We first headed to Bethlehem today to meet with some individuals from the Alternative Information Centre. This was the first time that I had witnessed the infamous Israeli settlements and was astonished by what I saw. They were beautiful buildings, royal-esque in their features, atop hilltops above the dilapidated Palestinian homes. The settlements are generally built on hills leaving their sewage runoff to culminate in the Palestinian villages.
First we met with Dr. Elias Rishmawi, a city council member. He was the first to tell us of the "mini Gazas" that are being created all over the West Bank and East Jerusalem, one of which we would see later in the day. We learned that of the 10 million Palestinians in the world, 6 million are refugees, and that Israel has complete control over the water aquifers in the West Bank and traps water from getting into the Gazan aquifers, which leaves Palestinians with no control over their own water sources, as is the case with most if not all utilities.
We then went of a tour of East Jerusalem and first saw a building site that is to be the home of the Museum of Tolerance. While this may sound great, the ground is currently undergoing the excavation of an ancient Muslim cemetary in order to build the museum. Irony, anyone? We then learned that the Israeli government does not issue building permits to residents of East Jerusalem (which is the supposedly Palestinian portion of the city) and therefore buildings can be demolished at any time. The purported plan is to have all Palestinians out of East Jerusalem by 2020 to the other side of the wall (into the West Bank, mostly) or to Jordan.
We then saw Shafat Camp, which is one of the "mini Gazas" we learned about earlier. It is surrounded by walls except for the one gate out to Jerusalem, and its buildings are not regulated and therefore all construction is illegal and often haphazard and very unsafe. It has 20000 - 50000 inhabitants, depending on who you ask. The residents pay the highest taxes (tax rates are dependent on your area, with more wealthy areas supposedly paying more), and yet receive absolutely no services - there is no garbage pickup, no police services, and the sewage outlets have been closed up thereby keeping all sewage inside the walls. ID must be presented everytime one leaves the gate, and if someone tries to leave who hasn't paid their incredibly high taxes, they are jailed until someone pays the taxes for them. There are currently five such communities in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Our day ended with a meeting with Jeff Halper from ICAHD - it was like meeting a celebrity, I was so excited. According to Jeff, there are currently 22000 outstanding demolition orders in East Jerusalem, or one third of Palestinian homes. He told us a current project of Beit Arabia, wherein a woman's home had been demolished four times and rebuilt each time. According to international law, an occupying force has no right to extend its law into the occupied territory (such as controlling building permits, demolishing buildings, etc) however Israel does this everyday in the West Bank.
Tonight and tomorrow night I'm staying with Rebecca, a young woman that I met in Cairo through a friend in the student delegation to Gaza. She had myself, Gabriel and Sascha over for an amazing vegan dinner and then - wait for it - I did LAUNDRY! It was a pretty awesome night!
Day 19 - June 8, 2009
Last night after I posted some of us went to Siderot which is a small town near Gaza that has experienced a disproportionate amount of bombing by Palestinians. There was a film festival showing Afghan Star, a very popular show in the Arab world, and we were given the option to see the movie or talk to people in the town about their thoughts and opinions. Gabriel and I had planned see the first few minutes of the movie to see if we would like it (expecting we wouldn't) and then wander around town, but we quickly found out why that show has been such a success and ended up staying for the entire thing. Fascinating!
Today we went to Erez again and brought "contraband" (ie. semame seeds, matches, chocolate, paper, etc) and set up a theatrical protest where we had a fake wall where we brought the contraband and dug tunnels to get it all underneath. I was a Gazan prisoner (as we all know that Gaza is the world's largest prison). We took our passports to the guard again but were promptly denied. A few individuals took our names to Tel-Aviv to officially request entry to Gaza through Eres but we were denied visas.
We then took the protest to Karni, another border that is only for the entry of the 40 products that are allowed into Gaza (Erez is for people, which begs the question as to why it exists). We tied balloons and put the products we brought on the fence and set up the playground - it was really fun.
We came back and after a lovely vegan lunch (although I'm really missing cheese right now) we met with a woman who taught us about boycotts, divestments and sanctions. The group's website is www.whoprofits.org. We talked a lot about the exploitation of Palestinian workers, who by law have the same labour laws as Israelis, which is a relatively new law and rarely enforced. We also discussed the fact that many Israeli companies are joint companies with the US so that they can hide the fact that they are Israeli, and that security is the most profitable industry in Israel. She suggested that divestments are actually more practical for Canadians and North Americans as Israel doesn't actually export a lot of products to North America. We also learned about Violia, a French company who recently dropped a contract to build a light rail system in Jerusalem because of international pressures.
