60 minutes: the West Bank

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"Gift to Israel" a letter from a Jewish American friend

I am sitting in an internet cafe in Beirut trying to concentrate, but
I just can't. There are hundreds of heartbreaking emails to read
through, each one worse than the last. The carnage did not stop with
the so-called "ceasefire" (I use quotations because the slow massacre
of starving an entire population of basic human necessities --
sufficient food, water, medical supplies, heat -- continues). Everyday
on television we watch new bodies being dug out of the rubble. And now
that a few international reporters and humanitarian workers have been
allowed into Gaza, we hear more of the
stories that had previously been left untold.

I received the following letter written by my friend Barbara Lubin, a
Jewish American woman who founded the Middle East Children's Alliance,
a great organization to contribute to if you can
(www.mecaforpeace.org). Her account turned my stomach:

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

January 23, 2009
Dear Aamir,
I entered the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night with my friend and fellow
activist Sharon Wallace after waiting ten hours at the Egypt/Gaza
border. The destruction and trauma is even greater than I expected.
...
Out of all the devastation I have seen so far, there is one story in
particular that I think the world needs to hear. I met a mother who
was at home with her ten children when Israeli soldiers entered the
house. The soldiers told her she had to choose five of her children to
"give as a gift to Israel." As she screamed in horror they repeated
the demand and told her she could choose or they would choose for her.
Then these soldiers murdered five of her children in front of her. The
concept of "Jewish morality" is truly dead. We can be fascists,
terrorists, and Nazis just like everybody else.
...
In Zaytoun, I saw families gathering wood from charred trees. The
almost two-year blockade of Gaza has deprived people cooking gas, so
these terrified families build fires to keep warm and cook the little
food they can get. I talked to people on the street who told stories
of wild dogs coming to eat their dead neighbors, relatives bleeding to
death because Israel would not allow emergency workers into the area,
and Israeli soldiers entering homes to beat and kill.

But despite the immense mourning and devastation, people are starting
to put their lives back together. Sabreen, a young woman from Rafah,
told me, "We are a strong people. No matter how many times Israel
bombs us we are not leaving. We will keep trying to live as normal a
life as possible."

Sincerely,

Barbara Lubin
Gaza City, Gaza, Palestine

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

I was invited for dinner tonight by the president of a theological
school here in Beirut, who offered me a place to stay. She didn't seem
to want to talk about politics, but when I showed her my book she
looked at me and said "As a person of the scriptures, I was convinced
that the Jewish state must have some ethical grounding, for all its
faults... Until 2006. Until that summer when Israel bombed everything
in sight, and dropped 1,200,000 cluster bombs (authorized by
Condoleezza Rice) after -- AFTER! -- the ceasefire agreement. Just
yesterday a young man's leg was blown off by one of them, one of
millions that remain. And after watching the massacres in Gaza, I have
no more faith in the morality I so closely tied with Judaism."

I came to Syria and Lebanon worried that anyone I told I was Jewish
would be resentful, or even violent. But each person I tell seems
almost relieved to meet a Jewish person opposed to what Israel is
doing, wanting to revive their hope that Jews, Muslims, and Christians
can coexist. The problem is not that people here hate Jews; the
problem is the army of fighter jets bearing Jewish stars, claiming it
represents Judaism, repeatedly devastating children, families, an
entire nation, decade after decade, while most Jews (and others) in
the world let it happen without a peep. The problem is that I myself
am starting to wonder what it even means to be Jewish if the morality
and memory ("Never again") that tied me to it is now gone.

Something has happened since my last trip less than two years ago. In
the West Bank last month, formerly active friends told me to go home,
get a new job, start a family, forget about Palestine because there's
no hope. People seemed so tired, at the end of their rope, and this
was before the Gaza bombing started. People in Gaza were at the end of
their rope 18 months before, when their most basic needs were cut off
and they were encaged, left to waste away and fight amongst
themselves. How much can a person take?

I do not have the resilience to even bear one more month here. I am so
drained, so pained, and of course I have the luxury of being able to
buy a ticket and leave whenever I want. It's fitting that Beirut will
be one of my last stops. Here a city, devastated by war after war,
continues to rebuild itself, like the rest of Lebanon and like Gaza.
Beirut nightlife buzzes around me as I write, and I have to believe
that if the millions of Lebanese and Palestinian people repeatedly
traumatized in this war-torn land have pulled themselves together to
rebuild and look to a better future, then I'll manage to as well.

In solidarity with those who have lost their homes and families,

Anna Baltzer
Beirut, Lebanon

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

Shopping in Peshawar

saas aur bahu go shopping in Sadar Bazar. Peshawar

sights and sounds of Johar Abad, Pakistan

Looking for street kids!

Dear Friends,

Many of you wrote about child labor issue, thank you! The verdict is unanimous - it is child abuse! I accept your chiding humbly, be it implicit or explicit. The matter does not end there though. The question is what can we do as individuals to change the situation, and do the poor bear any responsibility for their condition?

My grandmother was unlettered and a poor person but she knew the value of education and took pains to educate my father and his two younger brothers. Most of their children now are educated. If we are not rich, it is not due to a lack of education.

Looking for street kids.

Tarbela colony, about hundred kilometers west of Islamabad , was established by Italians when they built the Tarbela Dam on the Indus River during 60s and 70s. After completion of the dam the Italian left and the colony came under the control of Pakistani WAPDA – Water And Power Development Authority.

