on the bridge due to rain water rising above bridge level. The 4 passengers in the car got out to push and two were swept up in the current. The rain levels were high but they were unusually high as hundreds of meters away the recently constructed section of the apartheid wall acted as a dam preventing the water from being dispersed. It also looked like erosion caused by construction would have also prevented water from being absorbed into the soil.

I climbed across the side of the valley with Palestinians who were searching for Eyad Tahar the missing Palestinian.

While I was walking back and forward across the valley, Palestinians discovered the body caught on razor wire under water. Not only did the damning effect of the wall contribute to Tahar's being swept away but he probably drowned because he couldn't resurface because his body was caught on the wire. There was no sign of major cuts or bruises indicating that he made it to the razor wire without getting injured meaning that he probably could have survived had he been able to resurface. When I was finally confronted with the body the Palestinians had covered it with a shroud but his hands were pointing upwards as thought they had been locked into that position when the oxygen left his body.

It was the first time I has seen a dead body but it was clear from the reactions of Palestinians around me that they were so used to seeing deaths like this as an everyday occurrence.

Peaceful demonstrators attacked by the Israeli State: An Australians Experience

2006-04-03T18:10:00.000+03:00

By James Crafti.

I was arrested last week by the Israeli army's special operations unit. The demonstration started as usual with the march to the wall. The army didn't just send the soldiers and border police in this week adding to the fold a large number of police and special operations unit personnel (army can't arrest Israelis or Internationals).

With Bil'in's usual flair for creative action they brought bridge parts so they could scale over the wall (having been told by soldiers that it is their land on both sides they just aren't allowed to touch the wall). When we arrived at the wall straight away we were confronted with sound bombs one of them landing near my leg causing a brief burning sensation (thankfully I was wearing solid jeans).

The army made their usual attempts to aggressively halt demonstrators, however along with the special unit they were particularly brutal. I am used to soldiers grabbing me and even kicking wasn't to be unexpected (Australia's Victorian police sometimes did the same thing). What I wasn't expecting was to have fingers digging into sensitive areas around my back, sides and nipples. The people of Bil'in moved the ramp section of the bridge to the wall and I along with several Israeli and Palestinian activists were trying to protect the bridge when I was grabbed again by several soldiers and delivered by them to the special unit.

The special unit pushed me to the ground and threatened to hurt me if I refused to walk. I agreed to cooperate but they still twisted my arms behind my back. Behind me was an Israeli activist who was clearly being hurt by the soldiers who had grabbed him. When I turned around to look, the officer threatened to break my arm and twisted it further to near breaking point (so I believed him).

I was then kept near the army jeep in the sun for about an hour with 3 Israeli activists. They started off with my hands being bound behind my back with plastic rope ties. When I asked if I could have my hands in front like the others they cut the plastic tie and shackled my legs instead. There I was told by the Israeli activists who translated the soldiers conversations that my crimes were:

1. Assaulting a police officer.
2. Being in a closed military zone.
3. Resisting arrest
4. Destruction of property

We were then taken in jeeps to the police station (along the route of the wall). The police station was in a nearby settlement. When we got there we waited for ages and my individual shackles were hancuffed to those of a fellow activist.

We waited for ages and they finally called me in for interrogation. My charges had been reduced. I was no longer charged with assaulting a police officer (surprise, surprise) and the charge of property damage was changed to interfering with army operations (for protecting the Bil'in bridge).

When I refused to comment without speaking to a lawyer they agreed to let me speak to a lawyer called Gabby who is the lawyer for the Israeli activists. After speaking to her for 2 minutes on the phone in front of the interrogator and the station chief he pulled the phone away from me saying that I had no right to speak to my lawyer, only to notify my lawyer (I am still not quite sure what the use of that is).

I continued to refuse to speak so they threatened to take me to hold me and take me to a judge. Normally they are only able to hold you 24 hours before taking you to a judge but it can actually be longer if you get detained on a Friday as the following day is Shabbat. When I left the interrogation room I tried speaking to friends on my mobile. The soldiers caught me on my mobile and confiscated it informing me that I had no right to use my mobile and that it was a further offence. At no stage did they explain to me my rights prior to this infraction.

They then called one of the Israeli activists into a private room to advise me to co-operate. They told him that if I did not give a statement I would be deported

I had to meet someone the following morning so I agreed to make a statement, on the condition that I would be released and I would only have to talk about the events of that day. I told them that I was aware it was announced as a closed military zone but that I didn't think I had to leave as I was in a Palestinian village not in Israel. I said I should be directed by the PA not the Israeli army.

I told them that I was arrested for peacefully demonstrating and that the wall was illegal under international law and it was there to protect settlements that were even illegal under Israeli law. They also recorded the bruises on my body. which covered my back, front, neck and arms. The interviewer spoke to me in English put wrote in Hebrew and I am convinced she didn't write down everything, especially the things that she thought were irrelevant to my crimes such as the Israeli that was beaten behind me etc. So when she handed me the statement to sign I told her I would only sign it if it was in English. Later that evening I had to sign something saying that I would not go near the route of the wall near Bil'in for 15 days.

If I was Palestinian I would have gotten much worse. It was 8pm in the evening by the time I was released (I was detained about 2.30pm). The outlawing of peaceful demonstrations and the assaulting of peaceful demonstrators makes it no suprise that so many Palestinians feel the need to be involved in more militant resistance, because even doing what we were doing was enough for the Israeli government to treat us like 'terrorists.'

Blind men (A possible terrorist threat to illegal Israeli settlements???)

2006-03-29T23:06:00.000+02:00

I am now back in Hebron. Every day there are new human rights abuses here it is difficult to keep up. Whilst I was away one of the Internationals was stoned by about 20 settlers and was rushed off to hospital. Yesterday a Palestinian man was ordered onto the ground by an armed soldier before being hit in the head with a gun. There is so many abuses across Palestine that I don't think there is one comprehensive place to find them all. Certainly I encourage people to check out the ISM website www.palsolidarity.org as it records far more then I could hope to.

A few days before I got back to Palestine a shift in Hebron began to emerge and we are still trying to work out why. When I was last here the main problem was the settlers and we would try to convince the better soldiers to intervene. Now the problem seems to be the soldiers. They seem to be going on a real power trip lately, checking ID's longer and conducting more intense searches at the checkpoint (having people remove shoes etc.). The soldiers have also been moving around the place testing out their military training with no regard to the civilian population. Even without an emergency they are pointing guns around corners (in all directions for that matter), and running around like something from a Tom Clancy novel. They have been entering buildings randomly as well. Occasionally kicking the odd person in the ankle

But one of the latest things they have been doing is refusing to allow the Palestinians who don't live in the area to enter H2. This refusal to allow Palestinian outsiders is inspite of the reality that settlers regularly bringing large numbers of Jews from around the world here on a tour bus. They have been blocking Palestinians from freely moving around their area to visit friends etc. Today a blind man was denied entry to H2, he has always been allowed into the area before (we see nearly him every day) but today they refused him entry. They kept saying he wasn't allowed in because he didn't live there. It turns out that he did live there and the whole community knows it, but it took 3 ISM activists, one Tel Rumeida Project activist and 3 Machsom Watch (older Israeli women who monitor checkpoints) people; 45 minutes of harassing the Hebron DCO (military command centre) in order to get the soldiers to allow.

This is just another day in Hebron. In Australia you could barely list all the state injustices that are going on. Here there is no comprehensive record. They all become white noise in the ongoing occupation. After this full on day there was a bit of a high point. We went to the community centre in Tel Rumeida where there was a graduation of 20 Palestinians who had completed a course in Hebrew. Apparently a lot of them are looking forward not only to understanding the soldiers and settlers who harrass them but also to having conversations with other Israeli's. Very few of the Israeli's speak arabic. Even the Maschom watch women and many of the activists haven't learnt arabic. I asked Issa (one of the local ISM co-ordinators) about the local communities attitude towards Israelies. He said that most people welcomed them and many had worked with activists here. He said that some locals were fearful that if an Israeli slept the night at a Palestinian house that the settlers might use that as a way of justifying taking over that house (saying it was Israeli land), so many would prefer Israeli activists to come just for the day.

Cairo Conference- A lot of Hype but little substance.

2006-03-28T20:34:00.000+02:00

I attended the 4th annual Cairo conference in Cairo (funnily enough). It's an activist conference this year the theme was "With the Resistance in Palestine and Iraq.. Against Globalization, Imperialism and Zionism." The conference's two main participants were the International Socialist Tendency (their various branches from the Australian ISO, the British SWP, the Greek SWP etc.), and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood of students.

On the International front the conference also had representation from the Red Alliance in the Netherlands, The Canadian Palestine solidarity movement, the Turkish Kurdish Communist Party Marxist Leninist, and group of Anti-Imperialist from Europe. On the Egyptian front there were also Nationalists, Nassarists, Socialists, Islamists etc. With a few journalists etc. However the politics of the IST and the Muslim Brotherhood clearly dominated the conference.

Much of the conference was less a learning experience then being ranted at by people in such a way that sounded like the defeat of imperialism was just around the corner. In terms of Palestine, despite almost every second sentence being about fighting Zionism, it was clear that very few people there had any sense of what was actually going on in Palestine. The IST in a session on the left and Palestine said the Hamas victory was important for 4 reasons:

1. They Refuse to Recognise Israel
2. They Put Refugees back on the agenda
3. Put pressure on other Arab countries to supply aid (with the US withdrawing theirs)
4. Have stated they are not against the Jews

The main problem for Palestine is at this stage not an abstract one of prefering one or two states, but the very real question of how is Palestine going to put pressure on Israel to win any state at all. Fateh has a strategy of negotiation, which they still talk about despite the fact that they have nothing to negotiate with. Hamas has no immediate strategy as to how to apply pressure on Israel to win anything, they have retreated from military action at this point (much more so then Fateh, given that Hamas have not been involved in any attacks for the last 2 years).

Rather then talk about the need to build up popular committees in Palestine like the first intifada the IST kept putting forward their bizarre schema that the road to liberation in Palestine lies in 'Middle-East wide Arab revolt.' .

This strange formula implies the same sort of ridiculous pan-arabism in the same way that Zionists just refer to Palestinians as Jordanian. It is similar to their abstract approach that East Timor should just wait for an Indonesian wide working class revolt top defend them rather than achieve their independence on their own, with whatever assistance they can get. It totally obscures the question of national self determination and works like their attitude towards Scotland or East Timor in the past, that these countries just need to be part of a regional revolt to solve their problems.

All IST delegates said there was no way that Palestine could achieve independence on their own. One even saying to me that "Palestine could not achieve independence because Palestinians are divorced from the means of production in Israel and any general strike by Palestinians could at best hurt 20% of the Israeli economy." Like this stopped East Timor who's GDP was a lot less then 10% of Indonesia.

There wasn't even mention in their speeches of the need to build up the civil movement in Palestine, or any analysis of the decline in 'leftist' Palestinian factions. The IST gave no concern to the need to build up the Palestinian left, or any left for that mater, as an ideological alternative to Islam. Far from it, the whole conference appeared to consist of the IST sucking up to Islamic forces in a fairly opportunist manner.

Rather then using the conference to debate and discuss the real differences between socialist and Islamist solutions, the IST seemed perfectly content to ride on the wave of Islamist popularism without seeing the need to be critical in its support and trying relate to the most progressive elements in the Middle East or trying to politically convince them. This seems to be the same approach the IST is taking with Respect in Britain at the moment choosing to abandon building a real left (a Socialist Alliance) in favor of popularist formation for short term gains.

But then the force of extremism seems to be their call. They expressly stated throughout the conference that they refused to condemn suicide bombings of civilian targets (even though it hurts the cause). They also kept talking about refusing to accept Israel which denies the reality, that Israel has built up a national identity that can't just be sweaped aside in one night. This also simplifies Israeli national identity. Sixty years after the creation of Israel it can not be simply defined in terms of its 'Jewish' characteristics.

The Muslim Brotherhood displayed similar contradictions. They had films on their stalls, interspersing images of legitimate armed Palestinian resistance (currently a small part of the resistance) with suicide bombings of civilians. They even had a T-shirt with the image of a Palestinian fighter and the text on the front "Jihad is the only language they understand" and on the back "When negotiating with the Israelis to get your rights, use the ONLY Language they understand."

The Muslim Brotherhood like the IST seemed to totally oblivious to the fact that the intifada has slowed down. Also Hamas who they support have diverting most of their energy to social programs, not armed resistance as they continue to fetishise. I kept trying to convince some of the delegates that they should travel back with me to Palestine to get a real sense of what is going on. I still can't understand why a Palestine solidarity group would send people to Cairo and not Palestine to develop their understanding of the Palestinian struggle.

Anyway there were some interesting moments at the conference, the democracy movement in Egypt seems to be making progress, particularly there was talk about fighting the 1989 laws banning political free speech on campus. It was rather bizarre though to hear the Islamic Brotherhood argue on one hand for the right to free speech and then complain that the government was diverting people away from being able to engage in serious study and politics on campus by having campus social activities (read parties, possible sexual interaction etc.) .

There was also talk about sending people to Iraq similar to the 'human shields.' A call was also made for an international day of action against war on Iraq to occur on May 6, to coincide with the European Social Forum in Athens.

Anniversary of Rachel Corrie's death 2

2006-03-22T14:28:00.000+02:00

After the Bil'in demonstration last week I went to another memorial for the anniversary of Rachel Corrie's death. Even though the event was the anniversary of Corrie's death, the memorial also served to remember the deaths of Tom Hurndall the ISM activist killed only weeks after Rachel and the death of Tom Fox from the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) who worked in Palestine before being executed in Iraq.

The evenings event attracted around 70 people but it felt more flat then anything. The 3 speeches lasted for about 5 minutes each and there was really little emotion in the affair. I don't think a single person cried and could be likened to Macbeth's reaction when his wife died (in Act 5, scene 5, Line 16 if interested). I think people here in Palestine are just really tired and that the pain is just so constant that moments like this become more marking an occasion then engaging a real response.

John - King of the Bil'in outpost

2006-03-22T13:17:00.000+02:00

Last Fridays Bil'in protest was significant in a few ways. The soldiers were certainly rougher then usual but the main reason the day was so special was that the village of Bil'in were saying thank you and farewell to my friend John. John has been in Palestine for two months this trip. However unlike most ISMers who move around. John has chosen to spend his entire 2 months living in the 3x3 meter room we so endearingly call the outpost.

Apart from a few days off and the occasional trip into Bil'in to have a shower, John has been hanging around with the kids of Bil'in who visit and getting to know the local wildlife. He even had a little pet mouse until one of the young people in the village killed it (they didn't realise it was his pet and quickly tried to replace it). John new every inch of the outpost and the surrounding area. He had made it his home, having renovated it with a door, storage system etc.

Algazera heard about Johns story and came to John's final Bil'in demonstration to do a documentary about John the 37 year old from Ireland who slept in a shed. We marched down from the village carrying a wall made out of an iron frame and Styrofoam. We used this mock wall to try and get to the real wall and the police responded with absolute violence. They hit us and pushed us around breaking my camera (this and the next post could be the last pictures on my blog that you see, sorry). Finally the soldiers just maintained a fairly thin line in front o the demonstration.

The soldiers tried to declare the area (Bil'in land) a closed military zone and instructed the demonstration to move back. However they were unsuccessful. And we continued to protest. Because the demonstration was out in the open moving around or occasional through the soldier line was easy. Many of us moved to the wall and started hitting a small fence in front of the wall with stones. The soldiers would then come to drag us back one by one, but more of us kept coming (as well as the original people coming back).

The rally ended on a high with the people of Bil'in carrying John in the air and handing him a plaque from the Bil'in Popular Committee. The village chanted John's name and it looks like one of the outposts will now be named after him.

So if you want a camping holiday, learn some Arabic with a wonderful community and become a local legend, come to Bil'in there is still an unnamed outpost.

Anniversary of Rachel Corrie's death.

2006-03-22T10:28:00.000+02:00

Last Week marked the 3rd Anniversary of Rachel Corrie's death. Corrie was an ISM activist who was run over by a bulldozer and murdered whilst preventing a home demolition in the west bank To commemorate the occasion ISM organised for a film about Rachel Corrie to be projected on the apartheid wall near Qalandiya checkpoint. Unfortunately there were several technical errors and the night was particularly cold preventing people from watching the whole film. However people streamed past to express their solidarity and thanks for her life.

