Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

He waited 8 years for this.....

P | 23.07.2003 16:23 | Anti-militarism | Repression

A usual day in Palestine. The occupation continues. The checkpoints remain. Lives are destroyed.

Beit Iba Checkpoint, Nablus, Tuesday 22nd July


Members of the International Solidarity Movement in Nablus were alerted to the detention at Beit Iba checkpoint of 20 Palestinian men by IOF soldiers at 8.30 pm Tuesday evening. The group decided to send a contingent of activists to Beit Iba, situated on the opposite side of Nablus from Balata Refugee Camp, where the ISM activists are stationed.

Taking food, water and cigarettes for the detainees, who had not eaten since morning, the internationals set off to negotiate the release of those being detained with the IOF soldiers. Some went directly to speak with, what were most probably young men 18,19, 20 year old soldiers serving their compulsory military service. Where they received the usual response of “This is a closed military area. Go away!” However, some soldiers were clearly agitated by the arrival of the internationals as they proceeded to yell obscenities at the tops of their voices for all to here.

The internationals gauged from the Palestinians being detained that they had been there from about 2pm that afternoon and with their IDs taken confiscated by the IOF, they had had to stay there. Some wanted to return to their homes in Nablus, others to their villages on the other side. The story of one man, however, highlights the appalling nature of this form of collective punishment. He had been waiting for an operation on his severely burnt arm for 8 years, Tuesday the 22nd July 2003, was going to be the day of his operation, the day he had been waiting for, for years. A surgeon had arrived from abroad to conduct the surgery; this was the day, perhaps the only day. This man was detained at Beit Iba. He missed his surgery. He does not know whether the surgeon is able to stay in Nablus another day to carry out the operation. He does not know whether today, Wednesday he will be allowed to pass the checkpoint. Will he have to wait another 8 years?

It would be nice to be able to say that this is an unfortunate one of incident and that it will never happen again. However, situations similar to this happen all day, everyday in the West Bank, because of the will of the occupier. This will continue to happen until the occupation ends. It is not enough that the IOF has pulled out of Bethlehem. People like the man above still have to wait at the checkpoint there to get to Al-Quds/Jerusalem, for work, for surgery, to visit family. Only a full withdrawal from all territories occupied since 1967 is enough.

Finally those detained were released at 11pm after members of the ISM from Nablus and all over the West Bank had phoned the Nablus District Coordinator of the IOF. However, the down side was – there will always be a down side as long as there is occupation – that many of those detained who wanted to return to their villages, were made to return to Nablus for the night. Where were these people to sleep? At Beit Iba checkpoint with the soldiers? Would they try and go around the checkpoint to their villages in the dead of night and risk getting shot? Or were they to return to Nablus, hopefully to friends or family, or to the streets?

This is Palestine. This is the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine carried out for 36 years in the name of security

P

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech