1.Shoot-out in Jenin Internet Café

2.Where Shopping Is a Crime

3. Marchers inTulkarem Protest Against Apartheid Wall

4. Activists Help Thwart Destruction of Medical Clinic



1. 04.03.03

Shoot-out in Jenin Internet Café



Lasse Schmidt



A botched attempt Tuesday afternoon by Israeli Special Forces to
assassinate a Palestinian resistance fighter ended in the death of an
innocent bystander in an Internet café in Jenin and eight injuries,
including six Palestinians and two of the soldiers.
At the end of the operation, the café's floor was smeared with blood
and locals were trying to come to terms with what had happened.

Eyewitnesses said three men approached the café dressed in civilian
clothes, two of them taking guard on the stairs outside while one
descended the stairs, entered the café and shot several rounds of live
ammunition.
"After some shooting, the man came out again, clearly wounded and
fell to the ground. I ran to him and asked if he wanted me to call an
ambulance, but he threatened me with his gun and told me to go away. I had
thought he was Palestinian, but then I realized he was an Israeli
soldier. As I ran, I heard him calling for backup," Mohammed, a 25-year-old
taxi driver, told the ISM activists (from Sweden, USA and Denmark) in
Jenin.
An ISM activist saw a tank and several army jeeps arrive within
minutes. According to a local source, the wanted Palestinian fighter
escaped from the café through a window on the rear side.
The army presence attracted local fighters and a shoot-out went on for
approximately twenty minutes. Civilians crowded in the nearby streets
looking for safety. One of them was Hisham Amer, 18. He was standing
with a group of civilians some 200 metres from the café when he fell to
the ground. The ground was blood stained red and he died shortly after
from a shot to the heart.
"It was a sniper on the roof over there on top of the taxi building,"
an eyewitness said, pointing at a building across the street. While
giving his account, he repeatedly looked at the pool of blood at his feet.
Hisham Amer was a student at the Salam Secondary School and a medical
volunteer for the Red Crescent in Jenin.
Just an hour before the Israeli army entered Jenin, the Red Crescent
had paraded through town in memory of Doctor Khalid Suliman, the former
leader of Red Crescent in Jenin. He became a martyr one year ago during
the army invasion of the refugee camp in Jenin, when Israeli soldiers
refused him entrance to the camp in an ambulance, despite being called
to assist a severely wounded Palestinian. Doctor Suliman tried an
alternative entrance to the camp but never got inside the camp. The ambulance
was hit by rockets and exploded.
'Pay respect to the Geneva Convention for the sake of medical
personnel,' One of the banners said when approximately 200 people walked
through town.
3rd March is not a date they will soon forget at the Red Crescent in
Jenin.

During the army operation, Tariq Faroq Youres,17, Noor Ibrahim Arqawi,
17, Fathi Ali, 26, and Saleh Qasas, 25, were arrested at the Internet
café, two of them being injured in the process. Four passing
Palestinians were injured; Ayman Farhan Sadi, Ameen Sowity, Mojeeb abu Zahra and
Qosay abu Ahyija. One of them is in a serious condition. One of the two
soldiers was injured critically.



For further information about this story telephone

Lasse Schmidt 059 386 896



2. 03.03.03

Where shopping is a crime

Arthur Neslen

Awad Shawket Hamel was trying to get home to Jaba last June when he was
shot in the back by Israeli troops. “I was travelling with my
co-workers when the soldiers asked for my ID,” he said. “I showed it to them,
but it didn’t make any difference.” Awad was turned back and, when he
tried to enter his home town by another entrance, he was shot from behind
and hospitalised for four weeks.

Jaba is a village of 3000 people but it is not a welcoming place. Since
‘Operation Defensive Shield’ last April, it has been fenced off by
barbed wire and all but one of its entrances has been closed. A hill town
less than 30 minutes from Jerusalem, Jaba has the misfortune to exist on
land near two Jewish settlements - and the road from Ramallah to
Jerusalem.

When the wire went up, the Israeli army said they feared that the
village could become a staging post for suicide attacks on civilian targets.
Today, Jaba is still garrisoned. Only residents aged over 50 are
allowed to travel to Ramallah; fewer than 15 villagers have been given
permits to visit Jerusalem.

