Marie's Palestine Journal

Marie Campbell is a retired University of Victoria professor who left on December 12, 2002 to spend a month in Palestine doing observational work with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Observers from Europe and North America act not only as witnesses, but also provide a measure of protection and emotional support to Palestinians.

Donations to support Marie's volunteer efforts and the ongoing work of the Victoria Peace Coalition can be mailed to Box 8307, Victoria BC, V8W 3R9, Canada. Please make your cheque payable to the "Victoria Peace Centre", and indicate it is for the Coalition. A tax receipt cannot be issued for your donation.

Tel Aviv - January 15, 2003

I got out of Jerusalem by bus and back to the home of my benefactors, Danny and Raquel Tadmorr (who deserve to be mentioned in my dispatches for their wonderful support) in Tel Aviv. I am now going to enjoy a bath and change into the clothes that I left in their house while I was in Palestine.

I still have work to do before I leave here tonight. I forget whether or how much of the story of the "Jayyous woman detained" I have told you. My ISM group decided that we had to try hard to get this event publicized and responded to by Israelis. We felt that we needed to respond to the anguish that the villagers felt about having this young mother taken away from her family and especially from her nursing baby without any sort of "charge" against her.

The villagers saw it as the "raising of the bar", as far as harassment goes, and they thought that once the army starts to take women, they will continue. So I have been working in Jerusalem to find a feminist or peace group to take up the cause - just a simple request, to circulate my statement about the problem and ask Israelis to call the people's names we are putting at the bottom the statement, names of government and military leaders.

I have been talking to Bat Shalom, over the past few days, and to several feminist members of the Kenesset, known to be supportive of the cause of peace, and to Betselem, a human rights group. All find that our idea for action on this issue, while not a bad one, is not exactly in their mandate. I still have to contact, Gush Shalom. I hate so much to leave here without ensuring that the thing gets into the hands of someone who will carry it forward. Wish me luck on this.

I am bringing home three newspapers that I picked up in Jerusalem today. It's interesting to see three different versions of events. I see a new undertaking emerging for Marie, the Sociologist of Knowledge. Who would like to join me in reading Canadian newspapers, and analyzing and responding to the Middle-East stories that appear? In discussion with a Palestinian professor (Rita Giocamen) from Beirzet University in Romallah (Monday of this week), this emerged as one of the possible ways to influence Canadian public opinion, and one that I might be able to carry out with the help of other interested people.

We talked about other avenues of continued support for the cause of Palestinian-Israeli peace, which I will speak about when I come home. I am looking forward to coming home and seeing all my friends.

Marie

Victoria - January 14, 2003: MEDIA ADVISORY

Marie Campbell, a retired University of Victoria professor, who has spent the last month in the Occupied Territories of Palestine, is arriving home on January 16. Marie attended a training session for international observers along with fellow Canadian and peace activist, Jaggi Singh. After receiving the training in nonviolence, the two Canadians received different assignments by the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Marie was assigned to the Qalqilya area, where the so-called security fence, known by human rights observers as the "apartheid wall", is destroying 72 per cent of the fertile farmland, including olive groves.

Since the summer of 2001, ISM has been organizing campaigns in which international observers from Europe and North America act not only as witnesses, but also provide a measure of protection and emotional support to Palestinians. International observers document and report back to their local communities what is actually happening in Palestine.

Dr. Campbell, 66, will now begin the most difficult part of her assignment -bringing the story home and bringing some balance to the media. Marie is also determined to meet with Canadian farmers and in order to build solidarity with Palestinian farmers.

Marie will be available for interviews on Friday, January 17. She will also address the peace rally in front of the legislature on Saturday, January 18 and at the teach-in on Sunday, January 19. Marie's first presentation will be at UVic on February 4.

Contact:

Susan Clarke, Victoria Peace Coalition, phone: 478-6906 fax: 478-0367
Email: dolcla@islandnet.com

After January 17: Marie Campbell 595-7364

Jayyous to Jerusalem - January 13, 2003

As I prepared to leave Jayyous, Mike Hornbrook, CBC reporter, called to say he could come (to Jayyous) on Sunday. So I scurried around locating my proposed interviewees and cancelling my taxi to Jerusalem. Mike offered me a ride down in his armoured car. The Radio-Canada reporter, Hughes Poulin, accompanied Mike, as well as a young Palestinian interpreter - a BeirZet University grad who also commented on the Palestinian situation from his Perspective, which was interesting and useful.

Mike and Hughes's reports will be broadcast soon and I asked them to let me know when. Mike seemed to think that he would incorporate some of the Jayyous story with other material he has been collecting from Hebron. They will appear in news broadcasts, I gather. We spent a long afternoon talking to people and then a long return voyage trying to get to an Israeli highway from the West Bank, going through fields, etc. to get past blocked Palestinian roads. And finally made it.

I felt very sad to leave my Palestinian family in Jayyous. I haven't told you much about THEM, but I have come to feel very close to them, in their difficulties. Today, (Monday) I went back into the West Bank by shared taxi from Jerusalem to Romallah to meet the BeirZet University prof, Rita Giocamen, who runs the Community Health and Policy Institute there. I found her working in the converted garage she has begged from a friend. I took some photos of this little space, which is a beehive of activity for about 10 people (faculty). They are working here because getting out to the campus has become next to impossible.

