Life Under the Gun

I can walk down the street here in Chicago and never see an armed soldier standing patrol. Every night on the news I see them though. Standing guard on the other side of the planet. Far enough away that I can choose not to think about it. But sometimes, like when a tornado destroys a town in Kansas, I hear that here at home the states suffer from a lack of vehicles in the event of crisis. Why? Because when the guardsmen go serve in Iraq they take the trucks and hummers with them. But usually I can go through a day and not think about it.

I remember driving up to the checkpoint at Bethlehem in the West Bank four years ago and seeing a young man playing with his fully automatic rifle as though it were a toy. I know that soldiers are people and not machines. They are taught to kill but also be entirely humane. They're taught to do a job, to be task oriented and follow orders, but then to also be responsible and make ethical decisions. A young soldier is handed a gun and asked to enforce a military occupation for an indefinite period of time. He (or she) is put in the position of policing, guarding, communicating, and patroling where innocent civilians just want to live their lives. These civilians would rather be like me and pretend that soldiers don't exist. But in Iraq and Palestine they don't really have that option. They learn to live with it, compensate, move themselves around and negotiate to survive, but in the end they are caught. They exist in an impossible political situation with an uncertain future. They feel abandoned by the world. They've stopped listening to the promises. When the promises come and then break for forty years (West Bank and Gaza) you learn not to expect much in the way of change.
But changes do come, usually not for the better. What stays the same are the soldiers. Children learn all the latest lines of weaponry and munitions. They learn what landmines and cluster bombs look like. They learn where not to play. And to the rest of the world it sounds like it's not their problem. But it is! Oh God it is! This Military Occupation thing is no isolated incident. Some political strategists firmly believe in it. Think its a great idea. We must speak out to stop them. Before we see little Iraqs everywhere. Personally, I doubt very much that a soldier can handle being a kindly killer. Soldiers are for war, not policing. It was George W. Bush who originally admitted he wasn't into nation building. Now his administration claims that Iraq is the dawn of a new democracy for the world. One in which Military Occupation is just and humane and has innocent civilians in mind. How much cognitive disonance like that can any people handle?

Palestinian Christians Decimated

The Palestinian Christian is an endangered species.

When the modern state of Israel was established there were about 400,000 of us. Two years ago the number was down to 80,000. Now it’s down to 60,000. At that rate, in a few years there will be none of us left. When this happens non-Christian groups will move into our churches and claim them forever.
Palestinian Christians within Israel fare little better. On the face of it, their number has grown by 20,000 since 1991. But this is misleading, for the census classification “Christian” includes some 20,000 recent non-Arab migrants from the former Soviet Union.

So why are Palestinian Christians abandoning their homeland?
We have lost hope, that’s why. We are treated as non-people. Few outside the Middle East even know we exist, and those who do, conveniently forget.
I refer, of course, to the American Religious Right. They see modern Israel as a harbinger of the Second Coming, at which time Christians will go to paradise, and all others (presumably including Jews) to hell. To this end they lend military and moral support to Israel.

Even by the double-dealing standards of international diplomacy this is a breathtakingly cynical bargain. It is hard to know who is using whom more: the Christian Right for offering secular power in the expectation that the Jewish state will be destroyed by a greater spiritual one; or the Israeli Right for accepting their offer. What we do know is that both sides are abusing the Palestinians. Apparently we don’t enter into anyone’s calculations.
The views of the Israeli Right are well known: they want us gone.

Less well known are the views of the American Religious Right. Strangely, they find the liberation of Iraqis from a vile dictator just, but do not find it unjust for us to be under military occupation for 38 long years.
Said Senator James Inhofe (Rep.,Oklahoma): “God Appeared to Abraham and said: ‘I am giving you this land’, the West Bank. This is not a political battle at all. It is a contest over whether or not the word of God is true.”
Inhofe must have got it wrong. Promises are being made to earthly Jerusalem that God did not make. The Holy Land was promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants, as stated in the Bible. These are the Palestinian Muslims, Christians and Jews, who have been living in the land for thousands of years. The Bible never mentioned that God promised it solely to Jews. Anyone can be a Jew, but not anyone can be a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants. James Inhofe and followers are unable to tell the difference between Jew, Israelite and Israel.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey (Rep.,Texas) was even more forthright: “I'm content to have Israel grab the entire West Bank … I happen to believe that the Palestinians should leave.”
There is a phrase for this. Ethnic cleansing.
Silencing us, from seeking your support and enlightening you about our suffering, goes counter to what Jesus has mandated us to do. We all know that Muslims and Jews get ceaseless support (political, spiritual and financial) from Saudi Arabia and America respectively, while Palestinian Christians get nothing from Australian and other Western “Christian” governments. (The Pope has been an exception.)

