It is only five here and it is already fridgid in the tent that I have subconciously begun to call home over the past week here in Jerusalem. Though it was my first inclination to violate my 15 day ban from the territories, it was brought to my attention that once again, my fate is all tangled up with some relative stranger. A very nice guy from one of the Israeli human rights groups had come to the police station last sunday to help out the french girls and had agreed to sign bail for me, in doing this he agreed that if I am found back in the territories before my fifteen days are up he will be arrested and owe something upwards of 5000 shekels. As much as I want to return, it meant a lot that this guy trusted me and I would hate to ruin that. Which means, until monday, I am still out of the territories. I have tossed around a lot of ideas of places within Israel I want to visit, but with no real travel companion I have little motivation to go to, say, the dead sea to float around alone. Here in Jerusalem I can make myself more useful, if in a somewhat passive way.
For the week I have been sleeping at a house in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood that I was at a month ago before I left for training. I get fed well and get to meet the many different people that roll through to see what is going on here, most important of that is the community group that meets here to discuss their plans for defending their homes. The group is almost completely dominated by women, which is so awesome, and those which speak english have been great to talk with. Also, about every other day a different set of activists comes to join me so I have been able to get more first hand accounts from the regions I haven't been able to go to yet. Though my stay here is also normally a time when I become incredibly frustrated, the settler family living in half of the home is American, a fact which makes it much harder to restrain from asking the woman and man, why on earth they would raise their four small children in a place where they are stealing someone elses home, why they would want this for their family. The restrain is necessary because confronting the settlers is not my place, I am here in solidarity with the Palestinian family in case the authorities come to evict them for not paying rent to the zionist millionaire who has stolen their home and given half of it away, not to pick fights with the family that, the way I see it, is being used as a tool in a much larger scheme. Also I have to remember, here and everywhere else I go that this is in no way my struggle, I am not a Palestinian, my home was not taken from me, my life is not a constant struggle and I do not live in an occupied police state.
When I am not here trying to actually accomplish some things while really lounging and trying to stay warm I have been visiting this nineteen year old Gazan fisherman in a Jerusalem hospital. About three weeks ago while fishing on his parents boat he was shot at by Israeli forces with a 15 mm bullet. The bullet completely entered and exited his shin, breaking both bones and taking with it most of the back of is calf. It was soon apparent that if he stayed in Rafah for treatment, he would have his leg amputated. The medical situation in Gaza is beyond bad, with supplies and equipment, along with doctors and technology being shut out by the siege Gazans have to seek serious medical attention elsewhere, which in many cases can be even more difficult. Since Hamas took over in 07 the Israeli government has decreased their number of medical permit allowances by 20%, 69% of people, many of them desperately ill will recieve a permit to leave the country. The permit itself can sometimes mean little, with lengthy checks at the border which many times include the Isralei government asking the Palestinians to trade information for their exit. But back to the story at hand, Mohammed, the boy I have been visiting, had to wait two weeks for a medical permit for him and his mom even though wether or not he kept his left leg depended on it. Finally, with some pressure from ISMers in Gaza and other human rights workers he was finally given a permit...for one day. Now that he is in the care of the doctors the time limit can be changed but still smacks of twisted israeli policy. Though my arabic is still very much in the beginner stages and Mohammed and his mother speak a few words of english combined I have really enjoyed my vists and according to our friends in Gaza they have said that knowing that myself, and those who come with me, care has meant a lot. I am always fed multiple cookies and atleast two cups of some fruit drink before I am allowed to leave the hospital room, seeing as Mohammed's mother has promised that she will make sure I want to come to Gaza on the next boat, most likely because she is planning me and Mohammed's pending nuptuals. Though many, if not all of the Israeli government's policies in Palestine are cruel and unusual, nothing really compares in my mind to the sick and twisted reality of limited health care, that while starving cities in the West Bank and Gaza of any means of medical advancement the authorities sit and watch Palestinians scramble, jumping through hoops when time is most definitely of the essence just to have a fair chance at survival sometimes.
On Sunday I was able to attend I demo at the Erez crossing about the medical situation in Gaza led by a large group of international physicians who were just denied visas to enter for the Gazan Mental Health conference. A handful of Israeli sources attempted to claim that the group was sponsored and funded by Hamas, an idea, even if it were true, should not have stopped people from being able to exercise academic freedom. The demo was in many ways a huge photo op and led mainly by the older American academics set to present at the conference but gained a lot of attention, I'm glad I went if only to see Erez, I huge compound of a crossing that really brings the phrase "open air prison" new meaning, because that is surely what it looks like.
Tonight will probably be my last night here at the house, I plan on going somewhere, probably haifa, until sunday when I will go back to tel aviv for this demo to support a conciencious objecter of the military and then on Monday its back to the territories. I will most likely be going to Hebron where the situation will be much different from what I saw in Nablus. The illegal Kiryat Arba settlement is basically on top of the old city and has terrorized citizens for years. Aside from settler violence the people both in Hebron and its surrounding villages are subjected to constant military raids and sieges which have effectively trapped Palestinians, sometimes for years at a time, forcing them to live off of the Red Crescent while watching their friends and family massacred and arrested. It is obvious that what has happened to Hebron is the Israeli plan for most West Bank cities, to starve them of any sort of livlihood and create an apartheid state in which Palestinian roads are even caged from above. There is currently an attempt at rehabilitation in many parts of the city and we are trying to re establish our international presence in the community and surrounding areas.
Tonight I will attempt to put a fitting ending to the relationship I have fostered with the neighborhood cats who have also taken up residence in the tent, though I admit that it is rather sad that I call what I have with them a relationship, I'm just being honest here. thanks for reading, until next time
ma'asalama