(Hanan Ashrawi’s daughter telling her story)

I am Palestinian - born and raised - and my Palestinian roots go back centuries. No one can change that even if they tell me that Jerusalem , my birth place, is not Palestine , even if they tell me that Palestine doesn't exist, even if they take away all my papers and deny me entry to my own home, even if they humiliate me and take away my rights. I AM PALESTINIAN.

Name: Zeina Emile Sam'an Ashrawi; Date of Birth: July 30, 1981; Ethnicity: Arab. This is what was written on my Jerusalem ID card. An ID card to a Palestinian is much more than just a piece of paper; it is my only legal documented relationship to Palestine . Born in Jerusalem , I was given a Jerusalem ID card (the blue ID), an Israeli Travel Document and a Jordanian Passport stamped Palestinian (I have no legal rights in Jordan ). I do not have an Israeli Passport, a Palestinian Passport or an American Passport.

Here is my story:

I came to the United States as a 17 year old to finish high school in Pennsylvania and went on to college and graduate school and subsequently got married and we are currently living in Northern Virginia. I have gone home every year at least once to see my parents, my family and my friends and to renew my Travel Document as I was only able to extend its validity once a year from Washington DC . My father and I would stand in line at the Israeli Ministry of Interior in Jerusalem , along with many other Palestinians, from 4:30 in the morning to try our luck at making it through the revolving metal doors of the Ministry before noon – when the Ministry closed its doors - to try and renew the Travel Document. We did that year after year. As a people living under an occupation, being faced with constant humiliation by an occupier was the norm but we did what we had to do to insure our identity was not stolen from us.

In August of 2007 I went to the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC to try and extend my travel document and get the usual "Returning Resident" VISA that the Israelis issue to Palestinians holding an Israeli Travel Document. After watching a few Americans and others being told that their visas would be ready in a couple of weeks my turn came. I walked up to the bulletproof glass window shielding the lady working behind it and under a massive picture of the Dome of the Rock and the Walls of Jerusalem that hangs on the wall in the Israeli consulate, I handed her my papers through a little slot at the bottom of the window.

"Shalom" she said with a smile. "Hi" I responded, apprehensive and scared. As soon as she saw my Travel Document her demeanor immediately changed. The smile was no longer there and there was very little small talk between us, as usual. After sifting through the paperwork I gave her she said: "where is your American Passport?" I explained to her that I did not have one and that my only Travel Document is the one she has in her hands. She was quiet for a few seconds and then said: "you don't have an American Passport?" suspicious that I was hiding information from her. "No!" I said. She was quiet for a little longer and then said: "Well, I am not sure we'll be able to extend your Travel Document." I felt the blood rushing to my head as this is my only means to get home! I asked her what she meant by that and she went on to tell me that since I had been living in the US and because I had a Green Card they would not extend my Travel Document.

After taking a deep breath to try and control my temper I explained to her that a Green Card is not a Passport and I cannot use it to travel outside the US. My voice was shaky and I was getting more and more upset (and a mini shouting match ensued) so I asked her to explain to me what I needed to do. She told me to leave my paperwork and we would see what happens.

A couple of weeks later I received a phone call from the lady telling me that she was able to extended my Travel Document but I would no longer be getting the "Returning Resident" VISA. Instead, I was given a 3 month tourist VISA. Initially I was happy to hear that the Travel Document was extended but then I realized that she said "tourist VISA". Why am I getting a tourist VISA to go home? Not wanting to argue with her about the 3 month VISA at the time so as not to jeopardize the extension of my Travel Document, I simply put that bit of information on the back burner and went on to explain to her that I wasn't going home in the next 3 months. She instructed me to come back and apply for another VISA when I did intend on going. She didn't add much and just told me that it was ready for pick-up. So I went to the Embassy and got my Travel Document and the tourist VISA that was stamped in it.

My husband, my son and I were planning on going home to Palestine this summer. So a month before we were set to leave (July 8, 2008) I went to the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC, papers in hand, to ask 2 for a VISA to go home. I, again, stood in line and watched others get VISAs to go to my home. When my turn came I walked up to the window; "Shalom" she said with a smile on her face, "Hi" I replied. I slipped the paperwork in the little slot under the bulletproof glass and waited for the usual reaction. I told her that I needed a returning resident VISA to go home. She took the paperwork and I gave her a check for the amount she requested and left the Embassy without incident.

