Report from Special Team to Gaza, February 10-11 -- First evening and next day

While waiting at JFK airport in New York for our flight to Tel Aviv, we shared space with many families of the Hasidic tradition. People young and old filled the room with conversation and children playing. At one point, several of the men came to one side and conducted their evening prayer, with Peter sitting in their midst. It was good to be surrounded by prayer! The flight that followed was restful.

When we arrived at Ben Gurion Airport inTel Aviv, we breezed through customs with no questions asked. A bus took us an hour away to the Old City of Jerusalem What a joy for us to be back in Jerusalem, the City of Peace, the city of three Faiths, AND a city of contradictions.

Here, Gaza is in the hearts of many. Both Palestinian and Israeli, expressed horror over the destruction of Gaza that happened during Operation Cast Lead, December 27 – January18, 2009. A cook in a restaurant where we had dinner said, “We saw what they did to Gaza, and we know this could happen to us!” Some people we trust are saying that in the very near future Israel will attack Gaza again through an air strike campaign.

On February 11, we met with the Chancellor of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem who was recently in Gaza. He was deeply touched by the suffering of the people, and by their strength, goodness and resilience. He said Gazans are making every effort to carry on with their daily lives, in spite of the destruction. Following this meeting, we traveled to Bethlehem to meet with peacemaker friends who continue to do the works of peace with justice.

During our short time here, we are also learning that Israelis, Palestinians, and Internationals living in the Holy Land are very hopeful that President Obama will help end the Israeli Palestinian conflict and make positive changes in US policy in the Middle East. The extent of their hope is striking.To us it is clear that this hope places a heavy burden on USA citizens to urge our government to help end the conflict andmake needed positive changes.

At regular intervals we are calling Erez to find out if we can pass into Gaza. In the meantime being in close proximity enables us to be in telephone conversations with our Gazan friends…

- Peter and Liz

TEAM MEMBERS ARRIVE SAFELY IN COUNTRY

Today, our Special Gaza Team members arrived safely in Palestine/Israel. They will continue on to Gaza soon. Please watch for more!

A Letter from the Special Gaza Team

February 7, 2009

Dear Friends,

VERY SOON Michigan Peace Team is sending two of us, Peter & Liz, on a peace team mission to the Gaza Strip. We go with all the love in our hearts to support our friends who have suffered the horror of the most recent bombing and invasion.

As always, we live with the conviction that a continued peace-with-justice presence activates and grows peace. We believe peaceful people are able find just solutions to problems that seem insurmountable. Moreover, we believe that now more than ever is the time to be in Gaza because:

1.Our friends in Gaza are asking us to come. They want us to be with them now, AND, they want to explore possibilities for future peace team presence. In addition, some are asking for nonviolent training and violence reduction skills training that could help open the way to a more peaceable and just future.

2.As the media leaves Gaza, the world mistakenly believes the crisis is over.

3.Gazans are an isolated and blockaded people. The presence of internationals helps to break this isolation and it helps to foster hope and resilience for the long haul.

In addition, to our peace mission in Gaza, we, (Peter and Liz) plan to visit and be a peaceful presence in the Israeli cities hit by militant rockets from Gaza – that is, Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Sderot.

Past peace teams: You may remember that MPT has nurtured relationships in Gaza with peace teams-in-action during summer and fall of 2003, during the summers of 2004 and 2005, and with short term peace teams to Gaza during 2006, 2007, and 2008.

The up-coming peace team to Gaza that we are about to undertake is above and beyond what MPT budgeted for the year. Having borrowed the necessary funding from MPT, we are moving ahead because we know we must.

WE NEED YOUR HELP:
In this spirit, we invite you to join us in keeping hope and the possibilities for peace with justice ALIVE!

If you are able to help us with a donation we would be most grateful. Your gift small or large WILL be deeply appreciated.

