[GushShalom] The real opposition - on the ground. Reports + articles anti-Wall struggle
Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)
info at gush-shalom.org
Sun Jun 27 00:42:12 IDT 2004
GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 www.gush-shalom.org/
Reports + articles anti-Wall struggle
International release - àðâìéú òí ÷éùåøéí ìòáøéú
June 26
The real opposition - on the ground
++++++++++++++++++++
A-RAM (East-Jerusalem) - violent dispersal of peaceful protest:
During today's joint protest against the Jerusalem Wall cutting through A-
Ram: dozens of Palestinian and Israeli protesters wounded & random arrests
++++++++++++++++++++
[] Report of the A-Ram demo against the Wall
by Adam Keller & links to Y-net and Haaretz
[] An opposition which doesn't take part in the real battle
by Uri Avnery
[] Standing against the claws of the wall
by Tanya Reinhart
[] Court Orders Construction of the Wall in Az Zawiya Stopped
P.S. See our calendar links & announcements
- photos and video footage of recent actions
- new maps, brochures, eye-witness reports
- films, expositions, refusnik links
- Gush Shalom details re website, donations, subscription to
email
~~~
[] Report of the A-Ram demo against the Wall
by Adam Keller & links to Y-net and Haaretz
Hebrew at request / òáøéú òì ôé á÷ùä
It had been planned meticulously. The initiative came from the
A-Ram municipality - a huge demonstration including as many
Israelis as could be convinced to come on the weekend before
the Supreme Court's decision over the fate of A-Ram. But, from
how it went it seems that somebody up there decided that it was
not in their interest to have today an orderly demonstration
of Palestinians together with Israelis. That, so short before
the Supreme Court was to give its decision, it was much better
to transform it into something in which "anything could
happen."
"Are you you going to A-Ram" asked the border policeman at the
roadblock. "Yes, that's where we are going." All of us were
ready to jump out and go on foot should the bus again be
prohibited, but the policeman just smiled and said: "Have a
good day."
So, the five buses, full of Israeli activists - from Gush
Shalom and Ta'ayush - went further to the point where the main
Jerusalem-Ramallah road had been demolished in prepararion for
erection of the "Separation Wall". Huge slabs of prefabricated
wall were lying ready in a long row, to be erected as soon as
the Supreme Court would give its final approval on Monday.
Five young people pulled out hammers and tried to hit the
concrete slabs, but the grey monsters were not even scratched.
The rest of us took up signs:
THE WALL MUST FALL / THE WALL BLOCKS PASSAGE TO SCHOOLS AND
HOSPITALS / WALL EQUALS WAR / ISRAELIA AND PALESTINIANS
TOGETHER AGAINST THE WALL / IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO LIVE WITH THIS
WALL.
A little bit further and the inhabitants of A-Ram came over to
meet us. Row after row of Palestinians, in their thousands:
young and old, men and women, some in traditional clothing,
others in jeans.
At the head of the joint march, Mayor Sirhan Sulayme - whose
contact with Israeli peace groups goes back to the Oslo years.
Beside him KM Ahmed Tibi and former KMs Tamar Gozanski and Uri
Avnery, together with members of the Paelestinian Parliament
and Muslim and Christian Clergy. After them the marching band
of the Palestinian Boy Scouts, some with drums and trumpets
other with the bagpipes, a relic of British rule.
We walked in neat and orderly ranks - but not for long.
Suddenly young people started running backwards, with teargas
cannisters exploding all over. On the crest of the hill the
border guards were standing in a row, shooting again and again.
The young pipers tried valiantly to march on, for two or three
minutes - but it was just impossible under such a barrage.
"This was a prepared ambush! I saw exactly how it started: they
opened up without any provocation from our side. They waited
just until the wind was blowing from them to us - to get
maximum effect from the gas" said a young Ta'ayush activist,
fresh from military service. There were some fifteen of us
crouched around a corner, holding to our noses slices of onion,
distributed by Palestinians as anti-dote against the gas. The
refuge turned out to be temporary: a border police car came
charging around the corner shooting further tear gas
cannisters. Quick, quick in here - a Palestinian called in
Hebrew from side street, guiding us through a maze of back
passages. Behind us youths were dragging market stalls to form
a barricade across the main street.
