|
To commemorate the
anniversary of April invasion, 2002 - Nablus
17th April 2002
I
am writing after more than 2 weeks of being out of touch. The
Israelis cut off the Palestinian internet server, and I finally got
internet access through a friend of my brother in Jerusalem. I think
it is clear that the Israelis disconnected the internet server on
the 5th of April because they are trying to cut Palestinian
communication with the outside world to hide the disgusting truth
about what is happening here.
In
spite of their efforts I have found a way to continue.
On
the 5th of April, at about 11:40pm, some Israeli tanks stopped in
front of our building. They got out on foot, shouting, and pointing
their weapons at us. We were all shocked because we did not expect
such aggression, especially as we are all civilians. All 17 of us
were put into one room, and told to shut up and stay still. While we
waited helplessly, dozens of well armed soldiers went through all
five floors of our building. They checked everything, causing a
great deal of damage to personal belongings, and moving all of our
furniture around. The whole time we all waited, with Israeli guns
pointed at our heads.
My
pregnant sister was scared and wanted to use the toilet, but the
soldier was hesitant to allow her to do so because he did not
believe her. He told her that if she needed to use the toilet, he
had to go with her. Can you imagine that? After negotiations, he
finally accepted to remain outside of the door. After seeing how
difficult it was for her to use the toilet, the rest of us decided
to wait.
At
about 5:00am, the soldiers told us that we could stay in only two
rooms, while they were going to use the rest of the building. We
asked if we could bring some essential items from our apartments,
but were refused. Neither of my parents, both of whom suffer from
serious health problems, was allowed to get their medicine. The
situation was also very difficult for my brother’s young children,
and my pregnant sister. We all had to stay in two small rooms,
without as much as a toothbrush, wearing only what we happened to
have on when the soldiers came.
We
had become refugees once again; homeless in our own building, while
they made use of all of our facilities. They wanted us there as
human shields.
In
addition to staying there, the soldiers used it as a base from which
to launch attacks into the old city. They brought many weapons,
rockets, and bombs into our apartments. As the resistance prevented
the Israelis from entering the old city for a few days, they began
to shoot rockets from our building, burning houses, and killing as
many people as possible. It seemed that all they wanted to do was
cause destruction. Whenever a bullet was fired at our building from
anywhere in the old city, the Israelis responded by firing dozens of
rockets in the general direction where they thought it came from.
None of us ever imagined that the invasion was going to be as hard
as it was proving.
They cut off the telephones; we could not use water more than once a
day because there was such a shortage. We did not have enough water
to get showers for 2 weeks,
We
had to remain in this horrible situation and one night they came and
took my younger brother. They forced him to dress in jeans and shoes
and they did not allow even tell us if he would be back or not. The
only words they know are “shut up.”
When they took my brother we were scared and sure that he would not
be back because in many cases they take civilians and use them to
kill Palestinian guys in the old city. When my brother understood
that they were going to use him to enter the old city, he started to
shout in Arabic to tell the guys who hide very close to escape. The
soldiers were beating him very strongly, but they still needed him.
They carried him, and entered one of the houses from the roof,
holding him out in front.
They started to shoot while hiding behind him and putting the gun on
his shoulder to stop the Palestinians from shooting. In this way
they killed some men while the rest managed to escape.
My
brother had hallucinations, and he was beaten strongly, but
thankfully they brought him, beaten all over, after we had prayed
for hours to god to bring him back safely.
He
was unconscious when they brought him back to “The Prison of Two
Rooms”, and he is still psychologically suffering from what he saw.
My
older brother was taken from the first minute they entered our
building. He was taken to be used as human protection for the
soldiers, and was not returned for over a week.
When the Israelis started to shoot, the whole building shook and all
the windows broke. It was very cold, and we did not have
electricity or gas to get warm. We did not even have enough
mattresses; the two rooms were far too small for such a number of
people.
We
did not have enough batteries either so we could only use the radio
to hear the headlines. For the whole duration I had to stay in a
very small space between beds and I only left that space for really
essential things. Try to imagine; we had to stay in two rooms,
without windows, in cold weather, and with one meal. It was a
disgusting situation and lasted for a whole week.
The
most important factor was the military headquarters that was located
in our flats.
The
Israelis arrested dozens of guys; they were leading them to my flat
as well as the other flats in our building, questioning them,
beating them, cursing them, all the while we listened to these
fearful sounds. Once, because they had arrested so many guys, they
had to put some of them on the stairs, we could see them tied and
blindfolded.