Later in the evening we met with five refusenik women who are all around 18 and were part of the twelfth grade letter movement, wherein they write letters on their graduation to the Ministry of Defense and the Prime Minister saying that they are refusing to participate in an army that commits war crimes. Two have spent time in jail and risk spending more time in jail, as each time they are released they are expected to join the army and can be arrested and charged each time they refuse, without a maximum. One claimed mental health issues (which can affect her future abilities to get jobs as she is labelled as mentally unfit), and one is taking a year off and will be refusing this year. There are two options if someone wants to avoid jail: they can claim mental health issues, wherein they have to be deemed mentally unfit by a doctor hired by the army, or they have to go in front of a panel and claim conscientious objection. The women said that the panel is basically a token institution as unless you say exactly what they want to hear and what they deem to be pacifism, you will be denied conscientious objector status. The two women who went to jail tried this route first but were denied - the one who claimed mental health issues essentially had to lie. One of the women who went to jail was very to the IDF about her objection to the occupation, as she feels that the crimes being committed there must be brought to light and will use her going to jail to do so. We also found out that suicide is the number one cause of death in the IDF, and of people ages 18 to 21 in Israel. I felt very honoured to have met these women.
Today we went to Erez again and brought "contraband" (ie. semame seeds, matches, chocolate, paper, etc) and set up a theatrical protest where we had a fake wall where we brought the contraband and dug tunnels to get it all underneath. I was a Gazan prisoner (as we all know that Gaza is the world's largest prison). We took our passports to the guard again but were promptly denied. A few individuals took our names to Tel-Aviv to officially request entry to Gaza through Eres but we were denied visas.
We then took the protest to Karni, another border that is only for the entry of the 40 products that are allowed into Gaza (Erez is for people, which begs the question as to why it exists). We tied balloons and put the products we brought on the fence and set up the playground - it was really fun.
We came back and after a lovely vegan lunch (although I'm really missing cheese right now) we met with a woman who taught us about boycotts, divestments and sanctions. The group's website is www.whoprofits.org. We talked a lot about the exploitation of Palestinian workers, who by law have the same labour laws as Israelis, which is a relatively new law and rarely enforced. We also discussed the fact that many Israeli companies are joint companies with the US so that they can hide the fact that they are Israeli, and that security is the most profitable industry in Israel. She suggested that divestments are actually more practical for Canadians and North Americans as Israel doesn't actually export a lot of products to North America. We also learned about Violia, a French company who recently dropped a contract to build a light rail system in Jerusalem because of international pressures.
Later in the evening we met with five refusenik women who are all around 18 and were part of the twelfth grade letter movement, wherein they write letters on their graduation to the Ministry of Defense and the Prime Minister saying that they are refusing to participate in an army that commits war crimes. Two have spent time in jail and risk spending more time in jail, as each time they are released they are expected to join the army and can be arrested and charged each time they refuse, without a maximum. One claimed mental health issues (which can affect her future abilities to get jobs as she is labelled as mentally unfit), and one is taking a year off and will be refusing this year. There are two options if someone wants to avoid jail: they can claim mental health issues, wherein they have to be deemed mentally unfit by a doctor hired by the army, or they have to go in front of a panel and claim conscientious objection. The women said that the panel is basically a token institution as unless you say exactly what they want to hear and what they deem to be pacifism, you will be denied conscientious objector status. The two women who went to jail tried this route first but were denied - the one who claimed mental health issues essentially had to lie. One of the women who went to jail was very to the IDF about her objection to the occupation, as she feels that the crimes being committed there must be brought to light and will use her going to jail to do so. We also found out that suicide is the number one cause of death in the IDF, and of people ages 18 to 21 in Israel. I felt very honoured to have met these women.
Check out the new delegation as we go!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/codepinkalert/
And if you have a flickr account, join this group to see other photos:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/codepinkisraelgazadelegation/pool/
And if you have a flickr account, join this group to see other photos:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/codepinkisraelgazadelegation/pool/
Day 18 - June 7, 2009
We woke up bright and early and had vegan food for breakfast, which is all we'll be eating at the farm, and I love it. We headed to the Erez border and promptly got out of the bus - Patch did a great speech and then headed to the patrol station with all of our passports (he was fully in character, including a chicken on his head and a rubber fish in his hand). I have a video of the whole thing which I'm going to upload as soon as possible because I really can't describe the experience well enough. We had a samba band with us (most of whom are refuseniks) and four clowns from a group in Tel-Aviv dressed up in IDF-type costumes. The playground was quickly assembled and kites were soon in the sky. Patch made good friends with Ronnie, a border patrol officer, and we actually saw smiles on IDF faces!
