AP Jerusalem news editor Karin Laub hit send moments after the Israeli army declared the disengagement complete. Israel had evacuated settlers in Gaza and some parts of the West Bank in a little more than two weeks. Jerusalem bureau chief Steve Gutkin, Ankara news editor Louis Meixler and Amsterdam bureau chief Art Max look on as Israel's APTN boss leans in. AP writer Amy Teibel, seated left, is already working on the story's next version.
I bought a ticket out of here soon after the Israeli army called to say the settlement pullout was over. The first to throw my arms in the air in the newsroom, I shamelessly pumped my fists like a 13-year-old as others cheered with their own abandon. After sending the AP alert to the world, news editor Karin Laub hollered, "Kristen, get out of here... Go to your husband in
Eight months here and gone. After 8 days in
The last journalist out of
I filed another story that day after hounding the Army Chief to declare it over - in Gaza. I dialed the office when he said the word "complete". Not so polite, but we beat Reuters and AFP who were following me following him.
Israeli soldiers carry a boy from the synagogue in Morag where settler-youth resisted the evacuation in a stand-off with soldiers on August 19, 2005. (Kristen Stevens/AP)
One settlement to go - we shuttle in at
The operation moves to the
It has been surreal. I was in Morag last week, one of the first settlements to be evacuated. It's like a long arm that breaks away from the other settlements and juts into the heartland of Gaza surrounded by large Palestinian cities and refugee camps. Daring. A wall to guards against Palestinian gunfire and some 500 soldiers protect nearly 400 residents.
Little girls screaming at officers’ waistlines, mothers throwing their babies onto female soldiers in anger, middle-aged soldiers weeping or holding settlers in long embraces - these became normal sights.
Maybe the most poignant moment was when a 3-year-old left her house, went to the family car on the street and tried to open it with a big ring of keys. Troops marched by her in formation as photographers and TV crews swarmed. On the front porch her parents were talking with the soldiers trying to "talk them out". I told her parents what she was doing. They didn't move. She kept trying. I stood in their yard until her father collected her from the stampede.
Young people were dragged by each limb from the synagogue in Morag. Two soldiers wept as they walked their friend from the synagogue to the evacuation bus. After long embraces with him they wept some more under a tree. This is where I almost choked up while reporting the scene live to the office. We’d all been at this since dawn and it was desert hot. They got up to do their jobs and I did mine - to follow them back into the synagogue and confirm he was their friend.
Army officers in riot gear negotiated with screaming, singing parents who clung to their toddlers under the willow tree at the nursery. They agreed to go if they could rip their shirts in mourning and perform the prayer for the dead.
In northern Gaza a joint command center is used to coordinate Palestinian and Israeli participation during the Gaza settler pullout. On August 20, 2005, Palestinian security officials use a map to discuss with an Israeli colonel how to prevent battalions from overlapping. (Kristen Stevens/AP)
I went north to the top of
After posing for my camera, one Israeli officer urged me not to use the word "cooperation" in the article. He said they feared it would jeopardize the work and safety of their Palestinian counterparts. The Palestinians had no such fear.
In Gadid I was nearly hit by a paint-filled light bulb while running through sand beside troops who were chasing rebel rapscallions. These are the youngsters who do not live here but have generated much bad press for the dog days of settlements. Some settlers welcome them others do not. I call them summer campers.
An original settler from the hardcore settlement of Morag told me he was sick of the young supporters from outside his settlement. Moshe, a Yemeni Jew, said he was an independent man who believed in Ariel Sharon. He said he thought Prime Minister Sharon had said to himself, 'On second thought, maybe we should get out of there. There's a better way to do this.' This is the heart of Palestinian land," he said, looking from his empty kitchen toward Palestinian homes and mosques in Rafah, visible over the concrete wall.
After 5 nights here, I went back to
In the Gadid settlement Friday as I was leaving Palestinians fired at radical resisters (campers) on the roof of the synagogue. No hits.
Got the call to return while in a
It's supposed to be a pain-in-the-ass for forces tomorrow because settlers have reinforced in Netzerim, where I'm headed - and Palestinians/Hamas have this last chance to strike settlers and show them who's boss (read: get votes).
Soldiers escort settlers out of the synagogue in Gadid on August 19, 2005 with the media in full-court press. The settler leaders in Gadid reached an agreement with the army that went unreported: they will leave without a fight if they army agrees to escort from the synagogue as a last show of resistance. Or publicity. (Kristen Stevens/AP)
Back at the press center. Headed to Morag now, another settlement to the south. It's
Elei Sinai: soldiers and police, young and old, embraced settlers - many on both sides in tears.
