Shirabe Yamada's dispatches started arriving by email in the summer of 1999. To some these were optimistic days of calm. The Oslo process was advancing, final status talks were about to begin, and many peace supporting Israelis thought the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was about to end, if it had not been resolved already. The same holds for many in the West, informed by commercial media. The last dispatch was sent in August 2000, weeks before the outbreak of the second Intifada.

Yamada sent her Report to friends by email and it circulated far and wide. From the little room she shared with a friend in Dheisheh refugee camp Yamada helped us, her friends, and other readers, comprhend the continuing strangulation and imprisonment that that was carried out in the guise of Peace.

The letters are reproduced here with minimal editing. They tell of daily life in the camp, of trying to commute through Israeli check-points, of talking with children. They tell the story of the present and do not allow it to be broken from the past. For present and past are inseperably bound in the story of Palestine/Israel. They portray the background for what became the second Intifada.

Shirabe's Report from Palestine is important to read today, as once again the war machine is preparing for action, while Western powers and Israel are cobbling up arrangements for further dispersion and enslavement of Palestinians, and Palestinian refugees in particular. They can call it "Peace," "Agreement," "Accords," even "Cease Fire," but for the refugees it means worse confinement to smaller and smaller areas, worse violations of their human rights, worse living conditions, less room for hope.

In addition to the eight dispatches, five letters are reproduced from this last winter, Shirabe sent during a week long visit to Palestine, orgininally titled Witnessing in Palestine. These letters are shorter and describe life with the new Intifada. Two of these, "A Sit-In by the Roadblock," and "Two Prisoners' Homecoming have been available here since January.

Currently she is in Dheisheh again for the summer, and further Shirabe Reports are to be expected. They will be posted here.

Shirabe's work is a source of pride and inspiration to many, and I thank her for giving permission to republish her letters here.