Some of you may have heard about the israeli invasion of Jenin that began a few weeks ago and is still going on. Basically, here's what happened. Following the bombings near Tel Aviv and at the entrance to the israeli settlement of Ariel, traffic throughout most of the West Bank came to a halt. The IOF set up checkpoints and roadblocks on most major routes into and out of cities, including Jenin. The military, as per usual, claimed that this was a security measure. This closure affected the lives of innocent people who were now unable to easily get to hospitals, to work, to shops. My friend Ruth's report at the bottom of this email details some incidents at checkpoints.
At one point, a group of internationals with and our local ISM coordinator (a Palestinian man) were traveling to a meeting in the village of Anin when they saw a Palestinian man waiting in the hot sun at a roadblock where a tank was parked. This was on the road to Aba, which I mention later in this message also. Some of the internationals decided to stop and stay with the man, to talk to the soldiers and try to get them to let him pass. He had been running errands and was attempting to return to his village, Aba, but the soldiers were refusing his entry, even though his identification card indicated that he lived in Aba.
While the internationals were there negotiating with the soldiers, more Palestinians came along the road and ended up waiting with the first man. At one count, seven Palestinians were being detained during the hottest part of the day in an area without any shade and without any food or water. One woman had been shopping for school supplies for her children and needed to return home to feed them. Her youngest child was 3.
A soldier told all of us that the people had to wait four or five hours until 8 or 9 p.m. before they could return to their village. When ISM argued that this was inhumane and a violation of their human rights, the soldier walked away without any comment. We called the israeli human rights group Hamoket numerous times, but they were unable to help.
Later, the soldiers retracted their earlier statement and said that the people could not pass at all that day but that they could try again the next day to see if orders had changed. There was regard for where the Palestinians would sleep, what they would eat or drink, how they would bathe or change clothes or how they could attend to any other personal matters. Neither did the soldiers care that the Palestinians have every right to move about freely in their own land, that the people were merely trying to go home and live their lives.
Eventually, after more than seven hours at the checkpoint with the Palestinians, the group of internationals returned to Jenin, where night and uncertainty about whether there would be a curfew had fallen. The Palestinians walked in away from the checkpoint and were unsure where they would go.
This incident reminded me of another, earlier checkpoint situation that actually ended better. A group of us debated for nearly two hours trying to convince two young soldiers to let two Palestinian woman and four men cross to their villages, which were specified on the people's ID cards. Though the soldiers admitted that the people were not a threat to anyone, that they were not carrying out bombing missions and that it was wrong to prevent them from returning to their homes, the soldiers would not allow the people to pass because it was against "orders." Apparently, military orders are more important than right and wrong.
CURFEW, FOR REAL
Road closures preceded the intense curfew (I prefer to call it house arrest) that began in Jenin on Friday, Aug. 22. The bus bombing in Jerusalem had happened earlier that week, but other than that, there was no incident that sparked the curfew. The israeli military just rolled into town and decided not to let anyone leave their homes.
House arrest/curfew is a phenomenon that is hard to imagine unless you've lived through it. My roommates and I awoke on that Friday morning to unusual quiet. The streets were empty of cars. Noisy tanks (they sound like a motorcycle and emit noxious black smoke) roamed the city. Frustrated boys and young men grouped in clusters on some roads preparing to throw rocks at the tanks. Some burned tires in the street.
Groups of internationals walked around the city during these days observing the army, delivering bread to families who couldn't leave their homes to buy food and checking in with hospitals to make sure ambulances were able to get around easily to pick up and drop off patients. At first, the house arrest/curfew went relatively quietly. The israelis didn't shoot or arrest anyone. None of the ambulances were harassed by soldiers. ISM made it a priority to keep in contact with Jenin residents, especially those in the refugee camp and the Old City, two locations israelis tend to target because of the Palestinians resistance present there.
On Sunday, the curfew ended. The military withdrew to the outskirts of the city. People were relieved to have a brief respite and moment of slight freedom, but they were obviously wary about what the israelis were planning. Israel kept warning that it intended to dismantle Palestinian fighter groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and the people knew that this meant they were all in danger. On Monday, Aug. 25, israeli announced that it was doing an operation in Jenin, and all of the shops closed early. People didn't want to be out. They wanted to be at home with their families when shit hit the fan. That night, tho, there still weren't any invasions or arrests.
The next day, the shooting started. I was checking in on people and saying goodbye because I was about to return to the u.s. I had stopped into a friend's house in the Old City for coffee when a tank opened fire on the street a few blocks from the house. I tried to act casual as the sound of bullets filled the air. My friend's two young children playing next to us hardly seemed bothered, and this saddened me beyond belief. In a sense. they are no different from poor black children who grow up hearing kop gunshots and drive-by shootings in their ghetto neighborhoods.
When the shooting paused, I continued my rounds. A teenage acquaintance showed me a bullet casing he'd found in the road. He recounted for me how he's asked a soldier why he wants to kill Palestinian children. The israelis shot three young men that day, but none of them were fatally wounded. One was shot in the hand and one in the stomach, and a bullet grazed the third's head.
The next morning, Wednesday, I took a pre-dawn taxi over fields and torn-up roads to Al Quds (Jerusalem) so that I could get to the airport without difficulties the next day. At 10:30 a.m., I got a call from Ruth saying that the random, unprevoked shooting had started again. According to the latest report I've heard from Jenin, soldiers are attempting to appropriate homes as temporary military bases but are being pushed out by enraged residents. The Jerusalem Post reports today that israeli troops killed a Palestinian fighter who pulled a handgun at a checkpoint south of Jenin. The fun never ends.
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