Journal Entries from Coloradans in Bethlehem area (agit-prop alert)

American Eyewitnesses to Israeli Invasion of Bethlehem (english) by Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace

1) Easter Sunday, March 31, 2002 by Nancy Stohlman 2) Arriving in Ayida Refugee Camp, March 30, 2002 by Nancy Stohlman 3) Easter Sermon from Bethlehem, March 31, 2002 by Gary Anderson 4) Just Hours Before Israeli Invasion of Bethlehem: Phone Calls to Nancy and Gary, March 31, 2002

1) Easter Sunday by Nancy Stohlman in Ayda Refugee Camp (near Bethlehem) March 31, 2002

Right now Bethlehem is preparing for invasion. Gary and I RAN down the street, into the packed Internet cafe. Tanks are confirmed at the checkpoint, and we believe it is a matter of hours. People on the street are scared, and preparing to hide. Our plan right now is to return to the refugee camps, because we believe that they will be the most vulnerable, and will suffer the worst of the invasion without us there.

Right now you all MUST take action. I don't know if you should take to the streets, start making phone calls, but whatever it is, it must be done right now! We believe that Arafat is down to one wall between him and the armies, and can only guess what that will mean. If Arafat is killed, the sitution here will only get worse.

There was a major demonstration in Washington DC that reached TV all the way over here. It gave ME hope. The occupation is putting the lives of everyone at danger, Palestinian, Israeli, internationals. Speak loudly, whatever you do. Already, CCMEP has been a model of passion and dedication for all the people here. No phone has rung like mine has these last days. I thank you all, and feel so strong with you all behind me. But you must act now. That is all the news I have for now, but here are my journals from the last 24 hours.

We have arrived at Ayida camp. I have been delegated spokesperson, a responsibility I am carrying gravely. I got in a car, and saw the fresh bullethole in the front windshield, level with my chin. Spiderweb glass patterns fan from the vortex of impact, the broken shards still in place.

A sharp inhale from the backseat. I reach my arm behind me, and an anonymous hand grabs mine from the darkness. The headlights whip around the corners of the narrowed, graffitied streets.

"They kill five people today in Ayida camp," the driver continues. I fight the urge to grab his cigarette and smoke it. The hand from the backseat squeezes mine as I stare through the tiny peephole in the windshield in front of me.

The cars escort us to the cultural center of Ayida, a bare, cold room with only a table, chairs, and a marker board. Every Palestinian has a cigarette between his fingers. A man address the group: "I want to say thank you before I say welcome. You do not know how happy we are to have you at Ayida camp. We feel relatively safe after we learn that our European friends are coming."

The group shifts nervously. Four of us are quickly grouped and we scurry down the dark, rubble-filled street. The sky is pink, like Colorado before a snow. The ever-present eyes of the martyrs watch from posters on the walls, their faces carefully taped. I see the first female martyr--head covered with a hijab, baby in her arms.

Underneath the picture are the words "Sharon, when will you stop killing our mothers?"

In the sitting room of our hosts in Ayida refugee camp, the first thing I notice are the bulletholes through the windows. The second thing I notice are the plastic machine guns and hand grenades in the hands of the giggling children of the family. I take a sip of my mint tea, as we all hear automatic weapons.

I gulp my tea even though the heat burns my throat, and we move into the central room, sitting on the floor, away from the windows. I think all four of us internationals hold our breath as the firing continues. It seems so close. Our hosts are cautious but not panicked. Elizabeth begins to cry beside me. I wish I could, but adrenaline is taking over. On the news, we learn of the casualties from the latest bomb in Tel Aviv. The gunshots and automatic rifles feel just outside the window.

Our host passes out individual ashtrays like pitas. I join the smokers because I don't know what else to do. Two of the internationals are only 18. I remind everyone to breathe, and then realize that I'm holding my own breath.

Our host says, "all the time we are afraid. It could be tomorrow." He is 34 years old, just 6 years older than myself. His face is weary with the responsibility of constantly protecting his family, and he seems grateful to smile whenever we can. He tells us of the bedrooms that he built upstairs for his children. "They cannot sleep there," he says, shaking his head. "Because it is unsafe?" We ask. "No, because they were destroyed." "Oh." He promises to show us in the morning, and for a moment all I can see is the sad father, the husband, the provider who cannot build an extension on his house or install new windows because they are immediately destroyed. We are silent for a moment.

