Will They Believe Me?

I’m now in the “home stretch” of this remarkable undertaking that began almost a year ago when I first learned about EAPPI and began to believe that this was a way in which I might make a difference.  Now, with less than two weeks to go before I return home, I find myself pondering just what that means. 

Will the politicians back home believe my stories? 

Part of the “gig” when we are accepted as EAs is to do “advocacy” work when we go back home.  This means telling our story to any and all who will listen – from politicians to preachers friends, family and the neighbor we meet in the local grocery store.  The problem is, after being here for almost three months, with all that I have seen and heard, I find myself wondering if anyone “back home” will even believe me!

Frankly, I won’t blame them – this is my third visit to the West Bank, and I still have trouble believing that what I am seeing and hearing.  One of my Tulkarm teammates is still trying to find “logic” in the way things happen here – but logic and occupation are incompatible terms in a place that holds echoes of Orwell’s 1984.

Tayba Checkpoint

The language of Occupation uses words that a lot of people don’t like to hear and don’t want to believe.  Terms like “wall,” “checkpoints,” “seam zone,” and “agricultural gates” need to be explained and, even then, it is difficult to comprehend that ordinary people need to go through such extraordinary means just to go to work or to access their fields. 

All children deserve education!

Access to education is another difficult concept.  Shouldn’t every child have the right to “free, compulsory and quality education”?  UNICEF thinks so – but apparently the occupying force (i.e. the Israeli Army) does not.  And so we monitor school gates and escort children to school – and give thanks that it is not our children and grandchildren having to endure this!

And what about the arrests of children, some as young as seven, who are taken from their homes in the middle of the night, blindfolded and held for hours, days or even months without ever being charged with a crime or allowed to see a lawyer.  I wouldn’t have believed that this could happen in a country as “civilized” as most believe Israel to be if my EA colleagues hadn’t witnessed and reported on it.  And, if children are brought to trial in the West Bank, it is before a military tribunal, while Israeli children (including settler children living illegally in the West Bank) who are arrested are tried in civilian courts.

A child under arrest

And is anyone aware that adults could be arrested without charges and held indefinitely without being charged?  In most of the “civilized” world, there exists a process called habeas corpus   (Latin for “show us the corpse,” legalese for “what crime is this person charged with?”), and people who are arrested have to either be charged or released within a matter of days.  Not here in the West Bank!  As of this writing, a hunger striker is close to death in protest of this “system,” yet the world is silent and largely ignorant.

Some people will hear my stories and say, “oh, yes, but they deserve it.  They are terrorists.”  Or, “Well, the Israelis have to protect themselves from the suicide bombers and missile-throwers.”

Yes, there are a few “bad apples” in the Palestinian barrel.  Just as there are in the US, Israel and any other place you can name.  But having lived among them for the past three months, I can vouch that the Palestinians with whom I have come in contact are just ordinary people, trying to live their lives the best way they can, and wishing only for peace and a better future for their children. 

The actions of the militant few (many of whom, I would add, are in Gaza, a place that I do not know and will refrain from commenting on!) embarrass and sadden the majority of their countrymen;  just as the actions of people like Timothy McVeigh or Adam Lanza embarrass and sadden Americans. 

A story waiting to be shared

So, readers – do you believe the stories I have been telling you?  Do you think my audience back home (whether an individual who innocently asks, “how was your trip?” or a civic or church group that has come together specifically to hear what I say) will believe that one of the United States’ closest allies and “only friend in the Middle East” is really doing the things it is doing?      

Settler Violence

“We’ll make a pastrami sandwich of them.  We’ll insert a strip of Jewish settlement in between the Palestinians and another strip of Jewish settlement right across the West Bank so that in 25 years’ time neither the UN nor the US, nobody will be able to tear it apart.”  

These words, in a 1973 speech by Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to the Israeli National Press Club) have proven prophetic as today, 40 years later, peace “experts” no less prominent than Jimmy Carter now believe that the “two-state solution,” if not dead, is certainly on life support!

