Six years ago, the second Palestinian Intifada was raging in the West Bank town of Nablus. Palestinian militants regularly battled the Israeli Defence Force in the streets. The BBC’s Alan Johnston reported from Nablus throughout. Now on his first assignment back in the Middle East since he was kidnapped in Gaza, he travels back to the town to find out how life has changed…. From BBC News. Full story

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On Thursday, 3 December The Abraham Path Initiative and several partner organizations sponsored “Cultural Walking Tourism in Palestine” a seminar on the various themes of cultural walking in Palestine at Bethlehem University. Following the seminar, attendees were invited to participate in a virtual path exhibition composed of kiosks representing cities and villages in Palestine. Several TYO volunteers led by Volunteer Coordinator Imad and myself represented Nablus along the virtual path. It was a productive seminar and a very exciting day.  The volunteers thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to travel to the southern West Bank and interact with their peers at Bethlehem University. It is not boastful to say that we easily displayed the most spirit and pride. TYO volunteers engaged visitors along the virtual path in stories about Nablus and TYO, songs and kanafe!

Following the exhibition, Imad and I took the volunteers into Manger Square to take in the local sites, including the Church of the Nativity which many had never previously visited. “Going to the Church of the Nativity was my favorite part of the trip,” said Nasser, 21, from Beit Iba. “It was my first time there and it is important to me to visit because it is the most famous church in Bethlehem.”

-Chelsey

Chelsey is the Program Coordinator at TYO Nablus.

Here I am, halfway through my time in Nablus, and I cannot believe it is going by so fast!  I have gone from trying to find my bearings to savoring every moment because I know it is going to be over far too soon. Both classes are going well.

The sports class for moms has taken an interesting turn. A few classes ago, I brought a Tae Bo DVD along with me, almost as an afterthought. I thought it might be a nice change from our usual aerobics steps. I set up the projector so the entire class could follow along.  All of the moms absolutely love it!  We now spend class going through the DVD, taking time to pause and explain each move, and then do them all in real time.  It really is a great workout for them–considering the amount of cardio, it is quite low impact on their joints.  A few weeks ago, TYO’s health teacher Ahmad met with the mothers after our class to answer some of their many questions.  He spoke to them about the importance of exercise and a balanced diet.  Many of the women have told us they are seeing results from the workouts, and I can’t wait to see their progress by the end of December.

My kid’s art class is now largely focused on projects which will be displayed in an exhibit at the National Children’s Museum in Washington, DC.  The NCM project aims to introduce new cultures to the American audience through a series of four exhibits, and this will be the first from Nablus.  The theme for this exhibit is food, which is a wonderful idea because Palestinian food is truly delicious. Before it is time for me to return home, I hope to learn how to make many of the dishes I have enjoyed here.  Although I’m sure my children love to eat, they are less exuberant about depicting food.  Because of the challenge this presents, I try to redirect their focus from food alone to other important aspects of Palestinian and Arab culture, such as hospitality and holidays.   Most recently, my kids made storyboards which show what might happen when a lost and hungry traveler knocks on their door seeking help.   Suhad, our wonderful psychosocial specialist, suggested that I might be able to break my kids into groups and have them cook a mini feast here at TYO.  Perhaps I will be able to learn some recipes from them!

A musical game to start the session

We went to the Balata refugee camp in Nablus to visit a project called ‘Children of Amal’, which is organised by a Scottish volunteer, Sheena Boyle.  The project provides therapeutic music workshops for traumatised children.  Sheena comes across from Prestwick twice a year to work in the Nablus camps with groups of children who have been showing signs of stress (in some cases post-traumatic stress – as a result of the violence and conflict they have witnessed during some of the more troubled times).  The children are selected by the camp leaders and Sheena works closely with the local association of social workers. 

Sheena with the team - two social workers in training, Kamal, the head of the social work department, and Asim the interpreter

As well as working with the children, the project trains local social workers to deliver workshops.  The methods used in the workshops were pioneered a number of years ago in Bosnia by Professor Nigel Osborne of Edinburgh University music department.  Nigel comes to the camps once a year to hold a ‘masterclass’, and brings his own unique blend of skill and enthusiasm.  

It was great to watch a workshop, where the children so obviously enjoyed expressing themselves through music, and to speak to Sheena later and hear her explanation of what the objectives were of each part of the programme. 

Nablus is a fascinating place to visit, and I hope we can return many times.   However, the Balata camp is one of the most densely populated places in the world, with 30,000 people living there, and it is easy to understand just how traumatic life must have been for the children when the violence was at its worst during the last Intifada, with daily incursions, houses being destroyed and shootings.

A week later Margaret and I were fortunate to visit another project – this time in the SOS village in Bethlehem, and meet two volunteers – one a music therapist – who were working with SOS and a UK charity ‘Music as Therapy’.

On 13.11.2009 the Israeli army killed one Palestinian and wounded at least another three near Gaza city, before kidnapping them. Throughout the day, various news agencies reported this news. As usual, some Israeli & Co agencies and newspapers reported this piece of news in their usual style: the death of a Palestinian “terrorist” who was among a group of “terrorists” attempting to plant an explosive. Some even went a bit further and added that it was a “Hamas terrorist”. This addition obviously intended to make the news more acceptable to western readers and to justify killing the so-called “terrorist” by the IOF. Much of what these Israeli, American and European newspapers reported was only a mere repetition of what the Israeli army had to say, namely: the Israeli army invaded the Gaza area ”only” after five men “appeared to be planting explosive devices”[1], as if killing Palestinians, invading Palestinian areas and shooting people or bulldozing complete areas was a rare thing to be done by the IOF and “only” done when necessary. Checking some Palestinian and Arab web sites, it was obvious from the ages of those “men” injured and arrested by the IOF that they were not “Hamas terrorists”. They were what these Israeli & Co newspapers and agencies would call “children” where the report about some Israelis been injured, or on some Americans, or any other nationality other than Palestinian, for Palestinians are “men”, “adults”, “terrorists” the minute they are born, and thus what applies to children worldwide doesn’t apply to them. It is only Palestinian children who get killed and are later referred to as “terrorists”, for why distort the image of the “most morel army in the world” by claiming it is a child murderer? While Zio-run media went on with its tale about a “terrorists”, Palestinian hospital sources confirmed that those shot at were actually youths, and the “man” killed was 15 year old Mustapha Mohammad Wadi from Al-Bureij refugee camp. The group of 7 “terrorist” boys was travelling on a cart on the way to their village when they came across a garbage dump and their started chasing dogs and hunting birds. The Israeli troops positioned at the border opened fire at the boys, killing Wadi and injuring Ahmad Sa’doun, 17. Then, the Israeli troops moved into the Gaza Strip and kidnapped the boys, including those injured. Fact is: The Israeli army had invaded the area were the children were looking for food, shot at them and murdered one in cold-blood before kidnapping them. When Palestinian medics tried evacuating the wounded, they were prevented from approaching. Only after coordination with the Red Cross were Palestinian medics able to enter the area and collect the body, which they found lying on the ground 1 km away from the separation fence.