Prior to the 1967 war, the Christian youth at the Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist and other churches in Bethlehem used to pray and rejoice and have a good chat with hundreds of American Christian pilgrims. In particular Texas and California were two places from where many came to visit the Holy Land. Today only fading memories prevail. Bethlehem has been vacated by Christian families. The remaining Christians are paying the price by experiencing curfews which last for weeks. They remain sandwiched between Muslims and Jews without drawing the slightest concern from the many so-called Western Christians.

So why do American Christians stand by while their leaders advocate the expulsion of fellow Christians? Could it be that they do not know that the Holy Land has been a home to Christians since, well … since Christ?
Do not think I am asking for special treatment for Christians. Ethnic cleansing is evil whoever does it and to whomever it is done. Palestinian Christians - Anglican, Maronite Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans, Armenians, Baptists, Copts and Assyrians - have been rubbing shoulders with each other and with other religions - Muslims, Jews, Druze and (most recently) Baha’is - for centuries. And we want to do so for centuries more. But we can’t if we are driven out by despair.

We are equally frightened by those who commit suicide bombings. None of us Christians have condoned it or even contemplated the idea. Our commitment to Jesus’ teachings will never shake our resolve in this matter.
American journalist Anders Strindberg makes a clearer conclusion. He says Palestinians are equated with Islamists, Islamists with terrorists. And presumably because all organised Christian activity among Palestinians is non-political and non-violent, the community hardly ever hits western headlines. Suicide bombers sell more copy than people who congregate for Bible study.
What we seek is support: material, moral, political and spiritual. As Palestinians we grieve for what we have lost, and few people have lost more than us (the Ashkenazi Jews are one). But grief can be assuaged by the fellowship of friends.

----------------------------------------------------
Prof Abe W Ata was a temporary delegate to the UN in 1970 and has lived and worked in the Middle East, America and Australia. Dr Ata is a 9th generation Christian Palestinian academic born in Bethlehem, and currently works at the Australian Catholic University.

Do walls make us safe?

Disruptive Grace has a dead-on reflection regarding America’s need to build walls.

fascinating entry on military occupation

I hadn't seen this before but it's worth checking out. Great links. Good discussion starter.

Prayer = Solidarity?

Since when did Prayer come to equal Solidarity? Granted there are all kinds ways to pray, but for Christians there is a clear directive to pray for God’s Will, and to claim that any particular nation’s will is the same as God’s is blasphemous according to the Bible, is it not? This first occured to me as I drove past a synagogue here in Chicago and saw two large signs on the front lawn that proclaimed “We Pray for Israel.” Well of course a synagogue will be praying for Israel, I mean the prayers for Israel are all over the Hebrew Bible, but why do they need a sign in the front lawn?

The answer is found in a campaign that’s been carried on now for the last five years by a group called the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ). The campaign is called the International Day of Prayer and Solidarity with Israel. This group, with many of it’s Board of Directors in the Chicago area, has been quite effective in rallying political support for Israel (read–over and against anyone disagreeing with Israeli foreign policy) from churches and synagogues. If any other church groups dare to question this support or Israel’s decisions this group calls them an enemy of Israel. On the home page of the groups website the National Council of Churches gets this villifying treatment.

Yesterday we got a pretty little lapel pin from the American Bible Society as a token for our assumed contribution. It is shaped like a Bible but on the left page is an American flag and on the right page the words “Pray for our country.” I know its unfair to the ABS to link this to the IFCJ but personally I can’t help but read these words the same way. I do pray for my country, but I don’t need an American flag on a Bible shaped pin to remind me to do that. The Bible does not contain an American flag and I’d dare say that making mixing these symbols is downright blasphemous!

