Anybody have news from the West Bank?

[Recursion]

The Palestinians I know are all in Gaza. I'm surprised the west bank has kept mum during this whole thing, but maybe Israel clamped down (or al aqsa etc. cut a deal with IDF to avoid the kind of violence being rained down on Gaza and Lebanon).

Has anybody heard or seen news from the West Bank? Is the violence spreading to there?

[ProgressiveCritic]

1. Do you mean: Has Israel besieged the WB?

What is your question?

Are Palestinians in the WB resisting? Or is Israel committing atrocities there as well?

What does "spreading violence" mean?

[pelsar]

2. nothing "special" is happening in the westbank..

and no there was no "deal" made either...its "business as usual....they send suicide bombers, israel catches them and then goes after the "senders"

[idontwantaname]

3. i have a couple friends in the WB right now

check out:

http://web.mac.com/frankromerojr

[pelsar]

4. From the westbank...

any blogs?

that guy is in CA

[idontwantaname]

5. right now hes in bethlehem

ill search his site for any info...

off topic: this was dictated from our correspondent in gaza today....

A story from Maghazi Refugee Camp, central Gaza

Less than one hour after the Washington Based Pacifica had phoned me
about a live interview about Maghazi camp, where I live, I laid down my head on
the pillow, under darkness because of the electricity cut, in order to have
some peace of mind before the live interview the next day. It was just after
one am when the Israeli army, backed by war planes, invaded Maghazi, telling
the story of palestinian refugees anew -- not only to pacifica radio, but to
all of us who live in Maghazi and know this story already, having seen it
repeated again and again. War planes began shooting heavily overhead.
Abruptly, i rushed to my children beside me, waking them up and taking
them downstairs in case of any stray bullet hitting from above.

My mother was crying, my father was worried, my sister listening to
newscasts.

In the darkness, everybody has been anxious, with kerosene lamps showing
their wary faces and hushed voices.

My six year old son asked me, "Dad, will i be able to be in the second
grade
at school?", as we got the news that Israeli war planes had dropped a
missile on his school.

My eight year old daughter sat on the sofa, awake all night looking at
me
with frightened eyes, her face yellow and pale.

I was worried about my brother and his children (like many refugee
families,
we all live together in one house), so i went upstairs to wake them up.
I
found my brother sleeping on the roof, due to the hot weather under
darkness.

Unfortunately, i was sorry to break his rest, because the sky was
raining in
such a summer night, but, an Israeli-made 'Summer Rain' military code-name for their ongoing Israeli invasion in the Gaza Strip
is
'Operation Summer Rains'].

Now, the whole family has been crowded in one small, much safer room,
listening quietly to the summer rains and to my mother's cries, which i
tried to dry, but in vain. Because she was so worried, lest her other
son,
who was out with friends, seeking summer breeze and summer air, get wet
by
the 'summer rains' that have started to fall on Maghazi.

From 1 am to 9:30 am as I write this, the 'summer rains' have been
falling,
making a flow that has swept away six lives, wounded several others,
devastated the camp's transformer, hit a wall of my son's elementary
school,
and inflicted damage to many homes and buildings.

My fear, as well as my family's, is the same as that of thousands of
palestinian refugee families throughout the past six decades starting
from
1948, 1956, 1967, and ending with 2006's latest invasion of Maghazi and
other refugee camps since june 27th.

However, Palestinians in the past century have found safe shelters to
which
they have fled. It now seems we have only one choice -- staying in our
homes under candlelight. This is the story of Palestinian refugees.
Now,
in the 21st century, I ask Israel -- where else do you want us to go?
It
seems that you just want us all to die, and no one in the world seems to
care.

I am writing this by pencil, on used paper, I can no longer type on my
computer. The electricity is fully gone, the backup systems have all
been
hit. I have to dictate my writing by cell phone to a friend in the West
Bank who can type it up - but soon, most likely, my cell phone reception
will be gone as well. Now I have heard that two of my relatives were
killed
in the ongoing attack.....I'll have to attend their funerals this
afternoon.
Will Israeli forces attack the funeral? Lately every time there is a
funeral, their warplanes buzz overhead, dropping bombs on the attendees
and
making more funerals necessary. I just hope the next one will not be my
own, or that of my dear, dear children.

[idontwantaname]

6. check out his podcasts, photo album and videos.

this is news from friends in hebron:

http://telrumeidaproject.org/July.html



July 16, 2006 SUNDAY

Report by Missy
At 2:00 pm, HRWs received a call from a Palestinian man at the checkpoint requesting assistance. Three HRWs
responded and two other HRWs arrived from a different area at the same time. The Palestinian man
who called the HRWs reported that the soldiers had arrested a Palestinian man in his 20s from H1, the Palestinian
controlled area of Hebron.

He said the soldiers beat and kicked the man while he was lying on the ground, handcuffed. The soldiers claimed
that a Palestinian from H1 threw stones at them after they had crossed the checkpoint with the arrested man into
H2.

The soldiers got very aggressive and pointed their guns at the Palestinian man who called us and ordered him to get
on his knees. He said “No.” He said that he had not done anything. The soldiers yelled at him but he would not
comply. Then they let him go.

HRWs arrived as police put the beaten man into a police jeep. The HRWs witnessed blood coming out of
his left nostril and he was visibly shaken. They kept him in the jeep for approximately 5 minutes. Then three military
jeeps arrived full of soldiers. The police moved the man onto the street. One of the
soldiers put on rubber gloves and examined his face and the rest of his body and asked him questions. When they
lifted his shirt all that came out was cigarettes and a lighter. Then the soldiers had him squat but he stood up.