An orderly and peaceful protest march of thousands was broken
into many small clusters, keeping loose communications via
mobile phones. Some found refuge and welxome in Palestinian
homes and offices; others were pursued deeper into the streets
of A-Ram. Uri Avnery had managed to get into a shop near the
junction where the police violence started. From there, the
experienced journalist-activist opened a direct line to the
media: "This looks like a real battlefield; every ten minutes
or so, the youngsters are emerging from one of the alleys. They
throw stones, also that they are toof ar from the Border Police
to hit, and the police open up again very heavily. I have
myself enough onion for the whiffs which I get here... Just now
they shot a cannister directly at an ambulance crew which was
picking up one of the wounded."
>From tear gas, the Border guards went on to "rubber" bullets,
intensive use of their clubs and not to forget the water canon
(which was partly a blessing, clearing the air of gas).
Altogether some fifty people got wounded, among them KM Tibi,
Sheikh Taysir Tamimi who heads the Muslim courts in Palestine,
and a press photographer of Yediot Aharonot...
A bit further behind, some of the organizers recreated a kind
of headquarters in the middle of the street: Mayor Salayme was
there; as was Neve Gordon of Ta'ayush and the Palestinian Scout
Master. "Although the people are scattered from what I hear
over the phone there are Israelis together with Palestinians in
every small groups" said Gordon. "We are trying to reason with
the border police commander here; I told him on the phone that
if he pulls his men back several hundred meters the violence
will stop immediately; so far he is very intransigent."
Only after some three hours, and after launching a particularly
heavy attack in the course of which there were shot live
bullets did the police finally withdraw. We could file back
into our buses, but there was still the matter of ten
detainees: five Israelis and five Palestinians. So, we all
went over to the police station at Neve Yakov (Jewish
neighborhood adjacent to A-Ram). The latest news: the Israeli
detainees were told that they could go, but they refused to
leave the station without the Palestinians. Some hundred
activists are still vigiling outside at this late hour.
On Monday morning the Supreme Court will take the decision so
fateful for tens of thousands of A-Ram inhabitants. Quite some
of today's demonstrators will be there in the courtroom at
9.00am; Bat Shalom women will already start a vigil outside the
court at 8.45.
See also:
'Yedioth' camerman beaten by Border Police at fence protest
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent
Last Update: 26/06/2004 20:24
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/443608.html
Hebrew / òáøéú
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/443603.html
and:
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-2937935,00.html
[] An opposition which doesn't take part in the real battle
by Uri Avnery
[Hebrew soon at the site www.gush-shalom.org òáøéú á÷øåá áàúø]
"The Starling Went to the Raven"
26.6.04
An old, worn-out whore who waits in vain for a man to seek
her favors is a pitiful sight indeed. The Israeli Labor Party
is in this pathetic position, but it is difficult to feel any
pity for it.
For months now, the party has been waiting at the door of
the Sharon government, hoping to be invited in at any moment.
>From time to time Sharon opens the door, shoots her a
contemptuous look and slams the door shut in her face. This
week it happened again, for the nth time.
Usually Shimon Peres is blamed for this situation. Quite
rightly, of course. Peres is longing for the position of
Foreign Minister the way a man dying of thirst in the desert
longs for water. As a member of the government he could meet
with kings and presidents, take part in international
conferences, make solemn declarations and do all the things
that give meaning to his life. For him, life in opposition is
no life at all.
But the question is: Why was this man elected to his
position as executive chairman of the party? Those who elected
him knew where he wants to go. After all, he has already served
as Sharon's foreign minister, spreading the good tidings that
Sharon is no longer Sharon, that the leopard has changed every
one of his spots and is now just like one of the sheep on his
farm.
As the chief of the largest parliamentary faction
outside the governing coalition, Peres is entitled by law to be
addressed as the "Leader of the Opposition". No title could
suit him less. While Menachem Begin, for example, flourished in
opposition and spent 29 happy years there, Peres wilts like a
flower without water. He has no idea what to do. If he were
offered a plan for opposition activities on a plate, he
wouldn't know what to do with it.
From the very beginning of his career, as an instructor
in the Working Youth movement, Peres was a man of the
government. As an assistant of David Ben-Gurion, as the
Director General of the Defense Ministry, as a minister and as
Prime Minister - he always identified with the government,
worked for the government and represented the government. When
Ben-Gurion compelled him to leave Labor in 1965 and participate
in the founding of the opposition Raffi party, he was miserable
and used the first pretext to rejoin the government. When he
lost an election and was stuck in opposition, he looked for the
first opportunity to join a "national unity" government.
From this point of view, Peres is a perfect symbol of his
party. From 1933, when it assumed power in the Zionist
organization's governing institutions, until the 1977
"upheaval" which brought the Likud to power, Labor enjoyed 44
uninterrupted years in power. Indeed, the Likud victory
dumfounded everybody. Until that moment, nobody could even
imagine a government without Labor.
