Voices from Ramallah

The same message echoes over and over: please, help us. There have been many massacres, and it has sometimes been possible to say we did not know what atrocities were being committed until it was too late. This time, voices are ringing out, with increasing desperation: please, do something. The massacre is underway. On the Internet and in the print press, the testimonies circulate. The story is one of devastation; and worse is to come. At Al-Ahram Weekly, we feel it is our responsibility to provide these voices with a platform -- so it will not be possible to say we did not know
In shackles
This is the fourth day of the Israeli invasion of Ramallah. Increasingly there seems to be no hope of ending the reoccupation. In the town the tanks have concentrated their actions in the middle of Ramallah, with four buildings shelled and set on fire. There was also news of a number of police and security personnel forced to surrender and taken away (with rumours of some summary executions). At least 25 people have been killed in Ramallah since Thursday morning (this is the body count in the morgue: people still can't bury them because a full curfew is strongly enforced, with families being deprived of based necessities including medical attention).
The invading army is systematically storming buildings, searching homes and terrorising civilians. About 3.30 this afternoon (local time), six tanks and two armoured carriers with some 40 special unit soldiers surrounded the building where I live, and shouted, through a loudspeaker, that all males and females over 12 years old should leave their flats and come into the street, otherwise they would be blown up in their flats (most flats in the building are offices of various kinds). My wife and I, a neighbour, his wife and two children went down and found some 10 men (four of them students at Birzeit University) kneeling with hands over their heads facing a wall. I was ordered to do likewise. The women and children were asked to gather in one flat. We were asked to hand our identity cards to one officer. The soldiers, in full military gear, began searching the flats and offices, breaking down doors of empty apartments (mostly offices). The operation lasted two hours. Then suddenly we were handed back our identity cards, and without a word the tanks departed.
We found our flat in shambles. Presumably they were looking for arms. However, that is not all they were looking for. I had a little money in the upper drawer of my desk, which I took out of the bank on Thursday when an invasion was expected. I found the drawer broken and the money gone. Another family had a camera stolen and a birthday cake eaten. Thus, it may be true what they say about the Israeli army: it has First World weapons but an Idi Amin army mentality.
Have we entered a new political stage, with no PNA and a situation of colonial military occupation that requires the organisation of long-term resistance?
At 8.00pm, the tanks returned to the neighbourhood but not to the building. On 2 April, starting early in the morning we could hear loud explosions coming from Batounia (a couple of kilometres from Ramallah). There has been news of an attack on the Preventive Security Headquarters in Batounia. The head of preventive security (Jibril Rajoub) says that 400 employees and security personnel are inside the building. At 9.15am, from my window, I can see a French television vehicle being ordered to stop on the side street of the building where my flat is. Its occupants (four journalists) are ordered to dismount with their hands over their heads. Shots are fired a few metres from where they are standing. They are shouted at to take off their jackets and reveal their naked chests, to show their press cards, then to turn around and go back.
On the other side of the street, at the same time, a group of Palestinian Red Crescent medics (as the red and white jackets they are wearing say) have been stopped and ordered to sit on the road with their hands tied behind their backs. It is raining heavily. They stay there for at least an hour and then are put into armoured carriers and taken away. By now, it is about 11.00am. The army is preventing any movement (ambulances or press) to Batounia, where the Preventive Security building is still under attack.
Jamil Hilal
Palestinian writer and scholar
Ramallah
2 April
This is a massacre
The Israeli army is attacking the site of the Preventive Security Forces in Ramallah with tanks and helicopter gunships in what has been a continuous assault of bombardment and shelling since last night.
There are children inside the building, which is on fire, and ambulances and fire brigades are not allowed to reach the scene.
At 1.00am this morning the Preventive Security Compound was completely surrounded by Israeli army tanks, helicopter gunships and snipers. The Israeli army used more than 50 Palestinian detainees as human shields to walk in front of the tanks as they advanced and surrounded the compound. People inside were asked to surrender and leave the building but whenever people tried to move they were shot.
