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| CLICK YOUR MOUSE.... |
| 04.11.04 (9:21 am) [edit] |
DEar EVERYONE, PLEASE READ THIS IMPORTANT NOTICE!!
(Although its not right in line with the stories I have been writing bare with me for this one IMPORTANT blog posting)
I apologize if this is not the place to be sending postings- BUT I don't know where else to put this important information that I MUST get out to ALL....
My good friend Neal is doing peace work in Jerusalem - and is sending me these intense reports from the frontlines of his battles in Biddu Village, northwest Jerusalem. He is casually emailing his reports to a massive amount of friends BUT MORE EYES NEED TO READ WHAT IS GOING ON!! I know we could be carrying all this weight on our own, but we don't have to.
LISTEN UP!
I am emailing all of you a copy of the last story he emailed me (attached below)....AND I will keep emailing the list of people in my address book his most current stories unless you email me back and ask to be taken off the list... let me know.
AND I am asking you to let me know how we can inform as many eyes as possible of what is happening in this sick WAR.
I am not only asking for you to send his stories to everyone you know, but I am also asking you to get back to me on how we can make sure more eyes read this TRUTH perspective that MUST BE TOLD.
Reach out and let me know what can be done-- as this is the only way we can get the message out and around without money- THE LACK of money can not hold us back from listening to more than the news we get that tries to feed us lies that only tries to make us look good....
It is true that there has been many times in talking with foreigners-- as I am backpacking abroad right now- that I have been totally ashamed of saying that I am an American.
It's like "Oh, hello, you're from Hiroshima, nice to meet you. I'm from AtomBomb, I mean America", or "Hello your from Laos! Oh! Your brother has no legs? because the other day your brother stepped in a landmine the US planted on your soil, OH nice to meet you - yes I am American." etc, etc..should I go on?
People hate Americans out here- I have been battling people- Since recently I no longer take the America bashing and the sneers and the coldness from some people who ignore me after they hear where I am from -which I constantly get- And sometimes I am stirring and scraping and racking my brain against their arguments to find and show the good in it all- THEN I read Neal's stories and I think of many of your faces - and I gain some ammunition to prove the good in it all- and I will keep on non-violently fighting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now I have no clearance to get this published from the man, Neal, - but any suggestions on how to get this out to more people --other than my annoying you for a moment to get you to click your mouse - not your pussy- sorry no offense or pun intended-- to do one of those what would normally be annoying chain letters to all the people you know-- would be appreciated by more people than you know people.....
So there you have it. I have said my peace. Now hear some of Neal's below....
I send you all ...much love and respect and peace ...
Andrea Techera
( FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DON'T KNOW--- I am a former Bostonian and NU student, HS English teacher who is teaching English and backpacking in SE Asia. Currently I'm in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia and I am utterly depressed. I just watched the movie "The Killing Fields"- I Am recovering from being a little poisoned by the undrinkable water they washed my veggies with, and have discovered yet another email from my friend Neal... As if I need more reason than my friend Neal's reports to GET TRUTH IN MOTION and do all that I can every moment towards peace respect and love....)
Allright Check this OUT.
From: Neal Ahern
To: You all....
Subject: almost arrested twice, shot again, (2)12 hour demos---ohh biddu
Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 08:30:33 -0700 (PDT)
hello my friends, let me start by saying that i am ok, just a little tired. Today is now friday and the demos have been the past two days. Today the army decided not to work.
So things began early on Wed morning, soldiers began working before 6am. As we were unsure when they would begin again, the early start caught everyone a little off guard. The community gathered rather quickly and we made our way to the work site. A group of five internationals led the march with most of the older palestinians just behind us. As we approached the work area and the soldiers saw us (we were probably 20 feet away from them), without warning they began to fire tear gas directly at our heads, and from many directions. One of my friends was hit in the ankle, and everyone quickly retreated.
As the soldiers had been moved to violence so quickly, stone throwing was also quickly entered into the picture. After about ten minutes it came to our awareness that the army planned to demolish a home on the hillside near the wall's proposed path. A group of about 20 internationals and israelis as well as palestinians attempted to make our way up the hillside to the house. At this point soldiers had already taken up sniper positions on four of the surrounding houses and fired gas and rubber bullets at us on our walk down the street to the base of the hill where the house was. In front of the house was a group of about 40 border policemen who were guarding the house and preventing people from approaching it. The folks inside the house had now been locked inside by the soldiers, there were four of them.
