Seeing the Light

Sharon is 20 years old and is a leftist activist. She works in a library categorising documents. She shows me a pamphlet from 1941 published in Palestine by the British Army and giving a glossary of terms in Arabic. It is an artefact from a time when the world was in flux; the Israeli state had not been created; the world was at war; the horror of the holocaust was underway, hidden in Nazi Germany and much of the world (including Palestine) was still under the dominion of a disintegrating British empire.

“It’s genuine. This is the sort of history you do not get in Schools here...In school they teach you the land was empty, they wouldn’t show you something to make you think about the people who lived here before.”

Sharon’s mother is Iranian and her father is Scottish, she is all Jewish Israeli. At 12 she decided what she was getting taught in School didn’t make sense. The message that all ‘Arabs’ were terrorists and wanted to kill her and that the land she lived in was a wilderness before the Jews came didn’t ring true for her. She now spends her free time engaged in activism against the occupation.

Israeli activists (variously known as “dissidents,” “leftists” or by some in right wing Israeli media “Self Hating Jews”) are a small but significant portion of the effort to end the occupation, Famous war correspondent, author and film maker John Pilger describes those he interviewed as being among the bravest he ever met.

Owing to the holocaust, the manner in which the Israeli state was created and operates is subject to deep sensitivities. Those Israelis who criticise the Israeli state can often find themselves victims of accusations of betraying the memory of Jews who died as a result of other nation’s racism and intolerance.

At 1pm every Saturday afternoon, a group of elderly women stand in a square in Jewish West Jerusalem opposite the Centre for Jewish centre and hold black signs reading “End the Occupation” in Hebrew and English. When we arrive to join them we are greeted by the sight of red haired women screaming at them in Hebrew as they stand passively by:

“She told us we should be ashamed that we will burn for this, that we are no better than terrorists, how can we call ourselves Jews, all this..I am used to it by now”

Ruth El Haz is a Psychotherapist and is one of the founders of the Women in Black, a world-wide network of women committed to peace with justice which began in Israel in 1988. Their tactic is not to chant, but rather it seems, absorb abuse with dignity as they make their point that the occupation must end.

“We get called whores, we get called traitors but all we are asking for is a just peace”

Ruth further explains her motivations:

“I have a need to be heard and that I am against the occupation of any country. I am not against my country, I am not against the state of Israel. I want two countries for two peoples. I hope in 20 years time we’ll be able to have that situation, but meanwhile I want my own country to be a country of human beings.”

In a country where the idea of God given right often overrides a humanist, rights based morality to Ruth is an atheist (or secular Jew).

“At the age of 14 I decided that if there is a God he cannot just pick one people, all he can hope for me is that I am decent to other human beings.”

Contrary to what the right wing in Israel says, Israeli Activists do not hate themselves or their culture, in fact nationalism plays apart in motivating many of them. Activists are often Zionists (Jewish Nationalists) who feel that the Occupation is damaging and weakening Israel, others are motivated by ideals such as equality, justice and peace.

Jeff and I

Jeff Halper is the founder and director of the Israeli Committee Against the House Demolitions (ICAHD) one of the most respected Human Rights organisations in Israel and Palestine. In 2006 he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for for his work "to liberate both the Palestinian and the Israeli people from the yoke of structural violence". He has been in the peace movement since he got to Israel as an American Jew over 40 years ago and is an author, anthropologist and lecturer

I put it to him Pilger’s comment that Israel Activists are amongst the bravest he has seen but he brushes it off.

“Actually it’s the other way around, Palestinians would be shot for some of things I do..We are protected because we are Israeli..We are courageous in the sense that we go against public opinion, but even that isn’t a big deal”

Jeff has been arrested on multiple occasions, he stands in front of bulldozers; he rebuilds Palestinian homes demolished by the army and works on raising awareness of the issues at home and through tireless international advocacy. While Jeff stress the importance of getting the international community engaged, informed and putting pressure on Israeli to change the situation described by ICAHD as “apartheid”  he paints a picture of a society in Israel itself  unwilling or unable to meaningfully engage with their recent  history and the occupation on their doorstep.

Last weekend on May the 15^th the Palestinian people commemorated the Nakba. It was the 63^rd anniversary of the occasion when 700,000 Palestinians became refugees in 1948 while fleeing from the advances of the newly formed Israeli army, who were expanding the borders of the newly established Israeli state. The day was marked by protests which and an Israeli response which saw 13 people killed and scores wounded or arrested. I ask Jeff about the Israeli attitude towards this commemoration, which is prohibited within Israel itself under the recent Nakba Law:

“I don’t think there is an Israeli attitude; I don’t think Israelis know about it...”. As we speak we are sitting in a plush region of West Jerusalem just a short walk away from where the West Bank begins

“Take a look around, people have never heard of the Nakba, people have never even heard of the occupation! The Arabs are our permanent enemy, that what everybody believes, but it’s not articulated and therefore you are made immune to anything political...It’s like people say themselves ‘I don’t have to feel guilty because they brought it on themselves’”.

ICAHD want to see end to the occupation, and lobbies European Governments to this effect (he has given up America, where he see’s congress as completely dominated by pro Israelis). He is hopeful and positive that International Recognition of a Palestinian State in September will lead to the occupation disintegrating.

Jeff thinks the idea of Jewish state itself is not viable:

“You can’t have a State in the 21^st century that’s ‘Jewish’, it’s an ethnocracy, not a democracy and anytime you privilege one ethnic group over another, it’s racist. It’s not sustainable, and I think Israelis know it’s not.”

