EA update #7: of stray bullets and many visitors
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Andrea Whitmore
Feb 13, 2008, 12:38:47 PM2/13/08
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FEB 2
This morning Jenny and her guy friend from Israel and I went with Abu Azzam to Qalqilya. We shopped for some olive seedlings but were not able to strike a deal for the 300. We ate some Palestinian sweet dessert at a shop and then went to visit the acting mayor. The elected mayor and deputy mayor are in jail in Israel. At the last city council election 14 of 15 winning candidates were Hamas and 5 of them are in jail and the others are waiting to see who is next. Of course since Qalqilya is surrounded by the wall except for one checkpoint in and out, it´s not hard to see why the citizens were/are a little disenchanted with the regular politicians (Fatah). Their economy is pretty well strangled since it´s now illegal for Israelis to come there (*and Palestinians cannot freely travel). Both Jewish and Palestinian Israelis used to trade in Qalqilya. Yes, there is a significant presence of Palestinian villages in northern Israel where they were somehow bypassed in 1948 expulsion. The Jewish and Arabs seem to get along ok there.
Just read an IPF (Israel Policy Forum) article about presidential candidate positions on Israel-Pal Vol 353 (author M.J. Rosenberg). It says everybody knows what the real score is and that mainstream Jews don´t really want to hear the same old Pro-Israel BS. That candidates should level with everybody. I hope some of them get the word. (*here’s the link http://www.ipforum.org/display.cfm?id=6&Sub=15)
We´re having a YMCA group of 13 students from Scandinavia tomorrow. We´ll show them around Jayyous, have lunch here at the house and meet with Abu Azzam then give them a tour of Qalqilya.
Wonder of wonders Guilliam from Tulkarem brought my packages a couple days ago when our internet was down (*Christmas gifts). Please tell Paul I really like the reading light and will bring it home for emergency use. Thank you for the healthy snacks and good coffee, which I´ve already started drinking.
FEB 3
It´s about 6:00pm Sunday and we entertained a group from Norway today. Thirteen boys and girls between high school and college and a teacher and guide. We showed them around Jayyous and Abu Azzam brought a big lunch prepared by a poor family here so they could make some money. Two large trays of rice with almonds, two trays of chicken (one with potatoes), a big pan of green beans and a big pan of carrots and peas. Bananas and apples for dessert. Then Abu Azzam spoke about the land and wall situation and Mohammad spoke about his Stop the Wall Campaign. Then Tzegha and I rode along for their tour of Qalqilya.
FEB 3 *message from Hedy Epstein, friend and activist, with further information regarding the Gaza convoy from a prior update, and what happened to the donated supplies that were denied entry:
Dear Andrea,
Thank you, as always for sharing Douglas' interesting diary entries. I felt especially connected when reading about his participation in the Gaza Relief Convoy & his comments about Al Tuwani. Why & how?
Re: the convoy: St. Louis Women in Black collected/donated at least $2,000 for the purchase of water filters, etc. Some of the donations were sent directly & so I don't have a good handle about how much more was actually donated. Here's an update on the delivery of the 5 tons of rice, flour, lentils salt, etc. & water filters: Delivery was denied on 1/26. Everything was stored in a warehouse in a nearby kibbutz. Another attempt to deliver was made on 1/28 - it too was not allowed..
After intense lobbying in the Knesset, ministries by phone, FAX & in person & a lot of protest mail from all over the world, attorney Oma (?) Cohen of Adallah, received by FAX a permit for the convoy goods to enter Gaza. Yakov Manaor is coordinating on behalf of the Convoy Coalition with the IDF for a day & time for delivery.
FEB 5
*Doug this day is in Jerusalem to talk to some Lutheran bishops. I was able to call him, and asked why the days off since it seems difficult not to be busy. He said it’s due to the stress of being on site, that all the EAs are made to take regular days off. He gives this example:
A few days ago the Jayyous team invited some Israeli men students that we met at Israeli Exposure Week to visit us in Jayyous.
