[JENIN] International peace
activists with the International Solidarity Movement
report that at
4 AM Israeli tanks entered Jenin, occupied houses, and
shot throughout the city. At 6 AM the
tanks and soldiers surrounded the Jenin hospital and
positioned snipers around the hospital.
Ten tanks, three APCs and a number of jeeps are involved
in this operation at the hospital. The hospital is
now effectively closed by the military and a tight curfew
is in effect for Jenin.
Seven internationals are trying to escort civilians and
provide a presence in each of the wards of the
hospital. At around 6:30 AM this morning Caiomhe
Butterly escorted one pregnant woman whose
water had already broken and was about to give
birth. On the way into the hospital, one soldier
held his rifle to the woman's stomach and threatened to
shoot. Only with the intervention of Caiomhe did
the soldiers finally allow the woman entrance to the
hospital. The Israeli soldiers allege there are
armed men inside the hospital and have told the director
of the hospital that the Israeli forces will remain until
the Palestinians turn themselves in. The director
of the hospital denies that any armed men are inside the
hospital and has appealed for intervention to lift the
siege on the hospital.
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It's vacation
time, and people temporarily disengage from the political
razzmatazz for more pacific exploits. Israel Shamir
I myself was
"schooled in hate" during the summer of 1967.
Milldale is a
suburban day camp located some miles outside of
Baltimore, Md., birthplace of its sponsoring
organization, the Jewish Community Center Association
(JCC). Originally an educational and civic institution
for poor Jewish immigrants, the JCC redirected its
energies toward middle-class "schuls with
pools" following WWII, and began aggressively
promoting Zionism in the aftermath of the Six-Day War.
Which is why, as a
seven-year-old camper, I found myself manufacturing
cardboard daggers and machine guns during arts-and-crafts
period. These were to be used as props for Camp
Milldale's end-of-summer pageant, which featured a highly
stylized re-enactment of episodes from Israeli history,
interspersed with songs from Fiddler on the Roof. Emmis.
We first-graders
were entrusted with recreating 1948. Some of us got to
play Jewish militia; others -- probably not the
counselors' favorites -- had to be Arabs. We took to the
stage bristling with toy weapons. Pint-sized Irgunists
raised the Israeli flag, declared independence, and were
immediately attacked by shrieking hordes of simulated
Palestinians. After a brief melee, the Arabs all clutched
their chests and fell down. Then everyone stood and sang
"Hatikvah." Curtain; wild applause.
You could look at
this perversely funny little performance as a harmless
assertion of solidarity with Israel. Or you might see it
as a callous exploitation of innocent minds. Either way,
my fellow campers and I were certainly not being trained
as terrorists. Nor, I suppose, were we literally being
"schooled in hate," except in the abstract
sense in which all such nationalist rituals are aimed at
turning children into unthinking chauvinists.
Yet somewhere in
Baltimore there's undoubtedly an album filled with lurid
snapshots of Milldale's 1967 summer pageant, and it would
be simple enough to deploy them on a web page or press
release with the headline: "At Jewish Summer Camp,
Kids are Taught to Re-Enact
Deir Yassin Massacre."
Jacob Levich
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
July , 2002. ISM Report From in Jenin:
The heat permeates everything, turns muscle into melting
modeling clay. Bodies droop over chairs, eyes hooded and
heavy, lids fluttering at the gates of sleep. Fever
creeps up through my limbs,
my cheeks are flush. I feel sickness in every cell, and I
fight to stay awake. I don't want to be sick again. I
came here to work, not sweat in silence in the stale
blank apartment. "I'm not contagious.
"I tell myself. "It's just the water," and
with that bit of self convincing I trudge to the Red
Crescent, my poor arabic morning greetings more slurred
than usual.
A newborn has been left by the roadside. We ride to the
hospital to claim him,and bring him to
an orphanage in a surrounding town. This sort of
abandonment is rare here.Mothers delight in
their families, and towns are close knit, but Jenin is
devastated. The economy is hard struck, the water lines
cut, the sounds of gunfire and bombing have become
background noise, the musak of the occupation. Even the
most hopeful voices carry a ring of fatality in them.
The nurses have named him Abdullah. He has charcoal gray
eyes, and a headful of dusty black hair. I cradle him in
my arms,kissing his forehead with ridiculous desperation.
A Jewish woman
with a Palestinian baby in her arms, trying to transfer
some sense of love and belonging to this little one.
I carry Abdullah into the ambulance, fussing with his
blankets. The radio crackles, the driver answers.I have
been ordered to go back to the dispatch center.They say
the Israeli soldiers won't let
internationals go with ambulances outside of the city. I
try to protest, but I am suddenly washed with a feeling
of despair. All at once I feel useless. This stupid
American woman condescending enough
to come into this town, and think that I could help. The
problems here are complex, and weighted with issues I
have never had to organize around before. My naivete is
heavy about me. I cannot work
anymore today. I am physically ill,and mentally pained.I
know I cannot show my sorrow or my rage to my Palestinian
friends.I haven't earned it. I have only touched the skin
of their suffering, what
lies beneath I cannot even imagine.
I am dizzy walking backing to the flat. Homesick, and
heartsick and embarrassed. In bed I listen to my walkman.
Ani sings me an activists lullabye, "I'm no
heroine.Least not last time I hecked.I'm
too easy to roll over, and I'm to easy to wreck.I just
write about what I should have done,and sing what I wish
I could say, and I hope somewhere some woman hears my
music and it helps her through her day."
We paid for this occupation, sitting in our air
conditioned houses, never questioning where our tax
dollars are sucked away to. My big woman's ego has been
leveled, and I am just a little girl with a
fever struggling to make sense in the rubble, in the heat
of Jenin.
F
painting'yousalloverboy':j.braddell©
photo: Cirque de
Soleil: HansKlaus/EPA
International Solidarity Movement
http://www.palsolidarity.org
July 28, 2002
[JENIN] Over 40 international activists have placed
themselves in life threatening situations to halt Israeli
war crimes being carried out right now in Jenin.
Currently there are three situations:
1. Internationally
acclaimed author Starhawk and over a dozen other
activists are trying to stop the demolition of several
homes near Wadi Birkin. The international peace activists
have been tear gassed repeatedly and are gravely
concerned about the two Apache helicopters flying
overhead firing sporadically. Caiomhe Butterly, Irish,
approached a nearby house where she could see
approximately 25 men being held and stoned by Israeli
soldiers. The area commander began to stone her as well
causing injuries to her legs and arms. Soldiers dragged
her away. The women and children from the homes have been
taken hostage by the Israeli forces to an unknown
location.
2. The Israeli military has
contacted the mayor of Jenin informing him of their
intentions to blow up the Nadi Youth and Cultural Center.
Internationals with ISM and the French Civil Mission for
the Protection of the Palestinian People are planning to
enter the center as well as surround it in a human chain.
3. Two tanks and a jeep
entered the city center and began firing on Palestinian
civilians this morning. Due to local resistance the
Israeli army pulled out but are currently en route to the
city center again with reinforcements. Activists are in
the city center and plan to protect the Palestinian
civilians by acting as human shields.
Under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, collective punishments
are a war crime. Article 33 of the Fourth Convention
states: "No protected person may be punished for an
offense he or she has not personally committed," and
"collective penalties and likewise all measures of
intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited."
International activists and Palestinian civilians call on
the members of the press to expose these vicious acts of
violence and outrageous war crimes
For more information from the International Solidarity
Movement contact:
Huwaida 972 (0) 67 473
308
ISM Office 972 (0) 2 626 4844
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