People wandered the streets aimlessly, lost, sad.
One man stood in his yard alone, rolling his Israeli flag in his hands over and over as a four soldiers approached with his eviction notice. He shook his head slowly, refusing the envelope and began to cry.
They talked with him for 15 minutes, offering to help him pack and provide him with a counselor. Other families invited the soldiers to sit down.
This community was settled by Ariel Sharon because these Israelis were evacuated from Sinai in 1982. Now they're going through it again.
I don't know why there weren’t more separate stories about these people - they are the exception. Their land was taken twice by a government that put them there. And they will leave peacefully again though many said they felt betrayed and broken.
One lieutenant hand-delivered an eviction notice to a man who served under him for five years. They are close friends. They hugged then the man told the lieutenant he would have to be dragged out because to go sooner would be accepting a policy he disagrees with. The lieutenant said it would be better emotionally for him and his family if they went on their own. His friend's eyes teared up and he said nothing.
I better get to the bus.
Soldiers rest before the storm at the entrance to Neve Dekelim. (Kristen Stevens/AP)
I'm here at the press center again waiting for the shuttle with the
Not a bad place – free red bull, wireless access and computers to use everywhere. Plus a couple of garden restaurant/bars. The Israelis have hired some new PR folks.
I met a girlfriend from Israeli press who sat with me and my AP friend for a few hours.
We've got two of the 18 seats on the buses reserved for foreign press.
I'm going into the settlement Elei Sinai tonight - staying with AP’s TV guys. We'll wake at
There's been an announcement just now - my coworker and throngs of reporters must relocate to other settlements. My back hurts.
My husband bought a bed for our otherwise empty place in
Fox just rolled in. jokers.
coffee.
Hey, I'm going into
I'm going into
I'm not staying with army – they only provide the ride since it's a closed military zone. I'll camp out somewhere alone or with other reporters. First stop: Elei Sinai, which is the only one of 21 settlements agreeing to go peacefully. They're mostly secular.
Half of the 9,000 settlers haven't even packed. Many are still praying for a miracle or counting on a death curse prepared for
I hope I find my ride.
There was a bus shooting attack of Israeli Arabs in northern
It's a town with very good relations with Israelis. Many in the community are Druze, who are well-known for their service as Israeli soldiers and officers.
I put the stuff together from Shfaram, where this all happened. Thursday night as I arrived, I was soon running beside the bus as they dragged it out of town - because we didn't have photos, yet. I got some. The smell and sight of it all was so human and horrible in a way I never expected.
The next day: I was covered head to toe, 100+ degree heat, with more than ten thousand people - talking with dozens who shared details about the attack and the dead. Two Muslim sisters, 21 and 23, gone. Bus driver, everybody's favorite guy, shot dead. The quiet candy store owner who lit up groups of children with his offbeat tales - massacred by hate.
The community protected the man who disarmed the Jewish terrorist - he wouldn't give his name. I spoke with him. Even though I heard the account from men who saw him, they wouldn't speak on the record. They were protecting him because he has a sad past and a history of hard drug abuse. So there were all these people saying different things.
Between the two funerals, I chased a radical Islamist leader through exalted throngs of men in the streets. He was released from Israeli prison last week where he'd been held for years for unnamed security reasons. The sadness of the day combined with peoples' relief in his presence was a sight. He called for calm over a bullhorn - asked people not to retaliate. I interviewed him for 15 minutes behind the church during the Christians' funeral - with hundreds of men looking on and passing around what he was saying. Raed Salah, one calm, powerful dude. He's the leader of
I attended his press conference with the pack of animals that is the Israeli press. He turned to me after giving long answers in Hebrew and asked if I had any questions in English “or are you just hiding in the corner.” I deferred to the Reuters reporter who promptly shouted, “Why’d you quit?” We had it translated and on live feed. I was only there in case he choked on something, or someone choked him.
Things will start heating up next week when the pullout begins. I'll be covering army briefings from the border of
So nice to have my little brother here, even if he thinks I need to get with Jesus. He, my brother, helped me on the horror story above. People loved him in Shfaram, kept giving him food. In this Arab community he was invited to sit with several groups of men, who would by extension answer my inquiries with greater ease.
AP’s
At sunrise and sunset - on Tel Aviv beaches - over two weeks’ time, I bonded with the beach paddleball elite. They brought me to their museum where they hang out, drink and talk "racket". It was Jewish born and bred right here a century ago.
