The Noisy One

2007-11-04T09:23:00.000-08:00

This part of the Wall ran through the main street of Abu-Dis.

Useful links to find out what we've been doing

2007-11-01T14:25:00.000-07:00

http://www.camdenabudis.net/

http://www.stopthewall.org/

the wall as an after thought

2007-11-01T14:08:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to add that the effect of the wall is slowly destroying everything here...women giving birth at checkpoints because they can't reach hospital, families being split up, people losing their citizenship because they lived on the wrong side for too long and the whole disgusting blatant land grab means stopping this being extended and getting what's there (it's huge) is vital. Please check out stopthewall.com for more.

Jon's blog for today

2007-11-01T14:07:00.000-07:00

Thursday
Inspired by the comments of my comrades back in the office, I again sit in front of a $4 keyboard with Arabic keys to report our stories from the occupied territories. As you might have guessed the trip is taking its toll on my mental well being; Jesie is without shame and hesitation, the solidarity of the English is no longer welcome! In truth I would have Jess for tea any day rather than attempt a check point crossing. Today we went through 3 check points and never left Palestinian land, how does that work? But check points aside today was a less harrowing than our trip yesterday, though the start of the day brought home to us how the wall effects the young Palestinians.

Our first visit of the day took us to a boys school on the outskirts of Abu-Dis, the school brought home to us both the contempt that the Israelis hold for the Palestinians and resistance of the Palestinians. The school sat on a busy road through Abu-Dis to the rear of the school stood the familiar site of the 8m high concrete wall running through the football pitch and playground of the school. “this was not as bad as it used to be” the wall used to to run right up to the wall of the school removing all of the play area, but campaigns, protests and lobbying forced the Israeli state to move it back and give back some of the play area. Taken to the roof of the school we soon inhaled the full extent of the wall, from the right the wall snaked in from the centre of Abu-Dis coming in behind the school and extending out for many miles to the left, returning round again in the distance to encircle a settlement, on the Israeli side stood woodland and significant land prior to the start of the first housing, on the Palestinian side stood within feet housing, amenities and the school we were standing on. This would not end our view of the wall, though we stayed on Palestinian land throughout the day – the way was never far away.

Our next visit took us to the campaign group Stop the Wall on our way to Ramallah, a group consisting of about 10 fulltime employees with a further 500 hundred volunteers. Sadley to say this was the first group or organization we visited that actually looked like a pro active group, computers, wall charts with SMART objectives etc. The Secretary of the organization gave us a powerful presentation on the growing segregation, division and acquisition of the Palestinian state. For the first time we were shown maps of the West Bank that started to show how the wall had taken land, that ‘security’ justified further taking of land, how the building of Israeli only roads cutting through the West Bank is and would further reduce the state of Palestine. We were shown how the West Bank through both existing, under construction and planned roads would reduce the Palestinian state into 3 diminishing areas, diminishing as the crusade of security would increasingly force the Palestinian people into the centre of the land. The issue of security is such a prevalent discourse, security being the justification for all action against the Palestinians, as one Palestinian put it “what about social SECURITY, what about job SECURITRY what about economic SECURITY, the only ones who are secure are the Israelis”.

On leaving this group armed with hours of PowerPoint presentations for our eager comrades back home we proceeded on to Ramallah, along the way we were shown from the road the prison camp that thousands of Palestinian people are housed, and where the throwing of one stone will buy you 8 months, with food prepared by the caring hands of Israeli criminal prisoners (mmm…..book me a table) on crossing through our second check point and again having to explain how we were atheists we proceeded to to meet trade unionists who were engaged in some trade union education. On arrival we joined the tutor setting up a role-play, the reps were preparing a role-play around the improving of a collective agreement, incorporating increased facility time and health and safety (are you listening London?). on engaging in the role-play 8 reps started to shout point, stand and throw their chairs to the ground all of which was done while smoking, even the tutor was smoking!! we stayed here for several hours, exchanged emails and spoke of the hope of working jointly in the future.

