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They are war crimes! What has been/ishappening in Palestine?Aisa KiyosuePublished online: 04 Jun 2010.

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Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Volume 4, Number 3, 2003

They are war crimes! What has been/is happening inPalestine?

Aisa KIYOSUE

Introduction

Since 11 September, the ‘War Against Terror’has created a new discourse where any form ofmilitary operation against so-called ‘terrorists’can be justified in international society. Thisextremely selfish discourse has justified stateterrorism such as the war against Afghanistan.The State of Israel has used this new discourseto disguise its colonist expansion and per-secution of Palestinians, saying that they needto protect themselves from Palestinian terroristattacks. The discourse has escalated the situ-ation in Occupied Palestine, and the militaryoperation by the State of Israel against Palestini-ans has been getting much more aggressive andviolent than before.

This article is based on my personal expe-riences in Nablus of Occupied Palestine andthe Balata Refugee Camp located in the out-skirts of Nablus, where I stayed for 4 monthsfrom July 2002 to November 2002 as a long-term coordinator of the International Soli-darity Movement. Destruction, oppression,hell and nightmare… I can think of variedterms to describe the situation in Nablus. Isaw and heard horrible things on a dailybasis. However, these terms might not beadequate to describe what has been/is hap-pening in Occupied Palestine. I am not able totell everything that I saw there in this article.Telling everything… is it actually possible?Everything? No. It is impossible for me to doso, because what I have seen there is only partof the massive violence inflicted on Palestini-ans by the Israel Occupation Forces. I am notone of the Palestinians who have been op-pressed under the military occupation. I amnot one of the subjects in the Palestinians’

struggle. I was a mere ‘guest’ in Palestiniansociety. Therefore, I recognize that I am notable fully to ‘understand’ Palestinians’ dailyfeelings under the military occupation andincursion and to share their experiences, al-though I had lived in the Balata RefugeeCamp with one of the thousands ofPalestinian refugee families.

However, I have to represent and publi-cize what I have seen and heard through mystay in Nablus since opportunities forPalestinians to talk about their daily situationwith their own words have been taken awayand therefore they are not able to raise theirvoices outside Occupied Palestine. As EdwardW. Said sharply points out, taking Palestineissues as an example:

[n]othing in my view is more reprehen-sible than those habits of mind in theintellectual that induce avoidance, thatcharacteristic turning away from adifficult and principled position whichyou know to be the right one, but whichyou decide not to take. … Personally Ihave encountered them in one of thetoughest of all contemporary issues,Palestine, where fear of speaking outabout one of the greatest injustices inmodern history has hobbled, blinkered,muzzled many who know the truth andare in a position to serve it. For despitethe abuse and vilification that any out-spoken supporter of Palestinian rightsand self-determination earns for him orherself, the truth deserves to be spoken,represented by an unafraid and com-passionate intellectual. (Said 1996: 100–101)

ISSN 1464-9373 Print/ISSN 1469-8447 Online/03/030492–10 2003 Taylor & Francis Ltd

DOI: 10.1080/1464937032000143841

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I am not one of the intellectuals whomEdward W. Said describes as: ‘the intellectualis an individual endowed with a faculty forrepresenting, embodying, articulating a mess-age, a view, an attitude, philosophy or opin-ion to, as well as for, a public’ (Said 1996: 11).However, I believe that I have a responsibilityto talk about my experiences as an eyewitnessin order to ‘represent all those people andissues that are routinely forgotten or sweptunder the rug’ (Said 1996: 11) because I sawvaried forms of human rights abuses againstPalestinians, which is ‘one of the greatest in-justices in modern history’ as Said stressedabove.

Although there are no longer words toexplain the hell and nightmare of ‘destruction’in this article, I will testify to my experiencesin witnessing their daily lives. Otherwise,Palestinians will have to suffer more andmore, being ignored by international societyand being represented as nasty ‘terrorists’.Justice for Palestinians must be immediatelyfocused on in international society so thatthey will not have to live under the militaryoccupation.

