An Autumn in Palestine

Firsthand Reports from an Irish International Solidarity Movement Volunteer

Aron Baker, an Irish Volunteer working with the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine has, since September, been publishing a remarkable series of snapshots of life and protest in the West Bank on IMC Ireland. Collected together his vivid first-hand reports present a unique ground level view of the harshness of everyday life for the Palestinians under Israeli Occupation.

Aron Baker, an Irish Volunteer working with the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine has, since September, been publishing a remarkable series of snapshots of life and protest in the West Bank on IMC Ireland. Collected together his vivid first-hand reports present a unique ground level view of the harshness of everyday life for the Palestinians under Israeli Occupation. The reports are compiled below in the order in which they were published. The most recent report is first in the list below.

Curfew in Asira Army Attack Peaceful Demo to Fence Army Wound Dozens in Nablus Ongoing Balata Refugee Camp Invasion IOF in Balata Camp, West Bank IOF Shoot and Kill 9 Year Old in Nablus Olive Harvest Report, West Bank Internationals Shot by IOF in Nablus House Demolitions in the West Bank Shooting and Checkpoints in the West Bank Nablus Week 2 Life in the West Bank

EXCERPT FROM THE MOST RECENT REPORT:

"5 out of the last 6 days soldiers and border police, more feared than soldiers by Palestinians for their ruthlessness and brutality, have imposed curfew in the town of Asira, north of Nablus. The soldiers and border police drive around in jeeps terrorising the 12,000 people who live there, occasionaly leaving their jeeps to do a foot patrol through narrower streets. People hide in their homes wondering how long the army will remain, and when a silence descends and people think the jeeps are no longer there they begin to venture out, many to buy bread and food, some to disobey and break the curfew. Yesterday the soldiers weren't here in the morning so people attempted to continue their lives, children went to school and people attempted to leave the village for work, etc, only to find the last remaining road leaving the village, which has recently been blocked with an earth and rock mound, manned by soldiers who will not allow people out of the village."

Introduction from Aron

My name is Aron Baker, I'm 26 from West Cork and living in Limerick for the past 8 years. I first came to the West Bank for 3 weeks last October, a self financed trip taken on my summer holidays from work. I became interested in the situation here because a friend's father is Palestinian and like millions of others, he no longer resides in Palestine because of the situation there. He started to send me updates on the situation and the horrific nature of the occupation became obvious to me. After my first trip, I was determined to go back for a longer period to work more and assist in any non-violent manner I could to help a people who need help in order to help themselves.

International volunteers have a unique role in helping people in so many ways in the West Bank as unfortunately Palestinians cannot do for themselves. This is because foreigners in Palestine have more human rights than Palestinians. It is much easier for me to move around, enter situations where Palestinians can not, or cannot go alone, or would not because it is too dangerous for them, and communicate with the occupation forces where others may not. The presence of internationals can have a subtle but important impact. I feel it is also important to relay the information and scenes I witness here to others as the international world and media have sadly let them down, categorising people here as terrorists and fundamentalists which is a gross and repulsive distortion of the facts and the situation.

Until you've been here it is hard to imagine and impossible to understand the living conditions for every man, women and child in the West Bank and Gaza strip. Even internationals working here cannot fully understand the situation as we can always leave, always have more rights, and don't experience the loss of life experienced by many families here.

During the second Intifada, just over 3 years old now, there have been approximately:

• 800 Israelis killed
• 2700+ Palestinians killed
• 41,000+ Palestinians injured
• 2,000-3,000 Palestinian homes demolished
• making 10s of thousands homeless
• 15,000+ homes damaged
• Thousands of acres of land sized or severely damaged, crops and 10's of thousands of trees destroyed, over 130 water wells destroyed, dozens of Ambulances attacked and medical workers, over 30 Mosques attacked and churches.

During my time here, I have seen all manner of mundane and extraordinary measures, usually labelled as security, inflicted on Palestinians. The term security is used to justify virtually any action taken by military, settlers or by civil administration. Often these actions contadict international law, the Geneva Convention and hence Israeli law. They take forms such as collective punishments in the form of curfew on towns and cities, checkpoint closure, land stealing in several forms, crop stealing, denial of basic human rights, arrest and imprisonment without trial, for up to 6 months, which is then renewable, extra judicial executions (Targetted assasinations), shooting and killing of Palestinians, beatings etc. The list is far too long to list fully.

The manner in which these incidents are reported - if reported at all - is equally disturbing. Most media outlets take only the Israeli occupation force media office version of events and having been present at several incidents about which media has taken press releases from this source I can honestly say much of it is outright lies. When my friends got shot several weeks ago, during which time the army stopped the ambulance with them inside afer they had shot, and checked on the occupants and spoke with them, they then released a statement claiming there were no injuries.

They frequently come into Nablus, drive around or park and when boys start to throw stones at the armoured vehicles, which can not possibly do any real damage, they respond with live ammunition, often injuring or killing people, when this esculates to the point where someone throws a molotov cocktail at their vehicles, which again rarely does any real damage the press office releaes a statement claiming the army was attacked by terrorist throwing explosive devises at them. They often shoot people without knowing who they are or for any reason, this has happened twice around Nablus in the last 2 weeks to children. Even the term terrorist is misused as under UN law and definition these people are entitled to resist like this and are merely resisting occupation.

Other particular issuses I could write about are things like the apartheid wall, checkpoints and roadblocks, home demolitions, lack of freedom of movement, curfews, refugee camps, army operatrions and incursions, settlers and settlements.

As an ISM activist here I am usually involved with Palestinians in some of the following tasks, we always work with Palestinians and take our lead from them:

• Demonstrations
• Checkpoint watch
• Roadblock removal
• Olive harvest, accompaniment
• Resisting houme demolitions

We also participate in other forms of non-violent work here as appropriate, such as running childrens parties and fixing water pipes.