Blog 37

Final Blog

Tomorrow I catch the Service to the Allenby Bridge and on into Jordan – so

to all those that choose not to look the other way.

Best

G.


Some resources:-

Adalah – (http://www.adalah.org/eng/index.php)

An independent Israeli NGO helping Arab Israeli citizens achieve equal rights.

Addameer - (http://www.addameer.org/index_eng.html)

Based in Ramallah, an independent Palestinian NGO supporting political prisoners and works to end torture in the Occupied Territories.

Al-Haq - (http://www.alhaq.org/)

Based in Ramallah, Al-Haq was one of the first human rights organizations established in the Arab world.

Al-Muqtafi – (http://www.muqtafi.com)

Amnesty International - (http://www.amnesty.org/)


Arab Association for Human Rights –(http://www.arabhra.org/core/hcredu.htm)

Arab Human Rights Index – (http://arabhumanrights.org/en/)

B’Tselem - (http://www.btselem.org/English/index.asp)

B’Tselem is the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories and was established in 1989 by a group of prominent academics, attorneys, journalists and Knesset members. It endeavours to document and educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the Occupied Territories, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public and help create a human rights culture in Israel.

Birzeit University, Institute of Law –(http://lawcentre.birzeit.edu/)

Breaking the Silence - (http://www.shovrimshtika.org/index_e.asp)

Israeli soldiers who have served as part of the occupying force, speak out.

BDS – Boycott Israel - (http://www.bds-palestine.net/)

Practical steps anybody can take.

Human Rights Watch - (http://www.hrw.org/)

International Committee of the Red Cross - (http://www.icrc.org/eng)

Useful reports and legal resources.

Israel/Palestine Centre for Research and Information – (http://www.ipcri.org/)

IPCR is the only joint Palestinian-Israeli public policy thing-tank in the world, based in Jerusalem.

MidEast Web – (www.mideastweb.org/index.html)

MidEast Web was started by people active in Middle East dialog and peace education efforts. Their goal is to weave a world-wide web of Arabs, Jews and others who want to build a new Middle Ease based on coexistence and neighbourly relations. Their members and staff include distinguished educators, engineers, Web designers and other professionals experienced in dialogue, peace education projects and in promoting dialogue and coexistence using the internet.

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights – (http://www.pchrgaza.org/)

Gaza based organization which enjoys Consultative Status with the ECOSOC of the United Nations.

Rights International – (www.rightsinternational.org/)

Rights International Research Guide for International Human Rights Lawyers.

United Nations - (http://www.un.org/)

Useful reports, in particular see the Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Territories.

Blog 36

Return to Jenin –

Almond blossom, checkpoint hopping and an execution.

It’s 9.00 am in central Ramallah on a beautiful sunny warm day. I search for a Service that will take me back to Jenin, the most northerly and troubled West Bank town, and the place where the Occupation is probably its most brutal.

Jehan’s brother will meet me on arrival – it’s probably best not to arrive unknown and unannounced in Jenin – the IDF regularly sends in undercover execution squads so the locals can be cautious of strangers. I’m going to Jenin to interview AF who has recently been released from two and a half years of administrative detention.

As soon as the Service has its full complement of nine we ease through the bustling Ramallah streets and onto the highway north. Along the way we pass through four checkpoints and our ID’s are checked at one. “An Australian? Who's the Australian?” Asks the soldier. He comes up to my window and asks what I’m doing in the West Bank? “Oh, traveling around” I respond blandly. “Travel around Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, but why here, do you have family or friends here?” – “No”, I respond, “just traveling around” – “Well good luck” he replies, with a somewhat mystified look on his face. I get the impression he is more concerned about my safety than anything else. He seems unable to comprehend why a non- Arab would be traveling in a Service going to Jenin. A little fear goes along way in this part of the world. As we pull away the woman next to me invites me to have coffee with her when we arrive in Jenin as I don’t appear to know anybody. I thank her but explain that I’m meeting with people – “Ah” she says, “for the soldiers?” -“Yes, for the soldiers.” We both smile and nod. Well, it is an illegal occupation, the very least one can do is be bland.

