Wednesday June 26, 2002 Balata Refugee Camp by the Titi family

Neta was still with us after the excitement of last night when the D9 Cat was running up and down the street. This morning I took an early walk to survey the additional destruction by the debabe Yahoudi. Not anything very great. A family’s canopy in front of their house torn down, a sidewalk here and there trashed, a vehicle damaged, but none of this reflects the psychological trauma to the people of this camp. I don’t know how they can live in this environment and stay sane. The power was restored before noon.

After much cell phone gymnastics, Neta told us that a sizable group (maybe 10) new ISMers will be coming to Nablus today. Actually they came to our house in Balata in the afternoon. They were able to get a taxi in Jerusalem, operated by a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship. He and the leader of the new group, a School Headmaster from the U.K., are quite the talkers. The Headmaster put himself out as the leader of a group of Christian youths coming to assist in good works, and it worked. I can’t remember the complete profile of the group, but briefly: a Japanese girl living in the U.K. with perfect English and very fluent Arabic, a young Japanese guy based in France, a tall athletic black guy from Nicaragua, a petite young women from Spain who was happy to have the Nicaraguan around to speak Spanish, a pretty freckled girl from New York with flaming red hair, a beautiful young Muslim woman from the U.K. whose parents had emigrated from Pakistan, and, of course, the Headmaster from the U.K., and likely some I have forgotten. The two to one ratio of male to female in the ISM is holding. There were no old males with artificial knees in the group, so I am still unique.

The English woman, who is working on a Master’s degree at Manchester, and the redhead from New York are to join us here in Balata and stay with the parents of a recent martyr just a few minutes from our house. The others are to split up, some going to a village just recently put under siege with nothing going in or out. That group went shopping for bread here in Balata to take with them to the families of the village, if they can get through. Given the Headmaster’s gift of gab and the ability of the Palestinian-Israeli driver to go through checkpoints they will likely make it. I don’t have the details on where the others are going.

The fax copy of the Edmonton Journal articles still did not come through. I would have liked for the family here to see them, but I can wait and mail the copy to them. Renate of the Journal emailed me the text of the second article, but I can’t get it printed until I can get it onto a diskette. Marissa is taking her laptop to the Internet Café today (Thursday) so I will have both articles and the proposal to be met at the airport by Renate and a photographer. She wants to do an article on me and the family we are staying with and wants names and pictures of the members of the family. It occurs to me that getting this data out into the world will help protect them from demolishment. The Israelis are (somewhat) sensitive to international media exposure, and the Journal article will not be complimentary to the Occupation. Perhaps I can mail them to Najah at her factory in Nablus when and if she ever goes back to work.

The escapades of the Israeli Defense (actually Army of Occupation) of the night of Wednesday June 26 will be reported tomorrow.