My first day:
I spent the night at the Lutheran Hostel in the old city of Jerusalem. I woke up at 4:30 to the meuzzin's (probably from Al Aqsa Mosque) roof to watch the sun rise over the Harem al Sharif (the Temple Mount). Pretty amazing.

My first checkpoint:
We left Jerusalem to go to training in Beit Sahour last friday, the 18th. As you appoach the checkpoint the bus stops and everyone gets off. To leave Jerusalem you pass beside a small hill with an IOF (Israeli Occupation Force) tower and some soldiers yelling insults at the Palestinians below. Then you go through a metal turnstile and your on the other side. Get in another service (minibus) or a taxi and your on your way. Coming back to Jerusalem is the real absurdity. Everyone lines up in to lines, one for women and one for men in what look like metal and concrete cattle shoots. You are called forward to go through a metal detector and then scanned by a soldier with a handheld metal detector. When I went through I placed my big backpack on a table to the side, it was never inspected, then went through the metal detector and set it off. I was scanned by the soldier and set off his detector. Neither I nor my bag was searched, nor as far as I could tell was anybodies bag. I can't imagine the security purpose of any of this, no bags were searched. It seemed pretty clearly there just to make life painful for Palestinians. Then you show your passport or if Palestinian ID card and are on your way to another bus or taxi into Jerusalem. When they look at ID's they don't even feed them into a computer or anything, I think the bored soldier has memorized the names and faces of all wanted Palestinians, there was certainly no other check.

My first protest...
The village of Bid'il has the misfortune of being close to where the wall will run. The local villagers asked international and Israeli activists to come with them to protest the building of the wall. The presence of international and Israeli activists is meant to lower the level of violence the IOF uses against the Palestinians, the Palestinians are afraid to attend demonstrations because of IOF violence. We all met in front of the village mosque and began to walk to the fields where the work on the wall had already began. We were met by soldiers and Border Police and told that the area was a closed military zone (I am yet to see or hear of a Palestinian protest that did not take place in a closed military zone, as far as I can tell any time Palestinians protest the area becomes a closed military zone). We were given ten minutes to leave. The Palestinians began chanting in Arabic against the wall and occupation. The border police is an all volunteer force that is reknowned for being violent toward Palestinians. You could see in the way the carried themselves that they were looking forward to beating people. Eventually the IOF border police began to use their batons on demonstrators. Several Palestinians, one Israeli activist, and two members of the ISM were beaten with fists and batons. I was shoved to the ground while backing up as requested by a border policeman and lost some skin on my left hand, it was swollen and bloody but I think it will go away in a couple of weeks. The Palestinians are beaten much worse than Israelis and internationals. If arrested the Palestinians also risk torture, "moderate physical pressure" in Israeli parlance. After the soldiers started firing tear gas at the crowd, sometimes directly at people, the Palestinians asked the internationals to step to the back as the shebab (young men) were going to start throwing stones in response. This went on for a couple of hours.

My second protest
Unfortunately for the second day of protests against the wall in Bil'in the ISM arrived late. The difference was obvious. We were told that as soon as the Palestinians came within range the soldiers started tear gas and rubber bullets at the demonstrators. When we arrived we observed the soldiers pointing us out and warning each other that internationals were now present. No more rubber bullets were fired, now it was just tear gas. The Palestinians asked the internationals to try to walk up and talk to the soldiers. We were met with tear gas fired directly at us and at an Israeli activist who was not with us but sitting about 20 meters from us. Below is the report we put out on this demonstration.

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To view photos of today's demonstration, visit:
gallery.cmaq.net/album43

Bil'in, Palestine - Today, for the second day in a row, the residents
of Bil'in in the western Ramallah area demonstrated to protest the
building of Israel's apartheid wall on their lands.

150 residents, along with Israeli activists and members of the ISM,
marched from the mosque in the center of town towards the construction
site.

Three demolition vehicles were working on the field. They had been
working intensively since yesterday's demonstration and had destroyed
vast amounts of land.

As soon as the march reached the site, soldiers began attacking the
crowd without warning. Sound bombs and tear gas canisters and rubber
coated lead bullets were used to disperse the peaceful crowd.

Some soldiers used guns to fire tear gas canisters directly at
people's bodies, instead of in the air as proper procedure demands.
One Palestinian man was injured in the initial confrontation by a
rubber coated bullet to his leg.

At one point, five members of the ISM, along with a group of
Palestinian men approached the army to attempt to open a dialogue.
The army fired more gas canisters at them.

Many elderly people were badly affected by the gas and had to be
treated by medics.

The soldiers shouted ultimatums at the crowd, telling them to leave
and "go back to Ramallah". Palestinians in the crowd responded with
ultimatums of their own, telling the army they also had five minutes
to leave their lands.

Finally, one officer presented a document to the crowd, indicating
that the whole field where the bulldozers were working was a closed
military zone.

The villagers still refused to leave their land.

The bulldozers carried on working throughout the morning, tearing up
numerous olive trees.

According to the Red Crescent Society, three people were injured in
today's demonstration, including two Palestinians and one Israeli.

The route of the Apartheid wall in the Bil'in area is being determined
by blueprints for a new Israeli settlement, Manura, which is being
built nearby. Manura will be an extension of the Kiryat Sefer
settlement. Both settlements are illegal under international law.

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Hebron
Hebron is a city of about 150,000 people in which there are 5 illegal (the Geneva Conventions outlaw settlements) Israeli settlements in the centre of the city. The 500-600 settlers who live there are reknowned for being violent and racist. These settlers are gaurded by about 2500 soldiers. The settlements are located in the middle of the old city, and the presence has ruined the businesses in the area. The old city used to be a bustling market, now mostly deserted because of settler harassment and the IOF checkpoints which dot it. The Israeli government is planning on building a road for the settlers through a Muslim graveyard which the Palestinians will be prohibited from using. We were asked to attend a protest against this road. Here is the report we wrote on this demonstration and pictures that were taken.

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To view photos from this demonstration, visit:]
gallery.cmaq.net/album44

Palestinians from the city of Hebron joined with international
activists on Tuesday in a march aiming to prevent the building of a
military road which would pave over a Muslim cemetary.

A crowd of about eighty Palestinians chanted and clapped as they
walked in a peaceful demonstration alongside members of the
International Solidarity
Movement. The group displayed their contempt for the construction of
yet another illegal settler road.

This road, set to snake through the cemetary and other areas of the
city, will connect various illegal Israeli settlements in the heart
of Hebron.

Excessive force was used by the soldiers against the Palestinians
and the international activists, including grasping children by
their necks.

Ten border police and twice as many IDF soldiers formed a line to
block the protesters from protecting the graveyard.

After an hour-long standoff between the parties, the march came to a
close. Before leaving, many Palestinians expressed that they would
be back to continue to protest the desecration of their heritage.
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Personally, the saddest part of the demonstration was talking to the soldiers there. Most of them were unable to meet the eyes of the Palestinians. One of them, whom I talked to, admitted that what they were doing was immoral. He claimed to be "just following orders". Apparently Nuremburg didn't really resonate through history as much as people might think. I don't know which I find sadder, the Israeli border police and soldiers who enjoy the occupation and the chance to commit violence against Palestinians, or the ones who know that what they are doing is immoral but do it anyway.

It took me a few days to realize that there actually are good roads in the West Bank. It is just that Palestinians are forbidden to use them.

yours,

Nathan

Nathan can be reached by emailing ISMinChicago (at) aol.com