My mother is afraid to go alone into her own basement. As a girl, three brothers waited patiently for her to descend the carpeted stairs of their parents’ home, hidden in the darkness. As she groped nervously for the light switch, they prepared their boyish attacks. Her few years had already taught my mother through arduous repetition what lay ahead, yet despite her brothers’ constancy, in each startling detonation of an air-filled paper bag, terror emerged anew, embedding itself deep within her psyche. Her burgeoning confidence betrayed, even into adulthood she remains trapped within pervasive readiness. This is the sound of a low-altitude sonic boom wrought by an American built F-16 fighter plane.
In the activity center, I joined a grammar school dance and drama class. Between laughter and applause, hand-in-hand I was ushered about, clung to by small fingers with sure grips. Children climbed into my lap, wrapped their arms around my shoulders and recited their names excitedly. Unable to be close enough, cheek-to-cheek they whispered to me their brief histories and offered gag candy with spring loaded rubber beetles glued to sticks of gum. Diminutive dancers fumbled the steps of the Dabke, unwilling to shift their gazes, beaming eyes lavishing the delights of being watched. They took proud and eager turns introducing me to dead older brothers, cousins, fathers – tiny photographs tied with shoelaces to their necks.
We wake throughout the night to deafening percussions, windows rattling, pressure pounding against our chests and clapping our ears. Silence. Then in thunderous waves, wraiths shake the cinderblock walls and torture our wary solitude. Babies cry, children wet beds. Kids peer over dusty windowsills, searching the sky for the fading blue afterburners of jets long since passed. We flinch but internally, terribly revived, then resheathe our bodies beneath readiness and sink trembling back to sleep.
The soldiers came last night for Fadi’s older brother. Amidst a barrage of stun grenades and automatic gunfire, he took refuge inside a partially destroyed building. They attacked the structure with an American built armored bulldozer, its throaty diesel engine heaving as steel tracks cackled laborously over the asphalt. M16 assault rifles cracked sharp brass rounds through shattering concrete, severely wounding him in the abdomen as he made his escape. The hours-long operation began on the street below my window, less then thirty meters from where I slept. I awoke only when a sonic boom shook the camp just before sunrise.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Friday, January 12, 2007
Demonstration
1/12/07
From IMEMC and RJI (Bil’in, West Bank) - Approximately 150 Palestinian, Israeli and international demonstrators, accompanied by several journalists participated in a demostration today against the illegal Isreali Annexation Wall in Bil’in.
The procession approached an access point in the Wall and demanded the gate be opened. Residents held pictures of photojournalist Fadi Aruri, (24) of Ramallah, who was shot several times in last Thursday’s invasion of that city. Aruri remains in critical condition in Tel Aviv.
Demonstrators took refuge on the adjacent hill as youth began lobbing stones toward the soldiers. Israeli forces fired tear gas, percussion grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets at the youth, before opening the gate to allow access for two Israeli Border Police units.
Residents and activists lay in the road and were intially successful in preventing the passage of the two jeeps. They were joined by resident Muhammad Ali abu Sadi, (70) after he had been struck repeatedly by soldiers. Abu Sadi suffered exhaustion and collapsed shortly thereafter. After a scuffle in which soldiers attempted to prevent treatment, he was attended to and revived by Bil’in medical relief volunteer Sheik Suliman Yassin. The remaining protesters were beaten and dragged across stones as they were removed from the scene.
Two Israeli Border Police units then pursued Palestinian youths several hundred meters into a residential area of the village, firing tear gas, percussion grenades and rubber-coated metal bullets. Three Border Police Officers attempted to arrest an American activist who retreated as the military approached. The activist surrendured after soldiers fired several rounds of rubber-coated munition at him, though he was not injured. He was forced to his knees and soldiers began binding his wrists when an Israeli videographer interceded. He was released shortly thereafter.