Israeli society prides itself in being a welcome haven for Jews worldwide and a strong sense of community and kinship is often evident in Israel, however, Jeff explains there is a conspiracy of silence, enforced by the media, the education system and strong social pressures.  Even if perhaps Israelis know somewhere deep down that a people are being oppressed and degraded to fulfill the dream of a Jewish State, they are willing to put it to the side:

“In a way you know are being lied to your whole life, but it’s comfortable, why go against it.”

I tell Jeff about the Soldier at Qalandia checkpoint outside Jerusalem I met a few week ago who was intelligent, friendly and talkative but who found it hard to believe that I was living safely, happily and welcomed in a Palestinians town

“You should read the Koran...There you find out that Muslims celebrate death, they celebrate darkness..Jews represent the light”. He said it to me from behind a mesh face where I was standing to watch hundreds of Palestinians make their daily trek through the cages and turnstiles on their way to low paid jobs. The soldier said later that things were not perfect, and that he became an officer in an army to “make a change.”

“They don’t think” Jeff simply said.

Those who have the potential to really make a change are the activists; those who have seen the light and have had the brains and courage to reject a powerful mix of socialisation and propaganda to reject the view that the occupation is necessary or acceptable. Rather than finding self hating Jews, I found in people who had no problems with low self esteem what so ever, but rather felt a responsibility to do something about what is happening in their country.

I met Sharon again on the day of the Nakba in a quiet coffee shop in peaceful West Jerusalem. A day when Israel once again answered stones with bullets, confined more Palestinians to prison for commemorating injustice, wrecked more families and took more lives. Sharon was planning to leave to attend a demonstration. I ask her if it’s difficult, to go against everything, to stand up for what she believes in even though she most go against society to do so.

“Of course it’s difficult.”

So why does she do it?

“What choice do I have? You can’t just see what is going on, sit back and do nothing”

Matters of Life and Death

Coming in from the night air outside; strange electricity. It seems out of place here, the tingle, communicated in sounds that are not usual: The heavy fall of footsteps, amplified by haste and urgency; the screech of an air horn; excited chatter and the sound of hurried traffic.  Somewhere in the distance there is a voice prevaricating on a loudspeaker. The distant, barely distinguishable Arabic vowels have a rousing quality to them; then at 9.45pm this Tuesday night, (7.45pm BST) everything goes quiet.

Palestinians love football. They even have a “national” team though they are yet unrecognised as a state. The team has a serious handicap in that they often can’t field some of their best players because they can’t get them permits to leave the Gaza Strip. It puts the IFA’s discontent about losing talent to the Republic of Ireland into context.

Here, as in many places, the national team plays second fiddle to club allegiances. Tonight is Champions League night; the 2^nd leg of the semi final between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, the forth chapter in the April 2011 El Classico; a series of matches which have contained scenes of senseless ugliness, cynical gamesmanship and moments of utter beauty. If you are a young Palestinian male, it’s quite simple:  you either support Barcelona or Real Madrid. To them, Manchester United, Chelsea and the mighty Liverpool are a mere side show. Tonight, as with the previous three matches, the streets of Tulkarm have come alive.

This match takes place in the context of Real Madrid manager Jose  Mourinhio assigned to the stands for trouble making at half time at the Bernabeau in Madrid. After a controversial sending off in the first leg he held a press conference in which he suggested that FC Barca get special treatment in these sorts of competitions. Like most top level football managers, The Special One has an acute sense of what constitutes injustice. It causes one to wonder about the particular causes for complaint all the young men in Tulkarm tonight draped in his or his opponents team flag might have.

So what of a level playing field in the game of occupation? In the West Bank Palestinians live under military law, while neighbouring settlers (who often live on land taken from Palestinians by military order or legal chicanery) live under Israeli civilian law. According to Hagit Ofran from the Israeli organisation Settlement Watch, there is no good reason for this, save for single court case in 1968 where a settler living in Hebron disputed being tried under military law on the grounds that he was Jewish. The end result is two very different referees for each team on the field. This is surely a bad start to any match up.

Many say football is all about money these days, and the occupation is no different.  The economics of occupation have been that of Israeli suppression of Palestinian economy for their own interests. Israel inherited a weak economy when they occupied the West Bank in 1967; and their policies ensured that it has remained economically stagnant since. Israeli policy toward the West Bank states “there will be no development initiated by the Israeli Government, and no permits will be given for expanding agriculture or industry, which may compete with the State of Israel.” Despite having ample potential for growth, The West Bank’s GDP (not including settlements) has fluctuated between 2-4% of Israel’s for the last 43 years, with the best years being just after occupation. It’s difficult to compete when the other team won’t let you play. In Gaza, with its own particular problems, the situation is a lot worse, there according to the UN, 80% of the population lives below the poverty line.    

Without the potential for a sustainable economy in the West Bank, Israeli jobs have become essential to many Palestinians staving off poverty. However, with the construction of the separation barrier since 2003, and the implementation of a stringent permit system with checkpoints and quotas restricting numbers allowed to do the jobs Israelis themselves won’t do, getting a game is not easy. Various Israeli governments down the years have pursued a policy of reducing dependency on cheap Palestinian workers by importing even cheaper foreign labour. The border crossings themselves are horrific places, which only the very desperate would endure daily. Again, for Gazans its worse, the chance of a job in Israel is practically non existent.

