Palestinians Getting Human Shields
nydailynews.com, Original Publication Date: 4/2/02
Zaid Khalil is an Al-Awda member.
Palestinians Getting Human Shields
New Yorkers Jordan Flaherty and Zaid Khalil were among 150 foreigners
who marched peacefully into the embattled West Bank town of Beit Jala yesterday
only to be driven back by gunfire from Israeli troops.
When the smoke cleared, seven foreigners including
Khalil and a Palestinian cameraman for The Associated Press had been wounded
by shrapnel. One of the wounded, a British woman who was hit in the stomach,
required surgery. The others were treated for minor injuries and released.
Human rights activists try to breach blockade on outskirts of Bethlehem yesterday during protest of Israel's military presence in West Bank.
"We reached the middle of Beit Jala, and an Israeli tank came around
the corner and approached us," Flaherty told me by cell phone. "A soldier
at the top of the tank waved to us to get out of here. Within 30 seconds
he started firing live ammunition at the ground in front of us. Almost
immediately, people were hit by shrapnel. The tank was only about 30 feet
away when he started shooting."
As the soldier fired, the tank advanced toward the
crowd, backing the protesters up for six blocks until they had been pushed
out of town and back toward Bethlehem, Flaherty said.
"About the third or fourth shot, I felt something
on the inside of my thigh," said Khalil, 26. "I didn't realize I'd been
hit until later on, when I saw the blood."
Some 60 American and British citizens were part
of the march, which included an even larger contingent of French and Italians,
as well as Australians and Japanese.
"We were marching with banners, peace signs, with
our hands up in the air," Flaherty said. "They knew we were internationals,
but they started firing live ammunition."
Flaherty, 29, lives in Brooklyn and is an organizer
with the Service Employees International Union. He made the trip to the
Middle East last week as part of a movement of foreigners who have volunteered
during the past few weeks to act as human shields protecting Palestinian
civilians from the Israeli Army.
Several from the group made their way into Yasser
Arafat's compound in an effort to protect the Palestinian leader. Among
them was French farmer Jose Bove, whose protests against McDonald's made
him a hero of the anti-globalization movement.
"The bullets that were fired at us were financed
by our tax dollars," Flaherty told me. "I feel this obligation. It's so
important to stand here with people who are having their lives destroyed
by our government's policies."
Learned Through Internet
Khalil, an American citizen whose parents came here from the West Bank
in 1957, lives in Manhattan and works in the risk-management division of
a downtown financial firm.
He learned of the International Solidarity Movement
with the Palestinians on the Internet.
"I decided I had to do something," he said. "This
conflict could boil over to something incredibly nasty for the whole world."
Both men are staying with Palestinian families in
the Azzeh refugee camp on the outskirts of Bethlehem. Their hosts have
lived in the camp since 1948.
"We have to show the Palestinian people that we
do care, that our government's policies do not reflect how the American
people feel," Khalil said.
That is easier said than done.
Since 1948, our government has spent more money
for military and economic aid to Israel than for any other nation - some
$80 billion. One third of the U.S. foreign aid budget - nearly $3 billion
- goes to Israel. (Egypt receives the next-largest sum, about $2.1 billion).
But even with the money, Israelis are no more secure today than when their
state was founded.
A long line of U.S., Arab and Israeli governments
have failed to bring peace. And each day that passes spawns more suicide
bombers and more retaliation.
Peace can only come, Flaherty says, when Israel
fully withdraws from occupied Palestinian lands.
Like the civil rights workers who headed South in
the 1960s, the new human rights movement he has joined is urging young
Americans and Europeans to head for the Middle East.
Only thousands upon thousands of human shields for
peace, they say, can stop the masters of war on either side.
E-mail: jgonzalez@edit.nydailynews.com
Original Publication Date: 4/2/02
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