OBSTRUCTING HUMANITARIAN AID, EDUCATION AND JUSTICE
Making war on ambulances and hospitals
by
Rebecca Murray
July 6, 2002
On the morning of Saturday, July 6th, we were awakened by a blast that rattled the floor
and the walls of the house in Jenin camp where we were staying. When we ran outside,
we saw that the Israeli army was conducting house to house searches. The blast had
been caused by the detonation of sound bombs.
We went to the government hospital at the edge of the camp and found it surrounded by a
large number of tanks, armored personnel carriers and army jeeps. Snipers had taken
up position around the hospital. With our hands in the air we walked through the tanks and
gained entry to the hospital, where we made our presence known in the different wards.
An Israeli captain claimed that there were wanted men in the hospital, and said the
army would remain until they got them, even if it took months.
There were in fact no men in the hospital on Israel's "wanted" list. For three
hours the director of the hospital engaged in a tense negotiation with the soldiers.
For part of that time, all ambulances were grounded, and no movement was permitted
in the vicinity of the hospital. After about an hour, an ambulance was permitted to pull
up a block or so away, we walked patients to and from the hospital. A soldier put a
gun to the stomach of a pregnant woman being escorted to the hospital to give birth, and
threatened to shoot.
Finally, the army withdrew without searching the hospital. As the tanks pulled out,
the soldiers detonated more sound bombs. They then went into Jenin town center and
announced a curfew, while firing live ammunition into the air, crushing cars and mangling
shop doors.
Later in the afternoon they returned to the town, and sprayed the center with automatic
fire. A 70-year-old man who was standing at his door got shot in the stomach.
He has undergone an operation and his condition is stable. I later visited his
house, and saw that there was blood all over the floor and walls.
Three days before when soldiers fired from the tanks with live ammunition a 17-year-old
girl had been wounded. Soldiers called for an ambulance to come and pick her up and
then fired on it when it approached. Two other ambulances were turned back before
the girl was finally permitted to be moved from where she lay in the dark on a stretcher
between two army jeeps.
The harassment of ambulances is very frequent in Jenin. A few nights ago I saw the
damage done to an ambulance that was parked outside the hospital with its blinkers on.
A tank tore off its bumper and shot bullets at it before driving away.
About ten days ago, an ambulance set out from Jenin for Jerusalem carrying a patient who
needed open heart surgery. The Jenin hospital was not equipped to do this kind of
operation. The ambulance got stopped at many checkpoints but eventually reached the
outskirts of Jerusalem where the ambulance driver, his co-worker, and the patient were all
ordered to get out. The Israeli soldiers claimed there were explosives in the
ambulance.
After they had stripped it bare and found nothing, they beat the driver and took all three
of them to the Moskobiya prison compound. The driver was interrogated and again
beaten, and the patient questioned (but not beaten). Five hours later they were
taken back to the ambulance and escorted to Jericho where they spent the night. The
next day they returned to Jenin. The patient is now back in Jenin hospital.
The ambulance driver had to wear a neck brace for several days because of the injuries he
sustained during the beating.
Even when the Israeli soldiers are not physically present, trips in ambulances can be
harrowing experiences. Last Friday night, July 5th, an ambulance left Jenin to pick
up a 15-year-old who had been shot in the stomach in a distant village. It had to
navigate over rough dirt roads, and sometimes through the olive groves to get around the
barricades that the army had erected. On the return journey, the ambulance had a blow out
and the crew had to change the tire in the dark. By the time the patient finally
reached the hospital, his internal bleeding had been accelerated by the condition of the
roads. Meanwhile, in the Jenin refugee camp, my home for the past three weeks, sewage
continues to flow down the streets and alleys. There are still electricity cuts and the
mountainous rubble of crushed homes remains untouched.
On July 5th, nearly three months after the Israeli invasion of Jenin, between 150 and 200
people from the camp held a peaceful sit down demonstration at the United Nations (UNRWA)
School to protest the lack of rebuilding activity.
For more information about daily life under occupation in Jenin, call
Rebecca at +972 5 555 8954 or 972 5 386 9307;
Juliana at 972 6 737 3467;
Caiomhe at 972 5 597 5374
New York Times / www.nytimes.com
/
After Decision on Arafat, Israelis Block U.N. Mission in Jenin
by
Associated Press
April 28, 2002
Jerusalem -- Israel approved a U.S. proposal aimed at ending the month-old siege of
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound, but said it would bar a U.N. fact-finding
mission from examining what happened in the battle at the Jenin refugee camp.
After a lengthy debate, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Cabinet declared that the makeup and
the procedures set down for the Jenin inquiry were unacceptable. The team had been
scheduled to arrive Sunday after several delays.
The mission is to look into a bloody eight-day battle at the Jenin camp, where at least 50
Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers died and Palestinians say Israel massacred civilians.
Israel objects to the composition of the team and its planned scope.
Arnon Perlman, a spokesman for Sharon, said Foreign Minister Shimon Peres spoke to the
head of the team and "informed him that the arrival of the committee will be delayed
until further clarifications about current issues."
Perlman also said that Sharon has been invited to Washington next week for talks with
President Bush.
The U.S. plan for Arafat's Ramallah compound calls for U.S. and British personnel to guard
six Palestinians wanted by Israel. In
turn, Arafat would be allowed to leave his compound and move freely in the Palestinian
areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, U.S. and Israeli officials said.
Mohammed Dahlan, a senior Palestinian security chief, said the U.S. plan had not been
formally presented to the Palestinians. He noted that the Palestinians are opposed to
"turning our prisoners over to the Israelis or allowing them to be imprisoned outside
the Palestinian territories."
Bush raised the proposal Saturday in a telephone conversation with Sharon, and praised the
Israeli government's embrace of the plan Sunday.
If the Palestinians accept the plan, it could end the long-running standoff at the
shell-shattered compound. Arafat has been confined to the compound since early December,
aside from a few brief trips into Ramallah. He has not been able to leave his office
building in the center of the compound since March 29, the first day of Israel's military
incursion into the West Bank.
The Israelis have sought custody of five Palestinians accused of involvement in the
October killing of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, and a sixth man, accused of organizing
a weapons shipment from Iran that was seized by Israel in the Red Sea in January.
The Palestinians have arrested the six and were holding them at a prison in Arafat's
compound before the Israeli incursion. The six were moved into Arafat's offices to keep
them out of Israeli hands.
Four of the men were convicted of Zeevi's killing in a brief trial last week, and they
received sentences ranging from one to 18 years. Israel had insisted it wanted the men
tried in Israel, but agreed to the U.S. compromise.
It was not clear exactly where the six wanted Palestinian men would be imprisoned, but
sources said it would be somewhere in the Palestinian territories.
In another decision, the Cabinet approved a statement by Sharon that "conditions have
not yet been created which would make it possible to accept the fact-finding
committee" into the Jenin battle, effectively barring it from the region.
The Israeli government has raised a variety of objections since the U.N. mission was
proposed earlier this month. Briefing reporters, Communications Minister Reuven Rivlin
said that the U.N. inquiry "is out to get us and is likely to smear Israel."
The three-person team has been delayed due to disagreements between Israel and the United
Nations over the scope of the commission's work. The team was waiting in Geneva,
Switzerland, for the Israeli decision before deciding what to do.
In New York, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckard declined to comment on the Cabinet's decision. A
U.N. official, speaking on condition of anomynity, said Secretary-General Kofi Annan was
not overly upset at the extra delay.
The Security Council, which approved the mission last week, was to hold an emergency
meeting later Sunday.
The team will look into Palestinian claims that hundreds of Palestinians, many of them
civilians, were killed during fierce fighting in the camp from April 3-11.
Israel, which lost 23 soldiers in the battle, says about 50 Palestinians died, most of
them gunmen.
So far, 48 Palestinian bodies have been recovered, according to the Jenin hospital. The
toll has not risen in recent days, though more bodies may be buried under buildings that
were flattened by Israeli bulldozers during the fighting.
Israel pushed for military and anti-terrorism experts to be included on the team, without
success. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has included retired U.S. Maj. Gen. William
Nash as a military adviser, but not as a full member of the team, which is headed by
former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari.
While Israel originally agreed to cooperate with the team, it has expressed concern that
its composition and agenda are intended from the outset to find fault with Israel.
"Israel won't sit in the place of the accused," Peres said. "Israel will
sit in the place of the accuser. This is an attempt to place baseless blame, almost a
blood libel, on Israel."
If Israel decides not to cooperate with the team, the members will be regarded as
"welcome tourists," said Zalman Shoval, a Sharon adviser. Israel could also
prevent the commission from entering the camp if it wanted, he added.
