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Brooke Atherton Reports 31/8/2002

Daily Life Under Israeli Military Occupation

I would like to share with you a day by day account of the experience of miltary occupation that I have seen over three days in the last week here in Nablus. Compared to April and even earlier in August, the current state of the illegal Israeli military occupation can be much much harsher than it has been in the last week. For example, during two weeks in April 150 people, mostly civillians, were killed by the Israeli army.

*Some names have been changed.

Friday, August 23

A local Palestinian organizer, Saif, and an international are arrested while walking on the road after attempting to visit a family whose home is being occupied by Israeli soldiers. The international is taken to a police station in Israel and we are able to begin a legal process for her release. Saif, who spends his days as a volunteer summer camp organizer in Askar refugee camp and as a local International Solidarity Movement organizer, is taken into the home that the soldiers are occupying and we have no way of seeking his release. (Israeli soldiers often use the Palestinian homes they occupy as jails for Palestinians that they detain.) In the occupied house, the Israeli soldiers blindfold and handcuff Saif. The soldiers demand that he sit hunched over and not look up even though he is blindfolded. The soldiers hit and kicked him, saying, "Welcome!" The Israeli soldiers also asked him questions that he did not feel comfortable repeating to me. During this time, Saif is wondering if he will eventually be taken to a military detention center in Huwara and then to Israeli prison, a common experience for Palestinian men regardless of their involvements. After four hours, Saif is released. It is both curfew and after dark. Saif asks what will happen if he encounters Israeli soldiers on the walk back to Askar refugee camp that will take over an hour. The soldiers tell him that he will be brought back to the occupied house for even longer. Thankfully, Saif makes it back to Askar safely.

Saturday, August 24

Palestinians, Israelis, and Internationals plan to meet in Huwara to demonstrate at one of the worst checkpoints in the region. In Nablus, the Israeli military seems to be gearing up for some kind of military operation and they seem far too willing to allow the internationals to leave the city for Huwara through adhoc checkpoints. The soldiers tell one international that we will not be allowed to return to Nablus. For fear of what may happen in Nablus while most of the internationals are at the demonstration, a small group of internationals returns to Nablus on back roads anxious that we may be arrested for being in a "closed military zone" if we encounter Israeli soldiers. Meanwhile, the demonstrators gather in Huwara with plans to march to the checkpoint. They are met immediately with tear gas and sound grenades and are barely able to process towards the checkpoint. In Nablus, two Palestinian men are killed by Israeli tank gunfire.

Sunday, August 25

At about 11:00pm, I am sitting with the family I stay with on the front stoop of their home which is threatened for demolition by the Israeli army. We are talking and laughing with their neighbors, playing with Eya, the one-year-old grandbaby in the family who everyone calls "Eya Jegmuna" - Eya the beautiful. She has big eyes and a sweet smile and loves to walk everywhere in her small teetering way. As we enjoy the evening and eachother, one of the neighbor's sons points skywards and we all look up to see six bright flares in the night sky above us. The flares are dropped by Israeli military aircraft to light the area like day as they decend to earth. We go up to the roof to assess the situation and see F-16s flying above us. Every time a flare goes out or lands, another flare is dropped into the sky. Two of the flares cause fires in two villages where they hit the ground still lit. We see an Israeli military jeep with a spotlight driving up and down the road to the setllement, Elon More, nearby. We hear tanks and can occasionally see them moving on the roads around us. We watch the flares and F-16s for at least an hour wondering what the Israeli military has in store for us tonight, wondering if their home will be standing in the morning. Roa, the 12 year old daughter in the family, gathers a small handful of stones from the roof and hands me one, indicating that they are for the F-16s. After the planes stop dropping flares, we go inside to wait, hoping the soldiers will not come tonight. The mother prays nearby while the young women in the family and I try to distract oursleves with Eya, jumping a little at every noise we hear from outside. At 2am we are still awake, waiting. The oldest sister brings bread, soup, olive oil for a late night meal and we all eat. By 2:30am the flares have still not been followed by the feared visit of Israeli soldiers to the home and the rest of the family has laid down to sleep. Roa and I are wide awake. We write in our journals and Roa teaches me some words in Arabic. By 3am, we finally sucumb to sleep, hopeful that the quiet since the flares stopped will continue through the morning.

Brooke Atherton

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