From the education course we went to a paper converting factory, a factory making toilet roles and tissues etc. like the Quarry and stone factories we heard stories of Palestinian companies trying to send goods across Palestine, of lorries that were forced to unload their goods at checkpoints and reload, while all the time Israeli goods only slowed for the checkpoints. The trade union official at the plant told us of how this hassle was adding 80% to the marginal costs, and threatening the survival of the plant. If these costs were not bad enough, Israelis were flooding the market with cheaper produce. Once again we were told of the troops on the checkpoint arbitrarily deciding to even let the lorries through at all. This visit ended on rather a somber note: the union leader told us that many had visited, many had expressed their sadness and regret, from trade union delegations, overseas business leaders overseas politicians, yet from all these visits to the factory and Palestine no feelings of sorrow or understanding had spread into the political sphere, where the omnipotent Israeli propaganda machine reduces all Palestinians to barbaric terrorists, and the Israelis as perpetual victims. And this is a serious point there is without a doubt a story that is not being told here, I know for myself when the issue of Palestine arises in branch meetings I have voted in favour of affiliation with PSC or other groups, but I have failed to really grasp the extent of Palestinian oppression or the sheer determination of the Israeli government to remove the Palestinians from their houses, their shops and to split families up – there is without a doubt a story that rarely forms the print of our newspapers or the prompts on Snows news broadcasts. Everywhere news, but so rarely the truth.

Our last trip of the day took us to the PGFTU Education offices where we met brave and noble educators like myself, we heard of the programme they had put togther, how organizing was an important factor

More about Wednesday

2007-11-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

We looked at the mosque from the outside (through the fences and barbed wire of course) and could see the Jewish side. One half has been turned into a synagogue. I'm not sure if it was always like that but there was loads of Jewish people coming out from their prayers. Obviously not coming our way but along their own roads to their part of protected town.

We walked back through the market past the sniper points and closed shops and I thought about how the city ended up like this. There has obviously (and we were told about it) a huge military strike to take this city with people including children being shot and killed and there is still a feeling of fear. It seems that it's a 'quiet' time at the moment but people are aware that they could easily be under attack again at any time. The reason they don't bomb it from helicopters any more is because of the settlers who are living on top of the Palestinian community. A new looking school that was build not long ago by the Palestinians has been taken over by Israelis who now use it.

Again we were treated to a huge lunch of delicious food and Palestinian hospitality. People here are really generous in spirit and meeting Sharifa and the people from Hebron is a perfect example of their resiliance in the face of pure agony.

I stayed up talking to Abed about his times in prison. He was in solitary once for a month and we talked about what he thought about at that time. We discussed Guantanamo bay and the prisons in US and how there were so many similarities in the methods used that it seemed obvious that they were linked. He told me about prisoner being taken from their homes and blindfolded, stripped naked and locked up without trial for months. He told me about one man who, when he was examined by the prison doctor on arrival, was told that he had a heart problems and needed urgent drugs or he would die. He believed them and after a day or two he cracked and told gave them a (untrue) statement. They bribed him with the medication to extract information. Eventually when he was released he was examined by his own doctor who told him that they had been lying and it was a kind of psychological torture. Everyone here has such terrible stories and thinking about all those young people in prison now being tortured makes me feel sick.

Anyway, Jon has written today's events so I'll post them now. I'm feeling a bit down this evening after visiting a school that has been cut in half by the wall and where the kids were tear gassed and shot at by the police. One ten year old girl was killed. This is the reality here and it is not history, it's living. We have to get this out to as many people as possbile because what we hear in Europe is not the truth.

Day 3 continued

2007-11-01T13:32:00.000-07:00

The soldiers asked us if we were Christian and we said no. They asked if we were Jewish and we said no. They asked us what were we and we said Atheist and they looked confused and shook their heads. They said prayer was on so we couldn't go in. Our friends could go in to pray as they were Muslim but we wanted to go together so we decided not to go in. Sharifa said that this was not the rules of the mosque but the rules of the soldiers. Again, just made up difficulties for the Palestinians. They are definitely not keen on us getting a non-Israeli viewpoint.

What we did on day 3 (Wednesday)

2007-11-01T11:29:00.000-07:00

We are finally catching up on the blog situation. I am now going to write yesterday's blog and Jon will write what we did today..both days have been immensely moving and exciting at the same time. We managed to see the Israeli occupation up close, which was terrifying and desperately sad. I broke down on several occasions and it just feels surreal to be here and experience even for a week the way things are here. It is like one giant prison. I heard last night that one of our friend's wife has had her blue Jerusalem ID taken away. He has a green pass and they have been living separately for years. They have been trying to get his ID upgraded but the end result, after numerous attempts through the court is that she now has no ID at all and her only options are to live illegally in the West Bank with no ID or to move the family to Jordan forever. Basically the whole of the West Bank is no bigger than London and people are restricted so much in their movement that they barely move from the areas they live in. Every is surrounded by barbed wire, fences, walls and soldiers...just like a massive prison.

Yesterday we went to Hebron. At the end of the day we sat down as a group and wrote down what stuck out in our minds so I'm going to write something from each of the headlines we wrote and hope it all makes sense.