Palestinian Cabinet minister Hassan Asfour said the United Nations should "not to
comply with the Israeli stalling tactics and to send the fact-finding team to the occupied
Palestinian territories promptly."
The main sticking points are Israel's request that it be allowed to decide which Israelis
will testify, and that the team will not investigate Israel's military operations beyond
the events in the Jenin refugee camp, Peres said.
Israeli forces entered Palestinian cities in the West Bank on March 29 following a string
of suicide bombings in Israel. The incursion lasted more than three weeks and involved
heavy fighting in several areas, and arrest sweeps that have taken more than 1,500
Palestinians into custody.
Israel has pulled its troops out of the cities except for Ramallah, where the soldiers
surround Arafat's offices, and in Bethlehem, where Palestinian gunmen have been holed up
inside the Church of the Nativity since April 2, with Israeli troops encircling the shine.
Up to now, Israel has been demanding that the gunmen surrender to Israel or accept
deportation. The Palestinians have proposed that they be transported to the Gaza Strip.
Israeli and Palestinian officials met Sunday in Bethlehem and planned another session
later, the Israeli military said. A statement said several new ideas were raised and the
talks were adjourned for consultations. No details were given.
Since the Israeli incursions into the West Bank, attacks against Israeli targets have
declined, but not stopped.
No Israeli civilians had been killed for two weeks until a shooting Saturday in which
Palestinian gunmen burst into the homes in a Jewish settlement and killed four people,
including a 5-year-old girl. Seven people were wounded in the attack in Adora, a small
settlement near the West Bank town of Hebron. The militant Hamas claimed responsibility in
a statement issued Sunday.
Ramallah--Brandon Jourdan
June 29, 2002
Hello Friends,
Some of us Internationals got into Ramallah two days ago. This curfew has made Ramallah
into a giant prison for its citizens.
We have been staying in a hospital for the last couple of nights. When we arrived the
Israeli troops were blowing up cars in front of the hospital. They destroyed a total of 15
cars without any reason other than showing their control over the people of Palestine.
The explosions busted hospital windows and put patients' lives in jeopardy. They have also
been doing extensive searches of every ambulance that comes into the hospital. It is
already an extremely hard process getting patients into the hospital with the curfew.
Many roads have been blocked by the troops. Their reasoning behind checking the ambulances
is to search for weapons. This is a lie.
It is only to terrorize the people. The Palestinians are not terrorists. In fact, they are
the most gentle, loving people that I have ever encountered. Most of the people are
uninterested in violence, they want peace and freedom.
A group of Internationals took a 10 km hike into the village of Diribzia yesterday. They
came back tired with tears in their eyes.
Many cried into the night over what they had witnessed. Gigantic boulders blocked all of
the entrances, not allowing ambulances to get to the sick and wounded. They were also
upset because of the children. The children followed them through-out the village smiling
and wanting to touch them. One International could not stop crying because of the impact
that the smiling children had on her.
"Why does Mohammad have to suffer from this closure? He has done nothing. He needs
love, not tanks and soldiers." Today,
they lifted the curfew for only a few hours. It is the first time in five days. People are
running to the stores to stock up before the next curfew. After the curfew, they will be
shot if they are in the street.
Yesterday, a Army jeep rolled through the street with megaphone threatening to kill any
civilian saw on the street. Today, we joined Palestinians in a protest against the curfew
and the thirty-five years of this occupation. We have to hurry and get back to the
hospital before the curfew goes back into effect. This is state terrorism. This is the
root of the violence, not the people of Palestine.
YOU must take your opportunity to stop the U.S. funding of this operation. I don't know
how much longer these people can go on suffering. Many are at their breaking point and
they are good people. They are made of the same flesh and blood as you and me.
It is unfortunate that they were born under these conditions.
Later,
Brandon Jourdan
NC IMC
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
www.palsolidarity.org
From: Huwaida Arraf <huwaidaa@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2002 05:54:25 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Update on international presence in Nablus
Hi,
This was written as a report on an ISM action, bringing food and medicine to Palestinians
being held hostage in their home in Nablus because the Israeli army has comandeered their
house.
But the imposition of curfew in Nablus complicates everything even more than usual. It's
impossible to talk about double-occupied houses without also talking about how
Palestinians inside and outside those houses are manipulated as the army lifts and
reimposes the 24-hour curfew; how the army has shut down the basic survival infrastructure
of Nablus and the surrounding villages and refugee camps; how Palestinians risk their
lives just by existing in a city patrolled by teenage soldiers who kill with impunity and
have been taught to view Palestinians as subhuman; and how the presence of internationals
-- by reasserting that Palestinians have human rights and are resisting the Occupation in
thousands of peaceful ways -- enrag! es the army, and in that way puts Palestinians at
risk for more vengeful violence.
So even though this was just supposed to be an action report, I've included a lot of
context, and tried to break it up with headings. Sorry if I've made it more confusing --
it *is* complex. But it's not "too complicated for foreigners to understand", as
Israeli pro-Occupation forces like to tell us. It is painfully clear what is happening
here: the Israeli government takes Israeli teenagers and turns them into animals, so that
they can carry out the bloody task of bringing Palestinian life to a screeching halt, and
ultimatlely complete the project of making Palestinian survival impossible.July 7, 2002
DOUBLE-OCCUPIED HOUSES
-----------------------
The army announced that curfew would be lifted today from 9am-2pm, for the first time in 4
days. But in buildings where the army has taken over apartments and confined Palestini! an
tenants to a few rooms (or *one* room), the lifting of curfew doesn't necessarily mean
that people can leave to get basic food and medicine. If one or two people are allowed to
leave, the army may still refuse to let them, and the supplies they've brought, back into
the occupied house.
So internationals planned this morning to to visit several double-occupied houses to check
whether residents had been allowed out, to try to make sure they could bring supplies back
in, and to minimize army harassment of Palestinians in the process.
LIFTING & REIMPOSING CURFEW
------------------------------------------------------
By 9am, Nablus was packed with people and cars trying to meet their basic survival needs
for at least the next few days -- food, toilet paper, medicine, clothing, human contact.
These things are simply unavailable when curfew is imposed. The hillsides above the city
center were also filled with cars and people trying to get! in and out of the city before
2pm, when curfew would be reestablished, as usual, by the arrival of Apache helicopters
shooting live rounds indiscriminately into the streets, and patrols of tanks and APCs
shooting on sight.
At 11am, when Nablus was nearly impassable with cars and pedestrians, the army arrived
early with the helicopters and tanks, shelling and shooting -- reimposing curfew with no
warning, 2 hours after lifting it, and 3 hours earlier than they'd announced. Concerned
about reaching the families in double-occupied houses, internationals took a taxi halfway
up the mountain to New Nablus.
DENIAL OF ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE
-------------------------------------------------------------
The army has double-occupied many buildings in New Nablus, because of the neighborhood's
vantage point over the city. In one particular building, isolated at the very top of the
hill, the army has pushed 4 large families into 2 apartments and has refus! ed to let them
leave during curfew. Aside from the need for food and supplies for the 15 children and 10
adults living there, at least one of the children is sick and needs several medicines. The
families have not been able to get them, since no one is allowed in or out of the house.
In a major violation of the Geneva Conventions, the Israeli army even prevents ambulances
from delivering medicine or basic health care to the residents of double-occupied houses.
We carried a day's-worth of food and some medicine, hoping to deliver it to the families
trapped inside.
RISKS TO PALESTINIANS WHO RESIST PEACEFULLY
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The taxi driver drove us about halfway up the hill -- as close to the house as we felt
comfortable bringing him, although he wanted to take us further. When a Palestinian is
seen facilitating internationals in the act of protecting human rights or questioning the
Isr! aeli army's actions, he or she risks military reprisals which could take any form at
all -- beating, shooting, house demolition, etc. Also, by driving on the streets as curfew
was being reimposed, he risked being stopped, detained, beaten or shot.
"WARNING SHOTS" AND ARMY SHOOTINGS OF CIVILIANS
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As we got out of the taxi and collected ourselves, we heard an Apache overhead and showed
our empty hands to it. It fired on us anyway, and then moved on to fire at Palestinians
climbing the steep paths toward their homes. The shots fired during the reimposition of
curfew are generally called "warning shots", meaning they're fired into the air,
the ground, or "nowhere in particular." But at least four Palestinians were
hospitalized with bullet wounds by early afternoon. Two were hit in the leg by metal
bullets coated with thin rubber, and two hit by live rounds -- one in the ch!
est/shoulder, one in the face.