Why is there such a fixation with prayer as a political weapon? Why are we so convinced that God is on our side? Has God become the extension of our own egos? Is anyone reading the Bible anymore, particularly the words of Jesus in the Lord’s prayer? “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done, On Earth as it is in Heaven?” Prayer as solidarity turns that completely around. It makes it My Will be done in Heaven as I like it Here on Earth! That’s sick and its sin, and we’ll have to answer to God for this form of Christian Nationalism. I for one don’t want to get God angry in this regard.

Obama a Hardliner?

Well I can't say I'm too surprised, but I am disappointed. Ali Abuminah reports on Barack Obama's about face on Middle East politics in his article How Barack Obama learned to love Israel.

If disappointing, given his historically close relations to Palestinian-Americans, Obama's about-face is not surprising. He is merely doing what he thinks is necessary to get elected and he will continue doing it as long as it keeps him in power. Palestinian-Americans are in the same position as civil libertarians who watched with dismay as Obama voted to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act, or immigrant rights advocates who were horrified as he voted in favor of a Republican bill to authorize the construction of a 700-mile fence on the border with Mexico.

Those of us with Military Occupation at the forefront of our voting minds have no hope for this next American election. None of the potential party candidates are showing a new direction forward.

Tags: Barack Obama, Palestine, Israel, Palestinian-Americans

Ken Stein Interview

Steve Inskeep did his follow up interview with Ken Stein this morning. Comparing the two interviews, I have to say that the final one was a let-down, but a good one. Inskeep put Carter on the defensive and let him battle his way back. But in interviewing Stein, Inskeep just lets him talk--and Stein's accusations don't seem to hold enough weight to make it interesting.

Inskeep: A layman might ask: "Why not call it Apartheid?"
Stein: A layman would have every right to ask that question. That doesn't mean: "If it looks like a duck and it smells like a duck and it quacks like a duck its a duck."
Inskeep: and the difference to you is. . . .
Stein: the difference to me is that part of this problem is that the Palestinians have chosen to use terrorism. . . .

That gives you an idea of the logic here. If the Palestinians hadn't have used terrorism it would be Apartheid. Once again, the Israelis are more noble because they are the recognized State. Palestinians are savages because they are not. And here in the twenty first century we return to the reasoning of Thomas Hobbs in the sixteenth century. What stays the same is the fact that after forty years of Military Occupation in Palestine political theorists can't stop this Sovereign State from killing innocents, no matter the number of books written, interviews conducted, and peace negotiations gone right.

Tags: NPR, Steve Inskeep, Ken Stein, Israel, Palestine, Military Occupation

Thank You Jimmy Carter

**crossposted on A Desperate Kind of Faithful

I'm convinced that when you become President of the United States something happens to you as a human being. I don't see how it can't. You'd have to represent the most powerful nation in all the world. More than that you have to lead what it has become. Bear in mind that in modern Statecraft a nation is the sum of it's interests. While we're led to believe the democratic State is made up of the interests of its people, in this day and age the people don't care to know the nuts and bolts of how it all operates. So when and if you get to the top it must change you. Therefore, anytime a former President makes the mistake of telling it like it is, the media must yank him back into line.

On NPR's Morning Edition this morning I heard Steve Inskeep ask President Carter an awful lot of stupid questions. You should listen for yourself, but essentially the interview is set up with Carter on the hot seat regarding his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. He gets a call right after his speech at Brandeis University. Stein wants to know if its true that the former president is losing his mind. Is he senile? Did he plagiarize his book? Did he lie? But the real burning question is "Was his use of language unfair to Israel?"

I love Ken Stein's question "How did you write your book?" President Carter's reply is directly to the question: "With a word processor, or computer." This is legendary journalism. Truthfully, in the fifteen years of NPR I've consumed this has got to be the worst interview--ever! And I heard the Fresh Air interview with KISS frontman Gene Simmons! That was at least entertaining. It proves that for as liberal as NPR claims to be, when it comes to the State of Israel, even liberal American journalists jerk to the right. Stein has to make scandal where there isn't any. President Carter is speaking facts about life in the Middle East as it is. What is truly shocking is that even in this day and age the media can't seem to face reality without spin. It needs to slow the world down, reword, rework and feed it back for the consumer.

