![]() ![]() Outside the PRCS, rows of ambulances stood waiting for action. When this occurs they contact the MDM team or the International Committee of the Red Cross, who liaise with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to negotiate their passage. They are stopped from proceeding any further. Quite often, ambulances aren't even able to reach sick people in the first place, she says. She tells us tales of ambulances collecting women in labour to take them to the hospital delivery suites, only to be held up at a checkpoint where the women give birth. I haven't seen some members of my family for ages.” “Our ID cards are all marked with our home towns, and soldiers won't let you pass through without specific permission, and even then, they may turn you away because you're from Ramallah. “It's even harder to go from city to city,” she says. This has made travelling around the West Bank a drawn out chore for Palestinians passing from village to town is complicated by checkpoints. More roadblocks and checkpoints have sprung up, and East Jerusalem is now virtually closed off. Reem complains that for the Palestinians the situation on the ground has actually deteriorated. Zone C is under complete Israeli control. Here civil responsibility falls to the PA but security is under Israeli control. She described zone B as the “ultimate grey area”-responsibility for the area is split between the Israeli and Palestinian authorities-and it forms most of the West Bank area that isn't already in zone A. However, Israel controls the checkpoints between the towns and villages, determining who can leave and enter. Zone A is an autonomous Palestinian region, such as Ramallah, and many of the other West Bank towns. Regional divisions and personal separationsĪs a result of the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority (PA) was established and the region divided into zones. As I'm new to the region, Reem gives a quick summary of the travel restrictions in the West Bank. Reem Wadhan, public relations officer for the PRCS, takes us around the bustling building, explaining what each section does, and describes some of the problems facing the organisation. We arrive at the headquarters of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), an observer member of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. It could have anywhere had it not been for the face of Yasser Arafat wearing his trademark kaffiyeh beaming down from adverts promoting mobile phones. People roamed the streets, drove their cars, popped into a cafe for a coffee-nothing visibly untoward or unusual. But it just seemed like a faceless, unkempt, hilly town. I'd only ever seen it on the television during chaotic and bloody flare-ups of the conflict or heaving under the strain of assembled masses grieving the death of Yasser Arafat. I didn't quite know what to expect from Ramallah. Cars channel into two queues-UN and diplomatic vehicles with their white licence plates, and “others.” While we're waiting, the diplomats pull up and glide through effortlessly, and our MDM ID cards let us pass through with relative ease. Jean Sebastién says: “The Palestinian areas are friendlier than the Israeli parts, and we're also here to work with the Palestinian community.”Īs we head from Jerusalem to Ramallah, we arrive at our first checkpoint of the day. Most of the other NGOs and UN buildings are located in the vicinity. Our base is the newly refurbished MDM staff house in East Jerusalem, the predominantly Palestinian part of Jerusalem. Jean Sebastién Dy, the general administrator of MDM in Jerusalem, and Sebastién Laplanche, general coordinator, meet us at the airport and take us to our accommodation in an MDM marked car with flags flying from the back. So I was relieved to be welcomed only with a glower, a few quickfire questions, and the request for evidence that I was from the press. We've communicated daily on the phone, trying to arrange the complex logistics, but only manage to meet for the first time at the airport.īefore leaving I received a brief warning that I'd probably be in for harsh scrutiny on arrival at Ben Gurion airport. Accompanying me is Andy Aitchison, a freelance photojournalist, and Michelle Hawkins from MDM UK.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |