MCC Palestine Update #14
This past week the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, an MCC justice-building partner, held an international conference under the title, "Speaking Truth, Seeking Justice." Nearly 400 people from 21 countries participated. In addition to MCC Palestine workers, MCC also hosted other partners and workers at the conference: Bishop Marcos, a Coptic Orthodox leader from Egypt; Harley Eagle, a member of the Dakota nation and program co-director for MCC in Pine Ridge, South Dakota; and Craig Cressman Anderson, MCC Egypt country co-representative. A variety of speakers addressed the structures of domination which imprison Palestinians and which hold Israelis captive to the myth of security through violence. Participants also had the opportunity to travel inside the occupied West Bank to see the structures of domination at work: siege barriers, settlement expansion, demolished homes, land confiscation. Many of the conference presentations can be viewed at Sabeel's website, www.sabeel.org.
Copies of the MCC Peace Office Newsletter, Palestine in Travail, are still available for a suggested donation of US $1 a copy from MCC. The newsletter would be a good resource for Sunday School or small group discussions. Contact Bob Herr or Esther O'Hara for copies: tel.: 717-859-1151; e-mail: bh@mail.mcc.org; regular mail: Peace Office, MCC, P.O. Box 500, Akron, PA 17501-0500. The newsletter is also available on MCC's website, www.mcc.org.
Below are two items. The first is a summary of a report issued by UNSCO, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Occupied Territories, on the economic situation within the occupied Palestinian territories during siege conditions. The second is a typically insightful piece of analysis by Amira Hass, reporter for the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz.
1. UNITED NATIONS – Office of the UN Special Co-ordinator: The Impact on the Palestinian Economy of Confrontations, Mobility Restrictions and Border Closures
1 October 2000—31 January 2001
Summary
Movement Restrictions
The lack of freedom of movement for people and goods caused by the present crisis has resulted in socio-economic hardships in the Palestinian Territory. During the 123-day period 1 October 2000—31 January 2001, the Israeli-Palestinian border used for labour and trade flows was closed for 93 days or 75.6% of the time. Internal movement restrictions and internal closures—partial or severe—have been in place for 100% of the time in the West Bank and for 89% of time in Gaza. The international border crossings to Jordan (from the West Bank) and to Egypt (from Gaza) have been closed for 29% and 50% of the time, respectively.
Direct Economic Losses
The direct economic losses arising from movement restrictions are estimated at 50% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the 4-month period and 75% of wage income earned by Palestinian workers in Israel. The GDP loss is estimated at USD 907.3 million while the loss of labour income from employment in Israel is estimated at USD 243.4 million. The total loss is estimated at USD 1,150.7 million, equal to 20 per cent of the projected GDP for the year 2000 (assuming no border closures). The loss is about USD 11 million per working day or USD 3.5 per person per working day during the reporting period.
In addition, there have been hundreds of millions of USD in damage to public buildings and infrastructure and to private property and agricultural land, in costs for caring for more than 11,000 injured Palestinians, and in public revenue losses and other effects of the closures.
Unemployment
Loss of employment in Israel plus mobility restrictions and border closures have resulted in an average unemployment rate of 38 per cent (more than 250,000 persons) as compared to 11 per cent (71,000 persons) in the first 9 months of 2000. Due to the high dependency ratio in the Palestinian Territory unemployment now directly effects the incomes of about 900,000 people or 29 per cent of the population.
Per Capita Income
In the absence of border closures, per capita income was projected to be about USD 2,000 in the Palestinian Territory in the year 2000. As a result of the crisis, border closures and internal movement restrictions, this has been reduced to an estimated USD 1,680—a decline of 16%.
Poverty
Since the beginning of the crisis, there has been a 50% increase in the number of people living below the poverty line, estimated by the World Bank as USD 2.10 per person per day in consumption expenditures (less than NIS 9 per day). The number of poor has increased from about 650,000 persons to 1 million persons. The poverty rate has increased from 21% to 32%.
2. The revolt of the guinea-pigs
Amira Hass
Haaretz, 21 February 2001
Members of Israel's security and intelligence establishments (and their representatives in the political system) are now announcing the imminent collapse of the Palestinian Authority (PA).One arm of the security establishment orders concrete blocks placed at entrances to Palestinian villages, preventing the residents from reaching their fields or their jobs in the cities, while another sheds crocodile tears over the population's lost income. One order prevents PA officials from reaching their offices in the various cities, while a press briefing explains to reporters that the PA is not functioning. With one statement the political establishment prevents the supply of fuel and gas to the Gaza Strip and blocks the transfer of tax and tariff income to the PA, while another notes the growing gap between the Palestinian public and the PA, which cannot supply that public with decent services.
This feigned innocence fits in well with the victorious, Israeli, representation of the events: Arafat initiated the Al Aqsa Intifada in breach of agreements made with him - or at the very least, he did not stop it. Arafat is not putting the Intifada down, and therefore Israel's policy of collective punishment and acts of repression - military, financial and logistic - are a legitimate defense of the attacked side: Israel.
According to this representation of reality, everything started with the first Palestinian stone, the first Palestinian bullet and the road-side bomb on the Netzarim-Karni road.
