hey ye all,

i'm back safely in jerusalem but it's been a bit hairy the last week in
nablus. below is a press release sent out by the ism office about the action
we were planning, but i will fill in the extra bits of information. hold
onto your seats!

throughout our stay in nablus, we have been staying in the homes of
'shahids'- martyrs. these are the homes targetted by the israeli army for
demolition, as i wrote in my last email. the supreme court in israel has
recently ruled that collective punishment is ok and that the homes of
martyrs can be demolished to punish the family for allowing their
son/daughter to become a suicide bomber.

i stayed with three different families in two refugee camps on the edge of
nablus - the buskars, the atitis and the abu-zars, all of whom told a
similar, heart-breaking story of their children or sibling. the buskar son
had only been dead for one month and his mother could not hold back the
tears as she showed me his photo and told me about his life. each family is
terrified every night, waiting for the army to invade. and that's exactly
what happened to the atiti family.

don (newcastle) and josh (baltimore) were staying in the atiti housein
balata camp, dead asleep at 4am, when the soldiers fired randomly at the
front of the house and demanded all the inhabitants out onto the street.
ala, the brother of the martyr jihad atiti, is wanted by the israelis.
normally, he slept at another house or didn't sleep; but tonight he was
spending at his house. he managed to escape by jumping across the rooftops.

don and josh were forced outside, along with the mother and two sisters.
already, men from the neighbouring houses were outside on the street, some
in plastic handcuffs. the soldiers carried out a thorough search of the
house, pushing a palestinian man ahead of them as a human shield. then they
jacked opened the bottom metal doors of what was a shop. when they didn't
find what they were looking for, they threatened the family that they would
be back within 24 hours to demolish the house.

the israeli soldiers detained both internationals and four palestinian men
and took them to huwara military camp. one man was obviously suffering from
a heart condition and his eyes were bulging out of his heads. josh and don
managed to negotiate with the soldiers to have this man's handcuffs removed
and be given some water. all men were released and dropped off at the huwara
checkpoint to walk the 3km back to balata camp.

when we all got together, paul came up with a cunning plan. to lock down in
the atiti house and make it as difficult as possible for the soldiers to
carry out their threat. although, in general, lock down is not my preferred
mode d'operendi, i was well up for it. the 5 lock downs were paul, don, gabe
(US), me and neta (israeli). we had two negiotiators (paul (US) and noriko
(japan)) and one person on the megaphone - tony (leicester). the family
planned to stay with us in the upstairs. plus we had media from sweden,
denmark and japan.

through the ism office, we sent out press releases. there were 15 people in
total from eight different countries in the atiti house. the israeli media
had picked it up so it was certain that the idf knew we were there. this
felt a bit safer until the gun battle started up outside.

and it was fierce. the worst i heard the whole time i was in nablus. it was
situated in three areas: to the left of balata and directly ahead about 500m
or 1km, plus some action down towards the huwara military base. there was a
barrage of machine gun fire for over an hour. the army was using flares and
traces and just firing biserkly.

yes, by this time we were a bit freaked. this is what makes you realise what
kind of terror the people of nablus, and on a bigger scale palestine, face
EVERY DAY. the night ended without the army showing up on our doorstep, but
the fear was real.

the next day, neta was interviewed on israeli television which went really
well. two days later it was announced that a lawyer was willing to take up
the atiti's case and bring it to appeal at the supreme court. every one
breathed a sigh of relief for the time being. but that day 3 houses were
demolished in tulkaram (sp?).

on friday, paul and phil were caught up in a military operation in the old
city of nablus. the tanks started shelling shops (the old city is a rat's
maze of tunnels, with shops so close together that you can't squeeze
through). one shop caught fire and the soldiers started shooting at the fire
trucks that tried to get in to put it out. paul and phil were caught in some
kind of cross fire between two palestinian militants and 2 tanks and a few
apcs and jeeps. paul has some great footage, so hopefully you will all see
what they saw.

on saturday, the army lifted the curfew for 4 hours (nablus has been under
curfew for close to 60 days now) because there was a un delegation coming to
talk to the mayor. this means that the curfew was lifted for nablus, but not
any of the surrounding villages, so no one could get into nablus to do
shopping or see friends and family. we spent the whole day at a checkpoint
on the way to beit iba to help 'facilitate' getting people thorugh.

what a great pr coup. in front of the un delegation, the city was bustling
and lively. people on the streets buying goods and chatting with each other.
if you just came into the city that day, you wouldn't notice the underlying
desperation of people trying to get enough food to last their families for
who knows how long. when the un delegation past the huwara checkpoint, the
palestinians that had been waiting in the hot sun for hours to get to nablus
were given water by the soldiers. how humanitarian! not.

will give you all a blow-by-blow account when i see youse, plus tell the
spectacular story of paul and mine's close encounter with a tank.

take care. i'll be back tomorrow. all in one piece, except some major heat
rash.

macj


INTERNATIONALS CHAIN THEMSELVES TO HOME UNDER THREAT OF DEMOLITION

International Solidarity Movement
August 12, 2002

For immediate release

[NABLUS] International civilians are going to lock themselves down
inside the Atiti family home in Balata refugee camp tonight in an attempt
to prevent the illegal demolition of the house. The Israeli military has
promised to return to the home tonight to destroy it.

Last night the Atiti family had their home sprayed with bullets by
Israeli soldiers. The two internationals who were sleeping in the home
that night were detained along with the male neighbors and taken to the
Huwara military base. They were all eventually released.

Israel is engaging in a brutal form of terrorism. Under the 1949 Geneva
Conventions, collective punishments are a war crime. Article 33 of the
Fourth Convention states: “No protected person may be punished for an
offense he or she has not personally committed,” and “collective
penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are
prohibited.”

“We are here in defense of humanitarian law and the right of all people
to live without harassment by foreign occupation.”



For more information in Balata contact:

Josh (USA)ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ 067 490 582


Paul Larudee (USA)ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ 059 370 170


Adam & Mey (USA)ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ 067 396 178

Don (UK) & Paul (UK)ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ 067 481 761

Lisa (UK)ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ 056 361 893