Sifting the Rubble: The Remains of Jenin Refugee Camp
Conversation with Brian Wood in Jenin Refugee Camp
April 29, 2002 * 9 am (Palestine time)

CCMEP: Do you need internationals (ISM members) in Jenin?

Brian Wood: No, there is not much to do here, besides taking testimonies.

CCMEP: Did you meet with the representative of Human Rights Watch?

BW: He is reluctant to use the word "massacre" because it doesn't really have meaning. Since he used the same word for Sabra and Chatila, there is some definition in his mind. Unfortunately, there is a report that is going to come out on Thursday that is probably going to be pretty weak. Internationals interviewed him for hours. He is a really a nice guy, very patient, answering all the questions they wanted to ask. But our analysis is that what happened here is going to be covered up, even by Human Rights Watch. He said that there are only 52 people that were killed in this refugee camp, and only 21 were civilians. He said they might be 80, or maybe 100. But he said he has no evidence of people buried under their homes, even though people have been uncovered from their homes every single day.

CCMEP: How can he say that?

BW: In his estimate, there were only 52 people killed because this is the number of bodies that have been positively identified by the Jenin Hospital. However, Human Rights Watch has failed, thus far, to take into consideration the various unknowns of the equation. One example is the numbers in prison, which if anyone knew it, families who have missing loved ones would know if their family members are dead or alive. The 17 acres of rubble at the center of the camp has been sifted through only minimally at this point, so it ic not clear if more bodies are in the rubble. That each day we pull two or three bodies from the rubble, it is likely there are more to be discovered. These are but two examples of why stating with certainty a final number of dead at this point is not possible.

CCMEP: Where are all the dead bodies?

BW: I don't know, it's still difficult to get numbers. A lot of people said that the Israelis took bodies. There is a mass grave at the hospital in Jenin-- 39 bodies were buried there because the morgue was full. Two were buried in the street. There are at least 15 corpses that have been taken from the rubble. It is really difficult to get numbers because of the lack of organization here. It is a big problem, that's why we think it's going to be covered up at the official level.

CCMEP: How many have disappeared, and how many are dead?

BW: Unfortunately, the UN school is a disaster, chaos. People are putting in their names in order to get food. It's going to be inefficient. Part of it is internal. For example, the bomb experts from the Red Cross, they were supposed to remove all the unexploded ordinances. But one of the reasons they left after being here only three days is because the Israelis would not allow them to bring in the proper equipment they needed to remove the devices. Then they told us that they needed to dispose of them in Israel, and the authorities wouldn't allow them to do either, so it really curtailed their efforts, and they left. Now the UN is taking [the job] over. In just three days, these [other] people removed over 300 unexploded ordinances, both Israeli and Palestinian. But all of them are still here because they were buried in an undisclosed location nearby.

CCMEP: How many internationals are still there?

BW: There are people coming and going. The group was reduced to three today.

CCMEP: Are there are systematic efforts to unbury homes or find more bodies?

BW: All lot of these 200 homes had people inside of them when they were bulldozed, so they're bound to keep uncovering corpses. I wouldn't call it systematic, but when people have an idea that one of their relatives are in there, or if a Red Crescent volunteer thinks there's someone there, then they bulldoze the rubble and scoop it by hand. It's just an incredibly slow process. You had three and four story buildings that were bulldozed, and all that material came down in a pile, so there's a lot of rubble to go through. There are a lot of homes that haven't even been touched yet, to see if there are people under them. But I don't think that there's been a day since the military left that we didn't find corpses buried under rubble--and dig them out piece by piece.

CCMEP: Do you hear any more estimates about the number of people they think they'll find?

BW: Nobody has any idea. Human Rights Watch estimates that 4000 people have been made homeless, 800 homes destroyed. The UN told us that about 30% of the camp was razed. But there are a large number of houses that have other problems now like gaping holes in walls from tank shells. People might still be living in them, but they are unsafe, or heavily damaged. The UNRWA estimates that there were 14,000 residents of the camp before the invasion, so if 4000 people are now homeless, then slightly more than one quarter of the camp became homeless because of this invasion.

CCMEP: Where are they living now?

BW: With family in other parts of the camp, or other cities.

CCMEP: Do you have any idea how many are still in prison?

BW: A lot. Just in the last few days, a few people were released from prison. We're going to start talking to them, hopefully today. The treatment in prisons is really bad. Beaten constantly. A lot of them are in their underwear still from weeks ago. They are given very little food, beaten, interrogated, beaten. But nobody really knows how many are in prison at this point..

CCMEP: How's the food and water situation in the camp?

BW: There are still people who really don't have anything; everything they had was either stolen or destroyed.  There's just a little bit of running water. There's still no electricity. Since the military pulled out you can get more food into the camp, or go into the city, so the food situation is better. But there are still people whose resources have been completely destroyed.

CCMEP: Is there still a presence of Israeli military?

BW: (chuckles) Yeah, they still make their presence known. F-16's are always flying overhead, Apache helicopters just to scare us, especially in the morning. There are still tanks all around. On a daily basis, they let people know that they are still there.

CCMEP: Do you believe there was a massacre?

BW: Yesterday we were talking casually to a resident of the camp and he said, "All I do all day is think about my friends. I found a picture yesterday of me and six or seven of my friends, and they're all dead." I think the number of dead is higher than any of the official estimates to date. There is evidence that Israelis removed bodies from the camp. There are even reports that the Israeli military admitted removing bodies. So there is an unconfirmed number of bodies that were taken by the Israeli military, an unconfirmed number in prison, an unconfirmed number of people under the rubble, and I don't even know if there is a confirmed number of people dead. There are only families who know that their members are missing they don't know if they're dead or in prison.

CCMEP: Any idea how long you are going to be there?

BW: I think I'm going to be here for a little while, at least a couple more weeks. The Jenin Refugee Camp is not like any other place I've been in Palestine. The people here are strong, informed, and alert. They're going to stand up to the colonization of their land. They may get bulldozed, but they're going to stand up. Great, great people.

Brian Wood is one of two members of the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace who have joined internationals currently working in the West Bank against the Israeli colonization of Palestine. For more on their trip, go to www.ccmep.org/palestine.html