IMPACT OF ARMY MOVEMENT ON CIVILIANS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
On our hike up the hill we found two buildings where windows are sandbagged and draped
with camouflage, meaning they've been comandeered by the army. Residents told us that the
army leaves during the day and reoccupies the buildings each night. Any time the army
enters or leaves an area, it's a military operation, and residents are subjected to
restricted movement, fear and/or physical violence by the army. The residents are clearly
terrified, and asked repeatedly if we could stay with them during the daily reoccupation
of their building.
THE REST OF THE STORY
-----------------------------------------
When we finally got close to the house we were looking for, we took a wrong turn and ended
up on a road just below it. The families inside saw us and waved, and as we turned around
to get to the house another way, the soldiers up! stairs from them saw us and halted us.
Two confused soldiers came out to ask who we were, then told us to wait. We waited,
nothing happened, so we shouted again that we wanted to bring food and medicine to the
people in the house. At one point we waited so long that we thought they'd forgotten about
us, and we started to leave. They halted us again, but in that strange, confused,
semi-respectful way that Palestinians never get but internationals sometimes do --
"just wait, like 5 minutes, okay?"
Finally the soldiers said "okay, you can go", and we said "okay, we're
coming around", and we went around the hill up toward the house. As we approached the
house they never halted us, so two internationals walked the food and medicine straight
into the house and took some information from the residents, while the other
internationals kept watch outside. Although 2 APCs zoomed up the road to the house, they
didn't stop for th! e internationals. After about 3 minutes, soldiers shouted for the
internationals to leave -- and since we were done, we left.
The family reported to us that they have been double-occupied since December 2001. They
told us that, on 5 separate occasions, soldiers have come down from upstairs, entered the
apartments where they've confined the 4 Palestinian families, and harassed them (details
of harassment to be gathered.) The families were badly in need of supplies, and clearly
starved for contact with the outside world.
To contact internationals in Nablus, please call:
Neta Golan: 059-871-055
Mike McCurdy: 059-377-281
Israel deports missionary who helped sick Palestinian
children
by
Ross Dunn
Ecumenical News International
28 June 2002
Jerusalem, 28 June (ENI)--Israel has deported the head of a Christian organisation who had
organised heart surgery and other operations for Palestinian children by Israeli doctors.
Jonathan Miles, a United States citizen who founded the Israeli non-profit organisation
Light to the Nations - now called Shevet Achim - was told he was no longer welcome in the
country.
The move has disturbed some Christian groups who had praised Miles for his humanitarian
efforts in the midst of a deep conflict. Miles had been working in conjunction with Save a
Child's Heart, a foundation providing free, urgent heart surgery for children in poor and
developing nations. He originally came to the Middle East in 1990 as a journalist, before
moving to his position with Light to the Nations, in which he travelled back and forth
between Israel and the Gaza Strip, transporting sick Palestinian children to Israel.
"We are followers of Jesus, and we wanted to follow his example of love thy
neighbour, particularly those who were dying and suffering," he told ENI.
The son of a Lutheran pastor, Miles believed that he was a victim of what he described as
an "on-going policy of encouraging visitors, especially those who had lived in Israel
for a long time, to leave".
For two years, he lived with his family in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, but moved to
Jerusalem last year, following Israel's repeated military incursions into Gaza. He
facilitated the transfer of Palestinian infants from Gaza to Israeli hospitals and also
took otherwise unavailable medicine back to the Gaza. He also raised money abroad for the
cause and set up a system of referrals for new-born Palestinian babies in the West Bank
who needed heart surgery in Israel. While he apparently ran foul of the Israeli
authorities, for reasons that many of his colleagues still find unclear, he was supported
by Israeli doctors and hospitals, who carried out the surgery for Palestinian children at
a fraction of the normal cost.
"One of Jonathan's contributions was the good vibes he created with the Palestinian
families whose children we treated," said Israeli cardiologist Dr Akiva Tamir, one of
the volunteers in the medical programme. "It takes a lot for parents from Gaza, in an
atmosphere so full of hate, to bring us their children to treat. Jonathan really persuaded
them that they can trust us."
But the Israeli authorities clearly did not trust Miles. When he arrived last week from a
fund-raising trip, he was barred entry, kept in a holding cell and then deported. The
first sign of trouble came in April, when he, his wife, Michelle, and five of their
children were asked by the Interior Ministry to leave the country. The ministry was
apparently angered by Miles's application for residency status, which the ministry had
repeatedly blocked. The ministry is known for its strong opposition to granting such
status to non-Jews.
A committee of the Israeli parliament, which apparently never saw his application,
normally decides such issues. A spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry said that Miles and
his family had been asked to leave because they had been living in Israel illegally.
"They wanted a permanent status," she said. "But there is no reason to
grant them this. Every one who is here illegally is asked to leave. If he wants to
re-enter the country, he has to ask for a visa abroad."
But Miles's attorney, Ezriel Levi, disputed the government's decision. "This is a
humanitarian question," Levi told the Jerusalem Post newspaper. "It is not for
Jonathan's sake but for the children he is helping. Perhaps the present interior minister
believes that helping sick Palestinian children is not a worthy aim. As a citizen of this
country I can only be sorry about that."
Miles said that a Jewish group opposed to Christian missionaries had lodged a protest
against his organisation with the Israeli Interior Ministry. The protest was kept on file,
said Miles, who concedes that it may have done his case some harm. Miles told ENI his plan
was now to try to continue his work from Amman, Jordan, where he is now based, waiting to
be reunited with his family. He said he had written to the Israeli Interior Ministry,
agreeing to drop his request for residency and to be based outside the country for a year.
He said his only request was to be allowed in on temporary visits to continue helping
Palestinian children.
"I want to continue the work we are doing," he said. "All I want is to have
access to our volunteers in the Gaza Strip and West Bank."
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
http://www.palsolidarity.org
July 6, 2002, 08:40
For immediate release
JENIN HOSPITAL UNDER SIEGE BY ISRAELI FORCES
International Activists at Hospital
[JENIN] International peace activists with the International Solidarity Movement report
that at 4 AM Israeli tanks entered Jenin, occupied houses, and shot throughout the city.
At 6 AM the tanks and soldiers surrounded the Jenin hospital and positioned snipers around
the hospital. Ten tanks, three APCs and a number of jeeps are involved in this operation
at the hospital. The hospital is now effectively closed by the military and a tight curfew
is in effect for Jenin.
Seven internationals are trying to escort civilians and provide a presence in each of the
wards of the hospital. At around 6:30 AM this morning Caiomhe Butterly escorted one
pregnant woman whose water had already broken and was about to give birth. On the way into
the hospital, one soldier held his rifle to the woman's stomach and threatened to shoot.
Only with the intervention of Caiomhe did the soldiers finally allow the woman entrance to
the hospital.
The Israeli soldiers allege there are armed men inside the hospital and have told the
director of the hospital that the Israeli forces will remain until the Palestinians turn
themselves in. The director of the hospital denies that any armed men are inside the
hospital and has appealed for intervention to lift the siege on the hospital.
For more information in Jenin contact:
Caiomhe Butterly – 055-975-374
Rebecca Murray – 055-558-954
Tobias Karlsson – 067-362-344
For more information on The International Solidarity Movement contact:
Huwaida Arraf – 052-642-709 or 067-473-308
Cultural Genocide: The Destruction and
Vandalism of the Offices of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees
by
William J. Thomson, Ph.D.
April 24, 2002
Today I visited the Ramallah offices of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees
(UPMRC) and spoke with its president, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi. The offices were occupied by
Israeli troops during the recent attack on Ramallah, and the condition of the offices
after the departure of the occupying troops tells a good deal about the Israeli military
and the political strategy of the current Israeli government.
UPMRC has been for many years in the leadership of medical service delivery to
Palestinians. During the recent attacks, UPMRC personnel have been in the forefront of
providing emergency medical services to injured Palestinians, and at no small personal
riskseveral hundred attacks against UPMRC personnel and facilities have been recorded in
the last few weeks. In particular, ambulance personnel have been targeted, in clear
violation of the Geneva Accords and other requirements of international law, with the
attacks being mitigated somewhat after the arrival of members of the International
Solidarity Movement (ISM) and the Grass-roots International Protection for the Palestinian
People (GIPP). (In fact, Dr. Barghouthi states unequivocally that the SINGLE MOST
IMPORTANT FACTOR in providing protection to Palestinians during the recent invasion was
the performance of ISM and GIPP.)
