Short of being a witness, storytelling
(spoken words, video, audio etc) is always the best way to
understand a grim reality whether in Jim Crow South, in
Apartheid South Africa, or in occupied/colonized Palestine.
Below are four stories to share with your friends and
colleagues of millions of stories of "life" (the quotes are
warranted) in Palestine. But we must also go beyond
understanding/telling stories to join and organize with
others to liberate/free ourselves (including fellow
human beings). Liberating fellow human beings applies
to the oppressor AND the oppressed. The Prophet
Muhammad said: "Help your brother, whether he is
an oppressor or he is oppressed." The Prophet was
asked: "It is right to help him if he is oppressed, but
how should we help him if he is an oppressor?"
He replied: "By preventing him from oppressing
others" (Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 3, Hadith 624).
And let us remember the Golden rule found in ALL
religious, spiritual, and moral traditions: do not do to
others what you do not want done to you.
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1) Three blind women at a checkpoint, notes by
Rana Qumsiyeh, April 13, 2008
[While reading this remember that a) all here are
the lucky 0.1% of the population of Bethlehem who
have a "permit" to get to Jerusalem and b) that this
is the mild forms, many died at checkpoints while
refused to get to medical facilities and many are starving
because their lands and jobs are on the other side of the
Apartheid wall. Mazin Q]
Yesterday was not the first time I see those three blind
women at the checkpoint. They are familiar to many who
cross the Bethlehem checkpoint on daily basis to get to
Jerusalem. Two middle-aged Palestinian women and
one elderly woman who seems to be a foreigner; could
be German, as I have heard them talk to each other
in German at times. I have always wondered how they
manage to make their way through this maze, being
blind, when most people with perfect eye sight struggle
to find their way through, when crossing this checkpoint
for the first time, and have to ask for directions.
So, yesterday, despite that it was a Saturday, there was a
long line forming when those three blind women walked
in, and it was taking too long for the door to open and let
people in one by one. As usual, they were let through
ahead of everyone because of their situation. A few
minutes later, they got inside and it seems two of them got
through the metal-detector door and the third one “beeped”.
The female soldier on duty screamed at her in Hebrew to
take her shoes off. This female soldier is known to all of us,
the crowds who go through everyday, we call her the
screamer. We know she is on duty before we even get
into the terminal, because her yelling reaches outside the
Wall! Of course, standing in line outside, we barely can see
anything of what is happening inside, we just hear and try
to understand what is going on. Thus, we assumed that the
blind woman took off her shoes and passed again and she
still “beeped”, the soldier screamed again, now louder, in
Hebrew, ordering her to take her jacket off. One more time,
we hear beeping, then we hear crying. Apparently, the blind
woman started to cry at that point. The soldier screamed
louder, and this time, I didn’t understand what she was
saying.
Half an hour had passed since I got in line and I was still there,
and the line was not moving. People started complaining,
calling, so a male soldier’s voice came through the loud speaker
saying “You have to wait, we have ‘problems’ inside”. We heard
more beeping and then a loud laugh from the “screamer”.
Eventually, they opened the door and I got to the ID and
permit inspection point, there were the two other blind
women, apparently still waiting for their companion, who
had been forced into one of the “further investigation”
rooms. I went outside and got on the bus, and soon after
the three women followed. The third one was very stressed
out and in tears. It turns out; her skirt zipper was the
problem. I am not sure if she was forced to take her skirt
off in that closed 'cell', no one dared ask. As the bus drove
off, I watched her cry all the way from the checkpoint to
Jerusalem…
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2) GAZA: No Ambulance, Call the Radio
Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY, Apr 12 (IPS) - "I am bleeding uncontrollably,
I need an ambulance." That was not a call to emergency
services, it was an appeal broadcast live on radio in Gaza City.
Who knows whether there will ever be an ambulance or not.
But this way the ambulance services still hear the appeal
broadcast on Al-Iman FM Radio Station, one of few
independent radio stations in Gaza. And if the emergency
services cannot help, someone else who hears the appeal might.
The ambulance dispatcher announces he cannot get the
ambulance to the man. An Israeli bulldozer is blocking
the road, and an Israeli tank on a hilltop has been firing
at the ambulance, he says. Nobody can say if anyone
else got to help the man. But at least his SOS could
have been heard.
Appeals again went on air after the Friday attacks on
Bureij refugee camp, where the death toll climbed to 16
by the weekend. The deaths included six children among
nine people killed Friday. Again, ambulance crews
confirmed they could not reach many of the injured.
But the appeals were made on radio for all to hear.
A man called from east of Jabaliya refugee camp asking for
an ambulance for his wife about to deliver. The radio host
asked his location, and that of Israeli tanks. "I can't look
from the window to see," he said. "They will shoot me
if I do."
A lady called to ask an ambulance to clear the remains of a
body lying on the door. IPS confirmed later that it was the
body of Abdelrazek Nofal, who was 19. He was blown to
bits by an Israeli tank shell.
Someone else called from Bureij asking for ambulance, and
for food and water. "My mother needs to be in hospital
urgently," he called the radio station to say. Another
difficult mission, with the Israeli troops patrolling the area.
The appeals are heard on radio day after day. No one can
say what follows the appeals in each case. But the live
broadcasts on the radio can be a lifeline – or at the least, a
line of hope. Where emergency services and aid agencies
are not listening in, the radio then calls them.
"It brings tears to my eyes," says radio host Khaled
al-Sharqawi. "I can sometimes hear shooting, and
women and children screaming, asking for ambulances,
and the ambulances cannot reach them."
Emergency services keep the radio on, if only to go in
when it's safe to bring out bodies. On one recent mission,
said Ahmed Abu Sall, who works as a volunteer medica
l worker, "we were shot at by an Israeli tank. Two
bullets hit the wheels."
This mission succeeded, as several do. But it can be a long
haul to call and wait. Often, cell phone batteries run out as
people call again and again with the appeals for help.
The Palestinian Telecommunications Company has given
the radio station a toll-free number. That makes calling
easier, but the radio statiion has to be on guard also against
mischief. Hosts do what they can to check sources and
credibility before putting an appeal live on air.
Not every call is a medical crisis. "In such cases we call
human rights organisations," Sharqawi told IPS. "But they
usually tell us they cannot help people on the ground."
Most people working at the radio station are young volunteers.
And Al-Iman isn't the only one; several other local radio stations
have begun now to hear and to broadcast live appeals for help.
(END/2008)
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3) This is a story that is over 8 years old but I was reminded
of it when Rana sent her story about the blind women.
Young Hiam recently celebrated her 16th birthday and
has now half her life with a prosthetic eye thanks to Israeli
occupation. Also most receiving this may not have seen it in
2001 and certainly Hiam (then 8 year old) is still in occupied,
starved Gaza and we occasionally talk on the phone:
http://www.qumsiyeh.org
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4) Video of Palestinian Children speaking for themselves in refugee camps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
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SILENCE IS COMPLICITY
Mazin Qumsiyeh
http://qumsiyeh.org
http://peace-action.org
http://justicewheels.org
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