Back from the Villages with a Bit of Time

just got back from the villages of cousin, beit iba and beit wazan helping to plan for the olive harvest after ramadan. the villages have similar problems, their land is close to jewish only settler roads and so when they approach their lands, soldiers shoot at them, arrest them or otherwise force them to leave. some of the land is one the east side of the road, some on the west, but since the road has been built, they can not cross it. in other areas, farms are split by beit iba checkpoint, and in other areas, military roads segment the land. in one area of beit wazan, their main fields are approximately 150 meters from a newly constructed israeli army observation tower, so when they approach to farm, they are shot at. we are making plans to assist them.

i'm reading the news online, waiting on the rest of the crew who are writing segments of reports. so i'll spend a few minutes reading and relaying it back to y'all. let us start with news from the resistance before we do news from the occupation.

sunday, the izzedine al qassam brigades, the military wing of the hamas movement, launched two home made (qassam) rockets, as well as one rocket-propelled grenade at an israeli military convoy. the projectiles targeted two makava tanks. in a separate incident, the qassam brigades launched two home made rockets at third tank in the eastern region of the ash shukaeyah, the site of much israeli violence over the last 24 hours....also on sunday, the abu ali mustafa brigades, the military wing of the populart front for the liberation of palestine shot an israeli soldier positioned on a tank within an israeli military position east of al maghazi area of gaza. the abu ali mustafa brigades have been especially active this past week as they commemorate the 5th anniversary of their assassinated leader and name sake, Abu Ali Mustafa. over the last 2 days, nablus has been plastered with posters bearing ali mustafa's face, the face of other martyred leaders, and below them, the masked faces of the mustafa brigades.

moving on to the occupation, there has been another significant arrest. israel has kidnapped yet another member of the palestinian parliament from his home in bireh village near ramallah. approximately 20 military vehicles were involved in the incursion to arrest mahmoud mesleh, a democratically-elected parliamentarian. in addition, israel has announced that they are extending the detention of mahmoud al-ramhi, the forth ranking member of the palestinian legislature, and the secretary of the palestinian parliament. he will be held for at least an additional two weeks. since israel began its campaign to topple the elected government of palestine in late june, they have arrested 64 members of the hamas movement including eight government ministers and twenty nine members of parliament.

moving to gaza, there has been a great deal of violence in gaza since the israeli's launched "operation summer rain," in response to the arrest of one israeli soldier by palestinian fighters. since the operation began, less than two months ago, there have been 202 palestinians murdered, including 44 children. during this time, 1 israeli soldier has been killed and 26 israeli soldiers and civilians injured. the number of palestinian civilian injuries is literally incalculable since 1-20 are injured every night during air strikes. since june 28th, the israeli occupation army has launched more than 267 air strikes, and they have closed karni, the main crossing for food and humanitarian supplies, and they have closed rafah, the main crossing for people. during the air strikes, the israeli army has demolished approximately 120 homes, workshops and greenhouses, and damaged another 160. according to the united nations development project, the cost to the electrical networks alone is at least 1.8 million US dollars. since the israeli offensive is ongoing, many repairs have been delayed, and at present, more than 1,000,000 people have limited access to electricity and water.

ma'an featured a very interesting article, hamas member and spokesperson for the palestinian government, dr. gazi hamad, responds to the dire situation in gaza through self criticism of the palestinian people and the hamas government. it's worth a read, it's short.

an article written by an american friend we met in balata about life in the camp.

i just added, with the help of steve, a new section of links called 'direct action in palestine.' these three organizations are for international activists to join with palestinians to fight the occupation. check them out and if you have questions about them, ask me. i now know organizers and participants in all of them.

also, we added a link to the community website for balata refugee camp, my current home. this was a project started by a few internationals a few years back to document life in the camp. it contains video documentaries made by camp residents, in english. as well as photographs and other such things. i highly suggest you check it out.

here is a picture of Mountasir, the 15 year old martyr from the demonstration at yesterday's incursion. the picture shows him in the morgue, draped in the flag of islam. you can see a man hands outreached in prayer for the young boy.

here are two more pictures of unnamed palestinian demonstrators also shot by israeli forces yesterday. the boy in the red i met earlier in the day. he greeted me warmly and allowed me to take some photos of him. in the picture attached you can see the pool of blood soaking through the left side of his shirt near his ribs.

so i depart now, back to the camp to finish our work for the day. who knows what tomorrow brings for the people her and for us. it has been a difficult few days with 2 hot at the flying checkpoint in iraq burin, 2 shot at the checkpoint near assira and 23 shot yesterday in nablus. we have seen a lot of violence and i am sure there is a great deal more to come.

people have been asking what they can do to support the palestinian people...if you listen to the palestinian people, they want you to tell the people of america and europe what is going on. that is their only requst. to tell their story.

so tell it.

all my love from occupied palestine:

michael