LINKS MUSIC PICTURES REPORTS

Getting out of the airport was easy, it’s all much easier when they think you're Jewish. They totally bought my story, and didn't even search my luggage (which is good because I had 20 Palestinian kafias I would have had to explain).

I had plenty of help carrying my luggage since I'm not supposed to be lifting yet. I have a slight head-cold now but otherwise am feeling quite well. I'm still taking it easy, not walking or moving around too much, but I expect to be 100% in a few weeks.

Saying goodbye to Tuwani was the hardest. I went down to visit last weekend for my first time since leaving CPT and the project there. Israeli border police stopped Hafez and I on our way into the village and detained us and several other Palestinian vehicles for about 20 minutes. The Israeli military had blocked the road that leads to Tuwani with rocks, and Hafez was in the process of moving them out of the way when the cops stopped. It was a good reminder for me of Tuwani's firm resistance despite the constant harassment.

The Tuwani villagers were excited to see me, and quite sad that I was leaving. Since the shooting of three settlers two weeks ago, the Israeli military has stopped escorting the children to school. Soldiers have tried a few times, but settlers come and stand in the road, and the military concedes to their intimidation. There have been increasing threats of settler attacks on Palestinians and internationals in Tuwani, some of which CPT have on videotape, but the Israeli police refuse to do anything to protect the village. It was quite hard for me to abandon Tuwani in this situation. I purchased a bunch of goods from the woman's co-op to sell on my tour, and promised that I'd be advocating for them in the states.

I stopped through Tel Rumeida in Hebron on my way back up north. Israeli authorities and settlers have increased harassment and attacks on Palestinians and internationals in Tel Rumeida. I had to wait over 20 minutes at the checkpoint, which is more restrictive lately because of the recent Jewish holidays and the coming end of Ramadan. Soldiers in Hebron have been routinely detaining young men in the early evening on their way home to break the fast, forcing them to either prolong their hunger or ritually break the fast while in detention. Israeli police tried to raid the internationals’ apartment last week, but calls to Israeli activists got them to back off, for now. Several days ago, Israeli police arrested three internationals and held them for several hours. The human rights workers had intervened in a group of settlers attacking a mentally disabled 14-year-old Palestinian girl while Israeli soldiers watched. Police also arrested the Palestinian girl who is as far as I know still in detention. A week ago, a group of internationals had to take refuge in a Palestinian shop after being assaulted by settlers while Israeli soldiers did nothing. It is hard for me to leave them to face all this without me, but I know that I am needed at home.

Bil’in is valiantly continuing its struggle against Israel’s annexation wall. In a brave act of guerilla nonviolent direct action, villagers recently dismantled and removed some metal rods indented for the wall’s foundation. The Israeli military is now punishing the village with several consecutive night raids and 15 arrests including 14 and 16 year-old children, and three brothers from one family, all of whom are still in detention. Villagers challenge the raids by marching out of their houses en mass, singing and chanting despite the late hour and dangers of being outside during a raid, and continue their weekly Friday demonstrations. These people incessantly inspire me.

It is the end of Ramadan, which marks the Muslim New Year and is truly a time of intense change for me. I’ve decided that my work is better served in the US right now, and I will spend the next year doing national organizing on the domestic front. I’m starting with an extensive speaking & organizing tour. I’m also producing “Resistance to Empire”, a second album with my newest hip-hop and poetry about Iraq, Palestine, and US resistance movements, and also featuring other Palestinian and American activist artists. It will be released in late January.

I thank you all for your continued support, love, thoughts, and prayers. They truly got me through this difficult trip and helped me heal from my injury. I look forward to seeing many of you on my upcoming tour, and am proud to be standing with you in our revolution.

I’m still having trouble breathing, but they say the internal bleeding has stopped. I’m writing from a Palestinian hospital in Ramallah, I was injured while protecting Palestinian children from rubber-coated bullets at last Friday’s anti-wall demonstration in Bil’in.

Unlike most weekly protests in the US, Bil’in villagers are incredibly creative and give each demonstration its own flavor. Last week, demonstrators dressed in the colors of the Palestinian flag with words written on them like “Hope”, “Peace”, and “Freedom” in Arabic, English and Hebrew, and then wrapped snake puppets around their necks to demonstrate how Israel’s wall is snaking through the West Bank and strangling any chance for positive change. I’ve made lots of puppets and done street theatre in the US, but this was my first time to do so in Palestine, and I must say, I learned a lot of artistic tricks.

Just after noon-day prayers, a large group of costumed Bil’in villagers, accompanied by Israeli activists and internationals

from the International Solidarity Movement, set off for the wall site while chanting and banging on bottles and cans.

As usual, Israeli riot soldiers were waiting at the wall site forming a line to block us from walking any further. A standoff ensued, and eventually smaller groups went off the road to go around the line. Soldiers moved quickly to roughly push the nonviolent demonstrators back onto the road. Soldiers hit, kicked, and drug people through sharp cactus plants. I got repeatedly pushed into rocks, and received a nasty bruise when a soldier nailed me in the back with the barrel of his gun. I wish that had been my only injury that day.