We took a usual taxi through the usual waiting at check points and being scrutinised by the soldiers, all of whom are around the age of 20 and waving kalashnikovs with others hiding in camoflaguged (you try and spell it!) cement towers or armoured vehicles. Entering the city of Hebron is immediatlely disturbing as it is clear that the city is completely divided, with Jewish settlements on either side of the old town, which is Palestinian. We went to a community centre where there works an artist who tries to sell his art and were also greeted by our fantastic guide for the day Sharifa, who is a member of the travel and tourism union. We took to her straight aaway as she is a lively and hilarious character, full of life.

We walked through the centre of the city which was bustling and busy- the drivers here are all mad and the pedestrians aren't any saner! We were taken first to a medical centre, the first in the West Bank that supplies occupational therapy equipment and wheelchairs etc as well as home care professionals and nurses to people who are immobile at home. It was very impressive and the guy who runs it was very proud, as were his staff. After the usual rounds of Turkish coffee and mint tea we had a tour of the centre. The services are not free and as a result of course those who get them are a limited number, although the Palestinian Authority do pay for some and some people have medical insurance. Nevertheless, it is better than nothing.

On to the PGFTU offices of Hebron where we had an interesting speech by the Gen. Sec. who mentioned Blair's visit (we weren't sure if he was joking) and the peace process a bit too much, saying how dedicated they were to it. Anyway, the delegation from the Palestinian side grew and grew and at our final meeting there were around 16 trade unionists from various unions, including a man in his 80s who still had his ID from 1948. He showed us a British one pound note that he was really proud of and talked of the British occupation. Nandita talked to him later, hoping to get some kind of idea of what it was like and he said that he liked British people because he loved King George! She didn't know quite how to respond! We were presented with PGFTU plates and had our photos taken ... under a massive poster of Yasser Arafat, which was a highlight and an honour. The whole thing was great. The whole thing was great. A bit different from the English way of doing things in that mobiles phones constantly go off and people answer them regardless, even the person addressing the meeting, and have conversations! Also, everyone smokes incessantly (even a bit too much for me- the most disturbing was the man in the hospital in charge of the blood donation unit sitting at his lab with a fag in his mouth!) and also people just coming into the room and shaking hands with everyone and speaking loudly ignoring the fact that someone might be making an impassioned speech!

We then left to go to the old city. We walked past the old Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation building, which had bullet holes all over it and was derelict. The whole city was under siege five years ago and was shelled to bits by the Israeli army. Helicopters attacks were common and the whole place had a feeling of tension about it. As we walked through the busy market of fruit and veg people were shouting out "welcome" to us and waving. The market became smaller and samller and there were less and less stalls. Sharifa told us that we were approaching the end of the market- basically where the wall had been built right across it and the atmosphere was more and more tense as we went on. Towards the wall more and more shops were boarded up and there were less and less people. Sharifa said that people were scared to come to this bit of the market now beacuse of what had happened and we soon found out why. The Israelis have taken either side of the town by force, hence the bombardments over the last few years and so the market, which was once enormously vibrant and the centre of town, is now surrounded by Jewish settlements. They are completely protected by barbed wire and sniper towers. Sharifa showed us the old bus station where all the buses for the centre of town stopped. It is now blocked by barbed wire and no one can get near it. The market lanes are very thin and there are snipers on the corners of lots of the buildings when you look up. We were stopped by one man who took us down a market alley where his shop used to be. On the main street there people had put nets between the buildings and he told us this is to stop the settlers throwing stones and rubbish at them. Looking up you can see nappies and bags of rubbish that the settlers have thrown out of their windows on the Palestinians below. All the shops were boarded up here and the Israeli soldiers had welded the locks shut. As we walked down towards the wall the man told us that Israeli soldiers had been pissing on the heads of Palestinian women from the building tops. This broke me down as the feeling of human degradation was too much. We went past the old town hall which is now closed and a gap between the buildings revealed the main Israeli security building. Sharifa told us not to go too close to the barbed wire as people had been shot there many times.

We went to the Christian Peace Makers building, where there were some English women who had been there for around 12 years. Their sole purpose is to prevent war and violence and they had often stood in front of soldiers who were trying to open fire on Palestinian people. One of their regular jobs now is to escort the children of the old city to school (with soldiers in tow) as the settlers had been throwing rocks at them. We went up on their roof and it was the clearest view yet of the occupation. Both sides of the building were clean Jewish settlements with a slither of Palestinian decrepit buildings in the middle. Our friends pointed out what used to be their parents shops and where they went to look at the birds in the market as kids. It is all boarded up now. On the roof tops there are Israeli soldiers with huge guns and were told not to point or take photos in the direction of the security building. Sharifa went to one side of the building and stood quietly for a while. On the other side of the wall, where she can't go now, is a muslim cemetary where her mother is buried. It was incredibly sad and the worst feeling of all is the helplessness- it is too dangerous to get angry with the Israeli soldiers and their machine guns. They are hiding all over ther city and you are being watched wherever you go. It is the closest to a war zone I have ever felt.

