"If there's no tanks, we'll go swimming tomorrow" - summer camp in Jenin
Jimbo | 22.07.2002 11:55
A couple of days ago, I got a call at my appartment in Jenin from a fellow volunteer working on the Red Crescent ambulances, asking for a volunteer for the kid's summer camp they have organised. I turned up at the local school in the morning, to be mobbed by 100+ energetic, curious, affectionate ruffians from the city and the camp, and had to fight my way to a position of relative safety at the front of the playground, behind a protective line of more experienced teachers and local volunteers while others did their best to form them into ordered ranks. An Egyptian lady, with whom I now converse in pidgin French, announced that a trip to the local open air swimming pool was scheduled for the next day, providing that the ocupation forces didn't plan on imposing curfew upon the area in their customary fashion of parading heavily armoured vehicles round the town and distributing tear gas, sound grenades, and live/rubber bullets liberally about.
The response was deafening. I don't need to prate on about the recurrent tragedies that the people here have to put up with, that wreak havoc on every aspect of their lives and make a "normal" existence impossible, but what is rarely conveyed in much reportage is the vivacious and laughter-loving spirit that abounds, which seems to indicate a certain irrepressibility and to form the very backbone of resistance in Jenin. The trip did go ahead, a blinding success, and it looks as though we're going again tomorrow; to a large lake outside Jenin this time, In Sh'Allah. (spellcheck.)
School usually lasts from 8.30 - 13.00. We had to send everyon home at half ten yesterday beacause the armed scum down the road came rolling in, with the usual operatics of intimidation. With the other volunteers I followed the @ tanks, 2 A.P.C.s and a Border Police jeep round and round the Mullberry bush until they finally fucked off out of town. Why do we follow them? to see where they go and what they do, mainly, but also to let them know that there are internationals taking an interest and that these people aren't being entirely ignored.(Futile, you might think, they'll do what they want anyway, yeah, I know the arguments but I'm fucked if I'm sitting indoors doing absolutely nothing while this goes on) Also to get between them and the kids, who are now descending behind the withdrawing vehicles armed with stones and bottles, like the furies of hell (well they scare the shit out of me!)
The Israelis haven't fired at or near us for a few days now, but they've made several arrests and threatened to return to destroy peoples homes in the village of Burquen a couple of klicks down the road. The night before last I stayed in one such a house, earmarked for destruction, sitting up all night watching for a nemesis who didn't show. That's not to say, though, that they won't come tomorrow. or next week...
We're also making interviews with the families of the arrested men and trying to obtain info about them through legal/ HR channels. Meeting anyone in their home here invariably means meeting the entire family, and all the attendent ceremony of hospitality (tea, etc.) that traditionally ensues. One needs a strong bladder for research on the ground over here. And a tolerance for sleep deprivation, from time to time. Days and nights can be crowded.
The best part of the day for me right now is with the kids; they're great. It doesn't take much to become a reluctant pied piper in Jenin (pain in the ass when you're just walking down the road, knackered, minding you're own business...)
If you want to come to Jenin, or any part of Palestine, I can't exhort you strongly enough. There's more than enough you can find to keep busy and help people, and it's the most enriching thing I've ever done. Sadly, there's an element of internal destruction creeping into one or two of the larger groups, with much petty vying for position and jealousy over territory. Listen to people, regard their experience, but don't be told what to do by some asshole (or clique of assholes) who thinks they're the mayor of a particular part of Palestin just because they've been their a few weeks longer. One learns volumes in just days here.
The response was deafening. I don't need to prate on about the recurrent tragedies that the people here have to put up with, that wreak havoc on every aspect of their lives and make a "normal" existence impossible, but what is rarely conveyed in much reportage is the vivacious and laughter-loving spirit that abounds, which seems to indicate a certain irrepressibility and to form the very backbone of resistance in Jenin. The trip did go ahead, a blinding success, and it looks as though we're going again tomorrow; to a large lake outside Jenin this time, In Sh'Allah. (spellcheck.)
School usually lasts from 8.30 - 13.00. We had to send everyon home at half ten yesterday beacause the armed scum down the road came rolling in, with the usual operatics of intimidation. With the other volunteers I followed the @ tanks, 2 A.P.C.s and a Border Police jeep round and round the Mullberry bush until they finally fucked off out of town. Why do we follow them? to see where they go and what they do, mainly, but also to let them know that there are internationals taking an interest and that these people aren't being entirely ignored.(Futile, you might think, they'll do what they want anyway, yeah, I know the arguments but I'm fucked if I'm sitting indoors doing absolutely nothing while this goes on) Also to get between them and the kids, who are now descending behind the withdrawing vehicles armed with stones and bottles, like the furies of hell (well they scare the shit out of me!)
The Israelis haven't fired at or near us for a few days now, but they've made several arrests and threatened to return to destroy peoples homes in the village of Burquen a couple of klicks down the road. The night before last I stayed in one such a house, earmarked for destruction, sitting up all night watching for a nemesis who didn't show. That's not to say, though, that they won't come tomorrow. or next week...
We're also making interviews with the families of the arrested men and trying to obtain info about them through legal/ HR channels. Meeting anyone in their home here invariably means meeting the entire family, and all the attendent ceremony of hospitality (tea, etc.) that traditionally ensues. One needs a strong bladder for research on the ground over here. And a tolerance for sleep deprivation, from time to time. Days and nights can be crowded.
