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Steve Johnson / USA
Palestinian Hospitality.
Steve Johnson
I think I could be penniless here in Palestine. Everywhere I walk people invite me for tea or coffee, a meal, and even to spend the night. Last night, my birthday, I left the university and hiked alone just before dark over the mountain into the country and into the next village. On the way I encountered some sheparders and was invited into their house for non alcoholic drinks and we ate. I now have a home away from Nablus if I ever want or need a place to sleep.
Walking in Nablus, it is hard to avoid an invitation for tea at some store or another or in some house.
Day or night it is safe to walk the streets or country side except for the occupying forces of Israel the soldiers of which mistreat the Palestinians and are cocky and well armed and foul mouthed at times or have been with me. There are checkpoints here in Palestine set up either as permanent ones or just an armored troop carrier somewhere where you may or may not expect it.
The Israelis have torn up the roads so vehicles can't pass. In the villages near Nablus, where I am working, there is no way for vehicles such as ambulances to pass. If someone gets sick or injured in the villages they won't get to the hospital swiftly thanks to these actions that Israel takes.
I'm sure you have read about the Wall that Israel is building. These walls are being built not in Israel but in Palestine and the reason is not as they say for security but to steal Palestinian lands. The walls are and will prevent the villagers from reaching their farm land, from reaching their wells, and from getting to their schools and jobs. I hope the court case in the Hague which is going on now will help to educate the world about the crimes Israel is committing against the Palestinian people.
The checkpoints that Israel has here in Palestine are harassing my students and my colleagues. Students are delayed sometimes hours and often miss their classes. Students and teachers must have an apartment in Nablus even thought their families live only 10 kilometers out of town-the checkpoints don't allow these professionals or students from being with their families.
The Israeli army enters Nablus almost every day and they might come in to arrest someone, to assassinate someone, to destroy someone's house. Think about collective punishment which is punishing even those that had nothing to do with the "crime" someone is accused of. The "criminal" is the one that hates the occupation. I was in a mosque and took pictures of one of the dead young men that had been killed that morning. I walked with about 2000 people with the body to the cemetery. The Israeli army comes in as it pleases and I don't think they ever have a casualty. They are invincible and almost nothing gets thrown at them except rocks thrown by children. Tanks, helicopters, and military jets never get destroyed. It isn't like Iraq. The people are quite defenseless. And there is a feeling of despair and helplessness as the Israelis continue their theft of Palestine. The only weapon that a few resort to is the human bomb. These people have lost brothers or sisters or other family members, perhaps their homes-they have nothing left to live for. Israel is stealing everything. This would end if Israel would remove their settlements and solve the problems peacefully and honestly but Israel doesn't want peace-it only wants to steal more of Palestine.
There are settlements every where. When you think of them know that they are in Palestine and that they are thefts of Palestinian land. They are similar to what the US did to the Indigenous Americans. The US is basically doing it again since the US is the supplier of money and weapons and huge economic support to Israel. This is another example of US support for undemocratic forces to control a country to gain advantages for itself. The US and Israel are 2 criminals that the world seems unable to stop. The US could tell Israel to end its occupation and theft of Palestinian lands but it didn't even do that under Clinton. During the Oslo accords the Israelis never stopped building more settlements.
My experience here has helped me to understand what it is like to be occupied by another country. I have lived in Korea 3 years and have heard many stories of their occupation by the Japanese-but here I am living it.
I hope that you will try and do something to help the Palestinian people. This is the desire of everyone here in Palestine.
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