Preventive Security is a branch of the Palestinian police and the compound holds a mixture of civilian and security facilities: there is a hospital inside, a nursery, a hotel, and other civilian facilities. Most of the people trapped inside the burning building are female employees who work in the civilian services and live inside the compound with their children and families. We have been called by desperate women trapped inside the building along with their children pleading for help.
At this moment (8.00am) the bombardment is ongoing and helicopter gunships are circulating over Ramallah. There seems to be a large number of killed and injured people inside the compound but up until this release no one has been able to provide medical and humanitarian assistance. Five ambulances from the Medical Relief Teams and the Red Crescent that tried to reach the site were stopped and held. The medical staff were forced out of the ambulances, stripped of their clothes and put on the ground outside the Ramallah Municipality.
This is a massacre in every sense of the word. Attacking a civilian facility, using innocent people as human shields and not allowing humanitarian assistance are atrocities and must be stopped immediately. In other parts of Ramallah people have been without food and water for days and we are receiving desperate calls from families who have been without drinking water for two days. The Ministry of Health has warned that due to the high numbers of unburied corpses all over there is a serious threat of diseases spreading.
We would also like to remind you that the Israeli army is attacking and destroying civilian institutions. Yesterday the Israeli army destroyed a medical relief clinic in Qalqiliya and used it as an interrogation centre; a medical relief youth centre in Ramallah was bombed and the offices of the Health, Development, Information and Policy Institute (HDIP) were occupied and are now being used as a military station. The Palestinian Human Rights Organisation -- Al-Haq -- has also been taken over and its facilities and documentation destroyed.
This is an urgent call for all humanitarian organisations worldwide to intervene immediately. For more information contact Juliana at
The Palestine Monitor: 972 (0)2 583 3510
The Palestine Monitor
A PNGO Information Clearinghouse
2 April, 8.00am
Under siege
I am the director of the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre in Ramallah (http:// www.sakakini.org). As I am under siege at home, I am sending out this e-mail to journalist friends, and others, to ask to please get our message out and disseminated further. I hope this message will not become morbid fodder for chain e-mails to draw pity, or prayers, or donations, but rather actions. We are doing our bit by resisting and or standing steadfast, and ask the world to please do its bit in the name of our common humanity, each according to his her/own capacity. We do not want to become the Red Indians of the Arab world, but simply want to live free, in peace and dignity on this land. I will start by a few paragraphs' overview of the situation "live" as I see it, and follow it with nine suggestions of what we would please like to see happen in the media and elsewhere in the outside world.
Firstly, last night (Sunday) we have heard numerous reports of 30 Palestinian policemen executed in cold blood by Israeli soldiers in a building where they sought refuge on Al-Irsal Street in Ramallah. This was after five Palestinian officers were executed by being shot to the head and then had their corpses thrown on the pavement for hours on Friday. Ambulances are prevented from reaching their destinations and two hospitals have either been broken into (Arabcare) or shot at (Nazer Maternity Hospital). If this continues, it will be another Chechnya or Sarajevo in the making.
Personally, I have been shut at home since Friday morning, like all the tens of thousands of inhabitants of Ramallah and Al-Bireh, and no prospect of an end soon. We did not have electricity for one day, but thank God it got reestablished today. Yesterday the Israeli army burst into the village where one of the employees of the Sakakini Centre lives, destroyed belongings and arrested his younger brother, along with 30 other young men from the village. The cleaning lady of the centre lives in a house with an outhouse. For three days the Israelis have been posted by the door to her house, preventing all exit. When her eldest child today sneaked out to the outhouse, the Israelis caught him and beat him. His father, a schoolteacher, tried to intervene; the Israelis beat and arrested him. One of the board members of our centre was arrested with all the employees of the office building where he was working late Thursday night. They were all blindfolded. Their hands were tied and they were kept in one room for 16 hours. The Israelis destroyed office furniture and stole hard drives from computers. They only escaped once they realised the Israelis had gone on to bigger prey.
My brother-in-law and his wife and their three children, all aged under 10, have had no phone or electricity since Friday.
