March 13, 2002

(Here is an update letter from my friend LA who lives in Dheisheh.)

Hi dear all;

I miss you all, thanks for asking about us .

I want to tell you what's happening in Dheisheh Camp, and in Bethlehem and around. In the beginning there was a big attack against Dheisheh camp, and some places in Bethlehem and in Palestine. The Israelis want to occupy Dheisheh camp again, and they wanted to destroy it. But the resistance succeeded not to let the Israeli do that -- by going out of the camp and leaving it empty from the fighters and not to make the war inside the camp. It was very successful plan

But the Israeli soldiers refused that, and they destroyed some houses. They attacked the children in the camp. There are more than 10 children wounded in this attack. They cut the electricity and the water. They destroyed the tank of water in the camp, and they destroyed some of the streets in the camp

There are no men in the camp. No youth. All of them become refugee again in Bethlehem. We didn't know what the Israelis wanted when they entered the camp. To kill the fighters and to take their weapons? The fighters are not in the camp, so why are the soldiers and tanks there now? Why?

Where are the human beings in this world? Where are you, Europeans? And Westerners, where are you? You just let your government support the Israelis, and you are silent.

Anyway, we just want you to stop saying that we are terrorists when we defend ourself and our life. We love all of this world. We don’t like to die, and we love the peace, but the Israeli don’t give the peace any chance to live .

I don’t know what to say more. Really it's a very bad situation here, and the Israeli don’t care about any human rights. Just ask yourself, what the M16 will do to an F16? What can the Kalashnikov rifle do with the tanks? What?

The policy of the world becomes blind, and they just care about themselves. They help the occupation, and don’t care about the people that have the right to their land and to their life. What is happening in this world? Just think if you are in my place -- what would you do? Someone occupied your land, killed your family, your friends, your children -- everything. They even took our smile and our freedom. You just want us to be silent … we cant be like that, and we have the right to not be …

Another Israeli massacre in front of Jerusalem. They kill a child. He is 15 years old. Why? Because they think he has a bomb. They let him die slowly by cold blood. They checked him and found that he brought food for his family -- can you imagine that?….

Try to understand us and help us by not being silent.

This is a message from the children who suffer from the Israeli bombs, helicopter, and tanks -- help us please …. Help us. We are like the other children in the world…. Help us.

Yours,
LA
Dheisheh camp Bethlehem – Palestine