Nothing Had Prepared Me For the Scenes of Devastation in Jenin
By Dr. Riad Abdelkarim
Posted: 18 Safar 1423, 1 May 2002
[The following informal report comes from American Muslims for Jerusalem Board Member,
Dr. Riad Abdelkarim. Dr. Abdelkarim, a physician in the Los Angeles area, is in Occupied
Palestine now on a delegation surveying the medical needs of Palestinians in light of the
enormous devastation and destruction of Palestine's civilian infrastructure by Israeli
forces.]
*************
Salaam, dear friends:
After visiting the Jenin refugee camp yesterday (Sunday), I feel ashamed to be part of
a world that has allowed such a monstrous crime to occur.
All of the pictures on the Internet, the images on satellite television, the thousands
and thousands of words written already about this crime by others, my previous witnessing
of the destruction in Khan Yunus, Rafah, and Bethlehem--did not prepare me adequately for
the scenes of devastation and despair that I witnessed.
The 18-year old boy was killed in front of his
home. A mere 24 hours later the boy's mother was shot--also in front of the house. |
I know, too, that my words cannot paint a thorough picture of what I felt
walking through the camp yesterday, but I would like to share a few "random
thoughts" and sample observations, upon which you may individually reflect. Please
pardon the random, disassociated nature of these thoughts (as this is not reflective of my
usual writing style). Honestly, I am so numbed by what I have seen that the rush of
emotions blurs the cohesiveness of my thoughts. But I feel I owe it to the people of Jenin
to say something, anything.
-------------
Upon entering the camp and passing a huge mound of rubble--the remnants of a building--
horrible, foul, spine-tingling odor struck me. It was the smell of death. We have all
heard about it--seen survivors of this massacre talk about it--but I somehow did not
expect it to still be present one-and-a-half weeks after the Israeli pullout. Yet there it
was, greeting the dozens upon dozens of foreign and NGO delegations walking through the
camp. Nobody knows how many are buried underneath, but there is no question that life was
extinguished below this mound of rubble.
.....
Camp residents were walking around as if in a trance, still clearly not able to
comprehend--or accept--the wholesale destruction of their homes. It was as if the entire
camp was drugged.
.........
Everywhere I went, there were stories of terror. Stories of executions. Stories of huge
D-11 Caterpillar bulldozers that would knock down a home with a single push...with entire
families still inside. The story of the 85 year-old partially blind man whom I visited in
a Jenin hospital. He had been struck by shrapnel from an Apache helicopter shell fired at
his home. The story of a young man who lost his right leg and part of his right hand when
his home was shelled as well.
The story of an 18-year old boy killed in front of his home. We sat to offer our
condolences to his uncle and cousin. Then I learned that the boy's mother was shot--also
in front of the house--a mere 24 hours later. She too had died. This was a double tragedy.
Stories of ambulances prevented from entering to evacuate the injured and dead. Stories
of women being virtually strip searched by soldiers before being allowed to escape the
camps. Stories like that of the young man who was used as a "human shield" by
the crew of an APC searching a school. They would open each door to a classroom and push
him inside, to test for any booby traps. Stories like the old man who stated he had lived
in his home in the camp for 50 years. "What will I do now? Where will I go?" He
walked away, stooped over, with a tear welling up in his eye.
The story of the woman who said she had received donations of food, but had no gas or
electricity with which to cook them. Multiple stories of burned out bodies of victims
pulled from the rubble, days after they were killed. Stories of curfew and snipers. The
story of the mosque whose loudspeaker was used as a toilet by Israeli soldiers.
-------
Image: Graffiti scrawled in English on a wall: "Occupation is the real
terrorism"
-------
Image: Four or five young boys playing in the dirt next to a heap of rubble.
"What are you doing?", I ask. "We are building a tent, since our home was
destroyed".....
-------
Image: Home after home with significant structural damage, but not totally
destroyed. A wall or two or three missing. In the US, such a home would be declared unsafe
and sealed off. Not here. A few metal rods are used to support the structure, and children
play on what was once a balcony. This is not safe at all.
-------
Image: An old man sitting on the rubble next to his home, staring off into the
distance, seeming oblivious to the camp's visitors, and indeed to everything else around
him. A penny for his thoughts.....
-------
Image: For as far as the eye can see (several football fields), not a single home that
was left unscarred or intact. The earthquake analogy is quite adequate. The difference: no
search and rescue teams, no sniffing dogs looking for survivors, no real coordinated
international effort to remove the rubble.
-------
Sound: In the distance, an explosion. Was it a mine placed by Israeli soldiers? Was it
a booby trap placed by Palestinian fighters defending the camp? I don't know.
-------
Image: At the camp's United Nations medical clinic, evidence of deliberate destruction
and looting. Bullet holes in a scale used to weigh babies. A grenade tossed into the
reception area, with holes all over the ceiling and walls. The electric motor to a dental
chair device stolen. A sterilizing autoclave destroyed. Bullet holes in a door marked with
a sign: Care of Pregnant Women
-------
Question: Where is the UN Commission of Inquiry? What will be left if and when they
come to Jenin?
-------
As I walked through the camp, one particular phrase kept entering my mind (I'm not sure
why): "I believe that Ariel Sharon is a man of peace."
-------
Image: I run into a fifty-something, blonde American woman volunteering for a
local medical non-governmental organization (NGO). She speaks to us in Arabic. When I
mention I'm from the United States, she responds in Arabic: "So you are from the
'head of the snake!'" She tells me she lived in Berkeley some time ago.
-------
Stories of executions. Stories of huge D-11
Caterpillar bulldozers that would knock down a home with a single push...with entire
families still inside. The story of the mosque whose loudspeaker was used as a toilet by
Israeli soldiers. |
As I leave the camp's "Ground Zero", I feel an uncomfortable mixture of
sadness, grief, anger, and shame. I also feel guilt.
My tax dollars helped pay for those bullets, those Apache helicopter death-ships,
those monstrous Caterpillar bulldozers. When I tell camp survivors that I'm from the
United States, I am ashamed. I, too, am responsible for this. Walking around with my video
camera and digital still camera, I feel as if I am participating in some grotesque,
macabre ritual.
-------
Final thought: I spent last night in the Jenin area. I slept about two hours, then
could not sleep anymore. My head still hurts. My nose still recalls that horrible odor. My
mind keeps replaying these images and these stories. And my heart continues to
ache--mostly for the people of Jenin, but also for what we used to call humanity.
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