Since the "justification" for the attacks on medical personnel (and perhaps by
extension, the UPMRC offices) by the IDF was the supposed transport of weapons by
ambulances, I asked Dr. Barghouthi about the report of just this sort of weapons transport
that was intercepted on one recent occasion by the Israeli military. He is convinced that
this situation was staged by the Israelis for the benefit of the media. He bases his
conclusions on the following three factors:
UPMRC has never been mentioned in the context of
"terrorist activity" so what possible reason could the IDF have for invading and
destroying the offices of UPMRC? First let us examine the condition of the offices. I
personally visited the offices today and have photographic documentation for each of the
items described below.
The Condition of the UPMRC Offices
1. The office in Ramallah was the
primary administrative office for UPMRC, and contained extensive records dating back
several decades on the health condition of the Palestinian people. Like any modern office,
these records were stored in computer format. Within the office, every single computer
(more than 20) was destroyed, with the hard drives removed, and various other components
strewn across the individual offices and meeting rooms. The data on these computers have
disappeared.
2. Other office equipment, including copy machines, fax, shredder, etc. have been
rendered unusable by having components destroyed, by having coffee poured into the inner
parts of the machines, and by other acts of extreme vandalism.
3. A brand new and sophisticated video camera was stolen, as well as calculators,
cell phones, etc.
4. In Dr. Barghouthi’s office, the contents of his desk were simply thrown to
the floor, and videotapes made of his recent arrest by Israeli authorities were pulled out
of the cassettes, with large piles of videotape mixed on the floor with the contents of
his desk.
5. Throughout the offices, the contents of desks, files and shelves were dumped on
the floor, often mixed with garbage from the soldiers’ meals and other trash.
6. Garbage was also forced into relatively inaccessible sections of the office. It
appears that the primary objectives of garbage "disposal" by the Israeli
soldiers were to contaminate valuable parts of office materiel and to make it extremely
difficult for the offices to be effectively restored to a sanitary and usable condition.
7. The phone and email system throughout the office was completely destroyed.
8. Expensive hand-woven rugs from an exhibition of Palestinian crafts were used as
rugs and sleeping mats, rendering them destroyed as objects of art.
9. Random bullet holes were shot into the walls at various points.
10. The sink in the office bathroom was destroyed.
11. Graffiti was written on the walls, including renderings of the Star of David
and pictures of bullets.
12. On a display board in what was left of the office waiting room was written in
Hebrew, "Thanks for your hospitality".
13. Several actions of the Israeli soldiers bring into question their sexual
maturity and elimination training.
a. Pornographic images were downloaded from the internet and scattered throughout the office.
b. Pornographic magazines were also scattered throughout the office.
c. A sanitary napkin was attached to one of the doors.
d. A file room was filled with office records and used as a urinal.
e. Men’s underwear was scattered throughout the office.
In short, the entire UPMRC office complex was
subjected to wanton vandalism and destruction of the highest order. One can only seriously
question the internal discipline and control of the soldiers of the Israeli military. It
is clear that the intent of these soldiers was to destroy for destruction’s sakethere
is no conceivable military justification for such acts.
In discussion with Israeli colleagues, they believed that the soldier’s actions
likely occurred without the knowledge of their officers (but one must wonder about the
discipline and control of Israeli soldiers by the officer corps), and reflected the
historic and prevailing attitudes of Prime Minister Sharon toward the Palestinian people.
They suggested that this vandalism, which was but one of many essentially identical
examples in the West Bank, is designed to destroy Palestinian cultural identity, to
destroy the Palestinian information infrastructure, and add to the continuing humiliation
of the Palestinian people. The presumed desire and expectation would be that Palestinians
will either leave the West Bank or will be so demoralized that they will accept complete
and total subjugation by their Israeli overlords.
It is difficult to imagine any other "rationale" for these despicable actions.
Either the Israeli military is a completely undisciplined organization, or they are
operating with the implied consent of the Prime Minister, and by extension, a majority of
the Israeli public.
Date: Sat, 29 Jun 2002 15:59:17 +0200
From: "Lawsociety" <law@lawsociety.org>
Subject: Israeli forces ban paramedics from entering Hebron Compound
Israeli forces ban paramedics from entering Hebron Compound
June 29, 2002
Israeli troops continue military operations in Hebron banning paramedics, local, and
international rescue workers from entering the governor’s compound, which came under
Israeli forces siege for four days that ended Saturday (June 29, 2002) when the forces
blew up the building.
The rescue workers and paramedics arrived to search for potential casualties in the rubble
and to assist residents living near the compound whose homes were damaged in the blast.
However, according to LAW’s information, Israeli forces turned down a request from
the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Palestinian District Coordination
Office to allow paramedics and rescue workers to enter the compound to search for and
rescue potential casualties.
Israeli commandos detonated explosives in the northeastern wing of the compound on Friday
evening, June 28, 2002. Israel F16 fighter jet and helicopter gunships shelled the
building late Friday evening and early Saturday morning destroying the structure.
The Israeli military operations in Hebron started five days ago.
The Israeli destruction and bulldozing operations in the compound are underway at press
time. The fate of people holed up in the compound is still unknown.
LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of
Human Rights and the Environment is a non-governmental organization dedicated to
preserving human rights through legal advocacy. LAW is affiliate to the International
Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and the
World Organization Against Torture (OMCT).
LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment, PO
Box 20873, Jerusalem, tel. +972-2-5833530, fax. +972-2- 5833317, email:
law@lawsociety.org, web: www.lawsociety.org
From: "R A I N" <abie@iafrica.com>
Subject: The RAIN Newsletter (13-6-2)
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 16:38:22 +0200
ISRAEL OBSTRUCTS SOUTH AFRICAN HUMANITARIAN AID TO PALESTINE
A FIVE MILLION RAND South African humanitarian mission to assist the civilian population
of Palestine has been obstructed by the Israeli Government. In spite of having been given
prior notice on 03 May 2002 and having supplied ALL the relevant documentation as per
Israeli protocol, the goal posts have shifted continuously.
The entire negotiation with the Israeli Government has been carried out by the South
African Department of Foreign Affairs through their mission in Ramallah and Tel Aviv and
through the Israeli Embassy in Pretoria to no avail. The Israeli Deputy Director General
of Foreign Affairs and the Israeli Ambassador to South Africa were reminded of the
intended mission once again on Friday, 07 June 2002, by the Deputy Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Mr. Aziz Pahad, who will lead the delegation to Palestine via Ben Gurion Airport
in Israel on a special hired cargo flight. In spite of sending out additional staff from
the Department of Foreign Affairs to Israel to conduct negotiations with the Israeli
Government, they were given the run around having been promised that the clearance will be
issued on 27 May, then 29 May, then 30 May then 02 June, now 09 June and we are still
waiting. Mr. Aziz Pahad has altered his diary 4 times already to enable him to lead this
humanitarian delegation to Palestine.
The humanitarian mission has been funded by the Gift of the Givers Foundation and includes
state of the art equipment for a theatre and intensive care unit, ultrasound, general
medical equipment, medicines, intravenous fluids, sutures, water purification tablets etc.
Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman
National Co-ordinator Cell 082 872 3811
Gift of the Givers Foundation
http://www.giftofthegivers.co.za Waqful
Waqifin Foundation
Aid Groups Say Israel Impedes Relief Work
by
MARK MAGNIER
Los Angeles Times
June 11, 2002
http://www.latimes.com/la-000041017jun11.story
JERUSALEM -- The U.N. ambulance had just dropped off a patient in critical condition at a
West Bank hospital and was headed back to a nearby refugee camp when it came under fire.
One bullet narrowly missed the oxygen tank. A second came within inches of a nurse's head.
A third entered the back of 43-year-old assistant Kamal Hamdan, piercing his aorta and
killing him almost immediately.
"It was clearly gunfire from an Israeli position," Richard Cook, director of
operations for the U.N. Relief Works Agency in the West Bank, said of the March 7
incident. "We had our flag lit with a floodlight; it was marked with a red cross and
the U.N. emblem; we'd made several runs that day; and they knew we were in the area."
Arrests, deportations, visa and travel restrictions, checkpoint harassment, threats,
injuries and deaths are among the impediments that humanitarian groups say they're facing
at the hands of Israeli immigration and military authorities as they struggle to deliver
food, medicine and humanitarian assistance to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "We in no way condone what is done from the other
side with the suicide bombers and understand the Israeli need for security," Cook
said. "If there's some sort of problem, show us the proof. But stop targeting our
ambulances and stop killing our staff."
While international relief agencies voice some of the greatest frustration, Israeli groups
aren't exempt. Add up the pieces, humanitarian groups say, and you have at best a loosely
disciplined army with control problems, at worst a concerted campaign against anyone
trying to assist Palestinians.
