cages and tunnels - Biddu

Biddu is a village in between Ramallah and Jerusalem - a distance that probably used to take 30 minutes to drive, is now not possible except through a matrix of closed roads, new roads, and checkpoints.

(http://www.poica.org/editor/case_studies/view.php?recordID=551)

We drove around these roads with Mohammad who is a taxi driver and lives in Biddu so he knows the roads all too well. On the road to Biddu we passed through one checkpoint where the 18yr old IDF solidiers asked why we were in the car with Mohammad - to which he replied we were his friends and going for lunch at his house. The nerve of 18year old Israelis who sit at checkpoints and questions men twice their age about driving along their own goddamn road. I could go on and on about soldiers at checkpoints who also sit there and text message their girlfriends or boyfriends while holding an entire line of cars up. Total arrogance.

Many of the roads around Biddu are closed off - literally piles of dirt and cement are put in the middle of the road to create a barrier - then a watch tower further down. One of the main roads has been taken over as a settler-only highway, and a new road has been created for the Palestinians that cuts directly through the best agricultural land then turns in to a cave-like tunnel that goes UNDER the settler highway (that used to be a Palestinian road). The wall runs along side this highway and then weaves through the land up towards Biddu. In this area it is partially a full wall, and then partially an electronic fence covered in barbed wire and a military road along side it - oh yes and watchtowers and patrols.

In entering the village of Biddu Mohammad shows us the field where his cousin was shot by a sniper while working in the field - Mohammad was the only other person there and his cousin died in his arms after he tried to carry him back to the village.

Then we are shown different sections of the wall - including where his families land has been confiscated and only 4 olive trees remain. Further up is Sabri's house. Sabri's house is located on the edge of the village and directly next to where settlers chose to build Har Adar settlement. When the construction on the wall began the Israelis attempted to bulldoze Sabri's house - but the community resisted. Then they tried to buy him out - but he refused. So then they built the wall AROUND his house - literally enclosing his small house in to a cage on 3 sides, and a long gate on the front. It is a 10metre high fence complete with razor wire, a gate for the soldiers to enter, spotlights, cameras, and a bridge over top for soldiers and settlers to cross. All of his land was confiscated, there is only enough room for a few tomato plants between the space of his house and the fence - plants which Sabri clearly tends to with total care.

On the other side of the fence is the upscale community of Har Adar. Lush green lawns, full-size new houses, basketball courts, families having bbq's. All looking over Sabri's cage. Apparently they are able to water their lawns and not notice the massive cage directly in front of them..or they don't give a damn. Probably the latter, as Sabri talks about him and his grandchildren being constantly harassed by settlers - trying to intimidate him in to leaving. Somehow the Israelis have found 75 year old Sabri who is half blind and deaf sitting on his front steps stuck in a cage to be a severe security threat. God forbid that he should one day try to leave his cage - maybe even step on to the settlement - maybe reclaim his stolen land?! It would certainly be more than his right to do so. But Sabri is resisting in his way - he has stayed and has refused to let them have the last word. He waits for when he can take back his land. Biddu has had a strong history of resisting the Wall. I am told they have 5 young martyrs, hundreds injured and many many in prison. The main demonstrations were held in the year of 2004 with not very much press coverage or international support. It has seen a lot of violence for a village of only 6 500 people.

Just outside of the village are the best known grape fields in the region as residents of Biddu will proclaim proudly. I wish I could have taken a picture of the grape fields - it was like a small paradise on its own - never mind in comparison to the barbed wire fences.

Haifa

In reading and looking at detailed maps of the city, and hearing multiple stories - I am slowly piecing together parts of the history of Haifa - a port town on the northern part of the state of Israel. In the year of 1947 - 1948 there were a series of terrorist attacks carried out by zionist militias on the arab quarters of Haifa - everything from barrels of explosives being rolled down the stairs in to al-Abasyah neighborhood, to car bombs, the New Years Eve massacre where 60 people were killed, to also broadcasting messages in the neighborhoods of the violence that will ensue if the arabs don't choose to pack up and leave. The history of Haifa is sad - even a right wing historian like Benni Morris will say that prior to the Zionist aspirations for the colonization of Palestine Jews and Arabs lived together within Haifa for generations. It was not the dealings of those Jews who lived in Haifa for generations, but rather of those who claimed to speak on behalf of all Jews (and still do) in the project of forcing an exclusive Jewish state in the land of Palestine.

Closely following the massacres in the village of Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948 where over 120 civilians were killed by the zionist militias called the Irgun (later to become the Likud party and the youth wing of Betar Tegar) and the Stern Gang (co-founded by Yitzhak Shamir who later became president of Israel) - the Haganah attacked Safed on April 17th, and the residents of Haifa were being told to leave and prepare for the worst. On April 21st the Haganah attacked Haifa. The city was forced to surrender on April 23rd - over 50 000 Palestinians were forced out of their homes. Most people left by boats (literally pushed in to the sea) and the rest to more northern towns and villages like Akka that were also later ethnically cleansed. Palestinians from Haifa can be found all over the world - many in the West Bank which is really not that far away in real terms - but they can't return and they can't even visit the ocean. Just under 4 000 Palestinians remained in Haifa, and today make up a larger part of the population of the city, which makes Haifa an interesting place for the contradictions of the state of Israel.


