March 9, 2002

(Here is a letter from my friend L.A. who lives in Dheisheh. The letter was written as the camp came under Israeli attack. As I post this, Dheisheh is still under attack.)

Hi dear all;

How are you? I miss you all. I don’t know what to say, but I will tell you what is happening here in Palestine and in Bethlehem, especially in Deheisha and Aida camp. What has happened is that Sharon doesn’t have political solutions. He will fail and his government will fall down in a few days or weeks. I don’t know how but I’m sure he will. So he is trying now to impact the Israeli opinion, to tell them ‘I’m getting you security and safety.’ But he’s not! In the contrary, he is doing more violence. He is killing more Palestinians and Israelis by his actions. And the problem is that Israelis are silent, as is the whole world.

What I want to tell you is that yesterday Sharon occupied Bethlehem from the west until the east and from the north until the south. He is now stopped in front of Deheisha. He can’t enter the camp. The resistance in the camp said “We will die before Sharon enters and occupies our camp.” Even the children said “We are civilians but we are ready to lose our life for or freedom and for Palestine also.”

Now, we have 4 martyrs in Bethlehem - 2 in Aida and 2 in Deheisha. We have more than 30 wounded. We don’t know what will happen. But we are sure that many of the people in Deheisha and in Bethlehem will get killed in these days. We hope not, but this is Sharon…. Anyway, just now while I’m writing to you, some one is telling me that now there are 6 martyrs 6 and many more wounded.

Another massacre in Gaza! More than 25 martyrs in Gaza in this night. Until now, many of them are children or civilians, and also 5 martyrs in Tul Karem Camp. So today, we have more than 35-40 martyrs in all the West Bank and Gaza.

We are still waiting for your humanity in Europe, for you to do something. Do you only see yourselves as human? I’m sorry to say that you don’t know anything about it in all the western countries. I’m sorry to say that you are always talking about human beings. And, even if an animal gets killed it’s a problem for you. But now you are watching as a complete population gets killed, and you do nothing. You just do nothing….

I don’t know. It’s difficult. I can’t say more. I’m trying to tell you to think about the Palestinian people.

Yours
L.A.
Deheisha camp Bethlehem – Palestine

PS. I will try to write more if I am still alive. Ok.. bye… Sorry, but now many helicopters are in the sky of the camp. The shooting is very quick now. Sorry but another one was just killed from Deheisha. 7 martyrs in Bethlehem…. Please send this to your friends.