[Nettime-bold] Web Strike in Solidarity with Palestinian people - Report From Bethlehem

["ricardo dominguez" <rdom {AT} thing.net>]

[This call is a forward without the attachments mentioned. The files 
can be downloaded from palestinian.org site.]

Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2002 17:31:28 -0500
From: Gita Hashemi <gita {AT} yorku.ca>
Subject: Web Strike in Solidarity with Palestinian people


Gita
- ----------

Hello All,

We, Internet users and Webmasters, announce a GENERAL STRIKE 
protesting the Israeli aggression against and in solidarity with the 
Palestinian people and leadership in Ramallah.

We urge you to join us in the strike, by sending this logo (attached) 
to as many people as you can, and stopping all the services given in 
your websites, while loading your websites into the strike page.

Please help us have affect on the world, by joining the strike. ONLY 
TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A CHANGE.

If you have a website, please join the strike, and replace the first 
page in your website with the files attached (index.html , 
strike1.jpg).

(Here is one of the striking sites: http://www.palestinian.org/ ).

Thanks alot for your help,
STRIKE {AT} PALESTINIAN.ORG

Feel free to forward/print the logo. 

<<<MORE>>>

Report From Bethlehem  

by Kristen Schurr 
March 31, 2002 

Last night, 30 March 2002, 20 of us stayed in Al Azzeh 
refugee camp of 5,000 inside of Bethlehem with several 
families expecting an invasion by the Israeli military. We 
went two to a house. There is no land to build on, so any 
new homes are built atop existing ones. At the house I 
stayed in, we watched Arfat on television most of the night 
giving a press conference inside his compound in Ramallah. 
At 10pm he was given one hour to surrender by Israeli military 
or they would go in shooting. This has not yet happened and 
he has said he will not go alive. 

Television stations showed five dead, shot at point blank 
range inside Arafat's compound. The family I was with stays 
up most of the night and sleeps during the morning daylight 
hours. The shooting at nights requires them to quickly move 
from one room to the next, and to always be ready. They do 
not jump when they hear the popping of F-16s. They simply 
get up and move as the noise becomes louder.

There was a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. The bomber was 
from Nablus, which is further north from Bethlehem. The 
families inside of Al Azzeh refugee camp expected Israeli 
military to invade the camp and disappear all of the men 
aged 16 to 50 years old. Israeli snipers continued to fire 
into the camp throughout the night. They fired at Palestinians 
and internationals alike as we scurried across roads to 
get inside of the houses, which are litered with bullet holes. 
Many of the windows are protected by bags of sand. We 
met the mother of a 14 year old Palestinian girl who was shot 
by Israeli snipers as she opened the front door of her house 
inside the camp two weeks ago. I was expected to address 
a conference at Columbia University in NYC via telephone 
at 3:30 am Palestinian  time, but my cel phone was 
unable to function.

All international media has been asked to leave Bethlehem. 
Now the Palestinian people need all people from around
 the globe as much as ever. I write this quickly to you all 
from Dehesha refugee camp because invasion of Bethlehem 
is now imminent. It is expected within the next two hours. It
is now 1:30 pm. We are told that if Arafat is assasinated the 
Israeli military will fully re-occupy the entire West Bank, of which 
Bethlehem is a part. We will return to Al Azzeh camp within the 
hour to stand in solidarity with our Palestinian families as the 
invasion unfolds. Yesterday Beit Jala, the town without lights 
at night that stands across the valley from an Israel settlement 
fully lit conected by a bridge that only Israelis are allowed to use, 
was invaded in order to be at the highest point surrounding 
Bethlehem. Parts of Beit Jala are under curfew. It is still impossible 
to get to Ramallah, where Palestinians and internationals are 
asking for assistance. Some are blocking tanks, others
defied the curfew by donating blood. As here in Bethlehem, 
in Ramallah internationals are also riding along inside of 
ambulences. We are here in solidarity with the Palestinian 
peoplein order to bring attention to the brutal military occupation, 
sanctions, killings, and daily humiliation Palestinians face at the 
hands of Israeli military and government. 

Bethelehem, according to those who live there, is virtually deserted. 
Streets that once swarmed with life are mostly shut down now. 
All schools are evacuated. Teachers say they are not afraid. Many 
Palestinians say all they have left is their will. 

We have been thanked and fed and described as peace 
prophets. Our presence is necessary and deeply appreciated. 
We request that as many of you who receive this help in any 
way you can. I can only ask that we all please raise awarness 
of this situation, work on divestment campaigns, and tell Bush 
and the US government that their funding of the Israeli military is a
terrorist atrocity which must not be stood for. We will update 
you as much as possible. 

Thank you so much for your caring and interest. A 
suicide bomber has just hit Haifa, which is about 90 
km from Tel Aviv.
Salaam,

Kristen Schurr
Bethlehem, Palestine 31 March 2002 

http://www.zmag.org/content/Mideast/report_schurr.cfm





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