The first was named Gil, born in US, studies philosophy, political science and economics; and is an officer in IDF (Israeli Defense Force). He serves a month a year on active duty and served extensively in the West Bank. However he said at the Exposure Week meeting he was no longer willing to serve in the West Bank and that caught my attention. On the afternoon when he came Jenny went to the crossing and drove back with him in his car. The yellow Israeli license plates caused him some concern that his car might be damaged.
He parked in front of our EA house in Jayyous and came in for a look at our humble abode. Then the three of us took him for a walk through the village and he admitted feeling apprehensive. He is about six foot three and looks American or European but was definitely noticeable as a stranger to the Palestinians who are used to us three EAs. We introduced him as a friend of ours to several people alongthe route.
First stop was the nearby South Gate where mainly sheep cross and a Bedouin family lives in the seam zone on the other side of the fence. The fence is a complex about 50 yards wide involving coils of razor wire, a ditch 5 or 6 feet deep, a gravel shoulder, a chain link fence with razor wire on top, another gravel expanse to a tall fence with electric signal wire in it and strands of razor wire on top, more gravel shoulder for footprint detection, an asphalt road for military vehicles, another shoulder, ditch and coiled razor wire. Gil was quite familiar with this and commented that the fence was too close to the village to be really efficient as there should be more open area between fence and village.
As we neared the far end of town rifle shots rang out and we looked toward the fence near that point. A Border Police jeep was stopped two or three hundred yards away next to the fence and seemed the source of firing. I could hear the bullets strike about forty yards from us before the sound of the rifle reached us. I moved so that a house shielded me from the jeep and told the others to do so as well. Gil was quite interested and didn't seem in a hurry to get out of the way. I thought how ironical if their careless fire killed one of their own officers.
After maybe five shots it stopped and we continued walking while looking back over our shoulders. While we showed Gil the view of the surrounding hilltop villages a small herd of sheep with two older boys and an older shepherd approached us. Tzegha and I talked with the shepherd while Jenny conversed with Gil twenty feet away. The older Palestinian told us his son had been killed by the Israeli military two years ago. He said he wished all the Israelis dead because their occupation had resulted in the loss of his son.
Gil ate a spaghetti dinner with us. While I washed dishes the two younger EAs questioned him about his reactions to the whole situation. Then Jenny rode back with him to the border crossing.
I forgot that the shepherd told us the soldiers or border police were shooting toward some boys in the trees (probably olive trees). Don't know if the boys had actually done anything such as throw stones at the fence, and if the shots were being fired over their heads as warnings.
FEB 7
Today Tzegha went to Hebron and Jenny is in Jerusalem so I went to the Falamya gate early and in the late afternoon went to the North and South gates. Never had been to watch the Palestinians cross back over at the end of their workday. The Border Police checked the papers again and probably compare them with who crossed over to the land (*Palestinian land) this morning. Everything went smoothly and I had the thought while watching the young men in uniform that there but for the grace of God could be me. Basically which side you´re on is an accident of birth.
FEB 10
We´ve had some excitement in Azzoun, the village next to us and where our road passes. Yesterday we went there to visit a Palestinian nurse that Sybille befriended a year ago. The woman, about 42, was in pain and holding her ribs under her left arm. She told us that a night or two before an Israeli soldier had struck her hard with his rifle butt. She had tried to help a youth that the soldiers had on the ground. I´m not clear if he had been wounded or was just handcuffed. She also told us the soldiers had closed the roads the night prior with earth moving equipment. We had seen mounds eight feet high of large rocks and earth cutting the road to the main highway nearby on our way in. A settler car going by had been attacked with a molotov cocktail a couple days before resulting in minor injuries. So now the whole village of 10,000 was being collectively punished.
It´s quite possible that the attacker wasn´t even from Azzoun.
This morning at 3:15 three of us took our usual taxi toward Qalqilya. We had to pass through Azzoun and the only way was on a gravel road so rough and hilly that I didn´t know if the taxi could make it. I was concerned about how much wear and tear the car was taking. The only good thing was the streets were empty of soldiers. But on the way back at 7:00 there were army vehicles and troops all over the place. They would not allow me and the two older Swiss ladies to pass on foot. So we were forced to walk down the highway a quarter mile and down a very steep and boulder strewn embankment. At one place I had my back turned to Sybille and she fell amid the boulders. I was scared she would be seriously hurt and mad at myself for not being more helpful to her.
Thanks be to God she was only a little shaken up but not injured. She and Lea and I proceeded down and through an olive grove to the road to Jayyous. I called our taxi in Jayyous and he picked us up and took us home.
Yes, to answer your question, Jenny and Lea returned safely; the soldiers had arrested three boys (youths), probably just for being out.
Abu Azzam had a dinner tonight for activists helping plant olive trees tomorrow. Several had trouble getting to Jayyous because of the Azzoun blockage. We three EAs will go on the planting. Sybille and Lea leaving tomorrow for Nablus.
FEB 11
We three EAs crossed at an agricultural gate at 7:35 this morning. the Border Police didn’t give us much trouble, however Abu Azzam and four Americans were too late for that gate. The Falamya guards wouldn't let the Americans pass. So we three walked a mile into the agricultural land and found it very beautiful. Orange and lemon trees and olive trees and long views. Unfortunately the views included 2 nearby settlements.
We called Abu on the cell phone and he told us he was trying to arrange for permission for the Americans to cross. These folks are progressive Jewish and one couple had been to the Boston Sabeel conference. The woman, Linda, had been brought up in Fairway and Overland Park (*suburbs of Kansas City). Her father had been head of the KU (*U of Kansas) Social Worker Dept in the 50's. Now she's married to a man named Stephen and they live in Cambridge, Mass. He has Lutheran and Jewish background and they raised their kids Jewish but go to a progressive synagogue where they have some kinds of peace groups.
Another woman, Hana, is in Jewish Voice for Peace and the other man seems a good friend of Abu Azzam.
Finally they all came across in a wagon behind Abu Azzam's old tractor and picked us up. He took us bouncing along a farm road to his shed, which is kind of a rustic two-room cabin. He had to give us brunch and tea before we could go to work. Then another rough but scenic ride to a high hillside where holes for olive seedlings had already been dug. Tzegha and Jenny left to do some computer work back at the EA house before the planting began but I went to the field. We unwrapped the plastic from the two foot olive seedlings and placed them in the holes. Someone then took heavy hoe-like tools and filled in the holes. We did fifty or sixty trees in a couple of hours. More seedlings had been planted
by other farmers, maybe 300. The Jewish groups paid for some and my church (*Broadway United Methodist in Kansas City) paid for some, and we shared a warm, beautiful day together.
Forgot to mention that we saw many fruit trees in bloom. It's been warm and springlike the past week—but the farmers have not had enough winter rains.
Tomorrow afternoon we're heading into Jerusalem. I am scheduled to meet with David Wildman's group on Thursday. (*David Wildman, Executive Secretary, Human Rights & Racial Justice, General Board of Church and Society United Methodist Church, is leading a group of 60 United Methodists on a tour of Palestine and Israel at this time).
FEB 13 (Jerusalem)
Probably won't go anywhere today. Need to handle a few things here, and there is a problem near the Old City with archaeological digs under Palestinian houses. The Israeli police arrested five Palestinians for protesting damage or potential damage to their homes. What a system where the victims get arrested by the state. The Rabbis for Human Rights have put out a call for people to come to the neighborhood and join the protest so I plan to do that pretty soon.
At dinner last night a Palestinian TV cameraman dining with us received a call that his coworker had just been beaten up by settlers for filming at that location and was hospitalized.