As Jose will appreciate, the laws of any game must be applied fairly. Football loses all meaning if one side flouts the rules without consequence. To that end, Israel has been the Theirry Henry of international diplomacy, blatantly fouling while the referee turns a blind eye. The 4^th Geneva Convention (signed in 1949 with Israel as a cosignatory) was designed to stop the mistakes that lead the world to war in 1939 from happening again. Israel breaks these rules with abandon, which is not surprising since their former Foreign Minister in Tzipi Livni was been revealed by Wikileaks as saying that she respects the law, but not international law, a statement which becomes perplexing when you discover that she is a lawyer.

Whether it be article 27 of the 4^th Geneva Convention (which states that countries should not discriminate between race, colour, religion or creed), Article 49 (which refers to the transfer of populations into occupied territory: 80% of settlers in the West Bank are there because their government incentivized them), Article 53 (the destruction of property; and example of which is the 24,000 homes demolished in the West Bank since 1967), Article 50 (Collective punishment of populations, a small example of which was the arrest of hundreds of Palestinians following the recent murder of a settler family in Itamar recently) or any of the UN security council resolutions that have passed calling for an end to settlements and an end to the occupation, there is no effective accountability for Israel.

Many Palestinians ask why the UN did not sanction airstrikes against Israel when it was bombarding Gaza (using white phosphorus in the process) in the same way it did with Libya. Some more paranoid Celtic fans think that Rangers have the support of some Free Mason referees, for Israel, the support of American and European governments allows them to take a relaxed approach to the rules.

Every team needs a powerful strike force, and Israel certainly has that, with by far the strongest army in the region and one of the most advanced nuclear weapons programmes in the world. Their finishing is not so clinical though; violent Palestinian resistance has consistently been met with a disproportionate response. According to the UN, the recent operation Cast Lead in Gaza cost 1,383 Palestinian lives (mostly civilians), while Israel lost 9.

Driving through the streets after watching the action, we observe lads waving Real or Barca flags and wearing cheap replicas of replica strips as they stand in huddles and jostle at each other. Arabic broadcaster Al Jazeera holds the rights to Champions League football here. The local Tulkarm TV station has bought them and is broadcasting the game free for all to see. On the news channels before and after the game, the main story is the unification of Hamas and Fatah, the two main political factions in Palestine who have been at war with each other but who are putting differences aside in the push for international recognition of Palestinian statehood in September.

And coming in from the outside, winds of change in the Middle East. Egypt continues to take tentative steps towards people led democracy (as opposed to Western supported dictatorship); Western diplomats try to find a resolution to the civil war in Libya and Syria continues to butcher its own people who are calling for change in government, losing power and credibility with each bullet fired.

G.B Shaw said that sport was “war without the guns”. Here under occupation, the most prestigious club rivalry in football seems to count for a lot. Football is a great vehicle for dreams; when the reality gets too much bear, there is always football.  

It has a matchless ability to unite and divide; to reflect society’s schisms and provide a common language that reminds us of our shared humanity. On the field, Palestine is waiting for that Messi moment, an unstoppable flurry that breaks the deadlock and gets the world talking. It needs to be a moment that has their most bitter enemies in agreement that it while it may be painful to lose off the back of it, a beautiful thing like it deserves recognition.

When it happens, there will be plenty of Mourinihos grumbling and calling foul, but we can dream that they will be stuck in the stands with the noise of the crowd drowning them out.

After all, to paraphrase the great Bill Shankly; freedom from occupation is a matter of life and death, and nothing is more important than that.

Kids with Guns

Danette is a 25 year old Israeli. When I meet her she is assembling a fancy dress costume for the Jewish holiday of Purim. She believes in peace, she hasn’t much time for her government, but doesn’t see what she can do to change anything. She’s someone you wouldn’t expect to be have been a soldier, but like the majority of her peers, she was.

When I ask Danette about her service she is positive, she enjoyed it, met some great people; had a lot of fun. She served on the border with Jordan in the south of Israel, a low intensity posting, away from the occupation. One of her memories is sharing some cantaloupes (a fruit) with Jordanian soldiers patrolling their own border.

Israel is a highly militarised society. Its occupation of the West Bank and blockade of the Gaza strip demand a high number of soldiers. In the West Bank, there is one fully armed, state sponsored enforcer for every 13 Palestinian civilians in the area. Most West Bank soldiers are conscripts who were plucked from Israeli schools.  Conscription is the norm in Israel. You can go to prison for refusing to join the army at 18. The length of service is 3 years for males and 2 for females.  Inside Israel itself it is impossible to travel anywhere without seeing groups of uniformed teenagers with assault rifles strapped on their backs. Catching a bus, getting a coffee; they are everywhere, whether off or on duty they are compelled to  carry the gun. They are a constant reminder that Israel is a place at war; without them, in most of Israel proper, you could easily forget.

I talk to “Noam” over a drink. He is 30 years old and a fitness fanatic. He served his 3 years and then was called back for offensive military operations in the Lebanon in 2006, and again in Gaza in 2008/9, where he was part of the ground forces that “cleansed” residential areas during Operation Cast Lead. When he talks about his service, he does so with pride, but he is also equally candid about the legal and social pressures young people face about doing their service. You can get out of it he says, but it’s frowned upon, you get abused, ostracised, even the girls. You can try to say you are not mentally capable, but this will have other consequences; like affecting the type of mortgage you can get in the future; “besides,” he says with a smile; “there are plenty of crazy people in the army”.

