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April 13, 2002
Anne Winkler-Morey
Why
I Didn't Organize
a Passover Seder This Year
April 12, 2002
Nancy Stohlman
Live from East Jerusalem:
International Nonviolence
Brian
J. Foley
Defeating
Evil
Olivier Audeoud
Did the US Break
the Laws of War?
Rep. Ron
Paul
The
Middle East Quagmire
Michael Colby
Republican Porn:
Oiling Up the Caribou
John Chuckman
Tom
Friedman's Fabrications
April 11, 2002
Patrick Cockburn
Battle of St. Petersburg Zoo
Jeff Halper
After
the Invasion:
Now What?
Falk / Krieger
Taming the Nuclear Monster
Steve
Perry
The
Good Life of
Nellie Stone Johnson
Nick Ring
Efficiency and Occupation:
Terrorism vs. Taylorism
Alexander
Cockburn
From
the West Bank to BBQ
to Old Sparky, And Beyond
April 10, 2002
M. Junaid Alam
Blaming the Victims:
Hating the Palestinians
George
Monbiot
World
Bank to West Bank
Fran Schor
US-Sponsored State Terror
David
Vest
Political
Color Schemes
Jack McCarthy
Florida State Radicals:
The Berkeley of the South
Rises Again
Doreen
Miller
A
Tale of Two Warring Tribes
Michael Neumann
Israelis and Indians
April 9, 2002
Bernard
Weiner
Colin
Powell's Table Talk
Matt Vidal
Thomas Friedman,
Another Wasted Pulitzer
Ron Jacobs
Buyer
Beware
Robert Jensen
I Helped Kill a Palestinian
Vijay
Prashad
Memories
of Barbarity:
Sharonism and September
Wayne Madsen
Anthrax and the Agency:
Thinking the Unthinkable
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
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Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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April 13, 2002
Nablus Casbah:
Food Supplies Stored
Where Dead Bodies Previously Laid
By Beth Daoud
in Nablus
"Life
Goes On," is what Mary Kelly
from Ireland said to me when I commented about food supplies
being stored where dead bodies had previously laid. The bodies
of 19 Palestinians who had been murdered by Israeli soldiers
were put in a courtyard of the Al-Beq Mosque in Old Nablus. They
had laid there for four days because no one was allowed to transport
them to the morgue at Rafidia Hospital. The mosque is being used
as a hospital and an operating room.
Getting into Nablus was quite an adventure.
Six of us from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) attempted
to go through the main Nablus checkpoint (from Ramallah), but
were turned away by the Israeli soldiers. We decided that by
one way or another we were going to get into Nablus.
Our taxi driver took us to a small village
about 3 to 5 miles from Nablus We would walk in from there. We
were cautioned about several settlements in the area and helicopter
gunships flying overhead. It felt like we were in the movie "The
Sound of Music" trying to get out of Austria away from the
Nazis.
We began our walk making our way up the
steep rocky hills. For about three and half hours we walked up
and down hills, over rocks and through olive groves. The first
Palestinian house we came to was in the village of Bourin. Everyone
was so excited to see us, especially after we explained why we
were there.
They served us tea (which is a Palestinian
staple) and visited with us for a while. Talking to the Palestinian
women was wonderful. They took us around their homes and showed
us one of their babies born just two weeks before. My Arabic
is almost non existent, except for a few words, but we had fun
communicating with smiles and hand gestures.
I would have expected hatred from the
Palestinians towards any American venturing onto their land.
It is just the opposite though. We are welcomed with such warmth
and kindness, with every need taken care of. After visiting with
a family from Bourin, we made our way to the next village of
Juneid. We spent the night there with a family. They made us
delicious dinner and breakfast.
In the morning we reached Nablus, making
our way towards Rafidia Hospital. On the way there we were confronted
by Israeli soldiers on the completely deserted streets. They
were crouched down and aiming their guns at us. They motioned
for us to stop. We were asked what we were doing there. After
several minutes of convincing the soldiers that we were there
visiting injured people in the hospitals we were let go.
Fifteen minutes later we encountered
another group of soldiers. Again we were asked why we were there
and were asked if we were journalists. After a few minutes they
let us continue on our way. We were all stunned that we had slipped
through the soldiers' fingers twice.
At Rafidia Hospital we were told of the
conditions in Nablus. The bodies of Palestinians lay in the street
and the wounded and dying were cut off from medical care. Ambulances
were not being allowed to move unless they wanted to be fired
upon. Israeli soldiers were driving through the street, yelling
over a loudspeaker to the Palestinians, "We are stronger
than you, you are weak. You are all alone and no one is going
to help you."
We met up with a reporter from Reuters
who witnessed Israeli soldiers pulling people out of an ambulance
outside of Balata refugee camp. The ambulance driver, assistants
and wounded passengers were made to take off all their clothes
and then one of the Palestinian men, a man at least 70 years
old, was taken down the streets by one of the soldiers while
he was writing "dog" on his forehead and arm. Taken
hostage by an Israeli soldier who held a gun to the old man's
neck and made him enter a mosque so the soldier could check for
"terrorists."
A French journalist was shot in the chest
the day we got to Rafidia Hospital. I talked to the surgeon who
had operated on him and he showed me the bullets he had removed
from his chest. The surgeon told me how lucky the journalist
had been because the bullet had missed his heart by two millimeters.
And every Palestinian has a tragic story
of how the occupation has stolen a piece of their life. Leaving
the church for our next action we walked past an area where a
home had been bombed by an F-16 fighter jet and a family of 15
was still in the rubble, dead for sure.
Everyone in the group was eager to do
something to help in Nablus. Serving as a human shield in the
ambulances was what was needed. Hours after we arrived the ambulance
drivers were told by the Israeli soldiers that if any foreigners
rode in the ambulances they would fire on them. We still wanted
to go. We were told we would be retrieving a body laying in front
of several tanks and that there would be bombs laying all over
the street. It was the moment of truth for me. Would I put my
life on the line for the Palestinians? Yes, I would.
I tried to prepare myself for possible
injury or death. The injustice of the situation in Palestine
gave me courage. I only felt honored to give whatever I could
in the defense of the Palestinians.
Though I was prepared we ended up not
picking up the body, instead we were dropped off at a temporary
medical clinic.
This morning I heard Israeli soldiers
going throughout Nablus yelling at the Palestinians, "Everybody
come out of your house and buy bread!" Speculation is the
Israelis are trying to make their invasion not look so bad for
US Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit. Yet dozens of tanks
still ring the city. And I can still hear occasional gunfire.
And beyond heartbreaking is how the Israeli
military has systematically damaged and destroyed ancient religious
sites. At the end of my day I walked past the destroyed remains
of the Yasmina Church, in the old city, shelled from an F-16
fighter jet (paid for by US taxpayers), now just a big pile of
rocks.
Beth Daoud
is one of five members of the Colorado Campaign for Middle East
Peace who have joined hundreds of internationals in Palestine
to protest and help end Israel's illegal military occupation
of Palestine. More on their trip at: http://www.ccmep.org/palestine.html
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