A few days ago I got a phone call from Dina at the Israeli Embassy telling me that she needed the expiration date of my Jordanian Passport and my Green Card. I had given them all the paperwork they needed time and time again and I thought it was a good way on their part to waste time so that I didn't get my VISA in time. Regardless, I called over and over again only to get their voice mail. I left a message with the information they needed but kept called every 10 minutes hoping to speak to someone to make sure that they received the information in an effort to expedite the tedious process. I finally got a hold of someone. I told her that I wanted to make sure they received the information I left on their voice mail and that I wanted to make sure that my paperwork was in order. She said, after consulting with someone in the background (I assume it was Dina), that I needed to fax copies of both my Jordanian Passport and my Green Card and that giving them the information over the phone wasn't acceptable. So I immediately made copies and faxed them to Dina. A few hours later my cell phone rang. "Zeina?" she said. "Yes" I replied, knowing exactly who it was and immediately asked her if she received the fax I sent. She said: "ehhh, I was not looking at your file when you called earlier but your Visa was denied and your ID and Travel Document are no longer valid." "Excuse me?" I said in disbelief. "Sorry, I cannot give you a visa and your ID and Travel Document are no longer valid. This decision came from Israel not from me."

I cannot describe the feeling I got in the pit of my stomach. "Why?" I asked and Dina went on to tell me that it was because I had a Green Card. I tried to reason with Dina and to explain to her that they could not do that as this is my only means of travel home and that I wanted to see my parents, but to no avail. Dina held her ground and told me that I wouldn't be given the VISA and then said: "Let the Americans give you a Travel Document".

I have always been a strong person and not one to show weakness but at that moment I lost all control and started crying while Dina was on the other end of the line holding my only legal documents linking me to my home. I began to plead with her to try and get the VISA and not revoke my documents; "put yourself in my shoes, what would you do? You want to go see your family and someone is telling you that you can't! What would you do? Forget that you're Israeli and that I'm Palestinian and think about this for a minute!" "Sorry" she said," I know but I can't do anything, the decision came from Israel ". I tried to explain to her over and over again that I could not travel without my Travel Document and that they could not do that - knowing that they could, and they had!

This has been happening to many Palestinians who have a Jerusalem ID card. The Israeli government has been practicing and perfecting the art of ethnic cleansing since 1948 right under the nose of the world and no one has the power or the guts to do anything about it. Where else in the world does one have to beg to go to one's own home? Where else in the world does one have to give up their identity for the sole reason of living somewhere else for a period of time? Imagine if an American living in Spain for a few years wanted to go home only to be told by the American government that their American Passport was revoked and that they wouldn't be able to come back!

If I were a Jew living anywhere around the world and had no ties to the area and had never set foot there, I would have the right to go any time I wanted and get an Israeli Passport. In fact, the Israelis encourage that. I however, am not Jewish but I was born and raised there, my parents, family and friends still live there and I cannot go back! I am neither a criminal nor a threat to one of the most powerful countries in the world, yet I am alienated and expelled from my own home.

As it stands right now, I will be unable to go home - I am one of many.

So today is the third day of Eid Al Fitr that all Muslims worldwide celebrate right after the culmination of the month of Ramadan. Not sure if it’s only me, but Ramadan seems to have lost its glory. Years ago when I was a child, people’s attitudes towards both Ramadan and Eid (festival) were way different than now. Maybe I have grown up to the extent that I see in them nothing but the mere fact that few arrogant relatives come for a visit for a couple of minutes, and everyone just sucks them up.

It has been a gloomy day in deed. Being self-centered often times, I thought that my own family never enjoyed the Ramadan that other people celebrate. But the night prior to the Eid, I went for a drive to Ramallah with my uncle and three sisters, we toured around Al Manara and the mall a bit, and felt the legendary atmosphere. People were happy. That hit me; I am not accustomed to seeing them vividly preoccupied with the preparation for the big “day.”

So I came back home and wrote to all my contacts wishing them a Happy Eid and expressed my astonishment and satisfaction to see promising smiles in the crowded streets of Ramallah. But the sad part was that I knew it was merely fleeting moments and that those smiles would be wiped off soon. Not only have my fears become true, but I was blind. Yes, blind. Or may be I just chose not to see it. May be I wanted to believe that we are actually happy.

