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AL-KHALIL (HEBRON) REFLECTION: Preparing children for peace

Dec 3rd, 2010
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CPTnet Volume 36, Issue 3
A newsletter written by members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams

This autumn, a local businessman alerted three CPTers to the presence of a group of soldiers outside the Ibrahimi School, located in the heart of the Old City.

Upon arrival, the school principal informed CPT that a settler boy, around seven years old, had accused two Palestinian boys from the Ibrahimi School of throwing a rock at him.  Soldiers wanted to enter the school with the settler child to identify and arrest the Palestinian boys, and the school principal responded by saying they would first need to get
permission from the Palestinian Minister of Education.

Over a period of three hours, fifty Israeli soldiers, twenty settlers and Israeli police gathered outside the school. When the Palestinian Ministry of Education told the soldiers that they could not enter the school, the Israeli army disregarded his decision and entered the school with the settler boy in tow.

Two Palestinian boys under the age of eighteen were arrested in front of their peers and taken to the local police station. The Israeli army and police informed the Minister of Education that these arrests were necessary for “maintaining the peace,” because the group of settlers gathered outside the school had threatened to remain and harass the school
children if the police did not arrest the Palestinian boys.

Over the years, people on the Hebron team have witnessed settler children attack Palestinian children many times, and to the best of our knowledge, no police officer has ever taken a Palestinian child into an Israeli school to point out his/her attackers.  Indeed, when adult Palestinians and internationals provide documentation of settler children attacking Palestinian children and adults, police and soldiers usually dismiss them rudely.

The Ibrahimi School incident not only shows the lack of impartiality on the part of the police, but also that settler accusations supersede preserving the educational environment of Palestinian children.

The entry of soldiers into educational institutions signifies to children that schools are not safe places for them, thus creating further barriers to education.

The young settler boy that made the rock throwing accusation was prompted by his father and other adult settlers to demand entry into the Ibrahimi School during school hours. Settler adults brought a number of settler children with them to the school and refused to obey the soldiers instructions for children to leave the scene.

Children need safe environments where they can learn and grow. Unfortunately, what CPT observes here in Al-Khalil is that children, both Palestinian and Israeli, are not being brought up in a spirit of love or respect for others.

The Israeli authorities in this area are not preparing children for a life of peace, tolerance, and equality — a life that all children deserve.

For footage of the Ibrahimi school incident, click here

Innocents’ Rights

Nov 19th, 2010
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BY: MUNA NU’MAN

In May 2003, the Israeli occupation forces imposed a curfew on my village.  The curfew continued for several days, they didn’t allow us to go anywhere.  There was a food shortage, people needed essential things like bread, vegetables and milk for the children.

While this was happening, the schools where my sons and daughter attended were still open in a village nearby.  I decided to take them to school, a huge risk because of the curfew.

The Israeli tanks stopped opposite to our house because it was closest to the area that wasn’t under curfew and siege.  When the tanks went away, I took my sons and daughter to school.

They had a typical school day, as they had experienced before the siege.  At the end of the day we bought some food, and began walking home.

When we approached our neighborhood, it was imperative for us to go through wheat fields instead of going through the street that leads to our house. We walked into the field, but the Israeli soldiers saw us from their tanks.

They turned their machine guns toward us.  We felt so scared and frightened, we didn’t know what to do.

I didn’t have time to think.  I asked my children to lie on the ground under the wheat spikes.  We began to crawl while the bullets were going over our heads.  We were calling out to God to bless our lives.  Despite the scorching sun, we continued crawling until we reached the edge of a lemon and orange orchard.

We remained there for about two hours.  We were very tired and hungry and had only oranges to eat.  We finally heard the tanks leaving our neighborhood to return to the nearby Israeli settlement.  We quickly began to run out of the field.

We ran to our village and when we reached the main street, I found my husband and the Red Cross waiting there.  They all thought that they wouldn’t find us alive because witnesses told them that a woman with three children were stuck in the gun fire.

For us as Palestinians, this danger is a daily routine.  All of us hold our lives in our hands, not knowing what destiny awaits.

A 10-minute inspection added four months to education

Nov 18th, 2010
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BY: ALI ABU TAYEH

In one semester during my study at the university in the West Bank, I had three consecutive exams.  On the first exam day as I was going to the university, I faced a very hard army checkpoint.