We walked back feeling heavy and attempted to go the Ibrahim mosque. There were soldiers walking through the alleys with machine guns pulling up a group of young boys around the age of ten. Their friends who were watching were giggling as they saw us..this was obviously a common situation. To get to the mosque we had to go through a heavily guarded check point on foot,which was really scary. There was another check point at the entrance to the mosqu with 3 soldiers, one who looked about 12.

Day 2. By Jon. (who bravely typed the whole thing!

2007-10-31T12:04:00.000-07:00

On day 2 the 6 of us drove from Abu-Dis to Bethlehem, a drive that while concentreted within Palestine land took us through several check points, as we drove through the first one we decended into a valley, at the bottom of the valley our attention was drawn to a fast flowing river, yet this was not the winding flow of a river in a national trust park this was raw sewage sent into the valley from an Isreali Settlement. The Settelment sat, as do all at thhe top of the hill on occupoed land, the refuse and sewage spewelled into the land aknoldged by the Isrealies as Palestinain, this scene was not a one off, it was a scene that was to repeat itself time and time again; what land wasnt taken was to all Isrealie efforts effected by the occupation.

Our first visti in Bethlehem was to meet the General Secertary of the Hotel Workers Union, a meeting that was to paint a picture of the effects of the wall on trade unionists in Bethelhem, but also to plant the seeds as to the support that might come from our return home. The General Secratary explained how the area had suffered from 65% unemployment. hotels had on average moved form employing 33 workers dwn to 13, hotel closuers had created a significant impact on the town, closures that had come about through Zianist rascim under the guise of 'security'. the settlers had opened accomodation and hotels in their settelments leadning to the decline of the tourist economy, this had lead to wages falling by 40%. the union has responded by proping membership fees and blending membersghip to the uncertainty of the labour market. the trip to Bethlehem and our firts meeting in the city had demonstratde the shear intend by the Isreali authorities to oppress and destroy at arms length the beauty of the Palestinian people, while doing all in its power to provoke a violant confrontation.

our second visit of the day, and our second round of Turish Coffee, Mint Tea and Baklava took us to the Transport Union in Bethlehem and to more discussions around the effects of the wall. for me it is really important to express how the building of the wall represents a new battle in the servival of the Palestinians, a wall that for many Palestinains rises from the ground out of sight from the western world. a battle for the Palestinians that screams to all throughout the world for thier thoughts and support, to ignite and reignite solidarity campiagns and to move the plight of the Palestinians to a higher priority.
Points reinforced by the Transport Workers Union who painted a picture of high unemployemnet leading to many poeple purchasing taxis, a licence and competeing with the the hords of taxis that choke the streets. this over supply of labour had crusshed wages, and brought collapse to union membership. the union had responded by establishing health care for trade union members. Our host went on to speak of how the wall had created extensive problems for its workers transporting goods, often trips that might take 15 - 20 minutes would now take over 2 hours, not simply due to the road blocks that shall be mentioned further on, but because the wall had forced the drivers to drive often in the wrong direction. to attempt some relative context: a trip to Bristol from London where you are unable to travel along the M5 and instead you are forced to travel through the back roads to Birmingham, a trip of an hour and an half, is increased to 4 hours.

our third visit of the day highlighted not just the problems created by the wall and check points but the shere intent to clense the land of Palestinians. our trip took us to a meeting with Local Government dignitries at a town called Bait Fajar, a town with 13,000 residents 80 % of whom work in the towns many quarries and stone manufacturing units producing stone and marble tiles. 70% of the produce was exported to Isreal the effort to export these stones was indeed and effort. the town lay 2 miles from an exit on a motterway, at the turning off stood a Check point and to one side a new settlement of 10,0000. for the workers of the town transporting the stone by lorries would often be at the whim of the soilders; good day the lorries go through, bad day; they dont, and between the 2 lorries would have to unload their cargo (stone tiles) pass through and reload. a journey of 40 miles could take all day. If the placemnet of the settlemnet and the road bloke wasnt bad enough, the present and intended building of the wall would cut the town off from the motoraway access, forcing the lorries to travel 60 miles for what would have been a ten mile trip. the fear of the Local authority was that the towns employers would be forced into ressession and closure, fortunatly the wall has yet to be built, our trip back unto Bethlehem took just 15 minutes. an exepreince that reinforces the impending effects of the wall and the need for increased mobilisation of solidarity.

