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Jenny Gaiawyn

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Invasions, First Aid and OCHA [Jun. 4th, 2008|04:14 pm]
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Invasions

The apartment that I am staying in is in a supposedly quieter part of the city, we always try to house the international volunteers we have with Project Hope in such places so that they can be relatively safe, and also have the energy to focus on the activities that they have come out to teach. Having said that, nowhere in Nablus is immune to the impact of the occupation; below us is Camp 1, also known as Al Ein Refugee Camp. Unlike many of the refugee camps which are on the edge of Nablus or rurally based, this one is close to the city centre.

For the last three nights the Israeli soldiers have been carrying out operations in the camp, bringing terror in to the homes of an already traumatised population. We are a few hundred metres from the camp and the gunfire and explosions of the invasions wake us up, making the heart beat hard in the chest, even though we know the chances of us getting hurt are pretty much zero. For those who live there the terror is unimaginable, as is the feeling of never being able to feel really safe of secure anywhere. The home is supposed to be somewhere that we go to to escape the madness of the world around us, in Palestine that madness is brought directly to, and often through, the front door.

First Aid Update

The First Aid training started on Monday, thanks to those of you who sent donations we were able to buy the materials that we need and we´ll be using some of the money to get to refugee camps and villages that are out of the way and therefore have less access to the usual medical services.

The first class was in Al Fara Refugee Camp, with 7500 residents it is one of the smaller camps around here, and on the surface it appears better in some ways than other camps we've been in. There are good services such as a doctor and dentist, the Red Crescent Society runs some classes with children, there are schools and UNWRA are present. But, as it is based a way outside of the Nablus area unemployement is high as people can´t travel to the city to work. Many people are employed in agriculture, but due to the conditions out here that isn´t a year round job so out of season people find it hard to get local work. As in many parts of Palestine, there are night invasions by the Israeli military on a regular basis; when we went to teach a first aid class in December last year the Youth Centre we were supposed to be in had been smashed up by the soldiers.

Through the window of the Public Services Centre where we wait to be taken to the Women´s Centre for the class, we can see a sports field and old style building that was built by the British under the mandate. It was turned in to a jail by the Israeli Military for a long time, but since the Palestinians got it back they have made it in to a youth centre and sports field. Tied to the perimeter fence of the sports field are larger than life paintings of men from the camp who have died at the hands of the Israeli soldiers. Even when they are playing sports it is impossible to escape from the harsh reality of occupation. The memory of those imprisoned there remains, the father of Mohammed, our translator, who spent about 5 years in jail altogether was held at the jail for a while - his crimes including having in his house a book of poetry that had been banned by the Israeli authorities - a book that he himself wrote.

Our next class was in Talouza village, about 10 minutes drive off the road between Nablus and Al Fara. The drive to the village is stunning, after turning off from the main route we follow a windy road that passes through almond tree orchards, woodland and olive groves. It is clear that here too agriculture is important, and here too year round employment is scare. The women´s centre where we teach seems well used, a class is finishing just as we arrive and there are about 25 women who come along to our class. One of the reasons for teaching women first aid is that they are the primary carers in the family, and often they have many children - especially in the villages. In total, the women we worked with here had 113 children (with the 114th due in five days). Lack of access to basic health care, few resources to get people to a doctor or hospital, and the presence of checkpoints phsyically stopping people moving around makes first aid skills
essential.


The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
www.ochaopt.org

One organisation that focuses specifically on the realities of the various types of closures throughout Palestine is OCHA, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. With their main office in Jerusalem, they have four others throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and the one in Nablus is responsible for the Northern Area of the West Bank. Whilst many people are highly skeptical about the effect that the UN has on improving things for Palesitnians, the OCHA are having a real impact through the provision of highly detailed reports about the various types of closures used against the Palestinians. These include checkpoints which can be anything from a gate in the Apartheid Wall or the permanent heavily fenced and razorwire coated cattle corrale with metal detectors and x-ray machines at Kalandia between Ramallah and Jerusalem, to the "flying checkpoints" that spring up wherever the Israeli soldiers in their jeeps decide to stop
and block the road. A group of Project Hope volunteers were travelling from Bethlehem to Ramallah at the weekend when they were stopped at one of these for over 90 mins. Just when one of the group was starting to get overly frustraed and wanted to challenge them, the soldiers jumped back in their jeep and drove off. These flying checkpoints have no security reason, they are purely to harass and frustrate the Palestinians as they go about their daily lives. In this case a 90 minute delay meant people had missed meetings and for some it was now too late in the day to finish their journey so they had to return to where they had come from - another wasted day. Whilst the checkpoint situation has improved slightly since 2002 and 2003 when I was first here and it could take anywhere between 4 and 8 hours to get from Jerusalem to Nablus, often involved clandestine clambers over the mountain in to the city - trying to avoid the tanks and soldiers, it is all
relative. As Adib of OCHA put it, removing some of the smaller, less disruptive checkpoints to make it seem as if the situation is okay is like when someone applies for planning permission because their house is too small, and instead of granting it you get them to take a cow in to the house, and then a goat, and then take them out again. It gives the feeling that the house is bigger, but in reality there is no improvement.

For a map and explantation of the different types of closures;

http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/WestBank_December_07_20080106_web.pdf

OCHA also advocate for individuals and communities who have no other recourse to justice. Many homes throughout Palestine are built without planning permission as, regardless of the fact that the Palestinians are wanting to build on their own land, this has to be sought from the Israeli authorities who more often than not refuse to grant it. At the moment they are working in Al Aqaba, a tiny village perched at the top of the Jordan Valley. It lies near to a number of illegal Israeli settlements, but even since 1967 the Palestinians and Israelis in the area have not had any trouble from each other. The relative stability in this area changed in 2003 when the Israeli court issued demolition orders for 35 of the homes and other buildings in the village including schools and shops thereby affecting all the 300 families living there.
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Welcome to Israel and Palestinian Fair Trade [May. 27th, 2008|08:44 am]
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Welcome to Israel



Most countries, especially those whose economy is in downfall, are making a real effort to encourage tourism and bring in much needed trade and are welcoming and inviting to those who arrive at their borders. Not so in Israel which, despite its burgeoning economy and having to overcome the fears of potential tourists who are put off by the threat of terrorism, seems intent on harassing and intimidating as many people as possible. As we disembarked from the plane, walking down the stairs,weary after our 6 hour delay and long flight instead of smiling welcomers a line of steely-eyed, well armed men and women stand, suspiciously looking over all the passengers as we stagger down the stairs.