"The war is coming," he whispers. In the midst of all the sobriety there is a knocking on the bathroom door. It turns out that Elizabet has accidentally locked herself in the bathroom. Our hosts smile. We smile. Then we all begin laughing. Before I know it I am laughing as hard as I have ever laughed, as if the locked bathroom door is the funniest thing I have ever seen. I know that if I were to stop laughing I would begin to cry.

* Nancy is one of two Coloradans currently in Palestine acting as human shields in the homes of Palestinian Refugee Families awaiting an Israeli military invasion. For more reports from Nancy and Gary go to: www.ccmep.org/palestine.html You can email her in care of: ccmep@hotmail.com

3) Easter Sermon from Bethlehem by Gary Anderson in Bethlehem 2:40pm (Palestine Time) Easter Sunday 31 MAR 02

I took this morning off from our mission and went to the church of the Nativity. Sat quietly in the Grotto said to be the site of the Manger. Spent quiet time mending and healing and withdrawing from the carnage. Leaving the church, I switched on my cell phone in time to get a call from one of our group who was leaving Bethlehem [Palestian authority] and passing through a checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem [Isaeli auhority]. He reported seeing dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers.

People: The Israelis have closed off Bethlehem. Dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers are poised at checkpoimts to move in to Bethlehem after dark tonight. They also have atleast one bulldozer; an operaation like Ramallah may on their mind. We fear for Aida, Al-Azza and Dusheiha camps: tonight we will be staying with families to provide cover.

Please let your media know of this humanitarian disaster. Only a change in US policy can make this bloody Occupation end Please let your elected representatives know that eradication of the Palestinian people is not the only way for Israel to solve the "Palestinian Problem". An autonomous Palestine, reconstructed under a new Marshall Plan could result in an Israel and a Palestine that bought and sold and traded with each other and a high living standard for all.

When I walk through towns in Palestine, people come out and tell what has happened to them atthe handds of the occupying forces. "Last month, This house was destroyed by an F-16; my two neighbors were killed". "Two weeks ago Israeli artillery destroyed my son's house. He and his family moved in with me; do you Americans know what is being done in your name by the Israelis here. Please go back and tell your people what is happening here"

Nancy and I are available for media contact. To get our phone numbers contact (720) 956-0700. We are 9 hours ahead of Colorado, so midnight here is 3 PM Mountain time. Calls after 2 PM will be accepted from the media. We as [email from Gary was cut off here....]

4) Just Hours Before Israeli Invasion of Bethlehem: Phone Calls to Nancy and Gary March 31, 2002

Our conversation was unfortunately brief, and disrupted by a weak signal on the cell phone and disconnections.

Gary sounds in surprisingly good shape, under the circumstances. He sounds calm, relaxed. I don't know him well enough to know if he really is relaxed. I ask him if he was sleeping. No. In fact, he slept for eight hours last night, choosing to take a day off to recover from the tense opening days. Gary is staying with a family in Aida refugee camp. A Californian named Paul is with him. Paul speaks Arabic which has helped conversation, and they pass time with pastries, tea, and "too much cigarrette smoke."

Moments ago, Gary says, one of his hosts saw tanks a couple of hundred yards from their home. A plane flies over. Military? Yes. This reminds him - he asks if I'd heard of this fiasco - the tank action yesterday, botched, in his view, by some Italians delegates and others who he feels acted recklessly. I'd read about it. Gary sounds irritated but remarkably dispassionate as he speculates "that kind of thing will get us all killed." My card tells me I have one minute left. What else? Gary says he is in a room that has a wall blasted out from the last invasion, three weeks ago. Soldiers entered through the hole, teargassed an elderly woman inside, and blasted their way into the next home through an adjoining wall. I ask him if there is anything he wants us to do. He says, "no, we're cool here."

Phone Conversation with Nancy Stohlman, 10pm Palestine Time, Easter Sunday, 2002

I spoke with Nancy for about 30 minutes. Tonight she will again stay in Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, with other internationals who have spread themselves throughout the community as human shields, facing imminent invasion. She got 15 minutes of sleep last night. As our conversation begins, Israeli tanks sit at three entrances to the camp.

Nancy describes the past 24 hours in Aida refugee camp: nightmarish scenes as residents describe past atrocities. Tanks, coming? Long hours of tension filled with tea, pastries, and cigarrettes. "I have been eating" she says, understatedly. A brief game of volleyball in an alley, which Nancy describes as feeling "incredibly good."