It was overall a huge celebration and a ton of fun. We were eventually given back our passports and told we weren't getting in (which we very much expected), which prompted Patch to start a poker game with them (I wasn't quite sure how that worked, but it seemed to be quite popular, even with the border guards). After two hours, though, the IDF got agitated and came out in full force, huge rifles and gear and all - apparently clowns and women dressed in pink are very threatening. They forcefully put the clowns in the bus and took the mallets away from the drummers, and I still have yet to find out what happened to our playground. There was a really heated coversation between and IDF solider and one of the drummers, where the drummer was telling him that every solider plays a part in murder - apparently he didn't like that very much.
Back to the farm where we had a great lunch and then had two seminars, although I completely slept through the first one by accident. The one I did go to was about the boycotting of Israel, and I will hopefully soon post some websites that have more details.
I will be with this group for at least the next few days so I will continue to update as often as I can. There is a bit more free time here and more laptops to borrow so it seems possible :) And if anyone is interested, there is another convoy in early July with Galloway going through Rafah that I may attend, if anyone wants to join!
It was overall a huge celebration and a ton of fun. We were eventually given back our passports and told we weren't getting in (which we very much expected), which prompted Patch to start a poker game with them (I wasn't quite sure how that worked, but it seemed to be quite popular, even with the border guards). After two hours, though, the IDF got agitated and came out in full force, huge rifles and gear and all - apparently clowns and women dressed in pink are very threatening. They forcefully put the clowns in the bus and took the mallets away from the drummers, and I still have yet to find out what happened to our playground. There was a really heated coversation between and IDF solider and one of the drummers, where the drummer was telling him that every solider plays a part in murder - apparently he didn't like that very much.
Back to the farm where we had a great lunch and then had two seminars, although I completely slept through the first one by accident. The one I did go to was about the boycotting of Israel, and I will hopefully soon post some websites that have more details.
I will be with this group for at least the next few days so I will continue to update as often as I can. There is a bit more free time here and more laptops to borrow so it seems possible :) And if anyone is interested, there is another convoy in early July with Galloway going through Rafah that I may attend, if anyone wants to join!
Day 17 - June 6, 2009
Again I apaologize for the lack of updates. We were able to get out of Gaza without any issues, and I spent the next few days in a houseboat on the Nile. I know, it was amazing. Jen, Luke, Nathaniel, Wolf and I were staying there as the guys had lived there and were crashing for a few days with the new tenants. We soon found out at that Sarah, an incredible British filmmaker who we had seen at the border with the Project Hope convoy but who was turned back in the terminal, was staying in the houseboat next to us, so over the few days we spent a lot of time with her. I saw the museum and the mummies - creepy but cool things. I unfortunately never got around to seeing the pyramids, I don't really know why, I guess I preferred to stick with as much non-tourist activities as possible. We got together with the students from the group on the second and had a really great time. I'm really missing Gaza though, and am frustrated at how close it is and yet how inaccessible it remains.
I spent a day in Dahab after Cairo with Jen, Luke and their two upstairs neighbours. What a beautiful little place. I went snorkeling for the first time and saw coral and beautiful fish. I think I also swallowed half of the red sea.
Yesterday, after Dahab, I headed to Taba to cross the border into Israel. The plan was to meet three of the other students in Jerusalem and spend some time in the West Bank. However, when I got there I was promptly told to go to a special area because they needed to do some "investigating." I was then interrogated by a not so nice police officer who wanted to know everything about what I did in Gaza and what I was planning to do in Israel (this interrogation was expected because of the Rafah stamp on my passport). So I told her as much as I could, not offering any more than requested but being truthful. I then had to wait outside for a while, and was called back in and told that they knew why I was here, that I was going to a Codepink demonstration in Tel-Aviv. I actually had no idea what she was talking about, but when I told her that she insisted that I was lying. I even pulled up my hostel reservations in Jerusalem for the next two nights, but that apparently wasn't good enough. I then had to go out and wait for a few more hours. Luckily, they had really good food at this terminal.