We decided to slowly walk up the hill with our hands extended in the air. As we made it maybe 40 feet up the hill, and still about 200 away from the house, my attention was focused on the large soldiers directly in front of me and pointing their guns at our bodies. No sooner than this did the snipers begin launching gas canisters from our left side, shooting at head level. As the canisters zipped by our heads and we looked to our left, the border police in front of us then began to launch gas at our peaceful crowd, and eventually people dispersed to try again. we tried five times and each had similar results.
Around 1pm the soldiers began using live ammo at a group of stone throwers, and the unmistakeable, and not often heard, crackle and pop of this ammo echoed through the entire valley and off the stone walled houses. It reminded me of a little over a month ago when people were killed by soldiers using live ammo here in biddu. This time luckily only four were hit and injured, and no one died. There were many shots fired, we inhaled a lot of gas, in the late afternoon people were let out of the home that was to be demolished, and as of friday, there has been no demolishment of the house. There were over 100 soldiers and border police, 4 bulldozers, 2 backhoes, and 3 rock drilling crane things. The soldiers got a lot of work done, and the initial work for the wall is being completed faster than i have seen it yet anywhere.
The following morning we were to sit in the olive groves to await the heavy machinery which would flatten and destroy this agricultural land this day. Unfortunately it was only myself and one other international who awoke in time---i guess others were exhausted from the 12 hour demo, the incredible stress from breathing all that tear gas, and repeatedly getting shot at with multiple types of weapons and ammo. There were over 50 injuries on wed., most from rubber bullets.
So there i was, with an older man from the states, wandering with four journalists through an olive grove of about 120 trees, all of whose branches had been completely chainsawed off. While this sight was quite disturbing unto itself, it was complicated by the reality that this is what the army does so the trees can be replanted, even though it will take another 5-7 years for the trees to flower again, and their chance of replanted survival is slim to none as the wet season of winter has already ended.
Greg and i also strolled through a good size vineyard, which would also be completely destroyed as the day went on---it makes one wonder why the wall has to snake its way through all the agricultural fields in this valley--a path quite preposterous in my opinion. While waiting for the community to arrive, and hearing what we thought to be the rumbling of bulldozers in the distance, we decided to climb the hillside to peek to the other side and see if the soldiers were coming.
Well, we got just far enough up that when the police jeeps came popping over the hill's horizon, we were two far to get back down before they came over to us. As we saw them start to drive over to us, greg and i decided to walk off the bulldozed road that's been carved into the hillside, which is when we heard the horn beeping at us which we pretended was for someone else. They quickly caught up to us, started screaming "hey, hey," and as we turned around while still inching our way down the hill, they pulled out their guns and pointed them at our faces telling us to stop moving. I of course was really bummed as i figured we were both well on our way to getting arrested and deported, and really for nothing other than a little curiosity. I debated whether or not to just turn my back, duck my head and run as fast as i could, but i figured i would rather just be arrested, than arrested and shot.....so i opted for a different tactic......negotiation.
I made up some story about being a teacher with a fictitious organization, working in a neighboring village and that greg and i were just checking out the worksite. the policeman/jerk told us we had to come with him, and we couldn't stay in biddu. at first i was thinking arrest and after telling him we lived in jerus., he told us we had to go with him and he would drive us to jerus. We pleaded that we had to teach in the school, and then he asked for our passports which i reluctantly handed to him out of fear he would just take it. Finally he sort of believed our story, and then issued this stern warning..."If I see you two at this demo today, i promise i will arrest you both using any means necessary within my power. do you understand? Now get out of here and back to your school." "Phew", i sighed, we survived, barely, and now every moment in biddu is like bonus time, and of course i stayed at the demonstration.
People were slow in arriving, and the soldiers were quick to position themselves on roofs and in the fields so as to make it basically impossible save an invisibility suit (by the way does anyone have one of these) to reach the worksite and confront the bulldozers. While this confrontation would have meant getting arrested, and probably beaten, i had decided i am now willing to take this responsibility as my time here is disappearing quickly, and i would not be alone.
