Doug update 3, of tense demonstrations and soldiers
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Andrea Whitmore
Jan 6, 2008, 6:52:06 PM1/6/08
to cj...@googlegroups.com
In case anyone doesn't know, Doug is serving as an Ecumenical Accompanier for the World Council of Churches. This is his third report. Andy
DEC 29
It's now about 4 pm here and we are back at our Jayyous house. We had a call from an EA at Janoun a while ago that about half a dozen settlers with two shepherd (German?) dogs had entered the village. Aya,from Scandinavia, began photographing them and they left.
Well, tonight is when we arise at 3 am and take a taxi to Qalqilya for the terminal monitoring. We'll probably return to Jayyous around 7 and take a nap. Then I'll be heading to Jerusalem for 3 days off which the office wants everyone to take, though at different times.
JAN 2
Today Tzegha and I go to Qalqiliya for English conversation with 6 or 8 members of the English Club. We'll leave here at 10:45. In the afternoon, the calendar informs, we'll walk through some of the small villages south of Qalqilya. Jenny is in Jericho for some of her days off and will meet us in Al Quds {Jerusalem} Thurs eve. We will attend a demonstration Friday against the apartheid road system. Tomorrow morning TZ and I monitor the Falamya agricultural gate and then attend a Teachers' Retirement Party in Qalqilya.
JAN 2 (later)
Tzegha and I went at 11:00 to Qalqilya for the Open University English Club. Had discussion with 6-8 students about the pluses and minuses of western societies compared to the middle eastern. Interesting that many of their perceptions are pretty accurate.
Arrived home at 1:30 and went to buy fresh cheese from the neighbors in back. Cheese not ready but they invited us for tea and oranges. A daughter-in-law, maybe 25, translated well as she had English in high school and a year at college. Her husband joined us and the older couple, and small children came and went. The young husband had studied law in Libya and has a high rank in the Qalqilya police. The older father
has many orange trees and vegetables on the Israeli side of the separation fence and has a permit to cross.
The problem is that he needs help at harvest time, which is now, and the son is consistently turned down for a permit. This is typical in this village and a large problem. We offered to help pick as our schedule permits, hopefully Saturday. Of course we don't know if the soldiers will let us through the gate but will give it our best effort.
JAN 4
Yesterday was quite eye-opening. Four of us including Jenny, Tzegha, and Guilliam boarded a bus with an Israeli peace group at 10:45.
We drove through beautiful West Jerusalem and out into the country for almost an hour. Up and down the hills (like the Ozarks without the woods, mostly olive trees) to a small Palestinian village where we met with a few more activists who had arrived on their own.
We could see a highway up from the town and it had a high wire fence along both sides. We also saw a line of Israeli soldiers behind a razor wire barrier at the end of houses nearest the settler road. Yes, only Israelis, most of them settlers in the occupied territories, are allowed to drive on this nice four-lane highway leading to Jerusalem. This situation occurs throughout the West Bank and was the reason for the demonstration.
The village men and boys were also participating with the Jewish activists (including three women from Machsom Watch) and we "internationals." They started things off by going to the barrier with their flags while we activists took another road around the soldiers toward the fenced road.
So about 30 of us went around the soldiers and their razor wire and ran through an olive grove uphill to the wire fence. Six or eight Israeli policemen were on the highway side and we spread out along the barrier and shook the fence with our hands. The police were speaking Hebrew to us telling us to stop and get away. They swatted at our hands with theirs and this went on for about ten minutes as Israelis drove by and gawked at the disturbance.
Meanwhile back at the army line of twenty soldiers behind their razorwire, the Palestinians were waving flags and apparently being a little rude to the soldiers, who began firing sound bombs and tear gas at them. Of course the villagers scattered as we watched from a couple of hundred meters up the hill. Then the police came through a hole in the fence and began pushing our group away from it. The EAs tried not to
come into contact with the police because that is against the group's policies. Don't get arrested and don't get hurt. Some of the other peace group resisted being pushed and a couple of men were arrested and marched off. A half dozen activists sat down on the hillside and the police did not seem sure what to do about that. Meanwhile at the barricade the Palestinians had reassembled back in front of the soldiers. Pretty soon more tear gas and sound bombs were fired and the villagers scattered again. We were getting pretty good whiffs of the tear gas as it drifted in our direction.
