Soldier Stalking and other War Games-14 Sept

Tensions rise.....20 September Palestine UN vote nears.........

Carol stalking and watching in Jayyus village

I took to Jayyus streets again – in broad daylight – when our local support contact called saying, “Some 15 soldiers are in front of my house.” I ended up stalking three Israeli Defence Force army jeeps as they made their rounds in the village. “They chose to come after the boys leave school and while parents are working”, said one shopowner, used to these gun-toting visits. “The boys then play ‘occupation war’ with these soldiers,” he said, as the youth positioned themselves to throw stones and rocks at the jeeps. My venture was to both avoid these stones as well as the sound bombs soldiers threw to disperse the young crowd.  Elders just looked on, weary and detached. I did too, with my camera clicking away.

No arrests were made, as is usually done on such unannounced military excursions…because there were no military police in the entourage to make the arrests. “Combat soldiers cannot arrest, by law”, said one shopowner.  “The village just becomes a playground for the soldiers and boys - they play ‘war’”. A woman with a young child walked home, passing the jeeps.

Two young men jumped into a large bulldozer tractor and gunned its engines to maneuver it onto the street. The mission was to block the jeeps from passing. But the army outwitted them, and blocked the tractor instead, and pulled a man out and beat him. The jeeps then drove away, as did the freed tractor driver who pranced in the village to spread the message that he had overcome.

I and my colleague just watched, amazed at such bullying and incitements. A war game, indeed.  No wonder little boys throw stones.

Agitation of youth has increased since the end of Ramadan with stick banging and stone throwing amusements, probably due to tensions leading up to the UN vote for Palestinian membership in the United Nations on 20 September. Soldier visits and arrests of youth have also increased in West Bank villages, indiscriminately.  Blood boils and hatreds swell – it’s the young ones who feel the impact most. So why do good little boys do bad things??

Will these war games result in a new nation’s future militaristic leaders of Palestine, I wonder?