At the time, a Member of Parliament could not but pity the
Labor members, who drifted along the Knesset corridors like
ghosts. When they mounted the rostrum to speak about some
subject, they automatically assumed the pose of government
spokesmen and had to remind themselves in mid-speech that it
was, after all, their job to criticize.
Throughout the last year one could hardly find a single
sign that the Labor Party was in opposition. True, it regularly
submits no-confidence motions, but that is an empty weekly
ritual that is not taken seriously by anybody either in the
Knesset or outside.
On no subject whatsoever does Labor really fight the
government. It identifies itself with the Thatcherist economic
policy of Treasury Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, which hits the
poor (who vote for the Likud anyhow) and serves the economic
elite (which belongs to the Labor Party). It cannot fight
against the settlements, since Peres himself founded the first
settlement in the center of the West Bank, Kedumim. The
Separation Wall which imprisons the Palestinians in ghettos was
initiated by the Labor Party, and when Sharon became Prime
Minister he only changed its path. The mantra "We Have No
Partner for Peace" was coined by the Labor leaders, Ehud Barak
and Shlomo Ben-Ami. The idea of annexing the "settlement blocs"
was conceived by Yossi Beilin, then a leading Labor member.
The close relations between Shimon Peres and Ariel Sharon
are not accidental. As the prophet Amos said (3,3): "Can two
walk together, except they be agreed?" Both came from the same
place: the court of David Ben-Gurion. Both represent variations
of the same ideology. Indeed, as the ancient Hebrew proverb
goes: "Not for nothing did the starling go to the raven, but
because they are two of the same kind."
The very name "Labor Party" is a misnomer - it is neither
a party nor has it anything to do with labor. It has no roots
at all in four of the five major components of Israeli society:
the religious, the Oriental Jews, the new immigrants from
Russia and the Arab citizens. It is limited to the fifth
component - the Ashkenazi (European) Jews, especially the older
generation. This is a well-established, privileged, indeed
pampered elite that is comfortable in the existing situation,
with nothing "burning in its bones" and no inclination
whatsoever to get involved in party politics (with the odd
exception).
The party is in a shambles. It has, in fact, no real local
branches, only small groups of interested functionaries. Worse:
there are no signs of a new leadership, or even new ideas,
after the collapse of the old concepts. One sees only a group
of tired politicians, each of whom looks out only for himself,
fighting to get a few minutes on television, where he can
repeat obsolete phrases from the past. The public listens and
yawns.
It is these politicians who elected Peres, because they
could not agree on any other candidate for party chairman. This
is not a symphony orchestra, but only a bunch of street
musicians, each with his own tune in his head.
All this would not be important, if it did not have such
grave implications. The absence of a real opposition creates a
void in the political landscape and leaves the entire arena to
Sharon and his henchmen. The small Meretz party, now called
"Yahad" ("Together") is no effective opposition either - not
only because of its size, but because it suffers from many of
Labor's afflictions. It does not take part in the daily battles
on the ground. It does not fight against the monstrous wall.
The Prime Minister's bribery affair, which would have provided
a field day for any real opposition, did not evoke a reaction
from Yahad. Labor, of course, kept mum.
The small parties that represent the Arab citizens are
much more active, but most of the Jewish public ignores them,
much as it ignores the Arab public in general.
This is a disastrous situation. It sows despair among
those who are longing for change but see no viable substitute
that can assume power. It explains the odd result of all public
opinion polls: the majority is ready to make sacrifices for
peace, the majority votes for Sharon.
A change of government is impossible without a change of
opposition. And a new opposition has a chance of arousing
enthusiasm only if its agenda is really opposed to the
government's agenda. For that, courage, faith and a fighting
spirit are needed.
Until such an opposition comes to life, inside or outside
the Labor Party
~~~
[] Standing against the claws of the wall
by Tanya Reinhart
Yediot Aharonot and Ynet, Wednsday June 23, 2004. Translated
from Hebrew by Mark Marshall and Edeet Ravel.
Hebrew
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-2936546,00.html
Along the route of the separation barrier in the West Bank, a
new culture is springing up: on one side, soldiers and
bulldozers; on the other, Israelis and Palestinians embracing
the land and the trees, trying to save them both. Last week,
Sharon decided he was secure enough in the role of man of peace
to start pushing the wall towards the settlements of Ariel and
Kedumim, deep in the West Bank, about 20 kilometres from
Israel. And since then the Israelis and Palestinians have also
been there.
