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\u2018Not just a number\u2019: A protest and a funeral in the West Bank | Israel-Palestine conflict<\/p>\n
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK<\/span><\/p>\n Even as Palestinians in the West Bank protest against Israel\u2019s war on Gaza, they\u2019re facing increasing attacks themselves.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ramallah, occupied West Bank \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0The Qalandia checkpoint wasn\u2019t busy. There were just a few cars trying to cross into the occupied West Bank from Jerusalem.<\/p>\n It was November 1, and Palestinian groups had called a \u201cday of rage\u201d to protest Israel\u2019s relentless bombing of the Gaza Strip. The previous day, Israeli bombs had devastated Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. The camp would take another hit on November 1 and then again a few days later.<\/p>\n In Ramallah, rubbish containers blocked some streets. Shops, restaurants and cafes were closed while street vendors were selling bananas to protesters. A large banner in Al-Manara Square read in English and Arabic, \u201cWe are not numbers,\u201d alongside photos of some of the more than 4,000 Palestinian children who have been killed in the bombing.<\/p>\n About 200 people gathered to march, most of them teenagers. Some were covering their faces, others carrying posters with graphic pictures of the children killed in Gaza.<\/p>\n A 38-year-old-man attended the protest with his wife and young son.\u00a0\u201cWe have been relying on the international community for 25 to 30 years, and things are only getting tougher,\u201d he told Al Jazeera, expressing a sentiment that many Palestinians share about the lack of a unified and effective response from the international community to stop the attacks against Gaza.<\/p>\n Like many others attending the rally, he blamed the Palestinian Authority for not doing enough to defend Palestinian interests during the war. He put his son on his shoulders and walked on.<\/p>\n Another protester, a 35-year-old woman from Bethlehem, said she had been unable to return to her town because of the tightening of the checkpoints. But most of all, she said, she fears the settlers who have surrounded her hometown.<\/p>\n \u201cNetanyahu has given thousands of weapons to the settlers. They do what they want,\u201d she said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has personally handed out weapons to settlers in the West Bank and has said he has acquired 10,000 assault rifles to distribute.<\/p>\n When asked about how she thinks the war might end, the woman said: \u201cPalestinians need the right to their land. Palestinians need to be free.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of the young protesters at the rally shouted slogans threatening violence against Israel. A slim, bespectacled man in his 70s who was passing by muttered: \u201cThey are radicalizing.\u201d He said he disapproves of violence as a means of resistance.<\/p>\n A day after the protest near Yasser Arafat\u2019s mausoleum in Ramallah, a 29-year-old man with bright green eyes and a defiant stare was working in a coffee shop while chatting with some patrons. Palestinian Authority officials, he said, \u201cjust sit on their chairs and do nothing\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThey [the settlers] are armed. We are not. Where is the resistance?\u201d he asked. He pulled out his mobile phone to show videos of the body of a Palestinian teenager killed that day.<\/p>\n On the morning of November 2, the Israeli military raided the town of Qalqilya near Ramallah, killing two Palestinians. One of them was 14-year-old Ayhem Mahmud al-Shafi.<\/p>\n Since October 7, at least 183 Palestinians, including 44 children, have died in the West Bank in attacks by Israeli forces or settlers. More than 11,200 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip, and about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas\u2019s attacks on southern Israel on October 7.<\/p>\n Ayham\u2019s body was carried through the streets of Ramallah by hundreds of mourners. Shopkeepers closed their businesses as the mourners passed through the streets, chanting revolutionary songs about martyrs and the liberation of Palestine.<\/p>\n Some of the mourners urged onlookers to join the procession. On the sidewalks, a few women were crying. Others recorded the procession with their mobile phones.<\/p>\n As the body passed through Al-Amara Square, the procession stopped for a moment: Ayhem\u2019s father, mother, uncle and a neighbour kissed him goodbye. To them, and to hundreds of mourners, Ayhem was not a number.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0635\u062f\u0631<\/a>
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