[Palestine] Balata Refugee Camp 2011

The Balata Refugee Camp is only about 5 miles from the MPT home in Huwwara. It is the largest and most crowded refugee camp in the West Bank. Buildings were often built to the dimensions of the original tent and crowded together. As families grow and additional space is needed, they build straight up as there is no horizontal space. Some streets are extremely narrow with just room to walk. There are almost no places for the many youth to play. Noise is constant. 25,000 bodies are living in one square kilometer which is about 247 acres. That is more than 100 people per acre.

The following murals are on the wall outside of Balata. The first one depicts the happy life before 1948.

The second mural shows the sad time of leaving when Palestinians were forced out of their homes and became refugees or displaced persons within their own country. This event in 1948 is known as the Nakba, the Catastrophe.

Many Palestinians still have the keys to their homes, some still speak of their previous village as home, although they have never seen it. The hope to return is still very alive for many.

Refugees lived in UN tents for years before the building of permanent homes started.

If you view the murals and then turn around, you will be looking at the Greek Orthodox Church. We took the tour to the basement and viewed Jacob's Well. The quiet spacious green garden inside the walled church compound stands in stark contrast to the crowded, dusty camp right across the street.

MPT visited Balata recently and took an informal walk through the narrow streets talking with children and adults. We had tea with a shop keeper and his friend. He had been “visited” by soldiers recently but did not want to discuss it. His friend said, “He fears that any publicity may cause the soldiers to return.” This friend spent time in prison for reasons that were not clear to us. We dropped by the Yafa Cultural Center and had a nice conversation with a staff member. He reviewed the history and conditions at Balata. He also shared that Germany (indeed a German social worker sat in on this discussion) was helping to establish a mental health program, a clinic where support groups could meet and therapists could work. Psychological problems caused by overcrowding, stress, unemployment, abuse, grief and despair are rampant. He said, “It is a total community problem; everyone has mental health issues.” It was painful to see this man’s frustration as he said, “I continue to be a moderate but what good does it do? We have waited for freedom for over 60 years and nothing changes.”

Refugees tend to be more involved politically so it was no surprise to see many names on the list of martyrs.  Previous MPT teams have visited the Balata Refugee Camp on numerous occasions. Related MPT blog post lists are available on our main report website.

[Palestine] Two days immersed in Deir Istiya

This is a view of the Deir Istiya skyline from the walls of the “old city”.

The village of Deir Istiya is one of the West Bank’s largest, in terms of land mass originally including 34000 dunums (8500 acres) of which approximately 900 dunums (225 acres) were built up. Dier Istiya is located SW of Nablas and about 15 km from the Green Line. The community has lost approximately one third of its land to the construction of illegal Israeli settlements and outposts. Outposts are illegal even under Israeli law.

List of losses (date, settlement name, area lost - 4 dunums=1 acre)

-1978, Karne Shomron, 2000 dunums

-1981, Yakir, 3000 dunums

-1982, Emmanuel, 5150 dunums

-1988, Nofim, 500 dunums

-1991, Revava, 1570 dunums

-2000, Gina Shomron, 500 dunums

-2000, an outpost between Karne Shomron and Ginat Shomron, 450 dunums

-2000, another outpost near Revava, 500 dunums

Reported difficulties for the village include:

-reduction of grazing land by 30% as villagers are not allowed on their land which happens to be near a settlement.

-deliberate pumping of waste water into Wadi Qana causing negative impact on the agricultural diversity and the pollution of drinking water.

-closure of much of the agricultural land causing major access problem for plowing, pruning and harvesting.

-ongoing attacks on the villagers by settlers including live ammunition, sound bombs, and beatings

-(unconfirmed by MPT) the release of wild boar which damage the land and crops.

Both members of the MPT 2011 Fall team spent Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 25-26, immersed in the harvest and life of this ancient village. We picked both days and spent the night with a Palestinian family. The following pictures and text share our observations.

We drove to the olive groves in an old truck as the farmer explained that there was a much shorter easier route but they were not allowed to drive that close to the settlement. After a bumpy ride on a very rough road, we started the 10 minute walk to the grove. We were very surprised to be so close to the outpost and also to the settlement of Revava.

The same process of fouling the land with waste water is practiced in this area. It is hard to express the disgust we felt for a community that would do such to their neighbors’ crop land and for a larger system that would allow such pollution to continue. The water had a slight flow to it indicating that there was an ongoing release of the fluid. But it was basically a putrid stagnant mess of liquid waste. It was impossible to determine what all might be in it.