We attempted, israelis, palestinian village leaders, and internationals, to walk down the small dirt street at the base of the hillside to reach the worksite. Each time we were heavily tear gassed until most people couldnt see or move, and mostly everyone was bent over coughing while more gas canisters zipped over our heads. Several times i found myself yanking my friend out of their way. Its like i said, it was impossible to reach the site.
The second time a large number of soldiers start rapidly approaching us from both sides, cutting off our escape route, so we all panicked kind of, and just ran as fast as we could past a large chicken holding barn thing, with soldiers running along its opposite side, and as we got to its back and turned around, they were pointing their guns at us and telling us to stop. during the demos, we try to buddy up, and of course my buddy must have been the slowest runner ever, i don't even know if you could call what she was doing running. I thought she would be arrested, as the soldiers had basically caught up to her, and this would have been really bad as she is both the legal support person for ism, and the person i am turning my meager responsibilities over to upon my departure. This time, unlike the morning, we took the chance the soldiers would not shoot us if we ignored their orders and ran away from them--we lucked out and escaped into the hills.
In the hills the stones began to fly in response to the tear gas and rubber bullets. There ended up being over 35 injuries for the day, many from rubber bullets. At one point we found ourselves sitting kind of out of sight and near stone throwers which seemed kind of dumb so i moved into a grassy area to be a little more visible, even though the gas was about up to my neck as i sat down. I don't think i sat their for more than two minutes before two rubber bullets went zipping by my head, one on each side, i felt them whizz by and quickly got up and moved back to my original spot, and then under a tree where there was a tire i could lounge in and reflect on my close call.
several hours later, while standing again in the olive groves, a rubber bullet came firing through, i heard it hit an olive tree leaf infront of me and then wham, it went flying into my right rib cage---guess you can't jump out of the way of all of them. I had a little mark for several hours, but again no bruising, and again, i remain one of the lucky ones. The demo ended at 5:30 with the young people and myself (playing a medic role) chased after the fleeing soldiers while inhaling more than our daily capacity of tear gas. Many were having breathing troubles who i tried to help, the gas has been very strong lately.
I had many close calls of many kinds this thursday, which partially is the way it goes here, and partially has to do with taking a greater risk of arrest, which most times doesn't actually end up in arrest, but does involve moving a little closer into areas where soldiers dont want you to be. I am figuring out still whether i would want to accrue the legal costs of trying to fight deportation, as deportation means i can't come back for ten years. I don't feel at all that i need to be arrested to prove something, i just fundamentally disagree that those with the least privileges, and the most to lose and to risk, palestinians, should be the only ones risking arrest by trying to stop an illegal wall from being built on land belonging to my friends and illegally occupied by a foreign army. I know what i would do if this were my land, if i owned any land, back on the cape. I think most wouldn't just sit back and watch it.
When confronted with the grave injustices i see daily applied collectively to all of palestinian society, i feel it is my duty to act, to interfere in this process, especially as an american who is funding some of it. When i see the soldiers just taunting the palestinian boys, swearing at them, while they shoot at them and then laugh as they seriously injure one, like it is just some kind of game to those young israeli boys armed with guns, i want to throw rocks at them, at times i want to do so much more than throw rocks at them. It is unfathomable that they think they can act this way, and they think it because they know they can get away with it, and that might be the worst part of it all.
As we remain silent as a country in our condemnation of these collective forms of violent punishment, they become bolder, attacking anyone they wish, and many times without provocation. I do not have the answers, i just know when confronted by it, when witnessing it, i can no longer stand and watch. I would do the same for any of you, and i think you know that already, and if you don't now you do, I would do it for anyone, mostly because that is what i think it takes, people stepping up, accepting their responsibility in the madness that has become the world i know, and interfering non-violently, expressing that this isnt the world any of us want to live in anymore, and that we are drawing the line. I happily, and proudly, have reached this point, i have drawn the line for myself, and while i recognize i can't stop it by myself, and i am not alone even now as i write this in these struggles, i accept my role in both the problem and the solution, and i am doing my part as i have
come to realize that part in my short life here on this planet. i love everyone dearly, and will write again soon, actually, hopefully, will speak to you all very soon. sending all my palestinian cultivated love and compassion your way, your friend, son and brother, neal
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posted by: PiMpInPiNk (reply)
post date: 04.11.04 (10:12 am)
that is one long ass blog! heh :D
~Hayley
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