The conversation gets difficult when he talks about losing two of his best friends to “terrorists”. One of them was shot in the head beside him in Lebanon in 2006. The memory of it causes tears to come to his eyes. He never asked for it, true he volunteered to go back, but he didn’t think he’d lose his friends, not like that.

The organisation New Profile was formed by Ruth Hiller in response to her 15 year old son telling her he was a pacifist who would not serve. New Profile seeks to support parents who do not wish to see their children become soldiers and provides information on how every part of Israeli society is geared towards creating soldiers who are prepared to do the harsh things that the occupation often requires. New Profile is one of several organisations who represent those within Israeli society who are beginning to doubt the logic of trying to make peace while being constantly primed for war. They are conscious of the harm they may be doing not only to the millions of Palestinians who have their rights and dignity systematically eroded by a military occupation, but also to their own country, Israel.

New Profile organisation is banned from schools, but this is hardly surprising. The Israeli education system is very military friendly. It has a final year which is completely devoted to matriculation, soldiers give demonstrations in schools for kindergarten upwards, playgrounds contain canon relics to familiarise children Israel’s militaristic past, the curriculum is full of military imagery (including pictures of war planes and rifles in counting books for 3 year olds alongside flags, Star of David symbols and doves); schools are encouraged to identify students who “lack motivation” who are then given “pep talks” by visiting soldiers.

Ruth presents a stark picture of a system which seems to brainwash students into unquestioningly taking up the gun when they leave. In addition, because full time soldiers retire at 42 with a full pension, many become teachers, sharing their experience with a new generation of young minds.

It is not only in schools where the indoctrination takes place. Popular youth culture treats military service as a coming of age experience. Corporate and media influences also reinforce military priorities; soldiers get special saving schemes with banks. Advertisements aimed at the mothers of soldiers sell everything from baking dough to anti-depressants.

While the positive things about military service are talked about openly; the trauma young people suffer is often suppressed. “Breaking the Silence” is an organization of ex soldiers who encourage people to talk about their experiences, pushing Israeli society to “face the reality whose creation it has enabled.”

Breaking the Silence appeals to a society whose “sense of justice has been deformed”. It has so far garnered over 700 testimonies from former soldiers, a small number relative to the number who have   served, but a good start. According to Mikhail who works for the organisation “the first thing a soldier will say when approached is ‘I don’t really have anything to say’, then the floodgates open”.

The intervention of Breaking the Silence is timely. The Israeli army loses 30-40 young lives per year to suicide. The easy access to guns; the normal stresses and strains of teenage life combined with being asked to perform a role which nobody should be forced to do mean the Israeli army loses more people to suicide than in combat, even in times of war.

In the occupied West Bank, the dehumanising effect the army has on ordinary Palestinians is plain to  see; what is less immediately obvious is the dehumanising effect that service has on Israelis. It is a massive sacrifice the children of Israel and their families are expected to make. I think of “Noam” hunched over his soda water after we finish speaking, staring glassily into space, thinking about his dead friends and the choices he didn’t have. I hope he finds peace. For Israel, the hope for peace seems futile against the reality of a society so constantly ready for war.

 I work for Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) as an ecumenical accompanier serving on the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views contained in this email are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer (QPSW) or the World Council of Churches. If you would like to publish the information contained here (including posting it on a website), or distribute it further, please first contact the QPSW Programme Manager for I–oPt teresap@quaker.org.uk for permission.

To view New Profiles Exibition of the Militarization of Israeli Society, follow the below link:

http://www.newprofile.org/images/exhibition/exhibition-extracts-english.pdf

Hebron: Under Siege from Within

Hebron is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world and should be a tourist goldmine, but Hebron’s got problems, big ones. In 1929, 67 Jews were murdered and over a hundred where injured by 1000s of rioters from Hebron and the surrounding villages reacting to the influx of Jews to Palestine sparked in part by British Foreign secretary Lord Balfour’s generous offer of a state in 1917.

After the riots, the British rulers of Palestine moved the remaining Jews in Hebron to Jerusalem, ending centuries of continuous Jewish inhabitation of a place which contains the purported resting place of Abraham, father of the monotheistic religions.  Jewish settlers started to come to the town after it was occupied by Israel in the war of 1967, seeking a return to one of the spiritual epicenters of Judaism.

The EAPPI programme is the one of a host of international organizations who come to provide a protective presence in a divided city. The Hebron Protocols of 1994 put 140,000 of the Palestinian population under the control of the newly formed Palestinian Authority control while 30000 Palestinians and 500 Jews in the oldest part of the city remained under full Israeli military control. The part of the city under Israeli military control is known as H2.

A priority of the army in H2 is to protect the 500 Jewish settlers who have moved into Palestinians homes either by force or by paying grossly inflated prices for properties. Many live above top of a narrow marker street leading to the Ibrahimi mosque. Here above the street there are grills in place to stop the rubbish settlers throw out their windows falling on the heads of Palestinian traders and their customers.

In 1994 The Ibrahimi Mosque was the site of a massacre when Baruch Goldstein, an American-born Israeli doctor, opened fire on Muslim worshippers, killing 29 and wounding 125. Harsh security measures were imposed on Palestinians in the wake of the violence which followed the shootings. Since that time, through various failed piece initiatives and a Palestinian uprising the measures have tightened and have resulted in the stagnation and decline of the local economy

One of the tasks of an Ecumenical Accompanier is to stand entrance to Ibrahimi mosque and monitor the passing of Palestinians as they enter on a Friday to pray. At the entrance to a mosque, cages and electronic turnstiles, operated by soldiers control the movement of Palestinians. A further set of turnstiles manned by soldiers is in place at the entrance to check the IDs of the Palestinians.