The lies of the Israeli army and the based-on-lies-reporting of most of the Israeli and western agencies are in no way rare or out of the usual. Nor is it a new tradition. On the contrary, it is typical of the Zionist state. Matter of fact, it is one of the trade mark of this entity: an entity built on lies, propaganda and the twisting of facts, and supported and defended by propaganda machines in Israel and the West calling themselves “free and objective press”. The Hasbara has been brainwashing people for too long, and growing and thriving on the bodies of the innocent victims of the Zionist state. Facts are twisted and mutilated in the service of the Zionist state; in order to justify its organized and institutionalized state terror. Facts are twisted to “beautify” Israeli crimes and make them justifiable and more acceptable to the western reader, as if murdering an unarmed nation or murdering children and women can ever be justified. For, going back to the cold-blooded murder of Mustapha Wadi, what would have been better for the Zionist entity:

A Hamas terrorist was killed by the IOF while attempting to plant an explosive device…

OR:

A 15 year old Palestinian child was killed by the IOF while with a group of children who were searching for food in a land under siege, where food is scarce and people go looking for something to eat in dump yards…

No question about which of the two is more in line with Israel’s Hasbara: a “poor” state that is plagued with “terrorists” who are forever trying to plant bombs and erase it off the face of the earth.

During the Nakba of 1948, the Zionists carried out an organized and a pre-meditated ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Till today, in a series of false claims and propaganda, they argue – weakly due to the strong and abundant evidence against their propaganda – that:

Palestine was empty when the Zionists started colonizing it:

This is the oldest, most used and weakest of all Hasbara lies. Even early Zionists admitted later that it was a lie and that the land was never empty. Others who were tricked into immigrating to the Zionist entity admitted that they were told it was empty, some even chose to return to their native countries such as Germany. Anyway, there is enough evidence, with statics and testimonies, so I will just use the summary I found on the Occupation 101 documentary (which is based on reliable sources):[2]

Palestine population distribution in 1878: Total: 462,465 (Muslims and Christians: 96.8%, Jews: 3.2%)

1882 1914:  65,000 European Jewish immigrants

Palestine population distribution in 1922: Total: 757,182 (Muslims and Christians: 87.6%, Jews: 11%)

1920-1931: 108,825 Jewish immigrants.

Palestine population distribution in 1931: Total: 1,035,154 (Muslims and Christians: 83.1%, Jews: 16.9%)

1932-1936: 174,000 Jewish immigrants.

1937-1945: 119,800 Jewish immigrants.

Palestine population distribution in 1948: Total: 2,156,700 (Muslims and Christians: 66.8%, Jews: 33.2%)

Of the 2,156,700: 1,440,000 were Muslim and Christian indigenous Palestinians.

716,700 Jews (only 253,700 of those were indigenous Palestinian Jews, the rest were colonist immigrants)[3]

According to a British government survey of Palestine (1945-1946) Palestinians owned 87.5% of the total area of Palestine, while Jews owned only 6.6% of the total area of Palestine. The remaining 5.9% of the total area was classified as “state land” by the British Mandate government.[4]

The Palestinians ran away and no one forced them out:

First of all: How can people, who according to the Hasbara are non-existent, later ran away and leave their homes “freely” from a land that was “empty”? So, you admit the Palestinians do exist, but only to justify the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, that its people left it of their free will. Well, lie as much as you want, it won’t help you, because your leaders are so self-obsessed and such arrogant mass-murderers that they would admit to it and even talk proudly about it. In 1937 Ben-Gurion wrote: “With compulsory transfer we [would] have a vast area [for settlement] …. I support compulsory transfer. I don’t see anything immoral in it.”[5] On 18/07/1948 Ben-Gurion wrote in his diary: We must do everything to ensure they (the Palestinian refugees) never do return…. The old will die and the young will forget.”[6]

The Zionist only wanted the state given to them by the UN, nothing more:

Zionists always claim they never wanted wars, that it was always the “others” who start the attacks, the “others” who are warmongers, the “others” who don’t want peace, the “others” who threaten Israel. Israel never threatens anyone, nor attacks anyone, it only defends itself. They blew up schools, homes, kindergartens, Cafe’s, restaurants, hotels in self defence, they committed one massacre after the other and killed unarmed Palestinian civilians in self defence, they destroyed over 500 Palestinian villages in self defence. They forced the residents of the large Palestinian coastal cities out of their homes and out of their country in self defence. They massacre a nation and steal its land and culture in self defence! And this was only the beginning! (more “self-defence” wars, mass murders, and massacres were to be followed, the last of which was the Gaza war, in which Israel killed over 1000 Palestinian civilians – also in self-defence!). 1936, Ben-Gurion said: “The acceptance of partition does not commit us to renounce Transjordan; one does not demand from anybody to give up his vision. We shall accept a state in the boundaries fixed today. But the boundaries of Zionist aspirations are the concern of the Jewish people and no external factor will be able to limit them”.[7] In 1955 Moshe Dayan was quoted saying: “[Israel] must see the sword as the main, if not the only, instrument with which to keep its morale high and to retain its moral tension. Towards this end it may, no – it must – invent dangers, and to do this it must adopt the method of provocation-and-revenge … and above all – let us hope for a new war with the Arab countries, so that we may finally get rid of our troubles and acquire our space.”[8]

Then, during the Naksa of 1967, the Zionist went on with their ethnic cleansing, their destruction and occupied the rest of Palestine, in addition to other Arab area. And not to forget that in between, the Zionist aggression and attacks, murder of innocent civilians and destruction of Palestinian land and property never stopped. Kufr Qasem massacre is only one of hundreds of examples. Their Hasbara was always ready, to spread the lies and justify the massacres. Before the outbreak of the 1967 war, the Zionists claimed that the “small tiny peaceful defenceless” Israel was surrounded by enemies who threatened its existence (much as today’s claims regarding Iran’s alleged threats). Poor, tiny Israel was standing alone in a sea of violent nations that hate it and want it to disappear off the map. They claim and still do that:

The Zionists didn’t want the war, their existence was threatened and they were only defending themselves:

