Saturday, December 23, 2006

Asel Asleh (also spelled Aseel Asleh) was a Seeds of Peace member. Seeds of Peace was a program that brought together Jewish and Palestinian young people. It took them out of the Middle East and put them in a camping setting in the United States. Here kids could be kids. They could have fun with each other and learn to respect and trust each other.

Asel was a much loved Seeds of Peace member.

Tragically his life was cut short, 4 days, into what became known as the second intifada or Al Aqsa intifada. Asel was killed at a protest in Arrabe (Arrabeh, Arraba) (northern Israel).

On Saturday 30 September 2000,  Mohamed el-Doura, was shot dead during a protest in Gaza. The following day (Sunday) Israeli Palestinians protested his death.  During the protest one local resident of Arrabe, an Israeli Palestinian was shot by Israeli Border Police (I spoke with a resident of Arrabe who said that the wound was such that his internal organs could be seen). Asel had not gone to the Sunday protest. However, the protests intensified the following day (Monday 2 October 2000) as the result of the shooting of the Israeli Palestinian youth. Asel and another youth were separated from the main protests.  Asel was shot dead in an olive grove.   He was shot in the head by a Border Policeman.  He died shortly afterwards.

Timeline - 2000
Thursday 28 September Sharon entered the Al Aqsa mosque
Friday 29 September protests led to the first deaths
Saturday 30 September Mohamed El Doura shot dead (BashrDOTcom)
Sunday 1 October Protest in Arrabe
Monday 2 October Asel along with killed.

Seeds of Peace tribute 2
Seeds of Peace tribute 1

To the memory of Aseel Asleh (facebook)

Asel's families tribute (slider17)
http://web.archive.org/web/20070113194309/http://www.slider17.com/main.html
The Or Commission
http://web.archive.org/web/20070611201703fw_/http://www.slider17.com/or%20intro.htm



6 October 2000
http://www.seedsofpeace.org/?p=6177

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Asel_Asleh

The Al-Aqsa Intifada (Wiki)


A proposal for a fictional film based in part on Asel's life

Slider 10-1, Uploaded on Sep 20, 2011

Friends of Aseel
http://www.youtube.com/user/friendsofaseel?feature=plcp


A Jewish American's Friendship With A Young Palestinian: Tragedy And Peace Jeremy Richards, 21 May 2011
http://web.archive.org/web/20110807130846/http://www.kuow.org/program.php?id=23476

"As a Jewish American, Jen started out with just an abstract curiosity about Israel, but her experience in the area and her friendship with a young Palestinian man named Aseel changed everything. Jen Marlowe talks with KUOW's Jeremy Richards."

Jen Marlowe, 'There is a Field'
http://www.donkeysaddle.org/index.php/resources
"There is a Field is a play about Aseel’s life and his death, through the perspective of his older sister, Nardeen. The playwright, Jen Marlowe, knew Aseel and is close to his family. She culled the play entirely from interviews with Nardeen and other members of Aseel’s family, emails written between Aseel and Nardeen, emails between Aseel and his friends from Seeds of Peace, and transcripts from the Israeli government commission of inquiry established to investigate the killing of twelve Palestinian citizens during October 2000. “Though I knew Aseel Asleh pesonally, There is a Field is much bigger than the story of one family. The ten-year anniversary of Black October, coupled this play, offers an important opportunity to inject the larger struggles facing Palestinians inside Israel into the wider Israel/Palestine discourse,” says playwright Jen Marlowe. About “Black October” On Thursday, September 28, 2000, Ariel Sharon, chair of the Israeli right-wing Likud party visited the Haram al-Sharif compound, site of the al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem. It was an incendiary political act in the wake of the failed Camp David summit. On Friday, September 29, protests began in Jerusalem and soon spread to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Over the course of that day and the days that followed, tens of Palestinian demonstrators were killed or injured by Israeli security forces. The demonstrations intensified, eventually being labeled as the Second Intifada. Palestinians inside Israel demonstrated in large numbers in early October, in solidarity with their brethren in the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli police used live ammunition, sniper-fire, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas against the unarmed protestors; hundreds were injured and 12 Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed. Known as “Black October,” these events marked the first time since Land Day on March 30, 1973 that such lethal force was used by Israeli security forces against Palestinian citizens."

Sami Al Jundi and Jen Marlowe
http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/a-palestinian-peacemakers-story




http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2010/10/02/remembering-the-youth-that-died-for-our-freedom/ 

http://ramallahonline.com/2010/10/ten-years-without-aseel/

 See also
Adam Shapiro https://twitter.com/adshap