From besieged Ramallah by Rita 4:56pm Sat Sep 21 '02 news@oznik.com It has been so stressful again here in Ramallah, not only strict curfew and the sounds of bombing and shooting basically all night, but today, emergency has meant that many people, simple ordinary citizens, are in a serious need of assistance: print article - two old people on their own right behind the Muqata'a ( the president's compound) with all their home's glass shattered because of the detonations of the past two days, swimming in dust. The woman has just come out of hospital and now she has an attack of coughing and they need to be evacuated to their son's house, but they cannot even step out, and the ambulance is not allowed to reach their area by huge tanks that threaten to shoot - the old father of a doctor friend and his wife going through the April like detonations all over again now in september, and right next door, shattering the glass of their home for the 10th time probably, and still thinking that we have to withstand all this as there is no other choice. He insists on keeping himself and his wife seated or in bed, and not hiding in the supine position on the floor when detonations takes place, as he finds the thought of dying while lying on the floor like that totally indignant! The last time in April the stress was so high this father went into the heart attack mode in the middle of the night. His son, the doctor, stayed on the line with the wife, the doctor's mother, through the night, and nothing that we did could get the ambulance or anyone else to that area up till 8 am. He was lucky enough to survive.While he was in hospital, the army came at night again and bulldozed the pavement infront of his house and the house's front wall and brought the rubble right to the front door. In the morning, the mum was very shocked to find out that she could not open the front door, but the thing that made her angriest and saddest was the destruction of her garden, including her precious Yasmineh (her jasmin plant). - the wife of a friend with their house occupied by the army, phones taken away and no contact with the outside world. She and 3 little girls stuck inside one room, locked up, the husband in jerusalem finding out about the occupation of his house from neighbors who still have phones, feeling terrible about the wife and his knowledge that the children have no milk. Several homes have been occupied in that area, but I do not know the exact number. I know of at least 5-6 - others with not much food at home any more and not knowing what to do, with tanks right infront of the houses, constant bulldozing and bombing and that dust, but day and night. We can even see the dust cloud coming up after a detonation and after we go through the shock of the noise which resonnates right through the Wadi and shakes our windows. With the sound, we rush out to the veranda and watch that awful dust cloud, going high up, above the building that stand on the hill and separates us from the Muqata'a area, where whatever is left of the president's compound lies. - The sound of my 6 year old nephew crying just after a blast today, a crying of an abnormal sort, of a child's desparation at no longer being able to cope with what is happening around him any more. The family ran out of milk and very soon, even bread. Rita www.rapprochement.org add your comments

also from Ramallah by Rob Lipton 5:06pm Sat Sep 21 '02 print comment 20/9/2002 Hi all, we were "recreating" in Ramallah today, it wasn't very hard to get in, the streets were mostly, but not completely deserted, we walked around parts of the Moqatta (spelling?), the IDF was laying barbed wire all around, probably to keep ISM types away, the buildings have all been destroyed, save one badly damaged central building, the IDF gratuitously destroyed new mobile/temporary struct ures, and the large D9 bulldozers were flattening everything around the complex, they seemed very determined and professional in their work. Safety is always important too, even during colonial incarcerations, bulldozers have backup warning beepers, probably standard catepillar USA equipment, although I'm not really sure how needed they are in paving flat homes, olive groves and seats of government. Its nice to know that just before a D9 bites into your apartment complex that you will be able to tell if its backing in or not. More seriously, the water lines have been cut, there are 200 people in the compound at serious risk over the next few days. Its not clear what the Israeli government wants of the PA and Arafat, except to call for a general Palestinian exodus to Jordan or the like. Its very strange to see an entire city at an almost complete standstill during the busiest time of the day, the weather was perfect, late afternoon, the vegetable stalls empty in that menacing dream like way where you think things look normal enough except for the blood red sky or menacing mushroom clouds. Something very wrong, in a way that is just outside of reckoning. At the Qalandia checkpoint getting out of Ramallah, an elderly soldier, mid 50's was checking our passports, he asked me what a guy like me was doing there, I asked him the same question, he told me "this is my home," I told him that other people call this home too and then I complimented him on his very well maintained assault rifle. I'm sure in regular life he is a loving father/grandfather who is about to retire as a gruff but well loved high school science teacher, the problem is that "regular life" seems increasingly like the strange dream-like state which exists in the deserted streets of Ramallah. more later, Rob add your comments

they have it coming by peter gianni 3:24pm Thu Dec 12 '02 print comment ,,,,hey rob...the pals have it coming to them, like they have not killed ruthlessly over 600 israelis. you have balls crying over this shit. add your comments