Eventually, the soldiers began pushing the crowd back towards the village, and tried to drive army jeeps through the crowd and into Bil’in. Shebab (young Palestinian men and boys) piled large rocks on the road to block the jeeps, and then began throwing stones and using slingshots to defensively drive the soldiers out of the village. The soldiers fired teargas, rubber-coated bullets, and a new experimental bullet that contains CS gas and explodes on impact to cause a large bruise and internal bleeding. Several shebab were injured.

Suddenly, we noticed soldiers taking four Palestinian-looking men away to jeeps. Several of us activists ran down the hill to make sure the soldiers didn’t mis-treat those in their custody. Turns out they weren’t Palestinians being arrested, but agent provocateurs being evacuated. They were Israeli Special Forces placed there to provoke the shebab into throwing stones.

While down with the soldiers, another activist and I interfered with the soldiers firing rubber-coated bullets at the shebab. We yelled at the soldiers to stop and physically blocked their guns, a picture this appeared on the cover of Al Quds (Jerusalem) Newspaper, a leading Palestinian publication. The soldiers began pushing us out of the area. While an Israeli soldier held me from behind and pushed me roughly, a large rock hurled from one of the shebab’s slingshots struck me just below the ribs. I effectively became a human shield for the soldier who would have barely felt the stone through his flak jacket.

The soldier quickly pushed me away and I ran from the area to avoid getting hit by any other rocks. Shebab quickly came over to me and apologized and tried to help me up the hill, but I insisted they stay and continue defending their village. I quickly found the paramedics who treated the flesh wound, and later took me to a hospital in Ramallah.

X-rays determined that my ribs weren’t cracked or broken so I filled the prescription for an anti-inflammatory and went back to the ISM flat to rest. I found myself in an overwhelming amount of pain; I could barely breathe and couldn’t sit or stand up without almost fainting. After about six hours of anguish, I went back to the hospital and demanded they admit me and knock me out. Doped up on plenty of Tramadole and an IV, I slept like a baby. The next morning, an ultra-sound located a rupture in my spleen and internal bleeding. They thought it might heal on its own, but after a day of continued bleeding they had to operate to keep me from bleeding to death.

Palestinian surgeons were able to repair my spleen rather than remove it, and the bleeding has stopped. They hope I’ll be out by next Saturday, so I’m set up with some movies, my computer, and plenty of Palestinian and international visitors.

The medical care has been excellent. The nurses are cheery, playful, and frequently present. The doctor has been nice and frank, and even called my parents. The Palestinian healthcare system is mostly public, and this hospital is particularly known for giving free care for those with intifada-related injuries. It’s called the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, and specializes in trauma.

I completely affirm Palestinians right to resist Israeli colonial occupation. Palestinians have the right to do much more than throw rocks at soldiers committing colonial genocide, and they must if they are to survive. Boys with rocks are hardly a match for the Israeli Military heavily stocked with the US’s most deadly weapons, so it is my responsibility to help protect these boys as they symbolically resist.

My only regret, is that right now it isn’t that colonial soldier lying in this hospital bed.

Today, just after noon-day prayers, a large group of Palestinians from Bil’in marched alongside around forty Israeli activists and eight internationals from the International Solidarity Movement to protest Israel’s annexation wall currently under construction on Bil’in land.

Villagers intended to wire Palestinian flags to a thick metal barrier used to mark the planned path of the wall and prevent Palestinians from accessing their farmland. I became highly energized while we marched, chanting anti-wall slogans in Arabic and clapping our hands. The mood was lively and intense, despite the discouraging political situation and the fact that everyone is hungry and thirsty from fasting (it’s Ramadan!)

As the march approached the area, dozens of Israeli soldiers in riot gear stood right behind the metal barrier. The soldiers were passionate about not letting Palestinians attach the flags, and violently suppressed them by pushing and hitting the Palestinians and confiscating and breaking the flags. The Palestinians were diligent however, and continued their attempts. When blocked in one area, they’d go to another. Over and over again. This kind of persistence of resistance by Palestinians has always inspired me.

Someone discovered that the metal barrier was good for percussion and began banging on it with rocks. Soon most everyone joined in rhythm with chants, creating a cacophony so magnificent the soldiers could barely communicate with eachother and on their radios. A commander tried briefly to get people to stop, but quickly gave up.

Around 1pm, soldiers went under the barrier and stormed the crowed pushing and hitting us nonviolent demonstrators. Israeli activists stood their ground and resisted the soldiers attempts to push them back. After much struggle and de-arresting, the soldiers managed to detain seventeen Israeli activists and carried them into a large armored vehicle. They also detained Mohammad Al Khatib, an organizer with Bil’in’s Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements, after roughing him up and tearing his clothes. They later released him without charges. They released sixteen of the Israelis without charges, but are still holding Eli and charging him with interfering with an investigation.

