Walking it like you talk it
I found out last week that a friend of mine is in the West Bank, with an international peace group, basically observing what's going on and working for Palestinian rights. I'm in awe of his bravery - he's choosing to put himself in one of the more dangerous parts of the world, in order to stand up for what he believes in.
His emails have been very interesting:
Yesterday I had the honour of speaking to Fadwa
Barghouthi, the wife of Marwan Barghouthi. I met her
at the solidarity tent in Sawiya. The tent is set up
to show solidarity with the prison hunger strikers.
Until I read this, I'd never heard of Barghouthi. Googling doesn't help much, there are many pro-Palestinian websites that mention him, but few from the other side (I was interested to see
why he had been jailed - my friend writes that it was because he was a member of
Fateh and an elected Palestinian leader, other sources link him with
Al-Aqsa or
Hamas.). I don't pretend to know the truth - although it's interesting how little coverage the Palestinian hunger strike is gaining world-wide - Google News has only nine hits for Marwan Barghouthi.
I'll finish with another quote from my friend:
In Marda we haven't had sound bombs for the last three
nights. The army came and took a 16 year old boy from
the streets a couple of days ago. They tied his wrists
tightly, and put a bag over his head. He was forced to
sit with his head between his legs in the back of the
jeep. They took him to the settlement (Ariel) for
interrogation. This boy was only held for about an
hour. Long enough to give him welts on his wrists.
That's a quiet day in Marda. I've discovered something
worse than sound bombs anyway- try telling a teenage
girl that there's nothing you can do for her brother
who has been detained without charge for five days.
All I can do at this point is pray for peace, and hope that he gets out of there safely. And point out that those
who are claiming that the
Foreshore and Seabed Bill will "lead to civil war in New Zealand and turn us into another Israel and Palestine" are making ignorant and offensive comments that insult the victims of that tragedy, both Israeli and Palestinian.
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