Hello everyone,
I have been back from Israel and Palestine for almost a week, and thanks be to God I had no problems getting back home.
There are some videos of the events I described in my blog. I will post them as I find them.
This is a video of international and Israeli activists being arrested in Hebron on August 14. It was my second last demonstration, and one during which the army was extremely rough with the protesters. Two ISMers, people I had gotten to know and respect, got arrested that day. One was grabbed by the neck, the other thrown to the ground and pinned down by the soldiers. One was falsely charged with "assaulting a soldier". The video shows pretty clearly where the violence was coming from.
The arrests were filmed in very slow motion. In a way it is good because it shows how these people were taken, a problem is that the sound was slowed down a lot as well and it sounds a bit strange in my opinion.
You can see me in the video wearing a gray shirt with green stripes, I was also yelling "what are you doing" at the soldiers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uQabgI_Td8
Unfortunately my wallet was stolen and some of the videos I had on my camera were in it. I had one video saved on my computer, when I have some time I will upload it on Youtube.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Yad Vashem pictures (3)
Other memorials. Cameras are banned inside the building, these are all outside.
Yad Vashem pictures (2)
Memorial to murdered Jewish children.
Memorial to Janusz Korczak. He was a Polish Jewish teacher who was also a writer and was very well known by the time the Holocaust began. He lived in the Warsaw Ghetto, running an orphanage and doing his best to take care of his young students. A Polish resistance group (Zegota) that dedicated itself to smuggling Jews out of the Warsaw ghetto offered to try getting him out, but he refused to abandon his students. On August 5, 1942, Nazi soldiers came and took Dr. Korczak and all of the orphanage's staff and children to Treblinka death camp where they were gassed.
In my opinion, Dr. Korczak was a hero and a role model. I think students in the Education program should learn about him.
Yad Vashem pictures (1)
Entering Yad Vashem.
The beautiful greenery and forests around Yad Vashem. Israel has many beautiful forests and national parks. Many however, have been built on destroyed Palestinian villages and towns.
Yad Vashem reflections (2)- Never Again?
Being at Yad Vashem I could not help but think of the situation that is happening today in Israel and Palestine.
Before going further, let me state some obvious things. Israel is not Nazi Germany. Israel's discriminatory, racist, and at times murderous policies in the West Bank and inhuman blockade and killings in Gaza are not identical to the Holocaust. There are no death camps. There are no gas chambers. There are no crematoriums consuming thousands of corpses on a daily basis. The Israeli army is not the German SS. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces during the past 62 years, an overwhelming majority of them innocent and unarmed civilians murdered in actions that most of the world rightly recognizes as war crimes. Yet the number is not in the millions and I have not witnessed or heard of attempts by Israel to murder every Palestinian.
I know that there are some people who try to make the Israel = Nazi Germany comparison. It is not true. It is historically inaccurate and often, though not always, made by people who themselves harbour nazi sympathies and hatred of Jewish people. I am not talking about people who are opposed to Israel's actions towards Palestinians, I am talking about people who hate all Jews and Israelis. There is a very big difference. I do not personally know anyone like that, but do a google search and you will be sure to find people and organizations who do.
Having said that, there is no denying that the Holocaust has had a big impact on Palestinians, and still does today. The Zionist movement, while not initially popular among most Jews, really got off the ground due to Hitler's genocide. Millions of survivors saw Israel/Palestine as their only hope of escape from further calamity, and they came.
Israel's founding meant the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Over 750,000 people were driven out of their homes, Muslims and Christians alike. Villages and towns were emptied, sometimes the victims fled and at other times they were shelled and shot at and killed. In a village called Deir Yassin, zionist forces murdered over 240 Palestinians, many of them women and children. Some were shot, others beaten to death. Grenades were thrown into houses filled with terrified women and children. The empty and gutted homes were set on fire or blown up with dynamite. Many such massacres were committed against Palestinians by the Israeli army and allied paramilitary forces. Palestinians and Arab neighbours who came to support them in the 1948 war also committed some atrocities against Israeli Jews, although they were far fewer in both scale and frequency.
Over the ashes of many Palestinian villages and towns, Israel has planted forests. Often thee is no trace left. Ironically, what used to be Deir Yassin is only about a kilometre or so away from Yad Vashem. It is now a Jerusalem suburb.
Settler groups today try planting trees on Palestinian farmland. They do so protected by the army, often with the soldiers standing by them. The message they are sending could not be more clear.