I tried to write it punchy - editor sent it as is.
(Kristen Stevens/AP)
An AP photographer and I then visited sites where Palestinian families' homes had just been demolished by Israeli bulldozers. Crushed. Deep in the West Bank Hussein's family had violated a building permit that dated back to the 70's when, in 1992, his aging parents added a room to the front of the tiny house to accomodate four grandchildren. They showed me documents. The Israeli army gave them a month to clear out. Israel grants virtually no permits for building or expanding to Palestinians, whose population is busting at the seams. The Israelis can then reclaim any inch of new construction. And boy do they. Standing there talking with Hussein was a clarifying moment for me. More so when the office said we would not do the story because it has been written so many times.
After interviewing Giants running back Tiki Barber in Tel Aviv and writing the story on the bus (Politics is next for Tiki, he told me.), I raced to get to the Gay Pride parade in
Stabbing suspect in custody. "I came to murder on behalf of God. We can’t have such abomination in the country,” Yishai Shlisel said during his interrogation. Photo: Reuters
One of two people who were stabbed and wounded during the annual Jerusalem Gay Pride parade seeks help for his injury. Ultra-Orthodox Jews protested and tried to stop the event. (Photo by Brennan Linsley/AP)
The most seriously wounded victim was a middle-aged straight man marching with his two daughters (pictured above - I'm behind them). The youngest of the teen-aged daughters fell from her two-meter stilts after her father he was stabbed below his heart.
What shocked me as much as the scene was how many reasonable-seeming Israelis were appalled or simply irritated that the gay groups would "force the issue" on the holiest of holy cities. I wasn't the same for a few days. But you can't go around Jerusalem telling people you're still a bit anxious over a gangly, pasty-faced knife attacker. They've seen worse and they'll tell you.
And Ronaldo's visit was a zoo. He came to play soccer with some Palestinian and Israeli kids. He was predictably mobbed. To make sure he didn't say anything, I was good & close under some primate cameramen shouting at him to look their way when I smiled and rolled my eyes at them. He smiled back. I feel 11 right now.
It's been another 12-hour day. Chasing the beleaguered and batty Greek patriarch out of hiding in the old city may sound romantic but it's not. Maybe it never did. And I couldn’t – he has locked himself in his quarters with a fistful of pills, I hear.
The last three stories I wrote:
Senate Majority leader Bill Frist: I cornered in the elevator at the Prime Minister's office after he overlooked me at his press conference. My question: does
Turkish defense minister on an Israeli weapon shopping spree: I was shoved away from him when I started to ask him some questions while he toured the surveillance unmanned aircraft "heron". Turkey bought billions worth from Israel in recent years. The Israeli General in the defense ministry told me they are training Israeli pilots over Turkey. And I learned that besides India, Turkey is Israel's biggest weapons client.
Palestinians embarrassed into withdrawing anti-Semitic propaganda from their government website: so they did.
I wrote a story on a bar here named after Russian president, Putin. He met with leaders here a few days ago.
It was a fun story about what Russian-Israelis think of the Russian president's visit. One in five Israelis comes from a former Soviet republic - most since '91. How about that?
I had to wait for these guys to get pretty drunk before they'd talk to me. Russians still don't like it much when you write down what they're saying. And when you're asking about their former-KGB leader, they might throw a fist down like a hammer. Like this one guy did before demanding that I speak Russian.
Passover dinner with a family (parents from
These folks know how to make some kids, boy. There were 11 of them under 10 running around looking for hidden matza all night.
Passover's about teaching children how Jews escaped
I met some gun-toting Israeli 18-20-year-olds at the beach the next day. They're young settlers, who seem to all carry guns. They taught me how to shoot an M16 and a Czech-made handgun (later, inside a home, no bullets). I hate guns.
On the beach, they were practicing with their guns with a little too much zeal. Two guys pointed them at Arabs way down the beach - for more than half an hour – with the haughtiness that goes with simulated combat. An Arab man and two boys had been facing the sea when some Israeli girls traipsed into the water between us and them. This is what made the Israeli boy-men real mad.
They also showed me where rockets exploded outside their homes launched by Arabs who live surrounding these 8500 people on all sides. One gun-toting friend was wounded all over his body from a Qasam rocket 4 months ago. Before the rocket he had been a capoiera master. He said he’s stressed out all the time. Within two hours he had repeated his ordeal aloud several times as if to believe it. He showed me the stereo system he has built with the compensation money from the Israeli government. Unlike his settler community, he wants to leave town permanently.