To send a donation, using a check:

1.Make your check payable to Michigan Peace Team
2.Include a note on the check that your gift is given for “Special Peace Team to Gaza” or “Gaza Peace Mission” THIS IS IMPORTANT!
3.Send your gift to:

Michigan Peace Team
1516 Jerome St.
Lansing, MI 48912

OR

To send a donation using a credit card:

1.Open the Michigan Peace Team Page an click the Network for Good Icon box
2.Sign In or enroll
3.Fill in the necessary information
4.Designate your donation-“Special Peace Team to Gaza”
5.Add to cart and follow final directions

If you are not able to make a donation at this time, we certainly understand. These are harsh economic times. Be assured that we are grateful beyond words for your support over the years, and we hope that you will continue to hold the mission of Michigan Peace Team in your hearts.

Gratefully, and in solidarity,
Peter and Liz

FINAL NOTE; For reports in the field, check this MPT blogspot: Nicole, MPT’s international peace team coordinator, has created a wonderful blog for international peace teams.

When the electricity is on, Peter and Liz will be posting to this blog. We do hope you will check it regularly.

Already there are two entries. To read these and other entries soon to come:

1.Type mptinpalestine.blogspot.com in the URL address bar at the top of your screen, and Click the arrow or click enter;
OR
2.Type “MPT in Palestine” in the search engine on your screen and Select/Click the first NOTES IN THE FIELD

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"Michigan Peace Team is a nonprofit organization that pursues peace through active nonviolence in places of conflict."

Support MPT Team To GAZA

'Our Peace Team experience teaches us that the occupation of
Gaza and the West Bank is the fundamental violence in the region.'
-From Michigan Peace Team “Call to Action” for Gaza

All of us at MPT hold those suffering as a result of the violence in Gaza in mind.
To find resources and to take immediate action, please visit
MPT's ACT NOW ON GAZA webpage.

In addition to taking urgent action regarding the situation in Gaza (see http://www.michiganpeaceteam.org/act_now!.htm), you can explore ways to have an impact on the ongoing conflict in the region by find out more about International Peace Teams to the West Bank in 2009. Please click on the link to “Teams” on the left toolbar on our website (www.michiganpeaceteam.org), or email Nicoler.mpt@gmail.com for more information.

Of course you can also DONATE to TEAMS and designate "Special Gaza Team" by following the link on our website, or searching "Michigan Peace Team" on WWW.NETWORKFORGOOD.ORG.

(https://www.networkforgood.org/donation/MakeDonation.aspx?ORGID2=383451273)

On Our Way

One scarlet poppy blooms in the desert, a symbol of hope and renewal
despite crushingly harsh conditions. (Nicole)



Dear Friends,

We - Liz and Peter- will be leavin very soon for Gaza. We encourage you to check this site regularly to receive our reports. We will be supporting people, listening to their stories, documenting human rights abuses, and whatever else we are able to do. We will tell them that many in our country are wanting justice for Palestinians, as well as for Israelis. Work to end the occupation!

Peace,

Peter

Preparing as an MPT Peace Team

Preparing for our journey to Israel and Palestine and most especially for our Peace Team to Gaza requires in depth study , excellent nonviolence training, commitment to nonviolence, commitment to working together as team, and day to day, hour by hour discipline in the skills of nonviolent action. Michigan Peace Team is doing a great job helping us grow in these key components/requirements.

In terms of study there is a wealth of material available.
Liz

Watch for Posts from GAZA MPT TEAM-- Next Week!

Important News: MPT is sending an emergency team to Gaza following the recent invasion and ongoing violence there. The team will be on the ground next week, and they will be posting reports as soon and as often as conditions allow. If there's a gap, MPT office will also post updates to keep people informed about the team.

Waste Dumps Damage Palestinian Land

Three IWPS and one MPTer protested at a demonstration planned by Deir Shafar village, the surrounding villages, and the municipality of Nablus. As they headed toward the village, their car was rerouted because of the Israeli construction of a new, and third, checkpoint at the entrance to the village. These checkpoints make entrance and exit from the village difficult and time consuming.

