[WCUSP] "They come, shoot, arrest and leave...so what's the problem?"

[KATHARLOW at aol.com]

Nadine eats Pizza in Ramallah, 
By Sam  Bahour 
[Sam Bahour,  American-raised, almost two metre tall, built to last, the 
owner and manager of  the first ever mall in Ramallah, and a very pleasant man,  
writes about  yesterday’s Israeli raid in Ramallah as seen through the eyes of 
his 6 years old  daughter – not a tear-squeezer but a human interest charming 
piece of  battlefield reporting.]  
I wanted to write this last night but was exhausted from playing  umpteen 
hands of the card game UNO with my 6 year old daughter, Nadine (pic  
attached).Why this card frenzy, especially given I hate playing cards? Well, we  were in 
the center of Ramallah yesterday afternoon, at 3:40pm when the almighty  
Israeli military decided, again, that it was time to wreak havoc on our city. I  
should not really complain since what happened in Ramallah yesterday happens  
across the West Bank and I wa regularly. Nevertheless, I  will make an issue 
about it and urge every Palestinian, in every city, to make  an issue about every 
Israeli infraction on our lives. 
Yesterday I was  extremely busy all day and had a dinner appointment with a 
serious venture  capitalist in Yesterday in the evening, so I agreed with  my 
wife and girls that since I would not be home all day and night, that I'd  pick 
them up at 3:30 sharp and we would go for a late lunch. We haven't been out  
much given all of the infighting lately so my girls were thrilled. I rushed 
home  at 3:30 to pick them up and found my daughters dressed to kill. To them, 
this  was a serious outing after a long holiday break which was spent mostly at 
home.  The restaurant they had as first choice was closed due to the 
holidays, so they  reverted to their favorite popular place, Angelo's Pizzeria, for 
those that know  it. 
Angelo's Pizzeria  is on the main street in Ramallah, a few hundred meters 
from Lion's Circle, the  smack middle of town where you saw on the news Israeli 
bulldozers destroying  cars last night. I parked on the Angelo'  <ST1   <ST 
road which is behind the restaurant. As soon as I exited  the car I felt 
something was wrong. As we walked into the restaurant I looked up  and could see an 
Israeli gunship helicopter hovering overhead firing at some  unknown target. We 
thought it would be safer to enter the restaurant rather than  return home. 
The restaurant was  full with most tables nervous at the sound of gunfire 
from overhead. The  waiters, who have been through this dozens of times, visited 
the tables and  played and joked with the kids. They knew that things were not 
right and went  out of their way to make life normal, at least while we were 
their customers.  The restaurant manager, a friend, came to our table and 
asked me for my car  keys. He wanted to move my car because word came that the 
Israeli jeeps and  armored vehicles that were operating in town were crushing 
cars parked on the  side of the road. He found my car already in a safe spot and 
reassured us that  this will pass soon. He knows, he has lived this reality 
every day for 40 years  now! 
We ordered a pizza  and salad and Nadine insisted that Angelo's Pizzeria has 
the best hamburgers in  town and wanted one as well so she ordered one 
herself. As we sat, things  outside were clearly deteriorating. I got a call on my 
cellular hone from my dad  back in We ordered, , <S. He asked where we are  
because no one answered at home. He briefed me on the live reports he was  
watching about what was happening outside the restaurant door. After talking  with my 
father, I made frequent visits to the restaurant door to view people  rushing 
away from the city center. While I was standing at the door, a friend of  
mine had finished eating with his wife and 4 kids and stood at the door  
contemplating to leave to cross the street to his car. I kept a lookout and gave  him 
the all clear as he rushed his family across the street to his car and he  was 
off. At this stage, I knew it was not only military activity overhead but  
something very close by. 
The salad showed  up in no time and we enjoyed it. Then the famous hamburger 
followed and then our  pizza. All the time my wife was trying to make phone 
contact with her sister who  we invited to join us but never showed up. She 
wanted to make sure she was ok  given all the shooting and commotion outside. My 
older daughter, Areen, was a  bit nervous, wondering how we were going to get 
back home. We reassured her that  all would be fine. In reality, we had no 
idea. 