There is probably little chance of convincing the Israeli public today that there is a link between that stone, bullet and bomb and the fact that the Oslo years did not offer the Palestinian public a future of independence, nor a hope for social well-being. Those who in recent years gladly adopted the victorious, Israeli, version of reality - alleging that the occupation is over because the PA got administrative control and policing powers over most of the Palestinian population in isolated enclaves - cannot be and are not interested in recognizing the occupied population's right to rebel. Those who yield to the victim-mindset that is daily fed by Israeli occupation mechanisms; those who count their own dead and wounded while remaining indifferent to the huge number of dead and wounded on the other side, are making no attempt to understand the meaning of the experiment that began in the last decade of the 20th century.
The Oslo lab experiment must be judged, not on the basis of the promises and declarations of its architects, but on the basis of the Israeli policy implemented on the ground. In short, the experiment tried to examine the possibility of continuing the rule over the Palestinians by shutting them into autonomous bordered-off areas, and taking over as much as possible of their water and land resources. An integral part of this experiment was cultivating excess privileges for the Palestinian leadership - giving it the stamp of approval and Western legitimacy as substitutes for recognizing United Nations resolutions regarding the solution for the conflict. Regardless of the personal feelings and past record of each member of this over-privileged leadership - long out of touch with its own people - it served at one and the same time as both one of the guinea pigs and one of the junior partners running the experiment.
The movement restrictions, the freeze on transferring funds to the PA and the destruction of the PA's economy are not an invention of recent months. They were a fundamental ingredient of the Oslo experiment, and of Madrid before it: On the one hand, international conferences allocating huge sums to the Palestinian Authority to compensate for the infrastructure destruction caused by the Israeli occupation since 1967; and on the other hand, a sealing of the borders - sending half the population below the poverty line and causing losses totaling more than the donations. This happened in March 1993, in the summer of 1995, and in the winter of 1996. The collective punishment policy at the time was not only a conditioned reflex of a veteran and experienced occupation mechanism, but also a tactic intended to ensure the taming of the Palestinian leadership into accepting the rules laid down by the victorious side: We will draw your people's borders of independence; you will persecute anyone who opposes this; you will become rich, thanks to the special freedom of movement we will grant only you; and we will all call this a peace process. If you break these rules, we have the power to jeopardize your public position, weaken your rule, and cut your sources of income.
The experiment is not over yet: It has neither been deemed a success nor declared a failure. CIA-favorite Jibril Rajoub's talks this week in Washington indicate how important the success of the experiment is to the United States - not only to Israel - and how crucial it is to some in the Palestinian leadership. The main problem, overlooked by the scientists, is that the human guinea pigs are rebelling against the experiment
Tuesday, February 27
Wednesday, February 21
MCC Palestine Update #13
MCC Palestine Update #13
21 February 2001
The gloom and desperation which has been hanging over Palestine/Israel for the past five months has become more intense over the past week. Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon appears poised to form a "national unity" government which will dash all hopes of a final status accord with the Palestinians (although many analysts predict yet another "interim" accord which will, as before, further solidify Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem). The Palestinian and Israeli death tolls continued their macabre rise, with Palestinians killed in Gaza and Hebron and eight Israelis killed by a Palestinian bus driver. Twenty families in the Mawasi section of the Gaza Strip, hemmed in by the Gush Qatif bloc of settlements, had their homes demolished by Israeli army bulldozers: international protest had provided a momentary reprieve from the demolitions earlier in the week, but the Israeli military returned when the international spotlight had moved on. Travel within the occupied territories has become increasingly difficult for Palestinians, the noose of checkpoints, tanks, and dirt and cement blockades hemming in movement.
This past week the MCC Palestine office hosted visitors from MCC's Middle East, Peace Office, Washington, D.C., New York, and Ottawa desks to meet with MCC's Palestinian partners and to brainstorm about how MCC can be most creative and effective in its advocacy for justice in Palestine/Israel within Mennonite congregations and to the Canadian and United States governments: your thoughts on this topic, of course, are very much appreciated.
Below are two pieces from the Israeli press. The first, by Gideon Levy, is a reflection on the holiday of Tu B-Shvat, an Arbor Day equivalent. The second, by former Jerusalem deputy mayor Meron Benvenisti, nicely captures the grim mood of the present hour and ends with a long-term vision of hope for Palestinian-Israeli equality and coexistence in one, binational, secular state in the entire land of Palestine/Israel.
1. Do you remember the tree that you planted?
Gideon Levy
Haaretz, 11 February 2001
It's said that God is in the detail. Maybe the devil is as well. Sometimes the tales about the little conquests teach more than do the stories of big atrocities. The seemingly marginal tales reveal Israel's double moral standard. The mass uprooting of trees in the territories in recent months, by the army and by the settlers, does not usually involve bloodshed. Israel's conquest has often been accompanied by cruel actions in which more than just the trees are victims. But on Tu Bishvat, Israel's Arbor Day, last Thursday, the hypocrisy was again apparent. This country, which devotes so much effort to tree planting, that has a special festival for trees, whose children have long been called on to contribute to the exalted cause, whose poets have heaped praise on the tree, at the same time so easily uproots and chops down thousands of trees that belong to others.
From the biblical verse, "And you will come to the land and you will plant trees in it" to Naomi Shemer's "Do not uproot what is planted"; from the trees that we planted in our childhood and the weekly Friday donation in the Jewish National Fund's blue box, the tree holds a special place in our hearts. When Tu Bishvat arrives and the country is awash with ceremonies, songs and slogans in praise of trees, while at the same time thousands of trees in the territories have been deliberately uprooted by that same tree-loving nation, the beautiful childhood festival of trees is turned into an ugly adult festival of hypocrisy.
