[antiwar-van] FW: [ISM-Vancouver] New reports from Occupied Palestine

[hanna kawas]

-----Original Message-----
From: ism-van-announce-admin at ender.indymedia.org
[mailto:ism-van-announce-admin at ender.indymedia.org]
Sent: Saturday, November 08, 2003 6:15 PM
To: announce at ism-vancouver.org
Subject: [ISM-Vancouver] New reports from Occupied Palestine


Melissa of ISM Vancouver has posted five new reports about Rafah in the
Gaza Strip and Jayyous in the West Bank. We're including the text of two
of them below.

To see all her reports -- with accompanying photos -- please go to
<http://ism-vancouver.org/reports.html>

---------------------------------

Live From Occupied Gaza...

Melissa

Rafah, November 8, 2003

The Gaza Strip- a piece of land measuring only 45 kilometres in length
and 4 kilometres in width and located along the Mediterranean Sea coast
between Israel and Egypt.  This tiny piece of land has become the arena
for some of the greatest crimes committed against humanity this century,
and yet little is known in the west about its situation.

Precious few are allowed entry to the Gaza Strip as it is completely
controlled by the Israeli Military who are trying their best to hide the
crimes committed here from the rest of the world.  Little information
about the true situation in Gaza is available to those who seek it and
even less to those who are not.  I am one of the fortunate few who was
able to gain entry into Gaza more through pure chance than anything else.


I make my home in Rafah, a city of 150,735 inhabitants made up of several
neighbourhoods and refugee camps located at the far south of the strip,
directly along the Egyptian border.  My job is here to document what is
happening in an attempt to open up the prison that is Gaza to the outside
world, to work in solidarity of the people living here to ensure them
that the world is not ignorant nor has forgotten their plight.

To enter Gaza one must have permission of the Israeli Army to enter
through Eretz checkpoint, between Israel and Palestine controlled by the
Palestinian Authority.  Upon passing through Eretz one feels as if
entering a prison.  Walls and barbed wire surround the place, sniper
towers frequently and periodically dot the horizon- controlling the
movement of people on their own land.

Farther south, Abu Holly Checkpoint closes off Khan Younis and Rafah from
the north of the strip.  The checkpoint opens and closes randomly,
trapping students and workers on the wrong side after a day at work or
school and not allowing them to return home.  The penalty for attempting
to pass when the checkpoint is closed- live gunfire.

Once in Rafah one cannot help but feel the isolation and desperation.
Once a booming seaside resort, the citizens of Rafah are no long allowed
access to the sea, though it is only three kilometres from the city.  A
roadblock and watchtowers stand in the way, guarding the illegal colony
that has sprouted up between Rafah and the beach.  Under complete
apartheid, the Israeli inhabitants of the colony are allowed access to
the beach whenever they choose.  They also control most of the water
resources in the arid desert region.

For two weeks before I arrived  Rafah was under invasion by the Israeli
Army.  During these two weeks tanks and armoured bulldozers went to work
destroying large parts of the city.  Eighteen people lost their life and
hundreds of houses were destroyed by both bulldozers and explosives.  The
nearby hospital was overflowing with injured people.  For the past week I
have been visiting areas affected by the invasion.  These are truly the
most tragic sites I have ever seen.

As I visit Block J and Yibneh Refugee Camp twisted metal and concrete lie
in heaps where once two or three story houses stood, the strength of
their building materials subdued by man and machine.

Gaping holes are left in some houses, allowing a full view inside, while
on others half of the house has simply been blown away.  Everywhere the
scattered remains of normal life remain.  Shoes, cooking utensils, pieces
of household items strewed through the wreckage as a reminder that not so
long ago families made these heaps of rubble their homes.

Children¹s toys peek out from under slabs of concrete along with tattered
clothing left behind as the family fled in terror in the middle of the
night.  Walls riddled with bullet holes surround gaping holes where
houses once stood.  Families are usually given no warning as to when
their houses are to be destroyed.  Instead gunfire and tank shells inform
them that it is time to leave.  Time to leave behind what few items they
posses.

