From Occupied Palestine

Only the knafeh is still sweet
GIDEON LEVY
Haaretz, 25 January 2004

NABLUS, West Bank - The knafeh here is still the best in the world, living up to its reputation. In the early evening, Abu Salha's pastry shop, by the side of the road that climbs to the Refidiya neighborhood, is deserted, the shelves almost empty. A salesperson wearing transparent gloves slices the traditional sweet oriental hot cheese delicacy, the taste of which is the only thing that remains unchanged in this beaten and battered city.

Just children
GIDEON LEVY
Haaretz, 16 January 2004

He walked with difficulty, leaning on his son's shoulder for support. Another step and another step; he looked close to collapsing. Behind him an agonizing trek of three or four kilometers on foot, from the previous checkpoint to this one. His neck was encased in an orthopedic brace; his face was pale, despairing. His hair and mustache are dyed black, he is about 50, dressed relatively nattily. His eyes slowly filled with tears until he finally broke into quiet weeping. "Maybe you'll help me, please," he whispered, his face quivering.

The price of ignorance
GIDEON LEVY
Ha'aretz, 8 January 2004

The suicide bomber at the Geha Junction, Shehad Hanani, was from Beit Furik, one of the most imprisoned villages in the territories that is surrounded by earth roadblocks on all sides. It's a place where women in labor and the sick have to risk walking through fields to get to the hospital in adjacent Nablus. At least one woman in labor, Rula Ashatiya, gave birth at the Beit Furik checkpoint and lost her infant. Few Israelis are capable of imagining what life is like in Beit Furik: the almost universal unemployment, poverty, endless siege and humiliations of life inside a prison. A young man like Hanani, who was 21, had no reason to get up in the morning other than to face another day of joblessness and humiliation.

We are all soldiers at checkpoints
GIDEON LEVY
Ha'aretz, 4 January 2004

The terminology used to be routine and clear: Whenever a unit of the Israel Defense Forces completed a mission - be it the aerial bombing of refugee camps in Lebanon, shelling terrorist headquarters in Syria or attacking missile sites in Egypt - the media would report that "our forces returned safely to their bases."

Daily dehumanization
GIDEON LEVY
Haaretz, 21 December 2003

Bashar Awis was dying in a hospital. Though there was no doubt that he only had a few hours left, none of his relatives were by his bed at Haemek Hospital in Afula.

Awis, a 29-year-old father of two from the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, was a prisoner at Megiddo Prison. Circumstances surrounding his death on December 8 remain unclear.

Twilight zone: 'I punched an Arab in the face'
GIDEON LEVY
Ha'aretz, 21 November 2003

Staff Sergeant (res.) Liran Ron Furer cannot just routinely get on with his life anymore. He is haunted by images from his three years of military service in Gaza and the thought that this could be a syndrome afflicting everyone who serves at checkpoints gives him no respite. On the verge of completing his studies in the design program at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, he decided to drop everything and devote all his time to the book he wanted to write. The major publishers he brought it to declined to publish it. The publisher that finally accepted it (Gevanim) says that the Steimatzky bookstore chain refuses to distribute it. But Furer is determined to bring his book to the public's attention.

For the pilots' information
GIDEON LEVY
Ha'aretz, 7 November 2003

Mohammed Tabazeh lost a son and a nephew in an IDF assassination operation in Gaza. Three of his sons were wounded, one is fighting for his life. Yet the air force reported there were no civilians near the targets' vehicle.

The IDF's chorus of incitement
GIDEON LEVY
Ha'aretz, 26 October 2003

Who told the director of Military Intelligence, Major General Aharon Ze'evi (Farkash) to declare, "Better Palestinian mothers should cry and not Jewish mothers"? Is the head of army intelligence now also to be in charge of setting Israel's moral priorities? And what prompted the commander of the Ground Forces, Major General Yiftah Ron-Tal, to decide that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has to be liquidated? It's not hard to guess what would happen if Mohammed Dahlan, the former security chief of the Palestinian Authority, were to call for the assassination of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - or, for that matter, what the consequences would be if Major General Ron-Tal were to urge Israel to launch negotiations with Arafat: His days on the General Staff would be numbered.

A knife at the checkpoint
GIDEON LEVY
Haaretz, 24 October 2003

Mohammed Awfi was shot to death at dawn. It happened on February 20 of this year, in the Tul Karm refugee camp where he lived. They say that he left the mosque that dark winter morning and the soldiers shot at the figure moving toward them in the gloom, who apparently aroused their suspicion. Awfi's funeral took place that afternoon and the procession passed through the camp's alleyways. He was the son of the camp's star soccer player.

Lessons of Sarajevo
GIDEON LEVY
Ha'aretz, 19 October 2003

During the prolonged siege of their city, residents of Sarajevo dug a tunnel 800 meters in length, and used it to smuggle arms and food into the town, and the wounded and infirm out of it. One shrewd Bosnian decided to make some profit out of the tunnel, which runs through his yard - he opened a museum to commemorate the site, and nowadays tourists come from around the world and pay a few Bosnian marks to pay homage to the Sarajevo population's forbearance.