{"id":1447,"date":"2003-03-17T19:32:07","date_gmt":"2003-03-17T19:32:07","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2003-03-17T19:32:07","modified_gmt":"2003-03-17T19:32:07","slug":"brev-fra-draebt-fredsvagt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.danpal.dk\/?p=1447","title":{"rendered":"brev fra dr\u00e6bt fredsvagt"},"content":{"rendered":"
Rachel Corrie, Gush Shalom<\/div>\n

Excerpts from an e-mail from Rachel on February 7, 2003.<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n

I have been in Palestine for two weeks and one hour now, and I still have <\/p>\n

very few words to describe what I see. It is most difficult for me to think <\/p>\n

about what’s going on here when I sit down to write back to the United <\/p>\n

States–something about the virtual portal into luxury. I don’t know if <\/p>\n

many of the children here have ever existed without tank-shell holes in <\/p>\n

their walls and the towers of an occupying army surveying them <\/p>\n

constantly from the near horizons. I think, although I’m not entirely sure, <\/p>\n

that even the smallest of these children understand that life is not like <\/p>\n

this everywhere. An eight-year-old was shot and killed by an Israeli tank <\/p>\n

two days before I got here, and many of the children murmur his name to <\/p>\n

me, “Ali”–or point at the posters of him on the walls. The children also <\/p>\n

love to get me to practice my limited Arabic by asking me “Kaif Sharon?” <\/p>\n

“Kaif Bush?” and they laugh when I say “Bush Majnoon” “Sharon <\/p>\n

Majnoon” back in my limited Arabic. (How is Sharon? How is Bush? <\/p>\n

Bush is crazy. Sharon is crazy.) Of course this isn’t quite what I <\/p>\n

believe, and some of the adults who have the English correct me: Bush <\/p>\n

mish Majnoon… Bush is a businessman. Today I tried to learn to say <\/p>\n

“Bush is a tool”, but I don’t think it translated quite right. But anyway, <\/p>\n

there are eight-year-olds here much more aware of the workings of the <\/p>\n

global power structure than I was just a few years ago–at least regarding <\/p>\n

Israel.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, I think about the fact that no amount of reading, <\/p>\n

attendance at conferences, documentary viewing and word of mouth <\/p>\n

could have prepared me for the reality of the situation here. You just <\/p>\n

can’t imagine it unless you see it, and even then you are always well <\/p>\n

aware that your experience is not at all the reality: what with the <\/p>\n

difficulties the Israeli Army would face if they shot an unarmed US <\/p>\n

citizen, and with the fact that I have money to buy water when the army <\/p>\n

destroys wells, and, of course, the fact that I have the option of leaving. <\/p>\n

Nobody in my family has been shot, driving in their car, by a rocket <\/p>\n

launcher from a tower at the end of a major street in my hometown. I <\/p>\n

have a home. I am allowed to go see the ocean. Ostensibly it is still <\/p>\n

quite difficult for me to be held for months or years on end without a trial <\/p>\n

(this because I am a white US citizen, as opposed to so many others). <\/p>\n

When I leave for school or work I can be relatively certain that there will <\/p>\n

not be a heavily armed soldier waiting half way between Mud Bay and <\/p>\n

downtown Olympia at a checkpoint-a soldier with the power to decide <\/p>\n

whether I can go about my business, and whether I can get home again <\/p>\n

when I’m done. So, if I feel outrage at arriving and entering briefly and <\/p>\n

incompletely into the world in which these children exist, I wonder <\/p>\n

conversely about how it would be for them to arrive in my world. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

They know that children in the United States don’t usually have their <\/p>\n

parents shot and they know they sometimes get to see the ocean. But <\/p>\n

once you have seen the ocean and lived in a silent place, where water is <\/p>\n

taken for granted and not stolen in the night by bulldozers, and once you <\/p>\n

have spent an evening when you haven’t wondered if the walls of your <\/p>\n

home might suddenly fall inward waking you from your sleep, and once <\/p>\n

you’ve met people who have never lost anyone– once you have <\/p>\n

experienced the reality of a world that isn’t surrounded by murderous <\/p>\n

towers, tanks, armed “settlements” and now a giant metal wall, I wonder <\/p>\n

if you can forgive the world for all the years of your childhood spent <\/p>\n

existing–just existing–in resistance to the constant stranglehold of the <\/p>\n

world’s fourth largest military–backed by the world’s only superpower–in <\/p>\n

it’s attempt to erase you from your home. That is something I wonder <\/p>\n

about these children. I wonder what would happen if they really knew.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

As an afterthought to all this rambling, I am in Rafah, a city of about <\/p>\n

140,000 people, approximately 60 percent of whom are refugees–many <\/p>\n

of whom are twice or three times refugees. Rafah existed prior to 1948, <\/p>\n

but most of the people here are themselves or are descendants of people <\/p>\n

who were relocated here from their homes in historic Palestine–now <\/p>\n

Israel. Rafah was split in half when the Sinai returned to Egypt. <\/p>\n

Currently, the Israeli army is building a fourteen-meter-high wall between <\/p>\n