Zionism's founders from the outset claimed that Palestine must only be for Jewish people, and talked of displacing 'the native Arabs' as early as in the 1800s. Israeli historians like Illan Pappe and Benny Morris are good sources if you want to learn more about some of political zionism's founding principals.
While not genocide, this is certainly ethnic cleansing. As history shows us, this ethnic cleansing has often been accompanied by mass murder.
I have yet to meet one Palestinian who denies that the Holocaust took place, who celebrates it, or claims that it was somehow justified. However, many ask this question: why were we punished for what Hitler did to the Jews?
One of the most haunting things for me at Yad Vashem were the faces of the German soldiers and collaborators in some Eastern Europen and Baltic countries who were 'caught on tape'. A very disturbing photograph is of an officer posing beside two prisoners who are hanging by their wrists and look to be in excruciating pain. The officer is smiling and posing for a photo. He looks like and probably was a sadistic creep. Yet he is an ordinary person.
I do not know what the faces looked like of the masked settlers who broke my nose with a pipe, or of those who attacked our Palestinian friend and broke his knee. When I close my eyes I can sometimes see the 3 masked men coming towards me and Coba but I will probably never know what their faces looked like.
I have heard Palestinians tell horror stories about a Border Police unit that operated in Hebron a few years ago. The soldiers would take Palestinian detainees and force them to play "the lottery". They would have to reach into a black plastic bag and draw out little slips of paper. Each slip of paper described a form of beating. Broken knee. Broken teeth. Broken hand. Some soldiers would hold the screaming Palestinian down while one of them got a club and performed the "punishment". One time, a teenage boy was badly beaten and then thrown out of a speeding jeep. He later died of his injuries.
I was not around when these horrors were perpetrated and have no ideas what the faces of these soldiers looked like or the settlers who attacked us, looked like.
I suspect though they may have been similar to the face of the SS man in the picture. Some of them probably have girlfriends or wives who they love and cherish and respect. They may have kids. Some probably own pets and would never hit their dogs or cats. Some are probably secular, others are probably very religious.
Like the man in the picture, they are probably pretty average people. Yet when they put on a uniform or a black ski mask they become monsters. They dish out pain and suffering and death to others who they see as 'inferior'.
Hatred is a cancer that manifests itself in every act of violence, every act of cruelty, every occupation. As a CPTer and ISMer, I saw it in Hebron almost on a daily basis.
The opposite of hatred is love, and there is no more perfect example of that then the sacrifice that was made on the cross. The sacrifice was made for all, including Palestinians and Israelis alike. I see no more powerful symbol of peace for the world, and I do not believe there is any other hope of true peace.
It is almost 2:00 in the morning here and I am going to bed. If you haven't stopped reading by now, thank you for bearing with me and taking the time to read my jumbled and perhaps at times disorganized thoughts.
Before going further, let me state some obvious things. Israel is not Nazi Germany. Israel's discriminatory, racist, and at times murderous policies in the West Bank and inhuman blockade and killings in Gaza are not identical to the Holocaust. There are no death camps. There are no gas chambers. There are no crematoriums consuming thousands of corpses on a daily basis. The Israeli army is not the German SS. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces during the past 62 years, an overwhelming majority of them innocent and unarmed civilians murdered in actions that most of the world rightly recognizes as war crimes. Yet the number is not in the millions and I have not witnessed or heard of attempts by Israel to murder every Palestinian.
I know that there are some people who try to make the Israel = Nazi Germany comparison. It is not true. It is historically inaccurate and often, though not always, made by people who themselves harbour nazi sympathies and hatred of Jewish people. I am not talking about people who are opposed to Israel's actions towards Palestinians, I am talking about people who hate all Jews and Israelis. There is a very big difference. I do not personally know anyone like that, but do a google search and you will be sure to find people and organizations who do.
Having said that, there is no denying that the Holocaust has had a big impact on Palestinians, and still does today. The Zionist movement, while not initially popular among most Jews, really got off the ground due to Hitler's genocide. Millions of survivors saw Israel/Palestine as their only hope of escape from further calamity, and they came.