The breathtaking scenery of the Ariel district has been sliced
up by the new roads that the rulers have built for their own
exclusive use. Beneath them lie the old roads of the
vanquished. There, on the lower level, is where the other
Israel-Palestine treads. Israeli youths arrive in settlement
buses and then make their way on foot and in Palestinian taxis
among the checkpoints. They trek between the villages in groups
or alone. Some sleep in the villages. Others will travel the
same route the next day to reach the demonstration. Everywhere
they go they are greeted with blessings and beaming faces.
"Tfaddalu," the children in the doorways say, as if they had
never heard of stone-throwing. Like the inhabitants of other
Palestinian villages along the route of the fence, those in the
Ariel area have opened their hearts and their homes to the
Israelis who come to support their non-violent resistance to
the barrier that is robbing them of their land.
The Israelis who go into the villages are not afraid of Hamas.
If they fear anyone, it is the Israeli army, which can decide
at any time, on a commander’s whim, to douse the demonstrators
with inordinate quantities of tear-gas or to declare the area a
closed military zone (i.e., closed to Israelis) and arrest any
Israeli who tries to remain in the area.
What brings young Israelis to stand with the Palestinians in
front of the army is the conviction that there is a basic line
of justice that must not be crossed. It was not security
considerations that determined the present route of the fence.
If the goal were to prevent terrorist infiltration, the fence
could have been built differently. The route planned by Col.
(res.) Shaul Arieli, head of the Barak government’s "Peace
Administration", also deviated from the 1967 border and
enclosed the large settlement blocs, placing them on the
Israeli side. But the 300 square kilometres of West Bank
territory which that route would have devoured is less than a
third of what the present route will grab. Arieli’s plan would
have cut off 56,000 Palestinians from contiguous connection
with the West Bank; the current route will strand 400,000
(Eldar, Ha'aretz, 16.2.04).
Sharon and the army have designed the barrier with a view to
taking over as much West Bank land along the border with Israel
as possible, and to gradually empty it of its inhabitants.
Qalqiliyah, which has been isolated from its lands and the rest
of the West Bank, is already a dead city. Many of its
inhabitants have fled to seek subsistence at the edges of other
West Bank towns; those who remain have succumbed to the despair
and decline that characterizes prisoners. This is what lies in
store for Biddu, Beit Sureik and the other villages between the
settlement Giv’at Zeev and the Israeli town Mevasseret Zion.
Now it is the turn of Zawiya and Deir Balout, which lie between
the settlement Ariel and the Israeli Rosh Ha'ayin. In the
army’s language, Ariel and Kedumim are the “claws” of the
fence, claws that are now sunk into the West Bank, grabbing a
giant chunk of Palestinian land that will be transferred to
Israel. As part of the process, it will be necessary to
“cleanse” the land of its inhabitants by slow strangulation, as
in Qalqiliyah.
The Israelis who face the army went to the West Bank because
they know there is a law that is higher than the army’s laws of
closed military zones: there is international law, which
forbids ethnic cleansing, and there is the law of conscience.
But what brings them back, day after day, is the new covenant
that has been struck between the peoples of this land, a pact
of fraternity and friendship between Israelis and Palestinians
who love life, the land, the evening breeze. They know that it
is possible to live differently on this land.
http://www.tau.ac.il/~reinhart
~~~
[]Court Orders Construction of the Wall in Az Zawiya Stopped
------- Forwarded message follows -------
From: IWPS <iwps at palnet.com> - via Dorothy Naor <dor_naor at netvision.net.il>
Date sent: Fri, 25 Jun 2004 23:46:46 +0200
Some good news for a change! Let's hope the work stops, period. Dorothy
AZ ZAWIYA, WEST BANK. Earlier this afternoon the Israeli Supreme Court
issued a ruling ordering the construction work on the Apartheid Wall in Az
Zawiya to be stopped.
This is being viewed as a victory by the village of Az Zawiya as well as
the Israeli and international activists which have been protesting
non-violently against the construction of the Apartheid Wall, also known
as the Separation Barrier or simply the Wall, almost daily since 7 June.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) response to the non-violent
demonstrations against the construction of the Apartheid Wall in Az Zawiya
has involved a disproportionate use of force. There have been hundreds of
injuries, mostly caused by rubber bullets and tear gas among the
Palestinian, Israeli and International protesters during the non-violent
demonstrations. The severity of the tear gas injuries which include
convulsions, severe breathing problems as well as miscarriages has created
an international cry of concern regarding the use non-lethal chemical
weapons during peaceful demonstrations.