Our final trip of the day took us through a cooperative Olive oil press, where people from miles around came to press thier oil and sell on or exchage as in most cases with the this impossed black economy. on our way back to the hotel we passed through a refugee camp created by and losely overseen by the UN sinse 1948. this was a place with great pride and ovbious dignity by its residents, yet the shadow of the Isreale governemnt was never to far away, we were told that often the water or electric would be turned off - harassment that simply follwed the sam,e that we had experineced so often on our trip.

Factory- of cigarettes!

2007-10-31T11:26:00.000-07:00

Well, firstly to let you know that everyone smokes in Palestine. I think it might be compulsory in this part of the world! It has been great smoking with our dinners! So our first trip to a factory visit was a cigarette company in Jerusalem. It is one of the main employers in the area, along with the university. We heard the same story about workers losing their right to cross the wall. The company are still paying wages to those who can't get to work. Otherwise those famillies would have no other income. We were given a tour by the owner, a young Palestinian whose grandfather founded the company. He and his father were educated in private schools in England and went to univerisity in Scotland- very strange! He had returned to Palestine to run the business. He gave us a very proud tour of the company that employs around 350 people- and it's one of the biggest employers!

After giving us samples of his finest tobacco and me posing for photos on crates and crates of fags (!) he went on his way and we talked to the union. They were established in 1991 and had elections to a committee every year. These stopped in1999 when interest wained, coinciding with the most recent uprising (Intifada) in 2000. They have now decided to start it up again and are planning elections to the committee next month. Their situation is difficult. Workers are scared to take part in any union activities as jobs are so sparse. We asked what made them start up again and the union reps told us that the workers are earning roughly 1400 Shekels a month (it's around 7/8 to the pound) and basically what more have they to lose? They said the company gives over and above the law so it's not bad but, due to the current situation in Palestine, they feel they need to organise just to hold on to what they have now. They had a strike 12 years ago and were successful in securing health insurance and a savings scheme (like a pension) where they contribute 5% and employer contributes 7%. The difficulties they have is that the company as a whole is being strangled by the Israeli regime. They used to export to Gaza but if they do that now they will have to pay Israeli tax and also tax to the Gaza government, paying twice. Last year the Israelis refused to grant them an import licence so they haven't been able to import any raw materials and had to stock up on 18 months worth where usually they would only have 6 months worth. Their tobacco was coming from Zimbabwe but now comes mostly from Brazil and the Phillipines. They are waiting and hoping that the Israelis will grant them an import licence this year or they will go bust. It seems that the trade union and the company to some extent are working together for a bigger political aim, which is freedom for Palestine, although the union is very aware and still determined to fight for workers rights.

It was summed up by the fact that, during the first Intifada (1987) the Palestinians went on general strike every Thursday. This was effective because they were working for the Israelis and it hit them financially. Now, however, the Palestinians are so cut off, basically just working within the wall, that striking would only harm Palestinians business and the Israelis wouldn't give a shit.

Prisoners museum

2007-10-31T10:59:00.000-07:00

There is a museum attached to the university which is about the political prisoners of Israel past and present. You enter and immediately are confronted by iron bars and next to it a wall and lots of big rocks. All these methods are used by the israelis to limit the movement of the Palestinian people and it is really effective. It's just the same outside when you can see the other side of the road but you can't get to it. There are photos of the prisons where prisoners are kept (Israel won't accept them as political prisoners although they are kept separately from criminals). Some of them are just rows of enormous tents where there are 8 to a tent, usually from the same political party. This is obviously a cheap way of keeping prisoners but bitterly cold in the winter and scorching sun in the summer. Our guide for the week, Abed, who works for CADFA here in Abu Dis, has himself been imprisoned altogether for three years and spent time in one of these prisons. The first time he was arrested the army raided his house when his family were asleep and broke all the windows to get in. He was 17 and was kept in prison for 18 days and was severely beaten. He was never charged. They accused him of throwing stones.

The photos of police brutality are shocking and include a photo of soldiers dragging a boy of around 12 down the street who is so frightened he has wet himself. Another one is of around 8 soldiers carrying a man by his arms and legs with a trail of blood coming from his head. He had been shot in the head and later died of his wounds. He was dying as they carried him away and, Abed told us, that they carried his body to a Jewish settlement, where the residents had been complaining about Palestinian children throwin stones, and threw his body at the entrance for all to see and started celebrating.

