A Tale of Two Sisters: Witnessing an Undercover Israeli Operation in Ramallah
:: A Tale of Two Sisters: Witnessing an Undercover Israeli Operation in Ramallah (1)
by Annemarie Jacir writing from Ramallah, occupied Palestine, Live from Palestine, ei, 15 November 2006
I lifted my head… the man shooting was around 6 feet from me. Shooting away. Israeli secret service… dressed up like an Arab. They do this all the time… so they come into town and no one notices. Then I saw tens of Israeli soldiers crawling the streets all around us. Did they come out of the vans? They were in full uniform, unlike the two van ‘drivers’ who had dressed as plain clothes Arab men. Mustarabeen…Israeli agents who dress like Arabs.
… A man disappeared this afternoon. Two men were killed. It won’t even make the news.
Annemarie Jacir is a Palestinian film-maker living in Ramallah. Read full article here.
:: A Tale of Two Sisters: Witnessing an Undercover Israeli Operation in Ramallah (2)
Emily Jacir writing from Ramallah, occupied Palestine, Live from Palestine, ei, 15 November 2006:
Today is November 15th.
Today is our supposed “Independence Day”.
A joke.
Was almost killed today.
This will be brief and inarticulate. I am still in shock.
… We hopped back in the car. It was a beautiful afternoon, the streets were packed full of people, and we were headed to Mohammed’s restaurant to chill out, eat our kanafa, and let Carolyn take in the intensity of all she had seen. Mohammed hopped out of the car to pick up his own car, and we continued down the main street on our way.
We had just arrived underneath Ziryab Coffee Shop when, all of a sudden to our immediate right, a van pulled up and stopped at a 90 degree angle. We couldn’t drive forward because part of the van blocked us in. The doors opened and mustarabeen (Israeli army dressed as Arabs) hopped out with giant machine guns and started shooting. We were trapped.
After this point it is hard to remember what happened. We all ducked down, trapped… To our left another van full of mustarabeen were shooting away. We were surrounded.
A man with his 5-year-old daughter to our right throws his daughter to the ground. Then he grabs her and makes a run for it into a shop.
Damn it. I was calm. There was shooting from M-16’s all around the car.
… Anyway, in short, the Israelis came in – in the middle of the day – onto the main street of Ramallah – the most crowded street and attacked us on our “Independence Day”.
We are alive and not injured. We are okay.
I do not know if the rental car insurance covers bullets from Israeli M-16’s, or dents from being crashed into by mustarabeen.
And so it goes, so it goes. Another day in Palestine.
This is not a story.
A small nothing in the larger context of what happens on a daily basis here.
I am sure it won’t be on any news.
Another day in Palestine.
Emily Jacir is a Palestinian artist who lives between Ramallah and New York City. Read full article here
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