[GushShalomBillboard] * actions to come & must reads *
Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)
info at gush-shalom.org
Fri Jun 14 04:56:14 IDT 2002
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// Gush Shalom Billboard //
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[Through billboard we forward about twice a week what is on the agenda, based upon
our own material and on announcements received from others. We include articles and
reports. For more information, approach the addresses appearing in each item.]
**Action news**
[1] Saturday morning, Gush Shalom visit to Bethlehem
[2] Saturday afternoon, artists for co-existence
[3] Saturday Night, Peace Now protests in 5 cities
[4] "Womenrefuse" tent + program
[5] Seruv (refusal) activities - Monday
[6] More about refusers from Yesh Gvul
[7] Campaign to Free Marwan Barghouti
**Mustreads**
[a] Petition to support KM Ahmed Tibi, Ha'aretz June 10.
[b] 'Yahoud' (a personal report)
[c] Amira Hass on "temporary measures"
[d] Gush Friday ad in Ha'aretz
[1] Saturday morning, Gush Shalom visit to Bethlehem
---forwarded message follows----
From: Gush Shalom <info at gush-shalom.org>
GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Saturday, visit to Bethlehem area - call us if you want to join
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Gush Shalom visit to the Bethlehem area, planned for last Saturday will now
definitely take place on next Saturday, June 15, in the morning hours. The
Palestinians suffer both from the activities of the occupation troops and from
the settlers. We are invited by the Palestinian leadership in the area to come
to the area, ans see the fences and the destruction with our own eyes.
Those who wish to take part should call the Gush Shalom office at phone 03-
5221732, give the number of people for whom places in the bus should be
reserved, and (don't forget!) leave your own phone number. You will get a return
call telling of transportation arrangements. See you!
[2] Saturday afternoon, artists for co-existence
-------------forwarded message follows------------------
From: Yuval Caspi <yuval_caspi at hotmail.com>
IMAGINE
300 Artists for Coexistence
Saturday, June – simultaneous opening of exhibitions
In Tel-Aviv and Umm-El-Fahm
16:00 - Umm El Fahm , at the Old Football Field Rd. 21:00 Tel-Aviv, at Plonit Gallery,
3 Simta Plonit,
Transportation to Umm-El-Fahm will be available at 14:00
from the Arlozorov St. Railway Terminal (contact Kamela 053-370472)
[3] Saturday Night, Peace Now protests in 5 cities
------- Forwarded message follows -------
From: Didi Remez <ddremez at netvision.net.il>
June 13, 2002
SATURDAY NIGHT:
PROTESTS IN J'LEM, TA, BEERSHEVA AND KEFAR SABA; LARGE EVENT IN
HAIFA
This Saturday night, June 15th, protests will be held in Tel-Aviv,
Jerusalem, Beersheva and Kefar Saba. In addition, a large
artistic-political event, marking 35 years of occupation, will be held
by the Peace Forum at the Haifa Theater.
This weekend activists will man 28 intersections countrywide, hanging
signs and distributing materials.
"PM Sharon has demonstrated unequivocally that he is not interested in
any form of political arrangement that will extricate Israelis and
Palestinians from the current violent deadlock. Yet, on the political
level, no one has found the courage to offer the Israeli public a
tangible alternative. In this terrible vacuum, responsible citizens must
speak out.
We will continue to demand an Israeli initiative for a withdrawal from
the Occupied Territories, the dismantling of settlements, the
establishment of a border and the beginning of political negotiations
based on the Saudi initiative. This is the only way to restore security
and begin an economic recovery," say the organizers.
PROTESTS
* Jerusalem: PM's residence, 20:00.
Among the speakers: Gila Svirksy and Nadim Shiban
* Tel-Aviv: Tayelet (Seaside promenade), near McDonalds, 20:00.
* Beersheva: "Big" shopping center, 20:00.
* Kefar Saba: "Arim" shopping center, 20:00 (organized by the Sharon
Area Peace Coalition.)
HAIFA EVENT: "A SONG FOR PEACE" MARKING 35 YEARS OF OCCUPATION
Haifa Theater, 20:00. Jewish and Palestinian performing artists will
present a varied political program of monologues, music and satire. Dan
Almagor and Salman Natour will host.