Jehan’s brother meets me on arrival at 11.30 am. We chat as we walk along the crowded streets. Apparently an IDF undercover execution squad was in town two hours earlier, doing what they do. One dead, apparently no attempt whatsoever to apprehend the man – an old fashion street execution.

We meet AF in a shop with his little boy who is surprisingly clingy and nervous. We jump in a taxi and head for AF’s home in the Jenin refugee camp (see Blog 12). We’re met at AF’s home by a woman who will translate for us. Over the next hour and half AF tells me how he was detained in May 2004 in a mass round up in the camp and how his heart broke every time his detention order was renewed, over and over again. How he missed his wife and five children and how his wife and two youngest children were only allowed to visit him twice (for half an hour on each occasion) in the 32 months he was detained in the Negev desert, Israel. The prison authorities only permitted three persons to visit at a time – most detainees are visited by their youngest children in the hope that they don’t forget their father. The clingy little boy did forget his father and was very angry with the man who returned home on 25 January, 2007. It looks like they’ve re-established the bond now but he’s none too keen on strangers.

AF was a journalist who wrote for the Jenin Study Centre, which was accused of having links with a banned organization – for that he received 32 months of administrative detention. AF has never been charged or tried with any offence relating to his period of detention.

One thing you quickly learn in Palestine is that once invited into somebody’s house, rich or poor, you will be served tea, coffee and probably a meal. Over lunch I ask AF if there is anything else he would like to tell me. He says:

“Why isn’t the international community concerned with this injustice? Detainees are transported for up to 60 hours in order to stand before the court at Ofer for one minute, hands and feet shackled, and told they will be detained for the next six months for nothing. Why can’t anybody stop these arrests?”

I deflect the question because I can’t give him a meaningful answer and so ask him about his wife. AF’s face immediately lights up and a huge smile spreads across his tanned face –

“She is the best woman in the world, she keeps me strong; it was the thought of her that kept me going in prison. She makes me a good man.”

Over lunch the translator tells me how tough life is in the camp and how many men have been killed recently by the IDF –

“But it is through suffering that the strongest friendships are made – if I help my brother when he is suffering, then we are bound together forever.”

We part after lunch and I meet up with Jehan’s brother who finds me a Service heading back to Ramallah. On the trip back I’m daydreaming in the sun thinking about the morning and how beautiful the green hills are, carpeted in red poppies and almond trees in blossom. It suddenly occurs to me that the road is very narrow and bumpy and bears very little resemblance to the highway we came on. My suspicions are confirmed when we leave the road altogether and start heading across open farmland. I look at the man next to me, he shrugs, we smile. For the next 20 minutes we meander across fields passing four other Services coming in the other direction – we slow down so that the drivers can update each other about checkpoints. Putting two and two together it’s apparent that perhaps some of us have “ID issues”.

For the next couple of hours we zig-zag across the West Bank by-passing the nasty checkpoint closest to Jenin. If we had come back via the highway we would have been stopped at four checkpoints – this way we only passed one checkpoint 10 km from Ramallah and the traffic was such a mess we were just waved through – somebody is probably breathing a little easier tonight.

Another memorable Palestinian kind of day – and it’s only tea time.

(p.s. I've scratched around and added a few photos to some of the blogs)

Blog 35

"Should I allow myself to dream of release or not? Should I risk the pain? "

In 2002, during his last year in high school, TW was arrested, interrogated, charged and imprisoned for membership of the PFLP. He was held and interrogated for 28 days before he was allowed to see a lawyer. He was sentenced to 24 months but was released after 13 months.

Arrest

On his release in March 2003, TW enrolled as a psychology student at Birzeit University, near Ramallah and worked as a waiter to support himself. In January 2004 a new Israeli military commander was appointed to the area, Captain Dudu. The Captain made it his business to interview as many Palistinian political activists in his area as he could. On 12 January, 2004, it was TW's turn to be interviewed, he recalls the Captain saying to him:

“You’ll be seeing us around and you will know what administrative detention is.”

