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CounterPunch
Weekend
Edition
August
10, 2002
Dodging
Bullets in Nablus
What the UN Refuses to Do in Palestine:
Deliver Food and Make Peace
by Jill Dreier
So, before I get started about yesterday, let
me say that while Sam was dodging rubber bullets, tear gas and
sound bombs at the demonstration today (courtesy, of course,
of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF)), I didn't have one gun
pointed at me or any shots fired over my head today. For the
first day since I have been here in Nablus.
Ok, yesterday: while Sam, Merna and I
were buying bread for families, two Israeli armored personnel
carriers (APC's) pulled up and shut the bread stand down. Then
as one APC pulled away, a kid in the alley right next to the
APC threw a Molotov cocktail and scored a hit on part of the
APC.
So the Israeli soldiers FREAK out and
start shooting into the apartment building, in the completely
wrong direction. We SCREAMED at him and he stopped, but the other
APC heard the fire and came back around the corner for 'support'.
We de-escalated the soldiers and then one said to me, "go
and bring me the map." (y'all will like my Israeli accent).
So I walked down the street looking for
a map. Now, meanwhile the people on the street have emptied and
they are all hiding in the alleys and coves and such. So I walk
down and several are yelling to me, 'what does he want?' Of course
I don't understand until someone yells in English, but I had
the gist already and was saying, 'who the hell knows?'
I picked up some paper trash and called
back to him, 'is this it? Is this it?' -- it's good to play dumb,
of course. So, they pulled back and left. Well, I needed a breather
after that one, so we left the scene for about five minutes.
Moments later we get a call, that now there are tanks, APC's
and some jeeps in the same area, as well as 12 international
activists -- could we immediately go there?
Due to a horrible lack of communication,
no one had any idea what we had just been thru when we arrived.
Of course from OUR end we had gotten the word out about what
happened. So, long story longer - Palestinians started throwing
rocks and since this is about their only form of resistance,
we stepped back. This of course let the IOF be able to fire their
guns (hard to explain without seeing the street). Two jeeps even
pulled up right in front of us and opened fire. Of course we
were screaming and then they stopped and took off.
The cool part is being in the streets
with the Palestinians and feeling their energy as they clap and
chant (they get loud -- they chant 'god is great') and stand
with us, knowing the tanks and such won't fire at them with us
there. There aren't ANY women of course, and that sucks....
Digressing a bit: three or four nights
ago, Sam and I walked down the road into the Balata Refugee Camp
and stayed at a martyr's house. Stressed out family. Since then
I have been with a few more martyr's families and realized that
that family was an exception, according to my experience because
these families were like all the rest of the families here, kind
kind kind. I swear I have never drank so much coffee and tea
in my life.
Another woman, Serena, stayed at the
stressed out family's house the next night and told us the following
morning that the family actually got into a fist fight (yeah,
the wife and daughters too!) with their neighbor.
So today, most people went to a demonstration
at the Huwara Checkpoint, an hour walk, but I decided to stay
in Nablus. I hung out with four Palestinians relief volunteers
and delivered milk to babies. Yeah, parents do not have milk
for their babies/young children.
I heard today that Palestine has the
largest growing population in the world, over 50% is under the
age of sixteen. That was chill enough, but the workers want escorts
for 'security' and since another volunteer was taken from the
center the day before, they were a little more nervous .
Mohammed, the one taken yesterday was
wearing a martyr necklace and the IOF ripped it off his neck
(the pendent is of a photo of his friend, a martyr). A martyr,
for those who do not know, is term used for a suicide bomber
AND anyone who has been killed during this intifada. Mohammed
was released today, but they beat him up pretty badly, so he
is home for a bit. No reason for detaining him at all.
So, after walking around delivering milk
several internationals decided that they wanted to check on an
apartment building on the hill where the soldiers were staying
and occupying. After getting another international, the 6 of
us headed up the hill to check on these families. I figured that
they occupied that building strategically.
A few of us went in (women) and chatted
with the Palestinian families and got their needs noted, foods
and medicines. The apartment was 5 floors, 2 apartments on each
floor. The soldiers had one complete floor and all them were
shirtless, hanging out, playing guitar, like they owned the place,
while 3 families were terrified for their lives. The other apartments
were empty (it seemed like a brand new building, not fully occupied
with residents).
So after that, we split into 3 groups
of 2 to get the food and medicine. My partner was Fadi. A pretty
resourceful guy, before I knew it he had gotten a ride in a big
flatbed truck to Balata, where the UN warehouse is. Remember
it is curfew, so NOTHING is allowed on the streets, let alone
driving out to the outskirts of town. Curfew here has meant the
last 40 days, 24 hours a day with tiny windows of precarious
time to fetch food.
We made it and just after pulling in,
a tank and a bulldozer showed up to close the road since cars
were driving around. The UN warehouse is a joke. FOOD is everywhere,
sitting around. The UN is a joke. Thousands of poor people with
NO money to buy food in Nablus and WE hitch a ride, pick up food
and deliver it ourselves.
On the way back, we saw a tank driving
pretty fast on the parallel road but we beat it and got back
to Nablus alright. Then we separated the food and got ready to
go. Well, Fadi, wanted to get the one and only ambulance from
the center to load the food to take up on the hill. But it wasn't
around, so we used his van -- sketchy, eh?
Though we made it up there alright, the
soldiers had switched out and all bets were off for us going
back inside to deliver the food ourselves. After biting my lip
and talking to the soldiers, they got one of the Palestinians
to come out to bring the food in. The whole situation and bargaining
and discussing is crap, although the soldier was talkable, if
you know what I mean.
So during all of this, the soldier says,
'you don't remember me, do you?' "oh, from before .....here
right?" "No," he replied and then I knew he was
the guy looking for the map yesterday, in the APC.
"Oh yeah, I remember,' I quipped
back. He said, 'So you didn't help me yesterday, why should I
help you?"( I was trying to get into the house and possibly
spend the night there with the families.) I said, 'What more
could I have done, I walked down the street and looked for the
map, geez?'
Talking to them is difficult and one
must stay calm to help prevent retaliation against the Palestinians,
believe me, whether there are soldiers who don't 'agree' with
the occupation or 'hate' when a Palestinian is killed, they all
have a choice to refuse, and therefore, NO SYMPATHY from me.
One last thing. As we were walking back
(dusk, I'm no longer too hesitant to walk in the dark, except
for snipers) today a woman pulls up in a car and says, 'aren't
you afraid to be on the street?' I said, 'no, not really, they
recognize us now, they know who we are and why we are here.'
She said, ' take care' I said to her, 'aren't you afraid to drive
now?' (many people sneak around in cars), and she said, 'no here
we have nothing to live for, so we don't care, but YOU, you have
to return to tell the world what is happening here, so YOU take
care" and she drove off.
So many times during the day, I just
want to release a little and cry but I don't, and this was one
of those times, for sure. I can only kind of get choked up, not
cry, probably because I am so angry and not sad.
Jill Dreier
is one of two Coloradans in Palestine joining hundreds of internationals
with the International Solidarity Movement in nonviolent direct
action to end Israel's illegal military occupation of Palestine.
More on Jill's trip at: http://www.ccmep.org/palestine.html
Today's Features
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August 10/11,
2002
Walt Brasch
The Bush
2 Legacy...So Far
August 9,
2002
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