Going through passport control I hand over my passport to the glaring woman behind the glass, smiling up at her in my "tourist" mode. During my train journey to the airport I put together my travel itinerary for my time over here. It isn't possible to go through the borders being open about the work that we are doing in Nablus as we wouldn't be allowed entry.

Two Project Hope volunteers who recently entered the country, one a 70 year old American Palestinian, the other a young Canadian of Arabic heritage, were detained and questioned for almost two hours. They were allowed in eventually but not before being insulted and rudely shouted at.


There is obviously no security risk from a bunch of internationals teaching languages, arts and first aid to children,youth and women in Nablus. Quite the opposite, by giving these people opportunities to learn, gain skills and participate in a global dialogue we are quite literally giving them a better chance for their future and increasing their passion for life.



Palestine Fair Trade Association



On Monday a small group of us travelled North to Jenin - although first we had to go South, then East before turning North as the direct road is closed to Palestinians, turning a journey that could take about 30 mins into one that takes 90 at least. In Jenin we met with Nasser from the Palestine Fair Trade Association and who is responsible for a number of programs that have been initially funded by micro-loans through Project Hope contacts.



The PFTA has a number of different projects including Olive Cooperatives, 6 Women's Cooperatives involved in processing various crops that have between 5 and 7 members, and one cooperative of 32 women that harvests and processes wild za-ater in the areas around Nablus. As well as dealing in fairly traded products they are also trying to promote certified organic products to increase the market for their products. Many crops are farmed organically anyway as they follow traditional farming practises, but there are few that are certified.



All the produce is exported and the major markets are North America, Europe and Australia. There is no internal market as the finished product is too expensive for Palestinians. For example, the sesame used in the common market is imported from North Africa and fetches about 6NIS per kg, whereas the local, fairly traded product costs 15NIS a kg. The PFTA insists that all the edible raw materials used in production are local, as Nasser says, what would be the point in importing wheat from Africa?



There are problems though with both import of non-edible raw materials such as bottles, and export of the finished product which often faces delays and red tape at the ports in the destination country - including one in the USA which, quite illegally, refuses to let the produce in unless it is labelled "Made in Israel". Something which, quite rightly, the PFTA refuses to do.



There are no commercial sized bottle making factories in Palestine, therefore the bottles for the oil etc have to be imported and PFTA gets theirs from Italy. Due to the occupation there is no direct route to Palestine and all imports have to come through Israel, in this case the port at Haifa. There is currently a consignment of bottles stuck in the port since April, due to bureaucratic shenanigans from both Israelis and Palestinian authorities. The Israelis are asking for unnecessary documents from the PA who are unable to provide the requested signed paperwork because the people who need to sign it are always away at conferences. Meanwhile, the PFTA has to pay the storage charge that is already $2500.

There are currently four members of staff, two are based in the office in Jenin, with the other two working from Nablus and Ramallah. There aren't the finances available for offices for all so the latter two work from home. The PTFA is prioritising employing a woman to oversee the women's cooperatives as at the moment there are problems with the coordination of these programs. Whilst the male staff can go and see them, they can't really get involved in training programs etc which are much needed, a woman would have more access fr this and would be able to develop the cooperatives.


Recently there was a massive conference held in Bethlehem, the Palestine Investment Conference, that was inviting internationals to invest in Palestine. Nasser was invited to this but declined to go, in his own words "I didn't bother going to the PIC as there was no point. All of the money has gone to Ramallah, it was all political and wasn't abut investing in Palestine. I couldn't stomach going. No money will get to those who really need it as there is too much corruption."


Development of the PFTA

There are two broad ways that international organisations see of developing the PFTA movement; those from the USA want to invest top down, put money in to a few head people and hope that the investment trickles down to those who need it, whilst those from the European area believe that the problem is with the Palestinians and all they need is the right training and all will be okay.

For example, one organisation from Italy wanted to spend 6-8000Euros to send "experts" to Palestine to tell the Palestinians how to prune their Olive trees, something they've been doing quite successfully for hundreds of years. The key phrase used by internationals is "Capacity Building", which involves lots of workshops, trainings, etc. With pilots being run from seed funding before programs go ahead. Whilst this is certainly valid in many developing areas, in Palestine the issues are more complex as it is an already developed area on many levels, but one which is held back by the effects of the occupation on the economy.


Nasser has his own view on how development needs to work in his country based on his experience of running the PFTA; he feels what is lacking is materials. He applied for a grant of 2million Euro with a plan to expand their already successful program to work with and therefore empower a further 800 farmers. He wanted to invest in more materials, building processing factories etc and developing the infrastructure needed. He was unsuccessful in his application, the money instead went on running pilots with 24 farmers with a large part of the money going to international consultants rather than those on the ground who could have really used the money.



Effect of Global Economic Downturn

Whilst Palestine is separated from much of the positive side of being part of the global community, such as freedom to travel, security etc, they are not shielded from the more negative aspects and are definitely not immune to the global economic downturn. In one payment alone they lost $24000 from the time of the shipment to the arrival of the money as the dollar dropped dramatically.

We left Jenin and travelled to Fuqqu'a, in the top north-eastern corner of the West Bank to meet with some of the women from one of the couscous cooperatives. Fuqqu'a is a tiny rural village, idylic in many ways with a stunning view to the North of plowed fields, woodland and rolling hills where the villagers used to farm their crops and walk on Fridays with their familes. Not any long, the Apartheid Wall that stretches around the West Bank reaches to here and, whilst not the 8m high concrete monstrosity that it is in some parts, here the tall, red, metal fence draws a distint line between "Palestine" and "Israel", turning the village into a prison.