There were all the examples of torture that they use and still use as acceptable, including water boarding and suffocation. There is a wall of photos of Palestinians who had died at the hands of the Israeli soldiers, some as recently as last year and descriptions of how they died. Shooting, beating, torture and being thrown from helicopters were all there. One man was arrested at the age of 75 and died of a heart attack.

Upstairs there are examples of things that the prisoners have made inside. This brought me to tears as the art was so moving and the poems and letters home so soul destroying. All had brave messages about Palestinian freedom and there were photos of hunger strikers and messages of solidarity with the Irish hunger strikers. Letters and even books that were written inside and smuggled out in bullets covered in plastic that had been swallowed.

The staircase leading up to the top floor looks out onto the wall that snakes around a whole village, surrounding it on both sides. To the right is a basketball court that is overshadowed by the wall. Originally, the wall was supposed to go through the middle of it but the university managed to save it. The wall is covered in grafitti, including Che Guevara and messages in Spanish and Italian.

The top floor is an archive of all the writings of the prisoners. There are magazines and books, all hand written, on all kinds of subjects, including Judaism and Zionism, translations of Che Guevara and Marx into Arabic and discussions on the dialectic. Abed told us that, in fact, prison was where he learned politics and English and even Spanish. It shows that the mind is the most dangerous thing and most precious.

There are, at present, around 11,000 political prisoners in captivity, some as young as 14. Young people and children are treated no different, although Israelis are classed as juveniles up until 18.

There are prisons and detention centres all around the country, one of the biggest on the border of Egypt, two kilometres away from a major nuclear power station. It is in a huge military zone where people can't go. Visits to any prison are rare if at all as permits need to be granted by the Israeli government and then people have to through hundreds of check points to get there, not withstanding the financial cost of travel. It seems there is not one Palestinian family who has not a member who is in prison, been in prison, been beaten or killed by the Israeli army. Everyone is affected in a major way. The scale of it is so hard to believe. It's like living in a huge prison. It reminds me, after travelling around for a few days, of what Nazi Germany must have been like, with soldiers, passes, guns and armoured vehicles everywhere and the fear that you will be stopped, beaten or imprisoned at the whim of some arrogant and racist soldier.

Al Kuds university

2007-10-31T10:40:00.000-07:00

This is all gone a bit higgledy piggledy as we can't remember what we did when and our notes are all over the place but from what I can remember on Monday we started the day by visiting the Al Kuds (another name for Jerusalem) university, which has been cut in half by the wall. It was the same story as we got from the hospital where staff and students now have to travel (if they have a blue Jerusalem ID) an hour or more, depending on check point delays to get through the wall, a journey that used to take 5-10 minutes. Basically, people have to travel around the city and then wait to get through according the soldiers will.

The univeristy, as in the hospital and even the private cigarette company we visited later in the day (more later) are still paying staff wages for those who can't leave Jerusalem. These are people who live in Jerusalem with West Bank passes but the Israelis have built the wall outside the boundaries leaving them in limbo so they can't travel outside in case they are no allowed back in. There is no work in Jerusalem for them either. People are being paid even though they can't get to work. It just shows the solidarity here and made me wonder about what would hafppen in UK in the same situation.

Staff and students are often hours late becuase of the check points and everyone is suffering stess. Teachers are having to stay in the university sometimes for weeks depending on how bad the check points are or even they might be closed for no reason.

Another element to wear down the Palestinian population is that workiers living in Jerusalem who are allowed in and out (albeit through the wall and numerous check points) pay higher tax and rent than those in the West Bank. Working in the West Bank means they get much lower wages so life becomes impossible.

We were told that teachers used to get special permits to teach in Palestinian schools but this has stopped so roughly 1,300 teachers can't cross the wall and lots of schools have closed. In Abu Dis, where we are staying, there are nearly 2000 children who used to go to school in Jerusalem but are no longer allowed to go there and so are without schools or are massively overcroweded. Thousands of Palestinian people who were born and brought up in Jerusalem are now not allowed to go there at all. Tourists and foreigners and Jewish people go freely.

The most outrageous thing we heard and one that demonstrates the farce that is the regime is that Isreal won't recognise the Al Kuds qualifications. Not because of what they teach but because of the name of the university- Al Kuds means Jerusalem and the Israeli authority say that if they changed it to something else e.g. Olive MOunt unhinversity they would accept it. It all amounts to making Palestinian life shit.

Everywhere we have been there has been 100% union membership but people are finding it harder to pay their dues or even to find work so people are owrking for 80% wages or sometimes working for months without being paid.