On 23 October, 2004 at 1.00 in the morning, 12 IDF jeeps pulled up outside the home TW shared with his parents, four brothers and two sisters near Birzeit. The soldiers came equipped with attack dogs and ordered the family out of the house, including TW’s three year old sister. The soldiers asked the boys to produce their ID cards whilst other soldiers with dogs entered the house. Captain Dudu was present:

“who of you should I arrest?” asked the Captain.

“You can’t ask me this” replied TW.

“I think I will take R” came the response.

R is TW’s younger brother, who at the time was 16 years old. TW objected and the Captain said:

“Well, I’ll take you then, say goodbye to your family.”

TW was taken over to the jeeps by the soldiers, handcuffed with plastic ties and blindfolded. TW believes he was taken to the settlement of Beit Il, one of the biggest Israeli settlements in the West Bank. He thinks that there were two other Palestinians in the back of the jeep, two soldiers and a dog. Although blindfolded, he could see down towards the floor.

On arrival, they were taken out of the jeep and made to sit on the ground for about three hours. During this time TW recalls that a group of soldiers stood nearby laughing and taking photographs. After about three hours a small plastic chair was brought for him to sit on until it got light. He was again placed in the back of a jeep and taken to Binyamin detention centre, Ofer. He was again made to sit on the ground for about one and half hours before being taken inside for processing. His name was registered and his personal belongings taken from him. Once processed he was assigned a tent with other detainees.

Administrative detention

After five days TW was issued with a six month administrative detention order. Two days later he was brought before the military “court” at Ofer and the order was confirmed during the five minute hearing. He was accused of being:

“A political activist at Birzeit and Ramallah.”

The main political activities that TW had been engaging in were:

-Distributing a newsletter at the campus informing students that political prisoners had commenced a hunger strike and keeping them updated with developments.

-A number of students, including TW, erected a tent on campus and launched their own hunger strike for seven days in solidarity with the prisoners.

-Presenting a sketch about a typical interrogation to teach students how they should handle being interrogated.

-Distributing a flyer developed by the Palestinian NGO, Addameer entitled “Know your rights” informing students of their rights if detained.

-Showing solidarity with the families of detainees.

TW spent the first month of his detention at the Ofer detention centre. After a month there were heavy rains and the tents that they lived in leaked. The detainees protested and they were moved to Naqab detention centre in the Negev desert, Israel. They were again housed in tents but the desert climate is dryer.

TW decided not to appeal his administrative detention order because at this time the detainees were boycotting the courts in protest of the system. He was fairly confident that his detention order would not be renewed after the first six months as there was nothing in his file which would warrant such action. TW’s administrative detention order was renewed:

First order (six months);
Second order (six months);
Third order (six months);
Fourth order (six months, reduced to four);
Fifth order (4 months, reduced to one).

New charges

At the end of the fifth detention order TW was taken back to Ofer for further interrogation. An Israeli man in civilian clothes, who said he was a policeman, showed him a list of names of students at Birzeit University and asked him what he knew about them. The man then told TW that there were new confessions against him concerning the distribution of leaflets – he was not told anything about these leaflets. TW was then charged with being an:

“activist in the student union.”

After a great deal of negotiations between TW’s lawyer, the prosecutor and the Shabak (Israeli internal security), TW was sentenced to 27 months imprisonment, with a reduction of 24 months for time already served in administrative detention.

TW was finally released on 11 December, 2006.

Emotional toll

TW says that the worst part of administrative detention is the first and last month of each period of the order. In his own words:

“The first month is very tense. All your plans have gone – university, gone. It is devastating – all hopes of a normal life collapse. The last month is terrible too – should I allow myself to dream of release or not? Should I risk the pain? Should I prepare myself for another period of detention? It was not easy on my family either. At this time four of my parent’s sons were in detention – they had no support.”