Further Information:
Press: Didi Remez, Peace Now Spokesman, 054-302796 or
didi at peacenow.org.il [Concerning the Haifa event, contact Rami Goldstein
054-617180]
Activists - to get involved in planning and organization of activities
contact:
[In Tel-Aviv] Ori Ginat, 054-405157 or ori at peacenow.org.il
[In Jerusalem] Shiri Iram, 054-687539 or shiri at peacenow.org.il
[In the Sharon area] Mary Shweitzer, 054-638399 or mary at peacenow.org.il
[Everywhere else] Noa Millman, 054-556052 or noa at peacenow.org.il
[4] "Womenrefuse" tent + program - úëðééú àåäì ðùéí îñøáåú
------- Forwarded message follows -------
From: "shuli hartman" <shuli-h at zahav.net.il>
Women Refuse
We, Jewish and Palestinian women, citizens of Israel oppose the occupation of the
Palestinian people and refuse to take part in any of its destructive aspects.
We refuse to live as enemies
We refuse to fulfil the roles that women are expected to fulfill during wartime
We refuse to pay the economic and social price of the occupation
We refuse to be ignorant and to succumb to terrorizing and silencing
We refuse to raise children to war, poverty and oppression
We refuse to remain silent
A collective refusal of women can change reality. A feminine refusal means an
alternative voice and a language opposed to the language of power.
Join us at our refusal tent, June 16-21, 10.00 a.m to 22.00 p.m, at the Charles Chlor
park in Tel Aviv, and let us shape together the forms of our refusal.
Join your voice to that of Women Refuse.
womenrefuse at yahoogroups.com
[5] Seruv (refusal) activities - Monday
------- Forwarded message follows -------
From: ori rotlevy <orotlevy at yahoo.com>
The activities of OMEZ LESAREV (Courage to Refuse)
David Zonsheine, one of the two initiators of the "refuseniks" letter, has been sentenced
for 35 days in military prison. David asked his comanders to be trialed in a military
court instead of the usual "disciplinary hearing" by his own comanders. The IDF
refused, although this option opens the way to a sentence of up to 3 years. The OMEZ
LESAREV group and David, represented by adv. Sfard, petitioned to the High Court of
Justice in order to force the IDF to judge him as he requested. Thus, he will be able to
be represented by an attorney and present his arguments against the legality of
military service in the occupied territories. The pettion will be heard by the Supreme
Court (in Jerusalem),
Monday 17/6 at 1130. You are all invited to express your solidarity with david and his
rights. A short press conference will be held after the hearing.
On the same day, 17/6, the Zionist Congress will be opened in Jerusalem (Mt. Herzl).
During a campaign held before this opening, they declared what Zionism is. We will
demonstrate during the opening at 1900 infront of the main gate of Mt Herzl on Herzl av.
declaring what we believe Zionisn is: Refusing to occupy and humiliate a civilian
population. and What Zionism is not about: Settlements and transfer. You are invited to
take part!
www.seruv.org.il
[6] More about refusers from Yesh Gvul
------- Forwarded message follows -------
From: "peretz kidron" <cherryk at zahav.net.il>
YESH GVUL
Dear friend,
Three IDF reservists - including two brothers !- have been jailed for refusal to serve in
the occupied territories.
Lieut. (res.) David Zonesheine (26, from Tel Aviv, works in hi-tech, serves with an elite
parachute unit) got 35 days; Sgt. Mjr. (res.) Gilad Svirsky (31, from Tel Aviv, married
with two children) was sentenced to 28 days; Lieut. (res.) Itai Svirsky (of Tel Aviv) got
21 days.
The number of refuseniks currently in jail rises to 7, with 130 overall jailed since the
onset of the present intifada.
David Zonesheine is one of the two "instigators" of January's Ometz Le'Sarev
declaration which marked the advent on the refusal scene of a wave of new adherents,
including numerous reservists who had hitherto served in the occupied territories. The
"reinforcements" have helped boost the number of refuseniks to 1000 or more.
Zonesheine's case could be notable because, as in previous instances, his demand to
have his case tried by courtmartial, rather than the routine disciplinary action, was
turned down by the army - arguably out of concern that the formal court procedure
would allow the defence to invoke the "black flag" principle (Kafr Kassem trial verdict,
1957) which requires soldiers to refuse an order that is "flagrantly illegal". The army
evidently doesn't want to be obliged to defend the dubious legality of its actions in the
occupied territories ...
The Ometz Le'Sarev group has petitioned Israel's Supreme Court against the army's
refusal of a courtmartial, the hearing will be held within days.