*For United Methodists (and anyone interested) here is a link to information about Palestine from the General Board of Church and Society. The page includes links to various excellent resource organizations, including Jewish Voice for Peace that Doug mentioned:
http://www.umc-gbcs.org/site/c.frLJK2PKLqF/b.3813309/k.DD9F/IsraeliPalestinian_Resource___What_You_Should_Know/apps/nl/newsletter.asp
This morning Jenny and her guy friend from Israel and I went with Abu Azzam to Qalqilya. We shopped for some olive seedlings but were not able to strike a deal for the 300. We ate some Palestinian sweet dessert at a shop and then went to visit the acting mayor. The elected mayor and deputy mayor are in jail in Israel. At the last city council election 14 of 15 winning candidates were Hamas and 5 of them are in jail and the others are waiting to see who is next. Of course since Qalqilya is surrounded by the wall except for one checkpoint in and out, it´s not hard to see why the citizens were/are a little disenchanted with the regular politicians (Fatah). Their economy is pretty well strangled since it´s now illegal for Israelis to come there (*and Palestinians cannot freely travel). Both Jewish and Palestinian Israelis used to trade in Qalqilya. Yes, there is a significant presence of Palestinian villages in northern Israel where they were somehow bypassed in 1948 expulsion. The Jewish and Arabs seem to get along ok there.
Just read an IPF (Israel Policy Forum) article about presidential candidate positions on Israel-Pal Vol 353 (author M.J. Rosenberg). It says everybody knows what the real score is and that mainstream Jews don´t really want to hear the same old Pro-Israel BS. That candidates should level with everybody. I hope some of them get the word. (*here’s the link http://www.ipforum.org/display.cfm?id=6&Sub=15)
We´re having a YMCA group of 13 students from Scandinavia tomorrow. We´ll show them around Jayyous, have lunch here at the house and meet with Abu Azzam then give them a tour of Qalqilya.
Wonder of wonders Guilliam from Tulkarem brought my packages a couple days ago when our internet was down (*Christmas gifts). Please tell Paul I really like the reading light and will bring it home for emergency use. Thank you for the healthy snacks and good coffee, which I´ve already started drinking.
FEB 3
It´s about 6:00pm Sunday and we entertained a group from Norway today. Thirteen boys and girls between high school and college and a teacher and guide. We showed them around Jayyous and Abu Azzam brought a big lunch prepared by a poor family here so they could make some money. Two large trays of rice with almonds, two trays of chicken (one with potatoes), a big pan of green beans and a big pan of carrots and peas. Bananas and apples for dessert. Then Abu Azzam spoke about the land and wall situation and Mohammad spoke about his Stop the Wall Campaign. Then Tzegha and I rode along for their tour of Qalqilya.
FEB 3 *message from Hedy Epstein, friend and activist, with further information regarding the Gaza convoy from a prior update, and what happened to the donated supplies that were denied entry:
Dear Andrea,
Thank you, as always for sharing Douglas' interesting diary entries. I felt especially connected when reading about his participation in the Gaza Relief Convoy & his comments about Al Tuwani. Why & how?
Re: the convoy: St. Louis Women in Black collected/donated at least $2,000 for the purchase of water filters, etc. Some of the donations were sent directly & so I don't have a good handle about how much more was actually donated. Here's an update on the delivery of the 5 tons of rice, flour, lentils salt, etc. & water filters: Delivery was denied on 1/26. Everything was stored in a warehouse in a nearby kibbutz. Another attempt to deliver was made on 1/28 - it too was not allowed..
After intense lobbying in the Knesset, ministries by phone, FAX & in person & a lot of protest mail from all over the world, attorney Oma (?) Cohen of Adallah, received by FAX a permit for the convoy goods to enter Gaza. Yakov Manaor is coordinating on behalf of the Convoy Coalition with the IDF for a day & time for delivery.
FEB 5
*Doug this day is in Jerusalem to talk to some Lutheran bishops. I was able to call him, and asked why the days off since it seems difficult not to be busy. He said it’s due to the stress of being on site, that all the EAs are made to take regular days off. He gives this example:
A few days ago the Jayyous team invited some Israeli men students that we met at Israeli Exposure Week to visit us in Jayyous.