"Do you remember the tree that you planted in your childhood?" was the question asked by the announcer with the pleasant voice in JNF's recent broadcasts, to the sound of chirping birds in the background. "It's now become a forest." The farmer Yassin Shamalwa also remembers the trees that his father and grandfather planted. But they're not a forest now. Now they are a pile of dead twigs. A few weeks ago, late one evening, Shamalwa was frightened by the pulsating sound of a bulldozer in his olive orchard. He rushed over to the area, but soldiers with drawn guns stopped him from getting near. He ran to the mosque in his village, Kafr Hares, near Ariel, and used the muezzin's loudspeaker to call out desperately for assistance. It didn't help. The bulldozer uprooted 30 of the trees planted by his father and grandfather.
He was given no advance notice, as laid down in the law, and nobody bothered to explain the reasons for the action to him. No one presented him with a written order, he was given no opportunity to appeal, nor did anybody offer him compensation for the state's act of vandalism on his land. "Why do you do this?" he tried asking in English, and according to Shamalwa a soldier answered, "Go to Arafat and Yossi Sarid. They'll explain to you."
The official justification, of course, is security: stones were thrown at travelers on the nearby road, and apparently they came from the olive orchard. Now, instead of the trees that could conceal stone throwers, there are piles of chopped trees that are equally able to conceal someone, and an old Palestinian farmer whose world has collapsed around him. For him the trees were much more than a possession. As the JNF says in its announcements, they are "presented with love" and cutting them down entails much more than just the loss of income. The small group of devoted activists from B'Tselem, the human rights organization, who, on Tu Bishvat brought him new olive saplings, made him a little emotional. It should be emphasized that it was B'Tselem and not the JNF that loves the forests so much.
A drive along the roads of Samaria shows a depressing picture. There are hundreds of uprooted trees, mostly olive trees, along the roadsides, the fruit of recent weeks' labor. B'Tselem's on-site researchers have counted 2,200 uprooted trees just in the area around Nablus, in addition to 2,100 that have been destroyed since the Intifada broke out. Palestinian organizations give higher numbers. Sometimes trees are dug up with their roots, sometimes only the branches are sawn off. Sometimes plots of land on both sides of the road are dug up, sometimes only one side - which is somewhat puzzling. Sometimes the farmers give up and capitulate, and sometimes, as in the case of the orchards of the village of Dir Isstia, they replant the stumps with stubbornness and devotion. Sometimes the destruction is caused by the IDF and sometimes by the settlers, as an act of retaliation. Tabeth Iyov, a farmer in the village of Nebi Salah, west of Ramallah, had his whole orchard, 146 trees, destroyed when the settlers were venting their anger, the day after the killing of Sarah Lisha from Halamish, in November. Of course, Iyov is not the only farmer to fall victim to such acts of revenge. The settlers, with their pretensions to being the greatest "lovers of the land," are not sickened by the destruction of the landscape.
"In the Land of Israel the trees cry. Soldiers of Rome raze dunam after dunam. They have no compassion for the land's covering, for the seven species." So the poet, Aharon Shabtai wrote in a poem published in last week's culture and literature supplement of Ha'aretz (in Hebrew). Shabtai laments the digging up of trees in order "to give building rights to Burger King and to Kentucky Fried Chicken" - which is another matter. But not far away, even more shockingly, Israel is mercilessly chopping down other trees, "non-Jewish" trees; and in so doing it causes not only the trees to weep, but also those who plant them: those who remember the trees planted in their childhood - trees that can no longer grow .
2. The worst script is coming true
Meron Benvenisti
Haaretz, 15 February 2001
How tempting it is to mock those who preached in favor of a crusade against Ariel Sharon: "fanatic nationalist," "blood-shedder," "yesterday's man" (Amos Oz, The Guardian, February 8), who find themselves facing the crawling of Ehud Barak (who was "ahead of [his] time" and had "the courage to compromise and make peace") and his party toward a national unity government. A few of them express fierce opposition "to the betrayal of the way of peace," but others "feel a great yearning for unity, in light of the intensification of the terror" and find solace in the agreed-upon platform of the government, according to which the "effort toward a final agreement" would continue, as well as its opposite: "advancing peace through interim agreements.". But the mockery over the sermonizing of the "Council of Leftist Sages," which evaporated in the emptiness of its words, was erased by the terrible tragedy that occurred yesterday in these parts. Now "national unity" - that tribal closing of ranks against the murderous Other - has become a necessity that no one can oppose, and any attempt to control events, even by proposing a realistic diplomatic alternative, is hopeless.
The worst script is about to take place: severe retaliatory actions will lead to acts of blood revenge whose motives are personal; these in turn will prompt even harsher collective punishment, which will ruin the remnants of authority remaining to the Palestinian Authority. Attempts to consolidate a rational approach that aspires to launch a joint effort to manage the crisis will run into internal disagreements, which will be won by those who always thrive on the rotting bed of hate and bloodletting.
The atmosphere, which enables only the increasing use of force, will lead to an extreme escalation that will create pressure for international intervention. The chances for external intervention along the lines of Bosnia or Kosovo are extremely slight, both because the world's cop is shrugging off its duties, with the United States increasingly isolating itself, and also because the intervention - which would restrain the actions of the Jewish State - would be seen as an anti-Semitic act and thus there would be hesitation to initiate it. The situation that will be created will make all the usual "solutions" - two states for two peoples, an end to the occupation, the dismantling of settlements, final status agreements, interim agreements, and others - laughable.
