Report Two: More From East Jerusalem
and Joint Action for Peace
Tuesday, May 29
Extraordinary Ordinariness
As we toured Israel's "matrix of control" in East Jerusalem
today, our guide, Catherina Wilson of The Israeli Committee Against
House Demolitions, commented: "Just feel how normal this place
is. That's the danger of the economic settlements. The Israelis
here don't think of themselves as settlers, they just think of themselves
as moving into a nice new neighborhood. That's why it's so hard
to disengage. If you're not here to make a political statement,
why would you leave? This is much more dangerous than the ideological
settlements because there are so many of these economic settlers
and they think of it as banal."
Ideological settlers are those who believe that through their actions
they are redeeming God-given land that must be returned to Jewish
hands. Economic settlers (the vast majority) are often secular (in
the case of the settlements near Jerusalem they often actually move
there in order to gain some distance from the religion of the Holy
City) and they are moving into homes that are beautiful, new, and
– best of all-- tax-free (these homes are government-subsidized,
thus every Israeli – and, indirectly, every American -- is
paying taxes to support their settling activities).
We were standing inside Ma'ale Adumim, which appears on my tourist
map as though it were a town like any other. In fact, this is a
Jewish-only area (with all entrances and exits guarded) on what
international law recognizes as Palestinian land. The size (though
not the population) is larger than that of Tel Aviv. As we entered
through a checkpoint, we drove through a traffic circle at the center
of which was planted an olive tree that had been uprooted from the
West Bank (click here to see photo).
(This has become a common practice. People in the U.S can now even
buy one of these trees that have been uprooted by Israelis for $5,000.)
Other than the Bedouins who have been hired to care for the flowers,
there are not many people around as it is mid-morning and most of
the residents work in Jerusalem. Ma'ale Adumim resembles a suburb
in southern California: palm trees, impeccably clean, lush flowers
and greenery, an Ace Hardware Store, and a "Library of Peace"
(click here for photo). As
we are standing by a bus-stop looking at a view of the desert, a
garbage truck drives by: it is transporting the garbage from the
settlement into parts of the Palestinian Territories that have not
been settled by Israeli Jews.
Garbage is very visible all along the streets as we leave the settlement
and continue on our tour to areas of East Jerusalem in which Palestinians
live. Palestinian Jerusalemites pay 30% of Jerusalem taxes but get
8% of the services. Furthermore, the cost of bulldozers which are
brought in to demolish Palestinian homes is included in that 8%
of services they pay for! Trash pickup is considered too high a
cost for the Arab areas of the city, as is adequate water supply.
But there is no sparing on demolishing the homes of anyone whose
family has expanded through marriage and has thus built on an additional
floor or constructed a place to live without a permit. And it is
not as though Palestinians are trying to skirt the law. Jerusalemites
pay $20,000 simply to apply for a permit to build or to expand their
properties – and this money is paid even though more likely
than not the permit will be denied. Once their property has been
demolished, the home-owners then have two months to pay for the
rubble to be cleaned up or else they face additional fines.
As we drove around East Jerusalem we saw the Separation Wall. Yes,
it is true, parts of the Wall are better described as a fence because
they are not concrete but these parts are perhaps even worse: electric
fences topped with barbed wire and numbered all along so that if
someone touches it, the military can instantly be upon you either
with shackles or bullets (click
here for photo). As we heard stories of how this Wall/Fence
has ruined people's lives and as we witnessed the apartheid system
of not only the wall, but also the by-pass roads (Jewish-only roads
that also serve as barriers while making the Palestinian towns completely
invisible by not evening having signs that indicate them let alone
leading to any of them) and the checkpoints and the pass-system
that severely restricts the movement of all Palestinians, people
in the group kept asking "Why? Why? Why?"
Catherina told us, "Israelis will try to explain everything
by talking about security." But as people in the group kept
expressing confusion because these policies seemed much worse for
security, she repeatedly reminded us: "Don't try to make sense
of Israeli explanations of what is happening. They make no sense."
I actually disagree. I think the explanations make a lot of sense.