The best part of the day for me right now is with the kids; they're great. It doesn't take much to become a reluctant pied piper in Jenin (pain in the ass when you're just walking down the road, knackered, minding you're own business...)
If you want to come to Jenin, or any part of Palestine, I can't exhort you strongly enough. There's more than enough you can find to keep busy and help people, and it's the most enriching thing I've ever done. Sadly, there's an element of internal destruction creeping into one or two of the larger groups, with much petty vying for position and jealousy over territory. Listen to people, regard their experience, but don't be told what to do by some asshole (or clique of assholes) who thinks they're the mayor of a particular part of Palestin just because they've been their a few weeks longer. One learns volumes in just days here.
Jimbo
e-mail:
jimbomatthews@hotmail.com
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Take this guy up. Go to J'nin. Have fun!
22.07.2002 16:12
"Col. Moshe Tamir, commander of the Golani Brigade, is now commander of the Jenin district. The term "district commander" includes a lot of elements of a military governor, even if a temporary one. Tamir found himself in two meetings with the Palestinian Authority's mayor, Haider Rashid, in which Tamir emphasized that his mission, as an IDF officer, is to seek and destroy the terrorist infrastructure. But that didn't prevent him from dealing with issues like what to do about the high school matriculation exams (the IDF allowed makeup exams for those who missed the first test because of the operation).
When a Palestinian adult and three children were killed by a tank shell in the city market, the IDF sent an apology and expressions of regret and condolences to the local TV station, with a promise the incident would be investigated. This week, authorizations were made for Jenin businessmen to meet with Israeli businessmen.
In some districts in the West Bank, commanders are ready to recommend limited renewals of passes for Palestinians to work in Israel, despite the risks involved.
Despite the scars from the fighting that still decorate the buildings in north Jenin, it seems the current operation has greatly reduced the amount of friction between the army and the civilian population. There is no permanent army presence inside the city. Golani soldiers are not occupying a single house in Jenin. The troops are deployed outside the city, mostly on the seam line. They go in and out of the city according to need, mostly for specific arrests.
There is also no real attempt to maintain the curfew during the day. Yesterday, the curfew was kept in place for a few hours in the morning because of a specific alert about a terrorist group at work. At 11 A.M., the curfew was lifted and cars began to move freely in town. The curfew only is imposed seriously from 8 P.M. to 8 A.M.
There is minimal resistance to the actions. Occasionally, a local Fatah cell lays some mines on the roads taken by jeeps, and when jeeps enter the refugee camp's outskirts they are greeted by stones thrown by children.
From the observation post above the camp, the "field" left behind by the army's bulldozers is clearly visible. But the tent camp put up by the UN after Operation Defensive Shield is mostly empty. According to the army, it fills up only when the foreign press shows up, about once a month.
Compared to the hundreds of dead and thousands of arrested during Defensive Shield, the army is now much more pinpointed in its operations. The big difference is in Fatah's reduced ability to act, compared to January and March when it flooded Israel with suicide bombers. The effort, therefore is aimed mostly at Hamas and Islamic Jihad cells.
Out of a population of nearly a quarter of a million people in Jenin and its surroundings, the army is now seeking 15 "heavies," and 75 more junior operatives in terror groups. Except for specific alerts about a specific terrorist on his way to Israel, those numbers do not justify curfew during the day.
The most senior of the suspects hiding in the area is Jama Abu Hijla, a Hamas politician who took over military authority with the death of other activists in the military wing. Meanwhile, al-Hujla, who lost a hand to Golani fire in February, has proved himself to be "a pro," in the military sphere, say army sources. Another wanted man is Nasser Gerar, of Hamas, who lost an arm and a leg, but has not lost his enthusiasm for plotting attacks.
The IDF, which manages to capture "number two and number three" men consistently, finds it difficult to reach the number one man in local cells; they've gone deep underground and still enjoy the support of the community.
Last Saturday, there was a perfect example of how the army foils an attack. Intelligence said a Jihad activist was on his way from Nablus to Jenin, trying to get to Afula. The Shin Bet and IDF managed to get to each member of the cell, in descending order form the plotters in Nablus, through the senior member in Qabatiyah, who sent the suicide bomber. But the bomber himself managed to elude the army until he reached the last line of defense, the 12th Golani battalion on the seam line near Umm el Fahm. The bomber was exhausted by then and knew the army was on his trail. He fired a few shots at the soldiers, but then gave himself up, even showing them where he had hidden the explosives belt he planned to wear.
A mid-term summary of the Jenin operation shows some 70 arrests in a month, including 10 people - two of them young women - who were due to try to blow themselves up inside Israel.
The terrorists are adapting quickly to the new situation, said an army source. "They understand they should do less but focus on more spectacular attacks," said the source. Indeed, it's the reduced level of activities that also makes it more difficult to catch them. The arrest rate has dropped.
If the months before Defensive Shield were an expression of the complete unity between the population and the terror groups, it seems the picture has been reversed. It's doubtful that the trauma of the shock suffered by the Palestinians in the territories as a result of Defensive Shield and the current operation is properly appreciated in Israel. "They felt they were about to break us, but it didn't happen," said a senior officer. "For them, the dream has been broken. It's almost like 1967 or even 1948. Nearly everything they built since Oslo is gone. What kind of Palestinian entity remains if the IDF decides when cucumbers are sold here?"
But the big question, he added, is whether Israel will know how to manage the conflict from now on. Will it send the population back into the arms of the terrorists or will it know how to create an alternative?"
israeli