Three Fridays in Jayyus at the wall

The first demonstration at Jayyus was so successful that we were anxious to return the next week. Our hopes and expectations were high. Four of us arrived at the designated time to find that the demonstration was already in progress.

The demonstration had begun after mid-morning prayers, 45 minutes before the announced time. For the second week, the Israeli military seemed unprepared for a demonstration. The demonstrators moved toward the gate in the fence unimpeded. There were no soldiers on the road or in view.

The fence has electrical sensors that detect movement but guards were not present. The area around the gate seemed deserted. The previous week the demonstration barely moved past the village limits. This week they arrived at the gate that had been closed to them for so long.

This gate is the most relevant symbol of the occupation to the people who have been denied access to their own property. It is a barrier to a decent livelihood. The people can view their confiscated olive groves and citrus trees but not approach them to cultivate or tend the land. Their fertile land is lying fallow on the other side of the fence. For years they have been forced to stop at this point. However, on this warm, November, Friday afternoon, there was the possibility of something different. Someone climbed the fence. Someone else broke the lock. There was damage to the razor wire. They stepped over the line and onto the military road. Their resistance to years of occupation and humiliation targeted the gate, the closest part of the apartheid wall.

After the gate had been opened and damaged, the soldiers responded and there was violence. The demonstrators were forced back toward the village amid gunfire and tear gas.

Gate at Jayyus opened by demonstrators

Damage to the gate

We knew none of this when we arrived. The story was later pieced together from a variety of participants and videotape. When we got out the car, we saw demonstrators running back toward the village. There was a curtain of tear gas behind them and the high whistling sound of the of tear gas canisters flying over head. We walked toward the road and soldiers appeared, firing what we hoped were rubber coated steel bullets. Amid the chaos, men and boys began picking rocks off the ground while running from the bullets. There was an exchange; tear gas and bullets from the Israeli army versus rocks thrown by Palestinians.

Army advancing into the village

Israeli protesting the wall

A woman opened her door for two of us, so we could avoid some of the heavy gas. A young boy, about 9 or 10, was pacing between the inner hall and front of the house. He was sobbing and speaking to the women around him. We all had onions to cut the smell of the tear gas, but he was picking at his nervously, like a child picking a scab, peeling the layers, and wringing his hands. He couldn’t be comforted. I asked what he was saying and understood that he was terrified of the soldiers. The trauma of events around him was too much for him to handle. We left the house and looked for the rest of our group.

Military vehicles poured into the village from all directions and the Palestinians took cover in their homes.

Army going house to house

The soldiers began selecting young men for questioning, trying to decide who should be charged with throwing stones. They examined their hands closely, as though there would be traces of frustration and resistance remaining.

Soldiers questioning young men

A curfew was declared. All of the internationals went to the Municipality offices. Members of the Palestinian Parliament were meeting with the village council to discuss an upcoming UN visit. The United Nations is examining the amount of damage done to Jayyus by the wall.

Municipality offices

The mayor had food prepared for all the internationals and Parliament members. The Israeli Army would not let him bring the food to the Municipality offices, so we were asked to come to his home to eat. Palestinian hospitality should never be refused. As we were all walking toward his home, a man stopped us and asked for assistance. He had three women in the car who were returning home to the village from work. They were unable to pass the military and asked for international accompaniment. Two of us squeezed into the car to accompany them.

As we reached the intersection where they lived, a military jeep and a line of soldiers blocked the road.

Military vehicle patrolling the village

Soldiers in Jayyus

The army after the demonstration

We got out of the car to ask for permission to pass and allow the people to reach their home safely. Without discussion a soldier announced that we were both under arrest. He said it was a closed military zone and that we were in violation of a military order. As the other woman was escorted at gunpoint into the back of a military vehicle, I asked if the Palestinians could be allowed to go home. After more negotiation, the Palestinians were freed and both of us were taken to the military area behind the damaged gate.

