Please can I go home?

I live in Palestine. But apparently this truth is an impossibility.

A few weeks ago I came back from a trip to the US. I flew into the airport in Amman, Jordan and my husband picked me up (something that he cannot do if I fly into the Tel Aviv airport which is just 45 minutes from our home). We had a leisurely breakfast and then took a taxi to the Allenby Bridge. I had just spent 26 hours in airplanes and airports and home sounded so good.

The bridge was crowded, hot, and buzzing with flies. We slowly made our way from one office to another, from one bus to another. After a few hours we finished the Jordanian side and finally made it to the Israeli passport control. My husband is Palestinian and had to wait in long lines with the thousands of other Palestinians going home that day. This bridge is the only way for Palestinians in the West Bank to go anywhere else in the world. And as always, the Israelis are their gatekeepers.

I’m a US citizen and still have not received my Palestinian residency (which is issued by Israel) so my line had just seven other foreign passport holders. I quickly reached the window and handed over my passport. I explained to the young Israeli soldier that the purpose of my visit was not a visit, that I lived in the Bethlehem area with my husband. She told me it was illegal for me to live in Bethlehem on a tourist visa. She was emphatic that I could not live in Bethlehem. And yet I do.

This interaction jolted me out of la-la land and I recalled once again that I do not control when I go home and for how long. So I changed my tone and my line and explained that I live in both California and Bethlehem. I desperately continued, telling her that my husband was waiting for his greencard and so I HAD to stay (not live) part-time in Bethlehem. I said I was only staying two months this time. I would say anything to go home. She told me to wait.

So I sat on the floor and soon my husband joined me. We laughed at the unfamiliar situation of him being able to go somewhere that I can’t. After all I’m the one allowed by Israel to go to Jerusalem, to the Mediterranean Sea, and to his family’s original village while he cannot. And I’m the one that can travel to most countries in the world without applying for a visa. So we waited together for someone to call my name.

Eventually (was it after one hour? two? I tried not to keep track) someone did call my name and handed me back my passport with a three-month tourist visa. I was relieved, thrilled to be told I could go home now! But also sobered by the experience of being told it can’t be my home.

This is just my one silly tale among millions that Palestinians experience each day. It was a rare role reversal in which I was vulnerable being a US citizen and not a Palestinian. But for Palestinians living in the West Bank this home-coming over the Allenby Bridge can also be treacherous. Just last month a friend and human rights worker was taken from the bridge to an Israeli detention center. Read more about Mohammad at freemohammadothman.wordpress.com

Palestinian women in adminsitrative detention

Honestly I'm not sure how effective letters are but I think Addameer is an incredible organization and these women, like all Palestinian political prisoners, need international support. Please check Addameer's website for more information about administrative detention and their international campaign to stop it.

Addameer has also put together profiles of the two women illegally held by Israel that are mentioned below. These profiles thoughtfully done and are also easy to print out for education and to encourage more people to support the campaign. I don't know how to attach them and can't find them on Addameer's website so email me and I'll send them.

Dear Friends,

Please read the urgent appeal on behalf of two women who are currently held in administrative detention.

Majeda Fidda is an elected member of Nablus municipality Council. She was arrested from the family home in Nablus. A few minutes passed midnight on 6 August 2008 Israeli soldiers stormed her house and proceeded to a search. Five months later, on 31 December 2008 she was acquitted of all charges and subsequently placed under administrative detention. Her order is expected to end on 30 June 2009. Please write to the Israeli government, military and legal authorities and demand that Ms Majeda Fidda be released immediately and that her administrative detention not be renewed.

Siham Al Heh is a social worker from Sourif in Hebron. Siham was arrested from her family home at 1:30 am on 26 March 2009. A few days following her arrest, Siham was informed that she would be detained for a 3 month period in administrative detention, without charge or trial. Her potential – but by no means certain – release is now expected on 25 June 2009. Please write to the Israeli government, military and legal authorities and demand that Siham Al-Heh be released immediately and that her administrative detention not be renewed.

For more information on administrative detention and Addameer’s campaign please check our website: www.addameer.info or get in touch with us directly at: info@addameer.ps

Thank you for your support.

Best wishes,
Addameer

In Occupied Palestine, Loving the Children is the Easy Part

Barbara Lubin was 22 years old in 1967 when she walked into the Philadelphia military induction center along with 250 young men-and was told to strip. A dedicated and unusually daring draft counselor, Lubin had dressed in drag and hidden her hair in preparation for infiltrating an entry point into the U.S. military. As she peeled off her clothing, leaflets opposing the Vietnam War spilled from her undergarments. Her memories of that success are still vivid: "The sergeants were so enraged that they marched me out with bayonets and arrested me, but not before I was able to pass out hundreds of leaflets."

Children’s champion: On a visit to Gaza in January, Barbara Lubin of Berkeley’s Middle East Children’s Alliance poses with a family. (Photos by Sharon Wallace)

Over the subsequent 40 years-35 of them spent in Berkeley-Lubin's activism has spanned the globe: from the disability rights movement in Berkeley, to the anti-apartheid struggle centered at U.C. Berkeley, to the Bay Area Committee to Support the People of El Salvador. But since co-founding the Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA) in 1988, she has focused her formidable energies on directing the work of this small Berkeley nonprofit dedicated to a better quality of life for Palestinian, Iraqi, and Lebanese families and children.

