India’s Israeli-Arab Tightrope Walk

July 23rd, 2010 • News
Tags: arab, india, israel, palestine, politics, relations

India's President and Prime Minister meet Mahmoud Abbas

sify.com editor, Ramananda Sengupta, writes in Al Jazeera’s Focus:

“We do have a defence relationship with India, which is no secret. On the other hand, what is a secret is what is the defence relationship. And with all due respect, the secret part of it will remain secret.” – Mark Sofer, Israel’s ambassador to India, in a recent interview given to OutlookIndia.com.

India and Israel were born within months of each other. While the former became an independent state on August 15, 1947, the latter was born on May 14, 1948, following the decision of the United Nations to partition British Mandate Palestine.

India, which had opposed this partition, remained officially cold to the Jewish state. In May 1949, it voted (in vain) against the admission of Israel into the UN. In early 1950, after recognising the state of Israel, a visibly reluctant New Delhi allowed it to set up an “immigration office” in the port city of Mumbai. This eventually morphed into a “trade office” and then into a consulate.

But New Delhi dithered over according full diplomatic recognition to Israel until early 1992, when the two nations formally opened their respective embassies in Tel Aviv and New Delhi.

Read more at Al Jazeera…

People, Places, Perspectives.

July 23rd, 2010 • Events, News
Tags: amos trust, baptist, caversham, Centre, checkpoints, church, education, palestine, People, Perspectives, Places, Rev Jeremy Tear, sterile streets, west bank, Wi'am

We’d like to thank Rev Jeremy Tear for holding his talk “People, Places, Perspectives” on Wednesday in Caversham.

Rev Tear is the new Community Priest in Caversham and he recently visited West Bank and Jerusalem as part of an Amos Trust tour. The talk included a slideshow of maps and photos from his trip followed by a lively discussion where both sides were discussed. The event was well attended by parishioners from a number of local churches, Follow the Women and members of Reading PSC.

It’s always interesting to hear the firsthand experience of visitors to Israel/Palestine, you always hear something new. A few standout points from Jeremy’s talk:

• Checkpoints – The checkpoint that he went through looked like a “ferry terminal” where some 5,000 people pass through each morning. Members of his group saw  Palestinians from the West Bank starting to queue at 01:00hrs, and though the checkpoint was meant to open at 05:00hrs, it often did not.  It took him over an hour to make his way through the checkpoint and said that that was not the ‘rush hour’ when Palestinian men struggled to get through in time to get to work – thus the queuing at 01:00hrs. Jeremy likened the checkpoints to having Reading and Caversham bridge cut off and being forced to queue for hours to get into Reading.

• Zoughbi Zoughbi – a Palestinian Christian who operates the Wi’am Centre (conflict resolution center) in Bethlehem.

• Sterile Streets – Jeremy showed us photographs of “sterile streets” he saw. A “Sterile street” can be created by the Israeli military who can block off any street they choose using metal gates and barbed wire in order to stop people traveling through it. Obviously, if you live on that street you are suddenly unable to enter your own home through the front door and Jeremy showed us the picture of an aged Palestinian woman he met who could only get into her house by climbing a ladder in her neighbour’s back garden.

  We had trouble believing this, but here’s an article from February 2010 in which a Rabbi explains that on his visit to Hebron: “The Israeli military had designated the street we were walking a “sterile street,” a street on which only Jews can walk!  The Palestinians who lived on the street could not leave their homes through their front doors which were also bolted by the Israeli military.”

• Shunned – Jeremy also informed us that he was guided on his tour by a Jewish lady who had refused to serve in the Israeli military as a conscientious objector. This action had specifically limited her job prospects – it is hard to get a good job in Israel if you have not served in the IDF – and had caused her many in her family and Jewish community to shun her.

• Education – Israeli Jews have a separate education curriculum from non-Jewish Israeli citizens. So Jewish Israeli have one Biology lesson, and non-Jewish Israelis have a different lesson. Even the marking system is different, a Jewish Israeli receives 300 points for writing their name on an exam paper, whereas the non-Jewish Israeli receives on 200.

We hope to organise more events like this in future. If you know of venues or would just like to express you thank to Rev Tear, please make a comment below.