Rita's husband is an activist who started an organization (initials are GIPP) that brings internationals to Palestine on study tours, a slightly different concept from ISM's more hands-on work. Rita's Institute is very grassroots, existing on donated funds. She is collaborating with a Queen's University group to study youth issues in Palestine. You can imagine that children suffer from living in the chaos that I have been describing. And unless they are worked with, their potential to become good citizens is doubtful.

Rita says that she works with IDRC (a Canadian research institute) but has given up trying to work with CIDA, because its policy is inflexible and "made-in Canada", rather than working from a grassroots basis, which she has come to believe is the only way for good work to be done. I could identify with this perspective and want to follow up on it when I get home.

Marie

Jayyous, January 12, 2003

Marie's Report to ISM: Woman seized and detained for seven hours by Israeli Occupying Forces

In a series of military raids in Jayyous, West Bank, on Thursday January 8, Alla Ali Sedah (age 22) was taken from her home and held in detention for over seven hours. Soldiers had appeared at her home in the early morning hours and herded the woman, her husband and five-month old baby, along with her husband's mother, brother and his wife into one room while they questioned the men separately, and then searched the house. At about 8 am they left the house, taking the two men away.

Later in the day, they returned and neighbours reported that they grabbed Alla roughly and pushed her into their vehicle. Nobody knew where she was being held until about 9 pm when she called her family from the Betah Takfa prison in Israel and asked them to come and get her from there. Her husband and brother-in-law whom neighbours insist are innocent of any wrongdoing are still in custody.

Villagers are appalled and insulted to have a woman, a nursing mother, treated in this manner. They see it as a sharp escalation of the harassment by Occupying Forces of the people of Jayyous and neighbouring villages. Villagers believe that they are being intimidated and punished for their resistance to the "Apartheid Wall" whose construction is causing economic and social hardship in the village. Everyday life in Jayyous is becoming increasing intolerable. People are becoming anxious, sleepless, and despairing.

Human rights workers request the help of women's and peace groups and of all Israelis of conscience to raise awareness of the tactics being used to terrify and control Palestinians. It is recognized that there is insufficient information available publicly to Israelis about the practices of the Occupying Forces and their harmful, humiliating, effects on the people. This first detention of a woman reported from this village adds a new dimension to the routinely insulting and gratuitously violent treatment of local men.

Israeli women are being requested to add their voices to those who deplore this new form of humiliation of the Palestinian people.

Jayyous, January 11

Today is Saturday and I am trying to get a statement ready to send to Women's Groups in Israel to encourage them to help us protest the "detainment", which means snatching by soldiers and carrying off who knows where, of a 22-year-old mother from our village, the morning before last. Soldiers had invaded her home in the night, herded the extended family into one room and questioned the two men separately. This ordeal went on for 7 hours. Then they took the men away, and later in the day returned and roughly handled the woman as they took her away too. She was released after about 8 hours, but in that time, nobody knew where she was, and her breast-fed baby was left behind in the care of the grandmother, who also lived in the home. This happened while we were right there in the village and nobody knew about it going on till morning. So much for our watching eyes.

Anyway, this campaign to publicize soldiers' harassment of Palestinian women offers me something concrete to do as I leave the country. We are especially appealing to the women members of the Knesset, one of whom is known to us as a feminist, to go to the military leaders with the concern.

I am arranging an Israeli-plated car to drive me to Jerusalem tomorrow as local cars and Palestinians can't use the main roads, even in Palestine, except when they are chauffering an Israeli or international, like me. I'll take a taxi back to Romallah for my Monday meeting with Dr. Rita Giocamen atBirzeit University. Then on Tuesday, I have a "tour guide" available to show me around Jerusalem, and I'll try to see the feminists that we are going to work with on the above-mentioned campaign.

I am wondering if I should try to see Jaggi in prison. [Jaggi was already back in Toronto when Marie wrote this] I have some experience of Israeli detention centres, military courts, etc., so perhaps I'll give it a try. I also have met his lawyer, Shami Leibowitz, so maybe I'll call him first.

I am packaging up my books, papers, CDs of photos, etc. to mail from Jerusalem. To avoid trouble at the airport. I don't foresee any trouble, actually. I have mixed feelings about home ... on the one hand, I've been counting the days since I came here, owing to the pervasive anxietyabout what is happening here; on the other, I've had a great time, and there remains much to be done. That's an understatement, if I ever made one.

Marie

Jayyous, January 8

Mike Hornbrook stood us up in Jayyous today, but promises to come at the end of the week, and double promises to interview me (even if in Jerusalem). He does work for As It Happens, the CBC news programs, Dispatches (RICK M.R.) and for Michael Enright's Sunday morning show.

When I get back I'd like to organize my pictures so that I can do varied talks: The apartheid wall, The question of violence and security in Israel and Palestine, Palestinian agriculture in jeopardy, The Israeli Occupation and its resistance in northern West Bank.

