Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2000 01:44:09 +0200
Subject: BHA: After long: a report.


GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/

Hi all

It  is some time ago that you got a message from Gush Shalom. This doesn't mean 
that we had fallen asleep. During the political turmoil we have been very busy 
with our sticker campaigns, and also invested energy (and not to forget: money) 
in publishing articles and letters but also ads in the Israeli papers because 
that is sometimes the most effective form. You can find the text of ads and 
articles as well as stickers on our website -  http://www.gush-shalom.org/

This week, Gush Shalom participated actively in two events. (You were unvited 
to take part through the forwarded otherisr-AT-actcom.co.il message.) 

For those who couldn't come: here follows a report.
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"Remove Shdema - Soldiers Go Home."

"Shdema" is a military base built during  Jordanian rule on the land of Beit 
Sahour.  Since 1967, when the Israeli army took over, the place has been a 
military base for the IDF.
With the outbreak of the Al Aqsa Intifada, this camp - a visible symbol of 
ongoing occupation - was the center of repeated confrontations manifestly 
unequal in strength.  Palestinian stones were answered by Israeli gunfire, and 
when the Palestinians started to use rifles as well the IDF responded by 
missile launchings and cannonades of tank artillery. 

Through the past three months,  many Sahourian homes were damaged, four
were totally burned and eight suffered severe damage and need to be rebuilt. 
Though most inhabitants of the targeted houses succeeded to flee in time, two 
women (mothers) and a young man got killed, and there were ten people injured. 

(...)  Thursday, December 28th, hundreds of  Palestinians, Israeli  and 
Internationals marched together demanding an immediate
evacuation and dismantling of this military base.  The march was
organized by the Municipality of Beit Sahour, Beit Sahour
Emergency Committee and the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement.
Israelis from Gush Shalom and Stop the Occupation, as well as internationals 
from the Italian Women in Black, the CGL Trade Union (also Italian) and the 
France - Palestine Association along with Palestinians from Beit Sahour marched 
together.  

The Israelis had a few adventures on the way to Beit Sahour. The chartered bus 
which brought them from Tel-Aviv stopped in Jerusalem. The Israeli driver 
didn't at all like the idea to drive over roads which had been the scene of 
shooting in the past months - all the more since he was evidently a right-
winger who didn't like the whole enterprise. But a Palestinian buscompany was 
fortunately ready to provide a replacement transportation at very short notice, 
and took the impatient activists to the checkpoint in Beit Jalla. (Though 
officially Israelis are forbidden by their own government to go over to the 
Palestinian-controlled areas, there were no soldiers to enforce this 
prohibition.) 

The march demanding the removal of this camp started from the Shepherds' Field 
in the town and reached the military base.  To eveybody's surprise the main 
gate was open and unguarded, as were the watchtowers. A sign in Hebrew 
proclaimed: Welcome to Shdema Camp...
The crowd went in chanting in Hebrew and English: Soldiers Go Back Home." 
A written demand of evacuation was delivered to an astonished Israeli major who 
meanwhile showed up. 

The march ended by putting up a Palestinian flag over the watchtower as the 
crowds cheered and clapped after which  the denmonstraters went to visit the 
most severely damaged houses  - some of them no more than burnt-out shells.


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