[Updated with corrections from Rev Tear]

NYT Op-Ed: Waiting for Gandhi

July 11th, 2010 • Action, Awareness, News
Tags: bilin, gandhi, india, new york times, Nicholas D. Kristof, non violent resistance, palestine, salt march, wall, west bank

Nicholas D. Kristof in the New York Times:

Waiting for Gandhi

BILIN, West Bank – Despite being stoned and tear-gassed on this trip, I find a reed of hope here. It’s that some Palestinians are dabbling in a strategy of nonviolent resistance that just might be a game-changer.

The organizers hail the methods of Gandhi and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., recognizing that nonviolent resistance could be a more powerful tool to achieve a Palestinian state than rockets and missiles. Bilin is one of several West Bank villages experimenting with these methods, so I followed protesters here as they marched to the Israeli security fence.

Most of the marchers were Palestinians, but some were also Israeli Jews and foreigners who support the Palestinian cause. They chanted slogans and waved placards as photographers snapped photos. At first the mood was festive and peaceful, and you could glimpse the potential of this approach.

But then a group of Palestinian youths began to throw rocks at Israeli troops. That’s the biggest challenge: many Palestinians define “nonviolence” to include stone-throwing.

Soon after, the Israeli forces fired volleys of tear gas at us, and then charged. The protesters fled, some throwing rocks backward as they ran. It’s a far cry from the heroism of Gandhi’s followers, who refused even to raise their arms to ward off blows as they were clubbed.

(I brought my family with me on this trip, and my kids experienced the gamut: we were stoned by Palestinian kids in East Jerusalem, and tear-gassed by Israeli security forces in the West Bank.)

Another problem with these protests, aside from the fact that they aren’t truly nonviolent, is they typically don’t much confound the occupation authorities.

But imagine if Palestinians stopped the rock-throwing and put female pacifists in the lead. What if 1,000 women sat down peacefully on a road to block access to an illegal Jewish settlement built on Palestinian farmland? What if the women allowed themselves to be tear-gassed, beaten and arrested without a single rock being thrown? Those images would be on televisions around the world — particularly if hundreds more women marched in to replace those hauled away.

“With nonviolent struggle, we can win the media battle,” Mr. Morrar told me, speaking in English. “They always used to say that Palestinians are killers. With nonviolence, we can show that we are victims, that we are not against Jews but are against occupation.”

Mr. Morrar spent six years in Israeli prisons but seems devoid of bitterness. He says that Israel has a right to protect itself by building a fence — but on its own land, not on the West Bank.

Most Palestinian demonstrations are overwhelmingly male, but in Budrus women played a central role. They were led by Mr. Morrar’s quite amazing daughter, Iltezam Morrar. Then 15, she once blocked an Israeli bulldozer by diving in front of it (the bulldozer retreated, and she was unhurt).

Israeli security forces knew how to deal with bombers but were flummoxed by peaceful Palestinian women. Even when beaten and fired on with rubber bullets, the women persevered. Finally, Israel gave up. It rerouted the security fence to bypass nearly all of Budrus.

The saga is chronicled in this year’s must-see documentary “Budrus,” a riveting window into what might be possible if Palestinians adopted civil disobedience on a huge scale. In a sign of interest in nonviolent strategies, the documentary is scheduled to play in dozens of West Bank villages in the coming months, as well as at international film festivals.

I don’t know whether Palestinians can create a peaceful mass movement that might change history, and their first challenge will be to suppress the stone-throwers and bring women into the forefront. But this grass-roots movement offers a ray of hope for less violence and more change.

Read the accompanying blog entry: Palestinian Civil Disobedience

Related: Times of India: Shades of Gandhi in Palestinian movement

Gandhi spoke at length about Palestine, this piece published in 1938:

The Jews In Palestine

By Mahatma Gandhi – Published in the Harijan – 26-11-1938.

Several letters have been received by me, asking me to declare my views about the Arab-Jew question in Palestine and the persecution of the Jews in Germany. It is not without hesitation that I venture to offer my views on this very difficult question.

My sympathies are all with the Jews. I have known them intimately in South Africa. Some of them became lifelong companions. Through these friends I came to learn much of their age long persecution. They have been the untouchables of Christianity. The parallel between their treatment by Christians and the treatment of untouchables by Hindus is very close.

Religious sanction has been invoked in both cases for the justification of the inhuman treatment meted out to them. Apart from the friendships, therefore, there is the more common universal reason for my sympathy for the Jews. But my sympathy does not blind me to the requirements of justice.

The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after return to Palestine.

Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood?

Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct. The mandates have no sanction but that of the last war.

Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home. The nobler course would be to insist on a just treatment of the Jews wherever they are born and bred. The Jews born in France are French in precisely the same sense that Christians born in France are French.

Read the rest at Countercurrents.org…

Gandhiserve.org has a full archive of his words on Palestine here…

Don’t forget the old joke:

Palestinian Joke #134

Question: Where can Israel find the Palestinian Gandhi?

Answer: Exactly where they put him, in administrative detention. (ie. Prison)

(via Mondoweiss…)

To End the Occupation, Cripple Israeli Banks

July 6th, 2010 • Action, Awareness, News
Tags: apartheid, banking, banks, belgium, boycott, israel, new york, palestine, sanctions, south africa

Terry Crawford-Browne on Sabbah Report recalls the banking sanctions against apartheid South Africa:

The international banking sanctions campaign in New York against apartheid South Africa during the 1980s is regarded as the most effective strategy in bringing about a nonviolent end to the country’s apartheid system.

The campaign culminated in President FW de Klerk’s announcement in February 1990, releasing Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners, and the beginning of constitutional negotiations towards a non-racial and democratic society.

If international civil society is serious about urgently ending Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights, including ending the occupation, then suspension of SWIFT transactions to and from Israeli banks offers an instrument to help bring about a peaceful resolution of an intractable conflict. With computerization, international banking technology has advanced dramatically in the subsequent 20 years since the South African anti-apartheid campaign.

Although access to New York banks remains essential for foreign exchange transactions because of the role of the dollar, interbank transfer instructions are conducted through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), which is based in Belgium. So, instead of New York — as in the period when sanctions were applied on South Africa– Belgium is now the pressure point.

Read the rest of the report here…

EVENT: July 21, CAVERSHAM: People, Places, Perspectives

July 1st, 2010 • Events, News
Tags: Holy Land Trust, ICAHD, israel, jeremy tear, palestine, People, Perspectives, Places, Sabeel, speech, talk

Reverend Jeremy Tear will be speaking about his recent trip to Palestine:

I have recently returned from  a 10 day study tour to Israel/Palestine with the Amos Trust meeting Christians, Muslims and Jews working for justice and peace including visits to the Holy Land Trust, ICAHD and Sabeel. I will be speaking about my trip at St.John’s Church in Caversham.

Event Details

Where? St John’s Church, Gosbrook Road, Caversham [map]

When? 7.45 pm Wednesday 21st July, 2010

All Welcome!

Read about Rev Tear’s previous visit in November 2006 here…

Eight Days in Palestine – Day 8

May 2nd, 2010 • Awareness, Film & Documentary
Tags: 8 days, checkpoints, diary, journey, liverpool, nablus, palestine, road trip, ted, west bank

A new feature with excerpts from a Diary by “Ted from Liverpool”.

Day 8 – Dead Sea to Tel Aviv Airport

This is about travel – we 4 men in a Ford Transit bus – the colour of licence plates identify the nationality of the driver, blue for Israeli, yellow or white for Palestinians. This makes all vehicles readily identifiable to the police and army. When we were nearing the Dead Sea, 400 metres below sea level, we were overtaken by an unmarked car, executive class, something like a Vauxhall Omega. This car pulled in, in front of us, and we then proceeded at a more leisurely pace behind the car and a large goods vehicle in front of that. We were late and our driver saw an opportunity to overtake and did so – we could see it was a bit dodgy as the road unaccountably narrowed just then – but he did it. The driver of the unmarked car, which turned out to be an Israeli policeman, overtook us and flagged us down. Our driver got out and having spoken to the policeman was fined 500 shekels.

This apparently is a routine procedure, not performed upon Israelis, perhaps part of the morale sapping routine – and the creation of income. Abed later asked for a whip round for the driver and we having put up 450 shekels suggested that the driver should pay something as he had been over-ambitious. Abed replied that the driver could ill afford even that and that his brother had been killed by the Israelis – so we put up the full amount, the equivalent of about £90 for a bit of dodgy overtaking.

The day was very warm, something like 350, and we much enjoyed our soak in the Dead Sea. Like an idiot Ted plunged into the sea and swallowed some water and got some in his eyes. I had never tasted anything quite so salty and the salt in my eyes was akin to teargas. Beth was kind enough to pour water from her bottle onto my forehead and this washed out the salt. The women had caked themselves in the mud from the sea bottom and they looked gorgeous – when I got the salt out of my eyes.

