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GUIDLINES FOR THE USE OF REPORTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE OBSERVER:

1) The reports and contributions from the observer are only used for　limited circulation: it will be distributed by Emile to a limited group　of people (see distribution list of this e-mail).

2) You, the people receiving these reports, are fully independent and　autonomous in the use of whatever the observer produces. You can use　everything or part of reports or nothing, and for whatever purpose you　consider appropriate.

3) At the same time, you, the people receiving these reports, are　responsible for how you use the texts and to whom to distribute it in　your YMCA/YWCA.

4) You are free to approach the observer directly if you need specific
　information on any topic the observer could assist you.

Report #1　　April 2, 2001

“Our Dreams have vanished in the air just like the smoke of a cigarette”. (1)

There is agreement in the appreciation of the actual situation: during the last few weeks it has considerably changed for the worse. Israel is confronted by a wave of bomb attacks, such as it “has not seen for the last five years”.(1)  For weeks the population in the West Bank and Gaza have been suffering from the effects of closures and siege. Reverend Riah, Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Jerusalem, and President of the YMCA East Jerusalem describes this in the following words: “The situation continues to deteriorate, day by day. The atrocities and disregard for the sanctity of human life mount in both number and severity.”(2)  Since last September, “at least 373 Palestinians have been killed. Israeli officials say that 69 Israeli Jews, 13 Israeli Arabs and a German have also died during that period.”(3)  This has caused enormous pain for every family, who lost one or more of their members.

Work carried out by the YMCA and YWCA in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is directly affected by the ongoing situation. For example, the journey to school for the students of the Vocational Training Programs of the YWCA in East Jerusalem has turned into an extremely risky and humiliating undertaking. Every day, many of them try to reach Jerusalem through long, circuitous routes through side streets, yet still they are confronted with dangers. Often, regular attendance of the lessons is no longer possible. The students report that they are suffering from problems related to insomnia, anxiety and concentration. Since the beginning of the new school year in September, 37 of the total 160 students have had to stop their vocational training. (4)

Since the start of the second Intifada, a large number of YMCA and YWCA collaborators have become victims of the violence. Jihan Nazzal, staff of the YMCA Rehabilitation Programs in Beit Sahour, experienced since last October - one month after the birth of her first baby - how “my dreams have vanished in the air just like the smoke of a cigarette”. The rented apartment of the young family has been exposed to firing from the Gilo settlement. The dramatic hours, during which they had to abandon their apartment, looking for protection and waiting for help, made a serious impact on them. Since then, Jihan can no longer nurse her child. Also she suffers from stomach ache and anxiety. Her baby struggles with severe ear ache and screaming cramps. The next trauma she experienced on February 18: their new house, for which they have been saving since their wedding three years ago and which was ready to move into this spring, has been heavily damaged by missiles, so that it has to be torn down and rebuilt. For the moment, the young family is sharing a rented apartment with Jihan’s parents and son-in-law, who also had to flee their house. Jihan explains that for her father-in-law, this situation is experienced as a saddening indignity, and he spends a lot of time crying. Also for Jihan, her world has collapsed. She appeals to the right of every family to have a life in its own place and talks about a crime against humanity. (5)

A short investigation on the spot in the neighbourhood where Jihan's destroyed house is located, proves that just in this section of the town, several dozen families have sufferered a similar fate.

Fuad Farrah, Chairman of YMCA Nazareth, is very concerned by the actual situation, but holds strong: “One day, we are going to meet. I believe in coexistence.” He sees the YMCA and YWCA in these times as a “Bridge of Understanding”. He believes that the international YMCA and YWCA have to assume “a stand for human rights and the dignity of human beings”.(6)  Rizek Abusharr, Director General of the International YMCA of West Jerusalem, urges to act in a very “sensible and sensitive” manner in this work.(7)  One of his board members asserts that “in view of the complexity of the issue, the international YMCA/YWCA Movement should not interfere in political matters.”(8)

Sources:

1.     Ha’aretz, Thursday, March 29, 2001, p.9.

2.     Extract from a personal talk with Reverend Riah, Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Jerusalem, held on 24 March 2001 in East Jerusalem.

3.     Quoted from “Arafat vows continued uprising against Israel”, from: www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/03/29/mideast.violence.01/.

