Bethlehem Updates Volume 11, January 11, 2009

"I have five children that are very worried about me, but I told them, you can sit on your couch and watch these atrocities on the television, or you can choose to take action to make them stop."
--Fouad Ahidar, a member of the Belgian Parliament who will be onboard the FreeGaza boat, the Spirit of Humanity, in response to concerns that Israel may attack the unarmed ship which is set to leave Cypress for Gaza tomorrow morning.
As we write, the death toll in Gaza nears 900, approximately 85% of which are civilians. We were disgusted by Friday’s Congressional resolution supporting Israel’s continuing murder of Gazans. Among the accomplices to this war crime are California’s Senators Boxer and Feinstein and representatives Matusi and Thompson. Hedging it bets perhaps, also on Friday, the US abstained from the 15-member UN Security Council call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza; 14 in favor. The bottom line remains the same for Gaza: as this is being written, the Israelis are still bombing.
Please see our “15 Things You can do to Save the people of Gaza” on our blog: bethlehemnarratives.blogspot.com
In this update:
- Creative demonstrations in Bi’lin and Um Salmuna
- Vulnerable at the Checkpoint
- Positive action: boycott, divestment, sanctions
- Briefs: news & commentary on Gaza

Bi’lin
Bi’lin is a small town near Ramallah. Israel has stolen nearly 60% of the town’s land for illegal settlements and the apartheid wall (right now in Bi’lin, the “wall” is a fence with razor wire.) The town has obtained rulings from the Israeli Supreme Court that hold some hope that the village may get some land back. The Court’s rulings do not, however, stop the Israeli army from making incursions into Bi’lin or attacking the town’s people during their weekly demonstration against the barrier and occupation.
We joined the protest in Bi’lin on January 9; it was directed against the Israeli massacre in Gaza. Demonstrators, including the local people, internationals, and Israeli activists, dressed as concentration camp victims of the Nazi holocaust, wearing stripped prison-type suits. Instead of the yellow Star of David badge, they wore yellow cut-outs of Gaza. People chanted, “Stop the holocaust” as we made our way towards the barrier, a chain link fence with razor wire.
Armed Israeli soldiers were gathered on a hillside behind the fence. We were nervous about what to expect, but did not have to wait long. Suddenly we were surrounded by deafening whistles of sound waves. I had heard about sound grenades, so kept looking around for something on the ground, but the intense noise seemed like it was everywhere. Plugging my ears with my fingers did reduce it considerably, but that made picture taking impossible, so I stuffed tissue in my ears, which was not as effective. (Some of our photos are at: http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/3883)
The army soon started thrown smoke grenades; at first people backed off because they thought this was tear gas. Soon enough the tear gas canisters came flying, a new experience for both of us. Breathing through our scarves helped, but when we got too close, our eyes and faces started to burn. We backed off and I took out a bottle of water. Someone immediately told me not to drink it as tear gas is water soluble and it would burn in my throat.
The army advanced across the fence, some of the young men in the village started to sling stones at them. More tear gas, more advances of the army, then we would run for cover, then stop when the army seemed to have stopped, then more gas and more advances and another run for cover.
Eventually the army started shooting, but by then we and most of the village had retreated to the center. We later heard that the army had used a new type of bullet, called “0.2” that contained an unknown chemical substance and that several demonstrations were shot with these new round and green bullets that explode upon impact. One was taken to Ramallah Hospital after the bullet went through his leg. The army also fired rubber coated steel bullets, injuring a photographer from Al Jazeera International and two locals, one of them a child. The soldiers came into the village and arrested and later released three people from the village and two Israeli activists.
Bi’lin is one of many villages being strangled by the implements of Israeli occupation: the wall, settlements, by-pass roads, checkpoints, and military incursions. Yet the villagers persist, native Palestinian Davids and peace & justice seeking Israelis against the Goliath of zionist Israel, armed to the teeth and willing to destroy.