Reality would be exposed in all its nakedness not as a "problem" but as a "condition": a reality that was described nearly 20 years ago, earning a torrent of ridicule and the name "the theory of irreversibility." "A basic, almost primitive conflict, not an international conflict; a conflict that raises existential and meta-political questions of self-identity, denial of the identity of the opposing side, atavistic fears of physical annihilation, deep feelings of absolute justice that brooks no compromise and feelings of exclusive possessiveness; a dynamic, violent and unstable conflict - as in every binational or multi-ethnic state where the ruling group has a monopoly on the power of enforcement, the group that is ruled turns to violent civil disobedience to which the ruling group responds with violence. The confrontation escalates but it is confined to its internal, Israeli-Palestinian framework." It's not generally accepted for someone to quote himself, but perhaps these harsh words will serve as food for thought for anyone who was drawn to illusions concerning the "end of the conflict" and is now hopeless in the face of the collapse of his illusions. Out of the cycle of violence the gradual, hesitant understanding - perhaps the dream - will grow, that the only way is through a struggle to create a land of Israel/Palestine that is undivided in both physical and human terms, pluralistic and open; a land in which civilized relations, human touch, intimate coexistence and a link to a common homeland would be stronger than militant tribalism and the separation into national ghettoes. Many years may have to pass until the notion of a binational framework - federated or otherwise - will become a legitimate topic for Israeli and Palestinian political discourse. In the meantime, we can certainly expect a great deal of sermonizing regarding "separation" and "the establishment of a Palestinian state" as indispensable solutions; at least this preaching should be carried out with the humility dictated by events and not with the arrogance of know-it-alls .
21 February 2001
The gloom and desperation which has been hanging over Palestine/Israel for the past five months has become more intense over the past week. Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon appears poised to form a "national unity" government which will dash all hopes of a final status accord with the Palestinians (although many analysts predict yet another "interim" accord which will, as before, further solidify Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem). The Palestinian and Israeli death tolls continued their macabre rise, with Palestinians killed in Gaza and Hebron and eight Israelis killed by a Palestinian bus driver. Twenty families in the Mawasi section of the Gaza Strip, hemmed in by the Gush Qatif bloc of settlements, had their homes demolished by Israeli army bulldozers: international protest had provided a momentary reprieve from the demolitions earlier in the week, but the Israeli military returned when the international spotlight had moved on. Travel within the occupied territories has become increasingly difficult for Palestinians, the noose of checkpoints, tanks, and dirt and cement blockades hemming in movement.
This past week the MCC Palestine office hosted visitors from MCC's Middle East, Peace Office, Washington, D.C., New York, and Ottawa desks to meet with MCC's Palestinian partners and to brainstorm about how MCC can be most creative and effective in its advocacy for justice in Palestine/Israel within Mennonite congregations and to the Canadian and United States governments: your thoughts on this topic, of course, are very much appreciated.
Below are two pieces from the Israeli press. The first, by Gideon Levy, is a reflection on the holiday of Tu B-Shvat, an Arbor Day equivalent. The second, by former Jerusalem deputy mayor Meron Benvenisti, nicely captures the grim mood of the present hour and ends with a long-term vision of hope for Palestinian-Israeli equality and coexistence in one, binational, secular state in the entire land of Palestine/Israel.
1. Do you remember the tree that you planted?
Gideon Levy
Haaretz, 11 February 2001
It's said that God is in the detail. Maybe the devil is as well. Sometimes the tales about the little conquests teach more than do the stories of big atrocities. The seemingly marginal tales reveal Israel's double moral standard. The mass uprooting of trees in the territories in recent months, by the army and by the settlers, does not usually involve bloodshed. Israel's conquest has often been accompanied by cruel actions in which more than just the trees are victims. But on Tu Bishvat, Israel's Arbor Day, last Thursday, the hypocrisy was again apparent. This country, which devotes so much effort to tree planting, that has a special festival for trees, whose children have long been called on to contribute to the exalted cause, whose poets have heaped praise on the tree, at the same time so easily uproots and chops down thousands of trees that belong to others.
From the biblical verse, "And you will come to the land and you will plant trees in it" to Naomi Shemer's "Do not uproot what is planted"; from the trees that we planted in our childhood and the weekly Friday donation in the Jewish National Fund's blue box, the tree holds a special place in our hearts. When Tu Bishvat arrives and the country is awash with ceremonies, songs and slogans in praise of trees, while at the same time thousands of trees in the territories have been deliberately uprooted by that same tree-loving nation, the beautiful childhood festival of trees is turned into an ugly adult festival of hypocrisy.
"Do you remember the tree that you planted in your childhood?" was the question asked by the announcer with the pleasant voice in JNF's recent broadcasts, to the sound of chirping birds in the background. "It's now become a forest." The farmer Yassin Shamalwa also remembers the trees that his father and grandfather planted. But they're not a forest now. Now they are a pile of dead twigs. A few weeks ago, late one evening, Shamalwa was frightened by the pulsating sound of a bulldozer in his olive orchard. He rushed over to the area, but soldiers with drawn guns stopped him from getting near. He ran to the mosque in his village, Kafr Hares, near Ariel, and used the muezzin's loudspeaker to call out desperately for assistance. It didn't help. The bulldozer uprooted 30 of the trees planted by his father and grandfather.