The International Solidarity Movement anda right to resist

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM)is a new Palestinian social movement startedin August 2001. ISM itself describes the aim ofthe movement as: ‘a Palestinian-led move-ment of Palestinian and International activistsworking to raise awareness of the struggle forPalestinian freedom and an end to Israeli oc-cupation’ (from the website of the ISM).1 Oneof the main characteristics of the movement isthat they have used a non-violent direct actionfor their resistance as the strategy since thebeginning of the movement. They deny notonly physical violence but also verbal violenceduring the activities. Since the first campaign,dozens of internationals who believe in justicefor Palestinians have joined the ISM activities.I am one of the international participants fromover ten countries.2 ISM has conducted sixcampaigns so far apart from the long-termand regular presence on the ground in theWest Bank and the Gaza Strip. During these

campaigns, international activists have beeninvited to join for a set period of time, andthey have been sent to Jenin, Nablus, Qaliqi-lya, Tulkarem, Bethlehem, Ramallah andRafah etc, which are under the occupation bythe Israel Occupation Forces.3 As the purposeof this article is not to discuss the ISM activi-ties in Occupied Palestine, I will not go deeperinto the details of the activities here.

When people imagine Palestine in theJapanese society, where I originally comefrom, it seems that many of them easily thinkof suicide bombings/attacks. As suicidebombings/attacks have been expressed as‘suicide terrorism’ (Jibaku Tero) by mainstreammass media in the Japanese society, the termis now widely used to describe suicide bomb-ings/attacks by Palestinians in general. I havefelt very much irritated by this term, becauseI can sense a certain kind of malicious intentfrom the expression. What do they intend torepresent by using the term? For what havethey created such a term? Have they thoughtof the background of Palestinian suicidebombings/attacks? Or have they imaginedPalestinians’ daily lives under the harsh mili-tary occupation by the Israeli OccupationForces? I have seen Palestinians’ sufferingsand agony so much whilst I was in the BalataRefugee Camp and Nablus. I often thoughtthat I was not able to put up with seeing therigour of their lives. I would like to questionwhether the term ‘suicide terrorism’ repre-sents what actually has been/is happening inPalestine or not.

The more the term ‘suicide terrorism’spreads in Japanese society, the more a narra-tive that Palestine or Palestinians have beeninvaded and have been occupied for a longtime and their lives have been thoroughlydestroyed becomes invisible. Moreover, theusage of the term can create an image that theState of Israel is a victim of Palestinian ‘terror-ist acts’. I clearly state here that Palestinianshave a right to resist the harsh military occu-pation by any means for as long as they areoccupied, terrorized and oppressed. There area number of ways of resisting the militaryoccupations, although suicide bombings/attacks cannot be justified for any reasons inthat they indiscriminately kill many civilians.However, if we carefully look at the history of

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modern Palestine or the motives of suicidebombers, it will be very clear that suicidebombing/attack is a counter-product of themilitary occupation. There is a huge disparityin the position between the State of Israel andPalestine. It is the difference between an occu-pier and the occupied. Without recognizingthis point, narratives in Occupied Palestine arenot able to be fully represented. As Israelipeace activists and organizations often insistin one of their main slogans, ‘the OccupationKills Us All’.

The ISM takes the following position aboutPalestinians’ armed resistance:4

[a]s enshrined in international law andUN resolutions, we recognize thePalestinian right to resist Israeli viol-ence and occupation via legitimatearmed struggle. However, we believethat non-violence can be a powerfulweapon in fighting oppression and weare committed to the principles of non-violent resistance. (From the website ofthe ISM5)

I personally have met many PalestinianISM activists through the activities in Occu-pied Palestine and have worked together andhave discussed many issues with them. Noneof them denied armed resistance as one of theways of resisting military occupation, al-though they believed that non-violent strugglecould more effectively achieve their purpose— to end the occupation — and are verycritical about suicide bombings/attacks as away of resistance. Although I have been in-volved in non-violent activities for justice forPalestinians with Palestinian activists in Occu-pied Palestine, it does not mean for me that Ijudge non-violent struggle to be decidedlysuperior to the armed struggle that has beenutilized by many Palestinian freedom fighters.