4.     According to statements of R, student, 17 years old, from Aram, and Nadia Theodoire, Directress of the YWCA Vocational Training Centre, East Jerusalem, held on 29 March 2001 in East Jerusalem.

5.     Extract from a personal talk with Jihan Nazzal, Administrative Assistant, YMCA Rehabilitation Program, Beit Sahour, held on 27 March 2001 in Beit Sahour.

6.     Extract from a personal talk with Fuad Farrah, Director YMCA Nazareth, held on 28 March 2001 in Nazareth.

7.     Extract from a personal talk with Rizek Abusharr, Director General of the International YMCA of West Jerusalem, held on 23 March 2001 in Jerusalem.

8.    Extract from a personal talk with Mrs. Ruth Harris, Member of the Board of the International YMCA of West Jerusalem, held on 29 March 2001 in Jerusalem.

Report #2　　April 5, 2001

”I insist, we have to work, whatever happens”

Some glimpses from meeting people during the last few days:

Friday: The General Secretary of the YWCA of Palestine, Abla Nassir, took a crying staff member in her arms - her apartment has been demolished during bombing by the Israeli Air Force on Ramallah. She is frustrated about the way CNN reports this occurrence. ”The whole world is against us, nobody is helping us. They think we are a people of terrorists.”

Saturday: In the YWCA Kindergarten in the refugee camp of Jalazon, 120 boys and girls aged 5 ? 7 are receiving classes in three school rooms. In the group of Najla, the teacher, there are Reham (5) and Musa (7), brother and sister. Their 19-year old brother Rami, who was also a YWCA kindergarten student 12 years ago, lies in his bed at home, cross-section paralysed. During the first days of the Intifada, with many other youths, he threw stones at Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint near the City Inn Hotel in the north of Ramallah. They responded with heavy munition. ”I took a rest and wanted to get up again,” he explained. The bullet, which hit him at that moment, penetrated his body from the neck all the way down to his buttocks, and seriously damaged his spine. 

Sunday: The 65-year old father of a director of the YMCA Rehabilitation Programme in Beit Sahour is seated in the living room of his son's family, and cries: ”Can you imagine, you have to watch how they take your son into custody. My heart broke in two pieces.” Late Friday night, Rassim Obedat was arrested in his house by the Israeli Secret Service and taken to prison.

Monday: Ismael Hamdan, responsible for the YMCA Vocational Training Centre in Jericho, tried to reach his working place early in the morning as usual, coming from his home in Jerusalem. At the checkpoint just before Jericho, he was, as several times before, rejected by Israeli soldiers without any explanation. After that, the soldiers allowed through the staff of the Casino, and when Ismael asked them for the reason, the answer was: ”Casino yes, YMCA no.” Ismael tried again on Tuesday, but was once more rejected. Also, waiting for several hours at the checkpoint didn't help. No reasons for refusing passage were given.

Tuesday: During a phone call, Abu Isa, the President of YMCA Gaza, apologised for not being able to receive me because he couldn't guarantee my security. He explained: ”A year ago, I showed you the different sectors of Gaza City and we drove together to the south of Gaza. But now you wouldn't recognize those places any more. Everything is changed. Everything is completely closed. We are under army rule. There are marines and helicopters all over.” Afterwards, a few minutes later, he said to one side: ”There is no hope, there is no control,” but also: ”We are accustomed. We can face every situation. We have to accept. Every morning, I am at the YMCA at 6:30, observing the coming of the children [of the Kindergarten]. The boys are playing basketball. I insist, we have to work, whatever happens.”

Abdessaalem Najjir, responsible for Public Relations of the widely known Israeli Peace Project Neve Shalom, affirms in a conversation that the work carried out by the YMCA and YWCA in the Occupied Territories is essential, as it brings empowerment. Reporting on the difficult situation in the Occupied Territories is an important contribution. ”Trying to help one of the sides doesn't at all mean being against the other side.”

The final part of an article by the renowned Swiss journal ”NZZ” on the increasing hardening of the fronts between Israelis and Arabs, is worrying: ”The suffering of the Palestinian people, whose mainspring is more and more strangled, will probably increase, but - at least for a certain period - also their desperate will for resistance.”  Unlike in other news reports, the journal recognizes that here, a whole population of 4 million people suffer collective punishment and run the gauntlet in daily activities, such as, for example, going to school, going to work, or trying to spend a free day together as a family.