Border Police units retreated toward the access gate in two jeeps, firing tear gas and rubber-coated bullets from rooftop hatches atop the vehicles. Bil’in, located near Ramallah in the West Bank, has lost close to sixty percent of its land to the construction of the Wall and expansion of Modin Illit settlement. Residents here have held similar protests every Friday for nearly two years.
Several people reported injuries, including:
Adib Abu Rahma (35) – beaten with batons
Sameer Suliman Yassin (31) baton injuries to the hand
Wha’il famil nasser (29) baton injuries to the head
Khaled shoukat al Khatib (20) explosive gas bomb to the back
Ashraf Muhammad Jamal Khatib (27) rubber coated bullet in the leg
Zuhdia ali al Khatib (40) rubber coated bullet in her leg
Motassem ibrahim abu Rahma (20) rubber coated bullet in the leg
Associated Press Journalist burned by percussion grenade
Jonothan Pollack, Israel (25) rubber coated bullet in the stomach
Sarah, international volunteer (25) explosive gas bomb to the shoulder
For more information, please contact Abdullah Rahman, international volunteer coordinator for the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Bil’in at: (972) 054 725 8210.
From IMEMC and RJI (Bil’in, West Bank) - Approximately 150 Palestinian, Israeli and international demonstrators, accompanied by several journalists participated in a demostration today against the illegal Isreali Annexation Wall in Bil’in.
The procession approached an access point in the Wall and demanded the gate be opened. Residents held pictures of photojournalist Fadi Aruri, (24) of Ramallah, who was shot several times in last Thursday’s invasion of that city. Aruri remains in critical condition in Tel Aviv.
Demonstrators took refuge on the adjacent hill as youth began lobbing stones toward the soldiers. Israeli forces fired tear gas, percussion grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets at the youth, before opening the gate to allow access for two Israeli Border Police units.
Residents and activists lay in the road and were intially successful in preventing the passage of the two jeeps. They were joined by resident Muhammad Ali abu Sadi, (70) after he had been struck repeatedly by soldiers. Abu Sadi suffered exhaustion and collapsed shortly thereafter. After a scuffle in which soldiers attempted to prevent treatment, he was attended to and revived by Bil’in medical relief volunteer Sheik Suliman Yassin. The remaining protesters were beaten and dragged across stones as they were removed from the scene.
Two Israeli Border Police units then pursued Palestinian youths several hundred meters into a residential area of the village, firing tear gas, percussion grenades and rubber-coated metal bullets. Three Border Police Officers attempted to arrest an American activist who retreated as the military approached. The activist surrendured after soldiers fired several rounds of rubber-coated munition at him, though he was not injured. He was forced to his knees and soldiers began binding his wrists when an Israeli videographer interceded. He was released shortly thereafter.
Border Police units retreated toward the access gate in two jeeps, firing tear gas and rubber-coated bullets from rooftop hatches atop the vehicles. Bil’in, located near Ramallah in the West Bank, has lost close to sixty percent of its land to the construction of the Wall and expansion of Modin Illit settlement. Residents here have held similar protests every Friday for nearly two years.
Several people reported injuries, including:
Adib Abu Rahma (35) – beaten with batons
Sameer Suliman Yassin (31) baton injuries to the hand
Wha’il famil nasser (29) baton injuries to the head
Khaled shoukat al Khatib (20) explosive gas bomb to the back
Ashraf Muhammad Jamal Khatib (27) rubber coated bullet in the leg
Zuhdia ali al Khatib (40) rubber coated bullet in her leg
Motassem ibrahim abu Rahma (20) rubber coated bullet in the leg
Associated Press Journalist burned by percussion grenade
Jonothan Pollack, Israel (25) rubber coated bullet in the stomach
Sarah, international volunteer (25) explosive gas bomb to the shoulder
For more information, please contact Abdullah Rahman, international volunteer coordinator for the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Bil’in at: (972) 054 725 8210.
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
The Mall
In Tel Aviv there is a place that looks like home. It’s a mall, full of movies and music and sports wear and panty shops. There is a sign, in Hebrew, on a window in a pizza shop that reads, “Delivery driver wanted, apply after military service.” Most citizens are required to serve in the Israeli army, but everyone here knows that. Palestinians, on the other hand, are forbidden.