A tanker truck appeared on the second day and we were told that it would dump bad water to drain into their olive grove. We tried but were not able to confirm that it was dumping.

This lady is trying to harvest some olives from this small tree which is surrounded by filth. We were told this tree would die and saw evidence of other flooded trees having already died. Furthermore, the family reported that too much water prior to harvest negatively impacts the quality and quantity of olive oil.

The picking took place very near the outpost and the settlement. We gained enough altitude to look right down into the outpost.

We were never able to see more than the edges of Revava, the settlement. We were visited by the soldiers and the settlement security. As we were picking during the allowed time, these visits were routine - "no problem" as our Hebrew speaking farmer was inclined to say.

Our landlords reported to us that wild pigs have been released to damage crops in the plains of Huwwara and that a lady was recently hospitalized after being attacked by one. When picking in Jammain, the men said they saw one and chased it off by throwing stones. Wild pigs (boars as they are often called in the USA) can be a huge problem. We are not able to give you an eyewitness account, but the farmer also said, “See the damage that pigs have done to the ground and to this tree.”

We often see a very small scat which all of the folks have said is gazelle. I asked about this much larger scat and was told, “Pig”. It appears that the wild pig/boar is indigenous to Israel/Palestine. There does not seem to be any clear evidence that anybody has intentionally released them. There is thought that the wall has effected their migration and Israeli army report have shown skyrocketing populations in some areas.

The farmers are not allowed into the groves before 8:00 AM (no picking in the cool hours of the morning even though it is light enough by 6:00) and must be out or moving in that direction by 4:00 PM. Here is the farmer and one MPTer walking out to the truck past the outpost at the end of the day. After dinner a young family member drove us to meet our taxi and said, "They steal our olives; they foul our water; we have nothing left but the air we breathe. Thank you for coming. You give us hope.”

[Palestine] MPT Teamer Head Wound, Broken Wrists at Izbat at Tabib

The village of Izbat at Tabib is located in Area C of the West Bank in the Qalqilya district. Recently, there has been an order to begin the construction of a fence alongside the highway that borders the village that would cut the people who live there off from 40 dunams of their farmland. 

Construction was due to begin on Sunday so my teammate and I, along with other internationals, traveled to Izbat at Tabib on Friday at the request of the villagers to stay with them and be a peaceful presence.

Moussa, who has lived there all his life, welcomed MPT into his home and have us a tour as he told us about the situation there. 

Currently 32 of the 45 homes in Izbat at Tabib have demolition

orders which can be executed at any time. In addition to these current orders, one home has already been demolished in the past two years. Moussa pointed out these homes to us as we walked, including his own, which he has been trying to build for the past five years. He also showed us his grandfather’s house, the oldest in the village, which was built in 1920. Already, 45% of their land has been stolen from them.

People gathered on Saturday afternoon to erect a tent outside the entrance of the near the farm land that was being threatened. The Mayor of Izbat at Tabib and others asked the internationals to stay the night in the tent as it was expected the army would come by, if not that night, then possibly early in the morning. 

The village had taken their case against the construction to an Israeli court but had yet to hear the verdict so it was unknown whether it would begin on Sunday as previously planned or not.

Saturday night as we sat around drinking tea in the tent, military jeeps drove by a few times.

Around 8:00pm two jeeps stopped and the soldiers got out. The commanding officer instructed the soldiers not to speak with us as he questioned our reason for being there. After telling him we were enjoying tea and talking with friends and didn’t know when we would be leaving, they got in their jeeps and drove off. An hour or so later two more military keeps drove in and turned into the main street of the village, making their way through before leaving again. The rest of the night passed without incident.

The next day, Sunday, more military showed up and this time stopped to take photographs of the tent and homes in the village. When I asked the Mayor what they were doing, he said it was an intimidation tactic. They were taking photographs of all the homes and structures they were going to demolish.

It was around noon that a few military jeeps and a bulldozer arrived and parked at the head of the roads that leads to the entrance of the village, down the street from where the tent was set up. After discussing, it was decided the most important thing would be to stay near the army jeeps and the bulldozer and only have one or two internationals back at the tent. We stood there for at least an hour. The soldiers were not telling us to leave or that it was Closed Military Zone but more and more kept arriving. By the time the army began to take action against the demonstrators, we counted at least 6o soldiers including border police.