Read the rest of Micky Duxbury's profile of Barbara and MECA here.

What is the impact of the Israeli siege on the Palestinian youth?

By Mohammed El Majdalawi, a MECA volunteer in Gaza

Palestinian youth are living under very difficult economic conditions, due to the Israeli siege on Gaza. Many of them have graduated from university and are looking for work opportunities.

One young man in the prime of his life, Ahmed Abdul-Karim Yousef Majdalawi, is a 29-year-old tailor and father of four. He lost his work because the blockade on Gaza and the closure of the crossings caused the sewing factories to close, and limited the work available to him.

Looking for alternative employment to secure his livelihood, Ahmed started to sell candy to school children in Beit Lahiya, where he lives. But with the end of the school year and the beginning of summer vacation approaching for children in Gaza, Ahmed needed to get better work to support his family. He decide to work underground in Rafah, because he could not find anything else. On Wednesday May 13, 2009, the tunnel he was working in collapsed.

Ahmed is alive, but fighting for his life.

I appeal to lovers of peace and freedom to work to save Ahmed, and also work to break the Israeli siege of Palestinian youth – to save their future and to obtain their freedom and rights, like young people in the rest of the outside world.

Ibdaa Dance Troupe

Ibdaa's youth dance troupe performs regularly throughout the Middle East and Europe, and MECA has sponsored three US tours. In 2009 we made a grant for the production of a new dance show and for Ibdaa’s ongoing theater, music, drawing, and sports programs for children.

Here is a short video of Ibdaa's youngest dancers performing in public for the first time.

Collective Punishment in Safa

This morning we woke up to more alarming news from the village of Safa where my sister-in-law lives with her family. Following the murder of an Israeli settler in a nearby illegal settlement last week, the families in Safa have endured one form of collective punishment after another.

The men in the village were rounded up by Israeli soldiers and kept in the schoolyard. It's been reported that 28 men were detained for even longer periods of time. Three homes in the village were taken over by Israeli soldiers and turned into military posts. The whole village was under curfew for more than 24 hours as Israeli soldiers searched (and damaged) homes and the following days all roads leading in and out of the village were blocked.

And now Israelis living in the nearby illegal settlement and Israeli soldiers have attacked the village injuring 38 people. This is the report from Ma'an News Agency:

UPDATE: Armed settlers attack, injure 38 Palestinians; Teenager in critical condition

Date: 08 / 04 / 2009 Time: 10:03

Palestinian demonstrators confronted the settlers [Ma'anImages] Hebron – Ma’an – Thirty-eight Palestinians were injured when armed Israeli settlers, backed by soldiers, rampaged through the West Bank village of Safa, north of Hebron on Wednesday morning. According to medics at Al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron 11 Palestinians were shot with live bullets, five with rubber-coated metal bullets and another 15 were treated for the effects of teargas. One Palestinian, 18-year-old Tha’er Aadi, is in critical condition after being shot in the neck. After undergoing surgery at Al-Ahli, he was transferred to the public hospital in the city of Ramallah. One eyewitness said that some 25 settlers from the nearby settlement Bat Ayin approached Palestinian houses and began shooting randomly. He said that Israeli military patrols were present, and watched the settlers shooting without stopping them. Soldiers fired gunshots and tear gas canisters in order to prevent local youths from confronting the settlers, one witness said. Neighboring villages called on for help Calls were heard through mosque loudspeakers in the neighboring Palestinian towns of Beit Ummar and Surif asking residents to head to Safa and help protect its people from the rampaging settlers. Hundreds of youths responded to the call. When the youth arrived Israeli troops intervened and restrained the settlers, making sure they returned their settlement unharmed. Local sources said that the settlers stole cattle as they left Safa. Medics at Al-Ahli Hospital named some of the injured: 31-year-old Ammar Abu Dayya who was shot in the thigh, 26-year-old Suheil Abu Dayya, shot in the foot, 26-year-old Muhammad Khlayyil, also shot in the thigh, 35-year-old Walid Khlayyil, shot in the foot, and 24-year-old Muhammad Khlayyil The mayors of nearby Hebron and Beit Ummar arrived in Safa to check on residents. According to mayor of Beit Ummar Nasri Sabarna, all of those injured in the day’s events were harmed by the soldiers supporting the settlers, and not by the settlers themselves. Revenge attack On Thursday in Bat Ayin a man, reportedly Palestinian, killed a teenage settler and wounded another 7-year-old boy in the settlement with an axe. The settlement is also the origin of a militia called the Bat Ayin Underground. The father of the 7-year-old victim of last week’s attack is Ofer Gamliel, who is serving a 15-year prison sentence for attempting to bomb a Palestinian girls’ school in Jerusalem in 2002. Two other men from the settlement were also jailed for the attempted attack. On Wednesday night, the Israeli news agency Ynet reported that Gamliel was to be released for 48 hours this week in order to visit his son. The Israeli military has refused to comment on the incident. ***Updated at 15:04 Bethlehem time

More photos from Gaza

MECA volunteer Mohammed El Majdalawi sent more photos from Gaza.

His photos include images from refugee camps and also close up photos of weapons made in the US.

Click here to see the photos.

If you would like to use these photos please credit Mohammed Fares El Majdalawi. Email us if you need higher resolution versions.