In the mayor's office, the group was given a brief update on the situation of the waste/garbage during village.

In 2002, the Israeli Occupation forces confiscated a quarry and nearby land belonging to an Palestinian family. Since then the area has been used to dump waste from the Quedumim settlement and a nearby Israeli industrial area. Israel has plans to use this site for the garbage of all the settlements in the area, including some several miles. This waste dump is a tremendous health hazard to the thousands of inhabitants of the nearby villages in the Nablus district. There are five artesian wells in the area near the dump which the villages rely on for their water supply and irrigation. Directly underneath the quarry is a huge water reservoir, which supplies 40% of the city of Nablus with water. Experts fear that the dump will contaminate these water sources. Toxic pollution from the dump has a major impact on agricultural systems and water supplies. The inevitable contamination of the Deir Shafar aquifer would be an ecological and humanitarian disaster.

In 2004, the Israel High Court ruled in favor of the villages, ordering an end to the dumping of the waste in the area. Despite the court order, the settlement persisted in dumping garbage and confiscating more land well into 2005. A representative from the mayor's office said that recently the Israeli District Coordinating Committee told them that the Israeli govenment has plans to reopen this controversial toxic waste dump. Industrial wastes, including petrochemical wastes from the factories located in the area will be brought to this Palestinian land from the illegal Israeli industrial parks in the area.

Israel's construction and operation of this waste site violates international law. Article 55 of the Geneva Convention states that the occupier must protect the natural environment of the occupied country again severe long term damage. The health and survival of the population must not be prejudiced. http://www.poica.org/editor/casestudies/view.php?recordID=548

The day of the demonstration, over a hundred people from the villages and the Nablus municipality gathered near the dump to protest the confiscation of the land and environmental destruction caused by the dump. Trucks and bulldozers have leveled much of the quarry land. The garbage of the past, including tons of rubber tires, had been buried under several feet of sand, which does not prevent linkage into the ground water. Furthermore, there are plans to continue the domestic and industrial waste dumping in the area. http://stopthewall.org/photos/907.shtml

There were no journalists or Israeli military at the demonstration. The demonstration serves as a reminder of what it means to be an occupied people. The local people will wait to see what their Palestinian lawyers who continue to work on the case can achieve.

Farmland is lost to the quarry. Sand and gravel is used in the illegal Israeli settlements.

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People begin to gather for the demonstration.

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The garbage dump was bulldozed under and covered with layers of sand.

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The area of the old dump is the size of a football field.

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The banner, written in rather bad English, protests the effects of pollution on all life.

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The right to move freely throughout their land is a human right denied to Palestinians under Israeli occupation.

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[Left banner] The occupation and the illegal Israeli settlements have led to apartheid.

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The boys proudly carry their nicely made protest signs.

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Village leaders speak against the environmental degradation caused by the dump.

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Reopening the waste site would be disastrous according to village leaders.

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A spokeswoman from the Nablus municipality expresses her fear of water contamination.

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Another village leader expresses his fear of the continued devastation of the land and water.

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Nablus women express their hope that the site will not be re-opened.

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A beautifully scrolled poster expresses the horror of the waste dump.

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Another beautiful banner expresses the concerns of the people.

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The confiscated quarry.

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Huge machines carry and process the sand of the quarry.

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The demonstrators pass the quarry as they leave.

Vandalism, Army Incursions and Arrests in Small Villages

Between the night of November 25 and November 28^th four villages in the Salfit District reported vandalism to property. The villages of Deir Istiya, Jinsafut, Kafr Qaddum, and Haris all had tires slashed on verhicles and racist graffiti spray painted. On Wednesday morning, an IWPS and a MPT team member went to the municipality of Deir Istiya to survey the damage done to the village in an early morning incursion. The mayor drove them to the area near the village entrance where the damage had occurred. The following is the report from the IWPS [International Women’s Peace Service – Human Rights 382] website. http://www.iwps.info/en/articles/index.php?section=2&category=3

Description of Incident:

During the night of November 25th to November 26th, 2008 three private vehicles, a tractor and an ambulance were vandalized by so far unknown persons.