I have not read Jimmy Carter's book. But at face value I have to tell you that he hasn't said anything out of the ordinary. Desmond Tutu noted the similarities between Israeli treatment of Palestinians and South African Apartheid back in 2002. The same voices that call Carter anti-semitic said that of Tutu back then. Let's look at this clearly people. Israel's use of Military Occupation hasn't worked for forty years. What it has set is a precident that the US is continuing in Iraq today. And we see how well it is working. If anything the occupiers are failing. The circle of hate and violence has spun out of control. The one President who has ever had the guts to admit that is called crazy, anti-semitic, senile---I'm waiting for someone to say UnAmerican.

Doesn't all this circle back onto what the public expects from a President? Carter's use of the word Apartheid together with Israel is brazen and shocking because the US is neck deep in a "war on terror." NPR can criticize George W. Bush all it wants, everyone is doing that, but what Israel has is somehow working. Somehow they're seen to be the stabilizing force in the region. To deny that in the interest of peace is just too much, even for the "liberal" media.

Tags: Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu, Israel, Palestine, Military Occupation, US Presidency, Steve Inskeep

The Case For Carter by Yossi Beilin

http://www.forward.com/articles/the-case-for-carter/

Tags: Military Occupation, Israel, Palestine, Jimmy Carter, Yossi Beilin

staggering

"As many as 654,965 more Iraqis may have died since hostilities began in Iraq in March 2003 than would have been expected under pre-war conditions, according to a survey conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad."

Tags: Iraqi civillians, casualties, collateral damage

Martin Buber

Martin Buber's work for a homeland for both Jews and Arabs is fascinating.
He began Brit Shalom in 1925. I just added a link to the organization under Good Resources.

Tags: Martin Buber, Brit Shalom, Jews, Arabs, coexistence

New post on Google Video

I posted a new excerpt from the Elias Rishmawi interview of 2003 onto Google Video. (14:20)

Tags: Beit Sahour, Elias Rishmawi, Google Video, Military Occupation, taxation, Intifada, 1988

Dr. Elias Rishmawi on life under occupation

the morning after the chatter of 9/11

.25 miles to the former blood alley to take my four year old girl to school.
corner one: I am solicited for money for food.
corner two: I catch sight of a newspaper headline that reads
"US in a Struggle for Civilization"
corner three: Broadway and Wilson. Nothing.
corner four: a bike rider strangely warns us all of "the coming pigeon
shit." He yells out "don't slip there." How kind.
corner five: Right turn down Clifton. The Former blood alley. On my
left is a broken bottle, shards up in the street. No time to pick it up,
I reason. No trash can in sight. Outside her school sit, stand, recline
four persons I see every day. Clients, "housing guests" who live in the
shelter that doubles as my daughter's school. They smoke and chat. I
smile and wish them a good morning. They smile back and return regards
between puffs.
Down the corridor and to the back. Left and past a broken
elevator into the beautiful sanctuary of PreK. I play a little with my
girl and we kiss. She is at home so I leave.
Back into the street. I will be human, I say to myself.
Here more smiles and good mornings.
Back at the sight of the broken glass, an unmarked (though clearly
marked with antennas and plates) police car parks over that broken
glass, though not over the shard yet.
I lean into his open window where he sits with his bullet proof
vest as full as a flotation device and his communication devices all
around, safe from Uptown, Former blood alley Uptown.
"Be careful. There's broken glass there." I point. "Just so you know."
He says thanks.
With that I'm gone. Around the corner. Back the way I came. Satisfied
with myself that I've been human to all.

I cross the intersection where nothing happened, Corner three. A mom
scuffles across the street, hurrying her young son, feeling herself
about to be crushed by a large looking truck, maybe a v10 engine. She
yells with all her might to express her existence. "I'm crossing
here!!!!" She cusses at him miserably in defense and doesn't stop until
she is across the street. She needs more muscle, she feels. Just a mom.
A damn mom in the way of his big engine. She will be heard.

I think of my country's struggle for civilization. My civilization
here--Uptown--resembles for me the same as my country's enemy. (No,
reword that. No, how?)

Here I walk commenting on all I see. As though I'm so important. My
defense against the powers. Up the street, walking my way, is a young
pretty thing that I usually can't bear to gaze upon. I must seem so rude
looking away. I look straight in her eyes and wish a good morning. There
I did it. For this morning I'm not an animal. I am civilized.

