Today is November 15th. Today is our supposed “Independence Day”. A joke. Was almost killed today. This will be brief and inarticulate. I am still in shock…I peeked again, to see some Israelis beating the shit out of a Palestinian man and throwing him into their van. The mustarabeen next to us got back into their van. As we were in their way they smashed into our car and sped off. Meanwhile in front of us and to the right, the Israelis started to pull back. Kids started throwing stones. They shot at us again. They started pulling back again. Read more about A Tale of Two Sisters: Witnessing an Undercover Israeli Operation in Ramallah (2)
Annemarie JacirRamallah, Palestine15 November 2006
Four hours ago my sister Emily, her curator Carolyn and I were shot at by the Israeli army. My nerves are still shaky. We’ve been drinking ever since. My legs are weak. I feel I can’t stand on them…I was alone in the front seat. Emily and Carolyn were in the back. Suddenly, there was a van directly in front of our car. He veered a bit towards our car. I slowed down, wondering how I was going to pass him. And then he emerged from his window… pointing an M-16 across the street and spraying bullets. The three of us hit the floor of the car. All around us… shooting, shooting, shooting. So close. So close. Read more about A Tale of Two Sisters: Witnessing an Undercover Israeli Operation in Ramallah (1)
On Monday, 13 November 2006, two women from Juha clan were killed and a child from the same clan was injured by gunmen in the town of Beit Lahia in the north of the Gaza Strip, in yet another incident of security chaos. PCHR’s preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 16:30 on Monday, three gunmen got out of a car and stormed the house of Zeinat Faris Juha (45) located near the compound of the Preventive Security Apparatus in the Mansheyya area in Beit Lahia. At gunpoint, the gunmen requested that the woman accompany them. The household confronted the gunmen, who fired at the people in the house, and fled. Read more about In Beit Lahia, 2 women killed in an armed clan dispute
National unity was a theme of the commemoration of Yaser Arafat’s death on November 11, 2006. Many people came from various parts of the occupied Palestinian territories for the commemoration, those who were able to get past the checkpoints. Predictably, there were bottlenecks at Huwwara (Nablus) and Qalandiya (Jerusalem). Nevertheless, busloads of school children were ferried in and several scout groups had prepared to march. The main ceremony took place in Al Muqata’a, close to where Arafat is buried. The photographs in this photostory illustrate the commemoration and youth at the site in the days following. Read more about Photostory: Palestinian Youth at Yasser Arafat's Memorial
Omar is about 10 years old, and the eldest son of Khaled, the regional coordinator for the Salfit Mobile Health Clinic, which is local outreach primary care health project sponsored by Palestine Medical Relief Society. PMRS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) funded by the European Union (EU) to deliver services to rural and other under-served populations in Palestine. In this photostory, Omar presents the story of the olive harvest in his village, Qraawa Beny-Zed, between Ramallah and Salfit in Palestine, and the involvement of his family and the community in the village’s harvest and processing of olives. Read more about Photostory: How to Harvest Olives In Palestine
“Your heads will be on the stones if you don’t leave this place”, threatened an Israeli settler from illegal outpost Havot Ma’on (Hill 833), to members of Christian Peacemaker Teams in the Palestinian village of At-Tuwani. Captured on video, but ignored by district Israeli police, the threat is part and parcel of daily life for Palestinians - and the reason for the continuous presence of international human rights workers here since 2004. A few days later, during a “routine check”, I witness my neighbor being physically abused by Israeli soldiers. Such abuse often ceases when soldiers become aware that internationals are present, filming their actions. Read more about "Your heads will be on the stones" - Settler and military violence in South Hebron
MONTREAL: As Israeli continues its brutal assault on the Gaza Strip, Montrealers took the streets to voice solidarity with the Palestinian people. Hundreds of demonstrators marched through the heart of Montreal reflecting growing international outrage toward the latest attack on Gaza. “Intifada! Intifada! Long Live the Intifada!” shouted demonstrators marching under rainy skies, in contrast to the silence of Canadian politicians in response to Israeli war crimes committed in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. Read more about Montreal in Solidarity with Beit Hanoun
The emergent doctrine of the “responsibility to protect” locates primary responsibility squarely with the government of the state in question. But it also stresses the collective responsibility of other states for protecting civilians of any state facing genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing or crimes against humanity. This response should be the exercise of first peaceful and then, if necessary, coercive (including forceful) steps to protect civilians. Considering the inability of the Israel to protect Palestinian civilians, the international community shares a collective responsibility to protect civilians by getting Israel - through persuasion or otherwise - to abide by the Geneva Conventions. Read more about R2P could prove solution for protection failure in Gaza
I am now working with a different medical crew, this time in the Salfit district. This Mobile Health Unit is also sponsored by Medical Relief Society. We started at our base in the town of Salfit and had to drive around the huge settlement of Ariel, the second largest settlement, (after Ma’ale Addumin) in the West Bank. We passed through the major Israeli military checkpoint of Zatara, which controls and stifles the flow of traffic between Ramallah and Nablus. I am getting used to all this oppression which now has a strange sort of normalcy. Going out through this checkpoint was uneventful; coming back in to Salfit will be another story. Read more about Immersion Crash Course In Medical Arabic
Today the Mobile Clinic is working in Al Mas-ha, which is west of the Ariel settlement, and just north of the main Israeli highway from Ariel, before it dives down the hill toward Tel Aviv. West Bank Palestinians are only allowed to this point west, but no further. Again we set up in the village municipality, which happens to be located right next to the kindergarten. Today, we will a different strategy to utilize my skills and stay out of the way of Dr. Hasam, who must move along at lightening speed, in order to survive the day. I am sent with a nurse to the local kindergarten to screen about 50 children for dental disease, anemia, malnutrition, cardiac murmurs, and neuro-developmental delay. Read more about Fenced in From All Around: The Story of Hani Amr and His Family