The first was named Gil, born in US, studies philosophy, political science and economics; and is an officer in IDF (Israeli Defense Force). He serves a month a year on active duty and served extensively in the West Bank. However he said at the Exposure Week meeting he was no longer willing to serve in the West Bank and that caught my attention. On the afternoon when he came Jenny went to the crossing and drove back with him in his car. The yellow Israeli license plates caused him some concern that his car might be damaged.
He parked in front of our EA house in Jayyous and came in for a look at our humble abode. Then the three of us took him for a walk through the village and he admitted feeling apprehensive. He is about six foot three and looks American or European but was definitely noticeable as a stranger to the Palestinians who are used to us three EAs. We introduced him as a friend of ours to several people alongthe route.
First stop was the nearby South Gate where mainly sheep cross and a Bedouin family lives in the seam zone on the other side of the fence. The fence is a complex about 50 yards wide involving coils of razor wire, a ditch 5 or 6 feet deep, a gravel shoulder, a chain link fence with razor wire on top, another gravel expanse to a tall fence with electric signal wire in it and strands of razor wire on top, more gravel shoulder for footprint detection, an asphalt road for military vehicles, another shoulder, ditch and coiled razor wire. Gil was quite familiar with this and commented that the fence was too close to the village to be really efficient as there should be more open area between fence and village.
As we neared the far end of town rifle shots rang out and we looked toward the fence near that point. A Border Police jeep was stopped two or three hundred yards away next to the fence and seemed the source of firing. I could hear the bullets strike about forty yards from us before the sound of the rifle reached us. I moved so that a house shielded me from the jeep and told the others to do so as well. Gil was quite interested and didn't seem in a hurry to get out of the way. I thought how ironical if their careless fire killed one of their own officers.
After maybe five shots it stopped and we continued walking while looking back over our shoulders. While we showed Gil the view of the surrounding hilltop villages a small herd of sheep with two older boys and an older shepherd approached us. Tzegha and I talked with the shepherd while Jenny conversed with Gil twenty feet away. The older Palestinian told us his son had been killed by the Israeli military two years ago. He said he wished all the Israelis dead because their occupation had resulted in the loss of his son.
Gil ate a spaghetti dinner with us. While I washed dishes the two younger EAs questioned him about his reactions to the whole situation. Then Jenny rode back with him to the border crossing.
I forgot that the shepherd told us the soldiers or border police were shooting toward some boys in the trees (probably olive trees). Don't know if the boys had actually done anything such as throw stones at the fence, and if the shots were being fired over their heads as warnings.
FEB 7
Today Tzegha went to Hebron and Jenny is in Jerusalem so I went to the Falamya gate early and in the late afternoon went to the North and South gates. Never had been to watch the Palestinians cross back over at the end of their workday. The Border Police checked the papers again and probably compare them with who crossed over to the land (*Palestinian land) this morning. Everything went smoothly and I had the thought while watching the young men in uniform that there but for the grace of God could be me. Basically which side you´re on is an accident of birth.
FEB 10
We´ve had some excitement in Azzoun, the village next to us and where our road passes. Yesterday we went there to visit a Palestinian nurse that Sybille befriended a year ago. The woman, about 42, was in pain and holding her ribs under her left arm. She told us that a night or two before an Israeli soldier had struck her hard with his rifle butt. She had tried to help a youth that the soldiers had on the ground. I´m not clear if he had been wounded or was just handcuffed. She also told us the soldiers had closed the roads the night prior with earth moving equipment. We had seen mounds eight feet high of large rocks and earth cutting the road to the main highway nearby on our way in. A settler car going by had been attacked with a molotov cocktail a couple days before resulting in minor injuries. So now the whole village of 10,000 was being collectively punished.
It´s quite possible that the attacker wasn´t even from Azzoun.
This morning at 3:15 three of us took our usual taxi toward Qalqilya. We had to pass through Azzoun and the only way was on a gravel road so rough and hilly that I didn´t know if the taxi could make it. I was concerned about how much wear and tear the car was taking. The only good thing was the streets were empty of soldiers. But on the way back at 7:00 there were army vehicles and troops all over the place. They would not allow me and the two older Swiss ladies to pass on foot. So we were forced to walk down the highway a quarter mile and down a very steep and boulder strewn embankment. At one place I had my back turned to Sybille and she fell amid the boulders. I was scared she would be seriously hurt and mad at myself for not being more helpful to her.
