12/28/03In "The Price of Ignorance" (Ha'aretz), Gideon Levy raises a disturbing question: "would Shehad Hanani have carried out his killing operation at Geha Junction if he had grown up in humane conditions and if his relative had not been assassinated?" He notes that while "Israel counted 81 days of quiet without terrorist attacks," there was no quiet in the occupied territories, "dozens of Palestinians were killed," including "three children in Balata refugee camp, near Nablus." As it happens, an activist from here in Madison was on the scene during the last of the "days of quiet." She witnessed the shooting of one of the three children in Balata and was in the neighborhood when Hanani's relative was executed on a Nablus rooftop. The report she filed on December 19 includes accounts of these events and others, including her own beating at the hands of the IDF.
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2003 10:51:44 -0800 (PST)
From: Kelly Bornshlegel
Subject: Back to HellHi all,
Much has happened in the last week - I apologize in advance for the long email.
As an international in Palestine with all of my privileges, and as I have been honored to meet so many amazing and strong people during my stay, I have never felt I have the right to label the situation as hell. But it is. During a month of relative calm, Palestinians in Nablus were living lives that somewhat resembled normal (as normal as possible under occupation). Now the city is once again under siege.
Without A Mother
On Monday I attended the mourning of a woman named Kamleh Mohamed Asa'd Sawalha, a shahida from Asira. According to custom, after someone dies there are three days of visitations to the family, one for women and one for men. During this time people from the community visit for 10-20 minutes, drink bitter coffee and pay their respects.
The women's mourning took place in Kamleh's home. After entering the home and taking our seats, a woman from the family recognized me and took me to another room. She wanted to show me Kamleh's children. Both the 7 month-old and the one and a half year-old babies lay sleeping, almost unaware of the grief filling the crowded house around them. Then Kamleh's mother, sister-in-law and grandmother cried as they told me about Kamleh's last day. With anger another sister entered the room demanding to know why I was there. She cried as she pointed to the children, asking what I was going to do to stop Bush, to stop Sharon, to somehow avenge the killing of her beloved sister. I couldn't do anything but hold the hand of the baby, hearing their pain, as he woke up crying.
Kamleh was a 20 year-old student, wife and mother of two who was two months pregnant with her third child. She was a student of law at Al-Najah University in Nablus, just finishing a break she took to nurse her baby. On Saturday she was planning to travel to meet her husband who works in Ramallah. She fed her baby twice before leaving. Soon after getting into the taxi she stopped and went back to feed the baby one more time. As she finally left she told her mother to take care of her children, saying "You never know what could happen to me." Her mother said it was almost as if Kamleh knew she was going to die.
To get anywhere from Asira the Palestinians are forced to take a long and dangerous route. Although 15 minutes to Nablus by foot, the village is completely isolated and cut off from any passage (school, work, medical, etc.). The taxi set off at 2:30 a.m., using a route through the olive trees to avoid a checkpoint that is always closed. The driver drove through the fields very quickly, as all taxis are forced to do to avoid snipers. Suddenly, two shots were heard. No one in the car thought they hit anyone, but the driver was hurt by a piece of glass and stopped. The army came in a jeep and unloaded everyone to take their I.D.'s. Kamleh was still in the backseat, holding her older baby in her lap. The soldiers began shouting at her, threatening her before they approached the jeep. Everyone assumed she was just frightened. When the soldiers reached the jeep they realized that Kamleh was dead, still with her children in her lap and two bullets lodged in her head and heart.
The other passengers of the car were lucky ñ the bullets were meant for the driver but he was driving so fast that they hit Kamleh, who was sitting in the seat behind him. The funeral procession in Asira happened that same day, with all of the village participating. Even people who didn't know Kamleh said they were in grieving from the tragedy. The army has since then come out with two justifications for the murder: first, that they fired warning shots at the car (which they didn't) and then later, that they had secret information that Kamleh was planning a suicide bomb in Tel Aviv. These lies, the family told me, were as if they were killing Kamleh again.
Nablus
Yesterday early morning, approximately 2:30, soldiers entered the old city of Nablus with a battalion of tanks, APC's and jeeps. They occupied a home next door to where I was sleeping and forced the family (a woman and two children) to a small room and locked the door. Snipers took up assassination positions around the casbah. Twenty-year old Mesoud Tawya, unaware of the soldiers, was beginning his day early, as he always does, baking bread in his bakery. He was shot directly and killed. Israeli forces later claimed his was shot while trying to plant a bomb. Every eyewitness said he was in his shop baking bread.