Those of us at the highway fence yielded to the police and went back down the way we had come, around the army line. We kind of became mixed with the Palestinians and the soldiers fired gas and sound bombs at us. Things gradually calmed down and some of the village leaders approached the army line and began speaking to the commander. Actually this was after the soldiers advanced further into the center of the town with three vehicles blocking the road. As the Palestinian men left the soldiers rocks began to rain down on the soldiers and commander, having been thrown by a group of boys standing partly out of sight. This brought on the usual firing and possibly some rifle fire from the army. Of course, the soldiers had helmets with face guards and bulletproof vests, so I don't know that any of them were hurt much.
Finally, after advancing their vehicles to the main town intersection, the army turned around and left; except for three or four troops chasing rockthrowers up into surrounding
housing areas. Then the demonstrators began leaving and boarding the bus, some saying that we really hadn't seen anything, yet, as some demonstrations go.
Have many good pictures. The Palestinians resent the Israeli settlements in their land, the confiscation of their fields and homes and pastures for the construction of these wide highways and fences. These roads also inhibit their travel routes, causing extra distance to underpasses for their poorly maintained roads while the settlers have modern freeways straight to Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, etc.
I forgot to mention it had been raining for the last half hour of the protest. Tzegha and Guilliam rode the bus back to Jerusalem but Jenny and I rode in a minivan type taxi along with several other people to Ramallah. A Palestinian woman had been giving an interview to a Japanese TV crew about the people not giving up their resistance to the Israeli occupation of their land. I thought she looked a little familiar and she boarded the minivan with us. I asked her if she was in the ISM (International Solidarity Movement) and she said she had been active but not so much now. I asked her if she had spoken at the NGO Conference at the UN in New York several years ago and she said yes, in 2002. I said that my wife, Andrea, and I were there and had heard her and her husband, Adam, speak. She seemed pleased to be remembered and said that Israel had deported Adam in 2002 or 2003, even though he is Jewish and an American. They are of necessity living apart now. (*Doug refers to Huwaida Arraf and Adam Shapiro, two cofounders of the International Solidarity Movement. They are quite "googleable").
On the van I sat next to a young Jewish man who is in his last year at Tel Aviv University. He said about eight other students had also come to be in the protest. He also mentioned that the University is struggling financially as are many Israeli activities such as healthcare, teachers, you name it. We agreed that Israeli financing of the occupation is hurting its society in general.
We changed minivans in Ramallah and arrived back in Jayyous well after dark. This is Saturday at 8:15 pm and we have to get up at 3:00 to go to Qalqilya North Terminal for monitoring that checkpoint. Many Palestinian workers cross into Israel to work if they have
been granted permits to do so. But they must go through metal detectors, have their belongings scanned, show ID and have their handprints scanned. Only four lines inside the facility to process about 3,000 people in 2 or 3 hours results in long waits outside in the cold.
We EAs have phone numbers of Machsom Watch ladies (*Israeli) to call if the lines are long and don't move reasonably well.
SUNDAY JAN 6
Hi Andrea, it's 8:00 Sunday night.
Late this afternoon Abu Azzam, our landlord and main contact, dropped by regarding a couple of plumbing matters. He said his repair man was behind about 100 cars at a flying checkpoint between Jayyous and Azzoun, not too far away. I offered to put on my coat and vest and go observe.
We chatted a little and I called Tzegha who was on her way back from days off in Jerusalem, and she was also trapped at the flying checkpoint. So I called a taxi and rode 7 or 8 minutes to the backed up traffic. I walked up the line of cars, just after dark, and the leader of the four soldiers approached me. They had traffic backed up substantially in both directions.
I said, "I'm from the United States and represent the World Council of Churches.
You have a big line of cars backed up here and I'm here to observe. I'll stand just over there." He said, "Only observe" in an accent. Only 10 or 15 seconds after i took my stance at the roadside he came over and said "We just received orders to move to a new place. This checkpoint is over." So they commenced to put their stopsigns and other gear into their humvee and I just stood there and watched them, not moving.
Tzegha drove up in the passenger side of a small car with a young Spanish man driving. They waited while I waited, still standing, for the humvee to actually drive off. I
suspected that if I'd left first they would reopen their checkpoint.
Then Tzegha and Pepe brought us back to Jayyous. When he left I asked him to call if the soldiers had returned,but he apparently didn't need to.
