Within an hour of arriving in Askar refugee camp, Nablus, freshly trained in International Solidarity Movement tactics and politics (More on That later) Carley, a San Fransisco-based social justice activist and temporary organiser at the camp informs me that a few people have
been requested to go to Tobas, north of Nablus to show solidarity and gather info on the recent IDF rocket attrack on 4 children and a suspected Al Aqsa* leader. Myself and Japanese video journalist and general cool dude Endo agree to go, along with Ahmad, a spikey haired, boisterous 20-year-old who knows everything about everything it seems.

We trek to the nearest village for almost 2 hours along limestone dust roads, up and over the odd IDF bulldozed mound of rock. When we reach the first village before Tobas we manage to catch a Sheroot. Five local guys who know the Sheroot driver come along with us, just for the ride. We listen to all the latest arabic pop classics, every single one about a 'HA-bibi..Ha-biiibi' - My darling, my love. They smoke, drink plastic cups of sugarpop with us, open the sliding door, lean up and out, open shirts flapping in the air-rush. They're cool. They're all about 15,16. The sheroot driver takes us straight to the spot where the car was hit. I saw it on TV last night, a smoking incinerated wreck surrounded by shocked kids dividing their attention between the car and the cameras. It should be shocking but it's not. I
think Im getting desensetised and that's really really bad. Five people were blown to bits here less than 24-hours ago, but Im looking at it and thinking, I saw this on CNN last night. CNN clipped my shock.

Getting a straight story out of people here is really hard. I ask 4 different men and get 4 different answers regarding how old the victims were, where they were when the attack occurred and how many rockets were fired. The language barrier is also a serious obstacle to getting
accurate information, as is local people's trust in rumours and the misinformation regularly churned out by the Israeli state and Palestinian Authority.

But anyway, here are the details, cross referenced with TV research that I manged to get:

The attack happened at 5pm.

2-3 missiles were fired from an apache helicopter.

The intended vicitm of the attack was the leader of Al Aqsa*

1 26 year-old (according to MSN) or a 33-year-old (according to local people) - the leader of Al Aqsa. Originally an Al Aqsa organiser
according to Israeli news, then a leader, then a leader according to local people, and now, shown on ArabYNet, that he wasn't wanted at all and wasn't the leader of Al Aqsa after all. This is also supported by
the Israeli state itself which announced this morning that nobody
killed was wanted.

Others killed: 1 6-year-old girl 2 15-year-old boys and 1 16 year-old or 1 10-year-old. The two youngest children were related to the adult killed (the 6 and 10 year-old) and were both inside the car - say some locals and MSN, but the translator for the father of one of the dead
children tells me that his son (aged 14) and niece (6) were both walking down the street when they were killed.

10 people were injured - there is no dispute about this figure. 1 boy was thrown 30 feet. He was propelled by a piece of exploding rocket,impacting and embedding itself in his stomach.The ambulance he was travelling to hospital in was detained at an IDF checkpoint just outside Jenin for an Hour (paramedic told me)

Two nearby houses suffered internal and external damage from exploding debris and alleged gunshots - the use of guns is unconfirmed. My estimation is that shards of exploding car created the mini flecks on the walls of both houses. And one rocket or probably a piece of rocket
was responsible for smashing the balcony of a house, shattering the windows, a coffee table in the livingroom and damaging furniture. Noone injured inside from that. There is video and photographic evidence of this (see attachment)

Locals pointed out the serial number on the missile as American, suggesting it was manufactured in the US. I couldn't detect anything that would allude to where it was made whatsoever. But, its no secret that US weapons are sold, if not donated, to the Israeli Army in huge
quantities.

********************************************************************************************


I talk to a paraemedic who was at the scene. We are talking about the
man who was killed. He points to a near-by tree. 'There were brains in
that tree' he says, 'the brain was divided, all of his body was
divided, into small pieces. We collect the pieces'.