Eventually I was called back into the police officer's office and handed a form that said that I would not enter a Palestinian territory while in Israel without the permission of the Israeli army. I was furious, but did a good job at holding it together. I told her that my full intention was to spend a lot of time in the West Bank, and asked whether or not there was any way around it. This was actually a different officer from before, and this one was a bit nicer and called the Ministry of Interior to find out. Again, I had to wait.
I used this next little while to start making phone calls. I called a friend who told me that the American Codepink group leaders were coming through Taba today and that I should call them. As luck would have it, her phone died before she could give me the number. I called my mom to see if she had Sandra's Toronto number, which she didn't, but she soon texted me a number of a Codepink woman in Israel. I soon found out that my mom went home, called some random Codepink person in the states who then gave her the Israel number. I also apparently worried her so much that she came home from work pretty upset... I guess I would be too if my daughter was crazy enough to try to cross the Israel border with a Gaza stamp on her passport, alone.
Finally, through the woman in Israel, I got the number of Medea, who said that they had just gotten into Taba and to wait until she got there. I actually didn't up seeing her or Tighe for a while because they had two extensive searchings of their bags, which contained some exceptionally, let's say, provocative material that wouldn't be welcomed in Israel. But I met with Ann, Annie, Pam and Billy while we waited for the other two, and it was quite comforting to be with others who understood my predicament, as they were all being interrogated as well.
I was eventually told that there was no way out of signing the paper if I wanted into Israel, and if I didn't sign it I couldn't get in. They wouldn't tell me why I had to sign it (as the three students who had gone through the border earlier didn't have to). I decided not to sign it until I found out if my new partners in crime were getting in. They went through their interrogations with yet another police officer, this one significantly more mean that the first two. She asked them if they believed in God, and told Pam that unitarian wasn't a a real religion, and Billy that he had to choose a religion since he said he didn't have one. Quite the interesting time.
13 hours later, we were all in. We skyped, got really good free food, and saw a beautiful sunset over Israel, Jordan and Egypt while waiting - who would have thought the border could be so frustrating and so much fun at the same time?
The 30 or so other delegates arrived from Tel-Aviv late in the evening where they had participated in a demonstration. Patch Adams and other clowns are leading the way, and it's so much fun. Did I also mention that I met Norman Finkelstein on my last day in Gaza? Who would have known I would meet so many celebrities!
I spent a day in Dahab after Cairo with Jen, Luke and their two upstairs neighbours. What a beautiful little place. I went snorkeling for the first time and saw coral and beautiful fish. I think I also swallowed half of the red sea.
Yesterday, after Dahab, I headed to Taba to cross the border into Israel. The plan was to meet three of the other students in Jerusalem and spend some time in the West Bank. However, when I got there I was promptly told to go to a special area because they needed to do some "investigating." I was then interrogated by a not so nice police officer who wanted to know everything about what I did in Gaza and what I was planning to do in Israel (this interrogation was expected because of the Rafah stamp on my passport). So I told her as much as I could, not offering any more than requested but being truthful. I then had to wait outside for a while, and was called back in and told that they knew why I was here, that I was going to a Codepink demonstration in Tel-Aviv. I actually had no idea what she was talking about, but when I told her that she insisted that I was lying. I even pulled up my hostel reservations in Jerusalem for the next two nights, but that apparently wasn't good enough. I then had to go out and wait for a few more hours. Luckily, they had really good food at this terminal.
Eventually I was called back into the police officer's office and handed a form that said that I would not enter a Palestinian territory while in Israel without the permission of the Israeli army. I was furious, but did a good job at holding it together. I told her that my full intention was to spend a lot of time in the West Bank, and asked whether or not there was any way around it. This was actually a different officer from before, and this one was a bit nicer and called the Ministry of Interior to find out. Again, I had to wait.
I used this next little while to start making phone calls. I called a friend who told me that the American Codepink group leaders were coming through Taba today and that I should call them. As luck would have it, her phone died before she could give me the number. I called my mom to see if she had Sandra's Toronto number, which she didn't, but she soon texted me a number of a Codepink woman in Israel. I soon found out that my mom went home, called some random Codepink person in the states who then gave her the Israel number. I also apparently worried her so much that she came home from work pretty upset... I guess I would be too if my daughter was crazy enough to try to cross the Israel border with a Gaza stamp on her passport, alone.
