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British ‘human shields’ under threat in Ramallah
Sunday-Times, March 31, 2002


http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/article/0,,178-252676,00.html

March 31, 2002

British ‘human shields’ under threat in Ramallah

A group of British students from Sussex University were pinned down in three houses in Ramallah last night after trying to act as human shields for Palestinian families, writes Tom Robbins.
    The seven were staying with three families close to Yasser Arafat’s compound after travelling to the Middle East five days ago. They are part of a group of several hundred Europeans, mainly from Italy, France, Belgium and Switzerland, who are spending Easter in Ramallah in an effort to discourage troops from attacking civilians.
    One group of three Britons, who are staying with a family of six about half a mile from Arafat’s headquarters, have not left the house for 48 hours as tanks patrol the streets. Yesterday they said a sniper was stationed 200ft from the house, and a neighbour was shot in the shoulder through her kitchen window. Electricity and water supplies have been cut.
    “Things are getting worse by the hour,” said Ramy Aly, 24, from Hounslow, west London, who is a Sussex graduate and now works as an internet designer in London. “There are a lot of tanks . . . everyone here is very worried and we are just waiting for them to knock on the door, or break it down. Everybody’s nerves are on edge.”
    With him in the house are Osama Muttawa, 25, who is studying philosophy and linguistics at Sussex, and Rudy Al-Fekaiki, 37, a housewife who has left her husband and two young daughters at home in Cobham, Surrey.
    “We have pillows and mattresses covering the windows and we are listening to the BBC World Service and playing cards,” said Muttawa. “My family are worried, obviously, but they are proud. They told me it was the right thing to do but the wrong time — we did not realise that the day we got to Ramallah it was going to be invaded.”
    Salma Karmi, a female Sussex student, is staying in another house close to Arafat’s compound. Yesterday the house was searched by soldiers who, the students said, turned out drawers, and kicked over chairs.
    Dan Glazebrook, the president of the Sussex University students’ union, is in a third house with other students and cannot leave because of a curfew.

Copyright 2002 Times Newspapers Ltd.



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