December 2005
Your Help is Making a Difference in Palestine
By Paul Larudee
As I began to write this, four ISM volunteers were arrested in the Tel Rumeida district of Hebron in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank. Their crime? To accompany Palestinians to school, shopping, work, or friends’ homes.
ISM volunteers document the harassment of Palestinians, their delays at checkpoints and the denial of access to their own property. They film Israeli settlers who shout insults, throw bottles and other objects, and even beat Palestinians while soldiers stand idly by. The good news is that the presence of volunteers with cameras is often enough to reduce these crimes. The bad news is that filming is itself often considered a crime.