Would I miss Ramadan? NO. Not really. It has been made hell this year.

While Ramadan is believed to be the holy month during which people get closer to Allah by fasting from food and drink all day long and focus on their faith instead, I am not pretty sure this was the case with us Palestinians. It was only a drug. Ramadan numbed our pain. We could handle both the Israeli and Palestinian political, economic, and security pressure knowing that the day of salvation was approaching; the Eid. But after the three days elapsed, then what?

Now thousands of Palestinians are waiting for the next phase. It has been seven months now. Seven months, and thousands of the PA employees have not received their salaries. And two months elapsed with millions of students deprived form their right of education. I have three sisters and two brothers who do nothing but stay at home. They have not attended school from the very beginning of this term. It is both sad and frustrating that they have to “do the time” and pay a high price.

Reading the news headlines on the first days of Eid is not healthy at all. It lessens the effect of the drug, and one starts to get sober. Sounds funny in deed, but that was the case.

Few minutes ago, I surfed some of the blogs and came across few Iraqi bloggers writing on both Ramadan and Eid. If the titles did not mention “in Iraq,” I swear I could never tell the difference between Iraq and Palestine. The hunger, misery, constant killing, and lack of security are all Palestinian symptoms.

I am speechless now; I can hardly verbalize the so many conflicting thoughts. Heaven knows how things would be like next Ramadan, but I would not speculate it already. It is not time to worry about it now, other issues are on stake; food, money, and education. Until then, there are a lot of things to sort out.

Yesterday, I realized that I believe in love at first sight. Not the romantic kind, rather the sense of connecting with another human being without ever having to say a word. Indeed, the person I was so enthralled with last night was a five-month-old girl, who smiled at me and then hid her face in shyness. Those few moments of interacting with this baby lifted my spirits, but it also made me reflect in sadness about the fact that many children in this current conflict are robbed of their joy and their childhood.

I often contemplate how mature Palestinian children seem. Sure, they play the childhood games that we all played in our day, but there is wisdom in their words that is eerily sobering. Their age defines them as children, but if you have a conversation with a Palestinian child, you will realize how much awareness she has of the world around her, of suffering in the next village, in Gaza, in Lebanon. She is a child that has empathy and understands that life, by nature, is wrought with all sorts of difficulties.

A Palestinian child knows better; life is not as it is depicted in cartoons, where those who die are miraculously resurrected not once, but several times, where injuries are healed instantaneously, where death is a joke and life is a series of slapstick moments. A Palestinian child escapes into imagination, but she is never far removed from the reality of children and adults alike being indiscriminately shot outside her window, in her classroom, at the local bakery.

Who would have thought that normal things, simply walking down the street to grab a falafel sandwich, could result in your untimely death? Perhaps the Israeli army mistook the falafel stand for a bomb-making factory, or an ammunition shop? Make no mistake about it; the Israeli military have made too many “mistakes” that there is obviously a pattern there, wouldn’t you think?

A child that is robbed of the sense of security, therefore, is a child that is mature beyond her years. She knows that the bullets and the tank shells do not discriminate. Her father can shield her from the neighbor’s vicious dog, from the crazy drivers, he will hold her hand to cross the street, but he will not be able to capture a bullet in his hand like the mythological superheroes in blockbuster movies out this summer in theatres near you. He might be able to take the bullet for her though. But once gone, who will be her protective shield against the harsh reality of life that goes on in what seems the periphery of the conflict? And who will be there to share some of her joyous milestones; graduation, marriage, the birth of a child? Hers is a joy that is always overshadowed by a greater sorrow.

Is it fair that 31 Palestinian children have died in a 31-day period? A child-a-day; is that the new Israeli army mantra? Khaled was just a one-year-old, Aya was seven, Sabreen was only three. What lost potential, what lost promise – who knows what Khaled would have grown up to be? An astronaut? A veterinarian? A philosopher? What about Aya; she could have become a fashion designer, a teacher, a mother. By what right has this promise been so violently plucked and trampled upon cruelly and without a moment’s hesitation on the part of the Israeli soldier, who heartlessly unleashed a fiery rain of bullets and shells on a neighborhood as if he is in a simulated video game and those who die are fictitious and unreal? Perhaps that is what he is made to believe, otherwise, who in clear consciousness is so willing to pull the trigger and with one spray of bullets destroy life, potential and rob joy?