Today, I'm making plans to return. While I hate to end this experience and feel I am only getting my feet wet, I will also be really glad to be home again. There are some big frustrations about this work. Not to mention of this life and living here. I'm going to try to discuss them with a Beirzet University (Romellah) professor who, with her husband, has been instrumental in "the other" big international solidarity group here. There are so many factions, interests, divisions, both local and internationally ... and everyone trying to work together, too. I'm looking forward to hearing how others see this kind of work, its future, what needs are not being met, and so on.

Marie

January 7, 2003

Food Security: delivering sheep

Today I reached Marie by phone, as sheep bleated in the background. A French group call Food Security were just delivering two pregnant sheep or a mother and lamb to 300 families in need. The group teaches the families how to make yogurt and cheese to feed their families. The group also supplies supplements for the pregnant sheep and lambs.

I had lots of questions for Marie, but that's all I got out of her before the phone cut out. She's going to have a lot of stories to tell when she gets home.

Susan

Outside of Nablus - January 5, 2003

Kevin Neish reports on Marie

Marie and one other ISMer were in a taxi heading from Jayyous to an Israeli military base outside of Nablus when I phoned. They were going to try to find out what had happened to a Palestinian reporter who had been arrested in one of the earlier demonstrations. I believe she said they were going to have to dismantle a roadblock to get out of Jayyous. There are only the two of them left since the campaign was coming to an end. She still has no access to email in Jayyous.

She will be having a meeting with the CBC radio reporter, Michael Hornbrook, soon (I met him during my ambulance duty). Marie was very pleased that [Susan] had made contact with the National Farmers' Union. She had to cut off the call as she was changing taxis.

Kevin Neish

Jayyous - January 4, 2003

ISM story about the Palestinian journalist who Marie was trying to get released

Date: January 4, 2003 Author: Patrick O'Connors
The Detention of Mustafa Shawkat Samha in Jayyous Area: Qalqilya

Mustafa Samha of Jayyous was detained by the Israeli military on December 29th at a rally in Jayyous against the Apartheid Wall. Mustafa was accused by Israeli soldiers of throwing rocks at them. The internationals and Palestinians present at the march deny that Mustafa was involved in any rock throwing. Nonetheless, Mustafa has been detained for the last six days.

As part of the Qalqilya rally against the Apartheid Wall on December 29, over 500 Palestinian and about 100 international and Israeli participants converged in the village of Jayyous for speeches and a non-violent march to farmland they are being prevented from reaching because of the construction of the "security wall". After the nonviolent march was met with sound bombs, tear gas, rubber bullets and clubs by Israeli soldiers and private contractor security, Palestinian youths began throwing rocks at the soldiers. A small number of Palestinians and internationals, among them Mustafa Samha, took shelter on the porch of a home in between the Israeli soldiers and the remaining Palestinians and internationals. According to eyewitnesses, when Israeli soldiers approached the home, Mustafa stepped forward to present them with his Palestinian press pass. When the soldiers began to grab Mustafa, an American, Radikha Sainath, attempted to step in the way, but was thrown to the ground by the soldiers, who then took Mustafa away to army and border police jeeps parked in the olive groves.

Mustafa was known to be a person who rejects violence. Within a few minutes, about fifteen international visitors began to walk slowly into the olive groves towards the jeeps to negotiate with the soldiers and border police. All attempts were made to appear nonthreatening. As was the case earlier during the peaceful march, our polite requests for discussion were met by cocked rifles, screams that we stop and threats that we would be shot. After a standoff lasting about 20 minutes and continued threats from the soldiers, the soldiers and border police forced their jeeps through the group of internationals and into the village of Jayyous.

We caught up to the jeeps in the village and found soldiers forcibly entering homes and demanding the IDs of Palestinian men and youths. During those forced entries into homes, we were able to spot Mustafa in the back of one of the jeeps and exchange a few words with him. At that the same time I was able to briefly discuss Mustafa's situation with a few soldiers and the regional military commander, Leon. Leon said that three of his soldiers had seen Mustafa throw rocks. (The punishment for throwing rocks at heavily armed Israeli soldiers who enter one's village is at least six months in jail!)

I told them that foreigners and Palestinians all witnessed that Mustafa did not throw rocks at the rally, and furthermore, we all knew that Mustafa is not an individual who used violence. I explained that we have all witnessed that Mustafa is one of the young men who tries and succeeds in stopping boys from throwing rocks.

I asked Leon and the other soldiers what conclusion would Mustafa and other community members who practice nonviolence draw from Mustafa's unjust detention? We said that Mustafa was exactly the wrong type of person to detain, and suggested that this type of detention sent the wrong message to everyone. It implies that Palestinians who seek peaceful solutions will be punished by Israel, in the same way as those Palestinians who are involved in violence, and strengthens the arguments of Palestinians who suggest that Israel does not really want peace.

Leon repeated that three of his soldiers had seen Mustafa throwing rocks. Leon said Mustafa would be released unharmed after twenty-four hours if, in fact, he had done nothing. It is now six days later, and Mustafa is still being detained. A number of internationals have signed statements saying that Mustafa did not throw rocks during the protest. These statements have been forwarded to the Israeli Military Base in Qedumim where Mustafa is being held. Mustafa is being represented by the Israeli lawyer, Shamai Leibovitz, also the lawyer for jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti.