---------------------------------------------------------------
WE CALL ON ALL ADOPTION
GROUPS TO GET IN TOUCH WITH US IN ORDER TO SUPPORT THESE
COURAGEOUS MEN
-------------------------
POLITICAL ART SECTION Israel Prize laureate David Tartakover, a
longstanding supporter of Yesh Gvul, has graciously granted us the rights to the poster
he designed to mark the 35th anniversary of the occupation.
The poster is on view at our website www.yesh-gvul.org/35years.jpg. Copies are
available for a donation of 50 NIS(or upwards!)towards having copies of the poster
pasted up on municipal billboards throughout Israel.
Peretz Kidron - Ram Rahat
[7] Campaign to Free Marwan Barghouti
------- Forwarded message follows -------
From: "Palestine Media Center" <pmc at palestine-pmc.com>
Subject: Campaign to Free Marwan Barghouti
Marwan Barghouti, an elected Palestinian Legislative Council member & Fateh activist
was illegally detained on 15 April 2002 by the Israeli occupation army in Ramallah.
Marwan is one of the supporters of Oslo process believing that it will lead eventually to
complete Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders and establishment of independent
Palestinian State.
Marwan strongly believes in coexistence between Palestinians & Israelis within two
separate, sovereign states, without settlements, without the injustice of the colonial
master-slave relationship.
To participate in the campaign to free Marwan Barghouti, please visit the link below:
http://www.freebarghouti.org
**Mustreads**
[a] Petition to support KM Ahmed Tibi, Ha'aretz June 10.
We warn
The decision of the Knesset House Committee to remove the immunity and restrict the
freedom of movement of Knesset Member Ahmed Tibi is yet another step in a
campaign ultimattely aimed att "ethnically cleansing" Israeli parliamentary politics and
"transfer" all the leaders of the Arab population in Israel and the elected
representatives out of parliamentary politics.
This is virtually a terrorist attack to destroy democracy. Those who today accept today
an attack on Arab Knesset Members would not be able tomorrow to complain about an
attack on Jewish Knesset Members.
Prof. Adi Ophir, former Knesset Member Uri Avnery, former minister Shulamit Aloni,
Dr. Ella Almagor, Dr. Dan Almagor, Prof. Anat Biletzky, Prof. Shimon Balas, Prof.
Rachel Giora, Prof. Chaim Gordon, Prof. Chaim Dansk, Ruth Dayan, Chaim Hanegbi,
Dr. Yitzchak Laor, Prof. Shimon Levy, Dr. Anat Matar, former Knesset Member Meir
Pail, Dr. Moshe Zuckerman, Dan Kedar, Prof. Baruch Kimmerling, Adam Keller, Prof.
Zvi Razi, Dr. Amnon Raz-Karkotzkin, Prof. Tova Rosen, Prof. Tanya Reinhart
[b] 'Yahoud' (a personal report)
http://www.starhawk.org/
The Boy Who Kissed the Soldier: Balata Camp
By Starhawk
"What source can you believe in order to create peace there?" a
friend writes when I come back from Palestine. I have no answer,
only this story:
June 1, 2002: I am in Balata refugee camp in occupied Palestine,
where the Israeli Defense Forces have rounded up four thousand
men, leaving the camp to women and children. The men have
offered no resistance, no battle.
The camp is deathly quiet. All the shops are shuttered, all the
windows closed. Women, children and a few old men hide in their
homes.
The quiet is shattered by sporadic bursts of gunfire, bangs and
explosions. All day we have been encountering soldiers who all look
like my brother or cousins or the sons I never had, so young they
are barely more than boys armed with big guns. We've been
standing with the terrified inhabitants as the soldiers search their
houses, walking patients who are afraid to be alone on the streets to
the U.N. Clinic. Earlier in the evening, eight of our friends were
arrested, and we know that we could be caught at any moment.
It is nearly dark, and Jessica and Melissa and I are looking for a
place to spend the night. Jessica, with her pale, narrow face, dark
eyes and curly hair, could be my sister or my daughter. Melissa is a
bit more punk, androgynous in her dyed-blond ducktail.
We are hurrying through the streets, worried. We need to be
indoors before true dark, and curfew. "Go into any house," we've
been told. "Anyone will be glad to take you in." But we feel a bit
shy.