Israeli logic to justify the military incursion

In this section, I would like to consider howthe State of Israel has justified its militaryoperations and occupation. The Israeli govern-ment has consistently criticized that thePalestinian Authority has supported ‘terroristactivities’ against the State of Israel or Israeli

civilians, or that the Palestinian leadership has‘led to a long series of bloody terrorists at-tacks, including suicide bombings and carbombs in Israeli cities’ (from the website of theIsrael Ministry of Foreign Affairs).6 They alsoaccuse the Palestinian leadership that: ‘in themany years that have passed since the 1993Oslo Accords, the PA has done nothing tofulfill its obligation to end the terrorism’ (fromthe website of the Israel Ministry of ForeignAffairs).7

Contrary to these criticisms, the Israeligovernment emphasizes that they have soughta solution to the conflict by negotiating withthe Palestinian leadership, saying that ‘thesolution must be predicated upon compro-mise rather than intractability, and uponnegotiation rather than violence’ (from thewebsite of the Israel Ministry of ForeignAffairs).8 It has been said that the biggestsubject for Palestinians in terms of the peaceprocess between Palestine and the State ofIsrael is how the Palestinian refugees’ right ofreturn can be solved. Palestinian refugees,who have had to live at refugee camps in theWest Bank, the Gaza Strip and surroundingArab countries such as Lebanon and Jordanetc, have dreamt of going back to their home-land one day. Since the State of Israel wasfounded in 1948, thousands of Palestinians’land had been plundered and they wereforced to leave their homeland. When theIsraeli government stresses ‘compromiserather than intractability’, it seems that theydo not recognize the biggest point to be solvedfor Palestinians and insist Palestinian refugeesgive up even the right itself to go back to theirhomeland.

In short, the Israeli logic in justifying theirmilitary operation is described as follows. TheState of Israel has seriously made a lot ofdiplomatic efforts to solve the conflict with thePalestinians, which the Palestinian Authorityhas not done, and Israeli civilians are victimsof Palestinian ‘terrorist attacks’ which hasbeen encouraged by the Palestinian Authority.Therefore, ‘it was left with no choice but toreact through military means. Every state, in-cluding Israel, has the duty to protect the lives ofits citizens’ (from the website of the IsraelMinistry of Foreign Affairs).9

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It seems that their logic has been rein-forced by the new ‘international’ discourseafter 11 September. For example, the ‘Oper-ation Defensive Shield’ was launched follow-ing the Israeli special Cabinet session10 on 28March 2002. The aim of the operation, whichthe Israeli government insisted on, was ‘toattack the infrastructure of Palestinian terror-ism in all its parts and components’ (from thewebsite of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs).11 They also defensively mention that‘[i]n order to effectively attack the infrastruc-ture of terrorism, the Israel Defense Forceswere forced to12 operate in densely populatedareas, since the terrorists chose to concealtheir activities by hiding them in the heart ofthe civilian population’ (from the website ofthe Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs).13 I wasstaying in a central area of Bethlehem, whichwas supposed to be under the control of thePalestinian Authority, when the Israeli Occu-pation Forces started to invade the city and toindiscriminately bomb and shoot just after theoperation was launched. It was early in themorning when I first heard the sound ofdozens of Israeli tanks’ caterpillar tracks. Thesounds are still stuck in my ears. I still re-member the massive bombing fired by Israelitanks. I saw several APCs stopped in front ofmy hotel and saw Israeli soldiers dashingalong the street in front of the hotel withM16s. Palestinians in the city were totallystuck in their houses and were not able to goout because they were so scared of being shotby the Israeli soldiers. The following sen-tences are cited from my e-mail written to myfriends on 4 April 2002 after I evacuated fromBethlehem to East Jerusalem.

Bethlehem is totally occupied by theIDF.14 They destroyed water tanks andpipes, electricity and telephone linesso that Palestinians could not survive.They are so horrible. Many tanks,APCs and soldiers were inside Bethle-hem. I heard gunfire and bombingsounds many times (almost all thetime). The IDF soldiers are inside highbuildings in the town so that they canshoot Palestinians. No access to hospi-tals. … They are under horrible terror.

The IDF horribly terrorize peoplethere. Bethlehem areas are totally sur-rounded by tanks now.

Is it possible to justify such an operation asself-defence from so-called ‘Palestinian terror-ists’? It was a horrible operation that justterrorized the Palestinians there. The IsraelOccupation Forces are stationed at most citiesof the Area A in the West Bank and the GazaStrip, which were supposed to be under thefull control of the Palestinian Authority, ac-cording to the 1993 Oslo Accords,15 even afterOperation Defensive Shield, which lasted forthree weeks.

In the next section, I will present only acouple of stories from dozens of examples,which are based on what I have seen in thefield, in order to show whether the Israelilogic is justifiable or not.

