the following account is true it is the story of lynn grosse a nurse currently living in san diego california during march and april of two thousand and two lynn volunteered to travel to israel in lebanon where she planned to provide free medical help for sick palestinian babies train the medical staff at the hospital she visited and establish neonatal intensive care unit as she traveled from place to place during her six week journey lynn was stopped and searched by israeli soldiers stationed at checkpoints along the way at one of these checkpoints a soldier asked her to explain why she wanted to help palestinian children but he did not wait for lendu answer instead he answered for her this is not california he told her this is not your war lynn did not agree instead she made a promise to tell others about what she saw during those six weeks in palestine and this is her stor when we interviewed lynn she introduced herself and explained what she wanted to accomplish during her trip to palestine she also identified some of her concerns about the trip palestine this time and i said it was sure i probably got six weeks this year to volunteer to send me where i would be most useful so and we talked about the situation in palestine and numerous occasions before i left because steve knows the area really well i trust his judgement he does really good work over there but i wasn't sure how safe it was going to be every day that i looked at the news it looked like it was getting worse but steve said to me you know it's going to be this way these people still need your help it's safe for humanitarian aid workers and they also console to do with a friend of mine who's in the state department here so you know things are probably going to get worse but you're going to get head and shoulders just go i don't know if you like to to understand lynn's concerns about traveling in palestine it may help to trace the region's history and identify the sources of tension between today's israeli government and the palestinians and that means stepping back in time nearly fourteen hundred years although it's now forgotten from the time of the arab conquest in the seventh century a d until the middle of the twentieth century the area now known as israel was the shared home of christians jews and muslims during most of that long period of time the degree of religious toleration experience throughout the islamic world was unmatched in western europe which was considered a primitive backwater by comparison with some exceptions the predominantly islamic population considered members of all three phases of the people of the book sharing a common root in during world war one in an effort to defeat the turkish rulers of palestine britain negotiated a series of separate and conflicting treaties with france russia and european zionist who were seeking a homeland for the jew in addition the british negotiated a treaty with the palestinian arabs who were promised their own independent state in exchange for rebelling against the turks these incompatible agreements and the betrayal of the palestinians  source of today's problems after world war one and as a result of the tragic holocaust in europe during world war two the rate of jewish settlement in palestine in greece and conflicts broke out between palestinians and the jewish settlers in effect the europeans who had been unable to resolve racism and strife within the borders of europe had exported their conflict to palestine this took place with the consent of the international community including the united states it is important to note that after the discovery of oil in the middle east during the one nine hundred twenty s and thirty's the united states great britain and the soviet union each took a keen interest in the region during the cold war years and its aftermath these nations took an active role in orchestrating political developments there intervening openly secretly and frequently in the internal political struggles taking place throughout the middle east in palestine the british ruled openly until may of one thousand nine hundred forty eight when their troops departed a full scale war broke out when the conflict ended the jewish settlers had taken control of what is now known as the state of israel the remainder of palestine was divided among egypt lebannon jordan and syria governments they were not concerned with  israel now controls both the original territory gained in one nine hundred forty eight and areas the were occupied during the six day war in one thousand nine hundred sixty seven namely the west bank and the gaza strip within the original pre  sixty seven territory israel is an apartheid state divided by religion within this territory all citizens must carry cards that identify them as jew muslim or christian non jews  second class citizens and are subject to more than twenty discriminatory laws these laws define different levels of land ownership rights access to private and public employment the availability of loans and mortgages an yes to a university education there also are vast disparities in public spending for schools health care roads electricity clean water and social services between jews and non jew not surprisingly unemployment and poverty among palestinians are much higher than in the jewish population in the occupied west bank in the gaza strip israeli administration resembles that of a prison camp the palestinians live in a crowded closely controlled environment surrounded by barriers patrolled continuously bias really troops they are subject to frequent shelling or bombing from f sixteen jets supplied by the united states access is tightly controlled at checkpoints where palestinians are herded into giant holding pens where they wait for hours in long lines subject to searches for rats and gunfire by israeli guards before being allowed to pass from one area to another whether simply going to work visiting friends or family members in close proximity to these palestinian zones often perched atop nearby hills or brand new israeli settlements guarded by modern weapons purchased for the israelis by the us government these conditions have existed in one form or another for more than fifty years but at the time of lynn grosse's visit she was particularly concerned about rising tensions and outbreaks of violence for example there'd been a series of attacks on palestinian residential and business districts including the destruction by tanks bombs and helicopters of airports neighborhoods fishing boats broadcasting facilities and state sponsored assassinations similarly there had been palestinian sniping incidents and a rash of suicide bombing lynn arrived in jerusalem on march ninth and we will trace her journey to gaza her return to jerusalem and arrival in bethlehem her experience with israeli tanks while stationed at the hospital in ramallah and her return to jerusalem before embarking on the final leg of her journey a taxi driver that took her through amman jordan and a flight to beirut lebanon where she remained until returning to the united states on april twenty here actually was a journalist who went to the middle east about ten to twelve years ago on human rights issues lin traveled with steve sosa be to the sheaf a hospital in gaza on monday march eleventh and it was necessary for steve to return to jerusalem before nightfall because it's dangerous to pass through the checkpoints