God save us all in Uptown. In our weakened place of Abandoned Empire. We
are not the pride of US civilization, but. . . . and I can only speak
for myself, there is a God greater than us all. Sometimes our surrender
to His will makes us truly human.

Speaking Out

ISRAEL MUST STOP BOMBING LEBANON NOW!
This is crazy! Bombing civilians is not an answer to kidnapping soldiers.
Why won't the UN speak out on this? Why won't the American people speak out?
Why instead are we talking about possible Hezbollah attacks on America?
Not in My Name

"guests of the Iraqis"

I heard some soldier say on the news yesterday "we are guests of the Iraqis and we will conduct ourselves in such a manner." I can't believe the audacity of this statement! As if the Iraqis invited the US to invade! As if the search and seizure of raids into their homes was by invitation! As if the detainment of hundreds of innocent civilians into prison camps was something "nice" we were doing for their good! Would we consider an invading country a guest? I think not! But there is no end to the bull crap we'll generate to sound like gentlemenly forces. We're at War but it's a kind War. Wars are never kind. Never gentlemenly. Occupations are never for anyone's good. Let's set the record straight.

Why We Fight

This film on the military industrial complex looks really good! The site has lots of clips.
I wish it were showing here in Chicago.
Why We Fight: A film by Eugene Jarecki
A must see once it's portable.

Get a move on!

US and British foreign reps tell the Iraqi government to Get a Move On!
In essence they're saying "This democracy thing is easy! What's taking so long? And just to prove it we'll actually spend the night in your God-forsaken country instead of fleeing within a few hours."
Condi Rice said, "I told them that a lot of treasure, a lot of human treasure, has been put on the line to give Iraq the chance to have a democratic future."
Help me understand. We invade their country, take down their leadership, force them to set up a new government, and then complain about the time it takes. It would seem that under this new Bush/Blair precident, Nation Building and the interim Occupation are as easily maneuvered as corporate transactions. As long as we stay optimistic and keep throwing money and someone else's firepower at the problem everything will turn out right. I'm trying to remember back to the American Revolution. For some reason Americans didn't care much for military occupation and framed a declaration, constitution, and Bill of Rights on the freedom of individuals to self governance. But here in 2006 America must make the world safe by imposing democracy on countries who won't play along. Excuse me. We invade to "help" the hapless population gain their freedom. We're the ultimate unbiased nuetral do-gooders and those tanks and bunker busters are there to help spread freedom. See it's working!! No more 9/11's yet. Meanwhile we keep paying into the Sa'ud family's disfunction confident that their country isn't really exporting terror.

a fascinating press release/statement

Ok, now here's an odd twist that reflects the nuance of Occupation. Iraqi kidnappers nabbed CPTers and ISMers who are working in behalf of Palestinians in the West Bank. In a Press Release Islam and National Forces there speak up on their behalf and witness to their work against Occupation. Now obviously CPT and ISM are against terrorism. Still it is puzzling who is good and bad here. Hamas and Fatah stand up and clarify that some Westerners should not be kidnapped. Note: the statement from the Islamic and National Forces in Hebron has some translation mistakes that could be misunderstood. In the first sentence they express sorrow for kidnapping hostages. They aren't the kidnappers.

Three Palestinian Solidarity Activists Amongst Four Peace Activist Hostages in Iraq
November 30th, 2005 | Posted in Press Releases,  ISM Media Alerts

CORRECTION: Three of the group of four have previously been in Palestine, not only two as previously stated. James Loney was in Palestine five years ago as an activist with CPT Hebron.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Two of the four Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) hostages in Iraq of whom a video was released today have been in Palestine working as Palestinian Solidarity activists. Tom Fox (54) worked with CPT Hebron and participated in demonstrations against the apartheid Wall in Jayyous. Harmeet Sooden (32) a Canadian citizen who had been living in New Zealand, came to Palestine to join the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in December 2004 and stayed until January 2005. He worked in solidarity with local Palestinian people, mostly in Nablus and Jenin. While in Jenin, he worked with a group of ISM activists who planted Olive trees on the 'Swithart' farm outside Jenin, He was committed to come to Palestine for three months to join the ISM again at the beginning of December 2005 as a long term activist for the liberation of Palestine from Israeli occupation, but first decided to join a two week CPT delegation to Iraq.

