Qalqilya\nAug. 2, 2003\n\nAt 3:00 last Friday morning, I was awakened by Kevin,\na member of the ISM Qalqilya action group, and a local\nphotojournalist I'll call Ragheb, and told that the\nIsraeli army had again entered Qalqilya. Four of us\nwent out to see what was happening. After the\nshocking attack on a house earlier in the week, we\nfelt that it was important that we be present, albeit\nat a distance, visible, and out of the line of fire,\nin the hope that international witnesses might inhibit\nthe Israeli army from their worst excesses.\n\nWe proceeded to the main street, and spoke to a few\npeople who were out. An old man said to me, \"Why do\nyou want to drink from that cup?\" Others called out,\n\"Thank you for what you're doing.\" Some young men\ntold us that the soldiers had been firing into the\nair.\n\nA jeep and an armored personnel carrier (APC) entered\nthe road from a side street. Both were completely\nenclosed, with tiny reinforced windows, so that it was\nimpossible to see the human beings inside. The APC\nstayed at a distance, and the jeep stopped with its\nbright lights on us for a long time. Then they sped\naway.\n\nWe continued down the street in an attempt to find the\nhouse(s) being raided. The jeep and APC returned, and\nstopped a block away. We're pretty sure we were\nvisible to the jeep. A few shots were fired. A\nvolley of machine gun fire followed, and in the dark\nwe couldn't tell if the gunfire was directed at us, at\nthe buildings opposite the vehicles, or in the air. \nI said, \"This is how Brian Avery got shot.\" We got\nout of sight of the army, and returned to our house. \nWe continued to hear sporadic gunfire as the two\nvehicles sped up and down the street. On Friday\nevening, we all had a long talk about going out at\nnight when the army is in town, and decided that we\nwould only consider going out if we had specific\ninformation about where the army was and what they\nwere doing. Marwan, our local coordinator, said that\nthere's nothing we can do if the army has come to\narrest someone, but if they're planning to demolish a\nhouse, we might be of use.\n\nOn Friday afternoon we visited two of the houses that\nwere raided. In the first, the wanted man was not\npresent, and we saw the usual scenes of gratuitous\ndestruction, although the house was not riddled with\nbullets like the one we saw previously. As usually\nhappens in these situations, there were children in\nthe family who were eager to take us from room to room\nto show us the damage and to bring us spent shell\ncasings. The family had \"Peace Now\" stickers in\nalmost every room, and the soldiers had tried to rip\none of the stickers off the wall.\n\nThe adults in the family told us that a large number\nof jeeps and soldiers had shown up, and that the\nentire family had been made to stand outside for\nhours. Apparently, the one jeep and one APC we saw\nshooting up downtown were distractions designed to\nkeep folks scared and in their houses. I wonder if\nthe soldiers were wearing white sheets.\n\nAt a second house that was raided we were invited to\nstay and drink tea and coffee. Their son was taken,\nand they didn't know where. We gave them the number\nfor HaMoked, an Israeli human rights organization that\ntracks Palestinian detainees.\n\nIn the news in the United States, we hear about the\nthree-month cease fire. It seems to be that the\nPalestinians are the only ones holding their fire.\n\nI got a couple of hours of sleep after we returned\nfrom our failed intervention, and then headed out for\na day in the villages south of Qalqilya with Samir, of\nthe State Information Service (sort of a statistics\nand publishing office) and Courtney, Lysander and Lisa\nfrom our action group. Samir is from Habla, a village\nimmediately south of Qalqilya. His family came there\nfrom Arabia in the 17th century, and was the first\nfamily in Habla. He can name every other family in\nthe village, and where they came from (usually other\nplaces in Palestine).\n\nWe needed to walk through another farmers' gate - it's\nnow had hurricane fencing installed, so that one can\nno longer crawl through it. We waited until an APC\ndrove away, then tried to open it, but couldn't figure\nout the mechanism. We stepped back to figure out what\nto do, when a little boy on a bicycle flipped open the\ngate. We ran across the 100 meters of empty space to\nthe Israeli army's gate on the road into the village\nof Habla. Samir was waiting for us there.\n\nSamir took us around the nurseries there, and a\nnursery owner told us the now-familiar story of the\nruin of his once thriving business. We had tea and\ngrapes with Musa, a cousin of Marwan, our local\ncoordinator. He told us how Israeli soldiers had come\nto him while he was working and demanded to see a\npermit to be working the land.even though he owns that\nland himself.\n\nThe construction site of the \"security fence\" wound\naround this area of nurseries, orchards, and farms,\ncutting it off from Habla and from Qalqilya. At one\npoint, we walked right up to the Green Line (the\nborder between Israel and Jordan between 1949 and\n1967), and crossed over it. The fence doesn't\nseparate Israel from the West Bank at all; it annexes\nWest Bank land to Israel. A farmer with a tomato field\njust over the Green Line into the West Bank showed us\nhow his crop had been ruined when Israeli settlers\nreleased pigs into his field two weeks earlier.