As the day went on and the demonstration dwindled, a group of young boys began throwing and hurling rocks with slingshots (David style). The soldiers, from a good 150 meters away, fired teargas canister after teargas canister at the boys who would briefly disperse to let the gas clear and then resume their symbolic resistance. Again, impressive persistence. Palestinian medics treated several of the boys for excessive teargas inhalation.

Despite the arrests and Israeli violence, Bil’in villagers are determined to continue resisting Israel’s wall which plans to confiscate 60% of their farmland. Israeli activists and members of the International Solidarity Movement are committed to standing with them as they nonviolently resist Israel’s illegal occupation and colonization of their land.

Israel is planning to use its Apartheid wall to annex around half of the farmland belonging to Bil’in, a Palestinian village in the central West Bank. In resistance to this gross injustice, Bil’in villagers have held weekly popular demonstrations on the site of the planned wall’s construction, and they often manage to interrupt the work. Despite the clearly nonviolent nature of the demonstrations, the Israeli military has responded with an increasing level of violent repression including teargas, concussion grenades, beatings, mass arrest, rubber-coated bullets, and even live gunfire.

Because the Israeli military is instructed to use less violence when Israelis and internationals are present, loads of white faces show up to take part in Bil’in’s popular resistance. Standing alongside Palestinians, hundreds of Israeli and international activists have been gassed, beaten, arrested, and even hospitalized from Israeli military violence.

The demonstrations are organized by Bil’in’s Popular Committee against the Wall, who are increasingly creative and confrontational in their acts of nonviolent direct action against the wall. For the last nine months, they’ve held a mass demo every Friday (the Muslim holy day) which have included praying, puppets, mock walls, and today, music.

Famous pianist Jacob Allegro Wegloop is a Jewish Holocaust survivor from Holland. His plane landed in Tel Aviv at 5am this morning and he came directly to Bil’in to perform at the weekly demonstration. David Rovics, a rather popular political folk singer made an appearance at the protest as part of his Palestine tour. Amplified by loudspeakers on a roof, Joseph accompanied a group of Palestinian children singing Palestine’s national anthem, and then played some classical pieces. David sung about the wall, the war in Iraq, and the situation in Palestine generally. I was supposed to perform as well, but the show got repeatedly interrupted by passing soldiers and rumors of violence.

After the noon-day prayers, the march began out to the wall site. A thick line of Israeli soldiers in riot gear with razor wire were waiting for us about 200 meters before the destruction zone, and a confrontation ensued. There were dozens of journalists present because of these big-named internationals and because of a recent court case that ended in the unconditional release of one of the main Palestinian organizers with Bil’in’s Popular Committee. Because of the media and an Israeli judge’s harsh criticism of the military, there was less violence at this demonstration. However, the military was far from peaceful.

Groups of demonstrators repeatedly tried to go around the blockade and march onto Palestinian land, but Israeli soldiers pushed and beat them with batons. In order to keep Palestinians from being arrested, we internationals and Israelis stayed close to those making these challenges, and were hit and pushed along with them. Several times I was knocked down onto rocks and cacti; I’m still finding thorns in my legs.

After about a half an hour, one of the organizers led a group quickly up a hill and around the soldiers. The soldiers moved fast to head us off, but not before the Palestinian organizer and two

internationals had made it down onto a field. The rest of us were unable to get down there immediately and the soldiers began pushing and hitting the three of them, and the internationals tried to protect the Palestinian from violence and arrest by holding onto him. The soldiers managed to separate the Palestinian from the internationals, but not the internationals, two British brothers, from eachother. We’ve learned that sometimes one can avoid arrest by refusing to cooperate and making things difficult, and difficult it was. About eight soldiers hit and drug the two trying to separate and handcuff them, but had much trouble.

Once soldiers separated them, two other internationals and I decided we’d make an attempt to “de-arrest” one of them by grabbing his feat and removing him from the soldiers grasp (this tactic has been repeatedly successful here and in the US). However, since there were only three of us, several other soldiers pounced on us and tried to grab us. We clung to eachother and they quickly gave up.

After about 20 minutes of vicious struggle, the two internationals were each carried by away four soldiers. To keep me from following, two other soldiers pushed and shoved me against some rocks ordering me to climb up and out of the field. I resisted for awhile but eventually relented rather than be stuck too long in the stalemate. As I ran back, I noticed two soldiers leading the Palestinian who’d been taken. I quickly moved over and grabbed his shoulders, making it clear they weren’t taking him without taking me. Another international stayed in front of him with the same intention. Soldiers surrounded us and negotiations began. After making an eloquent speech in Hebrew about his right to nonviolently protest on his own land, the Palestinian was released and we all cheered in victory. Meanwhile, one of the international arrestees had taken off running when his soldier guard was busy flirting with an Israeli journalist. He escaped, but his brother was quickly thrown into a jeep.