Then the soldiers turned him to face the wall and had him kneel on his knees and they blindfolded him. The police
left. Then six soldiers took him and walked him towards Beit Hadassah on Shuhada Street.

Two HRWs followed them but were stopped by police and asked for identification. I continued to
follow behind the soldiers from 20 feet. The soldiers turned around periodically and gestured towards me. A
Palestinian man who witnessed this said that he heard the soldiers saying “watch your back, she is right
behind you.”

Once the soldiers kept walking on Shuhada past Beit Hadassah settlement I could not follow because only settlers
are allowed to walk on that street.


At 5:20pm, three internationals and one Palestinian man were meeting with families on Shuhada street. As they
passed the checkpoint, they saw three women with two infants being detained at the checkpoint. It was warm and
the women with their babies were kept standing in the sun.

The Palestinian man asked the women if they were OK, if they needed the internationals to stay near them. One
woman said she had a Jerusalem ID and they were checking it in the system. They asked that we stay.

One international positioned herself across the checkpoint and sat watching. The soldiers looked at the
international positioned across the street several times, and one then went inside the soldier station. After several
minutes, the soldier left outside checked the IDs of the other women, gave the woman with the Jerusalem ID back
and let them leave.

The women looked at the international woman and waved, saying thank you, and kept walking down Shuhada Street.


Report by Luna and Missy
At 10:00 pm today 2 male adult ultra orthodox settlers, mid- 20s, entered the Palestinian owned shop at the top of
the Tel Rumeida hill. Two HRWs happened to be in the shop purchasing food. The settlers did not want to purchase
anything. They stood in the shop and stared at the people in the shop.

From previous experience of settlers attacking this shop and from the settlers behavior, the Palestinians who run
the shop calmly asked the settlers to leave. The settler said in Hebrew, “make me leave.” I, Luna, spoke to the
settler and asked him if there was a problem and told him that I do not speak Hebrew. The settler motioned to me
that he would go outside the store and that he wanted to talk to me.

I called for the soldier who is normally at the post directly outside the store but there was no one there. I called for
the other internationals who live on the top floor to come. The settlers went outside. Missy and I stood in positions
to block the settlers from re-entering the store. The settlers continued to try to talk with me. I said that I did not
want to speak with them and that I did not speak Hebrew. The other human rights workers came immediately and
also blocked the entrance to the store.

A Palestinian man came who spoke Hebrew and talked with the settlers. The soldier came and I told him that the
settlers wanted to cause trouble. The soldier said that the settlers could stand on the street if they wanted to. The
Palestinian man who talked with the settlers said that the settlers wanted to talk with me about what we were doing
in the neighborhood. The Palestinian man told them that the human rights workers lived there, and that the HRWs
are citizens and that the settler should leave. The settlers got very angry and said that Hebron was their land. The
settler kept insisting on talking with me.

The other human rights workers left so as not to give the settlers more of an audience. The Palestinian man asked
me to address the settler about his request to speak with me. I told the settler again that I did not want to talk with
him. The settler said he would not leave until I talked to him.

So Missy and I left after consulting with the Palestinians. The settlers left shortly thereafter.

[pelsar]

7. during oslo...

i was emailing with a palestenain in Ramala....we had hopes of workingt together etc...alas when intifada II started, we realized that it would have to wait...it was a shame as it was inerestng for both of us....

[UndertheOcean]

8. Its a shame,

really is , The oslo years were so hopeful

[idontwantaname]

9. news from the west bank

2 emails from 2 friends, sent today:

Hey Everybody,

If you're interested, I have some videos from Nablus on a youtube vlog.
Today, the Israeli army invaded Nablus, so I just uploaded a video of me
being frustrated and feeling trapped :-) It was pretty stressful, with
one of our volunteers on the opposite side of the invasion, but our
Palestinian coordinator took care of it.

Insh'allah I'll be able together more about Project Hope, and maybe
even get some invasion footage from Nablus TV. Even with Lebanon and
Gaza, the Israeli army still has time to come hear and destroy stuff.

Anyway, check out http://youtube.com/user/moomtastic for the vlog,
or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_5uraWVxtM for this video.
It's a personal account - I'm not trying to cover the conflict, really.
My focus is more a personal experience, and the organization I'm
volunteering with, Project Hope (http://projecthope.ps).

Cheers,

-------------------------------

Yesterday was a true day of solidarity for us. We joined teams with Icahd (Israeli Committee against home demolitions) and worked to build a home that had been destroyed by the Israeli occupation force (IOF). The army had come in the middle of the night to bulldoze 3 homes with US Caterpillar bulldozers. They gave no reason this time, and if they did it would still be illegal under international law. Fortunately this time, the families had enough time to leave, but it feels sick to have to say fortunately about that at all. So ICAHD came with volunteers to rebuild the home for free paying Palestinian laborers to do the job. At this point they only have enough money to rebuild one of the houses.

We first had to clear the rubble by hand, hoe and shovel, which as you can imagine took forever even with 10 volunteers 5 construction workers and 4 kids. This would have taken no time had we had the proper equipment. We sifted through the concrete, tiles and wood finding bits and pieces of personal things destroyed and scattered about. It felt good to get my hands dirty and do hard work side by side with the Palestinian people. After all, it was my country who helped destroy it. Its a little bit of justice and a lot of solidarity for them to see American hands rebuilding it.

[Lithos]

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