Israel's founding meant the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Over 750,000 people were driven out of their homes, Muslims and Christians alike. Villages and towns were emptied, sometimes the victims fled and at other times they were shelled and shot at and killed. In a village called Deir Yassin, zionist forces murdered over 240 Palestinians, many of them women and children. Some were shot, others beaten to death. Grenades were thrown into houses filled with terrified women and children. The empty and gutted homes were set on fire or blown up with dynamite. Many such massacres were committed against Palestinians by the Israeli army and allied paramilitary forces. Palestinians and Arab neighbours who came to support them in the 1948 war also committed some atrocities against Israeli Jews, although they were far fewer in both scale and frequency.
Over the ashes of many Palestinian villages and towns, Israel has planted forests. Often thee is no trace left. Ironically, what used to be Deir Yassin is only about a kilometre or so away from Yad Vashem. It is now a Jerusalem suburb.
Settler groups today try planting trees on Palestinian farmland. They do so protected by the army, often with the soldiers standing by them. The message they are sending could not be more clear.
Zionism's founders from the outset claimed that Palestine must only be for Jewish people, and talked of displacing 'the native Arabs' as early as in the 1800s. Israeli historians like Illan Pappe and Benny Morris are good sources if you want to learn more about some of political zionism's founding principals.
While not genocide, this is certainly ethnic cleansing. As history shows us, this ethnic cleansing has often been accompanied by mass murder.
I have yet to meet one Palestinian who denies that the Holocaust took place, who celebrates it, or claims that it was somehow justified. However, many ask this question: why were we punished for what Hitler did to the Jews?
One of the most haunting things for me at Yad Vashem were the faces of the German soldiers and collaborators in some Eastern Europen and Baltic countries who were 'caught on tape'. A very disturbing photograph is of an officer posing beside two prisoners who are hanging by their wrists and look to be in excruciating pain. The officer is smiling and posing for a photo. He looks like and probably was a sadistic creep. Yet he is an ordinary person.
I do not know what the faces looked like of the masked settlers who broke my nose with a pipe, or of those who attacked our Palestinian friend and broke his knee. When I close my eyes I can sometimes see the 3 masked men coming towards me and Coba but I will probably never know what their faces looked like.
I have heard Palestinians tell horror stories about a Border Police unit that operated in Hebron a few years ago. The soldiers would take Palestinian detainees and force them to play "the lottery". They would have to reach into a black plastic bag and draw out little slips of paper. Each slip of paper described a form of beating. Broken knee. Broken teeth. Broken hand. Some soldiers would hold the screaming Palestinian down while one of them got a club and performed the "punishment". One time, a teenage boy was badly beaten and then thrown out of a speeding jeep. He later died of his injuries.
I was not around when these horrors were perpetrated and have no ideas what the faces of these soldiers looked like or the settlers who attacked us, looked like.
I suspect though they may have been similar to the face of the SS man in the picture. Some of them probably have girlfriends or wives who they love and cherish and respect. They may have kids. Some probably own pets and would never hit their dogs or cats. Some are probably secular, others are probably very religious.
Like the man in the picture, they are probably pretty average people. Yet when they put on a uniform or a black ski mask they become monsters. They dish out pain and suffering and death to others who they see as 'inferior'.
Hatred is a cancer that manifests itself in every act of violence, every act of cruelty, every occupation. As a CPTer and ISMer, I saw it in Hebron almost on a daily basis.
The opposite of hatred is love, and there is no more perfect example of that then the sacrifice that was made on the cross. The sacrifice was made for all, including Palestinians and Israelis alike. I see no more powerful symbol of peace for the world, and I do not believe there is any other hope of true peace.
It is almost 2:00 in the morning here and I am going to bed. If you haven't stopped reading by now, thank you for bearing with me and taking the time to read my jumbled and perhaps at times disorganized thoughts.
Yad Vashem reflections (1) - we need to remember all the victims
Today I had the privilege of visiting Yad Vashem, probably the world’s most famous Holocaust Museum. It is fittingly located in Jerusalem, the holiest city in the Jewish faith- and holy as well to Muslims and Christians. Yad Vashem documents the horrific attempt to systematically annihilate Europe’s Jews by Hitler’s followers: German Nazis and their collaborators, inspired by the sick and twisted ideology of National Socialism. It is hard to describe what it is like to be in this building.
It is full of pictures, videos, interviews, and relics of that horrific time in human history.
Go there and you will see a collection of shoes of people who were murdered, as well as an actual boxcar that was used to transport people to the death camps. The evidence is overwhelming, and anyone with a brain that is not blinded by racist propaganda cannot deny that this horrific atrocity against the Jewish people did take place. There are those who do deny that the Holocaust happened, I can only say I feel sorry for them.