Israeli government and military officials strongly deny any discipline problems or any
policy to hamper aid efforts, adding that any delays, gunfire or inconveniences are solely
the result of real or perceived threats linked to their fight against Palestinian militias
and suicide bombers.
"Every incident has a reason--either information of a roadside bomber, intelligence
that a terrorist is going to come through or sometimes traffic, just like New York
City," said Capt. Joseph Levy, military aid coordinator for the Gaza Strip.
"We're doing everything to help humanitarian groups.... [But] it's a war zone. If
you're going into an area with shooting, you take your chances." Suzie
Mordechay, a member of the Jerusalem-based Israeli Committee Against House Demolition,
insists there is another reason for the difficulty aid groups face. "The
Israeli military doesn't want humanitarian workers in these areas because the army's doing
a lot of things that violate international law and don't want it reported," she said.
"They always give reasons, like the area's booby-trapped, blah, blah, blah, so they
can't let ambulances in to help wounded people. But that's just an excuse to close things
off to world scrutiny."
In addition to the aide killed in March, the U.N. agency says that a doctor, nurse and two
ambulance drivers have been wounded while trying to deliver food and medicine--all but one
wearing U.N. vests. Save the Children USA coordinator Sarah Saleh said an Israeli soldier
fired warning shots over her head--followed quickly by an offer to improve his aim.
"Soldiers seem to have a lot more impunity now to do what they wish," Saleh
said.
According to Israel's Haaretz daily newspaper, about 200 people identifying themselves as
humanitarian aid workers have been denied entry to Israel in the last few months, with
about 50 others expelled. Longtime foreign aid workers in the region also say they're
coming under far greater scrutiny as once-routine visas are delayed, downgraded or denied.
Arguably more damaging to day-to-day operations, agencies say, are new restrictions placed
on their Palestinian staff members. As checkpoints, tightened travel requirements and
searches are stepped up against all Palestinians, staff members are unable to leave their
homes or visit their Jerusalem headquarters, attend conferences or deliver humanitarian
aid. Most local employees have passed security checks for years to obtain their
credentials, aid executives say. Many have worked at organizations for a decade or more
and are well-known to the Israeli authorities.
The restrictions on movement are so onerous that many agencies say privately they're
forced to turn a blind eye as their workers take risks, slipping across back roads
themselves to save their jobs. "At what point do you fire someone who can't get into
the office, adding injury to insult?" one senior aid official asked. "At other
times, we've all had to resort to smuggling our staff in." A few agencies have
brought in foreign drivers and diplomatic vehicles to move across the barriers at enormous
additional expense.
Aid agencies argue that their special status under the Geneva Convention and their rights
outlined under numerous U.N. resolutions are routinely ignored under an overly broad
definition of security. "It's our right," said Dan Simmons, local head of
the aid group World Vision. "We're just trying to get them to uphold [international]
laws."
Israeli officials counter that the U.N. is biased against Israel. They also say the Geneva
Convention doesn't apply to the West Bank or Gaza Strip because they aren't
"occupied" territories as outlined in the convention but are instead
"disputed" territories--an argument that's not accepted by the international
community.
Agency directors say they understand the pressure that Israel's military is under and make
every effort to comply with added reporting requirements, passport numbers, license
plates, names and other details despite fluid field conditions. Even so, they say, they
often reach checkpoints at the appointed time only to have soldiers hold them up for
hours.
Some blame an Israeli military structure that seems to give a lot of discretion to
low-level soldiers. Others say many in the military appear to view them as an enemy solely
because they're providing aid to the needy from the same ethnic group as those the army is
fighting.
"They think, since we're assisting Palestinians, we're a threat," said Don
Rogers, regional head of Catholic Relief Services. "As we see it, assistance and some
semblance of trust is the only way to have real security and to end the cycle of
violence." Still others say they suspect that their status as outside observers may
represent a threat to some. "When Israeli spokesmen say they're not impeding
humanitarian aid, that's a plain, flat-out lie. This policy comes right from the
top," said Thomas Neu, Jerusalem-based director of Americans for Near East Refugee
Aid and a dean of the aid community. "We're witnesses to a lot that's going on in the
West Bank.... And I think all these restrictions are a sneaky way to punish the
Palestinians without having it show up on CNN."
Israeli government and military officials acknowledge that there have been some problems
but say these are unusual times and they're doing their best. Avraham Lavine,
international relations coordinator for the last three decades with the Labor and Social
Affairs Ministry, says Israel's long-term record on humanitarian aid is exemplary.
While coordination between different Israeli ministries sometimes runs into glitches, he
said, his office is close to a solution on the visa issues. Palestinian travel permit
issues, he added, are up to the military. "The fact they're frustrated, I understand
completely," Lavine said. "In some cases, we can alleviate some difficulties; in
others, we can't."
The military's Levy added that the army is very disciplined, among the best organized in
the world, and in no way sets out to harass aid groups. In fact, he said, the army is
doing many things to support aid agencies' efforts on behalf of ordinary Palestinians, and
has allowed a joint Israeli-Palestinian industrial park to continue functioning despite an
armed attack there, he said. Senior U.S. and European officials have raised their
frustrations repeatedly with their Israeli counterparts at the highest levels, so far
without much result. In the meantime, groups say they'll keep trying to do their job under
difficult circumstances. "In the U.N., we don't know of another conflict area in the
world where we've had these problems--even in Kosovo," said the U.N. agency's Cook.
"The problem is, the goal post keeps changing."
Sent: 06 June 2002 17:44
Subject: Press Release from Medical Aid for Palestinians
PRESS RELEASE
Medical mission shocked by conditions in Palestine
1. A British medical delegation returned from Palestine last week shocked at the
conditions it found there. Israeli restrictions on movement are impeding hospital staff
and patients from getting to their hospitals and often preventing doctors from reaching
rural clinics.
2. Surgeons from the delegation interviewed a 70 year old cancer patient who had made four
attempts over two weeks to get to hospital but each time her car was shot at and turned
back at Israeli check points. She eventually reached hospital after a three hour journey
over the mountains on a donkey. They also met a patient with kidney failure who had been
forced to walk 12 miles over mountain tracks to get to hospital for treatment.
3. The delegation was given details of thirteen cases where a mother was obliged to give
birth at a check point. In several cases the baby died and in others the mother died.
4. The leader of the delegation, Sir Andrew Green, said: "It is a shocking situation.
Palestinian towns are now surrounded by ditches and barbed wire. Palestinians need a
permit from the Israelis to leave their own town. Even then they are kept waiting for
hours at check points. This is having a serious effect on medical services but there are
also wider implications. As some Israelis are now themselves saying, this amounts to the
systematic oppression and humiliation of an entire people. The inevitable result is anger,
frustration and a desire fro revenge which bodes ill for any prospect of peace. If the
Israelis think they are rooting out terrorism, they are sadly mistaken. They are
engendering it."
Note to Editors
MAP is a UK charity providing medical assistance to Palestinians both in Palestine and in
refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria. I was founded in 1984 in the aftermath of the Sabra
and Shatila massacres in Lebanon. Map normally provides long term training but that has
not been possible in recent months. Instead, the focus has been on emergency aid such
stretchers, bandages and medicines. Since 1 April MAP has received over £ 1/4 million in
donations.
The mission comprised Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Medical Aid for Palestinians, Mrs.
Saida Nusseibeh, Chief Executive, Dr. Anthony Peel, Board Member and general surgeon and
Dr. Swee Chai Ang, Board Member and orthopaedic surgeon.
They visited Jerusalem, Nablus, Ramallah, Hebron and Gaza from 26-30 May. Sir Andrew Green
is a former British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Dr. Swee worked in Lebanon in the Sabra
and Chatila camps during the massacre there.
For further information contact:
The MAP office (Anya) : 0207 226 4114
Chris Doyle
CAABU
21 Collingham Road
London SW5 0NU
00 44 20 7 373 8414
Fax 00 44 20 7 835 2088
www.caabu.org
The Lancet
Volume 359, Number 9314
Editorial
Failure to address the health toll of the Middle East crisis
13 April 2002
"We are witnessing a race to the bottom in terms of respect for human rights and
international humanitarian law, with the danger that both communities will come to support
continual violence as normal and acceptable." This was the stark conclusion drawn by
a delegation of doctors who travelled from the USA to the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem
at the end of last month, on behalf of the non-governmental organisation, Physicians for
Human Rights. The horrific Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel and subsequent carnage
inflicted by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) in the West Bank represent what Physicians
for Human Rights called a potential "endless cycle of mutual dehumanisation".