My next-door neighbour's 70-year-old father lives near Yasser Arafat's office. The Israelis broke into his home Friday, broke everything (TV, sinks, furniture...) with their rifle butts and then stole some money. There are reports also of Israeli soldiers breaking into banks and change offices and jewellery stores and stealing money and jewellery.
In Al-Bireh, on Saturday they arrested 150 young men between 16 and 45 years of age after calling out for men of this age bracket to come out. They are grouping them in Ramallah's Old City. The only local private TV station in town, which used to air hourly news and advice (Watan TV), was seized by the Israelis on Friday, and they are now airing pornographic films. Journalists have been ordered out of Ramallah today. All the neighbourhoods are abuzz with talk of who is next in Israeli home incursions.
As for me and many others, there is the human instinct of crying out for help when in danger. Here is what we have done: we have made phone calls to appeal for help and pressure on the international community to a number of high-level officials in neighbouring countries, and we have sent appeals to the media. Below are nine modest and/or utopian suggestions and requests:
1- This is a long siege. Please keep up the pressure to have our story told and make continuous appeals for action.
2- The centre's administrative and financial director has collected testimonies from children around her describing conditions under siege as well as drawings she has scanned. These testimonies, in Arabic, can be obtained directly from her at: issamanal@yahoo.com. I will translate them into English and make them available. I am also asking that anybody who reads this message request copies of these testimonies to have them published as widely as possible.
3- Please ask for pressure on the international community and decisionmakers to lift the siege on us. We need tens and hundreds of letters daily to:
president@whitehouse.gov
vice.president@whitehouse.gov
4- If you do not want to do that, please write to mainstream news organisations in the US about the siege.
5- We need daily demonstrations in front of Israeli embassies.
6- We need appeals from Arab artists to western European artists for concerts, demonstrations and/or appeals to decisionmakers to lift the siege.
7- We need Western artists to ask for the siege to be lifted.
8- If you work for a publication, please keep a section for daily news or weekly news from the siege, interviews with witnesses to repression and the siege, children's testimonies, and information from hospitals.
9- The disastrous health picture can be obtained by calling the Ramallah Hospital and talking to its director, Dr Atari, or to the deputy minister of health who is stationed there, Dr Munther Sharif (972 2 2 298 2220).
10- Please give us your suggestions for action and tell us what you need from us to help us better. Thank you to the Muharraq Club, Bahrein TV, and Dubai's Nadwat Al-Thaqafa for hearing us already.
Thank you all and we all look forward to hearing from you soon.
Adila Laidi
Director, Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre
Ramallah
1 April
Summary executions
I have been calling all the people I know anywhere in the world to come and investigate the summary execution of many young Palestinians in the different security apparatuses. People in the Red Cross do not send ambulances unless the Israeli army gives them permission. Thirty young Palestinians were shot at, and until now (3.00am) they are being denied any medical help. This is the third case documented in Ramallah in the past two days. If you have any medical corps, any contact with humanitarian organisations, please do whatever you can to send them and see what is going on on the ground. A friend of my son called us at least 30 times today asking for help. He is with a group of 40 young people hiding in Ramallah. The army is approaching. I have been calling all hospitals, ambulances, the Red Cross, the Red Crescent, they all told me the same thing: "We cannot go out and give any medical help to anybody, they are shooting at us." This morning four young men were caught in the Ramallah Islamic club, they were shot from a short distance and left bleeding for four hours. We don't know how many people have been killed or injured. In my street, two tanks are stationed, and at least four snipers are on the buildings around us. Move everybody you know. They are preparing for big massacres. Today, they were saying on Israeli TV: "Yes, the Arabs will be angry, but we should not take it seriously, in non-democratic countries public opinion does not count, the people will never pressure their governments to decide. The governments might take some action to soothe the anger but they will never take any serious decisions that might harm the state of Israel."
The situation is very dangerous and you have to be very organised and consistent to affect what is going on now.
