To: orscpdelegation@lists.riseup.net
From: orscpdelegates@riseup.net
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2004 13:01:59 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Update 4 from Israel & PalestineUpdate 4 from Israel & Palestine
We made it to Rafah! However, this is not the Rafah that we are creating a sister city with. We traveled all the way around the Sinai Peninsula, to see the other side of Rafah ñ Egyptian Rafah. When Israel withdrew from the Sinai in 1982, with the finalization of the Camp David Accords and the reestablishment of the international border, part of Rafah and the Canada Refugee Camp fell on the Egyptian side of the border. Since then, Rafah has been split between Gaza and Egypt, separating families and friends from each another, despite all of them being Palestinian.
In the early 1970s, many Palestinians were left homeless as a result of Ariel Sharon's (then Israel's Defense Minister) "Iron Fist" campaign that included the demolition of homes to create wider roads throughout the Gaza Strip. The destruction of these homes was justified by the all-embracing rhetoric of "security." These wider roads allow easy access for occupation forces to maneuver and destroy any real Palestinian livelihood.
In 1971, while Israel occupied the Sinai, the Canada Refugee Camp was created as a relocation camp for the homeless families, due to the Iron Fist operation. Throughout the 1990s, this area of Egyptian Rafah was actually relocated back into Gaza with the help of the Canadian, Kuwaiti, Palestinian, Egyptian, and Israeli governments, along with the monitoring and administering of UNRWA. These families were relocated into the Tel al-Sultan area of Rafah, Gaza. The people of Rafah, Gaza still refer to this area in Tel al-Sultan as Canada Camp, yet Israel refuses to acknowledge this popular name as it would entitle the people to certain rights under refugee status.
Now as Prime Minister of Israel, Sharon continues what he does best. The current destruction of Rafah is just the most recent incarnation of Sharon's tactics. If you have been following the recent destruction of Rafah you already know that Tel al-Sultan has been one of the hardest hit areas in Sharon's "Operation Rainbow." That brings us to one of the larger ironies; eighteen years of international coordination between six major parties, including the Israeli government, have been severely crippled in Sharon's latest incursion.
Although the Canada Refugee Camp was relocated back into Gaza, part of the Palestinian city of Rafah still remains in Egypt. We took a taxi from al-Arish to Egyptian Rafah. Our taxi driver spoke no English, and our Arabic is less than minimal (that is, less than eshway). However, we managed to communicate in our desire to see the other side of our sister city. To our luck, he managed to understand why we were there and what we wanted to see. All of us knew the incredible risk we were taking as this area is very suspicious of outsiders. In the past, locals suspected of activism have been detained, beaten, and deported without trial or word to their families. Our magnificent driver was courageous and took us all along the border, weaving through all the neighborhoods just so we could see and photograph the wall between Egypt and Rafah. He even stopped the car and sometimes we all got out of the car to survey the wall and sniper towers. At one point, we were less than five meters away from the steel barrier and could have practically touched the wall, if it werenít for the lone Egyptian soldier. It was a surreal feeling seeing Rafah, Gaza ñ our sister city, off in the distance and recognizing what we have seen in so many previous photographs (the sniper towers, the steel wall, the houses that look like Swiss cheese ñ riddled with bullet holes). After a tour of the town, our driver took us to Rafah Crossing so that we could attempt to enter Gaza. At this point in our travels it was only 9:00am and the story gets worse from here. To be continuedÖ
Peace, Salaam, Shalom
Trent & Siouxzie