Um Salmuna
For the past two years, the villagers of Um Salmuna have been demonstrating against the apartheid wall under construction that will sever their community and the surrounding small villages from the major road that connect them with Hebron and Bethlehem. When finished, this wall will cut the Bethlehem district in two, separating the east and the west sides. In order to get to Bethlehem, the villagers will have to take a much longer route or pass through an Israeli controlled checkpoint which can be closed at any time for any length of time by the Israeli military. It is part of a massive illegal land grab by the Israelis of a huge section of the Bethlehem district.
The villagers have been holding a creative non-violent protest every Friday. On December 26, Patricia went with other international activists. A “bride” and her female attendants came from a neighboring village to meet the “groom” and his attendants in Um Salmuna. Between the couple was a razor wire barrier erected by Israeli soldiers to stop the demonstrators. The soldiers pushed back the women coming with the bride so that they could not get to the barrier. The soldiers then shot off a sound grenade and started pushing the razor wire towards the people on the side with the groom.
The bride’s group negotiated with the soldiers to go around the razor wire to the groom’s side. Their coming together was greeted with cheers and speeches. The speakers were then detained by the Israeli soldiers and their ID cards taken. What difficulties lay in store for them is not clear.

Vulnerable at the Checkpoint
I have been to Ramallah twice in the last week. The road is long, windy and in parts very steep and dangerous – there is a shorter and safer way, through Jerusalem, but it is closed to West Bank Palestinians.
In the last few days, the Israeli army has made more permanent structures for two major checkpoints between Bethlehem and Ramallah. When I returned last Wednesday, as the van I was in went through, I noticed a car parked near the checkpoint on the opposite side from us. The doors and trunk were open and there were backpacks on the ground. About five feet away, there were 3 or 4 young men lined up with their backs to the car, standing behind them was an Israeli soldier with a gun; another soldier or two were near the car. The absolute vulnerability of these young men hit me in an instant – these Israeli soldiers could shoot them with absolutely no repercussions because they are Palestinian. (See Shraga Elam’s piece below.)
We went through the same checkpoint on Friday night and there were long lines of cars. We were in line 15 minutes or so when we finally got up to the booth. All of our documents were collected (our passports and the Palestinians ID cards). Our passports were handed back and the van pulled forward and parked on the side. We were puzzled as we waited again – then we realized that the Israeli solders had taken all of the Palestinian IDs and had not yet given them back.
These two illegal checkpoints, like nearly all of the 600+ Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank are between Palestinian towns. They should not even exist, much less be used to delay and harass. Their goal is not security; their goal is to make life increasing difficult for the Palestinian people.
Next time you drive from Sacramento to Davis or between any two close towns, imagine what it would be like if all the traffic were stopped and everyone in every vehicle forced to show identification, which if taken would mean more of a delay. And imagine this would happen every time you went between those two places, both going and returning. And imagine if you lived in one place and worked or went to school or had family or had to see a doctor or go to a hospital in the other.

It Worked to End Apartheid in South Africa – it can work to end it in Palestine
This week, we met with Palestinian and international activists working on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (bdsmovement.net), a positive step that people can take to move Israel to make ‘justice’ with the Palestinian people whose lives, homes, lands, and human rights they have been taking since 1948.
Timely for us, author Naomi Kline wrote about the BDS campaign this week in the Nation: “It's time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.” (See her article: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090126/klein?rel=hp_picks)
We hope to write more about this in future reports.

Briefs: News & Analysis on Gaza
Below are a few of the many recent news articles and analyses of the situation in Gaza. For on the ground coverage, see www.palsolidarity.org which includes the reports of 8 internationals inside Gaza. To know what the world knows, see http://english.aljazeera.net

IOF Operations in Gaza Continue; More Civilians Killed and Civilian Premises Destroyed
(January 11, 2009, 1pm) ….According to Al Mezan's careful monitoring, the IOF has killed at least 842 Palestinian in the Gaza Strip since the start of its Operation Cast Lead on 27 December 2009. …The Center estimates that between 200 and 230 children have been killed. Many of those have still been under the rubble of houses under areas under IOF's invasion. Moreover, tens of children who were killed on the first day of the attacks have not yet been verified; therefore, the Center prefers to wait until they are accounted for properly. …Al Mezan estimates that at least 85% of the casualties were civilian non-combatants.
http://www.mezan.org/site_en/press_room/press_detail.php?id=948

