Ramallah Report

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday June 10, 2003 11:31 by Brendan Young

Day 8, June 9 2003

Day 8 of Tony Richardson's reports from Ramallah

9-6-2003

Day 8 .
Made it to Nablus, I am typing this report from Balata Refugee camp. A completely different journey from yesterday. After going to Qalanda, I got a service going directly to Nablus. Directly is a bit of a wrong description, in that the taxi went all over the place, through small, and large villages, I think to avoid checkpoints. The checkpoint at which I was stopped last time no longer existed, it had been two armoured vehicles.

Every time the Israelis set up a checkpoint, the Palestinians have to adapt, by creating taxi points etc. Finally I arrived at the dreaded Huwara checkpoint, two days earlier there had been a demonstration of 300 people at this checkpoint, because it is so hard to get through. The Palestinians waiting, said that they expected to wait up to 5 hours, but as I was in a hurry I tried, successfully, to use the fact that I was English, and met a soldier who liked England. So one taxi ride later I am here in Balata.

Tony Richardson

Day 8 supplemental.

Balata Camp is the biggest refugee camp in the West Bank, with a population of 18,000. It is attached to the city of Nablus, which, with the camps is about the same size as Oxford. The reason I am here is to work with human rights activists, trying to limit the oppressive activities of the Israeli Army. The movement is non-violent, and trains people in that practice.

Tonight I sleep in a martyrs house, which is a practice used to try to stop them being knocked down by the Israelis. Most of the internationals are going out to sit on the street, where the Israelis put a barricade at the entrance to the camp, which the internationals knocked down, and which they want to stop the Israelis replacing.

One of the major activities, at the moment is going to houses, which the Israeli Army requisition. What the army does is take the top floors of the house, make all the family move in to the ground floor, and then refuse to allow them to leave the house, effectively using them as human shields. So the internationals take them food, and check they are OK.

I realise that the reason I could not get through on Sunday was because the Israelis closed the West bank, in response to the shooting of 4 soldiers in Gaza. This action is against the Geneva Convention, which does not allow collective punishment. But it is also strange that this is called a terrorist act, under conditions where military defence against an occupying army is allowed. But also when you consider that after last April the Israeli Airforce, and army systematically set about killing members of the Palestinian Police, to the extent that it effectively disbanded itself . None of these killings were called terrorist acts, even though they were done by an occupying army. It is clear that international law does not apply to Israel.

Tony Richardson