I would like them to come and see the plaques on the walls containing the names made by families of the dead, some of them even listing when and where they were murdered. I doubt if it would make a difference, minds that are consumed by hate often are incapable of rational thought.
I have a lot respect for the Jewish resistance fighters in the Warsaw ghetto and those who resisted in the concentration camps and those who fought in the woods as partisans, either with other non-Jews who opposed the Nazis or in their own units. I am filled with admiration though for those who managed and did everything they could do to maintain a semblance of normal life. Parents who loved their kids and tried to give them an education while sorrounded by people who hated them and let them know in every possible way they were, in their eyes, unworthy of life. Rabbis who ministered to their people, knowing that they faced particularly awful abuse for keeping to their traditions. Inmates in Dachau who ate and slaved and died together.
Yad Vashem does a very good and I would say very important job in documenting Hitler’s genocide against the Jewish people. It should not and can not be forgotten or allowed to happen again.
What it unfortunately does not do is document the equally horrific and brutal genocide of most of the other victims. In addition to the 6 million Jews who were murdered, the Holocaust also consumed the lives of more than 10 million Slavs (7 million Ukrainians, 3 million Poles and millions more Russians and Byelorussians). Slavic people suffered most numerically, yet there is no mention of them in the museum, except to say that ‘thousands’ of Polish intelligentsia were killed, pointing out that many of the SS were Ukrainian, and showing pictures of Polish women trying on clothes that belonged to deported Jews and a picture of Polish policemen guarding the Warsaw ghetto. I do not know enough Ukrainian world war two history to comment about it, except that they were ruthlessly murdered by the millions by both Hitler and Stalin, and that while there were many who joined the Nazis, many others died fighting them.
I can comment more on the Polish history, since my family is Polish and so were my grandparents, who lived through the second world war. This is going to be long. Perhaps I have written about this already and am repeating myself. I make no apologies. Like the suffering of the Jewish people can never be forgotten, nor can the suffering of my people or the suffering of other victims of injustice. We must give voices to people who are being persecuted and preserve the memories of those who were murdered. This is all the more important when the world chooses to ignore their suffering and pretend it never happened.
Hitler’s minions occupied Poland from 1939 to 1945. During that time, they managed to kill 6 million Polish citizens. 3 million of them were Polish Jews, 3 million were Polish non-Jews (predominantly Catholic Christians since Poland’s population is and always has been mostly Catholic). Like Jews, Poles had no human rights. Like Jews, they were considered untermenschen. They were seen as nothing more than slaves who were to be driven off their lands, enslaved, and eventually murdered. They were not human beings.
I have no doubt that the pictures of the Polish woman and the policemen are authentic. In every society there are people who take advantage of the suffering of others and there are those who allow themselves to sink into following the most depraved human instincts and temptations when occasion arises, and who act like beasts towards those who are vulnerable. Yes, there were Nazi collaborators who were Polish. There were also French collaborators, Czech collaborators, Serbian collaborators, Dutch, Danish… in every country that was occupied there were those who went along with the Nazis. They included Jews. In the Warsaw ghetto, the Nazis relied heavily on the Jewish police, who rounded up their fellow people and beat them and shot at them and transported them to the death camps to be murdered. Many of them did it to save their own lives. Too late they found out it did no good.
I read that Poland’s Jewish population before the war was composed of 3.3 million people. Only 300,000 survived. That is truly a horrific testament to the hatred of the Nazis. It is also a testament to the heroic courage exhibited by many Polish people during the war. Of the 300,000 Jews who survived, some survived the death camps, others fought with the partisans. An overwhelming majority however survived because they were hidden by Polish people. Families, clergy, single people, city dwellers, villagers, teachers, labourers; people of all backgrounds and professions took their Jewish neighbours in and hid them. The risk for doing so was not a slap on the wrist or a fine. It was almost always death, usually family included.
In Polish villages, farmers who were caught hiding Jews were locked up in their homes or barns along with the whole family and the person or people they were hiding- then the building would be drenched with petrol and set on fire with everyone inside.
Nazi collaborators in Poland were relatively few, and they lived in constant fear. They were not afraid of the Nazis, they were afraid of most of the Polish people who hated them even more than the imperialists they served. Many were killed by fellow Poles during the war, most of the rest suffered the same fate after the occupation ended.