He was given no advance notice, as laid down in the law, and nobody bothered to explain the reasons for the action to him. No one presented him with a written order, he was given no opportunity to appeal, nor did anybody offer him compensation for the state's act of vandalism on his land. "Why do you do this?" he tried asking in English, and according to Shamalwa a soldier answered, "Go to Arafat and Yossi Sarid. They'll explain to you."
The official justification, of course, is security: stones were thrown at travelers on the nearby road, and apparently they came from the olive orchard. Now, instead of the trees that could conceal stone throwers, there are piles of chopped trees that are equally able to conceal someone, and an old Palestinian farmer whose world has collapsed around him. For him the trees were much more than a possession. As the JNF says in its announcements, they are "presented with love" and cutting them down entails much more than just the loss of income. The small group of devoted activists from B'Tselem, the human rights organization, who, on Tu Bishvat brought him new olive saplings, made him a little emotional. It should be emphasized that it was B'Tselem and not the JNF that loves the forests so much.
A drive along the roads of Samaria shows a depressing picture. There are hundreds of uprooted trees, mostly olive trees, along the roadsides, the fruit of recent weeks' labor. B'Tselem's on-site researchers have counted 2,200 uprooted trees just in the area around Nablus, in addition to 2,100 that have been destroyed since the Intifada broke out. Palestinian organizations give higher numbers. Sometimes trees are dug up with their roots, sometimes only the branches are sawn off. Sometimes plots of land on both sides of the road are dug up, sometimes only one side - which is somewhat puzzling. Sometimes the farmers give up and capitulate, and sometimes, as in the case of the orchards of the village of Dir Isstia, they replant the stumps with stubbornness and devotion. Sometimes the destruction is caused by the IDF and sometimes by the settlers, as an act of retaliation. Tabeth Iyov, a farmer in the village of Nebi Salah, west of Ramallah, had his whole orchard, 146 trees, destroyed when the settlers were venting their anger, the day after the killing of Sarah Lisha from Halamish, in November. Of course, Iyov is not the only farmer to fall victim to such acts of revenge. The settlers, with their pretensions to being the greatest "lovers of the land," are not sickened by the destruction of the landscape.
"In the Land of Israel the trees cry. Soldiers of Rome raze dunam after dunam. They have no compassion for the land's covering, for the seven species." So the poet, Aharon Shabtai wrote in a poem published in last week's culture and literature supplement of Ha'aretz (in Hebrew). Shabtai laments the digging up of trees in order "to give building rights to Burger King and to Kentucky Fried Chicken" - which is another matter. But not far away, even more shockingly, Israel is mercilessly chopping down other trees, "non-Jewish" trees; and in so doing it causes not only the trees to weep, but also those who plant them: those who remember the trees planted in their childhood - trees that can no longer grow .
2. The worst script is coming true
Meron Benvenisti
Haaretz, 15 February 2001
How tempting it is to mock those who preached in favor of a crusade against Ariel Sharon: "fanatic nationalist," "blood-shedder," "yesterday's man" (Amos Oz, The Guardian, February 8), who find themselves facing the crawling of Ehud Barak (who was "ahead of [his] time" and had "the courage to compromise and make peace") and his party toward a national unity government. A few of them express fierce opposition "to the betrayal of the way of peace," but others "feel a great yearning for unity, in light of the intensification of the terror" and find solace in the agreed-upon platform of the government, according to which the "effort toward a final agreement" would continue, as well as its opposite: "advancing peace through interim agreements.". But the mockery over the sermonizing of the "Council of Leftist Sages," which evaporated in the emptiness of its words, was erased by the terrible tragedy that occurred yesterday in these parts. Now "national unity" - that tribal closing of ranks against the murderous Other - has become a necessity that no one can oppose, and any attempt to control events, even by proposing a realistic diplomatic alternative, is hopeless.
The worst script is about to take place: severe retaliatory actions will lead to acts of blood revenge whose motives are personal; these in turn will prompt even harsher collective punishment, which will ruin the remnants of authority remaining to the Palestinian Authority. Attempts to consolidate a rational approach that aspires to launch a joint effort to manage the crisis will run into internal disagreements, which will be won by those who always thrive on the rotting bed of hate and bloodletting.
The atmosphere, which enables only the increasing use of force, will lead to an extreme escalation that will create pressure for international intervention. The chances for external intervention along the lines of Bosnia or Kosovo are extremely slight, both because the world's cop is shrugging off its duties, with the United States increasingly isolating itself, and also because the intervention - which would restrain the actions of the Jewish State - would be seen as an anti-Semitic act and thus there would be hesitation to initiate it. The situation that will be created will make all the usual "solutions" - two states for two peoples, an end to the occupation, the dismantling of settlements, final status agreements, interim agreements, and others - laughable.
