{"article":{"id":17435,"heading":"LA in Palestine","author":"Garrick Ruiz","created":"2002-07-01 19:11:37","modified":"2002-07-03 09:15:44","last_modified":"Wed, 03 Jul 2002 16:15:44","article":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><body><p>Hello all, <br><br> I haven't had computer access for several days.  We have been in Ramallah for almost three days now.  Ramallah has been under curfew for seven days.  What that means is that everyone in the city and its a pretty big city has to stay in their houses 24 hours a day.  The Israeli military lifts the curfew every few days for a few hours at a time and people must scramble to purchase basic supplies such as food.  Of course no one other than store owners (and them for only a few hours every few days) can work so there is very little income throughout the city.  We have been staying at Sheikh Zaid hospital, the main hospital in Ramallah and the major trauma center in the west bank.  People may have read the reports about this hospital having to bury 21 people in two mass graves in the parking lot back in April because the bodies kept piling up inside the hospital and the army would not allow a lifting of curfew even to bury the dead.  Those graves are still <br>  <br> there the families of those murdered by the Israelis have decided to leave the graves there as a symbol of the brutality of the Israeli military and a testament to the martyrdom of their loved ones. <br><br> Yesterday many of us walked to a village outside of Ramallah called Diribziya. Curfew is absolute for  Palestinians but we as internationals can get away with a lot more.   We walked with another group of people from the International Solidarity Movement who are staying in the village to help out with a summer camp for children.  People in the village were worried the army would try something to prevent the camp from happening or <br>  <br> intimidate the participants and so they requested an international presence.  This walk was unbelievable.  It was about 20 kilometers or about 12 miles there and back.  Along the way we saw many ways in which the military destroys Palestinian infrastructure. Simply driving their tanks, APCs and bulldozers over roads tears them up.  But in many places they have deliberately destroyed roads or created roadblocks so that people cannot get  <br>  <br> through.  The worst of these was blocking the road connecting Diribziya and something like 30 other villages to Ramallah.  It was a series of ditches, earth emankments, barbed wire and boulders toatlly blocking access.  These villages are very dependent on <br>  <br> commerce with Ramallah and so you can imagine the negative effects this has on supplies and such, not to  <br>  <br> mention the fact that it further cuts Palestinians off from each other in their own country. <br><br> I'm really sorry to interrupt this message.  I have to go.  There is much more to report.  Suffice it to say that the situation here is unbelievably bad.  gunfire and shellfire are regular here and Ramallah is not nearly the worst from everything we have heard. I will  write more when I can. <br><br> Garrick <br><br> Hello all, <br><br> Sorry for the abrupt ending to my update yesterday.  My access to email has been sporadic and the group was leaving and I didn't realize it untill the last minute.  I will try to add some stuff I couldn't get in the last message but  <br>  <br> first I want to tell you about today.  I'm back in Jerusalem now but we had a very eventful day in Ramallah.  We had planned a trip which has now been postponed untill tomorrow.  Instead, we heard that the Israeli army was  <br>  <br> rounding up men in the Al-Amari refugee camp in Ramallah.  We walked over there rom the Ramallah hospital, about a 10 minute walk. <br><br> I've heard about this practice, I've even seen pictures, but nothing prepares you for seeing it first hand.  I've come to the conclusion that the IDF must look to the nazis to inform their actions.  A refugee camp, a place where  <br>  <br> people have been refugees from their homes in what is now Israel for 54 years and never allowed to return home.  And in this camp we witnessed the army going  from house to house rounding up every man between the ages of 15 and 50.  Simply arresting all of them and taking them to a field where they were held for hours.  Some had shade but others did not, and it is hot here in the middle  <br>  <br> of the day.  At least 90 degrees.  Supposedly they had some water and a little bit of bread but they were held there for hours and hours waiting to be interrogated for no other reason than that they lived in the camp.  We were not  <br>  <br> allowed to get close enough to actually talk to the prisoners and check on their status.  Some of our group did manage to talk to a few at about 2:00 pm who said they had been in the field since 5:00 am waiting.  They did not manage to communicaate with anyone who had been interrogated so we do not know what means the Israelis were employing but it was not likely to be very pleasant.   <br>  <br> One of the soldiers fired in the air a few feet away from us to scare us.  Bastards!  We later heard the explosion as the army blew up a grocery store in the camp.  I've never heard such a loud explosion before.  Luckily the kids in  <br>  <br> the camp warned us so most of us had our ears covered and avoided any possible damage to our ears.  Apparently a food store is a threat to Israeli security.  The soldiers absolutely refused to give us their names or unit number or any other type of information and had none of this on their uniforms (which is a violation of international law [as if simply being an occupying military force for 35 years was not a violation of international law]).  We asked them if they weren't doing anything wrong why wouldn't they tell us who they were.  They had no answer.  They also really didn't like us taking pictures, again if they weren't doing anything wrong whats wrong with taking some pictures?  The worst part about it is that one of the people who we were with who lives here told us that as far as these types of situations go this was not that bad.  To me it was one of the most horrible scenes I have ever witnessed  personally. <br><br> After we left the camp (which was extremely hard to do not knowing what was going to happen to the hundreds of men we saw) we caught a ride back to Jerusalem and are preparing for another excursion tomorrow.  I am working with an affinity group of 10 people, All from the US except for 1 Canadian.  I think we are actually majority Jew which is really excellent.  It is really good to know that there are so many Jews who oppose the racist, fascist policies of  <br>  <br> Israel.   <br><br> If people would like more info on what's happening here please try the Palestine Independent Media Center at www.jerusalem.indymedia.org or the International Solidarity Movement Website at www.palsolidarity.org. <br><br> Once again I need to cut this short.  Just so all of you know I'm not communicating either by phone or email what our plans are for future travels because we don't want either to be intercepted by the military and have that  <br>  <br> not allow us to get to our destination.  I will get another update out as soon as I am able. <br><br> I urge everyone, particularly those of you in the US to fight back against Bush's agenda.  We heard about his speech calling on the Palestinians to elect new leadership.  There are many problems with Arafat and the PA but only  <br>  <br> Palestinians can determine a leadership for Palestinians, he has no say on the subject.  Tell him that.  Organize demonstrations, letters, phone calls, whatever.  But untill the flow of weapons from the US is cut off things will  <br>  <br> not change here.  There is very little hope that Israel will stop its fascism without pressure. <br><br> As I learned before the Palestinians are an amazing people where else would a woman invite us all into her house and offer us coffee while soldiers are going  <br>  <br> door to door in the refugee camp she lived in and probably her husband and sons had already been rounded up (We had to decline).  Where else would a people so oppressed by Jews be so happy to see Jews here in solidarity and understand so well that Israel despite its claims does not represent the Jewish people as a  <br>  <br> whole.   Hope all is well.  Interesting times here and many more to come I'm sure.  I have many other stories, hopefully I will report them soon. <br><br> Love, rage and solidarity from occupied Palestine, <br><br> Garrick <br><br> <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Beginning of a series of first-person accounts from Los Angelenos working in Palestine.  Look for many more!","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2002\/07\/17435.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}