As I stand there I observe a soldier cock his gun to the head of 10 year old Palestinian boy as his colleague looks on in amusement. A sign to his right says in Hebrew, Arabic and English, marking the entrance to the adjacent tomb of Abeer (a holy Jewish site) says “Kindly show respect for the sanctity of this site.” It seems like a cruel joke.

Close to the entrance of the mosque, Abed and his son Mohammed sells trinkets to passersby. Abed’s business is dying, but he talks easily with and with a smile on his face to the soldiers, who are in the process of barring the entry of a 15 year old boy who used to work is his shop when Abed could afford to have paid help. Shuhada street, a few hundred yards away has been closed to Palestinians since the Ibrahimi massacre. It means his business has suffered greatly. He has been offered 10 times the price of his shop from settler groups but refuses to take the money.

Shuhada Street in one of H2s main thoroughfares, but the perversity of its closure to Palestinians due to massacre by a settler is somehow lost on the town’s Jewish population, who walk defiantly up and down the desolation, leaving graffiti saying “no mice or Arabs” and “only Jews sell to Jews” on the welded shut metal hoardings at the front of building which were once at the centre of the West Bank’s economy.

The closures in Hebron are working. Since 2000, 20,000 Palestinians have left the city. According to a study by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), conducted in 2009, 77 percent of the Palestinians in Hebron's Old City in H2 live below the poverty line. This is an extreme form of structural violence, whereby Palestinians grow more impoverished and alienated by the military endorsement of an aggressive form of colonization based on the religious fervor and frequent violence of the settler minority.

One of the jobs of the 2000 or so soldiers in Hebron is accompanying settler tours of the Old City where Jewish sympathizers from all over Israel and the world get a private tour of the old city with complete army protection. When we follow one, kept out of earshot and threatened with arrest on several occasions the soldiers seem to be particularly fearful of Palestinian children as they play on the streets and peer out of their windows; as one of the soldiers said to me with serious urgency “little ones become big ones”. He was only a kid himself, no older than 20.

H1, which is supposed to be under Palestinian control, also contains patrols of  Israeli soldiers who police neighbourhoods were a number of violent settlers have moved in. In Tel Rumedia settler harassment has forced Palestinians to seal their front doors and access their homes through rooftops, ladders and back alleys out of harm’s way.

At the home of Mashim, we climbed into his backyard down a ladder and listened as he told us how a notorious settler activist, Yvette Shakin had finally been arrested and charged after years of physical and verbal abuse directed at her Palestinian neighbours. She had attacked his nephew, grinding a stone into his mouth. It had been the Jewish holiday of Purim the week before and he showed us a video of settlers celebrating it on the street outside of his house, chanting “death to Arabs!” with soldiers standing beside them, keeping the peace.

“Debased”, “degraded” and “inhuman” are some of the words which Israelis use to describe the acts of terrorism inflicted upon them by Palestinians. They also accurately describe the actions of settlers in Hebron, but such self awareness is sadly beyond this section of Israeli society. Prominent figures in the Israeli government, including former Prime Ministers have been strong in their condemnation of the actions of hard-line settlers in Hebron, saying they do not represent Israeli society, but instead shame it. This condemnation seems contradictory in the light of a high intensity, crippling military occupation which seems to protect and support the Jewish residents and a government policy which legislates against settlers as civilians and Palestinians under military law.

I left Hebron after two days with one solitary cause for hope. At a protest against the closure of a nearby village I watched a middle aged Israeli woman remonstrate with soldiers for over an hour, trying with all her might to make the young men see the fault in what was happening. She had a son about to leave home for the army. “The worst thing is,” she said to me, “is that they must believe in what they are doing”.

When Lord Balfour made his declaration in 1917 which supported the formation of a Jewish state in Palestine it contained the proviso that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” 93 years later, Hebron is an extreme example of how this guileless and naïve promise has been forgotten. It is testament to the arrogant and lofty ideals of imperialism and the damage they leave behind.

I work for Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) as an ecumenical accompanier serving on the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views contained in this email are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer (QPSW) or the World Council of Churches. If you would like to publish the information contained here (including posting it on a website), or distribute it further, please first contact the QPSW Programme Manager for I–oPt teresap@quaker.org.uk for permission.

Occupation: As Easy as A, B and C

Abu Ayl stands with us on the roof of his house in the picturesque West Bank Village of Far’ata. The landscape around us is spectacular: behind us to the west in far the distance -inaccessible to West Bank Palestinians- is a shimmering golden band of Mediterranean sea and the fertile plains of Israel; to the south, rows of olive covered hills slalom towards the large Israeli settlement of Ariel, which runs the length of the finger shaped mountain marking the horizon about 10 kilometres away. A mile away to the north east, the pretty, developed and prosperous looking Israeli settlement of Qedumim nestles in the hills amongst pine trees. Around us are the Palestinian villages of Immatin and Far’ata.  Abu points towards  the Israeli settlement outpost of Havat Gil’ad around ½ a mile to the east.

Abu Ayl

“These caravans are new,” He says, pointing to some structures at the edge of the loose cluster of shacks and buildings; “They were not there a few weeks ago.”