A striking component of this process of dehumanisation has been the flood of examples of
blatant disregard for medical neutrality, and other internationally agreed rules of
conflict, notably by the IDF during its relentless attacks in the West Bank ordered by
Ariel Sharon, and continued despite overwhelming international condemnation. There are
numerous independent reports of Palestinian ambulance personnel being killed by IDF fire,
even after the attacked ambulances had been cleared by the IDF for safe passage. The
International Committee of the Red Cross was just one of several aid agencies obliged to
limit activities in the West Bank as a result of threats to staff and attacks on vehicles
and offices.
Peter Hansen, Commissioner General of the United Nation's Relief and Works Agency for
Palestine Refugees stated: "We are getting reports of pure horror . . . In the name
of human decency the Israeli military must allow our ambulances safe passage to help
evacuate the wounded and deliver emergency supplies of medicines and food." The
estimated casualties are only a fraction of the larger health toll of death and illness
caused by Palestinians being denied access to routine health care. The instances of
blatant disregard for the provisions of the Geneva Conventions also include the
destruction of infrastructure necessary for the provision of food, water, and electricity,
with direct and serious consequences for public health.
As the World Bank has pointed out, many of the damaged hospitals and water and electricity
systems were created with US$4·5 billion of long-term development aid invested in the
West Bank and Gaza since 1993. And the high costs of destruction of the foundations of
future stability are social as well as physical. As UNICEF Executive Director Carol
Bellamy noted, Israelis and Palestinians alike have terrorised each other's children,
increasing their acceptance of violence as a method for resolving problems, with
"incalculable" consequences.
The European Union, individual governments, and--most significantly--the USA, all rightly
pressed for a halt to violence on both sides and the withdrawal of Israeli troops. But the
international community signally failed to act with equal vigour to condemn the gross
violations of international humanitarian law and to apply the pressure necessary to ensure
that the law is upheld. A major United Nations agency confirmed to The Lancet that not one
of the main governments involved attempted behind-the-scenes negotiations that might have
helped to protect civilians and ensure medical neutrality.
Clearly, those who have appointed themselves international peace brokers need to wake up
from the lazy and naive thinking that health and access to health care are somehow
luxuries that need be considered only after a ceasefire has been negotiated or aggression
has been quelled. Conflicts, however seemingly unending and intractable, must at some
point end, but the process towards reconciliation and reconstruction is hopelessly
hindered when a civilian population is sick, battered, and traumatised. As Benjamin
Disraeli noted in 1877: "The health of the people is really the foundation upon which
all their happiness and all their powers as a state depend." Protecting the health of
ordinary people--and the activities of extraordinary humanitarian relief workers--during
times of conflict is not an option, but the inescapable duty of any nation that considers
itself to have any truly meaningful role in world affairs.
The Lancet
Press Release
Birzeit University
Education Denied
June 2, 2002
On May 29, 2002 the Israeli Occupation Forces once again implemented the illegal policy of
closure on the Ramallah-Birzeit Road prohibiting thousands of students, faculty and staff
from reaching Birzeit University. Since March of 2001, the Israeli occupation forces have
systematically attempted to totally disrupt the educational process at Birzeit University
by digging up trenches, erecting dirt hills, and placing military checkpoints that have
partially or totally blocked pedestrian and vehicular traffic on the Ramallah-Birzeit
Road. Israeli soldiers at the "Surda Military Checkpoint" on the Road have
contravened all forms of human rights by arbitrarily shooting tear gas, sound bombs,
rubber bullets and live ammunition at University community members and the inhabitants of
the 35 villages and towns surrounding Birzeit, including children, the elderly and the
disabled, attempting to cross the checkpoint. The Ramallah-Birzeit Road connects between
the Palestinian city of Ramallah and its surrounding Palestinian villages and towns. As
such, the closure of this Road does not serve any "security" purpose as is
claimed by the Israeli government. The only purpose for the checkpoint and closure of this
road is to deny access to the University, destroy the economic and social infrastructure
of Palestinian society, humiliate the Palestinian civilian population, deny them access to
humanitarian relief, and impede their ability to survive.
By closing the road to Birzeit University the Israeli government is attempting to
incapacitate Palestinian society by halting the educational and developmental process.
Birzeit University is facing major delays in completing the second semester, entailing the
inability of hundreds of students to graduate. Furthermore, as a direct result of the
Israeli closures and ongoing Israeli occupation the University is facing major financial
difficulties and is being isolated from the local, regional and international academic
world.
The Israel's arbitrary and extreme use of violence against the Palestinian civilian
population, the denial of access to food, social and health services, work and schools,
the deliberate attempts to disrupt the Palestinian cultural, educational, and social
institutions and organizations, including the continuous forced closure of Birzeit
University, are all violations of international law including the Fourth Geneva
Convention. These violations show a total disregard for Palestinian rights and for the
legitimacy of the international community and international law, declarations and
resolutions.
The University demands an immediate end to the repressive illegal policy of closure. We
call on the international community to express, in the strongest terms, their condemnation
of the massive Israeli human rights violations against the Palestinian predominantly
civilian population and to support Palestinians' rights to education, development, and
life. Fact Sheet: Effects of Occupation and Israeli violent aggression on Birzeit
University September 2001 - May 2, 2002
September 30 - October 8, 2001 Classes suspended due to outbreak of violence. Classes
reconvened on October 9.
October 12, 2001 - Bombing of the Palestinian Police station in Ramallah in the middle of
the day creates chaos on campus as thousands of students, staff and faculty are stranded
in Birzeit for several hours. Classes suspended until October 28.
March 7, 2001 Israel Occupation Army digs up two trenches on the Ramallah- Birzeit road.
Birzeit University and 33 other villages with a population of about 65,000 are completely
cut off from the outside world. In addition to the trenches, the Israeli army broke water
pipes and cut off the telephone lines, prohibiting any kind of communication between the
residents and with the outside world.
March 10, 2001 Birzeit University decided to suspend its operations Saturday, to protest
the siege that has been imposed on the University and its neighboring villages since March
7.
March 12, 2001 Over 1000 people, amongst them politicians, officials, academics, staff and
students of Birzeit University hold a peaceful march on the Ramallah- Birzeit road and
fill in the trenches that were dug up. Israeli soldiers fire tear gas, sound bombs and
shoot at the marchers to try to disperse them. One man was killed and scores were injured
and transported to hospitals. Israeli army sent in bulldozers to reopen the trenches.
March 19, 2001 After a month's delay, the second semester starts. However, major
congestion on the Surda checkpoint (erected on the Ramallah- Birzeit road) and travel
restrictions greatly affects students and staff access to the University.
April, May and June 2001 Continued travel restrictions greatly impede the progress of the
semester with the road being partially or totally closed off at various times. Many study
days are lost. At times, the BZU Community and residents of the surrounding villages are
forced to walk through the valley, at other times individuals are stranded on one side or
the other, either unable to get home or to get to work or school. On May 19, June 5, June
6 classes were suspended due to total closures of the road.
June 9, 2001 A peaceful demonstration is held to open the Ramallah- Birzeit road. The
Israeli occupation forces fire tear-gas canisters and rubber coated steel bullets at over
one thousand unarmed Palestinian students, faculty, staff and supporters of Birzeit
University. A young female protestor was shot in the leg. Also, in response to the
peaceful march Israel soldiers erect two additional checkpoints on the road. Bashar
Hijjeh, a senior student and former head of the student council at Birzeit University is
arrested in his house in Burqa near Nablus.
June 12, 2001 Classes are resumed.
June 13, 2001 Hundreds of Birzeit University students and staff stranded in Birzeit with
no means of returning to their homes as a result of the Israeli occupation forces closing
off the Ramallah-Birzeit Road to pedestrian crossing. Those who attempt to cross on foot,
are shot at by the Israeli forces using rubber-coated steel bullets, sound bombs and
tear-gas canisters and are forced to traverse the rocky valley, randomly being shot at by
the occupation forces.
June 28, 2001 Three Birzeit University students are arrested at the checkpoint on the
Ramallah-Birzeit Road, making 11 the number of students arrested since the beginning of
the Intifada on September 28, 2000.
8 August 2001 The Israeli occupation forces have in recent days driven up to the Birzeit
University campus harassing and intimidating the staff and students.
September 17, 2001 Birzeit University students, staff and faculty, alongside hundreds of
commuters coming from Ramallah to Birzeit are stranded at the Israeli occupation
checkpoint on the Ramallah-Birzeit road. Only after the University administration
persuaded the Israeli army to allow the people to pass did the Israelis open the
roadblock, and then only for individuals holding a BZU ID.
September 18, 2001 An Israeli soldier released a sound bomb at close range at staff
members of Birzeit University. The bomb hit and broke the leg of the University's Senior
Information Officer, Dalia Habash, who was forced to wear a full leg cast for over three
months.
