CPT em Gaza, Palestina

Esse é um trecho do livro "In Harm's Way: A History of Christian Peacemaker Teams" por Kathleen Kern. É uma passagem do capítulo sobre o trabalho da CPT em Gaza.
(Enquanto três capítulos do livro relatam a história de projetos mais de longo prazo do grupo em outras regiões da Palestina, o útlimo capítulo do livro relata o breve projeto em campos de refugiados na Faixa de Gaza. O trecho abaixo é do último capítulo)

Certa vez, Cliff Kindy estava pernoitando na casa de uma família no acampamento de Rafah  que havia perdido um filho três dias antes quando ele bloqueou um veículo militar israelita que perseguia um homem. Sendo baleado oito vezes, o filho foi levado ao hospital Khan Younis, mas soldados cercaram o prédio, negando a entrada a médicos que tentaram tratá-lo. Ele morreu no dia seguinte. Três vezes o governador militar israelita da área foi à casa da família dizendo à mãe "continue vestindo suas roupas de luto: nós vamos matar seu outro filho também."
  Na noite antes do funeral, soldados destruíram o encanamento da casa da família, acabaram com os móveis indo de quarto em quarto e fizeram furos à bala no teto com disparos. Um soldado fincou seu calcanhar sobre a mão de um bebê de um ano de idade que dormia.

(Página 501)

"Things Fall Apart" - The Al-Aqsa Intifada - CPT - IV

This is another passage from the book "In Harm's Way: A History of Christian Peacemaker Teams".

"In later years of the Intifada, the U.S. boycott of the democratically elected Hamas government, which included desperately needed aid to pay salaries of teachers and medical personnel, aroused much bitterness among Palestinians. The boycott confirmed what they had suspected - that 'democracy' to the U.S. means that Palestinians should vote for the candidates the U.S. supported."

(Page 208)

"Things Fall Apart" - The Al-Aqsa Intifada - CPT - III

This is another passage from the book "In Harm's Way: A History of Christian Peacemaker Teams".

Issues Arising from West Bank Work
Culpability of the United States in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

   The predominant grievance the Arab/Muslim world holds against the United States is its default and overt support of Israel. Although the U.S. State Department has given lip service to the principle that settlement expansion is detrimental to peace, the government has continued to send massive amounts of aid to Israel that have enabled it to continue building settlements and confiscating land.
   Jeff Halper, the director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, has said that the U.S. Congress is the institution most responsible for keeping the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in place. U.S. presidents and the U.S. State Department have understood that Israeli settlements are the primary obstacle to peace in the region. More than half of the Israeli electorate thinks that Israel should get out of the West Bank and Gaza. However, the political power of the right-wing partisans of Israel is enormous. Congressional representatives who have dared to criticize Israel for its abuses of human rights or ask that it abide by United Nations resolutions and pull out of the Occupied Territories have lost their seats due to the power of the Israeli lobby.
  Hebron team members have watched the American participation in the 1995 Oslo II accords, the 1997 Hebron Protocol, the 1998 Wye River Memorandum, the 1999 Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum, the 2000 Camp David II negotiations, the 2001 Taba talks and Mitchell Report, and the 2003 "Roadmap to Peace" proposed by the "Quartet" of the European Union, Russia, U.S., and United Nations. None of these negotiations really addressed Israel's determination to hold on to settlements in the West Bank.
  Likewise, when Arabs see U.S.-built Apache and Blackhawk helicopters killing Palestinian civilians and U.S.-built Caterpillar bulldozers demolishing Palestinian homes, U.S. advocacy for "peace" negotiations rings hollow.

(Pages 206 and 207)

"Things Fall Apart" - The Al-Aqsa Intifada - CPT - II

This is another passage from the book "In Harm's Way: A History of Christian Peacemaker Teams".

"After Israel fenced in Wadi ghroos to confiscate the land in that valley, soldiers assaulted two sons of the Zalloum family, whose home CPTers tried unsuccessfully to save in 1996. Soldiers picked up the eight-year-old by his head, lifted him high up in the air, and slammed him to the ground. Then they knocked the six-year-old boy down and kicked him. Their father, Waheed Zalloum, complained to the police. When the police asked the soldier why he had done it, he said, according to Zalloum, 'They will grow up to be terrorists, so it's better if we kill them now, while they're small.'"
(Page 167).

keywords: Palestine, Israel, CPT

"Things Fall Apart" - The Al-Aqsa Intifada - CPT

"On March 16, 2003, an Israeli military bulldozer crushed ISM [International Solidarity Movement] activist Rachel Corrie as she was trying to prevent it from demolishing a Palestinian home. Corrie, 23, from Olympia, Washington, had been part of an ISM team in Rafah (Gaza strip) for the previous two months. Israeli forces in Jenin shot American ISM volunteer Brian Avery in the face on April 5, 2003 - as he stood with other ISMers in front of an Armoured Personnel Carrier - for which he required several reconstructive surgeries. Five days later, Israeli soldiers shot British International Solidarity Movement volunteer Tom Hurndall in the head. Hurndall had been shepherding a group of Palestinian children out of a narrow passage where they had been playing when shooting started. Soldiers opened fire from a tank-mounted machine gun. Hurndall had just taken the hand of a little girl when the bullet hit him in the head. He remained comatose until his family disconnected him from life support in January 2004. Corrie, Avery, and Hurndall were all wearing fluorescent orange or red vests identifying them as human rights accompaniers when the Israeli military killed or injured them.
  These attacks hit everyone who had worked on the [Christian Peacemaker Team] Hebron team hard.  Corrie, Avery, and Hurndall had all participated in the trainings led by the Hebron team. Furthermore, many Hebron team members, as well as their Israeli, Palestinian, and International friends, had stood between bulldozers and their designated targets as part of their work.
  An Urgent Action put out on April 12, 2003, quoted Le Anne Clausen as saying.
  'It feels like open season on peace activists. It's been open season on Palestinians all along, now the lack of accountability in the Israeli military has reached a new level. For Palestinians, the threat of 'transfer' (ethnic cleansing) looms large; the Israeli attacks on human rights workers accompanying them seem to be part of a move by Sharon administration in this direction. If the internationals can be chased away, what will happen to the Palestinian civilians?'

Fragment from
"In Harm's Way: A History of Christian Peacemaker Teams" by Kathleen Kern.