If you can see the smiling face of your own child, then how do you go out and unquestioningly take the life of others? If you value life, then how do you live with the burden of knowing that you have taken it so unjustifiably? Perhaps that is your perpetual punishment; the judgment of a child scorned is the harshest of them all.

 “THE KINGS of peace” is how Saeed Daoud, director of the Qalqilya Zoo, describes the three lions, Jafer, Jaras and Naboko who have recently settled into their new home in the West Bank along with two zebras and a deer.

On September 5, the animals were moved from the Ramat Gan Safari Park just outside Tel Aviv to Qalqilya after the Israeli safari park announced plans to help rebuild Qalqilya Zoo by providing it with a number of animals. The zoo has been ravaged by four years of Intifada, with several animals dying and a dramatic drop in the number visitors.

The zoo, the only one of its kind in the West Bank, was built in 1986 and is currently home to almost 170 animals. During the Intifada, however, it suffered a number of setbacks. Repeated Israeli incursions have left animals dead and traumatized. In March, 2003, a zebra died after inhaling teargas, and a giraffe, scared into a frenzy following an Israeli missile attack, slammed its head into a wall, causing itself fatal injury.

“In the last four years, the animals gradually began disappearing from their cages and showing up in the [natural history] museum, as exhibits,” said the zoo’s head veterinarian Sami Khader, referring to the animals that died during Israeli raids. Khader stays away from the museum. He says he can’t bear to see his former charges on display.

The zoo is considered the foremost tourist attraction in Qalqilya. Before the Israeli military closure on the Palestinian territories was imposed, a closure especially draconian in Qalqilya where an eight-meter high wall now completely encircles this northern West Bank town, an average of 3,000 people would visit the zoo every year. According to Qalqilya mayor, Maarouf Zahran, the zoo was developing so quickly that the municipality had to expand its area to accommodate the increasing flow of visitors. The additions then included a children’s playground and the natural history museum. The numbers have since dropped by the hundreds, which has had an extremely negative impact on the zoo, according to Daoud.

Nevertheless, Daoud emphasized the importance of developing the zoo in spite of the difficult conditions. This was the reason behind bringing in new animals. The zoo, said Daoud, must remain a center for culture, capable of attracting visitors.

“Every zoo needs a king,” said Khader. “The three lions will be the main attraction. They are the kings of any zoo.” Qalqilya Zoo’s first lion died of old age about a year ago and since then the zoo has remained without.

Israeli veterinarian Motki Levison, who oversaw the animals’ transfer from Ramat Gan told Reuters that, in addition to the more obvious purpose of rehabilitating the zoo, he hoped the interaction could help “increase understanding between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.”

Levison also added, something Khader endorsed, that the love of animals can help the two warring peoples build bridges of peace even at a time of hostile relations, and would go some way to compensate for the losses resulting from the Israeli incursions.

The relationship between the two zoos goes back years. Khader would often visit the Ramat Gan Safari just as Levison would visit Qalqilya. The Intifada and the Israeli military closures put a stop to such exchanges, and cooperation now is limited mainly to phone conversations.

The Israeli park has also pledged to send another two shipments of animals including a male giraffe in place of the one killed during the Israeli incursion. However, Levison indicated that the zoo is planning to first ensure that the animals that were transferred would adapt to their new environment before a second shipment is sent out.

“We really want peace and coexistence, but politics don’t have a place in this,” said Sagit Horowitz, spokesperson for the safari park. “It is important to us that Palestinians know these species and love animals too.”

The new arrivals have already attracted curiosity. One visitor, Ammar Shalaldeh, said he and his family came to the zoo for a change of scenery but especially to see the lions.

“My seven-year-old daughter was so excited. She was skipping from cage to cage, happy and scared at the same time, especially when she came to the lions’ cage. This is the first time she has ever seen lions and she was surprised at how big they were.”

Zahran, does not underestimate the importance of the zoo to the town and its population. “The zoo has cultural and educational dimensions in addition to its tourist and entertainment dimensions.” He said, in spite of the current difficult circumstances, one of the municipality’s priorities is to maintain, develop and expand the zoo given its importance to the status of the city and its relationship with other Palestinian cities and the world.