There are scores of Palestinians in Tel Aviv who have come seeking work. They pick fruit and pave roads. They paint walls and collect garbage. This mall, far from the checkpoints and curfews, where food is thrown away and teens scurry about coveting fashions, is where Apartheid manifests. It’s hidden away, but buried deep beneath, are the Wall, the blockades, the assassinations and the colonies. And every so often, Apartheid peeks through to the surface, in the form of a sign, on a pizza shop window, that translates, “Delivery driver wanted. Arabs need not apply.”
There are scores of Palestinians in Tel Aviv who have come seeking work. They pick fruit and pave roads. They paint walls and collect garbage. This mall, far from the checkpoints and curfews, where food is thrown away and teens scurry about coveting fashions, is where Apartheid manifests. It’s hidden away, but buried deep beneath, are the Wall, the blockades, the assassinations and the colonies. And every so often, Apartheid peeks through to the surface, in the form of a sign, on a pizza shop window, that translates, “Delivery driver wanted. Arabs need not apply.”
Fadi
We waited outside the critical care ward of a Tel Aviv hospital while doctors inside prepared him. The doors swung open mechanically, controlled by a switch behind the nurses’ desk. On a stretcher, covered by a thin sheet, they wheeled him out of the unit. He had been shot in Gaza three days before, caught in the crossfire of an emerging civil war. Dead at the age of twenty. Moments later, our friend Abu Fadi came through the doors holding a pair of mint green smocks for us to wear.
His son was shot by the Israeli Army during Thursday’s incursion into Ramallah. An undercover special forces unit had attempted to capture or kill a man from Kt’ab al Aqsa, the armed wing of the Palestinian Fateh party. Fadi lay in an induced coma for five days, struggling to survive three bullet wounds. He is a young photographer working in Ramallah, and a friend of the activists who work in Bil’in Village.
“His color today is not good,” his father worried from the doorway. “Try to talk to him.” Nadav and I leaned in toward the bed, afraid to touch him. His body is covered in soiled bandages. Two nights before, they removed one of his kidneys, now he is fighting a severe liver infection. Thick tubes reach down through his mouth and into his chest. They are taped awkwardly into his mouth to hold them in place as the respirator clicks back and forth, pushing air into his lungs and then waiting for it to release slowly and laborously out.
“Say something to him,” his father says. I don’t know where to look. Can he hear me?
Say something.
His neck is craned in my direction. Nadav’s mint green cover is coming untied. I mended it earlier when he accidentally tore the string from the papery fabric.
Say something.
If I was laying in this bed I would want to hear the sounds of encouragement, the sounds of friends telling me I look good, the doctors say I’m going to be fine.
Say something.
I watched the invasion on Al Jazeera. The picture kept jumping and skipping from the shitty signal. That always happens on Al Jazeera.
Say something.
My mouth is dry. My wallet is still in my pocket. My passport already looks old. I should find a better place to keep it. Stop fidgeting. Why are my hands so clammy? Open your mouth,
Say something.
I want to touch him. If I can’t talk I can at least let him know there is someone here. I don’t know you, Fadi. Nadav, tell him I want to help him. Tell him he can trust me.
Say something.
I want to lay next to you in that bed. We can just lay there together and wait for this stranger to go away. Give our friends a chance to be comforting. They speak Arabic.
Say something.
Sing. Tell me a joke. Tell me anything. Put your dirty hands on my face and let me feel you here. I can’t see you but I can hear. I can’t speak, it’s these tubes, I’m not asleep. I’m trying to show you a sign. It’s not the respirator, I just moved my leg. I know you’re here.
I said nothing. I escaped the room. I walked out of that hospital, that prison. Abu Fadi is not allowed to follow. He is illegal in Tel Aviv, no permits, no permission. His son is struggling to survive and he is a prisoner there until Fadi and he go back to the West Bank.