Abu Ayl owns land over the brow of the hill just in front to the Havat Gil’ad outpost but is not allowed to access it except for two days in a year and only then under Israeli army supervision. The day before meeting us he had went to his land where Israeli soldiers were posted to prevent Jewish settlers attacking him. He found 150 of his olive trees had been taken down by chainsaw. The soldiers looked on as he returned to his house and came back with a camera to record the damage. As he took pictures a solider came over to him and asked him:

“How does this make you feel?”

“Angry. I want to do something about this...it hurts that I can’t do anything.”

“I don’t blame you.” the soldier said; “I’d feel the same”

An example of the damage done to Abu Ayl's 50-100 year old Olive Trees

We look across at the Havat Gil’ad outpost. Except for the electricity cables running out of it along the hill tops towards Qedumim its collection of tents and caravans look like the setting for a Western movie. It is occupied by extremist settlers who believe they have a God given right to occupy any land in the area they refer to the “Jewish Heartlands” of Judea and Samaria, and which the rest of the world knows as the West Bank. The outpost (like all settlements here, even the plush Qedumim to the north-west and the 20,000 strong urban block of Ariel to the south) is illegal under Article 49 of the 4th Geneva convention, but outposts such as this (of which there are over 100 in the West Bank) are illegal even under Israeli law and as such should not be provided with civic services. Havat Gil’ad has been there since 2001; despite its illegality the villagers in Far’ata say the Israeli authorities supplied it with electricity, water and sanitation within days of its construction.

The West Bank is partitioned into 3 areas as a result of the Oslo Accords in 1993. Under the Oslo Accords a newly formed Palestinian Authority was given control of area A and a degree of joint authority over Area B. Area C would remain under full Israeli Military control for a transitional period before being “gradually transferred” to the Palestinian Authority. Abu Ayl’s land is in Area C, which, according to The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, takes up 62% of the land area of the West Bank. Area C holds about 1/6^th of the West Bank’s population, the rest of which is concentrated in urban blocks in Area A and villages in Area B. Patches of Areas A and B are separated from one another by Area C’s strips of Israeli settlements and the roads which connect them. Life in area C is hard if you are not a settler; Save the Children recently published a report saying that the development of children in parts of area C is worse than anywhere in the occupied Palestinian territories, including Gaza.

The Oslo Accords, which fragmented the West Bank into these areas was supposed to be an historic first step towards achieving Palestinian statehood and a lasting peace with Israel. It turned into a disaster for Palestinians. The transitional period and gradual transfer never materialised; instead the Accords marked the beginning of a period which  prompted the Second Intifada (which according to Israeli Human Rights organisation B’Tselem cost upwards of 6000 lives up to the end of 2008, almost 5000 of those Palestinian); the subsequent construction of an separation barrier, (85% of which is built illegally on Palestinian land and which has B’Tselem says has exasperated the impoverishment of many Palestinians in the West Bank) and  the transfer of almost 200,000 Israelis into area C , adding to the 100,000 already there and a further 200,000 who now  live in East Jerusalem. This created what Ariel Sharon called “facts on the ground”: Human and concrete obstacles to a unified, economically viable Palestinian state. Many Palestinians and Israelis see Oslo as having failed, but the fragmentation of the West Bank into area’s A, B and C (a part of the deal that was supposed to be temporary) has become a feature of life since.

Famers like Abu Ayl, who own land close to settlements and their outposts, are often barred from freely accessing their land. There is danger of being attacked by violent settlers. Rather than punishing the criminality of settlers, the Israeli authority chooses to punish the victims by restricting their movement.

Part of Abu Ayl’s modest income comes from the olive harvest. As a result of the vandalism, this year and in the years to come there will be no income from that.

Though working against the law, settlers who populate the outposts such as Havat Gil’ad advance the cause of the settlement project envisioned by Sharon and other Jewish Nationalists. They are the “facts on the ground” and are often violent, uncompromising, and allowed to attack, intimidate, frighten and hurt Palestinians by a military authority that is unwilling to hold them to same rigorous account as it does Palestinians.

Standing on the roof-top in the sunshine, I ask Abu Ayl if we can go to his land to see close up. He smiles ruefully and shakes his head:

“The settlers came into the village last night with soldiers; they walked around and went home...they want to show us they can go anywhere. We cannot go to my land; it is too dangerous for you.”

I protest: It’s his land; surely we can go and keep our distance?

 “Listen,” he said; “A few years ago they attacked my son, they broke his hand, fractured his skull, when they saw him again a year later, they asked him; what are you doing here? Last time we broke your hand and head; what do you think we will do to you next time?”

The Outpost: Illegal under international law, Illegal under Israeli law but with amenities provided by the Israeli authorities. Go figure.

As we stand in silence and look out again at the Havat Gil’ad Outpost, I wonder again at the similarities of this place to the Wild West; at the existence of such ugliness amidst such beauty and how those who claim to be chosen and guided by God can act in this way.

I work for Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) as an ecumenical accompanier serving on the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views contained in this article are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer (QPSW) or the World Council of Churches. If you would like to publish the information contained here (including on a website) or distribute it further, please contact the QPSW Programme Manager at  teresap@quaker.org.uk

"For I Love the Bones of You..." The Israeli Prison System and it's effect on detainees and their families

Every Tuesday morning a line of plastic chairs is set outside the International Red Cross Offices in Tulkarm. A group sit and hold pictures of loved ones in front of them. These are the families of Palestinian prisoners. One of an Ecumenical Accompaniers tasks is to stand with them and offer our support. This morning we speak to the protesters as a camera crew from a local Palestinian News station conducts interviews. I speak with Hamed from the Palestinian Ministry of Culture, he translates the story of one mother who waited 1 ½ years to see her son in prison, when she got there the prison guards shackled her legs before letting her go in to see her son.

