As I write this, night is falling in Occupied Nablus, now under 24-hour-a-day curfew for almost 50 days.

The children of Nablus are flying hundreds of kites over the city, a childhood pastime transformed, here, into an act of defiance. "This is how I fly my flag," said one youth.

The soldiers have taken to shooting at the kites.

I haven't written for a while, because, lately, I've been rendered speechless by what I've seen. How much longer can this go on? And what more can I say about it?

"We were waiting to hear what the US would say," said Amjad, an organizer in Gaza City, referring to the one-ton bomb the Israeli Military dropped in the middle of a densely packed neighborhood in one of the most densely populated areas in the world. "We were waiting for the US to say that they condemn the killing of civilians, that this was wrong. 15 dead, 150 wounded, and buildings filled with men, women and children, reduced to a pile of rubbbble. Sharon calls it a success, and Bush says nothing."

The other day I was at my friend Ala's house, and he showed me where a bullet, fired by soldiers the previous afternoon, had come in his window. His father showed me his closet, filled with suits. The suits were all torn to shreds by Israeli bullets, fired into his house one recent night.

This is not a family that is "targeted". This is just a family that lives too close to the main road, where soldiers often drive by, and shoot. Its just one house, one family, but everyone I've met has a similar story. Everyone has bullet holes in their walls, family members killed, and time spent in jail.

One morning last week, I joined with twenty international activists to help some Palestinians clear roadblocks from their village. Later that day, a few of us went to a Palestinian house to help clear away rubble caused by soldiers who went in and shot the home to pieces.

There is a method to clearing roadblocks. You have to find the area that is most passable, then dig away from the high point and shovel the dirt from the high point to the low point. There's also, I discovered, a method to clearing the rubble from a destroyed house.

What stayed with me from both of these experiences, was the way all the Palestinians around, even the kids, knew just what do in both of these cases. It occured to me that everyone in Palestine, from a young age, has helped to repair a desroyed house, or fix a damaged road. Its just part of daily life here. Its part of what everyone has suffered, and its also a part of how the community pulls together, to help everyone survive in these horrible times.

Yesterday, we were in the village of Howwara, just outside of Nablus. This village has been under 24-hour-a-day curfew, with brief breaks, for almost two years. The Israelis have built a settlement outside this village, and buses of settlers drive through all day long. While the settlers live in luxury a few hundred feet away, the people of Howwara are being strangled to death. Thousands of acres of olive trees, their livelihood, have been destroyed. Homes have been demolished, and all the men are periodically rounded up and arrested.

After all this, their spirit remains strong. In fact, they organized a march, and invited us to join them. The theme of the march was, "Let us leave our homes, for medicine and food." It was a peaceful, nonviolent, march, of a few hundred villagers and about 40 internationals. The only law being broken was that they dared to leave their homes, and walk down the main street of their town.

We immediately saw the Israeli military response to nonviolent protest. Several jeeps filled with soldiers drove up immediately.

The soldiers fired live ammunition into the air, and threw sound grenades into the middle of the crowd. The villagers kept moving, and we followed. The soldiers started threatening individual Palestinians, yelling at them and pushing them. A few of them cocked their rifles and pointed them directly in people's faces, threatening to shoot. We tried to position our bodies between the soldiers and the Palestinians.

Next they threw several cannisters of teargas into the crowd. The crowd briefly dispersed, then rejoined. The soldiers became more violent, and threatening. One international (Adam Shapiro, one of the founders of Freedom Summer in Palestine) and one Palestinian were roughly arrested. The group stayed where we were, despite the soldiers continuous threats. The marchers agreed that if the soldiers would let the Palestinian go, we would move back.

The soldiers let the Palestinian go, and we began moving back. At this point, it got more ugly. The soldiers drove a jeep at high speed into the middle of the march. Then, five soldiers got out, pointing their guns at anyone in their way, and attempted to grab a Palestinian they'd targeted from the middle of the march. We internationals attempted to get in the soldiers way. We were successful in "unarresting" the targeted Palestinian.

More soldiers began rushing into the march from all sides. I was charged into by one soldier. Another hit me with the butt of his gun. At least one soldier fired live ammunition into the crowd. Another soldier threw a sound grenade under an ambulance, which could have killed scores of people, if it had gone off under the gas tank.

While the crowd continued moving backward, and remained nonviolent, the soldiers became even more brutal. We kept trying to protect Palestinians from being arrested, and as a result, more of us were grabbbed. At the end, 9 internationals and two Palestinians were arrested. The Israelis have announced their intention to deport the nine internationals.

There are still more than thirty international civilians living here in Nablus. We are staying in Palestinian homes the Israelis have threatened to demolish. Our hope is that while we are there, the soldiers wont come. So far, its worked.

The Israeli supreme court just decided that the military can basically demolish any Palestinian home, any time. The court opinion only reaffirms Israeli military policy in effect for 54 years.

We hope to maintain a presence in these homes for as long as it takes. I'm living in the Askar refugee camp, with a family that has been living for six months with the fear that soldiers will come one night, force them from their home, and destroy it in front of them. This family has lived in this house since they built it shortly after 1948, when the Israeli military forced them from their last home, near what is now Ben Gurion airport.

There are 9,000 people in Azkar, and 6,000 in neighboring New Azkar refugee camp. 175 civilans have been killed in Azkar and new Azkar since 1967. Fifty since this intifada began. Fifteen in April. Two were killed yesterday.

We need more international civilians here, and we need people at home to organize to stop this horrible, brutal occupation.