The elevators are controlled remotely. Guards patrol the gated compound. Abu Fadi will sleep in the Fonduq downstairs with the parents of the others from the West Bank and Gaza. They cannot leave either. None of them are legal in Israel. Each wounded person is allowed a single relative to stay in the hospital until they can be deported back to the places they were shot. Abu Fadi will see the mother of the murdered boy they just wheeled past me. He will comfort her. He will console and empathize. He will do what today I cannot. He will say something.
His son was shot by the Israeli Army during Thursday’s incursion into Ramallah. An undercover special forces unit had attempted to capture or kill a man from Kt’ab al Aqsa, the armed wing of the Palestinian Fateh party. Fadi lay in an induced coma for five days, struggling to survive three bullet wounds. He is a young photographer working in Ramallah, and a friend of the activists who work in Bil’in Village.
“His color today is not good,” his father worried from the doorway. “Try to talk to him.” Nadav and I leaned in toward the bed, afraid to touch him. His body is covered in soiled bandages. Two nights before, they removed one of his kidneys, now he is fighting a severe liver infection. Thick tubes reach down through his mouth and into his chest. They are taped awkwardly into his mouth to hold them in place as the respirator clicks back and forth, pushing air into his lungs and then waiting for it to release slowly and laborously out.
“Say something to him,” his father says. I don’t know where to look. Can he hear me?
Say something.
His neck is craned in my direction. Nadav’s mint green cover is coming untied. I mended it earlier when he accidentally tore the string from the papery fabric.
Say something.
If I was laying in this bed I would want to hear the sounds of encouragement, the sounds of friends telling me I look good, the doctors say I’m going to be fine.
Say something.
I watched the invasion on Al Jazeera. The picture kept jumping and skipping from the shitty signal. That always happens on Al Jazeera.
Say something.
My mouth is dry. My wallet is still in my pocket. My passport already looks old. I should find a better place to keep it. Stop fidgeting. Why are my hands so clammy? Open your mouth,
Say something.
I want to touch him. If I can’t talk I can at least let him know there is someone here. I don’t know you, Fadi. Nadav, tell him I want to help him. Tell him he can trust me.
Say something.
I want to lay next to you in that bed. We can just lay there together and wait for this stranger to go away. Give our friends a chance to be comforting. They speak Arabic.
Say something.
Sing. Tell me a joke. Tell me anything. Put your dirty hands on my face and let me feel you here. I can’t see you but I can hear. I can’t speak, it’s these tubes, I’m not asleep. I’m trying to show you a sign. It’s not the respirator, I just moved my leg. I know you’re here.
I said nothing. I escaped the room. I walked out of that hospital, that prison. Abu Fadi is not allowed to follow. He is illegal in Tel Aviv, no permits, no permission. His son is struggling to survive and he is a prisoner there until Fadi and he go back to the West Bank.
The elevators are controlled remotely. Guards patrol the gated compound. Abu Fadi will sleep in the Fonduq downstairs with the parents of the others from the West Bank and Gaza. They cannot leave either. None of them are legal in Israel. Each wounded person is allowed a single relative to stay in the hospital until they can be deported back to the places they were shot. Abu Fadi will see the mother of the murdered boy they just wheeled past me. He will comfort her. He will console and empathize. He will do what today I cannot. He will say something.
Friday, January 5, 2007
Demonstration
5/1/07 Bil’in (RJI) – Officials and supporters of the Palestinian Fateh movement joined together with residents of Bil’in, along with international and Israeli activists for the commemoration of the forty-second anniversary of the founding of the Fateh movement and a demonstration against Israel’s Annexation Wall.
Jabril al Joub, of Fateh, commended the unanimity amongst Paletinians fostered within Bil’in, and cited the death of Yasser Arafat as a catalyst toward the curent political crisis. The void left by Arafat, he said, combined with an absence of unified leadership, has led to endemic problems such as a lack of security, employment and such basic necessessities as food, health and education. Kais abu Leyla, also of Fateh, echoed the call for unity between Islamic and nationalist parties, to put an end to factionalism and restore cohesive Palestinian resistance to the Occupation.