For me, the Intifada appears as a strong movement of people affected, fighting against these obstacles. The YMCA and YWCA are in the midst of all this, and their work and their staff are affected in the same way.

Non-violent and creative: on Monday evening, the YWCA hold a piano concert in its big hall within the framework of ”Second Intifada Cultural Series”. The event had a large attendance.

for internal use only

By Markus Marti, International YMCA/YWCA Observer in Palestine;  April 5, 2001
for further information please contact:
Emile Stricker, HorYzon


Report #3　
From: Al Ayam (Jerusalem based newspaper in Arabic)
April 27, 2001

A detainee from ?Jabal Al Mukaber"  was subjected to sever investigation in ?Al Maskoubieh" (Police head quarters in East Jerusalem)

Human rights associations confirmed that  Rassim Obeidat,(41 years old) living in the village of ?Jabal Al Mukaber", district of Jerusalem, is subjected to continuos and very sever investigation from the ?Shabak" the Israeli security service, since his detention on the 31st of March.

?Nadi Al Aseer" (?Prisoners club", Palestinian Human Rights Organisation ), said that they had information about Obeidat’s health condition which is deteriorating due to constant torture.  Obeidat was taken to ‘Hadasa" hospital twice after he was subjected to continuous hanging, with his eyes blind folded not sleeping for days and with no food,  in addition, he was beaten and isolated form the outside world, his layer was not allowed to visit him neither any of the human rights associations.

The Israeli intelligence service, targets to force a confession from Obeidat who is accused of being a member in  ? Aljabha" (PFLP, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) and of resisting the occupation. Obeidat, who works in the field of the psychosocial concealing and social services at the YMCA in Beit Sahour, denies these accusations and consider them not　true.  The ?Al Aseer Club" appealed to Human rights associations to quickly intervene in order to save the life of the prisoner Obeidat and work on freeing him.

It is worth mentioning that a number of residence from ‘Jabal Al Mukaber" and ?Ras Al Amoud" have been detained and subjected to provocative house search.

                                                                                               
Report #4　　May 2, 2001

Harassment of YMCA workers at Jericho Checkpoint

On the afternoon of April 30th, at the Jericho checkpoint, four YMCA workers were requested by Israeli soldiers to clean the road in front of the checkpoint. They were told that if they did not do this they would not get back their identity cards and would be refused passage to Jericho where they lived. One of YMCA workers who was involved reported this incident on May 2 at the YMCA of Jericho with these words (1):

"The four of us were sitting in a taxi-bus that took us back from Ramallah to Jericho. At the checkpoint before Jericho a young soldier asked for our identity cards. He took them with him and ordered us to step out of the taxi-bus. After the taxi-bus passed the checkpoint without us, the soldier ordered us to clean the road in front of the checkpoint. We told him that we had not thrown anything on the street and that we had not done anything wrong. But the soldier insisted and stated that we would not get back our identity cards until the road had been cleaned. Despite the fact that we had already experienced many things at this checkpoint, we were surprised and tongue-tied. However, we refused to clean the road. During the time that they refused us passage, we repeatedly asked the soldiers why we should do this and why they had selected us. They gave us no answers, but only said: "You know what you have to do!" The situation was very frustrating. But we did not give in, and continued to wait. Finally, after almost two hours, it seemed that the soldiers received a phone order by their supervisor to let us finally pass.

As the taxi-bus had left long ago, we had to continue to Jericho by foot. We would have liked to stop a taxi, but the soldiers did not let cars pass for quite some time after we had left. We felt that they did that on purpose, in order to make us walk in the afternoon heat. This was just another example of degrading treatment by the soldiers, one of many during the past months. Certainly this has nothing to do with "procuring security". They just play with us."

(1) Three of the four YMCA workers involved were present at this dialogue with Markus Marti, the International YMCA/YWCA Observer. The names of the YMCA workers are known to the Observer.

- for internal use only ?

