info no6 from jenin
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today is friday - that means the muslim holiday. no traffic on the streets - I sleep quite long, feel the need of it and that the work is more strenuous than I have felt in the last days.
hassan, my local scout just told me on the phone: yesterday evening here in the eastern part of jenin, not far from my flat, two palestinians were shot dead by israeli under-cover agents / secret service. one of them has been an activist of the jihad islami group. the murder reminds me to the methods of latin american death squads. it must have happened at the same time when I was sitting in the internet cafe sending you my reports. we heard shootings and the guys who run the place closed the metal front doors and shutters... I left the internet cafe through the backdoor at about 11.30 local time and heard shootings not far away. the streets were completely empty, gostly - obviously people knew that israeli military is in town.
lucky me, my house is next to the internet cafe, but the front door of my house was closed and I had to wait on the streets to get let in! the landlord does not want to give us (from the goethe institute ramallah) the key for the front door. may be because he does not know us. we were told he might be afraid that fighters could get access and use his house for an attack and that in return it would be destroyed by the israeli army... on the one side his wariness is understandable on the other it means I have to stand and wait allone in front of a house, bypassing cars can see me, I feel like in the limelight - quite naked and unsecure... imagine an army patrool would turn up! easy target! I hear some twenty shots and can even see the fine bullet-lines of yellow sparks coming from the city going to the north (where a checkpoint is located?) through the dark sky. must have been somthing bigger than just a gun. I rung the bell, to get emad, my landlord to let me in, no respond. tried to call him on his mobile... already switched off... than I shouted - he was sitting on the roof top...(amazing view) and a minute later I happily was let in. puuh! later on (in my flat) I heard a megaphone with political statements / propaganda driving through the streets. can't understand the message. thought it would be about the israeli apache-rocket attacks in gaza, which happened the same day killing 18, injuring about 50 palestinans... now I do guess it was about the jenin murders an hour ago.
at midnight I listened to the german radio, "deutsche welle" with adjoining political comments. confusing news: they say hamas calls all foreigners to leave not only israel but also explicitly the palestinian territories!! I think the news are not correct. does "deutsche welle" false such news? or do they just adopt the israeli version without any journalistic care? or what is going on? in the morning (today) I phone farid, the director of the goethe institute ramallah, he thinks that hamas calls foreigners only to leave israel and not the palestinian territories, to prevent them getting killed or injured ('collateral damage') in the announced terror attacks to come... you may have learnt that hamas called publicly for the first time all its militant members and cells to attack israel right now (as revenge for the attacks on dr. rantisi and the cities in gaza over the last two days).
as you may understand this news-"detail" is quite important to me. if hamas would call foreigners / me to leave the palestinian territories, I would feel less welcomed and less secure and my project and stay here in jenin would be called into question. I belief this is false information and it would fit the israeli policy of making us thinking that we are threatened by the palestinians. the israeli government issued a statement to foreigners to leave the occupied territories in the westbank and gaza as safety can not be guaranteed and as if saftey in israel could be guaranteed! none of this is true. I am frightened to enter israel - and I am quite horrified about the days to come and what will happen there. from what I saw, of course hatred for israel and its policy is understandable, but to make this the driving force of their politics... leads to a desastrous strategy. on the other side the israelis do not understand that we only feel threatened by their soldiers. when I entered jenin for the first time I was asked by the israeli soldier at the checkpoint, if I wasn't scared to go there... of course they hardly can differentiate between themselves as threatened soldiers as part of an occupation force and the status of a welcomed guest.
Note: Text by Thomas Kilpper, Jenin