Palestinian ambulances

I would first like say thank you to Annie Higgins for this information.

These are eyewitness accounts of what is going on between Palestine and Israel in the illegally occupied territories. What is both ironic and tragic is this; US media sources report on events from this region on a daily basis. However, as much televised coverage as the US provides and disseminates world wide, from this region, no mainstream US sources report from the Palestinian viewpoint. For those of us here in the US, who strongly desire to see how all sides are affected in this conflict, we have to turn to the internet. With the rare and recent exception of Phil Donahue at MSNBC, no televised US media source, questions or challenges Israel's actions. What US views also do not ask is, how many US news correspondents are in Israel and how many are in Palestine or cover events from the Palestinian viewpoint?

Until US news sources somehow accrue the moral courage to report from both sides, any news from this region, again from the US, can be considered nothing more than Israeli propaganda.

Timothy Stinson

This is a follow-up to my letter about my own personal eyewitness with Palestinian ambulances. Whether or not you print my letter, I thought you might be interested to keep up with this issue since it has found space in your paper. Here is a relevant excerpt from Item 4:

This week, while we have been here, there has been no curfew. (it's totally random when the curfew happens) We have gone to the checkpoint every day to observe (last week, soldiers were beating Palestinians at the checkpoint) and also to intervene. We convinced the soldiers to let some sick people come into Qualqilya to go to the doctor. The rule is you have to come in an ambulance if you want to pass a checkpoint to go to the doctor. As the town has only 4 ambulances & taking an ambulance costs money, this makes it difficult for people with non-life-threatening conditions to make it to the doctor.

We have also been riding in ambulances. Yesterday, I went to Ramallah with an ambulance. There are anywhere from 5-15 checkpoints (they set them up randomly) and I think it's maybe 30 miles away (not far at all in any case) from Qualqilya. But it took us from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. to get there & back with all the checkpoints. So at every checkpoint, the soldiers will make the driver get out of the ambulance, check his i.d., check the i.d.'s of the patients, and make the driver open all the compartments in the ambulance (or search it more thoroughly if they feel like it, including a couple days ago when they unscrewed all the equipment in the back of the ambulance & then just left it that way for the driver to put back together). All this while the patient waits, regardless of how serious their injuries are. Sometimes, patients die while waiting at a check point.

Last night, I was visiting with the sweetest family and the mother told me that she was riding on an ambulance with her aunt & because of all the checkpoints, by the time they got to the hospital, her aunt had died. Then they drove back to Qualqilya to bury her, and she had to sit there through every checkpoint with her aunt lying dead beside her in the ambulance. I can't imagine how difficult that was.

Annie Higgins

Update from Cori

I wanted to send out a little bit of information about what Alma and I are doing now (actually I bet it will be really long but I'll try to keep it manageable). I have heard so many stories, there are too many to convey them all.

We are in a town called Qualqilya, which is roughly the size of the town I grew up in (30,000 people). Qualqilya is on the border of the "green line" - between what is now Israel & the occupied Palestinian territories. The town has been completely sealed off. All roads, except one, have been blocked by roadblocks and soldiers, who will shoot anyone who tries to pass. The one entrance is guarded by a checkpoint. No one from Qualqilya is allowed to leave the town. If you are from here & you go to the checkpoint to say I want to go visit family in another town, I want to go to the doctor in another town, I want to leave for any reason, no - you cannot. Think about how many times you went out of town in the last two years. This town is like a prison.

Most people in Qualqilya have been out of work for 2 years. Before this intifada (which began in Sept. 2000), many people in the town worked in Israel, since the town is on the border. Now they can't leave to go to work.

The other main economy of the town is agriculture. The soldiers will shoot any farmer that tries to go to his field. Also, soldiers will not let any shipments out of the town. So poultry farmers, vegetable farmers, goods makers cannot get their products out of Qualqilya. Most used to be sold in Israel, so now the price has fallen in half and local farmers and merchants can't make a living. Since no one has worked for 2 years, no one has any money to buy food for their families. Most are quite poor.

Last week, there was a curfew for 3 days, in which no one could leave their house for any reason. Last Friday, during the curfew, a man was shot in his kitchen while making coffee. His wife and children were in the house with him.

Today Alma & others in our group went to the fields with some farmers. Soldiers shot over their heads and told them to leave, so eventually they did. 26 farmers have been killed in their fields during this intifada. Tomorrow, we are planning an action to remove a roadblock where the farmers need the road to get to their fields.

Several people have told me that they hate their lives, and that they hate themselves when they feel so powerless and can't help the people they love from being killed. That breaks my heart because these conditions, which are designed to destroy the Palestinian people and break them down psychologically, are making them turn on themselves.

There is so much to say, I'm sorry this is so long. This is what your money is currently paying for, what my money is paying for, to support the suffering of the amazing people I have met here. I will be looking forward to talking with you all soon.

Cori

Update from Lynn and Zulma (7/31/02)

I spoke with Lynn this morning. For her and Zulma, it was Wednesday evening and they were eating dinner in Jerusalem. "We're sort of done," Lynn said. "For almost two weeks I have been going, going, going. This is the first time I have had time to stop and feel what has been happening. I'm reliving it, it feels very emotional and intense. It's hard to stop crying."

L said she found the experience of being in Palestine an incredible one in terms of understanding the importance of the US in this period. She was in Nicaragua, she was in El Salvador, but this felt different. The level that everyday people in a tiny country on the other side of the world know all about Bush and need to understand who he is and what he is up to was mind blowing. L & Z attended the candlelight vigil last night outside an IDF occupied house on the outskirts of Nablus. Some people were planning to spend the night, but a compromise was reached where the family would be let out for 4 hours a day. The decision was to go with the compromise and renegotiate later. Similar negotiations were underway between the town council of Beit Fariq (the town that was having trouble getting sufficient water trucked in) and the powers that be.

L & Z planned to spend Thursday shopping, hanging out, processing. Friday morning they will be back. They will be speaking at the Women in Black demo Friday night in S.F. at Montgomery and Market. I have told them at every point how proud we are of them and that we all send love and hugs.

Jody