In the afternoon there was a demonstration in another part of town, in Sheikh Jarrah. Many Palestinian famililes have been forced out of their homes and settlers have taken over their houses. What gave me some hope was all the people attanding the demonstration. I met a French couple, a German girl and a woman from Finland. And approximately one half of the demonstration was Israelis!
Saturday my collegue and I visited families in the refugee camp Shufat. There are no exact number of people living there but between 60 000 and 80 000. And since more and more Palestinian houses in central Jerusalem are demolished, more people move to Shufat since they have nowhere else to go.
Tonight I went to a concert in the West Bank for my first time. It was warm, packed with people and the music was louder than loud. If I liked it? Oh yeah.
Mais Shalash is a Palestinian who now lives in Jordan. She sings about freedom and peace.
Here you can listen to some of Mais Shalashs music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWjBseAbFuw
Some weeks ago a collegue and I attended a demonstration against confiscation of land and nightly raids in Nabi Salih. outside of Ramallah. There were around 30 people attending (both villagers and foreigners). The protesters started down the streets of Nabi Salih, then- two minutes afterwards- the first cascade of tear gas came. Everyone ran- it was chaotic. People coughed, their eyes were filled with teargas. After some minutes, they made a new attempts. Guess what? You’re right- more teargas. It kept on like that for one hour.
For a while it calmed down. We then had coffee with the head of the council who told us about the problem the village is facing due to the nearby settlement and the soldiers. He was just about to finish another sentence whewe were surprised by a new attack.
I ran with some protesters in one direction and my collegue ran in another direction. I hid in a house for a while until I finally dared to go and look for my collegue.
The soldiers suddently had entered the village and were about to climb into a house through its windows. If they asked for permission to enter the house? Nope. Some soldiers went up on the roof while others occupied a family’s garden.
´the protest began again and there were new teargas and rubber bullet attacks. We didn’t stay the whole evening but people told me that the demonstration usually keeps on until the dark or until someone gets badly injured.
The demonstration was a terrible experience. I, however, could leave it and go home to “safe” Tulkarm. The villagers could not.
I had another similar experience some days after during a visit to Hebron. The village Beit Ummar is surrounded by settlements (all settlements are illegal according to international law). And just like in Nabi Salih, the soldiers pose another problem to the villagers. The day I was there soldiers shoot teargas at kids who threw stones. Kids! the villagers told me that the soldiers enter the village to shoot teargas every day.
What gave me some hope in Nabi Salih and in Beit Umar was the people’s strenght. They will not give up their fight for their land. And as a way of “shooting back” in a non-violent way, an Israeli human rights organization called Bet’ Selem, have given villagers videocameras to record the soldiers’ and settlers’ misconducts. In Nabi Salih I saw one woman with a camera and afterwards I found the film on internet. I didn’t see any videocamera in Beit Umar, but a small boy was however taking pictures of the soldiers.
What planned to be a one week break from blogging actualy turned out to be more than two weeks. Bad girl!
But now I’m back. And before I tall you what’s been going on these last two weeks I just want to show you a picture. This is the view from our hotel in Haifa. Nice isn’t it.
Talk to you later!
This is Halima Irmilat. She’s a sweet woman. But she doesn’t always smile like in the picture. All her life she has struggled- from the moment she was borned until today.
Halima is born in Israel. 1948 she and her family were forced to leave Israel for the West Bank. They ended up in a refugee camp. One of her brothers was a peace activist- therefor he was imprisoned. Then her four other brothers were incarcerated.
After that it was her fathers turn. And then herselves.
– It was in 1991. I remember the day like it was yesterday. The Israeli police entered my house, I had my youngest daughter in my arms. She was only five years old, says Halima.
You might think that Halima’s family is part of a huge network of criminals. I don’t. As I’ve said earlier in my blog, a lot of Palestinians are imprisoned. Some of them have probably committed a crime, others have not. Today around 8000 persons from the West Bank out of 550 are from Tulkarm, are in Israeli prisons. The reason for Halimas imprisonment was that she helped a “wanted” person.
During Halima’s six months in jail she got an idea. And after being released, she and other Palestinian ex-prisoners, decided to create a Prisoners Club.