We walked around Haifa - visited some of the Palestinian neighborhoods, visited many homes that are sitting empty (such as Leila Khaled's family home) or have been bulldozed to the ground. Statues celebrating the 'liberation of Haifa' with emblems of the Haganah, street names that have been changed to intersections of 'Hertzl Ave and Balfour St.', or even better 'Jabotinsky Sq' - heroes of the colonizer. Along the beach there are a series of really beautiful old homes that are boarded up and sitting empty. One of these homes had a 'For-Sale' sign hanging on it so we called the number - the man proceeded to tell us that yes this property is older than 60years and is 'Arab architecture' (i.e Palestinian owned), that this property was being sold for commercial use but that he has many other beach front properties if we were interested - but first, 'Are you Jewish?'. This is a common question in 1948 Palestine - some property is held by the JNF for exclusive Jewish Only use, while other properties are sold off by racist landowners who will only sell or rent to people who are Jewish. We didn't get to find out how Erez was able to acquire this property - but one could only assume that it had been confiscated in the 'absentee law' after 1948 and sold to the most Jewish bidder.


Further down along the beach is the Haifa port which I believe is Haifa's largest import-export terminal. All along the port you will see Zim and Maersk containers shipping out Israeli goods (such as Carmel-Agrexco fruits, vegetables and flowers grown on stolen land) to Europe, New York, and Toronto and Montreal. Also there is an Israeli military navel base - with war ships being sent off to patrol the coastline along Gaza.


There is lots to write and say about Haifa..but i will end with saying that we visited the ocean (which I know is based so much on our privilege to be able to do so) - and it is so beautiful - tall hills and mountains leading to long beaches and bright blue water...The next time that I visit the ocean here I only hope that it will be when everyone who is Palestinian can dip their feet in the water in a free Palestine.

Nakba Day: Ramallah

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/15/israelandthepalestinians

The organizers are estimating that the demonstration today to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Nakba was around 30 000 - 50 000 people in Ramallah alone. Buses from the north (Qalqilya and Jayous districts) were able to make it through the checkpoints to come. The demonstration started at the Al-Awda (Return) camp that was set up in central Ramallah and marched through the city to the central square called Al-Manar. There were a few drumming bands of young students, tons of banners, a sea of Palestinian flags, tons of music and chanting, dancing and speeches.

At 2pm the people gathered at Qalandia camp where thousands of black balloons were released (similtaneously with Bethlehem and Jerusalem) - 21 915 black balloons to represent every day that has passed since the Nakba of 1948 - they carried messages of from the kids of the camp
talking about their wish to return to their homes and lands.

At 3pm, around 3 IDF army vehicles approached some of the youth who were on the road down from the Qalandia checkpoint (a super militarized IDF area - where the wall circles around with a high watch tower). A clash broke out between the youth who began throwing stones at the soldiers in the vehicles. One would think that the soldiers should just get back in to their vehicle and drive back to the checkpoint - but no, they instead respond with driving up the road and
started to shoot tear gas, sound grenades, and rubber bullets. And then this is where north America (or at least the part of activist north america that i am associated with) differentiates - the Palestinian youth responded to the provocation of the IDF by proceeding to gather MORE people and MORE rocks, to pull out slingshots, to build barricades, to wrap their faces with scarves dipped in onion juice (to take away the sting of the tear gas), to light tires on fire and roll them towards the soldiers, and to run closer towards where the soldiers are in order to have better aim for their rocks to hit against the armoured vehicles. This went on for a long time. The IDF jeeps eventually backed off - but continued to fire towards the youth from the watch-tower and behind the concrete wall of the checkpoint. One person was hurt from a rubber bullet where it hit his chest but he was brought to the hospital and he is ok.

I'm holding two of these things - rubber bullets (found them on the ground)- they come in two different kinds as far as I can tell today. One is plain thick rubber, and the other is metal coated in rubber. They cause different kinds of damage it seems.

So this is Nakba day in occupied Palestine - the day to commemorate and protest: those who died in 1948 and those who were forced from their homes, the destruction of over 500 villages, and the on-going system of apartheid. It is not enough that most Palestinian people have lived as refugees for 60 years...apparently Israel also had to flex its muscles behind high-tech weaponry, concrete walls, and the president of the U.S on the anniversary...

George W is in town too. Visiting Israel to make sure that the world knows that the war-on-terror is still alive and kicking, 'Happy Birthday Israel', and 'Don't worry Israel, the U.S is behind
you'. In case anyone forgot.
(http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/983716.html)

To be honest it is hard not to be overwhelmed, and sad. It is sad to see grandmothers marching and still carrying the key to their house that they left 60 years ago thinking that they would go back in a few weeks. And it is hard to see the grandchildren armed only with rocks against one of the world's largest military regimes. And it is harder still to see your friends growing up in these conditions in camps and to know that I was able to be here today - while some are kept
out by a racist state.

But, 50 000 people marched today under the banner of 'No Peace without Return' (more people than anyone expected), and everyone speaks of a growing movement for the Right of Return for refugees and against all of Israel's policies.