Update

2007-10-31T10:30:00.000-07:00

OK. Now Wednesday. So much has happened and we have had no time to update. Have decided to share the load of the blog!! We have been having meetings at the end of each day to discuss what's happened and what we thought about it. We finish the meeting with 'headlines' of the main things that we remember so we are now going write down just these and hope that it give a sense of what's happening...it's too long otherwise and I want to get it out to you all before we forget! So the next bits will be a bit from all of us of the past two days....

peace

The end of day one!

2007-10-29T12:29:00.000-07:00

I am trying to remember all the we did yesterday because it was so long and so full of interesting and shocking things that we didn't have time to write anything down last night. After no sleep on the plane we finally crashed out at half eight and didn't wake this morning till the same time! Here's the rest of yesterday...

The most terrifying thing that we heard at the hospital is that, because it is in East Jerusalem (on the Mount of Olives) patients from the West Bank do not have access to it because they have to go through the wall. In fact, in cases of emergency, people have to travel through the check points in the wall and it is basically up to the Israeli soldiers if they go through or not.

We visited a check point this afternoon and on approaching we saw the soldiers sitting in their hut doing nothing. The traffic queue waiting to go through went back until we couldn’t see it any more. When we got closer, obviously foreigners, the soldiers got up from their posts and began to check people’s passes which was intimidating, humiliating and took ages. These were people just on their way home from work so it was obvious that someone needing urgent medical attention would have no chance. We were told of several occasions when people had died on their way to hospital just because they were stuck in a traffic jam behind a check point and even of women giving birth at check points. The soldiers obviously have no medical training and are just making these decisions on the basis of their own racism and mood.

What has really stuck in all of our visits so far is the hospitality and consciousness of the Palestinian people. Apart from being offered tea, coffee and biscuits everywhere we went, the dedication to community, trade unionism and organizing in every way to improve lives here is overwhelming.

We then went to meet the leader of the Teachers Union. He was very passionate and told us how difficult it was to organize unions. Teachers and Academics have not been allowed to publish any of their work. All textbooks are the Israeli version of history and the current situation. They kindly translated them into Arabic for Palestinian schools! One of our group asked a question about the Israeli Teachers’ Union and if they had ever made a statement in support of the Palestinian teachers or their struggle and the answer was a resounding no. Both unions are members of the International Education Union, who did make a statement in 2001 but that is all. There were classes going on the union office with three classes of 17/18 year olds studying maths and science.

Increasingly tired after trying to take in all this information and all the sights and division, we went on to a refugee ‘camp’. This is a place called Shu’fat in the North of Jerusalem behind the wall. The refugees were forcibly removed from where they lived in the Jewish quarter in around 1965, who consisted of 500 families. They were dumped here with no running water or electricity and had latrines outside, one for around each 50 people. They did, however, have separate facilities for men and women- what a generous thing! The authorities say that there are now around 11,000 people living there but we were told it’s more like 20,000. They have managed to sort out electricity and water somehow but the whole place is completely run down. There is rubbish everywhere in the streets due to the fact that the authorities only account for half the people living there. There is a school but only up to elementary age. So the community here has been living in squalor for forty years, just dumped from their homes where they and their families have lived for generations. It is now a sprawling town with potholed roads, half built homes with electricity lines going over head precariously and rubbish everywhere. There is no hospital and no school. What is even more disgusting is that hanging over the camp is a brand spanking new Jewish 'settlement' with immaculate houses. All the Jewish 'settlements' are built on the top of hills and all have large towers looming over them filled with Israeli soldiers.

Our host was an amazing inspiration who talked about building the community themselves from scratch. They have community centres, counselling services and a group for disabled children but everything is makeshift and not even scratching the surface of what they need. They have a football team, which I learned today is common thing and useful in terms of building solidarity, community and keeping young people away from drugs and into the Politics of Palestine without being obvious. His speech made me very tearful but was followed by an amazingly inspiring one by Suheil about peace in Palestine.

A message we heard again and again was that they want peace. They don't hate Jewish people and they understand that they are here to stay but the Israeli side does not act in the same way and continue to abuse the Palestinians, even encroaching and stealing the land that was agreed in 1948.

We finished the day with a beautiful meal at Abed's house (an amazing man who works at the CADFA centre...more of him later) cooked by his mother. We got really full up, had some tea and hit the sack. I can't believe we survived on so little sleep but there was so much to take in.

My overwhelming feeling at the end of the day was of the blatant apartheid in this country. I didn't realise just how much Palestinians are suffering day to day and it seems that now is more than ever with the wall and lack of movement. I thought of South Africa during apartheid and wondered why we are not campaigning the same back in England as we did then. This is a long blog but there is lots to tell and it's very emotional. I'll be catching up a day late so today's installment tomorrow hopefully.

continued...