After we have been shown the customary Palestinian hospitality of food and coffee we talk about how the couscous cooperative works and the effects that it has had on the women involved. Latifeh and Hatief, two women in their late 40s have come to meet with us. They explain how before the cooperative there was little money and few chances for them to work -especially in the summer. Now, between June and September every year, when the conditions are appropriate for drying the wheat to make couscous, they have a guaranteed wage. As a result they are able to support their children at university - Latifeh has three studying and Hatief two. Whilst the PFTA gives them a wage for processing the wheat in to couscous, they have to pay for all their own equipment, water bills etc. Without the microloan provided to them by a Project Hope supporter the initial outlays would not have been affordable. Microloans work because they are not aid, they don't encourage an aid-dependent society as they have to be paid back. In Fuqqu'a some of the women have been encouraged by the success of their cooperative to search for other work outside the couscous production time of year. Latifeh is involved in making cheese and yoghurt, and is currently fattening up some lambs for market.



For more information;

www.palestinefairtrade.org

For this article with pictures

http://jaidigi.livejournal.com
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Tourism under Occupation [Dec. 2nd, 2007|10:06 pm]
Tourism Under Occupation

One Friday, the equivalent of a Sunday in the UK, Jeremy and I took our first day off since getting out here and, enlisting the help of one of the local volunteers - a friend called Tamar, we set off to explore the ancient ruins of the nearby Sebastiya. We've both been hearing about this place for the last five years but have not had the chance or the time to go see it before. For Tamar it is a different story altogether, he has not been able to visit this place at all over the last seven years; for him it isn't a case of a lack of time more that the checkpoints have been a literal barrier to stopping him travelling there.

Sebastiya is only about 5km from Nablus so the journey should take about 15 minutes from the city centre. However there are many blocks in our way meaning it isn't that simple. The first obstacle is getting through the checkpoint at Beit Hiba to the North of Nablus. This is a permanent checkpoint, manned by Israeli soldiers and affecting the daily life of many thousands of Palestinians including Project Hope's Administrative assistant, Hiba who is 23.

Hiba lives in a village just on the other side of the checkpoint so every day she has to ask permission from an illegal occupier to let her go through. Because the checkpoint closes at in the evening she is unable to stay late so misses out on many social events. Whilst her friends and colleagues can wind down after work by sitting and talk, going for falafel or a smoothie, she has to go back to her small home village. Her father, a Palestinian Jordanian, who used to be able to come to Nablus is not allowed back in to the country and Hiba used to live outside of Palestine with him. That is until Israeli soldiers and Settlers took to stealing the land of her family. In a cruel irony, this includes the land that the checkpoint is now built upon.

At the checkpoint the soldiers seem to be relishing in their work; causing disruption and delay to people whose only goal is to get to their family for the important meal, the equivalent of Sunday lunch. When we first arrive it seems that no-one is getting through, the soldiers are laughing and joking amongst themselves, calling across to each other and behaving like the bored teenagers that many of them are. Although there are only 15 people in front of us, it takes about 20 minutes to get to the metal turnstile as packets of food and bottles of oil are checked, one young man is made to raise his shirt – in front of everyone – to prove that he isn't hiding explosives. The assumption being that everyone passing through the checkpoint is a terrorist is ridiculous, and baseless. An older gentleman approaches one of the soldiers, trying to bypass the queue, he explains that he is a judge. The young soldier, nonchalantly chewing gum snatches his ID off him, deliberately takes an age to read the few words on the card, arrogantly questions the man, making him wait for no reason, before dismissively waving him past. The lack of respect that this soldier shows for someone who is both older and more respectable is a disgrace and an example of how dehumanised, and how dehumanising, the soldiers can become.

When it comes to our turn the three of us pass through the turnstile sticking close to each other with Tamar squeezing in behind me so as to not get left behind. The soldier controlling it tries to prevent him following me by stopping the barrier halfway round, however both being not too big we squeeze between the metal barriers and hand over our Ids and passports to the waiting soldiers. Sometimes the wrongness of having to ask permission to do everything, in this case go see some Roman ruins, sticks in our throats and we find it hard to be polite.

After the checkpoint the next obstacle quickly becomes apparent as we drive straight passed the road signposted to Sebastiya; the taxi driver explains that the road that should have taken us straight there is now closed to Palestinians due to the presence of the illegal Settlement Shavei Shomron. We have to take a long diversion, passing through another checkpoint (this one we are able to stay in the car) then heading north towards Jenin before effectively doubling back on ourselves and following winding roads south through three villages and finally arriving at the ruins more than an hour later.

Sebastiya itself is beautiful, a real historical jewel in the midst of all the madness of occupation and one that is being utilised in the best possible way by the local community; a children's festival is taking place in the Roman Amphitheatre, couples in their 20s seek a quiet spot amongst the temple ruins to spend some time together, and a family share their picnic on the ruins of a church built over the tomb of John the Baptist.


Even here though it is impossible to forget the situation as everywhere you look there are brutal reminders that the people here are not free, that their land has been stolen and their lives are controlled by others. Looking across the olive grove strewn valley where rank upon rank of olive trees march off in to the distance the sunlight glances off a road to the West This well maintained road is one of the many Settler roads that snake through the West Bank linking the Settlements and Jerusalem. These are Apartheid Roads, built for and used by Israelis. Tamar points out the Settlement of Shavei Shomronin the valley below. This is the Settlement that stole land from Hiba's family, that shut the road to Palestinians and that effectively controls the freedom of the Palestinians in this area.