It is more than inspiring, it is very very humbling. And it is good to be humbled.

Lost homes of West Jerusalem

Silent March of Nakba Survivors, their family and supporters: May 11th, 2008

Commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Nakba (the Palestinian 'catastrophe' when at least 800 000 people were forced out of their land), 200 people marched through the West Jerusalem neighborhoods of Talbiyeh to the Lower Baq'a - stopping along the way for families to talk about the histories of their homes; how they were built (often times by the grandfather or uncle), the memories of the neighbourhood before 1948, and how people fled after a massacre in a nearby hotel, or were slowly pushed out. Like most families in 1948 Palestine during the Nakba, their property was then deemed 'absentee property' by the new Israeli state and claimed as Israeli. Now these homes are part of an up-scale Israeli neighbourhood next to the Jerusalem Theatre, with very little being known about the history of this area by the new inhabitants. One of the homes still had the Arabic writing of the initials of the family, but the woman who came out to yell at us for being on her porch claimed to have always lived there.

Some of the people marching wore black t-shirts that said on one side 'Nakba Survivor' and on the other 'This is Our Home'. The organizers also handed out fliers with information about the Nakba, a map of the area including were the lost homes are, and the stories of families (i will try to scan and post this soon, it is a really beautiful flier). It was obviously a very emotional and sad day, but also very powerful marching through those neighbourhoods and ending with a speech by the daughter of a man that lost his house in the Lower Baq'a about how Palestinian refugees hold firm to their right to return to their land and homes - and that this was in the name of all those who are kept out of Jerusalem whether in the West Bank, Sabra and Shatila (Lebanon), Jordan, Europe or elsewhere (like Toronto)....

Demonstration in Hebron

http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/1645.shtml

Hebron (al-Khalil)

Al-Khalil is in the south-centre of the West Bank, south of Jerusalem. The municipality of Hebron is supposedly one of the largest population centres in the West Bank - enough to sway the vote dramatically in elections.

It is estimated, that due to the occupation, Hebron has around a 75% unemployment rate. Many workers will line up a 3am in worker terminals (large checkpoints) to try to enter Israel to work in precarious employment. In the past few weeks at least two workers have died of heart attacks while waiting to cross the border.

Supposedly Hebron (al-Khalil) is the site of the tomb of Ibrahim (Abraham) located in the Ibrahim mosque. It is a sight of constant tension. Fundamentalist Zionists have been settling in Hebron since 1968 - the first was a group of settlers that checked in to a Palestinian hotel in Hebron and then refused to leave - the Israeli government then made arrangements for them to stay in a military outpost which later turned in to a settlement. Since then, more and more settlers have taken (often by brutal force) locations in the old city of Hebron. They will literally kick out Palestinian families or shop owners and move themselves in the middle of the night.

Now, walking through the old city, you can see the matrix of check points, patrols, and settler-only roads - how this system is meant to make it as comfortable as possible for the fundamentalist settlers..and as UN-comfortable as possible for the original Palestinians.

On top of this already brutal example of apartheid you have the overt racism of these settlers: spitting at Palestinians, throwing rocks and garbage, beating people up in the streets, constant harassment and intimidation.

In 1994 - one of these ideological settlers, Baruch Goldstein, walked in to Ibrahim Mosque during prayers and massacred 29 people. He was killed, and his party officially outlawed, but there is a shrine to Goldstein in Hebron and support for this sort of fascist ideology is very much alive with settlers in Hebron and with groups like the JDL.

Hebron is a brutal example of apartheid in 1967 Palestine. Divided over and over in to zones: H1 and H2, and controlled so tightly..all in the name of security. Villages outside of the city but still within the district of Hebron are facing displacement from growing settlements and 'security zones'.

Jerusalem and travelling to Nazareth

Nazareth: May 8, 2008: March of Return

Nazareth inside 1948 Palestine: March of Return.

It was the 11th annual march of Return - marching from Nazareth to the destroyed/de-populatedvillage of Sufurriyya which is only one of over 500 Palestinian villages that were ethnically cleansed and/or destroyed in 1948. So we arrived late in Sufurriya for the rally at the location of the old village way up on a forested hill - there were speeches, and there was music, poetry, and there were thousands of people. It is a really breathtakingly beautiful area covered with trees looking over towards Nazareth. You can see the ruins of walls of houses and courtyards and gardens. There was a powerful scene of youth sitting on part of a wall holding a massive Palestinian flag. Then the rally closed with everyone singing the Palestinian national anthem. When the crowd walked down the hill to the main road, they were met bya large Israeli presence of police telling people to take down their banners and flags. The police proceeded to fire tear gas and run through the crowd with horses. There was a clash and some people were hit on the head or were arrested. People were just tryingto leave the rally - they were literally on the way to their vehicles to drive home - they were blocked from exiting.

This is 1948Palestine - Israel proper. Most of these people are technically citizens of the State of Israel. A small sign of how Israel treats Palestinian citizens. 60 Years of apartheid - happy birthday Israel.

(http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3541026,00.html)

(http://www.imemc.org/).