Reality would be exposed in all its nakedness not as a "problem" but as a "condition": a reality that was described nearly 20 years ago, earning a torrent of ridicule and the name "the theory of irreversibility." "A basic, almost primitive conflict, not an international conflict; a conflict that raises existential and meta-political questions of self-identity, denial of the identity of the opposing side, atavistic fears of physical annihilation, deep feelings of absolute justice that brooks no compromise and feelings of exclusive possessiveness; a dynamic, violent and unstable conflict - as in every binational or multi-ethnic state where the ruling group has a monopoly on the power of enforcement, the group that is ruled turns to violent civil disobedience to which the ruling group responds with violence. The confrontation escalates but it is confined to its internal, Israeli-Palestinian framework." It's not generally accepted for someone to quote himself, but perhaps these harsh words will serve as food for thought for anyone who was drawn to illusions concerning the "end of the conflict" and is now hopeless in the face of the collapse of his illusions. Out of the cycle of violence the gradual, hesitant understanding - perhaps the dream - will grow, that the only way is through a struggle to create a land of Israel/Palestine that is undivided in both physical and human terms, pluralistic and open; a land in which civilized relations, human touch, intimate coexistence and a link to a common homeland would be stronger than militant tribalism and the separation into national ghettoes. Many years may have to pass until the notion of a binational framework - federated or otherwise - will become a legitimate topic for Israeli and Palestinian political discourse. In the meantime, we can certainly expect a great deal of sermonizing regarding "separation" and "the establishment of a Palestinian state" as indispensable solutions; at least this preaching should be carried out with the humility dictated by events and not with the arrogance of know-it-alls .
Wednesday, February 7
MCC Palestine Update #12
MCC Palestine Update #12
The Israeli elections for prime minister were held this Tuesday, and the Likud party chairman, Ariel Sharon, scored a decisive victory. The Labor party is in disarray, with up to six different people vying openly and covertly for its leadership. Sharon will most likely try to forge a "national unity" government with Labor, the Sephardic ultra-orthodox party Shas, and the Askhenazi ultra-orthodox party United Torah Judaism; if that fails, he will have to constitute a narrow right-wing government. Under either scenario, the prospects for any form of peace agreement with the Palestinians in the near term look grim.
This past week we received distressing news from the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement in Beit Sahour, a longtime MCC partner. PCR had spearheaded the Mazmouriah building project, an attempt to set up a Palestinian neighborhood inside Jerusalem's municipal boundaries on land owned by families in Beit Sahour. The Israeli authorities in Jerusalem have invested practically nothing in East Jerusalem's infrastructure or in housing projects for Jerusalem's Palestinian residents, even as it pours money into settlements in East Jerusalem. The Mazmouriah project would have helped to alleviate the housing crisis for Palestinians in Jerusalem and would have broken up the future contiguity of illegal Israeli settlements.
PCR staff worked with Israeli peace activists to prepare building plans which would be technically flawless, and so could not be rejected by the municipal planning commissions on a technical basis. The Mazmouriah project passed the relevant technical committees and was awaiting final approval. However, this past week Israeli bulldozers went to work in the area, building roads which will make the project impossible to execute. For more on this devastating setback to a promising, nonviolent initiative to resist the occupation, see www.rapprochement.org.
MCC Project Update
a. Young Advocate Training: MCC is sponsoring a course through the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement in Beit Sahour which will train 20 Palestinian men and women, aged 18-25 in media, communication, and advocacy skills. The vision behind the program is to build the capacity of Rapprochement's cadre of volunteers in various forms of advocacy so that young Palestinians motivated to remain in the country have the skills to communicate the message of Palestinian dispossession to the West.
b. In the Shu'fat refugee camp in East Jerusalem MCC is working with a neighborhood committee to install a sewer system. The committee is contributing 75% of the costs of the project. As stated above, Israel has actively neglected the urban development needs of East Jerusalem.
1. Born at the third roadblock, stopped at the fourth
Amira Hass
Haaretz, 29 January 2001
Sabreen Balout was born last Wednesday, January 24, in the taxi that was rushing her mother, her father, an aunt and her grandmother to the hospital in Ramallah. She was born as they
were waiting for permission to cross from the Israel Defense Forces detachment posted on the road. This was the fourth group of IDF troops they had encountered on their way to the hospital. They would encounter yet another, when Sabreen was about ten minutes old. This detachment, at the northern entrance to Bir Zeit,demanded that all the passengers in the taxi, including Sabreen
who was still linked by her umbilical cord to her mother, to get out of it. It was a very cold and rainy day, the father, Sallah Balout,related to Ha'aretz.
Amina Moussa Balout's contractions began in the afternoon. About two months ago, the main exit from the village of Rantis onto the main road was blocked. The only way out of the village now is over an unpaved and circuitous dirt track through the fields, which, in winter, are muddy. Traveling along this route Amina and her family met two jeeps: an IDF jeep and the security jeep from one of the Jewish settlements in the area. The soldiers did not allow the taxi to pass. An argument ensued, with each party insistent. Then, because of the rain and the mud even a return to the village became impossible. After about half an hour, Balout estimates, the soldiers allowed the taxi to continue on its way.
It continued eastwards and came to another IDF roadblock near theJewish settlement of Halamish. Soldiers aimed their rifles at the taxi and it stopped. Balout and the driver got out; the taxi was delayed there for about another 20 minutes, while Amina Balout was sighing and screaming. After driving a few minutes, they came upon a long line of cars waiting near the village of Um Safa. The taxi driver drove past it until he came to a military jeep. The
soldiers again aimed their rifles at the car and ordered everyone out. The passengers in the taxi tried to explain that there was a woman in the vehicle who was about to give birth, but a
soldier said he had to get authorization from the officer to allow the car to pass. While the soldier was away speaking with the officer, Amina cried out, "The baby is coming, the baby is coming," and by the time he had returned, Amina had given birth to her daughter.Her mother and her sister-in-law wrapped the baby in a blanket and gave her to her mother to hold against her body.
