The Effect of Gaza on Jayyous

Since December 27th 2008 when Israel launched its air attacks on Gaza days have been filled with reports of increasing number of deaths and as I write the current number of fatalities stands at 550 Palestinians. The press have difficulty confirming the number of Palestinians killed. Perhaps this is because the international press are not permitted to enter Gaza, or perhaps it is because of the huge numbers of people killed. According to the United Nations office for Humanitarian Affairs in Jerusalem at least 20 percent of the fatalities and 40 percent of the injuries are women and children. While Israel says that they are not targeting civilians, civilians nevertheless are being killed on a daily basis. Rocket fire from Gaza into Israel has killed 4 people. [1] A Mysterylaska dvdrip

But as each day passes and one side blames the other we hear the news reports of civilians many of them women and children being killed. The first day of the air strikes saw the largest military operation in Gaza since 1967 killing more than 225 people. [2]

Each day the death toll rises. On Sunday, three children aged between 8-12 years were added to the list of those killed - one of them was decapitated. On Monday a family of five were killed. [3]

Many of you ask how the situation in Gaza affects people living in the West Bank. The people of Palestine (Gaza and the West Bank) feel that they are one. The pain, fear and death experienced by the people of Gaza is felt and felt deeply by their fellow country men and women living in the West Bank. People continue to eek out an existence of the life that remains under the not so obvious and news worthy story of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. They continue to go to work, to pass through the daily humiliation of checkpoints and agricultural gates imposed by Israel, which restricts their freedom of movement and access to their land. What is different now, is that the moments of joy in a new job, in the birth of a child or the announcement of an engagement are also been denied by the war in Gaza. Peoples’ faces have changed.

It is difficult for them to find the words to talk about what is happening to their people. One man described, ” it is like a bad dream, like something you cannot imagine, I cannot describe how I feel”. Either they cannot sleep or when they do, their sleep is haunted by the constant images of the death and destruction they have witness while watching their televisions that day. Another man asks “what will they do next will they [Israel] come to the West Bank?” and yet another in response to Shimon Peres (President of Israel) comments on a television report that civilian are not been targeted ” how can they [Israel] lie about his do they not see the pictures on the TV?” The people watch and watch and watch wanting and needing to know what is happening in Gaza.

What also remains true is that the violence in Gaza captures the world’s attention while the day to day violence of the occupation which is never far away continues unabated, unchallenged and unreported by the world’s media, international institutions and governments. On Monday we went with a farmer to his land that is enclosed in the seam zone. While he is permitted to pass through one of the agricultural gates of Jayyous with an Israeli-issued permit, we are not. We have to pass through to his land from Israel. This, despite the fact, that the farmer’s land is 6 kilometres inside the Green Line, the internationally recognised border between Israel and occupied West Bank. It is not an exaggeration to say that being at his farm was close to a little piece of paradise, but we did not have to look too far to see cracks in the paradise. The separation fence that cuts through the land is seen in almost every direction we look. The settlement of Zufim stands like a boil on the land, a massive hole in the landscape created by the IDF as a quarry stealing a family’s livelihood and inheritance. As the people continue to find some meaning in their daily lives, they try to raise their voices to protest about their abhorrence of the situation in Gaza, like many other people who are free to do so, in countries across the globe. But here the people’s voices are quelled by sound bombs, tear gas, rubber bullets and live rounds of ammunition used by the Israeli Defence Forces to break demonstrations protesting against the barrier cutting off the village from its land and protesting against the crises in Gaza.

On Sunday a young boy of 20 was killed by the IDF in Qalqiliya, a Palestinian city near Jayyous. At a demonstration in Ramallah on New Year’s Eve people were intimidated and harassed by the Palestinian Authority, their ID numbers, telephones and addresses taken. And yet in the madness of the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine and the war in Gaza, there are flickers of humanity.

At the North Gate on Monday a father arrived on time with his permit and ID but his wife, daughter and grandchild had not arrived. He spoke to the soldiers and asked them to wait while he went and got them. Running off up the hill he returned with his family fifteen minutes after the gate was due to close and was allowed to pass through. Some would not see the humanity in this, as the agricultural gates and permit regimes are breaches of human rights. But more often than not soldiers refuse to wait or close the gates early. However, this morning I witnessed one human being seeing ‘the other’ as also human and treating them with respect.

Ingrid Colvin, Ecumenical Accompanier, Jayyous, West Bank, January 2009 ——————————————————————————–

 

This post was submitted by Ingrid Colvin.