ISRAELI SOLDIERS IN THE WEST BANK -poem

2006-03-22T04:42:00.000+02:00

Mary my 75 year old comrade [see earlier posts] in Hebron wrote this poem 2 years ago about her thoughts on the human face of the soldiers carrying out Israel's bidding.

ISRAELI SOLDIERS IN THE WEST BANK

Faces without expressions, poker faced,
So tense that I can feel the strain.
So young, they are almost children.
Innocence lost.
Responding to questions like parrots.
The youth of Israel conscripted
And following orders.

Hawari checkpoint into Nablus.
The young Israeli girl.
Speaking no English.
More confused than I at my first checkpoint.
A twenty odd year old makes a phone call.
And I am through.
Thanks to a special letter.
From Avi a senior officer.

Kalandia checkpoint,
So much destruction.
]The wall looming above.
Long queues of Palestinians.
I join the queue.
Palestinian bags and papers are checked.
Slowly, carefully, slowly, slowly,
Oh so slowly.
Through the swimming pool like turnstile.
I struggle with a suitcase,
Thankfully not full size,
I'm 73 years old.
I hold up my passport.
And suddenly the girl's poker face
Turns to brilliant smile.
"Is everything alright", she calls.
"Yes" I reply.
And I am through unchecked,
So fast.

Budrus,
Small village in the west
Bulldozers with jackhammers,
So close to the village,
Cutting off and cutting down
Olive trees.
Two hundred trees that are loved
And have given life to the people
For so many years
To be destroyed, to build a wall.
A wall that if it exists at all
Should be further from the village.
Irreplaceable trees.

Demonstrations at Budrus.
Soldiers behind us as we turn away
Are suddenly in front of us.
Soldiers given orders to detain us,
For no clear reason.
Cannot tell us why.
One looks away.
A whispered order to attack a Palestinian,
With batons.
We cover him for protection.
I cannot take the weight,
So I'm on top.
I feel the baton coming.
It stops just before my head
My hands are undone gently.
I'm pushed aside,
Gently.
International men are bashed,
The Palestinian bashed and arrested
Together with a German girl and
Twenty Israeli human rights protestors.

Beit Awwa.
A women's demonstration.
Men babysit or follow behind.
The peaceful aim
To save the olive trees
And the cemetery
From destruction.
In order to build a wall,
So close to the village.
We're close to soldiers,
Close enough to touch.
But that is not allowed.
It may be construed as assault.
Soldiers with rifles pointing to the ground.
Relating to them.
Safe next to them.
The commander yelling
Other soldiers yelling.
Running amok.
Yelling for us to go
But shooting tear gas, sound bombs,
Rubber bullets, live bullets
At those who leave.
People, Palestinians, Danish Israeli,
Shot in the back.
Safer where we are
Pushed over by commander.
Leave and overcome by gas.
It's rough terrain.
Can't scramble at 73.
Safe thank God.
The one God, in whom, we all believe.
Others in hospital in Hebron.

I thought I could hate Israeli soldiers.
But I was a University Lecturer
For thirty years,
A teacher of young men and women.
I cannot hate those whom I love.
The youth of Israel held captive.
How can a nation treat its children so?

Mary Kingsmill Baxter 2004

Its a party and I am not invited.

2006-03-22T03:42:00.000+02:00

Purim came to Hebron and I wasn't invited. Like the Palestinians and the other internationals I was told that I had to leave the area outside our apartment because the streets were declared a closed military zone. The reason, a purim march down the main streets of H2. Despite being Jewish I was forced onto the roof of our apartment as the settlers took to the streets in funny costumes. The night before settlers threw stones and fire crackers at Palestinian houses.

That day they were rewarded with exclusive control of the streets. For once the settlers didn't do anything (apart from denying us our basic freedom of movement). The carnival style atmosphere would have been really nice except for all the Palestinians sitting on their roofs while a population that has done everything possible to intimidate them had a party downstairs.
Trying to make the most of the experience Mary and an ISM activist called Margaret started dancing much to the amusement of many of our neighbor's. I actually read the Purim story again that evening. It is a dreadful story about how a women was able to be killed for disobeying her husband. The Jews were saved from being persecuted but then they go on to kill thousands of others. I am not quite sure why the event is worth celebrating but I think the whole from victims to genocide thing probably sums up the settlers ideas rather nicely.

Melbourne Invades Hebron???

2006-03-22T02:32:00.000+02:00

After missing Australia for so long I was surprised just how much worlds would be colliding when I arrived in Hebron. One of the Human Rights Volunteers I was working with in Hebron was a 75 year old (deaf) women from the conservative Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne. Mary Baxter has traveled to Palestine a few times in recent years and was working with me to escort Palestinian kids to school, so for any person under the age of 75 reading this blog with all their senses in tact you have no excuses to not get involved.

Mary is an absolute inspiration, she is out at 7am on most mornings escorting Palestinian kids to school. Continuing to keep an eye out for the young boys in H2 despite having been physically attacked by settlers on two separate occasions. Mary was a delight to work with. She was great with the kids and very practical when a frequent emergency occurred. The former lecturer in statistics who in retirement actually went back to uni and studied Psychology under the tuition of my mum a few years ago (who gave her High Distinctions).

But the local connection didn't end there. One of the soldiers I talked to was from Israel but has Australian parents. He spent his final two years of High School at Bialik College in Melbourne. He was actually arguing with me against one of his fellow soldiers. I raised with the two soldiers the fact that many of the people I met in Israel learnt about the contradictions between maintaining a Jewish State and maintaining a democratic state. Whilst the other soldier said that ultimately he would choose a Jewish state over a democratic one, the Australian disagreed saying that Israel needs to strive for a democracy inclusive of the whole population.

But the Melbourne connection did not end there. Sadly whilst exploring around the settlements in Hebron I came across a building called "The Gutnick Center" which was renovated by Rabbi Joseph Gutnick former President of the Melbourne Football Club and a Melbourne local capitalist. There are plaques right around the settlements indicating that the settlers are supported by Zionists abroad.

I remember when I was a kid and we were told that some of the money we were donating to the local synagogue was to go to help Israel. Sadly looking at things now I suspect that most of the money donated by Jews from Australia was being used to expand into the West Bank and Gaza rather then helping poor Israelis.

Village of the Damned- Comes to life in Hebron Settlments

2006-03-17T10:43:00.000+02:00

Hebron or Al Kalil (Arabic name), is the second largest Palestinian city (the largest being Jerusalem even if you were to just count its Arabic population).

The city is amazing its hills provide an amazing mosaic and it has some of the best savory food in the West Bank (Nablus still has me for sweets), even if the vast majority of food outlets close by 8pm. But there is a major problem in Hebron an extremist settler population that believes the whole of Palestine should belong to Israel.

Hebron is divided into two sections H1 and H2. H1 like most other major Palestinian Centres is meant to be under the control of the Palestinian Authority. In reality the Army can enter H1 whenever it likes, however H1 Hebron is rare according to locals in that Israel hasn't put a curfew on the town for more then 3 day since the start of the occupation. The reason for this is that Hebron has for a long time been a major business centre with links to Israel and any sustained lock down on Hebron would severely hurt the Israeli economy (business comes first).

The Settler population occasionally illegally enters H1 from H2 (will discuss H2 later). Waving their guns around. Harassment in the Old City markets caused the shops to close. Now a few shops have started to re-open but without the traffic it used to get, the shop owners in the old city barely manage to make ends meat.

Some of the settlements border H1 and rubbish is frequently dropped on the street. Today wire mesh covers those streets to prevent rubbish and random items like bits of concrete from hitting people on the head.

But H1 is a fairly nice place compared to H2 (20% of the city). To get from H1 to H2 you have to walk through a little train carriage looking checkpoint, stepping through the looking glass. H2 is where 3,000 soldiers guard 500 settlers, some of them armed.

These settlers aren't just standard orthodox like those in Modi'in Elite (one of the settlements near Bil'in) these people are rabid in their attempts to scare Palestinians from their homes.

5 year old settler children throw stones and bricks at Palestinians and internationals who are trying to defend the Palestinians right to be there. I have even seen a couple of them attack soldiers who tried to tell them what to do. Stone throwing and other settler violence is usually the domain of the kids 5-13 who can't be charged for their actions. As an ISM activist who works for child protection in Canada points out in the West such children would be classified as juvenile delinquents and be taken away from their parents.

The parents fully support there kids though attacking Palestinians laughing behind lines of kids (and even attacking when no one is looking). They will do all sorts of things to intimidate foreign activists such as taking pictures of them with telescopic cameras and telling them that they "prey each day that the Arabs will come and kill them."

But the people who continue to intimidate and commit violence are the settlers and here just getting Palestinians to school each day is a challenge. The staircase in this photo (right) is the single largest point of contact between settlers and Palestinians. This photo is of two internationals taking some kids down the stairs when some of the older settler girls were hanging around outside the school tormenting the kids.

The settlers kids appear like they are possessed and the most innocent looking kids (of all ages and both genders) will attack you without saying a word the second you say hello. They are also fairly indiscriminate in who they attack with their victims ranging from a Palestinian 10 year old who was stoned and fell down a hill breaking his arm, to a 75 year old women from Melbourne who was kicked last week (second time she was attacked).

The soldiers in H2 play a real contradictory role. Some soldiers will tell you that there job is just to protect the settlers. Other soldiers just want there to be peace in the neighborhood and will intervene and stop the settlers from acting up. Part of our job was trying to convince the soldiers and police to do what should be their job, and to work with the best soldiers against those who stand idly by whilst settlers attack people and then deny it later.

The soldiers often accuse the international activists of provoking the settlers, saying that aggravate them by filming when they do something wrong, especially if it is Shabat. Settler kids will be preventing Palestinian kids from getting home and vandalising their houses and six soldiers in one incident I was involved with would rather stick their guns into an internationals chest and tell them to stop filming rather then do something about the settlers. Even though we never film the settlers unless they are doing something they shouldn't

But then the soldiers often have a funny idea of provocation shutting down the Palestinian shops on Shohada street, because they are too close to one of the settlements. Palestinians, but not settlers are frequently asked to have their ID's checked for half an hour. But the settlers and their visitors are never checked. And some of the settlers are allowed to carry guns. According to the soldiers the settlers with guns are only a "select trusted group," the question that needs to be asked is why do 500 settlers with 3,000 soldiers to protect them from a disarmed Palestinian population need guns?

Most of the settlers are only there for about 6 months as the small transient population is unable to sustain an economy despite heavy subsidisation. The question needs to be raised, in a country with one of the highest rich poor divides surely there has to be a better way of spending money then defending a colony of extremists.

Looking through some of the Palestinian houses where the inhabitants had been scared off by settlers I found a lot of racist graffiti. Amongst the Cartoons of Arabs hanging and graffiti saying Mohammad is a Pig I found this particularly disturbing logo (see below). It is the logo of Kahane Chai a Jewish Terrorist group that is even considered terrorist by Israel and their ally the United States. The group seeks to purge what they consider Israel of Arabs and they have been connected to several terrorist attacks including the gunning down of 29 Palestinians in a Hebron mosque 12 years ago. Their website and their philosophy can be found at http://www.kahane.org/philosophy.htm . This is the sort of hate message that drives these extremist settlers who are propped up by Israel.

Beit Sira rallies continue but lacking exit strategy.

2006-03-17T10:33:00.000+02:00

Sorry I haven't posted for a while but there has been a lot happening and I am playing catch up. The demonstration in Beit Sira on Friday the 10th mobilised a large section of the local population (at least the towns male population), as well as Israelis and Internationals.

The rally in usual fashion marched up the road. The road was half the size it had previously been. Where there was once road the army placed olive trees replanted from a few meters west where the wall is set to be. Yet again a generous act to try and soften the blow of land confiscation.

When we marched down the road instead of being confronted by the regular soldiers or even border police we were confronted by the armies special operations unit. The soldiers formed a thick block on the road a line and declared the area a closed military zone. They instructed the people to leave but the people of Beit Sira refused to be intimidated. However with no plans or any sort of creative action the people of Beit Sira simply stayed for what seemed like an hour and then left. This caused frustration amongst many of the young people who began the usual play of throwing stones.

Part of the problem in Palestine at moment is that there are some small villages that are protesting against the wall but they are small and other villages aren't backing them up. There are internationals and Israelis who travel the country but the only Palestinians who seem to be backing up the struggles in other towns is a handful of ISMers. The Palestinian struggle seems tired after 5 years of intifada and whilst Beit Sira and Bil'in are inspiring at the moment they are isolated.

International Womens Day in Jerusalem

2006-03-09T21:56:00.000+02:00

International women's Day (I'D) near Jerusalem. There were 118 women and 5 men (including myself) gathered at AR Rum checkpoint. Apparently it was advertised as a women's march but the organisers were happy for men to be there.

The organisers asked that the men stay near the back/sides not so much because it was a women lead demonstration. But as one of the women who did checkpoint watch explained to me, "Palestinian women feared getting arrested and the police would be more likely to obstruct or arrest a group with men who could be more easily be portrayed as starting violence."

Amongst the women there appeared to be a fair mix of Israel's and Palestinian women, as well as internationals. The proportions difficult to calculate give the number of Palestinian women without head coverings that could have been Israelis (and vice versa). Needless to say that it was a really melting pot of women, old, young, alternative and more conservative in appearance etc.

The rally was organised by the Jerusalem Centre for Women (JCW). There were placards throughout the rally in Hebrew, Arabic and English with slogans like 'War means unemployment,' 'Dismantle the settlements NOW,' 'House Demolitions Violate Women,' etc. The rally also had many placards particularly reflecting the politics of the Jerusalem Centre For women with the words "Jerusalem two capitals for two states.'

The rally was a fairly quiet one. Mid march the women moved from the footpath to line the Apartheid wall. Apparently many of the Israeli activists who would have attended were attending another IWD demonstration in Nazareth.

We marched from AR Rum checkpoint to Qalandiya checkpoint which isn't too far away. These two checkpoints like many other checkpoints are very close together (especially by car) forcing Palestinians to go through a gauntlet of ID checks. When we marched to Qalandiya we received a very positive reaction from all the Palestinians walking out of the check point.

The Rally provided a rare opportunity for me amongst the various media people take a few pictures of Qalandiya's entrance something I am not normally able to do because it like all other checkpoints are 'closed military zones'

Update on Mohammad Mansour's trial

2006-03-09T18:23:00.000+02:00

Mohammad Mansour (the older one in the photo) appeared in court on the 8th of February for his 11th court appearance relating to "crimes" committed at a demonstration in 2004. See "Palestinian activist to face apartheid court and "Mohammad Mansour: Still free, but still pursued by the occupation" both written in mid February for more background information on the case.

After Mansour's last court case he was "invited" to two meetings with Israeli Intelligence [see the previous posts]. He appeared for his first interogation in the latest series of interview but they never saw him. They just kept him waiting in a small room for hours. Days before his second interview Mansour had a heart attack at the age of 34. He was able to avoid waiting again with the Israeli Intelligence, by showing the note from his doctor.

His court appearance date was changed without reason however from March 21st to March 8th. Mansour's attendance in court was made difficult like all the previous court appearances by the fact that Mansour's Palestinian ID does not authorise him to be in Jerusalem, forcing us to avoid checkpoints in order to reach Jerusalem. When Mansour arrived in court on March 8th the prosecution again asked for more time (as though 20 months wasn't enough time). The case was put off for the 11th time, this time until September 10th.

Mansour really just wants this to be all over, so he can continue peacefully resisting the occupation.

Soldiers shamed by checkpoint

2006-03-05T11:00:00.000+02:00

Yesterday there was a demonstration against the wall and checkpoints in Tulkarem. We were at a checkpoint called Jebara where the wall has cut off a small village of about 500 people. Obviously 500 people aren't a self sufficient economy and they desperately need free access to the town of Tulkarem and surrounding villages for basic supplies and things like school. When we got there the army was hardly pleased to see us. They had already fired shots in the air and unlike most demonstrations where the army keeps their fire arms by their side, here they kept them raised upwards. They were rather annoyed by the fact that there were so many press and activists with cameras.

The Army kept threatening to have peoples camera's confiscated and they even threatened to "break" me if I proceeded to take pictures. But there was nothing they could do as we continued to take photo's whilst chanting and gathering around the checkpoint. '

The people of Tulkarem are planning on making this a weekly Saturday demonstration, which is great especially given that there are already so many Saturday rallies. There was also a very healthy number of women at this rally, which I think was in no small part due to an active Women's Union in Tulkarem.