Israel claimed, and still claims that the war of 1967 was a “defensive war”, and that the “existence of Israel was threatened”, despite ample proof contrary to this claim and the many testimonies of some of those responsible for giving orders at the time and some of who participated. Israeli General Matityahu Peled as reported by Ha’aretz on 19 March 1972. “The thesis that the danger of genocide was hanging over us in June 1967 and that Israel was fighting for its physical existence is only bluff, which was born and developed after the war”.[9] Speaking about the “Egyptian threat”, Menachim Begin admitted that: “In June 1967, we again had a choice. The Egyptian army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.” As for the Syrian threat: “Moshe Dayan, the celebrated commander who, as Defence Minister in 1967, gave the order to conquer the Golan …(said) many of the fire fights with the Syrians were deliberately provoked by Israel, and the kibbutz residents who pressed the Government to take the Golan Heights did so less for security than for the farmland …. (Dayan stated) “They didn’t even try to hide their greed for the land…. We would send a tractor to plow some area where it wasn’t possible to do anything, in the demilitarized area, and knew in advance that the Syrians would start to shoot. If they didn’t shoot, we would tell the tractors to advance further, until in the end the Syrians would get annoyed and shoot. And then we would use artillery and later the air force also, and that’s how it was … The Syrians on the fourth day of the war, were not a threat to us.” During this so-called “defensive war” of 1967, Israel occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and Sinai. Of the 1.4 million Palestinians living in the Palestinian Territories before June 1967, some 400,000 were displaced during this second Nakba. Half of those displaced were refugees displaced in the Nakba of 1948. Similar to 1948, there were attacks on civilians, massacres, expulsion, destruction and looting and other atrocities and war crimes. Several villages in the West Bank (including Imwas, Yalu, Beit Niuba, Beit Marsam, Beit Awwa, Jiftlik and Al Burj), several refugee camps in the Jericho area, half of the city of Qalqilya and the whole of the Moghrabi Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem were depopulated and destroyed. In September 1967, Dayan suggested in a meeting that his colleagues tell the Palestinians: “you shall continue to live like dogs, and whoever prefers – may leave ….” (For complete article/references: see This is how a Nakba is carried out)

In fact, what Israel had in mind in 1967 was another ethnic cleansing:

Disappointed that no large-scale exodus took place like in 1948, and that the majority of the Palestinians were still steadfast in their lands, the Israeli government discussed ways to solve the problem of the population of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The answer was a “voluntary transfer”. Haim Hertzog, Israel’s former president proudly admitted that he “as the first Military Governor of the West Bank, efficiently organized and carried out, in cooperation with Shlomo Lahat, the Commander of Jerusalem, the operation of transferring 200,000 Palestinians from the West Bank in the immediate aftermath of the war.” (complete article here:  This is how a Nakba is carried out)

The Zionists claim that the Palestinians wanted to throw the Jews into the sea:

Even today, some still believe this lie and repeat it, but are deaf and blind to the daily Zionist crimes and human rights violations committed by Israel against the Palestinians and other neighbouring countries. Strange enough, Zionists, their supporters and defenders and Zio-tail media outlets who keep repeating this are dead-silent when a Zionist Rabbi publishes a “complete guide to killing Non-Jews” in which he says: “There is justification for killing babies if it is clear that they will grow up to harm us”[10], or when a Rabbi declares that: “The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way: Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle)”[11], or when the IOF Chief Rabbi declares that: Troops who show mercy to the enemy will be “damned”[12]. With “enemy” did he mean the little Palestinian children, or the women giving birth at checkpoints, or the elderly trying to work their fields despite the settler terror? Zionists and the Zio-run media still claim that Palestinians want to “throw the Jews into the sea”, when in fact it is the Zionists who not only declare this only again and again (as highest levels as did Avigdor Lieberman, current Israeli foreign minister, who stated on 07.07.2003 in front of the Israeli Knesset during a discussion on Palestinian political prisoners that “It would be better to drown these prisoners in the Dead Sea if possible, sine that’s the lowest point in the world.”[13], adding that as transport minister, he would be willing to provide the buses to take the prisoners there), but actually did it. In 1967, Palestinians were forced under gun point into buses and sent to the Jordan Bridge and forced to cross it and while crossing it, Israeli war planes bombarded it, causing many to drown.

The Israeli army bombed the Bridge, so that the refugees were forced to leave the buses and cross the Bridge on foot. “They forced people to leave and then bombed the Bridge. People were on foot trying to escape the soldiers who were shooting at them and the planes roaming above them. They didn’t want those expelled to take their properties with them, and they didn’t want them to come back”. Many tried to return, but were faced with Israeli army patrols on the Jordan River, who didn’t hesitate to shoot at those trying to return to their homes. Some people paid money to pass the Jordan and get home, others swam, many were shot at and many disappeared without a trace. One Israeli soldier stated that: “We fired such shots every night on men, women and children. Even during moonlit nights when we could identify the people, that is… distinguish between men, women and children. In the mornings we searched the area and, by explicit order from the officer on the spot, shot the living including those who hid, or were wounded (again: including women and children).” (complete article see:  This is how a Nakba is carried out)

And so it goes on and on: facts fabricated, manipulated, twisted to fit the Zionist propaganda. It is truly a trade mark of the Zionist entity. These days, with cameras and videos close at hand, many of the lies are easily exposed. So, one would expect the Zionists not to be so blatant in their propaganda. But no, they believe they are above the law, and for this we have to thank the US and Europe who make Israel feel it is above the law, accountable to no one, but that others are accountable to Israel and have to get its blessing before doing anything. Also, one would expect western media, which continuously claims its neutrality and has the audacity to instruct and demand that others follow its example, to be more careful when dealing with the Hasbara, especially that nowadays the criminal acts of Israel are often caught live on camera. But no, they would never dare question their masters, the Hasbarists. They would keep repeating the news about some illegal Zionist settler being hit by a tiny stone while travelling on stolen Palestinian land on his way to an illegal Zionist settlement built on stolen Palestinian land, but they would ignore the many Palestinians killed, beaten or kidnapped by the Zionist terrorists such as the fanatic settlers or the IOF.

23 year old Palestinian student Mahmoud Salah was killed in cold-blood on 10.08.2002. In the Ziowood style, the scene of the crime was so theatrically manipulated to comply with the Zionist lie that Mahmoud was a suicide bomber.

On 08.02.2002, after being stopped at the Beit Hanina checkpoint, 23 year old Mahmoud Salah was searched and handcuffed. The soldiers started shooting in the air to chase eyewitnesses away. Everyone present was forced to leave. Two soldiers took off Mahmoud’s clothes then executed him. A bomb-detecting robot was brought to deceive the world and claim he was a suicide bomber. What the Israeli army didn’t know was that someone was taking photos of the whole incident from a nearby building. These photos show clearly how Mahmoud Salah was forced on the ground, his clothes being taken off (no bombs to be seen) and then shot dead without reason, the robot being brought to “search” him, with him lying naked there.

