Mohammed and the Distant Ocean

Ireland has a heart for Israel and Palestine. It is written on the walls, it flies from the flag posts, it is in the minds and mouths of Irish people. The two areas have something common; an understanding of conflict and a desire for a just peace which in the case of Northern Ireland often seemed long way off. In Israel and Palestine today peace seems a very long way off; it is a heavily militarized area with stark social divisions and immense hatred and resentment between Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Both Israeli and Palestinian civilians are victims in an ongoing political power struggle which aims to define the limits of the Israeli state and the shape of any future Palestinians one.  They do not live on an equal footing. Israelis enjoy much greater economic circumstances, powers of self determination and much wider range of rights and freedoms. One message I have taken from the Palestinians I have spoken to since coming here was that if they could have one desire in their quest for justice in the Holy lands it would be that all the people in the world could visit and experience the reality of life under occupation. That way, they are sure, people would do more to try and help them live freely and fairly with their neighbors in Israel.

The Palestinians understand our recent troubles, as do the volunteers from all over the world who comprise this group of human rights observers of the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme to Israel and Palestine. To them, we are an example of how peace can be won, we are an example that gives hope. Hope is a scarce commodity in the Occupied West Bank at the present time, but as Samar, a Palestinian lady from the town of Tulkarm put it to me, “we hope that one day we will have hope”.

Ecumenical Accompaniers (EAs) provide protective presence to vulnerable communities, monitor and report human rights abuses and support Palestinians and Israelis working together for peace. The programme is coordinated by the World Council of Churches and has been present n the area since 2003 when the second Intifada was claiming many lives on both sides of the divide. When they return home, EAs campaign for a just and peaceful resolution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict through an end to the occupation, respect for international law and implementation of UN resolutions. In our advocacy we aim to tell the stories of people under occupation, here is the first one

Last night we had a welcome/farewell party for departing EAs, the new group and the local contacts we rely on to do our job. One of the many people we met there was Mohammad. Mohammad is 15 and is a resident of Tulkarm refugee camp which is run by the United Nations Relief Works agency. Three generations ago his family were forced from their homes by a war which created 700,000 refugees. His family lived in Haifa, a former Palestinian town on the Mediterranean. Mohammad would like to be a nurse when he grows up and possibly travel to Russia where he hears they need nurses. From the hills above his refugee camp home, on a clear day you can barely see the ocean 9 miles away beyond the high rise buildings which line the sunny coast. He would one day like to go there, but can’t.

As a Palestinian Mohammad doesn’t have the right to cross the border between Israel and the West Bank. The West Bank has no coastline. The high-rise buildings, the beaches, and the sea all lie in Israel. Some refugees return to Israel but only as daily economic migrants. Those  who do make the trip face heavy restrictions on movement, often bewildering obstacles to obtaining the necessary permit and humiliating checkpoint procedures as they travel each day to generally low paid jobs which they need to feed their families. They don’t get to the beach on their days off. Mohammad cannot even realistically expect to return to the seaside home from which his forefathers were driven from, not even for a visit. Israelis live in or on the site of the house that used to belong to his family. He has no right of return.

In Jerusalem, town planners and legislators plan on clearing large swathes of East Jerusalem, the area of the city inhabited by Palestinians , so that Israelis can return to where they say their forefathers used to live to help cement the dream of a Greater Jerusalem in a Jewish state. The EAPPI programme and the people who work on it recognize this injustice and want to do what they can to make it possible for Mohammed to have his rights recognized in a solution arrived at through inclusive, peaceful negotiation. This way, we hope to bring the ocean a little closer to him.  





Some Kids from the nearby village of Kufr al abad, barred from the beach by Israeli Security measures





Donkeys: Generally peaceful



Welcome Rain Blows in from the Mediterreanean 10 miles to the west of the Hills above Tulkarm

Facts:
• The EAPPI programme originated from an invitation from the Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem following the tightening of security after the 2^nd Intifada

• Their presence is required following a US veto of an UN resolution to send peace keeping troops to the region and civil society considered that a protective presence for civilians was necessary.

• The programme works in 6 areas in the West Bank, Jerusalem (the Palestinians know the city as Al Quds), Jayous, Bethlehem, Yanoun, Hebron and Tulkarm, I will be based in Tulkarm, a Palestinian town in North of the West Bank close to the separation barrier.

Some of the issues to be touched on in the coming weeks:

The separation barrier and it’s consequences for Palestinians; prisoners, ex prisoners and their families; Palestinian reaction to unrest and revolution in the Islamic World; The Increase in settler violence in Hebron and elsewhere; Israeli activists and their role in supporting human rights at their own personal cost; Local issues in Tulkarm; The lives of those in Refugee camps in the West Bank; The lives of farmers whose livelihood are under threat due to security restrictions, and more