One thing which hit home for me just how this Apartheid system works was a sign at the checkpoint with the words "Dear Citizen: Entrance to this village is forbidden for Israeli Citizens by order of the IDF commander of the region.

I couldn't get a look at the second half of the sign but just as the South African Apartheid regime didn't want White South Africans to see how the Black population lived, Israel also wants to deny its citizens from seeing how the Palestinian people live.

Aboud Stops Construction on the Wall

2006-03-04T08:41:00.000+02:00

The people of Abud recieved a court decision on Thursday by the Israeli High court to cease construction og the wall in that area for 14 day. Despite this on Thurday at around 11am villagers still saw the bulldozers hard at work, confiscating their lands. A rally of 100 Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals marched down holding the court decison in their hands to make sure the decision was enforced.

We marched down from the village and onto the road but the millitary were expecting us to march over the hill. When the Army couldn’t physically block us because they were too far away, they resorted to tear gas, but the rally pushed through. The army finally caught up with us. After a sound bomb was fired and a lot of shouting they were finally prepared to talk. They promised that they had ceased construction 1 hour ago and that they were no longer going to violate the court order (maybe it was just because it was the start of their weekend). The villagers said they would be watching and that they would be back if they violated the court order again.

The barrier near Aboud has already been completed on the Green Line 6 kilometers west of the village and now an additional fence on Aboud land close to the village will annex the Israeli Bet Arye and Ofarim settlements. These settlements were illegally established in the 1980’s on Aboud’s land. The separation barrier will annex more of the villages farmland to Israel in violation of international law.

Meeting with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP)

2006-03-02T13:16:00.000+02:00

This post has been a long time coming. Two weeks ago I had an interview with Nihad Abugosh the Media co-ordinator for the DFLP and Mohammad Salameh the National Co-ordinatior of the Palestinian Democratic Youth Union (PDYU), the youth organisation connected to the DFLP. I wanted to post this a lot sooner but as you can understand from my other recent posts I have been held up. So this is the information I gathered from them.

The DFLP is a split from the Peoples front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). They split in 1969. At that time they felt the PFLP weren't socialist and had a Pan Arab ideology (Bathast). At the same time they didn't want to support the Jordanian Communist Party (the precursor of the Palestinian Peoples Party (PPP, see "Initial impressions of the Palestinian Peoples Party and the Israeli Communist Youth." posted Feb 9). The DFLP were critical of the PPP for not supporting the armed struggle and for being too close to the soviet union.

As Abughosh put it "we were the only group to combine the Marxist Lenist tradition with the question of National Liberation." Although Abughosh said later on they developed relations with what he viewed as soviet countries "Cuba, Algeria, etc." In 1973 the DFLP, felt that Israel had formed as a nation an changed its position to a 2 states for 2 nations solution. By 1975 all major political factions adopted the DFLP program. This program called for:

2 states
The right of return for all Palestinian refugees
Self determination for Palestine. (this point sounds like a repeat of point one but it was actually to highlight conflicts with Jordan

From this position unlike the other Palestinian factions the DFLP decided to limit their armed struggle to the occupied territories rejecting attacks on Israel. Later on when the first intifada began, the DFLP tried to put forward a program for the intifada. In this program the first thing they wanted to do was make sure that people recognised that it was an intifada. Many of the other Palestinian factions just thought it was a number of spontaneous actions and that there was no qualitative change in the movement. The program that they put forward for the movement argued that the intifada needed a leadership and that it be "popular, democratic, civilian based, strikes etc."

Abugosh had high praise for the early years of the intifada but due to a lack of local leadership and Fateh's control of the money etc. Hamas was formed and the intifada became more elite in its focus, more focused on the armed resistance.

The DFLP thought that Oslo wasn't a good thing, not because they didn't support a peace process but because Oslo failed to take up any of the Palestinian concerns "settlements, checkpoints, land, refugees etc." They felt the exiled Fateh leadership didn't represent the interests of the Palestinian people and that local negotiators were more effective.

The DFLP felt that the the Palestinian people need the right to resist the occupation but that the main nature of the resistance needed to be civilian. They saw the reasons why the second intifada were less effective had to so with this change in emphasis away from mass actions in the cities, as well as Israel's immediate response of shooting unarmed demonstrations.

I asked the DFLP about ideology and they said that in the "daily struggle we don't speak much about ideology." I pushed this a bit further and as it turns out that whilst they don't run like Marxist forums they said that it comes out in there strategy and it comes out "in the practical application of their theory." He explained this in terms of confronting the Hamas ideas of "moral corruption," that the problem is people aren't following Islam etc, with the reality of ideas for mass struggle opposing the ideas of individual heroism etc. They like the PPP have summer camps but in these there is actually ideological training, for their activists if no one else. And they are trying to take up various issues of culture, the environment and trying to involve women as activists. One of the websites for their organisation that they showed me had a series of pictures of thinkers who had influenced the party, amongst them Lenin, chi Guevara, Rosa Luxemburg, Mao, Ho Chi Minh and Trotsky (although they did sort of question Trotsky being there)

They talked about how the party organises itself into fractions around areas of work or study. On Campus the DFLP and the PDYU are very weak according to Salameh because the other factions bribe students to vote for them rather then spending student money on organising students. Salameh is in his early 40's but is the co-ordinator of the youth organisation. The PDYU has a maximum age of 35 but Salameh was elected at the age of 34 at their last national congress in 1998, they are trying to organise a new congress this year.

Interestingly Salameh was at the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) meeting in Venezuela last year and met with Chavez (apparently there are still DFLP people over there). They also are maintaining relations with Cuba.

After my interview with the DFLP people I watched a brilliant movie called Matzpen about a split from the Israeli Communist Party that was "anti-capitalist and against the occupation." Apparently this group was doing a lot of work with the DFLP during the 70's. I haven't seen much of the activist work of the DFLP but I hope to be able to maintain links with the DFLP comrades and find out more.

Beit Sira a tactical retreat?

2006-03-02T11:52:00.000+02:00

Tuesdays demonstration at Beit Sira was the shortest demonstration I have been to in Palestine and maybe one of my shortest ever. Palestinian Hussni Rayan (Right) and Matah Cohen were both seriously injured when shot with rubber bullets at last Fridays Beit Sira demonstration. Rayan was shot with a blunt rubber bullet so close that it punctured 8 centremeters into his body almost hitting vital organs, whilst Cohen was shot in the ey with a similar bullet and may loose his eyesight in that eye.

The impact of this was a much more tame and symbolic action at Beit Sira. There was large amounts of media keen to see a repeat of what they missed on Friday. We marched up to the road to plant olive trees to replace those that had been torn out by the bulldozers. We were stopped at the edge of the village by the soldiers, well before the points that we had previously been stopped. The popular committe negotiated with the soldiers that we be allowed to have a few people pass to plant trees. The soldiers allowed it. Even with the eyes of the world and the Israeli masses on the demonstration they decided not to push through. On the one hand the symbolic demonstration worked yet on the other hand a lack of being able to channel the young peoples anger again resulted in stone throwing at the end.

In my opinion the popular committee were too quick to negotiate and too quick to accept the armies terms. The people need to be able to resist what is happening to their village. It is funny in Australia pushing through police lines at many demonstrations would be seen as ultra-left in that it would alienate people from coming to demonstration but here the masses are already convinced of the need to act against the occupation. My fear is that people are starting to find the demonstrations ineffective. The real question that remains unanswered is how are we going to win?

Palestinians collectively punished for my 'mistake'

2006-03-01T23:03:00.000+02:00

Having been through the stress and anxiety of the Balata invasion, I wanted to take some souvenirs back with me. After you experience something like that you worry that if you don't have anything tangible coming out of it maybe none of it ever happened and it was all some sick twisted nightmare. It was hard for me to believe what I went through so why would anyone else?

So I packed one of the many Israeli smoke grenade that littered the ground into my bag before leaving for Ramallah. I walked with it in the bottom of my bag through Huwwara checkpoint. After passing through the checkpoint I jumped into a service taxi (like a cheap taxi but the driver waits for it to fill up with people going in the same direction before heading off). The car was stopped at a flying (non-permanent) checkpoint, by Israeli soldiers. Our car was picked for a random search and they instructed us to all leave the car. The soldier then instructed the driver to open all of our bags and rummaged through them.

When they reached my bag they found the smoke grenade in my bag. The army proceeded to take all of our ID's and radio them in. They instructed us to tip out the content of all our bags and for the driver to empty the car. Even though the smoke grenade canister was empty, the Israeli army still brought in the bomb squad. They searched every inch of the car. Yet despite having searched every inch of the car they still felt the need to hold while they transmitted the details of the Palestinians ID cards and my passport.

We were held for four hours, over that time I kept talking to one of the soldiers who said there was nothing he could do about it. He said that it was a necessary process. In Australia a police officer could tell you in 2 minutes if you had a record and whilst I can understand a bit of leeway 4 hours for 7 Palestinians and myself. After the 3rd hour they offered us some rations (cold couscous and pasta).

The soldier kept telling me how dangerous Nablus was and that there was nothing to see there etc. After talking to him it was clear that he had never been to Nablus or had spent any time in the occupied territories outside of uniform. I told him that since he searched the car he should let all the Palestinians go and I would take full responsibility for my actions (which still weren't a crime). The soldier refused and when I compared the collective punishment of the Palestinians and his following orders attitude to being akin to what the Nazi's did he was clearly shaken. He told me I had crossed a line and he refused to discuss things any further. I persisted saying that he was treating these people like animals. He attempted to disprove this by the fact that he offered us cold food after 3 hours.

Finally they handed me my passport and the ID's to 5 of the 7 Palestinians. Apparently the other two were on a list as being "of interest." The soldier couldn't tell me what that meant but he did say that "it wasn't necessarily a bad thing." He said this as though we were waiting in the cold for four hours because they could have one the lottery. What he meant was that they weren't necessarily guilty of something but they were to be interrogated. The thing that I found the most frustrating was that they checked their ID's because my bag was suspicious, not because of anything they did.

We then waited for an hour before they announced that the two Palestinians would be detained. We tried to insist that we should be allowed to go with them but the soldiers refused. So we had no choice but to leave them with the army. I felt really awful because my actions may have been the only reason why they checked the Palestinians ID's. But even if they hadn't of found the empty grenade in my bag, they could have still checked everyone's ID. I was at Huwwara once before and they found magazines in my bag which they confiscated (even though I got those magazines in West Jerusalem).

The occupation is horrible makes Palestinian people feel so powerless, unable to control their own lives. One of the Palestinians commented that Israel was probably worried that I would show people in Australia. I thought he just meant I would show the Australian people that Israel was attacking civilians, but he also meant that Israel was worried that outsiders might test the traces of weapons that Israel was using to find out if they are legal. Israel after all has used chemical weapons that they refused to identify and continue to deny their nuclear weapons program that is common knowledge.

School Students Protest??? Questionable politically

2006-03-01T21:51:00.000+02:00

Whilst students cutting class to demonstrate against racism and war in Australia is an act of defiance (particularly if they are junior students). Here in Palestine the schools bring them out in buses.

I stumbled upon a group of students from a girls school in Nablus protesting against the defaming of the prophet Mohammad by European newspapers. I think the students generally believed it and part of me thinks that it is no worse then when I was in year four and our teacher encouraged us to write letters to the French embassy about Nuclear testing. The only difference is that it is teaching them a mass action way of doing things rather then lobbying politicians through letter writing. Still I kind of think it takes away from the whole rebelling against the system thing.

Funerals and Memorial for those killed in Balata (and those left behind)

2006-03-01T20:37:00.000+02:00

The people of Balata gathered for the funeral of those that had died in the incursion. Here in Palestine everyone knows their entire village. Houses don't have street numbers and often there aren't even street names. Directions can be given relative to everyone else's house.

This left the internationals franticly running behind the local Palestinian who knew the area during the incursion. Statements from the various Palestinian factions were passed around those gathered stating what they thought that the deaths meant in terms of the 'peace process' about the need to resist the occupation etc. They put these deaths into the broader context of the occupation, previous martyrs, etc.

Far from it being taboo to talk politics at the funeral or discussing the details of death the people of Balata are so used to it that they will share what ever information they can at such times in order to further the anti-occupation struggle.

After the funeral we were taken around to a house where some of the fighters were killed. The army surrounded the house and exploded everything inside killing the fighters who were hiding in the roof. Palestinians are aware that the choice to become a fighter is the reality that they will either die young or face life in prison.

We then proceeded to the hospital where we met many of the people that were injured during the "incursion." Many of them were just young kids shot with live rounds.

The activists who were here for the latter part of the invasion left for Ramallah for a debrief. I stayed for a memorial service for those who had died.

There was no one with me who could translate but from what I could tell it was a political rally, with rally sounding speeches, talk of intifada and guns being fired in the air. There were many fighters there waving guns in the air. I couldn't help but wish these fighters were actually there to help Balata when the army was there. It is a society where everyone seems to talk tough to deal with tragedy. Friends of mine don't acknowledge pain publicly but when you get to know them, you know they are hurting but this is the way they deal with it.

Armed groups propaganda distorts a civilian death.

2006-03-01T20:09:00.000+02:00

In my post on the invasion of Balata, I mentioned 2 boys who were shot in Balata on the roof of their house. The boys both aged 17 are believed to have been killed with a single bullet by a sniper in an occupied house across the road. The brother of one of the boys was also shot in the leg.

We met up with Mohammed (holding baby) another one of the brothers in the family. The Israeli army has put out press statements stating that the two boys were making a bomb, but as Mohammed pointed out "everyone knew the house across the road was occupied by soldiers, so why would the pair be dumb enough to make a bomb in plain sight." The actually room we met Mohammed in was about to become a computer store run by his brother, who had a whole career in front of him (hardly the profile for a bomber).

Yet despite his brothers civilian status, both he and the other boy were made out to be militants appearing in an Al Aqsa Martyr poster. The poster below (unfortunately I forget if it is Mohammad's brother or the other guy), shows him carrying a rifle. The whole image has been photoshoped on a computer to turn the boy into something he isn't and try to turn a victim into some sort of armed hero to spur on the fighters. The side effect of this is to reinforce the Israeli propaganda machine which tries to make out that they only kill militants et.

Personal mistake, passion tactics and continuing the struggle

2006-03-01T19:34:00.000+02:00

As we walked from the demonstration at Beit Sira [last post], I heard that the army had re-invaded Balata and that friends of mine, internationals and Palestinian medics were hurt. I raced up to Nablus against the advice of ISM who said they needed me for the next Beit Sira demo, taking place the following day.

When I got to Nablus the army had already left. Whilst I was there an Israeli activist was shot in the eye with a rubber bullet at Beit Sira and a Palestinian was shot with a rubber bullet at close range. The army isn't meant to fire rubber bullets within 70 meter's of the target but the Palestinian was shot so close that the rubber bullet penetrated his skin by about 8 centremeters.
Whilst facing the dangers of a war zone may have potentially been more exciting and felt more urgent, my experience in non-violent direct action would have been more useful in Beit Sira (particularly given we already had people in Nablus and our numbers are down). I might have been able to help prevent casualties in Beit Sira (probably not), or at least helped with the demonstration. I chose the selfish option of going into Nablus to deal with my own crap rather then doing what was right for the team and putting faith in my comrades to deal with the situation.

So why am I telling you that I screwed up. I guess because there are a few lessons that I think activists can draw from my experience. Firstly that the struggle needs people everywhere and organising the "back lines" can be as important as the front. This is particularly important for activists in countries like Australia who need to continue the struggle back home to give courage to those who are facing all sorts of injustice around the world. It is also important in this context to recognise the importance of collective struggle and trusting comrades in different areas.

The Israeli activist may loose his eyesight but the Palestinian will be fine. The Israeli activists organised a protest for Matan Cohen (the Israeli who's eye was shot), on the streets of Tel Aviv. The demonstrators particularly wanted to make the point that this sort of thing happens to Palestinians on a regular basis but it doesn't make the news.

Anyway I ended up in Nablus for the funerals which I will talk about shortly.