It was very crowded and the people were waiting in very long line.  People had to pass one-by-one, and I knew it would take me a long time to pass. That meant I’d may be late to the exam.

So, I tried to avoid the checkpoint by walking through the mountains.  I was caught by Israeli soldiers and I explained to them that I have a final exam but they did not care. They didn’t let me return home and they forced me back to the crowd, so again I had to wait for my turn to pass.

I reached the university too late and missed the exam.  The same thing happened on the way back home. I waited to pass for a long time and I reached home late. I didn’t have enough time to study for the exam the next day.

As a result of all this, I had to register the two courses again and delay my graduation for 4 months just because of a ten minute inspection.

I was disappointed and got angry, although I knew that others had suffered much more than me. Some have lost their lives because of checkpoints that prevented them from arriving at hospitals in time. Many women have been forced to give birth at the checkpoints.   They are the most difficult tragedy for us.

Freedom rally in Nablus, 9/29/10

Sep 29th, 2010
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When I hear the cadence of a drum squad, my heart skips a beat remembering my days in marching band at Dallastown High School. I loved marching through the parking lot to the football field to the beat of the school’s cadence.

Today, while walking through downtown Nablus, I heard the enticing sound of drums coming from the main square. I quickly changed my afternoon plans and hastened to the square, where I found myself in the midst of a Freedom Rally. Everyone was holding signs protesting Palestinian imprisonment in Israeli jails.

Children from many different schools were marching around the square in their uniforms. Mothers held framed photographs of their imprisoned sons. Music played and a stage hosted a few speakers. Downtown Nablus was packed like figs in a basket and the place was thumping with energy.

As I weaseled my way through the crowd to capture videos, I noticed something different about the subjects of my photos. Usually people give me strange looks when I ask to make a video of them. Sometimes they ask, “why?” Today, the women holding Palestinian flags and photographs of their sons looked me in the eye and nodded, as if to say what many in Nablus have said before, “Take this photo and show it to everyone you know.”

Please watch the video clips from the rally in Nablus today.

The walls are closing in

Sep 26th, 2010
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Today I sat in an auditorium full of Nablusi’s and Internationals, all watching the film To Shoot an Elephant, about the Israeli siege on Gaza. To my right, was my friend Ayyash, an activist who lives in Balata Camp. He translated some things for me and, having seen the movie a few times before, predicted some of the most horrific scenes as I shook with tears.

Watching a movie about Gaza while in the West Bank is surreal. The Palestinians sitting next to me cannot go to Gaza, and it would be extraordinarily difficult for me to get in. They are blocked by highways they cannot use, randomly erected checkpoints, machine guns wielded by 18-year-old Israeli’s with dreadlocks, an enormous wall, an identity card that clearly delineates where they are and are not allowed to go.

Today Netanyahu announced that the moratorium on settlement building would not be extended. I heard Palestinians talk about whether this would bring a third intifada. I heard about escalated violence. I felt the walls surrounding the people I love close around us.

Their land has slowly been taken away for years. My country has helped fund this. And now, though America is the top funder of the Israeli occupation, we seem to believe we can lead peace talks between Israel and Palestine.  I wait in anticipation from the West Bank.

I have witnessed the occupation.

Palestinians have a different colored license plate than Israeli’s. The white plates can only drive on designated roads. The yellow plates can go anywhere. This is an occupation.

The other evening my friend pointed out the Mediterranean Sea in the distance. “We cannot go there, of course,” she said. Another friend remembered going there back in 1998. Though it’s about 2 kilometers away, Palestinians do not have access to the coast. This is an occupation.

I went to dinner at a friend’s house and watched olive trees burn. Settlers had set fire to them. The Israeli army drove by and did nothing. This is an occupation.

Since I’ve been here, four residents of Iraq Burin, a village a few minutes from Nablus, have been arbitrarily arrested. Two of them young men, and two of them village council members. The people in this village are farmers. They have lived there for years. Israeli’s have stolen their land, burned their trees, and recently killed two of the young men in the village (16 and 19).  This is an occupation.

One of my 16-year-old students was late for class because a surprise checkpoint was erected on the way from her home to school. This is an occupation.

Yesterday my boyfriend had to run away from soldiers. This is an occupation.

One of my friends was arrested last week for being affiliated with Hamas. He’s in a PA prison in Nablus, but I don’t know when he’ll get out. Maybe, hopefully, in a few days. This is an occupation.

