Doug update 2
CJME Friends:
This is rather long and I understand if you don’t have time to read it. Just delete if so.
Some of you might be interested in the DEC 27 post where Doug tells about Christmas in Bethlehem. Or maybe the DEC 23 post when he got caught in a turnstile.
Interspersed throughout are snippets that portray the hardships of a people under heavy occupation on their own land—prevented from traveling, for example, from the Plaza in Kansas City to nearby Brookside, less than two or three miles away. All that Doug describes (except when he’s in West Jerusalem) takes place not in Israel but in Palestine. Andy
DEC 17
We just had the handover ceremony in the Lutheran Church from the old group to our new group. Both will have dinner together at the
Jerusalem Hotel at 7:00. The old group at the placement says the wifi there is now working. Great News!
DEC 18
Hi Dear—it’s about 8:30 Tues. night and we feel very fortunate that the local internet man came by to connect our pc's to the wifi in our
house.
Angela Godfrey of ICAHD (*Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions) took us on a 3-hour tour this morning in Jerusalem to show us the many settlements in and all around East Jerusalem (*which is supposed to be the Palestinian area). Settlers, the fanatical rather than the economical kind, have occupied every house and neighborhood where they could get a foot in the door. In several cases they forcibly evicted Palestinian families and then moved into the buildings.
Anyway we arrived here a couple hours ago after a bus ride through the hills of the West Bank.
DEC 19
Hi Dear,
I am amazed at Hedy's memory. Much of what she describes from four years ago is still very similar (*Hedy Epstein is a peace activist friend from St. Louis). There is a double, high fence with razor wire on top, sand shoulders which would show footprints, electricity which signals if fence is disturbed and heavy gates in both fences.
The notorious 26 to 30 foot concrete walls are in the more urban areas, such as for miles through Jerusalem, around a good portion of Bethlehem though not completed there, around Qalqilya etc.
The north gate is open for those who have permits from 5:45AM to 7:15AM and for about an hour around noon and again late afternoon.
The south gate is open only for 15 minutes around those times and confines a Bedouin family away from town. Then a mile or two past that is the Falamya gate which opens from 6:00 AM to 6:00PM. Soldiers of the IDF, Israel Defense Forces, check everyone’s ID and permit one at a time and record the numbers.
The main problem is that the permits are for various lengths of time, from 3 mos to 2 years, and may not be renewed for many reasons such as "security." Ownership must also be constantly proved and deaths of older owners make it difficult for family members to continue. Or the permit will be granted to one person who is unable to work the land—a child for example. You get the idea.
Getting late and must get up at five to have a coffee and hike to Falamya gate by six to see if it opens on time and how the farmers are treated.
There they also go through a small guard building with a metal detector in it. Of course all plastic lunch bags, tractors, donkey carts, etc are inspected. Jenny and Tzegha will monitor the north gate and rush to south gate to watch it. We should arrive back at our rented house about 8:00 for a simple breakfast. Will describe other duties at another time.
DEC 21
Hi Dear,
I think it's Fri evening, but it's easy to lose track with no TV or newspapers. We woke up around 5:00 and went to the gates. Today I had Tzegha with me as she hadn't been to the Falamya gate before. We took a little longer getting there as she's rather small and doesn’t walk as fast as I.
We arrived at 6:09 and the gates were open but the soldiers had not begun to call the workers through yet. Tzegha and I made our presence
known to the soldiers and they began to call for men to come one at a time. First they wait at a turnstile for the light above to turn from red to green.
One man was accompanied by his son about 12, who doesn't need a permit if with his father. The dad pushed his papers into a window and
continued down the side of the small building to a metal door with another light above it. When that turned green they both entered and went through
a metal detector. The metal detector kept going off and it took ten minutes for the operator to figure out it was malfunctioning. Finally the guards
just made them raise their jackets and shirts to check for hidden items like guns and bombs, I guess. The two passed out the other side of the building into our view and went a short ways down the road beside the inside fence where they stopped to wait for other workers. The soldiers obviously gave up on the detector because they had the rest of the guys come through the open gates one at a time and just raise their shirts and jackets.
About a dozen men and three older boys passed and climbed onto a tractor and cart that one had been allowed to drive through and headed for their fields.
We EAs left about 6:40, after at least trying to make things easier for the Palestinians. The sky was getting light enough to see the settlement of Zufin off in the distance to the west. The fence is located at least a mile and a half into the Jayyous fields, which is the reason for the three gates we monitor two or three times each week. One or two EAs can go to the North and South gates, staying an hour and a half at the noth and then a 20 minute hike for the fifteen minutes the south gate is open.
