Nablus craziness, kidnappings & clashes

marhaba,

i'm gonna be brief because i've been writing all night. with all the violence, there has been a lot of reporting to be done. below this entry, i will include the report i just finished writing documenting the recent upsurge in violence in the nablus area where i reside.

as my last hasty email indicates, despite what you may have read in the news, i am not kidnapped. sometime today or last night, there was an american volunteer named michael, residing in nablus kidnapped by an unknown group. a group calling itself ansar al sunnah sent a photocopy of michael's passport and student id to media sources and claimed to have kidnapped him. ansar al sunnah IS NOT A PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE GROUP, and if it linked to the organization on the same name in iraq and lebanon, is an extremist islamist insurgent group that has beheaded foreign diplomats and worked in northern iraq fighting the coalition forces as well as iraq's kurdish population. ansar al sunnah has previously not existed in palestine, and it is thought that the kidnapper are not affiliated with the larger organization and may simply have borrowed the name. i was informed of this incident early this afternoon as our media office called me to see if i had been kidnapped. then the phone calls started coming in. a media office in ramallah, friends in beit ommar, friends in ramallah and such. they all called to confirm what they thought was already true, that i had been kidnapped. but no, i wasn't. it was another michael from america working in nablus. of course i know him as there are only a small handful of foreigners here. i see him a few times a week and he has always seemed nice to me.

i spent parts of the day making calls on his behalf, responding to the media, and asking friends for information. later in the evening i had a sit down meeting with three members of force 17, the palestinian presidential executive guards and intelligence service. they are tasked with protecting president abbas and assured me that they had been in contact with the president all day. they told me that they had contacted all of the resistance groups in the area and that all of the groups had strongly denioed being in any way involved in the kidnapping. the al-aqsa martyrs brigade has already issued a condemnation of the kidnapping. so the force 17 guys and i put our heads together and tried to figure out what happened and what i knew that could help. no news yet but i wish michael a safe return to the work he loves, supporting the palestinian people by teaching english through an organization called project hope. an interesting thing is that when the palestinians were talking about the kidnapping, they kept referring to the kidnappers as terrorists. this word is used a lot against the palestinians fighters here so its interesting to hear the very same men use it in reference to the kidnappers. i state the people who kidnap foreigners coming to help are terrorists, using terror as a weapon for political or economic ends.

earlier in the day, when i was at the internet cafe, i had a disturbing experience with a man who has become a good friend since i spend nearly an hour a day with him for the last few months. he stormed into the office angry, which is a state i had never seen him in. he threw down a knapsack and sat in his swivel chair sulking and cursing, running is hands backwards through his hair. this man works and is in school all day. he wakes up and goes to school, then leaves school and goes to work, leaves work and goes to school, and later leaves school and comes back to work where he stays until the cafe closes at 1am. so needless to say, he has little time to go see his family who lives near jenin. so over the last few days he got his ducks in a row, finished his school work early, and took off work to go see his family. he has not seen his family in more than three months, and he keeps saying how much he misses his mother and brothers. so today, he went to school with his knapsack, and went off north to see his family for the first time in three months. in order to get to the villages near jenin, you need to pass through beit iba checkpoint. problem is, today, occupation forces decided to close beit iba checkpoint. he waited for hours, and no movement. he went up to speak to the soldiers, hoping that his pleads would allow his passage, but no. so defeated, he lowered his head, turned around and came back to nablus. when i saw him, he was so sad and so angry. 'fuck them, fuck the soldiers,' he said over and over again. he is a real gentle man who when he doesn't see me for a few days calls me and tells me that he misses me. it was really hard to see him like this. just another day living under foreign occupation, with your life in the hands of a foreign army.

after i left the meeting with force 17, i passed through the central square in the old city and it was packed with people. music was blaring and there were lights, flags, and other decorations hung from the clock tower to the mosque to the store fronts. this is the square nominally used for martyr memorial parties. but today, it was a night time festival for the kids. there was a DJ playing arabic pop music, a group of men with drums, cymbals and other percussion instruments in a sort of drum circle and there was a table of men in red hats singing beautifully.

kids danced and smiled and sung, siting on their parent's laps, on their shoulders or standing on their own. kids pushed past the legs of adults to get a good view and a little girl, who seemed scared by the noise, grasped tight to my pants. i patted a lot of heads, smiled at a lot of children and had a good time mingling. its so nice to see the kids in positive play, not chasing each other with guns or fire crackers, but enjoying local music and being festive with their parents. it was a nice break for me and a needed break for them.