Back at Friendship House we were told to be ready to leave at 3.30 although the coach driver had wanted to leave for Tel Aviv at 3pm and was very restive, if not angry. It was clear why when we got to the town of Aizaria where the traffic snarl-up was horrendous – the result of a lack of traffic lights or any traffic control was very clear. However, with great skill, our driver who was also an ambulance driver (he also had been in prison) weaved his way through the traffic and across traffic lanes to find a quiet route and we arrived at Ben Gurion airport in good time.

It was fortunate that we were in good time as our passage through immigration was tortuously slow. In the initial queue we were each asked where we had been and where we had stayed and our passports temporarily taken away – our bags were then given a sticker. On arrival at the usual belt-drive through a scanner our bags went through and we followed them to a rectangular area of desks, inside which were an array of x-ray and other machines, with their operatives. Rob, who is tall and lean and 29 years old was told to put his bags on the desks when a lengthy period of taking out all his clothes, cameras and laptop followed. Ted put his bags on the desk but was told, ‘no need’. Apparently our stickers showed a number – in Ted’s case ‘2’ and in Rob’s case ‘6’. A minute search of all of Rob’s belongings ensued, followed by his being taken away for a strip search – down to his underpants – it took 2 hours from entry into the first queue to our sitting down to a coffee inside the airport. The women of our party fared even worse, all 14 of them – their ages ranging from 22 to 65 – were put through the same rigorous procedure as Rob, but in their case taking 2¾ hours; we later found they all had a ‘6’ sticker on their bags.

Why the rigour – in the case of Ted who got away scott-free, it may have been his age of 74 – in the case of Rob, well he was of an age and strength to be a terrorist? But was anyone less likely to be so than our group of women – they did go through as a group who had attended a Women’s Conference on the West Bank and this was perhaps their undoing. We two men had been told to have no connection with the women at the airport and had been careful not to claim to have stayed in the West Bank.

It was good to get on a BMI flight home and return to Heathrow with no fuss or harassment – but what an adventure.

Ted from Liverpool – A visit to the West Bank
1st November to 8th November 2009

Arranged by Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association

Eight Days in Palestine – Day 7

May 1st, 2010 • Awareness, Film & Documentary
Tags: 8 days, checkpoints, diary, journey, liverpool, nablus, palestine, road trip, ted, west bank

A new feature with excerpts from a Diary by “Ted from Liverpool”.

Day 7 – in Bil’in

Saturday 7th November 2009

Ted, representing Liverpool Friends of Palestine who are twinned with Bil’’in, together with Rob a photographer, Phil who represents a Harringey organization which is twinned with Aizaria and Jon who at his own expense has volunteered to teach English in Abu Dis for 3 months, left Al Sawya by taxi. We were hoping to catch the start of the protest demonstration which begins immediately after midday prayers each Friday. Although our taxi driver stopped at the previous village, thinking we had arrived he went into the mosque and stayed for prayers, we arrived at Bil’in in time and were immediately contacted by Sareem, who was to prove so helpful.

We joined the 200 or so marchers from all over the world but primarily Europe and Israel, with the majority of the rest being boys and young men from the village. It was half mile or so to the barrier which is not yet a wall.

Bil’in turned to the courts in the autumn of 2005. In September 2007, 2 years after they initiated legal proceedings, the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that due to illegal construction permits for part of the settlement Modi’in Illit, unfinished housing could not be completed and that the route of the Wall be moved several hundred metres west, returning 25% of Bil’in’s land to the village. To date, the high court ruling has been ignored – settlement construction continues and the barrier remains in place.

On 17 April 2009, Bassem Abu Rahme was shot in the chest by Israeli forces at the fence with a high-velocity teargas projectile. He subsequently died from his wounds, at a Ramallah hospital – we were later to find out much more of this incident.

On our way to the barrier fence, at the end of a rutted farm road, there is a flanking fence to the side and it was here that young village boys of 14 to 17 were hurling stones at the Israeli side, after cutting a large hole in the security fence. They were running into trees out of the path of the retaliatory tear gas being fired at them. They appeared to be very brave and this was to be the pattern for their elders who were at the gated entry through the fence at the end of our road.

