On The Ground In Palestine, Part 1

AID to get into Lesse. Both the Israeli government and its citizens, acting on their own initiative, have blocked AID convoys, destroyed life saving medical and food aid, and harassed people for supplying aid. AID workers who even can get into Rasse have been bombed, shot at and killed. And it's not just AID that can't get into Lessee. It's extraordinarily hard for information to even get out. Cell Phone signal is scarce, and understandably people there use it to contact

their families, not foreign journalists. So to get a good sense of what life is like on the ground. In the Dafa, we spoke to Ava, one of the mutual aid volunteers who at great risk to her own life, traveled into lesday to help the people there.

the emergency department, getting introduced to the staff there. The work, the equipment, the patterns of illness and injury, the shortages, struggles, the pain, the happiness is really quite beautiful and hard, and a mashup of everything I've experienced in occupation, things I've experienced as a new nurse to a floor, and things I haven't experienced before, which is being a site of an active war zone and genocide. Ajar Hospital is

located very close to the Rafa border crossing. It's also, I guess, one of the areas more heavily impacted by violence right now in Rafa, which is still much less so than areas to the north like Communis, et cetera.

There's really uh oh yeah, that's just a moto. Sorry. There's a lot of rumblings and things that happened periodically, and a lot of them are explosions that I think is just a motor but yeah, I mean it's it's really interesting because I arrived at a when food stuffs had just started to cross in a little bit more regularly, and I was told that basically in the week before, like street markets had reoccurred, which hadn't been a thing for months, And that's like a big part of my

experience in the West Bank. And so it was really great to see people, even if it was just like a little bit of food selling food on the street. Starting to see bread being baked and distributed, seeing people out and about was exciting. There is rampant signs of destruction everywhere. There are lots of standing buildings, but there are lots of piles of rubble in streets the sites

of former buildings. People have done a remarkable job clearing space, but there's sense of destruction everywhere, and I think in some ways the most painful sites are where buildings aren't completely destroyed and you can see into people's bedrooms, kitchens, bathroom and things like that, see artwork still hanging, seek fragrants of their homes and lives. There are tent cities everywhere.

I am currently speaking to from within a house that is one of the houses that are rented by NGOs in the area from generally people who have managed to escape that'sa and who are renting their homes for a bit of income and to decrease the likelihood their house will be bombed. And in this particular house, we're in the neighborhood of Tel Sutan, and there are tense cities

all around us. So it's one of those weird situations of staying in a somewhat palatial home where there are people sleeping in very rudimentary tents and structures, sometimes completely uncovered in one hundred plus degree weather. I think the highest temperatures we've seen where a couple of days where it was about four to eight degrees centigrade, which is about one o seven fahrenheit. There are a lot of sick people, a lot of struggling people.

the RAA. There are other there's like an maternity emergency department, hospital department, there's an emergency department run by MSF and like these other ones, but like this is the only general public one. And I've been there just you know, for two weeks most every day to day off when I was sick and took off the day to day to see some different parts of some other clinics, which is really good comparison.

shootings at night when I have not been there. I have heard of many missile strikes, whype, we got entire families, large numbers of people murdered. I have seen, you know, several people killed in that way come to the emergency deburbon, but in no way representative of what's been happening, and it's been a vi all account better these weeks than it has been before, though number of missile strikes and

things are kind of increasing. There has been word given that there is likely going to be evacuation orders starting in the next in this next few days to a week from the Israelis, but no signs of an immediate inclusion. That said, we don't know. Most people are pretty hopeful of that that I've talked to, that a ceasefire will

be reached, although it's unclear what that would mean. But I can say from my time working in these hospitals that and just being in the community that like most people are hanging on by a thread, whether they have just gotten something very loosely resembling a hint of stability, of like having a place where they are having access to food. There are children playing, there are you know, some some of the signs of life that I'm used to seeing in Palestine. There are emergency departments that are

somewhat functional. They're like my colleague is working at a NICU where it's always full, but they are able to care for the babies that are there, even not as well as they would like to, but like they are able to if this population is displaced again, which is what the Israelis are suggesting in this case, towards con units which they've leveled, and they are trying to get the international community to set up ten cities there. That will kill a lot of people, that will tear apart

a lot of what little people had left. So very very difficult in that way. That said, it's also more

alive than I expected. There's more signs of daily life, life of children playing, of people making and serving coffee in the street of a couple of bakerries are producing you know, all those pieces like flawhel SAMs like those things exist coast of food or atrocious We don't, you know, buy food here, but I'm aware of some of the prices, and they are much higher than they would be in the West Bank, where food is you know, not on Embarco.

been eaten away to a massive amount. In nineteen sixty seven, it was occupied during the Six Day War, and during the nineteen seventies and eighties, Israel began establishing settlements there, which was and is still illegal under international law, and even with protests from the international community, Israel continues still

today to establish settlements on Palestinian land. The first major Arab uprising aka the First Intifada, also referred to as the Stone Intifada, began in nineteen eighty seven in the Gaza Strip and spread to the West Bank. It ended in nineteen ninety three with the signing of the First Oslo Accords. The Second Intifada, also known as the Usa Antifada, was another major Arab uprising by Palestinians against the Israeli occupation.