Finally, through the woman in Israel, I got the number of Medea, who said that they had just gotten into Taba and to wait until she got there. I actually didn't up seeing her or Tighe for a while because they had two extensive searchings of their bags, which contained some exceptionally, let's say, provocative material that wouldn't be welcomed in Israel. But I met with Ann, Annie, Pam and Billy while we waited for the other two, and it was quite comforting to be with others who understood my predicament, as they were all being interrogated as well.
I was eventually told that there was no way out of signing the paper if I wanted into Israel, and if I didn't sign it I couldn't get in. They wouldn't tell me why I had to sign it (as the three students who had gone through the border earlier didn't have to). I decided not to sign it until I found out if my new partners in crime were getting in. They went through their interrogations with yet another police officer, this one significantly more mean that the first two. She asked them if they believed in God, and told Pam that unitarian wasn't a a real religion, and Billy that he had to choose a religion since he said he didn't have one. Quite the interesting time.
13 hours later, we were all in. We skyped, got really good free food, and saw a beautiful sunset over Israel, Jordan and Egypt while waiting - who would have thought the border could be so frustrating and so much fun at the same time?
The 30 or so other delegates arrived from Tel-Aviv late in the evening where they had participated in a demonstration. Patch Adams and other clowns are leading the way, and it's so much fun. Did I also mention that I met Norman Finkelstein on my last day in Gaza? Who would have known I would meet so many celebrities!
Day 11 - May 31, 2009
Our last full day in Gaza began with a meeting with Sami Abedel Shafi, a journalist and an employee at the Carter Centre which works for Palestinian unification. He blames the the extremist views which have been developed within some groups in Gaza on the lack of dialogue between all parties involved. He believes that the conflict would be much more moderate if Hamas hadn't been boycotted, and pointed out that no one is going to be willing to compromise when the other party won't even talk to them. Sami said that in his view, the beginning of the solution is to talk to Hamas, not to continue to alienate the people and impose a siege. He said that there is a growing consensus in Gaza against the use of rockets, but that for as long as people are oppressed and deprived of the necessities of life, one can expect little other than militancy.
Our next excursion was to the Samooni family, which I had met once before. I was very hesistant to go as this was probably the hardest thing I have seen thus far. I learned more about them though - all the brothers and their families live in the same area, and of 23 houses in this area, only one was left standing, because the Israelis used it as an outpost (this was also the house where all the writing on the wall was found). I later got to go to the upstairs in the house where I hadn't been before, which had been burnt by white phosphorus and there had been a hole carved out in the wall where the snipers would sit. I also saw a new writing which I hadn't been able to read before, which said "this is written in blood, when he fell down the stairs." Beside it was some sort of symbol, which was clearly written in blood and had since dried to a brownish color.
The rest of the day was bittersweet, we prepared to leave but didn't want to. We had a bit of a party with all the youth we had met at a coffee shop overlooking the ocean, where we sang Backstreet Boys, a few songs in Arabic, and a few other randoms. A man at the shop told me that I had the most beautiful hair he had ever seen, but that he never sees much hair - I think that was a compliment? Afterwards in the late evening, a few of us went to a beautiful cafe on the beach and smoked our last sheesha in Gaza (we had planned to go swimming but I wasn't permitted to as a lone female with men). I'm going to miss this place!
Our next excursion was to the Samooni family, which I had met once before. I was very hesistant to go as this was probably the hardest thing I have seen thus far. I learned more about them though - all the brothers and their families live in the same area, and of 23 houses in this area, only one was left standing, because the Israelis used it as an outpost (this was also the house where all the writing on the wall was found). I later got to go to the upstairs in the house where I hadn't been before, which had been burnt by white phosphorus and there had been a hole carved out in the wall where the snipers would sit. I also saw a new writing which I hadn't been able to read before, which said "this is written in blood, when he fell down the stairs." Beside it was some sort of symbol, which was clearly written in blood and had since dried to a brownish color.
The rest of the day was bittersweet, we prepared to leave but didn't want to. We had a bit of a party with all the youth we had met at a coffee shop overlooking the ocean, where we sang Backstreet Boys, a few songs in Arabic, and a few other randoms. A man at the shop told me that I had the most beautiful hair he had ever seen, but that he never sees much hair - I think that was a compliment? Afterwards in the late evening, a few of us went to a beautiful cafe on the beach and smoked our last sheesha in Gaza (we had planned to go swimming but I wasn't permitted to as a lone female with men). I'm going to miss this place!
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