Notwithstanding the repeated barrages of 7 or 8 grenades at a time Eyad, with a brother of Bassem who had been killed, was leading an attack on the barrier fence. They eventually cut through and pulled back the barbed wire and Eyad went through to the Israeli tar-macadammed road on the other side but shortly returned. Every so often 3 Israeli soldiers would come out onto this same stretch of road and return stones at the protestors – this semed to be more effective than the tear gas. We could hear and then see the grenades coming and could by and large step out of the way; the wind was blowing strongly towards the Israelis and as long as we stepped upwind most of us could avoid the tear gas most of the time. Each one of our party did get caught twice at least – tear gas is extremely effective and unpleasant in closing down one’s eyes and breathing; fortunately we got only a mild whiff but Eyad really caught a packet which put him out of action for 15 or so minutes, he then returned to the front line, calling on all to join him at the front fence.

The demonstration finished after about an hour at which time we all made the return to Bil’in. Sareem – Eyad’s second in command who had met us from the taxi and had been extremely solicitous and caring throughout, particularly for Ted’s welfare – took us to the Association’s HQ. Here Eyad was interviewing people and we were given facilities to clean up and given refreshment. We were introduced to their photo-journalist, Ashail Yusri, who began editing his video of the day’s event – for YouTube. Ted had been caught on this film three times and it is of interest to note that his daughter in Liverpool was able to see the edited version a few hours later – he only appears once on this edited version, at the end.

We later repaired to Eyad’s house where we met his family – his wife prepared lunch for the four of us. Ted handed over our contribution to the office expenses of the Association of Friends of Freedom and Justice – Bil’in and also bought some fine needlework for his colleagues in Liverpool; he understood that this had been made by Eyad’s wife and a colleague from the village. We also met the local school science teacher Al-Katib Haitham who runs the sports club, together with Eyad’s brother – all of whom made us extremely welcome.

We left at 4pm to visit a couple of homes, again led by Sareem, the first being a house which the Association lets out to visiting activists, mainly from other countries – this contains about 15 beds, complete with kitchen, living room and bathroom.

We then moved on through the village past the cemetery where Bassem had been buried , his grave being decorated with Palestinian flags and flowers which we photographed. We then moved on to the house of Bassem’s mother and family. Here we met two of his brothers and his mother, where we took mint tea. Rob our photographer recognised Bassem’s brother in his red tee-shirt; he had been prominent in the earlier demonstration. When Ted expressed some concern regarding this brother’s involvement, his mother – who did not speak English – merely lifted her thumb in a gesture of courage. We are forever being impressed by the Palestinians’ display of indominatable courage, from the teenagers and young men at the fence to their elders in the besieged towns and villages.- the Israelis will never conquer them.

Baseem’s mother and brother told us how Baseem, apparently a very big man in stature as well as in his nature, was much loved throughout the village. He was always at the forefront of the marches – which he insisted should be peaceful, with no stone throwing – and he spoke quietly to the IDF soldiers. They must have known him well and fired at him directly and deliberately.

We then returned to Eyad’s house, up the hill to get a taxi to Abu Dis. In a surprising gesture, the hawklike moustached younger brother of Baseem, who had been so prominent in his red tee-shirt, noticed Ted was walking with a little difficulty on the uneven pavement up the hill – he immediately took his arm and they walked together to Eyad’s home.

We then returned to Abu Dis to a much needed Saturday rest day. I am however typing the last 2 day’s reports here in the Friendship centre, in a now noisy atmosphere of a rehearsal. Teenage boys are rehearsing a song about the Palestinian troubles and the invasion of Gaza which they will sing in a Concert tonight – the tune is good and we hope they are successful in making it into a hit. We attended this concert, where the boys also performed the traditional ance we had seen in Asawya, which was held to mark the opening of a diabetes clinic – apparently diabetes is on the increase, thought to be as a result of stress.

Ted from Liverpool – A visit to the West Bank
1st November to 8th November 2009

Arranged by Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association

Eight Days in Palestine – Day 5 continued…

April 30th, 2010 • Awareness, Film & Documentary
Tags: 8 days, checkpoints, diary, journey, liverpool, nablus, palestine, road trip, ted, west bank

A new feature with excerpts from a Diary by “Ted from Liverpool”.

Day 5 – Arrival in Al Asawyia

Thursday 5th November 2009

We had a warm reception from the mayor of this small village at the local community centre/ council office – he was accompanied by other leading men and a group of women who had been involved in the twinning appeal. After a speech from the Mayor, translated by Abed, we retired for a meal and were then entertained to traditional Palestinian dancing, something akin to our Morris dancers. This was performed by eleven boys whose leader Isaac, a boy of about 14, performed with great skill and elegance in a routine of about 20 minutes. The tone was a little lowered when he invited Ted to join them in an intricate stick and arm routine.