Balout estimates that they were delayed at this roadblock for about 20 minutes before the officer came along, saw the new-born infant and immediately allowed them to continue on their way. About 200 meters down the road they encountered another military Jeep; once more a soldier leveled his gun at the vehicle and demanded to know who had allowed them to drive on. The officer who had permitted their passage at the previous roadblock saw what was happening, and ran quickly to order the soldier to let them pass. This took about five minutes.They kept on in the direction of Bir Zeit, where again they came upon a long line of delayed cars. The taxi passed them, until it was stopped by four soldiers.
"We opened the window and told them that we had with us a woman who had just given birth," relates the father. "They ordered us to wait, walked around the car, opened the door, and looked
inside and saw there was a woman with an infant." Balout got the impression that they laughed, and then ordered all the passengers to get out. Amina's mother slammed the door angrily. They tried to open it. The mother continued to scream and demanded that they be allowed to pass. "But they insisted that we had to get out. And we got out - what could we do?" Amina got out of the car, holding the baby, whose umbilical cord was not yet cut, and collapsed on the ground because she was so weak. As the soldiers stood by, the father gained the impression that they were still laughing at the scene. Then another soldier arrived, shouted at his colleagues and
told them to stop, let them get in and drive on. One of Amina's house slippers fell off her foot and was left there on the ground.
At around 8:30 P.M. Amina and her daughter arrived at the hospital in Ramallah; they had left Rantis at 5:00 P.M. Ordinarily, the trip along this route would take about 40 or 50 minutes. The name Sabreen is derived from the three-letter Arabic root transliterated as S-B-R, meaning patience.
A senior military source told Ha'aretz in response that at the time of these events there had been a shooting incident on the route to Atarot. Someone in a Palestinian vehicle had opened fire and
injured someone in an Israeli vehicle, and the IDF was taking measures "in an attempt to catch the terrorists." The source said he had no knowledge of the delay caused to the taxi at the exit
from Rantis and at Halamish. However, he was aware that, at the roadblocks near Atarot and Bir Zeit, the soldiers acted properly, in accordance with the procedures and instructions governing
humanitarian cases. According to the source, when the passengers encountered the roadblock near Um Safa, "right where the attack was," they told the responsible military commander that there was a child in the car. "Within three or four minutes the vehicle continued on its way to the Bir Zeit area, where there was a long line of waiting cars because of the terror attack. The detachment saw a taxi that drove right past all the other cars, and the driver said there was a woman in the car who was about to give birth.
The soldier saw a pregnant woman with two other women next to her. The two women began to curse the soldier, who shut the door and allowed them to continue immediately." Crippling the territories Despite the promises, the encirclement of most of the cities and villages of the West Bank has not been lifted. Inhabitants are forced to drive circuitously, go on foot, change taxis, clamber up hilly paths and among olive groves and sometimes try to go back the way they came because of a sudden roadblock at which stretches a kilometer-long line of cars, or a new roadblock. On the ground, what remains of the Intifada is its suppression. The limitation on travel is the most conspicuously felt means, which affects every home and individual and achieves its aim: the paralysis of normal life. Therefore, on the ground, the Intifada now is above all a daily attempt to cope with the internal closure, the roadblocks and the encirclement.
The Israeli elections for prime minister were held this Tuesday, and the Likud party chairman, Ariel Sharon, scored a decisive victory. The Labor party is in disarray, with up to six different people vying openly and covertly for its leadership. Sharon will most likely try to forge a "national unity" government with Labor, the Sephardic ultra-orthodox party Shas, and the Askhenazi ultra-orthodox party United Torah Judaism; if that fails, he will have to constitute a narrow right-wing government. Under either scenario, the prospects for any form of peace agreement with the Palestinians in the near term look grim.
This past week we received distressing news from the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement in Beit Sahour, a longtime MCC partner. PCR had spearheaded the Mazmouriah building project, an attempt to set up a Palestinian neighborhood inside Jerusalem's municipal boundaries on land owned by families in Beit Sahour. The Israeli authorities in Jerusalem have invested practically nothing in East Jerusalem's infrastructure or in housing projects for Jerusalem's Palestinian residents, even as it pours money into settlements in East Jerusalem. The Mazmouriah project would have helped to alleviate the housing crisis for Palestinians in Jerusalem and would have broken up the future contiguity of illegal Israeli settlements.
PCR staff worked with Israeli peace activists to prepare building plans which would be technically flawless, and so could not be rejected by the municipal planning commissions on a technical basis. The Mazmouriah project passed the relevant technical committees and was awaiting final approval. However, this past week Israeli bulldozers went to work in the area, building roads which will make the project impossible to execute. For more on this devastating setback to a promising, nonviolent initiative to resist the occupation, see www.rapprochement.org.
MCC Project Update
a. Young Advocate Training: MCC is sponsoring a course through the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement in Beit Sahour which will train 20 Palestinian men and women, aged 18-25 in media, communication, and advocacy skills. The vision behind the program is to build the capacity of Rapprochement's cadre of volunteers in various forms of advocacy so that young Palestinians motivated to remain in the country have the skills to communicate the message of Palestinian dispossession to the West.
b. In the Shu'fat refugee camp in East Jerusalem MCC is working with a neighborhood committee to install a sewer system. The committee is contributing 75% of the costs of the project. As stated above, Israel has actively neglected the urban development needs of East Jerusalem.