During the twenty tens, the Fatah dominated Palestinian authority worked toward establishing itself as an independent government in the urban Palestinian areas of the West Bank. At the same time, Israel expanded its settlement activity in the territory. FUTA, formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist and social democratic political party. It is the largest faction of the confederated multi party Palestine Life Biation Organization and the

second largest party in the Palestinian Legislative Council. PATTA has been closely identified with the leadership of its founder and chairman, Yasser Arafat, who was elected chairman of the PLO in Cairo in February nineteen sixty nine until his death in two thousand and four. In May twenty twenty one, Palestinian families in Schechestradra, a neighborhood and occupied East Jerusalem began protesting against Israel's plan to forcibly evict them from their

homes to make way for Jewish settlers. Many of the families were refugees who had settled in Schechtradra after being forcibly displaced around the time of Israel's establishment as a

state in nineteen forty eight. Since Israel occupied the East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank in nineteen sixty seven, Palestinians and Schechterrara had been continuously targeted by Israeli authorities, who used discriminatory laws to systematically dispossess Palestinians of their land and homes for the benefit of Jewish Israelis. The events of May twenty twenty one were emblematic of the oppression which Palestinians have faced every day for decades.

The discrimination, the dispossession, and the repression of descent, the killings and injuries, they are all a part of a system which is designed to privilege Jewish Israelis at the expense of Palestinians. This is apartheid, which is, as you

should know, prohibited an international law. In twenty twenty one, Amnesty International reported that Israel imposes a system of oppression and domination against Palestinians across all areas under its control in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, and against Palestinian refugees in order to benefit Israelis laws, policies, and practices which are intended to maintain a violent system of control

over Palestinians have left them fragmented geographically and politically, frequently impoverished, and in a constant state of fear and insecurity, with no freedom of movement or freedom's period. And then there's Israel's Apartheid Wall, which began as a fence along the border between the West Bank and what is called Israel. It was first constructed by Israel in nineteen seventy one as a security barrier and it has been rebuilt and

upgraded since. It was constructed by Israel to control the movement of the Palestinian population as well as goods between the Gaza Strip and Israel. So that's some history on the West Bank, and just for some context, twenty twenty three was the deadliest year for Palestinians since the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs AOCHA began

recording casualties in two thousand and five. Since the Gaza genocide, Israel has stepped up military raids in the West Bank, where violence had already been surging for over a year. UN records show that Israeli forces or settlers have killed hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank since October seventh. In twenty twenty three, at least five hundred and seven

Palestinians were killed, including at least eighty one children. Between October seventh and December thirty first, twenty twenty three, two hundred and ninety nine Palestinians were killed in the West Bank, marking a fifty percent increase compared to the first nine

months of the year. According to the World Health Organization, since October seventh, four hundred and seventy four Palestinians, including one hundred and sixteen children, have been killed in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, and about five thousand were injured. There are many days where Israeli forces killed Palestinians, but I'm going to refer to a couple just to give you a general idea of the violence the Palestinians experience.

On March twenty five, first, there was a day when Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank, resulting in ten Palestinians killed in the territory over a twenty four hour period. This was reported by the Palestinian news agency WEFA. On April twentieth, Israeli forces killed fourteen Palestinians during a raid in the occupied West Bank, including an ambulance driver who was killed as he went to pick up wounded Palestinians from a separate

attack by violent Israeli settlers. Erica Guavera Rosas, Amnesty International's director of Global Research, Advocacy and Policy.

killings and displaying a chilling disregard for Palestinian lives. These unlawful killings are in blatant violation of international human rights law and are committed with impunity in the context of maintaining iss institutionalized regime, the systematic oppression and domination over Palestinians.

