Welcome to the Soap Factory



The Annexation Wall at Qalqilya at the beginning of the demonstration.


News from Qalqilya


Children and Palestinian flag's


Saturday, December 27, 2003

Hi all,
Yesterday was Boxing Day, of course no one here knew that, but it was Friday, which is the one day of the week they don't work. Added to that on Christmas day there had been a suicide bomber in Tel-Aviv and the army had closed off the whole area. So it was not looking good for getting to Qalqilya with a group of Italians from YaBasta for a demo against the wall. We arranged to meet at Qalandia and found that there were no service taxis going directly to Qalqilya. So we first had to go to Huwara, which is very close to Nablus then to Kif Haris and Al Fundug. Most of the time we were on back roads to avoid the IDF roadblocks.
The road snakes away below us during a break for the ladies to stretch their legs.
These roads are incredible and I'm amazed that the drivers can get along them at all in a long wheelbase taxi. They are far too rough for rally cars to use; the drivers would complain at the severity! The countryside is so beautiful and the small farming villages so picturesque surrounded by ancient olive trees.
After using 4 taxis and walking three times, we eventually arrived at the Qalandia checkpoint. This checkpoint is the only way into the city, which is now sealed up like a bottle by the wall. The soldiers were very suspicious of us, and were not very convinced by our reason for wanting to enter. But eventually they let us pass having got confused by the rapid Italian coming from all sides!
We had a very good evening and were royally entertained, I even played a game of pool on a full-size table. Today was the day of the demo, but other internationals arriving in the morning were turned back at the checkpoint,which was very disappointing after such a long journey.
It was a very large demo, well attended by Palestinians with banners and placards. It was at first peaceful but during the speeches explosions could be heard coming from the direction of the wall.
The sound bombs had not driven the children away and solders soon started to fire rubber bullets and tear gas.
When I went to see what was happening I could see that the soldiers were firing tear gas and sound bombs over the wall at the children who were throwing stones at the medieval-like gate in the wall. Children had fastened Palestinian flags on the gate and stuck them in the wall surrounding it. Now as the tear gas descended and rubber bullets began to fly, the older children started fires with tires against the wall turning the whole place into a scene from hell.
The wall was shortly invisible behind the smoke.














There was a scramble for the teargas cannisters as they spiraled in and many were thrown back over the wall.
Most of the tear gas was fired from rifles and came lobbing over the wall to be pounced on by the older children and thrown back over the wall to great cheers. Unfortunately there was soon a steady stream of medical volunteers carrying stretchers to the ambulances. The UPMRC ambulance alone dealt with 10 casualties including two from rubber bullets.
We eventually set off back to Ramallah, and had quite a hard time at the checkpoint as we left. I had to totally unpack my bag before reluctantly being allowed through, they were not happy with us. The journey back was uneventful except when an army jeep drove straight at our taxi, forcing it to stop. This happened when both vehicles were driving at normal speed for the open road causing us to brake very hard to avoid a collision. The jeep then just looked through our windows at us and drove off?
More demos are planned up until the new year so will keep you informed as it happens,
till then peace and bright moments, Dave.

Human rights


Sunday, December 28, 2003

Today I attended seminars here in Ramallah. The first was given by Randa Siniora, the General Director of the human rights organisation Al-Haq. Her main concern was the continual undermining of international law by the European and American governments by their vetoing of UN resolutions and also their avoidance of their responsibilities under the Hague Convention. Israel as an occupying country is obliged under the Convention not to change laws unless they are for security reasons or for the benefit of the local population. So far the Israelis have imposed more than 3,000 military orders on Gaza and the West Bank. They continue to use emergency military regulations and laws that the British introduced in 1945. Jordan has said that they did not continue with these laws during their rule of the West Bank, and Britain maintains that they were rescinded when they left. Our governments are responsible as signatories of the Hague Convention to see that it is maintained by all signatories. Israel is a signatory. This continued avoidance of responsibility under the Hague Convention and the 4th Geneva Convention Article 1 undermines the legitimacy of Palestinian rights under international law. We were urged to pressurise our governments into taking seriously their responsibility to uphold international law. There was a lot more to the presentation than I have time to elaborate on here, we should all become more aware of international law and how it can help solve this problem.
The second presentation was given by Doctor Mustafa Barghouthi who showed us with the use of maps how since 1948 Palestine has become smaller and smaller. The latest thing of the annexation wall is nothing new and that very similar maps were drawn under the Camp David Treaty, with the same consequences of splitting Palestine into three small unworkable cantons. Some of this excellent presentation can be found in articles at Palestine Monitor

Later in the day we went to talk to refugees living in Jelazone Refugee Camp to hear what they thought about the right of return, etc. Again we were given a good account of why it was still possible for them to return, and how most of their villages are not inhabited but just allowed to become ruins, Gideon Levy wrote about this in his article Twilight zone / Social studies lesson.
Finally we drove to the latest manifestation of the Annexation Wall between Ramallah and Jerusalem. This consisted of three fences; first on the Palestinian side rolls of razor wire, then a chain link fence topped with razor wire followed by a wide swath of empty leveled ground, then the second fence which looked to be wired with sensors and cameras. Beyond that was a two lane military road and then another fence with razor wire. This will eventually cut the Southern West Bank from the Northern West Bank and at the same time put Ramallah and Bethlehem into cages and separate Jerusalem entirely from Palestine.
That's all for now more later; Nablus is having a terrible time again and is under curfew with many occupied houses.
Dave.


Back to the Menu