July 31, 2001 — Mudeif Productions

Today was another day for lectures, which have been set up for the foreigners here this summer. Since 1993, the program has been averaging 70-90 summer students. This summer we're down to 20, of whom about two were not already in the area.

*Walking across the Surda checkpoint into Ramallah.*

For today's lecture we headed into Ramallah. (As we walked across the roadblock, we noticed that the Ramallah side of the roadblock has grown into a parking lot; people have driven as far as they can, and presumably take shared taxis for the rest of their journey, after they walk across the block. Not so easy for trucks--we're not quite sure how goods will be getting between Ramallah and Birzeit now.)

*The Palestinian police have decided its safer to be outside of their station.*

We went to the offices of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights. Established by presidential decree to act like an ombudsman on behalf of Palestinian citizens, the center has been spending most of the last ten months dealing with the issues of the Occupation and siege. But since, as they say, they are a human rights organization and not a political one, they have also been dealing with issues related to the Palestinian Authority - mainly the complete collapse of its infrastructure, since most PA-related folks are simply fearing for their lives (word came during the meeting that eight Palestinians in Nablus were victims of Israel's policy of extra-judicial execution). We could see this, as the offices overlook the new Palestinian police station. But rather than stay inside (and be easy targets), most of the force is out under the olive trees - where they now sleep, too. It wasn't much of anything new, but to hear the numbers and the statistics again remind us how unbelievably oppressive the situation is - 530 Palestinians killed, 15,000 injured, 25,000 trees destroyed, routine infractions that amount to "grave breaches" of the Fourth Geneva Convention: settlements, assassinations, collective punishments, torture, killing of civilians outside of conflict, willful destruction of property.

No one in the Palestinian human rights camp seems to be ignoring PA violations, as can be seen in their very thick year 2000 annual report. However, the human rights problems with the PA have clearly taken a back seat as the PICCR is fighting to keep up with the overwhelming number and scope of infractions of the current Israeli seige.