I really felt good, that it had been a contribution to the Palestinians who live around here. If the soldiers received a new order just after my arrival it was one heckuva coincidence. Truth be told they were out messing around and didn't want to take a chance being reported.
DEC 29
It's now about 4 pm here and we are back at our Jayyous house. We had a call from an EA at Janoun a while ago that about half a dozen settlers with two shepherd (German?) dogs had entered the village. Aya,from Scandinavia, began photographing them and they left.
Well, tonight is when we arise at 3 am and take a taxi to Qalqilya for the terminal monitoring. We'll probably return to Jayyous around 7 and take a nap. Then I'll be heading to Jerusalem for 3 days off which the office wants everyone to take, though at different times.
JAN 2
Today Tzegha and I go to Qalqiliya for English conversation with 6 or 8 members of the English Club. We'll leave here at 10:45. In the afternoon, the calendar informs, we'll walk through some of the small villages south of Qalqilya. Jenny is in Jericho for some of her days off and will meet us in Al Quds {Jerusalem} Thurs eve. We will attend a demonstration Friday against the apartheid road system. Tomorrow morning TZ and I monitor the Falamya agricultural gate and then attend a Teachers' Retirement Party in Qalqilya.
JAN 2 (later)
Tzegha and I went at 11:00 to Qalqilya for the Open University English Club. Had discussion with 6-8 students about the pluses and minuses of western societies compared to the middle eastern. Interesting that many of their perceptions are pretty accurate.
Arrived home at 1:30 and went to buy fresh cheese from the neighbors in back. Cheese not ready but they invited us for tea and oranges. A daughter-in-law, maybe 25, translated well as she had English in high school and a year at college. Her husband joined us and the older couple, and small children came and went. The young husband had studied law in Libya and has a high rank in the Qalqilya police. The older father
has many orange trees and vegetables on the Israeli side of the separation fence and has a permit to cross.
The problem is that he needs help at harvest time, which is now, and the son is consistently turned down for a permit. This is typical in this village and a large problem. We offered to help pick as our schedule permits, hopefully Saturday. Of course we don't know if the soldiers will let us through the gate but will give it our best effort.
JAN 4
Yesterday was quite eye-opening. Four of us including Jenny, Tzegha, and Guilliam boarded a bus with an Israeli peace group at 10:45.
We drove through beautiful West Jerusalem and out into the country for almost an hour. Up and down the hills (like the Ozarks without the woods, mostly olive trees) to a small Palestinian village where we met with a few more activists who had arrived on their own.
We could see a highway up from the town and it had a high wire fence along both sides. We also saw a line of Israeli soldiers behind a razor wire barrier at the end of houses nearest the settler road. Yes, only Israelis, most of them settlers in the occupied territories, are allowed to drive on this nice four-lane highway leading to Jerusalem. This situation occurs throughout the West Bank and was the reason for the demonstration.
The village men and boys were also participating with the Jewish activists (including three women from Machsom Watch) and we "internationals." They started things off by going to the barrier with their flags while we activists took another road around the soldiers toward the fenced road.
So about 30 of us went around the soldiers and their razor wire and ran through an olive grove uphill to the wire fence. Six or eight Israeli policemen were on the highway side and we spread out along the barrier and shook the fence with our hands. The police were speaking Hebrew to us telling us to stop and get away. They swatted at our hands with theirs and this went on for about ten minutes as Israelis drove by and gawked at the disturbance.
Meanwhile back at the army line of twenty soldiers behind their razorwire, the Palestinians were waving flags and apparently being a little rude to the soldiers, who began firing sound bombs and tear gas at them. Of course the villagers scattered as we watched from a couple of hundred meters up the hill. Then the police came through a hole in the fence and began pushing our group away from it. The EAs tried not to
come into contact with the police because that is against the group's policies. Don't get arrested and don't get hurt. Some of the other peace group resisted being pushed and a couple of men were arrested and marched off. A half dozen activists sat down on the hillside and the police did not seem sure what to do about that. Meanwhile at the barricade the Palestinians had reassembled back in front of the soldiers. Pretty soon more tear gas and sound bombs were fired and the villagers scattered again. We were getting pretty good whiffs of the tear gas as it drifted in our direction.