Thanks be to God she was only a little shaken up but not injured. She and Lea and I proceeded down and through an olive grove to the road to Jayyous. I called our taxi in Jayyous and he picked us up and took us home.
Yes, to answer your question, Jenny and Lea returned safely; the soldiers had arrested three boys (youths), probably just for being out.
Abu Azzam had a dinner tonight for activists helping plant olive trees tomorrow. Several had trouble getting to Jayyous because of the Azzoun blockage. We three EAs will go on the planting. Sybille and Lea leaving tomorrow for Nablus.
FEB 11
We three EAs crossed at an agricultural gate at 7:35 this morning. the Border Police didn’t give us much trouble, however Abu Azzam and four Americans were too late for that gate. The Falamya guards wouldn't let the Americans pass. So we three walked a mile into the agricultural land and found it very beautiful. Orange and lemon trees and olive trees and long views. Unfortunately the views included 2 nearby settlements.
We called Abu on the cell phone and he told us he was trying to arrange for permission for the Americans to cross. These folks are progressive Jewish and one couple had been to the Boston Sabeel conference. The woman, Linda, had been brought up in Fairway and Overland Park (*suburbs of Kansas City). Her father had been head of the KU (*U of Kansas) Social Worker Dept in the 50's. Now she's married to a man named Stephen and they live in Cambridge, Mass. He has Lutheran and Jewish background and they raised their kids Jewish but go to a progressive synagogue where they have some kinds of peace groups.
Another woman, Hana, is in Jewish Voice for Peace and the other man seems a good friend of Abu Azzam.
Finally they all came across in a wagon behind Abu Azzam's old tractor and picked us up. He took us bouncing along a farm road to his shed, which is kind of a rustic two-room cabin. He had to give us brunch and tea before we could go to work. Then another rough but scenic ride to a high hillside where holes for olive seedlings had already been dug. Tzegha and Jenny left to do some computer work back at the EA house before the planting began but I went to the field. We unwrapped the plastic from the two foot olive seedlings and placed them in the holes. Someone then took heavy hoe-like tools and filled in the holes. We did fifty or sixty trees in a couple of hours. More seedlings had been planted
by other farmers, maybe 300. The Jewish groups paid for some and my church (*Broadway United Methodist in Kansas City) paid for some, and we shared a warm, beautiful day together.
Forgot to mention that we saw many fruit trees in bloom. It's been warm and springlike the past week—but the farmers have not had enough winter rains.
Tomorrow afternoon we're heading into Jerusalem. I am scheduled to meet with David Wildman's group on Thursday. (*David Wildman, Executive Secretary, Human Rights & Racial Justice, General Board of Church and Society United Methodist Church, is leading a group of 60 United Methodists on a tour of Palestine and Israel at this time).
FEB 13 (Jerusalem)
Probably won't go anywhere today. Need to handle a few things here, and there is a problem near the Old City with archaeological digs under Palestinian houses. The Israeli police arrested five Palestinians for protesting damage or potential damage to their homes. What a system where the victims get arrested by the state. The Rabbis for Human Rights have put out a call for people to come to the neighborhood and join the protest so I plan to do that pretty soon.
At dinner last night a Palestinian TV cameraman dining with us received a call that his coworker had just been beaten up by settlers for filming at that location and was hospitalized.
*For United Methodists (and anyone interested) here is a link to information about Palestine from the General Board of Church and Society. The page includes links to various excellent resource organizations, including Jewish Voice for Peace that Doug mentioned:
http://www.umc-gbcs.org/site/c.frLJK2PKLqF/b.3813309/k.DD9F/IsraeliPalestinian_Resource___What_You_Should_Know/apps/nl/newsletter.asp
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