What has been/is happening in OccupiedPalestine?

As I had mainly been based in Nablus, whichis located in the northern part of the WestBank and is the biggest city in the North ofthe West Bank, most of the narratives de-scribed here are about the situation in Nablus.When I was there, I tried to record diaries sothat I could tell people outside OccupiedPalestine what was happening/happened infront of me. I would like to show part of mydiaries here as a witness to the situation.

20 JulyHello from Nablus. … I arrived inNablus yesterday afternoon. It was along journey … . On 18th afternoon, Ileft Jerusalem for Nablus, but the maincheckpoint (Huwarra) to go to Nabluswas closed, I was denied entry. So Iwent to another checkpoint calledHamra and negotiated with the Israelisoldiers. Fortunately my friends and Imanaged to get through the check-point there. It was not a good time towalk into Nablus. So we stayed in theAl Fara Refugee Camp near the check-point for one night. Yesterday morn-ing, we left the camp in the earlymorning and started to walk to

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Nablus. Because the IDF destroyedmany parts of the road to get toNablus, walking is the only way toreach Nablus. We walked for nearlythree hours. …

After arriving in the village nearNablus, we were invited for coffee andtea by a Palestinian family. The familysaw that we were taking photos oftheir neighbour’s demolished house,and spoke to us. The reason why thehouse was destroyed by the IDF is thatmembers of Hammas lived in thehouse. They were living with theirfamily there. When the IDF came tothe house, the family members, apartfrom two members of Hammas, wereordered to come out from the house,and the IDF soldiers went into thehouse. Afterwards, the two membersgot killed by the soldiers in the house.The dead bodies were taken out fromthe house, and the house was de-stroyed (maybe bombed). After havingtea and coffee, we went to the AskarRefugee Camp in Nablus to hear aboutthe situation in the camp from theresidents. According to some resi-dents, the IDF tanks and soldiers cameto the camp between 11 am and 2 pmon 18th July, and started to randomlyshoot houses in the camp. Many chil-dren have been mentally affected be-cause of regular shooting andbombing by the IDF. We saw a housewhich was demolished on 19th earlymorning (2�30 am) in the New AskarCamp. This is the house where one ofthe organizers of the Israeli bus attack,which happened near Nablus 4 or 5days ago, was living. When the IDFtanks came to the house, his family(father, mother, brothers and sisters)was staying there. The IDF soldiersordered them to leave their house im-mediately. The family had no time totake their belongings with them. After-wards the house was bombed, andfather and brothers got arrested. Theymight be deported to the Gaza Strip.The mother and sisters became home-

less… It is a collective punishmentagainst attackers or suicide bombers’family members, which cannot bejustified for any reason. At night Istayed in the Balata refugee camp toact as a human shield. The houseswhere the suicide bombers’ familieslive are under the threat of demolitionby the IDF. This is also a collectivepunishment against the families whohave nothing to do with suicidebombings/attacks. I do not agree withsuicide bombings/attacks at all. How-ever, I cannot find any reasons to de-molish houses where the bombers’families live. Demolition of the housesmeans destruction of the families’daily lives and evidence of their lives.It is really horrible. Last night, the IDFstarted to bomb near the camp at11�30 pm, but it was not so heavyalthough once I heard a big bombingsound. No houses got demolished inthe camp fortunately. I will act as ahuman shield in the same housetonight.

28 JulyI do not know whether curfew is liftedin Nablus or not. It seems that manyPalestinians here try to go back totheir ‘normal’ life. Market is open, andmany people go shopping. But it doesnot mean that the IDF have stoppedbombing and shooting. They still har-ass the Palestinian people’s lives inmany different ways in Nablus. Forexample, they made barricades onmany roads so that the Palestinianpeople cannot move. Today, ISM ac-tivists removed the road barricadeswith local people near Iraq Borin vil-lage, which was on the outskirts ofNablus. Mainly local people removedthe barricades and the internationalstried to help them… Because of thebarricade, water tanks were not able tobe delivered to Iraq Borin. How canpeople survive without water??? Thisis a horrible torture. …

A few days ago, I stayed in Iraq

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Borin for one night. I visited this vil-lage with other ISM activists after wegot a piece of news that the militaryoperation was going on in the village.When I arrived in the village, we sawthat 200 men were gathered at thewomen’s centre in the village. ManyIDF soldiers were watching them fromoutside the centre. These soldiers cameto the village to check villagers’ IDcards in order to find ‘terrorists’. Twodays before we visited this village, twobuilders from the village got shot todeath by the IDF soldiers. Afterwards,the soldiers invaded this village tocheck the ID cards! We tried to ob-serve what they were doing againstthe villagers. The soldiers in front ofus were nice to some of the gatheredmen. I think that they pretended to begentle in front of us… At the sametime, some soldiers shot at one of thevillagers’ houses and a water tank. Wefound it out later.