Palestinians in Ramallah will hold a demonstration tomorrow at 3pm in solidarity with all four kidnapped peace activists and to appeal for their release. The demonstration will be attended by notable Palestinian religious and resistance figures.

Mustafa Jayyousi a local Palestinian activist in Jayyous who knew Tom said: "When he worked in Jayyous, Tom was part of a group who went down to the gates everyday with local farmers to help them access their lands made inaccessible by the wall. He also participated in demonstrations with the people of Jayyous against the apartheid Wall in Jayyous".

Mohammed Ayyesh a local Palestinian activist in Balata camp, Nablus said of Harmeet: "I was touch with Harmeet and was looking forward to him coming here to work next week. We must do everything we can to secure his release".

In an email to his friends Harmeet described the purpose of the four-person team's work in Iraq as: "providing humanitarian aid in the form of training and documentation of non-violent responses to lethal inter-group conflict. We will also record the current conditions in Iraq, meeting with representatives of NGOs, Christian and Muslim clerics, Iraqi human rights groups and others". He also recounted a story from Iraq: "A little 3-year old girl, Alaa, ran up to me and gave me a big hug me yesterday. She reminds me of my niece. She, however, does not see as my niece sees. She sustained severe shrapnel injuries to her abdomen and micro-fragments peppered her eyes, face and body during a US military attack in May on al Qaim, Iraq. Her mother lost an eye. She lost two brothers and several other relatives".

Some of his friends who worked with Harmeet in the ISM appealed to the kidnappers for his release:

Donna: "Since he was back in New Zealand, Harmeet formed a new Palestinian Solidarity Group on Auckland University campus and organised speakers and forums about Palestine. He is a very shy, quiet guy, but very committed and hoped to return to Palestine next month."

Asa: "Harmeet is a great person - we worked in solidarity with the Palestinian people together. He cares deeply about the plight of all oppressed people and is unequivocally against the occupation of Iraq and Palestine. He has also been involved in work around the conflict over Kashmir and in favour of the right of the people there for self determination. He would never act as a spy for any government. He is a sound peace activist."

Patrick Connors: "I know Harmeet from when he volunteered with ISM in Palestine last winter. Harmeet is a very good, serious, committed person. CPT is a solid organization, with serious training and procedures, that does great things."

For more information:
  ISM Media office: 02 297 1824
 
Statement from The Islamic & National  Forces in Hebron.
 
  In the name of Allah the Greatest the [Com]passionate.
 
The National and Islamic Forces in Hebron/Palestine express their deep sorrow for kidnapping four of the peace advocates from the CPT in Iraq.
 
The National and Islamic Forces in Hebron who has along experience in dealing with crimes and Israeli violations with the CPT from 1995 ,would like to confirm that the CPTers have a very strong role in facing the Israeli crimes and violations and in protecting the life and the belongings of the Palestinians. They put themselves in many situations in front of the Israeli tanks.
 
They confronted the Israeli bulldozers and the Israeli home demolition and escorted our children to and from their schools to protect them from settlers.
 
Because of all their activities ,the members of the team were followed, arrested and beaten by Israeli soldiers and settlers in many occasions.
 
The Israeli authorities have prevented some of them from entering Palestine .
 
We urge the brothers in the resistance and all the alert conscience in Iraq , whom we consider our selves together in the same tunnel against the American terrorism and  assault, to promptly release the four kidnapped (2 Canadian, one British ,and one American ) from CPT, for their role in supporting our Palestinian and Arab an Islamic nations.
 
Freedom for Iraqi and Palestinian people.
Shame for Zionist and American occupation.
 
 
The Islamic & National  Forces in Hebron.
Islamic  Resistance Movement (Hamas) .
Fateh Movement .
People's Party .
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine .
Palestine Liberation Front .
Palestine Democratic Union . FIDA.
Palestinian Front for popular fighting   ( ? Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP))

I just recieved this message from a friend:

The Israeli Army has set up a checkpoint to prevent Palestinian children from getting to their school in al-Khalil/Hebron because of an illegal Jewish settlement in the area. The children have decided not to sit back and let this happen with no protest. These kids are brave!

I had a little trouble waking my kids up and getting them dressed and off to school, but after seeing these pics I realize I have nothing to complain about ever!