Speaking With My Friend in the Occupied West Bank, Palestine
With a tenuous ceasefire in Gaza, the Israeli military is taking out its anger elsewhere.
On Thursday I spoke over the phone with a friend of mine who is currently volunteering in the West Bank and has been there for the past three months, and was there earlier last year for about 3 months as well. They told me about their volunteering work, and about being in close proximity to Israel’s recent invasion of the Jenin Refugee Camp, which was predicated by the Israeli Defense Forces as a response to an ambush attack by Palestinian resistance fighters in the camp. “As of 15 January, 75 per cent of Jenin’s 13,400 residents have been displaced, deepening an already dire humanitarian crisis,” writes the Norwegian Refugee Council.
I wasn’t expecting my friend’s call. The phone ringing woke me up out of bed, so I didn’t have my notepad with me. Their following observations are paraphrased based on my just-woken-up memory, so apologies for any gaps. Also, I’m not identifying them by name for obvious reasons.
Jenin has been invaded and occupied, many people displaced, the IDF is demolishing houses every day. I hear the bulldozers knocking them over. The people who were forced to leave their houses left pretty much with just the clothes on their back. These houses contained all of their belongings. The IDF doesn’t seem to be leaving any time soon, and in fact they seem to be building something in the middle of the refugee camp. Usually they attack and then leave. People are wondering if they’re ever going to leave this time. My friend tried to get out when they invaded but it became too dangerous for him to leave his house. He’s used to this though, so he has at least a month’s worth of food to keep him sustained for the time being.
With the ceasefire in Gaza, the Israeli military is pissed. They’re taking out their anger on the West Bank. There was a car parked outside a supermarket and they trashed the car and beat the owner. Then they assaulted the owner of the supermarket. It’s really stressful moving around outside because you’re always on the lookout for the military, keeping an eye out for bushes or anything to hide behind if you see them before they see you. If you encounter an angry soldier he could just shoot you. But more likely I would get detained and deported. The IDF need to pick and choose their crimes against internationals. Settlers are the bigger danger. They don’t give a fuck. And the fact that I’m a Jew who’s against the occupation will only infuriate them.
I’m working with an aid group, getting food and other supplies to people, cleaning up the mess. The IDF destroys water lines and we put them back in. The supermarket where we can get the best prices was forced to close, so I have no idea where we'll buy the food from now. Also putting together “dignity kits” for women. The guy who runs this particular aid group I’m working with is the only guy I know here who is totally on board with getting women’s needs met. Other guys are dismissive of it and say they just need food and water and building supplies. A lot of their paltry funds are also going towards keeping people in university, particularly women, by paying their tuition. The economy has collapsed and people can barely pay for anything.
The Knesset is currently trying to pass a law which will give the ability to settlers to purchase land in the West Bank.
I’ve mostly been laying low recently since the invasion, staying inside, with the odd walk around at night alone, which isn’t safe. The refugee camp is just a couple kilometers away. The IDF have been stopping people and seizing their phones. I almost got shot. It was night and these guys were attacking the soldiers and then they ran away up a hill. I can’t run as fast. I hid behind a car. The soldier’s flashlights were coming towards me. I thought they found me because they threw a tear gas canister right where I was. If I had popped my head out they probably would have shot me.
“I worry for you.”
I’d rather be here when things are intense than when they aren’t. Hoping I can in some small way help. Even though we don’t have much, we’d rather get at least one family fed at a time than no one. If we can get one family fed that’s at least a difference for them. But I am looking forward to being back home. It’s hard for me to be here a long time.
The Israeli drones are buzzing all the time. There’s different kinds. Some seem meant to keep you awake. I saw a video of this Palestinian music teacher who was using the different tones of the drones to teach his students. And I’m learning to discern the sounds between different ordinance, different drones. A missile was fired nearby recently, which I’d never heard before. There’s snipers. I heard a couple shoulder rockets fired.
The resistance fighters and the foreigners doing “protective presence” in Jenin and elsewhere get an attitude about them because they feel like badasses. The foreign people doing protective presence are trying to stop home and infrastructure demolitions and discourage settlers as much as possible, or if nothing else at least be there to document when someone’s house gets bulldozed. There’s lots of foreigners around right now, too many in fact. The protective presence people can make it harder sometimes for those who are trying to lay low and keep essential aid going. They can get an attitude about them cause they feel like they’re doing the really badass stuff, which they are, but they’re on the IDF’s list, which makes it more dangerous for me cause I could get associated with them just by being around.
We can hear the Fatah snipers shooting [Fatah is an armed Palestinian party which is itself a member of the Palestinian Authority. Both are largely reviled by Palestinians because they collaborate with Israel to shut down the resistance.] Fatah is working with the IDF in Jenin.
A group of Palestinian kids came up to me, asked if I liked Fatah or Hamas. That’s not a question you would ever hear down south in Hebron. That’s a dangerous question to answer. You could get shot answering that question. Usually the question you would get is, Do you like Israel or Palestine? Fatah hates Hamas for winning power in Gaza. Fatah is collaborating with the IDF and the Palestinian Authority [which is basically analogous to occupied France’s Vichy Government]. The resistance fighters don’t want to fight Fatah, their fellow Palestinians, but Fatah is collaborationist, and is therefore hated. [Like them or not, Hamas are the de facto leaders of the resistance right now. The Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) are less prominent, though their recently released prisoners from Israeli captivity do give rousing speeches.]
I wasn’t sure about responding to the question these 10-year-olds were asking me. At first they thought I didn’t understand. I wanted to know their stance before I shared my answer. “Who do you like?” I asked them. “The resistance!”
UPDATE:
A lot of deaths yesterday and today. This morning a relative of my friend was shot on his way to work. I saw a video showing it. He was still alive in the video. But the IDF prevented the ambulance from reaching him and he died.
There was a bombing in the exact same area we were in earlier. It missed us by an hour and a half. (A 14-yr-old was killed). This was outside the camp.
Earlier this afternoon, an elderly man was shot when he went to check on his house in the camp. He was 72 years old. He was shot in front of his house.