>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: "International" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 15:22:57 -0500 > >International Action Center Palestine Journal >Monday, October 30 > >ISRAELIS SHELL PALESTINIAN NEIGHBORHOODS >�I want to send this missile back to Clinton� > >[The following is the third report from a four-person delegation from the >International Action Center from their humanitarian and fact-finding >mission to Palestine during what is being called the Al Aqsa Intifada, >or uprising. The delegation aims to bring back a first-hand report >documenting the repression inflicted by the Israeli army and to bring >medical supplies for Palestinian hospitals, which have been declared a >state of medical emergency. The Emergency is caused by the dual >problem of the heavy casualties inflicted by the Israeli repression and >the inability of sick and wounded people to pass through Israeli >checkpoints on their way to the hospital. The IAC delegation includes >Richard Becker, Sara Flounders, Randa Jamal and Preston Wood.] > >************************** > >Shelling from Israeli tanks and helicopter gun ships into Palestinian >towns escalated Oct. 30 as the death toll from the repression rose to >151 Palestinians by official count, plus eight Israelis. Scores of >Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank were wounded. > >Near midnight an announcement came over the television that everyone >in the entire Palestinian nations was to go to the center of the town >they lived in to demonstrate against the shelling by the Israeli army. It >was a call for a massive national demonstration, taking place past >midnight. > >The four-person International Action Center delegation was in >Ramallah, where they hoped to make their second delivery of >medicines and dressings to the hospital the next morning. In the >meantime Ramallah joined the list of towns targeted by the Israeli army. > >>From the rooftop near the family�s home where they was staying, IAC >delegation members could see and hear the step up in shelling from >tanks. This is how IAC Western Regional Coordinator Richard Becker >described it: > >�At about 10:30 local time we saw a rocket attack from what we believe >was an Apache helicopter some distance from the house that we�re >staying in. A plane that was flying over, we could see that, we saw a >flare and then a large explosion took place possibly within a mile, mile >and a half. > >�We went immediately to the site and it turned out that a very small >building from the Fatah organization had been rocketed in a residential >neighborhood in Ramallah�s twin city, El-Bireh. > >�When we arrived on the scene there were many people on the streets. >There�s no other commercial or offices in this neighborhood, all the rest >of the neighborhood was residential. The rocket hit the Fatah office, >which is something like I would say six feet by 12 feet, a really a tiny >office. > >�Then we went immediately across the street to see the widespread >damage to the residential apartments. We went inside to talk with the >people inside the apartments, which all had the glass blown off in the >front of buildings. There were pieces of the rocket inside the apartment, >on the floor. > >�By very great fortune none of the people were injured. We interviewed >a 7-year-old boy who was very scared and a 13 year old and a 16-year- >old girl who were terrified. Fortunately, their mother, a U.S. citizen who >lives most of the time in Birmingham, Alabama, had heard the planes >and the helicopters outside the house had brought the children into the >center of the house in the hallway and had them on a mattress. > >�Then the rocket hit across the street and destroyed the office and >blew up the whole front of the square unit apartment building. There >was massive debris everywhere, including pieces of the missile inside. >There was another house where according to the neighbors the people >had just left five minutes before the rocket hit. This house suffered >structural damage, large pieces of stone from the house lying in front of >it, the windows were all blown out. > >�We were not able to go into the house next door that was rocketed. >Inside the apartment building there were pieces of missile that burned >the rug. It was also very fortunate that the apartment building wasn�t >destroyed by fire. > >Becker remarked that the people were well aware that the weapons for >the shelling were coming from the United States. �One man who had >lived for many years in an apartment upstairs picked up a piece of a >wall that was blown into his apartment, through his window from the >house that was blown up across the street. He held it up and said, �I >want to send a message to President Clinton, I want to send this back >to him.�� > >WHOLE NATION ON LOCKDOWN > > �The family I�m staying with,� said IAC Co-Director Sara Flounders, >�has a brother in Nablus. He called to say that there were four >bombings there too. They hit another Fatah office at Nablus University. >We also heard that there were bombings at Rafia Gaza, a divided city >on the southernmost point of Gaza.� > >There were military roadblocks everywhere from Bethlehem to >Ramallah and apparently throughout the West Bank, Gaza and most of >Israel. The IAC members, with their U.S. passports could get through >the checkpoints. Palestinians who had been living there all their lives, >however, were unable to get through. They were on lockdown, >imprisoned in their own land, Flounders explained. > >The day before, even with the U.S. passports, it took the delegation >two hours to get from East Jerusalem to Beit Lahour near Bethlehem, >a trip that normally is less than 30 minutes. There they could drop off >the first delivery of medicine. > >�Delivering medical supplies was important,� Flounders said. �Nothing >has been getting through the roadblocks that could help the doctors >take care of those wounded during the Intifada and the Israeli >repression. Small clinics needed to be stocked with anti-biotics, burn >and wound dressings, for example.� > >For the Palestinians, everyday life had become horribly complicated >even when it wasn�t deadly. > >�The father of the family we�re staying with went to a job in Jenin and >couldn�t get back home for eight days,� said Flounders. > >�Last week,� she continued, �the school the children go to was blasted >by bombs�the kids were traumatized. But amazingly, everyone is so >strong. > >The IAC members had similar experiences the day before in >Bethlehem, Beit Sahur and Beit Jala, and at the refugee camp. Even >though these areas had come under bombing attack again and again, >the people still said they were determined not to let the Israelis drive >them out. > >VIOLENCE FROM SETTLER MOBS > >It was not just the Israeli Defense Force�the military�carrying out >attacks on the Palestinians. Violent mobs of settlers and the most >reactionary segments of Israeli society regularly beat and burned, even >mutilated those Palestinians who wandered near the edges of their own >areas. > >People returning from work or from the olive groves�it�s now the >season to harvest olives�were subject to attack. > >In Jerusalem the day before the IAC delegation met with Palestinian >and Jewish anti-Zionist activists who had set up mobile units to try to >stop mob violence against the Palestinians. > >�But we could see how dangerous it was for the Palestinians,� said >Flounders, �even in their own villages. Groups of settlers armed to the >teeth with automatic weapons walk through crowded market places >with their weapons cocked, ready to fire, at people who are not allowed >to have weapons.� > >The settlers live in armed villages on the highest land, atop hills that >overlook the farm lands and the villages of the Palestinians. �If you >haven�t been here,� said Flounders, �it�s hard to imagine how close the >settlements are to the Palestinian villages. These are armed hilltops >around Jerusalem and Ramallah, with roads connecting them that only >cars with Israeli license plates can drive on. > >�They look down on the Palestinian villages. And from them, settlers >can and do take aim and fire into the villages,� she said. > >�It�s now almost one in the morning,� Flounders said, �and we�re about >to join the protest march here in Ramallah.� > >International Action Center >39 West 14th Street, Room 206 >New York, NY 10011 >email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >web: http://www.iacenter.org >CHECK OUT SITE http://www.mumia2000.org >phone: 212 633-6646 >fax: 212 633-2889 >*To make a tax-deductible donation, >go to http://www.peoplesrightsfund.org > _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi _______________________________________________________ Kominform list for general information. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anti-Imperialism list for anti-imperialist news. 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