Zahran added that in addition to the zoo’s cultural and entertainment value, in the past it used to bring in a steady and reasonable income for the treasury of the municipality, which owns the animal park. He was nevertheless aware of the irony.

“Our zoo is a small prison within a larger prison,” says Khader. “The large prison has only one purpose, which is to increase the distance and hatred between the two peoples. We are neighbors today and will be neighbors tomorrow. This wall can never build good relationships between us and our neighbors.”

The only other Palestinian zoo, in Rafah in the Gaza Strip, was completely destroyed in May during the Israeli “Operation Rainbow” there. Israeli bulldozers leveled the zoo, killing a number of animals, which were buried under its ruins in the Brazil Camp neighborhood. A few of the animals, including a snake and a kangaroo escaped and have not been located since.

ON AUGUST 9, Israeli bulldozers sank their jaws into three buildings in the old city of Hebron. The demolitions, to make way for a settler-only road to connect the Kiryat Arba settlement with the Ibrahimi Mosque, caused an outrage.

The three buildings were ancient, dating back some 500 years to the Mamluk period. The alleys in the Jaber and Salaymeh quarters where the houses were situated and the stone arches above them used to form the southern entrance to the old city.

"These three buildings were part of the structural fabric of Hebron's old city and part of the historical environment surrounding the Ibrahimi Mosque," said Imad Hamdan, public relations director for the Hebron Reconstruction Committee, in an interview with the Palestine Report. "It seems the occupation forces ignored this fact. They tore down these historical buildings in order to build a settler road which they are calling 'Worshippers Road.'"

The demolitions were denounced by the highest official circles. Prime Minister Ahmad Qrei', in a statement released by his government on August 10, called it a "true crime by the occupation against the Palestinian people." Israel, he said, demolished these historical sites with no regard to humanity or civilization.

Hamdan believes Israel is waging a war on the heritage of Hebron's old city, pointing to the fact that there are tens of other houses slated for demolition, some of which date back to the Mamluk and Ottoman eras and others that were built during the British Mandate. It is a clear indication to Hamdan of an Israeli attempt to Judaize the old city and the area around the Ibrahimi Mosque.

"This new settler road will pass through the Wadi Nasara, Jabaer and Salaymeh quarters and the neighborhoods east of the Ibrahimi Mosque," explained Hamdan, but pointed to an existing road, also off-limits to Palestinian motorists, which runs a similar route and is only 150 meters longer. "The difference is only 15 seconds in any car," he said. "Their 'security concerns' are already being addressed by the existing road."

A loss of centuries "These violations are aimed at imposing facts on the ground through settlement expansion at the expense of the property of residents in the old city and its surroundings," said Areef Jabari, Hebron governor. "What happened is a disaster that can never be rectified. We can never bring back the ancient houses that were torn down. With them, almost six centuries have been lost."

According to international law, an occupying power is responsible for preserving the cultural property of those under occupation. Indeed, the Hague Convention, which Israel ratified in 1957, specifically calls on an occupying power to refrain from any hostility directed against such property and from any use of such property or its surroundings for military purposes.

Since the end of 2000, an as yet uncounted number of Palestinian heritage sites, from Rafah in the south to Jenin in the north, have been damaged or destroyed during Israeli military operations. Most famously, the siege of the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem in 2002 saw one of the most important sites in Christianity damaged by Israeli gunfire. The damage there, however, pales in comparison to that in Nablus, which has been one of the hardest hit Palestinian cities during the Aqsa Intifada.

The old city of Nablus dates back to Canaanite times. It was described as Shechem in the Tel El Amarna letters 1,400 BC. Some 2,600 buildings in the old city can be dated back to Ottoman times, and some go as far back as the Mamluk and even Byzantine eras.

Over a period of three weeks in December 2003 to January 2004, repeated Israeli incursions into the old city of Nablus left several historic houses and buildings as well as archaeological sites destroyed or damaged. Most notable was the damage to the Abdel Hadi Palace and the Kakhn, Sadeq and Shabi homes in the Qaryoun neighborhood. Israeli forces also destroyed the eastern wall of the Salah Mosque, which was previously a Byzantine church, and the Khadra' Mosque, previously a Crusader church.