Islah Jad
Birzeit University
Ramallah
1 April
Fear for the disappeared
Nearly 500 Palestinian civilians, my brother-in-law Mohamed included, who obeyed Israeli orders and exited their homes when the Israeli loudspeakers called for all males aged 16 to 60 to exit, were subsequently arrested. This was yesterday morning. Some were imprisoned in a local school and others, my brother-in-law included, were taken, we believe, to the Israeli settlement Psegot in Al-Bireh. His wife Sereen and two sons, aged 14 and 10, are home alone. Tanks have been terrorising their neighbourhood for 48 hours continuously now. We fear for his life.
The following is some information on Mohamed:
Mohamed Yacoub Hammoudeh works as a health clerk at UNRWA in the Qalandiya refugee camp. He has worked there for 19 years. He is also the lead singer for the Al-Fanoun Dance Troupe (http://www.popularartcentre.org/) and deputy executive director for the National Conservatory of Music in Ramallah. Three of my cousins, all brothers, who live on the same street have also been taken to an unknown location. They are:
Samir Ata Nimer Koran; Maher Ata Nimer Koran; Saed Ata Nimer Koran.
Please call the numbers listed on the right and inform your local Red Cross (they have an international communication network and will get the message here). Demand answers to the following:
1. Where are the prisoners?
2. Why has the Red Cross not been allowed to see them?
3. What is their condition?
4. Why are they being held?
I offer the specific examples of my relatives because I have their personal information, but the same applies to over 500 Palestinian imprisoned in the Ramallah/Al-Bireh area alone. Rumour has it that Sharon is threatening them with deportation to Lebanon.
This is a practical step each and every one of you can take to be part of the solution. Please advise me of any replies.
Sam Bahour
Ramallah
31 March
Appeal for help
We are members of the international and Palestinian community trapped in the siege of Ramallah.
Early in the morning of Friday 29 March, Israeli forces re-invaded the city of Ramallah. They have occupied Ramallah completely and have established tank positions throughout the city, in all civilian areas. We can hear explosions, tank shelling and heavy calibre gunfire night and day. Israeli snipers are shooting regularly in civilian neighbourhoods at times when they are not under any form of fire. As we write this, there are US-made Apache attack helicopters overhead firing on the city. Israeli bulldozers are creating permanent positions for the tanks in and around private houses. There is the constant sound of tank movements throughout residential areas.
Israeli forces have attacked the presidential compound, and are now holding Palestinian President Yasser Arafat hostage with no electricity, water or phone lines. Some of President Arafat's bodyguards have been killed, and others are still injured and being denied medical care. Conditions in the city are now deteriorating rapidly.
Some of us have had experience in other sieges, in Sarajevo, Dili, and elsewhere. There is a familiar pattern of emergency rapidly developing. This is the beginning of a humanitarian crisis. Immediate intervention is required to prevent a disaster.
Inhabitants of the city are under complete curfew. There is absolutely no freedom of movement, even for ambulances, doctors or international agencies, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). There is no medical access. Palestine Red Crescent medical relief workers have not been permitted to provide medical services to the local population. Israeli forces are firing on anyone walking in the streets.
On Thursday, based on fears of an Israeli re-invasion, more than 500 inhabitants, including foreign nationals, lined up in the mud and rain at the Qalandiya checkpoint -- the only exit point from the city allowed by Israel -- begging Israeli soldiers to allow them to escape. In response, Israeli soldiers fired over their heads, exacerbating the panic and causing most to simply return to Ramallah.
Israeli soldiers are occupying an increasing number of private residences and detaining the residents collectively in single rooms, with little or no access to telephone lines, news coverage or even food and water. In some cases, tens of civilians (including entire families) are being held in one room. Meanwhile, Israeli occupation soldiers have taken up armed positions in the houses or apartments of these residents. Civilian detainees include foreign nationals.
The ICRC, the UN and other humanitarian agencies are unable to access the city or to access the civilian detainees and other prisoners. There is no food entering Ramallah and no one is allowed to restock. There will shortly be a food and drinking water crisis. Some parts of Ramallah are already without water altogether. Israeli soldiers are also eating the food of residents while taking up positions in their houses. Large parts of Ramallah are without electricity and heat. The weather has been rainy and unseasonably cold -- residents have been struggling to keep warm. The lack of electricity also means that residents are without television and any news reporting of the situation outside their homes. Many residents of the city rely on cellular phones for communication and without electricity they are unable to recharge their phones. Therefore, the population is being held in isolation and there is increasing fear and confusion. Also, some telephone land lines have been cut.