U.S. seeks ship to move arms to Israel
By Stefano Ambrogi
LONDON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. is seeking to hire a merchant ship to deliver hundreds of tonnes of arms to Israel from Greece later this month, tender documents seen by Reuters show.
U.S. seeks ship to move arms to Israel…
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L9736369.htm
Human Rights Watch: “Israel is using white-phosphorus against Gaza”
(Saturday January 10, 2009) by Saed Bannoura
Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated that the Israeli Army is using White Phosphorus in its artillery shells against the Gaza Strip. Researchers of HRW said that they observed on January 9th and January 10th, several artillery shells fired by the Israelis near Gaza and Jabalia, and that these shells apparently included white-phosphorus…
http://www.imemc.org/article/58420
"Passive" refusal is not enough to prevent war crimes
By Shraga Elam
This I know from my own experience as a young Nahal soldier in the Six Day War of 1967. [This war was the start of Israel illegal occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and the Golan] We were attached to a makeshift Golani battalion whose commander was Lieutenant-Colonel Ganz (I don't remember his first name) and we were part of the force that occupied Nablus. We were at the outskirts of the city when the commander brought to us a group of young Palestinian civilians. He claimed that they were Jordanian soldiers who had discarded their uniforms. Therefore, according to Lieutenant-Colonel Ganz, they were to be treated as spies, meaning that they were to be executed, and he ordered us to do so.
We refused to obey to this manifestly illegal order, but then two of our platoon (one was Sergeant Ilan Polivoda) volunteered to slaughter the poor guys. We were shocked and we felt that by our refusal in the battlefield we had done our utmost as simple soldiers vis-à-vis the
Lieutenant-Colonel. We were not aware of the illegality of the order and merely reacted according to our feelings and upbringing….
http://shraga-elam.blogspot.com/2009/01/passive-refusal-is-not-enough-to.html
Sderot War Diary
By Nomika Zion, (One of the founders of Kol Aher, which means “another voice”, a group of Jewish-Israelis living near the Gaza Strip who are attempting to build a human bridge of understanding and solidarity with Gaza residents.) [Sderot is a Jewish-Israeli town that was built on the lands of the Palestinian village of Najd, which was ethically cleansed in 1948; see: http://www.palestineremembered.com/Gaza/Najd]
(Sderot, 8 January, 2009)…. The current bloodbath in Gaza is not in my name and not for my security. Destroyed homes, bombed schools, thousands of new refugees - are not in my name and not for my security. In Gaza there is no time for burial ceremonies now, the dead are put in refrigerators in twos, because there is no room. Here their bodies lay, policemen, children, and our nimble reporters play acrobatically with Hasbara [explanation] strategies in view of “the images that speak for themselves”. Pray tell me, what is there to “explain”? What is there to explain? …
http://villagesgroup.wordpress.com/2009/01/11/a-sderot-woman-speaks-out-against-gaza-war
No Other Option?!
By Sam Bahour
(January 10, 2009) I watch in shock, like the rest of the world, at the appalling death and destruction being wrought on Gaza by Israel; and still it does not stop. Meanwhile, we see a seemingly never- ending army of well-prepared Israeli war propagandists, some Israeli government officials, and many other people self-enlisted for the purpose, explaining to the world the justifications for pulverizing the Gaza Strip, with its 1.5 million inhabitants…
I am a Palestinian American based in Al-Bireh, the sister city of Ramallah in the West Bank. I can see how an observer from abroad could be blind to the facts, given the blitz of Gaza war propaganda orchestrated by the Israeli military. But I know better. Like all other Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, I am not an observer from abroad. We live every day under the bitter burden of Israeli military occupation and we know that this question, presented as rhetorical --did we really have an option? -- has a rational answer. Allow me, from my vantage point as an economic development professional, to touch on some of the other options that could have been chosen….
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/10/no_other_option
Israel Is Committing War Crimes
Hamas's violations are no justification for Israel's actions.
By George E. Bisharat
Israel's current assault on the Gaza Strip cannot be justified by self-defense. Rather, it involves serious violations of international law, including war crimes. Senior Israeli political and military leaders may bear personal liability for their offenses, and they could be prosecuted by an international tribunal, or by nations practicing universal jurisdiction over grave international crimes….
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123154826952369919.html