The settlements, as you can see on this map, are built on confiscated Palestinian land, and break the land into small, non-contiguous segments.  (Keep in mind this map was published in 2000; there are far more settlements today!)

But another problem with settlements – one that does not receive quite as much media attention – is “settler violence.”  And here, in the northern West Bank, it is this violence, as much as the expansion of the settlements themselves that is driving Palestinians from their land – helping to fulfill Sharon’s arrogant prediction!

An 80-year-old shepherd was beaten by settlers

Recently, an 80-year-old man in the nearby village of Kafr al Labad was beaten and left for dead in the field where he’d been tending his sheep.  The beating was believed to have occurred midday; he was found about 9 pm after a search by family members who were concerned when his sheep came home without him.

Driven to a local hospital, he was treated for a broken shoulder, two broken arms (one with three breaks) and numerous contusions about his head and body, including a severely beaten back and “brass knuckle” marks on his legs.  A few days later, the Israeli authorities transferred him to an Israeli hospital, where only one of his sons has permission to visit him.  Whether the transfer was for “humanitarian” reasons or to stem the “bad press” that arose from this incident is not known. 

What is known is that this is far from the first such incident – and it certainly will not be the last!  Two weeks earlier, in the same village, a farmer and his nephew were also beaten by settlers.  The younger man was strong enough to fight back, but chose not to because he feared the subsequent repercussions.

Beatings are only one aspect of settler violence that West Bank farmers must endure.  Settlers also destroy crops, burning olive trees and uprooting plants.  Unfortunately, it is difficult for the farmers to protect their crops, because their fields lie on the outskirts of their villages, and often can only be accessed by agricultural gates with limited opening times. 

 

A burned olive tree is a loss for the farmer

Settlers also kill and steal livestock – taking sheep and donkeys for their own use, or slaughtering them to hurt the farmers.  They pollute the land  by dumping their sewage.

They steal crops.  Last October, when farmers finally gained access to their land to harvest their olives, many discovered that their trees had been stripped of the crops they had worked hard to nurture all year.

The “whys” of settler violence are as myriad as the settlers themselves.  Some are described as “ideological” settlers, who truly believe that God gave the land to THEM and they must do anything they can to drive away the interlopers.

Others are more practical, believing that if they make life difficult enough for the farmers, the farmers will move – leaving the land to the settlers for expansions of their settlements.

Whatever the reason, the effect is the same.  Settler violence wreaks physical, emotional, and financial damage on the Palestinian people, who just want to farm their land and live in peace! 

Wadi Fukin is one of many villages that is trying to survive in the face of settler violence.  Watch this short video to learn more.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESauj8M5Mfc

(photo of beating victim by Roland Hortlund)

Sabastiya: A Happy Ending

A tourist in Sabastiya's Roman ruins

My second trip to Sabastiya was on a sunny day in early April.  “Sabastiya Demonstration” was what our calendar read, but we’d received a telephone call the day before to tell us that there would be no demonstration– the sewage from the neighboring settlement of Shave Shomeron was no longer flooding Sabastiya’s fields!

Ahmad Kayed is a happy man!

This was good news indeed – and we wanted to learn more.  So we drove up the hill from the main road to meet with Ahmad Kayed, coordinator for the “Popular Committee for Sabastiya,” who had organized the demonstrations that led to this result.  Kayed was a happy man indeed.  He greeted us jubilantly, and invited us to climb the hill behind the city to view the old Roman ruins.  The remains of a theatre, a basilica, a forum, a tower, a temple and several churches were easily identifiable amidst the yellow daisies and purple thistle that bloomed on the hillside and, for a time, we became tourists, climbing the ruins and snapping photos!

Panoramic view from Sabastiya hilltop

Camel Rides for Tourists

Back down the hill, we took coffee overlooking a broad plaza where tourists came to start their explorations of the area.  Shops offered souvenirs and food; a saddled camel stood ready to give rides.  We saw very few tourists in this place that once, we were told (before the intifadas, before the Wall), was a major draw, attracting visitors from Europe, the US and across the globe.