Israeli forces are taking Palestinians prisoner, in the streets and in house-to- house searches. Israeli troops are calling upon all male residents between the ages of 16 and 40 in some neighbourhoods to "surrender." The wounded are being treated roughly and being denied medical access. Now, their fate is unknown. There are reports of summary execution of some prisoners. The ICRC does not have access to them to ensure adherence to international law, and specifically the Geneva Conventions.
There are on-going spiteful acts of destruction. Most commonly, Israeli tanks are driving over and flattening cars whether on the streets or parked on pavements in front of residences. Personal property inside houses is being destroyed in house-to-house searches.
We, the besieged people of Ramallah, appeal to all people of good conscience around the world to mobilise immediately.
We particularly appeal to the people of Israel, in whose name these actions are being taken, for help. To keep the option of peace alive, we appeal to you to ask your government to lift the siege immediately.
We appeal for the safety of all individuals. We appeal for freedom of movement within the city and outside access to the city. We appeal for food, medical supplies and access to medical treatment, electricity, water, phone lines and other necessary facilities. We appeal for access of humanitarian agencies, including the ICRC, to all detainees, prisoners and hostages, including Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, to ensure their well-being. We appeal for the siege to be lifted.
This appeal has been made to you by Palestinians, as well as nationals of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Jordan and other nationalities.
International Committee of the Red Cross: Jer. (972-2) 582-8845, Tel Aviv (972-3) 524-5286
UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA): (972-2) 589-0401
For information on the Palestinian civil society initiative Grassroots International Protection for the Palestinian People, please call: (972-2) 298-5372 or (972-2) 583-3510
For information on the latest developments in Palestine, call The Palestine Report at (972-2) 295-7520
Telephone numbers of major media organisations:
ABC News: 212-456-4040
CBS News: 212-975-3691
NBC News: 212-664-4971
CNN: 404-827-1511
Fox News: 212-301-3300
MSNBC: 201-583-5222
MSNBC: 201-583-5000
CNBC: 201-585-2622
PBS: 703-998-2150
NPR: 202-414-2200
New York Times: 212-556-1234
USA Today: 703-276-3400
Wall Street Journal: 212-416-2000
Washington Post: 202-334-6000
Time: 212-522-1212
US News: 202-955-2000
AP: 212-621-1600
Due to fear of retribution, the names and contact information of those authoring this appeal have not been included.
30 March
See the truth
Today at 5.00am I was awakened by what sounded like huge trucks. When I looked out the window I saw several tanks. Half an hour later the Israeli soldiers rang the bell. We did not answer. Then I heard them coming up the steps (they had obviously broken down the main door). They pounded on the door to the house. My husband opened it, to find endless huge guns pointed at us. They pushed the door open and distributed themselves throughout the house and office (which are adjacent). Over 50 heavily armed soldiers were now inside. We asked what they wanted and they told us to shut up and sit down. I explained that I was American; they said that they did not care what I was. I insisted that they leave the house and told them as an American I protest what they are doing. They said "this is no worse than what your country is doing in Afghanistan." I told them to use the steps and the roof if they insist on staying and to get out of the house and office. They said "shut up and sit down, we do what we want wherever we want."
I got my passport out and asked for the commanding officer. The officer said that they were thinking about leaving. I asked when; he said soon. They started to rip up the curtains and break things. I asked them not to do that and gave them an ashtray to put out their cigarettes instead of on the floor. One took the ashtray from me and threw it into the hallway. At that point I realised they were out of control. I went to the phone to call the American consul. Three soldiers attacked me, one pushing, one twisting my arm, and the third taking the phone away from me. I went to the office to get my computer but they kept on pushing me, poking me with their guns and telling me to get back in the house. I started screaming: "I cannot believe you are doing this, don't you realise I am American?" The commanding officer asked them to leave me alone and gave permission for me to get my laptop. They started laughing and calling me Bush. As I was getting my laptop I heard a crash. I ran back into the house and found my husband on the floor with three guns pointed at him. I screamed for the commanding officer, who came and pushed them away. They were everywhere, doing what they felt like doing, including urinating on the floor. I went to the kitchen to get coffee and found olive oil spilled all over the place. They were just being vulgar and uncivilised, and became extremely annoyed when I complained about the barbaric behaviour.
