Palestine

I HAVE recently returned from a two-week trip to Palestine with the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian-led group of internationals involved in non-violent direct action dedicated to achieving peace and justice for the Palestinian people. The group was co-founded by a Jewish activist and contains a high precentage of Jewish activists from across the world. After two days training in Bethlehem we travelled to our base in Biddu, a village north west of Jerusalem which will be seriously affected by the building of the apartheid wall on their land stolen by the Israeli goverment. They will lose farm land and water wells owned through the generations, denying the children the chance of a livelihood. We stayed in a village house and our group consisted of five women and five men from five different countries. Life in the villages is very hard with up to 70 per cent unemployment, poor infrastructure and the United Nations providing food relief to alleviate the situation. The rate of childhood anemia is nearly 50 per cent due to poor diet, poverty and constant stress. Despite this the people were the kindest, most generous, humorous people you could hope to meet. They bore no malice towards the ordinary Israelis, only the government and things done in its name. Our work was very varied; we took a tour of the women’s agricultural collective and put an international football team in a regional tournament. That day showed us how hard life is: it took two hours to go 15 miles due to road closures and armed checkpoints. Bags were searched and ID checked and you could be held for up to six hours with no charge or refused passage by the soldiers - fans of ID cards take note. We worked with an Israeli group called Teachers Without Borders, which teach Palestinian children. Six of us did craft lessons and music for 30 young kids. It was fun and took everyone away from the situation for a while until six US-built Apache attack helicopters flew by, returning us to reality with a jolt. Most evenings we were entertained by local families who were great hosts and told us of their experiences. We also attended demonstrations by villagers against the theft of their land. At one peaceful demo at Beit Liqya about 100 children and villagers with international and Israeli peace activists found our path blocked by the army and border police. We asked to pass and were given five minutes to leave, we put ourselves between the soldiers and villagers, without warning they threw stun grenades into the crowd and I was hit by shrapnel. This was followed by CS gas which blinded you and made you cough and gasp for breath, plastic bullets were then fired and the young lads threw stones back. We were pushed back into the village, two boys were shot and two older people were treated by ambulance for the effects of CS gas and there were numerous walking wounded. The locals thought they would have used live rounds as they have in the past if we had not been there. We also attended a big demo on land day, a holiday to remember the day their country was given away. It was good natured and led by the local Boy Scout troop! There was a huge media presence that stopped the usual violence towards people. I did an interview for CNN television. We marched to the site of the wall and villagers occupied their land to pray, hear speeches and build symbolic roadblocks out of stone to mark their determination to get justice. I would like to thank all my RMT and Aslef comrades for their donations which made my trip possible. For more info go to www.palsolidarity.org A people under SIEGE Brighton branch RMT member Mark recently visited Palestine to see for himself how Palestinians live under Israeli occupation CONSCRIPTS: Female Israeli conscript troops surround a Palestinian protest group VIOLENCE: A boy is injured by Israeli troops during a peaceful demonstration in Beit Liqya against the theft of Palestinian land 32