Peace messages in the West Bank
international |
anti-war / imperialism |
news report
Friday September 26, 2003 11:30
by Aron Baker
baker_aron at hotmail dot com
Balata Refugee Camp, Nablus, West Bank
+353 (0)87 2895036
Messages from school children of Nablus to Israeli soldiers
Yesterday internationals and medical personnel attempted to deliver peaceful messages to soldiers at Saba Tash, Nablus
Detention at Saba Tash, Nablus
Today Thursday 25th Sept members of ISM, UPMRC and the medical relief committees, attempted to give the soldiers at Saba Tash messages from the school; children of Nablus. In order to do this the messages were printed on large pieces of paper, messages of peace such as, "Soldiers Refuse", "Why," "Remember the Humanity", "Don't kill our children", " You are the oppressor", and "Leave". We approached the area called Saba Tash, this is a large valley area, which the soldiers monitor, we made our way down the valley, spying 2 soldiers sitting about half way down the valley. Our group consisted of 10 medical relief workers, 7 internationals, a television camera and several cam corders. The soldiers ordered us to stop and trained their guns on us. They ordered us to cross the hill to them but this meant a difficult trek across an area with no path, so two of our group crossed to talk to the soldiers. They then took IDS of people before crossing over to the rest of the group. We displayed the signs which the children requested us to do with the soldiers permission. They then took everybodys' IDS, including the internationals, and ordered us at gunpoint back up the valley. When we first arrived they had just detained an old woman and two small children , we also believe they had another 50 people detained in the bottom of the valley, we were informed for the last 5-6 hours but where unable to verify this, the soldiers did briefly ask one international to go down to this lower group of detainees to bring up a woman who the soldiers said had cancer. But before we could act on this they again ordered us to follow them back up the hill towards Nablus, as we approached the top we found a jeep waiting with a more senior soldier who started screaming at us and instantly tried to arrest an international whom he had previously told not to come to this area again. We prevented this from happening but he insisted on taking someone away and he took the organizer of the action, Manal Al Tamimi, 24, a medical relief coordinator, who also works with children who have psychological problems. We were told we would get our ID's back when he could talk to Manal alone but drove off with Manal and our ID's. The remaining soldiers then ordered us to leave the area despite the fact that it is illegal to be without your ID. At the moment the 16 people are waiting at the top of the hill which the soldiers don't consider part of their patrol area. This is a large valley which belongs to many farmers but the soldiers have now decided that it is now part of their military zone, despite never producing a map to indicate this military area as required by Israeli law. This is because there is a road at the bottom of the valley which the military use and have now decided is a military road.
This is how the Israeli Occupation Force and the teenagers who carry guns for them treat those who carry messages of peace from children.oij
Friday Sept 26th
Manal was taken to an unknown military base, questioned and released several hours later at Beit Iba checkpoint, all international and Palestinians got their IDs returned to them at the edge of the Saba Tash area at about 4:30.
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Comments (5 of 5)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5Anyone have any more info on the Israeli pilots who refused to fly sorties over the west bank/gaza strip. And what about those 500 troops who went to prison rather than take a tour of duty in the occupied territories? These items were mentioned briefly yesterday on the examiner site, but tis all quiet again. Very little coverage of this anywhere in the media. I guess that those ordinary Isreli soldiers are realising that when the rich go to war, its the poor who die, and thats them too. I'm sure that Ariel doesn't want this getting bandied about though, would be very bad for the morale of his stormtroopers.
True, there's sod all being said about this in the media, but the text of the letter can be read here:
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1969.shtml
See the Gush Shalom, Yesh Gvul, and Courage To Refuse sites for more on this subject. These guys need to know that the international community is behind them -- you can bet the army won't make things easy for them for doing this.
It's great to see that there are Israelis who are concerned enough about human rights in their own country that they are prepared to risk court-martial and imprisonment. It makes a welcome change from the Galil-toting Zionist goons who frequent this site. Let's hope more and more Israelis start saying NO to their government.
That is exactly the difference (one of the many) between Israel and the PA. In Israel opposition is in general viewed as everyone's inallienable right, whereas the PA is a dictatorship ruled through terror.
When do you think one member of Hamas, the PA and Islamic Jihad would come out and say killing innocent civilians is wrong.
The Israeli responses to the Palestinian terrorist war have been measured, restrained, carefully targeted, and highly dangerous for our soldiers. Israel lost 23 men in Jenin precisely because they would not do what so many other nations have done... bomb from the safety of planes and distant artillery.
Recall, as well, that much of the danger to Palestinian civilians arises from the fact that the terrorists intentionally hide their emplacements in the midst of the most sensitive civilian sites: hospitals, schools, mosques, and private homes. And they do this because they know that such machiavellian actions will impede Israel's military response, precisely because Israel does not want to inflict civilian casualties and is willing to risk the success of a mission, and even soldiers' lives, to minimize such casualties.
Lastly, recall that the Palestinian terrorist groups, which now number about 12 actively operating in Israel, vociferously rejoice in the deaths of Israeli innocents, civilians who are targeted by the homicide bombers. These same terrorists reject any possibility of a peaceful resolution, and declare endless Jihad against Israel and against the West. Their war has as its goal the same one that Hitler's had. But they can couch their hate-filled genocidal rage in bogus terms of Palestinian political self-realization.
I'm not sure how you think Israel rules the West Bank and Gaza, but I'm pretty sure they weren't elected by the people here. Living here its pretty clear the population lives in terror of the Israeli occupation force, hence dictatorship ruled through terror.
Living here in a refugee camp, Balata, and knowing Qalkilya and other areas are surrounded by the apartheid wall, I'm always amazed at the similarity, one might say, to the Nazi ghettos for people during WW2.
As for inallienable rights, what about the human rights of 3,000,000 Palestinians. They have no such rights. They can loose their homes, land, property, vehicles, and indeed lives with no reason, no notification and no compensation.
Recall, as well, that over 2,600 Palestinians, about 85% of whom where civilians, have lost their lives to the blood lust of Israel and over 41,000 have been injured during the last 3 years.
Thousands of people have been made homeless by Israel demolishing their homes, what would you suggest they do? This really sounds like they have rights dosen't it?
During the last ceasefire all Palestinian groups signed up but the Israeli occupation force continued killing people, demolishing people's homes and stealing their land and livelyhoods for the apartheid wall.