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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=468001923-31032008><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>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</FONT></SPAN></DIV><BR>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left>
<HR tabIndex=-1>
<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> discuss-bounces@paa-tx.org
[mailto:discuss-bounces@paa-tx.org] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Ron and Kris
Graham<BR><B>Sent:</B> Monday, March 31, 2008 10:46 AM<BR><B>To:</B>
Discuss@paa-tx.org; Green Core; Green Discussion List;
MANDELL@yahoogroups.com<BR><B>Subject:</B> [PAA-Discuss] Walls, Tunnels and
Daily Humiliations<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">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.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">Kris<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'"><A
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/">http://www.counterpunch.org/</A><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P><B><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: black">March 31,
2008</SPAN></FONT></B><o:p></o:p></P>
<H1><B><I><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=5><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt; FONT-STYLE: italic">Retaining One's Dignity in <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Palestine</st1:place></st1:City></SPAN></FONT></I></B><FONT
size=5><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></H1>
<H1><B><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#990000 size=5><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 18pt; COLOR: #990000">Walls, Tunnels and Daily
Humiliations</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></B></H1>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=5><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt">By MATS
SVENSSON<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana color=#990000 size=6><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 24pt; COLOR: #990000; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">A</SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Verdana size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> 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.</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">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.</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">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."</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">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.</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">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 <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City> 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.</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">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.</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">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.</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">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.</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">I arrived early in the morning.
Most people from Al Ram use the tunnel to get to <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City>. They return in the afternoon,
wanting to get back home before nightfall.</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">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.</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">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.</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">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.</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P><B><FONT face=Verdana size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Mats
Svensson</SPAN></FONT></B><FONT face=Verdana size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">, a former Swedish diplomat
working on the staff of SIDA, the Swedish International Development Cooperation
Agency, is presently following the ongoing occupation of <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Palestine</st1:place></st1:City>. He can be
reached at <A href="mailto:isbjorn2001@hotmail.com">isbjorn2001@hotmail.com</A>.
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
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