[PAA-Discuss] Walls, Tunnels and Daily Humiliations

[Lee Loe]

Well, Kris, I guess I'd vote for you if you are running, but you are not. I
will vote for someone who has a chance of becoming president and who listens
to people, who has had a life that gives him some idea that other cultures
and countries have commendable attributes, who grew up in a multiracial
familly and society and whom I believe will listen to the grassroots. And
you are wrong about all our work and contacting elected officials hasn't
worked. For starters, 77% of the US pop are against this war. They waited
until 50000 US soldiers died in Viet Nam to be against that war. Also,
congress people have changed their minds, hill and obama have changed their
positions, folks on the internet have learned of peace and justice
candidates running for the Cong and supported them with small contributions
tha t have made a difference. We can now hold up an Impeach sign and gete
honks and drive an impeach car in the art parade and get peace signs, claps,
thumbs up, ets. I believe that Obama can be enlightened so he changes his
stance on Palestine. If you want McCain, then don't vote Democrat. I wish
you wouldn't insenuate that we who don't plan to vote as you would have us
do are asleep at the wheel. We are sisters and brothers trying to stop all
of the holocausts going on in the world with global warming getting hotter
every moment. Let's hang together, cry together, laugh together in common
cause. Lee Loe

  _____  

From: discuss-bounces at paa-tx.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at paa-tx.org] On
Behalf Of Ron and Kris Graham
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 10:46 AM
To: Discuss at paa-tx.org; Green Core; Green Discussion List;
MANDELL at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [PAA-Discuss] Walls, Tunnels and Daily Humiliations



Read the article below and let the words sink deeply into your
consciousness, and then tell me again why some of you continue to support
candidates who will not hold Israel to account for their illegal occupation
of Palestine and for their continuing abuse and ethnic cleansing of the
Palestinian people.

 

Kris

 

http://www.counterpunch.org/

March 31, 2008


Retaining One's Dignity in Palestine


Walls, Tunnels and Daily Humiliations


By MATS SVENSSON

A while ago there was a big enough opening in the wall for a car to pass
through. Now it is closed. The place is almost empty of people. A young man
walks towards me, passes me and disappears into a ditch. And he is gone.

I follow him down into the wide ditch. The ditch is four meters wide with
dirty brown water. I see four large cement pipes leading to the ditch. Three
of them are blocked with cement blocks.

The obstacles have been removed by the fourth one. It smells foul, it smells
of sewer. I lose my balance and my right foot sinks into the sludge. I lean
down and look into the cement pipe, getting my camera ready. I see a shadow
at the end of the pipe, 15 meters away. I lift the camera but immediately
hear a man call out, "Please, please, don't take any photo."

I see an old man coming through the tunnel. With his legs spread to either
side he tries to hop along. Sometimes he supports himself on a cane that he
drives into the sewer. In the other hand, he carries a little bag. He slips
a little bit. When he comes out of the tunnel, he looks at me, sees my
camera and says, "Thank you." I follow him a few hundred meters.

First, he removes a pair of black shoes from the bag, changes and puts the
dirty ones in the bag. Looks at his trousers, sees that they have not been
dirtied. Wipes off the cane with a napkin. Tells me that he is going to
visit his wife who is in hospital. She has been there for a few weeks. His
wife was put in hospital when there was an opening in the wall. He tells me
that he has always lived in Jerusalem but that the wall that now goes
through the northern part shuts him out of the city. He lives in the Al Ram
district. He is soon on his way to have as much time as possible with his
wife before he has to return in the evening. "I hope the water hasn't risen
by then," he says.

I go through the tunnel. Come up on the other side. See some young boys who
climb through. They ask me what I think about the wall. Tell me that they
feel humiliated. Say that they come to school dirty every day and are dirty
when they return home. The school on one side of the wall, the home on the
other. Palestinians on both sides.

The wall separates Palestinians. Divides up the land. On a daily basis, they
have to use a sewer drain to get to school, to work or to visit a sick loved
one.

Two young men that I photographed coming out of the tunnel ask me to stay
for a while. They tell me that they have come through the tunnel to help
their mother. Their mother wears a black dress and carries a little brown
handbag. I promise the men that I will not photograph. They carefully lift
up her dress, almost carrying her through the tunnel. The water in the sewer
is too deep, her feet drag in the water and she calls out. Soon, the three
of them are back. One of the men says that they will have to try another
time when the water is lower.

I arrived early in the morning. Most people from Al Ram use the tunnel to
get to Jerusalem. They return in the afternoon, wanting to get back home
before nightfall.

There is a large closed gate in the wall, 10 meters wide, close to the sewer
pipes. The gate has an advanced locking mechanism and can only be opened by
the occupation force, by young soldiers. Strangely enough, young children
can squeeze through the gate because it has a 20 centimeter opening on one
side. Some teenagers try, but they cannot squeeze through. For those under
15, there is a narrow opening. If you are older, you must use the sewer.

At first, I did not understand why the military has left a small opening in
the gate. And I did not understand why the sewer tunnel remained open. After
a few hours, I begin to see a pattern and in the pattern the answer probably
lies.

In front of me I see the woman whose sons try to help her through the sewer,
who gives up when the sludge is too deep, who wants to keep her dignity. I
see the man who did not want to be photographed. The man who did not want
his humiliation to be documented.

Mats Svensson, a former Swedish diplomat working on the staff of SIDA, the
Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, is presently following
the ongoing occupation of Palestine. He can be reached at
isbjorn2001 at hotmail.com. 

 

 

 

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