"The destruction in Nablus has been concentrated mostly on buildings in the old city," Naseer Arafat, president of the Association to Protect Nablus Old Town, told PR. He said the destruction included shops and homes inside the old city, which were either partially or fully destroyed. "Nearly 60 buildings were completely destroyed and an additional 250 were partially demolished. This is in addition to the massive damage done to the old city's infrastructure. That is our identity they are destroying. Our cultural heritage is our identity."

The Abdel Hadi Palace dates back some 250 years. It covers an area of over 3,000 square meters and belongs to the well-established Abdel Hadi clan. During the invasion, the Israeli army claimed resistance fighters were hiding inside the houses or in the tunnels that run under the old city, and went house-to-house in search of them.

Their claim was dismissed by Ali Touqan, director of the Nablus library, who said the targeting of the Abdel Hadi Palace was intentional and direct. "They put holes in the walls, a meter thick. They just wanted to destroy it."

Touqan said Israeli claims of underground tunnels used by resistance fighters were also completely baseless. The tunnels are there, they have been around since the Byzantine era when they were used as water canals, but "under no circumstances could they be used by resistance fighters. These tunnels are a cultural legacy that the occupation has destroyed."

Targeting identity "The main goal behind these assaults," Hamdan Taha, director general of the antiquities department of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities told PR, "is to cause political harm to Palestinians' cultural identity. This has always been a source of intimidation for the Zionist movement and the Israeli occupation. And the intentional targeting of historical sites over the years is also designed to destroy a component of future cultural, economic development and tourism."

Taha believes the demolitions in Hebron are just one link in a chain of a deliberate campaign to target symbols of Palestinian cultural heritage. He pointed to over 450 villages that have been destroyed and erased from existence in an attempt to change the historical character of certain places with historical and archeological significance.

If Israel continues this "path of destruction," said Taha; "Palestinians will have no other choice then to teach future generations about their heritage through pictures and books." In fact, he continued, his department is preparing for the eventuality. The antiquities department is documenting the damages incurred by these archeological sites, he said, "in order to ensure that this precious legacy is passed down even if Israel succeeds in wiping it from existence."

Direct damage incurred during military operations is only part of the story, however. According to a March 2004 study released by the Palestinian Institute for Cultural Landscape Studies and prepared by researchers Jamal Barghouth and Mohammed Jaradat, the separation wall being erected by Israel in the West Bank is set to undermine the cultural link between archeological sites in the West Bank and surrounding archeological areas.

The West Bank is one of the richest areas in the world from an archeological perspective. From Canaanite times up, the ancient Greek, Mesopotamian, Persian, Roman, Byzantine and Arab Islamic civilizations have all left traces in the ground.

According to the First Hague Convention, of which Israel is signatory, cultural property includes archaeological finds. But no specific mention is made of archaeological excavations by an occupying power. That was rectified in 1999 in the Second Protocol to the Hague Convention, which specified that an occupying power must act to prevent archaeological excavation in occupied territory. The second protocol entered into effect on March 9, 2004, but has not yet been ratified by Israel.

Barghouth and Jaradat's study finds that Jewish settlements in the West Bank have directly annexed over 924 archeological sites either now or through future expansion plans. This number will rise, however, to 4,264 sites and archeological landmarks, 466 of them major archeological sites, once the wall is completed. This figure equals 47 percent of all known major sites in the West Bank including East Jerusalem, from a total of 1,084 sites according to 1944 British maps that surveyed archeological sites in the West Bank.

The ideological and historical premise behind plotting the course of the barrier in such a way, said both Barghouth and Jaradat, is that the West Bank is considered the historical and geographical site on which the Israelite tribes settled during the Iron Age around 1000 BC and thus where Judea and Samaria was created.

Between 1967 and 2000, the two researchers said, the northern and central areas and even the Jerusalem area were exhaustively surveyed, enabling Israel to determine the exact sites Jewish tradition deemed important and that should remain under Israeli rule. Thus, added the researchers, it is unsurprising that one of the standards used to define the course of the wall would be archeological sites.

"The wall constitutes a disaster to Palestinian cultural heritage," said Taha. "In addition to the fact that it will isolate approximately 50 percent of archeological sites from Palestinian territories, it will affect religious tourist activity for which Palestine is famous. The main religious tourist sites are already isolated. Look at Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Travel between these two cities, which for thousands of years has been unhindered, has now become almost impossible for Palestinians."-Published September 01, 2004CPalestine Report

DEEP IN a Jerusalem graveyard, between the pale headstones of generations past, Raja'i Sanduqa maintains a Ramadan tradition that has become his family's birthright. Every evening, as the daylight fasting hours give way to night, Sanduqa and his brothers fire a cannon into the skies.