at night for hospital has been treating sick babies for twenty years but that task is made more difficult because the hospital lacks equipment equipment needs repair and supplies of disposable items even linen strap the babies are irregular who are blocked by israeli soldiers nonetheless the nurses do the best they can often reusing supplies and using a quip in a novel ways working sixteen hour days and teaching as you were lynn discovered that the hospital was plagued by staff shortages that patients delivered babies and died trying to get to the hospital because of delays in passing through the checkpoints they didn't r women who are going to deliver that are going to have problems need to get to deliver they can deliver out but they don't get as good a care but in this oppressive situation where the checkpoints are in fact all the time and no and certain parts curfews twenty four hours to get to the medical care that you need in the center that it's impossible so you have babies that should make it into the new don't care should be born there because a mother should come in and they don't make it they don't make it to a hospital they don't make they don't make it there and they die in the clinics because they don't get the care the thing because of the check house hours of the night it was i just woke up a couple times and arab or somebody coming up to the floor i was on the second floor and i think just checking you know me i don't really know what they were doing i didn't know until  night killed ninety people and injured more than the hospital was in a state of emergency taking care of the victims as a citizen of the united states limbo particularly responsible for the injuries because her us tax dollars were used to support the israeli government in the last fifty years the us government provided israel with more than eighty one billion dollars in aid much of what used to purchase arm was at the hospital work on march seventeenth the sunday learn took a taxi to jerusalem and retrieve the bundle of supplies that she'd set aside for the kira tossed baby hospital in bethlehem because the israelis have and i think it was i think i think got picture wrecked place at the right time for certain things and that was just a perfect introduction to this is like she's an american hearse and she's here to teach  and they listened to me really well to that while in bethlehem learn learn how these really practice of turning the water supply on and off barbara tour lily led to something called water those she also learned that the t clean and really tired and should ask them why you know what's wrong so the water was turned on at two in the morning this morning have been up for ten days and that's usual to be cut off especially in the hot summer months if you just cut off the water for like ten days at a time nobody knows when it's going to be turned back on but it gets turned back on and you wait your neighbor sucked in you do your washing and you start the floors and you took your shower after ten days of not having any water and that's just and he's never in my life would i ever have thought that i would have to walk across the mountains for three hours to get to work carrying nothing otherwise i'd be suspicious and been shocked  and he also said one other thing that will forget things so that normal people regular people are being driven to fanaticism because of the oppression  while i was there there were a few suicide bombings in jerusalem and he was just telling me i could never excuses i valving nobody can  but if you see that on the ground situation in the west bank and the post saying in the house new territories you come to an understanding that atmosphere can breed desperation enough that people are willing to do that there are two bad checkpoints at ramallah the second one is worse while passing through a lens saw the soldiers fire a gun to frighten an old woman and when len finally reached the guards and stated her reason for visiting she was told by the soldiers this is not california this is not your war it was at ramallah that lead became familiar with the term checkpoint babies these babies are born at checkpoints because the israeli soldiers posted there refused to believe that the women are actually in labor one consequence of delivering babies at checkpoints is a high incidence of premature deliveries the other is death linda's covered the government hospital was a large busy facility with a high staff turnover and chronic shortage is for her first five days there lynn was able to follow a schedule of amazon teaching in the neonatal intensive care unit and formal classroom lectures each night she returned to her hotel as she passed through the city streets she was struck by the number of bullet holes on the damage inflicted on buildings and in delegation walked out of the arab summit being held in beirut because yasser arafat's speech was not aired on the same day twenty nine people were killed and over one hundred wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up to me at the end of one of my classes that i typed and he said there was one hundred fifty tanks surrounding a mile up there had been a suicide bombing at the time the night before and everyone kind of was waiting to see what it was really too so they were going to come in that looked like so when i said you have three choices you can use or you can go back to your hotel and stay there get stuck there you could go to my mom's house into the hospital the following night tanks into the city and surrounded yasser arafat's headquarters at the same time heavy shelling began moving closer to the hospital each day lend a trained emergency room nurse help to treat the flood of victims men women and children some of the woman seem suspicious single gunshot to minister to the heads of all the men they appeared to have been executed lim noted the conflict also cause shortages a blood food at the hospital and the entire staff was already donating their own blood the only place without a shortage was the morgue that was piled with co you're supposed to do in that situation fortunately the italian delegation appeared at that moment and began taking pictures despite threats from the soldiers after a standoff of an hour and a half the geneva red wasa period and the soldiers with troops the doctors on april first len returned to jerusalem for a few days before taking a taxi to amman jordan four of like to beirut lebanon at a nearby refugee camp she continued to train doctors and nurses until returning to san diego  april twentieth knowing her friends were trapped in a worsening situation in ramallah however made her feel sick and helpless so she began to send emails to people who knew while speaking to reporters being interviewed and seeing how reporters would edit their stories lynn began to understand media bias especially american newspapers and broadcasters who would concoct out right lies while on the air knowing that they had to prepackage the news to fit a certain acceptable point of view had made a promise to tell her people to tell americans what she had seen so that americans would push for a more balanced view of palestine she also saw palestinians who did not hate americans but they her why the united states government did this to them why it was so pro israel lynn saw fear on both sides but she knew that both sides needed to live together she summed it