Muhammad Baraka, member of Knesset, condemed ongoing Palestinian infighting and called for an immediate cessation of factional violence, commending the village of Bil’in for the example it has shown.
Before commencing the march toward the barrier, featured speakers extended their thanks to international and Israeli activists who have worked alongside the residents of Bil’in in their efforts against the Annexation Wall. The village has lost approximately 60% of its land, primarily agricultural, to the construction of the barrier and the illegal expansion of the Modin Illit settlement directly adjacent. Residents of Bil’in and their supporters have demonstrated and conducted non-violent direct action against the Wall every Friday for nearly two years.
Following the rally in the village center, approximatly four hundred demonstrators marched toward an access gate to the barrier where Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) awaited them. A much bolstered force accompanied the soldiers typically stationed in the area, possibly in advanced preparation of the well-publicized march and in the aftermath of Israel’s invasion into Ramallah on Thursday that claimed four Palestinian lives and left twenty wounded, several critically. A large contingent of Israeli Border Police indicated a preparedness to conduct mass arrests.
Israeli soldiers took positions at several locations along the expanse of the primary fence and immediately opened fire on the peaceful demonstration, though the majority of marches had not yet arrived to the barrier. Soldiers fired a vehicle-mounted water and tear gas cannon and began firing tear gas canisters, rubber-coated metal bullets and percussion grenades into the crowd, which dispersed in several directions. The IOF pursued villagers into a residential area of the village, firing continuously at youth who attempted to take refuge in the surrounding olive groves.
Several Bil’in residents were injured, including at least one who was taken to the hospital for treatment. An Israeli activist also received first aid after suffering burns from a tear gas canister.
On a personal note, I escaped the encounter unscathed, though narrowly. As I retreated from tear gas into an olive grove, an Israeli soldier took aim at me with a tear gas launcher. This is a modified grenade launcher attached to an M16 assault rifle. Firing at me, I was unable to get out of the path of the oncoming canister. The root of an olive tree, less than two meters from me, and directly between the soldier and I, deflected the shot at the last moment. Earlier, I had strained a muscle in my neck while vomiting from tear gas inhalation, though did not require medical assistance.
The reaction of the soldiers to today’s demonstration was swift and violent. It is imperative to consider the specious claim that Israel is a democracy when those it occupies, in defiance of numerous UN resolutions, are denied the very basic right of freedom of speech. This was a non-violent demonstration, as has been the case every week in Bil’in for nearly two years. The Israeli army opened fire on these peaceful demonstrators without provocation of any kind. It is a common practice here in the West Bank, and those who believe in the myth of “purity of arms,” an Israeli claim that its military acts only defensively and that every bullet fired is accounted for, owe it to the people of Bil’in and themselves to experience the reality here.
Soldiers fire in wanton, indiscriminate and grossly negligent fashion in a well established pattern of disregard for international human rights law. By proxy, and in contravention of its own foreign military financing laws, the United States shares culpability for today’s events and countless other violations carried out by Israel in the region.
Injured:
Suleilman Khaleb Khatub (17) shot with rubber-coated bullet in the back
Wael Fahmi Nasser (29) shot with rubber-coated bullet in the leg
Farahat Ibrahim Hashem (26) shot with rubber-coated bullet in the leg
Hiyam Abed (15) treated for tear gas inhalation
Khaled Showkat al Khatib (20) shot with rubber-coated bullet in hand
Ashraf Muhammad Jamal al Khatib (26) shot with rubber-coated bullet in leg
Jonathan Pollak, Israel (25) tear gas canister burns to hand
Ahmad Issa Yasin (50) treated for tear gas inhalation
For more information on the injured, please contact Abdullah at (972) 054-725-8210
Jabril al Joub, of Fateh, commended the unanimity amongst Paletinians fostered within Bil’in, and cited the death of Yasser Arafat as a catalyst toward the curent political crisis. The void left by Arafat, he said, combined with an absence of unified leadership, has led to endemic problems such as a lack of security, employment and such basic necessessities as food, health and education. Kais abu Leyla, also of Fateh, echoed the call for unity between Islamic and nationalist parties, to put an end to factionalism and restore cohesive Palestinian resistance to the Occupation.
