Note form the West Bank

Tuesday September 24, 2002 09:31

by publo

Im sure you've all seen news reports etc about the present situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Im over two weeks now in the West Bank and im only just beginning to comprehend the real extent of the situation. All i can think is that ill be going home (hopefully) in a couple of months and that ill be able to relax again, but i cant grasp the thoughts of all the people who are born into this and who have to live somehow under the occupation. Ive been to jenin, jericho, bethlahem, jeruslaem and hebron over the past weeks and am staying in ramallah. All over the situation is desperate. all roads are cloed to palestinians and entire towns are isolated. Travel is dangerous and often off-road. My taxi was fired upon by soldiers outside Ramallah last week, at a spot known as Torah Bora. At hebron a palestinian human rights activist and myself were detained for several hours by soldiers for passing too close to a settlement. As we were waiting at the base all the settler kids were running around stoning and throwing glass bottles at any palestinians that passed by. it was tragic to watch grown men and women being humiliated by these kids who had the support of the soldiers.
Ramallah now is uneasy. Last night some people came oput on the streets singing and making noise to defy the curfew but today there seems to be more tanks and soldiers around. The curfew is terrible and its hard to imagine that everyone is simply sitting at home unable to do anything. I like ramallah when its open. Its a good town and very bisy. Its being strangled though by the occupation. ok got to go. ill try post some more efficient news when i can.

save preference

Comments (3 of 3)

E-mail from ISM Member

by Blisset

Tue Sep 24, 2002 10:40

Subject: A Nablus Horror

Hi all, (if you've seen other accounts of this, please
keep reading, I've done a lot of investigation today
and this is based on the account of eye-witnesses
telling me this directly)

Baha would take your hand and lead you through a
crowd, be the first person to offer to help, he had a
ready smile, and seemed younger than his 14 years.
Usually Baha Al-Bahsh could be found near the Union of
the Palestinian Medical Relief Committee's (UPMRC)
main dispatch area helping whenever he could, walking
with the internationals, etc. Since April he has been
a fixture with the local ISM, he was one of the first
to start helping with the clean-up of the old city
after the IDF's gratuitous destruction. He was the
kind of boy, I am told, who you couldn't help liking.
(this is the people magazine type set-up, what follows
is not, the following is very brutal)

Yesterday late morning, walking with 4 Internationals,
Baha Al-Bashsh was killed by a single shot from an
Israeli soldier on an APC. The 4 internationals
watched helplessly as he bled to death in front of
their eyes. Blood coming out of his nose and mouth.
The bullet was fired from about 350 feet, it went
through his arm entered his side and blew apart both
his lungs and heart.

The APC was partnered with a Merkava tank, the two
vehicles had been patrolling through the old area of
Nablus since earlier in the morning. The soldiers
were very familiar with Baha and the internationals.
The soldiers and the internationals knew each other by
site and had seen each other together just 45 minutes
before. When murdered Baha and the internationals
were walking on Al Salaheia st. the tank and apc were
turning off the same street to the right, but stopped
when they spotted this group, the internationals did
not think this alarming as they had some familiarity
with the behavior of the IDF in this area. Further,
any rock throwing by the local children had died down
and was a ways behind, suddenly, however, a shot rang
out, a puff of dust was seen by the internationals,
Eva asked if everyone was alright and it was then that
they noticed that Baha was lying down. (the shot
went completely through him, shattering bone). The
APC and tank trundled off immediately after, but most
are pretty sure who the commander is.

At this point, the IDF is saying that Baha had a
molotov cocktail and was burned after being shot,
Yahoo news reports that a 13 year old in Nablus had a
molotov cocktail explode in his hands and died. The
autopsy reports only that he died of a heamo thorax.
X-rays showed bone fragments acting like shrapnel in
his chest cavity. There was as much evidence that he
was burned as there was that he was a unicorn. The
internationals said that Baha had nothing in his
hands, they would not be with someone who did. The
IDF in their explanation imply that this was an
intended murder. Not an accident that will be "looked
into." They shot through a group of internationals
into the chest cavity of Baha. (one of the
internationals was 3 feet away, they were all
clustered together).

What makes Baha's death even worse than the usual
despicable fare (although far from being rare) is that
there was simply no "reason" for the IDF to fire.
(obviously most of the reasons given by the IDF are
specious and constitute the reasonings of war
criminals). What makes this case different also is
that he was killed in front of Internationals. Usually
a child has a rock, or in some other way is considered
to be threatening some of the most advanced armour in
the world, this child, walking down the street with
the internationals only presented the threat of
non-violent resistance.

Perhaps he was targetted because of his relationship
to the internationals, an example was to be made, who
knows. What is clear is that an IDF soldier
deliberately murdered a 14 year old boy who's only
apparent crime was being a palestinian out after
curfew (which is in effect 24 hours a day and is
really more like incarceration in the mode of the
warsaw ghetto). The IDF claims it can shoot anyone it
wants during incarceration, but like the bank robber
who claims the "teller made me shoot him", this is the
logic of a criminal mind.

Of course, there are countless stories like this, the
IDF cynically concocting the most ridiculous reasons
for its murderous actions. This death has inspired
even more rage here, I heard very mild-mannered
intelligent people saying that they might as well kill
themselves by taking as many of "them" as possible
rather than be shot down like dogs. Sigh, the
terrible cycle will continue I'm afraid. Ironically,
a picture of Baha dead at the hospital shows him
smiling, like he just had his tonsils out.

more later, maybe

Rob

This is disgusting

by Mags

Tue Sep 24, 2002 16:40

Murderous bastards. I will forward it to other lists and friends, etc. Has not been very widely publicised that I have seen.

War Crimes

by Des

Tue Sep 24, 2002 18:20

War crimes, but war crimes committed by the zionist racists who have powerful friends. Bush and Blair have played a role in the most appalling crimes that have been committed by the zionists on the West Bank and Gaza that should see them in the dock at a UN war crimes tribunal, but of course that will not happen.

Upcoming Events

New Events

Other Press

User Preferences

Feeds

Blog Feeds

The Saker

Public Inquiry

Human Rights in Ireland

Lockdown Skeptics

Note form the West Bank

Comments (3 of 3)