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Teargas and sewage21 November 2012BethlehemToine van Teeffelen

Yesterday morning Tamer asks for a few shekels because of a charity activityat school to support Gaza. At work we talk about the news. Rania and Fuadtell about a holy mass in Beit Jala on Sunday where a priest had put thewords freedom, liberty and salvation on a banner in front of the altar.In Tekoa south-east of Bethlehem a boy was shot in the stomach at ademonstration in front of the school; he had to be operated immediately.

A staff of ours, Haneen, is pregnant and gets a day off because of clashesaround Rachels Tomb, where the Sumud Story House is located, and wherethe army uses teargas. Several members of the womens groups at the

House had in the past, during the first Intifada, lost their unborn babiesbecause of teargas. A hotel owner says on the news that half of thereservations for the coming weeks have been cancelled.

After a while, Rania comes to say that she goes early home from workbecause some schools have closed early. There are demonstrations in town.Her daughter is scared and needs to be consoled. I walk back home later andhear that Jara too has come back home early. Around Rachels Tomb Israelisoldiers block the road, straddle-legged. Youth have hidden themselves inthe gardens along Manger Road.

Later comes Mary, who says that the soldiers throw both teargas and sewagewater. A new tactic. It seems they opened sewage pipes, but how do theycollect the sewage water? Keep the windows shut, she warns. Two rocketsfrom Gaza landed in the environment of Jerusalem and another in the southof the West Bank. Later on we hear that at least ten youth have beenwounded near Rachels Tomb because of rubber bullets and teargas.

When Tamer comes from school in the afternoon, he too smells teargas, butdoesnt know what it is. He squeezes his eyes. What happens to the world?Almost the whole of north Bethlehem must have at that moment, 14:30,been enveloped in a cloud of teargas, including Bethlehem University. Duringthe evening Mary buys vegetables at Jibrin some 200 meter from our house.There too it smells. From a distance you dont hear the shooting of teargas,she says.

Today Mary doesnt have work at the university. There is a day of mourning.The children go to school. In Hebron and possibly other West Bank cities is ageneral strike in support of Gaza.

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The rockets

17 November 2012BethlehemToine van Teeffelen

Mary listens to the local news about Gaza on her kitchen radio. In-between isnational, solemn music, such as the melancholic songs of Marcel Khalifa andthe famous Jerusalem song of Fayrouz. Thursday was a day off because ofthe day of national independence, which is of course no independence. Latein the afternoon is a demonstration in nearby Aida camp against the Israelibombing of Gaza, and 6 camp dwellers are injured by whatever is shot atthem: live bullets, rubber bullets and sound bombs, as Maan news agencyspecifies.

Friday, together with the Sunday the day off for the children, Jara is glued to

Facebook and Twitter. She follows all the messages and photos about Gazaand shows me the demonstrations in New York, Tel Aviv and elsewhere. Marylistens at the university campus to the speeches of political factions; in oneof them a Hamas leader says that they should give up thinking as factions,that they are all Palestinians. Mary is touched by the remark.

The Dutch youth news (Jeugdjournaal) calls. Jara decides to answer in Englishto the Dutch questions; that feels more comfortable to her. The interviewerprefers that Jara does not go into the graphic details of what she sees on thephotos in Facebook and Twitter, such as kids who are terribly deformed dueto the bombings. Jara tells that next day she will not go to school: Isnt it

nonsense to go to school and do as if you normally study while the peoplein Gaza suffer because of the bombings?

In Bethlehem and Beit Jala people saw the traces of the missile which camedown not far from the Gilo settlement. The Maan agency shows a clearaerial photo. Two friends of Jara living in Beit Jala say that they could smellthe missile after it came down. First people didnt believe it. But it also turnsout to be true that a missile came down not far from Noqedim, thesettlement where Lieberman lives, the Israeli minister of foreign affairs. Is ita coincidence? It is clear that no Qassam rockets were used, but likely Al-Fajrmissiles, with a much wider range and more precision.

A family member tells that four dababaat, Israeli tanks, are stationed nearbyTalitha Qumi, the school on the top of the Beit Jala hill. He says that theIsraelis might wish to prevent that Palestinian militants would shoot fromBeit Jala towards Gilo, as happened at the beginning of the second Intifada,in 2000-1. But, we ask ourselves, who has weapons here?

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Today, Saturday, no school. The children are happy not to have their exams,play together, and afterwards Jara goes back to Facebook and Twitter. Thelast message is that 45 Egyptian kids are killed in Cairo due to a school busaccident.