In Our Neighborhood…Occupation Soldiers

-        8-11-2018

-        On my way back from dropping off my son who studies at the university…to the Birzeit University garage…on Al-Irsal Street in Ramallah…at around 7:15 in the morning. I stopped by an open bakery inside a house…near a school near a building occupied by the Palestinian Medical Relief Society. I always buy flatbread from this bakery. Before I arrived—and while I was trying to steer my car toward the bakery road—I noticed several tires blocking the road…and the sun was in my face…I didn’t have my sunglasses…so what I saw appeared to be soldiers…carrying weapons. When I got a little closer, some of them rushed toward me…in a frantic manner…and raised their weapons from a distance…and motioned to me to go back…I realized that I was facing Zionist soldiers…occupiers…who do not read the texts of the Oslo Accords…for I am in an area classified B or A…where Israeli occupation soldiers are not supposed to be present. However, I hurried immediately…and signaled the cars opposite me by blinking my car lights that the road was closed…and by nature I do not like to speak with soldiers…even our own countrymen at that…because a soldier has instructions that are not civilian…let alone an occupying soldier…despicable. A thought popped into my head as I was returning—to look for a soldier from my own people or at least a policeman to ask him what was going on…!! But I did not find any of them…and the situation looked suspicious…and did not exclude anyone…!!!!..I told myself there is no need to buy from the bakery…I’ll wait half an hour…and go to it. And indeed I went after half an hour…on foot…my rented house in Al-Bireh for the past twelve years is close to the bakery…and as soon as I looked out onto the street…there were gunshots…and they sounded like live rounds…so I thought there is no need to die for a loaf…and I entered a nearby house, whose owner is close to my house…and we sat and there was the morning coffee pot before him…he poured me a cup…and when I caught my breath I asked the neighbor, “What is happening?” He told me these are occupation soldiers who have been in the area since last night and are firing stun grenades and shots…searching for youngsters who are said to have shot at settlers at night near Ramallah…and they expect they fled to this area. After that, when I felt the situation was calm and there were no gunshots or shouting of soldiers…I rushed to my home after crossing a street…and entered the house…saying to myself: why do these occupiers not respect the covenants and agreements concluded with them in 1993…in Oslo…since they should not be present in these areas classified A or B…because they are areas of presence of Palestinian security forces…But I recalled the words of their politicians and generals that they have no sacred dates, no sacred times, and no sacred charters….unlike us, who bind, cling to, and sanctify…charters…of our oppression and subjugation…!!! I became angry…after one of them informed me by telephone that the Israeli occupation army at night enters A and B areas without permission…to chase youths they say are wanted by them or to burn a shop or blow up a building; last week they blew up a four-story building opposite us in Al-Bireh…and they leave the same way they came…they enter to destroy, arrest, and kidnap our sons and daughters…without accounting…and without punishment..!!

-        I continue writing this post that I began at around 8:30 in the morning…I am now writing at three in the afternoon and the occupation soldiers are still throughout the area…My son, who came from the university, informed me that they took the CCTV cameras of the offices and companies in the area to review the recordings in hopes that they…will find the pursued youths..!!

-    I have come to hate the alphabet letters A and B and C…A B C......
I write a little then go to the outer door to listen for explosions and the sounds of grenades…very close to our residence…and it is now approximately four in the afternoon…!!

-        Who do we complain to…and to whom do we register our complaint…a thought occurred to me!.!.to write to the Sultan of Oman.!!…to send his warnings to Israel over the invasion of the Authority’s protected and classified areas according to international law. I think he would send them a telegram…stating that if you do not withdraw from A and B areas…I will consider your visit to us in Muscat…and our reception of you…different…and withdraw it and consider it as if it never happened.!!…Just a thought…I said let me mix this clay into this dough…!!. Our Arab depth will not abandon us….but I considered that a telegram is an old means of communication…befitting the Sultan’s office, which exudes legends and antiquity..!! I thought he would enlist a friend of Netanyahu to deliver the protest…via WhatsApp.!! I believe they are connected…his friends in the UAE or the Emiratis themselves indirectly connected with the evangelical delegation…visiting Riyadh…I realized…in these thoughts that the world has changed…and I live in days of mutual aid and tribalism…..Mutual aid comes from the peoples…and the Arab peoples…they have been struck with humiliation to death..!!

-        I tell you, our brothers in the Palestinian people…your primary enemy is the Israeli occupation…despicable…so sit and unite yourselves…and forgive one another..

-        Fold up the files of hatred…do not continue the division!! And return the homeland to its original cell…the single family….Unite.!!..Unite!! "so that you do not become extinct" for your strength has weakened…!!
What is happening now in our neighborhood is not comparable to what happens daily in our villages, towns and camps…of massacres, reprisals, killing, burning, uprooting trees, displacement, and extermination!!…even in our curricula..!!. But I wrote about areas that are, to some extent and according to their classification and our presence there by prior arrangement…considered resistant to occupation soldiers….!! But it seems that to the occupation we are all a single target!!..without respect for international legitimacy decisions….and even the Arab League…!!