Rafah in Palestine and the border, carving a no-mans land from the <\/p>\n

houses along the border. Six hundred and two homes have been <\/p>\n

completely bulldozed according to the Rafah Popular Refugee <\/p>\n

Committee. The number of homes that have been partially destroyed is <\/p>\n

greater.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Today as I walked on top of the rubble where homes once stood, <\/p>\n

Egyptian soldiers called to me from the other side of the border, “Go! <\/p>\n

Go!” because a tank was coming. Followed by waving and “what’s your <\/p>\n

name?”. There is something disturbing about this friendly curiosity. It <\/p>\n

reminded me of how much, to some degree, we are all kids curious <\/p>\n

about other kids: Egyptian kids shouting at strange women wandering <\/p>\n

into the path of tanks. Palestinian kids shot from the tanks when they <\/p>\n

peak out from behind walls to see what’s going on. International kids <\/p>\n

standing in front of tanks with banners. Israeli kids in the tanks <\/p>\n

anonymously, occasionally shouting– and also occasionally waving–<\/p>\n

many forced to be here, many just aggressive, shooting into the houses <\/p>\n

as we wander away.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In addition to the constant presence of tanks along the border and in the <\/p>\n

western region between Rafah and settlements along the coast, there are <\/p>\n

more IDF towers here than I can count–along the horizon,at the end of <\/p>\n

streets. Some just army green metal. Others these strange spiral <\/p>\n

staircases draped in some kind of netting to make the activity within <\/p>\n

anonymous. Some hidden,just beneath the horizon of buildings. A new <\/p>\n

one went up the other day in the time it took us to do laundry and to <\/p>\n

cross town twice to hang banners. Despite the fact that some of the <\/p>\n

areas nearest the border are the original Rafah with families who have <\/p>\n

lived on this land for at least a century, only the 1948 camps in the <\/p>\n

center of the city are Palestinian controlled areas under Oslo. But as far <\/p>\n

as I can tell, there are few if any places that are not within the sights of <\/p>\n

some tower or another. Certainly there is no place invulnerable to <\/p>\n

apache helicopters or to the cameras of invisible drones we hear buzzing <\/p>\n

over the city for hours at a time.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

I’ve been having trouble accessing news about the outside world here, but <\/p>\n

I hear an escalation of war on Iraq is inevitable. There is a great deal of <\/p>\n

concern here about the “reoccupation of Gaza.” Gaza is reoccupied <\/p>\n

every day to various extents, but I think the fear is that the tanks will <\/p>\n

enter all the streets and remain here, instead of entering some of the <\/p>\n

streets and then withdrawing after some hours or days to observe and <\/p>\n

shoot from the edges of the communities. If people aren’t already <\/p>\n

thinking about the consequences of this war for the people of the entire <\/p>\n

region then I hope they will start. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

I also hope you’ll come here. We’ve been wavering between five and six <\/p>\n

internationals. The neighborhoods that have asked us for some form of <\/p>\n

presence are Yibna, Tel El Sultan, Hi Salam, Brazil, Block J, Zorob, and <\/p>\n

Block O. There is also need for constant night-time presence at a well <\/p>\n

on the outskirts of Rafah since the Israeli army destroyed the two <\/p>\n

largest wells. According to the municipal water office the wells <\/p>\n

destroyed last week provided half of Rafah’s water supply. Many of the <\/p>\n

communities have requested internationals to be present at night to <\/p>\n

attempt to shield houses from further demolition. After about ten p.m. it <\/p>\n

is very difficult to move at night because the Israeli army treats anyone in <\/p>\n

the streets as resistance and shoots at them. So clearly we are too few.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

I continue to believe that my home, Olympia, could gain a lot and offer a <\/p>\n

lot by deciding to make a commitment to Rafah in the form of a sister-<\/p>\n

community relationship. Some teachers and children’s groups have <\/p>\n

expressed interest in e-mail exchanges, but this is only the tip of the <\/p>\n

iceberg of solidarity work that might be done. Many people want their <\/p>\n

voices to be heard, and I think we need to use some of our privilege as <\/p>\n

internationals to get those voices heard directly in the US, rather than <\/p>\n

through the filter of well-meaning internationals such as myself. I am just <\/p>\n

beginning to learn, from what I expect to be a very intense tutelage, <\/p>\n

about the ability of people to organize against all odds, and to resist <\/p>\n

against all odds. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rachel Corrie, USA, som 16\/3 blev k\u00f8rt over af en israelsk bulldozer skrev tidligere under sit ophold til sine for\u00e6ldre om sine indtryk L\u00e6s resten →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[201,69,203,202],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.danpal.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.danpal.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.danpal.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.danpal.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.danpal.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.danpal.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.danpal.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.danpal.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.danpal.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}