A young Palestinian man was also detained and was handcuffed. About ten soldiers were milling around the road watching us. After a time they blindfolded the Palestinian and forced him to sit in the ditch on the side of the road. We repeatedly questioned the soldiers about the need for the blindfold and eventually it was removed. The handcuffs that held his hands behind his back were moved to his front.

Another group of three internationals joined us as we stood along the military access road, waiting for some decision about our fate. They had been in a car with the Palestinian Parliament members, leaving the village. It was stopped: they were taken out of the car and charged with being in a closed area. They explained they were trying to leave the area, but reason had no effect. At about 6 at night, when it was quite dark, the Palestinian was taken back toward the gate. When questioned, the soldiers said they would release him an allow him to go home. We were held there by the army for a little more than the legal limit of three hours.

All five of us were then taken to the Qalqilia checkpoint and told we would probably be released there. It was dark and chilly and we waited again. A police car pulled up and the Israeli soldier and the policeman sat in the car and talked for about thirty minutes. We were not released.

Qalqilia checkpoint tower at night

We were then all moved to the Ariel Settlement police station. Each one of us was interrogated and pressured to sign statements. At first they wanted us to sign documents in Hebrew, even though we couldn’t read the Hebrew. There were threats of deportation, arrest and jail, and fines. They had our passports and we were in “their system”. There was pressure to give statements and efforts to force us to incriminate ourselves. Some people signed “release papers” that stipulated they would pay a fine of several thousand shekels if they were asked to come in to the police station or court for additional questions, and failed to appear. We were told we had to sign or wait for a judge who wouldn’t be available until Sunday.

The two of us were held for about twelve hours. We were allowed to call a car to take us home a little after 3 in the morning. It was an unpleasant experience but nothing compared to that experienced by Palestinians on a daily basis. We had the privilege of being internationals and the option of leaving the country. The young man from Norway even had an embassy car arrive to take him home.

We hoped that the Palestinian that had been handcuffed at the side of the road got home safely, as the soldiers had promised.

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall that wants it down.

Week three at Jayyus

The military was prepared for a demonstration in Jayyus by the third week. The main entrance to the village was blocked by the army. No internationals were allowed to enter by the main road and it was declared a “closed military area.” This was an attempt to deny the Palestinians the support of the international community or observation by those outside the community. Approximately fifteen internationals were able to find another road into Jayyus. The army commander that was in charge during the first demonstration was again in command on the third Friday.

Israeli Army vehicle in Jayyus

Although the day was not as peaceful as the first week, those in attendance reported that this army commander’s behavior was more restrained than the commander on week two. At lease one injury was reported; a tear gas canister struck an international in the eye.

The farmers of Jayyus cannot access their land. The wall is separating them from their means of survival. Resistance to the wall will continue in Jayyus.

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall that wants it down.

Below are some links with more information on the segregation wall. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/07/israelandthepalestinians.middleeast2

http://www.poica.org/editor/case_studies/view.php?recordID=473

http://www.stopthewall.org/analysisandfeatures/835.shtml

A Demonstration at Burqa

Burqa, a village to the northwest of Nablus, began weekly demonstrations against the
"re-incursion" of Israeli settlers onto a hill to the west of their village. An illegal settlement was abandoned and demolished by the Israeli army in 2005, but in recent months two settler families returned. They set up house trailers as an outpost, a precursor to another settlement. Because of these settler families, the Israeli army is denying the owners of the land access to their fields.

View from hills over Burqa

Last week the fall MPT team joined IWPS, International Women’s Peace Service, at the first demonstration in Burqa. We joined the villagers and other internationals on a long winding road up the hill. Farmers intended to plant some olive trees on their land but the army was assembled to deny entry.

Village center before the demonstration

There were soldiers above us on several hills and a line of jeeps and army down the road. A roadblock of large boulders had been placed across the road to stop any traffic. The army was well prepared for any attempt to reach the fields.