One story that was totally ignored by news agencies despite ample evidence is that of the 23 year old Palestinian student Mahmoud Salah. Mahmoud was killed in cold-blood, and then, in the Ziowood style, the scene of the crime was so theatrically manipulated to comply with the Zionist lie that Mahmoud was a suicide bomber. On 08.02.2002, after being stopped at the Beit Hanina checkpoint, Mahmoud was searched and handcuffed. The soldiers started shooting in the air to chase eyewitnesses away. After two soldiers took off his clothes, he was executed. A bomb-detecting robot was brought to deceive the world and claim he was a suicide bomber. What the Israeli army didn’t know was that someone was taking photos of the whole incident from a nearby building. These photos show clearly how Mahmoud Salah was forced on the ground, his clothes being taken off (no bombs to be seen) and then shot dead without reason, the robot being brought to “search” him, with him lying naked there. One Photo shows some soldiers pinning Mahmoud Salah to the ground just before executing him. Would they have held him and sat on him like that had they had 0.1% of a doubt he might be a suicide bomber? No, they would never have dared do that. They were SURE he is NOT a suicide bomber! These photos were to be found for a time on a You Tube video, which was later removed “due to terms of use violation”. In other words: the video was removed because it

1. It exposed the Zionist entity and showed it for what it is: a terrorist entity.

2. It exposed the Hasbara and showed it for what it is: a weakly-directed Ziowood production.

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No wonder the Israeli checkpoints are known as the “Death checkpoints”, for checkpoint murders are numerous. Ambulances carrying sick people or on the way to urgent medical cases are kept waiting hours at the checkpoint, sick people in need of urgent medical treatment die while waiting at the checkpoint, pregnant women are forced to give birth at checkpoints, causing some to lose their babies and others even to lose their lives. Unarmed innocent Palestinians on their way to work, school or home get killed at Israeli checkpoints and these murders are justified with lies such: they had “guns” or were carrying “bombs”.

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One case is that of 15 year old Fahmi Al-Darduk, who was killed in cold blood by the IOF at the infamous Huwara checkpoint on 19.05.2008. The Israeli army had claimed the boy had a pipe bombs and an explosive belt on his body. Immediately after the shooting and while the boy bled to death, the Israeli army closed the checkpoint and forced all Palestinians there to leave by throwing tear gas and concussion grenades at them, and then started washing away the blood with water jets. They wanted to clean the scene of the crime, and wash away all traces of the murder and keep back any possible witnesses. The boy had been shot several times at the same time, and at least six bullets hit his body in the head and the chest. Despite the many bullets, no claimed explosives blew up. Despite the fact that an ambulance arrived shortly after the shooting and despite the people’s pleading that the boy be treated, the Israeli soldiers refused to let the medics reach him, left him lying on the ground for two and a half hours and watched as he bled to death. The people who were present testified that the boy had a cell phone and earphones and that the earphone wires were under his shirt, but when he lifted his shirt it was obvious that this was an earphones wire, like young people carry those days. The Israeli army hurried to announce that a “twenty year old” Palestinian was shot at the Huwara checkpoint after the discovery of pipe bombs with him. Later it was five bombs, then again three. And once it was a 20 year old, then a 16 year old. One eyewitness reported: “When we were being pushed off on the road towards Awarta, there were settlers standing by at the bus-stop there, and they started throwing stones at us. The soldiers watched… The soldiers watched.”[14] Because Fahmi didn’t have an ID yet, his parents didn’t know he was killed until the next day. “Fahmi’s body, so it turned out, was hit in various places. No one knows if he expired on the spot or slowly bled to his death. If he was conscious before dying. And whether he asked for help or talked. Only the soldiers who murdered him, and those who came to conceal what had happened – they know the answer.”[15] It is futile to ask questions such as “Are these soldiers able to sleep at night? As they watched the boy die, didn’t they have any remorse?”. No, it is futile, because the cold-blooded mass murderers of the IOF enjoy killing innocent Palestinians and are even rewarded for it by the Zionist state.

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The stories of Palestinian victims killed at checkpoints and then labelled as “terrorists” by the Ziowood machinery are many.

It is all too familiar: young people waiting to cross a military checkpoint, a rush of bullets coming without any warning, keeping the rest of the people away, preventing the medical teams from saving lives, waiting till the person lying on the ground bleeds to death and then the real “show” begins. The Israeli soldiers take off the dead Palestinian’s clothes, they wash off the pool of blood to remove any traces of their crimes, and then hurry and announce that they have just killed a terrorist who intended to blow himself up. The sad thing is, this scenario has been taking place for decades now and the world still believes these lies and very few dare to question them, despite the existence of witnesses and proof to contradict these lies. Often enough whenever such crimes against unarmed Palestinian civilians take place, there are witnesses and there is even sometimes photo or video evidence to show what really happened. This evidence is usually disregarded and ignored. Foreign reporters hurry to spread the Israeli army’s version of events, despite the available evidence contrary to those versions and without even bothering hearing what Palestinian witnesses have to say. (Saying “I didn’t know” is no excuse anymore)

So, you see, you could be a child, a youth, an adult, an elderly. You could be a man or a woman. You could be politically active or not. All it needs is for you to be a Palestinian and this qualifies you to become a live target for blood-thirsty Zionists. With every passing day, and with every new crime, it is becoming more obvious that shooting Palestinians is a sport for Zionists, knowing that their Zionist state will protect them and never prosecute them, and knowing that their Ziowood and world media would justify their terror and make them the victims.

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When Mohammad Al-Durra was killed by the IOF, the whole world saw the murder of the little boy on TV. For many, it was a shock, because the crimes of Israel had always been well-hidden, and it was the Palestinians who were portrayed as the killers. Numerous, but useless, efforts were made to lessen the damage. And after a couple of years, a new documentary prepared by former Mossadists was aired on a number of European TV stations, including the main public German TV station (it was aired several times). The documentary tried to show that it was the Palestinians who killed Mohammad Al-Durra and not the Israeli army. Although boiling at the audacity of these Zionists, killing a child publicly in front of everyone and then crying that they were framed and they were the victims here, I watched the documentary to see whether it was convincing or not. Well, I didn’t find it a bit convincing; first of all because I am a Palestinian who was born and grew up under the brutal military occupation and have seen and heard this over and over again: they kill and then claim they are the victims. Nothing the Zionist state has to say is believable or is to be taken for the truth. Secondly, this so-called investigation of whether the Israeli army was responsible for the murder of a child was carried out by no other than former Mossadists. Come on, only idiots, brainwashed idiots and pathetic media would believe or accept such an investigation. They tried hardly to prove their innocence, but it all came out as allegations, assumptions and fairy-tale explanations. They seem to forget that murderers with blood on their hands and with a long history of massacres can’t fool anyone. Ziowood had failed and Mohammad will always be there to haunt the Zionists.

