The noose of occupation

Source: The Jordan Times, 23-2-2006
By Rima Merriman
The Joint Security Coordination Office in Jerusalem (al-Quds) is full of tips and reports for wary travellers in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank, Jerusalem (al-Quds) and "Israel".
Security reports from this office are subdivided further into regions. This subdivision reflects "Israel`s" "security operations" which isolate regions one from the other by creating a mosaic of checkpoints, walls and "passages" which feel like blockades in an attempt to impose control on the Palestinians. With such methods, The "Israeli" forces are able to "close" virtually any Palestinian town or city at will.
Yesterday, for example, Al Quds newspaper had the following headline: "The "Israeli" army isolates several villages near Salfit behind iron gates". These villages are literally between a rock and a hard place, being surrounded by "Israel`s" wall on one side and "Israel`s" settlements on the other, with nowhere to go.
A glance at the "daily security updates" shows that all the action is happening in the "territories", not in "Israel". Apparently, "Israelis" should be worrying more about traffic accidents these days than about violence in their midst, as evidenced by the following security tip: "Drivers in "Israel" tend to be very aggressive and road courtesy is almost non existent; always practice defensive driving. You are twice more likely to be killed in a traffic accident than in a (so-called) `terror` attack in "Israel"!"
But in the territories, attacks by the "Israelis" on the Palestinians are a daily occurrence. The pattern is always the same. "Israeli" soldiers rope off an area, impose curfew and enter in force to perform "an operation". Depending on where they are "operating" and how hard-bitten the Palestinians are in that area, there is usually resistance in the form of hurling, say, "a sun-heated water tank" or a Molotov cocktail bottle.
For four days last week, the "Israelis" conducted "widespread operations" in Balata refugee camp. When they were done operating, the dead and the wounded and the demolished shelters were all on the Palestinian side, not on the "operating" side.
The Balata camp has a registered refugee population of 21,445, serious sewerage network problems and damaged roads and alleyways, but a very active Refugee Committee to Defend Refugee Rights. Much of the male population of the camp has been in and out of "Israeli" prisons and their youth are routinely held up and harassed at the Huwara checkpoint.
In Palestinian newspapers, updates of "Israeli" aggression are interspersed with news reports and analyses of the uncertain fate of the Hamas government. On the one hand, there is the buzz about the weird political game being played out on the local and international scenes, where one man`s guess is as good as another`s. Then, there is the bleak swooping of "Israeli" "operations" all over the "territories", one rage-filling act after another.
Two days ago, the news reports tucked haphazardly here and there in Al Ayyam newspaper told the following stories: Two youths (18 and 20) were targeted from the air by "Israeli" planes and killed in Khan Younis. Two youths (both 17) were killed in Balata, shot as they were throwing stones at "Israeli" tanks. A student (27) from the town of Qitteen was stopped by the "Israeli" army as he was riding in a public van on his way to Al Quds University in Toulkarem and forcibly taken away to an unknown destination. The "Israeli" army confiscated 700 dunums belonging to a town called West Tourah in the District of Jenin near the Green Line; this in addition of the lands that the town lost as a result of the wall. The "Israeli" army conducted surveying activities of land belonging to Khirbet Ibzeeq north of Toubas marking "boundaries" for an unknown reason. "Israeli" armed forces detained 15 labourers in Deir Asal, West of Hebron (al-Khalil) in a campaign to prevent dozens of labourers from entering Beer Al Sabe` to work there. "Israeli" force also destroyed houses in the Bedouin village of Rahet for sheltering these Palestinian labourers. Two youths (both 15) were arrested in Aida refugee camp north of Bethlehem during an attack on the camp by "Israeli" soldiers who damaged a lot of property. The youths were taken to an unknown destination.
Such litanies may seem insignificant, dispersed as they are.