Soldiers behind rocks blocking the road

View as we walked up the hill

Soldier prepared to fire, blocking any movement

The peoples stopped at the bottom of the final hill and announced their intentions over a loudspeaker. The soldiers were anxious and lobbed concussion grenades as we approached. There was no warning or provocation. The group backed down the hill a bit and organizers began to make more speeches over the loudspeaker. There was no possibility of advancing any farther. The soldiers directly above us made that very clear, gesturing with their rifles.

Before the tear gas

Observing the soldiers as we walked away presented a living definition of the cliché “itchy trigger finger.” At the conclusion several young boys threw a few stones from the road in the direction of the soldiers. They were so far below the level of the army on the hill that there was no danger to the military. It was a small futile gesture, an expression of frustration, but that wasn’t the issue. The tear gas was handy and it was used liberally. The tear gas blanketed the hillsides. Everyone scattered. There was no planting that week. The farmers will return again.

Second Burqa Demonstration and Background on the Situation

At the second Burqa demonstration, an MPTer and an IWPS [International Women’s Peace Service] met other internationals and the villagers in the center of the village. All then proceeded up a long steep and winding road to where the demonstration had been the week before. The stones blocking the road, laid by the Israeli soldiers, were a bit further up the road. The number of jeeps (5) and about 40 soldiers was more than double the previous week. Well armed Israeli soldiers with military jeeps behind them

block the road leading to the illegal outpost on confiscated Palestinian land.

Armed soldiers stand at the front and left of the demonstration

Israeli soldiers stand armed to the front and right of the village demonstration

As the demonstrators sat down on the road, a villager read a prepared speech and then the about 100 men, old and young, began the Muslim mid-day prayer on the road. The demonstration ended shortly after this.

Journalists here included Reuters. They get out the news,
but also serve as protection for the demonstrators.

Villagers sit in protest in front of the armed soldiers

Village protesters recite the mid-day prayer

A watchful boy prays

A couple young men threw stones, even though strongly forbidden to do so by the older men present. They were so far from the soldiers that their efforts were futile. These few stones resulted in rubber bullets, 15 to 25 tear gas canisters and sound grenades were shot or thrown. Three men where injured – two from the tear gas inhalation and one who was targeted with one or more rubber coated steel bullets and a tear gas canister. This targeted man was a gentle young man who had asked to take a picture of the IWPS woman. When he was visited in the afternoon, he had bandages on his shoulder which showed serious burn damage. He was in some pain.

Tear gas forced the demonstration back and caused injury to three

Young man injured by a tear gas canaster and rubber bullets.

Following the demonstration, a member of the village council offered to take the internationals to the homes that were invaded at night by the Israeli army, about two weeks earlier. The stories of the house incursions were similar. Sound bombs were exploded outside the home to wake up the families inside. Four soldiers from four jeeps entered the house, took the man in the house out with a gun to his head, then back into the house to sign and put figure prints on a blank piece of paper. The men were often then beaten. All of this happened in about 2 ½ hours. No one knew of any reason that these fifteen families were targeted.

The village councilor pointed out to the internationals the destruction that had been done to the village. Some of the actions seemed to have been recent and other in the last few years. Settlers had placed fire into the inside of ancient olive trees totally ruining them even if they were left standing. Village wells had some poisonous or distasteful materials put into them. Settlers burned wheat fields.

The councilor took us to an adjoining hill to view the recently re-established illegal Israeli outpost. This had been an area thick with olive trees. After the abandonment and destruction of the settlement in 2005, the farmer who owned the land was encouraged by the village council to develop it. He built some beautiful stone terraces and foundations for homes, and planted a variety of trees. Returning Israeli settlers polluted his well, damaged his building and water tank, burned his hay and pulled many of his trees up by their roots

Settlers damaged the property of the Palestinian landowner.

Damaged Palestinian water tank

Trees that had been planted by settlers before 2005
ring the land of the Palestinian farmer.

View of the outpost from former settlement.

Nablus can be seen in the distance. The village is lower left.

As the councilor drove the MPTer and IWPS woman home, he told them of his village. In 1948, this village had a population of 11,000, half Christians and half Muslims. Now it has a population of 5,000. Christians who have greater access to outside help fled. He showed us the older part of Burqa where Christians had lived and to where some return to visit their three churches.