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Ziowood has a long tradition and is welcomed by all western media. No questions asked, no claims questioned, no inquiries made as to the creditability of what is being produced, with the complete knowledge that Ziowood is mostly run, directed and financed by the Zionists and their various arms and legs: such as the Mossad. When the Israeli army or the government states something, it is accepted as fact by western media. While when Palestinians, international organizations, human rights organizations or even official international investigation teams present facts proving the terrorist nature of the Zionist entity, it is either ignored by western media, or reported as “unproven claims” or even attacked as “anti-Semitism”. Ziowood can claim Mars is overpopulated with terrorists and the western world would accept that for a fact! Zionists & Co often accuse Palestinians of inventing stories and spreading lies. Articles and comments on what they call “Paliwood” are to be found on Zioblogs and sites. Fact is; if one checks some of what they refer to as “Paliwood”, one would find out most of this so-called “Paliwood” is actually reports and testimonies of human rights organizations and non-Palestinians on the brutal Israeli occupation. Ziowood is very active and has branches and offices in almost all western news agencies. No reporter, no matter how Israel-loyal he/she might be, is allowed to change the picture painted by Ziowood: Israel is always the victim, Palestinians are always the killers. If you don’t have anything good to say about Israel, then don’t, and if you don’t have anything bad to say about the Palestinians, then invent some. When a CNN team was shot at by an Israeli tank during the 2002 Israeli invasion of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, their reporter spoke live about the attack some days later; how it was obvious that they were reporters, CNN reporters (most probably they thought they were protected because they are so Israel-friendly), and how none the less the Israeli army shot in their direction. The Israeli speaker, army or government speaker, can’t remember exactly, told the reporter who was attacked, on AIR, that he was lying! CNN had shown the video of the attack several times, and there was no doubt about what the reporter was saying. I watched and could only laugh: this is what you get CNN and money/fame-hungry reporters for covering up Israeli crimes. And then, I think some time later that same year, another CNN reporter covering the Nativity Church siege kept talking about how the Palestinian “fighters” were holding the monks as hostages. His report was completely disgusting, an almost word-for-word repetition of what the Israeli army was claiming to justify its actions, this army that was actually besieging and attacking the Nativity. This, at the same time, when the monks were calling agencies and telling them they were not held hostages by Palestinians as the Israeli media & Co claimed, but were hostages of the Israeli army, and they refuted Israeli propaganda by relating the suffering of everyone held hostage by Israel inside the church and how Israel was destroying the church. I was in Germany at the time, and followed the whole thing on TV. You could see the Israeli tanks surrounding the Nativity, you could see the Israeli snipers shooting in the direction of the Nativity, you could see not one single Palestinian in the streets of Bethlehem, only Israeli soldiers. And despite all what the cameras were showing, you would have reporters claiming it was the Palestinians who were taking hostages, and not that the entire Palestinian population was held hostage by the Zionist state.

-

Another story that made the headlines at the time in Zionist-run western media is that of the so-called “suicide bomber” boy. The story would be used by Zionists every now and then as a “proof” to their claim that Palestinians “use children as suicide bombers”. The boy, 16 year old Husam Abdo from Nablus, even got a page on Wikipedia! Unfortunately for Hasbarists, and fortunately for us: Husam’s story and a few others are clear-cut cases of the work of the Ziowood and how it is failing miserably. For those who have even a slight bit of a brain and for those who care to look carefully at this and similar cases, it is much too obvious that this was another failed Ziowood production. A friend of mine, a long-time media expert, called one afternoon to tell me of some “good news”. The newly appointed German reporter of a certain German TV station had prepared a news report and had called this friend of mine to tell the tale. The reporter was happy thinking he had gotten a scoop. The story had been making headlines at the time; and the video was being aired repeatedly almost every hour. It was about Husam Abdo who was allegedly “caught” at one Israeli checkpoint with an explosive belt tight around his body on 24.03.2004. The Israeli army and the rest of the Zio-run media claimed the boy was sent by “terrorists” to blow himself up at the checkpoint. My friend said that the German reporter had prepared a report after thorough investigation, proving the involvement of the IOF and that they were the ones responsible for the charade. I saw this Ziowood production at the time and, and remember at the time asking myself a few questions:

The Israeli army had several film teams ready and cameras ready and filmed as the boy came to the checkpoint. How did they know the boy was coming?

The boy was wearing a very bright red winter jacket that was just too obvious. How come those who sent him didn’t choose a less obvious colour?

But the most important question here is: how come the boy was not shot dead on spot? Many Palestinians were shot dead, without questions asked, because some soldier “thought them to be carrying an explosive”, but this boy with allegedly an explosive belt was left standing while the media was given enough time to film the whole thing before the explosives are removed and detonated? Come on, Ziowood, you are only fooling brainless idiots, aka your followers; the Zionists!

The Zionists claimed that Al-Aqsa Brigades were responsible for this and used a mentally disabled boy, which Al-Aqsa denied. Palestinians didn’t believe this as well. Also, Palestinian experts replied to this Israeli claim saying it was well-known that many Palestinian men are ready to die as “suicide bombers” because the brutality of the Israeli occupation have left them hopeless and desperate, so why choose a boy when adult men are waiting and get yourself in problem with the Palestinian society? Al-Aqsa questioned who is more likely to be using little kids for their own means: the resistance men who give up their own live so Palestine’s children can have a better future or the Israeli army who killed thousands of Palestinian children and locked up tens of thousands of Palestinians kids inside jails? (at the moment  there are 326 Palestinian children locked up inside Israeli jails, and alone between September 2001 and September 2009 Israel killed 975 Palestinian children). Many Palestinians stated that this is yet another Israeli fabrication, another Mossad charade to tarnish the name of Palestinian groups, and to tell the world that Palestinians send their kids to die and so diminish world support for the Palestinian cause, which is growing by the hour. This Ziowood production also aimed at causing a rift between Palestinians and the various resistance groups. Husam’s family was also convinced that the Israeli Mossad was behind this charade, saying that the Israeli media persisted on claiming the boy was 14 although he was 16, which meant they were interested in presenting to the world a very young boy of 14, to cause more uproar. Palestinians also argue that filming is often forbidden at checkpoint, or when permission is given (mostly to chosen Israeli agencies) crews are not allowed to stay long. The IOF does not allow journalists and TV crews to film as they wish, because they don’t want the world to see the reality: a brutal occupation locking people up in cages as if they were animals, nor do they want the world to see the inhumane treatment elderly people, women and children receive on the hands of Israeli soldiers at checkpoint. So, the usual case being that TV crews are rarely allowed to film, and when they are allowed then for a short time. Then, how come on that day many TV teams were present at the checkpoint and had been waiting there for a long time; waiting being the crucial word here! Also, choosing a bright red jacket meant drawing attention; would a “suicide-bomber” want to draw attention to himself? It also means recognition; the Israeli army needed to recognize the boy they themselves used for this charade. It was important to make the boy recognizable among all those waiting at the checkpoint, so the charade would work and they won’t mistake him for another boy. Also, eye witnesses say that the Israeli soldiers, upon seeing Husam called him by his name, how the hell did the IOF know Husam’s name? Unless of course this was all pre-planned.

