Flo Razowsky

The mountains of Palestine form a sharp edge that plunges into the Jordan Valley as if cut by a knife. Almost to the rim of this drastic landscape lies the village of Al Aqaba, located in the farthest Palestinian lands of the Jenin region. It is almost a no-man’s land, nestled in the soft rolling foothills of the towering mountains, stirred by the strong breeze cooling the hot spring day. We went to Al Aqaba to speak with Haj Sammy, the mayor. The military uses the land around Al Aqaba for their training practices, having killed 8 and wounded 50 since 1971. Haj Sammy’s wound is one such example. He has been paralyzed since.

On the 3rd of March 2005, I left my home in the United States for Israel. I was expecting trouble upon arriving at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, as I had been forcibly expelled by the Israeli Authorities one year before due to this same work against the occupation. My expulsion at that time was based on false charges brought against me by the Israeli Ministry of Interior stating that I had resided illegally in Israel. When I arrived to Ben Gurion on the 4th of March, I was pulled aside at passport control, as I had expected.

Around 11pm Wednesday, January 14, the Israeli army re-invaded the Tulkarem refugee camp, after a 30-hour invasion that ended Tuesday. A curfew was imposed throughout the entire camp at 4am on Thursday morning. Soldiers entered two homes, between the hours of 5 and 9am and ordered the families and nearby neighbors to leave immediately. One of the homes belonged to the family of a man who was killed by Israeli troops over one year ago in the Nur Shams refugee camp of Tulkarem. The second home belonged to a man who was arrested by the army during the invasion two days ago. Flo Razowsky reports from on the ground.

Starting shortly before 11am on Monday, January 12, all residents in a section of the Tulkarem refugee camp were rounded up at a centrally located day care center. The men were separated from the woman and children and taken away in military trucks. At the end of the first day, over 230 men had been handcuffed, blindfolded and taken out of the camp to an unknown location. The woman and children, after being separated from the men, were taken to the UNWRA building in the center of the camp. From the beginning, several women complained that their children were not present. Flo Razowsky reports from on the ground.

I’ve come to this world as an outsider, as one actually born to the occupiers — to struggle, to learn and to carry the truth home. It has been over six months now since I set foot on this much disputed land for the second time in my life. This land that I, my allies, and those I have come to support, call Palestine. Flo Razowsky considers two gulfs — one between the two sides, another between life on the ground and the muddy picture of that life that reaches television sets in the US.