Another gun-toter lost his new horse to a rocket last weekend.
I'm going to the
I was asked to go with a photographer in his little tin car until I made 14 phone calls and found an armored bus instead. There have been dozens of shootings aimed at Israeli cars on the roads that lead to these isolated settlements.
Today I awoke to a call from the office - get over to the Western Wall - "there are thousands of Jews worshipping and some who want to storm the
Uh, the old city. Uhh another religious story. "OK, be there in 10 minutes." It was fine. Fanatics, man. I wish they didn't get so much press.
Today I went to Tel Aviv for a Defense Ministry meeting on the psychological challenge for soldiers who will pull Jewish settlers out of
The foreign press laughed at me after the colonel smart-mouthed over my question about cooperation with Palestinian security on the two "rings" that involve reoccupying Palestinian areas during the evacuation. Laugh on, starlets, it's an answer you needed and were too chicken to ask. I walked out of the meeting nervous about writing it fast and getting it to the office by phone. So I sat down in 100 degree heat at some kiosk and did that.
Then I went to cover a talk between former prime minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on coordinating over post-pullout Gaza. Coordination, the old laughing stock.
I returned to the Holy Sepulcher last night in the
The Palm Sunday Procession, marking Jesus' path into the Old City in Jerusalem on March 21, 2005. (Kristen Stevens/AP)
AP headquarters in
Far more interesting was the archeologist who led me from where Jesus and his Jewish followers began his Palm Sunday walk into Old Jerusalem as the King of Peace. He demonstrated how Jesus probably walked a different path than the one the procession has celebrated for the last seven centuries. Jesus wouldn't pass through a recently excavated burial site, he said, which would have been fairly evident along his way.
On Good Friday I walked with an
The saddest part of Easter in the holy land is that Palestinian Christians are not allowed to travel the short distance into
I'm back in the same Arab cafe where I sent in quotes and wait for word on the big Ascent. I'll be glad when these visits to the holy city are laid to rest. I derive a certain peace from the smell of candle-lit church on my clothes. Reminds me of thinking the world was correct as a kid sitting next to my grandmother in church. But the
I helped do a story about
I also asked him for reaction to Palestinian Security forces seen recently on TV training their own to take control of the territories - they don't look too ready, let's say. He's more concerned with miscreant military groups. An elegant man, who touched my elbow and asked if we were done. He'd asked me to be brief.
(Kristen Stevens/AP)
I was way too fascinated in the two warehouses of weapons on display. Reconnaissance rifles that shoot drop-down cameras into walls are plain cool. So is software that transmits live infrared footage to handhelds via the Web - the Israelis are using this along their security barrier.
From watching Israeli commanders flex street war tactics, I went to a meeting the next day with the army and the family of British documentary filmmaker shot dead by an Israeli soldier two years ago.
Months ago, I saw the tough documentary about James Miller and the film he was making about 3 Palestinian kids. The documentary ends with Israeli forces killing Miller after he was clearly identified outside one of the boy's homes - all caught on tape by an AP TV cameraman.
The result of the investigation: The army did not indict the soldier they believe was responsible, but will take disciplinary measures against him for firing his weapon - and for lying during the investigation. He had confessed to firing his weapon into the exact area and at the same time Miller was shot. And to identifying the people in that area as journalists coming from a well-lit porch.
I interviewed the family as they left the meeting completely distraught. I was talking with them in front of AP, Reuters and CNN camera crews when I asked if everyone could shut the cameras and lights off for a minute and asked if they were comfortable enough to start on camera. No other reporters, no direction from the office. I asked them questions on a dark street in the glare of camera lights. Then called the office with quotes from the family and army statement. Almost choked up during the interview and certainly did later on the bus ride home. I was a wreck, actually after 12 days straight of 12-hour days that included writing stories and meeting deadlines from buses.
By the way, earlier the army had held me in their little "reception" room for half an hour after finding me waiting outside a gate for the TV camera crew. They kept asking questions about my job, bus tickets, apartment, names and #'s of people I work with... all while holding my passport and press pass hostage. not pleasant.
It took a macho Israeli AP TV guy to rescue me and my things. He'd enjoyed three beers before being called in. I hate being rescued.