\n\nSamir brought us to a spot where a front loader and a\nnumber of workers on foot were putting up the fence at\nbreakneck speed. He explained that this was his land,\nnow all consumed by the fence. The workers on foot\nwere Palestinian.work is so hard to come by for\nPalestinians that they will take jobs building their\nown prison. Samir is a gentlemanly and businesslike\nman, but when we were on his ruined land, he seethed. \nWe took photos of his irrigation pipes, dug up and\ntossed aside by the front loader.\n\nRagheb took a photo of the Jewish Israeli operator of\nthe front loader, and armed security showed up and got\nright up in his face, screaming at him in Hebrew and\ndemanding his camera. He didn't give it up, and they\ndidn't lay a hand on him.perhaps because Courtney,\nLysander, Lisa and I were there.\n\nWe went to look at a centuries-old mosque in Habla. \nThe security fence was just feet away from the mosque,\nwith an Israeli settlement across the road. Samir\nexplained that this particular portion of the fence\nhad been built in 1996, four years before the\nbeginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada.\n\nWe spent midday at Ras Tira, a hilltop village across\nthe ravine from the sprawling Israeli settlement of\nAlfe Menashe. Opened in 1982 and expanding\nconstantly, Alfe Menashe now has 40,000 inhabitants\nand sits on top of the region's main aquifers (one\nJewish Israeli West Bank settler is allotted twenty\ntimes as much water as one West Bank Palestinian\nresident). At the bottom of the ravine, Israeli\nsoldiers hold military exercise, and when villagers\nattempt to approach their olive trees further down the\nslope, soldiers shoot at them.\n\nRas Tira is one of several villages, with a combined\npopulation of 1000, being fenced in with Alfe Menashe\nand cut off from any other West Bank communities. \nThey have been given until 2005 to accept Israeli ID\ncards or leave the village. Many of them have ID\ncards now that list a place other than Ras Tira as\ntheir home. I doubt those people will be given the\noption of Israeli ID.\n\nRas Tira has already been erased from Israeli\ngovernment databases.\n\nWe stopped at a giant road block next to the\nIsraeli-only highway that cuts through Habla on the\nway to Alfe Menashe. The only way to pass from one\nside of Habla to the other is on foot. I stood at the\nside of the road for a long time, looking at the faces\nof the drivers passing by, trying to will them into\nrealizing that everything they have is at the direct\nexpense of someone else.\n\nWe went to Samir's home for a sumptuous lunch. He and\nhis wife both work in Qalqilya, and keep an apartment\nthere because the passage to and from Habla is too\ndifficult to do every day. Habla is a few hundred\nyards from Qalqilya.\n\nWhen we got back to the gate into Qalqilya, it was\nlocked (no army around), and lots of people were\nmilling around on the Habla side. Then a boy-he must\nhave been about 10-opened the gate, and all of us,\nmen, women, kids on bikes, someone on a horse, rushed\nthrough before soldiers showed up. The kid seemed\ndelighted when each of us stopped to thank him.\n\nOn Saturday, we were invited to the end-of-summer-camp\npresentation of the Palestine Red Crescent Society. \nOne of the skits was about an ambulance stopped at a\nroadblock as the patient dies. The little kids who\nplayed the mean Israeli checkpoint soldiers were\nintense.\n\nOn Saturday night, Basem, an ISM volunteer, invited\nthe men among us to celebrate his having passed the\ntawjihi, the extremely rigorous end-of-twelfth-grade\ncomprehensive set of exams. The party was in what\nlooked exactly like a Brooklyn wedding palace, and was\nabsolutely packed with deliriously happy young men\ndancing to traditional Arab music. At one point, they\nbegan chanting as they danced \"kus uchtak yaa Sharon\"\n(fuck you, Sharon). They were thrilled when we joined\nin. After the party, we went for a midnight swim at\none of Qalqilya's 2 pools-men only, of course. \n\nOn Monday, while four from the Qalqilya action group\n(including Dena and Eric from JAtO) were participating\nin the \"break the gate\" action in Annin, outside\nJenin, that got international attention, another four\nof us (including me and Ryan from JAtO) met up with\nDavid and Nirit from JAtO, other internationals from\nISM, Boston to Palestine, and others, and activists\nform Jayyous in another delivery of supplies to the\nBedouin family trapped outside the Jayyous fence. The\narmy stayed away, realizing, I think, that they had\nprovided the media with unfavorable photo ops the week\nbefore. The delivery went off successfully, but it\nwas incredibly sad to see an old woman from the family\nstanding at this enormous fence, waiting for handouts.\n She allowed the media to interview her and photograph\nher, and while she was talking to them I saw that she\nwas crying. In the attached photo, she's on the\nright. A man and boy from the family are loading up a\ndonkey with the supplies thrown down to a Jayyous\nactivist. All three entered the no man's land between\nthe razor wire and the fence for the purpose of the\ndelivery. I don't know the names of anyone in the\nBedouin family. I couldn't speak to them. I was\nbehind the razor wire barrier with everyone else.