Orange trees on the border and death on a checkpoint

The solidarity campaigners, six of which stayed behind in Gaza, keep surprising me with their simple - at least what may seem simple to the observers of events - but effective activism.

I heard they are helping to replant some areas with orange trees on the borders, which the Israeli forces uprooted. Apparently the occupation forces, that forbid farmers from growing anything on their plots, isolate about 24% of the agricultural land in Gaza. These are lands on the borders, which the owners gave up cultivating, as they keep being destroyed by the Israelis.

Locals from the town of Al Fokhari, on the southeastern side of the Gaza strip, talked about how this activism boosted their moral and showed them that some outsiders care about the people of Gaza. http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/066DA418-299E-4C07-A7F9-CF30D2B2E55A.htm (sorry for those of you who can’t read Arabic, I could not find the English translation to the article, however you can have a look at the photos).

This gives me hope that things could be done to support the people of Gaza. The Gazaians, and rightly so, claim more Arab support should come. They must have heard of the Egyptian convoy that was stopped by the Egyptian security en route to Gaza. This must confirm what many are saying about the Egyptian government. They claim it serves the Israeli and American governments’ interests in the region. Some Yemenis are planning to do what the Egyptian failed to achieve during this month of Ramadan.

On the dark side, some kilometres away in another forgotten part of the world, a baby died because of lack of oxygen when trying to be born to this cruel world.

The soldiers did not let the mother, who was in her last stages of labour, and her family pass through a checkpoint to go to hospital because they didn’t have a permit. I felt a stab in my heart when I heard how desperate the father was, when he asked the soldier to have a look at the top part of the baby’s head that was already coming out.

This happened very early one morning, at half one after midnight in Za’atara check point near Nablus. In front of unmoved soldiers who stood there and did nothing in response to the desperate calls for help from the mother and the father. The father even offered the soldier to arrest him and his mother (who was in the car), to let his wife and brother (who also was in the car) pass to go to the hospital.

One of the soldiers was jailed for 14 days and removed to another area. I needn’t be cynical here, but I wonder what massage this could give to soldiers who face similar situations on a daily basis in the West Bank, especially around Nablus, which has been sealed off from the outside world with checkpoints for some time now?

I bet that many of these soldiers would be happy to take a break from this busy and cruel checkpoint. I am also sure the conditions of prison, these soldiers would be put in, are much more humane than the conditions thousands of Palestinian prisoners forced to accept in the Israeli prisons. The sentence, of that soldier, was much more lenient than the sentences given to those who refuse to serve in the occupation forces, who could face months or even years in prison.

The issue of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners (estimated to be 11000) in Israeli prisoners is worth reflecting on in the future. There are underage girls and boys, women and men, of which many have not seen a trial, cramped in horrible conditions without proper food or medical treatment. I never forget the elected MPs and ministers who were kidnapped from their homes and offices and put in prisons! I will tell you in the future about this radio programme dedicated to these prisoners.