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News from Nablus
Don't give me fish.
Friday, December 12, 2003.
Don't give me fish, teach me to fish: let me try to put this Chinese
saying into a Palestinian context with a story! Last year during November
and December Israeli tanks set up a check point at the top of Amman Road
closing the major junction there. This was a daily occurrence during the
two months of my stay and according to the whim of the particular tank
commander, it could be calm or cataclysmic.
One commander would arrive at 7:00am and announce his arrival by firing the tank's main armament at the Makatah across the valley from the check point.
I was usually up by this time but as I was sleeping near the Makatah it
made certain that I and everyone else in the area was awake. The municipality dumped a lot of sand at the junction to try and prevent damage to the road but as these tanks weigh 60 tons everything eventually got wrecked. Some days the tank would just go berserk and knock down trees, telegraph poles, street lights etc. Eventually nothing was left intact.
Now the municipality has repaired the road, constructed traffic islands, repaired the pavements, and the foundations for street lights have been put in. But there is nothing to prevent the army coming in and destroying everything again. The money for this reconstruction is coming from Europe. One of my Palestinian friends was saying there is no money coming in for rebuilding the industrial and business sector of Nablus, and although the repairing of roads created some jobs which put some money into the community, most people had no jobs.
Later in the day I visited another businessman and he was telling
me that before the intifada a retired English businessman had come to
Nablus to help him restructure his business in a proper way. So what I was
thinking is this: there must be lots of successful businessmen who have
retired out there who might like to help their fellow man by coming to
Palestine and giving advice within their own field. I don't see that the
Israelis could stop them coming here if they came officially. They would be
bringing a lifetime of experience and also useful contacts within their own
business sector. There are plenty of businesses here that would have the
potential to produce and export goods, all they need is some advice on
modern practices. So if you know anyone who could fit this description or have any ideas of how to look for and approach these sort of people, let me
know. Whatever happens politically, people will have to rebuild all sectors
of the country and the Palestinians are already thinking and working on this.
(I would not usually have anything to do with the business world
but I can not see how the Palestinians can get out of this mess without
some thing like this. They are very much traders and businessmen and are
going to go down this road anyway so we might as well help them. ?)
All for now peace and bright moments, Dave
Closed off.
Saturday, December 13, 2003.
Hi all,
Not sure how long I'm going to be able to type for; there was a long burst
of gunfire from outside just now but it does not seem to be the army!
Yesterday was very eventful. It started quite early in the morning with a
helicopter flying in the vicinity. This turned out to be the IDF evacuating
wounded settlers. Ten Hasidic Jews had defied military orders and circumvented a military roadblock yesterday to enter Joseph's Tomb between Balata and Nablus. A Palestinian gunman opened fire at them as they left the site wounding seven, two are said to be in a critical condition. Every one in the camp was expecting reprisals and when the army turned up and started throwing sound bombs last night just after dark it looked as if it had started, but after making their presence known rather noisily they left.
This morning I had intended to go to Ramallah but Nablus is closed off today and everyone was turned back at the check points. The IDF opened fire at a Palestinian taxi at one of the roadblocks killing a woman passenger. Friends at the UPMRC ambulance said that she was hit by two bullets and died immediately . Kamleh Sawalha was 21 and had been traveling with another seven passengers from the village of Asirah ash Shamaliyah on their way to Nablus. No warnings were given before the shooting.
Yesterday I also arranged to try and teach spoken English at an orphanage
and a community center. Never having done anything like this before I'm
quite nervous! Any tips?
One other unfortunate occurrence was that the ISM computer was stolen
yesterday from the office. This will cause great problems as there is no
money to buy another, plus all the hassle of how it happened.
All for now, peace and bright moments, Dave