If you come to Nablus, you will seemany destroyed houses and buildings.You will see Israeli tanks and jeeps inmany places. At about 4 am early thismorning, tank(s) came to the Balatacamp where I was sleeping. Fortu-nately the tank(s) did not open fire,but I am sure that the tank(s) ter-rorised residents in the camp.

Sky is still sky. It is very beautiful,but under this beautiful blue sky, theIDF soldiers attack and harassPalestinians almost everyday. Whilstmany Palestinian children play withkites in the daytime, they hear bomb-ing and sounds of shooting.

7 August 2002I left Nablus on 4th August, and I amin Bethlehem now. The situation inNablus was very serious. The IDF in-vaded the Old City of Nablus withmany tanks and jeeps on 2 August at1�30 am. When the IDF came to thecity, I was sleeping in the Balata Refu-gee Camp, which was quite far fromthe Old City. So I did not notice the

invasion. After waking up, I visitedthe Old City with ISM activists tomonitor what they were doing. WhilstI was walking there with the activists,we got a warning shot from the sol-diers more than 10 times. Wheneverwe walked inside the Old City, wehad to stop at every corner because theIDF snipers might have been in thecorners. They were doing house tohouse search, breaking the locks ofdoors with their M16 rifles and smallequipment. They were using Palestini-ans as human shields. They putPalestinians in front of them whenthey were breaking the doors. I heardbombing sounds many times (4 to 5times per hour). The residents therestayed inside their houses becausethey were so scared of the soldiers.The soldiers occupied some Palestini-ans’ houses so that they could usethem for their military bases. Ambu-lances were stopped from going intothe Old City by the IDF. We tried tonegotiate with the soldiers so that theambulances could reach sick or injuredpeople and dead bodies. Many storesand houses in the Old City were de-molished, and water pipes were dam-aged. I think that many residents theredid not expect that the IDF wouldinvade the city on 2nd August. When Iwas walking to monitor them, somePalestinians spoke to me from theirwindows and asked for food. How canthey get food and water under cur-few? When we were negotiating withthe soldiers, some of them said to methat Palestinians were animals and ter-rorists. Some soldiers said to me, ‘Thisis Israel!’, and laughed at me. …

I think that the IDF will invade theBalata Refugee Camp where I hadbeen for more than two weeks. I amvery worried about the family whichgave me accommodation there. Thefamily’s house might be demolishedwhen they invade the camp becauseone of the family members is the firstsuicide bomber from the Balata camp.

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This morning, I had to wake uptwice because of huge bombingsounds. The IDF demolished twotargeted houses with dynamite nearBethlehem. Just after the secondbombing, I visited one of the demol-ished houses in Beit Jala, and tried toget the story out from the residents ofthe house. Over 100 soldiers came tothe house at 3 am, and they destroyedthe house at 6�50 am. The residentswere given 25 minutes before thedemolition. So they were not able totake valuable goods from the house.27 people became homeless within aminute! They have no place to sleepafter tonight. The wife of the wantedperson who had been away from thehouse more than one year was ar-rested after the demolition of thehouse. One of the kids got injured andwas taken to hospital. This is the thirdcase that I have heard of in the Bethle-hem area.

