Dear Friends and Family, If you have been paying attention to the news in this area you might be worried about my safety. Let me first assure you all that as of today I am well and in good health as well as in good spirits, at least as good as can be expected given recent developments. I want to emphasize that Birzeit is a long way from Gaza. I am in a particularly safe area being not only in the West Bank (not Gaza) but also in a small and rather isolated town as well as in the company of many foreign nationals. The fact of the matter is that all information about the incursion in Gaza and further potential IDF action comes to me in much the same way as it comes to you all ... television news. The only difference being that my sources are probably reporting somewhat different events than yours (if you are in the states) especially because I can pick up snipets from Al-Jazeera and other Arabic language news stations. Still, to this point in time, I have seen nothing of the IDF here in Birzeit. That having been said, please understand that the situation in Gaza is desperate. This morning while we slept, the IAF bombed the main power station in the Gaza Strip taking out 78% of electricity there. All major bridges between northern and southern Gaza have been destroyed. Medicine, fire brigades, human rights workers, and all other personnel (including ambulances) have been locked out of southern Gaza. Of course this was accomplished with F-16s as Israel has the largest stash of these advanced warplanes outside the United States. According to news reports it will take 8 months to rebuild that facility and until that time the vast majority of Gazans will be either without electricity or with only sporadic access to electricity. Water, always scarce in the strip, willalso be unavailable to portions of that population. Precise numbers are not forthcoming at this point. These actions are seen as a precursor to what Israeli officials call "more serious actions". Presently, there are four battalions (approximately 2,000 soldiers) poised just outside of Gaza and ready to infiltrate the southern section of the region. Theoretically they are looking for one IDF soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped on Sunday in a Palestinian military raid of an Israeli military installation. In addition, there is an illegal settler missing from his illegal West Bank settlement somewhere in the territories. There is a rumor, and I want to emphasize that this information is speculative, that he has been killed in Ramallah which of course is only a few kilometers away from Birzeit. I have also heard that all foreign consulates have been evacuated from Ramallah and that residents are being advised to stay indoors. As students in Birzeit, we have also been advised to charge our cell phones and have sufficient food and water stocked for the next few days. These warnings typically precede Israeli military incursions into the area although this again is speculation. It is important to note that the scale of Israeli actions betrays the true purpose of the Israeli military and government. What has happened in Gaza and what has been threatened in the West Bank are various forms of collective punishment for legitimate Palestinian resistance to an illegal foreign occupation. One might question whether or not the kidnapping of an IDF soldier and a West Bank settler can be considered "legitimate" but I would remind each of you that all settlements are unequivocally illegal according to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the United Nations Charter on Human Rights, and virtually countless United Nations resolutions both within the Security Council and General Assembly. In addition, please remember that while you may be repeatedly seeing CNN's broadcast of the young, fresh-faced, chreub-esque Gilad Shalit, and hearing the testimony of his kind disposition from his family and friends, he was and is a soldier engaged in an illegal military occupation. He was an Israeli tank operator and he and his fellow soldiers have and do target and kill Palestinian civilians including women and children. Shalit and the rest of the IDF (a dubious nomenclature at best) have caused rampant destruction amongst the Palestinian populations of the West Bank and Gaza for the duration of this illegal occupation. He is no innocent despite repetitious assertions to the contrary. Having said that I should also say that I hope he is alive and I hope he makes it out of danger safely. I hope that the illegal settler is alive as well, and that he makes it home to his legal residence safely, whether that be a neighborhood in Eastern Europe, New York, or somewhere else in the world. I hope incursion into Gaza and the West Bank is avoided and that diplomatic processes prevail. While these are my hopes, I remain practical and will be prepared for the worst, even while I hope for the best. In the meantime, you can help. Please contact your representative federal government officials to urge diplomacy in the Middle East. Please urge American *impartiality* in the region as opposed to the blind and unapologetic pro-Israeli stance that has characterized US diplomatic efforts in the region for four decades. Please inform them that lives are lives and that none should be wasted, Palestinian, Israeli, or otherwise. Inform them that you have a friend or family member in the region and that his life (my life) will be adversely affected by unchecked and illegal Israeli military action (please do not give my name to any US government official, or US media outlet, however). Please speak to whomever you can to let them know that all is not as it seems in Israel/Palestine. If you have spare funds, send them to charitable organizations working on behalf of *human* rights in the region. Send medicine, money,and any other form of help you can to Gaza. Send your prayers for me and my compatriots in this, what was once the Holy Land.
I will write more as more information becomes available.
With love,
"T"
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