According to the estimation of residents of Deir Istiya, the perpetrators must have entered the village through its main entrance after midnight.

In the morning of November 26^th residents of the village found that three private vehicles, all parked along the main road of the village, had slashed tires. Two of the cars were additionally spray-painted with Hebrew letters reading "Death to the Arabs". The same message and a star of David were reportedly also spray-painted on a parked ambulance. Further two tires of a tractor were slashed, leaving damage amounting to 3000 NIS

[MPTand IWPS photos inserted here for the blog ]

Slashed Tire

Slashed tire

Slashed tire and "Death to Arabs" spray painted

Four tires slashed on this car.

Spray paint on car

Slashed tires on tractor. Very expensive to repair or replace.

Residents suspect either settlers or Israeli army personnel to be responsible for the deed.

The village of Deir Istiya has recently been the target of increased army activity. Apart from daily and nightly patrols, army vehicles are frequently parked at the main entrance of the village and civilians entering or leaving Deir Istiya are being stopped and ordered to show their identification. Approximately two weeks ago the Israeli army imposed a curfew and reportedly threw sound bombs and tear gas on the streets.

Additionally parts of the lands of Deir Istiya are currently unofficially confiscated and used for the expansion of the settlement of Revava. The affected farmers have been repeatedly prevented by settler security to enter their lands, which is slowly being turned into a construction site. [End of report]

Haris:

Israeli military vehicles entered the village of Haris the evening of November 26^th. They drove back and forth along the main street for over an hour. An MPTer was present, took photos and tried to communicate with the Israeli soldiers. They returned after midnight and boys were arrested in the early morning.

In Haris the wall of a private home was spray-painted with a five-pointed star and the name "Hebron" in Hebrew. According to Haris residents, the tires of seven vehicles parked alongside the main road were slashed and a window was broken. [MPTphotos inserted here for the blog ]

Tire damaged

Sprayed painted wall

There was also vandalism –desecrating a Muslim cemetery in Kifl Haris villages near Deir Estriya in the last few days The day after the vandalism by settlers or the army, two youth, 13 and 17, were picked up by the Israeli army. Very worried parents are calling an Israeli human rights organization to try to locate their sons.

The following is the updated report on the army incursion into Haris by the IWPS [International Women’s Peace Service – Human Rights 383] website. http://www.iwps.info/en/articles/index.php?section=2&category=3

Description of Incident :

Two teenaged boys were arrested in the early hours of yesterday morning in Haris, Salfit following an army incursion into the village on Wednesday.

Late Wednesday afternoon four military vehicles entered the village and drove back and forth for approximately an hour and a half, leaving shortly after 6 p.m. Several boys responded by throwing stones at the vehicles.

Later that night the army came back and arrested two boys from the village. An aunt of the older boy, a 17-year-old student, said Israeli soldiers started to throw dirt and tear-gas canisters through the boy’s father’s bedroom window at about 1 a.m. Two adults and four children, including the arrested teenager, were in the home at the time. The aunt said the family had never been visited by the army before, and she was reluctant to open the door. Eventually she did, and said that soldiers took her brother and her nephew outside the house for questioning, demanding their identification. The 17-year-old was taken away in handcuffs and a blindfold, she said.

The second boy, aged 14 years, was taken from a nearby home. Soldiers arrived at the house around 2 a.m. and stayed for an hour, the boy’s parents reported. Several army vehicles were present, and although soldiers did not enter the house or use tear gas, they reportedly pelted the door and windows with rocks. The family of nine – two adults and seven children, ranging in age from two to 13 years – were eventually forced from their home. The mother of the family, who is six months’ pregnant, said that soldiers pushed her. Another four soldiers restrained her husband, she reported, while two more soldiers handcuffed and blindfolded their eldest son (age 14) and took him away.

