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WaSPR Delegation Diary 10: Two Traumatized Peoples: Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial

Bill Dienst East Jerusalem 17 April 2006


Friday, March 11, 2005, Jerusalem — Peter and I head out and descend the stairs into Damascus Gate. We climb our way through the Labyrinthine Old City and wind up at Jaffa Gate at the Green Line, the border between Jordanian and Israeli controlled Jerusalem prior to 1967. We hail a taxi and head for Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in West Jerusalem. We pass the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and then Hebrew University. To understand the sentiments of “Never Again!” and gain insights on the modern Jewish state’s obsession with security, it is essential to visit this place. 

As always, the dilemma...

Adam Keller 17 April 2006


One o’clock. In the noon news magazine on the radio, the commentator speaks in a rather bored way of the ongoing army raid into Nablus, words nearly identical to the reports of yesterday and of last week: “The Palestinians claim that the boy shot in central Nablus was unarmed… The soldiers assert that they had shot only at armed militants, as per orders…” Suddenly: “We interrupt this report. A large explosion just occurred at the Old Central Bus Station in Tel-Aviv. Dozens of casualties. Stand by for further details.” 

Hamas Being Forced To Collapse

Sam Bahour 17 April 2006


The greater fear is that if the U.S. and Israel are successful in collapsing the Hamas government and Hamas in turn decides to abandoned democratic means to express itself, we will be back where we started from, suicide bombings killing innocents and setting the agenda from outside any known political framework. Does this serve U.S. and Israeli interests? We are all wondering! Sam Bahour, a Palestinian-American businessman living in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian city of El-Bireh, the sister city of Ramallah, comments. 

Romantic moments under artillery

Sami Abu Salem Gaza, Palestine 18 April 2006


The charming fragrance of lemon filled the area when my wife and I were on the roof enjoying the warm breeze last night in Jabalia Refugee Camp, north of Gaza. My wife, Suha, was happy with the scene of the moon in the middle of the partially cloudy sky and the aura of sanctity. Suha’s eyes were glittering and her beautiful smile was shining in the middle of darkness. We were chatting and exchanging jokes. The innocent laughs of my wife added a special taste to the romantic moment. Suddenly, the explosions literally rocked the ground of my apartment building. The Israeli artillery shot tens of rockets on “unoccupied areas!” 

Whats mine is mind

Chris Brown Hebron 18 April 2006


“But I don’t know what my parent’s village looks like,” said Hammad, a young, energetic Palestinian boy who lives in Al Fawwar Refugee camp located near Hebron. I came to the camp at the invitation of a friend from The British Council to do a workshop on playwriting. Hammad along with 17 other young boys gathered at the cultural center to participate. I told the children about my own exposure to theatre and the power of it. Especially, protest theatre. Growing up in Apartheid South Africa, I could never go to the White areas to see productions. However, a man who performed all over the Cape Province, in various townships and squatter camps happened to be in our township. 

EI speaks about developments in Palestine on Flashpoints

12 April 2006


Israel continues to pound Palestinians trapped inside the occupied Gaza strip with 300 tank shells a day. Flashpoints speaks with Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada about the current situation in the Gaza Strip and the unraveling disaster in Palestine. Since the beginning of this year, 15 Palestinian children have been killed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including eight from the Gaza Strip. Four of the eight were passers by - killed in Israeli extra-judicial assassination attempts against Palestinian activists; two Gaza children were killed by gunfire; one by unexploded ordinance while Hadeel, who was killed on Monday by Israeli artillery fire, is the eighth Gaza child to die so far this year. 

Médecins Sans Frontières refuses to be a "social palliative" of EU and US policies

12 April 2006


Médecins Sans Frontières considers the reallocation of funds for the PA to the UN and other international relief agencies so that they can offset the human and social consequences of sanctions unacceptable. “Although it is up to governments to decide whether to suspend aid, humanitarian actors cannot be ‘social palliative’ of retaliatory measures that impact on the entire population,” the medical relief agency said. “Humanitarian aid actors do not have the competence, the means or the responsibility to act as a substitute for the Palestinian Authority, to ensure provision of social services, to run ministries or public systems or to pay civil servants. It is not the role of humanitarian aid agencies to ensure that the basic needs of the civilian populations living in the occupied Territories are covered.” 

Another innocent child dies in Israeli bombardment of northern Gaza

11 April 2006


At 5.30pm on Monday 10 April 2006, at least six artillery shells fired by the Israeli military fell on the family house of Mohammed Rabe’eya Ghaban in Beit Lahiya, in the north of the Gaza Strip. Shrapnel from the shells pierced the skull of Mohammed’s eight-year old daughter Hadeel, killing her instantly. The shelling also resulted in the injury of eight other family members, including Hadeel’s brothers and sisters: Rawan Ghaban (18 months); Rana Ghaban (3); Munir Ghaban (4); Amneh Ghaban (9); Ghassan Ghaban (11); Bassam Ghaban (15) and Tahrir Ghaban (17). 

Food crisis again threatening Gaza, with crossing to Israel closed

11 April 2006


With the Karni commercial crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip still closed, a senior official of the main United Nations agency helping Palestinian refugees warned that the clock is ticking toward a dangerous lack of basic food. “If Karni remains closed, we are, once again, counting down to a food crisis,” said John Ging, Director of Gaza Operations for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), on which 765,000 refugees depend for flour, oil, sugar and other basic items. “The clock is now ticking and distribution will have to be shut down entirely for the second time in less than a month if the crossing does not open immediately,” he added. 

Made in Palestine NY Exhibit extended following 3,364 visitors in 3 weeks

10 April 2006


April 11th, 2006 — Organizers of the Made in Palestine exhibit announced today that the New York show will be extended until May 27th, after seeing 3,364 visitors pass through the Chelsea exhibit, in the heart of New York’s art world, during the first three weeks. Made in Palestine is the first museum quality exhibition devoted to the contemporary art of Palestine to be held in the United States. It is a survey of work spanning three generations of Palestinian artists who live in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, the Galilee, Syria, Jordan, and the United States.