Toine van TeeffelenBethlehem, Palestine12 April 2002
Friday morning, I go out to sniff the air in the garden. Suddenly a group of Israeli soldiers appear and ask whether I am from the University. “No, I am from Holland,” I say illogically, thinking that the word “Holland” helps to keep them out of the house, our main worry. Read more about 'How to find a way of talking to Israelis after all that has happened?'
Toine van TeeffelenBethlehem, Palestine12 April 2002
It is early in the morning, the third day of the occupation. Should I say: “Good morning” to the family? I take a walk of fifteen meters to peep through a gate. The tank at the university hill is still there. On the roof of a nearby doctor’s home Israeli sharpshooters have taken up position. Read more about 'We have many tanks here. Do you have them, too?'
Well, I used to be disgusted, but now I try to be amused. It’s hard to say which has done more damage to my stomach lining this week: the reports and images of yet another Sharon-instigated massacre - adding to what a BBC interviewer today referred to as ‘General Sharon’s rather impressive tally of blood-letting’ - or my repeated run-ins with the thought police, who come in all shapes and sizes and no know borders. Read more about An Intifada against intellectual terrorism
Day sixteen of the siege. The phone and this internet connection are my keys to the outside world. They are my grasp on sanity at this point. My body aches from lack of movement and my soul aches from so many images of carnage and destruction. Read more about 'If I believed in hell, this would be it'
It has always been assumed here that any political decision can be enforced militarily, since the gap between Israel and its enemies seemed infinite. But gone now is the superior “human material” Israel was said to rely on. Read more about Jenin: The military fiasco
I no longer believe there should be a Jewish State, and the millions of Palestinians who have long recognized Israel’s existence and hoped that some recompense for their 54 years of suffering might come from repeatedly kissing the asses of their white colonial masters here and in the US are rightly questioning why they’re still doing it. Read more about A requiem for the damned
It has now been confirmed that Israeli troops have committed a massacre in Jenin. The Israeli army admits several hundred people have been killed, but Palestinians fear the numbers are much higher. Read more about Urgent appeal to the world
The nicest thing about the morning of April 3 was the discovery that electricity existed again. This meant working television. Television meant news. News meant information from outside the confines of the Bethlehem Star Hotel. Read more about The Invasion - Part III