Jordan: US Activist Decries Jenin Crimes, Sanctions Against Iraq

AMMAN: Several members of the Foreign Women's Association in Amman were on the verge of tears on Monday as guest speaker Kathy Kelly, an activist from Voices in the Wilderness, recounted her experiences at Jenin camp.

While in Jenin camp from April 15-17, Kelly was one of only a handful of people to witness firsthand the aftermath of the Israeli siege on the Palestinian refugee camp.

“Everything was reduced to nothing,” exclaimed Kelly in despair.

Told by an Israeli soldier on her way into the camp that there were no women or children there, Kelly was shocked to find that in fact there were many women, one of whom was at least 70-year-old and struggling to pull herself out from the ruins that used to be her house.

“That old woman did not just drop from the sky,” Kelly told her audience, adding that “the words of the soldier came true: There were no children in the camp, for the children there had the hardened looks of men on their faces.”