In his book, Martyrs of Charity, Dr. Waclaw Zajaczkowski documents the names of over 3,000 Polish Chritians who were murdered for helping Jews. It is estimated that over 50,000 in total were murdered for helping their neighbours. Helping Jews in Poland during the Nazi occupation meant the risk of certain death, yet many tens of thousands if not more did so. And for being Slavs, Polish people too were on the list of people to be exterminated.
I would highly recommend Dr. Zajaczkowski’s book. Of course, it too is biased. His claim that only in Poland helping Jews meant an automatic death sentence, in reality any Slav who did that anywhere in Eastern Europe paid the same price. While rightly attacking Yad Vashem for mostly focusing on what happened to the Jews and not mentioning the suffering of Poles, Zajaczkowski falls into the same trap. While describing the Holocaust of Polish non-Jews, he fails to make any significant mention of the mass murder of non-Polish Slavic peoples. The plight of the Ukrainians, Russians and Byelorussians is almost completely ignored. The mass extermination of the Roma is not even mentioned.
Why am I saying this? We are all guilty of bias and it is very easy to get caught up in issues that affect us and forget or ignore others around us. This is as true of historians as it is of us today.
It is full of pictures, videos, interviews, and relics of that horrific time in human history.
Go there and you will see a collection of shoes of people who were murdered, as well as an actual boxcar that was used to transport people to the death camps. The evidence is overwhelming, and anyone with a brain that is not blinded by racist propaganda cannot deny that this horrific atrocity against the Jewish people did take place. There are those who do deny that the Holocaust happened, I can only say I feel sorry for them.
I would like them to come and see the plaques on the walls containing the names made by families of the dead, some of them even listing when and where they were murdered. I doubt if it would make a difference, minds that are consumed by hate often are incapable of rational thought.
I have a lot respect for the Jewish resistance fighters in the Warsaw ghetto and those who resisted in the concentration camps and those who fought in the woods as partisans, either with other non-Jews who opposed the Nazis or in their own units. I am filled with admiration though for those who managed and did everything they could do to maintain a semblance of normal life. Parents who loved their kids and tried to give them an education while sorrounded by people who hated them and let them know in every possible way they were, in their eyes, unworthy of life. Rabbis who ministered to their people, knowing that they faced particularly awful abuse for keeping to their traditions. Inmates in Dachau who ate and slaved and died together.
Yad Vashem does a very good and I would say very important job in documenting Hitler’s genocide against the Jewish people. It should not and can not be forgotten or allowed to happen again.
What it unfortunately does not do is document the equally horrific and brutal genocide of most of the other victims. In addition to the 6 million Jews who were murdered, the Holocaust also consumed the lives of more than 10 million Slavs (7 million Ukrainians, 3 million Poles and millions more Russians and Byelorussians). Slavic people suffered most numerically, yet there is no mention of them in the museum, except to say that ‘thousands’ of Polish intelligentsia were killed, pointing out that many of the SS were Ukrainian, and showing pictures of Polish women trying on clothes that belonged to deported Jews and a picture of Polish policemen guarding the Warsaw ghetto. I do not know enough Ukrainian world war two history to comment about it, except that they were ruthlessly murdered by the millions by both Hitler and Stalin, and that while there were many who joined the Nazis, many others died fighting them.
I can comment more on the Polish history, since my family is Polish and so were my grandparents, who lived through the second world war. This is going to be long. Perhaps I have written about this already and am repeating myself. I make no apologies. Like the suffering of the Jewish people can never be forgotten, nor can the suffering of my people or the suffering of other victims of injustice. We must give voices to people who are being persecuted and preserve the memories of those who were murdered. This is all the more important when the world chooses to ignore their suffering and pretend it never happened.
Hitler’s minions occupied Poland from 1939 to 1945. During that time, they managed to kill 6 million Polish citizens. 3 million of them were Polish Jews, 3 million were Polish non-Jews (predominantly Catholic Christians since Poland’s population is and always has been mostly Catholic). Like Jews, Poles had no human rights. Like Jews, they were considered untermenschen. They were seen as nothing more than slaves who were to be driven off their lands, enslaved, and eventually murdered. They were not human beings.
