[Reader-list] Palestine - Another normal saturday, another invasion of Dheisheh

[Paul Miller]

> In the process of recording an album with the hip hop group DAM from  
> Ramallah, Palestine, I came into contact with some interesting  
> figures from the electronic music scene from both Israel and  
> Palestine. DAM is doing 2 songs on my next album, and so is Hadag  
> NacHash, from Tel Aviv, I'm also working on material with JDUB  
> records, a progressive Jewish record label in Brooklyn. During the  
> process everyone ended up sending me alot of interesting blog  
> material from alot of different perspectives. DAM is also the  
> subject of a friend of mine's new film "Sling Shot Hip Hop" about  
> hip hop in the Middle East:

Sling Shot Hip Hop
www.slingshothiphop.com

and you can view the trailer at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rdS8zNp3ow

I just thought I'd forward this - it's from yesterday, Saturday, June  
14, 2008.

in peace,
Paul aka DJ Spooky

	From: DAM <suhelldam at gmail.com>
	Subject: 	another normal saturday, another invasion of Dheisheh
Suhell - more to come.
> i'll add more pictures on www.norabf.com soon.

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Nora Barrows-Friedman
> Date: Sat, Jun 14, 2008 at 9:16 PM
> Subject: another normal saturday, another invasion of Dheisheh
>
>
>
> friends, fam,
>
> on the table next to me as i write this are two steel bullets, one  
> encased in hard black rubber, and the other a naked, dull silver.  
> they were picked up from the street in dheisheh this afternoon,  
> fired from US-made and financed Israeli weapons.
>
> At about 2pm, over two dozen israeli armored jeeps and APCs and  
> bulldozers and secret service rolled into the main street right  
> outside of Ibdaa center, cut traffic off, and began firing sound  
> grenades, tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition.  
> israeli snipers kicked people out of their homes on the other side  
> of the street and used the top floors as sniper posts.
>
> my friend Hanin and i were up north in Nablus, catching up with old  
> friends and planning/researching a few stories for later next week,  
> and my friend Marcy Newman called my phone with the news. we  
> immediately headed back to bethlehem, and were receiving updates  
> throughout the whole two-hour, three-taxi, five-checkpoint ride. two  
> people shot. then three. half an hour later, five people shot and  
> injured, one of them a woman. the count is now at 15 people injured.  
> i felt horrible that i wasn't there as the invasion began.
>
> hanin and i got out of the taxi about 500 meters down the street  
> from ibdaa, right in front of a huge APC (armored personnel carrier)  
> parked next to an armored jeep. several israeli occupation soldiers  
> were inside and outside, reloading their M16s and firing sound  
> grenades into the camp. a rain of stones would come, bouncing off  
> the hoods of the vehicles. the entire street, a normally bustling  
> thoroughfare that connects Hebron with Bethlehem, was eerily quiet  
> except for the stones and the blasting fire of the israeli weapons.  
> we ran across the street, into a shwarmeh cafe, where people were  
> watching the events unfold from the back room.
>
> we cut into the camp with some of my former students, a group of  
> beautiful, tall girls who were coming back from their high school  
> exams and surprised to see the camp under seige, and headed back  
> toward Ibdaa.
>
> we found ourselves running with the throngs of stone-throwing  
> Dheisheh boys, as we tripped over white stones and green and silver  
> tear gas canisters with hebrew and english ("made in Philadelphia,  
> USA") written on them, my camera and digital recorder working  
> overtime trying to document as much as possible. tear gas stinging  
> noses, eyes, the backs of our mouths. we made our way carefully back  
> to ibdaa from the back, tear gas permeating the entire front area of  
> the camp. hours later, you can still smell it and taste it on your  
> lips.
>
> at about 6pm, the soldiers began piling back in their jeeps,  
> followed by dozens of young men, encroaching closer and closer to  
> the remaining occupation soldiers, throwing stones and beating them  
> back in defense of the street, the camp, the community. as the last  
> jeep turned the corner to leave the camp, soldiers still firing  
> sound grenades indiscriminately, dozens of boys turned into  
> hundreds, cheering and holding up the international victory sign.
>
> more than four hours of siege, shooting, and resistance.
>
> my former radio production student Loai lives in the house that the  
> Israelis destroyed during this invasion. they apparently were  
> looking for his 16 year old cousin who was "wanted" by the israeli  
> military. "wanted," after his father Ahmed was killed by the same  
> military just four months ago. "wanted," for throwing stones. an  
> invasion for this boy. a relative told me, his hands in the air,  
> "it's not like he had an RPG! he's just a kid!"
>
> Loai took me and Marcy into his cousin's house. the israelis hadn't  
> needed to use their Caterpillar bulldozer; they did a smashing job  
> with their guns and their bare hands. the walls were smashed in. the  
> sink and the entire bathroom was smashed to pieces. furniture was  
> smashed to splinters. cooking gas poured on the rugs and on the  
> couches and beds. mirrors smashed to glass slivers. the door was  
> bombed. the wardrobes were open, rummaged through, pocked with  
> bullet holes. Another one of Loai's young cousins came in the front  
> room with a giant plastic bag full of bullet casings, including  
> several tear gas canisters, heavy sound grenades, and some shrapnel- 
> like slivers of metal that no one had seen before. "they're using  
> new ammunition, we have no idea what it is," Loai explained.
>
> the entire place was destroyed. the 16 year old "wanted" boy managed  
> to escape. and the boys of dheisheh had beat the fourth-largest  
> military in the world.
>
> now, as the sunset casts a purple-orange glow over the streets,  
> littered with stones and normal traffic rumblings, the television is  
> set to the sweden-spain soccer match and people are laughing, white  
> dust still on some of the boys' hands.
>
> there are kites flying over the camp now. one of them has a  
> palestinian flag fluttering behind it, one hundred feet up in the air.
>
> another day in occupied palestine.
>
> more to come.
> i'll add more pictures on www.norabf.com soon.
>
> nora
>
>
>
> -- 
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> YaMaN
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> -- 
> Suhell from DAM
> www.myspace.com/damrap
> www.slingshothiphop.com
> www.dampalestine.com