They provide a justification for Israeli policies, a way for Israelis
(and the international community) to talk about what is going on
without talking about occupation. These explanations of security
serve the same role that the talk of protecting us from terrorists
serve in garnering U.S support for our many wars in the Middle East,
our support of Israel, our draconian immigration policies, and our
infringements on civil rights at home. There are a number of Jews
in our group who have talked about how hard it is even after many
years of activism to completely destroy a lifetime of socialization
to the notion that they should be afraid of Palestinians, that Palestinians
will kill them, etc. These same people are some of the most committed
activists and eloquent voices in talking about the atrocities of
Israel's policies, and in talking about how there is a sense to
all of this, but it is a sense that is insane. As one person put
it: "inhumane, unkind, twisted – things that embarrass
me as a Jew, things I don't want to be hearing and seeing, things
that I can't believe we are doing to others after all that has been
done to us."
Perhaps I don't disagree with Catherina
so much after all. There is a sense to he explanations, but the
whole thing is senseless. Senseless as in insane and senseless as
in devoid of senses, devoid of sensitivity, devoid of seeing, listening,
touching. And this senselessness becomes ordinary, naturalized as
normal human life.
--Cecilia Lucas
Wednesday, May 30th
Combatants for Peace: Sadness
and Hope
On Wednesday, we met with Bassam Al-Aramin
of Combatants for Peace. Combatants for Peace is joint Israeli/Palestinian
organization that believes the conflict between Palestinians and
Israelis "cannot be solved with military solutions." They
both want security for their people and are working toward that
goal. Combatants for Peace have talks and lectures to explain the
suffering of the occupation.
Bassam told his story of embracing
non-military non-violent solutions to the conflict and I felt a
personal connection to his experience as I am a member of an organization
called Veterans for Peace. Bassam explained that his first and most
difficult step to joining Combatants for Peace was to meet with
an Israeli "enemy" combatant. He and many Palestinians
fear that the person they will meet is a member of the Israeli intelligence.
Bassam was first arrested at age 17
for throwing stones and eventually spent a total of 7 years in Israeli
prisons. "You cannot imagine what I've seen in Israeli jails,"
he explains. He says he suffered torture and that Palestinians are
viewed as "enemy" and "terrorists" by Israeli
jailers. He explains that after engaging an Israeli jailer and settler
in conversation over a period of 7-8 months, he persuaded the Israeli
jailer to change his mind and better understand why many Palestinians
are fighting the occupation. This persuasion is particularly impressive
as ideological settlers are often the most racist, violent elements
of Israeli society.
Particularly sad is the story Bassam
told about the death of his daughter, Abir. She was returning from
a math exam on January 16, 2007, when she was shot in the head by
an Israeli soldier with a rubber bullet at a distance of about 50
feet. Abir was treated in an Israeli hospital but died two days
later as a result of her injuries. She was only ten years old. We
can see that Bassam has suffered immensely and is still mourning
the death of his child. The expression on his face was unmistakable,
and many in our group have tears. We can see that the pain in his
heart is still fresh. Bassam says he had to counsel his thirteen
year-old son who wanted revenge. He said you can do nothing by throwing
stones. Bassam wants a better future for his son.
Bassam explains that the Israeli soldier
who shot his daughter was not investigated or charged. He explains
that he does not want revenge, but justice. He says that the young
soldier who shot his daughter was just a kid, and that he wants
to continue a dialogue. He believes that Israeli soldiers are victims
too. We can see that Bassam is a very strong, powerful individual
to maintain his stand for nonviolence after all he has suffered.
When asked how he talks to someone
who wants to fight, he told a story of counseling a young Palestinian
who had been arrested three times for throwing stones. Bassam saw
himself in the boy he counseled and wanted to show him an alternative
to violent resistance to the occupation. He explains that the boy
has made considerable progress. He also explains that since 1967,
seven hundred fifty thousand Palestinians have been imprisoned in
Israeli jails including ninety thousand children; many of these
people suffer torture while imprisoned.
He does not believe that the United
States or Israel want true democracy. When asked about a solution
to the conflict, he says that Americans should stop supporting Israel's
unjust occupation with military aid. Bassam says that Israeli settlers
in Palestine must go back to Israel; he views the settlers as terrorists.
He asks Americans to stop supporting the Israeli occupation with
money and arms. Rather than be pro-Palestine, he wants us to be
pro-Peace.
--Eric Bjorgan
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