When you look at the photo album from Nablus, you will see pictures of martyrs, photos of which were taken from various places around the camp. Often they are placed near areas of a wall or building where there is significant damage from bullets, although there is barely a corner you can turn around without finding at least a few bullet holes. These martyrs are considered heroes in their community because they "fight for their country." This means that they resist and fight against the Israeli soldiers when they enter the camp on a nightly basis and throughout the day.
Though violence has toned down in the last two years (on both sides), before the ceasefire, soldiers would come into the camp every night and instill fear through multiple tactics. An intimidation method that always puzzled Majd was how the Israeli soldiers would shoot at one particular wall continually for hours every night. I have a picture of the wall he was referring to in the album. You can see where portions had to be replaced due to disintegration from repetitive gun shots.
I heard of many extreme intimidation techniques, methods for control, and disturbing actions in general on the part of the IDF. One included forcing every man in the camp under the age of 50 into confinement (jail) when they were looking for a suspect. Majd also spoke of his neighbor's wife who was 7 months pregnant and shot in the belly when she was approaching a window in her own home. While the woman survived, her baby, clearly, did not.
Soldiers still participate in raids, where they will enter the home of an individual who is suspected of some kind of wrong doing, search the entire house, and destroy what they can. Often, those who are simply acquaintances of someone the IDF wants to take into custody are arrested and put into jail for extended periods of time. Family members are also frequently arrested and accused of collaboration.
At night, Israeli soldiers have been known to jump from roof top to roof top and enter the homes of refugees searching for suspects or chasing them down. The homes of the refugees have been used as shields while shooting at Palestinian soldiers, which also will flee from one home to another. Meanwhile, the civilians in the refugee camp sit powerless and scared in their houses, waiting for the incident to come to an end. Majd tells me of one chase where both a Palestine soldier and Israeli soldier were on different floors in the same house (his neighbor's house, two feet away) and how worried he was that they would both migrate to his own home.
When suspects are caught, they are not always taken to jail even when it would be possible to do so. Many individuals have been retained and shot in the street, one of his cousins suffered this fate. Instances of harassment, provocation, unnecessary violence and discrimination on the part of Israeli soldiers has been so prevalent that although confronting violence with violence is not something to be condoned, it's impossible not to understand or at least empathize considering the situation. People cannot survive in the conditions at Balata and everyone, no matter how reasonable, has a breaking point.
Though violence has toned down in the last two years (on both sides), before the ceasefire, soldiers would come into the camp every night and instill fear through multiple tactics. An intimidation method that always puzzled Majd was how the Israeli soldiers would shoot at one particular wall continually for hours every night. I have a picture of the wall he was referring to in the album. You can see where portions had to be replaced due to disintegration from repetitive gun shots.
I heard of many extreme intimidation techniques, methods for control, and disturbing actions in general on the part of the IDF. One included forcing every man in the camp under the age of 50 into confinement (jail) when they were looking for a suspect. Majd also spoke of his neighbor's wife who was 7 months pregnant and shot in the belly when she was approaching a window in her own home. While the woman survived, her baby, clearly, did not.
Soldiers still participate in raids, where they will enter the home of an individual who is suspected of some kind of wrong doing, search the entire house, and destroy what they can. Often, those who are simply acquaintances of someone the IDF wants to take into custody are arrested and put into jail for extended periods of time. Family members are also frequently arrested and accused of collaboration.
At night, Israeli soldiers have been known to jump from roof top to roof top and enter the homes of refugees searching for suspects or chasing them down. The homes of the refugees have been used as shields while shooting at Palestinian soldiers, which also will flee from one home to another. Meanwhile, the civilians in the refugee camp sit powerless and scared in their houses, waiting for the incident to come to an end. Majd tells me of one chase where both a Palestine soldier and Israeli soldier were on different floors in the same house (his neighbor's house, two feet away) and how worried he was that they would both migrate to his own home.
When suspects are caught, they are not always taken to jail even when it would be possible to do so. Many individuals have been retained and shot in the street, one of his cousins suffered this fate. Instances of harassment, provocation, unnecessary violence and discrimination on the part of Israeli soldiers has been so prevalent that although confronting violence with violence is not something to be condoned, it's impossible not to understand or at least empathize considering the situation. People cannot survive in the conditions at Balata and everyone, no matter how reasonable, has a breaking point.
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