Beit Sira: Getting better at effective action Part 2

2006-03-01T13:46:00.000+02:00

I arrived late for the Beit Sira demonstration (Wed 23rd of Feb). By the time I got there a large group of people had already formed up right in front of a line of soldiers and behind them drills and bulldozers had stopped. Apparently just before I arrived some of the Israeli activists had jumped on top of the Caterpiller equipment. This time we were actually holding the soldiers and stopping the equipment where we wanted it. They tried to move us but were unsuccessful. So instead the soldiers moved the equipment to start digging up the villages olive trees. When we commented on this, the soldiers reactions varied from "we are just relocating them," to "it's ok, they have plenty of olive trees."

We advanced towards where the olive trees were, pushing our way through lines of soldiers. For the first time I saw people in the village pushing through lines of soldiers. One Israeli activist was taken by soldiers, was hog tied and was left in the sun by the army. The army then shot rubber bullets into the middle of the protest. People dispersed but then we regrouped again and again.

This photo (left) shows just how little regard the Israeli soldiers had for peaceful protest (remember that I was holding the camera in order to take this shot). Meanwhile the bulldozer continued to tear up the trees and cruelly laid them at the feet of the demonstrators. We left, with plans to come back and continue the struggle the following day.

Compared to where the Beit Sira demos had started it looked like the popular committee were starting to be a bit more bold in pushing the occupation forces. What is clear is that both sides were intensifying. The Palestinians (with Israeli and internationals) were pushing forward in united action.

Beit Sira: Getting better at effective action Part 1

2006-03-01T11:58:00.000+02:00

If you read my post on Saturday Feb 18, "Protest in Beit Sira: Disciplined Mass Action fails to reach potential" there were several criticisms I made of that protest. Some of which I think were corrected in the demonstrations I saw there a week later on Tuesday 22nd and Wednesday 23rd of February.

On Tuesday the 22nd we had a discussion about the situation in the village with a man called Farouk. One interesting thing that he told me, was that despite the settlements surrounding the village and confiscating their land up until the 2nd intifada started, settlers used to go to Beit Sira to do their shopping and play football (soccer) with the kids. Farouk said that he still had a friend in one of the settlements that he spoke to regularly on the phone. This blew me away and I asked him how he could be friends with someone who had taken his land away. He was so nice about it but one of the villagers who was translating for us said he also found it weird that Farouk and others did that. He likened it to someone offering you flowers and stabbing you in the back.

We marched from the village towards the wall. On the way the popular committee stopped and instructed all the young people in the village that they wanted to make sure that it was a peaceful demonstration and that no stones would be thrown. They motivated this saying that the throwing of one stone would undermine the message we wanted the rally to present.

We marched down the road stopping in front of Israeli Jeeps. There was a number of machines tearing up the road behind the jeeps. Again we didn't try to push through the military lines but the popular committee didn't instruct us to pull back this time.

Instead we set up a tent in the middle of the road. We kept the tent there for several hours while the road demolition was happening before our eyes. It was a good chance for the Internationals, the Palestinians and Israeli activists to talk and discuss some ideas. The army and the popular committee reached a "deal" where the army would cease construction of the wall and the village would also move the tent. It was the end of the working day for the construction company so the soldiers didn't care. The soldiers tried to arrest a few people at the end of the demonstration. They grabbed an Israeli activist and they beat me up (not too badly) and detained me for trying to de-arrest him.

As they arrested me they kept yelling stuff in either Hebrew or Arabic. I kept saying I only spoke English. When they released us they said something in Hebrew which I told them I didn't understand. One of the soldiers then repeated "the problem is you were not following instructions." I am not sure how I was supposed to follow Arabic or Hebrew instructions but it didn't seem to matter to them.

Anyway we packed up and the Israeli construction people finished work for the day so we went home without a stone being thrown or a rubber bullet being fired.

Invasion of Balata Part 1

2006-03-01T08:38:00.000+02:00

Last week was a conference on "International Struggle Against the Occupation of Palestine" held in Bil'in. Ironically many of the activists in Palestine including myself, were unable to attend due to an "incursion" taking place in Balata refugee camp. Balata Refugee camp is basically a cramped suburb of Nablus although people here always see the areas as separate. It has a population of about 30,000 crammed into 2 square kilometers. Many of the refugees from the 1948 Al Nakba (catastrophe), and others displaced from 1967 ended up in Balata.

It doesn't fit your standard vision of a refugee camp. Unlike those temporary ones that you often see on television with tents etc. The displacement has become permanent for these people and a whole impoverished town has been set up. Accourding to the Palestine Monitor, one fifth of all martyr's (civilians and fighters who have died at the hands of the Israeli government, or on rare occasions Palestinian "collateral damage" from a suicide bombing) since the second intifada originate from this place. Unlike Ramallah where the majority of posters around were for the elections, here they were martyr posters and memorials.

The entire refugee camp was under curfew when I arrived on the second day of the "incursion". The Army had instructed people not to leave their homes. All the shops were shut but people roamed the streets in open defiance of the curfew. Many people didn't feel safe so they stayed at home, peering out of their windows. Before I had even made it to the camp 2 boys had been killed on the roof of their house by a sniper. The Israeli army frequently occupies houses in Balata(even when not involved in a full on "incursion"). They hold families hostage to prevent the houses from being attacked. During the invasion there were 5 occupied houses. Jeeps were driving up and down the street. This is all despite Nablus and Balata being Area A, meaning that after Oslo these areas were supposedly meant to be under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

Still all the Israeli Army need to do is contact the Palestinian Authority and instruct their police to get out and they have to comply. Jeeps moved up and down the streets of Balata whilst tanks surrounded the perimeter. I was working with the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committee (UPMRC), an initiative which sees Palestinians working as medics, giving them something constructive to do in a situation that makes you feel really helpless. We were walking around on patrol with the UPMRC, helping them get medicine to sick people and carrying people to Ambulances. During a patrol we bumped into someone who had been hit in the head with a rubber bullet and was bleeding. Someone else had just been shot with another rubber bullet in the leg. It felt like being in back in St. Johns Ambulance when I was a kid only we weren't dealing with cricket injuries or some guy who just got a bit too drunk.

The Ambulance's rather then carrying non-smoking signs, had a no rifles sign. We were waiting for the inevitable casualties. Sometimes we would be out on patrol and at other times we were waiting in the Medical bay. We sat and talked about all sorts of things, joking around and ate a lot of chocolates like I used to do as a first aider waiting for something to happen. Only this sitting around and doing nothing was occurring with the background noise of large explosions and tear gas occasionally filling the room.

We tried to get medicine to one family but the tanks tried to stop us at every road, instructing us to turn back. We had to Indiana Jones style run past a tank on a major road and climb over a stone barrier the army put in place to get back into Balata and deliver the medicine. We lost one of our team in the process who didn't quite make it. Thankfully he made it around another way.

That night, we were debriefing we heard gun fire across the road. A man was shot by a sniper whilst watching television in his home across the street from the medical centre. The army was hesitant to let the ambulance pass, they did so after much coercion. The man was shot in a major artery and was loosing a lot of blood. At that time we weren't sure they hadn't hit him in the heart. The ambulance passed as family members screamed, even a few of the ambulance workers became really angry towards the soldier in the jeep. But it wasn't useful, we needed to get this person out and so we powerlessly carried the stretcher past an Israeli armored car. They weren't even after this person. Shortly after a women in the family went into labour and we also had to rush her to an ambulance.

But the story doesn't end there. The army then forced the family out of their home. The ambulance crews, myself and another international waited with the family outside. After half an hour in the cold, the army tried to instruct us to leave the family there. We refused and they pointed rifles at us from the jeep, placing the laser sight on my fore head. They also constantly gestured that they would throw grenades of some description out of the car.

Despite these threats we didn't leave, the soldiers threatening to return in one minute. After this empty threat didn't eventuate the family returned to their home. The family were so generous that despite just having their son shot they tried to offer us tea. We slept that night in the medical centre and I ended up on the early morning patrol. The narrow entrances to Belata camp were now all closed off. We managed to get out by traveling through a friends house but it wasn't easy. The army prevented all but one of the ambulances from entering Balata so we would have to carry people to that ambulance or to the edge of the camp.

On the way back from our patrol we bumped into a man who had just had his house searched. Apparently his son was one of the men the army was "interested in." This search demonstrated no respect for the family or their possessions. Electrical equipment was dismantled and left on the floor, wardrobes were emptied, their clothes and draws scattered across the room. The man inside wanted to spend ages talking to us, he was saying things about Jewish conspiracies and stuff that I find offensive, but how do you criticise a man who has just had his home raided, had everything he owns smashed and is having his son hunted by the "Jewish State" for being racist (let alone the incursion and all the previous problems in Balata).

We responded to distress calls from more people that day some had been shot, an old women who had trouble breathing because of the tear gas. We ended up going into an occupied house because we heard that one of the medical team had been kidnapped. It turned out that he was just giving medicine to a diabetic person. When we were in the occupied house my friend talked to one of the soldiers about where he was from in Israel etc. The soldier was clearly upset and we could tell he didn't want to be there.

We tried to get into another occupied house where we heard someone was injured. We couldn't get there because a soldier outside threw a sound bomb at us and threatened to shoot us if we moved closer. We found out later that person was ok. Many people were injured and some were killed, several people were also arrested. Despite all the Israeli Army's talk of needing to arrest fighters none of the people they were after had ever been involved in attacking past the green line or even attacking Israeli settlements or checkpoints. They were primarily defensive fighters, who fought back when the army attacked.

Finally the army withdrew from 4 of the 5 houses and all of the jeeps left. One of the boarder police jeeps came back to remove their people from the last house. They came in guns blazing and shot a kid in the head with live ammunition. They drove off Tuesday afternoon, none of us were sure when they would return.

So much happening I can't keep track

2006-02-20T00:35:00.000+02:00

Every day I walk into the ISM media office there is another demonstration that has spontaniously occured and is being attacked by police or "some group was attacked, in X city". The worst thing is that I know by the time I get to wherever the demonstration is, it will all be over. Currently there is an Incursion happening in Balata refugee camp. The army is occupying 20 houses. We have 7 internationals there and I will join them. Unfortunatly this means missing a peace conference in Bil'in. It was a hard choice as I feel I could learn a lot from the conference, but I need to see the incursion with my own eyes and I feel that seeing as I can help I should

I don't want to write much about things I haven't experienced because I want to give you a sense of what I see first hand. Also there is just so much to write about that I could spend all my time writing in the office and experiencing nothing.

So I recommend that people check out the ISM website www.palsolidarity.org for updates on the many things that are happening that I can't get to. If I don't write soon I probably don't have access to the internet.

Speak to you soon,

Harry

Israeli propaghanda removed from Qalandia

2006-02-19T18:55:00.000+02:00

After several graffiti attacks on Qalandia Checkpoint's "the hope of us all sign" (see the post: War = Peace: Jewish activists confront Israeli propaganda - posted Feb 12), the sign has been removed. One of the activists involved in spraying the graffiti joked "now all we need to do is cover the whole checkpoint with grafiti and then maybe they will remove that."

Protest in Beit Sira: Disciplined Mass Action fails to reach potential

2006-02-18T01:29:00.000+02:00

Three Fridays ago there was only one Anti-Wall demonstrations, last week there were two Anti-wall demonstrations and this week there were three. This week on top of the rallies in Bil'in and Abud there was also a rally in Beit Sira. We marched from the town as vibrant group.

Like the rally in Abud the week before it appeared that the cadre leading the rally was a solid vibrant block in the middle rather then up the front, which is usually the case at Australian demonstrations. So whilst a few younger kids ran to the front and were a bit a head the main group, who were proceeded slowly chanting and singing.
There were various chants in Arabic but it wasn't long until we bumped into a settlement. Unlike the settlements at Bil'in that confiscated primarily agricultural land that was a 15 minute walk from the village, the settlement here was literally a stones throw away. There was wire fence that separated the village from the settlement but the full-on wall project was yet to be in full swing.

Many of the villages trees had been cut down where the wall is going to be built. We moved onto a road and proceeded to Match. The terrain in Beit Sira helped things in that the whole group stayed together on the flat cement road, so we weren't dispersed on a hill side like we were at the previous two demonstrations.

A lone jeep drove through the rally. One of the soldiers stood on the roof and waved his gun indiscriminately. In this photo you can see after they parked their car in front of the demonstration the first thing they did was load their guns with rubber bullets. They were clearly trying to provoke. Still there was a thin line of them and the rally could have easily passed the soldiers in a peaceful non violent manner.

But we hesitated. Then another three of jeeps showed up at the back of the demonstration. They also wanted to drive through the rally. Many of the young people wanted to block the Jeeps to prevent them from getting through, but the elders in the village instructed them to let the Jeeps pass and the young people co-operated. Now the Army had four jeeps in front of the demo and they had some more soldiers.

They were trying to provoke the demonstration including this soldier (left) who didn't think twice about where he held his gun or the fact he had a tear gas canister in his outstretched arm. This tear gas canister threat seemed particularly silly given that he couldn't use it while we were that close. Even though there were four jeeps, a jeep is hardly a people mover and they wouldn't of had more then 24 soldiers against the 200 demonstrators

The young people (the majority of the demonstration) wanted to march but the 'popular committee' of the village instructed people to turn back. It was very clear that people were frustrated and wanted to proceed with the march regardless of the soldier presence. Whilst the popular committee were able to stop people moving forward they weren't able to convince people to move back.

So we milled around in front of the soldiers for ages, the crowd slowly diminishing. ISM and the other internationals I think made a mistake in siding with the advice of the Popular committee against the wishes of the majority of the demonstration. Had we pushed through we could have had a united inspiring rally where the peoples energy could have been channeled constructively towards reaching a constructed section of wall further down the road.

Instead people felt defeated with all there energy and frustration remaining. So the usual stone throwing, tear gas dynamic played itself out. This was the first demonstration in Beit Sira so hopefully organisers will analyse the rally and improve for next time. But like some of the rallies in Melbourne when the second intifada happened we need to be careful not to side with a conservative 'leadership' over an emerging younger layer that are wanting to do whatever it takes to win against the occupation and are winning other people to this perspective.

Drinking fun in 'fundamentalist' Palestine

2006-02-18T01:07:00.000+02:00

This irreverent post is an example of how non fundamentalist Palestine is. Despite western talk of fundamentalist running the country I was able to go to a very public bar in Ramallah and drink a Beer (the bartenders weren't worried about any problems). This wasn't any beer but the water bottle pictured is a standard size with the beer glass being 1 liter. So come to Palestine, have a drink and struggle against the occupation.

The Alternative Information Resource Centre (AIRC)

2006-02-17T20:08:00.000+02:00

After Mohammed Monsour's trial, I proceeded to check out the Alternative Information Resource Centre (AIRC). I went there on the recommendation of a comrade in Australia who had visited Palestine previously. Their office was about the size of the Green Left office with publications everywhere. They had various archives of material on the Palestine-Israel situation. The organisation is joint Palestinian and Israeli. They have two offices, one in Jerusalem and the other in Beit Sahur (part of the Bethlehem region).

Whilst the organisation is joint Palestinian-Israeli, the dominant language on all the signs in the Jerusalem office was Hebrew and most of their meetings are in Hebrew. The AIRC members in Jerusalem include many Palestinians from pre-48 Palestine. They have produced many DVD's, online information and produce 3 magazines, one in Hebrew, one in Arabic and an English language magazine 'News from Within.' News from within is a monthly magazine which produces 2000 copies per month (roughly 800 subscribers internationally, 300 through a UK distributor and 900 sold in Israel/Palestine).

One of their previous distribution organisers made an effort to sell the magazine at rallies and outside the old city in the same way comrades in Australia distribute Green Left Weekly but that seems to have fallen off and most copies are sold through the office. The organisation has about 10-15 full timers and appears to have a significant volunteer base. AIRC's politics are probably the sharpest and most clearly leftist that I have seen since I started my trip. Just a quick quote from the AIRC website "[we] provide a critical discussion of the political realities that shape the current situation, with special attention given to the radical democratic and feminist struggles, critical perspectives on the colonial nature of Israel and the alarming authoritarian features that emerge in the Palestinian Authority."

There is a clear socialist bent in the office, including some of Lenin's writings in Hebrew. I also purchased a series of pamphlets called "The Economy of the Occupation," that deals with issues such as the cost of the settlements on Israeli people, the rich poor divide and wedge politics etc. These pamphlets provide very useful information that I haven't seen anywhere else. The organisation was apparently founded by some people who split off from the Israeli Communist Party in the mid 60's and formed a group called Matzpen. Their criticisms of the Israeli Communist Party included its "lack of democracy and failure to prioritise the issue of the occupation."

