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Voices from West Bank 2*

Updated: Sep 12

Featuring words directly from West Bank, 5th September, 2024.


On the 11th of August I wrote:


“I wonder now, what is next for Palestine? What is next for what is left? What of West Bank? I urge us not to be too late.”  


Just short of a month later, I write this after daily talks- sometimes as early as 4am-with the artists I work with. During these calls, they listens, with careful alertness to the drones above the house.

 

Al Jazeera have reported that there have been around 50 Israeli air attacks in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza-the majority of them in Tulkarem, Jenin and Nablus. These attacks on the refugee camps have been attempts to locate and assassinate Hammas leaders. However the indiscriminate manner in which these attacks have been orchestrated leave little room for refugees, already displaced to feel safe, or indeed be safe. 


To my mind, it is difficult to accept how such a trained military organisation such as the IDF could be so un-precise in their aim that many civilians are dead or injured.  


To my mind I cannot disconnect the abuses on West Bank and Gaza before the 6th October, before Hammas' awful attack and their taking of hostages from how things are now. For the people living in West Bank, the digging up of roads, the vandalism of homes and shops, the destruction of electricity and water pipes so as to render them useless...is not new. The targeting of families is not new and hasn't been for decades. The displacement on such a scale is. The death toll is. The escalation is.


Whe thinking about the ordinaru civilian small towns such as the towns of Kfar Yona, Kadima Zoran and Anabta which is just over 8km away from Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camp and Jenin is just 7km, can hear the attacks from this distance as constant reminders of iminant danger and escalations.


The attacks on the refugee camp of Nur Shams (outside of Tulkarm), could be heard clearly by my friend and… by me on the other end of the phone. I feel close, frustratingly close to this ‘war’ via the fractured connectivity of social media.


Close but unable to do anything, unable to help in a way that is more tangible than a few words on a digital page. I am told that this connection is motivating to those in towns not yet targetted. And that, then, is something.


The motivation for me is to in some small way try and fill the information void coming out of West Bank and hope to signpost readers to reputable sources.

 

OHCHR ( UN Human Rights Office in Occupied Palestinian Territory) are tasked with data collection relating to humanitarian issues.


Their list of humanitarian concerns is long.


August was a bad month for West Bank.


September looks to get worse. The team at the human rights office generate official updates from the region in their aim to make the hidden visible and communicate the crisis. They are in West Bank on a Wednesday, each week and two days in Gaza. Their August update is a daily chronicle, that is difficult to read as they cite that 607 Palestinians have been killed in West Bank alone since 7th October.

 

 

Events listed (as published) by UN Human Rights Office in Occupied Palestinian Territories:


Israeli airstrikes in the West Bank have killed at least one Palestinian every day, on average. Since 7 October, 128 Palestinians, including 26 children.

Since 7 October, more than 600 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

In just one week, 13-19 August, 45 Palestinians, including 28 children were displaced due to Israeli settler violence and harassment, and the takeover of Palestinian property.

 

 

We hear so much in the ‘West ‘about Gaza and the brutalities rained upon its civilians unwittingly caught in the Israeli / Hammas non-negotiations, but much less so about West Bank. For me, West Bank is where my research is currently based and the reading of updates is hard; as a litany of violence; emotional, physical and mental.


I urge you to consider this list from OHCHR and the writing from West Bank below, without preclusions of judgement on whether it is Hammas or Israel that 'has or has not the right to defend themselves,' for this aspect posits two groups of people that ultimately hide the ordinary individuals caught in the mess. It is political rhetoric that does not disclose the nature of rights when one country has been allowed status and the other hasn't.


It is political rhetoric that does not include the rights of a child to safety, to practice their own culture and religion without fear; the right to identity and a "sufficient standard of living".


I urge you to, for the moment, resist the politics surrounding the powers in play and instead on what is happening to the children; to the mothers; to the fathers who are in fear of both and have no where to go.


It is not a surprise to find out that Unicef critised Israel in 2010 for deciding that the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child did not apply to West Bank and that even though the convention defines a child as a human being under the age of 18 years, Palestinians between 16 years and 18 years were stated by Israel as "not children". Therefore the Convention on the Rights of a Child would not appy to them as it does Israeli children under 18.