The Mayor told us that the village formerly occupied an area of 11,500 dunums (3,000 acres) but more than one third of its farming land had been confiscated for settlements, Like Azzoum, this had also been an agricultural community, the main source of income being its olive and fig trees, renowned for decades

Further land (and produce), he said, has been destroyed – the settlements use it as a dumping ground for sewers and garbage –forming a health hazard.

Formerly recognized for its interest in education and farming, but relatively poor, because of its location far from major towns and cities and lack of industries, the confiscation of its farming land along with natural demographic growth had caused a severe rise in unemployment.

Afterwards we were again addressed by the village elders who spoke of the loss of land to the settlements and also how the IDF regularly entered their school to cause disruption, bringing trauma to the children and teachers also. On one occasion a teacher had been killed. After nightfall, we went onto the roof of the Community building and were shown the brightly lit settlements which ringed the village

We stayed the night at the house of Arafat’s father, a local former landowner – a man in his late sixties. His wife told us of a harrowing experience at the hands of a security guard from one of the nearby settlements. She had gone with her daughter and donkey to their remaining olive grove (the bulk was on the wrong side of the settlement security fence) to gather in their olive crop. When the guard saw them he shouted at them to leave – the wife said it was their own grove and that they were entitled to be there. Nevertheless he went to them and ordered them again to go, whereupon the wife started to lead the donkey away – the guard then started to pull the donkey the other way. She still resisted whereupon he hit her with his baton and she fell to the ground where he then proceeded to kick her viciously. He left with the donkey and she has never returned to the grove.

This procedure seems to be a pattern with settlers on the West Bank – not content with illegally occupying the villagers’ lands – perversely preventing the Palestinian from utilizing those remaining lands which lie immediately adjoining the settlement fences.

This attack on the Palestinians appears, in microcosm, a replica of what seems to be the Israeli tactic of seeking to lower the morale and to break their spirit. In this they seem not to be succeeding in that perhaps shared adversity is strengthening the bonds which tie these villagers together – they are also much tied together by family relationships.

In the morning Mary and Karen, the Llanidloes ladies, with Ros who was to find a twinning village at Yatme, left to look more closely at the village and the two schools, together with Rob who would take further photos. The Mayor also wanted them to look at the 68 homes which the Israelis had scheduled for demolition – these plans are currently being resisted through legal action, although destruction of part of some of these homes has in fact commenced. One is occupied by a carpenter who makes goods for sale in his home – apparently IDF soldiers enter and break up these goods regularly. The reason for the demolition order is that these 68 houses have been built without building permission – notwithstanding demographic growth none has been given since 1992. This is an Israeli decision and if implemented will leave several hundred people homeless.

There are two schools – long established; we later saw, when leaving the village on the main road to Nablus, how the main gate approaches off this road had been bashed and padlocked by the authorities.

Jon and Ted went for a walk round the village which consists of widely scattered houses on these hillside sites and we were warmly met by Isaac and some other boys with whom Ted had danced their traditional Palestinian dance the previous evening.

We later made our way to the Council offices where Ted wanted to email the Arabic version of the Mayor’s address to Nahida for translation. However the offices were not open, it being their Sabbath. Whilst we sat outside we spoke with a man who had been collecting some litter in a bucket outside the newly built mosque which lay opposite. He told us he had been working in Kuwait for 20 years as a production manager and had returned 5 years earlier to live in the village and build his own house.

Opposite the mosque there was a fine looking stone faced house which belonged to his brother who was working in Saudi and behind which lay his own equally fine house; these were men who were of some substance and our new friend told us how he helped to build the mosque by bringing in the materials and also in organizing the work.

We also met a well dressed man, Abdulrahim Khalil, who told us he ran a ‘human rights and women empowering’ group in Ramallah.

We were later invited to a nearby house where the owner showed us a traditional bread oven in an outhouse and we then took tea with him and some of his neighbours. He also had worked abroad, as a tiler, and spoke good English. He had returned to the village to raise his 7 children, 4 of whom were at university, the eldest going on to train as an anesthetist. The fifth daughter was handicapped in that she was either deaf or dumb, I am not sure which, but who attended a special school in Ramallah. Her father proudly showed us her exam results for the year end, she being 16; her overall mark was 98% and her headmaster had written to say how exceptional were her results.