\n\nAgain, the land \"inside\" the fence in this picture is\nin the West Bank. The land \"outside\" the fence is\nalso in the West Bank. This is not a border fence\nbetween Israel and the territory it's occupied for 36\nyears. Those of us opposed to the fence believe it\nhas a two-fold purpose: incorporate valuable land and\nwater resources outside the fence into Israel,\ndecreasing the resources available to (and therefore\nthe viability of) a future Palestinian state, and to\npursue a policy of ethnic cleansing of areas inside\nthe fence, as Palestinians, deprived of income, are\nforced to leave. The more Palestinians leave, and the\nmore Israeli Jews arrive as settlements are expanded,\nthe more occupation becomes annexation.\n\nOn Wednesday, international activists arrived in\nQalqilya from Ramallah, Jenin, Tulkarm, Jerusalem,\nNablus, Jayyous, and elsewhere to participate in the\nQalqilya face of the week's Wall actions. None were\nallowed through the checkpoint. Some snuck through\nthe checkpoint when soldiers were otherwise occupied. \nSome crawled under a farmers' gate in the fence. Some\nsnuck through another gate. Some stayed overnight in\na nearby village after failing to get in (and nearly\ngetting arrested), and succeeded upon trying again\nearly in the morning. And some were unable to enter\nat all. Ady (JAtO) and Tim from our action group were\nalso able, with help from arrangements Marwan made and\naccompaniment from Ragheb, to get 8 big helium tanks\n(!) into town.\n\nThursday was the big day - the payoff after\napproximately one million planning meetings with\neveryone in Qalqilya from the mayor on down, and with\neach other, after creating a giant banner (\"No\napartheid wall\" in English, Hebrew and Arabic)\ndesigned to fly 15 meters above the ground, after\nfilling countless balloons with oil paint to fling at\nthe wall (and then discovering that oil paint corrodes\nlatex-oops), and after browbeating the press from Tel\nAviv to Toronto (they usually wanted to know if there\nwas going to be bloodshed). We marched from the\nmunicipality in the center of town-50 internationals,\nand Qalqilyans from the Prisoners' Club, local\ngovernment, the PFLP, the Peasants' Union, and many\nothers-to the point at which the wall meets the fence,\njoined by a military gate and a sniper tower. It was\na beautiful site as activists flung paint balloons at\nthe hated wall, and covered its surface (the lower\nhalf, at least) with messages of liberation. We were\nmet by soldiers in jeeps who had their guns at the\nready, but when they saw that the line of\ninternationals facing them was neither advancing on\nthem nor heeding their orders to disperse, they chose\nrestraint. It's entirely possible that restraint was\na policy insisted on from above, considering that the\nphoto of soldiers teargassing activists in Annin on\nMonday went all over the world.\n\nThe giant banner flew only briefly before the balloons\npopped, but long enough for some good photos. It will\nnow hang from Ash-Sharqa Girls' School next to the\nWall, a school that has been teargassed in the past by\nthe Israeli army while the students were present.\n\nThere was a fair-sized crowd of Israeli activists from\nGush Shalom and other groups outside the military\ngate. They got short notice from us about the demo,\nbut filled a bus for their companion demo nonetheless.\n We ended with Noura, Palestinian-American from ISM,\ndelivering a message of peace to them (which was\npermitted after a lot of wrangling with the soldiers0.\n\nA lot of the Qalqilyans I've spoken with are very\npleased about the demonstration, although some had\nhoped for a larger turnout of locals. I think that,\nnow that we've proven ourselves, we'll have a bigger\nturnout next time.\n\nYesterday (Friday) activists in Tulkarm succeeded in\nremoving the razor wire in front of a gate there, but\nwere unable to tear down the gate before the Israeli\narmy opened fire with rubber bullets. There were a\nnumber of injuries among activists, but none serious. \nI stayed in Qalqilya, holding down the fort as it\nwere. I joined the Prisoners' Club at the Qalqilya\nZoo (the only zoo in the West Bank) for a party for\nthe children of prisoners, and in the evening, after\nthe rest of the group returned from Tulkarm, we\nparticipated in another loud, spirited, multi-party\nmarch through town in support of prisoners. It seems\nthat yesterday prisoners in Ashkelon Prison were tear\ngassed while locked in their cells, resulting in 100\ninjuries, 9 serious. The president of the Prisoners'\nClub named for me the 3 prisons in which he was tear\ngassed while locked in his cell.\n\nToday, Saturday, we'll be talking about our work in\nthe surrounding villages. I may be moving to nearby\nJayyous, in which case my telephone service will be\nspotty (but not nonexistent). I'm not sure about\nemail access there...I'll check it out when I arrive\n(assuming the move happens).\n\nThat's all for now.\n\n--Steve Quester