Messages to America

Sep 25th, 2010
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During the last three months, I taught a Spoken English class for adults who teach English to young people in Nablus and the surrounding villages.  During the class, we had intense debates, told jokes and shared stories about our families and life experiences, from the loss of our parents and grandparents to personal stories about the occupation.

I once asked my class, what, in their opinion, I can do to help make a change for Palestinians.  They all responded with the same answer.  They all said that I should share the stories of the Palestinian people.

Today we had our last class and I asked them each to write a message to those reading this site.

Here are their messages to you.

  • Hello friends,

I don’t know you individually and you don’t know me myself, but my short message for you is this.

Let politicians work in policy, this is their job, and let the world love its people.  We are two different groups of people but we share in our feelings of humanity.  We are all human and we should do our jobs for the world.  Give love, peace, happiness and hope toward humans, since we are not strangers who came from space or Mars.  My message for you, in brief, is this, “Warm words don’t cost much yet they accomplish a lot.”  We try to heal our wounds and pain from the occupation, especially Palestinian, Iraqi and Afganistani people.  So, we people have to like each other apart from politics since politics is a bad game.

All Palestinians love you and send their regards.

-Nisreen Ghanem

  • Dear Americans,

Freedom started from where you are and then spread to the whole world.  Americans are well known for freedom and equality.  No country is still under the occupation except for Palestine.  We trust the American people, that they can do something to help us get rid of the occupation.

A Palestinian,

-Mahmoud Bsharat

  • A message to America.

I hope you will treat all the citizens of the world the same.  Don’t humiliate people politically, then give them aid.  Please try to change your political policies around the world.  Life isn’t eternal, so make people happy.

-Muna Numan

  • Dear Americans,

I hope that you never experience being under an occupation as we are.  I hope you know the truth about our issue and I wish for you to come to my country to see and judge for yourselves.  I wish you won’t take any side, just be a fair judge.

I hope you won’t suffer as we do.

-Hasan Ali

  • A Message to the American people.

I am so happy to have this opportunity to write to you.  First of all, I would like you to know that we, the Palestinian people, are not terrorists. On the contrary, we are a peaceful and social nation.  We like foreigners, but our case is like that of any other occupied nation whose land is taken by strange people who don’t have the right to it.  We don’t want any financial help from anyone, but we only want your empathy and support.

-Samah Tuffaha

A few of the articles students’ chose for class discussions:
Liberating America From Israel, by Former Congressman Paul Findley
The Real Cost of US Support for Israel – $3 Trillion, by Christopher Bollyn
US hails ‘constructive’ direct Middle East peace talks, BBC News
US Military Aid and the Israel/Palestine Conflict
Support builds for boycotts against Israel, activists say
If Americans Knew – statistics

The real image of the occupation

Sep 20th, 2010
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This piece was written by one of my Advanced English students in Nablus.

By MAHMOUD BSHARAT

This is what happened in 2003, during the Israeli-Palestinian classes (the second intifada).

My family and I were sleeping peacefully when we heard a very huge blast.  All the neighbors woke up and started calling each other on the phone, fearful that war had started.  Like all my neighbors, I opened the door to see what was going on.  I was astonished to see a thick cloud of dust next to my neighbor’s house.

We were very scared when we saw soldiers clapping, laughing and shouting, “We succeeded, we succeeded!”

We tried to look through the windows, but the soldiers started shooting.  We returned to our house in horror and waited until the withdrawal of the Israeli tanks and jeeps.

When they left, we went to see what happened.  The disaster was enormous.  The soldiers had demolished the neighbor’s house with explosives.  Most of the neighors’ houses had been damaged, either wholly or partially.  Only God prevented a true disaster, as all the surrounding houses were crowded and inhabited but the demolished house was empty.

My house is about 100 meters from the demolished house, but the intensity of the explosion threw the door of the neighboring home into my garden.  Imagine what would have happened if someone was in the garden.

I will never forget that experience.

I will never forgive the occupation.

How frightening that experience was!

How cruel the occupation is!

I hope we get rid of the occupation as soon as possible.

A tour of Al Fara’a prison

Sep 18th, 2010
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Saed Abu-Hijleh was a prisoner at Al Fara’a prison in the West Bank near Nablus.  He was there four times as a young man.  Join him on a brief tour of the prison, which is now a camp for kids.

For more information about Al Fara’a prison, check out Totem(s) Trope(s) by Michael Kennedy.