Azzoun: village under israeli assault and lockdown

December 12, 2007

  

**[israeli army jeeps passing during one instance of “curfew” on a Palestinian village which lasted from 3pm until after midnight. No official halt was called on the curfew. This curfew, including tear gas, sound bombs, live ammunition, and harassment patrols –where late into the night army jeeps drive up and down the roads, blaring their horns and shining spotlights into the windows of residents long-since retreated to their homes –is a typical example of the sort of lockdowns Azzoun villagers have been under consistently for the last two months, and sporadically for years. Unpredictable harassment like this leaves residents wondering when the next ‘curfew’ will fall. A supply of frozen bread and canned goods is a wise idea…]

**[The effects of such a daylight curfew include disrupting school and shutting down businesses far in advance of closing hours. Given the dire situation of the economy, shutting down early can cripple an already ailing business.]

“Yesterday was the beginning of the pilgrimage to the Hajj, when all the people make pilgrimage to Mecca. At this time each year, all of the people come to the mosque to say goodbye before they leave for Mecca. They have permission from the Ministry, they have everything. But they go to the village’s front gate and there are the soldiers, blocking the gate. They don’t allow anyone to leave? Why? They are old, they don’t throw stones.

My father is old, 77 years old, and has problems breathing. When the soldiers came to impose curfew yesterday he was in the mosque. The soldiers said ‘get off the street, go to your homes,’ but I was afraid for my father and continued to the mosque. I found him inside, breathing very heavily, having troubles from the teargas the soldiers had shot on the street. It made him dizzy and hard for him to walk. There were over 250 people in the mosque, very crowded, because so many people wanted to say goodbye before the Hajj.”

–Azzoun resident on December 2nd curfew on the village.

**[Israel routinely fires tear gas in homes, as well as shops and in the street, during the invasions. The elderly man has had tear gas fired into his home twice in one month, the first time waking him violently from his sleep.]

 

*live bullets, used in home with sleeping civilians during Israeli army search for “wanted” man. The home in which these rounds were spent

* “rubber” bullet –a thinly-coated metal ball; routinely shot at close range, this weapon can be lethal

Azzoun, a village of 11,000, lies at an important junction between numerous surrounding villages and the larger western West Bank cities of Qalqilya and Nablus. It is an agricultural area, olives and olive oil, fruit and vegetables being the primary income-generating products.

After the days of recent curfews –when residents are ordered abruptly back to their homes by the israeli army with threats that they will be “badly punished” should they leave their homes, and with the understanding that they are fair game for the fully-armed soldiers, irrespective of age or sex –the Mayor of Azzoun related some of the economic and other problems:

“The situation in Azzoun is very bad, because of the curfews for 4 days and the on-going closures. We don’t know if it will continue or not. If you close the road from Azzoun, that means you close the whole area, directly affecting the 7 or 8 villages surrounding Azzoun. As a result, the economy is very bad: no one comes from outside and many shops are closed.”

These closures, as well as israel’s confiscation of land, has greatly devastated Azzoun: “The agriculture is suffering: people are frightened the IOF will cut down olive trees near the highway. Other people simply cannot get access to their land, to work the land, to pick their olives, to tend their trees.”

Azzoun remains a village besieged by IOF violence, daily and nightly invasions, arbitrarily-imposed roadblocks, and continual abductions and beatings of young teenage boys, imposed under an unending spate of terror by israeli soldiers and their unpredictable collective punishment. The people of Azzoun, although strong, are faltering: their economy is in shambles, and their work and study is continually disrupted by the ongoing israeli army harassment.

December 2, 2007, israeli army invasion and curfew on Azzoun:

video clip *if video doesn’t load, use this link

video clip part 2 *if video doesn’t load, use this link

**[Azzoun resident repairing electricity transister damaged during israeli soldiers’ November 26 invasion. The power outage lasted for about 1 hour before this lone man braved streets which israeli army jeeps still patrolled.]

**[Damage to the home of a man sought by Israel: bullet-riddled walls & doors; broken windows, mirrors, & cabinets; punctured clothing; puddles of spent bullets –evidence of firing in just one corner of one room. This form of collective punishment –the destruction of the wanted man’s family property –is commonly imposed, irrespective of terrified sleeping residents.]

Trying to Comprehend Fear:

During one late-night invasion, Israeli army jeeps park in front of the building in which I and other volunteers stay. Soldiers spread out, some heading for the old town streets, others milling by the jeeps, others disappearing around the sides of neighbouring buildings. They fire flares over the homes of sleeping residents, and then at the window of our flat, repeatedly, trying to intimidate us. It is terrifying, wondering whether the flares would come through the window, would progress to tear gas or sound bombs, whether the soldiers might try to enter the building to shake us up a bit more.

During another invasion and curfew, when Israeli army jeeps again prowl the streets, revving their motors in that aggressive way they do and stopping to loiter outside windows, I try to imagine the uncertainty and fear Palestinians might feel. Would their home be invaded tonight, and if so how much damage would be done to the house and their possessions this time? Would their son, father, brother be taken tonight? How many times would soldiers come back in the night? When could the villagers sleep again? I tried to imagine but couldn’t fully comprehend the daily horror of it all.

And that is the psychology of the colonizers: to always keep people on edge, never knowing if a raid is imminent, if a house is going to be searched and destroyed, a family member arrested and sent to prison… Never knowing if roads will be blocked, a flying checkpoint will be imposed, if permanent checkpoints will be open that day to allow passage to people trying to study, work, live…

Uncertainty and an always present nervous fear is the psychology of the occupation. Palestinians deal with it, as they must, and do so with a brave, humorous dignity. But it affects them nonetheless, affects particularly children and their study habits, their play habits. It makes kids grow old young, and necessitates a daily, ingrained patience in situations where most people living outside of Palestine would be outraged.

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