Since the beginning of the occupation in 1967 it is estimated that 650,000-800,000 Palestinians have been arrested and detained. Some estimate that 20% of the Palestinian population has been in prison. If you look at just the adult male population the figure rises to 40%.

The mass imprisonment of Palestinians is not without cause: The wave of violence known as the Second Intifada took place from 2000 onwards included suicide bombers and cost more than 600 Israeli lives. The uprising led the detention of more than 40,000 Palestinians, including 3000 children. Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs highlights Tulkarm as being one of the sources of the violence. Things have calmed now, but the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics estimates that over 7000 Palestinians are currently incarcerated.

Abdi Dalbah is a Palestinian activist and Journalist who works with Palestinians, Internationals and Israelis in opposing the occupation, he spend time in prison for political activism in the late 1990’s. I asked him how long he was in for: “Short time” he says “6 years”.

Abdi has been in prison twice, although he jokes that he was actually in 3 times, once the Israeli authorities raided his home only to be told be his family that he was already in jail. They found him where they had left him and promptly arrested him again. When I asked if he was ever tortured he answers, “Yes, of course”;

Abdi speaks with humour, patience and grace about his time inside but his eyes flicker as he recalls the ordeal. Some of the methods of torture used on Adbi included sleep deprivation, prolonged period spent in the cold, hanging by the hands, beating of the legs, tying of hands behind the back and arching the back over a stool until “you feel your back is broken”. He claims other methods of torture that he heard about include electric shock and spiking food with hallucinogenic drugs. “they also locked me in a toilet for days instead of cell, under law the Israelis are obliged to provide 3 meals a day and 4 cigarettes, so they brought me food to the toilet, I didn’t eat it.”

The Israeli authorities even keep corpses in prison, Abdi tells the story of a mother whose son (Mashoir Arori) died in prison in 1981. A few months ago, after 30 years of struggling with the Israeli prison system, his body was released. The mother’s relief was short lived, DNA tests of the skeleton revealed is wasn’t her son. A few months later, after yet more struggles with Israeli bureaucracy the true remains were finally returned to the village he grew up in. The Palestinian Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs knows of 300 corpse held in Israeli jails for no apparent reason.

A 2007 report by Israeli Human Rights organisation BT’selem claims that torture was still a regular occurrence in the Israeli prison system. They cite beating, painful binding, swearing and humiliation and denial of basic needs. In addition, 100s of Palestinians prisoners are currently held under an emergency procedure known as administrative detention. This allows the Israeli prison system hold suspects for concurrent periods of 6 months without trial or any knowledge of their alleged crimes. It has resulted in 1000s of Palestinians in jails for up to 5 years with no charges, and no knowledge of what they are in for. Both torture and administrative detention are very basic denials of human rights and contrary to international law. Plenty of evidence exists that they happen, but Israel simply isn’t held accountable by anyone.

The Israel Prison Service website describes itself as “ensuring the incarceration of prisoners and those remanded in custody in a secure and suitable environment, while respecting their dignity”. In fact it is discriminatory and willfully neglectful of the normal legal checks and balances which exist to protect prisoners in most Western democracies. This is due to the status of the West Bank as an occupied territory; military law rather than civil is applied. This allows for the detention of prisoners for smaller crimes for a much greater length of time, and allows the scandal of detention of minors to persist. While Palestinians who are arrested come from the Occupied West Bank or Gaza, most of Israeli detention centres are within Israel, this means that families trying to visit loved ones have to get a permit to travel from the West Bank to Israel, the same is true for lawyers looking to represent their clients. Not only does this cause massive problems of access for prisoners, it is also illegal under article 47 of the 4^th Geneva Convention.

For Palestinians, the Israeli prison system represents a tragedy on a national scale. A generation of Palestine’s men has been scared by their time in prison. In Tulkarm, the pictures of those still incarcerated hang alongside those of the martyrs almost everywhere you go. They look directly, defiantly at you, a younger version of themselves staring out from a fantasy world where they thought they might have freedom. Just as Israeli teenagers are brutalised by conscription, so it seems that Palestinians have their lives tainted by imprisonment. It is one of the many indignities they face under occupation. Communities mourn the absence of children, men, women and even the dead.

Sick Murder means Bricks and Mortar for Israeli Government

The following article was published in the Andersontown News on Thursday the 24th of March and was written on the 15th of  March in the days following the Itamar Murders near Nablus in the West bank. It questions the moral leadership of a government who would so readily jump on an unsolved murder case to further it's construction of illegal settlements in the West Bank and criticises the journalistic standards across Israel and the world which seem to be entirely complict in a process which aims to demonise Palestinians in the most insidious and cynical fashion.

This weeks bomb in Jerusalem (wihich killed one and injured 30) is on my mind and my heart as I post this, as are the deaths of around 14 in Gaza, in the last 10 days (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-03/27/c_13800589.htm) and all those deaths happening around the middle east at this time that are not considered "hot topics" by news editors both here and at home.  

Horrific Murders Leads to Misery for Palestinians (15/03/11)

The world views Israel and Palestine through thick and foggy lenses. Horrific and terrifying events close to Nablus in the Northern West Bank brought this to light this week. The stories behind the often bloody events in this most media exposed corners of the earth get condensed and packaged into bite size pieces for easy consumption. Both spin doctors and news editors play on this; a careless-or clever- word here and there changes the complexion of the story and distorts the picture. They rely on others’ natural biases or limited knowledge of context to frame an event in a way that suits purpose. Often, vested interests on both sides use tragedy to give weight to political and social agendas in what can seem like naked opportunism out of step with human grief and suffering. 

