Bethlehem News Updates March 29, 2009

Tomorrow is Land Day, the 33rd anniversary of Israel’s killing of six young Palestinians who were protesting Israel’s confiscation of Palestinian land in the Galilee. It has also been called as a Global Day of Action for Palestine and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israeli apartheid and occupation. BDS is gaining momentum around the world as effective tool to end the Israeli occupation and apartheid as it did in South Africa. Learn more: www.bdsmovement.org, www.endtheoccupation.org, www.breakthesiege.net, www.bigcampaign.org, www.boycottisraeligoods.org

Weekly Review
It has been a busy couple of weeks for us, with article deadlines, work with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, and finishing our Tourists Guide to the Occupation, now in 7 languages, drawing on translators from three continents! As soon as it is posted on line, we will send you the link. And then there are always the articles and reports by our Palestinians friends that need editing – in fact if any of you is willing to do some editing, let us know!
Our daily lives are full of work of course, but also visiting with new friends here and conversing with the shop keepers and others in our little town of Beit Sahour (right next to the not-so-little town of Bethlehem.
Check out the March 26 issue of Sacramento News and Review for our article, “Right of refusal: For some Israelis, compulsory military service is not an option” http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=932511
In this update, we’d like to give you just some snippets of life here as well as remind you to keep calling Congress 202-224-3121 and the President 202-456-1111

On the Bus to Bethlehem
Taking the bus up to Bethlehem the other day (and I mean up – we normally take the bus there and then walk back – downhill all the way), I chatted with the bus driver. He was probably my age, though looked older (who knows, maybe he was thinking the same about me!) It was the middle of the day and he pointed to the money tray and said, “Six hours for 40 shekels (about $10), that is nothing.”
I nodded and he went on: “You live your life, but it is like you died. You can’t do out, even go to Jerusalem. My father, my grandfather had something but now there is nothing, nothing.”
He started the bus, closed the door and I imagined, as it is painful to do, what it would be like to be him. His family goes back generations and generations here, living through one set of invaders after another. But until the Zionist colonists came, his family was allowed to continue their lives, to get their drinking water from their own well, to own and farm and build on their lands, to have their businesses, to travel, to walk into Jerusalem, to swim in the Dead Sea or visit Nazareth. Now the Israelis prevent or severely restrict all of this.

On the Shared Taxi to Ramallah
The way to Ramallah is long, winding, and steep because the Israelis won’t let Palestinians take the direct route through Jerusalem. It is also over narrow roads, many with large potholes. As any normal driver would, the service (shared-taxi) drivers go around the potholes when they can safely do so, saving their shocks and tires and making the trek less bumpy for their passengers.
So it was when I went to Ramallah this past week. There are two permanent checkpoints, both of which have been fortified since we have been here. We were stopped at the first and asked for our IDs, it went fairly quickly. At the second checkpoint we were motioned off to the side by a soldier and an Israeli police officer approached the driver. The cop was relatively young, I think Russian, probably an immigrant. There was much discussion in what sounded like Hebrew and handing of papers back and forth. Our driver got out, then back in. After at least 15 minutes the Israeli cop handed our driver a piece of paper and we left.
I asked what had happened and then learned that this cop had fined the driver 500 shekels ($125) because he drove around a pothole! This driver was only getting $32 in fares for his now nearly two-hour drive to Ramallah.
This particular cop may have been on a power trip, I have heard many Palestinians say that the soldiers they encounter who are Russian, Druze or Bedouin tend to be the most brutal. However, clearly the Israeli system gives him the leeway to engage in literal highway robbery if he chooses.

On another ride
It is easy to strike up conversations on the service and bus rides. On another recent ride, we struck up a conversation with a young woman who was studying at Al Quds University in the town of Abu Dis. Al Quds, which is Arabic for Jerusalem, used to be a viable part of Jerusalem until the Israelis built the illegal Apartheid wall to cut Al Quds and several small towns off. These villages, whose traditional trade routes were to and from Jerusalem, are now languishing, many businesses have closed.
As we drove along, the young woman chatted about her school and helped Patricia with her Arabic.
One drives quite close to the wall approaching Abu Dis; it is looming, huge, ugly, concrete. We all look over at it and the young woman says quietly, “I hate it.”

And a sample of the week …
Palestinian shepherds resist settler violence and disruption
(29 March 2009) In three recent incidents Palestinian shepherds asserted their right to graze their sheep on their own land, despite Israeli settlers’ attempts to intimidate the Palestinians and disrupt their agricultural work. Palestinians in the South Hebron hills have responded to recent violence and incursions on their lands with a law suit and a nonviolent grazing
action.
For rest of article: http://palsolidarity.org/2009/03/5654
Army incursion in Haris, over 150 minors and youths arrested
(26, March, 2009) A major military operation took place today in Haris between 2am and 5pm. Around 15 jeeps, 2 border police jeeps and vans belonging to Israeli Intelligence Shabak entered Haris and arrested around 150 people including large number of minors.
For rest of article: http://palsolidarity.org/2009/03/5599

Twilight Zone / Live fire By Gideon Levy, Haaretz
(26 March 2009) Young Mahdi Abu Ayash lies in the intensive care unit of Al Ahli Hospital in Hebron, with no chance of a meaningful recovery. Look at the picture and understand - or not. Why was this teenager - who maybe, or maybe not, threw rocks at soldiers who had arrested and beaten two of his friends - shot with live ammunition?
For rest of article: http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/2009/03/25/haaretz-the-twilight-zonelive-fire
Another two children killed by Israeli explosive in the Gaza Strip
(21 March 2009) Mohammed Hiji and Ahmed Ishnayawra, both 14 years old according to medical sources, were killed in Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza city, on Saturday 21st of March by what is suspected to be Israeli ordinance, left unexploded after January’s invasion. Mohammed was in the store, where he was working to support his family, as his father is handicapped as a result of an accident that caused him the loss of his right hand.
For rest of article: http://palsolidarity.org/2009/03/5572
Upcoming article on Beit Ommar
On Sunday, March 22, we visited the village of Beit Ommar near Hebron. The May/June issue of BPM will include an article by us about the grim situation there with the army making continual incursions, like this one on March 11:
40 Arrested, Scores Beaten, Dozens of Homes Invaded in Beit Ommar
(11 March 2009) In the early hours on Wednesday, March 11, approximately 15 Israeli military vehicles entered the village of Beit Ommar and began a day-long operation of harassment, violence, and destruction. Scores of soldiers, many with faces painted or ski masks on, began breaking into homes at approximately 1am, tearing rooms apart, breaking furniture, computers, and other electronics, and arresting men aged 11-80.
For rest of article: http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/2009/03/13/40-arrested-scores-beaten-dozens-of-homes-invaded-in-beit-ommar