The British arrestee was released that evening after finally giving his name. He and his brother were quite bruised and scraped up, but the Palestinian was free and there were no serious injuries. Plenty of footage made it into Palestinian and Israeli media, and the demonstration was considered a success. I have some scrapes and cuts on my hands and feet, and the soldiers bent my glasses, but nothing a Palestinian optometrist can’t fix.

The Israeli military set up specific checkpoints to catch Israelis trying to attend the demo, and two busloads were detained and escorted back to Tel Aviv. One van made it in later, just as the official demo had ended and confrontations began between Palestinian rock-throwers and heavily armed Israeli soldiers. With slingshots and well-trained arms, Palestinian youth rained stones onto this illegal occupying army, who responded with tear-gas, concussion grenades, and rubber-coated bullets. Seven were injured by gas and bullets including a journalist, two children, and two elderly people.

The path of Israel’s annexation barrier is currently under dispute in Israeli courts. We hope that these demonstrations will help push the courts to change the current plan which would nearly surround Bil’in, however we don’t trust the Israeli system to ever met out justice. Meanwhile, Palestinians will continue to resist and we will continue to accompany them, no amount of violence will silence our collective voice.

Due to the effectiveness of our work in Tel Rumeida, the Israeli military and police have increased their efforts to rid the area of internationals. Volunteers from a variety of international organizations have been doing full-time accompaniment, documentation and physical intervention work to deter constant settler violence in Tel Rumeida, a Hebron neighborhood colonized by around sixty of the most fanatic Israeli settlers. Volunteers from the Tel Rumeida Project and the International Solidarity Movement have been especially targeted for violence by settlers, and harassment by Israeli military and police.

Last night, Israeli Police detained four international volunteers while they were documenting and intervening in Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians. At the Kiryat Arba Settlement police station, officers said that they weren’t arresting the internationals, but wanted to make it clear that they would not allow internationals to live in Tel Rumeida anymore. After two hours, the police agreed that they could spend one more night in their apartment but could not go out. “If I see you in the street again, I’ll arrest you” an officer threatened.

When they arrived back at the house, they found two Israeli soldiers blocking the entrance. The soldiers took their passports and demanded that they unlock the house and let them search it. The internationals refused, and then four soldiers began banging on the doors and windows trying to break in, so they began yelling at them to stop. The soldiers stopped abruptly and left.

This morning, we went out at 6:45AM as we do every day to help protect Palestinian girls on their way to Qurtaba School, located right across from an Israeli Settlement. Afterwards, we began our usual patrols around Tel Rumeida, being especially vigilant because it is Saturday, the settlers’ most violent day. By 11AM, every group of internationals had been stopped by Israeli police and military and threatened with arrest if they didn’t leave immediately. They explained that nearly all of Tel Rumeida had been declared a “Closed Military Zone”, which only residents are permitted to enter. Our house falls within the closed zone, and we tried to argue that we are residents, to no avail.

Around noon, Tel Rumeida Project volunteer Luna and I went to buy food from a store located next to a military post. The Israeli police were there waiting for us, suddenly excited that they’d finally get to arrest us. However, when the commander came and we explained that we were only trying to buy food, he let us go assuring us that we’d be arrested if we went out again.

We must continue to document and protect Palestinians from Israeli violence and we refuse to be banned from Tel Rumeida. Three volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement (two Swedes and one Brit) decided that they were willing to challenge the ban by getting arrested and taking it to court. We devised a plan where I would hide on a nearby hill from which I could videotape, and the three would do a patrol in an area near soldiers and refuse to leave when threatened with arrest.

Dressed in the most sand-colored clothing I had, I laid on the hill with the camera as the three set-off down the hill. “May the force be with you” I hollered and raised my fist to them, right as a passing Israeli military patrol came strolling down the hill. They noticed me of course, so I waved and showed them my video-camera so they wouldn’t think I was a sniper. The six soldiers all came up and detained me of course, while I noticed the other three disappear around a corner down the hill out of sight. “What a great plan” I thought.

Turns out, the other three had gone to intervene in a situation of settler violence down the street when they got a call informing them that tomorrow is the change-over of power in Gaza and the media will be very distracted. They aborted their mission and headed back up the hill to find me surrounded by soldiers. Eventually, the police came and again explained that this area is closed and I’m not allowed to be in it. I maintained that I misunderstood and thought that I just couldn’t be in the street, so they let me go after 15 minutes.

We stayed the rest of the night under house arrest, planning to go out again the next day as the Closed Military Zone order expired at midnight.

This morning, four internationals set off to Qurtaba School to protect the children, while Luna and I went up the hill to patrol another area of constant settler violence. The police arrived after about 10 minutes. An officer I recognized from the day before pointed at Luna and said “I’m arresting her now, she knows she can’t be here.” We protested that the Closed Military Zone order had expired and that we could legally be there, but the officer threatened to arrest us anyway. Luna warned him that if he arrested her illegally she would call her lawyer and file a complaint against him personally, and the police then got significantly less aggressive. We tried to walk away, and the officer yelled and ordered us to stay. We waited while he talked on his radio, and then he said we could go but warned that he would arrest us if he saw us again.

The four internationals at the school had also been hassled, but the police admitted that there was no current closure order but they were going to get one. By 9AM, they had the new closure order which they said was good until 6PM tomorrow (normally they’re only for 24 hours but this was a special one).

Meanwhile, teachers and students from Qurtaba School refused to pass through the recently fortified Tel Rumeida checkpoint. Palestinians entering Tel Rumeida have been forced to pass through an armored trailer with electric sliding doors and metal detectors for about two weeks now. Fed up with the inconvenience and humiliation, around 25 Palestinians demanded that they be allowed to go around the checkpoint. Israeli soldiers said they’d allow the children and four pregnant women to go around, but not the others. The group decided they would not be divided and all sat down and refused to leave until school ended. School let out early because three armed Israeli settlers parked outside the school in a pickup truck, which terrified the young girls.

Three internationals decided to violate the new closure order and join the teachers protest from the Tel Rumeida side of the checkpoint, and to accompany them to school if they got through. After around a half hour of threats, the police finally arrested the three. They are currently being held in the police station at Kiryat Arba Settlement in Hebron.

The three internationals were released this morning without being taken before a judge. Israeli police said they’d release them last night if they signed that they would not return to Tel Rumeida, but the internationals refused. They had set a court date for this morning at 10AM and ISM activists were prepared to attend the trial in support. However, this morning our lawyer informed us that the Israelis decided not to bother with a trial and instead released the internationals without charges or conditions.

We have been continuing street patrols, documentation and outreach work. Israeli police and military harass us frequently but have made no more arrests. They have informed us about Closed Military Zone orders on the neighborhood from time to time, but have not prevented us from continuing our work. We consider this a success. We will not let Israeli threats deter our solidarity, and will continue to stand with Tel Rumeida Palestinians as they resist Israeli colonization.

The Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron is a major flashpoint of tension between Palestinians and Israeli colonial settlers. Around forty Israeli soldiers protect over sixty of the most racist and violent of Israeli settlers, forcing over one thousand Palestinians (whose families have lived in Tel Rumeida for hundreds of years) to live in a virtual prison. Fences, walls, and checkpoints block every entrance to Tel Rumeida, and there are Israeli soldier posts throughout the neighborhood. The closures make commerce virtually impossible, and it is difficult for any non-residents to visit their Tel Rumeida friends and family. Many families have moved out for this reason alone.

Even more troublesome than the constant prison-camp conditions are the fanatical settlers who regularly harass and attack their Palestinian neighbors. Palestinians live in a constant state of terror from being beaten, stoned, robbed, and threatened with guns but they refuse to be forced out of their homes or let it interfere with their daily life.

Several international activists from the Tel Rumeida Project live fulltime in Tel Rumeida. They work with volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement, Ecumenical Accompaniment Program for Palestine & Israel, the Christian Peacemaker Teams, and a variety of Israeli groups to accompany, document, and physically intervene to deter Israeli attacks and pressure authorities to better protect Palestinians and prosecute criminal settlers. Israeli soldiers and settlers regularly harass, threaten, intimidate, and stone the international and Israeli activists, but Palestinian children say they now feel safer playing outside their homes.

Even more encouraging, is the potential for a progressive change in the climate. Unlike other accompaniment groups, the goal of the Tel Rumeida Project is to support and empower Palestinians as they stand up against this colonial oppression.

For instance, last Saturday we got a call that settler children were throwing rocks at Palestinian passers-by. When we arrived, we found five 9-13 year-old settler boys hanging out in the Israeli military post. Palestinians immediately came out of their houses to tell us how the settler boys had just stoned them while the soldiers

watched. The settler boys started throwing more rocks, some from inside the military post, and we began arguing with the soldiers that they should protect the Palestinians (supposedly a part of their job). The soldiers argued with eachother about what to do while we supported the Palestinians, including a mother and daughter, as they confronted the settler boys. Palestinians yelled at the settlers and soldiers for putting them through all this, and the Israelis were visibly intimidated. More settler children came out and began throwing stones, so we stood in front of the Palestinians. I got hit pretty hard in the leg, but the soldiers started trying to stop the settler boys, which made the soldiers a target for their stones. The situation escalated, but our presence supported the Palestinians’ expression of their outrage and prevented Israeli soldiers from repressing this Palestinian resistance.

Qurtaba School is a Palestinian girls’ school located directly across from Israeli settlement apartments and a settler school. Settler children often harass Palestinian students and teachers as they pass by. Yesterday was the first day of school for Palestinians, so we brought a team of internationals and media to accompany the children. Two Israeli military jeeps and a police jeep arrived shortly after us. All in all, there were 25 internationals, 12 soldiers, and four police officers to get around 100 Palestinian girls to school.

