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Help and solidarity convoy to Salem Junction, near Jenin.Sunday 14 Apr 2002
author: r.b (r_to_b@ihateclowns.com)
summary
Saturday morning, 4/13/02
Close to ten thousand people (according to organizers) marched today [Saturday] from Megido Junction to the Salem military checkpoint, a few kilometers from Jenin, accompanied by trucks carrying humanitarian aid to the city's besieged residents.
Published on IMC israel hebrew.
http://indymedia.org.il/imc/israel/webcast/23966.html
[translated by Natalie Rothman]
Help and solidarity convoy to Salem Junction, near Jenin.
Saturday morning, 4/13/02
Close to ten thousand people (according to organizers) marc! hed Saturday from Megido Junction to the Salem military checkpoint near Jenin. The march and convoy of 45 trucks carrying food, water and medical supplies were held as a show of solidarity with the residents of Jenin. Thousands of Jenin's residents became homeless in the last few days, and hundreds of them were killed by the Israeli army in what several sources describe as a brutal massacre of civilians.
We arrived at Megido Junction around 11am and loaded some 5 trucks with food, blankets, clothes, and lots of bottled water brought by participants from home. (To these were added 40 trucks of humanitarian supplies gathered
in advance.)
The march took about an hour and a half, during which we chanted slogans
expressing Arab-Jewish solidarity with the besieged people of Jenin, calling
for an immediate peace and a stop to the war crimes perpetrated by the State
of Israel. The marchers walked along singing, chanting slogans and raising banners.
The march was explicitly non-violent, a token of organizers' and participants' conviction that violence can be resisted non-violently.
We were stopped by the army at the Jenin military checkpoint. In order to
avoid conflict and the army's wrath, the rally's organizers decided to have
the trucks pass through another checkpoint (Jalame). Once we received confirmation that all 45 trucks have reached their destination, the marchers
returned to their homes.
Activists from humanitarian organizations are now delivering the aid to the new refugees.
[translator's note: later reports indicate that only 5 trucks were in fact
allowed into Jenin. The rest, as of Saturday night were still delayed by the
army in nearby villages, despite organizers' exhausting negotiations with
the Americans, relief agencies, and the Israeli army.]