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"The forgotten fighter" Nablus's will to live

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Maroof tells me that during the first and second invasions of Nablus, while he was working as a volunteer with the fire brigade and the Red Crescent, he was nearly killed twice by the Israeli army. They knew he was working as a paramedic. Maroof witnessed many times blatant human rights violations by the army. The ambulances were not allowed to do their job properly and to rescue people. A lot of people died as a result of not being taken to hospital in time. Maroof and his team were once forbidden to leave the old city. They had to stay there for 12 days without edible food.

And then there is Saed who lost his mother in 2002 when she was assassinated by an Israeli sniper. There is Eslam who twice saw the Israeli army occupying his house and could not go out for days at a time. There is Ala from An Najah University (the biggest university in the West Bank) who cannot sleep at night because of nightmares due to multiple Israeli Army interventions and beatings in the campus during the night. There is Amad who went to jail with his whole family for 3 months in 2005.

And then there is this Palestinian girl, 17 years old, from Balata refugee camp, who tells me, on my last day in Nablus, while sharing a meal people from the camp had prepared for us:

“Tell me. What was the image you had of us before coming here? Did you think we were all killers? Did you think we were all crazy? Because I've got friends in Europe who told me that over there people think we are all crazy and terrorists. You know it hurts me so much when I hear things like this. We're not crazy. We're good people here. I mean not everyone's good. Like everywhere else. But most of us are good. Nice people. Do you see many terrorists in this room? Do we all seem crazy to you? We're just normal people and we want to live a normal life. But life for us is hard here. Can you tell the truth to your people when you go back to Europe? Can you tell them who we really are, please?”

I am so touched I cannot answer. Can you?

Most of the testimonies I filmed are now available online at http://lifeunderoccupation.wordpress.com/

Do not hesitate to show them around and use them.

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Frank Barat Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

I am a member of Palestine Solidarity Campaign (http://www.palestinecampaign.org/index2b.asp) and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. (http://www.icahd.org/eng/). I am on the organizing committee of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine (more...)
 
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