The single blast marking the passing hours of the Muslim holy month is not an old Islamic tradition; some say it began with Abdel Rahman Al Dakhil, otherwise known as Saqr Qureish, in the 18th century. Others attribute its origins to Egypt's Muhammad Ali one hundred years later.

But in a city where Muslims increasingly feel they are losing grip, the cannon need not be proscribed in the Quran to be an integral part of life. This practice, too, is slowly becoming extinct.

"Ramadan in Jerusalem this year is missing the sound of the cannon to mark the timing of the pre-dawn meal and the dawn prayer," explains Sanduqa. The Israeli government has refused to supply the cannoneers with enough sound shells to fire the gun three times a day, he said. Now he can only fire the sunset parting shot.

For over a century, the Sanduqa family has been entrusted with firing the cannon from a cemetery near the Old City's Herod's Gate. But in an atmosphere of war, they are having trouble maintaining the tradition.

"The greatest obstacle my brothers and I have faced is obtaining the permits to fire the cannon shells," says Sanduqa. "Sometimes we need seven permits, starting with the municipality and ending with Israeli intelligence."

Three years ago, permits were only granted for 18 days of the month of Ramadan. "In the past we got around this by asking prominent personalities to get the permits for us, but then we ran into the problem of the municipality's budget for the Ramadan cannon. After we substituted the cheap gunpowder for expensive sound shells in compliance with Israeli orders, the budget they gave us was not enough to buy the shells we needed for all the shots."

The Sunduqa family is closely monitored in their work by Israeli security. They must inform the Israeli police of the scheduled timing of the blast and then contact them by phone 15 minutes before the cannon is fired. No more than a day's worth of sound shells are allowed to be in their possession at any given time.

Sometimes, the cannon firing has been witnessed by uninvited guests. "Once we saw heads moving among the gravestones," remembered Sunduqa. "We had heard stories about spirits who live in cemeteries and since it was dusk and there were no people in the graveyard, my brother and I were frozen to the spot, nearly dying from fright."

As it turned out, the "spirits" were Israeli security agents monitoring their work. "After that we got used to the moving heads," Sunduqa smiles.

But that wasn't the only specter that raised its head. "A few years ago my brother Lutfi was preparing the cannon, and just a few moments after he fired it he saw something white running through the graves. He thought it was a ghost and was terrified and ran through the cemetery to get home and tell my father what had happened."

Lutfi's father tried hard to convince him that there are no ghosts, but to little avail. "The next day we accompanied him to the cemetery to convince him that there was no such thing," remembers Raja'i. "We were surprised to discover that the white specter my brother had seen was the white horse that belongs to the cemetery caretaker, who had brought it there to graze. My brother cracked up laughing when he realized what it really was."

Cautiously, the Sunduqa family treads the world of vanishing traditions and the phantoms of religious and political sovereignty.

Source: Palestine Report (JMCC)

IT IS no longer in dispute that armed Israeli officers killed Samer Suleiman Abu Mayaleh and injured his friend Ahmad Abdel Ramhan Shoaki on February 8. Arrested that same day were Mohannad Jweihan and Amjad Abu Rmeileh.

But a cloud of police deception and charges of gross wrongdoing continue to mar what really happened to the group of 13- and 14-year old boys as they passed through the Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal Al Mukaber on that sunny early Friday afternoon.

According to eyewitnesses interviewed by the Palestine Report and human rights groups, Israeli police and soldiers fired at Abu Mayaleh and Shoaki while chasing them in Jabal Al Mukaber. Jweihan was arrested while watching the events unfold and Abu Rmeileh was taken from his home three hours after the incident.

Israeli authorities charge that the boys stabbed to death an Israeli woman who was with her boyfriend in a park next to Jabal Al Mukaber. Immediately after the chase, Israeli police announced that Abu Mayaleh had suffered a severe heart attack that led to his immediate death during his arrest. Later, a police autopsy determined that Abu Mayaleh had died of a bullet wound. Ahmad was injured in his hand by gunfire during his arrest.