When it seemed as if the army was going to begin to move into the village it was decided that two of us would move on ahead with video cameras to record what happened. Shortly after another international and I went on ahead with our cameras, we saw and heard commotion. 

This was when I heard a scream and saw my teammate falling to the ground and then the group of soldiers honing in on the other internationals. Later on talking with my teammate, she said one of the soldiers told an international to move and when he refused, threatened to arrest him. My teammate tried to link arms with him and this is when she was thrown to the ground, which resulted in a superficial head wound and two fractured wrists, one of which needs surgery. Almost immediately after she was thrown, three of the internationals were arrested and moved out of the way.

When things had calmed down slightly around ten minutes later, I made my way through the soldiers to the back where the army medic was attending to the teammate. While I was there I also saw the three arrested internationals, one of whom had bruises covering his face from being beaten by the soldiers. The medic took care of my teammate’s immediate needs and then called the Israeli civilian ambulance. Our things, including her passport, were in our bags that were in the tent but the army refused to let us retrieve them insisting that the hospital would treat her without her passport.

However, when we switched ambulances at the Machsom checkpoint into Israel the ambulance drivers told us she needed her passport or would not be treated so while she continued onto Me’ir Hospital in Kfar Saba I returned to the village. When I got back to Izbat at Tabib the soldiers, who were well aware of the situation my teammate and I were in, told me if I tried to go back to the tent to get the passport I would be arrested. Any international who brought it to me would not be allowed to return to the tent. After around 45 minutes of waiting and trying to negotiate with the soldiers, two internationals were able to bring over our bags and I was able to then find my way into Israel to Me’ir Hospital.

At the hospital they took x-rays and determined that my teammate had fractured both wrists, one of which would heal with casting and the other which would most likely need surgery. After staying the night in the hospital and having a CT scan done the next afternoon, it was determined that she would need surgery on her left wrist.

While we were not able to be in Izbat at Tabib to witness the actions of rest of the day, as well as the following days, please visit the International Women’s Peace Service website and the International Solidarity Movement to read their accounts.

- Tali

[Palestine] Bedouins in the Jordan Valley & Bilin Conference 2011

The ancient and the new were viewed in the Jordan Valley as MPT members were treated to a field trip by the Sixth Annual Bil’in International Conference for Palestinian Popular Resistance.

After a short visit to Jericho we were met by a member of the Jordan Valley Solidarity Group who acted as a guide to help us understand the problems the Bedouin people are facing due to the military occupation of their ancient land and the ethnic cleansing tactics of the State of Israel. 

Two generations ago, there were 300,000 Palestinians living in the Jordan Valley. That number is now down to 56,000 – one sixth the population.

First we stopped by the dried up Al Auja spring that used to provide water to much of the southern Jordan Valley. It is dried up because Israel has drilled deep wells and stolen the water. Israel provides the water only to the illegal Israeli settlements. Only in the winter does the spring now provide a tiny bit of water. The Bedouin are forced to buy water from Israel in large tanks at exorbitant prices.

Then we moved into Ras Al Auja, a community of about 300, to see the school project that is underway. We saw the mud bricks that are being made and helped to stack some of them. Currently classes for kindergarten and preschool are held in a tent structure for around 20 students. When the mud brick school is completed, hopefully within a month, the expectation is to teach classes for children up to age eleven. The brick making is being done by volunteers, mostly women, because the men are at work. The teachers are also volunteer women. We were privileged to meet two of them.

The school is being built of mud brick because that makes it easy to rebuild. Since the majority of the Jordan Valley is in Area C, under full Israeli control, the Bedouin people cannot get permits to build any structures, not even homes. In the days when the Bedouin roamed about the Jordan Valley they lived in tents as we all would imagine. Today Israel is enforcing containment and preventing them from moving about, particularly across the border into Jordan. 

For centuries these man-made borders have meant nothing to the Bedouin. They have migrated with the seasons and availability of resources at will and have had no particular national allegiance. Now that Israel is forcing them to be more stationary, it would make sense for them to build houses--but without permits there is risk that anything they built would be destroyed by the Israeli army as has happened all over the West Bank and Gaza. The homes we observed were made of tenting materials: burlap, canvas, sac cloth and plastic tarps, corrugated metal, screening, dried vegetation such as woven reeds, twigs, etc.