In the early hours of Saturday the 12^th of March 5 members of the Fogel family from the illegal Israeli settlement of Itamar were murdered in their beds. An attacker entered their home at night and stabbed to death a mother, a father and three children including a 3 month old baby. The result was shock and outrage throughout Israeli society. Israel's most popular daily paper, Yedioth Ahronoth, ran a front page story calling the killers "Human beasts" in the sub-heading that ran beneath the victims' photographs.

While Mahmood Abbas, the Palestinian Authority President, described the attacks as inhuman, the main Palestinian news site Maan News, chose to question why the settlers were in the West Bank in the first place; they also asked “where (were) the almost 200,000 Israeli police and soldiers charged with enforcing the occupation were when the attack happened.”? The remark echoed the Palestinian and International consensus and indeed International Law regarding the destructiveness and danger of the settlement project, never the less it seemed callous in the wake of such an atrocity.

This is a place where tribal lenses blind the human dimension to a story time and time again. “United in Grief” is not a viable headline here. Throughout Saturday, in press pages across the world, the Itamar murders made headlines alongside the devastation in Japan. On the BBC News and other pages the attackers were branded “Palestinians”. This was despite the fact that the act was that of an unknown murderer. There were suggestions that it was the work of a Palestinian militant group called Imad Mughniyya Group but a statement from them claiming responsibility did not match incident reports and was followed by a denial. Questioned remained as to how any attacker would have got into the heavily fortified settlement without detection. While the remaining members of the Fogel family grieved, on the streets of Nablus and the Palestinian villages surrounding the city the primary reaction was one of fear and incredulity. In the hours that followed their fears were realised.

During Saturday, all roads in the vicinity were blocked crippling the movement of Palestinians. Between 20-50 Palestinian men were arrested and detained in the villages surrounding Itamar, many houses were ransacked and possessions destroyed. Curfews were imposed on whole villages, with residents not permitted to leave their homes from Saturday on into Monday morning. One of the men arrested was the 16 year old son of Mohammed Kamel Kawareek; the main reason for suspicion was that his brother had been one of two Palestinians killed by either the Israeli Army or settlers in mysterious events which followed his arrest a few months before. No investigation or arrests were made after those killings, with the army and settlers giving conflicting reports as to why the teenagers had been shot multiple times in the head and back.

Mohammed Kamel Kawareek and his wife in the Wake of their son's arrest, behind them a picture of their murdered  son. Photo Petter Lynden

Days before these events on Monday 7^th March, 4 Palestinian villagers close to Itamar were seriously injured from gunfire from both settlers and the Israeli Defence Forces following a settler invasion of Palestinian land. A 15 year old was rushed to hospital with a bullet hole through his kidney and a further 3 had surgery after sustaining bullet wounds. After trouble started the soldiers who were called in the wake of the settler attack and fired live rounds into a group of Palestinians coming to assist those driven from their land and injured by settler violence. Soldiers then stood with settlers as ambulances were called to assist the injured Palestinians.

According to the Israeli Human Rights organisation, B’Tselem; “when Israeli civilians attack Palestinians, the Israeli authorities employ an undeclared policy of leniency and compromise toward the perpetrators.”  Leniency and compromise were not employed in the weekend response to the Itamar murders; dozens of Palestinian men were in prison, and life in many villages was paralysed. Israel has used collective punishment regularly in the past; but in this case, what had any Palestinians done to deserve punishment?

A little reported fact in the world’s press is that since the last fatal attack on settlers in the West Bank in September 2010, at least 41 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli Army in the area, while a further 85 Palestinians have been injured and 4 killed by settlers. On Sunday, a day after the murders, the Israeli government announced that as a direct result of the murders 500 new homes are to be built in illegal settlements in the West Bank. Yesha, a settler group called the move a step in the right direction but added “It is deeply troubling that it requires the murder of children in the arms of their parents to achieve such an aim.”

By Sunday evening, many more Palestinians had been detained including all the male inhabitants of an entire village. Settler violence all over the West Bank was on the increase. The Israeli press quoted their prime minister as urging settlers, despite their pain, not to take the law into their own hands. However, reports suggested that in some areas the laws was with them, with the military joining settlers in attacking Palestinian villages under the pretext of intervention in the violence.

On Monday evening, Palestinian news sources reported authorities in Itamar had started rounding up Thai immigrant workers in relation to the case. A Thai worker who was owed 10000 Shekels by the murdered father Udi Fogel had threatened to kill the family if he wasn’t paid. The development went unreported in the Israeli press, and indeed the world press, with millions of people still under the impression that the murder was carried out “Palestinian militants”. Should the murderer turn out not to be Palestinian, will the pain of the remaining members of the Fogel family become less relevant to the Israeli government? Will the government retract its plans for more illegal homes to be built in the West Bank? Will the media (Israeli and worldwide) apologise for jumping to the wrong conclusion? Will the army compensate those Palestinian families whose lives have been turned upside down? It seems unlikely in a place where grief is a politician’s asset. It fell to Motti Fogel, brother of the murdered father Udi Fogel to say by his graveside that his death should not be used “as a symbol or a national event”, but no one was listening anymore. In a propaganda war, it seems that those who stoop lowest get the spoils.