as i type, i just received a phone call that michael, from america has been released. i have to go meet someone outside, be back soon.

ok, so i just met with a man that confirmed that michael has been released, unharmed. he was seized by a renegade person within one of the palestinian factions that is known to have been creating troubles recently in the factional wars. so michael is currently staying in the home of the former municipality president and will be officially unveiled free to the world tomorrow in a ceremony. the reason for the kidnapping is still unclear but seems to have some relation to the kidnapper seeking to make demands to the US. thr al-aqsa martyrs brigade was instrumental in granting his release. they actually found him and confronted the kidnappers with weapons, forcing the kidnappers to flee, leaving michael. the brigades then handed michael over to the appropoiate parties.

as the man was telling me of michael's emancipation, a strange sounds started. a tap tap tap on the tin section of our roof that covers the porch. i blew it off and said it was a cat, and then it picked up in speed and i realized, it was not an army of cats, but the first rain of the season. the man i was with said a prayer in thanks. the first rain of the harvest as i learn of a friend's release, could the night have ended any better. the rain only lasted a minute or two, but its a start. when we get one good rainy day, the olives will be cleaned and plumped, and then the harvest goes into full swing.

two very loud explosions just erupted outside, then some shooting that sounds like clashes, then some more explosions. i think there are clashed in the old city, probably some roadside bombs are trying to hit jeeps, and the shooting is a combination of occupation snipers, fire from their army jeeps and the sparse shots fired from resistance fighters as they bob and duck in the alleys.**(see below)

well its, almost 3 am, and i'm heading to sleep. thanks for michael's safe release, thanks for the rain. first comes the rain, then comes the harvest, then the total liberation of the lands. in'shallah.


all my love from occupied palestine, nablus' old city:

michael

**as i read today's news before sending this email, it turns out that the sounds i heard last night were indeed clashes of a fairly large nature. the al-aqsa martyrs brigade claimed to ave detonated six road side bombs at invading occupation forces. there was a multi hour exchange of shots, and an occupation army jeep was partially destroyed in an explosion.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three days in Nablus: Four Killed, Six Injured, Eight Arrested
by ISM Nablus

October 11, 2006—The Nablus region is constantly under siege by soldiers with the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF), and in the past three days in Nablus, IOF soldiers have killed four Palestinians, injured more than six, and seized at least eight.

Around 2am, this morning, IOF soldiers carried out four separate military invasions in the Nablus area. IOF soldiers invaded Al-Ain Refugee Camp, Balata Refuge Camp, Askar Refuge Camp as well as the Old City of Nablus. During the incursion into Al-Ain Camp, an IOF sniper shot and killed Abdullah Mansour 29, of Jericho. Mansour was visiting the home of a relative, and was shot in the head while observing the actions of the IOF from a balcony window. Mansour was not immediately killed by the sniper's bullet and his life might have been saved if he had been given timely medical care, but as often occurs, his ambulance was prevented from reaching the area by IOF soldiers attempting to impose a closure on the area during their operations.

Some Israeli media sources reported that Mansour was a resistance fighter, shot while attempting to plant a bomb, but this account is contradicted by eyewitness reports from neighbors, a nearby photojournalist, as well as medical personnel. Monsour was a civilian, not a fighter, and he was shot from within a relative's home, not on the street planting a bomb.

On the same night Mansour was murdered, IOF solders invaded Nablus Al-Qaryoun neighborhood in the Old City, as well as Balata and Askar refugee camps. Throughout the four incursions, five Palestinian males were taken prisoner by IOF soldiers. In Nablus Old City, IOF soldiers broke into numerous homes and seized two brothers, Fadi Ziad Galiz 18, and Mohammad Ziad Galiz, 25. During the attack, which lasted from 2am until 4am, IOF soldiers occupied the Afuri building just outside of the Al-Qaryoun square and used the building as on observation position.

The same night, IOF soldiers invaded Balata Refuge Camp and Askar Refuge Camp. In Balata, IOF soldiers seized three men, Azmi Tawfiq Al Serafi, 20, Abu Rish, 20 and a 20 year old man known only as Hussam. The invasion into Askar Refugee camp utilized an armored, American-made Caterpillar D9 bulldozer in addition to the standard armored army jeeps. The Caterpillar trudged through the camp's narrow streets and alleys destroying water pumps and pipes, as well as causing extensive damage to camp's the central market.

