Today was the day that the cleanup of ‘ground zero’ at the Jeninrefugee camp was finally to begin after over three months of falsestarts. UNRWA had been in extensive negotiations with the Israeli army toremove the debris as well as the unexploded ordinances that still litterthe site. The cleanup project will take three months and involvescoordination between Israel, the U.N and the Palestinian.
At nine am this morning the U.N was informed by the Israeli armythat curfew was declared, effective immediately, due to `securityreasons’ thus postponing the cleanup yet again. Today’s development comes asno surprise to anyone here.
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Meanwhile, in the camp, the rubble (spanning about length of threefootball fields and 30 feet high) lies untouched, children play amidstthe raw sewage that lies in open pools along street, there is norunning water, and the families that were living in the 160 demolished housesremain homeless.
The Constant Confusion of Curfew
One of the daily deadly perils in Jenin is the constant confusionover curfew. Although curfews here are usually announced on televisionand radio late the night before, the Israeli army is notorious forchanging it’s mind with little or no warning. This has proven deadlybecause the military has a habit of declaring curfew in Jenin by means ofdriving through the town and camp using loudspeakers punctuated by heavyfire aimed directly at civilians.
For example, last night after 8PM multiple tanks rolled into thecamp and then the city to impose night curfew. There was heavy firingaimed directly into homes in the camp. This was clearly visible to us dueto the use of night tracers on the bullets and flares in the sky.At approximately 1 am the television announced that the curfewwould be lifted the following day from 8AM to 8PM. Jenin’s population wentto sleep believing that they would go to work, shops would be open, andtheir children could attend summer camp in the morning. Few peopleheard the jeeps, with their limited range loudspeakers, drive throughrandom neighborhoods at 6Am to say that indeed, there would be curfewthis day.
At 8 AM Jenin became a bustling city of shops, cars andpedestrians. Although UNRWA was informed of the curfew at 9AM, it was 10:30 AMbefore a local summer camp was told to send all their children homeimmediately as the tanks and jeeps were on their way in. Within a half hourvendors in the open air market were scuttling for cover and peoplerushed to get their homes as the tanks rolled in to town.Thankfully no one has been killed in the past 24 hours. However,this curfew confusion is exactly what precipitated the deaths of threechildren and an elderly man, shot dead by Israeli tank fire in themarketplace, when we arrived in this city a month ago.
A `Quiet’ Week in Jenin
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This constitutes a `quiet’ week for Jenin. Constant militarypresence, shooting at civilians, children and ambulances is no longer worthyof the world’s attention. Of course it is not quiet and a war continuesto be waged daily against the population here.Families are broken by the deaths of loved ones and theimprisonment of Jenin’s young men, fathers, brothers, and sons, held indefinitelyin administrative detention without charge. Ambulances have been firedupon this week and continue to be held for long periods at checkpointswhile emergency patients await treatment. Two journalists were recentlyshot, one killed and children are fired upon routinely.
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For day-to-day details of the occupation of Jenin please call
Rebecca Murray 972 55 558 954 or 972 53 869 307
Juliana Fredman 972 67 373 467
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT www.palsolidarity.org