By Brian Wood in Jenin Refugee Camp
April 19, 2002, 9:00am (Palestine Time)
This past night we stayed in Jenin City at a school where there are over 800 refugees from Jenin Refugee Camp. We took turns sleeping (there aren’t enough mattresses).
Q: A UN representative visited Jenin refugee camp yesterday. Did you meet him?
No, but I heard he went to the camp yesterday. The word will get out eventually. The Israeli’s have done a lot to try to cover it up by shooting journalists and keeping any foreigners and press out.
Q: Is the Israeli Army still shooting at people?
We arrived in the Jenin Refugee Camp yesterday when the curfew was lifted and things were as open as I had heard of them being open. People were coming and going and some people were able to get to the city where there are a few more supplies such as water and food and they were able to bring it back to the camp. I didn’t hear reports of people being shot or shot at in the camp yesterday. It’s very possible it could have happened, but once we get inside the camp we don’t hear a lot of what goes on. When we’re outside the camp we hear a lot more about what’s going on in the camp. The military was moving around all day and all last night, with tanks and APCs. Supposedly they’re supposed to pull out in a few days, but I don’t know exactly.
Q: They are still inside the camp?
Yesterday when we got there during curfew I didn’t see any of the tanks or APCs that I saw the other day in their location. They come and go from the camp on a regular basis. I don’t think they have the same forces in the camp as they did, but there are still snipers in homes and high buildings and there’s probably still soldiers hiding in different homes taking up positions.
Q: Have you heard about an estimated number of dead, injured, or disappeared people in Jenin Refugee Camp?
I have yet to hear something confirmed. We don’t really know how many are killed because there are probably a lot of people buried under the rubble of their homes and nobody is able to get to those bodies yet. So that will take some time. That will require the Israeli military leaving the camp and the city completely so that heavy equipment can come in to the camp and start digging through the rubble to find these people because the homes are three, four, sometimes five floors, with 5 or 6 families in them. So if you’ve got that big of a building that’s collapsed, it’s too much just to move by hand, you’ve got to have heavy equipment
.
Actually, yesterday, I was standing at the center of the camp in this enormous area, it’s got to be several city blocks long each direction, where there used to be all kinds of homes and now it’s just total rubble. I was standing there, amidst sinks and water tanks and chairs and trees and clothing and books, obviously the remains of dozens of homes. I didn’t personally visit New York at what they call Ground Zero, but I know it was several city blocks long each direction of total rubble, total destruction, and all I could think yesterday, was that this place is the Ground Zero of Palestine. Nothing exists. They try and make that connection in Israel, where a suicide bomber hits and kills 11 people and there’s a little bit of material damage, they call that Ground Zero. Trying to piggy back on America’s problems and their War on Terrorism. But this truly more closely resembles Ground Zero if a Ground Zero exists in the Middle East.
Q: What’s the response of the Palestinians to the humanitarian aid? How do they react towards Western people who come and try to help them?
Yesterday as we walked into the camp, five of us carrying diapers, we had our arms loaded with as many diapers as we could carry, a lady in her 50s greeted us, she probably has many children – she walked straight up to us and she began shouting, “I don’t want any diapers, I don’t want any food, I don’t want any water, I want Sharon dead.” But the people, given their circumstances, have been extremely kind towards people who have been trying to bring aid in. Unfortunately, even the people like the UN who try to bring some aid in are stopped by the military. If they could get more stuff in, I’m sure the people would feel less isolated and have an opportunity to be even more thankful. But they have been very warm. Like I said, we’re sleeping here with refugees and there’s not enough mattresses to sleep on. Three young men from the camp all slept on one two-inch thick mattress two nights ago. Last night they gave it to me, and they absolutely refused my offer to give it back to them. The hospitality of these folks…
Q: Do you have any Palestinian testimony – what they saw when the Israeli military were doing what they were doing?
We have about 17 interviews thus far. Some are text and some are video. We need to get those all together. We need to coordinate with some people that went back to Jerusalem yesterday. We need to get all of them transcribed. Right now we’ve set that aside while we’re trying to help out in the camp, to get people some food and water. We will definitely make sure we document and get these testimonies out.
Q: Have you heard about the 20 internationals that were detained two days ago between Tayba and Jenin – one of them was an Italian journalist.
They were taken back to Jerusalem. They weren’t deported, just removed from the area. They didn’t coordinate with people who had already been able to move around. That’s why they ended up in that position.
Q: Have you heard from Tayba and all those villages that were invaded by the Israeli army? Do you know a little bit about the situation of these villages around Jenin?
Just last night was our first night outside of Tayba – the last five nights we were in Tayba. The military keep coming and going from the villages. It was systematic at first and now they keep coming and going out of many of them. Sometimes they bring tanks into them and shoot a bunch, sometimes they just bring a few jeeps. Now they’re still under curfew and don’t do anything really – it really varies depending on the village. One village, Sileh, is where a suicide bomber came from, one of the female suicide bombers, about two weeks ago, and that village got a lot worse treatment. Two days ago, we spoke with the principal of the school where the young lady studied, and he told us the military came into the school and drove the tanks right through the gate of the school property up to the gate of the school building itself. They went inside, they destroyed all of their computers, they ransacked the whole school and the only reason they did was because this is the school where she studied.
I just thought of something. You asked earlier if the military is still shooting at people. I spoke with a man last night, his name is Kamal, from Jenin city. Two days ago the curfew was lifted in Jenin city for a couple of hours. So everybody was out in the markets trying to get some food and things like this. Kamal’s wife Nadia, 13 year old daughter Safed, 12 year old son Javer, and 4 month old son Mohammed, took advantage of the curfew [being lifted] and went into the city to go shopping for food water and things like this. Out of nowhere he told me the tanks opened fire all over in the market – I don’t think they fired at the people directly, but they had lifted the curfew so that people could go out and get stuff and they still brought tanks in and were firing in their direction. Kamal’s family stepped out of their car and he told me 30 seconds after they got out of their car the tank fired directly at the car and 45 bullets from the tank hit their car from front to back. He showed me the car last night. It was a fairly new vehicle. But his family is safe. That was in Jenin city, not in Jenin refugee camp.
Q: What’s the latest with the Israeli peace movement? Are they able to bring humanitarian aid?
As far as I know they have not tried, besides last Saturday when about 2000 Jewish and Palestinian Israelis brought a 40 ton convoy of food and other humanitarian aid to Jenin. Most of that didn’t actually make it to the Palestinian people.
Q: A few days ago Israel celebrated its independence day. What was the reaction in the West Bank?
During this time of massacres of Palestinian people, this celebration was one of the most sickening things I’ve ever seen. Standing on the rubble of their homes, looking out towards Israel and seeing all the firework displays, Palestinians in Jenin Refugee Camp were dazed and shocked. It felt like people celebrating the destruction of the Palestinian people.