>From a narrow, metal staircase, Samar, a young woman with a wide,
beautiful smile beckons us up. "Welcome, welcome!" We are given
refuge in the three small rooms that house her family: her mother,
big bodied and sad, her small nieces and nephews, her brother's
wife Hanin, round-faced and pale and six months pregnant.
We sit down on big, overstuffed couches. The women serve us tea.
I look around at the pine wood paneling that adds soft curves and
warmth to the concrete, at the porcelain birds and artificial flowers
that decorate a ledge. The ceilings are carefully painted in simple
geometric designs.
They have poured love and care into their home, and it feels like a
sanctuary. Outside we can hear sporadic shooting, the deep 'boom'
of houses being blown up by the soldiers. But here in these rooms,
we are safe, in the tentative sense that word can be used in this
place. "Inshallah', "God willing', follows every statement of good
here or every commitment to a plan.
"Yahoud!" the women say when we hear explosions. It is the Arabic
word for Jew, the word used for the soldiers of the invading army. It
is a word of warning and alarm: don't go down that alley, out into
that street. "Yahoud!"
But no one invades our refuge this night. We talk and laugh with the
women. I have a pocket-sized packet of Tarot cards, and we read
for what the next day will bring. Samar wants a reading, and then
Hanin. I don't much like what I see in their cards: death, betrayal,
sleepless nights of sorrow and regret. But I can't explain that in
Arabic anyway, so I focus on what I see that is good.
"Baby?" Hanin asks.
"Babies, yes,"
"Boy? Son?"
The card of the Sun comes up, with a small boy-child riding on a
white house. "Yes, I think it is a boy," I say.
She shows me the picture of her first baby, who died at a year and a
half. Around us young men are prowling with guns, houses are
exploding, lives are being shattered. And we are in an intimate
world of women. Hanin brushes my hair, ties it back in a band to
control its wildness. We try to talk about our lives. We can write
down our ages on paper. I am fifty, Hanin is twenty-three. Jessica
and Melissa are twenty-two: all of them older than most of the
soldiers. Samar is seventeen, the children are eight and ten and
the baby is four. I show them pictures of my family, my garden, my
step-grandaughter. I think they understand that my husband has
four daughters but I have none of my own, and that I am his third
wife. I'm not sure they understand that those wives are sequential,
not concurrent-but maybe they do. The women of this camp are
educated, sophisticated-many we have met throughout the day are
professionals, teachers, nurses, students when the Occupation
allows them to go to school.
"Are you Christian?" Hanin finally asks us at the end of the night.
Melissa, Jessica and I look at each other. All of us are Jewish, and
we're not sure what the reaction will be if we admit it. Jessica
speaks for us. "Jewish," she says. The women don't understand the
word. We try several variations, but finally are forced to the blunt
and dreaded "Yahoud."
"Yahoud!" Hanin says. She gives a little surprised laugh, looks at the
other women. "Beautiful!"
And that is all. Her welcome to us is undiminished. She shows me
the shower, dresses me in her own flowered nightgown and robe,
and puts me to bed in the empty side of the double bed she shares
with her husband, who has been arrested by the Yahoud. Mats are
brought out for the others. Two of the children sleep with us.
Ahmed, the little four year old boy, snuggles next to me. He sleeps
fiercely, kicking and thrashing in his dreams, and each time an
explosion comes, hurls himself into my arms.
I can't sleep at all. How have I come here, at an age when I should
be home making plum jam and doll clothes for grandchildren, to be
cradling a little Palestinian boy whose sleep is already shattered by
gunshots and shells? I am thinking about the summer I spent in
Israel when I was fifteen, learning Hebrew, working on a kibbutz,
touring every memorial to the Holocaust and every site of a battle in
what we called the War of Independence. I am thinking of one day
when we were brought to the Israel/Lebanon border. The Israeli side
was green, the other side barren and brown.
"You see what we have made of this land," we were told. "And that-
that's what they've done in two thousand years. Nothing." I am old
enough now to question the world of assumptions behind that
statement, to recognize one of the prime justifications the colonizers
have always used against the colonized. "They weren't doing
anything with the land: they weren't using it." They are not,
somehow, as deserving as we are, as fully human. They are
animals, they hate us.
All of that is shattered by the sound of by Hanin's laugh, called into
question by a small boy squirming and twisting in his sleep. I lie
there in awe at the trust that has been given me, one of the people
of the enemy, put to bed to sleep with the children. It seems to me,
at that moment, that there are indeed powers greater than the guns
I can hear all around me: the power of Hanin's trust, the power that
creates sanctuary, the great surging compassionate power that
overcomes prejudice and hate.
