Flags are flying everywhere. It is a joyful celebration of 60th year of the founding of the state of Israel. It marks an extraordinary accomplishment. The economy is thriving, the construction boom continues, the experiment in democracy in a Jewish state is working for some people.. It is admirable that such diverse people from far flung corners of the world have created a functioning, well-run nation. But our delegation experience also exposed a darker side of this creation, a flip side that we learned not many Israelis experience, know about or want to know about: the debilitating consequences for the state of Israel as well as for the Palestinians of the occupation of the West Bank since 1967.
This year also marks the 60 years of existence of the Deheisha Refugee Camp in Bethlehem. It is Beduins being uprooted, unrecognized, having their homes demolished. It is the exercise of power run amuck: the practice of declaring the Beduins villages illegal and having the bulldozers come every six months to demolish several homes at random, only to have the villagers promptly rebuilt them. It is the military taking over a house, herding everyone into one or two rooms, using the rest as a lookout and a military outpost and declaring the house a “closed military zone” which means that no outsider is allowed to enter. How does this enhance the security of Israel? Four Palestinians who were on a wanted list were summarily executed by the Israeli army on a street in Bethlehem while we were nearby in Deheisha refugee camp.
An Israeli soldier of eighteen has immense power over the day-to-day life of the occupied Palestinians. He can order a grandparent of 70 or 80 to stand and wait for an hour, or eight hours, or whatever is his pleasure. He can declare an area a “closed military zone”, and keep people out. The army blocked a road to the village of At Tuwani, in theSouth Hebron Hills, to stop all vehicular traffic to and from the surrounding villages. Just a few days before we arrived in At Tuwani, the villagers managed to clear the block and now enter and exit until the soldiers decide to block it again. We heard from many Palestinians of their relatives or friends being imprisoned for years without any charges or trials.
In Hebron a Jewish settler child age 10-12, eyes full of hate, pushed over a 70 year old man in our delegation and then picked up a rock to throw at us. A bit later a settler spit in the face of a Palestinian. On another occasion, another settler boy kicked a CPT woman and then threw a rock at her while a soldier stood by taking no action. A Palestinian child throwing a rock or kicking a settler or a soldier would be arrested and imprisoned, and most likely labeled a terrorist.
There are 700 checkpoints in the West Bank between Palestinian cities and villages which can be bypassed on alternate roads which wind around hillsides and are in terrible shape How does this provide security for Israel? Our trip from Hebron to a nearby suburb, which should have taken 15 minutes in a public bus, ended up taking 1 hour in a private taxi and was almost three times longer in distance, all because the army that morning decided to close one road leading to the village. When Jewish settlers in the West Bank attack Palestinians, a “closed military zone” is declared and Palestinians are not allowed in, although the settlers can continue as before.
When his house was demolished for a second time, our host handed his baby to a soldier saying, “I now no longer have a home, you take care of him”. For this he was arrested and imprisoned. Much of his brother’s and father’s land was taken over by the settlers, who are even now trying to drive him totally out. A settler who shot and injured our host’s son was punished with three days in prison.
Of course, there is the wall, the cursed wall snaking into Palestinian territory dividing families, communities, land from workers, children from parents, encircling or dividing villages. It is creating hardships which are difficult to imagine. Palestinian society is based on close family ties which stretch out to a large extended family. The wall is making it most difficult to maintain these ties. It has nothing to do with security, but everything to do with grabbing land and extending the settlements.
Hebron has 500 Jewish settlers scattered in a half dozen settlements being guarded by 3000 soldiers. The main street in the old city is closed to Palestinians, essentially cutting the city in two. This is so that the settlers can move freely among the settlements and to the synagogue.
At At Tuwani, soldiers are escorting Palestinian children to school in a convoy to keep them safe from the settlers, who in the past have hit them and thrown stones at them. The settlers also attacked and beat international observers. I have just learned that a few days ago, soldiers failed to escort the children and the settlers stopped them and beat up the observers who tried to protect the children.
I was moved by the hospitality of the Palestinians. They welcomed us and shared their food and their homes with us. Our host family in the Deheisha refugee camp, having suffered so much, still expressed hope for the future. One of our host’s brothers was killed in the siege of the Church of the Nativity, another was deported to Gaza; still, our host expressed hope that one day the nightmare will end.
There are two parallel road systems in the West Bank: paved, well-maintained roads for the Israeli settlers only, and pot-holed, winding, not maintained roads for the Palestinians. The Palestinian roads are blocked at intervals so that the cargo and people have to transfer to other vehicles at the road blocks. How does this serve to secure the nation of Israel?
An Israeli woman who was scheduled to give us a settler perspective lives in a settlement in the area of East Jerusalem. Her son was one of the eight students that were killed just a day before in a religious school in West Jerusalem. We joined her in her house in a gathering called, “sitting shiva’h” where she remembered her son. What a senseless loss of life, a 16-year-old who held such promise. According to her description, he was a good, moral, kind, and decent person. The death of the eight students received widespread publicity world-wide. But what received only cursory mention was the killing of over a hundred Palestinians in Gaza in the preceding week, including children, many of whom also held promise and were good, moral and kind. When will revenge stop and sanity begin?
The last day of our delegation was Palm Sunday. A small group of Palestinians, Israelis and visitors from other countries, with banners painted with the wall and the words, “where could Jesus go”, gathered in Bethany (which is on the Palestinian side of the wall) and following in the footsteps of Christ, walked toward Jerusalem and up to the check- point by the wall. Immediately, a military jeep with several soldiers drove up to the wall, and an officer came out to warn us to disperse. We ignored him and he finally said that we had to leave or he would tear gas us. We continued for a while but eventually left and regrouped in a nearby church-yard only to be followed and carefully watched by soldiers carrying automatic weapons. Again we were told to leave. Christ walked from Bethany to Jerusalem, but today the way is blocked by a 26-foot wall. In our last action, we carried the same banners in a Palm Sunday procession from the Mount of Olives to the old city in Jerusalem.
We met many decent, moral, and kind Israelis who are voicing their concerns about the occupation and taking part in actions of various kinds. But it is not enough. Too many Israelis choose not to know. A reminder found at the entrance to Yad Vashem (the holocaust museum in Jerusalem), “A country is not just what it does, it is also what it tolerates” is a saying that contemporary Israel should heed.
Submitted by Michael.
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Thanks Michael for allowing me to post this, its a very good description of the many experiences we had on the delegation.
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