I’m thinking this week that if there’s anything that can help improve this situation, it’s certainly the spirit of the people. The occupation continues, stronger in some places at some times, less noticeable in other places at other times. The village of Marda has been targeted again in the past few days, with soldiers uprooting trees in the middle of the night, throwing sound bombs in the village, and creating checkpoints on a cold afternoon and not letting people return to their homes. It was either a random attack or, if a few boys actually threw stones at jeeps as some soldiers claimed, collective punishment. How anyone can deny this is beyond me (The case of the uprooting of trees is an absurdly clear example. We asked the soldiers if the trees had thrown stones on the road. “No, but the people who own the trees probably know the kids who did”).
So the occupation continues, and the destruction of land in the Salfit region to make way for the Wall also continues. The villagers of Deir Balut have had enough, and on Thursday a few of them went out to their land in an apparently spontaneous action, and successfully stopped the bulldozers from working. One Palestinian was arrested and later returned. In response, the people decided to have a demonstration the following day. We found out about this incident from three different sources, all of whom told us that “the people” want to have a demo. We waited to send out the press release about it until we were sure the mayor knew, but it was wonderful that it was truly a people’s desire, bottom-up resistance rather than top-down.
So we joined the villagers on Friday. The army was ready – they entered the village before the demonstration even began, and soldiers chatted nonchalantly with villagers until just before we started marching. The normality of the situation struck me. Everyone knew what would ensue shortly, that the people would march as a group toward their land that is being destroyed, and the army would intercept them with violence. And this did happen, to some degree. But there was also an air of spontaneity in the architecture of the day. The soldiers seemed less excited about using tear gas, sound bombs, and rubber bullets than I’m used to (though they did use all of these at various points). There were many times during which small groups of Palestinians, international and Israeli supporters, and press would be gathered and a group of soldiers gathered nearby to impede movement, but the scattered nature of the groups seemed to hold creative potential that I usually don’t see. I stood on top of a stone wall watching the whole scene at one point: the men praying on the land (guarded by soldiers), the women who had pushed past the jeeps to sit further up along the road (guarded by soldiers), several small groups of people at various spots dotting the road, and the boys in the distance setting up a roadblock (including an overturned truck) so the soldiers could not pass, then scattering throughout the olive groves as a jeep approached and then threw a tear gas canister directly at a house near where some people had run. It was strange, watching the scene from above, being there and not being there at the same time, feeling safe as I was standing close to so many soldiers who seemed to have no interest other than to watch the same scene I was watching.
And there was time to talk. I managed to squeeze past the soldiers with Fatima to walk half a kilometer up the road to where we could see the bulldozers working in the distance. She told me her youngest daughter Baraa (9 years old) had begged her to come that morning, but Fatima was too scared. “She has no fear,” said Fatima. “She’s like you,” I responded. “Yes,” Fatima said, “but she’s small, and I’m afraid for her. The soldiers won’t care that she is young.” I wonder what it must be like to be a parent here, in the midst of such random violence. Is there really a way to protect your children? And yet parents try, desperately and unsuccessfully at times, but they always try.
Earlier in the day a soldier had asked me if I didn’t have anything better to do than to come to Deir Balut. I returned the question. Another soldier asked, “Why are you here?” I responded, “To support the Palestinians as they try to save their land.” “And I’m here to oppose them,” he responded, not unkindly, just matter-of-factly. I began to think, “Will this occupation ever end?” when again the villagers of Deir Balut breathed new life into the demonstration. A few soldiers were talking to them in Hebrew, and they were responding in Arabic and English, saying “We don’t speak Hebrew and we don’t want to speak Hebrew. Talk to us in our language!” At the same time a soldier was trying to pass through a narrow space between a jeep and a stone wall, and two Palestinian women stood in his way saying, “Fish tariq!” (There’s no road). Using the same phrasing as the soldiers, they forced him to turn around and go around the jeep a different way. A minor victory.
So the Palestinian spirits were high on Friday, and the Israeli activists’ spirits seemed strong as well. Two of them engaged in a political/ideological argument with a group of soldiers for about 15 minutes, at the end of which they were pulled away by a Palestinian friend who was plotting to release another Israeli activist who was being detained 100 meters away. I do not always find ideological arguments with soldiers very useful, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the soldiers continued the discussion after the activists left. They were all trying to comfort each other, to justify their presence there: “I’m on the left, too. I voted for Meretz. But here it doesn’t matter, I follow my government’s orders.” “Yes, yes, it doesn’t matter.” … But at least they were thinking. At least they felt the need to justify themselves, even to each other.
The epitome of good Israeli spirit this week has come in the form of a letter from a group of high school students who feel that they cannot and should not justify their presence in the occupied territories to anyone. These 250 kids sent a passionate letter to Ariel Sharon and others, declaring their refusal to serve in the Israeli military. The letter follows.
To: Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister Lt. General Shaul Mofaz, Minister of Defence Lt. General Moshe Yaalon, Chief of General Staff Limor Livnat, Minister of Education
We the undersigned, Israeli girls and boys, believing in the values of democracy, humanism and pluralism, hereby declare that we shall refuse to take part in the occupation and repression policy adopted by the Government of Israel. Our backgrounds are diverse, but we are all agreed that these values are the bases of a just society. Every human being has the right to life, equality, dignity and freedom. We are bound by our conscience and as citizens of Israel to act in defence of these rights, by refusing to participate in the occupation and repression policy.
The occupation leads to inhumanity and to a massive infringement of the right to life. It tramples on the basic rights of millions of people and inflicts daily carnage and suffering. It leads to the confiscation of lands, to mass destruction of homes and public buildings, to arrests and killings without trial, to victimization and murder of innocents, to hunger, to a denial of medical assistance, to collective punishment, and to the building and expansion of settlements and the negation of any chance of normal living both in the occupied territories and in Israel itself. This flagrant violation of human rights is opposed to our view of the world, as well as being in contravention of international conventions signed and ratified by Israel.
The occupation contributes nothing to the security of the state and its citizens but on the contrary, it only aggravates it. It deepens the despair and fans the hatred among the Palestinians, feeds terrorism and widens the river of blood between the two sides. True security will only be accomplished by ending the occupation, dismantling the wall of Apartheid around the Palestinians and striving for a just peace agreement between the state of Israel and the leadership of the Palestinian people as well as the Arab world. The present policy is not a result of a military necessity, but the outcome of a nationalistic-Messianic fantasy.
The occupation has corrupted Israel, turning it into a militaristic, racist, chauvinistic and violent society. Israel is wasting its resources on the perpetuation of the occupation and repression in the territories, while hundreds of thousands of Israelis live in shameful poverty. In recent years Israeli citizens have experienced a deterioration of all public services. Education, medicine, welfare, pensions, everything to do with the well being of the citizenry has been neglected and sacrificed for the continued existence of settlements which the majority of the population wishes to be evacuated. We cannot stand idly facing this situation, which amounts to a “targeted liquidation” of the principle of equality.
We wish to live in a society which pursues justice, upholding equal rights to every single citizen. The occupation and repression policy is an obstacle to the realization of this vision, therefore we shall refuse to take part in it. We wish to contribute to society in an alternative way, which does not involve harming other human beings.
We call on all young people facing mobilization and on all members of the Israeli army to weigh again whether to risk their lives in the service of this repressive and destructive policy.
We believe that there is another way.
Source: www.shministim.org
Send messages of support to: shministim@gmail.com