I last talked with Mustafa about a week before the Jayyous rally. Mustafa had recently received his press credentials from the Palestinian press union and was working on a story about the harassment of international journalists and peace activists by the Israeli Army. Typically, Mustafa was polite and thoughtful as he gathered the information for this story. Other internationals have noted that Mustafa is one of the young men in Jayyous who is most supportive of nonviolent activities. Most regard Mustafa as a model citizen.

Mustafa's lawyer has told us that an Israeli judge must make a decision by Sunday about whether to charge Mustafa and arrest him, or to instead release him.

Below is a brief story about Mustafa written in November by Barbara Thiel of the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Accompaniment Program. Ironically, as Mustafa noted in the story below in commenting about his brother in November, it appears that Mustafa is being detained "because he is a Palestinian."

We hope that tomorrow Mustafa will be released.

===========

A Young Man's Life: Barbara Thiel

I met Mustafa on his field, where he and his brother started to replant their olive trees. The field is now divided into one part in the West of the Israeli Security Fence and one in the East; the place for the fence itself has already eaten the place for 77 Olive trees. Mustafa and his brother rented a bulldozer to open new holes in the Olive field, to transport the trees and to bring them into the new holes. The work is hard; most of the trees are old and heavy, so, that at least for every tree 3 to 4 people are necessary to manage the replanting. Good that they have friends here to help. The bulldozer is on his way to bring the next trees. Mustafa now has time to tell me:

"It is very hard for me. I am not a farmer. I studied psychology at the University in Nablus and got my B.A. But in this time there is no way to continue, the way to reach Nablus - only 25 km far away from Jayyous - is very difficult because of different road blocks and checkpoints and long term closures and curfews in Nablus itself, and beside this it is too expensive. So I opened a small shop in Jayyous, but, of course, if most people don't have money, you can't sell so much. By the way, we are able to replant 55 Olive trees. We miss 22 trees. We believe, that the Israeli contractor took them to sell inside of Israel."

Some days later we visited Mustafa again on his field. It was the time, when he started to water the replanted trees. On the field he has a water reservoir, where he can collect the rainwater. We can see, how Mustafa starts his work. First he has to chop the soil. Then he takes his bottle and goes to his water reservoir, the bottle goes down on a long rope, and he gets the bottle back, full of water. He turns to the tree, waters it, and goes again to the reservoir. Ten or twelve times. It is a hard job. After he finished one tree he needs a rest. "Please excuse me. You know, I am not a farmer", he says. The volume of the reservoir of 200 m3 is normally enough for the needs of one year. Now, short term before the raining period, it is nearly empty. But he needs in the next 3 or 4 years every year per tree approximately 3 times 100 l water. Then, after this time, he will know if his replanting was successful.

Mustafa is 23 years old. He has 3 brothers and 5 sisters, but nobody has a job. His father worked as a teacher in Jayyous for many years, later he was the manager of a charity for disabled in Qalqylia, now he lost this job and stays at home because of the circumstances, the closures, curfews, troubles of the checkpoints. One brother studied sociology, the other one and one of the sisters religion. One sister studied English, two married early, the last one is studying teaching. One of the brothers studied sports. He recently came back from the prison, a prisoner's camp in the desert, where he had to stay for 16 months. I asked why. The answer was a laughing: "Because he is a Palestinian. May be, because he is religious. There was no court, no law, no right. This is our life."

Jayyous - January 2, 2003

A letter from Marie to Jeff Weaver, CBC Radio in Victoria

Did you hear my message from the battle zone last Sunday with the percussion bombs, tear gas and rubber bullets, not to mention people yelling? All this happened when a peaceful protest against what is now being called the "apartheid wall" turned nasty, here in Jayyous, West Bank, Occupied Territories, as the border police and army combined to stop the protesters from leaving the village. The pictures that I sent Susan tell some of the story: the protest was a grassroots organized event, moving from 12 villages to a central point in Jayyous for speeches and the plan was to go out of the village to stand where we could see the land that is being confiscated and torn up by earthmoving equipment for the wall. The concrete wall is 8 metres high, buttressed by 50 metres of trench, with an electric fence and a military road, being built along side of it.

Here in Jayyous where I am staying for the next week, the distress is significant. The wall is surrounding the village and cutting off the farmers from their land and from their traditional means of earning their living. I have been assigned to this region near Qalquilya, near Nablus, which is unusually fertile and has important aquifers that make farming possible in this dry land. Of course such resources are appreciated by the Israeli settlements that have protruded into the Occupied Territories further and further, increasingly during the so-called Oslo Peace Process. These settlements are, of course, the hidden basis for the Second Intifada. (Hidden from the world, that is, but so very visible to anybody's eyes here.)

The settlement movement escalated throughout the 90s. Looking west from where I have been living for the past 10 days, what you see is pervasive urban sprawl. It is especially obvious at night when lights burn all around my village. I feel as if I am looking at Toronto and environs - an encirclement of lights.

Well, that is what is on my mind this morning. But the story has many parts. "The occupation" itself is a story that is overwhelming to someone like me - how people can live in a place where an occupying army has control over one's movements and can exercise that control violently, almost at will. Curfew means that people are supposed to stay home when it is called (Qalqiliya was under curfew constantly for the first five days I was here) and if caught outside, they are subject to detainment, or actual arrest, if not beating.