Despite wishing that we could stay and watch the sunset over the valley, with the Mediterranean beckoning to us in the distance, all too soon we have to head back to Nablus, making sure that we get to the checkpoint before it closes and we are stuck outside for the night. The way back is even more fraught, taking us more than 90 mins and involving driving over a “makeshift” roadblock where the soldiers have built a solid barrier across the roads using soil and rocks. There is no purpose to such barriers ; no strategic military use, no security benefit, all they do is cause immense inconvenience to the Palestinians. Once we have negotiated driving over this and driven back north through the villages we are stopped again by a checkpoint, this time it takes a good 30mins just to get up to it as there is a long queue of traffic waiting to go through, made of people trying to get back to Nablus after spending the day with their extended family. As with the roadblocks this checkpoint too is purely to frustrate the daily life of the Palestinians.





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Tourism [Nov. 26th, 2007|11:38 pm]
http://www.poica.org/editor/case_studies/view.php?recordID=852
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Invasion and Speaking Out [Nov. 19th, 2007|12:05 am]
Invasion and Speaking Out

It is about 3.30am on Friday morning when I wake up to the city resounding to the sound of gunfire. For a while I am unsure whether it is real gunfire or just firecrackers which are often used to celebrate weddings, but soon it becomes apparent that it is real, though whether it is brigades fire or Israeli it is hard to tell at first. An hour and at least three massive explosions later it is obvious that the Israelis have returned to the city as they do most nights, that they are invading someone's housing, exploding their way in, searching and ransacking a home. Then it goes quiet; whilst within me the initial feeling is one of relief that the gunshots have stopped, despite it not being in our area of the city it is still unnerving, the relief soon turns to deep sadness as I imagine what the family are now experiencing – total and utter fear and humiliation. There are numerous accounts of what happens to families when the Israeli soldiers invade; last year I stayed in the home of a family who were expecting to be invaded and that night was one of the longest of my life. Knowing the soldiers are in your area, and coming to the house you are in – trying to protect by being an international presence there. You lie there on a mattress squeezed into the already crowded bedroom trying to relax and sleep, but your body is in a heightened sense of awareness, every small sound and movement makes you tense up as you work out where it came from, was it the sound of soldiers approaching or just mice scurrying around. Then the phone goes, whispers seem to fill the room as the parents try to find out along the grapevine where the soldiers are and you imagine in your mind which street they are coming down, how many are there, will there be back up with more heavy military hardware, do they know you are here, that there are children here and that if they fire through the doors and windows as they often do that there is the real likelihood that someone inside will be hit?

Today, Sunday, there is more gunfire around the city, but from a different source. Instead of it being Israeli it is the Palestinian police who are having a crackdown on the use of weapons by fighters – in this case they have beseiged one of the refugee camps to arrest five people who fired their weapons in the air, a popular practice in the past but one that is now discouraged, in part due to the obvious danger of firing amunition around crowds! Some of the actions of the Palestinian police may seem draconian, but for many people around Nablus they are happy on some level with the presence of them. One friend explained why he is all for it. He feels that in the past few months the brigades have been turning away from fighting the occupation to common crime after the Israeli military targetted the true resistance, killing them or arresting them. The majority of the population were scared of those left behind, of being robbed in the streets, many have been threatened and targeted in their own homes. Now the police are around people feel safer going out, and as a result there is much more calmness in the city.

Al Yamoun Town

Last week we visited the town of Al Yamoun to take some medication to a 11 month old boy, Mohammed, who suffers from a genetic disorder. He was unwell when he was born but it took 1 ½ months to get the necessary permits to take him to a hospital in Israel where they had the facilities to investigate what was wrong with him. Upon discharge his family was told that he would have to return every month and that he would need to be fed on a special infant formula, Monogen. If he was Israeli the hospital would have given him this, but as a Palestinian it has to be funded from elsewhere and at the moment he uses 3 containers a week, each costing $40. His father has recently had appendicitis and has been unable to work whilst he recovers, before this he was working as a painter and he would get paid 50NIS a day (about $13) . There isn't enough work for people to work every day so would earn about 1000NIS a month, the medications for the baby are 2400NIS and the family are in debt of 7-8000NIS. To further complicate matters, Mohammed has been unable to get to the hospital since 8th July as no permit has been provided for him to travel in to Israel. The letter that the family were given on that date by the hospital (written in English that they couldn’t read) was that he needed to return in one month for them to asses him and make changes to his dietary regime, a key component in keeping him healthy. Although his condition leaves him with a greater chance of dying young, it is possible with access to proper healthcare for him to live into adulthood. An amount of the extra money donated to the First Aid programme was given to the family so that they can continue to buy his medicine and extra funding is going to be coming from a Dr in the USA.

On Wednesday we returned to Al Yamoun at the invitation of the Mayor to give a First Aid Class to the Women's Society. Four of us travelled from Nablus in a taxi, a bit squished in the back with me and the nurses, and a crazy fast ride with Audrey tightly gripping the door handle on whilst we swung around the roads. Some roads have recently been resurfaced making travel faster, but it is a relief when you hit the badly surfaced roads as the drivers really care about their cars so slow down for the bumps. Unfortunately this doesn't always work, the actual speedbumps found just outside and through all the towns and villages have no markers or paint on them so they are quite hard to see - sometimes the drivers don't spot them and everyone is thrown around the back of the taxi, thankfully though Audrey is getting pretty good at seeing them and, sitting next to her, her quiet preemptive squeaks would give me enough warning to brace myself!


When we got there the mayor was off in a meeting and we were met instead by the head of the women's society and a Director for the Municipality. An outspoken man, he was voicing his frustration with the Palestinian Authority, saying how they mainly focus on the cities and ignore the villages. The MPs are all from the city and are only interested in getting re-elected so concentrate their energy on getting there rather than serving the people as a whole. Also, as the people in the city have more contacts the money becomes concentrated there creating postitive feedback in the urban areas, with a steadily decreasing economic situation in the rural areas. He felt that during the last ten years there has been a split in the economic wellbeing of people leading to a massive class divide that is only growing. As a result of this, and in combination with the death of Arafat who he believes was a true figurehead for the Palestinian people, there has been a loss of a Palestinian identity as such; instead of everyone working together for a common goal, now people are just looking out for themselves, they are having to focus on getting work, food, education, medical treatment. There is no longer the common dream of a true Palestinian state.

