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October 13th, 2022 
Awake Goy On October 12, around 200 Palestinians from the Shu’fat refugee camp gathered at the military checkpoint right outside the camp to protest the nearly total closure imposed on its residents for the third day in a row. This action was called for by the people of the camp, launching a campaign of civil disobedience against the state of siege and collective punishment meted out by the Israeli army in an effort to capture a Palestinian resistance fighter responsible for killing an Israeli soldier at the checkpoint on October 8. The fighter implicated in the attack, Udai Tamimi, remains at large.
A massive strike was declared in the refugee camp, as well as in other parts of Jerusalem, while the armed resistance group based in Nablus, Areen al-Usud (“the Lion’s Den”), called for a general strike across the West Bank, as several towns and cities closed down for a part of the day.
Since the attack, the Israeli army has imposed various restrictions on freedom of movement on the Palestinians of the camp, housing an estimated 100,000 inhabitants, the vast majority of them Jerusalem ID holders (as the camp falls within the Jerusalem municipality), and are therefore dependent on Jerusalem for their work or education.
“Everything is frozen here due to the Israeli troops,” explains Jaber Muhaisen, a resident of Shu’fat camp and member of the Jerusalem campaign to confront the settlements. “We depend on the outside world for food and for work. Now it has become very difficult to get out or for goods to come in. This punishment is against the people, and it will not work for their security. We call on the people of the world and their embassies, and on the media, to come to see what is happening here.”
Muhaisen passes through a flying checkpoint on foot, located outside of Anata, a town adjacent to Shu’fat refugee camp. The exit to Anata is one of the only two avenues available for the camp residents to the outside world, as the rest of it is completely encircled by the separation wall.
On Saturday evening, the checkpoint separating Shu’fat refugee camp from Jerusalem was totally closed, and almost no trucks have been allowed inside the camp during the days that followed. Shops started to run out of basic supplies, as the living conditions in the already overcrowded camp have suffered.
Amid a lack of basic services, the camp streets are overflowing with litter as garbage collection has been halted.
“It’s a very bad situation. The two roads we use to go in and out of the camp are closed down, and entering or exiting the camp takes 3 or 4 hours,” Issam Muhammad Ali, a camp resident, explains. “The trucks cannot come in and shops lack basic goods, including baby formula.”
“We have many people here in the camp who need medical treatment who are stuck in the camp. Imagine what this means for people who need dialysis and cannot reach the hospitals,” Issam continues. “We will continue to protest until the checkpoint is fully opened. There are attacks all over Palestine, but here we are facing collective punishment. The army comes in at night and arrests countless young men. Can you imagine what this means for my two-year-old son? Whenever the soldiers invade the camp, he says ‘jeish,’ [‘the army’]. None of us can sleep.”
Issam had to brave the checkpoint to bring food from the outside. “I had no choice but to look for food outside the camp, as we are ten people in my family,” he told Mondoweiss. “It was not easy this morning, it took me an hour, and I’ve lost three days of work.”
Anata has not been spared Israeli collective punishment. Flying checkpoints have been stationed outside Anata’s main entrance and exit roads, which are also used by Shu’fat residents. As of Wednesday, October 12, public transportation was halted, forcing many Palestinians to walk long distances to reach the main road to Ramallah. Buses between Shu’fat refugee camp and Jerusalem were also disrupted.
During the Israeli army’s nightly incursions inside the camp, Palestinian youth faced off against the military as the camp was riddled with barrages of tear gas and skunk water.
The exact number of the Palestinians who were arrested during these raids remains unclear.
Anne Paq
Anne Paq is a French photographer, member of the photo collective Activestills. She is currently back in Palestine and working on a long-term project on Gaza called ‘Obliterated Families’.
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