I was in the West Bank this round from the end of January until I came to Gaza, which was halfway through April, so basically two and a half months. Most people who volunteer there it's anywhere from like two or three weeks to two or three months. Because of tourist visa last that long, and that's usually the most you can expect. During this time I was there, Ism and other solidarity organizations got to be a topic of much discussion in the Israelikan essets, as they got very

excited about the dangerous anarchists in the South. There's a lot of interesting converisons between the West Bank and.

occupation or direct version of occupation every day. And I thought that that just like touched something intense in me and like was really like a big I don't know,

it just affected me a lot. But as far as like comparisons, there are parts of the West Bank that feel independent, that you feel like, oh, I'm in an area that is, you know where ostensibly are not supposed to see Israelis, and if they are there, they're like my friend who just lives in, you know, lives with her husband who's Palestinian, and they hang out there and

are fine most of the time. But a lot of these areas that I spent almost of my time are areas where there's more direct contact constantly between settlers, soldiers and the Palestinian community who are often in those areas, like we're in rural and it's like a very different scale of genocide. I often talk about that as like a slower genocide, and this is a faster genocide here

in Gassa, but it's like no less horrible. It ends up being like a person a person, and like parcel of land, a parcel of land Palestinian heard of sheep is rarely heard of sheep, herd of sheep, And it sounds like very parallel, except that the Palestinians have been

shepherding there for generations or hundreds of years. And the settlers there, some of them, most of them are like teenagers, war dropouts and like get in trouble all the time, and then they're brought up there at this community service and some of them know how to shepherd, and some of them don't, but they use it as an opportunity to graze their animals on like Palasinian wheat fields.

We asked Ava what the process of appropriation looks like on the ground.

all across the West Bank. Initially, a lot of the settlers, as I understand I, responded by kind of clamping down security concerns and then very quickly turned it into an opportunity for attack and turned up at villages like the village of Zenuta and just were like which had like about one hundred fanms and was like, you don't leave, We're going to kill you all. And so people left and it was a credible threat and they did kill a lot of people. I think that's the largest village

I've heard of recently. They disappeared other places. People ran away and their homes were destroyed, their animals were taken. People come back and their cars get torched. They get arrested on no charges and held for longer than ever

and in many cases or torture to death. I have a friend and comrade that I organized up a little bit who was in Janine at the start, right after October seventh, and she witnessed truly horrific you know, targeted killings by drone strikes and other things, and basically fled south so she would be okay and physically. So that's

some of what has happened. Most of the villages that historically have had the like nonviolent weekly protests, which a lot of people who in the past and volunteered like as you know, internationals, we'll have experience with and like there's a lot of the popular images of like youth in Kafias during stones or at some of those sites. Since October seventh, almost all of the villages stopped as

far as I know, because it was too dangerous. When I arrived, I was told all of the villages had stopped. But then we found out part way that there was a village that was having protests kofor Katum on the northern half of the West Make and it turns out when I went there, they'd never stopped. They protested each week. They did scale back what their goals were because whereas in the past they had been many of them had been shot with lve ammunition like twenty two caliber rifles.

Since the seventh it basically became all land ammunition. And only by the grace of God or luck were none of them murtyred in that time because the soldiers were not shooting at ankles as is the conventional guidance. I saw video of them shooting into buildings, into homes, shooting at head height, things like that, and like the week before I went, but guy was shot in the face and he only survived because it deflected down through his Johns diadive into his skull. So they've experienced a lot

of severe oppression there. There's been hundreds killed in the West Bank just since October seventh. There is active fighting in parts of the north of like kind of Jinine and I think until Karen and some other places between some armed resistance and Surli soldiers. But it's definitely not at the same scale as in Laza, and there aren't like active bombs falling on people. But it's you know,

still murderous. It's still driving people out, it's still squeezing people to they either lash out or leave.

roads were shut down, people couldn't move. Palestinian workers were not allowed in settlements, not allowed to cross into forty eight. So everybody's struggling. But like people are spending twenty four to seven with like alder Zeerra or like other Palestinia or Palestinian coverage of what's happening in Gaza, Like people

are right there when Ramadan started. I was there during the mom of the Ramadan, Like people were like, I'm so looking forward to feeling hunger along with Gaza, and like that was another aspect of hearing from the first Gazins crossing into Gaza, like saying like, oh, it's so

hard over there, We're with them. Like I think there's a lot of attempts from the Israelis, from liberal Zionists in the US, from the state and everything to be like good Palestinian, bad Palestinian, and like all the Palestinians are, you know, like they might not all agree politically, like there's many different positions on everything, just as there are

many positions and everything in every community. There's a lot of empathy between them, and that was another reason I was really excited to come from the West Bank and bring like some olive oil and other gifts on behalf of the community, because people need to know how much they're loved and thought of. On the other side, I find it's sad and beautiful how united of the people are the Palestinians across the tremendous sistance of and also

incredibly short distance of apartheid and occupation. That they can't see each other or visit each other, but they feel for each other and are with each other in their hearts and just kind of wrects me a little bit. It's also nice to be near the sea. I haven't yet seen the sea, but my friend was here very

close and could see it from their house. I just feel being close to the sea and like see the sunsets, and that's so incredibly beautiful and sad too, because most Palestinians don't get to see the sea.