A Bedouin family lives on the Israeli side at the South gate and can come into nearby Jayyous only at the three 15 minute periods during the day. The mother of the eight kids has cancer and comes across for treatments often. The prior team managed to get through to visit them at least once and the two older girls, 16 and 20, had tears as they tried to communicate their feelings of isolation to the team.
At noon two EAs from Tulkarem, fifteen or twenty minutes away, arrived at our house for lunch and visiting. The young man was from Switzerland and the young woman from Norway, though she had been adopted from Korea as a baby. All 15 EAs at our five sites, including me as the only American, are easy to get along with and are encouraged to visit other sites while here. We showed them through the village and they were surprised at how agricultural it is, with chickens in their coops along the streets and smells of livestock. Many small shops comprise the commerce.
Later we visited the house next to us with about six children from 6 to 2 years. They gave us pita, arabic coffee, cookies and orange drink.
Fortunately the oldest daughter and a neighbor man were able to translate between us, while the three of us wished we knew more Arabic.
Time to go. Love, Doug
DEC 22
Hi Dear,
We did not go to the gates this morning because wanted to go to Qalqilya to look around before arriving there in the dark at 4:00 in the AM.
We took a van that is used as a bus between towns here. Six shekels apiece to the center of Q, which has about 40,000 inhabitants.
Then we walked a mile to the terminal which was closed today, as for shabbat we speculate. Then we walked back to town center and
ate some falafel, bought a couple things and caught the service back. I rested 20 minutes and then we were invited to a village "party."
Two youths who spoke English guided us to an enclosed plaza where two or three hundred sat and stood listening to speeches delivered
with emotion. Turns out it was a political rally of the popular party of this area called "Japper" as close as I could tell. The two women
of our EA team sat in the back with a hundred of the village women and girls. I started standing at the side with other men but one man
guided me to a seat. Although I couldn't understand the Arabic, I understood from the style it was about the Palestinian situation and they don’t much like it. I'm certain I heard America mentioned at least three times and it wasn't positive. We left midway through simply because of the language gap.
It's now almost 5:00pm and we are expecting about three ISM folks [International Solidarity Movement] from Azzoun a nearby town of about 10,000. We don't as an organization resist the Israeli Occupation as actively as ISM. EAs monitor points of interaction of Palestinians with Israeli soldiers and are a presence in the village to hopefully limit incursions by the soldiers.
Have to go now. ISM is on the phone approaching.
DEC 23
Dear Andrea,
Our internet was down this morning. But last evening two ISM arrived for supper and Abu Azzum and his wife joined us.
The young man and woman were from Sweden and very softspoken. They bicycled here after taking a ferry from Sweden to Germany. Then Poland, Slovakia, Syria: you look at the globe. They arrived from Jordan and left their bikes in Hebron where they began ISM around Nov 1. They said they hadn't really been in any dangerous situations. After they left the internet man came and worked for an hour but was unable to fix the wifi. We got to bed after 11:00.
I woke up at 2:30 and knew it wasn't much good going back to sleep with a 3:00AM wakeup. Our taxi was late for 3:30 and I called to wake him
but he arrived quickly so guess he fell asleep in the cab. The three of us got to the Qalqilya North terminal right at 4:00 and found about 60 men waiting.
At 6:05 some soldiers appeared inside and began the opening procedures. By 6:12 workers began going through the turnstiles and then through two more on their hundred-yard walk to the xray machines and metal detectors inside the building. It was a lot like getting on an airplane but then there were the booths where ID cards were presented to the young female soldiers inside. The workers put their right hands on a horizontal scanner and were waved past if everything matched up. This I was inside to observe after watching from outside in the floodlights for an hour and a half.
I went inside as far as the scanners while my teammates stayed outside. It was surprising to me that no soldiers inside challenged me for standing there and watching the four lines going through the booths. After twenty minutes the other EAs called on their cell phone to see if all was well. I decided everything was working reasonably well and tried to exit through the same turnstiles I'd entered but they wouldn't turn backwards. So while looking for an alternative a soldier with M-16 appeared to see what I was doing. He asked me what I was doing and I said I was an international whose job was to watch everything. He wanted to know where I was staying, in Qalqilya? No I answered "Jayyous" but he didn't seem to know it. So he looked at my passport and went into a little office to talk to someone I couldn't see. Then he came out and said he'd show me the way out. It was a side door marked exit which I hadn’t noticed because my back had been to it. Rejected workers use it when their permits are revoked or their handprints aren't accepted. At the final
exit turnstile it wouldn't turn and the soldier hollered back and forth with a control booth for five minutes. They seemed embarrassed that the thing wasn't working. At 6:30 we caught a cab and headed back to our beds in JAYYOUS.