The planned route of the Apartheid Wall will completely enclose the
villages of Az Zawiya, Deir Ballut and Rafat. The villages will be
completely cut off not only from Israel but also their own agricultural
land and the rest of the West Bank. Unlike other Palestinian cities which
have been entirely enclosed by the Wall, these are agricultural villages
are completely dependent on their land for economic survival. A look at
the map will show that there is no security basis for taking this land and
isolating these villages in an enclave. A detailed map of the area which
includes the route of the Wall can be found at
www.reliefweb.int/hic-opt/maps/Closure/mar/Salfit_closure0304_600.pdf
“I hope this decision will stop our pain. This decision is a direct
result of the efforts of the people of Az Zawiya as well as the Israeli
and International activists who have stood with us” said Anan Ashqar, from
the Az Zawiya Popular Committee to Stop the Wall. “The Israeli government
is always trying to take our land…we are always facing new orders of the
Israel trying to take our land, our struggle is not over. There is
continuous aggressive land confiscation in this area,” adds Ashqar.
For further information, including a more detailed Press Pack containing
background information on the village of Az Zawiya please contact the IWPS
Office: 09-2516-644 Mobile: 055 854 988/067 870 198 or IWPS at palnet.com.
P.S. See our calendar links & announcements
- photos and video footage of recent actions
- new maps, brochures, eye-witness reports
- films, expositions, refusnik links
- Gush Shalom details re website, donations, subscription to email
- photos and video footage of recent actions
\/
# Photos + report of June 16 A-Ram protest against the Wall
The press conference + start of demo
http://www.gush-shalom.org
http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html
Photos of the following women's protest march
http://share.shutterfly.com/os.jsp?i=EeANWjlw2csWzqg&open=1
# Video footage of mass uprooting of olive trees and resistance
(in the framework of construction of the monster Wall)
in Az Zawiya & Salfit:
http://www.womenspeacepalestine.org/news8junazzawiya.htm
http://www.iwps-pal.org/ftpiwps/videos/salfit_june_17.rmvb
(International Womens' Peace Service - IWPS)
# U.S citizens who want to alert their representatives about
increased settlement expansion on the West Bank which
is happening RIGHT NOW can do so easily at:
http://www.cflweb.org/congress_merge_.htm
- new maps, brochures, eye-witness reports
\/
# Truth against Truth - opposite views on the history of the conflict
in 101 steps
Hebrew / òáøéú
http://www.gush-shalom.org/Docs/Truth_Heb.pdf
English
http://www.gush-shalom.org/Docs/Truth_Eng.pdf
# Palestinians draw the map for understanding the Disengagement Plan
http://www.nad-plo.org/images/maps/pdf/gaza.pdf
# Boycott List of Settlement Products (newly updated)
Hebrew / òáøéú
http://gush-shalom.org/Boycott/boycheb.htm
English
http://gush-shalom.org/Boycott/boyceng.htm
# Eye-witness reports from the Occupied Territories:
http://www.machsomwatch.org
(Israeli women monitoring the checkpoints)
http://www.palsolidarity.org/pressreleases/pressreleases.php
(internationals throughout OT)
- films, expositions, refusnik links
\/
# The "Breaking the Silence" soldiers' exhibition
photo gallery at:
http://www.shovrimshtika.org/hebrew/modules.php?name=coppermine
stories (Hebrew only)
http://www.shovrimshtika.org/hebrew/modules.php?name=News
article in English: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/440348.html
# Refusniks
Constantly-updated refusniks lists:
English - http://www.yesh-gvul.org/english/prison/
Hebrew / òáøéú - http://www.yesh-gvul.org/prison/
English - http://www.newprofile.org/default.asp?language=en
Hebrew / òáøéú - http://www.newprofile.org/
Help us free our children from the military prison! (parents of The Five)
For ENGLISH details please click
http://www.refuz.org.il/help.html
For HEBREW please click
http://www.refuz.org.il/hebrew/help.html
Homepage with lots of information:
http://www.refuz.org.il/
- Gush Shalom details re website, donations, subscription to email info
\/
--
http://www.gush-shalom.org/ (òáøéú/Hebrew)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html (English)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/arabic/index.html (selected articles in Arabic)
with
\\photos of recent actions
\\the weekly Gush Shalom ad
\\the columns of Uri Avnery
\\Gush Shalom's history & action chronicle
\\position papers & analysis (in "documents")
\\and a lot more
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