In recent weeks it appears that no child, regardless of age is sufficiently protected when living in West Bank or Gaza. The UN Convention states that a chikd has the right to:


  • Relax and play (Article 31)

  • Freedom of expression (Article 13) -

  • Be safe from violence (Article 19)

  • An education (Article 28)

  • Protection of identity (Article 8)

  • Sufficient standard of living (Article 27)

  • Know their rights (Article 42)

  • Health and health services (Article 24)


As we know children have not been safe from violence in Gaza and increasingly West Bank. Health services and access to heath is at critical levels as children starve, are blown up and now suffer an outbreak of Polio due to the conditions being far from sufficent standards of living.

I would also here like to draw attention to the decades of children being dissallowed the use of the Palestinan flag, a strong marker of identity. Never mind the destruction of freedoms of expression.


Being a specialist in working with children, I simply cannot determine any way for any child under 18 or under 16 years to "relax and play" or 'learn" whilst dust from the rubble of their homes covers their faces, hands and necks and mixes in the blood of their identity?

I cannot fathom how a child in these circumstances can "know their rights" when they are shouting into the void and have no way to express them.



For over a week, Israeli forces have been using lethal, war-like tactics across the northern West Bank, deepening people’s humanitarian needs and raising concerns over excessive use of force.


Between 27 August and 2 September, Israeli forces killed 30 Palestinians in the West Bank, including seven children, marking the highest weekly death toll since November 2023.

Four members of the Israeli forces were killed by Palestinians in Hebron and Jenin governorates.


Ten of the Palestinian fatalities were hit by airstrikes. In August, Israeli airstrikes increased sharply, killing 41 Palestinians, representing 44 per cent of the total fatalities (95) from airstrikes in the West Bank in 2024.

Since 7 October 2023, Israeli forces have intensified movement restrictions in the Israeli-controlled area of Hebron city (H2). These restrictions have disrupted access to livelihoods and services for thousands of Palestinians. Furthermore, multiple incidents of detention have taken place at these checkpoints, alongside allegations of sexual harassment.

 

Latest Developments (after 2 September)

On 3 September, initial reports indicate that Israeli forces shot and killed a 16-year-old girl in Kafr Dan, Jenin. Separately, Israeli forces exchanged fire with and killed two Palestinians in Tulkarm.

Humanitarian Developments (27 August - 2 September)

During the reporting period, Israeli forces killed 30 Palestinians, including seven children. Israeli forces and settlers injured 79 Palestinians, including 11 children. This is the highest weekly toll for fatalities since November 2023. During the same period, Palestinians killed four members of the Israeli forces and injured three Israeli soldiers.

Overnight between 27 and 28 August, Israeli forces initiated a wide-scale operation in the northern West Bank, focusing on Jenin, Tulkarm and Tubas. Israeli aerial and ground strikes, exchanges of fire, and detonations of explosive devices have been reported, resulting in mass casualties and the destruction of infrastructure, especially with the use of bulldozers in all governorates. Twenty-seven (27) out of the 30 Palestinian killed during the reporting period were in these operations, including 10 by airstrikes.

 

Whilst I have felt the need to list here official documentation. I insisted in my last blog, that it is the unheard voices of the civilians we need to hear, see and allow to be heard. We must be willing to witness these, for who else will? One of the people I have the privaledgeto cinnect with sent these photos today and with this message:





Some hours later he writes what has been their experience of the past few days. He says that knowing I will publish their writing on my blog is motivating and he thanks you for reading it. Their voice, their writing is below.

 

2 September 2024, Anabta


Y. is back from Tulkarm, he told me: we made it just in time, the army was entering in Tulkarm. You know where the hospital is, they were on this road and we needed to take that road. We could not,  so we took another one to come back. There were many jeeps and bulldozers, a long line of them.

 

[It is] a quiet time around the house, but not knowing what can happen the next moment [is pressure].

For days we know what is happening in Jenin. 70% of the Jenin refugee camp has been evacuated.

 

There is no food, no electricity, no water.

 

An oxygen machine was needed for a child in Jenin. It had to be taken by ambulance from the city of Nablus. The drivers were arrested by the Israeli army and withheld for three hours.

Along with the Oxygen machine they had I the ambulance some of the food that was collected in hope it would pass the Israeli army.

