[GushShalom] Gush Shalom activists sleep over at Arafat's compound.

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

GUSH SHALOM  pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 www.gush-shalom.org

International release
October 5, 2003

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Yom Kippur 2003 - From Haifa to Ramallah
Gush Shalom activists sleep over at Arafat's compound.
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[Here follows a description by Adam Keller and Beate Zilversmidt of their 
experience - from the shock of the Haifa suicide attack to spending the 
night at Ramallah as part of a group which provided a human shield for  
Arafat.]

Yesterday began as a routine Saturday, with news broadcasts focussing on 
the ongoing strike at Israel's seaports, the occupation pushed to the 
sidelines. 

For several weeks there had been no major assassinations nor suicide 
bombings - though people on both sides did get killed in "routine 
incidents". And it seemed that Sharon did not create too big of a wave by 
pushing through the settlement encompassing route of the "Separation 
Wall", nor by the 600 tenders for new settlement housing. The Bush 
administration appears to lose interest in mediating between israelis and 
Palestinians, with the roadmap shelved until after the Nov.2004 
elections.

But the Saturday siesta was suddenly shattered by the shockwaves of the 
terrible event in Haifa. Emergency bulletins disrupted the leisurely  
radio broadcasts, giving once again the gory details of a suicide 
bombing. This one claimed the life of nineteen people, with whole 
families wiped out as they sat at the restaurant tables. "Maxim" was a 
place jointly owned - and visited - by Jews and Arabs. Six of those 
killed were Palestinian Israelis, as were many of the wounded. (Did the 
perpetrator - a 29-year old woman lawyer from Jenin, reportedly seeking 
revenge for a dead brother and cousin - deliberately seek to strike at 
this oasis of coexistence? Or was "Maxim" chosen randomly, as a 
convenient place crowded with people?)

After about two hours,  the ambitious Health Minister Danny Naveh spoke 
on the radio, urging the government to "seize this opportunity to get rid 
of Arafat." (He did not even bother to pretend that Arafat had anything 
to do with the bombing, for which responsibility was claimed by the 
Islamic Jihad.) Nave's lead was followed by a whole host of similar 
pronouncements by ministers, Knesset Members and officials, as well as 
"unofficial leaks" of "well-placed sources" at the prime minister's 
bureau.
For us, that meant the urgent need to shake off shock and lethargy and 
mobilize in very short order a group to immediately set off for Ramallah. 
It is no easy matter to phone a person - even somebody who had earlier 
registered as being willing to act as a human shield - and say:  "Now is 
the time. Be ready within half an hour."

In spite of several people being away from home in the Holiday weekend 
and some others getting cold feet, still the willing volunteers added up. 
Together with the Gush Shalomers came some young anarchists who have 
little use for Arafat or any other president but were convinced to oppose 
a move aimed at crushing the Palestinian people as a whole. Meanwhile the 
ISM was rallying its international volunteers, scattered in various West 
Bank towns and villages.  Altogether, at 9.30pm there were some thirty 
activists at the dimly lit rendezvous point outside Ramallah: Israelis 
from Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem, Californians, Canadians, Brits, Danes, a 
single Icelander...

We made some contingency plans for the possibility of being blocked by 
the army and getting into Ramallah by side roads - a bit of a risky act 
in the dark - but in the event getting past the military roadblocks 
proved almost absurdly easy. A short drive, and there we were - at the 
gates of the Presidential Compound, whose Arabic name "Muqata'a" has 
become well-known to Hebrew speakers.

Among the ruins of buildings destroyed in previous incursions by the 
Israeli army, were lurking a whole host of international journalists with 
TV-cameras, who immediately pounched upon Uri Avnery and other English 
speakers among the delegation. Just a few minutes after sneeking past 
soldiers we were in the midst of an impromptu press conference.

"We are here as human shields to protect President Arafat," Uri Avnery 
was later quoted in Ha'aretz. "We will stay here just in case Sharon
carries out an action."  And in the Jerusalem Post he was quoted as 
saying:  [we are here] "first and foremost to protect Israel from the 
catastrophe that would occur if Arafat were to be exiled, or killed. 
(...) If  Sharon decides to kill Arafat, this would be an unprecedented 
historic catastrophe for the people of Israel." 

Once past the journalists we were heartily greeted by Palestinian 
officials and activists. A whole lot of drinks and snacks were brought in 
and since most of us had skipped dinner we embarked upon the pitabread 
and humus. Then, we were conducted to the conference hall which had been 
converted into an improvised dormitory - a large room with completely new 
fittings, replacing those destroyed by the Israeli army in September a 
year ago. 

And then, there was the long night to get through, with the attempt to 
read Sharon's intentions from the ambiguous reports monitored on a 
squeeking small transistor radio, and the ears alert to any alarming 
sounds from outside. Some of the Israelis and internationals joined the  
Palestinians on guard, and sat talking and exchanging views and anecdotes 
nearly the whole night through.

The morning, after a fortunately uneventful night, brought 
reinforcements. Meretz activist Latif Dori arrived from Tel-Aviv, as well 
as a group of Italians who soon embarked on a recital of partisan songs. 
(On the Israeli radio news magazine Likud Knesset Member Ehud Yatom 
complained: "I stayed awake the whole night and listened to the news 
expecting to hear of the expuslion of Arafat. I am terribly disappointed 
it did not happen. And these leftists who provide Arafat with a defensive 
shield, that is terrible, a terrible fissure in Israeli society.")

More Palestinians - not from the compound's staff - found their way to 
the Muqata'a. Ruwaida, a Ramallah boutique owner, came especially to 
distribute to the Israelis her own poem in Hebrew translation, a 
heartfelt appeal from a Palestinian mother to an Israeli mother. "I 
always give this to soldiers in checkpoints; these boys are already 
greeting me as 'Mom'."

At noon, there was a meeting with President Arafat and Prime Minister 
designate Ahmed Qurei, followed by a well-attended joint press 
conference. Both Palestinian leaders sharply condemned the suicide 
bombing as a crime also against the Palestinian people. 
Latif Dori emphasized that he had come to show that not all Israelis are 
taken in by the demagoguery of one who refuses to make peace and builds 
settlements instead.
Uri Avnery denounced the outrage in Haifa: "Whoever sent that young woman 
to kill 19 innocent people must have wanted to put the entire region on 
fire - by way of providing Sharon with a pretext for targeting Arafat."
ISM coordinator Huwaida Arraf explained that the internationals felt they 
were there instead of the UN peace forces which should have long ago been 
sent to protect the Palestinian people.

The Israeli and international human shielders decided to stay on in the 
compound throughout Yom Kippur, a time when there is a complete Israeli 
media blackout, which in the past was more than once the occasion of 
nasty surprises.

--
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