One night later, we again go back to our family just as dark is falling,
together with Linda and Neta, two other volunteers. We have
narrowly escaped a party of soldiers, but no sooner do we arrive
than a troop comes to the door. At least they have come to the
door: we are grateful for that for all day they have been breaking
through people's walls, knocking out the concrete with
sledgehammers, bursting through into rooms of terrified people to
search, or worse, use the house as a thoroughfare, a safe route that
allows them to move through the camp without venturing into the
streets. We have been in houses turned into surreal passageways,
with directions spray painted on their walls, where there is no
sanctuary because all night long soldiers are passing back and
forth.
We come forward to meet these soldiers, to talk with them and
witness what they will do. One of the men, with owlish glasses,
knows Jessica and Melissa: they have had a long conversation with
him standing beside his tank. He is uncomfortable with his role.
Ahmed, the little boy, is terrified of the soldiers. He cries and
screams and points at them, and we try to comfort him, to carry him
away into another room. But he won't go. He is terrified, but he
can't bear to be out of their sight. He runs toward them crying.
"Take off your helmet," Jessica tells the soldiers. "Shake hands with
him, show him you're a human being. Help him to be not so afraid."
The owlish soldier takes off his helmet, holds out his hand. Ahmed's
sobs subside. The soldiers file out to search the upstairs. Samar
and Ahmed follow them. Samar holds the little boy up to the owlish
soldier's face, tells him to give the soldier a kiss. She doesn't want
Ahmed to be afraid, to hate. The little boy kisses the soldier, and
the soldier kisses him back, and hands him a small Palestinian flag.
This is the moment to end this story, on a high note of hope, to let it
be a story of how simple human warmth, a child's kiss, can for a
moment overcome oppression and hate. But it is a characteristic of
the relentless quality of this occupation that the story doesn't end
here.
The soldiers order us all into one room. They close the door, and
begin to search the house. We can hear banging and crashing and
loud thuds against the walls. I am trying to think of something to
sing, to do to distract us, to keep the spirits of the children up. I
cannot think of anything that makes sense. My voice won't work.
But Neta teaches us a silly children's song in Arabic. To me, it
sounds like:
"Babouli raizh, raizh, babouli jai,
Babouli ham melo sucar o shai,"
"The train comes, the train goes, the train is full of sugar and tea."
The children are delighted, and begin to sing. Hanin and I drum on
the tables. The soldiers are throwing things around in the other
room and the children are singing and Ahmed begins to dance. We
put him up on the table and he smiles and swings his hips and
makes us all laugh.
When the soldiers finally leave, we emerge to examine the damage.
Every single object has been pulled off the walls, out of the closets,
thrown in huge piles on the floor. The couches have been
overturned and their bottoms ripped off. The wood paneling is full of
holes knocked into every curve and corner. Bags of grain have
been emptied into the sink. Broken glass and china covers the
floor.
We begin to clean up. Melissa sweeps: Jessica tries to corral the
barefoot children until we can get the glass off the floor. I help
Hanin clear a path in the bedroom, folding the clothes of her absent
husband, hanging up her own things, finding the secret sexy
underwear the soldiers have obviously examined. By the time it is
done, I know every intimate object of her life.
We are a houseful of women: we know how to clean and restore
order. When the house is back together, Hanin and Samar and the
sister cook. The grandmother is having a high blood pressure
attack: we lay her down on the couch, I bring her a pillow. She
rests. I sit down, utterly exhausted, as Hanin and the women serve
us up a meal. A few china birds are back on the ledge. The
artificial flowers have reappeared. Some of the loose boards of the
paneling have been pushed back. Somehow once again the house
feels like a sanctuary.
"You are amazing," I tell Hanin. "I am completely exhausted: you're
six months pregnant, it's your house that has just been trashed, and
you're able to stand there cooking for all of us."
Hanin shrugs. "For us, this is normal," she says.
And this is where I would like to end this story, celebrating the
resilience of these women, full of faith in their power to renew their
lives again and again.
But the story doesn't end here.
The third night. Melissa and Jessica go back to stay with our family.
I am staying with another family who has asked for support. The
soldiers have searched their house three times, and have promised
that they will continue to come back every night. We are sleeping in
our clothes, boots ready. We get a call.
