check it out sketches from guerrillamama

partners sketches from israeli detention center

israeli detention

i metioned that we were denied and detained for three days as we attempted to enter israel on our way to palestine. to fill in a little more detail…

when we arrived partner was pushing the stroller and i was carryuing the passports to talk to the immigration folk. the woman working the booth asked a few basic questions: “where are you going? how long? why now with a war?”, but never seemed to get past her first question as she stared oer my shoulder at my partner and baby, “what is the connection between you?” seemed to find it impossible to grasp a multiracial family

we were shuffled off to the side where i i got to answer more questions, but mostly more of the same,  while partner and baby waited. “how long? why? how will you pay for it? you want to work in israel? where are you staying? what is the phone#?” i gave answers and phone #’s they called no one and kept returning to questions of money and assumptions that i wanted to work in israel.

finally they made a call and a cop arrived. they handed him our passports. he turned to me and said we were being denied and we should follow him to get our luggage and get ready for the flight in an hour.

we looked at each other, what should we do? we should stay.

“come with me or you will be arrested. i’m being nice to you now but if you don’t cooperate i won’t be. you have a baby i want to be nice but if you don’t do what i say…” this would become the basic script of the next few days from israelis in uniform

after a conversation that spun in circles as we asked for a supervisor, a way to appeal the decision, an explanation of why we were denied. the cop finally said that we had the right to talk to our embassy but we would have to go to jail where we could rest until the embassy opened. first they would search our luggage.

as we waited to go to jail to wait to talk to the embassy more police officers arrived and began to tag our luggage for a return flight to the us. we looked at the tags, asked what they were about, refused saying we still intended to stay and talk to the embassy try to figure out why we were denied and how we could appeal.

they loaded us in a van, told us that we would be separated in detention, and drove us to a little compound somewhere off the airport but officially not in israel where we were denied.

for a few hours when we arrived we were all together in the same room, talking about what we should do next, trying to figure out what was happening. then aza and mama were moved out and a man from russia was moved in to be my roomate. he didn’t speak english, i don’t speak russian. we pantomined some introductions and he put on the russian music videos that would be the soundtrack of our cell for the next three days.

i asked ? times to make a call to the embassy. finally i, and only i, was allowed to call. the woman who answered seemed interested took my information, put me on hold, came back and said “we don’t get involved in these issues, israel can deny who she will, but i can fax you a list of israeli lawyers who can help you appeal if you are interested.” i gave her the fax number and was locked back up.

hours later i was able to get a guards attention to ask if the fax came in. the supervisor arried at the door in a few minutes with a stack of paper “here’s your list. it can be a souvenir you get one phone call and you used it.”

some hours later we were allowed to talk in the hall. the supervisor told us that we would be put on a flight in the morning back to where we came from. “scotland?” we asked, and were assured we would go back the way we came on the same carrier and could get off wherever we want or they could help us buy a ticket out on another carrier. we talked and decided that we should try to come here to cairo where we have contacts and there is a university that may work as a plan b. we talked to the supervisor and she said, “no we can help you arrange a flight on another carrier, but only to the same destination you came from and you will have to buy the tickets, they’re expensive.”

we talked some more and then told them we would take the flight to scotland in the morning. thinking we could regroup there.

in the morning the got us up and lead us down to pick up the luggage, which they were tagging for dc again. we told them it was wrong and they needed to change it to where we would agree to go. they told us to get off in amsterdam and change it ourselves. we refused not wanting to be seperated from all of our belongings and knowing that if we returned all the way to the states we would lose options as we tried to reorganize life.

we were returned to our cells and locked in. for the next two days we would hardly be allowed to see each other at all. if i tried to go talk throught the door when we were let out to smoke the gaurds would surround me and demand that i move away.  i hoped, assumed that they were doing the same to partner and baby. found out after that they were just not being let out at all.

during that day and the next there were between two and four men in my room. sitting watching tv, trying to communicate around language barriers. always straining to listen through the wall. is aza crying? aza is crying. or maybe not. oh now for sure.

sunday morning i was asking to see yacob, who i was told would help us sort our flights. i kept being told later. more and more guards were amassing in the hall 8?, 9? milling about coming and going. i started to hear arguing from the room next door, where a nigerian couple with the woman 8 months pregnant were held. one gaurd arrived with a video camer, my guts turned, cops tape themselves when they expect to be sued or prosecuted for brutality. from what i heard through the wal and saw through our cell window i think they would be easily convicted of assault and or torture.

why are you hitting me?

you can’t take my husband, i’m pregnant?

thumps against the door the wall

a load aerosol, tear gas? mace?

rustling banging

you want to kill my baby! you hit me in the stomach! you want to kill my baby!!!

then six men dragging out the nigerian man and carrying him through the hall. he was wearing only socks, one shoe and handcuffs. how did that happen?

more yelling from the end of the hall. more yelling from the end of the hall and then the car port outside.

all of this from thcall that seperated mine from my families. wondering how they are. i ask again to speak to yacob. they start letting people out into the hall to smoke and i walk toward the gaurd desk to ask again for him. they tell me that he is talking to my wife right now. she comes walking out of an office down the hall carrying our daughter. tells me that they are sure we think this is a hotel he follows yelling asks me why we din’t get on the plane. i start to answer and she says don’t bother he dosn’t care. he yells over her that he dosn’t care. we will fly tommorow he has shown her pictures of what will happen to us if we say no. he dosn’t care what happens to the baby. it’s our fault not his. this is not a hotel and we need to leave.

that night one of the women gaurds is on shift. the blond not the ones who play good cop, bad cop solo when they talk to us. we get to talk a bit. i have been moved into another cell. there are 7 of us now four from africa, sudan and ghana. they ask me where i am from and don’t believe me when i say the us. tell me israel dosn’t sop americans. then look out the window of the cell. is she your wife? oh.. she’s black. oh… no more questions

monday morningm after three days we got on a plane to amsterdam. our last stopover on the way to tel aviv.

guerrilla mama for more about those three days from another body in another cell

cairo

we are in cairo after being denied entry to isreal, detained for tree days and deported back to amsterdam, which was a beautiful place to recover, and higly appreciated by baby for it’s abundance of puppies babies and fish

gaza war for oil, just a link

gaza invasion is for control of offshore oil?

blessing and cursing

just a quick thought that the verse in genisis about blessing and cursing that i referenced in the last post as being so popular with christian zionists is addressed to abraham hand his offspring. so it would then apply to the descendants of ismael too, to the arab nations and the followers of islam

Women of color in solidarity with Palestinians

http://becausewestillarehere.wordpress.com/

christian zionist radio

running some errands this afternoon, i was listening to christian talk radio (slightly masoschistic).  the guest for the hour was a representative of the alcj, supposedly a constitutional law group, who was there to tell us all to call in and register that we stand with israel before international pressure  gets in their way in gaza.

wow

there was a constant repitition throughout the interview of the theme that the medioa carries an incredible pro-palestinian bias. in my opinion the coverage in the us media has been, as usual, basically israeli pr. these folks did manage to make it all look terribly fair in comparison though.

the scariest thing was the refrain of god’s blessing to abram from genisis 12 ” i will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you” applied directly to the state of israel.

it is incredible what christians will do with the idea of chosenness crusades, manifest destiny, missionary conquests. should we be greatful that these particular christians are willing to believe that the jewish people are still chosen and not just brushed aside in favor of christians like so many other christians believe? even if they associate the blessing primarily with israels military and it’s colonial project to carve out a western bulwark in the middle east?

i think no

if god is a blesser of genocide as long as it is carried out by the right people against the wrong may we all be blessed to burn eternally for our rebellion