October 2, 2001 Around 2000 students, staff and faculty from Birzeit University along with
other officials from various Palestine Authority Ministries and non-governmental
organization and inhabitants from the surrounding villages, hold a peaceful march toward
the Israeli checkpoint on the Ramallah-Birzeit Road demanding the removal of the
checkpoint and the opening of the road leading to the University and the 35 surrounding
villages.
16 October 2001 For the first time in over five months, Birzeit University staff, faculty
and students are able to travel between Ramallah and Birzeit without being stopped,
humiliated, or harassed by Israeli soldiers manning the checkpoint that was erected along
the road last May.
17 October 2001 Less than 48 hours after evacuating the Surda checkpoint on the
Ramallah-Birzeit Road, the Israeli occupation forces re-instated the checkpoint. The
checkpoint remained totally closed for over three weeks during which the Israeli army had
occupied part of Ramallah. November 8, 2001 The Israeli occupation forces withdraw from
Ramallah on November 7, thus ending the three-week siege that prohibited all access to the
University. Birzeit University resumes classes.
January 11, 2002 Birzeit University student seriously assaulted by three Israeli soldiers
at the Surda Checkpoint outside Ramallah.
January 19, 2002 American Professor at Birzeit Faces threat of deportation after being
detained in Ben Gurion Airport
February 19, 2002 Two Birzeit University students are arrested on their way from the
University to Ramallah. The students are handcuffed, blindfolded, beaten and stamped on by
the Israeli occupation forces, and then put in the military vehicles to be transported.
February 21, 2002 Again, the Israeli occupation forces dig up the road at the Surda
checkpoint on the Ramallah-Birzeit Road, creating a trench across the road half a meter
deep and a meter wide, and making vehicular traffic completely impossible.
March 5, 2002 BZU Starts Spring Semester Despite Road Difficulties
March 13, 2002 Birzeit University closed due to latest Israeli incursion of Ramallah March
18, 2002 Birzeit University Resumes Operations March 29 - April 21, 2002 Total Occupation
of Ramallah entails a curfew on all Ramallah residents, massive destruction of Ramallah
roads, buildings and utilities, mass arrests, killing and beating of Palestinians. Effects
on Birzeit University include:
1.. Scores of students and staff arrested. Some were detained only temporarily. Others are
still being held.
2.. University dormitories and building raided.
3.. Beating of University personnel and using one staff member as a human shield.
4.. Electronic Forms of communication disabled
5.. Students stranded without food or money in the town of Birzeit.
6.. The occupation by the Israeli army of staff and faculty member's houses.
1. Scores of students and staff arrested. Some were detained only temporarily. Others are
still being held.
2. University dormitories and building raided.
3. Beating of University personnel and using one staff member as a human shield.
4. Electronic Forms of communication disabled
5. Students stranded without food or money in the town of Birzeit.
6. The occupation by the Israeli army of staff and faculty member's houses.
April 23, 2001 The University resumes operations. Only a handful of staff and faculty
reach the University.
May 7, 2002 We hope to resume classes.
For most universities around the world, the spring semester is coming to an end. We are only getting started.
From Ha'aretz Weekend Magazine
Buried with chocolate in his hand
by
Gideon Levy
7th may 2002
The three children took their bikes to buy candy. A tank chased them and fired two rounds
at short range. Two brothers were killed, and the third brother was severely wounded. It's
all there on the video
The video shows it all: Here are the three kids on their bikes, three black dots on the
slope of the road, two on the right, close together, the third on the left, and a white
car passes between them. A woman calls out something unclear, maybe a warning to the
children about the tank; the car disappears down the hill, and then the tank suddenly
appears from the corner on the left. First you see the tank's turret gun, then the base of
the turret and then the tank itself, charging after three little kids on their bicycles a
few dozen meters ahead. The picture freezes for a second to show the details better. Then
suddenly the screen goes dark. Sound of firing. Boom. Lots of noise, dust and smoke
everywhere, an that's it. The anonymous photographer stopped filming.
And now, the bicycles lie there in the yard, covered by a heavy woolen blanket as if to
preserve them from the night's chill. Three bicycles. The large black bike is Jamil's; the
medium-sized red one is Tareq's; and the little purple one is Ahmed's. The seat on the
smallest bike is bent awry, the rubber that covers the handlebars on the big bike is torn,
and there's a hole in the seat-covering on the medium-sized bike. Damaged only slightly,
one might say. Black-beribboned pictures of two of the children are stuck on the
handlebars of their bikes, photographs of the dead Jamil and Ahmed. Tareq, who's lying
wounded in the hospital, his body torn by shrapnel, was riding with them on that black
Friday on the way to the grocery store. His bike has no picture attached.
The boys' father sits in the house. A tall man with a mustache. For eight years, before
the outbreak of the first intifada, he drove a bus for Egged, the Israeli bus company.
Tears threaten to overwhelm him, again and again. On the table in front of him is a straw
basket with a pile of the colored memorial placards with pictures of his two sons. A
keepsake for every mourner. No organization's name is inscribed on these. The bereaved
father refused to let anyone - Hamas, the Popular Front, Islamic Jihad, the Brigades P put
their mark on the two innocent children riding their bicycles to the neighborhood grocery
store to buy themselves some candy, during a break in the curfew, until the soldiers in
the tank shot them from up close, killing two of them and wounding the third. They buried
Ahmed with the chocolate bar he'd bought for himself clutched in his hand.
A north Jenin neighborhood among the orchards, Al Basatin. Relatively well-kept homes in
neglected surroundings. Yusef Abu Aziz, the bereaved father, was born in Rafiah to a
family that fled in 1948 from Sidni-'Ali on the coast at Herzliya. His wife, Hamda, was
born in Jenin and he moved there to be with her. Hamda, her face downcast, hurries to her
room and closes the door as one of the children turns on the video to show yet once more
the dreadful film of her children's death, and she doesn't come out again.
Since leaving Egged, Abu Aziz has worked as a truck driver for UNRWA. The couple had seven
children. Ra'ad, the eldest, a 22-year-old medical student at Cairo University, was called
home when his brothers were killed. Ahmed, six, who was killed, was the youngest, born to
his parents relatively late in life. Two sons work in construction in Ramallah, one had a
stall at the market in Jenin, and the others are in school, except little Ahmed who was
still in preschool.
On Friday, June 12, just two weeks ago now, they got up in the morning around seven as
usual. All the children were home; there was a curfew on. Abu Aziz would always keep the
door locked during curfews to make sure the kids didn't go out. Around 11:30 A.M., someone
knocked on the door. It was Abu Aziz's young nephew, Wahel, who arrived on his bicycle
from the city's eastern quarter with the news: The curfew had been lifted for a few hours.
The father, skeptical, hurried to look out the window of the next room on the second
floor. Indeed, the street was full of people and there were cars moving again. Yusef told
the children there was no curfew now.
Ahmed asked for a shekel to buy some candy. The grocery store is about 200 meters from the
house. Jamil, 13, and Tareq, 11, wanted some, too. Each of them received a shekel. Each
one took his bicycle. "Buy it and come back quickly," the worried father
instructed them, and went back to the television, where Brazil was playing England in the
World Cup. A few minutes went by. It was Brazil 2, England 1, and suddenly the father
heard a huge explosion from the direction of the street. Immediately there was shouting:
"Get an ambulance, get an ambulance!" He rushed to the phone to call the Red
Crescent. It never occurred to him that his children had been hurt, and he went back to
watch the roundup of the game on television. This week he remembered only that Brazil had
been playing, he didn't remember against whom. Another few minutes passed and someone from
the street came to the door to tell him that his children were injured and had been taken
to the hospital. No one mentioned deaths.
Outside, the curfew was reinstated and it was impossible to go anywhere. Abu Aziz phoned a
friend, an ambulance driver with UNRWA, to come get him out of the house and take him to
the hospital, a few minutes' drive away. When he got there, Ahmed was already dead, his
little body shredded. Jamil was in the operating room, his body also torn up. The father
saw only Tareq alive. Jamil died a few minutes later, on the operating table. Tareq also
underwent an operation. At three in the afternoon, the curfew was lifted again and Abu
Aziz went home with the bodies of his two sons. Their mother and siblings took their leave
of the boys. The two of them were buried that evening in the Jenin cemetery. Together.
The children's ward at the hospital in Jenin: Tareq, 11, is in bed in a double room, tubes
attached to his skinny, scarred body. No one was at his bedside when we arrived,
accompanied by his oldest brother Ra'ad. Tareq has a hole in his abdomen and a hole in his
lungs and a hole in his kidney, and a large hole in his left leg and a small hole in his
right leg and another hole in his knee, and his spleen has been removed.
