ipb_delegation_mar.06Report3

March 25 - April 8, 2006

Report 3: Israelis, Palestinians, and Multiple Struggles

The Normality of Abnormality:
Occupation, Adaptation & Survival

Go to http://www.forusa.org/programs/ipb/del18photos.htm to see the delegation photos!

Sunday, April 2: Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem, the Holocaust History Museum, grips you from the moment you enter the prism-shaped structure built into the side of Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. As you proceed down the central path, it guides you in a zig-zag pattern into separate rooms, each revealing a “chapter” of this terrible story of the life and death, persecution, abuse, humiliation, forced labor, destruction, and terror imposed upon the Jewish people.

The Holocaust changed the history of the Jewish people, and as a result many would say this impacted the people of the Middle East and around the world. It was the Holocaust that led to the Jewish migration from Europe in search of a safe and secure home in which to determine their own destiny. Many of these Jews fleeing the horrors of their past and present in Europe arrived in historic Palestine, and so the Palestinian-Israeli conflict began.

Yad Vashem adds important context to the current struggle of Israelis and Palestinians, a dispute over the same piece of land, now over half a century old. The museum displays many quotes, such as “Remember that I was innocent, and just like you mortal on that day. I too had a face, marked by rage, by pity and joy. Quite simply, a human face.”

It’s quite simply a human face, human faces, that are trying to build a human life with all the rages, joys, and sorrows that come along with being human. A people whose land it has been for centuries are now forced to fight for their piece of it. They can’t farm it, because they can’t get to it; if they can’t get to it, they can’t work it; if they can’t work it, they have no food.They can’t live.

As a Palestinian villager said, “Imagine you want your daughter to go to school … she hasn’t been able to since 2000; it is illegal to leave here and go there. I’m talking about youth whose youth has been robbed from them.”

This Jewish exodus from Europe brought a people who had no home, who were not welcome anywhere, who were surrounded by walls and trapped in ghettos, who were killed for their beliefs. They all had human faces. These immigrants came with innocence and hope, wanting a fresh start from the horrors from which they barely escaped. Ironically, what they created is a dangerous paradise surrounded by walls and fences intended to keep the native people out.

A member of New Profile who made aliyah from America two decades ago told us “This country is a disappointment to us.”

--Niki McCuistion

Tuesday, April 4: Lid Ghetto

‘48 Palestinians
min dakhl
traitors
fifth column

living on ruins of culture
long neglected and forgotten

over 450 villages
lives
families
dreams

deferred
in Shatilla
Bourj
Yarmuk
Dheisheh
Balata

and here in Lid too
refugees who never had to leave
twenty percent of a Jewish state
with a demographic digestive problem

as plane lands at Ben-Gurion
train passes on way to busy Tel Aviv
Israel goes by, but here

those who stayed
those who speak Hebrew -- and Arabic
those who never get

Accord from Geneva
Map for road
Oslo band aid

for 58 years of oppression
second-class citizenship

obvious here in these dirt alleys
cinderblock hovels
tangled laundry lines
& dirt lot playgrounds

as bad as any refugee camp I’ve seen
here written one more page
of what it means to be Palestinian
in Israel

-- Mike Daly

Tuesday, April 4: Refusing to Serve

Ruth Hiller's son was one of the first Israelis to apply to become a conscientious objector in 1998. He wanted to be a CO because he was a pacifist. Since then, three of Ruth's other children have refused to join the Israeli military and she has another son who is planning on refusing when his time comes to serve.

Ruth is part of New Profile, the only organization in Israel that deals with the militarization of Israeli society. In a country where military service is required of its youth – three years’ service for men and a year and nine months for women – New Profile is working for Israel "to be a state with an army and not an army with a state."

According to a current study by New Profile, every year 25 percent of Israeli youth do not go into the military, mostly due to medical deferments. Another 24 percent of army inductees later drop out of the military.

New Profile is also the only organization that supports all who refuse to serve, no matter the reason. New Profile feels that the only way to stop the occupation of Palestinians is to civilize Israeli society and to stop raising children to be soldiers. Preparation for joining the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is on school time. By their senior year Israeli high schoolers spend the majority of their time preparing for military service.

But education is not the only aspect of society that has been affected by the militarization of Israeli society. How soldiers treat their loved ones upon returning, road rage, and increased use of weapons are all cited by New Profile as by-products of the militarized Israeli society.