 

The people of Jenin are completely isolated.


I looked at some images of Jenin on the Instagram. There is huge destruction; evacuated people, the shooting and hunting of journalists. They killed an 82-year-old man with dementia, and Gaza Gaza Gaza...  It is really horrible. And slowly I feel this pulling down, this being absorbed by a situation where for the moment we have no power. No one can go to Jenin, no one can go also to Tulkarm again…

 

To see the destruction [where they have dug] up roads so deeply to [purposefully] destroy water pipes [and] electricity lines. They destroy shops… houses… In Jenin the evacuated families walk with a white flag; mothers, children, complete families [all] leaving everything they had behind them, to a future, a future of what…

 

3 September


There are more and more attacks, now also in Tulkarm and Jenin.

Too many people are without food [and] medicines, and no one can help them because they are surrounded by the army and became unreachable.

 

Probably, when it finishes, that means when the Israeli army retires from Jenin I will go there with S.

 

He thinks that after Jenin [they will attack] Tulkarm camp (in Jenin they are also destroying roads outside of the camp). [Next] then probably Nour Shams camp and after we start to think, they will come here and the places around.

 

We live by the hour, by the day. No one is knowing what is going to happen.

 

Nettanyahu yesterday in his speech, showed a map where everything is Israel, no West Bank anymore.[1]

 

Will someone in the world finally say stop. Stop with actions that make that Israel stop all this.

 

 

4 September


It is 5.00 in the morning.

 

Outside a loud zanane (in Palestine this is the name for drones). I went to film the sound. Other times it does not come so near, but now it is so loud.

 

What is happening in Tulkarm?

 

Just before the filming I had to laugh because there came the sound of loud farting out of the window of the toilet of the other room. [Normal life].

Light is coming and birds are singing, [there are] some cats fighting behind the building … and the drone is coming and going.

 

More of us, especially after several declarations of Netanyahu yesterday in a conference, with a map where there was no Westbank anymore, only Israel and the Gaza strip we start to think the worse.

 

People wash themselves to go to pray…

 

Soon some will go to work, daylight is coming...

 

The isolation, it is difficult to go here or there in this moment…

 

I have to take my second passport in Ramallah, but I did not take it until now.

 

I have to buy glasses and some pots and other things for my room but we cannot go...

 

Today two loads of bread, water and milk for babies were gathered here. The first load has been taken by S to Tulkarm. The Israeli army had given two hours for food to come in.

 

The second load came in the evening, and we hope it can be taken to Tulkarm. S. hopes that the trailers refused for Gaza at the Israeli border, will be let in, so they can be used to bring food.

 

Yesterday in the late afternoon, it started again, we heard shooting [and] explosions, and when we hear it like this we know it is in Nour Shams camp, 7 km from here.

 

The drone is again so near.

 

Meanwhile I speak with Y, while I am sitting beside her father. I speak with her, her little daughter, mother and some of her brothers and cousins, more then 30 people are living in one apartment in Deir al Balah.

 

Her little daughter had the polio vaccination today but in the last days [already]started to have the burning spots on her body. This is how many children are covered in Gaza… Because  [they have] no soap [and are] washing with salty water and so on.  We are making fun, speaking about stupid things, all are trying to say something in English even if they don’t know a word… It is like [it is ] for a moment in that house a normal visit…

Her father tells me so many times, that after…when it is all finished [ I should] come to visit them in Gaza. His house is still standing there, but… who knows until when… Houses around them get more and more bombed. But yesterday… for a moment while speaking and laughing, we all forgot the war for a moment. 

 

I hoped she would not hear the drone and the shooting and explosions while we were speaking and laughing. [I hope the drone does not] make her and her family there, to be worried about her father.

 

Later in the night the internet is gone…

 

5th of September


Good morning.

 

No drones, no explosions.

Sometimes when it is quiet like this, it feels suspicious, and you think something will happen soon. When that is not the case it takes me one, two days to believe that it stopped…

 

 


[1] Nettanyahu has been challenged about this and has denied intentionally removing West Bank from the map and discusses that he was highlighting only Gaza due to his concerns there. I an only imagine the alarm that his 'highlighting' did to those in West Bank unable to speak up at the time and defend themselves.

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