Hello From Palestine
Hello Everyone, I am writing you from East Jerusalem, and I will soon be heading out to the West Bank to participate in the International Solidarity Movement 2005 Olive Harvest Campaign. I intend to stay here through the Olive picking season and hopefully for another two months until my visa runs out! Any donations would be greatly appreciated and would go a long way towards ensuring my stay here, so please contact me and I'll let you know where to send them! I am working with Internationals from around the world as well as many Israeli peace activists from a number of different groups, and our presence makes a huge difference in the lives of the Palestinians that we work with. With the recent holiday the picking season was temporarily delayed, but now it is back on schedule and people are needed to help the Palestinians reach and pick their olive trees. I have been here about a week and have participated in one demonstration so far, in the village of Bi'lin, which is located near the city of Ramallah. It is one of the many villages in the region which is being affected by the construction of the Apartheid Wall, with its lands being confiscated, trees uprooted, and daily life disrupted by army incursions and arrests. In the past weeks, approximately 14 villagers have been arrested, all at night and many as young as 14. Please check the ISM web site for the relevant press releases;
http://www.palsolidarity.org/
http://www.mac.com//redirect/http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/category/press/ http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/category/bilin/
This Friday's demo went well, with relatively little violence from the soliders, which is a change from the norm in the past months. Hoepfully I will be able to return to Bi'lin for another demonstration, but now Internationals are needed elsewhere. There are so many things that I would like to tell you about; I was here two years ago, when the wall construction was begun, and I cannot tell you how much worse things look now. At Qalandia refugee camp near Ramallah, the wall has altered the very physical landscape to the point that it was almost unrecognizable; it was like a scene from a George Orwell production of The Lorax or something, and yet another example of US tax dollars at work. But, that said, the spirit of the Palestinians to resist and keep living on their land is undiminished, and even grown stronger. Despite being unreported in the mainstream media, the last two years has seen inspiring non-violent resistence in the villages and cities affected by the wall, such as Budrus, Biddu, Bi'lin and many more. I was here two years ago when many of these villages began their protests and demos, and I look forward to participating in more during the coming months, and reconnecting with many of the Palestinans, Internationals and Israelis that I met and worked with in the past.I will try and send out regular reports and document the trip as best I can, as soon as I get a web presence worked out, I will let you know. thanks again & feel free to let me know how you're doing!
"For Israel is creating a kind of schizophrenia in world Jewry. In the outside world the welfare of Jewry depends on the maintenance of secular, non-racial pluralistic societies. In Israel, Jewry finds itself defending a society in which mixed marriages cannot be legalized, in which non-Jews have a lesser status than Jews, and in which the ideal is racial and exclusionist. Jews must fight elsewhere for their very security and existence against principles and practices they find themselves defending in Israel." -I.F. Stone
"There's nothing you can do about the fence," concludes Awad, sounding acquiescent. "Look, for 40 years the settlers lived in Gaza, Israeli soldiers lost their lives for them, and all of a sudden the new man of peace, Ariel Sharon, arrives and within a minute orders them to leave. Sharon decided, and the entire Yesha Council (which represents the settlers of Judea, Samaria and Gaza) can't hold him back. If Sharon decided on a fence - and on us, the Palestinians, whom you rule through the army and not through laws - who can hold him back? Even if we fight the fence, the struggle will eventually become a losing battle. I don't expect anything from Abu Mazen; everything is decided by the Knesset. Abu Mazen is smart, because he understands the situation. He understands he has no power." -Omar Awad, resident of Nahalin, near Bethlehem, Occupied Palestine
http://www.palsolidarity.org/
http://www.mac.com//redirect/http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/category/press/ http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/category/bilin/
This Friday's demo went well, with relatively little violence from the soliders, which is a change from the norm in the past months. Hoepfully I will be able to return to Bi'lin for another demonstration, but now Internationals are needed elsewhere. There are so many things that I would like to tell you about; I was here two years ago, when the wall construction was begun, and I cannot tell you how much worse things look now. At Qalandia refugee camp near Ramallah, the wall has altered the very physical landscape to the point that it was almost unrecognizable; it was like a scene from a George Orwell production of The Lorax or something, and yet another example of US tax dollars at work. But, that said, the spirit of the Palestinians to resist and keep living on their land is undiminished, and even grown stronger. Despite being unreported in the mainstream media, the last two years has seen inspiring non-violent resistence in the villages and cities affected by the wall, such as Budrus, Biddu, Bi'lin and many more. I was here two years ago when many of these villages began their protests and demos, and I look forward to participating in more during the coming months, and reconnecting with many of the Palestinans, Internationals and Israelis that I met and worked with in the past.I will try and send out regular reports and document the trip as best I can, as soon as I get a web presence worked out, I will let you know. thanks again & feel free to let me know how you're doing!
"For Israel is creating a kind of schizophrenia in world Jewry. In the outside world the welfare of Jewry depends on the maintenance of secular, non-racial pluralistic societies. In Israel, Jewry finds itself defending a society in which mixed marriages cannot be legalized, in which non-Jews have a lesser status than Jews, and in which the ideal is racial and exclusionist. Jews must fight elsewhere for their very security and existence against principles and practices they find themselves defending in Israel." -I.F. Stone
"There's nothing you can do about the fence," concludes Awad, sounding acquiescent. "Look, for 40 years the settlers lived in Gaza, Israeli soldiers lost their lives for them, and all of a sudden the new man of peace, Ariel Sharon, arrives and within a minute orders them to leave. Sharon decided, and the entire Yesha Council (which represents the settlers of Judea, Samaria and Gaza) can't hold him back. If Sharon decided on a fence - and on us, the Palestinians, whom you rule through the army and not through laws - who can hold him back? Even if we fight the fence, the struggle will eventually become a losing battle. I don't expect anything from Abu Mazen; everything is decided by the Knesset. Abu Mazen is smart, because he understands the situation. He understands he has no power." -Omar Awad, resident of Nahalin, near Bethlehem, Occupied Palestine
posted by Jontheantizionistjew at 11:06 PM
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