Personal Stories (Palestine & Israel)

by Tony Davies

6 February 2004

Visited Yasser Arafat in his compound in Ramallah with a retired doctor from England, who runs a peace foundation here, and three young Americans who are doing church work with Palestinians. He gave us a warm welcome.

I greeted him on behalf of the Scottish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign and said that we are doing all we can to inform people at home about the conditions the Palestinians are living under. I told him about the shop in Edinburgh, Hadeel, which sells Palestinian handcrafts, helping employment.

a photo gallery

by Bill Dienst , M.D.

Picture: This 20-member family lives in a small dwelling that is part of a compound in the Palestinian refugee camp of Deir Al-Balah in Gaza Strip, Palestine. Bill Dienst is second from left in back row.

by Daoud Kuttab

For most teenagers, the world over, the age of sixteen is supposed to be a happy one. This is supposed to be a year of care free fun and enjoyment as they celebrate their sweet pre- adult sixteenths birthday.

by Katharine Maycock

from: Bullet Points (used w/permission).

We left Jerusalem at 9 this morning. 36km and several checkpoints later, our mini bus found the main checkpoint into Hebron city closed off by Israeli soldiers (IDF). So the bus driver sped on.

Updates from Marthame and Elizabeth Sanders in Zabadeh, Palestine

Easter Greetings to those of you who celebrating this morning. Today is Palm Sunday here in Zababdeh, as the three families of the church - Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant - celebrate the major feasts together. In the past, busses would leave from the village for Jerusalem to take part in the grand procession following Christ's footsteps from the Mount of Olives into the Old City. For the last three years, the closures and travel restrictions have made that tradition impossible. So the ecumenical precession around the village would have to represent the walk to Jerusalem.

by Tony Davies

1 December 2002

A funeral cortege passed as I left Gaza City to move down to Khan Yunis. Last night the Israeli army destroyed three houses to the north east of the city, injured 20 people and killed two. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, the body of one of the victims, a 70-year-old man who was deaf, was discovered among the ruins of his house. The other victim was shot dead for no apparent reason while travelling home in his car. One of the destroyed houses was of five storeys, accommodating five families totalling 60 people of whom 35 were children. They are now in tents. 60 tanks were used in the incursion.

by Tony Davies

Nov 2nd 2002

We joined the Christian Peacemaker Team school patrol at 7 am. Soldiers told us that no children could go to school because of the curfew. However, after discussion, they did let though a girl we were accompanying and other girls were also allowed to go to school.

When we got near the boys' school, boys were running out into the road, encouraged by the headmaster. Then two tear gas shells were fired about 70 yards from an armoured vehicle at one end of the street, and another two came from the other end. Two vehicles rushed along the street a couple of times. They go fast partly to scare people but also to reduce the chance of being hit by the stones and bottles which the boys throw at them.