The men played soccer today, and the kids played tag.. I was one of the kids, which was itself quite fun : ) They loved that we (the internationals) were there.. It was a little bit about salvation, and it was a little bit about a tradition we were going to start: the post-curfew game playing.. The kids screamed with glee as we hoisted them into the air and took them back to "base" in our games of tag, or as we found them in our games of hide and seek.. I regained my childhood, and they regained theirs..
The kids played extra hard today, and so did we. Bassam Al-Saadi was shot in the heart hours earlier. Who knows how quickly he died. The Israeli army had been driving through declaring curfew, and thought they'd remind everybody of their "shoot to kill" policy.. Some people say there was a flurry of bullets.. some people say there were only two.. Regardless, the end result is undisputed: Bassam is dead, and Fidaa has had some of his lower left leg blown off..
I met Bassam yesterday while I was walking through the camp.. He was a happy kid of seven years of age who had several sisters and brothers, and was neither the oldest nor the youngest. His time of death was shortly after 3pm, which was when the curfew was declared. We saw him at the hospital not half an hour later. As we were leaving the hospital to file a report, we heard one international say something to the effect of how she felt that we (the internationals) could have prevented this.. Who knows if we could have, but the wheels started churning.. How can we preempt these things from happening?
While I was pondering how, my brother (by this point quite emotional about the event) walked over to where two tanks were following an ambulance and stopped the tanks.. "Are you the one who shot the kid? Do you know that he was seven years old, and now he's dead?" He ranted for a while, as though one can instill morality into people who have just shot a kid.. Maybe he was the first bit of cold water they had experienced. Maybe not.. Who knows, but it was probably the right thing to do.. To show my brother what they thought of his little rant, the tank proceeded to blow a little smoke and then take down an electricity pole. Some genius had put the three hospitals on the same transformer, perhaps never considering that the electric poles would be playthings for tanks. When this tank took it down, two of the three hospitals of Jenin went onto their backup generators.. They learned him.. They learned us all..
The next few hours were a daze. Somewhere within them, I ended up with pictures of the dead boy.. pictures that I dare not view again.. and hours after that, we ended up playing soccer and tag..
I love kids. There is this innocence about them that shines through virtually every situation and action.. What they gave to me was a bit of that innocence.. What they gave to each other was a little bit of peace.. a little bit of safety..
The Israelis must have replaced the soldiers patrolling Jenin. These guys didn't follow the same M/O at all.. In the middle of our game, the tanks started to roll. It did not take long for us to get the kids out of harm's way, but they kept peeking out, as though peeking was not enough to get them killed.. They are usually so strong, but when the tank is in front of them, they are as afraid as anybody. They know what it will do.. They know.. I saw the looks of fear in the eyes of the children around me [video 1]. I saw the tanks stealing back in a moment what two hours of tag had given to them.. that peace, safety and security..
We chased the tank. It was a makeshift application of a policy we had discussed earlier, which was to follow the tanks around whenever they were in the camp. We knew that we had been spotted when one of the tanks started honking its ridiculously tiny horn at us.. You'd think a vehicle like that would have some sort of fear-inducing horn.. no such luck : ) Everywhere we followed the tank, it was shooting.. it shot at more kids by the camp, though it was forced to aim its cannon in the air this time.. then it exited the camp. By this point in our lives, we can generally guess where the tanks are going, and so we intercept the tanks.. It makes the relatively few internationals out here seem like many more.. After the third or fourth time that we intercepted the tank with cameras in hand, they assumed battle formations in an intersection.. This is when one vehicle points in one direction, and another vehicle points in another direction perpendicular to it.. This formation seals off streets and allows for ass-covering.. We figured that the Israelis were going to try to run an arrest operation or something.. Much to our surprise, the tanks wanted us.. As the soldiers approached, they began speaking in Hebrew (many people here say I look "Jewish"). They said something about something.. God knows what.. We insisted that they speak English, and so they did.. "Why are you here?" "Why are YOU here?" "Go away!" "Go away!" "The situation here is dangerous" "It was not dangerous until you came. If you leave it will again not be dangerous". It was great, but when they pointed the machine gun at us, we thought the time for snide comments had passed.. Still, we insisted that the soldiers not approach us or come closer to us. I guess I like my personal space.. One of the soldiers said something into the radio.. I realized at this moment that I was looking at a criminal. Either this guy was the one who shot the kid, or he was there when it happened. Either way, he was a criminal in my eyes.. Not just a guy doing his job.. Not just a soldier following orders.. no.. a criminal. We insisted that we were there for the mutual protection of the Israelis and the Palestinian civilians.. "I want you to kill the terrorists.. I just don't want you to kill any children" one of us said.. PACK PACK PACK.. The approaching APC was firing in the air.. It adjusted its nose to point directly at us, then at the last moment the nose flew upwards as it fired again.
We had made our point and had delayed the patrol.. That was good enough. We backed out gently, ready to run if they would attempt to arrest us.. Slowly we backed off until we finally got out of the way.
Our contributions are not meaningless, but sometimes it is extremely difficult to see that.. As for me, I have decided to stay in Jenin for the rest of my time. I want only to be a thorn in the side of the Israelis.. I want to remind them that they are being watched, and I want to detract them by virtue of my presence. If they shoot another kid, I want to be there to film it.. If they shoot me, I want somebody else to film it happen..
Tomorrow, though, I head to Ramallah (also under siege). I'm going to collect some things and then go to Arroub again to meet my mother, who has come to visit.. In a couple of days, I'll be back.. Here's hoping I'm of some use, and that we can think of something that is pre-emptive, effective, and supported by the Palestinians..
tarek : )