The soldiers have come back to Hanin's house. Again, they lock
everyone in one room. Again, they search. This time, the soldier
who kissed the baby is not with them. They have some secret
intelligence report that tells them there is something to find,
although they have not found it. They rip the paneling off the walls.
They knock holes in the tiles and the concrete beneath. They
smash and destroy, and when they are done, they piss on the mess
they have left.
Nothing has been found, but something is lost. The sanctuary is
destroyed, the house turned into a wrecking yard. No one kisses
these soldiers: no one sings.
When Hanin emerges and sees what they have done, she goes into
shock. She is resilient and strong, but this assault has gone beyond
'normal', and she breaks. She is hyperventilating, her pulse is
racing and thready. She could lose the baby, or even die.
Jessica, who is trained as a Street Medic for actions, informs the
soldiers that Hanin needs immediate medical care. The soldiers are
reluctant, "We'll be done soon," they say. But one is a paramedic,
and Melissa and Jessica are able to make him see the seriousness
of the situation. They allow the two of them to violate curfew, to run
through the dark streets to the clinic, come back with two nurses
who somehow get Hanin and the family into an ambulance and
taken to the hospital.
This story could be worse. Because Jessica and Melissa were
there, Hanin and the baby survive. That is, after all, why we've
come: to make things not quite as bad as they would be otherwise.
But there is no happy ending to this story, no cheerful resolution.
When the soldiers pull out, I go back to say goodbye to Hanin, who
has come back from the hospital. She is looking dull, depressed:
something is broken. I don't know if it can be repaired, if she will
ever be the same. Her resilience is gone; her eyes have lost their
light. She writes her name and phone number for me, writes "Hnin
love you." I don't know how the story will ultimately end for her. I
still see in the cards destruction, sleepless nights of anguish, death.
This is not a story of some grand atrocity. It is a story about 'normal',
about what it's like to under an everyday, relentless assault on any
sense of safety or sanctuary.
"What was that song about the train?" I ask Neta after the soldiers
are gone.
"Didn't you hear?" she asks me. "The soldiers came and got the old
woman, at one o'clock in the morning, and made her sing the song.
I don't think I'll ever be able to sing it again."
"What source can you believe in order to create peace there?" a
friend writes. I have no answer. Every song is tainted; every story
goes on too long and turns nasty. A boy whose baby dreams are
disturbed by gunfire kisses a soldier. A soldier kisses a boy, and
then destroys his home. Or maybe he simply stands by as others do
the destruction, in silence, that same silence too many of us have
kept for too long.
And if there are forces that can nurture peace they must first create
an uproar, a vast breaking of silence, a refusal to stand by as the
boot stomps down.
http://www.starhawk.org/
copyright © Starhawk 2002
(This story carries my copyright to protect my rights to future
publication. You have permission to send it on, post it on the
Internet, reprint it in relevant newsletters, etc. If possible, please
distribute it with my website, not my personal email address. I can
be contacted through the website above, Starhawk)
[c] Amira Hass on "temporary measures"
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=175376&contrassID
=2&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
Ha'aretz, June 12
Long-term sieges
By Amira Hass
The far-reaching significance of Israel's siege policy and the
institutionalization of the pass system for travel through the West Bank is
in direct contradiction to the minimal - if any - interest shown in Israel
about the phenomenon.
The siege policy is perceived as a legitimate means to prevent attacks on
Israelis inside Israel, and on soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip. Since September 2000, the sieges on all the Palestinian
cities and villages has been increasingly tightened and at the same time,
motivation has risen among young Palestinians to kill themselves in suicide
attacks on Israelis. The Palestinians understand that urge as a reaction to
the concrete suffocation that the siege creates, as well as a metaphor for
their utter lack of hope for a chance for free lives. On the Israeli side,
the majority is convinced that there is no connection between the two and
that if not for the sieges, the number of attacks would greatly increase.
So, there's no point in wasting words on Israelis on the immorality of
effectively locking up 3 million people in enclaves, between barbed wire and
frightening army checkpoints. What the Palestinians perceive as ruthless
collective punishment, the Israelis perceive as a necessary evil: It may
cause "discomfort" to the innocent, but it is the system that puts limits on
the use of lethal means in the hands of the army.
