Qassem, Marisa and Nadia are all good friends...

Sniper invasion of our residence in Ramallah

April 13, 2003

by Marisa Consolata Kempre

Six construction workers, our architect Nadia Habash and my
husband Qassem were today held at gunpoint, handcuffed and
blindfolded, for up to 10 hours in our rooftop apartment in Ramallah
after having accidentally tripped upon an Israeli snipers' nest.
Approximately 18 masked and heavily armed snipers had settled
into our flat after having raided the 13-family building overnight,
evacuated the terrified residents to the lower level flats and
searched the building. Upon their apparent departure, our neighbors
returned to their homes with their terrified children believing that the
army had vacated the premises. In fact, they had just relocated and
set up a military presence in our rooftop apartment.

As workers arrived in the morning to continue construction inside
the flat, they were met by the barrel of snipers' guns at the door and
forced inside, after which they were handcuffed, blindfolded and
made to sit in the cold wind at gunpoint. Later in the day, our
architect and Qassem arrived at 11h00 and 13h00 respectively to
check on progress and received the same shock. No evidence of
their disappearance was left, as cell phones were immediately
confiscated and they were forbidden from speaking. It is solely
thanks to our perceptive neighbors who advised me by telephone of
the strange circumstances whereby so many workers could be
making no noise whatsoever, that we discovered the incident.

A first attempt to negotiate the release of the eight civilians was
made prior to my arrival by a journalist colleague of ours who spoke
gently through the door in Hebrew ? his efforts met with the sound
of loading cartridges on the other side of the door. In an effort to
avoid further aggravating the situation, he descended from the
building and I called, in addition to the military adviser at UNSCO
who was already working the phones with Beit El, colleagues at the
Canadian Representative Office in Ramallah. Within 10 minutes
the Canadians had sent two political officers, their military attaché
and a security guard. We together worked on two fronts:
pressuring military contacts in the Israeli army, and attempting to
negotiate the release of the prisoners being held, by all evidence, at
gunpoint inside the apartment.

After two long hours and immense pressure bearing down by the
Canadians, the UNSCO military adviser and a number of journalists
having contacts within the army, four Israeli military vehicles pulled
up, one of which was an ambulance. With the persistence of the
Canadians' security guard and their military attaché, the army finally
spoke to us, released several soldiers from the vehicles to 'secure'
the descent of their snipers from the roof, and had them pile into the
Hummer vehicles. Only then did the hostages realize that their
captors were gone, and descended the stairs after having searched
for their personal belongings ? passports, ID cards, wallets and
cellular telephones which had been either strewn and smashed all
over the apartment or stolen by Israeli soldiers prior to their having
evacuated the premises.

While thoroughly relieved at the safe release of the eight hostages
and eternally grateful for the efforts of the Canadian Representative
Office and Lee Nickerson at UNSCO, I feel compelled to express
our disgust that following such objectionable treatment of unarmed
civilians the army would debase themselves further by stealing from
them. In addition to the most serious security implications of such
an incident (undoubtedly not the first) on all Palestinian residents of
the occupied West Bank who could at any time come home to
discover that their homes have been taken over for military
purposes, the ongoing issue of theft of civilians' belongings by
Israeli soldiers should not go ignored.

Marisa Consolata Kemper, kemper@un.org
Programme Adviser
Office of the United Nations
Special Coordinator

Tel: (972) 2 234-4951
Fax: (972) 2 234-4956
Cell: (972) 59-413939