I wonder if this is the split that Noam from the Communist Youth League said was, a right wing split that took up democracy issues but also supported the 6 day war (different versions of history). I purchased a doco on Matzpen and I need to watch it but hopefully it should answer some of my questions on the history of the Israeli left. Despite its origins the AIRC is primarily a media project and it isn't forming as an ideological socialist activist party like those in Australia. On the other hand their Beit Sahur branch is moving towards having weekly forums, film screenings etc, and have had people distributing a very politcal magazine so the line is blured. So it will be interesting to see if they can build an activist base around them.

AIRC were very helpful in providing me with contact details for various groups in Israel although the couple of people I spoke to didn't seem to think there was much of an ideological left and that the radicals were simply in broad activist organisations. I shall chase up these contacts and see what they are like. I have included the AIRC link on this blog and I suggest people check it out.

Mohammad Mansour: Still free, but still pursued by the occupation

2006-02-17T10:04:00.000+02:00

I went with Mohammad Mansour (right) to his trial. We met up in the morning before befor traveling to Jerusalem from the West Bank . We had to go a longer way to get to Jerusalem. This longer trip included switching cabs and moving around a checkpoint.

This was all because Monsour does not have a permit to enter Jerusalem. Several young women also circumnavigated the checkpoint. Monsour made the point that this is just one of the daily inconveniences that Palestinians have to go through.

The absurd thing is that we were all able to get through. If it was possible for us to get past the checkpoint it could hardly stop a suicide bomber. As Monsour pointed out it "isn't about stopping terrorists it is a land grab."

We attended the court with another international. We were nervous that Monsour could be sent to jail then and there, but before the case was heard the judge decided to move the hearing till March 21. Monsour had mixed feeling on one hand he was pleased that at least he had another month of freedom, on the other he was annoyed that he couldn't get it over and done with. I thought about all the effort it took for us to get to the court and all the trouble it will take us to get their next time.

Monsour asked the judge why he was not called about the moving of the trial date to which the judge replied that they felt it easier for the decision to be made without him there. Monsour received a piece of paper stating that he had been to court and proceeded home with two American comrades, while I stayed in Jerusalem but the story doesn't end there. On the bus ride back to Ramallah Monsour's bus was stopped and ID's were checked. Despite proof that he had been in court the soldiers instructed him to get off the bus. Monsour and the two Americans got off the bus and were forced to wait an hour in the rain.

When one of the activists asked "What's the problem? He was required to be in Jerusalem for his trial, and now he's going home," soldiersders reply was "there is no problem. Only, he is wanted."

Finally they were allowed to aftere afte Monsour was 'invited' to visit Israeli Intelligence next Thursday and another time following that. The last time Monsour was 'invited' by Israeli Intelligence and he failed to show, they came around to his fathers place and threatened to arrest his father. After being blackmailed to show up last time he was offered amongst other things to be a collaborator for Israel to which he refused. It seems like Monsour and others like him will continue harassedrrased by the occupation, so long as they are prepared to continue defying it.

[Still send messages of support to Mohammad_Pal68@Yahoo.com]

Palestinian activist to face apartheid court

2006-02-15T17:25:00.000+02:00

I’ve been working with Mohammad Mansour a Palestinian activist in the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) since I started work here a month ago. He is to face a trial tomorrow. If found guilty he could go to jail and quite possibly be tortured. What is his crime? He is an organiser in the non-violent resistance. He was charged with assaulting a soldier, throwing stones and encouraging kids to throw stones. But there is no evidence of this. He was at a demonstration with soldiers filming everything and taking high resolution photographs yet they have no evidence of this.

The main thing they are now trying to charge him with is being involved in an “illegal demonstration.” This so called “illegal” demonstration occurred in the occupied territories. Several times he has fronted to the Israeli Peace Court (actual name) in Jerusalem. Even just getting to court is a big deal because soldiers at Qalandiya checkpoint have tried turning him back from attending his own hearings in the past because he is a “security risk.”

Despite this every time he goes to court the prosecution tries to offer him a less unfair deal, with the judge encouraging him to accept a deal. He was offered to sign a piece of paper saying he wouldn’t be involved in any demonstrations for 2 years and he refused. The prosecution even offered to drop the entire court case if he paid a small amount of money and despite having the money he refused. He told me he “refuses to pay one shekel to support the occupation, my friend is in a wheel chair after being shot at a demonstration and I am not going to fund a bullet so they can do that to someone else. I also don’t want to pay because I’m not guilty.”

These words come from a man who is in his mid thirties, has 5 children and has been in jail before. His longest time in jail was 3 years and despite describing to me personal experiences more chilling then those of Abu Grab prisoners he is prepared to go back. Whilst some torture techniques were outlawed a few year ago, it is still legal to torture people and even those techniques that were banned are allowed to be reintroduced if they can prove the suspect is “a ticking time bomb”

Asking Monsour why he doesn’t just drop out of the movement he says, “It is my duty we are living under occupation and I want to be free, and I will tell you something else I and many of the Palestinians have promised ourselves when we get our freedom we will go and help other occupied people, wherever they are.”

[Picture of Mohammed Monsour being arrested note the angle that they have twisted his hand.]

Please send messages of support to Mohammad_Pal68@Yahoo.com

War = Peace: Jewish activists confront Israeli propaganda

2006-02-12T20:17:00.000+02:00

Qalandiya checkpoint is a massive checkpoint on the edge of Ramallah. Its turnstyles cages and prison like atmosphere feel like something out of a Stephen King movie.

Recently Qalandiya has had a recent addition. A billboard with the a flower and the words "A hope for us all." This transparent piece of propaganda is akin to "anti-terror legislation" or high interest loans to the third world being referred to as "poverty reduction schemes," needed to be exposed.

So a group of Jewish activists a couple of weeks ago sprayed the phrase "Arbeit Macht Frei," which is German for "work will set you free." A slogan the Nazi's would hang on the gates of concentration camps. This caused great stirs in the Israeli media that tried to paint the stunt action as "anti-Semitic," however as activists involved in the demonstration pointed out they weren't saying that the occupation is like the holocaust, but that this sort of propaganda was used to downplay and hide the real effects of the Nazi regime.

The Israeli Army covered the sign straight away so the activists re-sprayed the sign. So today the same activists re-sprayed the sign making it much harder to cover over. They can't stop the signal.

High School students attacked by Jerusalem Police

2006-02-12T19:43:00.000+02:00

On Friday (the Muslim equivalent of the Sabbath) Israeli police refused to allow Palestinians under the age of about 45 or so to enter the old city. Hisham Jamjoum ISM President and owner of the Faisal Hostel next to the old city commented "that there were 300-400 Muslims peacefully praying outside the Old City, because they couldn't get in. There were police everywhere due to fears that there might be a demonstration against the slander towards the prophet Mohammed.

Whilst police expected demonstrations on Friday what they didn't expect was a quickly organised demonstration of 300 High School students the following day that took up the issue of slander. Jamjoum commented that the police built up there presence gradually without provocation the police threw sound bombs as the demonstration and fired rubber bullets into the crowed. Increasingly more students joined those at Damascus gate. The rally ended after an hour and a half, 7 people were injured including one person that was hit with a rubber bullet to the leg and 20 people who were arrested. "They attacked everyone, I saw a 60 year old man who was just trying to pass being struck by police. Not even street vendors were safe."

The Bil'in chess game continues

2006-02-12T19:03:00.000+02:00

Things in Bil'in are quickly coming to a head. The community receive a notice that some of their land on the other side of the wall was being doubly confiscated, not only would it be confiscated by default because the wall will cut off access but that the army was also "needing it" to build a watch tower (spying tower). The villagers responded quickly by building a second outpost near the land set to be confiscated so they can "watch the watch tower."

The Army tried to prevent the second outpost being built halfway through construction. The soldiers confiscated the bricks yet to be used, however when the soldiers weren't looking the community re-organised the existing bricks to finish building the outpost.

According to Israeli law once there is a permanent structure which has four walls a roof and a window the army can't demolish it without a demolition order. Like with the other Palestinian Outpost, it would be pretty hard to get a demolition order without making it legitimate for the Palestinians to get a demolition order on the settlements. Bil'in at the moment seems to be a chess game of move and counter move. As I walked from the outposts to the village however I was confronted with a new move. The Israelis have placed road blocks on the side of the road preventing Palestinian cars from driving up the hill and crossing the road where the wall stops. While Israel keeps putting the village into "check" situations and they move out of "check" the settlements continue to expand. Cementing themselves in the occupied territories trying to force a "checkmate"

Meeting with Palestinian Youth Union organiser and Palestinian Peoples Party cadre

2006-02-12T18:01:00.000+02:00

After the demonstration in Abud, we were invited to go back to the local branch of the Palestinian Youth Union (PYU). I walked into their organisers office, there was a big Che Guevara painted on the wall and Palestinian Peoples Party (PPP) posters everywhere.

Ramez Fawadleh the PYU organiser and I had a long discussion. He showed me photographs of his work in the PYU, most of it seems to be artistic workshops, volunteer work in the community and throwing community Christmas parties. Occasionally the PYU will organise a political action such as a long march between Jenin and Jerusalem that occurred a few years ago but most of their work wasn't of a political nature. The PYU like many of the previous "fronts" like PARC and a Medical NGO etc. had to be divorced from the party in order for them to continue to receive funding.

This has caused problems for the PPP. With most cadre identifying more with the organisations then the party. According to Fawadleh there is no ideological or political education in the PPP and that the only people who have had political education are long there party members. Occasionally they share this political experience but most of their younger members just aren't educated in socialist ideas. As a result Fawadleh thinks that possibly 50% of the Party don't actually identify as communist. With the Hamas victory Fawadleh admits that there is a "problem trying to confront Islam ideology." I have just received the contact details for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) a split from the PFLP. I hope to meet with both organisations shortly to get more of a sense of the other left forces in Palestine.

From Bil'in to Abud - strategy and tactics of Anti-Wall protests

2006-02-12T12:51:00.000+02:00

There was a demonstration in Abud last Friday as well as the regular demonstration in Bil'in. I was at the Abud demonstration rather then the Bil'in demonstration. The Bil'in protest resulted in several people being arrested and others injured. Check out http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/02/11/two-villages-one-struggle-Abud-and-Bil'in-against-the-wall/ for a summary of the events in Bil'in (I joint wrote the article with someone who was there). There are so many factors in Palestinian demonstration particularly one that is occurring out in an open field or on a hill as opposed to on a city street, so I don't want to comment on the functioning of the Bil'in demonstration this week although I think a comparison between this weeks Abud demonstration and the previous couple of weeks demonstrations is useful.

There have previously been demonstrations in Abud against the wall although they have not had one for a while. One thing I noticed immediately was that in Abud a large amount of PFLP and PPP (PFLP symbol on left in photo below and PPP the logo on the right), graffiti and posters as compared to other villages which are primarily Hamas and/or Fateh. Both PPP and PFLP are leftist groups in Palestine (Check the previous post on the PPP for more details but I haven't had direct experience with PFLP).

The rally met in the centre of Abud. From the start I could see PPP placards on polls being handed out. Anti-wall T-shirts and caps produced by PARC the agricultural NGO organised by PPP.

The PPP were the only group with placards, the only other symbol on the march were Palestinian flags. The PPP gathered their cadre with the megaphone grouping what appeared to be the vanguard of the rally around them. Unlike Bil'in where people just race to get down to the wall with the "militant" young people just running crazily down to the wall, here there was a real militant organised pull of young people in the middle of the rally chanting and clapping making sure we approached as a group .

One thing that stood out was the real "maleness of this rally" like the ones in Bil'in there was still a major imbalance. This is despite the fact that there is a more leftist orientation in the village and that there is more Christians as well as Muslims in the village. I think I felt this most standing amongst a large group of men, chanting and screaming whilst women without head covering (probably Christian) were looking on at the demonstration from their balcony (see the photo above.

So we moved from the village and ended up climbing a hill towards where a dirt road was (we believe this road to be the future path of the wall.)

Because of the vast amounts of rock that seem to litter every natural part of Palestine the rally was more spread out but still there was a feeling that people weren't racing. The fact that we couldn't see soldiers probably also calmed the rally.

When we got to the top of the hill the dirt was being held down by military blankets to make it easier to cement a road there in the future. The villagers burnt the blankets and started pushing stones into the middle of the road as a way of trying to cost the occupation and as a form of symbolic resistance (pictured below).

Once on the top of the hill there were prepared speeches by Bassam Al Salhi, Secretary General of the Palestinian People Party and Fateh member Moheeb Awwad, a newly elected member of the Palestinian legislative council. Both of them talked about the need for the various Palestinian factions to unite and continue to work together against the occupation.

Al Salhi made a special point of acknowledging the Internationals that were there and how the actions of their governments and media should not reflect badly on them or other people from their countries that may not share their governments views (he was primarily talking about the anti-Islamic cartoon). After the speeches were over as a united group we moved to confront the wall itself.

He also pointed out that the day Feb. 10 was the anniversary of the PPP or at least the latest version of the PPP and they wanted to mark the day with this important demonstration. The seem to have an activist focus as well as their NGO focus (if not an ideological one), I just hope it is a constant thing that is not limited to their anniversary celebrations.

The protest was quickly confronted by an Israeli Hummer Vehicle. Unlike the rallies in Bil'in where stone throwing was a small group of young men dispersed over a large area vs an infinite number of soldiers (hiding in reserve), here about 40 young people pushing back one Israeli armored car (and it worked). The terrain changed the dynamic of the stone throwing because of the height advantage, it is harder to scare the demo into running in multiple directions. The army started sending out individual soldiers and fired warning shots into the air. We left the rally area as a group in a more organised fashion then what I had seen in Bil'in before going over to the Youth Union centre to discuss how we continue the campaign.

Back to School

2006-02-11T22:32:00.000+02:00

Before leaving Yanun we paid a visit to the local school. It was freezing cold outside (looked like it might snow at one point), so classes were sort of canceled. There were 4 students who had decided to brave the cold and were having an informal lesson. The teacher tried to get the children talking to us in English. We ended up drawing with them and I managed to explain to them strategy for O's and X's (always go for the centre). The school is for the 12 or so children aged between 6-12, higher levels of school are held in Aqraba the town where the villages went to escape the settlers (see previous posting).

The children enjoyed playing with my digital camera, I have found it a rather useful device in interacting with young people in the villages. Often they take really bad shots but at least I can delete them. The girl second to the left (first photo) started off really serious so I was rather pleased when we managed to make her laughed with the other 3 and pull faces at the camera (second photo). Most of my posts till this point have tended to focus on activist stuff and the occupation, but in a town where the kids are scared to climb 100 meters above their village for the very real fear of being shot by settlers, helping them have a bit of fun was an act of resistance. To exist here is to resist. We had to leave on Thursday due to other actions that were taking place the following day and the EAPPI weren't coming back till a few days later. I hope the village will be ok, activist resources are scarce at the moment and there are so many places like Abud where just by being there and having fun you are able to help the resistance. Plus the local women make the most amazing goats cheese I have ever tasted.

Yanun surrounded by the occupation (and some Danish stuff)

2006-02-11T16:18:00.000+02:00

On Wednesday, Japanese ISM activist Kawichi and I were sent to a small Village near Nablus called Yanun. We made the journey in a hurry because the Ecumenical Accompaniment program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) that had maintained a permanent presence in Yanun for the last 3 years left suddenly and weren't returning for a few days.

I think the EAPPI were evacuated as a precaution given they climate surrounding "the Danish issue." We had a meeting in Yanun with Rashid the Mayor of the village and some UN workers who were wanting an update on the villages situation. Midway during our meeting the UN women received a phone call saying that they had orders to go to Jerusalem because of fears around the Danish stuff. So the UN left Kawichi and myself to bravely confront the armed settlers and any people who might mistrust pastries :).

On a more serious note I think the west needs to realise the serious implications that such racist media mean for activists trying to do work in places like Palestine. In a society that is mostly Muslim, the whole population is deeply offended by the cartoons (including non-Muslims). Even secular sections of the Palestinian community are treating this as a direct insult. A great Palestinian activists who I have worked with and has spent 3 years in jail for his involvement in the non-violent resistance told me "you can take away my land, you can take away my freedom, but you can't insult my god."