Many of the people in Al Yamoun used to work in Israel, every day 3000 of them would travel there to work and earn between $50-$60 a day, with skilled workers getting even more. Now, with the wall this is impossible and there is only work accessible in Palestine, and not enough to go around. People can hope to earn around 30NIS a day (about $8), with skilled workers getting 70-100NIS. There also isn't enough work for people to work every day. Meanwhile, whilst the chance of making money decreases, the costs of everyday living increase, a small bottle of gas (that people rely on for cooking and hot water) costs 60NIS, that is two days work, then there is food, water, health care, education etc. To have even a modest standard of living people would need to earn 6-7000NIS.
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In Al Yamoun there are about 200 000 people, so it is more of a town than a village, they only have one Dr who works six days a week. Some days he sees 120+ patients, “it takes him a whole day just to read out the list, never-mind treating them”. The clinic is sparse and there is little that they can do there, as well as not even being able to get many medications or equipment, when equipment breaks it takes ages to get sorted. Recently it took 3-4months just to get a replacement bulb for a piece of equipment as it had to be sent to the Health Ministry in Ramallah. Not surprisingly the Dr who is there at the moment wants to leave. Many skilled workers are leaving the towns and villages to go to the cities to get work leading to depopulation of the rural areas as people go to where there is a decent infrastructure.


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View From a Village [Nov. 14th, 2007|10:03 pm]
View from a Village

On Thursday we travelled out of Nablus to give our class at the village of Jalud meaning that we had to pass through the Israeli checkpoint at Huwarra; essentially getting “permission” from the soldiers there to carry out our work. Jalud is a typical Palestinian village in many ways; there are 93 families totaling about 500 people, all of whom are receiving aid of some kind or another, with unemployment at 30%. 40 families receive essential basics such as wheat and seeds from the World Food Programme whilst a French organization has created a microloan scheme in the village from which the remaining 53 families benefit.

Microloan schemes give Palestinians the opportunity to take control of their own lives and are far more sustainable than standard aid schemes. 25 families have each been given three sheep, and a further 25 families beehives. The remaining 3 have a polytunnel like the one owned by Aisha and Mohammed. We went inside theirs in which they are growing tomatoes and cucumber, fed by a simple drip irrigation system. Just 4 days ago they put in the seedlings and in one month they will harvest the first cucumbers and in 2 1/2 months the tomatoes. This is food for their own use and for market, creating an income that will be used to pay back the loan and improve the life the family has. Once the polytunnel is in place there is a low economic burden as manure (from the village donkey) is used for fertilizer keeping costs down.

The poorest families get an additional 200NIS/month (about £30) from a Palestinian aid agency linked to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Last year they got nothing for 8 months when the PA weren't giving out money as many organizations and groups around the world reacted to the democratic election of Hamas by withdrawing support.

Despite the relative calm here it is not separate from the troubles of Occupation; there are five illegal Israeli settlements around the village and they stole 15 000 dunum of land, land which the people of Jalud depended on to make a living through harvesting their olives. Internationals have tried to come and help with the olive harvest, but they haven’t been successful as the Settlers resort to violence to prevent farmers harvesting. In 2002 one of the villagers, 33 year old Mahmoud, who has a wife and 7 children, was shot in the leg with a dumdum bullet that exploded on impact, tearing his leg apart. He had to travel to Jordan for treatment and his leg was saved, but he is unable to work.

The availability of water and electricity is also in the hands of the Settlers. Whilst the villagers get some of their water from wells in the village, there is not enough for demand. Those who can afford it have to pay 120NIS for a tanker to come and fill their well and many can not afford this. The water is more expensive than it need be because they have to buy it from the Settlers who control much of the movement of water. Electricity comes from the nearby Settlement and costs the village 10 000NIS/month, not all the villagers have the ability to contribute to this and over 5 years they have accumulated a debt of 100 000NIS which is growing due to interest all the time.

Medical services are less than basic, there is a clinic on some Sundays run by Dr Saber of Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees (www.upmrc.org). Otherwise the nearest Doctor or clinic is in the next village, although there are few cars to take people there. To get an ambulance to come to the village and take someone to hospital costs 200-300NIS – unaffordable for most - so they try to get a car to Ramallah or Huwarra. At the checkpoint though the patient has to get out and walk or be carried across and then get a service/taxi to the hospital. In emergency cases there is little chance of getting the medical treatment needed in time.

First Aid to the Sounds of Nablus

The First Aid and Health Promotion Classes are going so well especially now we have the new equipment. The day after the money was sent we started using the new equipment straight away in a class at the MCRC multipurpose community resource centre. Every Wednesday the centre specifically runs classes for women, and today we taught more than 20 women for two hours. Now there are three of us running the class instead of just the two nurses we’ve been able to improve what we are doing and do more demonstrations. A class we did on Wednesday in the Old City was more dynamic than at the Mother’s School, with the women asking lots of questions, really enjoying themselves and making lots of noise - although not quite enough to cancel out the sound of gunfire outside the centre about halfway through the class. Most of the women just carried on as normal; gunfire is an everyday part of life here, but in others their anxiety was obvious, although everyday it can spell heartache for many mothers who lose their children to the bullet. After the gunfire a far more pleasant sound resounded around the close walls of the Old City as the call to prayer started up.


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Optimism and Outrage [Nov. 6th, 2007|05:21 pm]
Optimism and Outrage

Before returning to Nablus I didn’t make any concrete plans, contact any of my friends in the city or make firm arrangements for the work that I would be doing out here. This is the nature of coming out here to both work and volunteer in Palestine with a humanitarian organization. I didn’t make plans because I didn’t want to let people down if I was refused entry. Palestine is an occupied land, not only in the minds of those who live here and suffer on a daily basis, but the West Bank and Gaza are classified as such under UN definitions. To get here there is no choice but to travel through Israeli border controls and explain why you want to come. Outrageously, the honest answer, in my case to teach First Aid skills to women and children in refugee camps and villages, would have meant I was refused a visa and sent back to the UK on the next flight. In the last year two potential Project Hope volunteers have been refused entry, one a woman from the USA who worked for the UN, the other a young Italian lad. Both for reasons of their own decided to go against the advice of our programme out here and explained they were going to Nablus to volunteer.