Forty minutes  later, my wife, Abeer, Areen and I had finished eating and 
were ready to go.  Nadine, was happily, and very slowly, enjoying her world-class 
hamburger and  fries while every so often reassuring us. " They come, shoot, 
arrest, and  leave...so what's the problem? When they leave, we will go home, 
right  dad?" 
"So what's the  problem?"! The problem is how can a 6 year old calmly sit 
through a mini-war  happening outside the restaurant while enthusiastically 
devouring a hamburger  without the slightest hint of being disturbed? 
Nadine finally  finished and we headed home. Luckily we were parked in the 
opposite direction of  the shooting, so we drove the wrong way down a one way 
street and headed home.  On the way, taxis were rushing about, driving worse 
than usual, shuttling people  away from the center of Ramallah. When we got near 
our home we had to cross the  Jerusalem-Ramallah road. Looking left about 200 
meters away my girls yelled out  that the IDF was blocking the street. I 
glanced and it was a mess. Jeeps all  over, rocks filled the street, behind the 
jeeps I could see the open market was  full of soldiers. 
We finally got  home. Turned on CNN, nothing! Switched to Jazeerah and they 
had live pictures of  what was happening and the extent of it - another Israeli 
invasion into  Ramallah. An undercover Israeli hit team tried to arrest 
someone and were  exposed and came under Palestinian fire. They called in 
re-enforcements and all  the lone rangers came running (and shooting and plowing). 
I was  contemplating with my wife if I should risk heading to  I was  c later 
in the evening. We agreed to wait and see  how it develops given the news 
reports started to say the IDF was completing  their operations and leaving the 
city center (only to move back to their  permanent position of surrounding our 
city). 
I went to check my  email and cancel a radio interview appointment with CBC 
that I missed because of  this mess. This is when Nadine came and asked if I 
could accompany her to the  bathroom. She never asks to be accompanied. The 
bathroom in our small flat is  literally 1 meter from my computer and 3 meters 
from the living room where Abeer  was watching the news and Areen was letting 
Grandma Sarah in  I went to  know we were all home and ok. 
I immediately  understood and gladly accompanied Nadine and even made it a 
fun trip. Then I  cancelled all my appointments that evening and spent the rest 
of the night doing  exactly what Nadine asked for - to play UNO. We played 
alone, with Areen, as a  family, and then alone again, multiple times. When 
bedtime came she kissed me  good night and headed to her room along with her sister 
as usual - no escort. I  felt that UNO therapy had worked. I may even claim 
for a new deck of UNO on my  health insurance policy. 
My friends, I  write this not to bore you with one family's experience during 
2 hours of  occupation, but rather to scream to the world that we need your  
help! 
4 Palestinian  civilians were killed last night in this attack, 20 were 
injured, 5 of them  seriously. I have no statistics on the number of children, like 
Nadine, whose  skin become thicker during this latest Israeli adventure. 
Israel has lost her way and the  h is Palestinian- is Pal is Pa  is creating 
yet another generation of Palestinians that are more numb to their  military 
occupation than any other. Likewise, it is creating a generation of  Israeli 
occupiers that see my city as the wild, wild, west. It is stripping  children, 
Palestinian and Israeli, of their childhood. It must stop and NOW. We  need 
your active support: 
Organize locally,  at your church, community center, union, etc. Support 
Jimmy Carter's stance  against Israeli Apartheid. Read his book. Write letters. 
Visit and engage your  representatives. Demand public statements. Sponsor a 
Palestinian student. Invest  in Organize . Request Angelo's Pizzeria start 
exporting  hamburgers by express mail. and most importantly, play UNO with your  
kids. 
Braced for the 4  funerals that will start in 3 hours, Sam 
_sbahour at palnet.sba_ (mailto:sbahour at palnet.com)   
[The funniest  thing about yesterday’s raid was the response of Mahmoud Abbas 
who said that  Israeli government proved it is not interested in peace. Thank 
you for these  tidings, Mr Abbas!]


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wilpf.org/pipermail/wcusp_wilpf.org/attachments/20070106/509a6596/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 9050 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://wilpf.org/pipermail/wcusp_wilpf.org/attachments/20070106/509a6596/attachment-0001.jpe