This was in 1993. Today there are 11 Prisoner Clubs in the West Bank out of which one is in Tulkarm. The head of the PC here is? Yes, Halima.
The main task for the PC is to make sure the imprisoned men and women get a lawyer asap.
– We’ve got 34 lawyers that we contact immediately when a person has been arrested, Halima says.
Then the PC holds weekly sittings outside the Red Cross to rise awareness about the prisoners. They also do follow-ups on people who’s been released from prison plus organize happenings, such as a trip to the amusement park Mega Land, for the prisoners children.
Halima, how is life in prison for the Palestinians?
– It’s a struggle. Before torture was common, today it’s more like a psychological torture. Prisoners are isolated, their hands are tightened for a whole day which gives them pain… And they don’t get the medical treatment they are entitled to.
How was your time in prison?
– Horrible. I was interrogated time after time, the only food I got was soup with insects. My faith in God and in the Palestinian cause helped me cope with prison. when I was interrogated I just closed my eyes pretending I wasn’t there.
Today I send my regards to a person who’s helped my team and I a lot.
He arrange meetings for us, helps us with translations and invites us to his hourse. So, Abdulkarim Sadi, this is for you: Thanks for everything!
Sadi works for the Israeli Information Centre Bet’selem. And he’s one of these strong people around the world fighting for peace and justice.
A proverbe says that the way to a man’s heart is through food. This is not the case for Sadi. The way to his heart is through seeds. He’s got friends all over the world and when they come to visit him they always bring seeds. So now Sadi’s got his garden full of herbs from Holland, flowers from France and vegetables from Norway. If it’s beautiful? You bet!
A five star hotel- right in the centre of Tulkarm?
What seemed like a dream for the Mayor of Tulkarm six months ago will soon be true.
The old city hall will be rebuilt and turned into a hotel- actually the first hotel in Tulkarm. The rebuilding will start in March and take approximately four months. And the funding comes from Italy. Viva Italia! I just hope that the room prices wouldn’t be too expensive for “common” people like me.
The hotel is only one our of many plans from the Tulkarm Mayor. Some people just talk and do nothing but he seems to be both a talker and a doer. Great!
We met him yesterday and spent almost an hour drinking tea, juice and eating fruit- and of course talking about Tulkarm. We both talked about the difficilties the occupation with the wall and checkpoints but also about positive things. And that’s something that have always strikes me here: People have a hard life but at the same time they’re so positive.
A famous quote says that hope is the last thing that abandon man.
That’s certainly true in the West Bank.
Last year Israel agreed on a settlement freeze all over the West Bank.
However, the freeze was temporarily and in September 2010 the freeze ended. Now Israel is busy expanding the settlements. And the governement is certaintly in a hurry.
Yesterday two collegues of mine from the US witnessed how the Shepherds Hotel in East Jerusalem is being destroyed. Instead of the hotel there will be 20 new units for settlers. Palestinians already experience house demolitions in East Jerusalem. Their area is getting smaller and smaller while the settlements and the settlers grow bigger every day.
This is not only a tragedy for the Palestinians in Jerusalem, it’s hence a crime since all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal (by international law).
On the picture you see a Volvo (!) bulldozer destroying the hotel.
The photo is taken by my collegue Wayne.
For more information about the demolition, see here: http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-demolishes-east-jerusalem-hotel-wing-to-clear-way-for-new-homes-1.336021
Sugar is life.
At least in the West Bank. Palestinians seem to be crazy about sweets. Cookies, candy, fruit- the sweeter the better.
We often get invited to people’s houses to have coffee, tea and to talk about life. Or actually, we don’t get tea and coffee, we get sugar. Sugar with tea and sugar with coffee. Never tea or coffee with sugar.
If the host ask me if I want sugar in my tea and I reply no I will get a very sweet tea, if I say I want a little sugar in the tea I get a super sweet tea. And if I reply: sugar, yes please- then I get a whole cup of sugar and two spoons of tea.
The taste? Great. But my teeth are not as happy as I am.
And I I wonder if I’ll ever get rid of my new habit of putting sugar in tea.
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