So, as a tourist, I passed through the border control fine and travelled on to Jerusalem for the night before meeting up with another PH volunteer who has come across from Egypt for a week to teach a puppetry class to a group of children in Asker Refugee Camp. She had a much harder time coming across the Taba border from their and she was questioned for 2 hours before being allowed in.

The journey from Jerusalem to Nablus is, on the surface of things, much improved from 2002/3 and it only took us 2 ½ hours compared to the 4-8hours of before when the checkpoints (illegal under international law and in defiance of UN resolutions) were always active – today there were few soldiers on them and they were only stopping people trying to go in the opposite direction to us. However, it is all relative; we still had to take a bus from Jerusalem to Ramallah, passing through the increasingly militarized Kalandia checkpoint which has expanded massively since 2006 with more military compounds and rolls of razorwire then change to a service (a minibus taxi) to travel on to Huwarra which is a massive checkpoint outside of Nablus that is mostly only crossable by foot – even ambulances and medical teams are routinely stopped there meaning that over time people have died at the checkpoints and children have been born there (and some died along with their mothers) all from being prevented from getting to hospital by soldiers who have no legal authority to be there. Crossing Huwarra you firstly walk through the taxi compound where tens of bright yellow taxis and orange minibuses wait for hours to fill up before taking Palestinians throughout the West Bank, then you walk through the actually checkpoint, going in to Nablus this means passing between two metal fences, like a cattle corral with a seven foot high metal turnstile in the middle which I had to squeeze through with my rucksacks on. Whilst those of us wanting to get in to Nablus were left alone by the watchful soldiers, there were dozens of people trying to leave Nablus who were all being held up in the burning sunshine.

In just an hour of being here things seem so much more optimistic than last year, when all day we listened to Israeli jets flying over to bomb Lebanese people and every night the city resounded to the sound of gunfire as the soldiers invaded the Old City and Refugee Camps to intimidate, arrest and kill Palestinians. Whilst the planes are still flying over it is more to do with just intimidation at the moment, and the invasions are fewer. Some people I’ve spoken to are more optimistic too, thinking that things are actually improving – albeit slowly and not in quite the direction they want.

Last year a friend, who works at a local hotel, seemed to age in the few weeks that I was here as more and more children died in Lebanon, over ice-cold lemonade he would lament the inactivity of the international community who were led by people saying it was not the right time for a ceasefire. This year he really feels that things are moving forward, the city is physically cleaner and calmer than it has been in years. Part of this is the presence of more than 300 Palestinian police and soldiers on the streets – something only recently “permitted” by the Israelis.

This calmness is not ubiquitous though, as I sit at the hotel a message comes through that the volunteers teaching in Balata need to leave as soon as their class has finished as a gunfight has started between Palestinians after police tried to arrest wanted gunmen. Nine Palestinians were injured during the clash and the lives of everyone in the camp were disrupted before two of the wanted men handed themselves in. There seems to be a mixed reaction to the presence of the PA forces on the streets with some people glad for the calm, some resent the intrusion and others say it is no better than having Israeli soldiers on the streets as it is still guns controlling people.

First Aid Class

We are running a new programme out here; teaching basic First Aid and Health Promotion to women and children in the refugee camps, Old City and villages surrounding Nablus. Using a translator (Mahmoud who is a trained medic) three of us (two nurses, Audrey and Laura from the USA and me a trained first aider) run classes for between 15 and 30 women (and their associated children) in CPR, choking, dealing with poisons etc, at various “Mother’s Schools”. These schools have been set up to improve the education of the many women who have missed out on a chance for a proper education. At the schools they learn basic English and Maths so they can help their children with their homework. It is also a chance for them to get out of their houses and to socialize with and support each other.

First aid classes in the UK are useful, out here they are essential as medical teams and ambulances are often delayed by Israeli soldiers when trying to get to patients and during times of curfew. By teaching these skills we can give mothers the knowledge that will hopefully keep their children alive until help is available.

Whilst waiting for a few late arrivals, we are working on Palestine time after all, Audrey and Laura get down to checking the BP of the women, shy at first only one woman comes up, but after seeing it is painless the others start to come forward and soon there is a steady stream of women rolling up their sleeve ready for the cuff until the latecomers have arrived and the room is full of women- many with their youngest child with them. Emily, who has come to observe before her puppetry class in the afternoon does a brilliant job of entertaining the children as puppet after puppet is pulled from her seemingly bottomless bag, eliciting giggles from the girls.


After a brief introduction the nurses start demonstrating CPR on a manikin whilst Mahmoud translates, before they use dolls brought in the local market to show CPR on a baby. After this the women are given a chance to practice; unlike the first day they tried this when most of the wmone wanted a go, here it is just Ibteseme who wants a go. Treating someone who is choking follows, I stand in as a choking adult, the baby doll for an infant, and a mother with her own child demonstrates too. There are few materials out here for teaching with; the CPR manikin was brought from the USA by the nurses and will be left over here for future classes but one manikin in a class of 30 makes teaching slow if all the women want a go, also at the moment we are finding it hard to source cleaning materials for the manikin so the women can only practice chest compression without actually breathing in to the manikin.

We finish the session checking more BP, finding that the general trend is for a high diastolic (which can lead to an increased risk of heart attack and other health complications) when we return to next week we will be checking more women and giving a workshop on preventative measures. There isn’t a comprehensive health programme out here, although there are organizations working on public health issues, it can be haphazard and many people miss out on essential health checks due to the Occupation. There might be only a few of us on this particular programme but we are making a difference to the women we meet and hopefully they will pass on some of the knowledge they have gained.