1. Born at the third roadblock, stopped at the fourth
Amira Hass
Haaretz, 29 January 2001
Sabreen Balout was born last Wednesday, January 24, in the taxi that was rushing her mother, her father, an aunt and her grandmother to the hospital in Ramallah. She was born as they
were waiting for permission to cross from the Israel Defense Forces detachment posted on the road. This was the fourth group of IDF troops they had encountered on their way to the hospital. They would encounter yet another, when Sabreen was about ten minutes old. This detachment, at the northern entrance to Bir Zeit,demanded that all the passengers in the taxi, including Sabreen
who was still linked by her umbilical cord to her mother, to get out of it. It was a very cold and rainy day, the father, Sallah Balout,related to Ha'aretz.
Amina Moussa Balout's contractions began in the afternoon. About two months ago, the main exit from the village of Rantis onto the main road was blocked. The only way out of the village now is over an unpaved and circuitous dirt track through the fields, which, in winter, are muddy. Traveling along this route Amina and her family met two jeeps: an IDF jeep and the security jeep from one of the Jewish settlements in the area. The soldiers did not allow the taxi to pass. An argument ensued, with each party insistent. Then, because of the rain and the mud even a return to the village became impossible. After about half an hour, Balout estimates, the soldiers allowed the taxi to continue on its way.
It continued eastwards and came to another IDF roadblock near theJewish settlement of Halamish. Soldiers aimed their rifles at the taxi and it stopped. Balout and the driver got out; the taxi was delayed there for about another 20 minutes, while Amina Balout was sighing and screaming. After driving a few minutes, they came upon a long line of cars waiting near the village of Um Safa. The taxi driver drove past it until he came to a military jeep. The
soldiers again aimed their rifles at the car and ordered everyone out. The passengers in the taxi tried to explain that there was a woman in the vehicle who was about to give birth, but a
soldier said he had to get authorization from the officer to allow the car to pass. While the soldier was away speaking with the officer, Amina cried out, "The baby is coming, the baby is coming," and by the time he had returned, Amina had given birth to her daughter.Her mother and her sister-in-law wrapped the baby in a blanket and gave her to her mother to hold against her body.
Balout estimates that they were delayed at this roadblock for about 20 minutes before the officer came along, saw the new-born infant and immediately allowed them to continue on their way. About 200 meters down the road they encountered another military Jeep; once more a soldier leveled his gun at the vehicle and demanded to know who had allowed them to drive on. The officer who had permitted their passage at the previous roadblock saw what was happening, and ran quickly to order the soldier to let them pass. This took about five minutes.They kept on in the direction of Bir Zeit, where again they came upon a long line of delayed cars. The taxi passed them, until it was stopped by four soldiers.
"We opened the window and told them that we had with us a woman who had just given birth," relates the father. "They ordered us to wait, walked around the car, opened the door, and looked
inside and saw there was a woman with an infant." Balout got the impression that they laughed, and then ordered all the passengers to get out. Amina's mother slammed the door angrily. They tried to open it. The mother continued to scream and demanded that they be allowed to pass. "But they insisted that we had to get out. And we got out - what could we do?" Amina got out of the car, holding the baby, whose umbilical cord was not yet cut, and collapsed on the ground because she was so weak. As the soldiers stood by, the father gained the impression that they were still laughing at the scene. Then another soldier arrived, shouted at his colleagues and
told them to stop, let them get in and drive on. One of Amina's house slippers fell off her foot and was left there on the ground.
At around 8:30 P.M. Amina and her daughter arrived at the hospital in Ramallah; they had left Rantis at 5:00 P.M. Ordinarily, the trip along this route would take about 40 or 50 minutes. The name Sabreen is derived from the three-letter Arabic root transliterated as S-B-R, meaning patience.
A senior military source told Ha'aretz in response that at the time of these events there had been a shooting incident on the route to Atarot. Someone in a Palestinian vehicle had opened fire and
injured someone in an Israeli vehicle, and the IDF was taking measures "in an attempt to catch the terrorists." The source said he had no knowledge of the delay caused to the taxi at the exit
from Rantis and at Halamish. However, he was aware that, at the roadblocks near Atarot and Bir Zeit, the soldiers acted properly, in accordance with the procedures and instructions governing
humanitarian cases. According to the source, when the passengers encountered the roadblock near Um Safa, "right where the attack was," they told the responsible military commander that there was a child in the car. "Within three or four minutes the vehicle continued on its way to the Bir Zeit area, where there was a long line of waiting cars because of the terror attack. The detachment saw a taxi that drove right past all the other cars, and the driver said there was a woman in the car who was about to give birth.
The soldier saw a pregnant woman with two other women next to her. The two women began to curse the soldier, who shut the door and allowed them to continue immediately." Crippling the territories Despite the promises, the encirclement of most of the cities and villages of the West Bank has not been lifted. Inhabitants are forced to drive circuitously, go on foot, change taxis, clamber up hilly paths and among olive groves and sometimes try to go back the way they came because of a sudden roadblock at which stretches a kilometer-long line of cars, or a new roadblock. On the ground, what remains of the Intifada is its suppression. The limitation on travel is the most conspicuously felt means, which affects every home and individual and achieves its aim: the paralysis of normal life. Therefore, on the ground, the Intifada now is above all a daily attempt to cope with the internal closure, the roadblocks and the encirclement.
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