See also

Non-violent   protestors
  and
  "human   shields"
  model
  intervention
  in
  Middle
  East
  conflict

Bethlehem
  on strike

Jewish
  Israeli   assaulted

Israeli   terrorism

"I encountered what appeared to be a physical fight between a Palestinian in white pants and bright yellow shirt, and a soldier. . . . I later learned that the man . . . was an undercover Israeli policeman staging the whole fight with the soldier."

US citizens found themselves facing American guns and other arms when they engaged in a non-violent demonstration outside the Palestinian headquarters in Jerusalem, seized by Israel last week.

Several of the Americans were knocked down. Others were hit, kicked, and insulted for exercising their human rights, without prior warning or official request to disperse.

The Americans joined a protest outside Orient House last Friday led by the International Solidarity Movement to Free Palestine, an organization of individuals from many nations who are dedicated to the use of non-violent means to advance the cause of justice for Palestinians.

The US gives Israel more than $2.23 billion in military aid each year.

Beth Daoud, of Denver, CO, was involved in the event. The following excerpts are from the statement she made to the US consul in Jerusalem:

" . . . As my group was standing along the street in a line, the soldiers came charging at us without any verbal warning. We were violently pushed and shoved down the street further away from the Orient House. As I went to help them I was also shoved down onto the street. A soldier tried to force me back up, but lost his grip when my shirt tore. I got back to my feet and within a minute encountered what appeared to be a physical fight between a Palestinian in white pants and bright yellow shirt, and a soldier. Several blows were exchanged before I reacted by putting my arm between the two, and yelling "No, no, no violence!"

"The man in the bright yellow shirt then put his hand around the soldier’s neck. I continued yelling and trying to separate them. Oddly, the soldier never inflicted any further violence on the man after having just been choked. At the time this was all happening it was being videotaped. I later learned that the man in the white pants and yellow shirt was an undercover Israeli policeman staging the whole fight with the soldier.

"I heard crying and screaming behind me. When I turned around I saw a group of soldiers dragging an older Palestinian woman wearing a tasheeba [a traditional Palestinian dress]. She appeared to have fainted a few seconds later, but the soldiers continued to drag her. I pleaded for them to stop to no avail. I then got down onto the street where she was lying, put my body over hers and took her into my arms."

From a report forwarded by the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between People in Bethlehem, where gbgm missionary Bob May is assigned.

August 13, 2001