Making a list of everyone's blood types. When the tension became intolerable, she went outside to breathe and found herself holding on to a tree, "just to hold on to something." Later, a deaf boy found her staring at a wall of martyr posters, and for 25 minutes, using gestures, described the manner of each of their deaths.

News ciculates - rumors inspiring hope and despair. Of the 33 internationals staying in Arafat's compound, 14 chose to stay, the rest were arrested as the attempted to leave. In this there is the hope, Nancy says, that French anti-globalization activist superstar Jose Bove was among the arrested. His name would give weight to the incident. (I checked and Indymedia Palestine confirms Bove's arrest).

In spite of this being her first time in Palestine, still jet-lagged and exhausted, Nancy often "spokes" for her affinity group of 11 at meetings, and facilitates through chaotic, informal discussions. Discussions which are in fact emergency meetings of life or death importance, - e.g. "what do we do if the soldiers come?"

Nancy seems relieved to hear that her journals are appreciated and widely read, saying "it seems like the only thing I can do."

Right along with the courage, I sense desperation in her voice. Of course, her fate, Gary's fate, and the fates of dozens of internationals are, right now, tied to the Palestinian refugees.

Nancy speaks of what people in other countries can do to "help us" - the internationlals and the refugees. People in Aida, she says, hope that we in the U.S. are taking to the streets, faxing Sharon a thousand faxes, anything that we think would make a difference. To see a demonstration in D.C. on television was a huge relief for them someone is paying attention, someone cares.

At any time, of course, the internationals could leave, and that was, in fact, the only assurance they got when they made calls to the US embassy: "If you're staying in the camp, we can't help you, but let us know if you want to leave."

The debate now raging among int's in the camp is not whether to retreat to the hotel, but whether to remain in Aida or attempt entry into Ramallah, where things are "an inferno." Nancy describes the tremendous self-pressure to go to Ramallah "where we could join others who need us right now." But she knows that Aida will likely be in a similar situation within hours. Two dire, irretrievable situations -- a self-imposed choice between known terror and a pending terror, is what Nancy, Gary, and other internationals are now debating in Aida. "Where can I put my body to make it the most effective? I want to make the maximum difference."

As we finish, the phone cuts out. Somewhere deep in my imagination, I think of tank shells impacting. Suddenly she's back. "What was that?" I ask. "I don't know. I should go, I need to save the batteries. But I don't want to go." She speaks briefly with someone off the line. "The tanks are now coming this way now, I'm very, very nervous."

I wonder why these people from my home state aren't talking to Israeli bombing victims.

Oh, my no! They couldn't possibly say anything about the Israeli bombing victims--they're cheering when one of the freedom fighters becomes a martyr for their cause, and sympathize with the Pal professional victims.

"Internationals" who call the American Embassy when they're in trouble. In other words, Americans who are ashamed to be Americans except when they need Big Daddy to save their bacon. What do you want to bet that they call their parents by their first names except when they need rent money or their laundry cleaned?

a deaf boy found her staring at a wall of martyr posters, and for 25 minutes, using gestures, described the manner of each of their deaths.

"This one killed Jews in a pizza parlor."
"This one killed Jews at a Passover seder."
"This one killed Jews at a bar mitzvah."
"This one killed Jews at a supermarket."
"This one killed Jews at a disco."
"This one blew up at a checkpoint before he could kill Jews."

I guess this "peace activist" doesn't understand "sign language."

Hey Nancy,

DROP DEAD!

Sorry, don't know what got into me ...

Perhaps it's the hypocrisy I see in you activists who think the Palestinians are the poor innocent victims of Israeli oppression. Why don't you go and protect discos, restaurants and pizza joints in Israel from Palestinian suicide bombers?

Freepers, what say we e-mail this gal (ccmep@hotmail.com) and tell her what we really think of her?

Also, holy crapola! Check out the e-mail list on their website! (http://jerusalem.indymedia.org/news/2002/03/1171.php)

I came across this site by pure chance, but it seems to be a goldmine for far-left angst. In fact, if bu11sh!t were people, indymedia.org would be China. In fact, check this out: http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=162038&group=webcast. (Haven't mastered the art of linking yet--will work on it). Can you imagine the hysteria if a conservative site were making these kinds of anti-Semetic insinuations and quoting Joseph Goebbels?

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