There were fewer internationals and soldiers for the girls’ afternoon walk home, and the settlers escalated their attacks. They threw stones and eggs from their apartment windows, while others hollered insults and threatened us. The Israeli police (who’s job it is to arrest settler law-breakers) also became a target of the settler violence, but they did nothing to stop it. We continued patrolling the area for the rest of the day, trying to have a presence in all the areas where settlers and Palestinians interact. “We’re like human security cameras,” one activist commented, “we never let the settlers out of our sight until we know another international can see them”.

A little before 2pm, several internationals had to leave and we went out to meet their replacements. On our way

back in, we got stopped at the recently upgraded Tel Rumeida checkpoint. What used to be a green tower with concrete blockades is now a fortified trailer with metal detectors and electronic sliding doors. They’ve even tried to make it prettier by painting it to look like the white stone of the surrounding ancient buildings. An Israeli soldier at the checkpoint said that they would no longer allow in any internationals that are part of organizations, “Only tourists and residents” he said. We tried to explain that we are residents and have a house in Tel Rumeida, but because he had seen us doing accompaniment and documentation work he refused us entry. To go around the checkpoint, we had to wind through back allies, scale a wall, and crawl under grapevines.

During this time, a group of settlers took advantage of our absence and attacked several Palestinians. We found a 13-year-old Palestinian boy with cuts and bruises on his arms and stomach. He said a group of around 20 settlers in their late teens had surrounded him and beat him with sticks for around ten minutes. Other settler youths threw large stones a group of Palestinians, injuring an older Palestinian woman’s leg. We accompanied the Palestinians to file reports with the police, and then became more diligent with our patrols.

Things came to a head around 5pm, when a large group of settler children, some in masks, (observed from the hill by their parents and other settler adults), began throwing large stones and other debris at Palestinians, internationals, and Israeli soldiers in the area. One international was injured on her hand when she blocked a sharp rock from hitting her head. When the police arrived, the settlers briefly dispersed but then quickly regrouped. They began intensely stoning the police, who did nothing but videotape and stay in the protection of their armored jeeps. More police arrived and drove into the settlement area, and eventually an officer grabbed a settler boy. A small riot ensued, and settlers attacked the police officers.

Later in the evening, Palestinians reported that settler boys intensely stoned two Palestinian homes. Saturday, the Jewish holy day Shabbat, is a busy day for settler religious fanatics.

All in all, we hope that the settlers now know that their days of terrorizing Palestinians with impunity are over. Though the Israeli violence continues, Palestinians are now armed with international and Israeli activists, cameras, video-cameras, potential lawsuits, and contacts with the international community. I feel privileged to be able to stand with Palestinians in their struggle, it’s an honor to be stoned along side them.

Visiting Ramallah after having spent time in Amman, Jordan, I was struck by the similarities and differences.

Like Amman, Ramallah is an interesting combination of Western consumerism and Arab/Muslim conservatism. However, Ramallah seems to have maintained more of the better aspects of Palestinian culture, such as the emphasis on family and hospitality and a focus on independence and resistance to oppression.

Going through Qulandia, the massive Israeli checkpoint that separates Ramallah from Al Quds (Jerusalem) was not too different from when I was there a little less than a year ago. However, I was glad to see new, fresh paint bombs on the Israeli guard tower, and beautiful Palestinian art graffitied on the obnoxious apartheid wall.

I attended a Palestinian hip hop show by a group called Ramallah Underground. They’re two young Palestinian men who rap in English and Arabic; some of my favorite lines included rhyming “Holy Land” with “Stolen Land” and “I got a slingshot in my left hand and a mic in my right”. I hooked up with them afterwards and they said they might be into collaborating on some pieces with me.

I knew Ramallah was westernized, but I had no idea just how much so until I went to this club. If I didn’t know better, I would have sworn that I was at an urban dance club in the US. The guys, G’d out in doo-rags, baggy pants, and fancy sneakers, spouted slang like “Wazzup Nigga!”. The girls’ outfits were most surprising; I sincerely doubt that they left their houses wearing what they were sporting at this club. Palestinian guys and girls were bumping and grinding (an “affectionate” style of dance), which I guess they learned from MTV. This was quite surprising considering any physical contact between unmarried men and women is explicitly forbidden in Palestinian culture. Everyone was tossing back beer and mixed drinks until the place closed around 1am.

On our way home, I was yet again reminded of the US when I observed one of the new Palestinian police cars stop and harass a group of young men hanging on the street. It’s the first time I’ve seen Palestinians with guns in the West Bank; it is sad that instead of using these AKs against their Israeli occupiers they’re using them to further oppress Palestinians.

I felt that Amman embodied the worst aspects of Eastern and Western culture, but perhaps Ramallah is closer to having the best of both.

Since school is starting soon, today I went to Tuba to visit the children that will have to pass near the settlement in order to walk to school in Tuwani. The Israeli military, by order of the Israeli Knesset (congress), has said they will escort the children to and from school each day. We will have to see if the soldiers actually protect the children this year or merely allow settlers to harass and attack the children as they did last year.