Young men do travel the road to the nearby Ar-Ram checkpoint for food
and other necessities but they risk arrest or worse as they go. In one
case last July, villagers report that a car trying to leave Jaba was
stopped by soldiers who opened a door, threw a CS gas canister in, and
slammed it shut again.

“We do get food here, little by little,” one village elder, Sami Twan
conceded. “But every day, people who go out are imprisoned for breaking
the order. Four days ago, my daughter was arrested and made to stand in
freezing rain all night because she tried to come here from Ramallah.”

Like so much of the West Bank, the story of Jaba is a welter of ‘before
and after’ statistics. Before the Intifada, 90 per cent of the town’s
population worked in Israel. Now none can get in. Before the
neighbouring settlements were built, Jaba’s residents owned 24,000 dunums of land.
Today their holding is just 700 dunums.

Most poignantly, before the barbed wire went up, Jaba was a confident
village. Today, its psychology has been reshaped in a way that might
become commonplace after the ‘Separation Wall’ between Israelis and
Palestinians has been completed.

The Likud government claims it is building the 215-mile long concrete
barrier to prevent suicide bomb attacks on Israeli civilians.
Palestinians point out that the Wall annexes more than 10 per cent of pre-1967
Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem.

What is indisputable is that in Jaba, where a separation fence has
stood for nearly a year now, basic human rights are being neglected. Last
Friday, a joint Israeli-Palestinian protest against the barbed wire that
had been planned for early March, was postponed until after the war in
Iraq.

“People are scared that if they demonstrate, they will be punished with
total imprisonment,” Abu Ashraf, the silver-haired mayor of Jaba said.
“Even the one crack we have in the fence is not legal. They could close
it at any time.”

“People see the entrance as a gift that they don’t want to lose,”
another Jaba’ite agreed. “The soldiers tell us ‘you have water and
electricity, why do you need to go out?’”

The majority view in Jaba is that the protest should go ahead in the
near future, but villagers feel acutely vulnerable. They say that
soldiers recently put up loud speakers at the town’s sole entrance and blasted
the town with loud music until 2am. “They spat and screamed and cursed
our God through a microphone” one man complained.

At a meeting to discuss preparations for a joint demonstration with
Israeli peace activists from the Ta’ayush movement, Abu Ashraf announced:
“We would welcome any visitors who want to come to see how we live.”
But behind the wire of separation, the people of Jaba still fear what
might happen when the protestors go home.

Arthur Neslen is a freelance journalist based in London.

055-546684



3. 04.03.03
Tulkarem Protest March Against Apartheid Wall




Tuesday in Deir Al-Ghussun near Tulkarem, a group of approximately
250 people marched peacefully to protest against the building of the
Israeli Apartheid Wall through the area. This group consisted of 200
Palestinians and 12 internationals from Sweden, USA, UK, Canada, and Japan.
The marchers were stopped by Israeli soldiers in an armoured
personnel carrier and a Hummer jeep. However, they negotiated successfully
with the military, obtaining permission to proceed to the Wall site where
speeches were made by representatives of various Palestinian rights
organizations. Work on the Wall stopped for about an hour. As the rally
concluded and the protestors began the march back to the village, the
border police joined up with the Israeli military, construction security
guards, and civil police present already present.
Individual marchers interviewed said they were satisfied that all had
demonstrated their united and continuing opposition to the building of
the Wall, a symbol of Israeli oppression, stealing land from the
richest agricultural area in Palestine and precious water sources, and
isolating/annexing various Palestinian villages. As the speakers at the
rally pointed out, "The construction of the Wall is seen by us as nothing
but blatant theft."

For further information about this story, contact:


Drew
052-371-338

059-737-118



4. 04.03.03

Brian Avery



Activists Help Thwart Destruction of Medical Clinic



As the Israeli Occupying Forces continue their second invasion of the
central district of Nablus in two weeks, armed resistance is scant.
Palestinian casualties are not. Ambulances have been ubiquitous for the
past two days in the Old City district of Nablus, which contains the
dense central market and tightly packed residential quarters. Under the
pretence of ferreting out "terrorists" and members of extremist
organizations such as Hamas, Israeli forces have only succeeded in terrorizing
the local population and wreaking widespread destruction on civilian
property. Displaying the overall fear of all Palestinians shamefully
indoctrinated into them by the architects and perpetrators of Israel's
obscene military apparatus, the occupying forces move about in dense
squads. They traverse not only the residential, but also the market area
of this city, more than 2000 years old, in a typically fruitless search
for weapons and explosives.