He then told the two women about his experience in an Israeli prison. He said he had his jaw broken in three places, but was given no medical attention. He was held for 51 days, 49 of which he was handcuffed. He lost 20 kilos and could only drink liquids when he got out of prison. When he left the prison, he used a stick to pry open his mouth. One wonders who could commit these atrocities against another human being? What happens to their humanity?

Human Rights Education in Az Zawiya

One morning an MPTer and two IWPS [International Women’s Peace Service] women met with the vice principal of the girls’ high school in the village of Az Zawiya, in the district of Salfit. A few years earlier, this village with several organized demonstrations pressured the Israeli government to move the apartheid wall construction farther toward the western part of the village. This allowed them to save a part of the land that was to be confiscated for an illegal Israeli settlement.

The girls' high school in Az Zawiya

The international women were warmly welcomed by the vice-principal and the teacher of the human rights class and then were introduced to the district coordinator of the human rights project. The project is funded by the Red Cross with the purpose of educating the Palestinians about the UN International Declaration of Human Rights and rulings of the International Court of Justice. The purpose of the class is to instill in the young Palestinian women an awareness of their rights and the desire to defend them, even though they see the international law and their human rights constantly violated by the occupying country of Israel.

The teacher explains the Declaration

The students asked the internationals why rulings of the International Court of Justice and the Declaration of Human Rights were not applied in all parts of the world, particularly in Palestine. They also inquired as to what the internationals were doing in this regard. The internationals explained that they tried to inform and educate the people in their home countries, that they encouraged the boycott of Israeli products, divestment in Israel and worked for the sanctions against Israel. The internationals stated that getting their countries to respond to the many human rights violations in Palestine was a slow process and needed much more work.

The students study parts of the documentThe class was involved and asked questions

A young woman reads material related to the documents

The young women students and the women teachers warmly welcomed the internationals. They were thrilled that one of them spoke excellent Arabic and one was originally from Pakistan.

Students during the break, seen through the porch screening

Students at break.

Girls from sixth to eleventh grade attend the school.

The MPTer saw this session with the students very valuable in teaching human rights and legal rights, in getting to know the students, but also in helping the young Palestinian women understand the work of groups like MPT and IWPS. Some students and teachers knew the work of IWPS and were grateful.

To read the full declaration of human rights, please go to: www.unhchr.ch/udhr /lang/eng.htm

Final Days of Olive Harvest in Kafr Qaddum

One MPTer went with two IWPS women to an olive grove with some of the family whose relative had been beaten by the Israeli soldiers a week earlier near Kafr Qaddum. They went up part way in a wagon drawn by an old Massy Fergeson tractor. Then the women hiked the rest of the way up a trail that became rougher as they climbed and finally they passed by two very fierce-looking, but very friendly watch dogs. The internationals accompanied a widow and her daughter to their olive trees which were inside the illegal Israeli settlement on the hill.

The olive grove is right up against the settlement.

Olive trees near the settlement

The day before, the internationals and the Palestinians women had harvested in this area with no intervention by anyone, but only the help of a kind settler who loaned them a ladder for picking. The second day, they began picking the olives on the edge of the settlement and soon the friendly settler with the ladder appeared again. The area of the olive grove was used as a settler dump for used plastic chairs, old computers and such.

Settler trash in the olive grove

The women were there about twenty minutes when a boy passed by commenting, “Where are the soldiers?” In a few minutes a jeep with four Israeli soldiers came. There was about ½ hour negotiating back and forth with the leader of the four soldiers, the Palestinian woman and with the IWPS woman who called the Palestinian District Coordinating Liaison [DCL] and the Israeli District Coordinating Office [DCO]. The DCO sent another jeep and the final order was that the two Palestinian women could pick the trees near the street in the settlement until noon and the three internationals had to move back three rows of trees. All complied with the hope of getting as many olives picked as possible.