As a materialist I sense that the reverse is actually true, that the occupation, "Anti-Terror" laws targeted against Muslims in places like Australia and the banning of the Hijab in European countries are more likely the cause but this is the straw that has broken the camels back. If there wasn't the ongoing oppression people would probably see this like catholic or Kiwi jokes. As another Palestinian ISM activist reminded me "The second intifada started when Sharon stood on the temple mount in Jerusalem with 1000 armed people," the main frustration and the subsequent uprisings were against the occupation but that is where it started. I am not saying this is the start of intifada 3 but who knows (a rally that was violently attacked in Jerusalem that day seems to support the hypothesis).

Anyway enough of that for now. I had two conversations on the situation in Yanun, one with Rashid and the other with his brother Yassir (see below). The conversations kinda blur in my memory so I will just give a summary of the situation in Yanun. Yanun is a small village 12 families in total. There was another 20 families in the village about 4 years ago, but the village became surrounded by ideological settlers. Most people here classify settlements according to whether they have a fairly quiet population who have moved mainly due to cheap housing (economic settlements), such as the settlements in Bil'in or ideological settlers that are obsessed with driving out the Palestinian people to further the Jewish state.

There are 3 settlements on the hills that surround Yanun. The settlers used to come down to the village and terrorize the local population. They would walk into towns with guns and terrorize the local population. They fired shots through peoples windows, beat people up and had their dogs bathe in the local drinking water, contaminating it. Only this year were they able to replace an electricity generator destroyed by the settlers. The whole town evacuated for 3-4 days but slowly started to return when internationals moved into the village. The settlers make it impossible for the village to access 2/3rds of their farming land. The village and its land is in Area C meaning that it is classified as being under Israeli military control. This means that the Palestinian Authority doesn't operate in this area. They have been able to get the Israeli military to agree to protecting them against the settlers during some of the olive harvest so they can harvest their olives. Before the settlements they had several months to harvest their olives, now they are dependent on when the military agree to help them, which one season recently was only 2 days.

Before the community was able to export their olives. Now they only get enough for themselves. Even the kid who used to run around the area freely cant climb to the top of the hill that their village is on for fear of 'provoking' settlers.

Initial impressions of the Palestinian Peoples Party and the Israeli Communist Youth.

2006-02-09T16:49:00.000+02:00

I met with Samir Siaf the director of International relations for the Palestinian Peoples Party (PPP) in Ramallah on Tuesday before catching up with Noam from the Central Committee of the Israeli Communist Youth League (the youth organisation connected to the Israeli Communist Party) .

The Palestinian Peoples Party and the Israeli Communist Party have origins dating back to 1919 in what was then called the Socialist Workers Party. The Party then changed its name to The Palestinian Communist Party in 1921. When Palestine was divided in 1948 what is now the PPP (there were more name changes in the interim) started to organise separately from the Israeli Communist Party, although as Siaf puts it they are "not sister parties, but twin parties." Both parties remained part of the Comentern (linked to the soviet union)

The Palestinian Communist Party controversialy accepted resolution 181 for the creation of two states Israel and Palestine back in 1947. They did so Noam argues because they felt that it was the best realistic option given that they wanted to get rid of British imperialism and because they didn't want to be occupied by any other middle eastern country.

Talking to Siaf he had a real sense of pride in his party saying that it was the only Palestinian party that was:
a) organised originally in Palestine as opposed to Jordan or Lebanon etc.
b) the only political party that was set up as a political party in Palestine rather then having its origins elsewhere (unlike say Hamas or Fateh) which started originally as armed organisations.
c) able to maintain international relations on a party to party level (as opposed to relating to governments.

This issue of international relations between parties was discussed further. The PPP seems to be relating to many of the healthy parties that the Democratic Socialist Perspective is relating to in Europe such as the PDS in Germany as well as New European Left Forum (NELF), but they also seemed to be relating to some weird sects such as the United States Communist party over the more healthy Trotskyist formations in the US. In Latin America Siaf said he was planning to go to Chile in 2002 to meet with the Communists there (until his trip was disrupted by the invasion of Iraq), but he seemed to think this was a bigger priority then relating to the real revolutionary processes that are happening in Cuba, Venezuela and now Bolivia.

Also now it seems like the PPP are relating to the Chinese Communist Party. I told Siaf that I thought that China had gone down the Capitalist road, he said diplomaticly that "they were just starting relations." In relating I also got the feeling that he didn't want to debate or enquire into my organisations even when I tried to steer the conversations in that direction. I also found it quite difficult to discuss the possibility of joint collaboration.

One positive thing I will say about their international solidarity is that they are very good when it comes to the issue of Iraq. I asked about the Iraqi resistance and whilst he had concerns about the Islamic nature of the resistance in Iraq like in Palestine but he came down totally on the side of supporting the Iraqi resistance against the occupation regardless of its religious character.

The other thing I'd say about the PPP is that they seem to have moved away from an ideological focus to a more non-government development focus. Up until 10 years ago the PPP produced a weekly newspaper and until only 3 years ago they produced a monthly magazine. The newspaper according to Siaf "used to reflect the mass movements."

Both were abandoned due to "a lack of funds" since the collapse of the Soviet Union. But I think the main issue is the PPP are choosing to spend their money on NGO's and development rather then ideologically trying to win leadership of the Palestinian people (leaving that window open to Islamic groups like Hamas). NGO's such as P.A.R.C (an agricultural NGO) and the Palestine Youth Union seem to be the parties main focus [later I had a meeting with an organiser for the youth union and I will post more thoughts shortly].

In terms of their international work Saif boasted a camp they ran in Jericho with people from Sweden and the focus he placed seemed to be more on volunteer work in the community then political education. Even in terms of ideology although the PPP consider themselves communist Siaf commented definitively that they don't follow the ideas from Marx and subsequent Marxist thinkers but "simply apply Marxist methodology, dialectical materialism."

After I left the PPP national office to go to Jerusalem I ended up facing some problems at the check point [see previous post], but I managed to meet up with Noam from the Israeli Communist Youth League (CYL). I went to their Jerusalem office, it was small about the size of resistance old gelling office. Despite Jerusalem and Tel Aviv being the major cities in Israel both of them have a very small number of comrades. The Jerusalem branch of the CYL was only re-established in the last 6-7 years and the Tel Aviv branch only in the last couple of years. Whilst 80% of the population in Israel is Jewish, the Israeli Communist Party (ICP) is 95% Arab. The main support base for the ICP coming from the Arab villages up north such as Nazareth where apparently the CYL has about 100-200 members and where they can mobilise thousands of people for May Day demonstrations.

According to Noam the ICP was majority Jewish until the mid 1960's when there was a split. This 1965 split According to Noam had many good points such as critiquing the lack of democracy in the Stalinist influenced ICP, however the split ended up supporting the 6 day war in 1967 which saw the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Many of the people who had split off from the ICP who tried to rejoin were put off by the party in true Stalinist style forcing apologies from them as a condition of re-joining and many of them simply dropped out.

The CYL in Jerusalem seems to have a much bigger focus on political education then the PPP. They have weekly branch meetings, the one the following day was to feature an educational on Rosa Luxemburg. They had 5 comrades go to the World Federation of Democratic Youth conference in Venezuela and have organised forums with the Venezuelan ambassador. They produce a monthly magazine (see pictures below). The articles Noam pointed out to me (I don't understand Hebrew) included something on the privatisation of universities, an article on why students should support teachers out on strike and a materialist history of wichcraft. There was also an article defending Israel's who refused to serve in the military.

Interestingly the ICP and the CYL don't have a position on whether there members should refuse to serve in the Israeli army (other then to defend members who refuse to serve). This goes for both inside and outside the occupied territories. Whilst the Tel Aviv organiser of the CYL is also the organiser of a refusing group, Noam who is both an organiser and on the CYL's central committee refuses to serve in the occupied territories but was Commander in the recruitment division. He felt that given the majority of working class Israelis completed their military service that refusing to serve would only isolate him as a "leftwing ratbags."

Interestingly the two greatest challenges that seem to face the CYL and the ICP seem to be a lack of centralisation within the organisation and its relationship with Hadash a united front they are involved with. It was difficult for Noam to provide me with facts or figures on the current state of the organisations outside of Jerusalem. There is no National Office and the CYL doesn't even have an organisers list or a regular bulletin. National Conferences only happen every 4 years which is a very long time for a youth organisation.

initiatives come out of individual branches (such as the magazine which started in Jerusalem) but there is no co-ordination so while it appears that there is a focus on Marxist education in the Jerusalem branch I couldn't find out if the same was true for other branches or even find out what other branches main focuses were. For a communist organisation it seemed that the ICP was more an anarcho-syndicalist federation of branches in their operation then democratic centralist. I think they like the PPP are still recovering from the collapse of the Soviet Union and what it means in terms of loosing paid organisers etc. Noam was leading the branch despite trying to balance 2 jobs and study.

The other problem is that most of the ICP's political profile seems to be overshadowed by Hadash the united front that the ICP uses in elections and other campaigns. Whilst the majority of Hadash's members are in the ICP the ICP seems to be hidden by Hadash a leftist coalition which has several Arab parties in it, further reinforcing the idea that they are primarily one of the Arab parties rather then a Communist party.

Noam and I discussed the possibility of links between our organisations such as them writing copy for Green Left Weekly and possibly me giving an educational as some point during my stay.

I hope to meet both Noam and Samir Saif again. Both of them have agreed to meet with me in the following week. Should anyone have anything they want me to ask either one of them e-mail me at harrison_g_healy@yahoo.com.au

A really fucked checkpoint experience

2006-02-09T15:53:00.000+02:00

Hello, sorry I haven't written anything for the last few days. I have been in a small village called Yanun (will get to that story shortly). So I have a backlog of stories that I want to share.

I was going through Qalandia checkpoint on Tuesday night. It was 8 o'clock at night and about 3-4 degrees. When I crossed the checkpoint to get from Ramallah to Jerusalem I saw a group of 7 young men. The youngest looked about 13 and the oldest looked about 20. They were kneeling on the ground surrounded by Israeli soldiers.

The soldiers wielding rifles were telling everyone to move on and that there was nothing to see there. A friend and I refused to leave. An Israeli soldier had his hand shot at the checkpoint earlier that day so the Israeli soldiers shut down the checkpoint for several hours. Many of the Palestinian people became frustrated and decided to bolt through the fence.

These 7 were arrested because they were in a hurry and attempted to bypass a ckeckpoint on the West Bank side of the border. But the most absurd thing was that the shooting was not an act of terrorism or liberation. The shooting was an accident committed by an Israeli soldier. For this the Palestinian people were not allowed to pass.

Not only were these people arrested for something that was the Israeli governments fault but they were being abused as prisoners. Rather then letting them inside where it was warm, the Israeli soldiers kept them outside in the freezing cold for over an hour. My friend and I arrived at 8 o'clock and left at 9 o'clock. They were there before us and they were still there after we left. Our stopping to see what was happening meant that some Palestinians also stopped. They were better at arguing with the soldiers (because they spoke Hebrew and Arabic) and there was a lot of them so I left to keep an appointment in Jerusalem. I found out that they were probably released 20 minutes after I left.

The other really annoying thing is because all checkpoints are "closed military zones" I could not photograph what was happening without being arrested. So much for open transparent process democracy.

Bil'in and beyond

2006-02-04T13:30:00.000+02:00

Fridays protest began in the heavy rain. On the march down towards the wall there were less people, with many of the young people from Bil'in taking cover in an abandoned house. Until things cleared the rally was made up mostly of Israelis, Internationals and more experienced Palestinian activists. This in some ways set the tone for the rally as we were a united front line that was upbeat and political, we were dancing and chanting similar chants to those chanted in Australia "1,2,3,4, Occupation No More" and "Bush, Sharon you will see, Palestine will be free."

As the rally dried up more of the villagers came to join the demonstration. At at the back of the rally a soldier with a tear gas gun (featured in photo below wearing a belaclava) was threatening to fire tear gas at a group of kids with some of his friends watching. I and others tried to de-escalate things at the back with a variety of jovial banter. One his fellow soldiers had a mini-digital camera like mine and I joked about how he was taking photo's for his mum "Hey mum here is a picture of a kid I gassed today." Most of the soldiers are very undisciplined. Unlike Australian police who tend to stay quiet and not respond these soldiers displayed a wide gamete of behavior from ignoring, to arguing back, to giving the Nuremburg excuse "I am just following orders."

Some of the soldiers were visibly upset and needed their friends to reassure them that they were doing a good job after they fired a warning shot. The issue of refusers is more complicated then I thought, some of the Israelis at the demonstration outright refused to serve and some of them were still currently serving. Of the Israelis that are still in the army reserves, some refuse to serve in the occupied territories and one I met serves in the occupied territories because he feels he can lessen the impact of his group. He said he did this by "sticking up his hand before a raid and questioning his commanding officers orders." He felt that he had stopped raids from happening and had reduced their effect. He was now often kept in the outpost while other soldiers would raid Palestinian homes, but even then he thinks that these raids were less violent because his peers would face him when he got back.

When the kids threw stones at the soldiers some of them turned to us like little kids and said "look, see what they do?" We told them that if they were going to play that game then they started it by being on their land and preventing them from protesting on their land. Some of the kids dragged the Danish flag through the mud which was not useful. Such actions only alienate and scare internationals and really Australia and the US are supporting the occupation so why focus people on Denmark?

We ended up running to another break in the wall. I was leading the charge and they sent off warning shots as we advanced. We put our hands in the air to make it clear we were unarmed but kept moving forward slowly. The closer we were, the safer we were as they could not use tear gas without hitting themselves. We formed up right in front of them and some of them went a bit crazy with sticks.

We held our ground however, moving back on our own terms and ended up de-arresting some people caught up in another section of the demonstration. The soldiers fired more tear gas and we retreated back. The kids continued to throw stones, one kid threw some stones at some of the internationals that were taking pictures. An experienced Palestinian activist talked to the kid and found out he was concerned about having his photo taken given the repercussions a Palestinian can face at these demonstrations (months, sometimes years in jail).

At the end we all pulled back and watched a film. Thinking about the Israeli soldiers and the kids you get a sense that things are about to crack. Unlike Australia where the conflicts (though generally not involving tear gas) are between disciplined police and usually experienced activists, here people aren't as clear. There are too many doubts in the soldiers minds and they are beginning to crack in all directions.

Likewise the village kids who just happen to be on the front line of the occupation aren't educated in political strategy. The wall came to them, they didn't have the luxury to have 6 years of theoretical and practical education in activism before coming into the conflict. Palestinians (I say Palestinians not 'the Palestinians' because it only applies to some) have a real tendency to shoot themselves in the foot. They are frustrated by an occupation that is affecting every aspect of their lives. You can sense the psychology of this place, people are depressed.

Despite this tendency, I do see that many people are developing and talking strategy. Likewise I get a sense that the soldiers are becoming increasingly hostile to the work that they are doing. One change that seems noticeable talking to Israelis is there seems to be a big backlash against the settlers. People are pissed off that they are causing violence, that the army is having to come to their rescue, that they are getting cheaper housing and are paying less taxes then other Israelis. People have told me "only a few years ago settlers were still seen as heroes" now it seems to be a selling point in the election who can be most harsh to the settlers.

I will be talking to some people from the Palestinian Peoples Party (formally known as the Palestinian Communist Party) to talk strategy and get a sense of their ideology. I will report back soon.

Israel prepares for push on the Bil'in wall

2006-02-02T18:55:00.000+02:00

I crossed the wall at Bil'in today. It is clear that even before the court finding on Bil'in comes down that the company is forwarding whatever progress they can on the wall. The mounds of rocks on the left of this picture are right next to the wall and are being stacked. I believe this is to make it harder for Palestinians to sneak across and to speed up wall construction when the time comes. Taking this photo I was pulled aside by Israeli security who were sitting in the van.

We will see what happens over the next few days.

Surviving the occupation, Ronnie Brnat's story

2006-02-02T18:17:00.000+02:00

I have talked a few times about Wagi Brnat. He is someone who I have come to admire very much, he has 6 children living under the occupation. Some of them have gone to jail for long periods of time. The Israeli court system is different for Palestinians then for the rest of us, the separate court systems mean that whilst Internationals and Israelis have to be brought before a judge within 24 hours Palestinians can sometimes wait for months.

