<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1255"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2600.0" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">Hey all,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">Hope you people are having decent holidays.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">Today I went to a really interesting, sad and inspiring demonstration near Hebron. It was a bit cold down there in the Hebron hills, but luckily it didn't rain, and there ended up being a surprisingly large turnout.  Not only that, but there was reliable news before the action that we were going to be stopped by the Israeli Army (last time, about two months ago Ta'ayush went out to distribute food, they were prevented by the army).  This time it was relatively smooth sailing, and none of the 99 cars in the convoy were stopped at the various checkpoints.  But every time I see what the occupation means with my own eyes, it still amazes me: The Palestinian houses taken over by the Israeli Army, covered with camoflage tarps with snipers on the roof (I don't know where the owners are...probably living with realatives if they are lucky); the dirt mound walls surrounding the villages; and the dilapatated condition of the villages. The inspiring side of it is that in the last week or so, there have been several different demonstrations with several hundred people participating in them.  In these days of a highly truncated left, this is a good sign...hopefully.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">If you want to read about Ta'ayush, the organization who set up the convoy, there website is at:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><A href="http://taayush.tripod.com/">http://taayush.tripod.com/</A></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">Anyway, I wrote up a quick post to the IMC-Israel website, so I thought I would send it your way also:  </FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">--------------------------</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">Successful Food Convoy and Solidarity action in Beit Umar<BR><BR>Bryan Atinsky, Indymedia Israel Correspondent<BR><BR>TEL-AVIV: Today (Dec. 29, 2001), approximately 350 International solidarity demonstrators (French, Americans, Jewish Israelis, Israeli Palestinians, etc.) brought over 10 tons of food-staples and clothing to the Palestinian city of Beit Umar, near Hebron. A convoy of 99 cars and trucks drove from Jerusalem, through several Israeli Army checkpoints, for reasons of humanitarian assistance and to show solidarity with the residents of the city of Beit Umar. As stated by Ta'ayush Arab-Jewish Partnership, the activity's sponsoring organization:<BR><BR>"The village of Beit Umar lies on the main road between Bethlehem and Hebron, 25 minutes south of Jerusalem. It has 12,000 residents of whom 4,600 are school-age children. Beit Umar has suffered repeated harassment from the Israeli military and since the second Intifada began over a year ago, the main entrance to the village has been closed, forcing its residents to use back roads, which are also frequently closed by the military".<BR><BR>"Beit Umar's economic crisis stems from the closure and Israel's economic strangulation of the occupied territories. Unemployment is soaring and currently ranges between 60 to 80 percent. The majority of wage earners who used to work in Israel are currently prohibited from entering the country, while those who were employed in local workshops have been laid off due to the economic depression. The residents who make their living from agriculture have been equally hurt due to the military siege, which has prevented them from marketing their produce in Israel. This summer, families watched as their grapes and plums went unpicked, and many months of work and investment went down the drain. According to discussions held this week with Beit Umar's council and charity organizations, there are well over 250 families who literally cannot make ends meet."<BR><BR>Beit Umar has been literally blocked off from the rest of the occupied West Bank by means of a large mound of dirt a couple of meters high, which surrounds the entire city, including the main road. The only way possible for residents to normally get in or out of the city (when there isn't a curfew) is by foot, crawling over the wall. In order to get the food into the city today, the trucks holding the food and clothing had to be unloaded on one side of the mound, and transferred hand to hand by a large chain of people across to the other side, reloading the food into trucks waiting on the Beit Umar side of the mound.<BR><BR>After all of the goods were transferred, the hundreds of visitors crossed over into Beit Umar, walked through the city to a large meeting hall, where a joint solidarity gathering between representatives of Beit Umar and the visitors took place.<BR></DIV></FONT> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">Bryan Atinsky<BR>IMC-Israel <BR>English Editorial Coordinator<BR><A href="http://www.indymedia.org.il">http://www.indymedia.org.il</A></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>