Trees with olives to be picked

The Palestinian women picked near the street until noon, broke to share lunch with the internationals and then returned to another tree near the street. During the lunch break the soldiers returned and in a bit of power wielding asked the internationals to move their bags, which they did. Amid the sounds of the ducks or geese and chickens coming from a rather make- shift chicken barn, everyone was able to pick some very fine olives. Sounds of rifle shots could be heard from the nearby Israeli Army shooting range.

Olive trees with the village in the background

Near the settlement, large greenhouses could be seen. From the hill, in the distance, there were other illegal Israeli settlements and the nearby Palestinian villages.

Greenhouses near settlement and olive groves

Nearby village

Pickers were constantly alert to any movement in the settlement.

At three o’clock, with a rain storm threatening, the five women started the hike down the hill. Half way down, walking amid heavy rain drops, the women encountered other members of the family who then quickly finished the olive picking in their area. Everyone got into the wagon behind the tractor. The young woman who had accompanied her mother in the morning was joined by her fiancé. This happy couple will be married in a soon and those present, including the internationals, have been invited. The MPTers have not yet seen a formal Moslem wedding. It should be a moment of joy in this land of much suffering.

Two days later the MPTer returned with two IWPS women again with the widow to pick olives inside the illegal Israeli settlement area. The daughter was not feeling well this day and no villagers had offered to help the widow. We began to pick near the street of the settlement.

MPTer gets handy with the stick to reach higher branches

The widow was a bit nervous, so we did not thoroughly pick each tree. We did not seem to be noticed by the settlers. Even a bus driver drove his big bus out of the driveway near us and did not notice or pay attention to us. One of the IWPS women speaks excellent Arabic so she and the Palestinian woman were able to communicate, even chat a bit during the picking. The Palestinian woman treated the IWPS woman like her daughter – asking for advice and giving her orders to do certain tasks.

About 11:00 a settler woman passed to go to the children’s playground nearby and looked a little alarmed to see us; however, a greeting of Shalom [“peace” in Hebrew] by one of the international woman and she went happily on her way. We stopped for lunch about noon. At 2:30 a neighbor woman from the village came to help pick. At 3:00 the settler security came, spoke rather brusquely with the two Palestinian women and with an IWPS woman and the result was that we were told to leave the area. We meandered down the slope picking a bit as we went. The widow decided not to continue picking the next day, although she had several trees left because of the difficulty of getting permission through the Palestinians District Coordinator and the Israeli District Coordinator. We walked a rugged tractor trail to the neighbor’s home in the late afternoon.

The two women check out their photo.

After tea at the neighbor’s, the IWPS woman took reports on Israeli soldier and settler harassment during the olive harvest to a village vice-mayor. These were to go to government authorities. One can hope that there can be changes next year or at least that history will record these. Following this, we were invited to the widow’s home for a very simple supper. The widow is very poor with only three very sparsely furnished rooms in an old rambling house that is only partially used.

The following day three internationals - 1 IWPS and both MPT members returned to the olive groves near the green houses, where one MPTer had been a couple weeks ago. This farmer had not had recent attacks or serious problems with Israeli settlers or soldiers, but both come near his land making their presence known.

The illegal Israeli settlement is above the greenhouses near the farmer's olive grove.

The green houses are just above the farmer's olive trees,
on land confiscated from his uncle.

This day we picked with no incidents, except the presence of an Israeli military jeep and soldiers near the greenhouses and within sight much of the day. This farmer has fine olive trees indicating that he had pruned them and cared well for them. Even though he farmed near the settlement he had worked hard to have fine trees. With our little Arabic and his sparse English, conversation was limited! It was a delightful day outdoors with nature.

The afternoon sun hitting the olive trees

A day later an MPTer and the IWPS woman returned to pick olives with the same farmer whose land was near the green houses. It was again an enjoyable day. The farmer agreed to have his picture taken, but then worried that his friends might see him not in his finest clothes. When shown the photo he was satisfied that the dirt on his harvesting clothes did not show. He has several trees left so he will receive help again.

This farmer appreciates the accompaniment and help of internationals and they enjoy working with him.