Workers under siege in Nablus – they have no country

“People of Jenin, all the citizens of Jenin and the refugee camp, this is Jenin-grad. Your battle has paved the way to the liberation of the occupied territories”.^[53] — PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, addressing a gathering of about 200 people in Jenin.

The ‘1948 refugees’ live in Nablus in some of the biggest camps in Palestine.

Over 330,000 live in this ancient city. It was once the economic capital of Palestine.

Everyday life is difficult. There is an Israeli blockade in Nablus.

For some reason the Israeli army focus on particular camps in particular cities in the occupied territories i.e. Al-‘Ayn refugee camp west of Nablus and Balata,  Ein Beit camp in Nablus and of course the resistance camp in Jenin-grad.  Why is that? See http://workersbushtelegraph.com.au/2012/06/12/israeli-soldiers-killed-ridhas-son/

Nowadays (2012) people going to work currently have to get up at 2 am in the morning. They are not citizens of any country, the are deprived of that by the setting up of Israel under United Nations charter. The people that Golda Meir said did not exist have an Israeli ID, that’s all. They queue up for 4 hours. They are eager to get through the checkpoint to face the working day ahead. Workers pass through an unsafe X-ray machine. It is worse than the busiest airport. People go to work for 8 hours.

They come back after work and pass through the check point again before returning to their family.

A worker has an 8 hour day turned into a 14 hour day. They are poor. Israel keeps building settlements on their land.

Israeli soldiers don’t care about the people going back into the West Bank so they let them through the check point quicker. But people can’t travel between towns after 7pm.

Israelis aren’t unsafe, people are down trodden.

If Israelis want to visit Palestinian friends on the West Bank they get fined – it is illegal for Jewish people to visit Palestinian friends.

Obama keeps going on about the peace process and Israel being a democracy. The US is so relaxed and comfortable about it all.

How can this keep up?

How much pressure and humiliation are the international community going to put on people?

Israelis won’t be free until every single Palestinian is free to go about her business.