Now populated by the employees of WAPDA, the colony is a very quiet place with wide roads and secluded generally single family one story houses. Because my sister, Khalida, teaches in a WAPDA high school, she inherited the house when my father retired from his WAPDA job. The point I am trying to make here is that only employees of WAPDA live here and there are no slums inside the colony where you could find street kids. To find children who don’t go to school, you have to go to the neighboring areas outside the colony.

A few months prior to my coming to Tarbela Khalida had accompanied a friend to a nearby slum in search of a baby. Because she couldn’t have her own, she thought she could just walk in a poor house and buy a baby. Needless to say, no mother or father parted with their baby because they were poor.

During their visit Khalida spotted some kids who weren’t in school. One boy name Salah wanted to learn to read and write and was keen on going to school but one girl did not want to go to school, the rest were too young to know. Before returning Khalida had managed to get cell # of someone from Salah.

Khalida and her friend did not know where they were going. They had gotten on a bus and got off when they saw some tents near the road, they don’t even know the name of the place. Khalida did get in touch with cell owner and gave him some money from the childless friend for the children.

When I was in Tarbela we got in touch with the cell owner again. He had moved away but promised to find out if the children are still there and if there is some one we could talk with. Since it is a far away place that involves going to Ghazi - a town outside Tarbela, getting on the bus and going for half hour ride, we need some one local who could take charge of day to day activity. We are still working on it.

Meanwhile, Seemab, Noshi – khalida’s daughter in law and I came to Lahore to see my brother who was on a very short leave from his navy job. Khalida joined us later for summer holidays

June 13.

There was quite an excitement this morning. An eight year old boy came to our house and asked for some food, Khalida asked him to come in and do some chores and earn his keep. After hesitating a bit he not only came in but brought three other boys ranging in age from 5 – 7. They said they were related but the exact relationship was not clear. I was called to talk to boys in order to find out where they lived and if they go to school.

It turned out that they were professional beggars, lived by the ganda nala (dirty creek a kinda big open sewer) and none went to school, except the oldest boy went to mosque to learn to read the Qur’an. We wanted to go to their homes and speak with parents and explore the possibility of starting some kind of education program. But they were hesitant, probably because it would interfere with their full days earning which comes to 400 – 500 rupees and they divide it among themselves. One boy’s mother also begged and another’s worked as a cleaner in people’s houses.

After conferring with each other the boys promised to comeback in the evening and show us where they live. We are still waiting for them.

In the evening Khalida along with Seemab went to Walton to see her in-laws. Asma, my youngest sister and her daughter, Nayab, and I decided to go to ganda nala and look for huts or tents where we might find those or other poor kids.

Asma took us through inside streets that I had never seen before except one area called kakkay zayi, looked familiar. I remembered that area from my previous visit to Lahore . While walking through the Awan Town bazaar I stepped into a side street and after a block or so away ended up in a place that seemed to belong to another era. There was a big empty lot where children were playing in and around garbage with fly infested stagnant water in the middle of the lot. Walking a little further I ended up what seemed like a quant little town with mud huts and multiple houses in a compound.

I remembered I was quite disturbed to see all that filth just a block away from the bustling and rather affluent Awan Town . I tried to enquire from a seemingly educated adult who that land belonged to and what if any thing can be done about cleaning it. He was sympathetic and promised to look into it. I don’t know what became of it.

On one side there was a tent, I don’t recall how I ended up inside it. The family man was sick but he did put up a snake charming show for me which I have some where reorded on my camcorder. Any way, we walked for at least 45 minute to get to ganda nala; we found no huts, tents or kids.

The quest to find the street kids continues....

p.s. i'd have like to respond to each of your comments individually but the internet and power supply is such that it is not possible. even now i am afraid whether this message will go thru before the power goes off

My Week in Pakistan

June 1, 2008
It has only been a week since I landed at Islamabad airport but it feels as if I have been here forever.

After spending Sunday and Monday in Islamabad at my aunt’s house I came to Tarbela, about 120 km from Islamabad, accompanied by Farrukh, my cousin and Akif, my nephew.

My aunt has two live in maids/servants; one is just a child of 9 or 10. I kept thinking of all the discussions we had in Peoria about child labor and sweat shops. Is this a kind of child abuse?

The child, Sanya, does not go to school, but it is not so unusual in this country. I asked my aunt if any attempt is being made to educate her. I was told the girl is not interested in education. She did not go to school before coming to Islamabad . But my aunt is trying to teach her to read the Qur’an. Even that is a struggle.

I am also told that two of Sanya’s sisters – one younger and one older – are in my aunt’s older daughter’s employ. Before we pass any judgment whether this is a child abuse, lets look at the situation.. The parents are poor and uneducated. the girls are provided room and board and parents receive monthly stipend for their wages. If these girls were not employed at my aunt’s house they probably would end up in some other household. It is unlikely they’ll be better off.

In Tarbela Khalida, my sister and her daughter, Seemab, are winding down their school year. On Friday evening we all went to their last of weekly women’s Qur’anic session. There were three of them, my sister, her daughter and another woman, taking turns reciting the ayas and explaining what they meant to about 20 women of all ages to an audience of 25 women ranging in age from ~12 to 50+. It was quite impressive how keen the women were interested in listening to a different kind of interpretation of the Qur'an.


Today, sunday Khalida, Farrukh and i are going to Peshawar, the big city closest to Afghanistan border. Seemab could not join us. I'll write about our visit to Peshawar another time