My final question to TW is how did he feel when he was told he was to be released. A huge beaming smile spreads across his young face:

“I couldn’t sleep for the last three nights – I was so excited. The morning I was to be released I took a shower and waited until 1.00 pm, but nobody came. I asked a prison officer what was going on? The prison officer told me that I would have to wait until the Shabak office closed just in case they wanted to issue another detention order. At 4.00 pm I was finally taken to the office and processed for release. None of my personal belongings were there as they were still at Naqab prison – I had no money or ID card. I asked the guards to give me a letter explaining this as I did not want to get into trouble at a checkpoint. They said “don’t worry” but did not give me the letter. About a month later my money and ID card were returned to me, but some of my papers were missing.”

TW has now returned to his studies at Birzeit University.

Blog 34

A Palestinian Birthday

The sleuths at Addameer managed to find out that it was my birthday today and so we had a large chocolate cake for lunch. In true Ramallah style instead of using candles, “Jehad” Jehan stuck what looked disturbingly like a rocket in the top of the cake. What remained after ignition was delicious!

They wanted to get me a particular cd of Palestinian music but it was out of stock – so in keeping with the Ramallah theme they found a copy of a copy of the cd in question – it’s very nice.

On the inside of the cd somebody wrote “come back whenever you can, you have family here” - friends indeed.

After lunch Jehan and I take a statement from a university student who has just been released from 27 months of administrative detention. He was politically active in the student union at Birzeit university – that’s it. Of all the statements I have taken over the years I hope that these ones turn out to be the most useful.

Blog 33

J’s weekend

J went home to Jenin to see her parents for the weekend. I asked her how it was – “Not bad, but a bit stressful coming back.”

J left Jenin at 3.30 am to return to Ramallah. It was a dark and very wet night. The Service she was traveling in came across a number of IDF jeeps on the road – an unmarked checkpoint. The driver of the Service did not understand the instructions he received in Hebrew from the soldiers and they were suddenly surrounded by soldiers screaming and pointing their machine guns into the taxi. They were detained at the checkpoint for about 15 minutes as all their ID’s were taken and the numbers checked in the computer to see if anybody was wanted. Luckily they were not asked for their permits – strictly speaking if a Palestinian wishes to travel between any West Bank town they need their ID card plus a specific permit for the trip. Most try their luck and don’t bother with the permit but risk heavy penalties if the soldiers decide to check.

Once allowed to proceed the Service took a detour across a field in order to avoid further checkpoints and the possibility that they would be asked for permits. If caught taking a short cut the driver risked being beaten up and the passengers risked being taken to the nearest settlement for interrogation. Half way across the field the Service got stuck in the mud. Somebody then saw headlights and fearing an IDF jeep they turned the lights off and remained silent and stressed. About 20 minutes later all was clear and they managed to get going again arriving back in Ramallah at 5.20 am.

This is an everyday occurrence under occupation in the West Bank. Apart from that, J had a good weekend.

Blog 32

A weekend away

On Thursday afternoon we leave the Occupied Territories through one of the checkpoints near Jerusalem and head for Haifa on the Mediterranean. An hour into the trip we are speeding along a motorway near Ben Gurion airport in sight of the Wall, but from the other side. It is a strange sensation to be driving in what is basically an affluent modern European state a stone’s throw from the Occupation.

In Haifa we stay with S’s grandmother. She grew up in Beruit, came to Palestine as a 16 year old, married at 19 and after 1948 never saw her family again in Lebanon. She reckons I look like her brother and proceeds to feed me to within an inch of my life.

Next morning we head up the coast to Acre, which feels like a mini old Jerusalem on the Mediterranean, with a wonderful old mosque, thick crusader walls, palm trees and warmth. We then continue on up the coast until we meet a gate that separates Israel from Lebanon. From there we head inland along the heavily fortified border into Galilee and to S’s village, Fassuta. During the war last summer, the village was surrounded by Israeli tanks which shelled Lebanon for a whole month. In return, Hezbollah fired rockets indiscriminately back over the border - the locals are use to war and each house is equipped with a bomb shelter. Fassuta is an Arab Christian village and just one of two Arab villages left near the border not destroyed in ’48. Approximately 20% of Israel’s population is made up of Arabs, those that did not flee their homes in ’48. Most of those that did flee, have never been allowed to return. The landscape is dotted with big clumps of cacti marking where the old Palestinian villages once stood. The cactus was grown for its fruit and when the people left it just kept growing. Many clumps of cacti dot the green and lush landscape.