In my area, about ten people have been killed in the past two weeks, including an 8-year-old boy. Arrest is arbitrary - someone can be snatched, taken away, with apparently no need to follow legal procedures for arraignment, charges, etc. We lost a member of the local press in just this manner last Sunday. He is being held in prison although his charge sheet is clear. I have spent some time at road checkpoints, watching and talking to soldiers, reminding them that they have responsibilities as occupiers. It appears that they believe their job is to make Palestinians as miserable as possible, waiting in the rain, humiliated. The notion of "apartheid" is a big topic.

So, I am here at Jayyous till about January 13. I am spending the week accompanying farmers to their fields across the construction of the wall. Soldiers and private security officers harass them. Many, especially women, have found it so hard that they have given up going. They have to walk, as I did yesterday, and their harvested produce is hard to get to market anyway, owing to permanently blocked roads. The roads are another topic.

The people are so worried about their future, their economy, their families, their land held in some cases for centuries, and many with papers from the British Mandate. It is obvious that the wall, rather than the solution to Israeli security, is, in contrast, a new sort of trouble that is not going to end soon or easily. These farmers are going to fight for their land. And Jayyous, what was till now a peaceful agricultural community, is being turned into a very angry one. Even so, they are using nonviolent means to struggle. For instance, 1,000 fruit trees were delivered to Jayyous yesterday to be planted outside the wall to support their claim that this land is theirs, and they are not willing to relinquish it.

Marie

Azun - December 31, 2002

Azun, West Bank, night patrols

We have moved to Azun, West Bank to work with farmers and villagers as the wall construction approaches and they are being prevented from going to fields. We do night patrols in villages where the army and border police are active. We try to watch to see how they treat people. They come, kick down doors and haul people out. In response to the protest against the Wall, there is much harrassement, intimidation, identifying and arresting leaders.

Marie

I called Marie on New year's Eve to check out her cell phone number, as the CBC wants to do a live interview with her. I found her in a hayloft with a group of activists (and possibly farmers as well). It was evening and they were having tea. She seemed very relaxed and said that the Palestinians certainly know how to have a good time. That's very heartening to hear, as a counterbalance to the despair over the loss of their farms.

She wishes you all a Happy New Year.

Susan Clark

Quick note

I've come quickly to the Internet cafe in Qalqilia today, before we return to Jeyyous immediately to try to interfere with the military taking revenge on the villagers. We kept up patrols all night there last night, but fortunately no soldiers came. We had to come back to Qalqilia today to get our "stuff" (toothbrushes, etc.) as we meant to be away only one night, not a week.

A competent photographer has arrived and promises me pictures and help with sending mine! Internet access is limited while we are in the villages.

Marie

News Release
December 29, 2002

Israeli Army Tear Gases Farmers Resisting the Apartheid Wall In Jeyyus

Marie Campbell, retired UVic professor acting as a volunteer observer in the Occupied Territories, was part of a protest at Jeyyus, Palestine. Marie and a group of international observers walked at the front of a peaceful march organized by area farmers until they were stopped by the Israeli army and police forces. "We just sat down", said Marie, "Then they tear gassed us. Small boys began throwing stones and the army returned fire".

"This is a very peaceful group of farmers. We met last night and it was agreed that we show our resistance to the Wall in a nonviolent protest." People from 12 villages surrounding Qalqilya gathered to hear speeches when the army tried to provoke them to react. "It's really important for these people to resist peacefully, but the media seems only interested in reporting violence".

These people have had title to their land since the British Mandate. The land is very fertile and there are aquifers. Settlements are encroaching on their farmland and now the "security wall" is taking a tremendous amount of land and cutting up the communities.

Marie Campbell who left Victoria on December 12 to be an international observer with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), went through a training in nonviolence before being assigned to Qalqilya. International observers document and report back to their home communities what is actually happening in Palestine

-30-

Susan Clarke, Victoria Peace Coalition, 1-250-478-6906

Tel Aviv - December 27, 2002

Today, I am in Tel Aviv for a Women in Black demonstration and to take a break.

My group was being called to an emergency in a village called Es Bet Salman, just as I was leaving to go to the Qalqilya checkpoint to meet up withe other internationals going to Tel Aviv. In the village, it was said, soldiers were massed and attacking property, busting up things. It is not clear exactly what is going on but the remaining seven of my group headed off there. There is a demonstration being planned for Sunday, I mentioned before. It is coming from the villages and is protesting the "security fence". Perhaps this attack has something to do with that or just with the resistance the villagers and farmers are making to having the fence constructed across their property. The land is fertile here, many greenhouses, too, and their business of these farmers is being undermined.

I must go now.

Marie

News Release
December 26, 2002

Marie Campbell, Victoria woman volunteering in Palestine as a human rights observer, had her first encounter with the Israeli army today (Dec. 26). This morning, Israeli soldiers entered the town of Qalqilya, just west of Nablus, searching for a terrorist. They were searching an apartment building and a group of schoolboys were throwing stones and teasing the soldiers.