2007-10-29T11:33:00.001-07:00

It was a really moving experience witnessing the blatant racism of the Isreali regime against Suheil. He was so dignified about it, having to smile and reason with them. He is so used to it. They tried to say that the entrance was not for Muslims so told them he was a Christian and they said that it wasn't for Arabs. It was our first taste of how Palestinian life is made a complete misery and a hassle as well as being humiliating, not least because it is the place that you were born.

After lunch at the PGFTU we went to a hospital in East Jerusalem. Most of their patients and lots of their staff are unable to access the hospital now because of the wall, which basically runs through Jerusalem regardless of borders or boundaries. Sometimes it goes through towns (such as Abu Dis) separating neighbours and even families. There is an ID system that the Israelis have imposed that I am still trying to get my head around but, as I understand it, there are two kinds for the Palestinians: blue and green. If you have a blue ID pass it means that you live in West Jerusalem (160,000) and can work there. West Jerusalem is the "Jewish" side where all the important religious sites are. If you have a green or West Bank pass, you cannot enter West Jerusalem either to work, live or visit your family. The doctors at the hospital told us that staff cannot come to work because they are on the other side of the wall and do not have the right kind of ID pass. Also, if you have a blue pass you must stay that side. Police often raid people's houses to check that they are still there late at night. People have their passes revoked to staying away from West Jerusalem for short periods of time. You have to prove that you have lived there continuously for seven by showing proof of address, bills, bank accounts and many other documents. We met a trade unionist today who had a green pass and his wife has a blue pass so he cannot visit her family. She works in West Jerusalem but they cannot live there.

2007-10-29T08:45:00.000-07:00

So we arrived yesterday morning about 4.30am. The flight was OK but we had our first experience of the Israeli military en route as there was a soldier sitting in front of me (we guessed according to the fact that he and his two mates were all shaven headed, well built and extremely rude). After sitting down, leaning back and basically disrupting my dinner he complained loudly and ended up swearing at me for touching the screen on the back of his chair too hard!

No problems coming into Israel although it took ages and we got a mini bus taxi to Jerusalem. We met the others at the hotel, had breakfast and a shower. Swampy had no sleep but I felt slightly better having slept for two hours or so. We met Christina, who is a volunteer for CADFA, and has been in Palestine for two months teaching English. She explained that she was very angry at what she had seen..as we would soon discover.

We went straight out into Jerusalemand along to the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU). The offices were in a really run down building and their two rooms had hardly any equipment. We were later told that the offices had been raided on many occasions- 6 times in the last three years.

Our guide, Suheil, head of the PGFTU, took us to the centre of Jerusalem where the Al Asqa mosque is located. It's the 3rd most holy place in Islam. Also there is the Wailing Wall (Jewish). A wiered experience as there are Christians and Jews everywhere. Arabs have limited access and have to use a different entrance. We went with Suheil through the Arab quarter and were prevented from entering (all gates are stationed by Israeli soldiers) and told to go to another gate. Arriving there we were told that we could enter but Suheil couldn't. We decided that we would go in and then Suheil was told that he couldn't go back the way he came and had to go around the walls to meet us later.

I'm off to meet some Electricy Workers Unionists so more later for now ....

We met members of the Executive Committee from various affiliated unions, including electricity, transport and construction. They were absolutely inspiring and explained how dire the situation is here in Palestine. I will talk about the details later, suffice to say that union members can no longer afford their dues and the union office hasn't been able to afford its rent for months and months. They are really relying on foreign support.

A delegation of Norwegian trade unionists then arrived at the offices and we had lunch (the best Palestinian olive oil ever tasted- freshly harvested!) and exchanged stories.

The day before...

2007-10-26T05:07:00.000-07:00

Right then. This is a blog is it? Well. I am preparing for the trip. We are leaving tomorrow. A bit apprehensive. Not a big fan of fire arms..they tend to make me nervous. Also quite worried that I won't be able to impersonate a Catholic Daily Mail reader on a pilgrimage to the holy land! However, I will keep thoughts of my Irish roots in my head and hope for the best. Weather will be good so there's obviously the issue of clothing...how to be covered without being boiling hot! I am pretty wary of what we are actually going to see there in terms of living conditions and the stories that we will hear. It is such a tragic and dispicable situation that I find it hard not to get extremely angry or upset. I hope it will all be OK.

I will try and report back as much as possible on this blog as it's safer than paper but it depends on what is available.

Peace and solidarity.