Neta Golan

[barbara100 at jps.net]

I heard her telling about her most recent confrontation with Israeli
soldiers on  the radio yesterday. She was so inspiring.  Just the mere
presence of (potential) Jewish and International blood, and the soldiers
scatter--this time she said they packed up their road block and
left--scatter like roaches to the light of bulbs and day.  There's something
important to be learned in that.



http://www.globaluprising.net/excerpts.htm
Neta Golan
Hares is a beautiful West Bank village that has become my home for the last
month. Ancient olive trees - more than 1,500 of them - have been cut down or
uprooted in the past two months by the Israeli army. Now Israeli settlers
surround the village. As with many other Palestinian villages, Hares has
been under siege from the beginning of the Intifada. Its inhabitants have
been denied the right to move in or out, to go to work, to receive medical
treat ment, or to study.

Today, I've joined the villagers in opening and removing a roadblock.. We're
trying to lift the cement block, placed at the village entrance by the
Israeli army, with crowbars. The heavy men are standing on the bars. I am
sticking stones under the lifted block and the rest of us are pushing.

My presence is meant to reduce the chances that the passing army patrols
will open Þre on us. It is a terrifying reality that Palestinian/Arab blood
does not count for much in the world these days. If anyone bothers to ask
questions about why people are killed, the army can always claim that the
people were throwing stones, as if that is a good enough reason for killing
someone. When Israeli or foreign people and cameras are present, the army's
behavior is usually more restrained: shooting an Israeli girl could lose
someone a vote.

We push the cement block for about an hour, until it Þnally rolls over. It
is a small victory in the face of an impending catastrophe. We know that the
army can put many more blocks whenever they are ordered to and that
thousands of villages in the West Bank and Gaza remain under siege, but we
allow ourselves to enjoy it for the moment.

When I arrive home to the family that is hosting me, I get a call from my
friend Ata Jaber. Ata and his family are farmers from the Baka Valley, near
Hebron. He tells me that his house has been taken over by Israeli settlers.
The police have notiÞed the family that settlers will be allowed to stay
until after Shabat. If Palestinians attempt to take over a settler house
they would be shot dead within minutes...