Such lousy Ziowood productions are not unfamiliar to Palestinians. The story of Husam Abdoh is similar to that of Abdallah Qur’an from Balata refugee camp. 12 year old Abdallah from Balata refugee camp was allegedly “caught” transporting explosives at the Huwara checkpoint. Like Husam, on the day Abdallah was arrested, there was an unusual presence of TV teams and journalists at the Huwara checkpoint, as if knowing what was to happen. At the time, Abdallah worked after school as a porter at the checkpoint, i.e. transporting luggage. He later said that two men came to him and asked him to transport two bags to the other side of the checkpoint, adding that an elderly woman was waiting for the bag. While crossing the checkpoint, two soldiers came and asked Abdallah what was in the bag, when he said he didn’t know they ordered him to open it. Abdallah says that inside the bag he only saw spare car parts, and that immediately after he opened the bag the soldiers took him to where the journalists and TV crews took and everyone started taking photos of the boy and the bag. Meanwhile the Israeli soldiers were laughing and talking Hebrew with the journalists. Would the soldiers be so calm, laughing and chatting with each other and with reporters if this bag really contained explosives, guns and grenades? Think about it. After the journalists had taken enough photos, the soldiers threw a sound grenade at the bag, to give the impression it exploded, but nothing else happened, no flying nails, no flying debris, nothing; only a loud boom from the sound grenade. The boy also reported how after the TV crews had left, the Israeli soldiers beat him and said they would only release him if he admitted he did it. But Abdallah refused to admit to something he didn’t do, and was set free after some hours. Now again, they arrest kids and lock them up in jails for months and years for throwing stones and this boy who supposedly was transporting bombs is sent home?

Another Ziowood failed production is that of 6 year old Ahmad Abu Markhiyeh from Tel Roumeida in Hebron; on 20.03.2004, while on the way back home from school, Ahmad was stopped at a checkpoint by 2 Israeli soldiers. The soldiers placed parts of their machine guns and some hand grenades in Ahmad’s school bag, and then took photos of the boy with the open bag. After he was released, the boy ran to his home where he told his mother what had happened and said he won’t go to school ever again. His mother immediately complained to the Palestinian coordination office in Hebron, to the governor, to human rights organizations and even to some Israeli army officer present in Tel Roumeida. I suppose if the mother had not acted so quickly and informed everyone of what the soldiers did, these photos would have been published on the front page of almost all western newspapers and aired on all TV channels with the headline: 6 year old child sent by Palestinians to blow himself up at checkpoint!

On 29.12.2004, the IOF stormed into the house of 14 year old Ahmad Abdel-Haq from Nablus. Upon founding only Ahmad in the house, the soldiers beat the boy severely, made him sit on a chair behind which they placed a Palestinian flag, placed a number machine guns and hand grenades in front of him and made him hold a paper and read from it, and then started filming. It was all made to look as if Ahmad was a “suicide bomber” reading his will. But despite the machine guns, the hand grenades and the “wish to become suicide bomber”, the boy was never arrested, same as with Ahmad Abu Markhiyeh who allegedly had a “bag full with hand grenades”. They were not arrested by an army claiming they were “terrorists”, an army that tends to arrest kids for as simple as throwing stones, which only again proves it is all Ziowood productions – failed productions.

Back to the German reporter; As my friend talked about the report and how it is ready and will be sent to Germany for broadcast and how the IOF will be exposed, I only listened and didn’t say a thing. My friend, who worked long years in the media field knew that the German media was mostly bias in the favour of Israel, but still believed they would have the decency to broadcast such a report because it was about misusing a child. I had my doubts: any story about misusing children would be shown; but when the criminal is the Zionist state, German media prefers to turn a blind eye. The film of the boy coming towards the checkpoint was shown over and over and over on German TV, but nothing was mentioned about the true story behind it: about how the Israeli soldiers had planned the whole thing, had staged it all, how they used a boy and then claimed Palestinians used kids! I think that reporter who was so optimistic about his scoop learned that day an important lesson: there is no such thing as free independent media and there is no such thing as objective reporting. All the theoretical training he had at German journalistic schools is nothing but theory, in practice a reporter is bought by his agency and has no freedom to write what he wants. This same reporter continued reporting from occupied Palestine, and he was “allowed” to continue reporting from there because he learned the lesson and followed the example of all those who allowed themselves to be bought by Ziowood. This same Germany, which continuously criticizes Arab, African, Russian and other countries for their lack of freedom of speech and the lack of an independent media, are themselves slaves of the Ziowood: how can you talk about objectively and independent media when you employ as reporter a religious Jew living in an illegal Jewish settlement? How can you talk about objectively and independent media when you employ a reporter who has double citizenship (German/Israeli) and who sits all day long in Tel Aviv and never bothers go to the Occupied Territories?

The Zionist state, its representatives all over the world, its organs, its defenders and supporters have always resorted to lies, propaganda, the twisting and distorting of facts to fit their own-created fantasy world; that of a “poor defenceless peaceful state surrounded by enemies wishing to eliminate it”, or that of the “only democracy in the Middle East”, or that of those “who made the desert bloom”. With their Ziowood, they painted a world in which ethnic cleansing, mass murder and racism are acceptable, and believed this fantasy world themselves. They believed their own lies and thought themselves invincible and immune from any criticism or questioning, believed that they are above one and all, above human and divine laws. But with every step this fake entity takes, it exposes itself more and more and shows its real nature: an entity feeding on murder. Today, even the best of the Ziowood directors are unable to carry on the charade, their final Act is being played now and they know their audience is leaving even before the show is over. They are leaving, and in the thousands every minute, because this show is getting boring, just too boring for anyone to believe or as we say in Arabic: you can’t hide the sun with a sieve. The Zionists know they are losing yet another war; the media war. During the latest Israeli war on Gaza, the IOF recruited hundreds, if not thousands of blind-followers to attack Palestinians & Co sites, even to attack international and human rights sites that were reporting on Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. Yesterday, a similar wave was announced; the IOF will be starting a new war on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, hoping to show the other side of the terrorists IOF, as they claim. What other side? Do mass-murderers, racists and child-killers have other sides? Do you think if a Nazi soldier had a cat and cared for it, this “other side” of him would make people feel sorry for him and forgive him for being a mass-murderer? Definitely No, and that is why Ziowood is failing despite all the efforts and the money invested to keep the myth of the fantasy world known as “Israel”.