I have no doubt that the pictures of the Polish woman and the policemen are authentic. In every society there are people who take advantage of the suffering of others and there are those who allow themselves to sink into following the most depraved human instincts and temptations when occasion arises, and who act like beasts towards those who are vulnerable. Yes, there were Nazi collaborators who were Polish. There were also French collaborators, Czech collaborators, Serbian collaborators, Dutch, Danish… in every country that was occupied there were those who went along with the Nazis. They included Jews. In the Warsaw ghetto, the Nazis relied heavily on the Jewish police, who rounded up their fellow people and beat them and shot at them and transported them to the death camps to be murdered. Many of them did it to save their own lives. Too late they found out it did no good.
I read that Poland’s Jewish population before the war was composed of 3.3 million people. Only 300,000 survived. That is truly a horrific testament to the hatred of the Nazis. It is also a testament to the heroic courage exhibited by many Polish people during the war. Of the 300,000 Jews who survived, some survived the death camps, others fought with the partisans. An overwhelming majority however survived because they were hidden by Polish people. Families, clergy, single people, city dwellers, villagers, teachers, labourers; people of all backgrounds and professions took their Jewish neighbours in and hid them. The risk for doing so was not a slap on the wrist or a fine. It was almost always death, usually family included.
In Polish villages, farmers who were caught hiding Jews were locked up in their homes or barns along with the whole family and the person or people they were hiding- then the building would be drenched with petrol and set on fire with everyone inside.
Nazi collaborators in Poland were relatively few, and they lived in constant fear. They were not afraid of the Nazis, they were afraid of most of the Polish people who hated them even more than the imperialists they served. Many were killed by fellow Poles during the war, most of the rest suffered the same fate after the occupation ended.
In his book, Martyrs of Charity, Dr. Waclaw Zajaczkowski documents the names of over 3,000 Polish Chritians who were murdered for helping Jews. It is estimated that over 50,000 in total were murdered for helping their neighbours. Helping Jews in Poland during the Nazi occupation meant the risk of certain death, yet many tens of thousands if not more did so. And for being Slavs, Polish people too were on the list of people to be exterminated.
I would highly recommend Dr. Zajaczkowski’s book. Of course, it too is biased. His claim that only in Poland helping Jews meant an automatic death sentence, in reality any Slav who did that anywhere in Eastern Europe paid the same price. While rightly attacking Yad Vashem for mostly focusing on what happened to the Jews and not mentioning the suffering of Poles, Zajaczkowski falls into the same trap. While describing the Holocaust of Polish non-Jews, he fails to make any significant mention of the mass murder of non-Polish Slavic peoples. The plight of the Ukrainians, Russians and Byelorussians is almost completely ignored. The mass extermination of the Roma is not even mentioned.
Why am I saying this? We are all guilty of bias and it is very easy to get caught up in issues that affect us and forget or ignore others around us. This is as true of historians as it is of us today.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Another beating in Al Buweyre
Today in the evening we received some very distressing and sad news. There was an attack in Al Buweyre last night, on a family living close to the outpost. They were the family we stayed with on Wednesday night.
Masked settlers came from the outpost at night and forced their way into the house. They had sticks and began swinging them at the people inside. They hurt one of the men in the house. He was severely beaten, and one of his knees was broken.
This kind of news is horrific. It is not only due to the vicious nature of the attack. It is because this kind of thing happens on an almost weekly, sometimes daily basis. Broken windows. Burned fields. Burned houses. Broken bones. The Palestinian villagers in Al Buweyre and At Tuwani and other places near Hebron and other parts of the West Bank, who are close to the settlers are victims of regular terrorism.
Please pray for the injured man and his family. Pray that justice come down like a river to this land that has seen so much oppression and bloodshed.
Masked settlers came from the outpost at night and forced their way into the house. They had sticks and began swinging them at the people inside. They hurt one of the men in the house. He was severely beaten, and one of his knees was broken.
This kind of news is horrific. It is not only due to the vicious nature of the attack. It is because this kind of thing happens on an almost weekly, sometimes daily basis. Broken windows. Burned fields. Burned houses. Broken bones. The Palestinian villagers in Al Buweyre and At Tuwani and other places near Hebron and other parts of the West Bank, who are close to the settlers are victims of regular terrorism.
Please pray for the injured man and his family. Pray that justice come down like a river to this land that has seen so much oppression and bloodshed.
Miscelaneous pictures
Soldier observing us from the watchtower.
A musical moment. John, a visitor from New Zealand, began playing violin and Paulette from CPT began singing. They drew quite a crowd.
