To: orscpdelegation@lists.riseup.net
From: orscpdelegates@riseup.net
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2004 05:06:58 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Update 5 from Israel & PalestineUpdate 5 from Israel & Palestine
When we left off in our last update we were on our way to Rafah Crossing, the border crossing between Egypt and Gaza. While we were in the Sinai we checked Israel's Ministry of Tourism website to look for official border crossings. On their website they mention Taba and Rafiah as official border crossings from Egypt to Israel (not Gaza) and vise versa. We figured that if we could not get into Gaza, we could at least get back to Israel since their own website lists Rafiah (this is how they spell and pronounce Rafah in Israel) as an official border crossing. We arrived at the border crossing at 9:00am. We proceeded through Egyptian security and customs with no problem. Because the Israeli government opens the Gaza side on their choosing, the Egyptian passport control waited to stamp our passports until they knew the Israeli side was open. The large cement room that everyone waits in is hot, stuffy, and filled with people of all ages and sizes.
About an hour after our arrival Israel opened the border they control. Just for clarification purposes, Israel is occupying this border post, as the entrance technically leads to Gaza, which everyone should know by now is Palestinian territory. Once Israel opened the border, there was a mad rush of people to get to the front. We waited for Egyptian passport control to stamp our passports with a departure from Egypt stamp and got in the huge line of people and luggage. We should mention that a few people approached us during this process because we are obviously Westerners and they wanted to see where we were going and what we up to. One man was named Cali, who is a Palestinian-American and had lived in the US for six years. His showed us his Tennessee driverís license and told us that his family lives in Gaza city. He told us that Americans are wonderful and helpful people ñ essentially everything that we would say about Palestinians. He said he would help us to the end of the border crossing process to make sure we got to the other side okay, because Americans would do the same for him. We were happy to hear this.
We need to explain the process of crossing the border as we learned it. After a person gets their passport stamped by Egypt and waits in line (this in itself can take days if Israel chooses not to open the other side of the border), you proceed to get crammed onto a bus that travels 50 meters to wait for the Israeli signal, which is out of sight because of buildings that block the view. After the first two buses left, Cali negotiated on our behalf and managed to get us pushed to the front of the line (10:30am at this point). We were told that a "special" bus would come to pick us up because we are Americans. At this point we had no idea if we were on our way to Gaza or Israel. We waited here until 3:00pm (Israel closes their side at 4:00pm). The heat in this place is intense. Water is a rare commodity as is food. We had a couple bottles of water with us, but had not eaten all day. We started to get really nervous as most people we talked to had been there for days. Technically we had departed from Egypt as they stamped our passport, but we werenít in Israel. We were stuck at the border crossing (which is apparently country-less). The possibility of us staying in this hell hole for an indefinite amount of time was becoming a quick and scary reality. We called the embassy, at which point our phone decided to die. Thankfully we were able to borrow Cali's phone and guess what the embassy said? "We are closed, this is a matter of national security between Israel and Egypt and we can't help." Thanks American Embassy!
The third bus showed up at 3:30pm and again everyone made a mad dash, including us, who had given up on any idea of a "special" bus. The bus was packed with people (standing, sitting on each other, etc.) of all ages screaming and crying. The luggage that is supposed to be stored on the bottom of the bus was overflowing and even after they attempted to close the doors, bags were hanging out just barely attached to the bus. People were also giving their luggage to people they did or didn't know in hope of it arriving on the next bus. A man named Samir was sitting next to us, dripping with sweat. He looked at us and said, "Now you see our suffering." The bus moved about 30 meters and stopped, where we could now see the second bus waiting in front of us. We knew there was no chance our bus would actually make it through the border as the second was still waiting for Israel's okay. We really can't emphasize enough the waiting, the heat, the frustration and stress of every single person.
Siouxzie stayed with the bags on the bus while Trent went outside to talk to others who had gotten off the bus to sit in a small amount of shade. Trent talked to Samir, who spoke great English. He told us that the second and third buses of people would be spending the night in the no-man's land, because people were afraid that if they went back to the Egyptian side to sleep, they would not make it on the bus the next day. Samir has traveled widely. He is a telecommunications engineer who had just come from Geneva where he headed the Palestinian delegation to meet Israeli counterparts at a telecommunications conference. He remarked on the beauty of Geneva and the irony of now being back in what he called a "shit hole." He also commented on how one day you can be in a free country, being an important person and the next day...he just laughed.
At this point we decided to walk back to the Egyptian side, hoping to travel around the entire Sinai to enter Israel via Taba crossing. After speaking to the Egyptian passport control followed by the police (with the help of Cali), they decided to move us onto the second bus. Cali looked completely beaten down, his eyes were rolling back in his head, and his clothes were soaked with sweat. He looked at us and said, "We need the peace bad. We need the peace real bad!" We walked up to the second bus and finally realized what this Israeli signal is all about. It is a stop and go light; the bus sits there until it turns green. We also realized there is no direct communication between the Egyptians and Israelis. The Egyptians had to shout to the other side to tell them that Americans were there. They can not walk to the other side or else they will get shot. Then it turned 4:00pm and the second bus had to turn back (us included). On the walk back, the Egyptians threw us on a VIP service van with six other people who had dual citizenship with Western nations. The VIP van was a last attempt by the Egyptians to get some people through. The light thankfully turned green and we entered Israeli border control. We were separated from others on the van as they went to Gaza. They intensely interrogated us and wondered what we were doing there. We informed them of their own Ministry of Tourism website.
After they chopped our visa from three months to one week, they threw us on a bus with the very same people that interrogated us and the rest of the soldiers that work there (remember their work day was supposed to end at 4pm). This is when things get weird. The way they took us out of Rafah was on the notorious Philadelphi route that the military uses to invade Rafah from. This is another way we saw our sister city. The destruction from the dirt corridor to Rafah is immense. Football field lengths of flattened no-man's land. We imagined the houses that were there at one time, and saw the result of home demolitions. Not even foundations remained of houses in some areas and after looking at a map later we realized that we must have passed the now non-existent Gaza Airport. All that remains in this ever-increasing "buffer zone" was dirt, sand, and a lone palm tree here and there. It is absolutely disgusting what we saw and what is happening to Rafah. Another disturbing irony is that the TV show that was playing for the soldiers on the bus was some sort of military comedy. The indoctrination never ends. After the half our drive, they dropped us off in Ashkelon (6:30pm), where Trent got food poisoning, again.
Peace, Salaam, Shalom
Siouxzie & Trent