[1] http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/11/2009111312123892329.html

[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM1ruYCS6JY&feature=player_embedded

[3] http://www.palestine-encyclopedia.com

[4] http://www.passia.org/palestine_facts/pdf/pdf2009/LANDandSettlements.pdf

[5] http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Famous-Zionist-Quotes/Story694.html

[6] http://www.middleeast.org

[7] www.cactus48.com/1967war.html

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

[10] http://coteret.com/2009/11/09/settler-rabbi-publishes-the-complete-guide-to-killing-non-jews/

[11] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1091469.html

[12] http://www.israeli-occupation.org/2009-11-15/idf-chief-rabbi-troops-who-show-mercy-to-enemy-will-be-damned/

[13] //imeu.net

[14] http://www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=3&id=1355

[15] Ibid.

Peace and blessings, everyone. I found this song fairly recently on YouTube and it’s called “We will not go down (Song for Gaza)” and the music video is here:

I have some comments to make about the song:

Terrorism and extermism are not acceptable under any circumstances whatsoever, but government oppression, injustice, tyranny, and murder are not acceptable under any circumstances whatsoever either! The circumstances in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are not lending themselves to a just and peaceful resolution. I truly hope that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the rest of the Israeli government and the military wakes up and realize that they cannot continue their current policies and expect a different result other than what they’re getting. I truly pray that God Almighty guides them to the Right Path before it’s too late. Ameen (Amen). May God Almighty grant the most just and peaceful resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli dispute so that all sides can go about the business of living their lives for the sake of God Almighty. Ameen. How long will any of us live? 50 years? 60? 100? 120? Maybe less or more? God Almighty says in the Qur’an, His Holy Book, that a life of 1000 years will not save the unbeliever even one bit from the punishment if they die in a condition of unbelief, but that dying in a condition of belief grants the one who God Almighty accepts as having died in that condition, through His Mercy and Grace, everlasting Paradise! May God Almighty guide us all to be in that condition of belief so that we may all go to Paradise and be saved from even the slightest time in the Hell-Fire. Ameen. Peace and God bless.

Samir Rafael Elneser

Norman, Oklahoma, United States of America

Tomorrow’s Youth Organization is excited to introduce the latest member of our team in Nablus. Wynne Mancini has joined the TYO staff as the Center Director of TYO’s flagship center in Nablus.

Wynne’s professional background is in Arabic and the Middle East. From 2007-2008, Wynne studied in Damascus, Syria on a CASA fellowship and also worked with the Director of Public Information while interning at UNRWA. In 2009, she graduated from Georgetown University with a masters degree in Arab Studies. While at Georgetown, Wynne worked as a research assistant at the United States Institute of Peace, examining American involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Her work experience in DC also includes consulting for the International Organization for Migration on their counter-trafficking publications.  Wynne initially became interested in the Arab World while living in France, where she worked as a paralegal in the Paris office of Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP. She received her B.A. from Princeton University in 2003. She is fluent in French and Arabic.

Please join us in welcoming Wynne to our team!

Last weekend marked several important days here at TYO: Universal Children’s Day, our Open Day, and the passage of the midway mark for our fall internship program.

As I was surrounded by dozens of kids clamoring to have their faces painted as Spider-man, Batman, hearts, moons, stars, flowers, butterflies (a good Arabic lesson for me that day!), I found a moment to reflect on the past month and a half here in Nablus.

I have been trying to teach my students here at TYO as much as they teach me. Every day with them is a new learning experience, as a teacher, as a foreigner and as a person. I hope that I am doing my best, and that my students like me. They keep coming back, so hopefully that is a good sign.

I crafted a nine-week schedule for my drama class at the beginning of this semester, and it has absolutely flown out the window. Every lesson that I plan for them, assuming that it will take at least a week (two classes), has been consumed by them in just one class! Even when I think that my English explanation cannot be properly translated into Arabic and grasped by my students, they are always two steps ahead of me and ready to go. My goal is to challenge, entertain and inform them at least as much as they do so for me.

In the past few weeks my class has covered many of the basics of the mechanics of theater, including costumes, sets and scripts. For the sets, we painted a backdrop and made free standing trees, as well as cut out clouds, a moon and a sun to hang in the classroom. On costume day, the students used their creativity to design costumes representing characters (bee, tiger, police man, etc), and then performed in front of the class to see if their fellow students could guess their character. On script day, the students learned the basic format of scripts and turned a children’s story into a scene to perform for their classmates.

Considering how quickly my boys and girls are moving through my lesson plans, I hope that we will be able to put together everything we have learned to put on a production for the rest of TYO!

-Bieta

Bieta is an intern at TYO Nablus.

The “Triple Exposure” blog will chronicle the progress of the public art and photography project of the same name. The 2-year project aims to develops identity and awareness through photographic expression and public art, engaging children from our target areas.

By exploring TripleExposure.net, you can read more about the project, see photos of the children and their work, and learn the history and present situation of the incomparable city of Nablus.

-Doris and Kelsey

Doris and Kelsey are both former TYO Summer Interns and current Triple Exposure Project Coordinators.

The TripleX mural class made this anime film last week.

Triple Exposure, a new TYO project, develops identity and awareness through photographic expression and public art. TripleX uses art and photography classes to engage children ages 7 to 16 from our target areas.

Yesterday, TYO celebrated United Nations’ International Children’s Day. About 200 community members, including children and parents, came to TYO’s Open Day to enjoy an exciting array of activities, including art and sports activities, face painting and debka.

A special thanks to all the  TYO volunteers who did an incredible job orchestrating the day and leading activities.

In order to understand the dangers of this campaign, and how hypocritical the demand for “freedom of worship” is, it’s important to remember that Yitzhar’s Od Yosef Hai yeshiva was originally located at the tomb. Just last week the yeshiva’s dean published “The complete guide to killing non-Jews.”

Back to Joseph’s Tomb

Roi Sharon, Maariv, November 19 2009 [page 6]

The right wing has marked its next target: nine years after the IDF’s withdrawal from Nablus, right wing groups plan to restore the Jewish presence in Joseph’s Tomb.