Marie and seven other international observers talked to the soldiers and pleaded with them not to shoot at the children. Rubber bullets were being fired into the group as Marie spoke on her cell phone to Victoria Peace Coalition member, Susan Clarke, at 1:30 am. An ambulance came to pick up the wounded. Some of the observers placed themselves between the soldiers and the children. "We have no control over the children", said Marie. "They think it's a game."

"The town is under curfew, but in Qalqilya, the residents routinely defy the curfew and take their children to school", said Marie. The army often goes into the school and tear gases the children to get them to leave and go home, so internationals stand in the doorways of the schools to deter the soldiers.

"Today, the boys are not in school because it's the end of term", said Marie. "Otherwise they wouldn't be in this trouble. This is a very dangerous situation."

-30-

Susan Clarke, Victoria Peace Coalition, 1-250-478-6906

…………………

Qalqilya - December 26, 2002

Army detains "terrorist" in Qalqilya, army shoots at children

The Outcome of This Morning's Event

It is now 1:15 pm on 26th and I have come directly from the scene of the action to the Internet cafe. I arrived at the scene about 10:45 am, but the army started early in the morning before the family was out of bed. It must have been 11:30 am [1:30 am. in BC] when I called you [Susan]. After I lost contact with you, the confrontation between the children and military continued, and I got my first whiff of tear gas. I was choking and the local ambulance attendants invited me to get into their vehicle. (We work with them, too, as you know). I wasn't heavily gassed, luckily.

Eventually, the army took away one man and we're told he is a Palestinian Authority employee, a policeman. (I don't understand why the Israelis are targetting Palestinian policemen as "terrorists". These suspected terrorists are taken away, imprisoned, killed, and their families punished. I'll find out more.)

In the course of things, neighbours of the detained man were hauled out of their homes and had their identity cards seized. We tried to interrogate the soldiers about that, but they were really sick of us by this time. Can you imagine this picture - a virtual war going on and these seven internationals, mostly young people, surrounding the army vehicles and interrogating soldiers?

Again, absolutely surreal. We challenge them on anything we can think of. "Do you want the world to know that you are not following the Geneva Conventions?" "What kind of soldiers are you to be pointing guns at children?" and so on. I talked to one soldier who said he wanted to go to university after doing his national service. I asked him what he wanted to study and got around to talking about the Palestinian boys who also need to live long enough to have a career and a life. The soldiers are of all kinds, you can imagine, they may or may not like doing what they do. Some, indeed, seem to enjoy it. Others clearly are not comfortable with violence and our questions.

At that time, I noticed that increasing attention was being paid to the apartment houses in the area and soon the soldiers dynamited one of them. And then about noon or 12:30 they were ready to leave with their heavy equipment, sniffer dogs, tanks, trucks, earth movers, Armed Personnel Carriers, and finally all the jeeps carrying the dozens of men who had been holding the children off with percussion (sound) bombs, tear gas and rubber bullets.

After the soldiers left, we joined a crowd of neighbours and friends looking into the bombed house and commiserating with the mother of the man who was taken, and with his family. It was a nice home, now with a hole blown out of the wall, windows and frames gone. His brother told me that the man was 28, with a wife and little child, and it was the brother who told me he was a policeman. I really want to find out more about this apparent targetting of policemen.

A taxi driver told me that the Israelis saw this area as "trouble", and perhaps they think that Hamas has people here. But the army does not need to have or show any evidence against a suspect (I kept reminding the soldiers that he was a "suspect", not a terrorist, as they were calling him). They can and will just take a suspect, beat him up, and often just shoot the man, without any benefit of trial. This is routine, not an isolated instance.

The next stage is punishment of the family - coming in the night, and bulldozing or exploding the homes of parents, brothers, and other relatives.

………….

I haven't emailed the report on our training yet, but I will mention here that ISM doesn't take a position for or against any of the political factions in Palestine. Rather, we offer an example of how to nonviolently disrupt the Israeli efforts to control every aspect of Palestinian life. And of course, we are offering our services to help protect Palestinians from the systematic terror and violence the army wages.

It seems that the Israeli strategy includes preventing Palestinians from educating their children, as they are adamant that curfew means the schools should be closed. But one Palestinian educator told me that during the first Intifada, they did close the schools and a generation of children lost their chance to be educated. So they are determined not to let that happen again.

Just to help you better understand the situation today; while the boys stone the soldiers, tanks, etc, for "fun", they are also deadly serious about doing it as resistance to the soldiers, too. They won't be scared off by the threat of violence. Throwing stones is what know how to do and all they have the resources to do.

Marie

Qalquilya - December 25, 2002

Checkpoint duty

Today, I spent a couple of hours at the checkpoint outside of Qalquilya, observing what was happening. (I do have it written up but finding the time to sit at a computer is not easy.) At the checkpoint, we make our presence felt by the soldiers as they process people wanting to move themselves or their goods into or out of the city.

It is such a time and energy-consuming thing, just moving a few miles. Our presence reminds soldiers that they must operate under international law and rather than by their own whim. I felt that my first shift there went well. We resisted the soldiers' attempts to get us to move. While we watched them, the checkpoint was opened more often to allow people to pass.

Being an older woman is a "plus" here. For one thing, I am not really afraid of young men, even in uniform and carrying a gun. And secondly, the soldiers tend to be somewhat more respectful of older women. And they don't have to do the macho thing with me, as they do with the men in our ISM group.