One
night, as they were questioning one of the guys, they shot him in
the stomach because he refused to answer them. They were afraid to
carry him, so they called us to carry him to the tank.
One
week of fear came to an end when they left our building. They left
without even telling us; our neighbors had to come to open the door
of our 2 rooms and tell us that the soldiers had just left.
We
were relieved. We went quickly upstairs to see what had happened to
our flats. My mom did not want to see, she preferred to stay
downstairs for a few hours, she was afraid to of what they had done.
We
were all shocked when we saw what the 100 plus soldiers had done to
our building. They had turned our 5 floors into a military camp,
stolen every precious thing, in particular; the electronic
equipment, computers (that my brother brought from his office to my
family flat, thinking it would be safer than the office), 8 mobile
phones, money, and gold. Every day we discover things that have
been stolen.
When I saw my flat I was shocked and preferred to leave it
immediately. I saw my books, diaries, and remembrances in the
bathroom. I have a story from every room in my flat. It is obvious
that they were not human beings; they were simply rude savages,
reserve army soldiers who are normally in their teens, and don’t
care about people and their feelings, their emotions and their
remembrances.
I
don’t like looking at the bullets everywhere in my flat; in the
walls, in the doors, even in the walls of my bedroom, where I used
to put the papers and pictures of the nice moments of my life.
Till now, I could not believe that this happened here in the heart
of my flat; everything was broken, even my memories and souvenirs. I
sat to look at the ruins of my furniture. I couldn't bear to look at
it. I think it will take a long time until it will be back as it
was before,
Now
we are back to our flats but they are not yet suitable for normal
living. There is no water, no electricity, and everything needs to
be cleaned. The soldiers left piles of garbage.
Speaking of garbage and dust, the streets of Nablus are full of
dust, due to the Israeli tanks that have destroyed the streets.
2
days ago, the Israelis were very busy arresting and attacking the
second mountain zone of Nablus. So I told all of my neighbors in the
street that we should all gather together to clean the street and
clear the dust. This work day went very well, but the Israelis knew
that we had broken the curfew, so they came at night with their
tanks, and were shooting a lot to make us scared. Since then we
have been in a constant state of feart, we don’t dare to sit on the
balcony or to move one meter out of the houses. We have been living
in our homes like animals since the 5th of April.
After 10 days of the invasion, they gave us 4 hours to buy some
food. There was no food to buy though because of the siege put
around the city. We were checking the rest of the members of the
family, siblings, and relatives. We found that many people whom we
knew were killed, wounded, or arrested. All families have
disasters, but one of the biggest disasters was in the old city;
many houses, very old traditional houses were completely destroyed.
The places that I am always talking about, the traditional buildings
that I am very proud of were destroyed and are not there anymore. I
could never have imagined that this would happen to my old city one
day. I cannot forget the nice narrow streets where I used to bike
or walk at night while chatting with friends. I will never forget
these streets where I used to go when I felt tension or pressure.
My
daily program is strange; I wake up to continue fixing the broken
flats, watch the news, looking for any hope, waiting for Powell to
come to the region and then I am disappointed.
I
don’t like to talk about politics, because many things have changed
in my mind as well as in the minds of the Palestinian people.
Americans are the main party responsible for what is happening here,
my nights are full of nightmares, and if I cannot sleep, I have to
hear the voice of the soldiers in the streets cursing at us in our
own language. They fire their weapons all night just to make us
scared.
When the Israelis fired rockets indiscriminately to kill as many
people as possible 12 days ago, a building in our street was
destroyed. There were 8 people in that flat and the family was very
poor. The rockets destroyed the house and the family was left under
the ruins. We did not dare to do anything, because if anybody dared
to go out of his house, he would be killed immediately. Then, after
more than one week, when the Israelis gave us a few hours to buy
food, we went there to see what had happened, and to remove part of
the blocks and rockets.
We
found the dead body of the father. We could hardly recognize the
face, because it was partly cut off at the neck. We only had
primitive materials with which to dig, but we found two other
people; the grandfather and the wife of the dead man, they were
still alive. The disaster was when we found the four small
children, very young, they were all dead.
In
spite of all of this, I am thankful to Christine, Hari, David and
the other international volunteers who are with us now, trying to
help as many people as possible. I am really very proud of Claude,
the French volunteer, who left to go to President Arafat’s compound
last month. She is still beside him. She did not leave him,
believing that the Israelis will not dare to shoot at his office as
long as she is inside.
|