One eyewitness in his early twenties, Nidal Abu Saloum, was at his sister's house nearby when he heard of a chase and went to find out what was happening. He remembers seeing policemen and soldiers chase three boys up the mountain. They were yelling at them to stop, but the boys kept running. Abu Saloum says he saw one boy get away, but the soldiers shot at the two others as they scrambled up the incline.

One child, Ahmad Shoaki, was hit in the hand by the gunfire. Both Shoaki and Abu Mayaleh continued trying to run away, when Abu Mayaleh fell to the ground.

"The soldiers then ordered him to raise his hands in the air, but he couldn't," recalls Abu Saloum. "I heard him say he couldn't, so one of the soldiers came and lifted his hands for him."

Abu Saloum says the soldiers and police left Abu Mayaleh lying there on the ground for about an hour. After the long wait, the soldiers surrounded the boy until he was totally out of Abu Saloum's vision. "Then we heard a gunshot," he recalls. When the soldiers and police moved away, Abu Saloum saw blood on the boy's back. He had been stripped of his clothes.

"Then I saw a soldier lift Samer's leg, which fell limply. I knew then that Samer was dead," says Abu Saloum.

He says four Israeli soldiers then dragged Abu Mayaleh away by the arms and legs. The other injured child was escorted by another soldier to a white military jeep and placed near Abu Mayaleh.

The Israeli autopsy, in which Palestinian physician Jalal Jabiri participated at the Abu Mayaleh family's request, later showed that Samer died from a gunshot wound inflicted while the boy was in a horizontal resting position. The results showed that the boy had been shot in his rectum at close range, according to an interview with Doctor Jabiri in Al Quds newspaper. The bullet first burned the rectum and then penetrated the liver, reaching the boy's heart. According to Doctor Jabiri, the boy lost more than three liters of blood (one-third of the blood in the body) in less than a minute.

Israeli authorities say they have opened an investigation into the shooting.

Jabiri charges that police intended to disguise the cause of Abu Mayaleh's death since the bullet entered through the rectum and there were no other external wounds. The doctor said that the bullet was fired from a distance ranging between 30 centimeters and one meter.

Family and friends of the boys continue to discount police charges that the four carried out the stabbing. Fourteen-year-old Abdel Afou says he saw Samer and Ahmad go to Jabal Al Mukaber to play. "They were holding a soccer ball and told me they were going to play. They always go to Jabal Al Mukaber to play," Abed says. The boys either kick around a soccer ball or roast potatoes on the mountain.

Um Suleiman, Samer's mother, sits in the midst of a large group of women who came to pay their condolences over the loss of her child. She says Samer had asked her for NIS20 the day before to go with his friends to Jabal Al Mukaber to play and picnic. She says that he and his friends spent the day there every Friday. "I had seven children," she said tearfully. "Israel has made them six."

Samer's mother does not believe the Israeli account that her son stabbed an Israeli woman. "Can 14-year-old children stab an adult women who is there with her boyfriend?" she asks incredulously.

Tears well up in the eyes of Samer's father, Diab Abu Mayaleh, despite his efforts to appear strong before his family. He said the day of Samer's death, Israeli officers came and took him from his home to the police station. "I had heard that something had happened to Samer, so I guessed that it was something bad," he recalls.

The police first told Samer's uncle of the death, most likely because his father has heart problems. "I heard my brother scream and start cursing the police," says the father. "I was worried they would start to beat him so I took him out of the station. Outside, my brother informed me of my son's death."

"Samer and Ahmad went to the same school," says Salah Shoaki, Ahmad's father. "They would always go to the park because this is the only recreation area for children. What Israel says are lies. Our children had nothing to do with this."

"Where did 14-year-old children get knives from?" he continues. "They went to the mountain with a ball and some food. They didn't have any knives."

Neighbors of Amjad Abu Rmeileh, who was arrested three hours after the incident, remain shocked at the boy's arrest. They say that Amjad was not even with the other children in Jabal Al Mukaber but was in the Mutran playground in another part of East Jerusalem playing soccer.

Abdel Salaam Shoaki, a neighbor boy, says he was with him. "We went to play and when we came back to the neighborhood, Israeli soldiers were waiting in front of his house," the boy remembers. "That is when they arrested him, saying he was with the others in Jabal Al Mukaber. I don't know how they can claim that. He was in the Mutran playground and he even scored a goal in the game."