The finale of our visit was being served lunch in the Center of the Jordan Valley Solidarity Group. The Jordan Valley Solidarity Group is a grassroots movement of the indigenous people with the support of some internationals, particularly from Great Britton. This Center is in a building thought to be the oldest building in the Jordan Valley, dating back the Ottoman era. It has been rebuilt over time. It is made of stone, mud bricks, metal and wood framing. While quite primitive it is much more substantial than most structures surrounding it in the community. It has a sink with running water where they cook and wash dishes, a primitive toilet, fire places for heat and cooking. There is little furniture, most seating is made of stone and mud benches covered with burlap or not. There is hope that Israel will respect the ancient quality of the Center and not destroy it as they have so many other buildings in the valley, especially schools.

In the near distance, as we stood at the building site of the school in Ras Al Auja, we could see two illegal settlement farms that exist on the stolen property of the Palestinians, their land, their water. Many of the Bedouin are forced to work on the settlement farms because they do not have water to do their own farming and they are not allowed to graze their sheep and goats near the settlements, under threat of stiff fines. We are told they work for $10-$20 a day. Many Palestinian children are also working on these settlement farms. The lack of schools in the Jordan Valley is greatly caused by the division created by the military occupation regulations, which make it the Palestinian Authority’s responsibility to provide the schools but denies the permits or land to do so. Many Bedouin children must travel long distances by bus, through military checkpoints where they are frequently harassed by Israeli soldiers, into the few Palestinian villages for school. These schools are overcrowded and it is difficult for the Bedouin children to fit in due to the very different lifestyle they lead. Many of the children drop out of school and go to work, knowing that even if they complete their education they are likely to have to work on the settlement farms due to the severe human rights violations created by the only nation in the world permitted to ignore all Geneva Convention International law for occupying countries and protected from all UN resolutions by USA vetoes.

[Palestine] Prison as a Weapon Against the Nonviolent Resistance

As mentioned, it was wonderful to see Abdullah Abu Rameh at the conference after being released from his 16 month imprisonment this April. Not only Abdullah, but another citizen of Bil’in, Adeeb Abu Rahmeh, had just been released in December after spending 18 months in Ofer Prison. Both are well known and respected in the community for their nonviolent resistance against the Occupation.

The lawyer that represented Abdullah Abu Rahmeh gave a talk on the strategies the Israeli military uses against Palestinians. She said that the prisons are the only real weapon Israel has against the Palestinian nonviolent movement. 

The tactics used, often begin with the minors of the villages. Unlike international law which recognizes a minor as anyone under the age of 18, Israel considers a minor in the West Bank to be anyone under the age of 16. Often the soldiers will come to the homes of minors in the middle of the night to handcuff and arrest them at gunpoint. The children are then taken to a remote location and since it is against the law to interrogate them in middle of the night, they are forced to stay awake until morning when they are taken to the police station.

They are interrogated after being kept awake all night, denied food, water, use of the bathroom, being blindfolded and held at gunpoint. Then they are asked questions about their own activities at the demonstrations as well as the activities of the suspected leaders of the popular resistance movement. If the children acknowledge to throwing stones at the Wall in the past, this nonviolent act is charged as a criminal offense and they can be put in jail for weeks. The court refuses to dismiss any information given by these minors because they have given it “willingly”. In the recent trial of Abdullah Abu Rahmeh, the judge actually stated that there was no scientific evidence that these children were traumatized.

Another tactic of the prison system is the strict regulations around visiting rights. Under international law, prisoners must be held in the occupied land. This means, Palestinians prisoners should not be taken to prisons inside Israel. Both Abdullah and Adeeb spent their time in prison at Ofer Military Base. While Ofer Military Base is technically inside the West Bank, you need an Israeli Permit to visit it, which is the same for most prisons in Palestine.

A woman attending the conference from the European parliament asked why she was denied permission to visit and tour the prisons and if there was a way around this. The lawyer said that these Palestinians prisoners, such as Abdullah and Adeeb, are considered “security prisoners” and only first degree family members and lawyers are allowed entry to see them. The Red Cross is allowed in to monitor and view the prison conditions, but their reports are not accessible.

As this lawyer said, a democracy is only as good as its prisons.

*Photo by Hamde Abu Rahme of Adeeb Abu Rahme after his release from prison