Muhammad Baraka, member of Knesset, condemed ongoing Palestinian infighting and called for an immediate cessation of factional violence, commending the village of Bil’in for the example it has shown.
Before commencing the march toward the barrier, featured speakers extended their thanks to international and Israeli activists who have worked alongside the residents of Bil’in in their efforts against the Annexation Wall. The village has lost approximately 60% of its land, primarily agricultural, to the construction of the barrier and the illegal expansion of the Modin Illit settlement directly adjacent. Residents of Bil’in and their supporters have demonstrated and conducted non-violent direct action against the Wall every Friday for nearly two years.
Following the rally in the village center, approximatly four hundred demonstrators marched toward an access gate to the barrier where Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) awaited them. A much bolstered force accompanied the soldiers typically stationed in the area, possibly in advanced preparation of the well-publicized march and in the aftermath of Israel’s invasion into Ramallah on Thursday that claimed four Palestinian lives and left twenty wounded, several critically. A large contingent of Israeli Border Police indicated a preparedness to conduct mass arrests.
Israeli soldiers took positions at several locations along the expanse of the primary fence and immediately opened fire on the peaceful demonstration, though the majority of marches had not yet arrived to the barrier. Soldiers fired a vehicle-mounted water and tear gas cannon and began firing tear gas canisters, rubber-coated metal bullets and percussion grenades into the crowd, which dispersed in several directions. The IOF pursued villagers into a residential area of the village, firing continuously at youth who attempted to take refuge in the surrounding olive groves.
Several Bil’in residents were injured, including at least one who was taken to the hospital for treatment. An Israeli activist also received first aid after suffering burns from a tear gas canister.
On a personal note, I escaped the encounter unscathed, though narrowly. As I retreated from tear gas into an olive grove, an Israeli soldier took aim at me with a tear gas launcher. This is a modified grenade launcher attached to an M16 assault rifle. Firing at me, I was unable to get out of the path of the oncoming canister. The root of an olive tree, less than two meters from me, and directly between the soldier and I, deflected the shot at the last moment. Earlier, I had strained a muscle in my neck while vomiting from tear gas inhalation, though did not require medical assistance.
The reaction of the soldiers to today’s demonstration was swift and violent. It is imperative to consider the specious claim that Israel is a democracy when those it occupies, in defiance of numerous UN resolutions, are denied the very basic right of freedom of speech. This was a non-violent demonstration, as has been the case every week in Bil’in for nearly two years. The Israeli army opened fire on these peaceful demonstrators without provocation of any kind. It is a common practice here in the West Bank, and those who believe in the myth of “purity of arms,” an Israeli claim that its military acts only defensively and that every bullet fired is accounted for, owe it to the people of Bil’in and themselves to experience the reality here.
Soldiers fire in wanton, indiscriminate and grossly negligent fashion in a well established pattern of disregard for international human rights law. By proxy, and in contravention of its own foreign military financing laws, the United States shares culpability for today’s events and countless other violations carried out by Israel in the region.
Injured:
Suleilman Khaleb Khatub (17) shot with rubber-coated bullet in the back
Wael Fahmi Nasser (29) shot with rubber-coated bullet in the leg
Farahat Ibrahim Hashem (26) shot with rubber-coated bullet in the leg
Hiyam Abed (15) treated for tear gas inhalation
Khaled Showkat al Khatib (20) shot with rubber-coated bullet in hand
Ashraf Muhammad Jamal al Khatib (26) shot with rubber-coated bullet in leg
Jonathan Pollak, Israel (25) tear gas canister burns to hand
Ahmad Issa Yasin (50) treated for tear gas inhalation
For more information on the injured, please contact Abdullah at (972) 054-725-8210
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