The terrorization of the residents of Nablus is achieved by occupying
and frequently destroying houses and business properties, all the while
providing the "terror" they are supposedly seeking out and serving up
massive doses of collective punishment to the local civilians.

The common tactic of the soldiers has been to force their way into
residencies, illegally occupying the apartment for unspecified periods of
time. During these occupations, they psychologically and sometimes
physically abuse the families inside, as well as stealing family
possessions, vandalizing, and sometimes total demolishing buildings. Generally
the members of the families are prevented from moving in or out during
the occupation. They are often deprived of food and medicine, as the
soldiers then ransack the dwelling in what is invariably a futile search
for weapons and explosives. They maintain their position there before
receiving orders to move out, which is often after several days. In the
worst cases, it is not unheard of to last several months.

As this ancient quarter of the city consists of densely packed
multiplex buildings and winding mazes of corridors, the soldiers find it to
their benefit to ease their passage by blasting (appropriately named)
"rat-holes" in the walls between apartments. These passageways,
measuring between one and two metres, cause immense destruction to the
properties and usually receive only cursory use by the terrorizing soldiers.

The only recourse to these occupations has been the intervention of
medical volunteers and ISM activists, who attempt to negotiate with the
soldiers and provide the family with essential supplies of food and
medicine. Thanks to the tireless efforts of these volunteers, vulnerable
people such as infant children, the elderly and the sick have sometimes
been able to re-locate into better conditions.

The arrogant attitude taken by the military to local medical and
emergency personnel means that without the international volunteers, the
supplies would seldom be forthcoming to the needy. Indeed, it is not
unknown for Israeli forces to fire on ambulances and emergency
co-ordinators. It is also one of many situations the ISM seek to prevent via
their presence.

Another activity of the ISM volunteers is to take up a presence in some
of the residencies so as to deter violence, destruction and fallacious
arrests by the marauding soldiers.

This tactic was used on Tuesday night in the case of the UPMRC (Union
of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees) clinic in the Old City. A
volunteer-based organization, the UPMRC and ISM have been increasing
their co-ordination efforts to allow the medical personnel to do their jobs
more effectively without being thwarted by Israeli soldiers. After
having their clinic trashed, staff harassed and randomly arrested during
the Israeli Forces invasion of two weeks prior, the UPMRC staff had
requested that ISM volunteers take up a continual presence in the clinic
this week in case the soldiers should return.

At about 7pm Tuesday night, the soldiers came on cue. Threatening to
make arrests and blow rat-holes in the wall, workers also feared a
second ransacking of the clinic. After some negotiation with UPMRC
volunteers and some Swedish and South African ISM activists, however, the
soldiers backed down and retreated from the building, much to the joy of
everyone inside. As is often the case, nevertheless, the soldiers came
back later in the evening (perhaps expecting the ISMers to have left).
Once again, the volunteers peacefully persuaded them to leave.

According to the latest reports, hundreds of additional soldiers
entered the Old City overnight Tuesday, either to reinforce or replace the
hundreds already there, suggesting that Israeli high command is not
planning to leave anytime soon. Gunfire and explosions have been constant
throughout the invasion, with casualty numbers as yet undetermined and
many houses and businesses being completely or partially destroyed.

The absurdity of these incursions by the Israeli state reaches no
end, and the suffering of the Nablus people is the only result. Local ISM
activists have no intention of abandoning their peacekeeping presence
and will continue to be involved in the clean-up and distribution of
essential supplies, support for detainees and a deterring presence to the
collective punishment of the invading Israel army.



For more information please contact the following ISM volunteers:



Robin: 972-593-86900



or



Maria: 972-593-81803





=======================================
David Watson
ISM Media Coordinator
Beit Sahour
Occupied Palestine
Phone: +972-2-2774602
Cell: +972-67-862 439
web:  http://www.palsolidarity.org