Tareq speaks weakly. What happened? "The doctor's car ran away from the tank and the
tank shot at the car and we were riding our bikes and the shell exploded and threw me and
my two brothers. I don't remember the rest." Ten days afterward, Tareq still didn't
know that his two brothers had been killed. His father and his remaining brothers warned
us not to let that slip. Ra'ad strokes Tareq's hand. In the last three years they've
hardly seen one another, because Ra'ad is studying in Cairo. Jamil loved soccer, books and
computers. He wanted to study medicine like Ra'ad who says now that Jamil was smarter than
he is. Ahmed was in kindergarten. Tareq just finished fifth grade.
Friday of the previous week, Dr. Samer Al-Ahmed was released from the hospital and now he
lies in bed in his spacious home, surrounded by friends taking advantage of a lull in the
curfew to come and visit him. A week earlier, on that same black Friday, he was also in a
hurry to get to the market and buy food, having heard that the curfew had been lifted.
On his way home, he was stopped by two military Jeeps at the town's refugee camp, and he
and two hundred other people gathered there were told not to leave the camp. After about
half an hour, the soldiers permitted him to go. Ahmed thought he was safely on his way
home - "The captain told me I could go home" - when suddenly he saw a tank
rumbling after him, a few hundred meters behind. Just to be on the safe side, he turned
right at the next corner. Shots were fired from the direction of the tank at his car and
Ahmed saw that he was bleeding from the abdomen. He stopped alongside a house and threw
himself from his car into the street, calling for help. The tank came closer. Suddenly he
heard a deafening roar. More than that he doesn't remember. He saw the children on their
bicycles before the tank fired, but not afterwards. He says the tank shot two shells in
the children's direction. A look at his Opel Astra station wagon suggests that only a
miracle saved his life: The driver's seat is completely bullet-ridden and there's blood
all over it.
The IDF spokesman, on the day of the incident: "An IDF force conducting
house-to-house reconnaissance in the city of Jenin while looking for a munitions factory
came upon a group of Palestinians disobeying the curfew and approaching them. The force
fired two tank shells as a deterrent. Three Palestinians were killed by these shells and
ten more wounded. An initial investigation reveals that the force acted in error. The IDF
investigation of this incident is continuing."
The IDF spokesman, this week: "The incident is still being dealt with." Defense
Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer issued an apology. No one from the IDF came to the family's
home; no one even bothered to watch the video.
The Palestine Monitor,
A PNGO Information Clearinghouse
Information Brief
"Is there an end to this suffering?"
July 5, 2002
In the beginning it was impossible for Palestinians to travel between the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. Slowly the restrictions have tightened; travelling to Nablus, Tulkaram, Jenin,
Hebron and Ramallah is something that used to happen. Villages only six kilometres away
are remembered fondly inaccessible to all.
The latest attack on Palestinians is the total Israeli reoccupation of most of the West
Bank and the accompanying 24-hour curfew confining people to their homes, only allowing
them to leave their homes for a few hours, every few days.
When the curfew lifts it provides a few hours to stock up on necessities, see families and
friends to remind oneself we are humans, and the world is larger than the our homes and
apartments. It also provides a window of opportunity for those who need to travel overseas
to leave the Palestinian areas through the only way open to them the bridge to Jordan.
Students returning to study overseas, people who were visiting family and most importantly
those seeking medical treatment overseas are prevented from leaving. The numbers are small
enough on a daily basis, however after two weeks it all adds up, and currently hundreds of
people are waiting at the Israeli side of the Jordan/Israeli border, forbidden from
leaving, unable or unwilling to turn back. Tents have been set up, and people, including
the ill and aged, wait and wait.
After arduous detours and journeys on back roads, forbidden to cross checkpoints or even
be transferred from ambulance to ambulance, people reach the bridge to find their way
blocked once more, as if they need to be reminded of the Israeli occupation and total
Israeli control on most aspects of their lives.
However at this point there is one way to leave; if you are too ill to wait your turn, if
you will miss your flight, or if you cannot stand the oppressive heat (at the lowest point
in the world temperatures soar to 50°C in summer) the flies, dirt and dust it is possible
to leave with a ‘VIP’ car. The Israeli firm providing the ‘VIP’ bus
service, which charges $US 90 per person to facilitate the Israel/Jordan journey, is the
only company providing such a service at the bridge a monopoly in other words. Simply
put if one is unable to pay, one cannot travel.
As Dr. Barghouthi commented, "this is a form of corruption. However it is
unfortunately more than that. Hundreds of people are waiting to cross to Jordan and are
not prevented from doing so and some of their lives depend upon treatment they can
receive overseas and it is denied them. This is nothing more than another example, if
we really require it, that the policies practised by the Israeli army have nothing to do
with security rather it is just an example of their racist behaviour towards
Palestinians, to increase further increase their misery. It makes one ask is there an end
to this suffering?"
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
Thursday, July 04, 2002
For Immediate Release
ISRAELI COURT RULES TO DEPORT INTERNATIONAL PEACE WORKERS
[JERUSALEM] The district court of Jerusalem today ruled against the three international
peace activists and human rights workers: Josie Sandercock (UK), Darlene Wallach (US) and
Mikoto (Japan) and confirmed their deportation by the Israeli Ministry of Interior.
The judge in the case, who had appeared to be reasonable on the first day of the trial did
not give the plaintiffs verbal reason for confirming their deportation and stated that it
"was not [her] job to ascertain the facts." Josie brought up the fact that the
reason given by the soldiers for their deportation was the same lie used against another
American and two Reuters journalists 3 days ago when they were detained by Israeli
soldiers that they were shown papers my the Israeli army, that they were in a closed
military zone and they refused to leave (video footage clearly shows that the
internationals were not denied entry into Nablus, from where they were detained/arrested.
Josie and Darlene are working on having the papers given to them in Hebrew translated and
will decide whether or they will appeal the decision to the Israeli Supreme Court.
"It’s not about the decision or what’s being done to us, rather it’s
about what the Israeli military is doing to the Palestinians and doesn’t want the
world to see. They are shooting at seven-year old boys in the streets and think that if
they prevent us (foreign civilians) from entering Palestinian areas, they can keep the
world from knowing."
Thus far the Israeli Ministry of Interior has deported upwards of 50 foreign peace and
human rights workers and has denied hundreds entry into the country. The only way you can
get to Palestinian cities, towns and villages (all under Israeli occupation) is through
Israel. And yet, we will not by deterred. We will keep resisting the brutal and inhumane
Israeli occupation and the illegal policies of the occupation forces. We reaffirm our call
to all good people around the world not to stay silent. Keep coming to Palestine We
need you.
For more information on how to join us in Palestine www.palsolidarity.org and www.rapprochement.org
To contact Josie or Darlene:
Josie: +972-67-490-566
Darlene: +972-55-971-842
From: palsolidarity
<palsolidaritylist@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 2002 05:35:24 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: 18 Month Child Injured by Careless Occupation Forces
June 30, 2002
Report of an injured 18-month-old child, currently in the hospital with her mother and
grandmother On June 30, 2002, the raid on the Amaari refugee camp in Ramallah resulted in
the serious injury of an 18-month-old baby girl, Munia Adel Rehan. In the waiting area of
nearby Sheikh Zayed Trauma Hospital, her mother gave a statement about the incident.
"Soldiers entered the house about 12 p.m. They locked the family in a room and
watched television in another room. Around 4, the soldiers received orders to leave the
house, and when they rushed to leave, they bumped her off the stairway. She fell off the
stairway, into the stairwell, three flights down. The soldiers left her there. They did
not help her.
"We went out after the soldiers to try to get the child to the hospital, and the
soldiers refused, saying they had to search the rest of the camp first. We had to go
around in back to call the ambulance, through the alleys. The ambulance came within 10
minutes, but the soldiers would not let it through for a half hour. We reached the
hospital around 7 p.m."
The child’s head is bandaged and a laceration is visible right at the hairline,
towards the top of the head. She has been x-rayed, and the family is waiting for results
of a CT scan. She looks lethargic and sleepy, so doctors worry she may have sustained some
brain injury. She has been moved to the Ramallah Hospital.
Photos of the child are available. Please email huwaidaa@yahoo.com.
For more information contact:
Eden Coughlin 056 389 317
For more information on The International Solidarity Movement contact:
Huwaida Arraf 667 473 308
ISRAEL - PALESTINE CONFLICT 2002 INDEX
FIRE THIS TIME INDEX THE WORLD AFTER 9-11 INDEX