occupation kills

Dear Tarek and Tobias,

We hope you are enjoying a well-earned break after everything you have been through.

Everybody in the ISM would like to convey how much we appreciate all your hard work that you have put in over the past year. It has been invaluable in much of the work the movement has been doing.

Unfortunately, we have some bad news. We have been in contact with the ISM's lawyers who have told us that the Israeli state has requested that the court hearing be moved forward as a matter of urgency.

There is only one way to interpret this: the Israeli state knows it is going to win the case. The four lawyers working on the case have therefore unanimously decided to drop your appeal. We have been told that this decision was reached after considering that even if you were to be allowed in the country for the court proceedings, you would have to leave as soon as you lost the case.

I'm back in my London, Ontario home right now, sipping a tall glass of orange juice and ignoring the television beside me. Halfway across the world, a giant wall is being built that has already stolen hundreds of thousands of dunams of land (4 dunams = 1 acre) and will ravage the lives of millions for many years to come. This Apartheid wall is being built on stolen Palestinian land, which encroaches more than 6km from the 1967 Green Line at some points.

When I was in Arrabony, the devastation the wall has inflicted on the lives of the villagers was palatable. Arrabony lies in the outskirts of Jenin, a rustic agriculture-based community close to the border with Israel's green line. It lost 2000 dunams of land to the illegal Israeli occupation, and is now losing 700 of its 3000 remaining dunams of land to the Apartheid wall.

Note: Plain text is the other person, and bold text is my reply.

Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 21:29:35 -0300
Subject: salaam

I hope you get this while it's still relevant. If not, it's still a soothing exercise for me.

DO NOT FIGHT THE DEPORTATION. Their system will not let you win. The sooner you get to Canada the better. Getting home should be your highest priority right now. It'll be no loss to you... you'll become stronger with time, and will be able to help even more.

For my sake, do not tangle yourself in their bureaucracy. Bureaucracy has no conception of time. Don't bother with all the hearings, they're bunk. Accept the deportation. Do what you can to speed it up. You're too weak to stop this train right now, so just get on board.

Hey guys!

Firstly, I want to extend my deep appreciation to everybody who has supported the other prisoners, myself, and the Palestinian people in general. Your thoughts and prayers have not been missed and have been extremely helpful!

The day before yesterday (23rd), we were tried by a judge in a seedy room in Massiyahu (ramle) prison, without the presence of our lawyer. We were denied bail. Yesterday (24th), an appelate court said they found the "trial" disturbing, and (shocker!) gave us bail UNLESS the state appealed by 12pm today and got an injunction. Well, the state appealed, but they didn't get the injunction, and at around 2pm, Tobias (the swede) and myself walked out of Massiyahu (in Ramle). We spent the next few hours trying to get Frederik (Danish) out, since the bail ruling didn't include him (he was to leave for denmark today, but the israelis messed up and he didn't make it to the flight). Finally, at around 8pm, we got to a Rabbi's house, which is the address we had given the court, and where we will stay while on bail.

Tel Aviv -- Rejecting the claims of the Israeli government prosecution, Judge Gabriel Kling ruled yesterday that three international peace activists do not represent a "security risk" to the state of Israel.

Continuing that "to protest is not illegal," Kling's statement appears to set a hopeful precedent in the case of three. Primarily, it allows them to be released on bail, until their next hearing, which will come before the Israeli High Court in October. At that point, the courts will again consider the claim of the Ministry of the Interior that the three represent a security risk and should be deported immediately.

It's so aggravating. OK, so it doesn't make me want to assassinate anybody, but now I see why they maybe did it. In reading JD Salinger's Nine Stories, I have discovered that stories need no ending at all. Salinger sure knows how to start a story. He knows how to rivet a reader (or at least me). But if this man's writing can be compared to the driving of an automobile, he gets into the car, starts it beautifully, navigates a few turns, then smashes (voluntarily) into a wall.

Just read A perfect day for bananafish if you don't believe me! My favourite so far is #8 - Daumier-Smith's Blue Period. A "highly recommended".

We dressed up again today, complete with our Smith and Wesson bracelets and anklets, and we went to court for a bail hearing. Before we even started, we sent away the lawyer who was meant to be our translator - "Don't worry. We know what you'll sa, and 'God' (read: Ministry of Interior) already pre-ordained the decision." I was quite pleased with myself at the comment, and thought that I must write it down when I get back "home".

And then the shocker.

The judge found yesterday's hearing "irregular", and saw our activities as guaranteed rights - nothing for which we should be punished. Bail granted, so long as the prosecution doesn't get an injunction by 12pm tomorrow (a big if; the prosecution is usually able to get said injunction without effort).

Ariel is so beautiful. They finally decided to move us to Massiyahu prison in Ramla. Abu Mohammed heard the guards deliver the news. After 4 months and 25 days, he is still in jail. He congratulated us on the news, then sat at the door of his cell, something I have never seen him or any other prisoner do.

"You'll like it there", he started. His words were to me, but his eyes were in deep examination of one of the tiles on the floor. "It's nice. They let you see the sun." He wasn't talking to me anymore. Just letting words fall out. At that moment, I was convinced that the sun was theirs to give or take away. I forgot that there could be another reality.

A new twist of jurisprudence! Today we had a trial in a 2m x 3m room. I hope I can be forgiven for my ignorance. As I spoke to the woman and refused to answer her questions without the presence of my lawyer, I thought she was part of the bureaucratic machinery of the new prison. She was supportive enough: She allowed us our right of not answering without the presence of a lawyer. Then, after two minutes, the surprise! I am a judge... I decide whether or not you get bail... Menace to society... No reason to believe... bail denied.

beautiful.

tarek
ps. As I was walking out, the judge asked when our court date was.

Maybe this is all the same as death, complete with those five stages. At this point, I am very close to accepting my fate of imminent deportation/death. I know there's so much to do from the outside (of the country), but there was something so beautiful about working in Palestine; about being part of the larger Palestinian resistance.

I know the resistance will continue, and that we must support it from the outside. That knowledge is one of the many things that give me hope. I think I have become one of the "walking dead" that I saw in Palestine - those whose fate was predetermined and were simply awaiting it. I sleep. I eat. I exist in this 3m x 3m cell, awaiting that fate. Have they broken me? Am I broken?