Posted by Lils from ? (160.129.27.22) on Friday, October 04, 2002 at 5:25PM :
In Reply to: "Sorry We Are Closed" posted by Lils from ? (160.129.27.22) on Friday, October 04, 2002 at 2:51PM :
This is a small part of an article written by a peace activist working inside the occupied territories. The full account can be found by contacting www.schnews.org.uk/
We'd been doing checkpoint-watch every day there for the past nine days,
monitoring the soldier's activities. Children from the surrounding area
regularly gather by the wrecked prison to throw rocks (Plenty of them
around - the IDF regularly makes roadblocks using Caterpillar and local
Palestinian bulldozers. Roads are simply cracked open, dug up, and rock
and cement piled up into mini mountains.) It's a depressing ritual. The
kids detest the occupation, they are oppressed daily by Israeli soldiers.
The soldiers regularly shoot at children. I got a taste of this last
week, whilst I was hanging out with the stone-throwing streetfighter
kids. An Israeli commander and his colleague were using the exhaust fumes
of an advancing tank as cover to get closer to the kids, all young
raggedy boys aged 10-17. As the tank pulled back up to its position in
front of the flats, the kids pointed wildly to a white square building in
between the Mukhata and the checkpoint. 'Soldiers, soldiers' they
shouted, pointing at the white building. 'I know I know', I said,
pointing up at the checkpoint. 'No No No!' (cue sound of machinegun fire
and more manic pointing at the white building). It was only then that I
realised what they were doing. They opened fire, and we ducked behind a
trench of rubble. The kids ran to hide behind some broken rocks. I got up
and ran over to them. They were taking aim. I direct my question at the
commander - a young, good-looking Israeli. 'You're not really going to
shoot those....' 'FUCK OFF'. It's a curt acid command. 'Oh right, so,
tell me, how many kids have you killed in your service?' His response was
a round of ear-searing rapid fire at the scattering kids. He put the gun
down, keeping his gaze trained straight ahead, and said '27'.
-- Lils
-- signature .