Whilst some of his sons have been in jail for long periods of time, one of the difficult things for Wagi and the rest of the Brnat family has been the shooting of his son Ronnie in Ramallah 5 years ago.
Ronnie was in Ramallah when the second interfada started, peacefully protesting when snipers Israeli snipers shot him and many others. At the age of 20 Ronnie was confined to a wheel chair for the rest of his life. He cannot move his legs and his arms have lost much of their fine motor skills.

Ronnie has continued to keep his faith in non-violent demonstrations and goes to the Bil'in protest every Friday. Even in his wheel chair Ronnie has still been attacked by the military on two separate occasions. The first time a sound bomb landed on his food and the second time he was shot with an experimental Israeli bullet.

Asked why he continues to go to the demonstrations Ronnie says it is important to defend his land. Ronnie has shown amazing courage but the way he has been abused by his occupiers for attending peaceful demonstrations, to me shows why people like Ronnie choose to take up arms or even suicide bombings. To ask the Palestinians to turn the other cheek while their sons are crippled is a hard thing to do. Still the Brnat family are staying strong and I know I will see Ronnie at the demonstration tomorrow.

To exist, is to resist.

2006-02-02T17:35:00.000+02:00

I haven't written for a few days. There have been no major demonstrations or even minor ones to talk about since I last wrote but in Bil'in the struggle continues. A court case has been occurring in Tel Aviv over the last couple of days to determine the legality of the wall in the area of Bil'in.

The case in Israel is to determine if the impact of wall disproportionately effects the people of Bil'in more then Israeli security is gained by it. Of course the decision is being made in Israel by an Israeli judge in Tel Aviv where the majority of Bil'in's people cant even visit. The decision isn't being made by the Palestinians or even the UN which has found the wall to be illegal.

We expect a decision (probably against the people of Bil'in) to be reached in the next few days. The people of Bil'in however continue to defy the wall. The outpost is still there and people like Wagi Brnat continue to take their goats to graze in the fields across from the wall. I was with Brnat when soldiers came to tell him to take his 30 or so goats back to the other side of the wall. Finally the soldiers agreed to go off and see if he had the Israeli army's permission to graze the goats on his peoples land.

Finally we got the phone call that he was allowed but after months of fighting for such basic rights you would think he shouldn't have to keep going through this process.

Down from Brnat on the hill was a tractor plowing for olive trees to be planted. The olive trees are on the other side of the wall from the village. The people know that if they are cut off from their land then all their hard work will have been for nothing.

Still it is important for them to continue to farm on the land because if the land is seen to be idle the Israeli government will try and say that they can take it. One of the people plowing for the village told me that on that hill backing onto the construction site of the expanding settlements he used to have 13 olive trees. The trees were removed to make way for the construction. According to a fellow activist each olive tree would be valued at about $1,000.

Still the people are in high spirits, regularly crossing the wall despite the threat of "Mortal Danger" we had about 30 people at the outpost today and everyone was in high spirits. Brnat played what looked like a metal chair leg like a flute and people were having a great time.

We found out that one of his goats was giving birth so we moved to see. He had left his goats in a small field of grass and olive trees only 100 meters from the settlement.

In front of these monolithic structures, two kids were born. I don't think the Israelis wanted us there, but there we where. We stood there in defiance of the occupation, these goats were symbolic of the continuation of the villages traditions and lives in the face of the occupation. To exist is to resist.

[Note that I have spelt the village Bil'in rather then Bil'lin which is how I spelt it in previous posts. Since I have been here I have seen at least 4 different spellings of the village name. Things don't translate perfectly to english and there have also been different spellings of Fatah, the most accurate I now belive is Fateh and the spelling is Bil'in on the UN maps so that is how I will do it from now on I think]

Palestinians protest against Danish prejudice

2006-01-30T21:40:00.000+02:00

Around 100 people marched down the streets of Ramallah tonight after the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten posted a series of 12 cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Mohammed in a negative light. The one cartoon that I managed to find googling the web portrays Mohammed with a big bomb as the top part of his head. This comment on Islamic people is not witty satire but rather an explicitly racist cartoon akin to the depictions of Jews as rats in the early years of the Nazi regime. Most of the media attention seems to be focused on if the people have the right to display the cartoon rather then whether or not the cartoon is racist.

Here in Palestine people are upset, not only because of the cartoon but because the majority of Danish people supported the cartoons in a recent opinion poll. Whilst there were some reports of Danish flag burning earlier, the protest that evening had chants focused on defending Islam and the occupation (Danish people weren't mentioned). The rally chanted against the occupation, because cartoons like those in Denmark reinforce the racist world we live in and the occupation of Palestine. The cartoons are just an aspect of reinforcing the idea of Islamic people as being backward and deserving less compassion then the west.

As a result of these comments and the backlash by Muslims, some of the Danish people working with the ISM don't feel safe in the West Bank and there embassy has advised them to pull out. This is a real loss to the Palestine solidarity movement.

Harry

Fatah and Hamas unite to demand release of US, British and Canadian hostages

2006-01-30T20:34:00.000+02:00

At what I believe is the first joint press conference of Fatah and Hamas since the Legislative Assembly election, both groups demanded the release of Christian Peacemaker Team people who are hostages in Iraq. Tom Fox from the USA, Norman Kember from the UK, as well as Harmeet Sodeen and James Loney from Canada are being detained in Iraq. The group that has kindnaped them is demanding the release of Iraqi people incarcirated by the occupation.

Dr. Mahmoud Rahmahi (below), newly elected member of the legislative council representing Hamas mentioned the four activists one by one saying "Our friend from the United States Tom Fox, our friend from the UK Norman Kember..." He had no prejudice from where these people came from because "these people supported us against the occupation"

The same statement was then read out in arabic by Abdel Aziz Ahmad, newly elected member of the legislative council representing Hamas. Azam Al Ahmad, the former Palestinian Ambassador to Iraq and Fatah representitive as well as Abu Hassan, representing the Muslim scientists (Rabata Olama Al Muslimin) also called for the release of the four people (or so I was told as it was all in Arabic and this time I didn't get the english translation)

Jerry Levin a current CPT delegate who was held hostage for a year by Hezbollah in Lebanon called for the four mens release "in the interest of the Palestinian People and in the interest of the Iraqi people."

Tyseer Tamimi, Imam of the Al Aqsa Mosque, wanted to be there but was delayed for 2 hours at an Israeli checkpoint. Another example of a peaceful symbolic act of unity being hampered by the occupation.

Israeli's haven't responded yet to attack on Apartheid Wall

2006-01-29T23:56:00.000+02:00

I ended up going to Bil'lin last night to make sure that people wern't arrested for removing pieces of the wall. There were no attacks from Israeli soldiers that night. I inspected the wall in the morning and four more sections were removed. Each section of the wall has expensive electrical equipment so it isn't that easy for the Israeli government to rebuild. This act won't stop the occupation but stunts like this boost the morale of the villagers.

Whilst in Australia we would say that anyone who damages government property could face jail time, here the Israeli government posts signs on their illegal walls stating that anyone who damages it is in mortal danger. Of course they are in mortal danger, the army that erected the signs might shoot them, but at least they were warned!

Fatah members take to the streets.

2006-01-28T19:35:00.000+02:00

In the wake of Fatah's election defeat to Hamas (it is all over the news even if I haven't explicitly stated it in my blog). Fatah members rallied on the streets of Ramallah, waving the Fatah flag and wearing Fatah scarfs. With a few of them armed in typical Palestinian protest fashion they marched to the President's compound, firing their weapons in the air. It wasn't a rally aimed at Hamas but to demand a change in the Fatah leadership. I'd estimate there were at least 800 people there. I spoke to a Fatah student leader by the name of Mohamad Hamaodeh, he told me that Fatah has not had a change in leadership for 40 years. According to Hamaodeh, Fatah needed to let a new generation to stop the corruption that lead to people voting against them in recent elections. "There is a new generation in Fatah who are waiting to take charge and they will do so."

Protest in Bil'lin

2006-01-28T17:29:00.000+02:00

I witnessed my first demonstration at Bil'lin today. It wasn't anywhere near as big as the rally held last week in which participants estimate 2,000 people took part. This week there were probably less then 400 people. Someone said that people were probably politically exhausted. A cynical person would probably say that the factions felt there was less to gain in being there after the election.

Still it was a demonstration unlike any that I had seen before. Internationals and Israelis gathered at the ISM apartment in Bil'lin. One of the organizers of the anti-wall demonstration explained to first timers the significance of the wall and its impact on the local population. He also explained the importance of the non-violent resistance in fighting the occupation.

Much of what he said was covered in my last article on Bil'lin although an interesting statistic that I didn't know was that in the town of Bil'lin of the 1,700 villagers only 600 or so were over 18 and able to vote. The Palestinian population as a whole is incredibly young, which is a common factor amongst oppressed and underdeveloped countries where the birthrate is high and mortality rate is also significant.

We joined with the local population after the mid day prayers and marched down the road to where the wall was. From the distance we could see Israeli soldiers in front of the wall. From there people tried to run around and it became a matter of trying to pass the line of Israeli soldiers and move as far up the hill as you can.

The protesters climbed the hill with a group running up ahead to get around Army lines. The army moved to block the rest of us off as some of the children ran down the hill throwing rocks at some of the passing soldiers, causing some pursuing soldiers to seek refuge near their jeep. The kids defend there actions as legitimate under UN resolutions which allow occupied people to resist. Meanwhile even in land on the Bil'lin side of the wall the Israeli army was pushing demonstrators and restricting our movement. Many of the locals tried to argue with the soldiers asking why they couldn't move freely on their land, to which the army soldiers chose not to reply.
Instead they took photo's of demonstrators and threw tear gas at some of the young people. The tear gas quickly spread though with people such as myself who were at least 100 meter's away ended up gagging and crying like babies. Tear gas is very powerful, ironical even a few soldiers ended up in its wake. Some of the Israeli refusing (Those Israelis who refuse to serve in the occupied territories) ran up the hill onto a mound of dirt. The Army had a hard time working out how to respond as they couldn't face the backlash that hurting their own people would cause (unlike attacking the Palestinians).

They were forced back and the Israeli army were able to end the demonstration by creating a wall of tear gas between us and them that kept getting us closer to the village.

As I finish writing this blog post we have just received word that the people of Bil'lin have taken down a large section of the wall and we are going back out there tonight to make sure that there are no repercussions. I want to talk about a Fatah rally that occured today but I am running out of time. There is so much happening over here it is hard to find time to write about it.

Bil'lin Outpost resisting the occupation

2006-01-26T14:09:00.000+02:00

I went with the ISM to the town of Bil'lin two days before the Palestinian Election. As the election was constantly changing and I felt the need to keep up to date with what was going on I am only able to write about my experience now. This is in no way a reflection of priority. The elections were a significant event however the continuing struggle of the Palestinian resistance I'd say is more important.

I had first heard about Bil'lin in Australia. It was and is the base for many anti-wall demonstrations. The fence covers a security road near the town of Bil'lin and cuts the town off from much of its land. Whilst the wall is not made of large slabs of concrete (yet) it contains sensors throughout that are designed to detect any attempt to get through. The gap in the fence that you can see (pictured below) is the result of peaceful demonstration against the wall. Anti-wall demonstrations are now happening weekly the last being about 2,000 people strong (the largest yet).

Even if we were to go around the fence (rather then take a shortcut through the hole) we would only have to travel 50 meters. The fence isn't being built due to a court order that the people of Bil'lin were able to get against the wall. They also don't want to enrage the locals who's resistance is growing.

On the land that looks like being cut off from town Israel's plans seemed clear. 5 large settlements with a total of 100,00 people and growing- keep in mind that Jerusalem only has 600,000 people and the whole of Palestine is about 3-4 million. One of the largest settlements (Modi'en Illit) had 29,300 people in it late last year. 12.7% more then in 2004. The settlements are growing as can be seen in the photo of construction below. Many of the locals predict that one day there will only be one big settlement. These settlements that confiscate Palestinian land are not only exclusively Jewish but also exclusively orthodox. The housing in these settlements costs about half of what you would pay in Jerusalem or a major Israeli city and according to local activists the settlers pay no tax.

Not so far away from these amazingly large settlements stood a slightly more modest but none the less impressive little brick room. This room referred to as the outpost is permanently staffed by the local community and members of the ISM.

The significance of this building was explained to me by local shepherd and anti-occupation activist Wagi Brnat (who I think looks strangely like Xanana Gusmao) . Apparently not too long ago the villagers brought out a caravan and parked it on the hill opposite the settlements. The Israeli army confiscated the caravan so the village brought another one. The soldiers asked "why is it that you have brought another caravan to this spot. You aren't allowed a caravan here this is government land. We are going to have to remove this one."

Brnat (pictured above: right with ISMer's Asha Ashkar back and David Kreuer front) said they asked why the soldiers have not taken the settlements. The soldiers responded by saying the could not remove the settlements because they were constructed already. The army then left saying that if the caravan was still there in 24 hours it would be removed. So the whole community got together and constructed the outpost so by the soldiers logic it could not be removed.

It was raining that day but the community persisted in building this room. When the soldiers the next day to remove the caravan. They saw the structure and were upset. Israel will now have trouble destroying the outpost when even by Israeli law these settlements are illegal.

I stayed overnight in this one room with many members of ISM and the community. The settlement literally obstructs everyday life. We struggled to get water as the ground water can only be accessed by the settlements not the locals. We also had lunch delayed by several hours as the people supplying us with food had to wait for Israeli soldiers to leave before they could cross the illegal road on Palestinian land.

I was asked by Brnat as to why I was here. He thanked me for my solidarity and he said that "if they weren't facing occupation and Australia was that he would help liberate Australia." I then discussed with him the situation facing Indigenous people here in Australia. We talked about colonialism and occupation. He said "I am sorry that I was not around 200 years ago to help the people of Australia resist the occupation and that I have my own occupation here." I told him about the tent embassy in Canberra and how like the outpost it was a symbol of resistance that was under constant threat of being removed. I look forward to seeing the next demonstration which is taking place tomorrow.

Harry

An amazing election day!

2006-01-26T13:02:00.000+02:00

During the day of the election yesterday, I was posted at the largest polling stations in East Jerusalem. All the polling stations in Jerusalem were at post offices because the Israeli government didn't want to recognise Jerusalem as being part of Palestine. The post office polling stations were set up so the Palestinian people could "postal absentee votes" that would be counted in the West Bank.

There were hundreds of Palestinians surrounding the polling station as well as international observers- from former US President Jimmy Carter to different NGO's and peace groups- making the crowd outside the polling station number well over a thousand. Teens handed out election material, something that was actually in violation of election regulations however given the ban by the Israeli government on campaigning this seemed like a good thing. People were ecstatic. The place being a Fatah strong hold had several people chanting. Occasionally a candidate would come to the polling booth and there would be cheers from various sections of the demonstration.

Talking to people there was a real enthusiasm. The people I talked to were planning to vote for individual candidates rather then a list from a particular party. A man showed me a voting card for Fatah with 6 names in Arabic. He said "of these only two are good. The rest corrupt."

The crowd grew even more as a Palestine Peace Coalition (PPC) staged a hundred strong rally outside the polling booth. The rally was non-factional criticising the Israeli government for only allowing 6,300 Palestinians in East Jerusalem to register in this election.

A women was applauded for waving the Palestinian flag, illegal in Jerusalem under Israeli law. Yet the police stayed at bay and barely went past the polling both.

There was a large police presence about 500 meters away with a Zionist rally of 20 people congregated with Israeli flags saying that this land was Israel and the Palestinians had no right to vote for the PA if they wanted to live in Jerusalem. When I approached to ask why the rally was so small, an organiser told me that there were only 20 people because the police said they could only have 20. Yet it didn't look like they had any supporters near by and they packed up pretty early.

The voting went on till 7pm thankfully undisrupted. I went to the ISM office in Ramallah before checking out what celebrations were being had. I went past a place in Old Ramallah that was the headquaters for Hamas. I talked with them for a bit and they were relatively friendly. I talked at length with one of their leaders.

One of the things that concerns me about this election, which was backed up by my conversation with this Hamas leader and backed up by a conversation I had with a Palestinian ISMer, is that there really doesn't seem to be a strategy for how to resist the occupation. Fatah and Hamas had lots to say on the occupation but nothing on the types of demonstrations, negotiations, boycotts, warfare etc that they feel are needed to defeat the occupation.

