The first three days myself and some friends had meetings with Palestinian
newspaper and Israeli peace groups, including Al-Quds, B'T'Selem and Peace Now.
There were fairly sophisticated chats about the current status of the
Palestinian crisis, and Palestinian nationalism is now definitely in crisis over
and above the issue of the illegal Occupation. However, Palestinian society
survives and that ultimately is the source of all hope. People here continue to
be gentle and generous even in the most adverse situations. It seems clear that
the European condition of grounding plenty of personal identity in nationalism
does not hold here. Islam is far above nationalism in the hearts of the people
and their faith keeps them calm, almost mysteriously calm for a European
outsider, in the face of unremitting Israeli aggression.

Palestinians hope more for their grandchildren than for themselves, while Israel
continues to plunder and murder shedloads of Palestinians while berating Islam
for exporting terror. Israeli aggression here is coarse, evil and pugilistic in
the extreme. Palestinians are killed for sport basically.

I visited the Church of the Nativity which is pockmarked with bullet holes
around the small entrance door, which was designed to be small for the exclusion
of invaders on horseback. Sanctity of life is a faint memory in the Holy Land.

Now I am in Nablus, where 150 men, women and children were killed in the first
four days of Operation Defensive Shield, and a subsequent 300 more during the
rest of the operation. Curfew has been enforced in the city for the last 85
days, and 19 men, women and children have variously been murdered in that time.
Yesterday 6 people were randomly shot in the old city, including 3 men
innocently emerging from a mosque after prayers. Nablus has been severely
attacked in human and architectural terms after a series of suicide bombers
emerged from the murderous squalor of existence here. What inflamed the youths
to perform the deeds was one particulkar incident where a popular and good local
boy was praying with friends, and reciting from the Koran, at the graves of
relatives. A tank shell ended their lives and desecrated a number of graves.
This inflamed other youths to take revenge, without the knowledge of their
families. Those family homes have since been demolished, and others have been
threatened. The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activists in the city
have been staying at threatened homes, as well as documenting the hundreds of
incidents of Palestinians being used as human shields. The list of Israeli war
crimes in this city alone is very considerable, and to the shame of the world,
this list is not abating but only increasing since no international or
humanitarian body has the guts to intervene and prevent these crime. Save for a
few ISM activists, this city is a playpen for sadists with tanks and guns.
Gunfire always disrupts the night, tanks always wander around the city in the
early hours. The sense of shame I have being here is intense. The shebabs throw
rocks but get lured into ambushes between humvees and tanks. The youths play
with their blood instead of being allowed to go to school. Tanks fire into the
road in front of the shebabs hoping to hurt them with ricochets from their heavy
calibre machine guns. They do not seem to fire directly at the youths, but now
and again, like yesterday, a young boy will get hit in three places. I saw all
this the other day at a checkpoint, watching it all from the roof of a block of
flats. Going up and then down the stairs of the flats, babies were crying in
fright at the sound of the guns. They say they will get used to it in fifty
years time.

ISM did help protect children playing the other day, children trapped inside
their homes for nine days solid by having the bad luck to have a new checkpoint
next to them. When they emerged, soldiers had fired above their heads, and these
were small children. The parents themselves were slightly shocked at this, but
not too surprised, given how the Israeli army breeds psychopaths. Remember how a
tank fired into Jenin market and a pilot dropped a tonne of explosive on an
apartment block in Gaza? These infamous incidents make the headlines but they
are the tip of a psychopathic iceberg. Those soldiers and airmen have no need to
worry. At any rate, the children had time to play. ISM brought along some sacks
for a sack race, paper for Oragami lessons and making hats (we have wonderful
Japanese activists here!), ropes for skipping and a big tug-of-war as well. It
was a great afternoon, and I hope the soldiers will not punish the local people
too much for defying the unconditional prison life the soldiers would gladly
inflict on them. These soldiers are boors. In the 'civilised West' school
bullying is a big problem and gets government attention and headlines which
publicise 'initiatives to combat the problem' while our governments
gladly sell combat equipment to Israel which injures, cripples and kills
children here day in and day out.

School was supposed to begin on September 1st. Children had been saying prayers
that the schools would open, and lo and behold they did! But as per usual with
Israeli army tactics, once Palestinian hopes were raised, the uniforms were
gotten somehow, the pencils sharpened and ready to be used, all schooling was
cancelled. The tactic is just like the peace process itself. Raise hopes and
smash them. Rout out hope. Make them leave... Universities were not allowed to
finish their exams either this year.

The following day saw ISM accompany the regular Friday demonstration of farmers
around Tulkarem and Qalqiya against land grabbing. The Israeli government is a
thief of land on a monumental scale, and all for the sake of security. 'It's
ours because we say so' is national defence policy in Israel. The land grab is
not some informal 'let's go as far as we can and hope we get away with it' scam.
It is government policy and has been through parliament. As well, settlers are
not only shooting Palestinian farmers trying to work their farms, they are
pouring human sewage on some Palestinian farmland. An appeal was made to the
Israeli courts against the government by the farmers, but the courts allowed
them only a week to appeal, and it was Jewish New Year at the time so the courts
were in recess. There is no law here for Palestinians. Israelis cannot commit
crime in the Occupied Territories. The courts and the government positively
sneer at Palestinian vulnerabilities. Coarse, evil and pugilistic.

However, minor successes are still made: hundreds of locals watched by a group
of ISM people opened a major road here yesterday, clearing three major
roadblocks with JCBs. Such actions are arrestable offences for everybody.
Economic terrorism is the order of the day as well, but the people somehow
manage to stay themselves and act without bitterness. People are bewildered and
they crave acknowledgement of their plight and Israeli crimes against them. They
do not want revenge but justice. It will finally come to them sometime, probably
at their death, in this climate of brutality.

The olive harvest is approaching and ISM wishes to appeal to all decent people,
of whatever age or religion or shoe size to come to Palestine and show support
for a wonderful people suffering very very badly under an illlegal Occupation
that defies my description. In Nablus, the best remnant of Palestinian dignity,
outside their homes, are the kites which the children and youth fly in the
brilliant blue skies every single day as a symbol of hope. Join them please.

Today there will be a demo by local women against the occupation. We are
awaiting a small delivery of olive oil from one of the villages near Qalqiya to
families in Nablus. It will be fortunate to get through, and ISM are trying to
accompany the oil through checkpoints. What a wonderful thing for the village to
do for their brothers and sisters in Nablus.