Because of the destruction hundreds of families have been made homeless.
One house alone may house more than forty people.  In many areas the
people were already refugees, forced from their homes earlier this
century.  Now, decades later they are made homeless once again, this time
with nowhere to go.  They cannot leave Gaza and overcrowding is a great
problem.

Families have no money in order to secure a new house and must rely on
the charity of family members and neighbours who were more fortunate this
time round in order to survive.  In Brazil Camp several United Nations
tents have been erected.  Here families huddle under bright yellow tents
for shelter from the scorching heat.  What few belonging they could
salvage are piled inside the tent.  Young and old, sick and healthy, men
and women all face the humiliation of living in a tent, located in the
rubble of their former homes.  The future is uncertain for these people.

The Israeli army has been demolishing innocent civilians homes in order
to create a buffer zone on the boarder line with Egypt.  These families
have committed no crime other than living near the boarder.  I have seen
pictures where the boarder area was once green with grass and houses, now
it is only an empty sea of sand, chewed up by the treads of the regularly
patrolling tanks.  A wall is being erected along the border in order to
further cut off the people of Rafah from the outside world.

Today I attempted to visit, for the second time, a house located in Hai
Salaam neighbourhood where American peace activist, Rachel Corrie was
murdered by an Israeli bulldozer operator who crushed her to death while
she attempted to stop the house from demolition.  On my previous attempt
it had been too dangerous to access because a tank was parked in the
neighbourhood.  Today I, and a small group, returned.

While we were taking pictures of the site one of the regularly patrolling
tanks stopped at the house and began to fire live ammunition just above
our heads, forcing us to run for cover.  We have the option of visiting
the house and leaving when the situation gets dangerous, those living in
the house do not have that opportunity.  The family living in this house
has fled because of the situation.  Their house is now isolated in a
churned up sea of sand that is waiting to swallow it up.

Another house I have stayed in is located in a block where all the other
houses have been demolished up until it.  The family lives in ever
present fear that the bulldozers will return because their house in next.
 The remains of their neighbours houses swirl around the house like a
tidal wave that will one day consume the house whole.  In the basement
the rubble and metal spill through an enormous hole in the wall, a
precursor to what is to come.  Upstairs the inside walls are filled with
bullet holes and the family, with three young children, huddles in one
room safely located in the centre of the house.

At night tracer bullets chase each other through the air, leaving red
streaks to mark their presence.  Large bursts of gunfire and explosions
pierce the silence of the night coming from the many sniper towers
located along the border line.  These actions are meant to frighten and
intimidate only, they serve no other purpose.

Should the world continue to turn a blind eye to the death and
destruction occurring in Rafah and throughout the Gaza Strip, the entire
area will become a desolate sea of sand.  We must bear witness to these
crimes and call for their end.  The fear and terror must stop, without
this there can be no hope for peace.

------------------------

Introduction to Jayyous

Melissa

Jayyous is a small farming village with a population of approximately
2000 people located in Qalqilia District in the north-west of the West
Bank.  Because of its location perched atop a hill it is possible to see
all the way to Tel-Aviv and the Mediterranean from the village.  Jayyous,
not unlike many other Palestinian villages, suffers from a number of
serious problems brought about by the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

There are two main factors affecting Jayyous- the apartheid wall and
illegal Israeli settlements.  These factors control almost all aspects of
daily life in Jayyous including employment, education, health care, and
access to water.  Not only does the occupation cause short-term problems,
it is also fostering long-term issues that over time will prove difficult
to rectify.

In order to put life in Jayyous in perspective one must understand the
root causes of the difficulties faced in the village.  The apartheid wall
under construction by the Israeli Government snakes through the village,
cutting the village off from its surrounding farmland.

Several hundred dunums of land have now been completely confiscated by
Israel and are  located on the western side of the wall.  Hundreds of
olive trees have been uprooted in order to make way for the wall.  Most
of the trees are hundreds of years old and have belonged to farmers in
Jayyous for generations.  Many of the farmers consider the trees part of
the family as they are harvested and cared for every year allowing their
families to survive.