Palestinian children making bread. Many Palestinian kids work from a very young age. In restaurants, you often see kids serving food and taking orders. They also can be seen cleaning the street and watching over stores. On one hand I am very impressed with the hard work ethic and family values that are instilled from a very young age. On the other it is sad for me to see children working, many of them are not teenagers yet. Families need to make ends meet, and often this means that kids are working from a very young age.
More Hebron demo pictures
At times, it was very crowded.
More shopkeepers who have received certificates.
Kids who we ran into on the way.
Hebron action
Today was another Hebron demo, and unfortunately my last one. It was the first one I have been to where there has been no violence from the army. In fact, they more or less kept away from the entire affair.
During the last few weeks, the Israeli army really stepped up its level of harassment and intimidation and violence against the Palestinians living in their area of Hebron. In addition to the three shops being closed down and the brutal arrests of peaceful demonstrators, the leaders have been threatened with ten years in prison if the protests continued.
Agents have been sent to threaten and intimidate the shopkeepers, threatening them that their shops too will close if the protests go on.
Today, several hundred Palestinian, international and Israeli activists walked through the markets in a musical procession. Certificates were handed out to every shopkeeper, thanking him or her for their steadfastness and support of the resistance. I saw many of the shopkeepers’ faces after they received these, some looked like they were trying to hold back tears.
Some soldiers positioned themselves on rooftops and snapped pictures of us, I decided to snap their pictures too. I was in the middle of the procession, but was told that six soldiers followed us from the back for a while before going back to their base. Thank God they didn’t do anything this time.
I think the action was a great idea. It showed gratefulness to people who are victims of collective punishment and have been made to sacrifice, and a resilience of the community and refusal to bow in the face of injustice. The protest leaders announced that next week they will be going on a “buying campaign” and purchasing goods from the shops.
CPTers gathering at the demo. Some of them are new to the country.
Showing the certificate and explaining what will happen.
The procession goes through the Old City.
During the last few weeks, the Israeli army really stepped up its level of harassment and intimidation and violence against the Palestinians living in their area of Hebron. In addition to the three shops being closed down and the brutal arrests of peaceful demonstrators, the leaders have been threatened with ten years in prison if the protests continued.
Agents have been sent to threaten and intimidate the shopkeepers, threatening them that their shops too will close if the protests go on.
Today, several hundred Palestinian, international and Israeli activists walked through the markets in a musical procession. Certificates were handed out to every shopkeeper, thanking him or her for their steadfastness and support of the resistance. I saw many of the shopkeepers’ faces after they received these, some looked like they were trying to hold back tears.
Some soldiers positioned themselves on rooftops and snapped pictures of us, I decided to snap their pictures too. I was in the middle of the procession, but was told that six soldiers followed us from the back for a while before going back to their base. Thank God they didn’t do anything this time.
I think the action was a great idea. It showed gratefulness to people who are victims of collective punishment and have been made to sacrifice, and a resilience of the community and refusal to bow in the face of injustice. The protest leaders announced that next week they will be going on a “buying campaign” and purchasing goods from the shops.
CPTers gathering at the demo. Some of them are new to the country.
Showing the certificate and explaining what will happen.
The procession goes through the Old City.
Shiksha adventures
Don't do this at home. Just kidding. There are no drugs involved, or most of the other chemicals that are in cigarettes.
There is tobacco, which is not healthy. There is also natural apple flavour, charcoal and water. We did not smoke argila (another word for shiksha) on a daily basis, it was usually among Palestinian friends.
It was a cultural aspect, I have no intention of smoking argila (or anything else) back in Canada.
There is tobacco, which is not healthy. There is also natural apple flavour, charcoal and water. We did not smoke argila (another word for shiksha) on a daily basis, it was usually among Palestinian friends.
It was a cultural aspect, I have no intention of smoking argila (or anything else) back in Canada.
Settler drive thru
Yesterday, some ISMers and CPTers went to Al Buweyre again. The settlers decided they were going to go through the village to a hill where it is claimed a settler was killed many years ago. They go to pray there and are planning to start an outpost that will hopefully become a settlement.
Nothing wrong with people praying, but in the past when going through the village the settlers have picked fights with villagers and stolen grapes. Also, the fact that they are going through a Palestinian village is also an act of provocation- any Palestinian who enters a settlement risks being shot or beaten or arrested.
Anyways, thankfully nothing terrible happened. It was a very hot day (in the forties) and I guess they decided it would be nicer to drive than parade through. Compared to Wednesday's parade, this one was relatively small. It only involved 4 settler cars, driving in procession led by one army jeep and followed at the end by another. They drove up the hill, spent approximately 30 minutes up there, and drove back.
