Testimonies

Ghazi Bani 'Udeh, journalist, father

I live in a rented apartment in Nablus with my wife, Maria, who's originally from Cypress and our four daughters. The apartment is about 20 meters away from the main road between Nablus and the Jordan Valley. I have suffered greatly since the beginning of the Intifada and since the army entered our neighborhood.

Since the Israeli invasion into Nablus in March 2002, I have felt like I am trapped in a real prison. I don't go to work most days. I'm a journalist. I work with various people. Now, even working from home is impossible, because the phone lines get cut off when the Israeli army enters. As a result of the curfew, my financial situation has deteriorated, as I sometimes stay home without work for many days, even weeks.

My wife is a Cypriote. She finds everything that's going on here strange. She pretends she understands, but she has been more irritable lately. My four daughters, the twins Lina and Shirin, age 9, 10-year old Lora and 18-year-old Rana are acting strange. I feel like a police officer working to solve their problems, and my wife's. We are all on edge, and the girls have started swearing at each other, which has never happened before. The situation severely affected one of the girls. She goes to the bathroom dozens of times an hour. I took her to the pediatrician, Dr. Nihad al-Masri. He said that she was suffering from emotional problems. When she went to Cypress with her mother, the problem disappeared. But when she came back to Nablus, it reappeared when the first tank passed by our home. The other girls wake up frightened several times a night.

Our financial situation is very difficult because there is no work. I can no longer provide everything the family needs, and my daughters don't like it. When there is a curfew for over a week, I can't bring food that would suffice for the whole period. They sometimes ask me for ice cream, meat or fruit. When I tell them that I don't have enough money and that I'm not working like I used to, they don't understand and get even more irritable. We can't go out of the house, not even for several minutes, or talk to relatives. Our life used to be easy, full of understanding. Now, it's hell.

We're not in contact with our neighbors, so we don't see, hear or talk to anyone. We're in constant fear of the Israeli tanks which pass by on the streets and sometimes stay for hours near the house. In addition to all these, the Israeli tanks flatten the land and cut off the electricity and water supplies. It takes the municipality a day or two to fix things, which makes things even worse.

Ghazi 'Abd al-Karim Bani 'Udeh, is married with four children. He works as a journalist and lives in Nablus. The testimony was given to 'Ali Daraghmeh at the witness' home on July 6, 2002.