Experiencing Palestine

I arrived here in Haris in the West Bank , more than 2 weeks ago and it has been one crisis after another - life of an international volunteer in general is quite intense and hectic. Day or night we get calls from the villagers: the settlers have set trees on fire or the army is throwing stones at the Palestinians, etc.. sometimes we stay overnight with the families.

A full account of my travel and of goings on here will have to wait to wait for another time. here is a brief description of day to day activities.

September 16: travel from Pakistan to Amman via Doha ; crossing the border to Israel . spent a night with Dorothy and Eric, an Israeli family in Nof Yam, Herzeleah near Tel Aviv.

9/17 - Visited Eric's father, a holocaust survivor, in the cemetery. They drop me in Haris, Ellen from the US is home. Miriam from Germany is in Nil'in for a protest against building the electric fence (wall).

9/18 attend a Women for Life' (Palestinian women activists) meeting in Bidya, a town/village, not too far from Haris. Walk around a bit do some grocery and other shopping (things are very expensive; all transactions are in shaqals-the israeli currency).

9/19. demonstration against the wall in Bil'in (Bil'een). about 100 Palestinians and internationals walk to the electric wall, open the gate and wave Palestinian flag. Israeli army told people to disperse the spray water mixed with pepper spray from a truck, throw tear gas canisters all around.

9/20. Get a call there is a problem with settlers in Asira Al-Qibrya. On the way get another call there was a shooting. Abdullah meets us as we come in. briefly stop by his house to meet his mother and wife. Meet Israeli 'anarchists against the apartheid wall' in Jamal's house. Find out a boy of 14 - 15 was shot and died in the hospital. Details are sketchy and conflicting: he tried to stab a settler with a knife; was carrying a Molotov cocktail; he was going for a walk after the morning prayer; he was shot in the settlement; he was shot in the village, etc. Doctors for Human Rights are in town; go to the city council to attend their meeting. They are busy seeing the patients.

We are late for a prior appointment to meet with Burin mayor and other officials to discuss the olive harvest. They think presence of internationals aggravates the situation. So don't come to Burin.

9/21. Meeting in house about the goals and projects of iwps (International Women for Peace Service- the organization I am with). Miriam is Jewish from Germany . I say some thing casually about Zionists and Jewish lobby in the US . There is a big difference between her views and mine. Situation gets a little touchy - the meeting is a disaster, an uneasy truce.

9/22.a series of meetings with individuals and other organizations to plan for olive harvest - which farmer needs how many volunteers and when, etc.

A typical story:

Harb Suleiman and Walid Suleiman are Bedouin brothers we met at the Al-Hamra check point on Tuesday September 23, 2008. They live near the check point. Harb told us that about 15 days ago in the morning the Israeli soldiers came to their house and took their two water storage tanks. The reason they gave them was that their house is in the army closed area. Now the soldiers tell them they have to pay 11,000 shaqals to get their tanks back. The brothers do not have running water in or near their house. They have to haul water from some distance and store it in the thanks for the household consumption.

Fathy Khdairat belongs to Jordan Valley Solidarity. According to him OCHA will provide water on a temporary and emergency basis but will not allow a more permanent solution. According to Fathy there is enough money to pipe the water from Tammun to Atoof and Al-Hadiddya, the two Bedouin areas

(الطوف و الحديددية)
According Fathy Khdairat there are 36 settlements in Jordan Valley. They have all the water and electricity they need. But the Bedouins living in the area are not allowed to have water or electricity even when water is piped pass under and electric wires over their villages.

Michigan Peace team has written on the subject here

other sources of information on Palestine are Ma'an; ISM;

more later. I have posted some pictures of the events here, if you want to take a look.

ps. the Palestinians love me here because i am a Muslim and more because I am from Pakistan, perhaps the only one in this area