bizzabt (fwd)

FYI.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 12:52:06 -0500 (EST)
From: Rima Najjar Kapitan <rkapitan@indiana.edu>
To: Undisclosed recipients:  ;
Subject: bizzabt (fwd)

Here's another one from my friend Cathal, who is now in the village of 
Birzeit in the Occupied West Bank, among other places.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2000 16:04:50 GMT
From: mansoub baghazzi <mansoub@hotmail.com>
Subject: bizzabt

Well,

Things seem to be hotting up after a few relatively quiet weeks. The 
Israelis assassinated a Fatah commander near Bethlehem on
Thursday and in the process 'unavoidably' killed 2 middle aged women in the 
process.  There's a meeting in the church in Bir Zeit this evening (sunday) 
featuring Marwan Barghouti, and there's a worry that he'll be the next 
victim so there are loads of police around.  The electricity went - again- 
for about 10 minutes , which added to the ambience.

Ramallah was totally shut off on Friday night , no taxis in or out.  The new 
checkpoint at Semiramis(?) between Ramallah and Jerusalem is operational 
most of the time so we end up taking the scenic route along the dust roads 
which are back to being nice and dusty after the recent muddy spell 
following the rain we had, which by the way caused a nice sprouting of 
grass. You could almost be in Ireland.

Qalandia is dangerous enough and you never know when the soldiers will take 
a pot shot at your taxi.

I was in Jerusalem on Friday and you wouldn't believe the number of ISraeli 
police on the streets around Damascus Gate. They have beefed up their 
presence considerably in the last few weeks.

anyway today we went into Al Qudsi again , this time for a rally of the West 
Bank international community.  It was a fairly spontaneous thing but there 
were well over 100 particiapnts.  We marched , with our banners (featuring 
the debut of "settlers are not kosher"), from the Ambassador hotel to UNDP 
offices, where we had the good fortune to run into Mary Robinson, UN human 
Rights commissioner. She gave 7 of us 5 minutes of her time and we presented 
her with a petition and our 10 major grievances about the situation. She 
didn't really say much- basically in as many words she said that the US veto 
over the UN determines the non-implementation of the various declarations.  
she's supposed to be neutral and so can't overstep the protocol of equating 
the strength of Israel with that of the Palestinians. Which basically is to 
say that she's hamstrung. so don't expect anything from her.  Don't expect 
anything from the negotiations either. The problem is America.  Israel does 
whatever it wants and america provides the cover.

We might have another rally.  I'd like to bring it to West Jerusalem.

Went along to a meeting organised by the Jerusalem post, given by one of 
their top rabbi columnists, Berel Wein, on 'Is this the final struggle'.  
Plenty of quotes from the Torah.  The message from the other side is it's 
them or us so we might as well shoot them before they shoot us. Remember - 
never trust a gentile was the message of the meeting.  It's the 10th 
anniversary of the death of Meir Kahane and lots of people are saying 'he 
was right' .  He was very right wing anyway.

The church is now playing 'the Bells of the Angelus'.  It's a nice change 
from Fairuz, much and all as I love her.

Walla.

Cathal


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