DEC 27
Tzegha and I rode buses to Bethlehem Christmas Eve arriving about 4:00pm. Remond [Swiss] from the Bethlehem placement met us at the terminal where all the Palestinians going to Jerusalem are checked. We walked a few blocks to their modern 2Br apt.which actually has 3 br because they use the den for one. Shortly a half dozen of us EAs started walking to the older part where the Christmas Lutheran Church was having a 5:00 service in which Lerato, our EA from South Africa, was doing a small part. We caught a cab to arrive at 5:00 and most of us had to stand in the back and center aisle because it was naturally full. A rather small
but beautiful limestone sanctuary in the shape of a cross with poinsettias and some greens and candles. A candle burned down and caught
some greens on fire and the Palestinian Lutheran bishop who heads the EA Board here left his chair on the chancel and put it out with his hand.
At the reception afterward I congratulated him on his firefighting and he joked that he's always putting out fires around here. Israel was going
To refuse entry to our South African guy Lerato until that Bishop became involved.
Continuing-After the service a bunch of us walked down the street, crowded with people shops and vendors, to Manger Square.
It was 6:30 and dark and a lot of people in the square, which was well lighted and decorated. We met Christopher from England
who had traveled seven and a half hours from Janoun. Then nine of us including 2 from last group walked to a restaurant for dinner.
After we ate dinner we returned to the Bethlehem apt. and relaxed for awhile. Then about 10:00 everyone but me left for Manger Square and the church for the midnight service (*at the Church of the Nativity). I relaxed on the couch but did not sleep, being afraid of missing the service. At 11:00 I headed on foot for the area. Walked up the main street for 20 or 25 minutes seeing tourists and Pals, but most Christians were at the square and church. Upon arrival with my ticket I was guided to a side door where 50 or 60 other people were waiting to be let in. Apparently the church was full and only VIPs were let in. However I saw Mahmoud Abbas arrive in a fleet of SUVs and Mercedes and surrounded by 20 security men and entourage. That was 12:00 and we were still outside. Then I noticed that the people at another door had disappeared so I walked over there and was allowed to enter the famous small door where you have to bend over to enter the Greek Orthodox section. That has a large ancient sanctuary built around 350 CE, destroyed a couple centuries later, rebuilt using some of same huge stones and foundations. Then around 1100 the Crusaders did a refurbishment that included mosaic scenes on upper interior walls that are still there.
The front area is a Orthodox sanctuary with a marble floor built over the grotto where tradition says Jesus was born. It's a few limestone niches big enough to shelter people and livestock. Maybe you saw it on your tour. Where the silver star is in the floor.
I didn't go down the steps to the grotto because there were quite a few people and I had been there on Sabeel Tour. I did get into the midnight service where all the regular folks were standing and listening to some kind of bishop read in Arabic and French. TV cameras and lights were present and it really did not seem very Spirit-filled so I went back to other area and left about 1:30. Walking back through the town, I greeted many Palestinian soldiers who wished me a merry Christmas. The street was otherwise pretty deserted.
Continuing. I made it back to the apt, having had a small glass of sweet tea from a Pal soldier, and went to bed at 2:00.
Christmas day was just having breakfast and chatting with the Bethlem EAs and traveling back to Jerusalem. There Tzegha bought a calling card for Africa because her widowed mother lives in her native Eritrea. I bought one for US which I'll try again on New years Eve day.
Today we went to nearby town of Azzoun and met with the mayor, then a Palestinian man involved with an NGO teaching conflict resolution.
He is very well educated and knows much about the political situation here. He lives in a nice house with his mother and his siblings [5] all live abroad. He may have said he has a sister in Denver or that may have been the mayor. Anyway tonight we have a young man from Germany as our guest. Tzegha met him at the 5:00 Christmas Lutheran service and invited him. He's travelling to this area and Egypt for some weeks. Tomorrow we arise at 5:00 and monitor the agricultural gates. Will visit some local families in the afternoon.
DEC 27
I will try to pick up (*Christmas) packages on the 30 or 31. Also to mail one to you. Need to prepare for bed now. Love, D
DEC 28
It's about 2pm Fri here. I just received a call from the Jerusalem office of EAs. The Israeli post office called them because it wants
to know what is in the package from Paul (*our son) to me. The post office is closed until Sunday, when I'm to call between 8am and 2pm.