What he said next scared me even more. I tried talking to him about some of the criticisms of Hamas that I had heard during the election about them being just for the Muslims and not relating to the Christian Palestinian population. He didn't seem to think that it was relevant and he talked about America being run by the Jews. I tried saying that in Australia many Jews are opposed to the occupation and many feel that after the holocaust that happened. He then tried to deny that the Holocaust had ever happened and that there could have been only 100,000 at most Jews killed. I asked him if it matters and didn't he think that was a lot anyway but I didn't get much of a response. All I can say is I hope if Hamas does end up running the PA that we hear more about resisting the occupation and less about holocaust denial.

After fleeing that quite uncomfortable situation I ended up in the centre of Ramallah watching the post election celebrations. Cars with different Palestinian flags drove around central Ramallah firing machine guns in the air. Whilst I think the PA is not going to do anything major hopefully the inspiration of this election will help build the actual activist movement in Palestine. With Hamas negotiation is less likely to occur. The Palestinian people have nothing left to negotiate with and so the resistance will need to find its own way.

One person said they voted for Fatah because if Hamas wins the US and Israel will not accept it. However as another person pointed out Israel wanted the Palestinians to elect Mahmoud Abbas, they did and there has been no progress so now they plan to do the opposite.

Harry
[Feel free to write feedback, questions etc.]

Real Democracy in the Middle East (no it is not Israel)

2006-01-24T20:15:00.000+02:00

In East Jerusalem you could be forgiven for not knowing that there was an election going on. You could not find a single poster in the city. There was no information on candidates, who to vote for or how. When I crossed over into Ramallah however I saw something very different.

Even before I reached Ramallah standing at the Qualandia checkpoint there were posters for the election everywhere. The service taxi's (a hybrid between a bus and a taxi) were shrines for various political factions. They were covered in stickers and posters inside and out. Flags and political murals likewise decorated the service's. Different service's played different songs supporting various factions, in a style that one could easily dance to. Even as the service's were taking off campaigners would stick more stickers on the windows.

In Ramallah the election fever was even more extreme. You could barely find a single shop that didn't have a candidate in the window (sometimes 10). From cafe's to hardware stores, to mainstream clothing and video outlets, they all presented their candidates. Banners were hanging every few meters across the streets with different factions represented. Cars, like the service taxi's, were covered to the brim in material. Some of them were even loudhailing the songs that I heard in the Taxi.

Houses down back streets were being used as campaigning centres as everyone set out promoting their material. Newspapers were being handed out on the street as well as pamphlets saying what the candidates stood for. The posters carried various symbols of Palestinian struggle with handcuffed pictures of candidates being a promotional point in material. Many of the posters also had pictures of Arafat and people who had been assassinated by Israel. Whilst in Australia most posters in the elections are limited to the smiling face of the candidate (or the leader of the party) with no description whatsoever, these posters had content.

Whilst I cannot read Arabic they had a fair few words on them, long slogans at the very least. Those that I had translated contained demands such as the right of return for Palestinian Refugees, and for a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem. There were also several small rallies that were taking place.

In the city square Fatah was holding a rally of about 150 people whilst only a few blocks away Hamas held a marching band of about 60 young people mostly about 6-15. I don't know enough about the young people here to comment on their political awareness, although I have my reservations about this.

Even in the small town of Bil'lin the town was plastered with posters and had a local Fatah campaigning centre.

I wondered, given that the passion here [in Bil'lin and Ramallah] was so high, why wasn't there any sign of the election taking place in East Jerusalem? According to the ISM media co-ordinator campaigning for the election has been banned by the Israeli government. Only 5,000 of the 200,000 Palestinians in Jerusalem will be eligible to vote in this election. People are able to vote only by obtaining tickets which were in limited number (I will find out more about this tomorrow).

At this stage it looks like Hamas will win. Hamas is expected to win for a few reasons. The first is a belief by many of the Palestinians that Fatah is corrupt. Fatah certainly has lacked internal democracy having not had a National Congress since 1989. This allowed Fatah and the PA leadership to act without scrutiny in the name of unity. Fatah has also been seen to compromise too much with Israel at times, such as in the Oslo accord when they agreed to Israel maintaining the Israeli roads and settlements that relegate any future Palestinian state to a series of bandtustan. Some of the people I spoke to defending Fatah felt that this election was a real shaking up of Fatah and that the Fatah list contained an emerging leadership that is different to the old Fatah.

The charges of corruption where not helped by allegations that the US is backing Fatah. The Washington post put out an article By Scott Wilson and Glenn Kessler:

"A leader of Hamas, formally known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, called for an investigation into whether the $2 million program violated the prohibition against parties receiving funds from foreign sources. U.S. Officials involved in the program said it was not meant to favor one party, but the Palestinian public closely identifies the Palestinian Authority with the Fatah movement that runs it."

The US and Israel have long hated Hamas who they see as Islamic Terrorists. Very little of what I have seen of Hamas in this election is related to Islam. One Palestinian man I talked to said "I might vote for Hamas simply because the US doesn't like them." People seem to think Hamas will stand up to Israel where Fatah didn't. From what I and others have seen there is barely a mention of Islam in Hamas' campaign (at least in the West Bank). T

he only references to Islam I saw was one tiny reference in a song about Hamas played in the service (which simply talked about the strength of Islam rather then any fundamentalist policies) and the Islamic Cresent behind the picture of a Hamas leader who was assassinated by Israel. Amongst the very large numbers of flags I've seen being waved about I haven't seen a single Islamic flag. One of the interesting things in this election is that all lists in the election need to have a certain number of women, Hamas' list is no exception which does challenge some of our notions of fundamentalism.

That is not to say that there isn't an Islamic element to Hamas but it is unclear how it will play itself out and they clearly aren't winning people to Hamas (from what I have seen) on the basis of Islam but on resistance to the occupation. Organisations change over time (for better or worse) Hamas is no exception. Ironically despite Israel and the US labeling Hamas as the main threat, the missiles being launched from Gaza as well as the kidnappings that are happening there seem to be being caused by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. The Brigade has been loosely affiliated with Fatah and every Fatah election poster I saw displayed the logo of the al-Aqsa Martyrs on it. Although, I think the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade are probably fairly heterogeneous and isolated sections do things in various areas.

It wouldn't be the first time the US or Israel, in accordance with their interests, has blamed the larger political threat for being the biggest security threat.

There are also a few individual candidates worth keeping an eye out for. Key among them is Marwan Barghouti who is of Fatah but is not endorsed by Fatah. He was jailed in 2002 for allegedly being a leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. Barghouti is still seen as a symbol of Palestinian struggle and if he wins from jail the movement to have him released will surge. Even with the 2 major parties it seems that many people will vote for smaller groups and individuals with Fatah and Hamas generally recieving less then 30% each in the opinion polls.

[So there are some of my initial thoughts on the situation at the moment. I have probably made a lot of errors in here and I am still trying to work my way around Palestinian politics but hopefully my observations are useful]

ISM holding strong despite numbers.

2006-01-24T16:47:00.000+02:00

I am now involved in the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a group of international activists working with the Palestinian community by monitoring the situation and utilising non-violent action. They are really short of people at the moment. They had hundreds of internationals only a few months ago during the European and North American summer holidays now they are down to barely a handful. As a result I was unable to be trained by the ISM last weekend (they figured 5 trainers running a workshop for 1 person was a bit much). You can really get a sense of how short handed they are. Whilst connected with many local Palestinian groups the ISM is mainly doing work in Hebron and at an outpost in Bil'lin (will report shortly) I will be trained next weekend when they have a few more people but they have me doing a few safer tasks till then.

The last few days have resulted in some amazing experiences and I figure it is better to put them into separate entries then cramming it into this one report.

New look Hamas hires image consultant (Guardian)

2006-01-22T03:21:00.000+02:00

I thought I'd post a link to this article. Most people at the Faisal hostel (activist backpakers in Jerusalem) expect Hamas to win the elections. Hopefully the image this spin doctor is trying to reflect is a result in a change in how Hamas as a whole projects itself, its actions etc.

New-look Hamas spends #100k on an image makeover; Spindoctor admits he has 'work cut out' with group known forsuicide attacksBy Chris McGreal in RamallahThe Guardian20 January 2006http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1690565,00.html

"Hamas is paying a spin doctor $180,000 (#100,000) topersuade Europeans and Americans that it is not a group ofreligious fanatics who relish suicide bombings and hate Jews... Abdel Aziz Rantisi [the former Hamas leader killed byIsrael two years ago] was on television saying things thatforeigners cannot accept, like we will remove Israel fromthe map. He should have talked about Palestiniansuffering. He should have said we need this occupationended. Foreigners will accept this," he [Hamas' new media spokesperson] said."

Trouble getting through to Israel

2006-01-22T03:04:00.000+02:00

I am now in Jerusalem. I was given a rather hard time at the border checkpoint of Talba (Egypt)and Eilat (Israel). The checkpoint was staffed by very young Israeli soldiers. They searched my bag and jacket. They took swabs from the inside of my bag and my wallet. I presume this was to see if I had any traces of bomb materials or something but before I could open my mouth the soldier said "No you can't ask what I am doing." I have been through security in a few countries and have been involved in first aid. One rule which applies to both first aid and security is that if you feel the need to violate someone you tell them why. This is to reassure them and to maintain a basic accomplished to the public/person you are relating to.

They looked through my bags and asked me about odd items in my bag, not because they were a safety risk but to try and interrogate the reason for my trip. They also wanted to know why I came through Egypt. I told them it was cheaper (which it was), but I have the feeling that if I said I was hanging out with the Egyptian locals it would have been used against me. They also only gave me a 1 month visa compared with the 3 month visa you can get at the airport At least it isn't an Australian Temporary Protection Visa (TPV).

Harry

Media wrap up on Bahrain

2006-01-22T02:55:00.000+02:00

I left Bahrain, unsure of what to make from the previous days events. There was an article about a riot somewhere else in Bahrain. The article only made it to page 5 despite the country having only 650,000 people to report on. There was nothing significant in terms of local news until then. The article said that there was a peaceful demonstration of about 200 that was disrupted by people "out to cause trouble." The article went to great lengths to distance the riot from the protest. The article said that the protest was small about 200 people, which I take with a grain of salt. The protest was to demand the release of people arrested at a previous demonstration but interestingly the article did not mention what they were arrested for. The article said about 20 people were arrested at this protest and listed names.

Harry

Bahrain less boring then I thought.

2006-01-19T17:31:00.000+02:00

Well it had to happen on my last day, but things in Bahrain seem to be more interesting then I thought. I was walking around the streets at around two o'clock to get some Arabic sweets (they were great, but I digress) before seeing a police van with a type of uniform that I hadn't seen before. The number of police quickly grew to about 3 trucks full and a few smaller vans. There was movement there over the next couple of hours as some of them put on riot helmets. They had riot shields and some of them were wearing jackets with pockets especially fitted for smoke grenades. This is on top of a few with rifles and other equipment.

I talked to a few locals who said they were expecting a protest of unemployed people in Bahrain and they were expecting a clash. I asked if they were expecting a protest of a few hundred. Several people in separate conversations said they expected at least 1000. Now Bahrain only has a population of about 650,000 so for there to be that many people who would be prepared to defy the police weapons I saw is quite incredible. A few people said that against the police the protesters throw rocks. The police looked like making their stand at the square I was in but then they started to move. I took a photo, which I may post later. The police tried to detain me and insisted I delete the photo. Thankfully my camera ran out of battery at this point and I couldn't get in to delete it.

The photo only shows a few police and unfortunately doesn't capture the scale of the operation. I asked what was going on and that I was just a tourist. They said that I couldn't take photo's of police during "emergency measures." I asked what the emergency was and they quickly backed down and said no "this is a standard operation." Anyway the police vans moved to another location. I tracked them down there. Again they stayed waiting for demonstrators for another hour before driving off. I don't know if the protest was cancelled or they moved or what happened. I will check the news tonight but I doubt given their attitude to my camera there will be much.

I did a quick google and it turns out that there is a high at least 13% official unemployment rate in Bahrain. There has been a bit of a movement but fairly sketchy coverage. The protests were directed against the government and I wouldn't be surprised if it is targeted at the fact that Bahrain has a very high number of skilled laborers coming in, probably at the expense of training the local population. I don't know enough to comment. Shame to leave at this point but such is life. At least we can be certain that even in somewhere like Bahrain the struggle continues.

If anyone has any information on the Bahrain workers movement I would love to hear it.

harrison_g_healy@yahoo.com.au

Harry

Some Palestine Stuff in the Bahrain media

2006-01-18T08:11:00.000+02:00

Interestingly although not surprising the Bahrain media has very little about politics in Bahrain (apart from mentioning a couple of strikes). There was a fair bit of info on Iran and CNN's false reporting of the President saying "The use of nuclear weapons in Iran is a right" when he really said "Iran has the right to nuclear energy." There was also some info about a 3rd US helicopter being shot down in Iraq during the last 10 days.

What was very clear looking at the newspaper as a whole though was the deep interest in Palestine with a front cover article on someone throwing a stone at an Israeli tank in Qaulquli (a town in the West Bank). If you go further into the newspaper it has an article on Mahmoud Abbas the head of the Palestinian Authority saying that he believes Ehud Olmert, Ariel Sharron's replacement is "a man he can do business with." This close to the Palestinian elections I doubt it will win him any favors as it looks like Hamas will increase their vote and may win as the PA at this stage appears to be quite weak in taking action to end the occupation. I will see what happens when I get there.

Lastly there is also a report of a bird flue scare from a chicken farmer in Palestine. Although he was tested and came out clean so it looks like there is nothing to worry about.

US military control of Bahrain

2006-01-18T07:37:00.000+02:00

1I went to my crappy over priced youth hostel (ok enough silly gripes) only to find that right behind the Hostel is a US military base.

It is huge. It took me about half an hour to walk around. It is right in the middle of Juffair which is about a 2km walk from the Centre of town. It is a huge obstacle for anyone who wants to get past.

After having talked to a Canadian soldier stationed in Dubai on the plane over it seems that western military has a very strong grasp on the Gulf region. I always knew that economicaly but seeing the base gave me a good idea of just how full on the military were here.

Later that evening I ended up wandering around central Manama (as you do) and ended up by total coincidence in an "Aussie/American" bar (actually looked like a restaurant from the outside). It was the first watering hole I had seen since I left Australia. They were very paranoid about security (taking ID and searching bags as you enter).

Interestingly the place was mainly full of US military with a few flight stewards from Gulf Airlines thrown in. So I got chatting with a couple of the military types and they confirmed all the stereotypes of US military. They were the most red neck, pro-bush people. They were still convinced that there was a direct link between Iraq and Al-Qaeda and thought the main problem the US had was Mexicans crossing the border.

But what was scariest was the fact that after we had a few drinks I asked them what their Mission was in Bahrain. They said they didn't know and I don't think they were lying, they just had the we trust our government speech. One of them was even second in command of a Navy boat and they couldn't even provide an official reason why they are hear. The blind (they didn't even try to hide their ignorance) patriotism these soldiers displayed makes you think Trotsky was right about the US being one of the last places a revolution could take place. I know there are smarter soldiers in the US army and there are issues with economic conscription but if this is the US population in Bahrain (and apparently there are Aussies stationed there as well). But no wonder westerners get such a bad rap in some places in the middle east.

Harry

Hello from Bahrain

2006-01-18T07:18:00.000+02:00

Hello Everyone,

On my way over to Palestine I have ended up in Bahrain. It is a small little Gulf state Island with a population of about 600,000. As I was taking the taxi between the airport and my hotel room they were selling copies of the Gulf daily news. It mentioned a Butchers strike at the central where the Butchers were refusing to receive their daily supply of meat from the Bahrain Livestock Company (BLC) which gets almost all of its meet from Australia. Apparently the cost of meat was raised suddenly from BD1 (about $5 a kilo) to BD1.1 (about $5.50 a kilo).

I went to the central market to check this out

It turns out that it wasn't a strike but a 2 day boycott by the small business owners who were reliant on BLC (leaving the meat market almost bare. BLC has a monopoly on Bahrain meat. BLC would not speak to the owners to explain why they were increasing their prices.

Harry

It begins (well not quite yet)

2005-11-20T09:15:00.000+02:00

Hello,

I am starting this blog to report back on my impending trip to the Middle East particularly Palestine, where I hope to be able to report back on what I see of the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation. I am not leaving Australia till mid-January but I thought it would take me some time to work out this damn site so bare with me.

yours in solidarity,

Harrison