28 AugustTo be honest, I am sick of hearingshooting and bombing sounds here.Israeli tanks and jeeps move around inNablus every day, and cause a lot ofsuffering to Palestinians. Today thecity centre of Nablus is relatively calmso far. We do not know when they willcome back and start shooting at peo-ple here. But what is sure is that theycan come back to the centre any timeto terrorise people. On 21st Augustfour jeeps, one truck and two tanksinvaded the Balata camp where I wasstaying at 2�30 am. When I heardsounds of movement, I immediatelywoke up, and looked outside a win-dow. The jeeps and truck was justoutside Titi’s home. I thought that theIsraeli army had come to demolish thehouse. The youngest son had commit-ted a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv inApril. He is the first suicide bomberfrom the camp. Families of suicidebombers are facing the threat of housedemolition, which is totally banned as

a collective punishment by the 4th

Geneva Convention. When I saw thejeeps and truck, I went to my friend’sroom, saying ‘soldiers’. They immedi-ately woke up. I also went downstairsto tell the family about it. The motherand two daughters came up from thesecond floor. All the internationalsstaying at their home and the familystayed together, and waited until theIsraeli soldiers started banging on thedoor (if we do not open the door whenIsrael soldiers start banging, they willuse M16 rifles to break down the doorand enter the house). … The Israeliarmy started shooting just outside thehouse with heavy weapons. Whatcould I do in this situation? What Icould do was to stay with the family.Fortunately Israeli soldiers did notcome to the Titi home. Whilst we werehearing heavy shooting sounds, thesoldiers invaded another family in thecamp, and did a house search. Allwomen, including two internationalswere taken out from the house. Thefather was beaten by one of the sol-diers. Fortunately the house was notdemolished on the day.

37 relatives of the Titi family’smother were killed in the Shabra/Shatira Massacre in 1982. Now she isfacing the threat of house demolitionevery day. One of the daughters saidto me two days ago, ‘what does Israelwant to do against my family? Israelhas already done too much against myfamily. It is enough’. Her cousin hadbeen killed a few days before herbrother committed a suicide bombing.I could not stop crying when she saidthe phrase to me. Enough is enough.We really have to know what is hap-pening in Palestine. I think that this iswhat Palestinians want right now.

21 SeptemberI just came back to Jerusalem fromRamallah. The Arafat Compound wasunder siege. It seems that 200 peopleare inside. The water pipe was cut by

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the Israeli army. People inside thecompound need water.

23 September (Whilst school watchingin the morning)Children are going to school. They arewearing blue or green uniforms. Somechildren are carrying water bottles.Some children buy sandwiches beforegoing to school. It is a lovely scene.This is usual in Japan or Britain. In themorning, children go to school. Theyhave a right to go to school if theywant. The Israeli army has no right totake this right from Palestinian chil-dren. I am very concerned about theirparents. I am sure that they are scaredof sending their children to school.Who wants that their children getkilled by the army on the way toschool and the way back home?

23 SeptemberA 14 year old boy got shot to deathwhile he was walking with four inter-nationals. He was walking. I knowhim. I have talked to him several timesbefore. Yesterday morning, I met himin the UPMRC (Union of PalestinianMedical Relief Committee). He wassmiling as usual. Who imagined hewould be killed a few hours later?Soldiers on the APC aimed at him anda bullet hit his arm and lung. Afterhearing of his death, I thought that Iwould see his posters on the walls inNablus tomorrow. This is too hard forme. Internationals who were walkingwith him got totally depressed. Nowthe State of Israel is saying that theboy tried to throw a Molotov cocktailto the APC. This is a lie. The State ofIsrael is a professional liar. He was justwalking with 4 internationals. Don’tmake up a story. We are watchingwhat you are doing here. We knowwhat you are doing against Palestini-ans.

27 SeptemberI am sick of hearing shooting andbombing sounds. Everyday, some peo-

ple get killed or injured by the IDF inthe West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Thesituation here has changed somethinginside me, but I still have energy tocontinue my activities here. I reallyenjoy living in the Balata RefugeeCamp. People in the camp are so niceto me. They have given me a lot ofenergy. The people suffering from thishorrible occupation is not me butPalestinians. Today we had a demon-stration in front of a checkpoint whichwas erected a month ago between theOld City of Nablus and the BalataRefugee Camp. The checkpoint hasbeen controlling people’s movements.Curfew has been imposed in Nablusfor more than 3 months.

