Ramallah Report

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday June 11, 2003 11:26 by Brendan Young

Day 9

Day 9 - June 10 2003 - of Tony Richardson's daily diary from Palestine

Ramallah Report

Day 9 June 10, 2003

Out to a checkpoint, near a small village, on the outskirts of Nablus. This is a different checkpoint than I have seen before. It is possible to walk through, but as soon as you get through the soldiers shout for you to get back. The soldiers are situated in an occupied house, overlooking the road from about 50 metres away. They have occupied part of the house, and are using the house as a checkpoint.

The first family we try to walk through, decide to go back, when threatened by the soldiers. The second family keep going, and luckily the soldiers don't shoot. We go back to our house, to decide what to do at a later point. Welcome to hell.

That evening as we discuss, we are told that the bulldozers are replacing the earth and stone blockages, at all the entrances to Balata Camp. We put on our fluorescent yellow jackets, and rush down to the main entrance. We are too late - the barricade is already there, so we head to the next entrance. We are there before the bulldozer.

We stand in front of the earth, that the bulldozer will use. But this is easier said than done. The soldiers start firing in the air, the bulldozer starts to move towards us then stops just in front of us, then it moves back, and sounds its horn and moves determinedly forward. At that point some of us crack, and the bulldozer has won. We withdraw to discuss where we went wrong, and then head for the next entrance, but we are too late.

We return to our house to discuss what to do next. We decide to knock down the barricade to the main entrance. As there is a lot of shooting still going on, as well as constant flares, we decide to do this in the morning.

We get up at 5.30, and by 7.00 we have broken down enough of the barricade for the fruit vans, and taxis, but more importantly for ambulances to get through. The people are very happy at our action, and we sit drinking tea feeling that we have done something useful.

How on earth can it be useful to barricade all the entrances to a refugee camp, other than as an illegal act of collective punishment? We watch a constant stream of people, who would have had to climb a great mound of earth, and stone, what is the point of making them do this?

Tony Richardson