Next morning it is back to Haifa and a walk along the beach. The weather is sunny and warm and thousands of people are walking dogs, jogging, pushing prams, drinking coffee etc etc., a mere 50 km from the Occupied Territories. The scene could quite easily be Bondi Beach. We pass a busy café and a memorial to the 21 people blown up in a suicide bombing in 2003. One of those killed was S’s cousin who had just got engaged to an Australian woman. The bomber was a 27 year old lawyer from Jenin – she had witnessed her brother being gunned down in front of her. The bomber was related to A, who works in the same office as S. A and S were, and still are, good friends.

On the way back to Ramallah we pick up R, the woman whose fiancé died in the bombing.

Although it was nice to get away to the Mediterranean for two days, it feels somewhat unreal and I’m glad to return to the tension and drama of Ramallah.

Blog 31

Sophie and A.

Last night I was sitting with A. by the log fire in Zan’s on a cold and misty Ramallah night. A. told me about his trip to Munich in 2003 and his visit to the little museum in the university dedicated to Sophie Scholl and her brother.

Sophie and her brother were students at Munich university in the early 1940s. They were from a comfortable family and had no particular reason (other than their humanity) to stick their necks out. They printed and distributed leaflets condemning the Nazis and were eventually caught, interrogated, tried and executed (http://www.sophieschollmovie.com/).

There is a visitors’ book in the museum which A. signed:

“For those who choose not to look the other way.

A Palestinian from Jenin.”

When A. was 15 most of the boys in his, and the surrounding villages, were rounded up by the IDF. There had been mass disobedience in the region recently including the raising of the Palestinian flag; drawing the Palestinian flag on walls; political graffiti and the cutting of phone lines to suspected informers.

A. was taken to an adult prison and interrogated and tortured for the next 59 days. In one instance, his hands were tied tightly behind his back with the wrists together using plastic ties. His arms were then raised up behind his back and he was hung by his wrists from a hook on the wall with his toes just touching the ground. A heavy sack was then placed on his head making it difficult to breathe. The guards then ensured that he could not sleep by poking him and playing loud music. He was left in this position for seven days straight with short breaks of a couple of minutes to eat.

When A. was finally taken down he was then grabbed by the shoulders and shaken violently. The muscles in his neck were too tired to support his head which shook violently back and forth. This technique is well documented to have caused brain damage and death in a number of cases. A. was then taken away for further interrogation.

On another occasion he was placed in a “coffin” cell. As the name implies this is a tiny space in which you sit, in the dark, in sewerage and are deprived of sleep by the guard kicking the metal door with his steel capped boots. After two days in the cell he was released and taken for further interrogation.

Throughout the 59 days A. refused to provide his interrogators with any information. A. was eventually released at 3.00 am one cold morning hours before a delegation from the Red Cross was due to inspect the prison. It was discovered that A. had not been properly registered in the prison records in accordance with international standards. So, at 3.00 am the prison gates were opened and he was thrown out. He remembers begging with the guards not to release him in this way as there were many stray dogs roaming around outside – they didn’t listen to his pleas.

Eventually A. made it to a nearby village where he found help and a taxi ride the 40 km back to his family and village. When he arrived home he did not want to be hugged by his mother because he was embarrassed having not had a shower or change of clothes since he last saw her, 59 days earlier.

For years after this experience the slightest noise at night, such as a fork dropping in the kitchen, would wake A. up and cause him to stand up by his bed in a state of terror. This side effect has taken a heavy toll on A’s relationships as it apparently tends to be a frightening thing to witness.

The following year A. spent another 51 days in interrogation and a number of years later, four months in administrative detention. A. has never been charged or tried with any offence.

A. and I leave the comfort of Zan’s and the log fire at 4.00 am and step out into the cold, misty and deserted street outside. We walk the short distance to our homes through the quiet streets – the only people we are likely to meet at this time of the morning are Israeli soldiers - but all is quiet.