In total, during the three hours of invasions into four areas, five men were seized and one killed.

This most recent upsurge of violence began in early Sunday morning when IOF soldiers shot and killed a man in Balata Refugee camp. In approximately seventy two hours, IOF soldiers would kill four Palestinian men, injure more than six and arrest many. On Sunday morning, in a pre-dawn incursion to Balata Camp, IOF soldiers shot and killed Osama Saleh, 22, known locally as Skipper. Skipper was a resistance fighter with Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, and was shot twice in the chest as he attempted to prevent IOF soldiers from entering the camp by engaging them in an armed clash. During these clashes, IOF soldiers killed Skipper and injured at least four additional persons.

Approximately twelve hours after the invasion into Balata, IOF soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian civilian at Huwarra checkpoint, the main barrier for Nablus residents seeking to travel south. At 3:20pm on Sunday, Amjad Mohammed El-Haj Tirawi, 23, also from Balata Refugee Camp, was attempting to travel south despite the IOF's total closure of Huwarra checkpoint because of the Jewish holiday. With the checkpoint closed, and Tirawi left with no other option to reach his home, he traveled in a car on a bypass road. IOF soldiers in an army jeep stationed on the bypass road spotted Tirawi's car when it reached the Al-Sateh area, one kilometer from the village of Til. Rather then arresting the passengers of the car, the soldiers opened fire. Tirawi was shot several times in the head, chest and legs and killed. During the shooting, Ahmed Hazzaa Ramadan, 21, from Til village was also shot in the shoulder and injured. That night IOF soldiers arrested another three men from Nablus.

Twenty four hours after the killing of Tirawi, IOF soldiers at Huwarra checkpoint murdered yet another Palestinian man. According to reports from local media, medical volunteers and eyewitnesses, Mohammed Waleed Mustafa Sa'ada, 20, also from Til village was shot and killed without provocation. Sa'ada approached the checkpoint, heading towards a taxi that was being searched by IOF soldiers. When he was approximately ten meters from the taxi, without warning, Sa'ada was shot once and wounded, forcing him to fall to the ground. While kneeling on the ground, a second IOF soldier opened fired on Sa'ada, hitting him three times. Palestinian bystanders were prevented from aiding Sa'ada after he was shot. An ambulance with the Palestinian Red Crescent arrived soon after, and once again, bystanders were prevented from aiding the medics in their attempts to transport the wounded man to the ambulance stretcher. Sa'ada later died.

Official IOF accounts of the incident diverge strongly from the numerous eyewitness testimonies. An IOF spokesperson said that Sa'ada was shot while "attempting to assault a solider with a knife" though no knife was recovered, and all accounts indicate that Sa'ada was nearly ten meters from the closest soldier when he was shot four times.

The following day, Huwarra checkpoint was closed to all Palestinian males under 45 years old. Soldiers at the checkpoint also beat and an unnamed youth from the village of Almasharik. After the assault, the young man was taken to detainment.

The last three days in Nablus have shown a dangerous upsurge in the use of deadly force by IOF soldiers. With two shot at a checkpoint and at least eight shot in the refugee camps, the Nablus region is under siege. There are daily incursions into the Nablus refugee camps and city center, and on an average day, soldiers invade and occupy homes, fire at buildings and arrest citizens. The recent killings have alarmed the local residents, though the regularity of violence in the area is not new. Residents of Nablus, like Azzem Hroub, 42, call on the international community to speak out against the use of violence against civilians and the frequent closures of the city. Hroub, a local shop keeper in Nablus' Old City commented on the events of the last three days and said, "They just keep killing as every day. They could give use arrests but they just kill and kill. When they close checkpoints for their [Jewish] special days, what are we to do? We must try to go around, and if we do this, we are killed. What are we to do? What can the US or the UN do for us in this time? Our situation is very difficult."

In total during this the time discussed, occupation forces have arrested at least forty-two Palestinian males in military raids throughout the West Bank.

Sources:
BBC (English newspaper, online)
CNN (American news source, online)
Associated Press (American news source, online)
Ma'an News Agency (Palestinian news source, online)
WAFA News Agency (Palestinian news source, online)
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR)
Ha'aretz (Israeli newspaper, online)
Ynet (Israeli newspaper, online)
Israeli Defense Force [sic] (press statements, online)