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Hebron and Home [Aug. 28th, 2006|09:26 pm]
Hebron and Home

Hebron, or Al Khalil, is different to the other Palestinian cities in that instead of being surrounded by illegal Settlements, they are nestled within the city itself, leading to a situation where Palestinians and Israelis are living side by side (and one above the other in places). This city is also home to some of the most religious sites for both religions and, with the close living quarters, has the potential to be a shining example of cooperation and peace. Of course this is not the case, massacres have been committed by extremists from both sides and now about 400 Settlers make daily life unbearable for those Palestinians who are living within the Old City area. Travelling to Hebron from Bethlehem was not so hard, already on the inside of the Apartheid Wall the only barriers were flying checkpoints that were unmanned on the morning I passed through, one of the frustrations of traveling is never knowing how many checkpoints there will be and therefore not even being able to tell roughly how long a journey will take.

A number of international groups in Hebron maintain a presence, some purely as Observers, and others to directly intervene on behalf of the Palestinians when the soldiers and/or settlers are acting against them.

Upon arrival in Hebron the group I was visiting were immediately called by a distraught man who was concerned about his father, the report was that he had been arrested and was being beaten by the soldiers. As we headed up the steep road, unusual in that there were no people around, some locals came out of their houses and pointed to one of the shops to our left. Pushing the door open we entered to grocery shop to find some of the good, packets of biscuits, crisps and sweets, scattered on the floor and an armed soldier at the back and no sign of the man. As we headed towards the dimly lit back of shop, two of us reaching for our video cameras, the third grabbing his camera to document whatever was happening, we could hear voices off to the side of the building through another door. Gently manoeuvring passed the soldier into what appeared to be the garage, asking what was going on and where the man was, we were confronted by the sight of the entire family, husband, wife and about 6 children backed up against the wall, soldiers with guns guarding them and a sense of deep fear. The children were pushing themselves down in to their seats, trying to make their tiny bodies even less visible. As we’d entered the shop some women, feeling protected by our presence, had followed behind us and one of them, an elderly woman - grandmother to the children - now pushed passed the soldiers. Seeing the tears of the 3 youngest of the children, none older than 6, she began sobbing and pulling at her headscarf in distress, begging with the soldiers to let them go. At her arrival the father rose and tried to come forwards, asking if he could give her some water as she had a bad heart. The soldiers wouldn’t let him through but we are able to get a glass and fill it for her, small comfort when seeing your son and grandchildren humiliated and terrified.

When we questioned why the shop and house was being searched one of the soldiers seemed happy to talk to us, starting to explain what was going on before he was repeatedly silenced by a colleague, highlighting the lack of agreement even between soldiers about the legitimacy of their actions. The reason giving for the eventual arrest of the father and his eldest son, was the presence of spent cartridges and shells in the shop. Despite pointing out the obvious, that they were from the Israeli military and had been picked up in that state from the street the two men were bound and blindfolded, the blindfolds only removed after the inhumanity of this was made apparent by the human rights workers. As the two men were led away down the street the distressed children watched, unsure of when they would see their father and brother again.

Unlike in Nablus the soldiers here seemed used to being filmed and we were able to video most of what took place, documenting the illegal harassment and arrest of the father and another son. Before they were taken away, female family members slipped their hands into the men’s pockets, removing any money, as often money “disappears” when people are detained.

There is a gradient of activity as I walk the short distance in to the Old City area of Hebron. Within 110m it the atmosphere changes; at the start there is a chaotic bustling market milling with hundreds of people pushed up against one another, an almost deafening cacophony of people buying and selling, the heat generated by the closeness is unbearable. Soon though, the buyers peter out and there are a few desperate traders, old men mainly clinging to the hope that people will venture down, passing their time talking and drinking tea. Eventually there is just me, walking alone down the silent, empty, ancient streets of the old city surrounded by closed doors, shuttered windows, bare streets and an eerie, disconcerting silence.

It is impossible to tell whether there are families behind these doors, keeping their heads down as, ironically, Shabbat, the day when the Settlers are supposed to do no hard work, is the day when they are most violent against the Palestinians, when they sometimes rampage through the streets, smashing property and assaulting any Palestinian who happens to be on the streets. There is low-level constant harassment too, from the “women in green”- a group of Israeli Settlers who deliberately target Palestinian children, to the Settler children who hurl abuse, garbage, stones, and in a recent escalation, glass bottles at Palestinians and international human rights workers with impunity.

http://www.telrumeidaproject.org/ - a group of international human rights workers in Hebron

www.cpt.org - CPT has human rights workers throughout the world, including in Hebron

www.breakingthesilence.org.il - Testimonies from soldiers who have served in the Occupied Territories



A few days ago I left Palestine and travelled back to Scotland. Due to the “security” operations at Ben Gurion airport, and the attempts to keep aid workers, humanitarian workers etc out of Palestine it was necessary to post all my photos and video back to the UK to maintain the pretence of being a tourist in Israel, therefore this update has been delayed whilst I’ve been waiting for them to arrive.

I am available to give talks about the current situation from October onwards, all that I ask for is my travel expenses and a bed for the night if necessary. I am happy to talk informally, or formally, anywhere from someone’s living room perhaps to a small group of friends, to larger venues.


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Videos [Aug. 15th, 2006|07:47 pm]
To view vidoes of the demonstration at bil'in and the shooting of protestors go to;

http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/08/13/bilincrimes/

and click where it says "To view it click here"
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Checkpoint Humiliation and Bullets at Demonstrations [Aug. 11th, 2006|07:47 pm]
On Thursday I left Nablus to travel to Bethlehem, Bil’in and Hebron, never an easy journey the checkpoint just outside Nablus, Huwarra, was in a bad state when we arrived. 100s of Palestinians; men and women, children and the old, doctors, ambulances, Red Cross vehicles, trucks loaded with fruit and vegetables, students, everyone was being held in the burning hot afternoon sun. As my friend and I debated what to do, either try and use our passports to get through the queue quicker which always feels wrong, to leave the Palestinians behind, or to stand in solidarity with them the decision was taken from us. Suddenly, at the front of one of the waiting groups shouting broke out and we could see soldiers surrounding one of the men so we pushed our way to the front to try and intervene, both of us on the phone; myself to international human rights workers in the city who could come out to help with the situation, and my friend to an Israeli law group who are able to work on the Israeli commanders to stop them behaving so badly. As the man who was being beaten was dragged away the penned in crowd were shouting out to the soldiers to stop, to calm down and to let him go and the rest of them through the checkpoint. We questioned the soldiers about why they wouldn’t let people through, one young soldiers, not even in his twenties replied that the commander had given an order that no-one was to be let through, not even women giving birth. When asked what the justification was he could give none, adding that just because he was serving in the army didn’t mean he didn’t have a conscience.