During the night, shots and tank fire were heard throughout the old city. No one could sleep. Everyone stayed away from the windows (to avoid snipers) and wondered what was happening. The IOF would not allow any ambulances or press into the area. When they pulled out at 7:00 in the morning everyone rushed to the sounds of women screaming. All of the army - the tens and twenties of jeeps, APCís and tanks - invaded solely to assassinate three resistance fighters. The men were on the roof of a building, trapped and alone. Soldiers were on the streets surrounding them, and Special Forces shot at them from a roof above. The men's bodies and faces were mangled, torn and bullet-ridden. Women in a house opposite the roof were screaming in grief, having watched the entire scene from their windows.
Balata
As I have written earlier, Balata has been under constant attack for months lately. The camp has been cut off from the rest of the city by massive IOF roadblocks made of rocks and garbage. Almost every day jeeps drive into camp and begin shooting down the road. Three weeks ago Palestinians and internationals removed one roadblock, pulling the large rocks down with ropes. One stone was too heavy for the thirty people participating to pull down, so we stopped a random car and attached a rope to it to move the rock. The driver of the car was later arrested for helping.
For four days Balata has been under invasion. The army removed one of the roadblocks to make military access easier, but put two tanks and a jeep in its place. No one is allowed in and out of the camp. Jeeps patrol the camp enforcing curfew by shooting at civilians on the street. There has been no school, no work and all shops are forcefully closed. Special Forces are moving house to house, often exploding holes in the walls of homes to make moving easier. They are using human shields when they enter houses, using Palestinians as young as 12 years old. No one has been safe.
Earlier in the invasion shebab were attempting to resist by throwing stones at the jeeps. Three days ago I was standing with some of the shebab as two jeeps stood 200 meters down the road, throwing sound grenades and tear gas randomly. Suddenly one jeep drove down the road towards us quickly. The shebab quickly ran down an alleyway to get off of the main road. As the jeep passed, it shot twice down the alleyway. A fifteen year-old boy was shot directly in the head. As we carried him to the ambulance the second jeep threw a sound grenade at the ambulance and attempted to make us leave. We had to return to pick up the boys brains that were still on the street. He was unarmed, not posing any threat to the soldiers - simply doing the little that he could to resist by throwing stones. He is now brain dead, his body being kept alive by machines in the hospital.
I spend my time walking on the streets with medical volunteers, escorting people, visiting occupied houses and getting people the food and medicine that they need. Two days ago I was walking down the street to meet a friend that had just arrived, and a soldier jumped out of his jeep and tried to grab me. He didn't ask me to come with him, only grabbed my jacket and started pulling me into the jeep. I sat on the ground, attempting to ask him what he wanted and why he was grabbing me. He responded by hitting me with the butt of his gun and another three soldiers came to help him. I lay on the ground and tried to resist being grabbed. The soldiers brutally kicked and dragged me across the pavement towards a jeep, pulling my shirt up, and making my head hit the ground. I again attempted to peacefully resist as they tried to pull me into the jeep. The soldiers responded with force, choking me with an M-16 and hitting me all over my body with another. I couldn't breathe and was in much pain and kept telling them to let me go, that I needed a doctor. They eventually dragged me into the jeep, where I was forced to lay on the floor where they continued to kick me all over my body. They then took me to an occupied house where two Palestinian men where being held, blindfolded and handcuffed. I was too weak to walk and still had trouble breathing, so they had to carry me. I was later taken to Huwarra checkpoint outside of Nablus where I, and two of my friends who came with me, were detained for two hours as the police and DCO decided what to do with us. Eventually we were allowed back into Nablus as they had nothing to charge us with, and our passports were in Nablus.
This morning the soldiers left Balata, only to return with even more military than before at 2:00 p.m. Soldiers are on every street, down every alleyway and in many homes. They have occupied both a school and a mosque. Many people have been arrested - they were rounding up many men and boys from homes and from the street. At one house they arrested an eleven year old boy. No one knows when they will leave or what they will do. Until then, everyone waits, imprisoned inside their homes, waiting for what happens next...
Kelly
For another report of the attack on Kelly, see the Palestine Monitor