I must say that I can't imagine how the Palestinians stand the level of everyday controls that they must live with. Life here is so different from across the Green Line, in Israel. For the week that I was in Israel, I could and did travel, and do everything just as I would have at home. The only signs of trouble or potential trouble were the heightened security posted in public buildings, and of course the ever-present sight of soldiers travelling with their guns. My Israeli friends talked about the troubles, of course. But life continues more or less as we know it at home, while in Palestine, we are really under a state of siege.

Here in Qalquilya, the physical infrastructure, the city and country environment, the means of making a life are being destroyed, and this issue of movement - people simply are not at liberty here. They are prisoners in their homes.

Marie

Qalqilya - Monday, December 23, 2002

Qalqilya, Apartheid Wall, new assignments

I have been assigned to Qalqilya; it is on the Green line just west of Nablus. Getting stuff out is really a big, big problem. Time is a problem; the curfew is a bigger problem. Now I am out in the field and there is much to be done and bigger problem - the computers. I have some good pictures of the training to send, but alas, in this town the Internet cafe computers have no ISPs.

We travelled here through Israel, and I had to bury my notes in my bag so that I wouldn't give away my identity as an activist, if searched at a checkpoint. I have so much to say and so little time to say it. For instance, we were turned back at the local checkpoint in Qalqilya after our drive from Bethlehem today. We (seven activists) followed a group of Palestinians (Red Crescent workers and local farmers who had also been turned back) through the fields and orange orchards and mud, to circumvent (bypass) the soldiers who had turned us back. High drama. I felt I was in a movie.

There will be a big Women in Black demonstration in Tel Aviv on Friday and we are hoping to go to that. Distances are short, especially in Israel, where one can drive on good roads and no roadblocks or checkpoints. I'll try to get to an Internet cafe there and send some pictures.

Till then, I'm to accompany farmers who are being bullied and threatened (including being beat up and shot) by "settlers" who surround the agricultural lands. This is a fertile area and settlement is heavy. Also, I'll be accompanying ambulances, as soldiers hold them up at checkpoints. That is night work and therefore very tiring.

The farmers and villagers are planning a demonstration on Sunday to protest the building of the Security Fence, called by locals "the Wall" and by activists the "Apartheid Wall". The Wall is proceeding through this area and a lot of land is being confiscated, not just for the Wall itself, but also for security areas and roads on either side. We expect a strong and angry response by the army. They use tear gas and percussion bombs on demonstrators and detain people. I'm not looking forward to this, as we will be walking at the front, I hear.

I'm living in an apartment with my action group here. Since houses are not being bulldozed down here as they are in Gaza and Nablus, we have not been placed with a family.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

Marie

Bethlehem - December 20, 2002

Damascus Gate to Beit Sahour

I left Tel Aviv today in a pouring rain and it hasn't let up. I arrived in the central Jerusalem bus station, and called for instructions to get into the OT. The instructions were simple "Take a taxi to the Damascus Gate, cross the checkpoint and get a taxi on the other side to Beit Sahour" where our training is to be held.

It didn't work out quite so easily, although to reassure you, I ran into no official trouble. Rather, it was taxi "business" that intervened. The first taxi either didn't know, or pretended not to know, where the checkpoint was and dropped me, in the pouring rain, at something he said was the Damascus Gate. I found a taxi driver who spoke English and who explained how to take a bus to the checkpoint, which was quite a way. I disembarked, again in pouring rain, (I am soaked now) and met up on foot with the soldiers, who just wanted to see my passport.

The curfew was lifted all day today in Bethlehem, unusual. Someone told me it was because of the rain. I don't know the relevance of that, but it means that everyone is out doing things that they haven't been able to do for days. I've learned since that the curfew is being lifted for the Christmas season, presumably because they expect tourists.

I got to the Three Kings Hotel - a nice building but almost totally dead. There was no reception staff, just someone who came and offered me a room key. I heard and saw several other foreigners with backpacks and assume they are my ISM colleagues. But I had another piece of business to do - I was carrying $1000 US to a Palestinian friend of an Israeli, to help buy medicines, etc. So, I made cell phone contact with the man (Christian Palestinian), he picked me up from my hotel and took me to his house in Bethlehem, where I was served roasted chestnuts, German stollen and Turkish coffee.

Then he delivered me into the hands of his friend at a closed Internet café. (Everything is closed here in Bethlehem - the serious economical effect of the incursions). Here in the "closed" Internet cafe, both the operator and his friend, a Mohawk-College-(Hamiton)-trained guy, have been helping me think through the problem with emailing digital pictures from my camera. And as I think you will see, we have solved it. There is just one computer hooked up here and a very slow line, but the issue was the size of files and making sure that we have the capacity.

I'm fine. Haven't seen the tanks that routinely patrol during curfew, and do other nasty things. Here in Bethlehem, it is post curfew (that is, we are under curfew again) but my hotel is within sight of the Internet cafe, so I can go back when all is quiet outside. There is a surreal feel to my typing this message in this place, with a Christmas tree all decorated and lights winking at me. The operator of the cafe is preparing a Christmas party for the 24th in this currently deserted-looking site.

