| Facing down tanks to find peace for
Palestine  Irish
peace campaigner Caoimhe Butterly was shot, deported, beaten and bruised
during her time in Palestine. Now a documentary about the strong-willed
Dublin girl is to be shown to British viewers for the first time. graham
clifford spoke to Caoimhe about her time in Palestine, the film and her
future.
It must have looked a little strange — a tall, young red-haired Irish
woman standing in front of Israeli tanks to protect Palestinian children.
It was an image which was flashed around the world on television screens
and the front pages of newspapers.
Many wondered what drove this young Irish woman to forsake the safety
of Dublin for the strife-torn alleys and highways of Palestine.
But to Caoimhe Butterly it was just something that had to be done —
a practical fulfilment of a strong and focused sense of justice.
The 25-year-old’s struggle is now the focus of an upcoming documentary
which looks at her day-to-day work as a peace activist in Palestine in
2003 — as well as the struggles and hopes of the refugees she set
out to help in and around Jenin.
Visit Palestine is the film is directed by journalist Katie Barlow and
promises to be as enlightening as it is dis-tressing.
It has already been described by campaigning journalist John Pilger as
a riveting and important work.
But to Caoimhe the documentary is not so much about herself as a vital
tool in explaining to people on the outside how Palestinians see the Middle
Eastern conflict and how they cope with the strains and pressures of living
in a virtual war zone.
She says: “We regularly see the bombings and violence on our television
screens but never find out how people in these occupied lands react to
the troubles. How mothers who have lost husbands, sons and daughters carry
on through silent resilience and find solidarity with others in the same
situation.
“There is no false bravado on the streets of Palestine — people
try to get on with their normal lives and refuse to be broken.”
Born into a well-to-do Dublin family, Caoimhe’s political and social
awareness was forged through her parents.
Her father worked as an economist and her mother a psycho-analyst —
so issues of social justice were always at the forefront of life in the
Butterly household.
Director Katie Barlow was inspired to film Caoimhe and her life after
seeing footage of the then 23-year-old blocking Israel Defence Force tanks
as they shot over her head as she tried to stop young Palestinians being
attacked by the military.
In her time in Palestine Caoimhe was shot in the thigh by Israeli forces
while moving children out of the way of the armed forces.
To many that would seem a frightening moment — but Caoimhe says
it was nothing compared to what others were suffering.
She says: “I know it sounds silly but when I compared my wound with
what was going on around me I realised it was small and in relative terms
unimportant.”
Caoimhe also famously found herself under siege in the late Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat’s Ramallah compound in April 2002 after it
was besieged by Israeli troops.
After almost two weeks of constant bombardment she finally managed escape
to continue her work among the local community.
When she returned to the camp in Jenin she discovered an area more reminiscent
of a graveyard than a place of refuge after Israeli troops had moved in.
As well as being the focus of the documentary, Caoimhe was also involved
in editing some of the footage.
She now hopes the finished product will have a lasting effect on all those
who view it.
She says: “It’s a very strong piece of work. It clearly depicts
a variety of feelings the human soul will encounter — hope, despair,
joy and sadness. All the emotions we feel in our lives but just to a much
greater degree.
“The people of Palestine believe their fight is just and they are
willing to lose everything in the search for what they see as something
that is rightfully theirs.”
Caoimhe’s time in Palestine was just the most high-profile of her
efforts to help those she sees as most in need of aid.
Before working in Palestine she spent time helping out in an Irish Catholic
workers’ movement in New York, which provided food and care for
people on the streets.
After that she moved to Guatemala and then to Chiapas in Mexico, where
she worked for two years among the separatist Zapatista communities.
The anti-war protester Caoimhe also travelled to Iraq hoping to discover
on a local level how communities could co-exist in peace.
She already seems to have packed a near-lifetime’s work into her
25 years.
And she freely admits it means she has missed out on some of the activities
other people of her age would be enjoying.
She says: “Yes, I don’t really get to do the things other
people my age do.
“I know it’s important I find time to dance and cook and generally
relax.”
But somehow you feel she doesn’t regret it — instead she’ll
continue to use her compassion and determination to try to help the vulnerable
and give hope to those facing seemingly insurmountable odds.
The British premiere of Visit Palestine will take place at the Tricycle
Cinema on Kilburn High Road in London on January 26 at 7pm. Admission
is £8.
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