The new initiative was born as a result of the current security situation in the Palestinian Authority territories, after many roadblocks to the Palestinian cities were removed. After the removal of the Hawara roadblock near Nablus, illegal visits to Joseph’s Tomb increased. Contrary to earlier years, when Joseph’s Tomb worshippers would infiltrate in the depths of night using various bypass roads, in recent months worshippers enter during daylight of day and via the main roads.

The promoters of this initiative are the hill top folks, residents of Samaria’s settlements, rabbis and long time settlers. A group of several dozens has united under the name “the Nablus core,” and in recent days began circulating a position paper which states: “for nine years now Joseph’s Tomb remains burnt, desecrated and abandoned…it is time to remove the stain.”

An epistle to be sent to Samaria residents in the coming days states: “for nine years Joseph’s Tomb has been forsaken and there is no Jewish presence in the city of Nablus. Nine years have passed since the destruction, burning and pogrom. We all recall and are pained with the sight, how hundreds of savages who defeated the Israeli Defense Forces, broke, burned and rejoiced. Have we forgotten? Have we grown despondent? We are determined to change the situation: not to forget. Not to grow despondent.”

“The vicinity of Od Yosef Hai Yeshiva in Nablus today stands abandoned, even though this is Israeli territory according to all opinions and even according to Israel law,” states the letter. “Never has their been an official decision concerning this shameful abandonment, it was executed quickly and unannounced, under pressure, at a time when the IDF was an all time low. Today there is no security impediment to dwelling in the area again, and it is realistically possible to secure the place. Today the roadblocks are all open, and every Arab from Balata enters and leaves Nablus freely, traveling to all destination of Judea and Samaria. And only we shall remain shut out?”

Organizers plan on recruiting as much wide spread support as possible through PR campaigns. As a second phase, organizers plan to pitch a protest tent at the entrance to Nablus. In the future they will attempt a march into the city towards the tomb. In the last phase, a massive entry into the vicinity of the tomb is planned, with the goal being to remain there.

Benny Katzover, who is involved with the initiative, told Ma’ariv last night that “the basic demand to allow Jews free worship is an elementary one which no people in the world would give up, and it is also mandated by the miserable Oslo Accords — just as is the case with Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem. We must battle in order to change this intolerable situation, in which this sacred place remains in a state of disgrace, destroyed and shattered, and Jews may enter it only once a month in the dead of night.”

Youssef, 7, rocks a very cool sweatshirt

Partiamo per Nablus, dove la raccolta delle olive non e’ ancora
terminata nonostante la scarsa stagione .
I chek point lungo la strada, che per anni sono stati luoghi di continue
uccisioni ed umiliazioni di uomini e donne  che cercavano di spostarsi all’interno della west bank, sono oggi parzialmente riaperti anche se la presenza della polizia e dell’esercito israeliano e’  comunque costante.

Questa parziale riapertura e’ l’amara constatazione di una crescente
“normalizzazione” dell’occupazione, anche conseguenza di accordi internazionali che dovrebbero restituire maggiore autonomia alla popolazione palestinese, ma che in realta` vedono il consolidarsi degli insediamenti israeliani e il controllo da parte dello stato sionista all’interno della west bank.
Durante il viaggio possiamo constatare la rapida espansione delle
colonie accompagnata dalla devastazione di terre un tempo ricoperte di ulivi.
Arriviamo al campo profughi di Balata e veniamo accolti nel centro
happychildhood camp, dove gia` ad Aprile la carovana di sport sotto l’assedio era passata per conoscere la dura realta di Balata.
http://www.sportsottoassedio.it/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=169&Itemid=87
La fretta che avevamo di recarci sui campi a raccogliere le olive,
svanisce nel momento in cui ci rendiamo conto di quanto per i ragazzi, volontari del centro, sia importante  sapere di noi, raccontarci e farci vedere con i nostri occhi cosa vuol dire crescere nel campo profughi piu` grande della west bank, dove piu’ di 25.000 persone vivono in un Km2.
Cominciamo a girare per le strade e i vicoli del campo attraverso la
guida di uno dei ragazzi del centro, che ci racconta della dura realta`che la popolazione e` costretta a   vivere e dei tanti tragici avvenimenti del recente passato.
Non e’ facile riassumere in poche righe i suoi racconti, ne’ le  emozioni e
i sentimenti che ci hanno suscitato.
Durante la seconda intifada, il campo di Balata era considerato il piu
pericoloso dall’esercito israeliano.
I soldati mantengono tutt’oggi la loro posizione sulla montagna che
sovrasta l’agglomerato delle case.
Da qua partivano le incursioni e le infami e arbitrarie esecuzioni dei
cecchini. Tanti giovani hanno perso la vita in questo modo, colpevoli di aver resistito lanciando sassi contro i mezzi militari, di essersi affacciati alla finestra o di avere bevuto un the  in terrazza con gli amici.
I ragazzi ci hanno raccontato dei bombardamenti e di come l’esercito si
addentrasse nel campo sfondando le pareti delle case, facendosi largo tra gli strettissimi vicoli che  separano un edificio dall’altro.
La violenza della recente storia del campo e’ testimoniata dai segni
delle raffiche delle armi israeliane e da numerossimi manifesti che ritraggono i ragazzi uccisi dai militari israeliani.
Finita questa rapida ma intensa camminata siamo tornati al centro.
Insieme ai ragazzi abbiamo deciso di fare un murales su uno dei muri del
cortile interno della struttura.
Abbiamo poi passato una piacevolissima serata cenando insieme,  ascoltando musica e chiacchierando.
Il giorno seguente alcuni di noi si sono recati al campo di un contadino
dove, insieme a lui e alla sua famiglia, hanno partecipato alla raccolta delle olive, mentre un’altra parte e’ rimasta a continuare il murales.
A fine serata ci siamo trovati un’altra volta tutti insieme nel  cortile del
campo per un ultimo the e dopo esserci scambiati propositi, numeri di telefono ed e-mail, ci  siamo salutati.
Eravamo arrivati pieni di voglia di dare un aiuto pratico, di fare   qualcosa di utile per la gente di Nablus, ma questa esperienza ci ha dimostrato che la necessita’ maggiore di chi, come questo popolo, e’ rinchiuso in una prigione a cielo aperto, sia di rompere l’isolamento in cui e’ costretto.
Volevamo dare…abbiamo ricevuto molto di piu’.

Morning Program participants enjoy a game with hats in Haitham’s class.

• Purchase kitchen equipment and food to offer hot meals for children and nutrition classes for mothers
• Build a child-friendly library with books and storytelling tools to bolster kids’ literacy skills, love of learning and tools for healthy self-expression.