For the same reason, explanations by the coordinator of government activity
in the territories, that the pass system in the West Bank is meant to ease
the situation for the Palestinians, sound logical. And the Israel Defense
Forces has been doing what it can in the past few weeks to make it easier
for the government coordinator to make his position clear. The closure of
every city, town and village is more and more hermetic, and more and more
violent. That's why when people are being sent to the Civil Administration
offices to ask for permission to do the most basic things in daily life - go
to work, to school, to the doctor, to friends, to family - it appears
humane.
Nonetheless, here's a scenario built into the siege policy. Most people
considered the pass system as a "temporary measure." But, since it now
covers all Palestinian movement inside the territories, it's impossible to
distinguish between it and the settlements' existence. The internal sieges
are meant to protect their security and safety and the safety of the
soldiers protecting the settlements. As opposed to the illusions of those
who support peace, Israel does not regard the settlements as "temporary" or
as a "bargaining card." The statistics about the growth of the settlements
in the "peace decade" of Madrid and Oslo are proof of this.
Bureaucratic institutions have a tendency to perpetuate themselves and their
methods. The IDF and the Civil Administration will do all they can in the
coming years to convince whoever they must that it's still not time to give
up the travel pass system, which means maximum supervision of all
Palestinian movement. Their approach will influence the political
negotiations in the coming years.
Just as the travel pass between Gaza and the West Bank became a permanent
feature, the travel passes for movement inside the West Bank will become
permanent. People will wait days and weeks for permission to go from one
town to the next, and that permission won't be granted - whether because of
a lack of manpower, or because of efforts to draft recruits as informants.
Every commercial and industrial activity will require the good graces of an
Israeli official who will apply his own personal translation to the rules
handed down by the Shin Bet and the army, and those rules will change daily.
As the World Bank has warned, sieges and closures are in direct
contradiction to every principle of development and advancement of the
private sector. It will only take a few months for the division of the West
Bank into disconnected enclaves to reduce most of the Palestinian population
into welfare cases. The higher education system will totally collapse - of
course, the security authorities in Israel always have regarded the students
as a dangerous population that should not be allowed to travel. It will be
impossible to rehabilitate industry because of the need for credit in other
cities, the marketing costs (the back-to-back trucking system, which
requires multiple transfers of goods from one truck to the next on the
outskirts of each town, forbidding direct transport of merchandise from town
to town), the difficult in finding labor and the lack of land reserves (most
of the open land is outside the areas under siege).
Already the sieges are causing severe sanitation and health problems. There
are signs of malnutrition, it is difficult to move refuse to areas outside
the boundaries of the siege, and water is in short supply, particularly in
those villages that depend on regular delivery of water containers. This is
in addition to delays in medical supplies and vaccinations for infants. As
unemployment mounts, such problems and many others will only get worse.
The long-term imprisonment in the enclaves is paralyzing the senses, the
desire and the ability to initiate, blocking both individual and collective
creativity. But it presumably is pushing more desperate young people to
dream about their own destructive reaction to the Israeli policy, no matter
how difficult it will be to accomplish.
This is only an imaginary scenario for those who aren't ready to look at
what's going on a kilometer from their homes and those who aren't ready to
think about "security" in terms that are far from long-term.
[d] Gush Friday ad in Ha'aretz
THE EVIL FENCE
They promise us that the fence will bring security and peace; that it will separate the
two peoples, so that each of them can live alone.
That is a big lie.
The truth is that east of the fence the occupation will continue, the settlements will
multiply and the oppression will get worse – causing more resistance, hatred and
attacks.
The fence will not bring peace; it will be an alternative to peace. Its advocates argue
that there is no partner for peace, because they are not ready to pay its price.
It will create a prison for the Palestinians, a ghetto for the Jews.
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Tomorrow, Saturday, we shall inspect the Evil Fence. If you want to join, call at once
the Gush office, 03-5221732, and leave your name and phone number.
Gush Shalom,
Help us with donations to
P.O.Box 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033,
Phone 972-3-5221732.
Gush Shalom ad published in Ha'aretz, June 14, 2002.
----
Full transcript of the war crimes panel available on the Gush site
For Hebrew http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum.html
For English http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum_eng.html
French available at request
Also on the site:
photo's - of action or otherwise informative
the weekly Gush Shalom ad - in Hebrew and English
the columns of Uri Avnery - in Hebrew, Arab and English
(and a lot more)
http://www.gush-shalom.org
In order to receive our Hebrew statements [WORD documents - not always same as
English] mailto: gush-shalom-heb-request at mailman.gush-shalom.org + write
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