While the Israeli Military lays siege to Nablus, Six Internationals "Walk" in
April 9th, 1:00pm (Palestine Time); 4:00am (Mtn Standard Time)
Notes and Phone Call transcribed by Eric Blair in East Jerusalem
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These are my notes from a 10 minute conversation with Beth Daoud, a Coloradan working with the International Solidarity Movement. She is one of six internationals (2 from the UK, 3 from the US and one from Ireland) attempting to get into Nablus, now under invasion by Israeli occupation forces.
This is among the most dangerous and critical actions taken by internationals. Israeli forces in Nablus and Jenin are operating under the assumption that there are no witnesses, and are carrying out attacks with total indiscriminance. Beth's group will attempt to enter the main hospital, in Nablus, one of the epicenters of invasion activity.
Soldiers will not be expecting internationals to be walking into their sights.
Paraphrasing Beth's call from a villiage outside Nablus:
"This place [Nablus] is full of soldiers, they aren't letting any press in, no ambulances are moving. It's very critical to let media know that we are coming. Also, we may be going to Jenin - we need to get a reporter in with us, but is extremely dangerous. These communities need witnesses."
"To get here, we went around Ramallah and got as close as possible to Nablus. The driver dropped us off 3-4 miles from suburbs of Nablus. We walked through unfamiliar terrain with no guide. It was tough going through rocks and steep hills, past settlements, dodging helicopters, very slow going. We hiked a total of 3 hours or so - started about 3pm and at 6:30pm came across small village, where we made our first contact with local Palestinians. Paul [Larudee, of California] was able to communicate in Arabic. We heard stories about Israeli brutality - random breaking into houses, taking men, brutalizing them - it's the same stories wherever you go."
"The next day we continued to be directed by locals toward Nablus. Now we are in another village just outside Nablus (10:35am 4/9/02 Palstinian time);we've stayed about 45 minutes. We are just being pointed the way as we come through. We are not not afraid to be with Palestinians - it's the Israelis!!! We are being taken care of by the Palestinians, even though these communities have probably never seen foreigners before."
"Now we're making phone calls to the Nablus hospital and letting them know we're coming. They said it's dangerous but extremely critical that we come. We are needed to be a presence because there are no media or internationals. We will be witnesses and human shields in the hospital and possibly in ambulances. Please put out a press release saying that we are entering Nablus. We will be leaving within an hour. There are NO international reporters. Press can call me for interviews at any hour. We just heard 10 Israeli soldiers were killed in Jenin and 2 in Nablus, so things will be out of control. We are in good physical condition.
"Palestinians are taking care of us. We're not seeing soldiers yet, but entering we were warned about helicopters, and kept hearing them. We asked if we should hide if they come, but the Palestinians said if you hide they will come after you for sure, so just keep walking. I think we're going into something that is is very dangerous but is absolutely necessary - Palestinians need the world to witness what's going on."
...An hour later Beth arrived in Nablus to "deserted streets, absolutely no one is out. There is no international media, just local. When soldiers stopped us, they asked what we were doing, why are we in Nablus now? We told them we're here to visit the hospital and they let us go."
For Media, Beth Daoud can be reached at: 011-972-56-589-156
* Beth Daoud is one of five members of the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace currently in the West Bank in solidarity with Palestinians under a brutal Israeli siege and a 35 year illegal military occupation. You can read more about their experiences at: www.ccmep.org/palestine.html