New Profile not only works with youth to educate them about the realities of the Israeli military, but also works with parents. Hiller believes that the right to choose whether or not to serve starts with parents and the question of "how do we raise our children?"

"Part of what we do not have here is the right to question," Hiller said. "So we need a tangible, simplified approach when introducing parents to the question of whether our children have choices or not."

Hiller points out that being an Israeli soldier essentially means being a slave laborer. Most of the young soldiers are supported by their parents because when working on the frontlines, soldiers make $150 per month. For a mere $90 per month, many women soldiers go into classrooms and teach.

Most members of New Profile have served in the military and the majority also work for other organizations such as Machsom Watch, because it is all too easy to become frustrated with the slow progress of demilitarizing society. However, the members of New Profile with whom we met feel they are making progress. Refusing has now become a point of discussion in Israeli society and it is an issue that the media is starting to take notice of. Also, the terms that young people are being required to serve are being cut back and there is some dialogue about whether other forms of civil service could replace military service.

Hiller says the biggest stumbling block is that the resistance movement is primarily made up of 15-18 year-olds who, she says, in the minds of others aren't the most visible or credible activists.

-- Virginia Wilber

Wednesday, April 5: Active Resistance in Bil’in

On Wednesday we left the careless ease of sunny Tel Aviv for the Palestinian village of Bil’in. In recent months Bil’in has received international attention for its nonviolent struggle against the Wall. What I saw and experienced has energized me – I feel more hopeful, I suppose, about Palestine's future.

In 2004, Bil’in's residents were told that the path of the Wall (or fence, in this part of Palestine) would cut through their land, thereby annexing large portions of Bil’in's farmland to the Israeli settlements springing up deep in the West Bank. The fence (which is actually not one fence but three: one of coiled razor wire, another one electrified, and a third also made of wire) was built in tandem with a new settlement expansion project close to Bil’in's boundaries.

The people of Bil’in have resisted both. They charge that government approval for the settlement was secured illegally, and construction is now on hold until Bil’in's lawsuit is resolved. And the villagers, with the help of the Popular Committee Against the Wall, the International Solidarity Movement and supportive Israelis, have cut through the fences and built an "outpost" on the far side of the fence. It is staffed 24/7 by volunteers to prevent the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) from demolishing it (and then claiming ignorance). Bil’in's right to build on this land is also in court.

Weekly demonstrations at the Bil’in wall/fence continue, and people continue to be arrested for nonviolent disobedience. The fence remains "open" to foot traffic so villagers can access the outpost. We were able to visit and chat with its tenants, who were cheerful and relaxed. A large Palestinian flag flew from a pole on the roof. I have come to love the color of black, white and red.

Four members of the IDF pulled up in a Hummer, with no apparent purpose other than to intimidate.While the soldiers stood within earshot, we talked with ISM volunteers and some of the villagers.No words were exchanged with the soldiers. It was like two realities, one superimposed on the other, but not meeting, not interacting. The soldiers hung out until we left. As we departed, those staying at camp went to play a game of soccer in the open space by the buildings.

I wonder if the IDF -- how old were they? Eighteen? Nineteen? -- would have enjoyed putting down their large weapons and joining in the fun.

After visiting the fence and the outpost, we returned to the village of Bil’in to smoke sheesha (a water pipe with flavored tobacco) and watch a documentary made by a resident about nonviolent resistance to the wall. In the middle of the film four boys – none older than five or six – bounded in to the middle of the room and promptly settled into a neat row, kneeling, a hand resting on another's thigh or shoulder.They chatted and pointed animatedly throughout the video, probably identifying family members and experiences they'd been a part of, as one would do in a home video.Their fathers looked on from the periphery, smoking from the water pipe and making the occasional comment.

And I thought: What a wonderfully amazing and powerful thing I was observing. We got to experience fathers actively cultivating the spirit of nonviolent resistance in their sons. They slowly and continually build resistance to the occupation, to attempts at subjugation, humiliation, and the creation of despair.

And I thought, reflecting on an editorial by Daniel Pipes I'd had the (dis)pleasure of reading in Haaretz that morning: Oh Daniel, you are wrong in your analysis, and completely out of touch with the facts on the ground. When you make the plea for Israel to "break the will" of the Palestinians and get on with "victory," you are asking for the impossible.Those boys in Bil’in - they are about possibility and hope, and no amount of rhetoric can erase what they will grow up to be and do.