'BAPTISIM BY FIRE'
American learns truth of conflict firsthand
ZOË WILLIAMS williamz@mscd.edu
Mark Turner landed in Israel in 2002 with a degree in business and administration from the University of Colorado-Boulder and no idea about what he was going to experience.
Three years, a gunshot wound and a film production later, Turner prepares to make his third voyage to Palestine to document daily life in the West Bank.
Photos Courtesy of Mark Turner
An Israeli Defense Force soldier fires at Mark Turner. The bullet struck him in the thigh. Turner is producing a film about his time spent in Palestine. “Ripples Cross” will debut on Nov. 8 in The Tivoli
"What prompted me to go (to the Middle East) was an almost endemic lack of understanding," Turner said. "My only exposure to the region was from mass media ... I knew I had to go to this place to truly understand."
Turner originally planned to remain in Israel, though his itinerary abruptly changed at a meeting hosted by the International Solidarity Movement in the West Bank. This was during the siege of Nablus, an Israeli Defense Force attack coinciding with the beginning of construction on the enormous apartheid wall that now encircles much of the West Bank with concrete and barbed wire.
The International Solidarity Movement meeting was interrupted by the sound of gunshots. As attendees rushed into the street, Turner had a moment of panic.
"I said, 'I have no idea what I am doing' to the guy next to me. He turned to me and said, 'Baptism by fire.'"
What Turner found before him was a bloodbath. An Israeli Defense Force tank had opened fire on a carload of women and children, as well as two toddlers pinned against a wall by the spray of bullets.
"These toddlers just dropped to the ground," he said. International Solidarity Movement medical volunteers took the children inside to treat them. "I looked over and saw one had blood coming out of its ears ... their screaming was rattling-but good, because I knew they weren't dead."
After that experience, with nothing more than a Dictaphone, a camera, a journal, a toothbrush and two shirts in his bag, Turner set up camp for five weeks in the West Bank.
"I just said then, 'I'm not leaving.'"
Work with the International Solidarity Movement involved staying in villages to prevent evacuation due to Israeli Defense Force or Israeli settler harassment, aiding in negotiations at Israeli Defense Force check points, protecting Palestinian homes from demolition, assisting in harvests, taking down roadblocks and visiting houses where families were being detained by Israeli Defense Force soldiers and offering relief.
"I have never been better at anything in my whole life."
The work that meant the most to Turner involved children.