We drink tea in a nearby shrapnel hit home. We talk politics - what
else in this place?? The headmaster of a nearby school seems a bit
miffed when I ask him whether he likes Arafat. 'Of course!!? We are all
Arafat, I am Arafat, he is Arafat (I must let it be known that myself
and Endo are sitting in a living room with 9 other men! and a kid in
the doorway), he is Arafat (points to kid) we are all Arafat'. oops.
You can never really tell who's with the PA (Palestinian Authority -
people don't really call it the Palestinian National Authority,
although you will find that term bandied about, because there is no
recognised Palestinian Nation State) as a solution to the troubles or
not. Best to tread careful. I bring up the fact that after the first
Intifada loads of really excellent grassroots connected organisers and
activists, fighters, were passed over for places in the PA in favour of
old PLO leaders residing in Tunis. It's pretty notorious the way that
the old Chiefs, Arafat included, have reppressed Palestinian
insurrections when they have errupted. A clear example is the revolt of
1969 in Tel-Al-Zatar, Lebanon (home of 29% of Lebanese industry), which
saw thousands of refugees and workers (14,000 were living in camps in
the region) take up arms, occupy the factories and announce their
collective intention to transform Tel-Al-Zatar into 'a no-go zone safe
from the Lebanese army and the state'.Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese
workers participated in kalashnikov battles with the Lebanese police.
When they called for reinforcements from the PLO, the Fatah leadership
dismissed the revolt as a distraction from fighting 'the real enemy -
Israel', answering 'Al Naba'a and Salaf and Harash are not similar to
Aga, Haifa, and Jerusalem which are occupied.' The uprising was turned
into a massacre and the region a graveyard for militants and their
families. In Septemebr of 1970 the PLO signed an agreement with the
ruling Hashemite regime in Jordan under which it agreed to withdraw its
forces. The remaining fighters and refugees unprotected, this signalled
a green light to the Hashemite army to massacre the 30,000 remaining
insurgent Fayedheen (freedom fighters with Fatah - of which there was a
relatively small amount left in Amman) and ordinary Palestinian
refugees. This mass slaughter came to be known as Black September.

Anyway. I just mention the Tunis leadership call-back after the first
Intifada to the Headmaster. He agrees with me, 'but what shall we do?'
he says, hands up in a shrug. 'I don't know', I say after a long time.
All the theories you imbibe at political meetings here and there which
are all very valid - the need for a global intifada (intifada means
insurrection, uprising)etc etc seem a million miles away, practically,
in the prison we're in, the way all roads lead to deadlock. Last night
on the Israeli news, a crimson mouthed, volumous haired newsreader
talked of Denmark drawing up a peace plan for the region. A full and
thorough restructuring of the PA security force by September 2003 with
full independence by June 2005 - after which the settler issue will be
tackled. It looks like peace will be, predicatbly, an American peace,
with the restructring of the PA security forces a euphemism for a
reinforcement of the police-military apparatus geared towards flushing
out militants and radicals - mainly Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine activists, Marxist-Leninist, and 'some of the worlds most
renowned terrorist instructors' according to
www.specialoperations.com's terror group rundown. They shot Israeli
tourism minister Zaevi 40 days after their leader Abu Ali Mustafa was
split in two by an IDF guided missile. And they got away with it. Just
last night in a reprisal attack for the killing of the 4 children and
man in Tobas, a PFLP 20-year-old activist managed to get into a
settlement with an Uzi and shoot two people dead. The settlement is
guarded by a massive army base, situated right by its gate. But the guy
got in, loaded up and went for it. They are renowned and feared for
their capacity to launch attacks with almost invisible stealth and
utter unpredicatbility. In January 1994, Bill Clinton signed an
executive order prohibiting transactions with the group due to their
'potential for disrupting the Middle East peace process' a sure sign of
the group's efficacy in defying the dictates of both the israeli,
Palestinian and US states. As was the entrapment operation executed by
the PA itself against Ahmad Saadat, lured by the PA into engaging in
talks about launching attacks against the Israeli army. He was invited
to a top hotel in Israel which was promptly surrounded by PA troops,
invaded and he was Saadat was arrested.