3 OctoberI am very sleepy at the moment be-cause I could not sleep well last night.I had to wake up several times be-cause of heavy shooting and bombingby Israeli tanks. They started shootingat about 2�00 am this morning. Sincethen, they had shot and bombed theBalata Camp, where I normally sleep,6 times. This morning, I had a shortconversation with one of the sandwichshop owners about last night. He saidto me that this was their (normal) life.Of course this is not something normalfor me!! But it is all too normal forpeople in the Balata Camp unfortu-nately. I have been asked what I thinkabout the situation in Palestine bymany Palestinians in Nablus. What Ican answer is that it is very difficult orhorrible… I really cannot find ad-equate words to describe the Palestini-ans’ lives. Although I stay with one ofthe Palestinian families in the BalataCamp, I cannot understand their feel-ings at all. Simply because I am not aPalestinian. Sharing feelings withPalestinians … , this is totally imposs-ible. The day before yesterday, I waswalking with one of the Palestinianactivists working for ISM in Balatacamp. We were talking about Ghassan

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Kanafani. Suddenly he asked mewhether I really understood his novelsor not. I immediately said to him, ‘No,I don’t think so’. Then he said to methat even for Palestinians it is veryhard to understand his real messages,and he was hoping we would use ourown imagination to understand hismessages. This might be true. Howcould I use my imagination to sharePalestinians’ feelings since I know thatI will not be treated as a Palestinianhere by the State of Israel? Such adifficult thing …

On the computer which I am usingto email you now, there are two pic-tures of Jihad Titi who committed asuicide bombing in Tel Aviv (I amusing the Titi family’s computer). Hewas only 18 years old. He had a verysweet and lovely face. Why did thisyoung sweet boy have to blow himselfup? Who can understand his feelingexcept for Palestinians? He had beenliving under occupation for 18 years.He had never had a free life. Howabout his mother who cooked beauti-ful Palestinian food for my lunch? Hasshe had a free life? Many people easilydescribe Palestinians as terrorists andblame Palestinians. Think aboutPalestinians who have never been freeeven once. Who is to be blamed?

Curfew has been imposed onPalestinians in Nablus for 105 days! Itmeans that people have been underhouse arrest for 105 days. Could weimagine this ‘miserable’ life undersuch horrible occupation? Even undercurfew, we internationals can go out.Yesterday when I was walking to theAskar Refugee Camp alone, I wasstopped by the Israel military police.They asked me what I was doing. So Isaid to them that I was walking to thecamp. After asking me several ques-tions with a smile, one of the police-men asked me whether I was ready toget married to him (stupid!). Thenthey let me go without checking mypassport. If I had been a Palestinian,

my ID card would have been checked,and I would have had a difficult timewith many silly questions (I mighthave been arrested). This is a big dif-ference. Because I am not aPalestinian, I am treated as a humanbeing in Palestine. What words could Iuse to describe this situation apartfrom racism? I hope that people in thiscamp can have a quiet night so thatthey can sleep well.

4 OctoberI hoped that people in the BalataCamp could have a quiet night … , butit was just a dream. Yes, it was adream which people in the camp re-ally have. The Israeli tanks startedshooting and bombing at 6�20 or 30am this morning for ten or twentyminutes. I could hear the sounds ofbombing from the tanks very clearlywhen they opened fire. There is a tankand a jeep near the main gate of thecamp now. I do not know what theywill do. Whilst people were sleeping,the army made road blocks on manystreets and roads that go to Nabluscity from the Balata Camp and theAskar Camp. It means that Palestiniantaxi drivers are not able to drive toNablus city (even though curfew isimposed on people, they still try tobreak the curfew in Nablus, which isgood!). ….

What is happening in Nablus at themoment is unbelievable. On 28th Sep-tember, at around noon, I saw a hor-rible scene which I will never everforget. Many school kids in uniformwere on their way back home fromschools. An Israeli tank started roam-ing around them, shooting in the air.The tank was driving so fast! (drivingup and down very fast around thekids!). Of course the kids were in totalpanic, and started to run away,screaming. Internationals and somePalestinian activists made a humanshield so that the tank was not able todrive any more, and some internation-

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They are war crimes! 501

als approached the tank, saying ‘Inter-nationals here, don’t shoot children!!’The tank was like a lion trying to catchsmall animals … . The tank was justterrorizing Palestinian school kids!Two days ago, I was having a conver-sation with some Israeli soldiers. I toldone of the soldiers about the tank andthe school kids, saying that it was nota right thing to do. Then he asked menot to write about what I have seen. SoI said to him that it was one of themost horrible scenes I had ever seen inmy life, and I had to tell people aboutit outside Palestine.

Conclusion: they are war crimes!