Other stories I've written this week:
Virtual reality treating Israeli victims of terror - by taking them back to a virtual bus explosion in
American activist shot in the face - his day in Israeli Supreme Court
New England Pats owner Robert Kraft: "Patriots owner says uncertain about linebacker's future, prays for him in
Mr. Kraft apparently wasn't prepared to be drilled by a "skirt" about salary caps and franchise rights to players. On deadline day! He preferred to discuss the view of old city behind the Lombardi trophy - but I drove Israeli reporters crazy by commandeering his time with player questions for American readers
Army chief of staff to military spooks saying it is "policy" to phase out Palestinian workers in
Outside the office,
(Kristen Stevens/AP)
I drove three hours into the
When I walked out of the school, there was a procession of more than 400 men carrying a coffin overhead. Some mullah had died of old age, so no wire story.
Interview was translated last night by ambulance-driving Nimi in return for Chunky Monkey ice cream. I asked questions in basic English while the principal and students answered in Arabic and Hebrew. The features editor in
Things I've learned:
Everything I write needs to be cut. Then more. And faster.
"Schlump" is a "dumb guy who thinks he's important."
If anyone is interested in a few good books:
"Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times: Israelis..." by Donna Rosenthal is refreshing and current. Amos Oz's recent memoir is good but detail-rich. "
And Yehuda Amichai, the beautiful poet from
There are so many stories to tell about the people I meet daily. I've never fought with strangers over little things so much in my life - or felt such understanding pass between us.
So much is unfair here, but people on both sides of the green line play soccer every weekend. Orthodox women have taken up flag football. Palestinian women are among the highest educated in the Arab world. Kids want to talk with their neighbors.
The Jewish woman upstairs is my landlord. She's started teaching me to make Iraqi cubay yesterday. Meat-filled cornmeal in a tomatoey broth. Her husband's father fled Iraqi Kurdistan a young man with a bride he chose over his family's selection. Their son, Nimrod, is my friend. He carries on his father's single-ambulance business that supported 4 productive kids. Today "Nimi" is in Tiberias with a young woman he met over the Internet, a popular dating device for Israelis. He tried on four different outfits before settling on jeans and wool blazer. He's glad she is Jewish and not so religious that she wouldn't accept his lifestyle. He says he wants to have Jewish children because his people were nearly wiped out, and, he said, "to be Jewish by law, a child's mother must be Jewish." The spectrum of religious mating restrictions can make dating difficult - or impossible if you're orthodox.
A guy asked me to smile at the military conference. "Are you Jewish?" he asked. No. "Why not?!"
I'm going to
The attitude of Israelis is direct and efficient. Seems most Israelis don't want to waste time. I'm learning from this. Hacksaw wisdom and soft humor unfurl when Arabs, Jews, Bedouins and Druze tell their stories. Listening is the best lead.
Now I'm in
I was supposed to cover the Middle Eastern writers' gathering on the border with
Etgat Keret and Palestinian Samir el-Youssef, who co-wrote Gaza Blues, spoke at the Mideast writers conference (Kristen Stevens/AP)
Edgat Keret is one cool cat. He’s currently the voice of Israeli's young generation, bla bla, I hate labels and he’s not really. They just like reading his far-out fantastical stories. He co-wrote Gaza Blues with Lebanese Palestinian Samir el-Youssef, who was also at the conference. Keret has done short stories and films, too. He talked to me about relating to each other as the strange individuals we all are - not through the lens of two-sided conflicts. His pal Samir, a warm, grounded guy, has a story of childhood exile from southern
It was fun competing with the old guys from the Chicago Sun Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, etc. during question time. Monsters, some of them. Whatever, I missed the story.
Hope might have crystallized a bit here yesterday with the summit. I did the "man on the street" interviews that AP usually avoids. My interviews were included in the big story reprinted in papers worldwide. Barely any Israelis were listening to the speeches. Guarded at first, most Israelis I approached do care and want to talk. Many talked about hope in spite of everything - and how they were glad that the
One young woman was looking forward to Israeli withdrawals from occupied territories. She told me her parents still live in a settlement in the
On my first day I wrote about the death of the second to last Jew in
In the first week I took quotes by phone from our Palestinian reporter traveling with Abbas, as they landed in Ramallah fresh from the summit. We were racing Reuters to get the story out. After sending it over to her, the desk editor shouted that I should always pass those to her immediately. But no one flinched when I'd shouted "It's Mohammad with Abbas, a "flash" or something," before he hit my ear in labored English.
I told my editor I'd shake her chair next time. She got my messy quote edited and on the wire in under a minute thirty. We beat Reuters. I dig that part.