This man was very good company being resilient in the light of his troubles; he had damaged his back and could not work full-time – resulting in a much reduced income – his wife was in hospital, having lost a breast to cancer. Everywhere we went we were struck by the resilience and fortitude shown by all to the daily misery administered by the Israelis = in addition to the normal ups and downs of life. Perhaps his clever daughters, particularly the fifth, will in future keep him in the luxury which he presently does not have.

Another man joined us at this house, he had been successful in an import/export business until the 2nd Intafada – it was he who spoke of the Israeli down-grading of Nablus as the power-house of the West Bank

During the morning we left for Bil’in.

Ted from Liverpool – A visit to the West Bank
1st November to 8th November 2009

Arranged by Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association

Eight Days in Palestine – Day 5

April 29th, 2010 • Awareness, Film & Documentary
Tags: 8 days, checkpoints, diary, journey, liverpool, nablus, palestine, road trip, ted, west bank

A new feature with excerpts from a Diary by “Ted from Liverpool”.

Day 5 – Nablus to Al Sawya

Thursday 5th November 2009

We went to Nablus in the morning where we walked from the modern city centre into the old city. The whole economy of Nablus has been downgraded as a a result of Israeli action following the second intafada. Check points are positioned at every entry and exit point resulting in considerable delays to movement of traffic – added to check points all over the West Bank the result is a huge escalation of costs. The business man we later met in Al Sawya told us that what had previously cost 200 shekels to move could now cost up to 10 times as much. Nablus used to be the power house of the West Bank economy but is not now as effective – a deliberate ploy?

After the 2nd intafada, IDF soldiers took over the old town of Nablus, not with conventional street to street fighting but by entering a first house and then moving from house to house, blasting holes through separating party walls. Repair of the wanton destruction is ongoing even now; we visited a restored office building where the EU has committed funds to this restoration work

Unlike Hebron, the economy of the old city remains in far better shape with all the roadside stalls open and ready for business. There was a proliferation of vegetable and souvenir stalls and a turkish bath which we examined in some detail although we did not participate.

We then went to a media learning centre where the dynamic principal, who lived in the nearby refugee camp, his family having fled from Jaffa in 1948 and he still remained, spoke of the refugee problem generally and afterwards took us to the camp, where we walked through and saw something of the drab conditions they live under, with no amenities or green areas. There was one new building in the centre; some 6000 people live there but they have only just got their first school – paid for by the Norwegian government. The atmosphere throughout the West Bank seems characterized by rubble and rubbish – municipal authorities appear not to be interested in street cleaning.

After a very late lunch at a restaurant renowned from 1960 for its Nablus kunaffa, a mixture of fine ground wheat on a bed of cheese, topped with a sugar composition , we left for Al Asewyia a village whose people had recently invited twinning from a UK town.

Two ladies from Llanidloes in mid-Wales, accompanied by Ros, a Jewish supporter of Palestine from Hastings which was looking for a twinning opportunity, responded to the invitation. They had recently heard a disturbing lecture given by Ed Hill, a filmmaker from Bristol and ardent activist for Palestine. This had awakened them to the dire conditions under which Palestinians on the West Bank were living. The twinning host was Arafat, a photo-journalist, who gave us all a very warm welcome and in whose house we stayed, 4 men and 3 women. It was his mother who had the distressing encounter with a settler described below.

Ted from Liverpool – A visit to the West Bank
1st November to 8th November 2009

Arranged by Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association

Eight Days in Palestine – Day 4

April 28th, 2010 • Awareness, Film & Documentary
Tags: 8 days, checkpoints, diary, journey, liverpool, nablus, palestine, road trip, ted, west bank

A new feature with excerpts from a Diary by “Ted from Liverpool”.

Day 4 – Hebron to Azzoun

Wednesday 4th November 2009

We went to Hebron in the morning, the second largest city after Jerusalem, there we walked from the city centre into the old city. Some 2 or 3 years ago BBC TV showed how militant Jewish settlers were taking over Palestinian homes whenever they were left unoccupied and were refusing to leave and were constantly intimidating their Arab neighbours.