There was a family with three young children, the eldest, a girl of about seven, was cradled in the arms of her father obviously quite unwell and they were pleading with the soldiers to let them pass. Repeatedly, they were physically forced back by the soldiers pushing them away. I spoke to the soldiers, pointing out the obvious to them, that the child was ill, that she was just a child, and asking them to be let through, eventually after about 15 minutes they were. One of the soldiers kept on pushing towards the crowd, shouting angrily that they had to go back, others fingered the triggers on the guns and pushed them against those of us at the front, sometimes not even seeming to notice when they hit us in the face with them.


Another woman came up holding the hand of her son, a young boy of about 3 or 4 who had just been discharged from hospital, on his other hand was a bandage covering where his IV had been. The mother was unable to afford to pay for a taxi or ambulance to get him home so she was stuck at the checkpoint having to ask permission from soldiers who have no right to be there to get her child somewhere safe. She asked me to help, passing me the letter from the hospital explaining that he had been treated for severe asthma and was only being allowed home under strict instructions, which included avoiding too much heat, dust and smoke. None of the soldiers would let her through, one claimed she was using her son, another kept telling her to go and wait in the immobile line. All the while we were trying to get the soldiers to open the checkpoint, and to at least let the women and children through the waiting crowd were getting understandably more agitated. One man who had been shouting at the soldiers was dragged off, his crying wife following behind him. As the woman got increasingly distraught, the crowd pushed forwards a little, then, with no warning the soldier I had spoken to earlier, grabbed hold of the child and stepped back towards the military vehicles behind him, the woman and I grabbed the bewildered child and had to pull him from the soldiers arms.
Behind us a young girl with a clown mask pushed up into her hair had her face screwed up in fear as she pushed torn plastic into her mouth to try and stifle her screams. Shortly after that, in an apparent acceptance that touching the boy had been very wrong we were able to get them to let the woman and child through and we accompanied them to the other side. Soon after, other people started following us through in dribs and drabs through it would have taken hours for them all to get passed, having to go through the ritual humiliation of ID checks and searches.


Today there was a demonstration in the small village of Bil’in near to Ramallah. There has been a weekly protest there for months now, against the construction of the Apartheid Wall, and an illegal Settlement. That is stealing yet more land, and more water, from the Palestinians. 10 Palestinians, internationals and Israeli peace activists gathered, at the front there were about 10 of us carrying mock bodies of children, signifying those who have died in Palestine and Lebanon, to lay near the gate in the barrier. Before we got near to the site a line of Israeli soldiers were waiting in a line across the road, in some of their hands were orange sound grenades, others had wooden batons and all had their guns. Our group walked peacefully towards them until we were within a few feet, then, with little warning a soldier pulled the pin on a sound grenade and rolled it straight at us. The people behind us rushed backwards as we moved quickly to the side, our fingers pushed in to our ears to soften the deafening explosion that soon followed. As we took cover behind a pile of bricks rubber bullets, more sound grenades and tear gas canisters were flying over us and landing around us.

A group of soldiers went by where we now stood, some people had their legs hit with the wooden batons and more sound grenades were thrown all over. None of us reacted in a violent manner; the Israeli activists tried to reason with the soldiers, some internationals and Palestinians just sat in the way of the soldiers - trying to calm the situation down. Still the soldiers fired at people, one passing by me, pushing his gun against me as he reached for more plastic bullets, most people had returned towards the village, not wanting people to be seriously injured . A young Swedish woman was screaming, holding her ears after a sound bomb had been thrown just in front of her whilst she sat in the road, the woman next to her was bleeding from her arm, hit by flying plastic from the same grenade. The young soldiers seemed both out of control and unsure of what they should be doing; some would start hitting out with the batons only after their colleagues did it, or load their bullets when reminded and when they ran towards the demonstrators it was with little coherence.
As I headed back to the village, between the two lines of soldiers, I saw a small group of people, soldiers and demonstrators, crouched by the side of the road with an obviously injured lad in the middle. Pulling my gloves on (first aid training coming to the fore), I ran up to them, I could see a heavily bloodied bandage lying next to his head, crouching down to get a better look I saw his skull was fractured and there appeared to be white matter showing through. Again, the soldiers didn’t know what they were doing, whilst treating him - doing the little we could under the circumstances - some of them were still firing from nearby, even through their colleagues asked them not to. When we were finally able to move him onto a stretcher the soldiers wouldn’t let us take him to the waiting vehicle at first as some of the young Palestinians were throwing stones, holding the life of the shot lad hostage. The injured lad, one of the Israeli peace activists, was evacuated to hospital where he has just undergone emergency surgery to remove the plastic bullet lodged in his head.

Plastic bullets are supposed to be a “gentle” way to subdue protests, the unlawful, inhumane and immoral actions of the soldiers today at a peaceful protest are abhorrent. Using tear-gas, bullets, batons and sound grenades against peaceful protestors is another example of how out of control the military are in this country. This lad was shot twice, in the head and in the neck, his only crime was to try and demonstrate for a more peaceful and just world, he stood up against his country and spoke out about the crimes being committed in his name and now he is lying in hospital and may not live.

UPDATE - 12th August - The lad underwent brain surgery last night to remove the bullet which passed through his brain, they also removed part of his brain. He is in a medically induced coma and the extent of the damage will not be known until he is woken from this.

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