Those of us at the highway fence yielded to the police and went back down the way we had come, around the army line. We kind of became mixed with the Palestinians and the soldiers fired gas and sound bombs at us. Things gradually calmed down and some of the village leaders approached the army line and began speaking to the commander. Actually this was after the soldiers advanced further into the center of the town with three vehicles blocking the road. As the Palestinian men left the soldiers rocks began to rain down on the soldiers and commander, having been thrown by a group of boys standing partly out of sight. This brought on the usual firing and possibly some rifle fire from the army. Of course, the soldiers had helmets with face guards and bulletproof vests, so I don't know that any of them were hurt much.
Finally, after advancing their vehicles to the main town intersection, the army turned around and left; except for three or four troops chasing rockthrowers up into surrounding
housing areas. Then the demonstrators began leaving and boarding the bus, some saying that we really hadn't seen anything, yet, as some demonstrations go.
Have many good pictures. The Palestinians resent the Israeli settlements in their land, the confiscation of their fields and homes and pastures for the construction of these wide highways and fences. These roads also inhibit their travel routes, causing extra distance to underpasses for their poorly maintained roads while the settlers have modern freeways straight to Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, etc.
I forgot to mention it had been raining for the last half hour of the protest. Tzegha and Guilliam rode the bus back to Jerusalem but Jenny and I rode in a minivan type taxi along with several other people to Ramallah. A Palestinian woman had been giving an interview to a Japanese TV crew about the people not giving up their resistance to the Israeli occupation of their land. I thought she looked a little familiar and she boarded the minivan with us. I asked her if she was in the ISM (International Solidarity Movement) and she said she had been active but not so much now. I asked her if she had spoken at the NGO Conference at the UN in New York several years ago and she said yes, in 2002. I said that my wife, Andrea, and I were there and had heard her and her husband, Adam, speak. She seemed pleased to be remembered and said that Israel had deported Adam in 2002 or 2003, even though he is Jewish and an American. They are of necessity living apart now. (*Doug refers to Huwaida Arraf and Adam Shapiro, two cofounders of the International Solidarity Movement. They are quite "googleable").
On the van I sat next to a young Jewish man who is in his last year at Tel Aviv University. He said about eight other students had also come to be in the protest. He also mentioned that the University is struggling financially as are many Israeli activities such as healthcare, teachers, you name it. We agreed that Israeli financing of the occupation is hurting its society in general.
We changed minivans in Ramallah and arrived back in Jayyous well after dark. This is Saturday at 8:15 pm and we have to get up at 3:00 to go to Qalqilya North Terminal for monitoring that checkpoint. Many Palestinian workers cross into Israel to work if they have
been granted permits to do so. But they must go through metal detectors, have their belongings scanned, show ID and have their handprints scanned. Only four lines inside the facility to process about 3,000 people in 2 or 3 hours results in long waits outside in the cold.
We EAs have phone numbers of Machsom Watch ladies (*Israeli) to call if the lines are long and don't move reasonably well.
SUNDAY JAN 6
Hi Andrea, it's 8:00 Sunday night.
Late this afternoon Abu Azzam, our landlord and main contact, dropped by regarding a couple of plumbing matters. He said his repair man was behind about 100 cars at a flying checkpoint between Jayyous and Azzoun, not too far away. I offered to put on my coat and vest and go observe.
We chatted a little and I called Tzegha who was on her way back from days off in Jerusalem, and she was also trapped at the flying checkpoint. So I called a taxi and rode 7 or 8 minutes to the backed up traffic. I walked up the line of cars, just after dark, and the leader of the four soldiers approached me. They had traffic backed up substantially in both directions.
I said, "I'm from the United States and represent the World Council of Churches.
You have a big line of cars backed up here and I'm here to observe. I'll stand just over there." He said, "Only observe" in an accent. Only 10 or 15 seconds after i took my stance at the roadside he came over and said "We just received orders to move to a new place. This checkpoint is over." So they commenced to put their stopsigns and other gear into their humvee and I just stood there and watched them, not moving.
Tzegha drove up in the passenger side of a small car with a young Spanish man driving. They waited while I waited, still standing, for the humvee to actually drive off. I
suspected that if I'd left first they would reopen their checkpoint.
Then Tzegha and Pepe brought us back to Jayyous. When he left I asked him to call if the soldiers had returned,but he apparently didn't need to.
I really felt good, that it had been a contribution to the Palestinians who live around here. If the soldiers received a new order just after my arrival it was one heckuva coincidence. Truth be told they were out messing around and didn't want to take a chance being reported.
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