This they seemed to do with impunity, being given the protection of IDF soldiers. Now this movement has resulted in virtually the whole of the old city being vacated by its original inhabitants (reduced from some 40,000 to 3 or 4,000) and 400 settlers moving in. Result – swathes of empty houses and the stalls lining the passageways vacant and shuttered, giving refuge to drug dealers and other criminals – Palestinian police are not allowed into the old city.

The 400 settlers are protected by Israeli Governmentt. and are guarded by some 4000 IDF soldiers who even accompany individual children to the shops – we understand that the soldiers regard themselves as Govt. appointed slaves.

The old city contains the Ibrahami Mosque/Cave of Machpela, dedicated to Abraham, the patriarch of both Arabs and Jews. In 1994 it was the scene of a massacre by a Brooklyn-born settler of 27 Muslims – the assassin is regarded as a hero, a tower has been built to his memory – he was killed by one of the faithful who had been at prayer. It is a major religious centre for both Jews and Arabs as well as Christians but it seems as if the Zionists want it for themselves. Abraham is believed to have bought his first piece of land in the Promised Land, here; it is revered by Muslims as the Ibrahami (Abraham) sanctuary.

Hebron is itself a busy and economically important city – we visited a glass blowing factory, very old established, where we bought a good deal of lovely glass and ceramic ware.

We left Hebron for Azzoun and met its civic leaders in their recently built municipal building which had been funded by the Japanese government. The deputy mayor welcomed us; in his speech he explained how 4 Israeli settlements had been built on the hills which surround the town; where previously the village stood on 24,000 dunams (5,000 acres), it was now reduced to 8K dunams, a third of the size. This has created mass unemployment in what had previously been an agricultural community and had also split the town into 2 villages with no access one to the other.

We then heard the horrific story, told by his brother, of a 14 year old boy. With 2 others, the three were confronted by settlers who bashed in his brother’s head with a stone, he was then kicked to death and the settlers took the body into their settlement. Three weeks later the boy was returned – his body had been cut open and then stitched up – all his organs had been removed. These ghastly crimes are committed with impunity, under the protection of the IDF – a microcosm of what Israel is doing in the occupied territories is done by the settlers from within their stolen land.

Following this meeting, we were taken to see the valley land between the town and the security fence of a settlement, on higher ground above the valley. It was a lovely warm and sunny day and under other circumstances idyllic – the fields were intensively cultivated, some with polytunnels and large pvc greenhouses We walked through this area to rougher higher ground as we approached the fence – here we came across the farmer who owned this land. He showed us a stream running down the hillside to the valley floor between his olive trees. The water looked clear and bright but it was the sewage run-off from the settlement and had not been fully purified. It had run into his well and polluted it to the extent that the Health Inspectorate had instructed that it had to be chlorine treated; 2 of the olive trees were dying and a large and very old tree was also in the danger area. The farmer told us how he believed this tree to have been planted by the Romans and although quite hollow was prolific in bearing fruit. He told us that his large olive grove, which his grandfather had planted some 60 years previously, now lay behind the settlement fence.

We then went to the other village, Dark Azzoum, against which a settlement has been built. This has meant that the village is itself surrounded by a fence and all who enter or leave have to pass through a rigorous check -point. We went in but had to get out of our bus and pass, 5 or 6 at a time, through a turnstile into the guardhouse. Here our passports were slowly examined and after scrutiny we were allowed through and the next 6 or so were let through. Eventually the bus and its driver came through (the Palestinians had to surrender their passes for the duration of the visit) and we drove to the other end of the village and then out by the way we came in, without alighting this time. This system applies to all the villagers – whilst the settlers drive through on their own road, without let or hindrance. It is a repressive, morale destroying world.

We had supper in Beit Leid in Sameer’s house. Lovely food, a mixture of onion and spices with chicken pieces (all cooked in olive oil) laid on 30 or so huge 80cm round platters of wonderful bread. His wife told us she had been up since 6am and had peeled 20kg of onions as well as making the bread for about 30 people. At 2pm she had completed her cooking. She is also chair of the local women’s association which makes the traditional needle/beadwork and she had then demonstrated to most of the women of our group the making of bead work and chaired a discussion of the local women’s day to day to day lives. The men (4 of us and our 3 guides) slept in Sameer’s brother’s house (he is away working in Saudi); Sameer also slept with us as his house was entirely given over to women. A quite exceptional couple.

Ted from Liverpool – A visit to the West Bank
1st November to 8th November 2009

Arranged by Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association