My friend this afternoon says that he is waiting to see what will happen on the 24th, as the army is demanding to patrol along with the normal Christmas Eve parade of "the faithful" through the streets of Bethlehem to the Church of the Nativity. The clerics are refusing . This may be trouble. (The issue here is that the church is shared by four religious groups or denominations, each walking with their leader at the head.)

There is a big political demonstration in Bethlehem on Christmas day, too. Watch for TV coverage.

Marie

Haifa - December 17, 2002 at 6 a.m

International conference on "Democracy and Terror" at Haifa University, Israel. Preparing to leave for Palestine and training in Ramallah.

I'm sitting this morning at a desk in the Youth Hostel in Carmel, near Haifa. From my window, when it gets light, I'll have a view of the Mediterranean Sea. Behind me, rises Mount Carmel, on the very top of which is a 30-storey tower.

Yesterday, I went to Haifa University where I attended a research meeting (held in English for my benefit) of an Education Faculty project, called "Promoting Dialogue in Multi-cultural Communities of Teachers and Students".

I left that meeting and walked across campus to the Law School's (free) international conference on "Democracy and Terror". I arrived in time to hear Aharon Barak, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel, give the opening address. Barak is coming under heavy criticism, especially by the government here, for being an "activist judge". (I should mention that a security agent stood behind the speakers on the platform the whole time. As a matter of course, security personnel are positioned at all doors of university buildings - and at all public buildings everywhere.)

Barak's recent rulings have held the state of Israel and its officials culpable for breaches of human rights. In his opinion, laws affecting security and human rights must be balanced, but in no case, should human rights protection be suspended in times of war or terrorist threats. He pointed out that it is precisely in such times that a democracy is tested and its legitimacy as a democracy stands or fails on its capacity to maintain human rights. Even to the extent, he said, of protecting personal freedoms when it may make it harder to stop terrorism.

I am hearing the different perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian situation as it is played out here. Members of the government speak their positions (e.g., on the Sharon "war crimes' challenge still before the court in Belgium). Here the AG's official discusses the case in terms of "politicization" of international tribunals, and mentions the increasing anti-Semitism in Europe. It appears that for those in the government camp, "politicization" is a code word for anti-Semitism.

The next speaker, Prof. Fletcher, Columbia University, went into theUSA situation, analyzing the US use of the "enemy combatant" category to suspend human rights of the people it is holding now. He criticized this practice and discussed the way it is being handled in the courts in the USA, drawing on precedents such as the 1942 execution of six "spies" by Roosevelt's government, without the benefit of legal proceedings.

I'm rather excited about the Education Faculty's research project I was introduced to yesterday. The research brings together teachers from Jewish, Arab (Palestinian) and Druse (Christian Arab) schools in the area for a structured program of lecture-discussions and interactive work using art and music. They are learning to talk to each other as human to human. What their project is accomplishing (whether or not it "fixes" anything) is a useful way of thinking about peace locally - as a process of working together versus a preconceived place to arrive.

I'm being treated very warmly by these folks, and indeed, feel pretty at home here. You will recognize that I am accessing those academics (apparently there are many) that hold progressive views about Palestine.

Tomorrow, I hope to grab a bus to Tiberius. Then it is back to Tel Aviv, where I will leave my academic gear and persona and pick up my sleeping bag and head into Jerusalem and over into the Occupied Territories, as they are called here.

I've been in touch with ISM and hear that because Bethlehem is still under curfew, our training may take place in Ramallah. Although I am not tuned into local news reports, it was reported to me that Jaggi Singh was refused entry and today I have a message from Canada saying he is fighting it (He would, of course.). I hope that I get to meet him in Palestine.

Marie

December 9, 2002

Victoria Senior Answers Call For Observers In Palestine

Marie Campbell, a retired University of Victoria professor, leaves on December 12 to spend a month in Palestine doing observational work with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Since the summer of 2001, ISM has been organizing campaigns in which international observers from Europe and North America act not only as witnesses, but also provide a measure of protection and emotional support to Palestinians.

International observers document and report back to their local communities what is actually happening in Palestine. Dr. Campbell, 66, was inspired to undertake this trip after hearing accounts and seeing video clips in a presentation by Neta Golan and George Rishmawi, ISM organizers who recently visited the University of Victoria.

"As a senior citizen, I am exactly the right kind of person to do this work", said Campbell. "I'm no longer tied to a job, so I have the necessary time and energy. I can call on my experience from years of involvement in social justice issues.

"My commitment comes from being increasingly worried about the state of the world where militarism seems to be accepted as the answer to everything that is wrong. It is very scary. One feels so impotent. One thing that I can do is write and offer a perspective that is missing from what usually appears in the Canadian media."

Upon arrival in Palestine, Dr. Campbell will undergo training in nonviolent forms of resistance to the Israeli military occupation and will be billeted in a Palestinian home. Dr. Campbell's trip is being assisted by the Victoria Peace Coalition, which is purchasing a digital camera for her use. Donations can be made to the Victoria Peace Coalition through Susan Clarke, 250.478-6906 (dolcla@islandnet.com).

For more information on the ISM see www.palsolidarity.org.