But the sewage was foremost on Kayed’s mind, and he was eager to tell his story.  “Wednesday morning, I got a call from a farmer who saw bulldozers going to the area where the sewage was [being dumped],” he said, “I went to the area to see, and saw that the sewage was stopped.”

A call to the office of the local governor confirmed that the sewage flow was, indeed, closed off   – and apparently had been done so quietly, without fanfare.  Kayed says that this is the first time a Palestinian village has seen the cessation of dumping settlement sewage on farmland, and he attributes the publicity attracted by the demonstrations.

The weekly demonstrations started in early March; only four had been held, but they were well-attended by a lot of internationals, and press coverage had been good.  Kayed also credits Sabastiya’s long history as an important archeological site and tourist attraction as a factor in stopping the sewage.  “Strong is the one who uses his mind,” he says.

Visitors to Sabastiya can now enjoy Roman ruins, like this 1st century church!

It is, as someone commented on my Facebook page, “a sad day when we have to consider the end of sewage dumping on a village to be good news.”  Still, in Palestine, one takes what one can get.  And, for now, for Sabastiya, the good news is that the farmers can now start the process of renewing their land.

A Shooting in 'Anabta

Thousands filled the streets of 'Anabta Thursday morning

Even if you are reading this post from the U.S. or Europe or some other location far from Palestine, you may have heard about the shooting of two young Palestinian men here in the Tulkarm area yesterday.  A friend in New York told me that it was in the press there, and I’ve read some reports on various on-line sources.

I’m not about to offer the “definitive version” of what happened, because nobody knows – and, honestly, probably nobody will ever know for sure exactly what happened late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning at a lonely checkpoint outside ‘Anabta.  But two of my EAPPI teammates were at the scene shortly after it happened; and all of us spent yesterday in ‘Anabta, monitoring the funeral procession/demonstration, so I would like to tell you what I do know – and what I believe!

'Anabta Checkpoint

Some reports say that the young men were killed as a result of “clashes” with IDF soldiers and the accompanying photos appear to depict a melee with hand-to-hand fighting, tear gas and fire bombs.  I’m here to tell you that those photos were taken elsewhere (probably in Hebron) and were being used to illustrate a story about demonstrations that erupted when a prisoner who had cancer died.  This 60-year-old man did not receive medical treatment while in prison, nor was his family allowed to visit him as he lay dying.  However, that’s another story for another day!

The young men in 'Anabta were not part of a “melee” unless you define melee as four young men, out for a late night walk, who decide to throw stones at a guard tower next to a small, rural checkpoint.  Now I agree that throwing stones is not a good thing to do under “normal” circumstances – and nothing here is “normal!”  However, since when do armed soldiers, wearing bulletproof vests, need to repel stone-throwers with M-16 rifles (US made and provided, I must add!)? 

Young man in Tulkarm hospital

One of the young men (age 17) was shot in the heart and died instantly.  A second (age 19) was shot in the back (when is there ever a justification for that?) and left lying in his own blood for four hours.  His body was found and turned over to Palestinian authorities at 4:00 yesterday morning.  Of the other two young men, one was wounded and taken to the Tulkarm hospital; the fourth was also said to be wounded and was allegedly taken prisoner by the Israeli soldiers. I say “allegedly” because here, Palestinians can be arrested and jailed for lengthy periods of time without being charged with a crime, and with no access to their families or to lawyers.

Yesterday, in ‘Anabta, we talked to a lot of people.  All were sad; many were angry as well.  “This could be the start of a full-scale Intifada,” one elderly gentleman told my colleague, Roland, yelling to be heard over the loudspeaker blaring in the background.

“It is so sad – to throw stones and be gunned down by live ammunition,” said another bystander. 

Bodies of two young men are carried through streets of 'Anabta

Needless to say, these shootings have provoked a lot of reaction here in Tulkarm, and across the West Bank.  We EAs have been warned to be especially careful, as often such incidents lead to violence in the forms of uprisings and clashes.  But, for now, Tulkarm and the rest of the West Bank (except Hebron, as usual!) are quiet.  

(With thanks to my colleague, Adeline, for some of the photos!)