The commanding officer took me into the bedroom, where four soldiers were sitting, and asked me about some buildings. I told him that most of the houses around us are full of children. One said: "There are no children in Area A."
I kept on trying to make phone calls from different phones, only to receive more physical abuse and have the phone taken away from me. They immediately took the battery out. Then I asked to go to the bathroom (I had a mobile in my robe pocket). I called some officials while the soldiers broke into the bathroom and tried to take the phone. Within a half hour they got a phone order to clear out of the house and office, leaving the places in shambles.
As soon as they left I tried to talk to the consul-general, but got his voice mail. I left a message informing him of what had taken place. I also called his office and insisted on talking to him personally. They put me on the phone with the American Citizens' Services section. A Ms Victoria Coffineau (chief of section) told me I was one of dozens of American citizens making such complaints. The details of the disturbing phone call and response will follow soon to help other Americans understand what our offices abroad are about, what we actually get for our tax dollars and how we allow ourselves to be treated by so-called allies. The number of tanks is growing by the second. I have to get the message to you while I can. I will try to write later. They are trying to kill Yasser Arafat. I can see it from my window. God help the innocent. And help Americans see the truth.
Maha Sbitani
Ramallah
29 March
Concerted effort
To help end the Israeli siege on Ramallah and attacks on other Palestinian areas, please make a concerted effort over the next 72 hours to reach people with contacts in US government -- for example, former or present US ambassadors, corporate executives, retired government officials, and foreign dignitaries.
Urge them to make some of the points listed below. In particular, seek out anyone who may have access to high-ranking officials that might even include President George Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. US citizens: please also call your senators and congressional representatives to make these points directly, as well as the White House and National Security Council (202-456-1414) and the Secretary of State's Office (202-647-5291). Circulate this Action Alert as widely as you possibly can.
Points to raise:
The Ramallah population is without electricity, water, food, and medical assistance. All males between 15 and 40 are being rounded up by Israeli troops and there are reports of summary executions. Phone lines being cut off. The ICRC has no access to the wounded. More details of treatment of the population can be found in the report from Ramallah at the end of this message. The civilian population is at the mercy of Ariel Sharon, a man who has been found personally responsible by Israeli courts for the massacre of defenceless Palestinian civilians in 1982.
The US government must take concrete steps, including public statements, for Israel to end the siege and withdraw immediately.
The US government should work through the UN to place an international peacekeeping force between the parties to the conflict in order to protect the civilian population.
US arms supplied to Israel are being used against a population under occupation and not in self-defence. The UK undersecretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs is seeking an explanation from the Israeli government because it is now violating British stipulations that no military equipment originating in Britain can be used in the occupied territories. The US Government should do the same.
The suicide bomb attacks on civilians are abhorrent. Many Palestinians are against attacks on Israeli civilians. There have been repeated attempts by Palestinian civil society groups to organise non-violent methods of resistance. Concrete steps by the international community to prevent attacks on all civilians and to apply the rule of law -- beginning with an end to occupation as provided in UN Resolution 242 -- will enable the people under occupation to speak up against attacks on civilians and to organise other means of resistance to occupation that do not target civilian lives.
US relations with the Arab world depend on an even-handed approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict, based on international law. The US should work for immediate Israeli withdrawal from the territories occupied in 1967, followed by negotiations based on all UN resolutions relevant to the remaining issues in the conflict.
The US Campaign to End Israeli Occupation is a growing national movement to change those US policies that sustain the Israeli occupation to ones that promote the application of international law to the conflict, contributing to a just peace and human rights for all -- Palestinians and Israelis. The Campaign's principles are freedom from occupation and equal rights, within the framework of international law and human rights.
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