[Peace-discuss] Posting re Anna Baltzer

[David Green]

Subject: Fw: [CJME] Anna Baltzer's talk highlighted
"soldiers just 
following orders"

[5/7/06]

Greetings Peace Advocates -


On May 4, I had the privilege of hearing more from
Anna Baltzer while waiting for carryout food after her
talk at Broadway United Methodist Church in Kansas
City. This young woman was so moved on her return from
the Palestinian territories that she was amazed more
people wouldn't quit their jobs and dedicate
themselves to telling the truth about the occupation.

Anna has dedicated herself to speaking out. She spent
five months in the West Bank working with the
International Women's Peace Service documenting
human rights violations in 2003 and 2005, wrote a book
filled with her journal entries and photographs in
2006 and now has given dozens of talks across the
country. Her talk at the church in Kansas City created
quite a buzz of excitement, with thirty of the 100 in
attendance purchasing her book, "Witness in Palestine:
Journal of a Jewish American Woman in the Occupied
Territories."
(http://www.annainthemiddleeast.com/book)  The 
talk, while attended by a range of people familiar
with the Mideast reality, was largely attended by many
that were new to the Isreali-Palestinian 
conflict.

One frequent visitor to the talks that CJME has
organized commented this was the "best we have had so
far!" Over $400 was collected to help with the costs
of her speaking tour.

Her report focused on roadblocks, checkpoints,
settlements, the Wall and resistance to the
suffocating occupation. She recounted one story 
during her work in December 2003 in Dier Ballut, a
Palestinian village about a 45-minute drive northwest
of Ramallah. Roadblocks and checkpoints have been
set up throughout the Palestinian territories, not to
prevent movement from Palestinian cities to Israel,
but from one Palestinian town to another. The
Palestinians are only allowed through the Deir Ballut
checkpoint between 7 am and 7 pm, with no exceptions
though the Israeli military is there 24 hours a day.

On the day that Anna was monitoring the checkpoint,
Hessa, a woman 
seven

months pregnant with twins experienced contractions at
2 am. Her 
husband

started to drive her to a Ramallah hospital before she
went into labor.

Despite their pleas, she was held up at the checkpoint
for hours. Only 
after

calls made to military superiors were they able to get
an ambulance. 
Anna's

journal entry for this day read: "Hessa gave birth to
twins in the 
ambulance

on the way to the hospital. Both babies were born
alive and basically

healthy, but because they were premature, they needed
immediate 
hospital

attention. One baby died before arriving at the
hospital. The second 
baby

died the next day." 

Anna recalled that many Israeli soldiers say they "are
only following

orders" when she questioned them about cases such as
Hessa. She held 
the

Israeli government and military responsible for the
devastating 
checkpoint

poliies in the Occupied Territories. She challenged
audience members to

learn more about the realities of the occupation and
to share these

realities with elected officials and news media.

Towards a just peace,

Matt Quinn

jmq0004 at msn.com


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