Though Tuba is only about a mile away, going directly there from Tuwani requires passing very near Ma’on Settlement and Havat Ma’on outpost. Hafez and I decided to go the safer long way around the mountains, which takes about an hour and half on foot. Instead of walking, he suggested it’d be faster if we ride donkeys, and I jumped at the chance. “How hard can it be?” I thought, I am fairly skilled on a bicycle after all.

With donkeys, it should have only taken us an hour, but it took almost two because I had such trouble keeping the donkey on the path. Amira (the name I chose for my donkey meaning “princess” in Arabic) had a mind of her own, and would frequently take deters to eat plants or sniff the presents left behind by other donkeys. It took me awhile to master the clicking and grunting sounds that it took to keep her on track. It also didn’t help that Amira knew I wouldn’t beat her as most other riders would to keep her in line. Several times, Hafez had to dismount to chase after me and drag me and Amira back onto the path.

I couldn’t believe how labor intensive it was. My inner thighs were sore for two days afterwards. I have to wonder if it was as hard for Amira.

Tuba has a very clear view of the Israeli settlement and outpost. I got to see first-hand the recent expansion of the outpost documented in CPT’s recent report. The settlers have now moved out of the trees and into the valley, deeply encroaching onto Tuba’s land. Tuba villagers are frightened that land-grabbing settlers may soon try to forcefully evacuate the villagers from their homes like settlers have in several other villages in the area. Meanwhile, we’ll continue monitoring the Israeli military escort of the children and stay in close touch with Tuba.

Before leaving, we were treated to a fabulous meal in one of the caves Tuba villagers call home. Fresh eggs cooked in goat butter, dried goat cheese, fresh baked bread and freshly picked tomatoes and cucumbers, all produced right there in the village. Two cups of tea later, we were back on our donkeys to Tuwani.

The trip back was a little faster, as I’d better mastered controlling Amira and Hafez said the donkeys were anxious to get back to their babies. “Well at least you didn’t fall off” Hafez said, though I wasn’t sure if it was a compliment or not.

17 August 2005

EXPANSION OF HAVOT MA'ON ILLEGAL OUTPOST

CPT Release

While world attention focused on the removal of Israeli settlers
from the Israeli occupied Palestinian Territory of Gaza,
internationals from CPT and Operation Dove (an Italian peace group)
living in the Palestinian village of At-Tuwani in the West Bank have
documented the expansion of an illegal Israeli outpost commonly
called Havot Ma'on.

In February 2005 internationals and Palestinians observed that
settlers were beginning to regularly occupy the caravan located on
the eastern edge of the treed hilltop outpost, and had made
improvements to the structure.

During the month of July 2005 settlers began constructing several
more structures inside and on the eastern edge of the treed
hilltop. The expansion includes;
(1) a wooden and black tarp structure several hundred meters
south down the hill from the caravan
(2) a wooden structure close to the edge of the trees, between
the caravan and the Ma'on chicken barns
(3) the frame of a wooden structure just inside the trees close
to the road leading into the hilltop from the south side

According to Peace Now's Settlement Watch group the treed hilltop
outpost is called "Hill 833"; the current inhabitants of which used
to live in the dismantled outpost called "Ma'on Farm". Regardless
of the name of the currently inhabited outpost, construction on the
existing outpost is continues.

According to Israel's commitment to the RoadMap, all outposts
established since March 2001 were to be evacuated and dismantled.
Havot Ma'on is on the Israeli Ministry Defense's list of outposts
established since that time, and Hill 833 is on Peace Now's list of
outposts established since then.

Talya Sason was commissioned by the Israeli Prime Minister to
examine the phenomenon of outposts. In February 2005, she released
her report entitled `Summary of the Opinion Concerning Unauthorized
Outposts.' In the report, Sason concludes that civil and military
authorities blatantly disregard the rule of law when it comes to
outposts. "The security concept, that wherever there is an Israeli
person - IDF will be there to protect him, resulted in a very sad
reality. Therefore, any settler who places his home wherever he
chooses, even if unauthorized and against the law - gains the
protection of the army. The outcome is that the settlers are the
ones who set the army's deployment in the territories, not the army.
The protection supplied by IDF to unauthorized outposts, its mere
existence there, drags it unwillingly to give its "seal" to
unauthorized outposts."

The taxi dropped me off near the settler road that separates Tuwani from the nearby town of Yatta, and I waked another kilometer into the village. Entering Tuwani was like a home-coming. Children ran out of their houses yelling “Yousef, yousef!” Some hollered “What’s your name”, and others hit them saying “that’s Yousef don’t you remember!” Villagers looked up from their work with the animals and household chores to greet me and welcome me back to Tuwani.

