Birthday Man Moves Through Soldiers/Jayyus

The day before Ramadan starts, the quiet West Bank village of Jayyus (3,000 people) experienced another Israeli Defense Force incursion of four Army vehicles, including one police vehicle. Some 20 soldiers guarded sites where houses were entered and people interrogated.

See video footage of this incursion on 31 July 2011 on You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blnbnhOOMfI


"For security", said the one in charge, when we EAs (Ecumenical Accompaniment Program for Palestine and Israel) asked why the soldier visit.  I silently gasped as this Commander gently touched my shoulder and pointed, as though seeking our understanding. "You see those boys on top [or the houses]? They throw stones at us."  He left us....before I could gasp back, "Well of course they would. Your presence is causing any violent backlash, ding bat!"  We followed the vehicles on foot, taking photos, and in constant vision of the soldiers. They stopped at four family homes. Seemingly, no arrests were made, just alot of unnecessary initimidation which merely incited the young boys to throw their stones. Even, one policeman tried to protect us from these flying objects - another uncanny twist to the bizarre, yet real, playground the IDF has chosen to  use in this illegally occupied land.  A vender selling chick peas weaves defiantly along the main road of Jayyus, barely avoiding the parked army jeeps. We call him 'birthday man' as his vending music ironically chimes out 'Happy Birthday to You"!!  Just another crazy, bizarre twist.
(Video footage courtesy of EA Marvin Domoguen)

The Logic of Illogic

  There is a pastime spent during these hot West Bank days, trying not-so-desperately-anymore to understand any form of rational argumentation or logic about cause and effect, or logistics….of anything!  Which deteriorates my use of language (not to mention the art of thinking) even further as words defy meaning! I’m grasping for some logic…..

For instance:    A Palestinian family can get (if they’re lucky) a permit to visit their incarcerated son in an Israeli jail, but probably would have difficulty getting a permit, or even funds, to travel the roads between Palestine and Israel to go to Tel Aviv court hearings, or to the jail.

Happy Israeli Soldiers at Agriculture Gate-Jayyus/West Bank

 Let me try another scenario:  A farmer has a permit to enter his own agricultural lands, but when it expires, it may take him months to renew the permit….which means he might miss the harvest time of his olives…..which means he cannot reap the fruits from his lands or hard-won labour….which means……his lands may deteriorate, and thus become absorbed under an archaic Ottoman Empire law that says any unkept land for three years  reverts back to the State (in this contemporary case, of Israel).  Actually, there’s logic in all that.

Let me try another…..:  Palestinian medical patients cannot get a permit to see their doctors for follow-up treatment in Tel Aviv (Israel) because the doctors are boycotting the authorities’ delays (and some reductions) of monthly salary payments (due to the Israeli government delaying regular funds from taxes to the Palestinian Authority).  So the innocent suffer…..

Well, there’s some logic in that……

Soldiers Incursion into Jayyus, midnight of 21 July 2011

 Just after midnight on Thursday, 21 July, five Israeli Defence Force jeeps were heard and seen patrolling the main street of Jayyus. Several soldiers were captured on video camera by EA Marvin, from our house rooftop. 

Locals reported that tear gas canisters were thrown into some homes, and guns were fired into the air. One young man was injured in the forehead by a tear gas canister and was evacuated by ambulance to Tulkarm hospital. 

Injured by a tear gas canister in Jayyus

Another young man was reported as arrested by the soldiers.  Jayyus has been quiet from experiencing these incursions for several weeks.  Villagers, however, are used to these.

It happened that I slept through all this happening!