By Markus Marti, International YMCA/YWCA Observer in Palestine - 2 May 2001
for further information please contact:
Emile Stricker, HorYzon

Report #5　　May 8, 2001

5th contribution from the international YMCA/YWCA Observer

Good things don't last even for half a day

Last Saturday, the Jericho YWCA celebrated the official opening of a new point of sale for “Jericho Products”, part of its new job creation project. This emergency project, developed and implemented on short notice at the beginning of this year, creates jobs and income for 15 women, who had lost their employment due to the Intifada. In these times of economic crumble in Jericho, this initiative is unique and well perceived. The Mayer and church officials were present, as well as World YWCA President Jane Wolfe. She reached Jericho, which should only be a 30-minute trip from Jerusalem, after a two-hour ride over rocky back roads and through rough areas. She was accompanied by the General Secretary of the YWCA Palestine, who can only reach the project this way. As a Palestinian living in Ramallah, the Israeli Army refuses her entry even to neighbouring Jericho.

During the opening speeches, the bombarding of the Palestinain police headquarters about one km away could easily be heard. But the Israeli attacks with tank bombs from the nearby Mount Temptation were completely unexpected, as there had not been any shooting before. Several persons were injured, and the damage to houses was considerable. Fearing further bombardment, the YWCA Kindergarten in the refugee camp Aqabat Jaber was evacuated immediately.

Although many people had to leave the YWCA celebration in the middle to look after their families, the YWCA leaders were still proud of this achievement. It symbolized their commitment to pursue their work and to hold fast, whatever might happen.

This is what went through the mind of Samia Khoury, member of YWCA Palestine National Executive Committee, after this experience: "How ironic that the whole peace process started with 'Jericho and Gaza first', and now these two areas are out of bounds for us as Jerusalemites. I could not believe it when the Jericho YWCA invited us to attend their bazaar that we actually needed permits. So we sent in our names and ID card numbers. But as we were getting ready to take a taxi from the YWCA of Jerusalem, we received a telephone call from Jericho telling us that all permits had been cancelled. They advised us to come through “Wadi El Qilt”, a rough and narrow road. The World YWCA president Jane Wolfe was with us as we had all just come back from the regional meeting of the YWCA of the Middle East held in Amman, Jordan. I assure you the crossing of the bridge was much smoother than our trip to Jericho. We had to get out of the car twice as the driver struggled to ge the car up a very steep and bumpy road. As we were finally getting into Jericho, the driver made it clear to us that it will not be possible to go back the same way because the car will not make it going back up hill. But with the excitement of seeing so many of our old friends in Jericho, and the lovely display of the food products, embroidery and other items we simply put the worry about the return trip to Jerusalem behind us. It was wonderful to see all the community of Jericho involved and supportive of the YWCA. But as usual we are not privileged to have good things last for the rest of the day, or even for half of the day. Shortly after the opening of the bazaar, we got word that the Israelis were shelling the headquarters of the Palestinian Security Forces in Jericho. I thought to myself, “Never a dull moment.” It is at times like these that one cannot help but reflect on the effects of that fake peace process. All of a sudden the words of Lord Chesterfield to his son hit me: “Approfondissez”, go to the bottom of things. Anything half done, or half known, is neither done nor known at all. It is even worse, for it often misleads. And that is why I wondered whether we were not better off with the occupation than half a liberation.

At least we were one entity, and we did not need permits nor have to wait for hours to cross checkpoints. As much as we had hoped that the peace process will truly liberate us, because it was half done, and not thoroughly or completely done, we ended up being hostages of a process that brought neither liberation, nor security to the region.

Irrespective of my reflections we now had to think of going back to Jerusalem. Going through the checkpoint would raise the question of how we got in. The story of Joyce Nasir with two of her friends just days before was still fresh in our minds. When they were denied entry to Jericho they went through the same rough road of Wadi El?Qilt which we took, but came out the regular way through the checkpoint. Because they had entered illegally, their ID card numbers were registered on a black list, and they were told that they would not be allowed in again. And this is an area which is supposedly liberated!! Well, we did not take our chances, so we had to look for an alternative, and we found a way out, through a dirt road “El Oujah” which eventually connected to the main road without having to go through a checkpoint. Safe at last but drained to even enjoy the lovely things which we bought in the YWCA of Jericho."

On picture you find: Jane Wolfe (right), Samia Khoury (second on the right) and Abla Nasir (left) on the way to Jericho.

Source: Reported on the basis of the personal impressions by the observer participating at the YWCA celebration in Jericho on Saturday, May 5, as well as reported to the observer and written by Samia Khoury herself.

- for internal use only ?

 By Markus Marti, International YMCA/YWCA Observer / Jerusalem, 8 May 2001
for further information please contact:
Emile Stricker, HorYzon


　　　　　　　　　 　　　　　　　　


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