Not much has changed. Our house has a few modifications, but most of the furniture and decorations are still the ones I helped acquire eight months ago. The clinic is finished and beautiful, painted bright pink and green so you can’t miss it. The Palestinian Authority is supposed to provide a doctor on Sundays, but they often don’t show up. NGO’s keep promising that they’ll provide equipment and staffing, but none have come through. At a meeting two days ago, CARE International (www.care.org) promised to provide furniture and funding for a year, starting in early October, but Palestinians say they’ll believe it when they see it. Though the clinic technically has an Israeli permit, the Civil (military) Administration recently re-zoned Tuwani and designated the areas that they currently consider legitimate. The rest is subject to demolition, which included a handful of homes, the school, and the clinic. So we are prepared for further attacks on village infrastructure.

The children are out of school for summer vacation, so our primary work has involved escorting shepards. In order to steal Palestinian land, Israeli settlers frequently harass and attack Palestinians attempting to graze their sheep. In the past, this forced Palestinian shepards to avoid grazing on areas of their land near the settlement. Now with our accompaniment, Palestinians have been daring to heard their sheep in these

areas and challenge this violent expulsion from their land.

Last February, Israeli settlers attacked two Italians who were accompanying Palestinian shepards. A settler karate kicked one of the Italians in the head causing a concussion, a broken jaw, and a torn retina. Since then, settlers have continued to harass and attack shepards and internationals. Three days ago, I arrived shortly after a settler security officer had attacked a group of young boys from the near-by village of Juwiyya. Most of the boys escaped, but the settler caught the smallest boy, a nine year old, and tore his shirt and hit him with his shepards staff.

The next day, I accompanied the same boys from Juwiyya to this area. They decided to take their sheep on an area of their land currently under dispute in an Israeli court. Technically, neither Palestinians nor settlers are supposed to use land that is under the court’s consideration, however we have video footage of settlers continuing to farm this area. Plus, it is all Palestinian land the Israeli court has no right to give the land away to Israeli settlers or tell Palestinians they can’t use it. Shortly after the sheep began grazing there, a settler security vehicle pulled off the road and headed straight for us. The boys took their sheep and ran to the other side of the mountain. An Italian activist and I intercepted the settler security guard. He yelled at us that they are not to be using this land and denied that settlers had been. He asked why they ran if they didn’t think they were doing something wrong, and I explained that they likely feared they’d be beaten, shot, or arrested. He insisted that Israelis never attack Palestinians, even though it was he who had beaten the boy the day before, and I’ve seen video footage of him spitting on and attacking other Palestinians. He claimed that the Palestinians are full of lies and insisted we not believe anything they say. He left with “Have a good day.”

Yesterday, I accompanied a shepard from Al-Mufakra, we’ll call him Abu Mohammad. Abu Mohammad has suffered immensely from the poison settlers put on the land. Last April and March, Israeli settlers spread barley seeds coated with rat poison on five acres of Palestinian land they are trying to steal. At least 57 adult sheep and 46 new-born sheep have died from the poison, and the long-term environmental effects are yet to be determined. We are noticing a pattern of late-birth in poisoned sheep, and now several pregnant Tuwani women are around a month late. Normally, when a farmer’s animals are exposed to toxins, they slaughter them all rather than risk contaminating humans and other livestock. However, Palestinians could not possibly afford to lose their entire income so they continue to use the meat and milk and hope for the best. The Palestinian Authority is considering giving the shepards compensation rather than have infected sheep spread all throughout Palestine.

Abu Mohammad lost over 60 sheep, but he continues to graze what remains of his flock and try to survive. Talking with him, he gave me some political analysis. “If America would get out, then there would be no problem” he tells me in simplified Arabic. “Palestinians and Israelis could play shish bish (bat gammon) together instead of fighting”. He said that Arabs, especially Palestinians and Iraqis, are a thorn in the throat of America because they refuse to silently comply with the U.S. agenda. This is why the U.S. is so aggressively trying to smash their resistance, and losing.

Recently, Israeli soldiers have been erecting a temporary checkpoint at the entrance to Tuwani almost every evening. They stop and check Palestinians coming and going from Tuwani and monitor the traffic on the settler road. If a driver looks even remotely Arab, they make them pullover and show their ID. We have been monitoring this checkpoint, and the soldiers tell us they’re looking for “terrorists” on the settler road. “Settler terrorists too?” we ask, but get no answer. Yesterday, instead of the normal armored jeep or hummer, the soldiers had a snazzy new silver 4X4. They blared Tupac (an American gangster rapper) from their fatty sound system as they stopped cars. They made the first two CPTers who approached sit far away, but Diane and I walked up and sat right next to them. “You can’t be there” he told us, “move up there with your friends”. “But I wanna hear TuPac” I said, and began dancing to the groove. They all laughed and didn’t know what to do, so Diane and I just sat down and stayed until they left. It was quite funny to see these young armed men trying not to dance to the sick beat, and failing.

Everyone is worried about the upcoming business in Gaza. It is certainly obvious that it is a distraction and will have no real effects, other than to further fortify the Gaza prison camp and legitimize settlement expansion in the West Bank. However, it is likely that whacko West Bank settlers will use the “pull-out” as an excuse to escalate attacks against Palestinians. We are prepared for the worst, and I will keep you updated.