The father of the 17-year-old boy reported that his son was returned to the family home from Ari’el police station at around 2 p.m. yesterday afternoon.

An Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson in the Humanitarian office told IWPS that the 14-year-old boy had likewise been taken to Ari’el police station, and then to the IDF base at Huwwara, Nablus district, where he was released because he is a minor. However, two other organizations (Defence for Children International and the Palestinian Prisoners Club) determined that the boy had been taken from Huwwara to Salem prison in Israel. On November 30th he appeared before a military court, charged with throwing stones, and was refused bail. His lawyer (from Defence for Children International) said he would appeal the denial of bail; the boy’s next court appearance is scheduled for January 11, 2009.

[End of Report]

Ayn Karim - village of the Nakba

A cloudy Saturday, 2 MPTers, 2 IWPS [International Women's Peace Service] women joined with 2 California friends and a group of Israelis, a few Palestinians and several other internationals for a tour by Zochrot of the beautiful little village of Ayn Karim nestled in the hills south of Jerusalem. [Zochrot is a group of Israeli citizens working to raise awareness of the Nakba, particularly among Israelis.]

Ayn Karim is one of a very few villages which survived the Nakba of 1948 with its buildings intact. [Nakba – depopulation of Palestinians from what is now Israel.] The village was home for about 3700 Palestinians who overnight became homeless refugees. Today those village homes are inhabited by Jewish families, some of whom had been expelled from Spain and had moved to Morocco. One Christian Palestinian family, refugees from Iqrit village [near Acre], now lives in the village in an old school building attached to the Franciscan monastery. Palestinian Muslims and Christians lived as good neighbors before the Nakba. There are today 7 Christian churches and monasteries in Ayn Karim. European influence saved the churches and monasteries during and following the Nakba.

The Muslim cemetery in the center of the village has been left in shambles until recently when there has been a effort to turn it into a park. Israelis in the area have worked with the park constructors to show respect that this is a cemetery.

During the tour, people from Zochrot erected signs to commemorate sites that existed in the village before the Nakba.

Those touring enjoyed the beautiful area with blooming trees and plants everywhere. There is a deep sadness in remembering the Palestinian refugees who lost their beautiful village with its lovely homes. [For more information: http://www.nakbaonline.org/Jerusalem/Ayn-Karim/index.html

A Palestinian and an Israeli conducted the tour.

The Israeli came to the village 31 years ago in ignorance of its past history. Later he was expelled from the Likud Party for his pro-Palestinian views.

This convent hires a Muslim who lives in Bethlehem area village.
This man, a friend of MPT's is much respected by the Sisters
whose convent once was neighbor to many Muslims.

Hadassah Hospital was constructed in Ayn Karim by the Women's Zionist Organization of America which worked diligently throughout the last century for good health care in Israel.

Magnificent Russian monastery on the hill above the village.

The hillside is filled with beautiful churches and monasteries.

Israelis post the sign where the village school was stood.

A special gate guards the entrance to this home. This was the only kind of "protective" gate or fence seen in the village.St. John the Baptist Church. St. John is alleged to have been born here.

An Arabic phrase above the door, probably from the Koran,

is a reminder that the former owners were Palestinians.

Palestinians were part of the tour, probably seeing the village for the first time.

A Zochrot sign, placed by Israelis, marks the place of the old village cemetery.

This Israeli woman works to help the public remember that although this will be come a community park, it was a village cemetery.

The cemetery was left without care for many years.

The village mosque, in a state of disrepair, still stands with its minaret.

Inside the mosque is Mary's Spring. Christians and Muslems sharing water.

A Zochrot sign to remember the Muslim place of worship before the Nakba.

Palestinians wash before prayer.

Muslim Palestinians pray in front of the mosque.

The marker reminds all that the former, rightful, owner is remembered.