Later that day, we hung out at the apartment and smoked some shiksha. I am not a smoker but here in the West Bank it is literally a craze and whenever you hang out with people in the evening it is offered. The ingredients are tobacco and apple. Whenever you take a puff, water at the bottom starts to bubble. Charcoal is put on the top.
I was seriously considering buying one, but if I did I would become addicted and I am sure if you do it often enough you will probably damage your lungs. So only for travels to the middle east.
Walking into Al Buweyre
One of the settler cars driving through.
Army jeep at the back.
One of the boys who hung out with us and stayed by us during the drive through.
Nothing wrong with people praying, but in the past when going through the village the settlers have picked fights with villagers and stolen grapes. Also, the fact that they are going through a Palestinian village is also an act of provocation- any Palestinian who enters a settlement risks being shot or beaten or arrested.
Anyways, thankfully nothing terrible happened. It was a very hot day (in the forties) and I guess they decided it would be nicer to drive than parade through. Compared to Wednesday's parade, this one was relatively small. It only involved 4 settler cars, driving in procession led by one army jeep and followed at the end by another. They drove up the hill, spent approximately 30 minutes up there, and drove back.
Later that day, we hung out at the apartment and smoked some shiksha. I am not a smoker but here in the West Bank it is literally a craze and whenever you hang out with people in the evening it is offered. The ingredients are tobacco and apple. Whenever you take a puff, water at the bottom starts to bubble. Charcoal is put on the top.
I was seriously considering buying one, but if I did I would become addicted and I am sure if you do it often enough you will probably damage your lungs. So only for travels to the middle east.
Walking into Al Buweyre
One of the settler cars driving through.
Army jeep at the back.
One of the boys who hung out with us and stayed by us during the drive through.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Video of soldiers closing down the shops
I did not make this video, someone else did. My "link" button is not working, so you will have to copy and paste it into the URL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rrU0AI5CvE&feature=player_embedded#!">
The video is good but it shows only part of the story. Before being dragged away by the army, the people you are about to see were grabbed, thrown to the ground, tackled. No one was offering any resistance. The worst treatment was reserved for the Palestinians, at least one of whom was later beaten in prison.
The man being carried away by ambulance I now know is one of the shopkeepers who suffered a heart attack during the "operation". Fortunately, he has recovered and is alright.
You can see the soldiers welding down the shops. They have since not been reopened.
I can be seen in the video being pushed away by the commander. He was initially very gentle with me, later when we met face to face he began yelling and the shoves were much harder. Still, this is nothing in comparison to what the people who were arrested went through.
Some of the people who were arrested were charged with "assaulting soldiers". That is a complete and despicable lie. The only people who were assaulting anyone that day were the IDF.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rrU0AI5CvE&feature=player_embedded#!">
The video is good but it shows only part of the story. Before being dragged away by the army, the people you are about to see were grabbed, thrown to the ground, tackled. No one was offering any resistance. The worst treatment was reserved for the Palestinians, at least one of whom was later beaten in prison.
The man being carried away by ambulance I now know is one of the shopkeepers who suffered a heart attack during the "operation". Fortunately, he has recovered and is alright.
You can see the soldiers welding down the shops. They have since not been reopened.
I can be seen in the video being pushed away by the commander. He was initially very gentle with me, later when we met face to face he began yelling and the shoves were much harder. Still, this is nothing in comparison to what the people who were arrested went through.
Some of the people who were arrested were charged with "assaulting soldiers". That is a complete and despicable lie. The only people who were assaulting anyone that day were the IDF.
Rally on the hills (reposted)
The pictures didn't load the first time again.
Initially a few of the settlers walked up the hill very far, and unfurled their signs close to the top. The houses nearby are Palestinian.
Shortly after this picture was taken, these guys began hurling rocks at sheep that were on their way to graze. I have it on tape, will post it when I can.
Eventually they moved down the hill, close to highway 60.
Settler truck close to the demonstration.
Initially a few of the settlers walked up the hill very far, and unfurled their signs close to the top. The houses nearby are Palestinian.
Shortly after this picture was taken, these guys began hurling rocks at sheep that were on their way to graze. I have it on tape, will post it when I can.
Eventually they moved down the hill, close to highway 60.
Settler truck close to the demonstration.
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