The headmaster asks me if we want to go and see the mothers of the dead
children. They are all in one house, grieving. No. I tell him. The last
thing you'd want to see if you'd lost you children is some muppet
journalists sticking a camera in you face. We drink our tea, say our
Mas Salaams and leave. Our sherrot driver takes us - and the five local
lads - down to a religious building. We don't really understand where
we are. One of the yoofs gestures at the place and laughs, 'Allah
Akhbar!'. I still don't really get it. We walk in and see about 50 or
so men sitting on white plastic chairs, lining the walls and set in two
rows in the centre. Many of the men are old with heavily lined faces
and wear the traditional white cloth head-dresses. I'm the only female
inside. I've never ever felt so out of place. I sit down on a plasti
chair up against the wall. Im looking at them, they're looking at me.
The young guys are pretty relaxed, sitting wide-legged, talking quitely
and excitedly amognst themselves. Where am I? It's like some sort of
waiting room, a big white waiting room. A man comes round with an
ornate metal jug of strong gritty coffee. I get a lick, a small small
lick in a small ceramic cup which I down and pass on to the next
person. Endo taps me on the shoulder. 'I go to interview the father, he
sitting over there, can you ask questions?'. It then dawns on me. We
are in the men's equivalent of the women's grieving room. Men come in,
take other sitting down by the hands and kiss them 5 or six times from
cheek to cheek, and hold the backs of their necks, hug. I agree to talk
to him. We have a dark skinned southb Asian looking translator. He ends
up doing all the talking. The father is too distressed. He's about 33,
has heavy stubble, green eyes and is just sitting in a plastic chair,
wiping his eyes now and again, wiping his face. His eyes stare
forwards. He's probably still in shock. I ask where the child was when
the rockets hit. The translator explains. 'The boy, he was 14 years
old, and he had gone out to buy trousers for school. So he was walking
down to his home, along the streets, carrying his new trousers. he
wanted to show them to his parents'. "and where was he hit?', 'In the
eyes and mouth'. I nod, the camera keeps rolling. 'He was with his
cousin, she had a new school bag, she was carrying her school bag - she
was 6 years old. Her father is over there'. He points to another
distraught man, flanked by silent friends, he's also staring
frontwards. We pretty much end the interview there. The fathers are too
distressed to talk and it seems really inappropriate to even be here.
Endo gets up and gives the father a half-hug, says 'Mas Salaam, shukran
jazeelan
' - peace be upon you, thankyou very much'. The father doesn't really respond, he's just numb. Walking out is like walking through fire.



*The Al 'Aqsa Martyrs Brigades), an offshoot group originally started
by combatants in the first Intifada, 1987-1993, who'd fought in Fatah,
the main faction of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation -
started in 1963, of which Arafat is the Chairman, hence the 'Arafat is
supporting terrorists, has connections with terrorists' line the
Israeli State and media keep towing). I was suprised to be told last
night that Al Aqsa are actually Secular (!!?) sharing their name with the most famous Mosque in this region is just a reference that banks on its popularity and cultural significance, and/or also in response to the outrage felt by everybody when Sharon, an anti-Islam, anti-Arab Zionist (and that's just for starters, his military past (and present):Commander of Unit 101, Defence Minister authorizing the massacres in Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps, Lebenon etc etc is something Else) entered the sacred Mosque on September 29, sparking the second Intifada.

************For an illuminating and thorough if a bit heavy-going at times (lots or terms like proletariat and bourgeoisie, interest rate and inflation stats) insight into the politics on ALL sides of the conflict (Jewish ruling class, middle class and working class, Palestinian ruling class, the trade unions, Islamic armed groups, working class Palestinians - unaligned, PFLP, you name it) look at the absolutley BOSS article in Aufheben, an Autonomist (Anarcho-Communist) publication. It's excellent!***********

 http://www.wildcat-www.de/en/material/aufh10b.htm