January 19, 2003

Curfew, Helicopters, Clinic

[Bethlehem, West Bank] Another day of curfew in Bethlehem. What else is new. Missed Armenian Christmas celebrations. It fell on a curfew yesterday. Yesterday there was an odd curfew lift -- from 7:30am until 9:00am. Curfew was already re-imposed before I got out of the house. The occupying forces are playing silly mind games (which will eventually drive me nuts, I'm sure). Anyway, today helicopters flew in formation slowly around and around and around Bethlehem. Helicopters make me nervous now. I watched last year as they unloaded into the Bethlehem community. And I listened to them as they fired missiles at night. That will make you a bit jumpy.

Helicopters follow a refueling(?) plane over Bethlehem.

Later these two hooked up while the second helicopter followed at a distance. Practice?

Sometimes I quoted the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949 like I knew what the heck it said. Well, since I've been given the opportunity of some serious downtime under curfew, I have read it. (Thanks for my copy, Irja.) But the more I read, the worse I feel. It covers a lot of material, and I think I could almost open the section on "Occupied Territories" at random and find a violation every day. I need to write up a separate piece on the Geneva Convention. It's a pretty important document.

One thing that it says is that the "Occupying Power" -- in this case Israel -- is prohibited from destroying or damaging property -- unless it is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations. The Occupying Power is also responsible for maintaining medical and hospital establishments and services in the occupied territory. So with that in mind, I visited the Beit Sahour Medical Center -- Greek Catholic Convent Clinic -- during a quick curfew break on Friday. Late Thursday night Israeli soldiers had also paid a visit to the clinic. They broke open the front door and I counted at least six other doors that they broke down or damaged. I have no idea what they were looking for in the clinic, but it's not unusual for them to enter a hospital and wreak havoc. By the way, if you're United Methodist, this clinic is one of the projects we support financially.

Door repairs underway. I didn't take many photos, since there were a lot of patients at the clinic milling around the area. When curfew is lifted, the medical centers get a lot of business.