I was frequently questioned by Palestinians inNablus whether Nablus was beautiful or not.We tend to answer ‘Yes’ to such a question.However, I was not able to say so, because itis a clear lie. I cannot be a liar. I just said tothem, ‘I have heard that Nablus was beautiful,but it is now a city of destruction’. Nabluswas massively invaded and people there arestill under military occupation. I often becamespeechless when I saw naked violence againstPalestinians. I have seen Israeli tanks open fireon Palestinian school children trying to go toschool and to go home under curfew. I haveseen Israeli soldiers aim their M16 rifles atPalestinian children and actually shot at them.Some of the soldiers were laughing as if theyenjoyed hunting. I cannot find any reasons tojustify shooting at school children. Becausethey are breaking curfew? Do these childrenattack them with M16s as the Israeli soldiersdo? No! They just want to go to school tostudy or to see their friends as children inother countries do. This is their basic right.The Israeli government has insisted that thePalestinian education has encouraged chil-dren to participate in violent attacks againstthe State of Israel. Can this ‘account’ beenough reason to attack Palestinian schools bytanks whilst children are studying inside? Itestify that this is a clear war crime, which hasnot been uncovered.

The narratives which I have presentedabove are a part of thousands of human rights

abuses against Palestinians. On the otherhand, even under such severe conditions,many Palestinians have sought ways to sur-vive and to try to keep their lives ‘normal’.However, they know that their lives are al-ways just near to death. They know that theirbeloved people will easily get killed. Theyknow their children can be killed on the wayto school or back home from school. Theyknow their houses can be suddenly demol-ished at night without any reason. They knowthat family members might be arrested whentheir houses get stormed and searched. Theyknow that arrested family members or friendsget administrative detention without trial.They know these things because they havelived under an occupation based on colonistideas for a long time.

Notes

1. http://www.palsolidarity.org/whoarewe.htm2. They are from the United States, the United

Kingdom, Sweden, Italy, France, Japan, Den-mark, Norway, South Africa and Canada andso on. The Americans and the British are at thetop of the numbers of participants. As Englishhas been a ‘common’ language to utilize in thedaily activities since the ISM started, I haveheard criticism from non-native speakers ofEnglish that a hierarchy has been formed be-tween native speakers and non-native speakersin the meetings and daily activities because oflanguage ability. From my experience, I canalso point out that native speakers tend to havemore opinions. The ISM activities should beopened up to anyone who believes in non-violent struggle for Palestinians. This criticismhas to be seriously accepted amongst activistsin order to attract more Palestinian and inter-national activists.

3. Before joining the actual activities in differentregions, they have to take ISM non-violent di-rect action training for a day and a half in orderto learn the contents of ongoing activities,negotiation skills with Israeli soldiers, decisionmaking in affinity groups, the history of theISM and Palestinian culture, especially normsand morals in refugee camps and so on.

4. Palestinians’ armed resistance does not meanonly suicide bombing/attacks. Suicide bombing/attack is one of their ways of armed resistance.

5. http://www.palsolidarity.org/whoarewe.htm,28 Oct. 2003.

6. http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0i9o0 on the question of ‘Why doesn’t theviolence end?’, 28 Oct. 2003.

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7. http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfaasp?MFAH0i9o0on the question of ‘Why doesn’t the violenceend?’, 28 Oct. 2003.

8. http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0i9o0 on the question of ‘Are Palestinian claimsthat the ‘occupation caused the violence true?’,28 Oct. 2003.

9. http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0i9o0 on the question of ‘What was OperationDefensive Shield?’, 28 Oct. 2003. Italics by me

10. The special Cabinet session was held after thesuicide bombing/attack had been taken placein Netanya on 27 March 2002.

11. http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0i9o0 on the question of ‘Whatwas Operation Defensive Shield?’, 28 Oct. 2003.

12. Italics by me13. http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH

0i9o0 on the question of ‘What was OperationDefensive Shield?’, 28 Oct. 2003.

14. The IDF stands for the Israel Defense Forces.

15. The official name of the Oslo Accords is theDeclaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements.

References

Said Edward W. (1996) Representations of the Intellec-tual: the Reith Lectures, New York: VintageBooks.

The website of the International Solidarity Move-ment http://www.palsolidarity.org/, 28 Oct.2003.

The website of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairshttp://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/home.asp, 28 Oct.2003.

Author’s biography

Aisa KIYOSUE is a PhD candidatein Osaka School of International Public Policy atOsaka University, JAPAN.

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