In the area of Jayyous the wall is made up of an electrified fence
surrounded by barbed wire with a security zone of trenches on either side
of the fence.  Israel maintains that the wall is being built for security
reasons, in order to keep suicide bombers out of Israel.  However as the
most recent bombing proves, the wall is ineffective at achieving its
supposed purpose.  The wall in Jayyous is located several kilometres to
the east of the Green Line, inside internationally recognized Palestinian
territory and yet the Palestinians have had no say in the construction of
the wall, and clearly they do not want or need it.

What little farmland is left on the eastern side of the wall is also not
freely accessible to the farmers of Jayyous.  The Israeli Military has
placed two gates at the edge of the village, cutting off the village from
the farmland.  The word ³gate² usually implies an opening in a wall or
fence through which people can pass, this is not the case in Jayyous
however.  The military controls all access to the farmlands, opening and
closing the gates at will.  Recently the gates were closed due to the
Israeli Holiday of Yom Kippur.

The gates are meant to be opened for at least some period of time every
morning and evening allowing farmers to go to their fields and return
home.  This is not always the case, and not all people are free to pass
through the gates.  The soldiers limit access based on different aspects
on different days- only open to people of certain age groups for example.

Recently a new order has surfaced stating that all territory to the west
of the apartheid wall can only be accessed by citizens and residents of
Israel.  Farmers of Jayyous must apply for special permits in order to
access their lands.  This month the olive harvest has begun requiring as
many family members as possible to go to the fields and harvest.  Since
olives and olive oil are the main or only income of many families the
olive harvest is detrimental to their survival.

The second factor affecting life in Jayyous are the illegal Israeli
settlements surrounding the village.  Not only have the settlements
encroached on the land of Jayyous, they have taken over many of the
resources of the village.  Eight water wells belonging to Jayyous are now
located on the western side of the wall.  These wells now service the
settlements while villagers in Jayyous must rely on one well located in
the nearby town of Azoun.  The water supply is incredibly limited, so
much so that villagers only have access to water twice a week.

Even on these two days it is the Israeli army that controls the water
supply, turning it on and off at their convenience.  Water is usually
available for only a few hours, during which time villagers must fill
their water tanks in order to have water for the rest of the week.  Not
only can crops not be irrigated, there is a lack of water for cooking,
bathing and even drinking.  Meanwhile, settlers swim in their swimming
pools and water their flower gardens from the water supply that once
belonged to Jayyous.

Because of the construction of the wall and the surrounding settlements,
life in Jayyous has become very difficult.  Unemployment is rampant as
several farmers have lost their land and others have only sporadic access
to theirs.  Because of the unemployment, poverty is a way of life.
Without income farmers cannot purchase goods, in turn causing shopkeepers
to suffer, thereby perpetuating the problem.  Several families cannot
afford the low school fee in order to allow their children an education.
Without education these children have little hope of attaining good jobs,
not that there are many jobs available.

There is a lack of hope for the future in the village.  The population
has declined dramatically as villagers leave in the hopes of finding jobs
elsewhere.  The loss of jobs is making it more and more difficult for the
village to remain economically viable.  It seems that the village is
suffocating under the occupation.

Should young men no longer be able to gain a living they will wait until
an older age in order to marry.  While this may not seem to be a problem,
one must take into account the women of the same generation.  If the men
do not marry until they are older the women will be considered too old to
marry.  They must then attempt to support themselves, a difficult task in
a culture where the family is the most important part of life.  While
there is no such problem in the village at the present, villagers worry
that social problems could develop given the stress and lack of
activities and opportunities in the village.

Due to settlements and the apartheid wall, life in Jayyous has become
nearly impossible.  Lack of water, access to farmland, and employment
causing increased poverty have all contributed to the hardships faced in
day to day life.  If life does not improve soon in Jayyous, the village
will slowly choke.

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